BASKETBALL

With the FIBA continental championships over and done with, all of the zone and automatic qualifiers are accounted for. However, with only 20 slots in the 2014 FIBA World Cup in Spain being given away as prizes for the teams that top their zonal qualifiers, there are four more set aside for the so-called "wild card" entries.

The National Basketball Association (NBA) is set to officially award the hosting of the 2016 NBA All Star Weekend to Toronto league within this week.

New Brooklyn Nets head coach Jason Kidd declares that Joe Johnson will be his go-to-guy come crunchtime. A rather puzzling statement, considering the fact that he has a lot of other options after acquiring a bunch of veterans, including Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, both of whom are also known for their clutch prowess.

Miami Heat star player Lebron James, aka “King James,” is on the cover of the latest and upcoming basketball video game NBA 2K14.

There is talk going around the NBA that the league is planning to let the Miami Heat and Brooklyn Nets wear "nickname jerseys" in their head-to-head matchups in the 2013-14 season. While the league has not yet made an official announcement about the rule change, but it seems that teams are already aware of the possibility.

Who would have thought that Miley Cyrus was a huge fan of NBA Legend and Chicago Bulls frontman Michael Jordan?

LA Lakers business operations chief, Jeanie Buss, wrote in her memoir that she felt betrayed by the Lakers' hiring of Mike D'Antoni.

DeMarcus Cousins will have a chance to prove himself with the Sacramento Kings. The franchise is set to extend his deal—reportedly around the maximum-- before the October 31 deadline of contract extensions for 2010 first-round picks. As with the history of the volatile but talented 23-year-old, the possible signing will come with a caveat and heaps of questions.

Miami Heat star player Lebron James is definitely enjoying his life as a married man as he shares photos of his great honeymoon with wife Savannah.

What could be worse that losing your bikini bottom while you are out on the beach with your special someone?

Looks like the Indiana Pacers will end their offseason with a bang. After a slew of good-to-great moves during the summer, the franchise is poised to offer forward Paul George a new five-year deal worth around $90 million.

Kevin Durant, who plays for Oklahoma City Thunder, celebrated his 25th birthday a little too early.

The Sacramento Kings greatest nemesis now owns part of its franchise after Shaquille O’Neal acquired a minority share of the team. So much for calling the team as the “Sacramento Queens”, the derogatory term Shaq once described the Kings during the height of the Lakers-Kings rivalry in the early 2000, the former NBA center will be presented as the new member of the ownership group Tuesday.

Not many expected Spain to come this far in 2013. After all, they had already secured the hosting rights to the 2014 FIBA World Cup, and were playing minus some of their top players. After barely making it to the knockout stage of the tournament with two losses against Greece and Italy, nobody expected Spain to rout Serbia by 30 in the quarterfinal. After they lost narrowly to France in overtime in Friday's semifinal, many analysts predicted that the Spaniards would just roll over and give up...

A historic night unfolded in Ljubljana on Sunday as France lifted the Eurobasket trophy for the first time in history.Bucking a less-than-stellar performance in the semifinal against Spain, Nicolas Batum unloaded his full arsenal against Lithuania, shooting three three-pointers in one of his finest international performance yet.

It is a rare situation that former lovers would really become good friends in the end.

The regular 2013-2014 NBA Season is about to kick off on Oct 29, but Miami Heat Star Dwyane Wade, who has won three NBA Championships, knows how to keep himself busy for the time being.

The 2013 FIBA EuroBasket enters the last day of hoops competition with all available spots in next year's world championships already booked. However, the battle for European basketball supremacy still continues with both France and Lithuania looking to return to the top of the continent's basketball pinnacle.

FIBA EuroBasket Semifinal is now all down to perhaps the most-anticipated match-up in this tournament. On early Saturday morning (3:00 a.m), Spain and France will collide for the final spot in the gold medal match on Sunday.

It all boils down to this: the 2013 FIBA Eurobasket tournament down to four teams, all wanting to be kings of Europe. One has never won a gold medal before; the other won it last in 2013. Both teams are hungry, and they want no less than the crown.

The 2013 FIBA Eurobasket tournament has come down to its last four teams, all of whom are aiming for a shot at continental glory. One team wants to retain the crown it has held since 2009 despite missing some key pieces; the other one wants to improve its performance and finally grab the one honour that has been elusive all these years.It's down to the four best teams in the tournament, and we are expecting nothing less than the best performances in Friday's games.

Croatia finally broke through to the semifinals of FIBA Eurobasket for the first time in 18 years, leaning on a massive second-quarter attack to eliminate Ukraine, 84-72.

In a game that was at times too close to call, the Lithuanians made the bigger shots and held on for an 81-77 victory over an Italian squad that was itching to climb the upper echelons of European basketball once again.

Lebron tried to keep his three-day wedding event as secret as possible.

EA Sports’ NBA Live franchise is on the comeback trail and the company has released the latest videogame trailer, the first with “actual game footage” that is surely to excite the fans further and add to the hype.

The 2013 FIBA EuroBasket quarterfinal resumes on Thursday with another tasty quarterfinal battle in Italy vs. Lithuania and Croatia vs. Ukraine at Arena Stožice in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The last day of the 2013 FIBA Eurobasket quarterfinals promises a slam-bang affair, as two teams that took very different roads clash for the last seat in the semifinals. After the group stages, all the teams that advanced won the important games, meaning that a fairly inconsistent team can take its game up a notch and crash the party.

Look out NBA, the newest face of the Detroit Pistons is serious in putting work with his new team. And what better way to work out than with one of the most popular and toughest Pistons in Rasheed Wallace.

What was expected to be a close game turned out to be a massive rout as Spain pulled away early to win by a mile, 90-60, against a young Serbian squad that was clearly out of sync.