On March 1, the New Orleans Pelicans took the floor without Zion Williamson. Normally, this wouldn’t be worth highlighting. NBA star misses game isn’t exactly a rare headline these days, and Williamson isn’t exactly known as an ironman.

Except that, leading up to that night, Williamson had played in 35 straight games, a career-best streak. He returned two days later and, despite playing for a Pelicans squad stuck in the Western Conference cellar, hasn’t missed a game since. In a season defined by

To this point, according to a source close to Williamson, neither Williamson nor anyone in his camp has been given any indication that his time in New Orleans is nearing an end (both Dumars and Weaver declined interview requests). And yet, the awkward fit with Queen, combined with how deeply Dumars and Weaver are now invested in his success — the 2026 pick the Pelicans owe Atlanta as part of the Queen trade currently has a 32% chance of landing in the top four of a draft that scouts say features a loaded class — has many executives around the league assuming that Williamson, who is extension-eligible this offseason, will soon be on the market.

Williamson is aware of the situation. 

“New Orleans is home for me. It’s where I want to be,” he said in a recent interview with Yahoo Sports when asked whether he thinks his time with the Pelicans is winding down. “But at the end of the day, if we’re going to be realistic about it, the NBA is a business. I could be traded in the offseason, or I could be traded before [next season’s] trade deadline.”

“Not that I want that to happen,” he added. “But that’s just the realism of it.”

The question then becomes: Should the prospect of adding Williamson excite other teams?

On the one hand, you have a not-yet-26-year-old former No. 1 pick and two-time All-Star coming off a healthy season in which he ranks among the league’s most efficient isolation scorers. That’s not the profile of a player who typically hits the market. 

“He’s on another level in terms of his drives,” New York Knicks head coach Mike Brown said recently. “It takes all five guys being in the right position to try to make it tough on him, and you still may not even be able to make it tough on him. He’s that powerful, athletic, strong.”

On the other hand, Williamson remains a non-rebounding poor defender who has eclipsed the 30-games-played mark just three times in his seven-year career and whose usage and assist numbers have both dipped this season. Combine that with his injury history and contract — which guarantees him $42.2 million next season and, if he hits certain incentive markers, possibly $45 million the year after — and, in the eyes of some, he becomes too risky a proposition in the NBA’s apron era.

“Right now he’s a borderline All-Star who makes a lot of money,” said a Western Conference executive. “That’s the sort of player a lot of teams are now avoiding.”

Peek beneath the hood, though, and there are reasons to believe Williamson could rediscover his All-NBA form.

For one, the dip in some of his numbers may simply be a function of how the Pelicans have deployed him this season. “We’ve used Zion in more off-ball actions than he’s ever been a part of before,” Borrego said. “We’ve tried moving him around a bit to make it harder for defenses to load up on him.” 

Williamson may be running fewer pick-and-rolls and posting up less frequently, but you can see the upside of Borrego’s decision in other metrics. Williamson is turning the ball over at a career-low rate. His efficiency from the floor is back at his prime-Zion levels. And his drives? “Some of his takes to the rim are unguardable,” was how an executive who recently watched Williamson described him.  

None of that would matter, though, if Williamson weren’t able to remain on the floor. And it’s here where opinions once again diverge. Most of the executives and coaches Yahoo Sports spoke to outside of the Pelicans organization remained dubious. Some attribute his health to his incentive-laden contract in which his salary only becomes guaranteed if he plays a certain number of games. Others see the combination of his size and the force with which he plays as a combination destined to break his body. Others simply don’t believe one healthy season erases four injury-riddled ones.

Williamson understands the skepticism. But, he said, “I feel like I’ve shown enough this year to be able to say, like, ‘This is what it’s gonna look like.’ Even when I did have an injury (he strained his hip in early December), I was projected to miss four to six weeks, and instead I was back in two and then went on a long stretch of consecutive games.”

That, he believes, was no accident. In the offseason, Williamson began working with a new trainer. “Before, I’d get treatment and do basic stuff like table time,” Williamson said. “But now it’s things like hyperbaric chambers and red light chambers.” His teammates say they notice a difference. “He’s taking the management of his body more seriously than ever before,” Trey Murphy said. What Borrego points to, though, is that not only has Williamson played the majority of games this season, but “we haven’t even had to have a single conversation where I have to go and ask him if he’s in. He’s fully bought in.”

Is all that enough to convince another team to take a flyer? Maybe a playoff team stuck in purgatory and in desperate need of a ceiling-raiser. Or maybe a bottom-feeder that strikes out in the lottery and needs something else to sell to its fans. Or maybe, in the end, the Pelicans, who have more insight on Williamson than anyone else, decide that this post All-Star break upswing is real and that it’s worth keeping their best player around. 

“Right now it’s about, just, self-identity,” Williamson said when asked about the Pelicans’ late-season turnaround. “We know what we want to do and how we want to grow going into the offseason and leading into next season. 

“I feel like we’re taking a step in the right direction because at the moment we can only control what we can control,” Williamson added. He was referring to the team, but he might as well have been speaking about himself.

Boston Red Sox pitcher Brayan Bello had a tough night on the mound against the Houston Astros on Tuesday. Bello gave up eight hits and five earned runs during a 9-2 loss.

While it wasn’t a good start, it could have been slightly better if not for a crucial mistake by umpire Mark Wegner, which cost Bello a strikeout and forced him out of the game.

The call in question came with two outs in the fifth inning and Astros outfielder Cam Smith at the plate. Bello started the plate appearance with three swinging strikes, which should have resulted in a strikeout … except no one seemed to notice.

Wegner erroneously believed there was a 1-2 count on Smith after the third pitch of the at-bat, and Smith’s plate appearance continued. Six pitches later, he drew a walk … despite the fact that Bello threw only three balls during the at-bat.

With Boston trailing 6-1 at that point, Bello was pulled from the game. The Red Sox were able to get out of the inning without allowing any more damage but went on to lose the contest 9-2.

Wegner was asked about Smith’s plate appearance after the game, and he admitted he screwed up, per the New York Post.

“I just watched the video,” Wegner told reporters postgame. “I somehow didn’t count the second swinging one because I said the count was 1-2. It was actually strike three … I’ve never done that before. I’m not happy about it. Just made a mistake.”

When asked whether anyone else on the field caught his mistake in the moment, Wegner said, “No one on the field said a word.” That, presumably, includes Bello, Red Sox catcher Connor Wong and Red Sox manager Alex Cora, all of whom should’ve been aware of the count.

Wegner’s gaffe came the same night another umpire, C.B. Bucknor, came under scrutiny for a bizarre blown call against the Milwaukee Brewers. Bucknor initially ruled Brewers first baseman Jake Bauers out at first base, claiming he did not step on the bag while trying to beat a throw. Replays very clearly showed Bucknor was wrong, leading to both managers laughing following the Brewers’ challenge.

It marked the second time in just a few days that Bucknor came under fire for bad calls. On Sunday, Cincinnati Reds fans let Bucknor have it after he missed consecutive calls against Reds third baseman Eugenio Suarez. Those calls were overturned thanks to ABS challenges.

The mistakes by both Wegner and Bucknor on Tuesday had nothing to do with ABS. Bucknor’s, at least, was reviewable. Because of that, Wegner’s call was arguably more egregious. A home plate umpire’s top priority is to keep track of the count.

But if there’s a silver lining, it’s that the mistake did not affect the outcome of the game. With the Astros already leading by five runs, the game was mostly in hand, and Wegner’s error did not lead to more runs.

Before Shohei Ohtani’s first bullpen session at the start of spring training, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was not subtle as he set the stage for the two-way phenom’s first full season as a pitcher in Dodger blue.

“I think there’s certainly a lot more in there,” the skipper said. “And regardless of my expectations for him, his are going to exceed those. And I think it’s fair to say he expects to be in the Cy Young conversation.”

The road to the game’s highest honor for pitchers is an arduous one, a six-month marathon of mound performance requiring both quality and quantity of innings. That’s true for those who are strictly pitching and also for Ohtani, the only Cy Young hopeful in history who doubles as one of the best hitters on the planet. As was the case with Ohtani’s many other past pursuits of greatness, this goal is unprecedented, bordering on unfathomable. 

But he had to start somewhere, and his first outing of 2026 was a step in the right direction. 

Facing the Cleveland Guardians on an unusually chilly and drizzly Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium, Ohtani delivered six scoreless innings in the Dodgers’ 4-1 victory, allowing just one hit across an impressive outing that included a few flashes of wildness but mostly featured Ohtani on the attack to great effect. The lone hit didn’t come until Rhys Hoskins scooped a low-and-away sweeper down the left-field line for a double with two outs in the fourth inning.

Otherwise, Cleveland’s only offensive successes came courtesy of Ohtani’s occasional lapses in command, which led to three walks and a hit-by-pitch. On the whole, the Guardians’ bats did little to combat Ohtani’s deep repertoire, which helped him rack up six strikeouts, all of the swinging variety.

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Ohtani’s pitch mix Tuesday looked largely familiar to what we’ve seen in the past, with a few interesting alterations to keep an eye on. The velocity on all of his pitches was down a tick or two from his season averages last year, but Ohtani ran his heater up to 99.2 mph in the first inning, so it’s not like he was soft-tossing. In terms of usage, the most notable aspect of Ohtani’s plan of attack in his season debut was an increased reliance on his mid-70s curveball and terrific, high-80s splitter, two offerings that have generally lagged behind the sweeper, his go-to secondary pitch, in recent years.

The sweeper still played a key role against Cleveland — Ohtani punctuated his outing by getting Hoskins to flail at one for strike three to end the sixth — but it’s rare for that pitch to register as Ohtani’s fourth-most used offering. Whether that reflects just Tuesday’s game plan or a larger shift toward a new diet of offspeed and breaking pitches remains to be seen, but pitchers with Ohtani’s depth of arsenal are always worth monitoring for such evolutions.

The intrigue surrounding Ohtani’s pitching form was ramped up entering Tuesday, considering how little we saw of him on the mound in preseason. Ohtani did not pitch for Team Japan in the World Baseball Classic, and he made just two official spring training starts, with the rest of his prep work taking place in bullpens and simulated settings on the backfields. A week before his regular-season debut, he struck out 11 Angels in his final spring training tune-up, a promising preview of what was to come. But that outing required 86 pitches to complete just four innings. On Tuesday, Ohtani needed 87 tosses to finish six frames, an encouraging uptick in efficiency, even factoring in the intermittent command woes.

The most amusing moment of the night came after Ohtani’s fifth inning of work. Upon getting Steven Kwan to fly out to end the frame, Ohtani calmly strolled toward the dugout, only to suddenly remember that he was due to lead off the bottom of the inning at the plate. Before he made it to the steps, Ohtani scampered back toward the on-deck circle to prepare for his third plate appearance of the game.

This unique sequence, in which he goes directly from pitching to hitting in-game, is hardly new for Ohtani, so perhaps the rare moment of forgetfulness was a physical Freudian slip of sorts, a subtle admission that his current focus is indeed tilted toward the mound, with the slugging the side gig. A more likely interpretation is that Ohtani is human and simply lost track of the batting order, but how he balances his two-way responsibilities this season will be fascinating to watch, especially if the Cy Young Award is indeed in his sights. 

So far this season, Ohtani hasn’t quite settled in at the plate, as he’s still searching for his first extra-base hit. Granted, he’s far from the only Dodgers hitter trying to find his stride, and he did reach base three times Tuesday, with two walks and a single. But when the standard has been set at the heights Ohtani has reached with the bat, even small samples without standout production become noteworthy. 

Based on his track record, it won’t be long before Ohtani starts swinging it as well as anyone. And while we wait for that inevitable hot streak at the plate, there’s plenty to appreciate about the pitching side of Ohtani, with one start down and a 0.00 ERA intact.

The NBA playoff picture will come into clearer view each day between now and the end of the regular season on April 12. In the meantime, we will provide detailed daily updates on the landscape, including magic numbers, remaining schedules and the stakes for every day’s slate of games. And for those teams not in the postseason hunt, we also breakdown the “race” for the pole position in the upcoming NBA Draft lottery.

Jump to:Eastern Conference• Western Conference

CURRENT PLAY-IN BRACKET

Eastern Conference

(7) Philadelphia 76ers vs. (8) Miami Heat
(9) Orlando Magic vs. (10) Charlotte Hornets

Western Conference

(7) Phoenix Suns vs. (8) LA Clippers
(9) Portland Trail Blazers vs. (10) Golden State Warriors

CURRENT PLAYOFF BRACKET

Eastern Conference

(1) Detroit Pistons vs. (8) play-in winner
(2) Boston Celtics vs. (7) play-In winner
(3) New York Knicks vs. (6) Toronto Raptors
(4) Cleveland Cavaliers vs. (5) Atlanta Hawks

Western Conference

(1) Oklahoma City Thunder vs. (8) play-In winner
(2) San Antonio Spurs vs. (7) play-In winner
(3) Los Angeles Lakers vs. (6) Houston Rockets
(4) Denver Nuggets vs. (5) Minnesota Timberwolves

EASTERN CONFERENCE RACE

In the Eastern Conference, the Detroit Pistons, Boston Celtics, New York Knicks and Cleveland Cavaliers, in some order, appear bound for the top four playoff seeds and home-court advantage in the opening round. The Pistons are almost certain to capture the East’s No. 1 seed, barring a complete meltdown in the absence of injured Cade Cunningham (collapsed lung).

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Who, exactly, those four teams will play in the opening round is up for grabs, as just three wins separate the fifth seed from the 10th seed. The Atlanta Hawks, Toronto Raptors, Philadelphia 76ers, Miami Heat, Orlando Magic and Charlotte Hornets are all jockeying for position down the stretch of a season that has surpassed 70 games.

Playoff-bound, seeding to be determined

1. Detroit Pistons

Record: 54-21 | Net rating: 8.3 (3rd)

• Clinched playoff berth; clinches Central Division title with a win against Raptors or a Cavaliers loss to Lakers

• Magic number for No. 1 seed: 3

• Remaining schedule: TOR, MIN, @PHI, @ORL, MIL, @CHA, @IND

• Highest possible finish: No. 1 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 4 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 1 seed and home-court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs.

2. Boston Celtics

Record: (50-25) | Net rating: 7.9 (4th)

• Clinched playoff berth

• Magic number for No. 2 seed: 6

• Remaining schedule: @MIA, @MIL, TOR, CHA, @NYK, NOP, ORL

• Highest possible finish: No. 1 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 4 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 2 seed and home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

3. New York Knicks

Record: 48-27 | Net rating: 6.3 (5th)

• Clinched playoff berth

• Magic number for No. 3 seed: 7

• Remaining schedule: @HOU, @MEM, CHI, @ATL, BOS, TOR, CHA

• Highest possible finish: No. 1 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 6 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 2 seed and home-court advantage in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

Battling for guaranteed playoff spot

4. Cleveland Cavaliers

Record: 47-28 | Net rating: 4.2 (9th)

• Clinches playoff berth with win over the Lakers

• Magic number for No. 4 seed: 4

• Remaining schedule: @LAL, @GSW, IND, @MEM, ATL, @ATL, WAS

• Highest possible finish: No. 1 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 10 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 4 seed and home-court advantage in the first round.

5. Atlanta Hawks

Record: 43-33 | Net rating: 1.7 (13th)

• Magic number for No. 6 seed: 5

• Remaining schedule: @ORL, @BKN, NYK, @CLE, CLE, @MIA

• Highest possible finish: No. 3 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 10 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 5 or 6 seed and a guaranteed playoff berth.

6. Toronto Raptors

Record: 42-32 | Net rating: 2.4 (11th)

• Magic number for No. 5 seed: 8

• Remaining schedule: @DET, SAC, @MEM, @BOS, MIA, MIA, @NYK, BKN

• Highest possible finish: No. 3 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 10 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 5 or 6 seed and a guaranteed playoff berth.

7. Philadelphia 76ers

Record: 41-34 | Net rating: -0.3 (19th)

• Magic number for No. 7 seed: 6

• Remaining schedule: @WAS, MIN, DET, @SAS, @HOU, @IND, MIL

• Highest possible finish: No. 4 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 10 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 5 or 6 seed and a guaranteed playoff berth.

8. Miami Heat

Record: 40-36 | Net rating: 2.1 (12th)

• Magic number for No. 9 seed: Do not control own destiny

• Remaining schedule: BOS, WAS, @TOR, @TOR, @WAS, ATL

• Highest possible finish: No. 4 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 10 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 5 or 6 seed and a guaranteed playoff berth.

9. Orlando Magic

Record: 39-35 | Net rating: 0.1 (17th)

• Magic number for No. 8 seed: 8

• Remaining schedule: PHX, ATL, @DAL, @NOP, DET, MIN, @CHI, @BOS

• Highest possible finish: No. 4 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 10 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 5 or 6 seed and a guaranteed playoff berth.

10. Charlotte Hornets

Record: 39-36 | Net rating: 4.4 (6th)

• Magic number for No. 9 seed: Do not control own destiny

• Remaining schedule: @BKN, PHX, IND, @MIN, @BOS, DET, @NYK

• Highest possible finish: No. 4 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 10 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 5 or 6 seed and a guaranteed playoff berth.

Tuesday’s games of consequence

WESTERN CONFERENCE RACE

Out West, the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs are bound for the top two seeds, as OKC holds a 2 1/2-game lead for the league’s No. 1 overall seed.

The Los Angeles Lakers are favorites to capture the West’s No. 3 seed. Beyond them is anyone’s guess.

The Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Timberwolves and Houston Rockets, all but guaranteed the West’s final three guaranteed playoff spots, are separated by one loss. Only one of those teams will earn home-court advantage in the first round.

The four teams for the conference’s play-in tournament field is almost set with the Memphis Grizzlies’ elimination. The Phoenix Suns, Los Angeles Clippers, Portland Trail Blazers and Golden State Warriors appear headed for the Nos. 7-10 seeds.

Playoff-bound, seeding to be determined

1. Oklahoma City Thunder

Record: 60-16 | Net rating: 11.0 (1st)

• Clinched playoff berth

• Magic number for No. 1 seed: 5

• Remaining schedule: LAL, UTA, @LAL, @LAC, @DEN, PHX

• Highest possible finish: No. 1 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 2 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 1 seed and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

2. San Antonio Spurs

Record: 57-18 | Net rating: 8.3 (2nd)

• Clinched playoff berth

• Magic number for No. 1 seed: Do not control own destiny

• Remaining schedule: @GSW, @LAC, @DEN, PHI, POR, DAL, DEN

• Highest possible finish: No. 1 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 2 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 1 seed and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.

Battling for guaranteed playoff spot

3. Los Angeles Lakers

Record: 49-26 | Net rating: 1.5 (14th)

• Clinches playoff spot and Pacific Division title with win over the Cavaliers or Suns loss to Magic

• Magic number for No. 3 seed: 5

• Remaining schedule: CLE, @OKC, @DAL, OKC, @GSW, PHX, UTA

• Highest possible finish: No. 3 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 7 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 3 seed and home-court advantage in the first round.

4. Denver Nuggets

Record: 48-28 | Net rating: 4.7 (6th)

• Clinches playoff berth with a Suns loss to the Magic

• Magic number for No. 4 seed: 5

• Remaining schedule: @UTA, SAS, POR, MEM, OKC, @SAS

• Highest possible finish: No. 3 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 7 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 4 seed and home-court advantage in the first round.

5. Minnesota Timberwolves

Record: 46-29 | Net rating: 3.3 (10th)

• Magic number for No. 5 seed: 7

• Remaining schedule: @DET, @PHI, CHA, @IND, @ORL, @HOU, NOP

• Highest possible finish: No. 3 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 8 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 4 seed and home-court advantage in the first round.

6. Houston Rockets

Record: 45-29 | Net rating: 4.4 (8th)

• Magic number for No. 5 seed: 8

• Remaining schedule: NYK, MIL, UTA, @GSW, @PHX, PHI, MIN, MIN

• Highest possible finish: No. 3 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 9 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 4 seed and home-court advantage in the first round.

7. Phoenix Suns

Record: 42-33 | Net rating: 1.4 (16th)

• Magic number for No. 7 seed: 5

• Remaining schedule: @ORL, @CHA, @CHI, HOU, DAL, @LAL, @OKC

• Highest possible finish: No. 3 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 10 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 7 seed and home-court advantage against the No. 8 seed in their opening game of the play-in tournament.

8. Los Angeles Clippers

Record: 39-36 | Net rating: 1.5 (15th)

• Locked into play-in tournament with a loss to Trail Blazers and Rockets win over Knicks

• Magic number for No. 8 seed: 6

• Remaining schedule: POR, SAS, @SAC, DAL, OKC, @POR, GSW

• Highest possible finish: No. 5 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 10 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 8 seed and two chances to secure a playoff berth.

9. Portland Trail Blazers

Record: 38-38 | Net rating: -0.9 (20th)

• Magic number for No. 9 seed: 6

• Remaining schedule: @LAC, NOP, @DEN, @SAS, LAC, SAC

• Highest possible finish: No. 7 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 10 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 8 seed and two chances to secure a playoff berth.

10. Golden State Warriors

Record: 36-39 | Net rating: 0.0 (18th)

• Magic number for No. 9 seed: 8

• Remaining schedule: SAS, CLE, HOU, SAC, LAL, @SAC, @LAC

• Highest possible finish: No. 7 seed

• Lowest possible finish: No. 10 seed

What’s at stake: The No. 8 seed and two chances to secure a playoff berth.

Tuesday’s games of consequence

Cody Ponce had to be carted off the field Monday in Toronto, spoiling his first Major League Baseball appearance since 2021.

Ponce tried to field a short ground ball off the mound in the third inning of the Blue Jays’ 14-5 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Monday at Rogers Centre. But as Ponce started to field the ball, which was hit by Rockies outfielder Jake McCarthy, he suddenly pulled up and started hopping, clearly in a lot of pain.

Ponce’s right leg buckled awkwardly as he was trying to retrieve the ball, and he eventually fell down in the infield dirt as McCarthy made it to first. Kyle Karros scored for the Rockies during the sequence, putting them up 1-0 at the time. The Rockies went on to win 14-5.

Ponce remained down for quite some time while the team’s medical staff tended to him. He was eventually carted off and did not return. 

Specifics of his injury are not yet known. The Blue Jays said he was removed from the game due to “right knee discomfort.” 

Ponce returned to MLB this season after spending the past three campaigns in Asia. He posted a 1.89 ERA with 252 strikeouts last season with the Hanwha Eagles in Korea, which led to him inking a three-year, $30 million deal with the Blue Jays. Ponce posted a Triple Crown, won KBO MVP honors and led Hanwha to the Korean Series.

Monday marked his first start of the 2026 season and his first MLB appearance since the 2021 campaign, when he was with the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Rockies, who entered Monday night having lost their first three games of the season, put up seven runs in the sixth inning alone to secure the blowout win.

The Blue Jays fell to 3-1 with the loss, which came after they swept the Athletics in their first series of the season.

The Brooklyn Nets have 52 jersey numbers worn by over 600 different players over the course of their history since the franchise was founded in 1967 as a charter member of the American Basketball Association (ABA), when the team was known as the “New Jersey Americans”.

Since then, that league has been absorbed by the NBA, with the team that would later become the New York Nets and New Jersey Nets before settling on the name by which they are known today, bringing their rich player and jersey history with them to the league of today.

To commemorate the players who played for the Nets over the decades wearing those 52 different jersey numbers, Nets Wire is covering the entire history of the franchise’s jersey numbers and the players who sported them since the founding of the team.

And for today’s article, we will continue with the fifth of seven people to wear the No. 50 jersey, forward alum Reggie Slater. After ending his college career at Wyoming, Slater went unselected in the 1992 NBA Draft, playing in other leagues until he signed with the Denver Nuggets in 1994.

The Houston, Texas native played the first season of his pro career with Denver. He also played for the Portland Trail Blazers, Nuggets again, Dallas Mavericks, Toronto Raptors, in another league, and for the Minnesota Timberwolves before he signed with the (then) New Jersey (now, Brooklyn) Nets in 2001, and remained on the team for a few weeks before he was cut in November.

During his time suiting up for the Nets, Slater wore only jersey No. 50 and put up 1.3 points per game.

All stats and data courtesy of Basketball Reference.

This article originally appeared on Nets Wire: Nets jersey history No. 50 – Reggie Slater (2001)

LSU women’s basketball fielded a team full of newcomers during the 2025-26 season. It got key players to commit out of the transfer portal and signed the top class of the 2026 recruiting cycle.

Combined with seasoned veterans Flau’Jae Johnson and Mikaylah Williams, the Tigers made runs at the SEC Tournament and NCAA Tournament championships. Both bids fell short as they lost to South Carolina in the conference tournament semifinals and Duke in the Sweet 16.

Johnson and fellow senior Amiya Joyner will not return next season. A senior guard, Johnson is expected to declare for the WNBA Draft, where she’ll likely be a top-10 selection. Joyner, a transfer from East Carolina, is out of eligibility.

Grace Knox, Bella Hines and ZaKiyah Johnson are slated to return to Baton Rouge. The trio of true freshman played critical roles for head coach Kim Mulkey. Fellow newcomer Divine Bourrage already entered the transfer portal and will search for a new home.

Here’s how former LSU players fared at their new destinations after transferring last season.

Sa’Myah Smith

Smith transferred to Virginia after making 27 starts in Baton Rouge during the 2024-25 season. She spent three years donning the purple and gold but decided to try her hand in the ACC under head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton.

As part of the Cavaliers’ Sweet 16 squad, Smith made 20 starts. The forward averaged eight points and a team-best seven rebounds per game. Despite dealing with a knee injury, Smith made an impact when healthy. She played 28 or more minutes in three of the four NCAA Tournament games.

Last-Tear Poa

Poa started all but one game for Arizona State in its first year under head coach Molly Miller. The Sun Devils went to the NCAA Tournament but lost in the first round to Virginia.

Prior to her transfer, Poa spent three years in Baton Rouge and won a national championship as a freshman alongside Smith. For Arizona State this season, the point guard averaged 4.7 points per game and led the team with 113 assists.

Aalyah Del Rosario

Del Rosario stayed in the SEC, transferring to Vanderbilt and playing 21 games in what was a breakout season for the Commodores. Under head coach Shea Ralph, they made it to the Sweet 16 and finished tied for second in the conference.

Through two seasons in Baton Rouge, Del Rosario saw her impact dwindle between year one to two. She didn’t make a turnaround in Nashville, averaging 1.3 points and 1.3 rebounds per contest. The forward sat the entire game against her former team when the two sides met in January 4.

Jersey Wolfenbarger

Wolfenbarger spent the 2025-26 season at Tennessee, her third school in four years. Under head coach Kim Caldwell, the forward played in 19 games, averaging 7.5 minutes, 1.1 points and 1.6 rebounds per game in what was a chaotic season for the Volunteers.

Tennessee spent the first half of the SEC slate in the top five but ended the year on an eight-game losing streak, falling in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Wolfenbarger spent her first two seasons at Arkansas before transferring to LSU ahead of last year. Against the Tigers on February 26, she played three minutes and grabbed two rebounds.

Mjracle Sheppard

Sheppard played in 32 games last year at LSU, averaging 3.9 points and 2.3 rebounds per contest. Ahead of the 2025-26 season, she transferred for the second time to join Cal. She began her career at Mississippi State in 2023.

The guard started all but one game for the Bears. Sheppard averaged 8.9 points, 4.5 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game. Her 121 assists finished second on the team. Cal won two games in the WBIT and posted a 21-15 record.

Amani Bartlett

Bartlett logged 74 appearances through her four seasons at LSU. She was part of the national title team and went to two Elite Eights before opting to use her fifth year of eligibility and transferring to Houston.

The forward played in 24 games with one start for the Cougars, which finished 7-23. Bartlett averaged 1.2 points and 2.5 rebounds per contest.

This article originally appeared on LSU Wire: How LSU women’s basketball transfers played at new schools