Spurs star Victor Wembanyama cleared to return from blood clot, per report
"I got the green light from the Spurs' medical staff just (on Friday)," Wembanyama told French sports outlet L'Equipe. 'Phew, I'll finally be able to play a bit of basketball again."
The 2023-24 NBA rookie of the year played in 46 games last season, averaging 24.3 points, 11 rebounds, 3.8 blocks, 3.7 assists and 1.1 steals and shooting 47.6% from the field, 35.2% on 3-pointers and 83.6% on free throws.
He was on his way to winning Defensive Player of the Year and All-NBA when the team announced on Feb. 20 that 'Wembanyama has been diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis in his right shoulder. The condition was discovered when Wembanyama returned to San Antonio following the All-Star Game in San Francisco. Wembanyama is expected to miss the remainder of the 2024-25 regular season. The team will provide updates as appropriate.'
The Spurs were 34-48 last season and drafted Dylan Harper with the No. 2 pick and Carter Bryant with the No. 14 pick in the 2025 draft. They also acquired De'Aaron Fox from Sacramento at the trade deadline in February and are looking to make a jump in the Western Conference standings with Mitch Johnson taking over as coach,
Johnson replaces Hall of Famer Gregg Popovich who stepped down in May amid health problems. He sustained a stroke in November and did not return to the bench as coach. He remains part of the organization as president of basketball operations.
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USA Today
36 minutes ago
- USA Today
MLB All-Star winners and losers: Dramatic mini HR derby spices up festivities
ATLANTA – If you're the sort who enjoys plotting the demise of baseball – and, in a grander sense, Western Civilization – then it all was neatly summed up by one moment in the wee hours at Truist Park. A line drive striking the faux brick just to the right of a FanDuel advertisement, a crucial moment in a home-run hitting contest intended to pump life in a once culturally-dominant Midsummer Classic that now claws for viability in the attention economy. A little heavy, eh? Well, that's sort of how it felt when this 95th All-Star Game went to extra innings and was decided for the first time by a swing-off, which replaced the mega-roster to ensure there'd be plenty of pitchers for extra innings, which replaced How The Game Once Was, at least until it ended in a tie before a befuddled Bud Selig in 2002. Yet the game always seems to win, thanks in large part to the stars in the arena that seem to produce spectacular feats, regardless of format. On this night, it was Kyle Schwarber's three homers in three swings that stood up for a National League 'victory' after American Leaguer Jonathan Aranda's bullet line drive hit brick and not seats. When Aranda followed with a harmless pop fly that sent the NL into a bobbing mass of celebration down the first base line, they were 7-6 victors (4-3 on penalty swings). Somehow, it all worked out. That could be a theme for an All-Star week that was at times grim and sweaty and confusing and at others fresh and fun. With that, the winners and losers from All-Star Week in the A (or at least Cobb County): Winners Tiebreaker swing-off The various buttons MLB pushes in the Rob Manfred era often serve two purposes: Teeth-gnashing followed by pragmatic acceptance. It was fascinating to discover that everyone from casuals in your contacts list to superstars on the field had no idea – 'I honestly had no clue this was a thing,' says Giants pitcher Logan Webb – what was to come. Yet the swing-off – the derby after the Derby, if you will – has been on the books since 2022. They just hadn't had to break the glass yet in case of emergency, and Tuesday that emergency was Robert Suarez and Edwin Diaz blowing a two-run ninth-inning NL lead. While extra-inning baseball has its charms, there can be a certain death march element to it. And in an All-Star Game, it honestly comes down to leftover pitchers trying to get out batters who hadn't yet hopped a private jet to their final All-Star break destinations. Nah, we weren't exactly 'robbed' of drama not seeing Shane Smith and Hunter Goodman clash in the bottom of the 11th, just one scenario had managers not had the freedom to burn all their pitchers before game's end. And while roughly half the 41,702 in attendance had departed, those that remained were plenty engaged by the oohs and ahhs of the swing-off. Kyle Schwarber The baddest dude on the first-place Philadelphia Phillies is seemingly universally respected in the game, and his ability to take three batting practice pitches and put them all in the seats – with a result literally on the line – goes to his superior skill and ability to focus. That man is a free agent at the end of the year, and his late-night power show, even coming in a fake game, nicely illustrated why he'll be paid superstar money, and not DH money. Players who like playing baseball If the swing-off exposed anything to the casual fan, it's that the All-Star starters – typically the game's biggest superstars – have long beaten a hasty path to the airport by game's end. Hey, they got places to be and money to burn and it is their break time. That's why teams lock in their three swing-off participants ahead of time, knowing who will be around in a 10th inning – and no, it almost surely won't be Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani. But anytime he's on the roster, Mets slugger Pete Alonso counts himself in. The two-time Home Run Derby champion is both an avid competitor and a ball enthusiast. And there's something of a difference between dudes who both love baseball and are very good at it, and those for whom the latter is the only qualifier. That's not to say the players that begged off this All-Star Game – ultimately more than 80 were named to the rosters – don't love it. Rest is important and unpublicized injuries are very real. But it never hurts to have stars who want to be here. 'It's an honor for me,' says Alonso. 'Certain guys, if they're banged up, it's situational. But I'm healthy and I'm appreciative and it's a great event. For me, it's a no-brainer to come.' Cal Raleigh Sometimes, a player will have his star-is-born year and back it up at an All-Star Game expected to serve as his platform – think Judge in 2017. Raleigh roared into the break with an AL record 38 first-half homers, the curiosity of being a switch-hitting catcher outslugging Judge and the best nickname in the game – and backed all of it up. His Home Run Derby championship was both a compelling tale and a remarkable feat, and gives the game a legitimate star in a Pacific Northwest outpost that too often gets ignored. Dino Ebel He might be the greatest batting-practice pitcher of all time, or at least the most decorated. Ebel has been the soft tosser for two Home Run Derby champions – Vladimir Guerrero Sr. in 2007 and Teoscar Hernández in 2024 – and as the clock neared midnight Tuesday he climbed halfway up the Truist Park mound and tossed cookies to Stowers and Schwarber. Four of the six pitches ended up in the seats. 'Put a 'W' next to Dino's name in the paper,' says Dodgers and NL manager Dave Roberts, whom Ebel serves as third base coach. 'Well, there's no more papers anymore, but Dino should get the win. Absolutely." That's only the half of it. Sunday night, Ebel's son Brady was drafted 32nd overall by Milwaukee, and he has another lad, Trey, who is a well-regarded prospect for the 2026 draft. Let's just say mid-July has been very good to the Ebel clan. Losers The MLB draft It remains Manfred's pet project, and the optics are good holding it in conjunction with All-Star Week. Enough space fillers wearing overpriced Fanatics gear are willing to fill up the couple hundred chairs to create a well-crafted television show. And sliding the draft into the most desirable television slot in the sport – supplanting Sunday Night Baseball for a night – will ensure its ratings will be sufficient even if the in-person product resembles a Potemkin Village. Yet it's an undeniable setback that exactly zero prospects showed up all dressed up for the show and ready to grip and grin with Manfred. They certainly have their reasons, be it advisors who prefer they not forfeit leverage with drafting teams, to the greater uncertainty involved with baseball's draft compared to its NFL and NBA cohorts. No one wants to get stuck in a green room for a couple hours, especially an 18-year-old whose reps might be haggling over bonus pool money right up to the moment they'd be picked. Manfred is perhaps the only baseball official who wants to drag the process into mid-July, putting scouting departments, front offices, college coaches and, of course, the players in flux deep into the summer when the whole thing could be done in early June. Pat McAfee, or whoever decided to loop him into the festivities That was weird. What's usually a pretty rote process – the pregame All-Star press conference where starting pitchers and lineups are announced got a startling charge when McAfee, ESPN's sleeveless ambassador to the Coveted Young Demographic, was on stage to moderate the session. It's tough to fake baseball, and while McAfee did all right, the entire presser was simply bizarre. It helped that Paul Skenes' presence enabled McAfee to lean into his Yinzer shtick, yet couldn't save him from mispronouncing Ketel Marte. And an inquiry from a reporter on baseball's unexplained decision to move the game back to Atlanta after onerous voting laws were passed – and Roberts' general abdication of stances on social issues important to Dodgers fans – resulted in McAfee trying to parry the whole exchange. He was also tapped to intro the participants in that night's Home Run Derby, which is among ESPN's most important broadcasts all year. The whole thing smacked of the erstwhile Worldwide Leader signing all its inventory over to McAfee, and MLB eagerly (desperately?) hoping to cash in some of that cultural currency. The Phillies Hey, they're on the clock for the next All-Star Week and the pressure is mounting. The game comes less than two weeks after the country's Semiquincentennial, and there may not be enough red, white and blue to out-America all the Midsummer Classics that came before it. Also, Kyle Schwarber is a free agent. As this 95th game showed, some things you just can't let get away.
Fox Sports
36 minutes ago
- Fox Sports
Cal Raleigh successful as 4 of 5 challenges reverse calls in first All-Star use of robot umpire
Associated Press ATLANTA (AP) — Cal Raleigh was just as successful with the first robot umpire All-Star challenge as he was in the Home Run Derby. Seattle's catcher signaled for an appeal to the Automated Ball-Strike System in the first inning of the National League's win Tuesday night, getting a strikeout for Detroit's Tarik Subal on San Diego's Manny Machado. 'You take 'em any way you can get 'em, boys,' Skubal said on the mound. Four of five challenges of plate umpire Dan Iassogna's calls were successful in the first All-Star use of the ABS system, which could make its regular-season debut next year. Athletics rookie Jacob Wilson won as the first batter to call for a challenge, reversing a 1-0 fastball from Washington's MacKenzie Gore in the fifth inning that had been called a strike. Miami's Kyle Stowers lost when ABS upheld a full-count Andres Munoz fastball at the bottom of the zone for an inning-ending strikeout in the eighth. Mets closer Edwin Diaz earned a three-pitch strikeout against Randy Arozarena to end the top of the ninth on a pitch Iassogna thought was outside. Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk used ABS to get a first-pitch strike on a 100.1 mph Aroldis Chapman offering to Brendan Donovan with two outs in the bottom half. 'The fans enjoy it. I thought the players had fun with it,' NL manager Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers said. 'There's a strategy to it, if it does get to us during the season. But I like it. I think it's good for the game.' Skubal had given up Ketel Marte's two-run double and retired the Dodgers' Freddie Freeman on a groundout for his first out when he got ahead of Machado 0-2 in the count. Skubal threw a 89.5 mph changeup, and Iassogna yelled" 'Ball down!' Raleigh tapped his helmet just before Skubal tipped his cap, triggering a review by the computer umpire that was tested in spring training this year and could be adopted for regular-season use in 2026. 'Obviously, a strike like that it was, so I called for it and it helped us out,' Raleigh said. An animation of the computer analysis was shown on the Truist Park scoreboard and the broadcast. Roberts laughed in the dugout after the challenge. 'I knew it was a strike,' Machado said. Skubal doesn't intend to use challenges during regular-season games if the ABS is put in place. He says he'll rely on his catchers. 'I was joking around that I was going to burn two of them on the first balls just so that way we didn't have them the rest of the game,' he said. 'I'm just going to assume that it's going to happen next year.' Before the game, baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred indicated the sport's 11-man competition committee will consider the system for next season. "I think the ability to correct a bad call in a high-leverage situation without interfering with the time of game because it's so fast is something we ought to continue to pursue,' Manfred said. ABS decisions may have an error of margin up to a half-inch. 'Our guys do have a concern with that half inch, what that might otherwise lead to particularly as it relates to the number of challenges you may have, whether you keep those challenges during the course of the game,' union head Tony Clark told the Baseball Writers Association of America. 'Does there need to be some type of buffer zone consideration? Or do we want to find ourselves in a world where it's the most egregious misses that we want focus in on?' Manfred sounded less concerned. 'I don't believe that technology supports the notion that you need a buffer zone,' he said. 'To get into the idea that there's something that is not a strike that you're going to call a strike in a review system, I don't know why I would want to do that.' MLB sets the top of the automated strike zone at 53.5% of a batter's height and the bottom at 27%, basing the decision on the midpoint of the plate, 8 1/2 inches from the front and 8 1/2 inches from the back. That contrasts with the rule book zone called by umpires, which says the zone is a cube. 'We haven't even started talking about the strike zone itself, how that's going to necessarily be measured, and whether or not there are tweaks that need to be made there, too," Clark said. "So there's a lot of discussion that still needs to be had, despite the fact that it seems more inevitable than not.' Manfred has tested ABS in the minor leagues since 2019, using it for all pitches and then switching to a challenge system. Each team gets two challenges and a successful challenge is retained. Only catchers, batters and pitchers can call for a challenge. 'Where we are on ABS has been fundamentally influenced by player input,' he maintained. "If you had two years ago said to me: What do the owners want to do? I think they would have called every pitch with ABS as soon as possible. That's because there is a fundamental, very fundamental interest in getting it right, right? We owe it to our fans to try to get it right because the players as I talked to them over a couple of years really, expressed a very strong interest or preference for the challenge system that we decided to test." Skubal wondered is all contingencies had been planned for. 'If power goes out and we don't have ABS — sometimes we don't have Hawk-Eye data or Trackman data. So what's going to happen then?' he said. 'Are we going to expect umpires to call balls and strikes when it's an ABS zone?' ___ AP MLB: recommended Item 1 of 1
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
NBA Summer League recap: Wizards offense MIA in 74-58 loss to 76ers
Offense was optional Tuesday in the Washington Wizards' 74-58 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in their 2025 NBA Summer League matchup at the Thomas & Mack Center. Missing most of its main weapons, the Wizards could not find any reliable source of scoring in the contest. Advertisement Washington got off to a promising 9-0 start after Liam Robbins hit a couple of threes early. Eight of the Wizards' first nine shots were from distance, with the team going 4/8 in those attempts. The hot shooting proved to be unsustainable as the Wiz went 2/22 from three the rest of the way. The only thing that kept Washington in the game was how ice-cold the Sixers also were from the field. The two teams combined to shoot 45/133 (33.8%). AJ Johnson was suddenly thrust into the first-option role. He also struggled with his outside shot, going 1/7 from deep. But he still found ways to score a game-high 20 points on a 7/20 clip. He also had a few tough-luck misses on layups right at the rim. Johnson was Washington's lone source of offense in the fourth quarter. He put up all 11 of the Wizards' points as the 76ers ran away with it late. Advertisement Jamir Watkins, who looked very raw offensively, was able to flash his immense defensive potential. He had several pick-six steals that led to easy transition points. He tied a Summer League record with eight swipes to go along with his 10 points, five rebounds, two assists, and three blocks. Watkins also did an excellent job defending No. 3 overall pick VJ Edgecombe. The Sixers rookie had an inefficient night, going 4/14 for 15 points. The Wizards face the Utah Jazz next in a back-to-back scheduled for Wednesday.
