What’s been suspected is now official. 

Stephen Curry won’t play in Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game. Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr told reporters Monday night that Curry will miss Sunday’s game due to a lingering knee injury.

Curry was selected as an All-Star starter and chosen to play alongside LeBron James and Kevin Durant on one of three All-Star teams as part of the league’s new USA-vs.-World All-Star tournament format. Curry’s status opens up a roster spot for another player to be named an All-Star. That player will presumably be named by the league.

Curry will also miss upcoming Warriors games against the Memphis Grizzlies and San Antonio Spurs. He’s already missed three games with the injury that the Warriors have been calling “runner’s knee.” Per the National Institutes of Health, runner’s knee consists of pain around the kneecap and can be triggered by exposure “to too much or too frequent strain.”

The Warriors did not provide a timeline for Curry to return beyond his absence through the All-Star break. Kerr announced the news ahead of Monday’s game against the Grizzlies. Golden State beat the Grizzles 114-113 to improve to 29-25, good for eighth place in the West. 

Jimmy Butler has surgery

The Warriors are already playing the rest of this season and likely beyond without All-Star forward Jimmy Butler, who suffered a torn ACL on Jan. 19. The Warriors announced earlier Monday that Butler had surgery to repair the ACL tear. He’s expected to “make a full recovery,” according to a team statement. 

With Butler sidelined, the Warriors were reportedly targeting two-time Milwaukee Bucks MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo in an effort to team Curry up with another star to compete for a championship on the back end of his prime. But Antetokounmpo stayed put, and the Warriors instead acquired oft-injured center Kristaps Porziņģis from the Hawks in a trade that sent Jonathan Kuminga to Atlanta. 

Porziņģis has been sidelined since Jan. 7 with an Achilles tendon injury and illness. Kerr announced on Saturday that Porziņģis will also be out through the All-Star break amid hope that he’ll be ready to make his Warriors debut after the break.

All eyes are on Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum as the team quickly approaches the All-Star break. 

Tatum has reportedly been participating in controlled 5-on-5 scrimmages with coaches, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. The team even briefly sent Tatum to their G League affiliate in Maine on Monday for part of a practice, too. After the practice, he planned to head back to Boston to continue his rehab.

Tatum is still recovering from rupturing his Achilles tendon last May during a playoff series with the New York Knicks. Tatum still has several benchmarks to clear from his recovery and there remains no timetable for his return, ESPN reported. NBA insider Chris Haynes reported on Jan. 29 that Tatum is considering sitting out for the entire 2025-2026 season.

[Get more Celtics news: Boston team feed]

Charania reported that Tatum wants to come back as close to 100% as possible. Last season, Tatum averaged 26.8 points, 8.7 rebounds and 6.0 assists.

Part of Tatum’s reluctance to return has been how well the Celtics have played without him. The Celtics are second in the East at 34-18 and currently on a five-game winning streak.

“That’s something I contemplate every day,” Tatum said on the Pivot Podcast. “More so about the team, if or when I do come back this season, they would’ve played 50 some-odd games without me. So they have an identity this year or things that they felt have clicked for them, and it’s been successful, right, third or second team in the East up to this point. So there is a thought in my head that’s like, how does that work or hows does that look with me integrating myself off an injury and 50-60 games into a season? There could obviously be some challenges and it is a thought, like damn? Do I come back or should I wait? It’s something that I honestly, recently in the last two weeks or so, just kind of contemplate every single day.”

Jaylen Brown is also in the midst of a career season. He is averaging 29.5 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.7 assists. Brown was recently selected for his fifth All-Star Game. 

Derrick White and Payton Pritchard have also increased their scoring numbers, with both guards scoring over 17 points per game. The team also acquired big man Nikola Vučević in a trade with the Chicago Bulls.

The rosters are finalized, and the uniforms are out for the 2026 NBA All-Star Game, which will feature a new format with three teams in a round-robin tournament: Two will consist of players from the United States and a third will be comprised of players from the rest of the world.

The midseason exhibition will be played in Inglewood, California, at the Los Angeles Clippers’ Intuit Dome on Feb. 15.

The NBA moved New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns to Team World on Tuesday, opening a 16th and final spot in the Team USA pool for this year’s All-Star Game.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver filled that vacancy with Los Angeles Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard, now a seven-time All-Star who is enjoying one of the best seasons of his career and previously headlined a list of snubs for the event.

That means there are 25 total All-Stars this season.

Here’s the roster breakdown:

USA Stars

Head coach: J.B. Bickerstaff (Detroit Pistons)

• Scottie Barnes, Toronto Raptors

• Devin Booker, Phoenix Suns

• Cade Cunningham, Detroit Pistons

• Jalen Duren, Detroit Pistons

• Anthony Edwards, Minnesota Timberwolves

• Chet Holmgren, Oklahoma City Thunder

• Jalen Johnson, Atlanta Hawks

• Tyrese Maxey, Philadelphia 76ers

USA Stripes

Head coach: Mitch Johnson (San Antonio Spurs)

• Jaylen Brown, Boston Celtics

• Jalen Brunson, New York Knicks

• Stephen Curry, Golden State Warriors

• Kevin Durant, Houston Rockets

• LeBron James, Los Angeles Lakers

• Kawhi Leonard, Los Angeles Clippers

• Donovan Mitchell, Cleveland Cavaliers

• Norman Powell, Miami Heat

World

Head coach: Darko Rajaković

• Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks

• Deni Avdija, Portland Trail Blazers

• Luka Dončić, Los Angeles Lakers

• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City Thunder*

• Nikola Jokić, Denver Nuggets

• Jamal Murray, Denver Nuggets

• Pascal Siakam, Indiana Pacers

• Alperen Sengun, Houston Rockets

• Karl-Anthony Towns, New York Knicks

• Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio Spurs

“*” denotes unable to play because of injury

How this year’s All-Stars were selected

Fans were responsible for 50% of the vote that picked each conference’s five starters. NBA players (25%) and a media panel (25%) accounted for the other slices of the vote.

NBA head coaches selected 14 reserves, namely James, who’s on an All-Star team for the 22nd consecutive season.

There were no positional requirements for this year’s All-Star lineups. That’s a first for the exhibition, which will soon be played in its 75th iteration.

Why are there 9 players on Team World?

Towns, who is Dominican through his late mother, was shifted over to Team World. As a result, there were only 15 players in the Team USA pool. A minimum of 16 was required, hence the addition of Leonard.

When the format was rolled out, it was announced that Silver would have the ability to select additional All-Stars so that each group hit its number. 

So that’s how Team World ended up with nine players, whereas USA Stars and USA Stripes both have eight players. Alperen Sengun also was named as an injury replacement for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

How this year’s All-Star Game will be played

In terms of the game itself, there will still technically be four 12-minute quarters — although each will be its own game. Each of the three teams will play twice during round-robin action. The fourth “quarter” will pit the two teams with the best records to decide a champion. 

Point differential will be the post-round-robin tiebreaker if all three teams have 1-1 records. 

A look at this year’s All-Star Game uniforms, court

The Clippers are hosting this year’s All-Star Game, so it’s fitting the hardwood honors their colorway, as well as the architectural design of the Intuit Dome, which opened ahead of the 2024-25 season and will be used during the 2028 L.A. Olympics.

The All-Star Game jerseys sport an L.A.-inspired script, and there are seven stars orbiting the wordmarks, representing the seven previous All-Star games the city has hosted.

Despite reports that Anthony Davis will wait until next season to make his Washington Wizards debut, the team is saying otherwise. 

Wizards general manager Will Dawkins told reporters before Sunday’s 132-101 loss to the Miami Heat that he expects the 10-time All-Star to suit up for Washington before the end of the season. However, Davis’ status will likely be determined by what doctors recommend after he’s evaluated during the NBA All-Star break. 

“The plan for A.D. right now is to go back to Dallas and finish his rehab,” Dawkins said, via The Athletic. “He has a really good team down there. Our doctors met with them, and our medical staff’s going to go down with him. So, we want to keep that good thing going that he has.”

Dawkins added that Davis will be with the Wizards after the All-Star break, whether he plays this season or not. 

On Friday, Prime Video’s Chris Haynes reported that Davis, 32, was expected to sit out the rest of the season to get fully healthy for 2026-27. The 14-year NBA veteran hasn’t played since early January due to a finger injury.

The Wizards acquired Davis last week in a blockbuster trade with the Dallas Mavericks that saw eight different players get moved. The deal sets up Davis and Trae Young as the franchise’s two veteran pillars going forward.

[Subscribe to Yahoo Sports NBA on YouTube]

Those two players also happen to both be out with injuries right now, which is highly convenient for Washington from a draft pick standpoint. In addition to Davis potentially being out for the season, Young hasn’t played since late December due to MCL and quad injuries in his right leg. He is expected to be out until at least the All-Star break, and it seems quite possible the Wizards will exercise similar “caution” with him.

If Davis indeed doesn’t play again, he will finish with a career-low 20 games played this season, all with the Mavericks.

[Get more Wizards news: Washington team feed]

The Wizards currently hold the fourth-worst record in the NBA, and it’s a competitive race to the bottom this season due to one of the best draft classes in NBA history. It’s hard to think of a season in college basketball with so many impact freshmen, and the trio of Kansas’ Darryn Peterson, Duke’s Cameron Boozer and BYU’s AJ Dybantsa all loom as potential franchise-changers.

Washington is one of five teams with 14 or fewer wins this season, and not playing their two best players certainly increases their chances of sticking at the bottom. Also in the hunt are the Sacramento Kings, Indiana Pacers, Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks, who can take the New Orleans Pelicans’ first-round pick this year because the latter fell in love with Derik Queen in last year’s draft.

The vision for the Wizards at this point is a pick-and-roll duo of Davis and Young, supplemented by young talents like Alex Sarr, Kyshawn George and whomever they get in the draft this year. They might already be thinking about the latter.

It’s one of the biggest games of the Big 12 schedule. Not just for Kansas and Arizona, but for the entire league.

Tonight’s game starts at 8pm Jayhawk Time and will be broadcast on ESPN. Check out Mike’s How to Watch article for more details.

Can Bill Self stay undefeated in Big Monday games? This is arguably the toughest Big Monday matchup of his career, with Arizona being a juggernaut this season. Hopefully KU can get a signature win tonight.

Rock Chalk!

HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — The Las Vegas Raiders made it official Monday by announcing Seattle Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak will be their next head coach.

Kubiak arrived in Las Vegas on Monday fresh off a 29-13 Super Bowl victory over the New England Patriots on Sunday.

Among the questions facing Kubiak as he takes over:

— Who he will hire as his coordinators on offense and defense?

If Kubiak brings coaches with him from Seattle, he could consider quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko for offensive coordinator and Aden Durde on the defensive side. It obviously would be a promotion for Janocko, though Kubiak might call the plays. Durde is the Seahawks’ DC, but he would have the opportunity to have full control of the defense, unlike in Seattle where coach Mike Macdonald calls plays on that side of the ball.

— What to do about defensive end Maxx Crosby?

Two NFL reporters have said that the Raiders’ star pass rusher wants out. He wasn’t happy about being placed on injured reserve with two games left this past season and might not have the appetite for another rebuild attempt. Crosby said on “The Herd with Colin Cowherd” that no such talk came from him, but he also didn’t deny he wanted out.

The Raiders could get a haul by trading the 28-year-old Crosby and perhaps even accelerate the rebuild. Dallas got two first-rounders and three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark by shipping Micah Parsons to Green Bay.

— How will he prepare for free agency and the draft?

Las Vegas has the No. 1 pick and more than $91 million in salary cap space, according to overthecap.com, so the Raiders have the opportunity to greatly upgrade their roster. It’s almost certain they will use that top pick on Fernando Mendoza, who won the Heisman Trophy and quarterbacked Indiana to the national championship.

But the Raiders will need to surround Mendoza with a lot more talent than is currently on the roster. Their top priorities likely will be improving the offensive line and finding a No. 1 wide receiver. The defense doesn’t have a glaring weakness, but can use help throughout that side of the ball.

Kubiak, 38, confirmed during an on-field interview with NFL Network after the Seahawks won the Super Bowl on Sunday that he was heading to Las Vegas. Not that it was a surprise.

Kubiak and the Raiders began working toward finalizing an agreement more than a week ago for him to take the job, a person with knowledge of the discussions said at the time. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because no contract was in place and no announcement could be made until after the Super Bowl in Santa Clara, California.

He’ll be the third coach in three seasons for the Raiders and fifth full-time leader since they moved to Las Vegas in 2020. He succeeds Pete Carroll, who went 3-14 in one season in Las Vegas after a storied run with Seattle that included two Super Bowl appearances and one championship.

The Raiders have been searching for a path back to their glory days. Three Lombardi Trophies sit in the team’s facility, but the Raiders haven’t won a playoff game since their last Super Bowl appearance in the 2002 season. They have made the postseason just twice since, most recently in the 2021 season.

___

AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl

After meeting face-to-face a week ago, it seems the WNBA and the players are back to negotiating. It was reported that after the players submitted a CBA proposal to the league in December, the WNBA still hadn’t responded to it in February. The sides met in person in New York last week, with over 40 players attending in person or over Zoom. At that meeting, the league still did not have a response ready for them, but submitted their latest proposal later in the week, on Friday.

While the league did not budge much on the matters of money — particularly on revenue sharing models — they have appeared to concede a few things to the players. After wanting to take away housing benefits in the league completely, this newest proposal from the league now has housing covered for players with under three years of WNBA service. Players will be entitled to a one-bedroom apartment for the first three years of their WNBA careers, with new developmental players being offered a studio apartment.

Breanna Stewart told Jack Maloney of CBS Sports at Unrivaled this week that the WNBA conceding on a few of those smaller points was important, and that it “means that the league heard us on things that matter to us,” she said.

Yet, this proposal ultimately will not be accepted by the players, mostly because the league still isn’t offering enough when it comes to revenue-sharing percentage. According to Maloney’s report, there is still a huge gap between the sides on this topic — the players want 30% of gross revenue to be given back to them, resulting in a team salary cap aboove $10 million per year and a max individual player salary of about $2.5 million. The WNBA is still only offering about half of that.

Time continues to tick on the clock to get a deal done, though. The WNBA season is scheduled to start in exactly three months. Training camp usually starts about 2-3 weeks before that, with the WNBA Draft happening a week before camp kicks off. That’s a month right there. There are over 100 free agents who need to negotiate and sign new individual player contracts, setting the league up for an unprecedented free agency period in extremely limited time.

Plus, with two new expansion teams in Toronto and Portland being added to the league this year, an expansion draft also still needs to happen. With no CBA in place, there are no rules on what the expansion draft will look like, and therefore, Toronto and Portland have been unable to fully prepare for that draft. Whenever a new CBA does get signed, existing WNBA teams will need to take time to prepare their protected player lists under whatever new rules are going to be in place, and then the expansion teams will need to receive those lists and prepare accordingly. It’s not something that can happen in just the span of a few days.

All of this to say, we are starting to cut it close. The players can feel it, as Stewart expressed in the interview with CBS. There is only so much time to negotiate before the start of the season will need to be pushed back. There isn’t a hard date being publicly discussed right now, but the overwhelming belief in my conversations with people around the league is that if something doesn’t happen before February is over, the start of the season could be affected.

So far, there is no serious talk about the players planning a strike. The union voted to authorize their executive committee to initiate a strike back in December, with 98% of the union voting yes. For now, though, it seems like both sides are at least making token efforts in the hope it doesn’t get to that point.

Guerschon Yabusele reveals why he left millions to facilitate move to Bulls originally appeared on The Sporting News.
Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Guerschon Yabusele never got on the same page with New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown.

As a result, Yabusele was traded at the deadline to the Chicago Bulls and has found success with a change of scenery.

That said, Yabusele had to amend his contract in order to facilitate the trade to Chicago.

In order to be moved, Yabusele voided the second-year of his two-year contract, worth $6 million.

Yabusele opened up recently about his decision to void the guaranteed money, expressing his love for the game as the biggest reason why.

“We can always see the side of the money and talk about it, but at the end of the day the passion is more than just the money. It’s being out there, missing the feeling of being out there, offense, defense. Just competing at a high level because I’m a competitor first,” Yabusele said.

This is just another chapter in what has been an interesting career for the Frenchman. Yabusele was drafted by the Celtics in 2016 and spent two seasons with them before finding his way out of the NBA. He spent five seasons overseas before returning to the NBA last year, posting a breakout season with the Philadelphia 76ers that earned him his most recent Knicks’ contract.

Since being acquired, Yabusele has averaged nearly 30 minutes per game in two appearances with the Bulls and is in the starting lineup for Monday’s game against the Nets.

Yabusele has already posted one double-double and is averaging 12.5 points with Chicago. He’s also been impressive defensively, racking up two blocks and three steals in his first two appearances.

These numbers are much more efficient from his time in New York, where he averaged 2.7 points and 2.1 rebounds in 8.9 minutes per game.

Given his story, it’ll be quite interesting to see if Yabusele’s second half in Chicago is enough to earn him a contract for next season.

More NBA news:

• Coby White feels ‘wanted’ by Charlotte after trade to Hornets
• Travis Scott screams after James Harden’s Cavaliers debut
• Nic Claxton reveals thoughts following Cam Thomas’ release
• JJ Redick reveals thoughts on Luke Kennard-Gabe Vincent trade
• Guerschon Yabusele’s Bulls performance proves Mike Brown didn’t use him properly
• Hornets make 26-year franchise history in win vs. Rockets

Most seem to agree that the St. Louis Cardinals have had a very active and successful offseason, but how likely is it that they still might trade JoJo Romero? There are many questions including if, to who and when.

As of today, the St. Louis Cardinals are only days away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring Training in Jupiter, Florida. There are still rumblings that the trade winds haven’t stopped blowing yet as JoJo Romero is reportedly still being discussed with other teams. While I can’t confirm that anything is close, a trade of JoJo is still possible. The most recent reporting I can find about Romero’s status came from MLB Trade Rumors just a few days ago on February 6. They asked their audience if they believe the St. Louis Cardinals will complete another trade before opening day and nearly 66% said yes.

The teams that reportedly have expressed the most interest in JoJo Romero are the New York Yankees, the Seattle Mariners and the Baltimore Orioles also according to MLB Trade Rumors. I’ve also seen mock trades suggested from the Toronto Blue Jays, but cannot confirm if that interest is serious. I thought there was a chance we’d see JoJo moved along with Brendan Donovan when his trade to the Seattle Mariners happened, but the fact that it didn’t makes me think that Chaim Bloom may have a different timeline in mind for JoJo.

I’m wondering now if the St. Louis Cardinals are going to try and position JoJo Romero as a closer and then move him at the trade deadline when that market might be hot. That’s a gamble, but it might be the frame of mind that Chaim Bloom and his team have now that the ramp up to the season gets closer. I am reminded of an interview that the St. Louis Post-Dispatch had with JoJo late last season about what he learned from former Cardinals closer Ryan Helsley. Could it be that the Cardinals will set up closer by committee with JoJo and Riley O’Brien sharing that role?

Do you think that the St. Louis Cardinals will trade JoJo Romero? If the answer is yes, do you think it should happen before Opening Day or at the trade deadline? If no, why are you in favor of holding onto him? I think we’ll find out sooner rather than later of what the St. Louis Cardinals are thinking about the future of JoJo Romero whether he’s a prime trade opportunity now or a bigger trade chip as a closer near the deadline this summer.