Emil Forsberg scores a goal as Red Bulls and Earthquakes play to 1-1 tie
Forsberg ran onto a ball played by Peter Stroud, zig-zagged to evade a pair of defenders near the penalty spot and then slipped a rising shot inside the left post to open the scoring in the 19th minute.
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An own goal on New York's Mohammed Sofo, who redirected a cross played by San Jose's Cristian Espinoza into the net, made it 1-1 in the 58th minute.
San Jose played a man down after DeJuan Jones was shown his second yellow card in the 64th.
New York (8-7-6) is winless in four straight.
Carlos Miguel Coronel had three saves for the Red Bulls.
New York's Raheem Edwards was shown a straight red card in the 87th minute.
Daniel De Sousa Britto — known simply as 'Daniel' — stopped three shots for the Earthquakes.
San Jose (7-7-7) is unbeaten in four consecutive games.
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Yahoo
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- Yahoo
Bucks' target, 12-time All-Star hints at retirement ahead of free agency decision
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New York Times
21 minutes ago
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More moves (sort of)?
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But Anunoby will make $45 million in 2027-28 and has a player option for the following season, which would eat into the Lakers' possible cap space two summers from now. Meanwhile, the Knicks — or any other team — may not want to part with three key rotation pieces (and three of their four best defenders) for a 40-year-old. James could double as a basketball fit, as well as a giant expiring contract to avoid the second apron in 2026-27 and maybe beyond. In Los Angeles, Towns and Luka Dončić could destroy any defense they face. But the Knicks are also made up of prime-aged contributors. This would make them older. Like in the other hypotheticals, a James trade to the Knicks, even in a world where both he and the Lakers agree it's best for the two to part ways after seven years, isn't likely. The Knicks didn't get in on the hunt for Kevin Durant. Like so many others, they could be saving up salary and assets for a guy in Milwaukee. They may not handle this hypothetical much differently. 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Brown's willingness to collaborate and the leadership qualities the franchise examined were also big selling points, league sources said. New York, led by stars Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns, liked that Brown has worked with LeBron James, Kobe Bryant and Steph Curry. The Knicks liked that Brown came up under Gregg Popovich, worked alongside Steve Kerr and won championships with both. New York was impressed at how Brown turned the Sacramento Kings around and helped them win 45-plus games in back-to-back seasons for the first time in the lowly franchise's history since 2006. Before he was fired by Sacramento after 31 games last season, Brown helped turn De'Aaron Fox into an All-Star. In 2022-23, Brown and the Kings had the best offensive efficiency since tracking began in 1996. Now, Brown is tasked with pushing the Knicks to the next level, into a tier of champions. Read my column on the impending hire here. 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GO FURTHER LeBron James trade fits: Cavs, Warriors, Mavericks and more possibilities Jeff Gross / Getty Images Once he finalizes an agreement with the Knicks, Mike Brown will look to take over a franchise that has made it clear a championship is the expectation, providing pressure for a head coach who has experience in those situations, having coached both LeBron James and Kobe Bryant. Brown was the coach of the 2006-07 Cavaliers team that lost in the NBA Finals. With LeBron James by his side, Brown and Cleveland never lost more than 45 games during the regular season. Brown had one successful season in Los Angeles before getting fired five games into his second season. He then returned to the Cavaliers in 2013-14 to be the head coach but was let go after just one year. Brown spent time on Steve Kerr's staff with the Golden State Warriors in between his final stop in Cleveland and becoming the head coach in Sacramento. Brown played a big part in bringing the Kings back to relevancy, as the franchise posted back-to-back 45-plus-win seasons under his watch for the first time since 2005. Sacramento ended a 16-year playoff drought in Brown's first season. The New York Knicks have offered Mike Brown their head coaching job, and the two sides are expected to finalize a deal soon, league sources tell The Athletic. Brown would be the 32nd coach in the franchise's history. After a lengthy public process, New York views Brown as the coach to help the Knicks build on this season's trip to the Eastern Conference finals. New York fired Tom Thibodeau just days after making the Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years. More here. GO FURTHER Knicks offer Mike Brown head coach role: Sources Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images Free agency is all but dead in the NBA. With one powerful collective bargaining agreement and a few years spent slowly creeping in this direction, the league has successfully managed to choke out what once was the most exciting time of the year. There's still an occasional tremor, but the booming fireworks that once illuminated the NBA sky during the first few days of July have been replaced by soft jazz and a sterile waiting room, anxiously anticipating the next big move that may not come. Much of this is by design. It's fair to point out that Kevin Durant was just dealt a couple of weeks ago and Giannis Antetokounmpo's future remains murky in Milwaukee despite the Myles Turner signing. And nothing shook the NBA quite like the Luka Dončić trade in the middle of last season. Big moves are still possible. But rarely do they occur now in early July. Read the rest of my column here. GO FURTHER NBA free agency is all but dead as July fireworks have been reduced to soft jazz Jason Miller / Getty Images There is no team more obvious than Cleveland to throw on this list of potential LeBron James trade destination — from both James' perspective and that of the Cavaliers. On one side would be the romance. James could finish his career in the place he began it. On the other side is a squad that just won 64 games last season and sits in a conference that is falling apart. The Cavs could be the favorites to win the Eastern Conference already. Add James to the mix, and they would vault into a tier of their own. But it's not that simple. A hypothetical James-to-Cleveland trade is impractical, if not impossible. Forgetting about James' and Cleveland's wants, the math it would take to get James traded back to Ohio would leave Lakers president Rob Pelinka writing on windows. Read on to understand why. GO FURTHER LeBron James trade fits: Cavs, Warriors, Mavericks and more possibilities Page 2
New York Times
21 minutes ago
- New York Times
Bucks to sign Harris, trade Connaughton
A deal involving seven teams highlights the weekend. Meanwhile, Houston is parting ways with one of its young assets. Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images Stacy Revere / Getty Images The Milwaukee Bucks plan to sign veteran shooting guard Gary Harris to a two-year contract with a player option, and have agreed to a trade to send guard Pat Connaughton to the Charlotte Hornets, a league source confirmed to The Athletic. The Bucks will trade Connaughton and two future second-round picks to Charlotte for Vasa Mičić. In turn, the Bucks will likely try to work with Mičić on a buyout that allows them to create the necessary space to fit Myles Turner in Milwaukee and lets Mičić make his way back to professional basketball in Europe. Dorian Finney-Smith agrees to deal with Rockets (Four years, $53 million) This might be my favorite signing of Day 1. The Rockets gave up a good defender in Dillon Brooks to complete the Kevin Durant trade, but I'd argue Finney-Smith is a much better fit for this team. 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Based on the reported $104 million total, the Raptors are committed to $29.5 million in his age-33 season and a partially guaranteed $29.5 million at age 34. And this money is for a non-shooter who can't rely on skill to offset Father Time. While it clearly helps the Raptors manage their 2026-27 tax and apron situation, I'm not sure the downside is worth it. Nickeil Alexander-Walker to the Atlanta Hawks (Four years, $62 million) The Hawks are giving up a second-rounder and cash in the trade. The new Wolves owners keep adding to the till! For the Hawks, Alexander-Walker potentially gives them a playmaking wing who can knock down 3-pointers and provide a defensive punch on the wings. This has the chance to help put them further in a position to make a leap in the East. He pairs nicely with Dyson Daniels, and he can help take some of the initiation responsibilities from Trae Young to move him off the ball more. It looks like the fourth year will have a player option, so it might not be a straight-up four-year deal for Alexander-Walker. The last three seasons, he's shot 38.5 percent from deep, so the shot should be more than reliable moving forward. Grade: A- League sources tell me and Dan Woike that Al Horford is also under serious consideration by the Lakers (in addition to the Warriors). As he says below, this might take some time. Over the past few weeks, Houston Rockets team officials made it clear that building on a 52-win season was the organization's No. 1 priority, regardless of its postseason embarrassment months before. Houston's brass, led by general manager Rafael Stone and owner Patrick Fertitta, aggressively retained its core. Head coach Ime Udoka was signed to a long-term extension, strengthening the alignment that has worked the past two years. Key veteran contributors Fred VanVleet and Steven Adams were next on the docket, their immediate futures hammered out quickly. Important role players — Aaron Holiday, Jeff Green and Jae'Sean Tate — were also re-signed, as was fourth-year forward Jabari Smith Jr., an Udoka favorite. The trade for 14-time All-Star forward Kevin Durant (which can't be officially completed until July 6), a blockbuster move that cost the Rockets two starters and NBA Draft capital, was the biggest indicator that Houston intended to contend. During the first few hours of free agency, the organization doubled down on those intentions. Then, Monday, the Rockets agreed to sign veteran forward Dorian Finney-Smith to a four-year, $53 million deal, according to league sources. Houston also agreed to a deal to reacquire former center Clint Capela, one that will pay the 31-year-old $21.5 million over the next three seasons, a league source said. Houston isn't finished doing business, either. GO FURTHER Rockets want to balance experience with youth, and they're off to a great start The Thunder announced that doctors will re-evaluate All-NBA forward Jalen Williams in 12 weeks. Williams underwent surgery on his right wrist. Twelve weeks from today is Sep. 23, approximately one week before the start of training camp. Getty Images As vital systems go, the spine can be grossly underappreciated. Respected but not celebrated. The supporting role it plays, the way it silently factors in all functionalities, is often overlooked. Until it hurts. Until something doesn't work. However, the spine, those who have been exposed to its intrinsic value know, is vital to overall health. It manages balance, enables flexibility. It absorbs shock. It protects the spinal cord, the communication highway between the brain and the rest of the body. The Golden State Warriors have lost their backbone. That was Kevon Looney. 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Frank said it was 'a dark day' when backup power forward Nicolas Batum was included in the trade that brought Harden to LA from the Philadelphia 76ers in the fall of 2023, signaling an intention for Batum to be back. Like Harden, Batum declined his player option and signed a new deal with the Clippers that gave him a raise, while the Clippers have a team option on Batum in 2026. I identified two needs for the Clippers, ones that mirrored their needs for the draft but were more acute because the Clippers needed short-term playable options: ball handling and frontcourt help. One of my named targets was Milwaukee Bucks center Brook Lopez. My inclusion of Lopez, who turned 37 years old in April, had as much to do with the connections as it did with basketball. Read more below. GO FURTHER Clippers begin free agency by adding Brook Lopez. Could Chris Paul be next? Getty Images Day 1 of free agency is in the books, and we don't really have the big free agent everybody is looking to grab this year. We mostly have a lot of trades happening, and teams wondering if Giannis Antetokounmpo is going to give up on being with the Milwaukee Bucks for life. Teams around the league are still trying to figure out life in the era of the crippling second apron, and we're seeing teams fully start to grasp how much they need to avoid that Trojan horse hard cap the owners worked into the collective bargaining agreement. Still, we had a lot happen through the first official day of free agency. All of that and more is covered below. GO FURTHER NBA free agency 2025: Grades, head-scratchers and more analysis from Day 1 Sando Mamukelashvili's contract with Toronto would leave the Raptors slightly in the luxury tax, with the potential to end up deeper if incentives on Jakob Poeltl, Immanuel Quickley and R.J. Barrett hit. A simple way to take the tax out of play would be trade Ochai Agbaji — owed $6.4 million in the final year of his contract — and then sign second-round pick Alijah Martin into the Raptors' 14th roster spot. Kevin Sousa / Getty Images The Toronto Raptors have agreed to sign 26-year-old big man Sandro Mamukelashvili to a two-year, $5.5 million contract with a second year player option, a team source confirmed. Mamukelashvili averaged 6.3 points per game for the San Antonio Spurs last season. Getty Images For so long, Trae Young seemed destined for an eventual trade. The Atlanta Hawks' All-Star guard was always a tremendous playmaker, but his ball dominance and defensive vulnerability made building a contender around him a quagmire. It meant Young lived in trade rumors every silly season. The Hawks made the Eastern Conference Finals years ago with Young, so there had to be a solution to get there once again. Now, after a dramatic yearlong makeover, the Hawks may have a shot at returning. Following years of Young trade rumors, the Hawks have built a team optimized to fit around the recently evolved version of him. GO FURTHER Hawks' rapid rebuild around Trae Young comes full circle, so is he still Atlanta's future? Getty Images There has been a lot said about the rapid influx of money into the NBA in recent years. The league is now minting future billionaires. It will likely soon have its first player making $100 million annually. The owners are doing fine, too, in case anyone had their concerns — the Los Angeles Lakers just sold at a $10 billion valuation, if you hadn't heard. But Sunday's contract agreement between the Houston Rockets and Jabari Smith Jr. felt like an inflection point. It felt like the NBA's first deal where there was just too much money to pass up. Smith intends to sign a five-year, $122 million extension with the Rockets. It was a bit surprising because Smith has not been supremely impressive since he went No. 3 in the 2022 NBA Draft, and Houston has a deep well of promising young talent it will need to pay soon, while also facing encroaching cap issues. The Rockets had until October to negotiate an extension with Smith but it did not seem like a pressing concern. They got a deal done, though. GO FURTHER What Jabari Smith Jr.'s extension tells us about the state of NBA player salaries Alex Slitz / Getty Images League sources say Damian Lillard is elated with the Bucks' decision to waive and stretch his contract, as it puts him in the kind of basketball-first position that few All-Star level players, if any, have experienced in league history. In short, he'll be able to join the contending team of his choosing, either sometime soon or perhaps next summer, without the financial aspect of the decision playing a significant part. With Lillard owed $54.1 million for this coming season and $58.4 million in the 2026-27 campaign, there is a salary offset for any team that acquires him during that two-year period. And while the Bucks would surely prefer that Lillard sign for a significant salary as a way to alleviate some of their financial burden, the reality is that he could sign for a minimum-salary deal and still be paid the same amount. That's a powerful place to be when you're a future Hall of Famer in your mid-30s who has never won a championship. Not surprisingly, league sources say Lillard received calls from several contending teams very quickly after the news of his Bucks' ending broke. The question now is whether he wants to sign with a team now and rehabilitate while under their care or wait until next summer to reassess the situation. All in all, it's a dream scenario for Lillard. Especially considering he might have been heading for a change of scenery even before his injury. GO FURTHER Bucks waiving Damian Lillard to make room to sign Myles Turner: Sources Getty Images The Lakers' timeline situation ever since Luka Dončić was gifted to them back in early February has looked bizarre. Life was almost simpler before that trade. They could've aimed to ride out the LeBron James-Anthony Davis chapter until the wheels fell off. From there, they could've started selling Lakers mystique to new big stars in hopes of furthering their legacy and hanging more banners. Maybe it's not a foolproof plan and super easy to execute, but it's worked enough times in the franchise's history. And it worked after they signed LeBron back in 2018. Then, Dallas sent Dončić to the Lakers, which has changed just about everything. The Lakers now have to start playing for the future and present-day championship stability. The funny thing is lead executive Rob Pelinka was already trying to toe that line, as he wasn't ready to relinquish assets for another LeBron-Davis-led championship pursuit. Now, the Lakers must build around Dončić and aim for championship stability. The problem is LeBron is still very much on this team. Before free agency opened, he picked up his $52.6 million player option for the 2025-26 season. It will be his 23rd season, just a mind-boggling number when you consider his résumé, mileage and current production. GO FURTHER LeBron James is no longer the Lakers' top priority. What's next for both parties? Both Detroit and Sacramento would benefit from turning Dennis Schröder's signing in Sacramento into a sign-and-trade. Detroit would gain a large trade exception — likely $14.1 million — they could potentially use in another deal this summer to bring in talent, while the Kings could take Schröder into their existing $16.8 million Kevin Hurter trade exception and leave their nontaxpayer midlevel exception open for other free agency moves. Because Schröder's deal is for three years, a sign-and-trade would be allowable. Page 2
