Shawn Kemp’s name has long been synonymous with prodigious talent, a ton of trouble and wasted opportunity.

Now he’ll likely also be known for a jail sentence.

Kemp, 55, pleaded guilty to second-degree assault Tuesday for shooting at two men inside a vehicle in a Tacoma, Wash., mall parking lot. The plea was part of an agreement in Pierce County Superior Court in which prosecutors will recommend nine months of confinement in the county jail when Kemp is sentenced in August.

Kemp was initially charged with one count of first-degree assault with a firearm enhancement after the March 2023 shooting, and prosecutors last week added another count of assault as well as a drive-by shooting charge. No one was hurt, but the Toyota 4Runner the men were inside and another vehicle were damaged.

Kemp contended in a court filing that he fired in self-defense after one of the men shot at him. The 4Runner drove off before Tacoma police arrived, and and an empty holster was found inside the vehicle when it was discovered abandoned days later.

“Shawn is committed to moving forward in a positive direction,” Kemp’s attorney Tim Leary told the Seattle Times. “He was presented with an offer from the state that allows him to take responsibility, but I think also recognizes the self-defense nature of how this transpired.”

Kemp famously battled cocaine addiction and fathered at least seven children with six different women during a 15-year NBA career that began when he was 19 years old in 1989.

Kemp was arrested in 2006 for drug possession in Washington after he was found with cocaine, marijuana, and a pistol.

Growth has been halting, however, even for someone who sprouted 13 inches between the ninth and 11th grades, topping out at 6-foot-10. His weight ballooned during his career from 230 pounds to more than 300, yet he remained capable of dominating on the court.

Read more:Kemp Becomes Loaded Question

That was long ago, though. And on Tuesday in court, his attorney explained that Kemp’s truck was broken into on March 8, 2023, when he and other employees who worked at his marijuana dispensary, Kemp’s Cannabis, were attending a concert in Seattle.

According to court documents, Kemp’s cellphone and game-worn Kemp and Gary Payton jerseys were among the items stolen. Kemp used a phone tracking app to look for the thieves, and confronted the driver of the 4Runner in a Tacoma mall parking lot.

A man in the back seat shot at Kemp with a handgun, according to the filing, and Kemp returned fire. The 4Runner fled, and when the vehicle was found abandoned days later, an empty holster was found inside but there was no gun, documents said.

As part of his plea, Kemp cannot possess a firearm. In addition to the proposed nine-month sentence, Kemp will spend one year in community custody and pay restitution.

“His plan is to tell the community about the dangers of gun violence, really to be a positive influence on youth,” Aaron Kiviat, another of Kemp’s attorneys, told the Seattle Times.

In a statement outlining the plea agreement, Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Thomas Howe said that the case should be resolved ahead of trial because the two alleged victims were illegally in possession of Kemp’s belongings.

Both alleged victims are currently serving prison sentences in other cases. One is serving a seven-year sentence, in part for a July 2023 shooting in which he mistook the victim for Kemp. The same man recently filed a civil suit against Kemp stemming from the mall shooting.

Nicknamed the “Reign Man,” Kemp made $91,572,963 during his 15-year NBA career that ended in 2004. He was a six-time All-Star and helped the Seattle SuperSonics to the NBA finals in 1996 when he averaged a career-high 21.2 points a game. Kemp also played for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Portland Trail Blazers and Orlando Magic.

Kemp reflected on the ups and downs of his career on the All the Smoke podcast with former NBA players Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, saying, “Going through some problems and stuff that I went through in my career also hurts you at the end. But I think when you look at the good side of it, and you compare the numbers and stuff, I’m right there with some of the best ones.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Houston Astros starter Ronel Blanco will miss the rest of the season due to a right elbow injury, the team announced Wednesday.

Blanco will undergo Tommy John surgery on his elbow, manager Joe Espada confirmed. The team’s initial statement did not provide specifics on Blanco’s injury or surgery. 

Blanco, 31, rose to prominence with the club last year, when he threw a no-hitter against the Toronto Blue Jays last April. That marked the first time in Blanco’s major-league career that he threw more than six innings in a start.

The performance propelled Blanco to a fantastic season in which he posted a 2.80 ERA over 167 1/3 innings. He opened the 2025 season in the team’s rotation, and was hoping to build on his promising 2024 breakout.

Blanco wasn’t quite as good in nine starts to open 2025, though he was effective. Blanco posted a 4.10 ERA over 48 1/3 innings. While he had some shaky starts early in the season, he showed signs of righting the ship during a May 11 start against the Cincinnati Reds, when he tossed eight scoreless innings and notched 11 strikeouts. 

Blanco made just one more start, in which he gave up three runs in six innings against the Texas Rangers. While Blanco seemingly made it out of that start with no issues, he reported elbow soreness in between starts. He was sent back to Houston to be re-evaluated. Blanco was placed on the injured list on Thursday, and was seeking a second opinion on his injury.

Following that second opinion, Blanco’s 2025 season will end prematurely. The usual timetable for Tommy John is roughly 12 to 16 months, so Blanco should be back in action at some point during the 2026 MLB season.

On five occasions this season, Anthony Edwards has played more than 35 minutes and attempted 13 or fewer shots. The one time his Minnesota Timberwolves won, he was sick. In another instance, he was so angry with the officials that he flipped them off on multiple occasions, earning himself a $50,000 fine.

Every other time he was being defended by the Oklahoma City Thunder.

On New Year’s Eve, Edwards attempted just 12 shots, his fewest in a loss this season, and committed more turnovers (three) than he had assists (two), as the Thunder rolled, 113-105. Afterward, Minnesota head coach Chris Finch made the bold claim that Oklahoma City is committing fouls “everywhere” at once.

“They’re super physical,” he told reporters of a Thunder team that led the NBA in defensive rating. “They foul you everywhere, every time down, and we have to be able to fight through that and play through it.”

If it sounded like Finch was grasping at straws, who could blame him? Oklahoma City had just shown a blueprint for how to beat the Timberwolves, the same one it has followed to a 3-1 lead in the Western Conference finals: Show a ton of help, essentially doubling Edwards on every drive attempt and forcing the ball elsewhere; and once the ball is out of Minnesota’s best player’s hands, never stop stealing it.

The Thunder have done just that, twice holding Edwards to 13 shots — Minnesota losses in Games 1 and 4. In those same games, the Timberwolves’ offense committed a total of 42 turnovers (and allowed 53 points off them.) It is easier said than done for a defense, but between Lu Dort, Cason Wallace, Alex Caruso and even Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the league’s leader last season in steals per game, the Thunder have the weapons.

Superstars are taught to continue to make the right play every time down the floor in these situations: When help comes, find the open man. Force defenses into rotation, trust the ball to find an open shot.

The Wolves did this to great effect in Game 4, as their role players shot a combined 17 of 31 from 3 (55%), and as a team they scored 129.9 points per 100 possessions, equivalent to the greatest offense ever. They did not win, since they committed 23 turnovers and allowed 19 offensive rebounds. You cannot expect to win when you give a team of OKC’s caliber that many extra possessions, and still the Wolves almost did.

This was confirmation that Edwards’ process was right. Make the right reads, be in position to win. Only they did not, which naturally raised questions about whether Edwards had done enough. If he had done too much, forcing contested shots, he would have had blame for that, too. This is a superstar’s dilemma.

“I don’t look at it like I struggled, or [Julius Randle] struggled,” Edwards said of Game 4. “They had a good game plan, making us get off the ball. Especially for me, man. They were super in the gaps, I made the right play all night, so I don’t really look at it like I struggled. I didn’t get enough shots to say I struggled, so that might be how you guys look at it. But, yeah, I didn’t struggle at all. I just made the right play.”

The quality of today’s NBA demands perfection from its superstars. They must strike the right balance between creating quality looks for themselves and generating them for their teammates, and even then, if the shots are not falling, they receive a greater slice of the blame pie than any of their supporting cast.

Edwards belongs among the superstars from whom we can demand perfection. In addition to Edwards, the list of players who have appeared in at least three All-Star Games and 40 playoff games by the age of 23 includes all champions: Kobe Bryant, Magic Johnson, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Jayson Tatum. The list of those who averaged a 27-7-6 in those playoff games features only Edwards, James and Durant.

And where were James and Durant when they were 23? They, too, were toiling for contenders, still trying to strike that balance between how much to create for themselves and for others. Eventually, both left to find better teammates to trust. James did not win until he joined Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami. Durant did not win until he joined Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green in Golden State.

And maybe that is the answer. Maybe Edwards needs a better playing partner. Wade and Curry were all-timers, too, and they helped draw some of the gravity from James and Durant. Randle is too inconsistent to trust in the same way, and the defense knows it, daring him to challenge the same heavy-help defense.

And he did not do that in Game 4, by his own admission. “To be honest, I think it was a lot of me just, like, spectating,” said Randle. “I’ve got to figure out a way to get myself involved in actions. I think I didn’t take my first shot of the second half until there was 20 seconds left in the third quarter. I’ve got to figure out a way to get myself into positions to be more aggressive, rather than just standing or spectating.”

If a superstar is bottled up, his co-star cannot be stagnant. There are ways to penetrate the gap help that the Thunder are employing, all of which involve movement without the ball — dribble hand-offs, cuts behind the help. Force the defense to think, even before Edwards has given up the ball, and you give him a fighting chance, only if he can outthink them. It is all a lot to process for someone learning on the job.

And there are ways for Edwards to help himself. He can play faster, challenging the defense before it is set. And the Timberwolves can commit to getting the ball back to Edwards once he gets rid of it. He needs to be moving at all times, doing the same auxiliary things he would expect Randle to do for him.

It does not help that Edwards’ jump shot has abandoned him. During the regular season, he shot 36.8% on a handful of pull-up 3-point attempts per game. That equated to 1.104 points per possession, better than the best half-court offenses in the league. In the playoffs, he is 16 for 60 (27%) on pull-up 3s, which has translated to 0.8 points per possession, worse than the worst half-court-offenses in the league.

You can lose games in those margins of five possessions per game. Edwards has also been almost absent from midrange, where he is shooting 8 for 28 (29%) for the playoffs. That is two midrange jumpers per game, which is the kind of shot diet you want in the regular season, since long 2-pointers are the NBA’s least efficient shot. But it is not necessarily the shot diet you need in the playoffs. By contrast, Gilgeous-Alexander is 43 of 89 (48%) from the midrange in this postseason, attempting six such shots per game.

That leaves the rim, where Edwards has been hyper-efficient against the Thunder on limited attempts. He got to the basket twice in Game 1 and three times in Game 4. OKC does not make it easy on anyone. If Edwards can penetrate the Thunder’s first line of defense, beyond a sea of swiping arms, he is welcomed by either Isaiah Hartenstein, who is tied to Rudy Gobert on the block, or Chet Holmgren — or both.

This is the lesson Edwards is learning — the scar he is earning: how to navigate the world’s best defense. And it is not easy. You need the complete package, and at 23 years old, Edwards is not always that … yet.

How much of Minnesota’s struggles in this series are due to Edwards’ inexperience as an offensive hub and how much has to do with the talent gap between the two teams is difficult to tell. It is probably a bit of both. Even if the Timberwolves cannot complete a comeback against the Thunder, they can leave this season knowing: Edwards is their man. He just needs a little more seasoning and maybe some more help.