Retired (NBA)

Bill Russell's Boston Celtics and Olympic memorabilia sold for more than $5.3 million at an auction held at TD Garden on Friday night, per The Associated Press (h/t ESPN). 

Here are some of the items sold and their prices:

• 1969 NBA Finals Game 7 jersey: $1,116,250. 
• First championship ring: $705,000.
• 1956 Olympic gold medal: $587,500.
  
• Five NBA MVP trophies: $1,313,500. 

The auction featured 429 items from Russell's career. In addition to what was mentioned above, a page from his scrapbook signed by Jackie Robinson sold for $94,000.

Some of the proceeds are being donated to MENTOR, which aims "to close the mentoring gap and drive equity through quality mentoring relationships for young people," and to Boston Celtics United for Social Justice.

Russell, a Hall of Famer, spent his entire 13-year career with the Celtics, winning 11 NBA titles and five MVP awards and being named to 12 All-Star teams. 

With Stephen Curry on the verge of breaking the NBA record for most career three-pointers made, the current record-holder offered high praise to the Golden State Warriors superstar. 

Speaking to Shaun Powell of NBA.com, Ray Allen said Curry is "on his own level" as a player. 

"He’s done such a great job," Allen added. "And he has such great character as a person, and you root for people like that. He’s getting everything he deserves."

Curry needs 10 more threes to pass Allen on the NBA's all-time list. 

Allen made 2,973 three-pointers during his Hall-of-Fame career. He broke Reggie Miller's all-time record (2,560) on Feb. 10, 2011 in the Boston Celtics' 92-86 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. 

The pace at which Curry has played to get within 10 threes of Allen's mark is incredible. The two-time NBA MVP has only appeared in 786 games in his career to this point. 

By comparison, Allen retired with 1,300 games played in 18 seasons. Curry owns four of the top five seasons in terms of most three-point field goals made, including an NBA-record 402 during the 2015-16 campaign. 

Curry has eight seasons with at least 200 three-pointers made. He needs 68 more this season to hit that mark. 

The seven-time All-Star's next shot at catching Allen in the record books will be on Saturday night when the Warriors take on the Philadelphia 76ers at the Wells Fargo Center. 

Paul Pierce joined The Athletic's Michelle Beadle on her podcast Thursday and once again defended himself against the longstanding rumor that he left Game 1 of the 2008 NBA Finals on a wheelchair because he pooped his pants, not because he was injured. 

"If you poop your pants, does it make sense to sit down and mush it in a wheelchair?" he told Beadle. "I would walk back there and go straight to the bathroom. Why would I need a wheelchair if I pooped my pants? You don’t sit down on your poop, right? It doesn’t make sense."

Here's the thing, though—in 2019, Pierce said he left the game on a wheelchair because he in fact had to go the bathroom, and very badly:

So which is it?

Is there perhaps a middle ground here? Did Pierce have to go the bathroom so badly that he was in pain and afraid that if he tried to walk himself there he might lose control of the situation? Was he trying to prevent the "pooping his pants" scenario that he's long been accused of?

The more we learn about this situation, the less we seem to know. 

The Los Angeles Lakers were already without the injured LeBron James for Monday's matchup against the Chicago Bulls, and they lost another one of their superstars in the third quarter.

Anthony Davis was ejected with the Purple and Gold facing a significant deficit.

Thuc Nhi Nguyen of the Los Angeles Times noted the big man was ejected for picking up a second technical foul. According to Mike Trudell of Spectrum SportsNet, it was just the second time the University of Kentucky product was ejected in his career and the first time since 2017.

Davis exchanged words with the official as he put his shoe on and was thrown out:

The eight-time All-Star was one of the bright spots for the Lakers prior to the exchange and had 20 points and six rebounds while battling against a Chicago frontcourt that was missing Nikola Vucevic.

DeMar DeRozan shot the technical foul free throw when Davis was ejected and pushed the Bulls' lead to 21 points.

The Southern California product was dominant with 35 points, seven rebounds and five assists while leading Chicago to a win over the LA Clippers in Sunday's matchup and continued his impressive play while carrying the visitors' offense for extended stretches against the Lakers.

As for Davis, the four-time All-NBA selection entered play averaging 24.5 points, 11.3 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 2.2 blocks per game this season.

Los Angeles will likely need him to remain a double-double force this season, especially while James is sidelined, although ESPN's Dave McMenamin reported the King could return "soon" from an abdomen strain.

Next up for the Lakers is a game against the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday.            

Iman Shumpert is no stranger to the NBA Finals thanks to three appearances during his time on the Cleveland Cavaliers.

But he will be part of a different type of finals thanks to his venture into the world of television, and he won't have LeBron James to help him out this time around.

Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reported Shumpert became the first former NBA player to make it all the way to the final round of ABC's Dancing with the Stars on Monday.

Zach Seemayer‍ of ET noted that Shumpert and partner Daniella Karagach danced to Kanye West's "Dark Fantasy" during Monday's performance. The song notably features vocals from Shumpert's wife, Teyana Taylor.

Shumpert, who played for the New York Knicks, Cavaliers, Sacramento Kings, Houston Rockets and Brooklyn Nets in the NBA, will look to join a long list of athletes who have won the competition in the past.

Emmitt Smith, Apolo Ohno, Helio Castroneves, Kristi Yamaguchi, Shawn Johnson, Hines Ward, Donald Driver, Meryl Davis, Laurie Hernandez, Rashad Jennings and Adam Rippon all captured the Dancing with the Stars title.

There is no NBA player on that list, and Shumpert is on the verge of changing that.      

It's a new day, which means it's time to peel back another layer of Scottie Pippen's antipathy toward former teammate Michael Jordan.

With his memoir, Unguarded, hitting bookshelves, Pippen has used the opportunity to offer his unvarnished opinions of Jordan and The Last Dance documentary, which profiled the 1997-98 Chicago Bulls.

CBSSports.com's Brad Botkin shared a portion from Unguarded's prologue in which Pippen contended Jordan's treatment of other Bulls players wasn't a necessary ingredient in Chicago's six titles:

Michael was wrong. We didn't win six championships because he got on guys. We won in spite of his getting on guys. We won because we played team basketball, which hadn't been the case my first two seasons, when Doug Collins was our coach. That's what was special about playing for the Bulls: the camaraderie we established with one another, not that we felt blessed to be on the same team with the immortal Michael Jordan.

For Pippen, this might be a particularly personal issue because of his close friendship with Horace Grant, who seemed to be a frequent target of Jordan's tough love.

Sam Smith, who has documented the Bulls for years and authored The Jordan Rules, said on KNBR's Tolbert, Krueger and Brooks in May 2020 he had been told a story of Jordan demanding a stewardess not give Grant any food on a post-game flight because of his performance.

It's impossible to know whether Jordan's demeanor and exacting standards were the difference between the Bulls building a dynasty and largely seeing their achievements lost to history. Correlation doesn't always equal causation, though.

During its run of dominance, Chicago had three players (Jordan, Pippen and Dennis Rodman) who were subsequently named to the NBA's 75th Anniversary Team. Phil Jackson is one of the greatest head coaches in basketball history. And Jerry Krause was a savvy general manager who almost totally remade the roster between the Bulls' 1993 and 1996 Finals wins.

To say the Bulls triumphed in spite of Jordan might be a bit of a stretch, but he probably could've dialed things back a bit and still enjoyed the same level of team success in the Windy City.

If you use one-to-one logic, Shaquille O'Neal could have been an Oscar-nominated actor once upon a time. 

During an appearance on the Marchand and Ourand Sports Media Podcast (h/t TMZ Sports), the Basketball Hall of Famer said he turned down the role of John Coffey in The Green Mile. 

"I didn't want to play the down-South African American guy during slavery," O'Neal explained. "I didn't want to play that role."

The 1999 movie features Tom Hanks as a prison guard in Louisiana during the Great Depression. Coffey, a Black man, is a prisoner on death row after being wrongfully convicted of murdering two children. 

Michael Clarke Duncan played the role of Coffey in the movie and boosted his career in Hollywood. He was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, losing to Michael Caine for The Cider House Rules. 

O'Neal has carved out a successful acting career, though he's mostly played himself in cameo roles. His most recent credit was as DJ Aurora in Hubie Halloween, but he will appear as himself in the upcoming Jackass Forever that will be released on Feb. 4, 2022. 

Kevin Garnett is setting the record straight about a rumor from eight years ago that he made a comment to Carmelo Anthony about his then-wife, La La Anthony. 

Speaking to Michael Pina of GQ, Garnett denied saying anything disparaging about Anthony's family during a game. 

"I’ve never said anything about anyone’s family," Garnett said. "I’ve never said anything to Melo about La La. I’m a Frosted Flakes man. I’m not a Honey Nut Cheerios guy. I never knew where that came from. Let me clear that up."

The rumor stemmed from a 2013 altercation between Garnett and Anthony during a Boston Celtics-New York Knicks game. Garnett is alleged to have said that La La tasted like Honey Nut Cheerios. 

La La Anthony has also denied the comment was made. She brought it up in her book, The Playbook (h/t ESPN.com).

"Kevin Garnett in fact had never said that I tasted like Honey Nut Cheerios," she wrote. "I tried to figure out how this big lie was turned into a media firestorm. I still can't answer that one ... Melo and Kevin are cool today. And now it's nothing but a faint memory."

Anthony stalked the Celtics' team bus after the game. He received a one-game suspension by the NBA for his actions.   

Speaking to reporters at the time, Anthony said "there's certain things that you just don’t say" to another man. The 10-time All-Star didn't elaborate on exactly what Garnett's comment was that set him off. 

Former NBA guard Delonte West pleaded not guilty on three charges related to his October arrest in Florida.

West was charged with obstruction/resisting without violence, open container and disorderly intoxication after an incident with police in Boynton Beach, Fla. Video of West's arrest showed him using anti-gay slurs and making a number of other derogatory comments.

An officer pulled out a taser during the incident, at which point West complied with orders.

West, who has not played in the NBA since the 2011-12 season, has dealt with addiction. He also suffers from bipolar disorder. 

In September 2020, Dallas Mavericks governor Mark Cuban picked up West, who was homeless, and checked him into a drug rehabilitation center. ESPN reported in January that West was working for the rehabilitation facility. 

West played eight NBA seasons for the Cleveland Cavaliers, Boston Celtics, Seattle SuperSonics and Mavericks.

Attorneys for Vanessa Bryant are asking a federal court to sanction Los Angeles County in connection to first responders destroying photos of the crash that killed Kobe Bryant, Gianna Bryant and seven others.

"By destroying evidence instead of preserving it to conduct a proper investigation, Defendants have prevented Plaintiffs from discovering how many other people saw graphic photos of their loved ones' dead bodies," said Jennifer Bryant on behalf of her client, per USA Today's Brent Schrotenboer.

Schrotenboer also shared what L.A. County wrote in its filing:

Sheriff [Alex] Villanueva was keeping his promise to Bryant by making sure no photos got out. The deputies, on and before January 30, 2020, deleted the photos from their phones — months before this dispute. Within two days, LASD interviewed 28 deputies, reserve deputies, sergeants, and civilian volunteers. The department determined that all personnel who had taken, shared, or received crash site photos had, in fact, deleted them. No one had sent a photo to anyone outside LASD.

Last September, Bryant filed a lawsuit alleging that L.A. County sheriff's deputies took illicit photos of the crash site and shared them with people outside of the department. She named four deputies who allegedly engaged in the conduct, including a deputy trainee, Joey Cruz, who allegedly showed the crash photos to a bartender and bar patron.

According to Schrotenboer, the county has said Cruz was the only employee in the sheriff's department who allowed non-department personnel to see the images.

Villanueva acknowledged in March ordering eight deputies to delete the offending pictures in order to avoid their further dissemination.

The county is taking the stance that it didn't need to preserve the evidence in question until Bryant's representatives made their initial claims in court. Her attorneys are claiming "nine sheriff's deputies discarded or wiped devices after this litigation began," per Schrotenboer.

As part of the continuing litigation, L.A. County attorneys requested that Bryant provide any therapy records she had dating back to 2010. They say this will help them better understand the extent of the emotional distress she experienced from the January 2020 crash and more specifically the controversy over the crash photos.