TMZ Sports - Page 50

Gymnastics superstar Sunisa Lee is clearly ready for the 2024 Olympics -- the Team USA hero just shared footage of her performing the insanely difficult full-twisting Jaeger during training ... a move that hasn't ever been done in competition!!

20-year-old Lee posted the jaw-dropping clips to her 1.6 million Instagram followers on Tuesday ... showing her executing the skill over the course of recent practices.

Lee -- who won the bronze medal in the uneven bars event at the 2020 Olympics -- had her fans going wild in the comment section ... with fellow gymnasts like Livvy Dunne, Nastia Liukin and Katelyn Ohashi giving high praise for making the challenging stunt look easy.

Olympic silver medalist MyKayla Skinner was also in awe ... saying, "Are u even real!!! Amazing!!!🙌🏼🙌🏼."

According to Olympics.com, the move has never been performed before ... and if Suni can complete the stunt at a major international competition, like the Paris Olympics, it will be known as "The Lee."

It's great to see Lee get back to her regular self ... as we previously reported, she opened up last year about her kidney issues, which led her to gain 45 pounds due to the condition.

Adrian Griffin's time in Milwaukee is over -- the Bucks just fired their head coach after less than a year on the job ... despite having the second-best record in the league.

Multiple reports confirmed the move on Tuesday ... just hours after Giannis Antetokounmpo and Co. beat the Detroit Pistons, 122-113.

It is a bit of a head-scratching move to some ... as the Bucks currently sit at second in the Eastern Conference with a 30-13 record. Others believe the writing was on the wall, as Griffin -- a former Seton Hall star and NBA player -- appeared to be a bad fit with the current roster.

Joe Prunty is expected to take on interim coaching duties for now ... and there are rumblings the team will look for a veteran coach like Doc Rivers to take the reins permanently.

It's a quick turnaround for the organization -- it just introduced Griffin as Mike Budenholzer's replacement in June 2023.

Whoever takes over in Milwaukee will have one of the most talented squads in the league ... with stars like Giannis, Damian Lillard and Kris Middleton.

Tristan Thompson will be sidelined from NBA games for the foreseeable future ... the league just slapped him with a huge suspension after it says he violated their anti-drug program.

According to the NBA, the Cleveland Cavaliers forward tested positive for banned substances ibutamoren and SARM LGD-4033 ... and he'll now be barred from playing in the team's next 25 games for it.

Both drugs are considered to be performance enhancers ... ones that help users improve their strength and speed up their recovery.

Thompson has yet to publicly address the positive tests.

The league said Tuesday that Thompson's suspension will begin on Wednesday ... when Cleveland takes on the Milwaukee Bucks.

The 32-year-old -- Khloe Kardashian's ex -- just joined the Cavs in September ... and he recently seemed fired up about the potential of this season -- after he switched his jersey number from 12 to 13, digits he wore when he first started in Cleveland back in 2011.

"Wearing any other number didn't feel right," he said. "Back together, Number 13 forever."

It's a sad day in Athens -- the University of Georgia's beloved live mascot, Uga X, has passed away, the school announced Tuesday. He was 10 years old.

Uga X -- AKA "Que" -- died peacefully in his sleep, according to a statement released minutes ago.

Que's tenure as the live mascot began during the 2015 football season ... and remained the furry face of the program until his retirement in 2022.

During his time with the Bulldogs, Que -- the grandson of Uga IX -- witnessed the most successful run in Georgia history ... a 91-18 record, two national championship wins, two SEC titles and seven New Year's Six bowl appearances.

Que was inducted into the Mascot Hall of Fame in 2022 ... as well as all his predecessors.

Uga XI -- AKA "Boom" -- took over for Que in April 2023.

Georgia's live mascots have been met with criticism in the past ... with PETA calling on the university to eliminate all four-legged friends from being used on game days.

8:38 AM PT -- The 10 Lives Club just gave us an update on the amount of donations for Tyler Bass' charity ... as of early Tuesday morning, they've collected over $50K for the Bills kicker!

"We've never received this much in a day ever," said 10 Lives Club spokesperson.

Football fans are throwing their support behind Tyler Bass with their wallets ... 'cause tons of donations are flooding in for the Bills kicker's charity after he missed a crucial field goal in Buffalo's playoff loss to the Kansas City Chiefs.

26-year-old Bass -- one of the best kickers in the league -- was targeted with heavy criticism after his 44-yard attempt went wide right in the closing minutes of the Divisional Round game on Sunday ... which helped seal the 27-24 win for the defending Super Bowl champs.

Bass reportedly even received threats over the mishap ... which seemingly resulted in him deactivating his social media accounts.

But, in true Bills Mafia fashion, diehards are showing serious love for Bass to try and drown out the hate ... by making $22 contributions (as a nod to his No. 2 jersey) to the Ten Lives Club, a cat rescue charity he has worked with over the years.

So far, the organization has seen more than $25,000 come in from both Bills and Chiefs fans, according to WIVB in Buffalo.

The shelter also released a statement on social media ... calling for the negativity toward Bass to stop.

"WE STAND WITH TYLER BASS. DON’T BULLY OUR FRIEND 👊," the org. said on Monday. "We just heard the terrible news that Tyler Bass is receiving threats after yesterday’s game and our phones are ringing off the hook from people who want to donate $22 to Ten Lives Club in Tyler’s name."

"Tyler doesn’t deserve any of the hate he’s receiving. He’s an excellent football player and an even better person who took the time to help our organization and rescue cats last year. Leave our friend alone."

Bass owned up to the miss right after the game ... taking blame for the Bills' exit from the postseason, but his teammates like Josh Allen had his back -- saying it was a group effort.

It's no surprise the Bills' passionate fanbase is rallying behind one of their guys with charitable contributions ... as they've helped raise money for Allen, Damar Hamlin and more in the past.

Karl-Anthony Towns and the Minnesota Timberwolves might've been hyped over KAT's career-high 62 points -- which came in a loss to the Hornets -- but their coach Chris Finch wasn't, calling the squad's performance "immature" and "disgusting."

Of course, Towns went off Monday night at the Target Center in Minnesota, knocking down 21 shots on 35 attempts, and setting a new franchise record in the process, netting 62.

However, the Hornets came back from an 18-point deficit and won, 128-125 ... which clearly pissed Finch off.

"Just because you've scored two or three or four points in a row, or baskets in a row, you know obviously we're going to try to feed a hot hand, look for a hot hand, but at some point we got to get back to making the right play, we got to get back to doing the right things," Finch vented during the post-game press conference.

"It was an absolute disgusting performance of defense and immature basketball."

Finch -- who was hired as the T'Wolves head coach in 2021 -- placed some of the blame on his elite scorer, saying KAT's gunning was "absolutely" a factor in the loss.

Coach told reporters he stressed defense at halftime, but it was all for naught.

"There was a lot of immature performances here throughout the roster," Finch said. "We totally disrespected the game, ourselves, and we got exactly what we deserved.".

Despite the loss, the T'Wolves still remain atop the Western Conference standings with a 30-13 record, despite the 2nd consecutive loss.

Cameron Dicker The Kicker looked more like Cameron Dicker The Chugger on Sunday night ... 'cause the Chargers star ripped off his shirt and gulped down an entire beer in seconds while at the Ducks game!!

The 23-year-old -- who made 94 percent of his field goal attempts for LA this season -- made the trek down to Anaheim to catch the Ducks' tilt against the Rangers ... and it didn't take long for him to send the crowd into a frenzy.

While appearing on the Honda Center's jumbotron in the second period ... he ditched his top and sucked down all of his suds while his buds joined in.

After he finished the beverage, he held up his jersey and fired up everyone in attendance.

Unfortunately for Dicker and the Ducks, the home team wasn't able to use the burst of energy to pull out a win ... Anaheim went on to lose the game, 5-2.

But, Dicker had a blast regardless ... writing on his IG page that it was all "a great time."

Kevin Durant was utterly shocked after finding out about Joel Embiid's career night ... hilariously reacting in real time as he praised the Philadelphia 76ers superstar's 70-point outing.

K.D. -- who dropped 43 in the Phoenix Suns' 115-113 win over the Chicago Bulls -- met with reporters after his own great performance ... and he gave an unfiltered response when asked about the 29-year-old center's stat line against the San Antonio Spurs.

"70?! He had 70?! S***," K.D. said in disbelief ... while also giving Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns props for his 62 points against the Charlotte Hornets.

The question was centered around the current state of the NBA ... and after Durant wrapped his head around Embiid's offensive clinic, he gave a thoughtful take.

"The skill level in this league is insane and actually the coaching, the schemes on offense is insane," K.D. said. "You seen so many different sets being run for bigs to get threes."

"Coaches are being way more creative to put their best players in great positions to get those numbers and you got shooters all around the floor, you got penetrators. I mean, this is the peak of basketball, in my opinion."

"It's insane what we got going on."

Embiid finished his night with 70 points (a Sixers franchise record), 18 rebounds and five assists ... and his teammates went nuts for him in the locker room to celebrate the accomplishment.

Michael Strahan's daughter Isabella is finally kicking back for a much-needed pool day ... after wrapping up her last radiation treatment to tackle her brain cancer.

The 19-year-old posed away with her twin sister Sophia in a series of bikini-clad IG snaps Monday from their sunny vacation ... captioning it, "In good company."

Isabella also enjoyed some R&R at the beach ... smiling wide as she made the most of the break before starting chemotherapy next month.

She said she was excited to be done with radiation during a candid YouTube video last week ... nearly 3 months after doctors found a malignant brain tumor.

She explained on 'GMA' earlier this month her cancer is known as medulloblastoma -- noting docs discovered a tumor as big as a golf ball lodged toward the base of her skull.

Upon the discovery, Isabella underwent emergency surgery at Cedars-Sinai in L.A. ... where she's attending college at USC. The procedure to remove the mass appears to have been a success.

Her dad dropped everything in NYC at the time ... booking a flight to the West Coast to be by his daughter's side -- which explained why Michael had been off the air so much back in the fall.

We can definitely smell what The Rock is cooking now -- dude's whipped up a mogul souffle ... 'cause he's now on the new WWE board, and he's got exclusive rights to his stage name.

Dwayne Johnson was announced as the newest board of directors member for TKO -- which now owns WWE and UFC as a new one-stop shop entity. As one of the shot-callers of the org, DJ will not only get some executive decision-making power ... but other perks too.

For starters, he's getting some stock options -- which are valued at $30 million, and which will vest over time. More importantly, he's being granted the full trademark to 'The Rock' ... which he has pretty much gone by his entire career, dating back to when he was in the ring.

As part of this new move, Dwayne will get to capitalize on his moniker -- specifically, as it pertains to merchandising/royalties the WWE might make by using 'The Rock' in business.

THR reports that part of the deal between DJ and TKO regarding 'The Rock' rights sees that TKO gets an exclusive licensing deal for 10 years to use the brand for certain products ... and during that time, Dwayne can't go and license it to other companies competitive with them. In other words, he receives the trademark ... but WWE gets a decade to milk it.

The Rock said of the news ... "My grandfather, High Chief Peter Maivia, and my dad, Rocky ‘Soulman’ Johnson, would’ve never thought this day would come."

Michael Phelps and his wife, Nicole Johnson, are popping out babies like PEZ ... 'cause they just had number 4!

The Olympic swimming legend announced the exciting news with Johnson on Instagram Monday, while posting a photo of them cradling their little cutey swaddled in a blanket. They named their week-old son Nico Michael Phelps, who already has a full head of black hair just like his gold medalist dad!

In the caption, the happy couple wrote, "@mrs.nicolephelps and I wanna welcome Nico Michael Phelps to the world. Born on 1/16."

They continued, "We're so blessed to be given a 4th child. We're now a family of 6!"

Last October, the pair revealed their clan was going to grow by one in another Instagram post, but Nico waited until recently to make his big debut.

Phelps and Johnson have three other sons: Boomer, 7, Beckett, 5, and Maverick, 4. With Nico now in the mix, Michael certainly has his hands full teaching his boys how to become Olympic champions.

Colorado Buffaloes cornerback Cormani McClain -- the highest-ranked recruit in Deion Sanders' 2023 CU class -- was issued a citation last week after he was involved in a car crash in Boulder.

TMZ Sports has learned ... the accident happened on Jan. 15 less than a mile away from CU's campus -- after cops say McClain's car "slid into another vehicle when trying to brake for a red light."

Fortunately, a spokesperson for the Boulder Police Department said there were no reported injuries ... and neither car suffered major damage.

We're told, however, McClain was issued a citation for "driving too fast for the weather conditions."

McClain came to Colorado with a ton of fanfare -- he flipped his commitment late in the '23 recruiting cycle from Miami to the Buffs ... and as the No. 1-ranked H.S. cornerback in the entire country, many expected him to thrive under Sanders.

But, his freshman year didn't go quite as planned ... he only totaled 13 tackles in 10 games -- and early in the season, Sanders actually called him out during a press conference.

Coach Prime told reporters he wanted to see McClain "study" and "prepare" more in order to get more playing time.

"Show up to the darn meetings," the coach added.

We're off to the races at TMZ to kick off the week -- and yes, that means a helluva lot of good TV content right from the jump ... and we're here to catch you up on all of it.

Richard Simmons said he didn't give Pauly Shore permission to make a movie about his life -- but now ... Pauly Shore is suggesting RS appears to have changed his tune, or so he claims anyway. We got into the apparent about-face on 'TMZ Live' ... trying to make sense of this back-and-forth, and whether Pauly actually has the fitness legend's blessing or not.

On the face of it ... it's kinda hard to tell for sure -- even after this weekend.

Over on the 'TMZ on TV' side of things ... Taylor Swift was all the rage -- but not nearly as much as rage as Travis Kelce's brother, Jason ... who was partying it up at the game Sunday. As we discussed here, the guy let it all hang out in the brisk, cold weather.

Yes, he was shirtless ... and we had some laughs about the whole thing. All in good fun!

When it comes to 'TMZ Sports,' we were still talking Chiefs-Bills ... but specifically, the snowball pelting that the Bills Mafia unleashed on Patrick Mahomes, who ducked for cover.

Nia Long just got what she wanted in her custody battle with Ime Udoka -- a judge made it so she'll get monthly support ... plus, a majority of the parenting time for their child.

The actress and NBA coach -- who split up in 2022 amid claims of infidelity -- came to terms in court Monday ... with a judge signing off on a custody agreement that hashes out who's paying who, and who their son will live with/spend most of his time with.

Per the docs, obtained by TMZ, it's actually Nia who'll be receiving monthly child support -- and even though the court said she might be entitled to upwards of $56k ... the 2 parents ended up landing on about half of that, with Ime agreeing to pay her $32,500/month.

The couple went through their financials -- as did the court -- and found Ime makes way more money coaching the Houston Rockets right now than Nia does ... noting he's got more than $400k in net monthly disposable income, whereas she's only got about $20k.

Now, in terms of custody ... they'll continue to share joint legal custody -- but Nia will get sole physical custody with reasonable visitation for Ime as time and scheduling permits.

They note in their docs that Ime is constantly traveling with the team, and this arrangement works better for everyone. Everything else pertaining to their kid, Kez, is pretty even-Steven.

Remember, Nia had filed for pretty much exactly this situation back in August -- and earlier this month, she and Ime had come to these exact terms in a settlement. Now, she's got it all in writing with a stamp of approval ... with the court entering the judgment, making it official.

The Golden State Warriors will wear all-black T-shirts this week to pay tribute to Dejan Milojević in the wake of the assistant coach's tragic passing.

Steve Kerr debuted the tee at a press conference on Monday afternoon ... and you can see it features Milojević's initials inside of a heart as well as the word "BRATE" -- which means "brother" in Serbian.

Kerr said his team has been devastated and heartbroken since Milojević suffered a fatal medical emergency on Jan. 16 while at a team dinner in Salt Lake City ... telling reporters this past week has been "hard to describe."

"It's just the saddest thing I have been a part of in the NBA where we lose someone who's so close to us and then, more importantly, seeing his family suffer," Kerr said.

Kerr, however, praised Milojević's former Serbian teams, Mega and Partizan, for honoring Dejan during their game Monday.

"Deky's two teams were playing against each other," Kerr said. "I'm not sure I've ever seen anything like the pre-game dedication from the fans and organizations there to Deky."

"It was incredible."

Milojević joined Kerr's staff in 2021 ... and following his passing, the NBA postponed the Warriors' games against the Jazz and the Mavericks.

Rams wide receiver Demarcus Robinson is suing an L.A.-area hotel ... after he says the establishment didn't do enough to protect him during a terrifying robbery in its lobby last year.

The 29-year-old claimed in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles County last week that the incident happened at the Lexen Hotel in North Hollywood at around midnight on Oct. 20, 2023.

Robinson claims he entered the facility through a side entrance after pulling into the parking garage ... but when he made his way into the lobby, two masked men pulled guns on him and threatened to murder him.

In the suit, Robinson says the men took nearly $150,000 worth of stuff off of his person during the encounter ... including a luxury diamond watch and two diamond chains.

Robinson claims the hotel didn't have security guards outside the hotel or in the lobby -- adding that employees who were working at the front desk at the time didn't call authorities until after the suspects had fled the area.

Robinson's suing the place for negligence and more ... seeking at least $149,500 in damages ... plus punitives.

Robinson played in 16 regular season games for the Rams this year. He also logged snaps in the team's lone playoff game earlier this month against the Lions, recording three catches for 44 yards.