Basketball: the main stories of 09.09.2026

The Lakers will put Phil Jackson in bronze outside their arena, the club's press office confirmed, with the unveiling due in 2027. Jackson arrived in 1999 and left in 2011 with five of the franchise's titles: three in a row alongside Shaquille O'Neal and Kobe Bryant, then two more with Bryant and Pau Gasol. He has 11 as a head coach in all, six of them in Chicago, and no one has more. No Lakers coach has been honoured this way before, and the statue lands in an autumn when the club's talking points are all about the new roster rather than the old one.

Kawhi Leonard has already begun working with Toronto at their Miami camp although the agreed trade has no official status, one outlet reports, and the hold-up is the rebuild of the Clippers' front office: Trent Redden is expected to act as president after the league's $30m fine and five first-round picks for cap circumvention. The same reporting says Brandon Ingram is not being shopped to recoup any of it. Greece has its own thinning out. Olympiacos have let Ioannis Larentzakis go after six seasons, a EuroLeague title and three domestic doubles, and Georgios Bartzokas spoke about the two he lost earlier — Thomas Walkup, sold to Dubai for $2.6m on Sunday, and Moustapha Fall, who by all accounts pulled a hamstring in training at his new club, Panathinaikos.

• Chauncey Billups' federal trial has been put back four months; jury selection in Brooklyn starts on 8 March 2027, according to ESPN.
• Tony Parker, taking his first professional job at Villeurbanne, says he wants 15–20 years on a bench.
• Patrick Beverley says he turned down a richer Kings offer and signed for $40m over three years with the Clippers.
• Dylan Harper credits Gregg Popovich for reading him better than he reads himself and backs Mitch Johnson as the right fit in San Antonio.
• Ben Simmons' one-year, $3.5m deal in Sacramento is reported not to be fully guaranteed; Draymond Green welcomed his return to the league.
• Anthony Edwards is credited with talking Jonathan Kuminga into a smaller offer in Minnesota — the deal the Timberwolves reached after looking at Sasha Vezenkov.
• The Lakers are hiring Miami's Eric Amsler as assistant general manager, per Shams Charania; Charlotte are named the likeliest in-season suitor for Domantas Sabonis.
• Gloria Cup: Anadolu Efes beat Lokomotiv-Kuban, Tofas edged Cluj 94-93, Bahcesehir face Dubai.
• Women's World Cup last 16 pairs Puerto Rico with China and Italy with Australia.
• Andrei Zubkov and Pavel Savkov were hurt in a collision against Zenit; their coach Sergei Voznyuk played down MBA's Kondrashin-Belov Cup win over UNICS.
• CSKA lost 57-80 to Besiktas in a pre-season tie that ended in a scuffle; James Johnson says MMA remains his first love after 16 years in the NBA.