Browsing: looms

Everton and England’s No.1 has recently put pen to paper on a fresh, long-term deal, committing his future to the Hill Dickinson Stadium club until the summer of 2029.

Pickford is not the only player at the beginning of this season whose contract situation needed resolving, however, the Toffees have not yet got round to renewing others in a similar position to the Three Lions goalkeeper.

As it stands, there are seven Everton first-team players whose contracts are due to expire at the end of the 2025/26 campaign, including Jack Grealish and Merlin Röhl, both of whom are on Merseyside having agreed season-long loans.

Last season, the Toffees allowed Dominic Calvert-Lewin to leave on a free transfer after a new deal could not be struck between player and club, demonstrating that the ownership are happy to see key players walk away if a deal is not right.

In FourFourTwo‘s view, Everton could do a lot worse than signing the versatile midfielder to a new deal.

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The Knicks may not have Josh Hart(back), Mitchell Robinson (workload management), Karl-Anthony Towns (quad) and OG Anunoby(ankle) for their preseason finale on Friday night.

Robinson was held out of practice on Wednesday and Thursday due to workload management.

Due to his injury history, New York plans to manage Robinson’s workload for the foreseeable future. That means he will miss games during the regular season when healthy.

Robinson has been dealing with some soreness in the preseason. Maybe the Knicks hold him out on Friday due to precautionary reasons ahead of the regular season. (It would be a surprise if the Knicks’ workload management plan kept Robinson from playing in Wednesday’s season opener).

ESPN NBA analyst Richard Jefferson sees Robinson as a key to this Knicks season.

“You look at Mitchell Robinson; how healthy is he going to be? What is their big depth? Especially when you look at what’s coming out of the West. Most likely what’s going to come out of the West is a team with at least two or possibly three very good bigs,” Jefferson said on a conference call Thursday to preview the NBA season.

“Mitchell Robinson has to be healthy. If he’s not healthy and Karl-Anthony Towns is your primary big and you’re going to try to win a championship against all of those bigs that are floating around… if he’s not healthy during the season, they’re going to have trouble in my opinion.”

Jefferson would also like to see the Knicks’ offense a bit more balanced this season under Mike Brown. He believes it will pay dividends in the postseason.

“I’m talking about a fraction (of a change to the offense). I like the ball in Jalen Brunson’s hands – he’s the type of player that can do all the things,” Jefferson said. “But just a little bit more balance can take pressure off of him. That’s what I think will allow him a little more burst. You don’t want him working as hard – especially if you’re planning on playing until June. Because that’s a different monster.

“Playing all season takes a special player. Playing a couple rounds in the playoffs, as the main guy, is another level. Playing all the way to the Finals? If you’re having to do that, that’s very very difficult. So even relieving some of that pressure …I think will help because they’re minutes will be down throughout the regular season because of the coaching change.”

Fellow ESPN NBA analyst Tim Legler will be watching New York’s pick-and-roll defense closely throughout the season.

Legler said on Wednesday that the Knicks “need to be much better defensively than they’ve been in defending ball screens. That was a major problem from them a year ago. They can get physical with (OG) Anunoby and (Mikal) Bridges and things on the wings, the way they can guard one on one.

“But their ability to defend ball screens is going to be challenged every night. They’ve got to figure out how they defend that. Because they were taken advantage of a year ago, everybody knew that, they attacked it.”

Both Legler and Jefferson agree that the Knicks’ health in the postseason is incredibly important. You can say the same for every team. But the Knicks need a healthy Robinson in high-stakes playoff games. Without Robinson, the club can’t play its double big lineup and it would presumably ask Towns to play center.

“The talent is there, the opportunity is there. The Knicks should be thinking ‘Get to the Finals,’” Legler said. “Anything short of that this year should be a disappointment for the New York Knicks, that’s the way they should view it because of what’s in front of them in the Eastern Conference.”

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Oct 12, 2025, 08:00 AM ET

With the Chicago Cubs’ season having come to an end, the questions about Kyle Tucker’s future can start.

One of the biggest prizes on the market entering free agency, the outfielder said after Saturday’s loss in Game 5 of the NL Division Series to the Milwaukee Brewers that he isn’t sure what’s next.

“We’ll see what happens,” said Tucker, who agreed to a $16.5 million deal to avoid arbitration this season. “I don’t know what the future is going to hold. If not, it was an honor playing with all these guys and I wish everyone the best of luck, whether it’s playing next year or not with them. It’s a really fun group to be a part of.”

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The addition of Tucker, who was acquired via trade from the Houston Astros prior to this season, buoyed the Cubs’ hopes of a deep postseason run. And when Tucker was healthy and rolling early in the season, he was a viable MVP candidate and a catalyst in a dynamic, varied offense.

However, Tucker, who turns 29 in January, suffered a fractured right hand in June and a calf strain in September as the Brewers won the NL Central by five games over the Cubs, who landed the top wild-card spot at 92-70.

Still, he slashed .266/.377/.464 with 22 home runs, 73 RBIs and 25 steals in 136 games while earning an All-Star nod for the Cubs this season. He returned in time for the playoffs and was 7-for-27 with a home run and one RBI.

“He meant a lot,” Cubs first baseman Michael Busch told reporters. “The consistency of at-bat. Getting on base and driving [in runs]. He’s just as complete of a hitter as you can get. I think putting him in any lineup, he’s going to be right up at the top. I think he’s one of the best hitters in the game. He can change that lineup just with putting him in there.”

But Tucker and the Cubs never came to an agreement on a long-term deal as the season unfolded.

“I don’t really know right now,” Tucker said when asked if the Cubs have an advantage in signing him as a free agent. “I was more worried about the game tonight and everything. I’ll kind of get through this today and worry about that a little later.

“I think this team is really, really talented. A great group of guys. And I can definitely see this team having a lot of success in the future.”

ESPN’s Jesse Rogers and Bradford Doolittle contributed to this report.

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HERMOSILLO, Mexico — Less than a block away from the city center, on the concrete court he practiced on as a child, NBA draft prospect and New Zealand Breakers star forward Karim López is bouncing a ball for the cameras. A woman passing by notices the scene and approaches him immediately after she’s sure the cameras have stopped rolling:

“You’re him, aren’t you?”

New Zealand Breakers forward Karim López, a native of Hermosillo, Sonora, is on track to become the first Mexican-born player to be selected in the first round of the NBA draft. Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images

López stops and smiles. The woman puts her hand up to her mouth. “You’re that basketball player, you’re him!” she said in Spanish. She is equally starstruck and confused, aware of being in the presence of a celebrity but not entirely sure of exactly who it is. She’s just nervous and assures the camera crew that his name is on the tip of her tongue.

For López, who ends up posing for a selfie and signing an autograph with the woman, it’s a level of fame he’ll gladly endure at this point, knowing it is quickly evolving. At 6-foot-9, it’s already hard for the 18-year-old to go unnoticed anywhere, especially in his northwest Mexico hometown of Hermosillo, Sonora, located about 300 miles south of Phoenix

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After filming wraps, a group of about a dozen passersby gathers to follow the woman’s lead. There are more selfies and group shots. Even a couple of basketballs are produced for him to sign. While López poses for yet another picture, a man confidently assures his wife that the teen is “a big NBA star.”

Well, not yet.

In just a few months, López could make good on that assertion and become an unmistakable celebrity for millions of fans across Mexico, the U.S. and wherever pro basketball is followed. He is poised to become the first Mexican-born player to go in the first round of the NBA draft and join a handful of players from the country to play there in nearly 80 years.

“I was born playing basketball; I mean, I like to say I had a ball in my hand since the day I was born,” said López in Spanish. The phenom sat down with ESPN to discuss his story for Hispanic Heritage Month.

López’s second — and likely last — season in Australia’s National Basketball League started in September. Over the next few months, NBA scouts will deliver their final verdicts on him. One NBL coach, the Illawarra Hawks’ Justin Tatum — father of Boston Celtics star Jayson — said López is skilled for his age and height, helping him to make an “instant impact” in the Australian league. The teenager’s game has even drawn comparisons to that of Dr. J himself, the legendary Julius Erving.

“His game is well suited to the modern NBA,” ESPN NBA draft analyst Jeremy Woo said. “Teams are constantly looking for tall perimeter players who can pass, handle and shoot.”

Most mock drafts have López going in the top 10, which would easily make him the most well-regarded Mexican prospect in NBA history. Eduardo Najera, who logged over 600 regular-season games in the league with five clubs, is thus far the only Mexican-born draftee, going to the Houston Rockets with the 38th pick in 2000.

Born to hoop

Basketball has been a central theme throughout López’s life up to and including the day he was born. On April 12, 2007, basketball was the reason father and newborn son couldn’t be together, though it would later serve as a path toward success in life.

López, who plays for the New Zealand Breakers, is the youngest player in NBL history to post a double-double. Getty Images

“I wasn’t there when [Karim] was born,” said Jesús Hiram López, Karim’s father. “I was in my senior year of college, and I remember being nervous because my wife had been in labor for many hours.”

Hiram was nearly 1,500 miles away in Bolivar, Missouri, concluding both his studies and the basketball season for NCAA Division II program Southwest Baptist. Hiram recalls barely focusing on finals while awaiting confirmation that his wife, Claudia Mondaca, and his newborn son were doing well. Claudia’s parents eventually called with the news, but it would be over a month until Hiram could meet Karim in person.

Thus, Hiram made it a point to stay close to his family from then on. He went pro in Mexico, even with a few stints in Hermosillo, allowing Karim to join his dad on the hardwood often. The family fondly remembers Karim, barely a toddler, sneaking onto the practice court, slowly beginning his relationship with the game under the gym lights.

“I would go [with my dad] to games and I would try to help him out,” Karim said. “When both teams would go into the locker room I’d walk out to the court and shoot around a bit.”

Hiram encouraged Karim to join youth teams. Hermosillo is the state capital of Sonora, a region long influenced by American sports such as baseball and basketball, which allowed a consistent level of competition for López.

Like his father before him, Karim has been a part of the Mexican national team for years now, along with other players from Sonora such as Francisco Cruz, who plays in Turkey, and coach Omar Quintero. Despite his rapid development at such a young age, there was a time not too long ago when being on the cusp of the NBA seemed a pipe dream. López’s youth coach, Alejandro Leyva, recalls a pivotal moment in which the young man put his career in motion.

“As a child, Karim was not one of the top players [on our team], that’s important to say,” said Leyva, who has coached youth basketball in Mexico for 17 years and grew up with Hiram in Hermosillo. “Karim is part of a very talented crop of players here in Sonora. He would be the best player in practice, but something happened during actual games. He wasn’t the same.”

When López was 12, Leyva coached him at a youth tournament in Las Vegas and saw things begin to come together for the young player. A year later, footage of López dunking caught fire among basketball fans and media in Mexico. Soon after, pro scouts began to make their presence known in Hermosillo.

In 2022, when López was 14, Spanish club Joventut Badalona offered him a contract and a pathway from its youth squads to its top flight. The club is notable for developing NBA players Rudy Fernandez and Ricky Rubio, the veteran point guard who spent over a decade in the league with five franchises.

After two seasons — and two titles — with Joventut’s youth team, López debuted as a professional during the 2023-24 season. At year’s end, he received an offer from the Breakers in the NBL.

Top-10 talent

Last December, Mondaca flew from Mexico to New Zealand to spend Christmas break with Hiram and Karim in Auckland. It was the first time she had seen them in a few months, dating to the start of the NBL season. The López Mondaca family spent less than two weeks together before Claudia and Karim’s younger sister flew back home.

“I think that’s the difficult part of his career, constantly being in motion. But I hope he enjoys it all and gets accustomed to it, because it’s become a ritual [for the family],” Mondaca said. “At one point, I supported my husband with his pro career, and it’s the same with my son.”

López has taken to the NBL with ease. As part of the league’s Next Stars program, designed to attract young prospects and prepare them for the NBA as an alternative to college basketball, López is now mentioned in the same breath as some notable company. LaMelo Ball, of the Charlotte Hornets, Alex Sarr of the Washington Wizards and Josh Giddey of the Chicago Bulls are all former Next Stars, and all three went in the top 6 of their respective drafts.

Following his debut season with the Breakers, López seems poised to join the trio in the NBA. Last season, he became the youngest player in NBL history to post a double-double, with 13 points and 10 rebounds against the Sydney Kings. In January, he cracked 20 points for the first time against South East Melbourne Phoenix.

“What he’s doing is impressive, just because there are so few players who have been able to tread that path out of Mexico,” Woo said. “I think going somewhere in the top 10 [of the 2026 draft] is in play.”

A quick glance at López compilations on YouTube can educate even the most casual fan as to why Woo and other draft experts are so high on him. López scored 9.6 points and grabbed 4.7 rebounds per game in his debut season, averaging just 22.9 minutes per game. Despite his height, López handles the ball like a point guard and moves with ease among defenders. His long arms and wingspan have allowed him to make the highlight reel often with monster blocks on defense and breathtaking dunks on offense.

López will be the first to tell you his shooting is a work in progress. In general terms, however, the teenager consistently matches up favorably with former NBA players.

“What could be”

All signs point to a first-round selection, a possibility López’s family and friends are cautiously optimistic about. He only allows a few moments to drift away and think about it before he catches himself and shakes it off.

“There’s always that moment when you’re about to sleep and you start thinking about what could be,” López said. “But I also try to not think about it too much because it could be a distraction.”

Should the moment come, López will become just the fifth player born in Mexico to play in the NBA, a league that has made major strides to woo fans of Mexican heritage despite the potential lack of on-court representation. Mexican American players such as former Golden State Warriors forward Juan Toscano-Anderson and current Miami Heat guard/forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. have emerged as popular ambassadors for the more than 30 million NBA fans the league counts within the country’s borders.

Toscano-Anderson has become a draw in Mexico City thanks to two stints with the G League’s Capitanes, the first franchise in the NBA pyramid to be based outside of the U.S. or Canada. For nearly a decade, the NBA itself has made regular pilgrimages to Mexico City, playing regular-season games in packed arenas.

It’s safe to say that López’s addition would be more than a feather in the league’s cap should he debut in the 2026-27 NBA season, vaulting him to unforeseen levels of fame as one of the country’s only representatives.

For now, save for small crowds near the Hermosillo city center or during the NBL season in Auckland, López enjoys partial anonymity. He describes it as a sort of dual state in which he’s firmly planting his feet to the ground and focusing on the task at hand but also allowing himself to put his head in the clouds ever so often.

“I hope LeBron is still there if I get to the NBA,” López said. “Anything can happen, but I hope he’s there so I can play with or against my idol.”

He catches himself again.

“I mean, in the end, I’m not [in the NBA] yet, I have to keep working to get to that moment and make my dreams come true.”

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Sep 28, 2025, 10:22 PM ET

SAN FRANCISCO — The contract stalemate between restricted free agent Jonathan Kuminga and the Golden State Warriors will bleed into the basketball portion of the NBA calendar.

Kuminga did not travel to San Francisco this weekend and won’t be in attendance for Monday’s media day, league sources told ESPN. Golden State general manager Mike Dunleavy Jr. made contact with Kuminga’s agent, Aaron Turner, on Sunday, but there’s no momentum toward a Kuminga contract or return prior to the team’s first practice on Tuesday.

The Warriors have kept their three outstanding offers on the table, sources said. The two most lucrative — two years, $45 million and three years, $75.2 million — include team options on the final season, and the only offer without a team option is for three years and $54 million.

Kuminga has been resistant to the deals with team options unless the money goes up. He has messaged to the Warriors that he would view a contract offer with a player option in it as a sign of goodwill after what his side has described as “years of confusion” about his role and an expectation he’d return to fluctuating opportunities under coach Steve Kerr and a likely midseason trade.

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Kuminga’s greatest level of leverage in these negotiations is the one-year, $8 million qualifying offer, which expires on Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. ET. Kuminga would willingly be giving up $15.3 million extra next season, but it would provide him with an inherent no-trade clause and 2026 unrestricted free agency with at least 10 teams with salary cap space, putting the Warriors at risk of losing their No. 7 pick from the 2021 NBA draft for nothing next summer.

That’s a scenario the Warriors have attempted to avoid with their standing offers to Kuminga, but team sources have said they remain firm in their unwillingness to include a player option in any deal and expect Kuminga to either choose one of their proposed deals or return on the qualifying offer by Wednesday night. The dormant sign-and-trade talks with the Phoenix Suns and the Sacramento Kings don’t have any current traction, sources said.

Because of the Kuminga situation, the Warriors have held up much of their roster business this summer. However, Golden State received a multiyear commitment from Al Horford on Sunday, his agent, Jason Glushon, told ESPN, and also agreed to terms with veterans Gary Payton II and De’Anthony Melton. Horford’s final contract number is dependent on the Kuminga resolution, so the presumed starting center won’t be able to sign or practice until that happens.

Melton’s and Payton’s availability for the first practice is to be determined.

With the signing of second-round rookie guard Will Richard, the Warriors have 13 committed roster players. Their plan is to make Kuminga the 14th, but he must decide on a contract path prior to Wednesday night’s qualifying offer deadline.

The Warriors also have had talks with Seth Curry, but Kuminga’s contract structure will determine whether they are able to add a 15th player and remain below the second apron.

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BAAAH-BA-BAAH! It had just gone nine in the morning when the speakers started blasting out Village People’s YMCA at Bethpage. Scottie Scheffler, the world No 1 had arrived on the putting green and everyone was whooping and hollering at him. Scheffler bumped fists with one of his coaches, wrapped another up in a hug and, BAH-BA-BADA-BADA-BAH!, walked on up and across the bridge to the practice ground where there was a crowd of 500 or so people waiting.

They started chanting. “YEW-ESS-AY! YEW-ESS-AY!†Scheffler’s a big man. By the time he made it on to the range he seemed to have swelled twice the size.

There are a few hundred thousand reasons why the home team wins two out of three editions of the Ryder Cup. One of them is the nature of the courses, which, like the English language, are the same, but different either side of the Atlantic. The second is that the captains are allowed to tweak the widths of the fairways, the height of the rough and the speed of the greens to suit their own team.

The rest are all paying upwards of $750 to attend. The Ryder Cup always draws the rowdiest crowds in the game. The tribalism, says the USA’s Patrick Cantlay, “has become such an integral part of this event, it’s just to be expectedâ€.

Donald Trump went to the US Open men’s singles final at Flushing Meadow in September and the match had to be delayed for an hour. Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

But this year, no one is sure what is coming. Donald Trump is due on Fridayafternoon and his visit is looming over the tournament like a balloon at the Thanksgiving Day parade.

The only thing anyone can predict with any certainty is that Long Island is going to be gridlocked. The organisers, who are already trying to funnel tens of thousands of fans in and out of the grounds, have been in endless negotiations over the arrangements. The US Open men’s final was held up for the best part of an hour when Trump decided to come along and watch. Organisers have already asked him to delay his appearance until later in the day because they were so worried about the hold-ups caused by his security. The admission conditions include rules against bringing in backpacks, banners and stools, but it is less clear what the policy is on a nuclear football.

President Trump arrives at the LIV Golf tournament in Doral, Florida, one of his courses. His attendance at Bethpage will lead to heightened security. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

The European team are so worried about what they are going to be up against that they have been using VR headsets to condition themselves to all the heckling they are expecting. The first day of practice felt like trying to play 18 in the middle of a Maga rally. Trump got a mixed reception when he turned up at Flushing Meadows, but US golf is further to the right than my slice and Bethpage is in Trump country. He won Nassau County by 4.2 percentage points in the 2024 election, a 14-point swing from 2020. In 2016, he chose the town for his homecoming rally before the New York primary. He told the crowd how he used to get up at 2am so he could get a tee-time here.

Which, like everything else Trump claims in the game, may or may not be true. He also says he has a 2.8 handicap and has won 36 club championships, including six in a single year, achievements that would mean a lot more if he ever registered his scores or played in tournaments at clubs he didn’t own against competitors he couldn’t boot out.

It is one of the sport’s open secrets that he is an inveterate cheat. Rick Reilly wrote a book about it. The only honest thing about Trump’s golf is how much he loves it. Pretty much every player here can tell you a story about how he has called them to talk through their latest victory in excruciating detail.

He will be the first sitting president to attend the competition. George HW Bush went to Valhalla in 2008 and his son turned up at Brookline in 1999, when he was running for the presidency. Captain Ben Crenshaw invited him in to address the team on the Saturday night when they were four-points down. Bush decided to read them William B Travis’s letter from the Alamo: “The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise, the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken – I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls.â€

George W Bush (left) attended the Ryder Cup at Brookline in 1999 with his family and spoke to the USA team on the Saturday night. Photograph: John Mottern/AFP/Getty Images

By the time Bush was done with it the team were so worked up that the next day they became the first team to come back from more than two points down before the singles to win the Cup. Along the way, one of the European player’s wives was spat at, the father of another left the course early because of the amount of abuse being thrown at his son and the US team ended up barnstorming the 17th green before José María Olazábal had the chance to make his last putt.

On the BBC, Alistair Cooke said the day would “go down in infamyâ€. It was, everyone agreed afterwards, one of the most ignominious days in the history of the competition. It also, as Trump might point out, set a TV ratings record that stood for 13 years.

Who knows what Bethpage is going to be like on Friday. The USA captain, Keegan Bradley, suggested he was expecting Trump to set himself up by the first tee. “I’m just thrilled he’s going to be here. I really look forward to what that first tee is going to be like with the president on the tee. It’s going to be something everyone will remember for ever.†He is probably right about that, one way or the other.

USA’s huge comeback at Brookline in 1999 included many unsavoury aspects, notably after Justin Leonard holed his putt on 17. Photograph: Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto

Scheffler, who you can only assume is too busy playing to listen to many of his president’s speeches, described Trump as “one of those guys when you’re around him, he does such a good job of feeding confidence into everybody around him. That was one of the things I noticed a lot with the little bit of time I spent with him, he treats everybody the same and treats people with the utmost respect.†Maybe Scottie does a fine line in irony, but my guess is he thinks it is the thing he packs in his bag next to the 3-wood.

There is another irony here. Bethpage Black was built by Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration, one of 250 municipal courses constructed as part of a drive to open up the game “to a new kind of average golfer†during the New Deal. Roosevelt was a golfer too, club champion, secretary and treasurer at Campobello in Maine. He designed a course especially for people recovering from polio at Warm Springs in Georgia; it has roads and reinforced bridges so patients could be driven in between holes. It is a very different idea of the game to the one we are going to see played out in the next few days.

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