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The NBA fined Phoenix Suns guard Jalen Green $25,000 for using profanity while playfully interrupting a live on-court interview after a 115-101 road win over the Washington Wizards on Monday night.

Right on cue, as Suns guard Collin Gillespie mentioned how his teammates have been finding him during his third-year breakout, he was flanked by Green and another Phoenix guard, Jordan Goodwin.

Green came in with an uplifting roar, followed by an encouraging dap and a loud, “Yeah!”

As Goodwin exited the frame, Green hung around and said, “They can’t f*** with you!” to Gillespie, who was visibly surprised by the profanity.

So much so that a smiling Gillespie even said, “Oh, my God. On live TV, bro?”

The interviewer chimed in, “It’s a family show!”

Green responded with a “I don’t care” before dapping up Gillespie once more and then walking off as Gillespie called him “my dawg.”

Gillespie, who went undrafted out of Villanova in 2022, is a microcosm of the Suns’ unexpected success this season. The guard has exceeded expectations, doubling his minutes from the season prior and posting 13.9 points, 5.1 assists, 4 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game while becoming a major contributor to a Suns team that’s 19-13 and seventh in a crowded Western Conference table.

Phoenix carried the highest payroll in league history last season and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2019-2020. The Suns are off to a better start this time around, without Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.

First-year head coach Jordan Ott has his group scratching and clawing and, at the same time, jelling.

And that’s continued to happen in the absence of Green, who has been recovering from a right hamstring strain that he aggravated early last month in just his second game of the season.

The Suns acquired the 23-year-old Green from the Houston Rockets in the Durant trade this past offseason. Defensive pest Dillon Brooks landed in Phoenix because of that deal, too.

Brooks is currently second on the Suns in scoring with 21.5 points per game, behind only four-time All-Star Devin Booker.

Once finally healthy, Green is expected to form an effective duo with Booker in the backcourt. He averaged 20.1 points per game in his four seasons with the Rockets, who selected him No. 2 overall in the 2021 draft.

For now, lesser-known players are stepping up to fill the void — like Gillespie.

And Green seems to be loving it. 

The NBA fined Phoenix Suns guard Jalen Green $25,000 for using profanity while playfully interrupting a live on-court interview after a 115-101 road win over the Washington Wizards on Monday night.

Right on cue, as Suns guard Collin Gillespie mentioned how his teammates have been finding him during his third-year breakout, he was flanked by Green and another Phoenix guard, Jordan Goodwin.

Green came in with an uplifting roar, followed by an encouraging dap and a loud, “Yeah!”

As Goodwin exited the frame, Green hung around and said, “They can’t f*** with you!” to Gillespie, who was visibly surprised by the profanity.

So much so that a smiling Gillespie even said, “Oh, my God. On live TV, bro?”

The interviewer chimed in, “It’s a family show!”

Green responded with a “I don’t care” before dapping up Gillespie once more and then walking off as Gillespie called him “my dawg.”

Gillespie, who went undrafted out of Villanova in 2022, is a microcosm of the Suns’ unexpected success this season. The guard has exceeded expectations, doubling his minutes from the season prior and posting 13.9 points, 5.1 assists, 4 rebounds and 1.4 steals per game while becoming a major contributor to a Suns team that’s 19-13 and seventh in a crowded Western Conference table.

Phoenix carried the highest payroll in league history last season and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2019-2020. The Suns are off to a better start this time around, without Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal.

First-year head coach Jordan Ott has his group scratching and clawing and, at the same time, jelling.

And that’s continued to happen in the absence of Green, who has been recovering from a right hamstring strain that he aggravated early last month in just his second game of the season.

The Suns acquired the 23-year-old Green from the Houston Rockets in the Durant trade this past offseason. Defensive pest Dillon Brooks landed in Phoenix because of that deal, too.

Brooks is currently second on the Suns in scoring with 21.5 points per game, behind only four-time All-Star Devin Booker.

Once finally healthy, Green is expected to form an effective duo with Booker in the backcourt. He averaged 20.1 points per game in his four seasons with the Rockets, who selected him No. 2 overall in the 2021 draft.

For now, lesser-known players are stepping up to fill the void — like Gillespie.

And Green seems to be loving it. 

For Tatsuya Imai, this offseason’s top Japanese free-agent pitcher, the clock is ticking.

The 27-year-old right-hander must sign with an MLB team before the expiration of his posting window at 5 p.m. ET Friday. While few teams have been definitively linked to the longtime Seibu Lions hurler, the overwhelming expectation within the industry is that Imai will come to terms with a big-league club before the deadline.

That’s because he offers an enticing combination of ceiling and floor at a relatively young age for a free-agent pitcher. 

To be clear: Yoshinobu Yamamoto he is not. Imai’s athleticism, track record and pitch quality pale in comparison to those of the 2025 World Series MVP. As such, Imai won’t sniff the 12-year, $325 million deal that Yamamoto secured two winters ago. Still, a substantial payday is in order; Imai should eclipse the $100 million mark. That is, at least, what his representative, agent Scott Boras, is gunning for.

And based on Imai’s talent and résumé, that’s a very reasonable goal.

Across the Pacific, Imai has been a known commodity, a famous figure, for quite a while. He rose to fame during the 2016 edition of Summer Koshien, Japan’s immensely popular high school baseball tournament. In the final, Imai delivered a heroic performance as the ace of  Sakushin Gakuin High School, tossing a nine-strikeout, one-run complete game. That propelled him to national prominence and the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NPB Draft.

Pro success didn’t come right away. As a 20-year-old rookie with Seibu in 2018, Imai struggled to a 4.81 ERA across 78 2/3 innings. Things gradually improved as he got comfortable at the highest level, but injuries and a lack of control limited his production. 

Free passes, in particular, were a massive bugaboo. Between 2018 and 2023, Imai posted a total walk rate over 13%. For comparison, just one MLB starter over the past decade (Blake Snell in 2023) has recorded a season with such wildness. This past season, only two qualified starters (Cleveland’s Gavin Williams and Anaheim’s José Soriano) had walk rates north of 10%. Simply put, it was an unsustainable way for Imai to live.

So the 5-foot-11 righty changed course, purposefully altering his mechanics to improve his strike-throwing. In turn, his numbers took a huge step forward, with the walk rate dropping to 9.8% in 2024 and then a tidy 7% in 2025. Even more impressively, Imai’s strikeout numbers increased alongside his boost in control.

It all culminated in a phenomenal 2025 season in which Imai cruised to a 1.92 ERA with more than a strikeout per inning across 24 starts.

That breakout sent Imai zooming up MLB wish lists, as practically every club — except, perhaps, the Dodgers — could use another rotation piece. And unlike fellow Japanese free-agent Munetaka Murakami, whose high-risk profile stunted his market, Imai seems like a reliable proposition.

Part of that is simply a product of the hitter/pitcher divide in regard to NPB players. Projecting whether or not a Japanese hitter will adjust to MLB pitching is a much trickier exercise than doing the same with a Japanese pitcher. Advances in tracking data mean that we can compare Imai’s arsenal, release points, velocities and pitch shapes to those already present in the bigs. That provides us — and, crucially, MLB teams — a better sense of how arms will translate from the second-best to the best league in the world.

And Imai’s stuff passes the smell test. His heater last year averaged right around 95 mph, above the MLB starter average of 94.1. He leans on that four-seam fastball quite a bit, particularly against right-handed hitters, to whom he threw the pitch 53% of the time. His slider accounted for another 39% against same-sided bats, meaning Imai rarely uses a third pitch against righties. That puts him in a small group of pitchers — think Spencer Strider, Jacob deGrom, Jared Jones — with such a small right-on-right mix. 

Facing lefties, Imai turns toward his changeup and splitter to keep opponents off-balance, using those offering 16% and 7% of the time, respectively. It all comes out of a relatively low slot, which adds deception to his heater/slider combo.

The indomitable Yuri Karasawa of JapanBall, the internet’s premier source for English-language Japanese baseball coverage, compared Imai to Mariners righty Luis Castillo in a recent YouTube video. It’s an interesting comp, based on their similar heater/slider reliance and low arm slots. 

One key difference: Castillo has been commendably durable for most of his career, while Imai has never started more than 25 games in a season. But if Imai can match Castillo in terms of efficacy, that would be a massive win for whichever team ends up with the Japanese hurler. No front-runner has yet emerged, as the typical host of deep-pocketed clubs in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto have pretty stocked starting staffs.

The Mets, whose starting pitching woes sank their 2025 season, have been connected to Imai, but they would probably need to subtract from their assortment of arms if they reel him in. The Phillies, potentially without ace Zack Wheeler for the start of the season and around $35 million below last year’s final payroll, would make some sense. The Cubs desperately need another frontline arm but haven’t shown the willingness to push their payroll far beyond $200 million. The same is true for the Giants, who haven’t added much to their big-league roster so far this winter.

To be fair, a player of Imai’s caliber fits pretty much anywhere; playoff hopefuls in Baltimore, Detroit, Miami, Arizona and even Sacramento should all pick up the phone and inquire. His history of gradual, year-over-year improvement, willingness to make adjustments, on-mound athleticism and arsenal all suggest he’ll be a solid mid-rotation hurler in MLB, with the potential for more if he continues to develop.

That’s a pretty exciting player — one who should be a whole lot richer in a few days.

For Tatsuya Imai, this offseason’s top Japanese free-agent pitcher, the clock is ticking.

The 27-year-old right-hander must sign with an MLB team before the expiration of his posting window at 5 p.m. ET Friday. While few teams have been definitively linked to the longtime Seibu Lions hurler, the overwhelming expectation within the industry is that Imai will come to terms with a big-league club before the deadline.

That’s because he offers an enticing combination of ceiling and floor at a relatively young age for a free-agent pitcher. 

To be clear: Yoshinobu Yamamoto he is not. Imai’s athleticism, track record and pitch quality pale in comparison to those of the 2025 World Series MVP. As such, Imai won’t sniff the 12-year, $325 million deal that Yamamoto secured two winters ago. Still, a substantial payday is in order; Imai should eclipse the $100 million mark. That is, at least, what his representative, agent Scott Boras, is gunning for.

And based on Imai’s talent and résumé, that’s a very reasonable goal.

Across the Pacific, Imai has been a known commodity, a famous figure, for quite a while. He rose to fame during the 2016 edition of Summer Koshien, Japan’s immensely popular high school baseball tournament. In the final, Imai delivered a heroic performance as the ace of  Sakushin Gakuin High School, tossing a nine-strikeout, one-run complete game. That propelled him to national prominence and the No. 1 pick in the 2016 NPB Draft.

Pro success didn’t come right away. As a 20-year-old rookie with Seibu in 2018, Imai struggled to a 4.81 ERA across 78 2/3 innings. Things gradually improved as he got comfortable at the highest level, but injuries and a lack of control limited his production. 

Free passes, in particular, were a massive bugaboo. Between 2018 and 2023, Imai posted a total walk rate over 13%. For comparison, just one MLB starter over the past decade (Blake Snell in 2023) has recorded a season with such wildness. This past season, only two qualified starters (Cleveland’s Gavin Williams and Anaheim’s José Soriano) had walk rates north of 10%. Simply put, it was an unsustainable way for Imai to live.

So the 5-foot-11 righty changed course, purposefully altering his mechanics to improve his strike-throwing. In turn, his numbers took a huge step forward, with the walk rate dropping to 9.8% in 2024 and then a tidy 7% in 2025. Even more impressively, Imai’s strikeout numbers increased alongside his boost in control.

It all culminated in a phenomenal 2025 season in which Imai cruised to a 1.92 ERA with more than a strikeout per inning across 24 starts.

That breakout sent Imai zooming up MLB wish lists, as practically every club — except, perhaps, the Dodgers — could use another rotation piece. And unlike fellow Japanese free-agent Munetaka Murakami, whose high-risk profile stunted his market, Imai seems like a reliable proposition.

Part of that is simply a product of the hitter/pitcher divide in regard to NPB players. Projecting whether or not a Japanese hitter will adjust to MLB pitching is a much trickier exercise than doing the same with a Japanese pitcher. Advances in tracking data mean that we can compare Imai’s arsenal, release points, velocities and pitch shapes to those already present in the bigs. That provides us — and, crucially, MLB teams — a better sense of how arms will translate from the second-best to the best league in the world.

And Imai’s stuff passes the smell test. His heater last year averaged right around 95 mph, above the MLB starter average of 94.1. He leans on that four-seam fastball quite a bit, particularly against right-handed hitters, to whom he threw the pitch 53% of the time. His slider accounted for another 39% against same-sided bats, meaning Imai rarely uses a third pitch against righties. That puts him in a small group of pitchers — think Spencer Strider, Jacob deGrom, Jared Jones — with such a small right-on-right mix. 

Facing lefties, Imai turns toward his changeup and splitter to keep opponents off-balance, using those offering 16% and 7% of the time, respectively. It all comes out of a relatively low slot, which adds deception to his heater/slider combo.

The indomitable Yuri Karasawa of JapanBall, the internet’s premier source for English-language Japanese baseball coverage, compared Imai to Mariners righty Luis Castillo in a recent YouTube video. It’s an interesting comp, based on their similar heater/slider reliance and low arm slots. 

One key difference: Castillo has been commendably durable for most of his career, while Imai has never started more than 25 games in a season. But if Imai can match Castillo in terms of efficacy, that would be a massive win for whichever team ends up with the Japanese hurler. No front-runner has yet emerged, as the typical host of deep-pocketed clubs in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto have pretty stocked starting staffs.

The Mets, whose starting pitching woes sank their 2025 season, have been connected to Imai, but they would probably need to subtract from their assortment of arms if they reel him in. The Phillies, potentially without ace Zack Wheeler for the start of the season and around $35 million below last year’s final payroll, would make some sense. The Cubs desperately need another frontline arm but haven’t shown the willingness to push their payroll far beyond $200 million. The same is true for the Giants, who haven’t added much to their big-league roster so far this winter.

To be fair, a player of Imai’s caliber fits pretty much anywhere; playoff hopefuls in Baltimore, Detroit, Miami, Arizona and even Sacramento should all pick up the phone and inquire. His history of gradual, year-over-year improvement, willingness to make adjustments, on-mound athleticism and arsenal all suggest he’ll be a solid mid-rotation hurler in MLB, with the potential for more if he continues to develop.

That’s a pretty exciting player — one who should be a whole lot richer in a few days.

Since the news broke on Christmas Eve that 21-year-old James Nnaji, the 31st pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, had enrolled at Baylor, a collection of high-profile college basketball coaches have expressed their growing frustration toward the lack of appropriate NCAA regulation in the sport and, as a result, the blurred line between pro and college hoops.

NCAA president Charlie Baker tried to make that line clearer Tuesday. In a statement he posted to X, Baker clarified that the NCAA “has not and will not grant eligibility to any prospective or returning student-athletes who have signed an NBA contract (including a two-way contract).”

Nnaji, a 7-foot center from Makurdi, Nigeria, who could provide relief to an injury-riddled Baylor squad as early as this weekend, never signed an NBA contract. The Detroit Pistons drafted him, but his rights were traded to the Charlotte Hornets on draft day and once more in 2024 to the New York Knicks as part of the Karl-Anthony Towns trade.

Although Nnaji played in NBA Summer League games for the Hornets and Knicks, as recently as this year for the Knicks, he never appeared in an NBA regular-season game.

Here’s Baker’s full statement, which arrives in the wake of Arkansas’ John Calipari pleading for the NCAA to explain its decision to grant Nnaji four years of eligibility, UConn’s Dan Hurley clamoring for guidelines and rules and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo saying “shame on the NCAA”: 

“The NCAA has not and will not grant eligibility to any prospective or returning student-athletes who have signed an NBA contract (including a two-way contract),” Baker wrote. 

“As schools are increasingly recruiting individuals with international league experience, the NCAA is exercising discretion in applying the actual and necessary expenses bylaw to ensure that prospective student-athletes with experience in American basketball leagues are not at a disadvantage compared to their international counterparts. 

“Rules have long permitted schools to enroll and play individuals with no prior collegiate experience midyear. While the NCAA has prevailed on the vast majority of eligibility-related lawsuits, recent outlier decisions enjoining the NCAA on a nationwide basis from enforcing rules that have been on the books for decades — without even having a trial — are wildly destabilizing. I will be working with DI leaders in the weeks ahead to protect college basketball from these misguided attempts to destroy this American institution.”

So there it is, a line in the sand.

Time will tell if players and lawyers attempt to challenge it in court.

Baylor plays Saturday on the road against TCU. Nnaji, who had been in the FC Barcelona organization since 2020, will be eligible. 

He’s the first former draft pick to be cleared to play in men’s college basketball.

It’s important to note, though, that Thierry Darlan and London Johnson, two former G League guards, committed to colleges this fall. 

Darlan has already been playing for Santa Clara. Johnson has joined Louisville but is expected to redshirt and make his college debut during the 2026-27 season.

Since the news broke on Christmas Eve that 21-year-old James Nnaji, the 31st pick in the 2023 NBA Draft, had enrolled at Baylor, a collection of high-profile college basketball coaches have expressed their growing frustration toward the lack of appropriate NCAA regulation in the sport and, as a result, the blurred line between pro and college hoops.

NCAA president Charlie Baker tried to make that line clearer Tuesday. In a statement he posted to X, Baker clarified that the NCAA “has not and will not grant eligibility to any prospective or returning student-athletes who have signed an NBA contract (including a two-way contract).”

Nnaji, a 7-foot center from Makurdi, Nigeria, who could provide relief to an injury-riddled Baylor squad as early as this weekend, never signed an NBA contract. The Detroit Pistons drafted him, but his rights were traded to the Charlotte Hornets on draft day and once more in 2024 to the New York Knicks as part of the Karl-Anthony Towns trade.

Although Nnaji played in NBA Summer League games for the Hornets and Knicks, as recently as this year for the Knicks, he never appeared in an NBA regular-season game.

Here’s Baker’s full statement, which arrives in the wake of Arkansas’ John Calipari pleading for the NCAA to explain its decision to grant Nnaji four years of eligibility, UConn’s Dan Hurley clamoring for guidelines and rules and Michigan State’s Tom Izzo saying “shame on the NCAA”: 

“The NCAA has not and will not grant eligibility to any prospective or returning student-athletes who have signed an NBA contract (including a two-way contract),” Baker wrote. 

“As schools are increasingly recruiting individuals with international league experience, the NCAA is exercising discretion in applying the actual and necessary expenses bylaw to ensure that prospective student-athletes with experience in American basketball leagues are not at a disadvantage compared to their international counterparts. 

“Rules have long permitted schools to enroll and play individuals with no prior collegiate experience midyear. While the NCAA has prevailed on the vast majority of eligibility-related lawsuits, recent outlier decisions enjoining the NCAA on a nationwide basis from enforcing rules that have been on the books for decades — without even having a trial — are wildly destabilizing. I will be working with DI leaders in the weeks ahead to protect college basketball from these misguided attempts to destroy this American institution.”

So there it is, a line in the sand.

Time will tell if players and lawyers attempt to challenge it in court.

Baylor plays Saturday on the road against TCU. Nnaji, who had been in the FC Barcelona organization since 2020, will be eligible. 

He’s the first former draft pick to be cleared to play in men’s college basketball.

It’s important to note, though, that Thierry Darlan and London Johnson, two former G League guards, committed to colleges this fall. 

Darlan has already been playing for Santa Clara. Johnson has joined Louisville but is expected to redshirt and make his college debut during the 2026-27 season.