• Team circumvented salary cap rules to sign star

• Owner Steve Ballmer lands one-year ban

The NBA has handed down one of the biggest punishments in the history of the league to the Los Angeles Clippers after finding that the franchise circumvented salary cap rules when it courted Kawhi Leonard as a free agent.

The league has stripped the team of five first-round draft picks, giving the team no natural pick in the draft from 2029 through 2033.

• Japanese player wears Iverson’s signature cornrows

• Outfit also has newspaper clippings about Osaka

Naomi Osaka channeled former NBA star Allen Iverson before her US Open first-round victory over Anastasia Zakharova on Monday.

Osaka made her usual fashionable entrance for her tournament opener, which she won in straight sets. The two-time US Open champion emerged on to the court at Arthur Ashe Stadium wearing a long, white skirt and a gray, hooded robe featuring newspaper clippings about her.

The star known as Bayou Barbie is shining in Atlanta. The longer her haters dwell on her lowlights, the more they miss her transformation into an all-around force

On 16 August, the Atlanta Dream faced the Indiana Fever in the WNBA’s showcase matchup, and Angel Reese had a chance to don the cape. Tied at 81, the Dream had possession with five seconds left in regulation when Rhyne Howard launched a deep three-pointer. Reese was perfectly positioned under the basket, snagging Howard’s air ball with an outstretched hand. But in the rush to win the game, Reese forced a shot off the backboard that caromed off the front rim – and Naz Hillmon’s putback fizzled as the buzzer sounded. After Indiana escaped with a 95-91 overtime victory, Reese beat herself up over the loss.

“I didn’t sleep,” she told reporters days later. “The competitor in me wanted to win that game so bad. I replayed that play so many times.” Reese vowed to shrug the game off and do better. Damned if she hasn’t proved herself to be a woman of her word.

• Center Kate Koval departs after one season with Tigers

• Anna Minaeva of Russia joined team earlier this month

• Kim Mulkey hoped two could be ‘ambassadors’ for peace

Ukrainian center Kate Koval is leaving LSU less than two weeks after the Tigers brought in a player from Russia.

LSU coach Kim Mulkey said Monday night that Koval was leaving for “personal reasons”, adding that the program will “respect her privacy on her decision”.

• 24-year-old breaks single game and single season record

• Reese’s 26 rebounds help Atlanta to win over Los Angeles

Angel Reese rebounded her way into the record books not once, but twice in one night. Reese set a WNBA record with 26 rebounds in the Atlanta Dream’s 78-71 win over the Los Angeles Sparks on Monday, pushing her past the season record in the same game.

“Last time I was here, I didn’t miss any shots. Tonight I couldn’t hit [anything] so I knew I was going be able to get them on the rebounding side,” Reese said after the game. “I just want to be there for my team. Offensively, defensively, whatever it takes to win.”

Nearly a decade after I watched him defy Erdoğan at great personal cost, the ex-NBA player is using his hard-won freedom to turn transgender people into a punchline

Nine years ago, I watched Enes Kanter ask America to take him in. It was May 2017, inside the National Basketball Players Association’s offices in midtown Manhattan. Kanter had just returned from a frightening detention at Bucharest airport, where Romanian border police told him Turkey had canceled his passport. He’d just turned 25, an NBA center with a green card and no country he could safely call home.

“I’m open for adoption,” he joked from the head of a table in a nondescript conference room, addressing a dozen reporters hastily summoned by his manager. Then he turned serious: “My next move is to just become an American citizen.”