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So far, so good for Jonathan Kuminga in Atlanta. 

The formerly disgruntled Warriors forward made his Atlanta Hawks debut Tuesday night following a trade-deadline deal that moved him from Golden State. It was pretty much all the Hawks could have hoped for from his first game in Atlanta.

Kuminga came off the bench in his first game. But he developed into the No. 1 Hawks option in a game in which All-Star Jalen Johnson left the first quarter with a hip injury. 

Kuminga finished with a game-high 27 points to lead the Hawks in a 119-98 blowout over the Washington Wizards. He added 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 2 steals. He did it from inside and out and in transition while shooting 9 of 12 from the field and 3 of 4 from 3. And he did it all in 24 minutes. 

Kuminga introduces himself to Atlanta

Kuminga made his debut with 6:22 remaining in the first quarter as one of the first three Hawks players off the bench alongside Zaccharie Risacher and Gabe Vincent. 

He almost immediately flashed the athleticism that made him so tantalizing in Golden State but never materialized into anything substance on the basketball court. His first bucket as a Hawk was a cutting layup through traffic in transition.

Not long after that, he took an outlet pass from Risacher for an uncontested dunk. 

He capped his first-quarter scoring with a 3 to finish with seven first-quarter points. And the Hawks extended a 12-9 run when their subs entered the game to 35-20 by the end of the first quarter. 

Johnson injury opens door for Kuminga to take over

Johnson sustained his injury in the first quarter and didn't return to the game. He watched from the sideline in warmups after the Hawks eventually ruled him out with a left hip flexor injury. The severity of the injury wasn't initially clear. 

But Johnson's absence opened up more opportunity for Kuminga, who continued to work inside and out as the Hawks opened up the score against a woeful Wizards team playing without several of its top players.

Kuminga re-entered the game midway through the third quarter still sitting on seven points and opened his second-half scoring with another 3.

From there, he took over the lead role for the Hawks in a debut that will surely generate some smiles in Atlanta. He left the game with 6:16 remaining and the Hawks holding a 111-80 lead.

Trae Young's return

While Kuminga introduced himself to Hawks fans, Trae Young made his first trip to Atlanta as a visiting player. He did so in street clothes as one of several injured Wizards players.

The Hawks traded Young to the Wizards before the trade deadline in a deal that signaled the end of an era. Young had played his entire seven-plus season NBA career with the Hawks, making four All-Star team as the face of the franchise. 

But with the emergence of Johnson as the leader of the team, the Hawks parted with Young, ending a tenure that produced three playoff appearances but none since 2023.

The Hawks greeted Young with a tribute video in the second quarter. Fans responded with a standing ovation.

Young has yet to make his Wizards debut. He remains out with an MCL sprain and quad contusion that's sidelined him since late December. 

The Wizards are also waiting on the debut of Anthony Davis, whom they acquired from the Dallas Mavericks before the trade deadline. He's been sidelined with a significant finger sprain. Standout second-year forward Alex Sarr almost missed a fifth straight game with a strained hamstring.

Tuesday's loss dropped the Wizards to 16-41, the third-worst record in the Eastern Conference. 

Pete Crow-Armstrong grew up the son of a Chicago Cubs fan in Los Angeles. 

He went to Dodgers games as a kid, but claims that he was never a fan, under strict orders from his father. Here's Crow-Armstrong from a September article he wrote for The Players' Tribune:

Growing up in L.A., my dad gave me a couple of rules.

1) I couldn’t root for the Dodgers.

2) I couldn’t root for the Cardinals.

Now a 23-year-old star outfielder for the Cubs, Crow-Armstong is outwardly expressing disdain — not for the Dodgers, but for their fans. Here's Crow-Armstrong from a feature on him published by Chicago Magazine on Monday:

“I love Chicago more and more,” Crow-Armstrong said. “It’s just an incredible city. The people are great. They give a s***. 

"They aren’t just baseball fans who go to the game like Dodgers fans to take pictures and whatever. They are paying attention. They care."

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That shot at Dodgers fans appears to have come out of left field. There's no context for it in the story, at least. Crow-Armstrong was addressing his acclimation to Chicago and growing love for the city and apparently decided to throw in a swipe at sports fans from his home town.

He's not the first. Taking shots at Southern California sports fans is a time-honored tradition in cities that take pride their working class roots — especially those in cold-weather locales. 

Look at those soft sports fans with their nice weather and other things to do than watch a game. So the trope goes. 

Bottom line: This should play well in Chicago. And a young player who already won the North Side's collective heart in his breakout 2025 campaign has certainly endeared himself further with Cubs fans. 

The WNBA has floated a March 10 deadline for the framework of a new collective bargaining agreement to avoid an impact to the 2026 season, a source confirmed to Yahoo Sports' Cassandra Negley Monday.

Per Negley, the league "suggested March 10 as a date after which the season schedule could start being impacted" in a virtual meeting that included league officials and more than 50 players.

ESPN's Alexa Philippou first reported the league's proposed deadline Monday afternoon.

That news arrives amid high-stakes and frequently publicly contentious negotiations between the WNBA and the WNBPA over a new CBA that will shape the future of the league when and if the two sides reach an agreement.

Amid explosive growth in women's basketball and league revenue, the players association is demanding historic changes from the previous CBA that capped the league's supermax salary at roughly $249,000 with a minimum salary of $66,000 in 2025. The WNBPA opted out of that CBA in 2024, and it expired at the conclusion of last season.

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The two sides have reopened talks in recent days following a weeks-long stalemate and multiple extensions to a deadline to reach a new CBA. The 2026 WNBA season is scheduled to tip off on May 8. Per Monday's news, that start date is at risk if the two sides don't agree to a new CBA in two weeks.

Where negotiations stand

In the latest round of publicly reported negotiations, the WNBA offered a counterproposal that addressed player demands for housing and agreed to offer team housing for all players through the 2026 season. That was on Saturday. 

Days earlier, the WNBPA reportedly offered a proposal with concessions to its revenue-sharing demands, reducing its asks from an average of 31% of gross revenue to 27.5% over the course of the agreement. The union reduced its demand of a 10.5% salary cap to less than $9.5 million. The salary cap in 2025 was roughly $1.5 million.

The league scoffed at that proposal, calling it "unrealistic" and declaring in a statement that it would "cause hundreds of millions of dollars of losses for our teams."

Per ESPN, the league has proposed instead that players receive 70% of net revenue — which adds up to less than 15% of gross revenue — while proposing a $5.65 million salary cap. 

Under that proposal, the supermax salary would increase from $249,000 to $1.3 million in 2026 and would project to nearly $2 million by 2031. The average player salary would increase from $120,000 to $540,000 in 2026 with a projection of $780,000 by 2031, according to ESPN.  

Those proposals remained largely unchanged in the league's latest counter, per ESPN, and the two sides appear to remain far apart on those fundamental issues. The union's executive committee previously authorized players to strike. 

Despite the apparent gap, WNBPA vice president and All-WNBA Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier sees room for optimism. She offered hope last Wednesday that "I think negotiations are trending in the right direction."

"You want movement," Collier said on Yahoo Sports’ Hoops 360 podcast. "You don’t want to be in a stalemate. You want there to be hope for the future, and I do have that. I think there has to be a lot of movement in a lot of places in the CBA, but the fact that we are moving, I think, is really hopeful."

Tarik Skubal's stint with Team USA at the World Baseball Classic will be short-lived. 

The Detroit Tigers ace told reporters Monday that he'll make one WBC start and then be done with the tournament. It sounds like the start will come in pool play, rather than a potential appearance the knockout round. 

Skubal confirmed the plan from spring training in Florida and explained that he's prioritizing getting ready for Detroit's season after his start. 

"I'm trying to do both things, trying to pitch for Team USA but I understand the need to be here with these guys and get ready for the season," Skubal said, per The Athletic's Cody Stavenhagen. "I think it’s kind of the best of both worlds in that aspect, and I’m grateful they took me in that capacity."

Skubal also said that he'd lobby the Tigers to rejoin Team USA as a spectator if it makes the finals, indicating that his start will come sometime early in pool play. 

"If they go to the finals, I think I'm going to try and lobby to just go watch and be with the guys," he added.

The WBC finals will be played in Miami, not far from Detroit's spring training home of Lakeland in central Florida.

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The reigning two-time AL Cy Young winner, Skubal's absence after his planned start will leave USA without arguably its top pitcher for the remainder of the tournament. USA has a deep roster of nine starting pitchers to choose from, including reigning NL Cy Young winner Paul Skenes, two-time All-Star Logan Webb and All-Star Joe Ryan.

The upgrade of its pitching staff from the previous WBC was expected to give USA a leg up in the tournament after it lost to Japan on the final at-bat of the championship game in 2023. Skubal's limited availability is a blow to those plans and will leave USA without one of its top options on the mound in high-leverage elimination games if it advances beyond pool play.

The decision appears to be a compromise from the Tigers allowing Skubal to pitch for Team USA while limiting his exposure to wear and tear and injury risk. The Tigers are coming off a season in which they bounced back from a regular-season collapse that allowed the Cleveland Guardians to win the AL Central to clinch a wild-card berth and beat the Guardians in the wild-card round. The Tiger lost to the Seattle Mariners in the divisional round of the playoffs. 

Detroit's projected to contend for the AL Central title in 2026, and Skubal's health and performance is a big part of those plans. 

After exhibitions against the San Francisco Giants and Colorado Rockies, Team USA will begin pool play at the WBC against Brazil on March 6. The WBC finals are scheduled for March 17. MLB's full Opening Day slate including Detroit's season opener against the San Diego Padres is scheduled for March 26. 

For decades, Pat Riley has been the architect of the Miami Het.

But he's a Los Angeles Lakers legend whose likeness was set in perpetuity Sunday with a statue outside of Crypto.com Arena. 

The Lakers unveiled the statue prior to Sunday's home game against the rival Boston Celtics. It fittingly stands between statues of Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, with whom Riley won four NBA championships as the head coach of the "Showtime" Lakers.

With a host of Lakers icons watching, the curtain was lifted, and Riley's statue emerged from a flurry of purple and gold confetti. The statue is positioned with Riley holding up his right hand in a fist, his trademark signal for Johnson to deliver a pass to Abdul-Jabbar for a sky hook.

An inscription on the base of the statue features a quote that Riley attributed to his father, Leon Riley:

“There will come a time when you are challenged, and when that time comes, you must plant your feet. You must stand firm. You must make a point. About who you are, what you do, and where you come from. When that time comes, you do it.”

Lakers legends among icons to honor Riley

Riley was among the "Showtime" Lakers royalty present for the unveiling alongside Johnson, Abdul-Jabbar, James Worthy, A.C. Green, Bob McAdoo, Kurt Rambis, Norm Nixon and Byron Scott.

Dwyane Wade, who won three NBA championships under Riley's leadership with the Heat, was also in attendance. As was notable "Showtime"-era Lakers fan Michael Douglas, who gave a speech about his friendship with Riley. 

Lakers governor Jeanie Buss, whose father, Jerry Buss, hired Riley, hosted the ceremony.

“Even though Pat hasn't worked here for more than three decades, those remain Laker principles in large part because of him," Buss said." That's why it was so important to us to recognize Pat with this statue right here in the heart of downtown L.A.”

When the statue was unveiled, Riley smiled and offered a thumbs up in approval.

MediaNews Group/Pasadena Star-News via Getty Images via Getty Images

The celebration of Riley continued at halftime of Sunday's game with Johnson emceeing a midcourt ceremony in front of a sold-out crowd. 

"I was born to be a Laker in 1970 at the Forum with these guys right here," Riley said when Johnson handed him the mic, while pointing to the aforementioned former Lakers in the building who were lined up behind him at halfcourt. 

The man known for as much for his fashion sense as his basketball acumen, then had jokes.

"And of all of them, there's only one who has shown me true respect today, and that's James Worthy, who has a tie on," Riley continued. "Everybody's got a little too casual — $2,000 fine for everybody."

To be fair to Jamaal Wilkes, Wilkes also had a tie on.

Riley, who wore many hats with the Lakers including player and broadcaster before taking over as head coach, then reflected on his time with the team.

"I had the opportunity to meet, to be with, to play with to coach to broadcast, to be a traveling secretary and to be a head coach of this team. And it's the greatest honor I've ever had."