The air quality in Canberra will be assessed for safety ahead of tonight's BBL match between the Sydney Thunder and the Adelaide Strikers at Manuka Oval with Australia's capital shrouded in haze from the extensive New South Wales bushfires.

Conditions will be discussed an hour before play is due to begin at 5.10pm local time with a further inspection when the bat flip takes place at 5.25pm. If visibility or the air quality are too poor then the game could be called off. In such a scenario the points would be shared as in a rained-off game.

"The safety of players, fans and staff remains our number one priority. In accordance with relevant guidelines, air quality will be regularly assessed throughout the day today," the Thunder said in a statement.

"The safety of players, fans and staff remains our number one priority. In accordance with relevant guidelines, air quality will be regularly assessed throughout the day today," the Thunder said in a statement. In the event that visibility and/or air quality is deemed unsuitable for play decisions regarding the match will be made in accordance with BBL Playing Conditions."

Earlier this month the Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Queensland at the SCG was completed in extensive smoke haze which raised questions about player and spectator safety.

Cricket Australia does not currently have an air quality policy.

On Friday, Cricket New South Wales said that clubs should consider cancelling matches this weekend due to a combination of the smoke haze and heat.

"Either one of these weather events, that is, extreme heat or poor air quality, is reason enough for caution when considering safety and whether or not to play on Saturday. The combination of both events in many areas of NSW is extremely concerning,' Lee German, the NSW CEO said,

"We love cricket. We want to see people playing and enjoying their cricket, but our concern for player and official safety always come first. All at Cricket NSW once again send our thoughts to all those currently facing the devastating bushfires across NSW and reassure our cricket communities we will continue to be here to work with you throughout this summer and beyond."

Former two-time middleweight world titlist Daniel Jacobs made a successful debut in the super middleweight division as he made the overweight Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. quit after the fifth round Friday night at Talking Stick Resort Arena in Phoenix.

When the fight ended abruptly with Chavez, the favorite of the largely Mexican and Mexican-American crowd, refusing to go on, spectators rained boos on him and pelted the ring with debris. When Chavez left the ring, people in the crowd of about 10,000 continued to throw things at him in an ugly scene.

Sitting at ringside was the legendary International Boxing Hall of Famer Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., who wore a look of disgust on his face after his son quit.

Chavez seemed to indicate that he retired because of a broken hand, but trainer Freddie Roach said it was a broken nose. Regardless, Jacobs had begun to take it to Chavez, who also quit after nine rounds in a 2015 fight with Andrzej Fonfara.

"They won't let me enjoy my victory," Jacobs said as he was being protected from objects flying into the ring. "I never ran and I never will, but I will duck these beer cans."

Jacobs returned to the win column after losing a competitive decision to Canelo Alvarez in a 160-pound title unification bout in May. Jacobs had been having trouble making weight in recent fights, so he moved up to the 168-pound division to face Chavez, also a former middleweight titlist.

But instead of facing a man his size, Jacobs was in the ring with a much bigger man who had failed to make weight on Thursday and probably was likely close to being a cruiserweight on fight night.

Whether Chavez would even make it to the ring was riddled with uncertainty. He had to obtain a court-ordered temporary restraining order in Nevada on Tuesday that forced the Nevada State Athletic Commission to lift his suspension for refusing a Voluntary Anti-Doping Association random drug test on Oct. 24 that left the fight in limbo and led Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn to move the bout from Las Vegas to Phoenix. The situation also forced Hearn to sign former two-time middleweight world title challenger Gabriel Rosado to fight on the undercard knowing he would be on stand-by to face Jacobs in case Chavez was not allowed to fight.

Even after Chavez's suspension was lifted the fight was again in limbo on Thursday when Chavez was 172.7 pounds at the weigh-in, a whopping 4.7 pounds over the 168-pound super middleweight limit. He had to give up $1 million of his purse to Jacobs in order for Jacobs to fight him. Jacobs could have invoked his contractual right to fight Rosado instead because of how far overweight Chavez -- who has had weight issues for several bouts -- was.

"To me it wasn't my debut at super middleweight because to me he was a cruiserweight," Jacobs said. "Even his jab was heavy. Physically, he was a bigger man, so I tried my best to be elusive and box but he was heavy. I did my best to counter him and slowly but surely I got my counter punches in there and he quit."

Chavez made plenty of excuses following the fight, including accusing Jacobs of fouls that did not occur, and even had the audacity to call for a rematch.

"I was getting close but got head-butted above the left eye," Chavez said. "Then I had problems because of all the blood. I came over to the corner and couldn't breathe. He elbowed me and head-butted me. Very tough fight. I felt I couldn't go because I couldn't breathe properly. The ref wasn't calling anything.

"I apologize to the fans. I'd love to have a rematch. I got head-butted. He fought a dirty fight and [the referee] didn't even take a point away. He would have been able to continue doing the dirty work."

Chavez was very aggressive at the outset. He punched to the body and used his massive size advantage to push Jacobs around in the first two rounds. Jacobs, who was with a new head trainer in Fareed Samad for the first time after splitting with longtime cornerman Andre Rozier due to a financial dispute, got his jab going in the third round and appeared to get into a rhythm.

As Jacobs (36-3, 30 KOs), 32, of Brooklyn, New York, let hit his punches flow to the head and body in the fourth round Chavez began to noticeably slow.

Chavez (51-4-1, 33 KOs), 33, of Mexico, had some success in the middle of the fifth round, but it was short-lived, and overall it was another good round for Jacobs, who cut Chavez over the left eye and gave him a bloody nose. After the round, Chavez returned to his corner but did not sit on his stool. As Chavez's team worked on his cut and nose, he did not seem like he wanted to continue.

Finally, referee Wes Melton walked to his corner and Chavez indicated he did not want to go on. As Melton waved the fight over, the boos cascaded throughout the arena and fans threw liquid and debris into the ring, some of which hit members of the DAZN broadcast team at ringside.

According to CompuBox, Jacobs landed 61 of 223 punches (27 percent), and Chavez landed 35 of 116 (30 percent).

Friday night marked just Chavez's second fight in more than two years.

After losing by shutout decision to Alvarez in May 2017 in a fight in which Chavez did not appear to even try, Chavez only had beaten journeyman Evert Bravo by first-round knockout in a light heavyweight fight on Aug. 10 in Mexico.

By quitting the way he did, it is hard to envision Chavez back in a major fight. Jacobs, however, is in line for another big one, possibly a title shot at super middleweight against either Callum Smith or Billy Joe Saunders. All three of them are promoted by Hearn and fight on DAZN, which means they are not complicated bouts to make.

More serious discussion of those fights will come in the future but Jacobs wanted to try to enjoy his win.

"I am comfortable with the victory. Obviously, they won't let me enjoy it," Jacobs said of the crowd. "I know they're not mad at me. They're mad at Chavez, but I did my part."

Martinez stops Rosales for flyweight world title

Julio Cesar Martinez won a vacant flyweight title in an action-packed slugfest with Cristofer Rosales, whom he knocked out in the ninth round in the co-feature.

Martinez (15-1, 12 KOs), 24, of Mexico, won the belt that eluded him on Aug. 31 in London when he challenged Charlie Edwards and dominated. The fight was initially ruled a third-round knockout win for Martinez but was changed to a no-contest minutes later after a replay review because Martinez had landed a punch while Edwards was down. Rather than fight Martinez in a mandated rematch, Edwards elected to vacate the title and move up in weight. So Martinez faced former titlist Rosales for the vacant belt and claimed the 112-pound belt in an exciting battle.

The first round started fast, but the action dramatically increased in the second round as they traded toe to toe. Rosales rocked Martinez with a clean right hand as they engaged in an extended exchange. An accidental head butt later in the round left Martinez with a cut on his right eyelid that dripped blood down his face.

They continued to blast away at each other in a non-stop action fight, and by the end of the fourth round Rosales was bleeding from his nose.

Although Rosales gave a game effort, Martinez was breaking him down. He was landing uppercuts and adroitly switching between left- and right-handed stances to keep Rosales off balance.

Martinez laid immense punishment on Rosales in the seventh round, and referee Raul Caiz Jr. was looking closely at stopping the fight late in the round as Martinez poured the punishment on.

In the ninth round, as Martinez unloaded numerous punches and forced Rosales to the ropes, Caiz finally stepped in and stopped the bout at 1 minute, 19 seconds.

"It was a very strong preparation," Martinez said through an interpreter. "We came with everything and things worked our way. We knew Cristofer Rosales was going to be at tough fighter, but the tricks came out. We were able to perform and win the fight."

According to CompuBox, Martinez landed 231 of 490 (47 percent), and Rosales landed 118 of 591 (20 percent).

Martinez, who shares trainer Eddy Reynoso with Canelo Alvarez, said he would like to next have a unification fight.

"We want to follow Saul's footsteps and go for all the belts against whoever, wherever," Martinez said, referring to Alvarez.

Rosales (29-5, 20 KOs), 25, of Nicaragua, was trying to regain the belt he once held before losing it to Edwards by unanimous decision last December.

Hooker smokes Perez

Former junior welterweight world titlist Maurice Hooker, who lost his belt by sixth-round knockout to Jose Ramirez in their July 27 unification bout, made his return in dominant fashion as he knocked out Uriel Perez in the first round.

Hooker (27-1-3, 18 KOs), 30, of Dallas, who was fighting at 144 pounds -- between the junior welterweight and welterweight limits -- was in his first fight since parting ways with career-long trainer Vince Parra following the loss to Ramirez to join the camp of Brian McIntyre, who also trains welterweight titlist Terence Crawford.

Hooker, who said he wants to return to the 140-pound division, had no issues with Perez, whose two-fight winning streak ended. He opened the fight using a stiff jab to control Perez and then landed a hard right hand to the head and a right to the body. Perez was badly hurt and Hooker continued to pound him until he went down to the canvas. Perez (19-5, 17 KOs), 24, of Mexico, barely beat the count but told referee Tony Zaino he could not continue and he waived it off at 2 minutes, 52 seconds.

"I know when I hit him with the body shot I hurt him," Hooker said. "When he backed up on the ropes I attacked him. I have the best jab at 140. No one can beat me when I'm conditioned. I just want my belt back. Where I'm from I can't go out like that. I want my belt back."

Hooker welcomed his return to the win column.

"I feel good," he said. "I just want my belt back. I'll do whatever I can to get my belt back. [Unified titleholder] Josh Taylor, whoever it is, I want my belt back at 140. The weight didn't matter to me. I got a new team, we trained hard, and I'm ready. Tonight I couldn't show you too much, but next fight I will. I got in my rhythm and hit my shots."

PHILADELPHIA -- The Philadelphia 76ers went the first two months of the season without losing a game at home. Then they lost two in the span of three days.

And, after getting blown out by the Luka Doncic-less Dallas Mavericks 117-98 at Wells Fargo Center on Friday night, Joel Embiid had a simple explanation for what has gone wrong: The Sixers are playing "scared."

"I feel like, especially tonight, we were playing scared," Embiid said. "Basketball is easy. You just shoot it, pass it, move it. If you don't got a shot just pass it.

"But tonight, like I said, we didn't make shots, and defensively we were pretty bad."

Everything was ugly for the Sixers in this one. But, for a second consecutive game, they were tripped up by a rare sight in an NBA game: zone defense.

The Miami Heat handed the 76ers their first home loss of the season Wednesday night, playing 38 possessions of zone -- the most any team has played in a single game this season, according to Second Spectrum data. The Mavericks followed that up by playing 35 possessions in zone Friday night.

When Kristaps Porzingis, who finished with 22 points, 18 rebounds and three blocked shots to lead the Mavericks, was asked when he'd most recently played this much zone, he had to think about it.

"Probably in Europe," he said.

That will be of little solace to the Sixers, however, who have now lost three straight dating to Sunday's loss at Brooklyn, and have looked completely out of sorts in all three games.

Sunday's defeat could be attributed, in part, to not having Embiid, who led the Sixers with 33 points and 17 rebounds Friday night. But he was available against both the Heat and Mavericks, and it wasn't nearly enough for Philadelphia to overcome either opponent.

And while Embiid addressed the issue as playing scared, Sixers coach Brett Brown said that Philadelphia's issues against the zone the past two games had seeped into the team's mindset and affected the way the Sixers were playing.

"I think that the influence that our inability lately, to, like, be put on our back heels against the zone has crept into our defense, our psyche, our spirit," Brown said. "And I can't stand it.

"This is not who we are. It's not who we are. And, you know, as we've discussed as a team that there's enough body of work you just respect the heck out of the locker room. I love coaching these guys, because I respect them. And I feel like our competitive spirit has taken a dent because of our inability to score, and I think that any time you get into a mood swing that affects your defense because your offense is doing something, it needs to be addressed."

It is only Dec. 20, and even after these three losses, the Sixers are 20-10 on the season. But every game matters in the crowded standings of the Eastern Conference. The other four teams bunched up behind the first-place Milwaukee Bucks -- the Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors and Indiana Pacers -- all won Friday night.

As a result, the Sixers dropped all the way to sixth place in the East -- though they remain just a game behind Boston in second. But while positioning will certainly matter down the road, at the moment Philadelphia has a far more pressing concern: getting itself back on track.

"A little bit, I am," Brown said when asked if he was surprised this had become an issue. "I haven't seen that in this group ... how long has it been since the Brooklyn game? Six days? Before that, we were all feeling pretty good ... the past six days, if that's what it is, the past three games we have laid eggs. We have not played with a competitive drive that reflects this team. It's not, at all, how I see the world."

The weird thing about all of the zone defense the Sixers have seen is that, despite the talk about it, the numbers aren't much different against zone defense than they are versus man-to-man. Per Second Spectrum data, the Sixers shot 40% from the field over those 73 possessions they saw zone against Miami and Dallas and 43% in the 141 possessions they saw against man defense. The numbers from 3-point range (10-for-33 for 30.3% against zone, 12-for-40 for 30% against man) are almost identical.

But this clearly is as much of a mental thing as anything else with the Sixers, who were surprisingly frank after Friday's game about the issues they are dealing with.

When Al Horford was asked whether the zone has affected the team, before the questioner could finish, he said, "Yes. Yeah."

When Embiid was asked to clarify what exactly he meant by the Sixers playing "scared," he said the biggest issue was players hesitating to shoot when they had open looks.

"Yeah," he said. "I felt like tonight we had a few open looks, [and] you just got to shoot it. But then again, it's also a balance, that's what I've been dealing with. You got a lot of people telling you to be aggressive and all that, and obviously you don't want to be selfish, but at the end of the day if you got to make something happen, you got to, especially if you feel like you have a look.

"In those situations if you're wide open, or if you're open, just shoot it. We're going to get an offensive rebound or we're going to make something happen."

The past three games have seen Philadelphia make very little happen -- at least beside repeatedly looking out of sorts offensively and even worse defensively. Making it all the more troublesome for the Sixers is that the past two games were -- finally -- opportunities for them to play with their full starting five, something they've rarely been able to this season.

But instead of building upon early successes, they've gotten their doors blown off by two of the better teams in the league on their home court in the span of three days after repeatedly blasting teams at home over the first two months of the season.

Saturday, meanwhile, brings the Washington Wizards to Philadelphia, and though they are coming off a loss Friday in Toronto that was their eighth in 10 games and dropped them to 8-19, the Wizards have played more zone defense by percentage (3.8% of the time, per Second Spectrum) than any other team in the NBA.

It might offer the 76ers another chance to try to get themselves right against zone defense. But no matter what happens against the Wizards, it's clear that the Sixers -- who entered the season as a team expected to lean on its defense to begin with, and to struggle to shoot the ball effectively from the perimeter -- are going to be seeing a lot more zone defense before this season is through.

"It is a complete copycat league," Brown said.

"The real issue is, as I see it, is this isn't gonna go away. You know, this isn't gonna go away. And if you went around the league there would be not many teams that live in a zone like Miami could live in one, and Dallas has lived in one, and those that have tinkered with it I think will sit in it and feel more confident and comfortable to sit in it longer as we figure this out."

Now it will be up to Brown and the Sixers to prove they can solve it.

Minnesota Wild forward Jason Zucker will miss four to six weeks after having surgery to repair a fractured right fibula, general manager Bill Guerin said.

Zucker underwent the procedure Friday at TRIA Orthopaedic Center in Bloomington, Minnesota.

Zucker had missed the past two Wild games with the injury. He's third on the team with 12 goals to go with 12 assists.

Former New Orleans Saints receiver Joe Horn pleaded guilty Thursday to the count of conspiracy to commit health care fraud as part of a plea agreement related to the federal investigation into a group of ex-NFL players accused of defrauding the league's health care benefit program.

Horn was one of 12 players named by Department of Justice officials last week for allegedly submitting nearly $4 million in phony claims, leading to payouts of about $3.4 million between June 2017 and December 2018.

Horn is scheduled to be sentenced in April. Although he is subject to a maximum of 10 years in prison, his cooperation will likely lead to a lesser sentence.

Horn signed documents confirming that he agreed with "former NFL players Tamarick Vanover, Donald (Reche) Caldwell and others to submit false and fraudulent claims to the (Gene Upshaw NFL Player Health Reimbursement Account) Plan, seeking reimbursements for high dollar value durable medical equipment that were never actually provided to vested members."

Ten players were charged last week: Vanover, Clinton Portis, Robert McCune, John Eubanks, Carlos Rogers, Ceandris Brown, James Butler, Fredrick Bennett, Correll Buckhalter and Etric Pruitt. The DOJ also announced that it would seek charges against Horn and Caldwell.

Portis' attorney, Mark Dycio, said in a statement last week that, "Many of the players named in the indictment are shocked to the allegations given that most if not all deny any participation in any scheme to defraud the insurance company. Clinton Portis has no knowledge that his participation in what he believed to be an NFL-sanctioned medical reimbursement was illegal. He is completely taken aback by this indictment and will move forward with the process of clearing his good name and those of his fellow NFL alumni."

Portis told ESPN's John Keim, "I don't have any comment on that."

Prosecutors say the group's alleged ringleaders, McCune and Buckhalter, would recruit former players by offering to submit fake claims to the health care plan. The ringleaders would then demand thousands of dollars in kickbacks for each fake claim, prosecutors allege.

According to the indictments, the players made claims for expensive medical equipment, such as hyperbaric oxygen chambers, cryotherapy machines, ultrasound machines and electromagnetic therapy devices, that wasn't purchased or received. The typical claim was for $40,000 to $50,000.

"Ten former NFL players allegedly committed a brazen, multimillion-dollar fraud on a health care plan meant to help their former teammates and other retired players pay legitimate, out-of-pocket medical expenses," Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkowski said. "Today's indictments underscore that, whoever you are, if you loot health care programs to line your own pockets, you will be held accountable by the Department of Justice."

The suspects are accused of fabricating letters from health care providers about using the medical equipment, fabricating prescriptions that were purportedly signed by health care providers and creating fake invoices from medical equipment companies in an effort to prove the equipment was purchased, according to court documents. In reality, they had never purchased or received the medical equipment, prosecutors said.

Investigators believe the defendants forged the prescriptions and authorization letters, and they uncovered no evidence that any doctors were complicit in the scheme, Benczkowski said.

After the phony claims were submitted, the former players would receive reimbursement checks and pay a kickback to the ringleaders and recruiters, the indictments charge.

In a simpler time, a man in a "Born Fly" T-shirt made a breathless phone call from an Alabama gym. It was the afternoon of April 18, 2015, a Saturday. Lamont "Pat" Johnson knows the date, because he was so excited that he had to take a picture. Johnson, who stands 5-foot-7 -- "on a good day," he jokes -- posed in the photo next to James Wiseman just to prove he wasn't exaggerating. The kid was 6-foot-8, and Johnson had just seen him dunk, shoot 3s, and make hook shots ... gasp ... left-handed. The kid had just turned 14.

"I am looking at the future No. 1 draft pick," Johnson said over the phone to Corey Frazier, coach of the St. Louis Eagles, a Nike-sponsored grassroots program.

Wiseman towered over Johnson like a sprouting plant. His legs were spindly; his stare was earnest. He was shy, awkward and had no idea where basketball would take him.

His mom was in the stands that day, and Johnson, a youth basketball coach who dabbles as a recruiter for the Eagles, approached her.

"That's my baby," Donzaleigh Artis proudly told him.

The family lived in Nashville, Tennessee, and Artis drove a school bus. She bragged more about her son's grades that day than his jump shot. Wiseman would eventually join the St. Louis Eagles (now called Bradley Beal Elite), and, soon, the teenager had many college suitors.

It could be said that Wiseman's life became more complicated when Penny Hardaway entered it, but that's the nature of basketball for the young and elite. The bigger you get, the harder it is to hide.

Wiseman joined Team Penny in 2017, starting a successful, albeit controversial, run with the former NBA superstar that was supposed to peak this season with the University of Memphis Tigers, where Hardaway is now head coach and Wiseman was the top-rated freshman in the country. Together, the expectation was they would make a run for the national championship and bring a winter of excitement to the city of Memphis.

Wiseman's NCAA career ended Thursday after just three games and 69 minutes on the court. The 7-foot-1 center, who had been serving an NCAA suspension since Nov. 14, announced that he's withdrawing from Memphis to prepare for the 2020 NBA draft, where he is projected to possibly be the No. 1 overall pick.

The NCAA ruled Wiseman ineligible Nov. 8 after it determined that Hardaway provided Wiseman's family $11,500 in moving expenses from Nashville to Memphis in the summer of 2017. Though Hardaway wasn't yet Memphis' coach when he made the payment, he had donated $1 million to his alma mater back in 2008, so he was considered a booster. Wiseman's punishment was a 12-game suspension and repayment of the $11,500 to a charity of his choice. He was expected to return Jan. 12.

They weren't officially linked until after Wiseman's sophomore year of high school, but Hardaway no doubt crossed paths with Wiseman long before that. It's tough to miss a redwood in a forest of Tennessee dogwoods. Still, the relationship that was years in the making, connected from AAU to high school to college, is abruptly over. Was it worth it? Will there be more fallout? The answers won't come today, four months away from the NCAA tournament, and even longer until the NBA draft in June.

"We wish nothing but the best for James in his future endeavors as he follows his dreams," Hardaway said in a 22-word statement Thursday. "He will truly be missed."

Hardaway, a native son of Memphis, was involved in the city's youth basketball scene. His son, Jayden, was on the grassroots circuit at the same time as Wiseman, and is currently a freshman reserve guard for Memphis. Though Wiseman played three hours away in Nashville, his grassroots teams made frequent trips to Memphis.

But in those early days, he was not known for much outside of being tall.

"Everybody sees James as this great, athletic kid, someone who can shoot the ball, handle, put it on the floor," said Todd Day, the former Arkansas star and NBA guard who coached Wiseman with the Team Penny program. "When we met James, he couldn't tie his shoes up good. He's a testament to a kid that's really worked his butt off."

The St. Louis Eagles didn't immediately pounce on Wiseman after Johnson's exuberant endorsement back in 2015, when Wiseman was in eighth grade. St. Louis was 4½ hours away from Nashville, and Tim Holloway, the president/director of the Eagles, figured it would be a logistical nightmare. But he eventually went to Nashville and met Wiseman's mother and his AAU coach, Don Wynn.

Wynn, according to Holloway, said he'd taken Wiseman as far as he could go, and he wanted him to have the chance to learn more on a bigger platform.

"A lot of these grade-school coaches, they want to hang on to these kids for dear life," Holloway said. "They want a meal ticket. That's why I speak so highly of Don. Don is just a guy who'd always been there for him."

The Eagles practiced on weekends. Holloway said he was impressed with Wiseman's mom, whom he described as a "single parent raising this kid, doing the best she can. She was just happy. It wasn't this, 'Oh my God, we don't have anything.' It was their life."

Wiseman and his mom would somehow make it work. Wiseman, under Wynn, had been taught well. Wynn never put him in a big man's box. He encouraged him to dribble and shoot 3s, in a way that prompted comparisons to former NBA All-Star Chris Bosh.

But Wiseman was going through another growth spurt when he joined the Eagles, and he struggled to adjust to his body, a jangled mess of even longer arms and legs.

"The first year, James is a shy, sweet kid who really fits like a glove," Holloway recalled. "He fits perfectly with our culture. By the end of the season, he's on the radar, he's identified as a top prospect."

His freshman year, Wiseman attended the Ensworth School, a private school in Nashville that resembles a college campus. Ensworth touts that 100% of its graduates go on to a four-year college, and tuition, according to Ricky Bowers, the associate head of the school, runs upward of $26,000 a year.

Asked how financially challenged families afford tuition, Bowers said that financial aid is available from the school.

Bowers, who coached the basketball team when Wiseman was there, called him a "strikingly kind person." His basketball skills were not polished at that point, but they didn't need to be because Ensworth had a player on the team named Jordan Bone, who went on to Tennessee and was drafted in the second round by the Detroit Pistons this past summer.

Wiseman was timid that first year, like most freshmen, and former teammate Brett Barnett said he occasionally had to be coaxed into being more aggressive.

Wiseman's mother was a fixture at Ensworth's games and usually came with a cheering section. (Wiseman has a sister, Jaquarius Greer, who is seven years older.) One day, after Wiseman's sophomore year, Donzaleigh Artis told Bowers that the family was moving to Memphis.

Wiseman had recently joined Team Penny, a grassroots team on the Nike circuit sponsored by Hardaway. And now he was transferring to Memphis East High, the school at which Hardaway was coach. Bowers said Wiseman's mom never told him where he was transferring. When he found out Wiseman was going to Memphis East, "My reaction was, 'Well, that makes sense.'

"I think every kid that plays AAU is influenced by their summer experience to some degree. And in this case, I think, wasn't Penny his coach in the summer?"

But Wiseman couldn't say he was transferring to East to be coached by Hardaway, because that would bring eligibility questions from the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association (TSSAA), which has a "coaching link" rule designed to prevent recruitment of athletes from one school to another.

And Hardaway also repeatedly said he never coached Wiseman on Team Penny -- Todd Day was the coach -- and that he served only in a sponsorship capacity. "One would think if it's called 'Team Penny' that he would have some affiliation with it," Bowers said. "There's a logical connection with it. I bet you can even find photographs of James and Penny in the summer of his sophomore year sitting on the bench together or in team photos.

"It's Team Penny. I mean, are people denying that? I just thought, 'It is what it is.'"

In November 2017, Wiseman and East teammate Ryan Boyce were ruled ineligible because of the coaching link rule. Five days later, the Shelby County Board of Education filed a lawsuit seeking to overturn the ruling, and a month later, a Shelby County chancellor ruled in their favor. That spring, his junior season, Wiseman led East to the state championship.

Around that same time, Wiseman was deposed in a civil lawsuit, involving the Shelby County Board of Education and the TSSAA, on the matter. He was 16 years old. When questioned about Hardaway's role on Team Penny, and why Wiseman came to Memphis East, the young prospect's answers were inconsistent. In Hardaway's deposition, he said he did not read the TSSAA handbook and did not recruit players.

By then, the lawsuit was less relevant. Wiseman was no longer playing for Hardaway -- who had accepted the job to coach the University of Memphis a few days earlier.

When you walk into Memphis International Airport, you immediately notice the tangible presence of Hardaway in the city that reared the former Memphis and NBA star. As the official spokesman for the airport, he and his smile anchor a poster welcoming you to the city.

A few miles away, there is a billboard promoting the value of public schools and Hardaway's graduation from Treadwell High School. And his financial investment into his hometown -- The Penny Hardaway Hall of Fame on the Memphis campus, a popular barbershop and a must-have local BBQ sauce, to name a few -- is also evident. "He's the king of the city," said Courtney Roby, a local bartender.

In Memphis, any criticism of the homegrown head coach at times yields a cult-like, unified message of support in a city of 652,000 that's tucked into Tennessee's left pocket -- a city that views its food, music (Elvis Presley, Stax Records, W.C. Handy, Justin Timberlake, Al Green) and sports teams as its prized beacons to the rest of the world. The fear of falling back into irrelevance drives the support as well.

"Memphis has an inferiority complex, being in one corner of the state, being the latest part of the state to be developed," said Dr. Charles W. Crawford, who teaches local and state history at the University of Memphis. "Tennessee, the western part, has felt discriminated against. That's why they put a great deal on being able to excel in sports."

It could be part of the reason Hardaway looked at James Wiseman and could see himself. Hardaway did not always wear Louis Vuitton belts and designer suits. He was reared by his grandmother in a house in the downtrodden Binghampton neighborhood of midtown Memphis. Hardaway was young and soft-spoken once, too.

"I'm sure he can see himself ... in what these kids are going through and what he went through," longtime Memphis booster Leonard Draper said. "That's why he can be a big help: He can get them out of that system and get them where they need to be."

Hardaway played in the NBA for 15 seasons, but coaching wasn't anywhere on his to-do list when he retired in 2007. He made $120 million playing in the NBA and has his own signature shoe line, the Nike Foamposite, that sells for $230 a pair. But in 2011, a childhood friend named Desmond Merriweather was diagnosed with colon cancer. Merriweather was coaching the basketball team at Lester Middle School, in inner-city Memphis, and enlisted Hardaway to help as a volunteer coach.

The Lions won three championships, and Merriweather followed his Lester kids to Memphis East High. His condition deteriorated in his first season, and he died in February 2015. Hardaway took over that next fall and led East to a state championship.

Hardaway started the Team Penny program on the Nike grassroots circuit, complete with flashy vans sporting a giant "1 cent" logo, and his celebrity in the grassroots basketball community grew quickly.

During AAU trips, Hardaway would fill up the Team Penny van with Foamposites and other Penny shirts and jerseys. When kids and families would come up to Hardaway in hotel lobbies or at restaurants, he would have them grab something from the van and give it to them for free, even sign it if they asked.

One of Hardaway's failings, friends say, is his inability to say no. Here he was, surrounded by so many children with so few resources, and it made Hardaway think about his childhood and the fact that now he had everything.

"Penny's biggest weakness is he's nice," said DuJuan Taylor, who has known Hardaway since high school and helped run Team Penny. "He wants to see everybody happy."

When Hardaway took over for Tubby Smith at Memphis in 2018, his overarching task was to bring excitement back to the city. It would start with recruiting, more specifically getting Memphis involved with elite players again, something that had waned in the previous few years under Josh Pastner and Smith. And at the top of that list was Wiseman, who, at the time, was widely expected to end up at Kentucky. John Calipari made him the Wildcats' top priority in the 2019 class and it seemed inevitable Wiseman would land in Lexington. Memphis was an afterthought in his recruitment before Hardaway's arrival.

Hardaway extended a scholarship offer to Wiseman 18 days after taking over at Memphis, and he conducted an in-home visit a week later.

Seven months after Hardaway's introductory news conference, in November 2018, Wiseman announced his commitment on ESPN's SportsCenter. He was staying home, sort of, and playing for Memphis instead of Kentucky.

"We were all excited," said Mike Parks, who was a starter for Memphis last season before graduating. "We had a little group chat, and it was like, 'Oh, you guys are gonna go crazy [next year].' At the UC [University Center] on campus, they were excited. It was all over TV. The campus was really buzzing."

Exactly one year to the day that Wiseman committed to Memphis, the NCAA handed down its 12-game suspension.

Instead of November being the start of a potentially special season for the Tigers, it was filled with controversy and questions about Hardaway's relationship with Wiseman.

Hardaway has previous links to many of the players who have enrolled at Memphis since he became head coach. Sophomore point guard Alex Lomax played for Hardaway at East and for Team Penny, and flipped his commitment from Wichita State to Memphis shortly after Hardaway took over. Ditto for Boyce, who flipped from UAB to Memphis. In addition to Wiseman in the 2019 class, Hardaway coached freshman forward D.J. Jeffries on Team Penny and coached big man Malcolm Dandridge for both East and Team Penny. Wiseman, Jeffries and Dandridge continued to play for the Bluff City Legends program after Hardaway's departure forced a name change.

People around Hardaway are emphatic the connections he built weren't part of a yearslong scheme to get the Memphis job. As proof, Corey Jeffries -- D.J.'s father -- pointed to his son's commitment to Kentucky in early March 2018, just a couple of weeks before Hardaway took the Memphis job. Jeffries had played for Hardaway with Team Penny and ultimately flipped from Kentucky to Memphis in October 2018.

"That's a bunch of crap," Jeffries said of the suggestion Hardaway was making connections with players with an eye toward becoming the Memphis coach. "D.J. committed to Kentucky a month before Penny got the job. I know he didn't know two years ahead ... he would've said something. He told us he wanted to be [the coach at Memphis], but he did tell us it's not solid. At that time, it wasn't solid. We couldn't bank on that. He didn't know at the start of the month, let alone two years ahead of time.

"It was nothing malicious, he didn't know that. No way he knew that."

The Memphis locals who love Hardaway also don't seem to believe he did anything wrong when he helped Wiseman. They, instead, think he did what he's always done: He offered help to someone in need, rather than launch a plan to increase his odds of getting the Memphis job after Tubby Smith was fired last year by tying himself to a top recruit.

"That's just the way Memphis is: It's a helping town," said Darryl Exum, chairman of the board at Early Grove Baptist Church, where Hardaway attended Sunday services with his mother when he was a child. "James Wiseman and Penny didn't realize he was gonna be head coach at Memphis."

But the school's decision to fight and appeal the Wiseman ruling -- his attorneys successfully filed for a temporary injunction that allowed him to play after the NCAA announced its investigation -- seemed foolish to those unaffiliated with the program, especially years after Final Four runs under Dana Kirk (1985) and Calipari (2008) were vacated over high-profile NCAA scandals.

By playing Wiseman while the NCAA said he was ineligible, it seemed as if the school was taunting the power brokers in Indianapolis.

The resistance seemed even more perplexing in the wake of the FBI investigation that has rocked the sport. Rick Pitino was fired by Louisville after he was allegedly tied to wiretaps related to the recruitment of former five-star prospect Brian Bowen Jr. Kansas coach Bill Self could face a show-cause penalty after the NCAA accused him of violating rules related to coaching-responsibility standards following an FBI investigation. Coaches at Auburn, USC, Arizona and LSU remain in the crosshairs of the NCAA, which seems determined to prove its power after the FBI had to step in and address corruption within the sport.

Memphis, a school that lost its appeal of the NCAA decision that forced the program to vacate games due to Derrick Rose's alleged violations in the late 2000s, understands the stakes as well as any program.

"The university fought the NCAA over that 10 years ago and that's why I kind of thought, having done that one time, you don't win against the NCAA very much," said Jimmy Ogle, a local historian who gives walking tours of the city and a former scoreboard operator for Memphis basketball. "That was pretty, pretty ballsy right there, I guess you'd say."

Donzaleigh Artis, who could not be reached for this story, did an interview with ESPN's Memphis radio station, WMFS-FM 92.9, in the months before Wiseman committed to Memphis in 2018. She said she had another son, who would've been older than James, who drowned at age 5. She said she learned that nothing in life is promised, so she wanted James to go to prom and have a girlfriend and experience life for himself.

On his 17th birthday, she said he rolled around town on a party bus with his teammates.

"He's got to be the one who says ... 'This is what I like, mama,''' she said on the J&J Show. "And I have to be the one to say, 'Well, I ain't gonna live my dreams through you. I'm going to live my dreams with you.'"

Wiseman is on the verge of achieving his dream of playing in the NBA. There, the controversies, questions and promise tied to his short time with Penny Hardaway and Memphis will continue to fade into the rearview. The $11,500 the NCAA asked him to repay amounts to tip money.

Leonard Draper, who is close to Hardaway, said he hadn't talked to him about the news as of Thursday night. Draper wondered whether Wiseman saw what happened to North Carolina's Cole Anthony, how he was injured and is expected to be out for at least a month, and didn't want to take any chances.

"If he felt he didn't want to take the chance," Draper said, "I can respect that."

Wiseman's college career is over before it really began. The news came Thursday afternoon on his Instagram account. In the pictures accompanying his news, Wiseman is no longer a skinny child hidden in a faraway gym.

Boston Celtics coach Brad Stevens honored a request from his daughter to "give the people what they want" in Friday night's 114-93 victory over the Detroit Pistons.

As Boston continued to expand the lead in the third quarter, some Celtics fans started chanting "We want Tacko!'' -- hoping rookie center Tacko Fall would get some playing time late in a blowout.

They got their wish with 4:31 left in the fourth. Fans roared when Fall got up from the bench and removed his warm-ups, and then entered just the second game of his career. He quickly committed a foul -- although the fans were certain it was a clean block.

Fall finished his home debut with five points and two rebounds.

Stevens said after the game that his daughter, Kinsley, told him of Tacko Fall, "It's time to give the people what they want. And that's all she said."

Fall's NBA debut came earlier this season in a blowout against the Knicks. Even though the Celtics were on the road, Fall had the New York faithful at Madison Square Garden on their feet as well when he checked in.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Ja Morant has been one of the NBA's best rookies in 2019-20. The Memphis Grizzlies point guard, selected with the No. 2 overall pick in June, has put up Rookie of the Year-type numbers (18.4 points per game, 6.7 assists per game) while regularly wowing fans with his outstanding athleticism, which has led to more than his fair share of highlight-reel plays.

On Friday night, Morant's Grizzlies were facing the Cleveland Cavaliers in a game most NBA fans could be forgiven if they'd ignored it, but he gave everyone reason to take notice with a dunk attempt that had to be seen to be believed.

Ja ALMOST gave Kevin Love the Frederic Weis treatment ?

cc: @mrvincecarter15 pic.twitter.com/4HzkRroF4p

— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) December 21, 2019

Note the word "attempt" in the previous sentence. Morant, as seen in the video above, didn't actually make the dunk. It goes down as just another missed field goal (one of seven on the night for Morant), and probably the most famous "stop" for Kevin Love since the 2016 NBA Finals.

After the game, Love had a sense of humor about his near-poster experience.

Ja almost ended my professional career with this dunk...that kid is something special ?????? https://t.co/5SxCItAMba

— Kevin Love (@kevinlove) December 21, 2019

Who knows what would have happened if Morant's dunk had gone in. Would it have led to a momentum swing to give the Grizzlies the win (the Cavs won 114-107)? Would Love really have been forced to retire? Would the game have ended right there, And1 Mixtape Tour style? Or maybe Love's teammates would have just abandoned him, leaving him "Home Alone."

View this post on Instagram

"Kevin, you're such a Disease!!!" ???

A post shared by Kevin Love (@kevinlove) on Dec 20, 2019 at 6:37pm PST

Newly appointed Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta told players that he will be watching their "attitudes and body efforts" in Saturday's match at Everton from the stands, sources told ESPN.

Arteta was unveiled as the new Gunners boss on Friday, a return to the club the Spaniard played for and captained between 2011 and 2016, winning two FA Cups over those five seasons under former manager Arsene Wenger. It will be Arteta's first experience as manager of a club's first team after almost four seasons working alongside Pep Guardiola at Manchester City.

Arteta's deal is for 3½-years, and will officially start work on Sunday, with interim boss Freddie Ljungberg remaining in charge for Saturday's match at Goodison Park.

The managerial search that culminated with Arteta's hiring concluded a whirlwind 21-day saga that saw Unai Emery sacked after 18 months in charge.

On Friday at Arsenal's training ground, sources described Arteta as impressive, calm, focused and authoritative. He introduced himself in a very formal way first. He shook their hands individually.

He also had a clear message to his players in his first meeting with them in the club's dressing room.

"I will be in the stands tomorrow [Saturday] at Everton. I want you to know that I will be watching your attitude, your efforts, your body language. I will see what you do when we lose the ball, what your attitude is. Also, what you do when we have the ball," Arteta told Arsenal players, according to sources.

The 37-year-old, known for his meticulous preparation, also asked about the club staff's technological set-up for practice sessions.

"Do we have drones? Where are the cameras positioned to film training?" he asked. "You are going to have a lot of work to do."

Arteta thanked Ljungberg, who was applauded by the players and for the moment will remain part of the first-team coaching staff. Ljungberg was placed in temporary charge but has won just once in five matches. After a 3-0 defeat to Manchester City last week, Ljungberg called on the club's hierarchy to make a definitive decision over management.

Arteta has played alongside some of Arsenal's veterans such as Mesut Ozil, Calum Chambers, Hector Bellerin and Emiliano Martinez. Per Mertesacker, who used to sit next to Arteta in the dressing room and was his vice-captain, was also in attendance for the meeting.