It’s official. No player in NBA history has played in more regular-season games than LeBron James.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ star tied a three-decade-old record on Thursday with his appearance in a game against the Miami Heat. It was his 1,611th career game, matching Boston Celtics great Robert Parish atop the NBA leaderboard. James started in all but two of those games. He was already the record-holder when factoring in his 292 playoff appearances, which bring his total up to 1,903 games.

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The record is hardly James’ most prestigious, but it’s still a testament to the longevity that has allowed him to continue performing at an All-Star level at age 41. He arrived in the NBA in 2003 at 18 years old and has performed at a standout level ever since while never missing more than half a season due to injury.

Patrick McDermott via Getty Images

Entering Thursday, James was already the NBA’s all-time leader in points (43,210), field goals (15,786), All-Star selections (22), All-NBA selections (13 first-team and 21 total), seasons played (23), playoff games (292) and, to be fair, turnovers (5,617). He’s also fourth on the assists list, sixth on the steals list and fifth on the triple-doubles list.

James’ place in history is obviously secure. The question now is how many games he has left in him. There is rampant speculation about what he’ll do this offseason, with his choices including retirement, a return to the Lakers or perhaps a reunion with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

This season has seen James post some of the lowest numbers of his career and miss more than a few games to injury, including a 14-game stretch to open the season due to sciatica. He has already ended his All-Star starting streak, his All-NBA streak and his 10-point streak, all unprecedented in league history.

It’s official. No player in NBA history has played in more regular-season games than LeBron James.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ star tied a three-decade-old record on Thursday with his appearance in a game against the Miami Heat. It was his 1,611th career game, matching Boston Celtics great Robert Parish atop the NBA leaderboard. James started in all but two of those games. He was already the record-holder when factoring in his 292 playoff appearances, which bring his total up to 1,903 games.

Yahoo Fantasy Bracket Mayhem: Make your picks for $50K in total prizes

The record is hardly James’ most prestigious, but it’s still a testament to the longevity that has allowed him to continue performing at an All-Star level at age 41. He arrived in the NBA in 2003 at 18 years old and has performed at a standout level ever since while never missing more than half a season due to injury.

Patrick McDermott via Getty Images

Entering Thursday, James was already the NBA’s all-time leader in points (43,210), field goals (15,786), All-Star selections (22), All-NBA selections (13 first-team and 21 total), seasons played (23), playoff games (292) and, to be fair, turnovers (5,617). He’s also fourth on the assists list, sixth on the steals list and fifth on the triple-doubles list.

James’ place in history is obviously secure. The question now is how many games he has left in him. There is rampant speculation about what he’ll do this offseason, with his choices including retirement, a return to the Lakers or perhaps a reunion with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

This season has seen James post some of the lowest numbers of his career and miss more than a few games to injury, including a 14-game stretch to open the season due to sciatica. He has already ended his All-Star starting streak, his All-NBA streak and his 10-point streak, all unprecedented in league history.

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Members of Iran’s national women’s soccer team were greeted with a “welcome ceremony” upon their return to the Islamic Republic after several of the players had sought asylum in Australia.

“First of all we are so happy to be in Iran, because Iran is our homeland,” midfielder Fatemeh Shaban said.

People in the crowd waved flags while some of the players held bouquets of flowers and signed what appeared to be mini-soccer balls. Iranian media had reported that the team returned on Wednesday.

“I wasn’t expecting this many people to come to welcome us, and I am happy to be the daughter of Iran,” Shaban said in translated comments.

Two Iranian female players, Fatemeh Pasandideh and Atefeh Ramezanisadeh, chose to remain in Australia and have been training with the Brisbane Roar club.

Others who initially sought asylum after the team was knocked out of the Women’s Asian Cup later changed their minds and said they would return to Iran.

Iran’s squad arrived in Australia for the tournament shortly before the Iran war began on Feb. 28. The team initially gained global attention after some players stayed silent during Iran’s national anthem before their first game in the Asian Cup. The silence was cast as an act of resistance or protest by some commentators and a show of mourning by others.

The players didn’t publicly disclose their views or explain their actions and sang the anthem before their next two matches.

Iranian first Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref last week dismissed suggestions the women would be unsafe if they returned home, saying the country “welcomes its children with open arms and the government guarantees their security.”

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AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

The Colorado Rockies are hosting the San Francisco Giants at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick this evening. The game was bumped into the evening because of blistering hot temperatures in Arizona.

Speaking of hot topics, who says we need to put the World Baseball Classic behind us? Venezuela may have ended the tournament victorious, but they had to get through the teams represented by both of today’s starting pitchers to do so.

On the mound for the Rockies—representing Samurai Japan—is the right-handed Tomoyuki Sugano. Sugano will be making his first appearance in a Rockies uniform this spring, as he had to depart for Japan’s training camp just shortly after signing in free agency. The 36-year-old decorated Japanese pitcher made one start during the World Baseball Classic, shutting out Australia for four innings. He pounded the strike zone without walking a batter and tallied two strikeouts.

Starting for the Giants—and representing Team USA—is right-handed ace Logan Webb. The Rockies are no stranger to Webb, who has dominated them throughout his career. Webb has posted a 2.97 ERA in 19 career appearances against the Rockies. During the World Baseball Classic, Webb was excellent for Team USA. He gave up just one run via a solo home run in 8 2/3 innings across his two starts. He struck out 11 batters and walked just one.

First Pitch: 7:10 PM MDT

TV: None

Radio: None

Lineups:

Thursday night baseball! pic.twitter.com/WMPdOexhve

— Colorado Rockies (@Rockies) March 19, 2026

Headed down the road to visit the Rockies 🏜️ pic.twitter.com/c5fhruG6ud

— SFGiants (@SFGiants) March 19, 2026

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Chicago White Sox at San Diego Padres, March 19, 2026, 6:10 p.m. PST

Watch: Padres.TV

Location: Peoria Sports Complex – Peoria, AZ

Listen: 97.3 The Fan

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Thursday night in Peoria. pic.twitter.com/cqwgMJ5E5T

— San Diego Padres (@Padres) March 19, 2026

Let’s play ✌️! pic.twitter.com/MiEcuC1yDB

— Chicago White Sox (@whitesox) March 19, 2026

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Returning to Tropicana Field for the 2026 MLB season, the Tampa Bay Rays will wear a patch on their jerseys that incorporates fabric from the roof that was torn off the stadium during Hurricane Milton in 2024.

The Rays announced Thursday that their jerseys will feature a sponsored patch for Webull, an online investment platform whose offices relocated to St. Petersburg, Florida, from New York in 2022. Each patch will have a piece of the original Tropicana Field roof sewn into it.

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Tampa Bay is believed to be the last MLB team to add sponsored patches to its jerseys since they were first allowed during the 2023 season.

Made from Teflon-coated fiberglass fabric, the Tropicana Field roof was torn away when the storm, which reached Category 3 status, made landfall on Florida’s west coast on Oct. 9, 2024.

Due to the damage sustained to the roof and parts of the stadium interior, the Rays played their 2025 home schedule at Tampa’s Steinbrenner Field, the spring training home of the New York Yankees. (The Yankees’ Class A club, the Tampa Tarpons, played their 2025 home games at the adjacent Community Field in the team’s spring training complex.)

The special patches will be worn on the field by all Rays personnel throughout the season, for home and road games, and fans can purchase them at the stadium’s team store.

As the Rays and Webull each said in announcing the patches, incorporating the Tropicana Field fabric is intended to commemorate the Tampa area’s “strength and resilience” in recovering from Hurricane Milton.

“This partnership represents more than just a logo on a jersey. It is a commitment to the community,” Webull head of strategic partnerships Carlos Questell said in a statement.

After a season-opening nine-game road trip through St. Louis, Milwaukee and Minnesota, the Rays play their home opener on Monday, April 6, versus the Chicago Cubs. That begins a six-game homestand that includes a three-game series with the Yankees.

Flynn Clayman has led what is thus far the biggest upset of March Madness on Thursday, March 19, leading No. 12 seed High Point to an 83-82 victory over No. 5 seed Wisconsin.

Mere moments after securing the biggest win of his young coaching career, Clayman let his feelings be known on the sentiment mid-majors “don’t play anybody.”

Toppmeyer: Miami (Ohio) shows it belongs in March Madness. Pipe down, Bruce Pearl

In a postgame interview with TBS’ Jared Greenberg, Clayman gave a fiery interview, saying, “We played somebody now.”

“Looks pretty obvious to me that high-majors need to play mid-majors early in the season. Because they said we didn’t play nobody. We played somebody now.”

-High Point HC Flynn Clayman pic.twitter.com/IpObzgJSGm

— CBS Sports College Basketball 🏀 (@CBSSportsCBB) March 19, 2026

“It looks pretty obvious to me that high-majors need to play mid-majors during the season,” Clayman said. “Because they said we ain’t played nobody? We played somebody now.”

Asked how the win feels, Clayman continued, “It feels unreal, because nobody would play us, just like they wouldn’t play Miami (Ohio). But they got to play us in this tournament.”

REQUIRED READING: Miami (Ohio) shows it belongs in March Madness. Pipe down, Bruce Pearl

Speaking in his postgame news conference, Clayman continued by saying his team deserved the opportunity to be at March Madness — and that they weren’t just happy to be here, either.

“High Point and Miami (Ohio) are 2-1 in Quad 1 games. We couldn’t get games. They couldn’t get games,” Clayman said. “Akron, UNC Wilmington, Belmont couldn’t get games. We won 22 of our last 23 games and we didn’t move up one spot in the metrics. Not one. We won 22 of our 23. We’ve won 25 games by double-digits.

“That team (Wisconsin) right there is a fantastic team that beat five top-10 teams. If we can get games like this on neutral courts and some home games, I think we’d know who’s really the best teams. I’m proud of these dudes. We’re not just here to win one game; we’re here to get to the Sweet 16.”

Clayman’s comments come after Miami (Ohio)’s metrics were questioned ahead of Selection Sunday, with former Auburn coach-turned-basketball analyst Bruce Pearl publicly stumping for the Tigers over the RedHawks. Pearl pointed to the RedHawks’ poor strength of schedule and early exit in the MAC Tournament as reasons why other teams were more deserving.

As it stands now, High Point and Miami (Ohio) are a combined 2-0 in the 2026 Men’s NCAA Tournament and are slated to play No. 4 seed Arkansas and No. 6 seed Tennessee, respectively.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: High Point coach Flynn Clayman viral postgame interview after Wisconsin upset

CHICAGO (AP) — Cleveland star Donovan Mitchell missed the Cavaliers’ game Thursday night against the Chicago Bulls because of a bruised left eye.

Mitchell was hurt in a collision in practice with Evan Mobley. The seven-time All-Star played through the injury in Cleveland’s victory at Milwaukee on Tuesday night and finished with 19 points on 4-for-14 shooting. He said after the game that he was having trouble seeing.

Coach Kenny Atkinson said the injury is “nothing serious,” but the Cavaliers need to “let it clear up.”

Mitchell is eighth in the NBA in scoring at 28 points per game while shooting a career-high 47.9%. He’s averaging 5.9 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 1.6 steals.

The Cavaliers entered the day fourth in the Eastern Conference at 42-27. They trailed New York by 2 1/2 games and led Toronto by 2 1/2.

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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

SAN DIEGO – No other freshman class in America has scored more points this season than the five active freshmen on the Arizona men’s basketball team. They have combined for 1,461 points, which leads the nation heading into the NCAA Tournament this week, according to data provided by USA TODAY Sports by Stats Perform.

Which is pretty darn remarkable for two big reasons:

1. This team is on fire. The Wildcats (32-2) have won nine consecutive games and will start the tournament here as a No. 1 seed against Long Island University on Friday, March 20.

2. This kind of youth movement goes against conventional wisdom these days. Isn’t older supposed to be better in the era of wide-open player transfers?

More: John Calipari unleashed Darius Acuff by taking page out of NBA book

More: High Point upset was going to take everything — including a first layup of the season

Wildcats coach Tommy Lloyd instead took a different approach than many others last year, veering away from the transfer portal, where more experienced players typically seek to earn more money from their names, images and likenesses (NIL).

“We were able to get involved with some freshmen that we felt could be just big-time impact players in college basketball, no matter what year or what class they were,” Lloyd told USA TODAY Sports on Thursday.

He had a strategy for it, as he explained Thursday.

Why Arizona built its roster this way

One reason Lloyd built his roster this way was because didn’t think there were going to be many “quality” transfers available in the portal.

Money was a factor, too.

“I thought it was going to be overpriced,” Lloyd said.

Then there was the Duke factor. Duke beat Arizona twice last year with several freshman players, including future No. 1 NBA draft pick Cooper Flagg. Duke even started three freshmen in the Final Four last year while other Final Four teams started mostly seniors. Lloyd noticed.

By the end of the season, Lloyd said the Blue Devils didn’t seem young.

“I just thought they were really good.”

The risks of a freshman-heavy roster at Arizona

Arizona lists seven total freshman players on its roster of 16, including Bryce James, son of LeBron, who is redshirting this year but still drums up interest in his team by having the fourth-biggest social-media following in Division I basketball as of this month, according to Opendorse.

It’s the kind of roster construction that is reminiscent of a bygone era in college sports — recruiting big freshman classes, developing those players and sometimes even redshirting some of them. The problem for Lloyd is that it comes with risk.

The good ones will leave for the NBA after a year. Others might even transfer away in pursuit of more money.

Such freshman-heavy teams also often don’t work out this well, unless they include superstar NBA prospects like Duke freshman forward Cameron Boozer or Arkansas freshman guard Darius Acuff.

Consider the 13 teams that invested eight roster spots or more in freshman players this season, all more than Arizona, according to Stats Perform. Only two of those 13 earned a bid to the NCAA Tournament — SMU and Queens University. New Haven listed the most freshmen on its roster this season with 11 but finished with a 14-17 record.

But there are outliers.

“Age don’t matter,” 19-year-old Arizona freshman guard Dwayne Aristode told USA TODAY Sports. “If you’re good, you’re good.”

How Tommy Lloyd built this roster

Lloyd searches for top players overseas and has eight players from other countries, including freshman forward Ivan Kharchenkov from Germany, Aristode from The Netherlands and 6-11 freshman forward Sidi Gueye from Senegal.

Lloyd also has five transfer players, including senior guard Jaden Bradley, who came to Arizona from Alabama in 2023.

But 49.9% of the team’s scoring has come from five freshmen, who were part of a recruiting class that ranked No. 2 nationally behind fellow No. 1-seed Duke. These Arizona freshmen have scored even more than the four freshman contributors at Duke, which ranked second nationally in freshman scoring before the tournament with 1,417 points, more than half of which comes from Boozer.

The difference is Arizona’s freshmen aren’t projected to be high-lottery NBA draft prospects like Boozer. The Wildcats instead spread it around more between freshman guard Brayden Burries (15.9 points per game), freshman forward Koa Peat (13.6) and Kharchenkov (10.1).

Now comes the NCAA Tournament.

How will freshmen handle this environment?

Arizona senior forward Tobe Awaka had simple answer for this.

“Don’t try and reinvent the wheel,” he said Thursday at Viejas Arena in San Diego.

Lloyd doesn’t see a problem.

“I haven’t sensed that our freshmen don’t know what this is about,” Lloyd said. “And I told our freshmen, ‘Hey, you guys won a state championship?’ Yeah. Then let’s go win another state championship. And the way you win a state championship, you win a state championship game by game.  This just happens to have the word ‘national’ in front of it.  But it’s no different approach.

Ranking college basketball teams with most points by freshmen in 2025-26

As of March 17 in Division I, according to Stats Perform:

1. Arizona 1461
2. Duke  1417
3. Arkansas 1334
4. Central Arkansas 1326
5. New Mexico  1275
6. Fairfield 1270
7. North Carolina-Greensboro 1149
8. Colorado 1138
9. Air Force 1123
10. Houston 1119

Follow reporter Brent Schrotenboer @Schrotenboer. Email: bschrotenb@usatoday.com

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Arizona basketball enters March Madness with roster led by freshmen