James’ return to Cleveland caused Cleveland to abandon its pursuit of Hayward.

The best moment of the entertaining Celtics introductory press conference for Kyrie Irving and Gordon Hayward came when Hayward suggested LeBron James “squashed” a potential Hayward-Irving duo in Cleveland three years ago. Quoth Hayward:

“I went to Cleveland on a visit when I was a restricted free agent [in 2014]. Kyrie came in and was saying how much fun it’d be if I was on the team, kind of recruiting me to go there. Then LeBron came and that kinda squashed that whole thing. It came full circle, and here we are now.”

A trade isn’t imminent, but if the Pelicans can’t win, they’ll want to trade Davis before losing him for nothing.

The Cavaliers and Celtics will likely soon finalize a blockbuster trade that sends Kyrie Irving to Boston. According to ESPN’s Zach Lowe, landing Irving could be the the precursor to hooking a bigger fish in the future: Anthony Davis.

Irving went viral after his flat Earth theory made waves on social media. Maybe it’s what he wanted all along.

Kyrie Irving famously said he believes the Earth is flat. We know that spurred on a never-ending meme.

Milwaukee reportedly still has an offer including Malcolm Brogdon and Khris Middleton on the table.

The Cleveland Cavaliers still need to make a decision on whether to accept the Boston Celtics’ trade of an injured Isaiah Thomas, Jae Crowder, Ante Zizic, and the Brooklyn Nets’ unprotected 2018 first-round pick for Kyrie Irving.

Good morning. We have that and more in Thursday’s NBA newsletter.

The most annoying trade delay in NBA history has ended peacefully. The Cavaliers were trying to pry more assets out of the Celtics' hands after discovering that Isaiah Thomas' hip might be in worse shape than Boston led on. The Celtics didn't really flinch. So eventually, the Cs conceded a future second-round pick to put the deal to bed. The deal is closed.

Chael Sonnen says Turinabol is usually taken in stacks, so Jon Jones could’ve been taking other banned substances as well.

Chael Sonnen recently spoke about Jon Jones’ third drug test failure — his second during the USADA era. As a person who has been caught and admits to have thoroughly used PEDs in his career, he gave some interesting insights about his former opponent’s positive test.

The Pacers asked the NBA to look into Los Angeles’ contact with George. They found something.

The NBA fined the Los Angeles Lakers $500,000 on Thursday for violating the league’s anti-tampering rules. The fine appears to be a result of the investigation into Los Angeles’ contact with Paul George while he was under contract with the Indiana Pacers.

Kevin Durant’s latest shot at Under Armour shows us just how loyal he is to Nike.

Kevin Durant returned to The Bill Simmons Podcast for a fourth time to discuss a number of topics in a fan mailbag episode. One of the topics that the reigning NBA Finals MVP discussed with Simmons was why Maryland colleges aren’t able to successfully recruit top local prospects.