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- How have Prem-winning captains fared as managers?
- We need to talk about these awful warm-up kits
- Firmino's stunning tattoo marks summer of success

It's that time of year again, with the Orlando City Stadium set to play host to the glitzy 2019 MLS All-Star game on Wednesday evening.

This year's guest opponents are Atletico Madrid, who will take on the best that MLS has to offer hoping to emulate the narrow victory that Juventus managed to pull off in last season's fixture.

To mark the occasion, we thought we'd piece together two fantasy XIs, one consisting of Premier League all-stars and one from the "Rest of Europe" and pit them against each other.

You may assume that the PL XI would be dominated by Man City and Liverpool players, but we've intentionally included names from an array of clubs to mix things up a bit.

Premier League

David De Gea (Manchester United) - Lightning reactions and incredible agility, all honed by having to play behind Phil Jones for the last eight years.

Hector Bellerin (Arsenal) - Assuming he's back and fully fit, Bellerin is one of the most mobile full-backs in the world.

Virgil van Dijk (Liverpool) - A Champions League winner and a rock solid, calm and assured presence in any back four.

Aymeric Laporte (Manchester City) - One of the most improved defenders in the Premier League, a goal threat from set pieces and an instrumental part of Man City's title charge.

Andrew Robertson (Liverpool) - The Flying Scotsman is the scourge of opposing right-backs the world over. Also delivers a mean cross from just about anywhere on the left flank.

N'Golo Kante (Chelsea) - Played in his natural defensive midfield position, there are none better in the world.

Paul Pogba (Manchester United) - Certainly has his critics, but on his day Pogba is capable of turning the tide of a match on his own. You don't win World Cups by accident.

Raheem Sterling (Manchester City) - Contributed 25 goals to the Man City cause last season while firmly staking his claim as one of Pep Guardiola's go-to men.

Mohamed Salah (Liverpool) - The hardworking, free-scoring Egyptian has amassed 71 goals in 104 appearances since joining Liverpool in June 2017.

Harry Kane (Tottenham) - Tottenham and England's Mr. Reliable. Nothing too flashy, just a steady, unrelenting stream of goals.

Sergio Aguero (Manchester City) - Just the 231 goals and four Premier League titles in 338 appearances for Man City should be just enough to book Aguero a slot in the XI.

Rest of Europe

Jan Oblak (Atletico Madrid) - Who better to tend the net than the goalkeeper who has conceded the fewest amount of goals and kept the most amount of clean sheets in La Liga for the fourth season running?

Joshua Kimmich (Bayern Munich) - The versatile young defender has quickly been recognised as Bayern's spiritual successor to Philipp Lahm -- and compliments don't come much bigger than that.

Gerard Pique (Barcelona) - Stalwart of the Barcelona defence for many years, the Catalan centre-half knows what it takes to win at the highest level.

Sergio Ramos (Real Madrid) - Another member of the "been there, seen it, done it" club, Ramos has the trophy-laden CV to prove it.

David Alaba (Bayern Munich) - Still only 27 years old despite seemingly having been around for ages, Alaba remains one of the best, most sought-after left-backs in the world.

Sergio Busquets (Barcelona) - Seasoned master of the midfield dark arts. Nobody does what Busquets does better than he does.

Luka Modric (Real Madrid) - It's always nice to have a Ballon d'Or winner pulling strings in the engine room.

Neymar (PSG) - Injury problems may have knocked him off the boil of late, but the Brazilian is still a flamboyant force to be reckoned with.

Lionel Messi (Barcelona) - It'd be slightly remiss of us to leave the best player on the face of the planet out of the team, wouldn't it?

Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) - Ronaldo's entirely inevitable inclusion here brings the total number of Ballon d'Ors in the team up to an impressively hefty 11.

Kylian Mbappe (PSG) - A nailed-on superstar in the making, Mbappe already has the acceleration, skill and goal-scoring technique to terrify even the most experienced defenders.

But which team would win?

We have no idea, but we certainly want to be in stands watching on if the game ever takes place!

Australia have traded off the breakup of the fast bowling "big three" by selling Mitchell Starc, Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood the idea that spreading the workload among more pacemen will extend their careers, with the captain Tim Paine declaring his team have been "way too reliant" on them.

James Pattinson is guaranteed to play in the opening Ashes Test at Edgbaston and Peter Siddle is also strongly in contention, meaning Starc looks certain to miss out as he continues his transition from ODI lines and lengths to the demands of Test matches, while Hazlewood is also 50/50. Only Cummins is safe in the team of the three bowlers who dominated England in Australia in 2017-18.

Paine admitted that Starc, Hazlewood and Cummins needed to be convinced of the merits of not simply choosing them to play together on the basis they are the three senior bowlers, all with lofty and thus lucrative positions on the Cricket Australia contract list. Added to the unhappy recent history of Australia struggling to adapt to English conditions, Paine said that the team needed to be more selective in how they used the three men who have effectively been joint spearheads of the attack since 2015.

"We've spoken about it to the bowlers. As JL [the coach Justin Langer] said, we're going to pick the team we think is going to win each Test match given the conditions we get when we arrive at those venues and the bowlers are across that," Paine said. "I think that's a great thing for our team - to have a really strong mix of fast bowlers who can all play in different conditions. But as we've said to the fast bowlers, it's actually a great thing for them as well because we can now prolong their careers for a few years.

"The last two or three years, we've been way too reliant on Cummins, Starc and Hazlewood - they've played a lot of Tests and subsequently picked up lots of niggly injuries along the way. It's a positive for all those guys. Another one is Peter Siddle, he can get another 12 months of Test cricket if we keep picking guys for the conditions. That's the way we've sold it to them. It's a great thing for the team but it's also a great thing for them individually."

While Cummins and Hazlewood have both spoken supportively in public of the move, nothing has been heard yet from Starc, who has been working assiduously to move from World Cup to Ashes mode. Should Australia utilise their bowling resources more broadly and effectively, the outcome will be critical not only to the Ashes, but how the team fares in the inaugural Test World Championship over the next two years. Paine added that Starc and Pattinson were seen as similarly hostile, attacking options, with holding bowlers required in support.

"At the moment we probably are looking at them in a similar role and we want to make sure we get that combination right and the bowlers we pick are complementing each other," he said. "If conditions are right for both of those two, we think to play together they certainly will. It's not something we've said 'we're only playing him [or] we're only playing him'. We're just making sure we get the right combination and have all bases covered."

The brown-tinged Edgbaston pitch was something of a surprise to Paine at first glance, but he reasoned that it would still provide assistance to seamers, aided by the overhead conditions that will intersperse rain with cloud cover for the majority of the Test match if forecasts prove accurate. To that end, Paine suggested that Australia's months of work on combating the moving ball with the bat would pay dividends.

"The pitch looked a bit different. I must admit I was expecting a bit of a green top - it's certainly a different colour than I expected but there is a thick covering of grass on it," Paine said. "Given there's been a lot of rain, and the overcast here, I think the Dukes ball is going to swing around and it looks like, if anything, there might be a bit more pace in it than I was expecting, which again might suit us.

"There's no doubt when the ball moves it's difficult for even the very best of batsmen. It's about being really clear on what you're actually trying to achieve and the plan you've got as a batter. And it's having the courage to walk out into the middle, under pressure in a Test match, and stick to that or execute it. We haven't been reinventing the wheel on batting, we've just been trying to be really clear in exactly how we want to play and now it's about sticking to that under pressure."

At least some of that pressure will be in the form of concerted booing from English crowds, something that the England batsman Joe Denly did not exactly discourage on Tuesday. However Paine said that after plenty of thought, the Australians would do their best to channel the noise and energy radiating off the crowd into a positive force, no matter what is hurled from the Eric Hollies Stand and elsewhere.

"We know what's coming, it's part and parcel. We need to be strong enough to handle it." Tim Paine on how the English fans will react to Australia's players

"We've touched on it, of course we've touched on it. We know what to expect here in England and we're looking to embrace it," Paine said. "We think it's part of international cricket in England and it's something if we embrace you can have great memories. We're talking about it that way, trying to use it as energy and use it in a positive manner. We know what's coming, it's part and parcel. We need to be strong enough to handle it.

"We've spoken about that, backing each other up and being a really tight group which is no different to anywhere else but here it can be more important on long tours. Regardless of where it is, obviously we want to get off to a good start in the Ashes. It's really important that you get some momentum early in a big series like this. We haven't spoken about whether Edgbaston is a fortress for them, because that's irrelevant. It's about being clear on what we want to do, both individually and as a team.

"If we can be really clear, come out and execute well, it doesn't matter if we play at Edgbaston or on the moon, we think our best cricket is good enough."

One cricketer conspicuous by his absence from the pre-series noise has been Nathan Lyon, who spoke brutishly of "ending a few careers" before the previous Ashes series, even as he backed it up by dominating England with his off breaks. "Gazza's probably the best spin bowler in the world and he's proven that now over a long period of time," Paine said.

"No doubt he has flown under the radar a little bit, probably because he didn't play much in the World Cup. I'm sure he's being spoken about quite a lot in their change room and they'll be coming up with plans on how to try and counter Nathan. As we've seen the last three or four years in any conditions, he's a real handful and he's going to be a huge asset for us in this series."

Earning Greg Chappell's praise and being in the same dressing room as his batting idol Sachin Tendulkar are two of Venugopal Rao's fondest memories as an India cricketer. On Tuesday, the 37-year old middle-order batsman called time on a two-decade long career, which effectively ended in 2017.

Over the last two years, while he has continued playing corporate cricket for MRF, retirement has been a constant thought. He took a final call during his World Cup assignment as a commentator for a regional sports channel. A formal announcement came through the Andhra Cricket Association, the team he represented for a majority of 121 first-class matches that brought 7081 runs at an average of 40.93, with 17 centuries and 30 half-centuries.

For now, he has no T20 offers in the pipeline. He is looking forward to his future in Telugu commentary and perhaps some coaching too "if something comes up".

"In the early 1990s, they used to laugh whenever someone from Andhra desired to play for India. To be one of only two cricketers from the region (MSK Prasad being the other) to play for the country proved that you can achieve your goal," Venugopal told ESPNcricinfo. "To come from a fishing village near Visakhapatnam, where my father worked for a modest salary of INR 7000 to support five children, and play was a big thing. All credit to my parents."

It is nearly fourteen years to the day when Venugopal made his India debut. Tendulkar was still recovering from a tennis elbow, Sourav Ganguly had been suspended for an over-rate offence, VVS Laxman was not an automatic pick and MS Dhoni was asked to open the batting. India needed a middle-order batsman and Venugopal was one of two debutants alongside Suresh Raina.

"Playing Muttiah Muralitharan on debut was an unforgettable experience," he said. "As batsmen, we grew up playing spin, but I felt nothing quite prepared you to face him. He was an exceptional bowler. I have fond memories of that game [even though India lost]."

"To come from a fishing village near Visakhapatnam, where my father worked for a modest salary of INR 7000 to support five children, and play was a big thing"

In the season that preceded his debut, Venugopal announced himself by smashing a career-best 228 not out in a chase of 501 for South Zone against England Lions in the Duleep Trophy. It was the fifth-highest chase in first-class history at the time, against a competent attack featuring Simon Jones, Sajid Mahmood and James Tredwell, all of whom went on to play for England. Yet, Venugopal believes it was a practice match that turned out to be the difference between an India cap and being on the fringes.

"Before the Sri Lanka tour, we had a conditioning camp followed by a match between the 30 probables. The seniors played against the second XI. I made a 90 against the seniors, whose bowling included Zaheer Khan, Harbhajan Singh and Irfan Pathan. That knock convinced [then India coach] Greg Chappell. After the game, he had a long chat with me and the next day, I was informed of my India selection for the Sri Lanka tour.

"I was very jittery, I always felt as a cricketer growing up, if someone from Tamil Nadu or Mumbai made 120 runs, I had to make 200 to be noticed," Venugopal said. "Ahead of my India debut, I was a little nervous. Many thoughts ran through my mind. Greg had just taken up as coach, and he told me 'Look, for me, where you come from doesn't matter. I know you are good enough to be here, and that is why you are here.' Those words gave me a lot of belief."

Venugopal was used as a floater between 2005 and 2006, but his career could not quite take off. He played the last of his 16 ODIs in the West Indies in 2006, with his highest of 61 not out coming against Pakistan in Abu Dhabi. He was also India's first ever super sub. Post his short India career, Venugopal battled injuries and inconsistency to play for Andhra and Gujarat in domestic cricket. He was also part of the IPL title-winning Deccan Chargers in 2009. His last IPL appearance was with Delhi Daredevils in 2014.

Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne elected to bat first after winning the toss against Bangladesh in the third ODI at the R Premadasa Stadium. Having already clinched the series in the second game, Sri Lanka rested four of their regulars.

They brought in Shehan Jayasuriya, Dasun Shanaka, Wanindu Hasaranga and Kasun Rajitha for Isuru Udana, Nuwan Pradeep, Dhananjaya de Silva and Lahiru Thirimanne.

For Bangladesh, Mustafizur Rahman was sidelined due to a niggle he suffered during warm-up. Rubel Hossain replaced him. Mosaddek Hossain also missed out, giving his spot to Anamul Haque, who is playing his first ODI in 12 months.

Sri Lanka: 1 Dimuth Karunaratne (capt), 2 Kusal Perera, 3 Avishka Fernando, 4 Kusal Mendis, 5 Angelo Mathews, 6 Shehan Jayasuriya, 7 Dasun Shanaka, 8 Wanindu Hasaranga, 9 Akila Dananjaya, 10 Lahiru Kumara, 11 Kasun Rajitha

Bangladesh: 1 Tamim Iqbal (capt), 2 Anamul Haque, 3 Mohammad Mithun, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), 5 Mahmudullah, 6 Soumya Sarkar, 7 Sabbir Rahman, 8 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 9 Taijul Islam, 10 Shafiul Islam, 11 Rubel Hossain

Ian Bell will play no part in Warwickshire's County Championship campaign for the first time since 2000, after being ruled out for the remainder of the 2019 season due to a tendon issue in his left knee.

Bell, who had been on the comeback from a foot injury sustained during the Pakistan Super League in February, reported the knee concern following Warwickshire's Second XI Championship game with Lancashire.

"It's extremely frustrating for us, and for Ian, that another injury has happened when he was extremely close to a First Team return," said Paul Farbrace, Sport Director at Warwickshire CCC.

"Over the last couple of weeks our medical team have been regularly assessing the condition of his left knee, and we have also been supported by sports injury specialists in London. However, the outcome of this has confirmed that Ian will need to have several injections, which rules him out of action for six to eight weeks and effectively ends his season.

"He will now have a three-week period of minimal activity before working closely with our medical and strength and conditioning teams to prepare him for the pre-season programme in 2020."

The injury means that Bell, 37, will be absent from Warwickshire's first-class statistics for the 2019 season, the first time in nearly 20 years that he has failed to play at least one first-class game. He made his debut for the club as a 17-year-old in 1999.

"Whilst we are naturally disappointed to lose a player of Ian's immense talent, one of the positives of 2019 has been the way in which our young, homegrown players have fought in recent weeks," added Farbrace.

"They will continue to be given the opportunity to develop and thrive as we continue our Vitality Blast campaign and fight to retain our place in Division One of the Specsavers County Championship."

GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Kliff Kingsbury now knows why so many players around the league were upset with their Madden ratings.

The new Arizona Cardinals coach was sent a picture of what he looks like in this year's game, which will be released Friday, by "one of my really kind friends." All the text said was: "Looking good, bud." Kingsbury, whose looks are often compared to actor Ryan Gosling's, wasn't pleased.

He thought he looked like a zombie. Literally.

"I saw my picture on there, and I'm not pleased with where we're at."

We need to talk, @EAMaddenNFL... ? #Madden20 pic.twitter.com/Y78KrXiaF3

— Arizona Cardinals (@AZCardinals) July 30, 2019

"I had seen a bunch of guys kind of getting in their feelings about their ratings and then somebody sent me a picture of what I look like on there," Kingsbury said. "I want to get adjusted on looks rating. I look like I'm on 'The Walking Dead' in that picture.

"So, yeah, I apologize to any of those players that I thought, 'Hey, it's just a video game. Why are you upset?' Because I saw my picture on there and I'm not pleased with where we're at. So we'll have to work on that."

Kingsbury was responding to a question about how the Cardinals' offense (73) and defense (80) were rated in the game. The 39-year-old first-year head coach said he doesn't play the game but was ready to get his feelings off his chest about how he's depicted.

"It's funny you bring that up," Kingsbury began.

He was aware of how low some players' ratings were and hoped he could do his part to raise them.

"It looks like they're all pretty low to start," Kingsbury said. "So I don't think that locker room is probably pleased with where they're at on that game."

Kingsbury had a message for the game: "Let's work on that, adjusters."

In the midst of a heated playoff race, the Cleveland Indians have traded right-hander Trevor Bauer to the Cincinnati Reds and will get outfielders Yasiel Puig and Franmil Reyes as part of a three-team deal that includes the San Diego Padres, sources told ESPN's Jeff Passan on Tuesday.

As part of the trade, the Indians also will receive left-hander Logan Allen and minor league infielder Victor Nova from the Padres and minor league pitcher Scott Moss from the Reds, sources told Passan. Cincinnati outfield prospect Taylor Trammell, ranked No. 14 on Keith Law's top midseason prospects list, will head to San Diego.

Cleveland (62-44) is three games behind the Minnesota Twins in the American League Central and has a 2½-game cushion atop the wild-card standings.

Following the Indians' 2-0 home loss to the Houston Astros on Tuesday night, Bauer talked and exchanged hugs with several teammates in the clubhouse before departing around 10:45 p.m. He declined to speak with reporters.

Puig, who joined the Reds in a December trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers, was still in Tuesday night's game against the Pittsburgh Pirates as reports of the three-team trade surfaced. He ended his short stint in Cincinnati with a bang when he was involved in a benches-clearing brawl in the ninth inning and was among seven ejected as a result.

The Reds did not confirm Tuesday's trade, but Puig said after Tuesday's game that he is bound for Cleveland.

"I'm going to miss all my teammates here,'' Puig said. "This part of the year is amazing for me, being on this team and the city. Now it's time to move forward and go to my new team and help my team go to the playoffs. ... I want to say thank you to all the city, Cincinnati. We stay next door -- we're going to Cleveland."

Bauer, who is 9-8 with a 3.79 ERA and 185 strikeouts, will head to a Cincinnati (49-56) team that is seven games out of the wild card after Tuesday's 11-4 loss. After a breakout 2018 season in which he made his first All-Star team, Bauer hasn't been as consistent as the Indians have needed while waiting for two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber (broken arm) and Carlos Carrasco (leukemia) to return to their rotation. Kluber, who was hit by a line drive May 1, is scheduled to throw a simulated game against a group of Indians minor leaguers Saturday and could begin a minor league rehabilitation assignment if he gets through the simulated game with no issues.

The 28-year-old Bauer, who isn't a free agent until after the 2020 season, is making $13 million this season. In eight seasons since he broke into the majors with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2012, he is 68-55 with 1,111 strikeouts and a 3.92 ERA.

Bauer has had his share of non-pitching issues. Earlier Tuesday, Bauer was informed that he would be fined by Major League Baseball but not suspended for firing a baseball from the mound over the center-field fence before being removed from Sunday's game against the Royals.

In 2016, Bauer was scratched from Game 2 of the AL Championship Series after a freak injury in which he sliced the tip of his finger while doing maintenance on his drone. He tried to start Game 3 but left after 21 pitches when the wound ripped open and caked his jersey, pants and portions of the mound in blood. He returned for the World Series.

In 2018, he traded barbs on social media with members of the Astros after insinuating that Houston pitchers were applying pine tar or some similar substance to baseballs to increase spin rate.

The additions of Puig and Reyes will give the Indians a nice upgrade offensively, particularly in the power department. They have combined for 49 home runs, 21 more than all Indians corner outfielders combined this season.

Puig is batting .252 with 22 homers and 61 RBIs, and Reyes is batting .255 with 27 homers and 46 RBIs.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

"Everything can have drama if it's done right," Julia Child famously said. "Even a pancake."

We got much more than a pancake on Tuesday.

As front offices were busy exchanging phone calls on trade-deadline eve, the Cincinnati Reds and Pittsburgh Pirates were busy exchanging punches, the final act of a season-long simmering feud between the two clubs. Indeed, a few minutes after reports leaked about the three-team blockbuster trade that sent Trevor Bauer to the Reds and Yasiel Puig to the Cleveland Indians, there was the spirited Puig -- still in the game in the top of the ninth inning -- in the middle of the melee, with several teammates and coaches eventually holding him back before he self-combusted.

Talk about a dramatic departure. The Puig era in Cincinnati was short-lived -- 91 games and 404 plate appearances -- but Reds fans will forever remember his final game. Likewise, Indians fans will recollect Bauer's last game with Cleveland, an outing that ended in a childish tantrum when he chucked the ball over the center-field fence after being removed from the game. Puig and Bauer are perhaps the two most controversial personalities in the game, so maybe it's fitting their departures both end in a crazy blend of tragedy and comedy.

The Reds-Pirates brawl was one of the nastier fights in a long time. The animosity goes back to April 7, when the Pirates took offense to Derek Dietrich taking too long to watch a home run and Chris Archer later hit him with a pitch. The benches cleared in that game, and Puig was one of the players ejected. In May, the Pirates hit Dietrich again -- and then he hit three home runs the next day and admired each one.

In Tuesday's game, Dietrich entered in the seventh inning and Keone Kela promptly threw a pitch over Dietrich's head. At the end of the inning as the Reds took the field, Joey Votto had words with the Pittsburgh dugout, motioning to his head as if to say "don't throw it up here." In the top of the ninth, Cincinnati's Jared Hughes plunked Starling Marte in the rear end, earning an ejection and bringing Amir Garrett into the game.

All remained calm until the last out of the inning. Garrett had just retired Kevin Newman on a groundout, but as he returned to the mound, he had words with Pirates pitcher Trevor Williams and then charged toward the Pittsburgh dugout like Mel Gibson taking on the English:

Amir Garrett vs. The Pirates.
#Reds @Amir_Garrett pic.twitter.com/o3o1brNdiL

— Sam Greene (@SGdoesit) July 31, 2019

That's how Puig eventually got involved -- and received his third ejection of the season. (He was ejected four times in six seasons with the Dodgers.)

Reds manager David Bell, who had been ejected in the eighth inning for arguing balls and strikes, returned to the field during the brawl, certainly earning himself a fine and suspension. He found himself on the bottom of the chaos with Pirates hitting coach Rick Eckstein on top of him, and as he finally extricated himself from the pile, Bell appeared to shout "You piece of s---" at Pirates manager Clint Hurdle.

Bell also had pointed words for Hurdle after the game.

"The warnings aren't going to do anything," he said of the Pirates' head-hunting tactics. "There's no place for it. ... This has been going on all year."

The Pirates don't have a good reputation in this regard. Yes, Hurdle and pitching coach Ray Searage preach pitching inside, but Kela's pitch was bush league. Bell tried to raise this issue with MLB earlier in the season to little avail:

Back in May, David Bell tried to tell @MLB that the Pirates needed to be taken care of. MLB did nothing. #Reds

— Lance McAlister (@LanceMcAlister) July 31, 2019

Hurdle is 62, which makes him a guy from a different generation, as compared to most of today's managers. He played in the rough-and-tumble 1970s and 1980s, when brawls were a much more frequent part of the game. While we rarely see those kinds of all-out fights anymore -- even in this one, it didn't appear that Garrett actually landed clean blows with any of his punches -- the pitches at or near the head remain too frequent in today's game. Throwing at Dietrich in July because of a home run he hit in April is a discredit to the Pirates organization.

Bell is right, however: Warnings from the umpires don't solve the problem. Until the punishment for pitches like the one Kela threw are more severe, we're going to continue to see this stuff happen. The Pirates and Hurdle are maybe the worst offenders, and their actions toward Dietrich this season have been an embarrassment, but they're not the only ones. The players have proved they can't police themselves, and at some point, one of these pitches is going to hit a batter and do some serious damage.

There will be suspensions. There will be fines. Let's hope MLB figures out a way to step in and actually stop the nonsense.

LOS ANGELES -- Video games have taken over the NBA.

From the NBA 2K League, which features gaming squads for 21 of the league's franchises, to Josh Hart and Reggie Jackson competing at the Fortnite Pro-Am at Epic Games' Summer Block Party in June, it's impossible to walk into an NBA locker room without finding a few players ready to throw down in their favorite video game.

"The biggest gamer I know personally is Josh Hart," said Lonzo Ball at PUBG Mobile's Team Up Superstar Showdown event. "Just being around him, I know he is streaming all the time. He loves games to this day."

For Ball, who was recently traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to the New Orleans Pelicans alongside teammate Hart, his love for gaming dovetailed with his dream growing up of playing in the NBA. The first video game he played was NBA Street on the Nintendo Gamecube, which released in 2002 when he was only 5 years old. His love for sport-simulation games such as NBA 2K continues, as he plays whenever he can.

Having grown up with two younger siblings, Ball quickly dismisses the notion that he's the biggest baller in his family when it comes to video games. That recognition goes to the youngest Ball brother, LaMelo, who is currently projected to be a first-round pick in next year's NBA draft.

"It's [LaMelo] for sure. I don't play as much as him," Lonzo said. "Sports games, I'm better than him, but when it comes to shooting games and stuff, he probably has that."

In Detroit, Pistons big man Andre Drummond is a connoisseur of a wider array of video games. Whereas Lonzo and other gamers in the NBA generally stick to sports simulations such as 2K or Madden, Drummond began his love of gaming through story-based, open-world games. He's a fan of the Grand Theft Auto games, especially the fifth installment in the series. Currently, he's enraptured with the newest God of War game, which was released last year, praising how the game's story has kept him engaged.

He will occasionally bust out his PC to play games, but when it comes to his console collection, he has a variety of old and new games. Drummond mentioned the NASCAR video games as some of his favorites, shouting out the retired Jeff Gordon as his favorite racer. Yet, regardless of how many consoles he owns or how many games he completes from beginning to end, Drummond doesn't think he is the best video game player on the Detroit Pistons.

"[It's] definitely Reggie Jackson, by far," Drummond said. "He's the best player I've ever seen play Fortnite. I'm terrible at it, but I still play. [Reggie] gets me wins, so it looks good on my part, but I don't have to do anything. He plays [games] any chance he gets. Anytime he's not doing anything, he's probably playing. I'm pretty sure if I call him right now, he'll be playing."

Isaiah Thomas, newly signed by the Washington Wizards and a bit older at 30 than the other athletes on hand at the PUBG Mobile event, isn't the biggest fan of Fortnite. Although he loves to play (and beat) his children in sport-simulation games, the NBA veteran isn't ready to let his kids download the free-to-play video game that has become a worldwide phenomenon.

"They wanna play Fortnite, but I'm not allowing them to play yet," Thomas said. "My boys are only 7 and 8, and they're always saying all of their friends are playing Fortnite, why can't they play? They're big on the iPad, so they're big on video games and that [stuff] in general, so the older they get, I'll introduce them to games like [PUBG], but I gotta keep the shooting away [for now]."

One player who doesn't keep away from shooting games is Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons. Be it on a phone for PUBG, on a console or on his gaming platform of choice, the PC, he is one of the best video game players in the entire league. During the PUBG Mobile event, he starred throughout, trash-talking all the way.

"I started with Call of Duty shooter games, 2K ... I pretty much play everything," Simmons said.

The MVP of the league, Milwaukee Bucks' Giannis Antetokounmpo, used to be an avid gamer, getting calluses on his hands from playing so often, but he has stopped gaming as much since entering the NBA. His old favorites were the sport-simulation games such as Pro Evolution Soccer and NBA 2K, Tekken when it came to fighting games and the original Ratchet and Clank game (but none of the sequels, which he made very clear) on Playstation 2.

Above all else, there was one gaming series that captured the heart of the NBA MVP.

Not a fighting game.

Not a shooting game.

Not even a sports game.

For the Greek Freak, it's all about Lego.

"This might sound corny ... I used to play a lot of, you know, the Lego games," Giannis said. "The Lego games are fun. You can be the superhero Lego and all that; that was fun with [versions such as] Indiana Jones Lego."

Next year, when players wake up at the crack of dawn to run for miles or hire shooting specialists to improve their jumpers, maybe instead they should fire up Lego Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures on the Playstation 2 and get to work.

Hey, it worked for Giannis.

LOS ANGELES -- When asked about his love of video games, Philadelphia 76ers star Ben Simmons pulls out his phone and flips through a gallery of photos. After a bit of perusing, he stops on the picture he was attempting to find, an older, sepia-tone one contrasting with his state-of-the-art smartphone.

In the snapshot, an adolescent Simmons lounges in an Australian living room, playing video games on a lazy day, with close friend and fellow future NBA player Dante Exum sitting beside him.

This is what video games mean to him.

"I've been playing [video games] my whole life," Simmons says. "The first game I really got into was Resistance for Playstation. That was the shooter I played. And then from there I started playing Call of Duty, picked all those up and eventually got into PC gaming a little later [with Counter-Strike], PUBG, a little bit of Fortnite -- not too much Fortnite, because I'm not into building stuff. It's too much."

With a new generation of stars like Simmons entering the NBA, video gaming culture has permeated the league alongside these stars. What once would have seemed uncool to bring up in the locker room has become standard talk between teammates and friends, with arguments sometimes settled through video games. Nowadays, players throughout the NBA stay connected by gaming together online and even creating leagues in games such as Madden and NBA 2K where they can compete regularly against each other.

While some players lug their consoles onto planes or set them up as a fixture in the clubhouse, Simmons primarily plays on a PC, a convert from his younger days of playing on the Playstation and Xbox.

"I used to be console [player], but PC is much easier," Simmons says. "Every game is right there, you can log on and everything is much easier."

Growing up in Australia, Simmons was just like any other kid fascinated with games, consuming Call of Duty content from the top players and entertainers on YouTube, such as Optic's Hector "H3CZ" Rodriguez. Since moving to America and reaching the NBA, he has gotten to know and grown close to H3CZ and Thomas "Temperrr" Oliveira, the co-founder of FaZe Clan.

Simmons' game of choice nowadays is PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which is why he is spending some time in Los Angeles this offseason while competing in PUBG Mobile's Team Up Superstar Showdown. Although this version of PUBG is played on a mobile device, Simmons has had few problems adjusting, defeating every other NBA player he has faced and capping the event off by defeating a team captained by Eastern Conference rival and reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Before leaving the venue, Simmons even razzes the MVP as Antetokounmpo is conducting an interview, reminding him that while the Milwaukee Bucks star might have gotten the edge against the 76ers on the court this year, he got the last laugh ... at least, in the world of video games.

Simmons doesn't just talk trash with NBA rivals, but with his own teammates too. In the hierarchy of gamers in the 76ers locker room, Simmons notes that there is only one other teammate who can keep up with him in terms of gameplay and trash talk -- Joel Embiid.

"If you put me on PC, I'll destroy him," Simmons says. "He plays FIFA. I can beat him in FIFA. Here's the thing: I don't play FIFA, but I've beaten him in a game of FIFA. I can play any game."

But does Embiid, the renowned pot-stirrer, have an edge when it comes to trash talk?

"Yeah, but that's easy," Simmons says. "I leave that to him."

Simmons is the prototypical new-age star in the NBA today. He loves video games, social media and pop culture. When he isn't practicing to get better on the court in an effort to win a championship for the Sixers, he often is at his place, grinding on his PC, playing PUBG and trash-talking to his friends. The picture of him and Exum as children playing video games captures a part of Simmons that has remained constant to this day -- even though, at 6-foot-10, he is considerably taller, and his television is considerably flatter.

"I think it's cool to game now," Simmons says. "I think people thought it wasn't cool to game and be out there and let everyone know you're a nerd about how much you play; but for me, I love it.

"After this, I'll probably go home, eat and play for four hours with friends and talk s---. Playing video games is fun for me. I love it."