Basketball

The Team USA men's basketball team is hours away from competing for Olympic gold ... so in honor of the big showdown with France, TMZ Sports presents the lovely wives and girlfriends of the Red, White and Blue!!

"Captain America" LeBron James' high school sweetheart-turned-wife, Savannah, leads the charge ... with the Queen -- as well as the whole James gang -- showing up in Paris to check out all the action so far in the competition.

Joel Embiid -- who's reppin' 'Merica for the first time at the Olympics since becoming a U.S. citizen -- is hoping to finish at the top of the podium ... and even though she's Brazilian, we're sure his Sports Illustrated swimsuit model wife, Anne de Paula, will be his biggest cheerleader when he goes toe-to-toe with Victor Wembanyama.

The USA men's basketball team almost saw their gold medal dreams disappear on Thursday ... as the Red, White and Blue narrowly escaped an upset in a nail-biter against Serbia in the Olympics semifinals.

America was playing catchup for the majority of the game ... with Nikola Jokic and Bojan Bogdanović ballin' out for Serbia. The Joker finished with 17 points and Bogdanović led the squad with 20 of his own.

But in the waning moments of the contest, Stephen Curry, LeBron James and the rest of Team USA found enough in the tank to erase the lead and pull out the dramatic victory -- punching their tickets to a finals matchup with Team France and Victor Wembanyama.

The U.S. women's basketball team serenaded star hooper A'ja Wilson ... who is celebrating her 28th trip around the sun in Paris!

The 2x WNBA champ is in France for the 2024 Olympics, and with it being Wilson's big day, the team gathered around her at practice to sing HBD -- the Stevie Wonder version!

A'ja dances a bit ... but ya gotta imagine Wilson and the rest of the women are exhausted.

Larsa Pippen is not sweating Marcus Jordan's new arm candy ... and she's moving on with her dating life too ... namely, with a reality TV star.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... Larsa doesn't care her ex-boyfriend is on vacation with an IG model, because she's also casually dating someone herself ... Netflix/MTV star and country musician Zay Wilson.

In fact, Zay performed at Larsa's 50th birthday bash a few weeks ago ... and TMZ obtained video of them dancing together.

Stephen Curry is used to people approaching him asking for autographs and pictures, but the tables were turned in Paris -- with the Golden State Warriors superstar geeking out over the Team USA women's table tennis squad!!

The cool moment occurred at the men's basketball practice ... when Curry made sure to hang out with the guests of the hour -- and was handed the ball by one of the coaches. Curry then asked the team to add their Hancocks to the tiny surface area.

Curry returned the favor to the team ... as he signed some merch as well -- much to the group's delight.

The locker Kobe Bryant used during his historic NBA career has found a new owner ... and the final price was a whopping $2.88 MILLION!!

The bidding for the extremely rare piece of Kobe memorabilia closed on Friday, August 2 ... the same day the Black Mamba is slated to be honored with a second statue outside the venue he made famous, with this iteration featuring his daughter, Gianna.

The final price for the locker -- which was removed from the Staples Center during renovations in 2008 -- was $2,880,000, far exceeding the estimated amount.

The Paris Olympics are nice and all, but Angel Reese might be having an even better time during the WNBA's break ... hitting the stage with none other than Megan Thee Stallion at Lollapalooza!!

The "Savage" rapper was one of the biggest acts nabbed to perform at the major music festival in Chicago this weekend ... and Reese -- the Sky's 7th overall pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft -- had to rep her city by pullin' up for the occasion.

You can see the 6-foot-3 forward surprise Meg on stage at the end of one of her songs ... and the Houston rapper was hyped!!

Snoop Dogg's old-school playlist picks weren't connecting with Anthony Edwards when the rap superstar was chilling with the Men's Olympic Basketball Team ... so Tha Boss Dogg adapted like any true master would and got with the times!!!

As the guest of honor, Snoop got to control the music while hanging on the back of the bus (when the team wasn't getting their beauty rest) and admitted he noticed Ant-Man wasn't moving and grooving to the sounds of Curtis Mayfield on the "Super Fly" soundtrack like LeBron James was.

The King is a true-born Ohio Player but "Super Fly" was released 29 years ago -- before Ant was born, and Snoop quickly changed it up to BossMan Dlow's "Get In With Me" to get the star guard more charged up!!!

Bronny James is already ballin' with LeBron in the NBA -- at least, in the Association's virtual world -- check out the new trailer for NBA 2K25 ... the guys are connecting on sick alley-oops!!

The teaser for the insanely popular hoops video game dropped on Thursday ... and all the usual suspects were featured in it -- including Jayson Tatum, Steph Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Kyrie Irving.

LeBron, of course, was all over it as well ... but if you take a closer look at who one of his most prominent teammates was in the footage -- it was none other than his 19-year-old son, Bronny.

Kobe Bryant's last NBA game was iconic ... and now the warm-up the Lakers legend rocked before dropping 60 points on the Jazz is on the auction block!

The famed game went down on April 13, 2016 at Staples Center ... when a 37-year-old Bryant led his Lake Show squad to a second-half comeback after trailing Utah by 15 points.

Mamba went 22 for 50 from the field, and 10-12 from the free throw line ... and he was unstoppable late in the contest. It was the last time Bryant was on the hardwood as a player ... capping his nearly unmatched 20 season career.

A Team Japan supporter used Caitlin Clark's absence from the Olympics to direct some trash talk toward the Red, White and Blue on Monday ... with the clever fan making a sign referencing the team's decision not to bring the Indiana Fever star along for the ride.

The little poster was spotted ahead of A'ja Wilson and Co.'s opening matchup against Japan in the preliminary round of the 2024 Paris Games ... and it read, "You need Caitlin Clark to beat us!"

Some of the Team USA players peeped the diss ... including Brittney Griner and Wilson, who pointed it out and had funny reactions during warmups.

Angel Reese is causing a stir amongst WNBA fans even during the league's break ... the star rookie just posted some posted photos of herself in a tiny pink bikini -- and they're steamy!!

The Chicago Sky forward is clearly enjoying her time away from the hardwood as the W continues its pause on its season so its stars can compete in the Olympics -- check out the pics and vid, she looks as happy as ever.

Unclear where exactly the 22-year-old is -- she was spotted in Paris last week -- but it's possible she's jetted off to a more exotic location for even more R&R.

LeBron James and Coco Gauff didn't let rain ruin their big moment at the 2024 Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony ... the two raised the American flag high and proud on the Team USA boat -- with big smiles on their faces!!

The tennis superstar and future basketball Hall of Famer were selected to be the flag bearers earlier this week ... and when it came time to shine on the Seine River on Friday -- they didn't disappoint.

The pair rocked white Ralph Lauren Olympic fits -- and despite sleeting rain -- they grabbed the Star-Spangled Banner and led the way for all of the Americans who will compete in the upcoming Games.

TNT isn't about to lose its media rights deal with the NBA without a fight ... it just sued the basketball org. -- claiming it has a "contractual right" to continue to broadcast its games going forward.

The media company -- whose parent organization is Warner Bros. Discovery -- filed the lawsuit in New York on Friday ... just days after Adam Silver revealed the NBA is moving on with Amazon Prime Video.

In their suit, TNT officials claim the NBA legally cannot accept Amazon's deal -- as they say they matched the offer to a T.

Charles Barkley is finally speaking out on the NBA's breakup with TNT ... and it's clear as day, he's pissed over the split.

The former Phoenix Suns superstar unloaded on the Association in a statement on Friday morning ... nearly two days after Adam Silver's league decided to move on from Turner Sports in favor of a new media rights deal with Amazon Prime Video.

Barkley -- who's been a part of TNT's wildly popular "Inside the NBA" program for decades -- called the league's decision greedy ... while accusing its officials of never really giving TNT a fair shake in the negotiation process.

Gilbert Arenas is issuing a direct mea culpa to Luol Deng for his xenophobic comments about South Sudan's men's basketball team ... this after the African former NBA star released a powerful statement addressing the whole ordeal.

As we previously reported, Arenas faced a ton of backlash for going on an offensive rant on Saturday ... shortly after LeBron James and Team USA squeaked by South Sudan prior to the Olympics. Celtics legend Paul Pierce also found himself in hot water for making similar remarks during an appearance on "Undisputed."

The ex-Bulls and Lakers forward -- who serves as the president of the South Sudan Basketball Federation -- broke his silence on both Arenas and Pierce's controversial words directed at his native country's team ... saying he wasn't upset or angry by their words, but more "disappointed" it came from two former colleagues he's always respected.