Hoops News Blog

Although Paul Westphal has been a college coach, a basketball executive and a broadcaster over the past nine years, he always looked for the right spot to get back into the NBA in a head coaching job. He believes he found it on the ground floor with the Sacramento Kings, who can't go any lower [...]

Jeremy Tyler's jump from high school to an overseas professional basketball league is progressing to the point that his agent is negotiating with a team in Haifa, Israel. The 6-foot-11, 260-pound Tyler announced in late April that he was skipping his senior season at San Diego High to play overseas.

Dwight Howard has gone to great lengths trying to solve his free throw woes. Howard spends nights at the Orlando Magic's practice facility, inviting friends to blast music and distract him during shots. He takes about 300 free throws a day, often not stopping until he makes 20 in a row, and he's usually the [...]

Magic coach Stan Van Gundy tried to sleep. He closed his eyes, but his cluttered basketball brain, a cyclone of Xs and Os, wouldn't relax. Game 4 of the NBA finals, the one Orlando fumbled away with atrocious free-throw shooting, a hideous third quarter and questionable late-game strategy, kept Van Gundy awake.

Derek Fisher did not come back to Los Angeles because he wanted to play for the Lakers again. His return didn't have anything to do with basketball at all. And that, just as much as his history of making big shots, is the reason he's so beloved by his teammates. "He's an incredible person, as [...]

Pau Gasol is from Spain, Mickael Pietrus from France. So when they have a confrontation on the court, what language is it in? "I said it in English to make sure he understood it," Gasol said. "If I would have known it in French, I would have said it in French." Pietrus was called for [...]

Barely a month ago, Jianhua 'Kenny' Huang was relatively unknown outside business circles, just one of many entrepreneurs working to match money and business opportunities across the Pacific. Now, he's shot into the U.S. sports headlines with a bid to buy a chunk of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Benched for the fourth quarter and overtime, Magic starting point guard Rafer Alston was upset with Stan Van Gundy's decision to leave him out in the crucial minutes of Orlando's 99-91 Game 4 loss to the Lakers on Thursday night. Alston was replaced by All-Star Jameer Nelson, who is still rusty and recovering from shoulder [...]

Arms raised in triumph, Derek Fisher walked up the floor looking as if he had just landed the knockout punch. He delivered two. Fisher forced overtime with a 3-pointer with 4.6 seconds left in regulation and then drilled another with 31.3 seconds to go in overtime as the Los Angeles Lakers outlasted the Orlando Magic [...]

The Superman capes were left crinkled up under the seats after a record-setting performance by Dwight Howard couldn't prevent more Magic misery in the NBA finals. Howard set a finals record with nine blocked shots, had 16 points and 21 rebounds, but the All-Star center missed eight free throws — including a pair that could [...]