Basketball

Kevin Garnett claims his former accountant helped swindle him out of $77 MILLION and now he's suing in hopes of getting some of his cash back.

The NBA star -- who reportedly made more than $343 MILLION during his NBA career -- claims his former accountant Michael Wertheim was helping a crooked wealth manager skim a fortune from his bank accounts over several years and did nothing to stop it.

In fact, Garnett claims the accountant aided wealth manager Charles A. Banks IV in the theft and should be held responsible ... according to the suit, which has been moved to federal court in Minnesota.

Garnett claims part of the diabolical plot against him involved his wealth manager and accountant trying to get him to live on a budget so they would have a greater pool of cash to steal from.

One example ... in August 2013, Garnett claims he asked his wealth manager to wire him $40,000 of his own money -- but was scolded for exceeding their budget. Meanwhile, KG claims the wealth manager took more than $2 MILLION for himself over an 8-day span.

How does LeBron James feel about Nike's new deal with Colin Kaepernick?

"I stand with Nike ... every day, all day."

It's a huge statement from the biggest athlete in the world -- as Colin and Nike continue to get blowback from people like country star John Rich, UFC star Tim Kennedy and others who have vowed to boycott Nike.

But Tuesday night, as LeBron accepted the Icon 360 Award at Capitale in NYC ... he ended his remarks with a statement on Nike (though he didn't mention Kaepernick by name).

"Last but not least, I stand for anybody that believes in change. I stand for anybody that believes in a positive attitude and a positive matter ... and I stand with Nike every day, all day."

Of course, LeBron is a Nike athlete who reportedly signed a $1 billion lifetime deal with the company. But, it seems he's genuinely proud of the company.

As for the award, the Icon 360 was presented for Bron's contribution to fashion and philanthropy.

During the ceremony, LeBron also thanked his wife and daughters and said, "I believe African-American women are the most powerful women in the world."

LiAngelo Ball wondered if his stealing incident in China was the reason he didn't get selected in the NBA draft ... saying, "the sh*t I did off the court" might have cost him.

It all went down in the latest episode of the family's Facebook docuseries, "Ball In The Family" ... where cameras caught the middle Ball bro's reaction to not being picked to join Lonzo in the Association.

"I don't know, I guess it's the way I play, I guess," Gelo says of why he thinks he didn't get drafted.

"Or the sh*t I did off the court."

Of course ... Gelo -- along with 2 teammates from UCLA -- were detained in China after stealing several pairs of designer sunglasses and other accessories from multiple stores in Hangzhou.

LiAngelo was suspended from the Bruins indefinitely ... and LaVar eventually pulled him from school to play ball in Lithuania.

Ball joked about the whole ordeal in a Foot Locker ad released just days before the draft ... but it doesn't seem he found it very funny after not being picked.

"Sucks that I didn't get drafted tonight," he said on the show.

Gelo's been hooping in the JBA -- LaVar's startup basketball league -- ever since, waiting to catch on with any NBA team that'd be willing to add him to the roster.

Ball has previously told us he's had interest from NBA teams -- but so far, no one has pulled the trigger on signing him to a deal.

File this under:

WHY HASN'T IT HAPPENED?!!

Here's Shaunie O'Neal -- Shaq's ex-wife -- telling the world that Kobe freakin' Bryant has PERSONALLY offered to train her kids in basketball ... but for some reason it hasn't happened yet.

What?

We got Shaunie at LAX, and asked her about her son, Shaqir, being teamed up on the court with LeBron James Jr. at Crossroads school in Santa Monica.

We wanted to know if LeBron would be personally training the two boys, and while Shaunie couldn't answer that, she did tell us about another Laker great who's offered.

"Kobe always offers ... we're just so far from each other, but he always offers."

33,643 career points (3rd of all time), 2 NBA Finals MVPs, 5 championships. That's what Shaunie won't travel down the 5 freeway to have her kid get trained up by.

We at TMZ Sports demand somebody fix this.

Dennis Rodman's giving away signed Chicago Bulls jerseys ... just ask this Australian fan who's getting two of 'em after he was spotted wearing The Worm's Lakers jersey while on vacay.

Here's what happened ... Matt from Australia was out with his son in Hawaii over the weekend when Rodman's rep, Darren Prince, spotted him in the No. 73 Lakers jersey. Cool and kinda rare sighting, so Darren dials up Dennis to connect him with the fan.

Dennis tells him "this is the real Dennis Rodman" before Matt jokes about the Hawaiian weather that gets Dennis laughing off his ass. Check it out ... Matt gets quite the surprise when Dennis says he'll send along signed jerseys. Matt's all about it ... saying he'll add it to his Rodman collection. Really.

Matt says he's got Rodman's Pistons, Bulls, Lakers and even a Dallas Mavericks jersey where he had a short stint in 2000. The Hall of Famer then tells a funny story about his No. 70 jersey with the Mavs ... prompting Matt to call ex-NBA commish David Stern a d***. Watch.

Zip, zero, zilch, bupkis ... according to Bill Simmons, that's how many championships the great LeBron James will win as a Laker ... and Bill ain't playing around.

We got Simmons -- an NBA expert -- at LAX, and asked him a couple questions in his wheelhouse about the Association, including when he thought the Lake Show would be back in the finals.

Good news for L.A. fans, he said two years, and he said they'd get there with some combination of Jimmy Butler and Damian Lillard on the team.

The bad news came when we asked how many rings LeBron James would win in a Laker uniform, and Bill said not one, not two, not three, but NOT ANY ... holding up a zero to our camera.

Do the math. That means Bill thinks a team with LeBron, Damian, AND Jimmy Butler can't win a championship?

Cappie Pondexter tells TMZ Sports she BARELY makes six figures a year as one of the WNBA's biggest superstars ... and she's pissed off about it, saying the league "should pay me what I deserve!"

It's been a heated topic in the hoops world recently -- with players like Skylar Diggins-Smith voicing their dismay about the pay difference between NBA players and their WNBA counterparts.

Pondexter couldn't have agreed more with Skylar when we got her out in L.A. promoting her CBD skin care line ... telling us the league ONLY shells out $113,000 a year for her to play.

"It's just getting out of line now," the Indiana Fever star says.

"I've been in the league for 13 years, making the vet minimum, which for me is $113,000 for the last five years, which is nothing compared to what the minimum is and the maximum is for the NBA."

"I'm not saying that we have to get what they have, but I think we should see some progress at this point."

Pondexter says she's so fed up with it all ... she's actually willing to be a part of a league-wide work stoppage -- if other stars like Diana Taurasi and Elena Delle Donne are down for it.

Feel bad for Zach LaVine getting wrecked on social media by a seafood restaurant this week??

Well don't ... 'cause the dude is living his best life with his gorgeous girlfriend Hunter Mar in the Bahamas ... and just by looking at the pics, he's the real winner here.

Of course, the NBA star got into a Twitter war with Jimmy's Famous Seafood after the Baltimore restaurant ripped the Bulls for giving him a $78 million deal ... to which LaVine said "I'm allergic to shellfish anyway"

The restaurant clapped back by bashing LaVine's defense ... but something tells us Zach's got bigger fish to fry.

6:00 AM PT -- Govan was released after posting $100,000 bail.

"Basketball Wives" star Gloria Govan was arrested for felony child endangerment after a dangerous fight with her ex-husband ... which cops say put their kids at risk.

Sources with direct knowledge tell TMZ ... Gloria's kids were at their school Friday, about to get out for the day, and ex-husband Matt Barnes was scheduled to pick them up. We're told according to their child custody agreement, Matt had custody for the long, Labor Day weekend.

Our sources say at 2:55 PM -- 5 minutes before school let out -- Gloria arrived to get the twin boys. She got the children in her car and that's when Matt showed up and told her it was his weekend for the kids.

We're told Matt told the kids to get out of Gloria's car and into his. It appears the kids followed Matt's instructions, because we're told Gloria then flew into a rage, tried to follow Matt's car, screaming and cussing. Our sources say she then blocked Matt's car with the kids inside, and that's when someone called 911.

Gloria was arrested for child endangerment and also violating a court order. After police took Gloria to jail, they let Matt take the kids after he showed them paperwork he had custody this weekend.

NBA star J.R. Smith has turned himself into police in New York -- and has been charged with a crime -- stemming from a July incident where he allegedly threw a cell phone, TMZ Sports has learned.

TMZ Sports broke the story ... Smith was being investigated for allegedly stealing a cell phone from a person outside of The Park -- a hot spot in Chelsea. Officials believe Smith threw the phone into a nearby construction zone, damaging the item.

Now, we've learned Smith appeared at an NYPD station in Chelsea early Friday morning where he was charged with misdemeanor criminal mischief and issued a desk appearance ticket to appear in court at a later date.

We spoke with Smith's attorney, Alex Spiro, who tells us, "This is nonsense, and we aren't responding to nonsense. He was issued a ticket."

Ben Simmons, DeMarcus Cousins and Giannis Antetokounmpo were just SOME of the massive NBA stars refusing to be scared away from a video game event in NYC ... in the wake of the Florida tragedy.

The NBA stars -- along with rapper Travis Scott -- hit up the NBA 2K19 launch event at the Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse in NYC on Wednesday night ... partying the night away while gaming it up.

The party went down less than a week after a disturbed gamer opened fire at a Madden tournament in Jacksonville, killing 2 people and injuring 11 more.

Several tournaments have either been canceled or postponed since the shooting -- but the NBA 2K19 event decided to move forward as planned.

It's a good thing too -- everyone seemed to have a great time without incident.

Just another reminder ... video games are supposed to be fun.

LeBron James says white people were an acquired taste for him ... because he didn't always feel like he wanted to be around them.

James' conversation show, "The Shop," premiered on HBO Tuesday night and, while flanked with stars like Jon Stewart, Odell Beckham Jr. and Vince Staples, LBJ talked about life at his mostly white, exclusive, private school in Akron, Ohio.

LeBron candidly admits that when he first got to Akron's St. Vincent-St. Mary, he had no intention of communicating or befriending his caucasian classmates.

"Took me a while to adjust to it ... I was like, I'm not f*cking with white people, that was my initial thought to white America."

James explains where these ideas came from ... telling the guys his upbringing conditioned him to be distrustful of white people, which represented oppression to him since he grew up disadvantaged.

Didn't take long for it to change ... Maverick Carter, James' business partner and bestie since high school, chimed in explaining that by the end of the year everyone was friends, hanging out and going to the same parties.

Manu Ginobili might be retired ... but San Antonio Spurs star Pau Gasol's clearly still in his prime ... taking his insanely attractive GF out for a romantic trip to Ibiza ... and the pics are straight fire.

38-year-old Pau is dating Cat McDonnell -- a former USC cheerleader who has a background working for a big-time finance company. They've been IG official since 2016.

The couple looked to be having a great time on Pau's home soil ... going on boat rides, cozy dinners and other mushy stuff.

And also, she looks absolutely INSANE in a bikini.

Not like Pau can't afford to take amazing trips like this for the rest of his life -- he's currently in the middle of a 3-year, $48 MILLION contract with the Spurs.

And get this ... career earning for Pau? $199 MILLION!!!!!

That's just about $34 million less than LeBron James has made through NBA contracts (though James has made a TON more in off-the-court deals).

For comparison, Kobe Bryant reportedly made $323 MIL in NBA contract money. Manu Ginobili made $114 mil over 15 seasons.

Cancel your Jiggy Butzalea shirts -- they're not dating!

After Iggy Azalea was spotted with NBA star Jimmy Butler in Malibu over the weekend, some speculated the two were an item.

But, Iggy says that ain't it -- the two just happened to be "standing next to" each other in a restaurant parking lot.

"Can we please stop saying every man who is single you see me standing next to is someone I'm on a date with," Iggy said.

Iggy insist the two were simply having "normal in passing conversation" -- not finishing up a date, as the photo agency who shot the pics suggested.

So, bottom line. He's single. She's single.

Ice Cube was so fired up after Team Power won the BIG3 title over the weekend, he went to the locker room and kicked off the champagne-spraying party all by himself ... and TMZ Sports has the video.

Cube actually got to the locker room so fast, he beat some of the players to the celebration -- but when Corey Maggette, "Big Baby" Davis and "Birdman" Andersen arrived, they got the full spray treatment.

It all went down Friday night at Barclays Center, where Team Power took on (and beat) 3's Company -- comprised of players like Baron Davis and Drew Gooden.

Big Baby was particularly pumped up -- grabbin' everybody around him and soaking them in Luc Belaire champagne. Not even coach Nancy Lieberman was spared.

And, by the way ... did you know Nancy Lieberman became the first woman to coach a men’s pro team to a championship?

UPDATE 8/26 -- TMZ Sports has obtained new video of the Nick Young arrest in which the NBA star is screaming, "Am I resisting?!"

During the footage, Young is being taken into custody for refusing to cooperate with officers during a routine traffic stop late Friday night.

You can hear Young screaming out to nearby witnesses -- clearly upset. The witnesses don't seem to care with one man telling cops, "shoot him."

Ultimately, cops ignored the cries from both Young and the witnesses and put the NBA Star in their squad car. He was taken to a nearby station where he was booked.

So far, Young has yet to comment publicly on the incident.

NBA star Nick Young -- aka Swaggy P -- was arrested in Hollywood late Friday night after an incident during a traffic stop with police ... TMZ Sports has learned.

Law enforcement sources tell us ... the former Golden State Warriors star was pulled over just before midnight for a routine traffic violation when something went wrong.

We're told the 33-year-old refused to cooperate with the officers on scene, and so he was arrested for obstruction of justice.

One witness tells us ... cops took Young out of his vehicle and ordered him up against a wall where he was handcuffed and taken into custody.

He was taken to a nearby station where he was booked. We're told Young's vehicle was impounded.

Unclear if he had any passengers inside.

It's not Young's first issue with cops -- back in 2016, he was cited for bumping his music too loud while driving his car in Hollywood. At the time, Young claimed one of the officers heckled him about the Lakers having a crappy record.

Young is a pretty famous dude outside NBA circles -- remember, he dated Iggy Azalea back in the day ... but she broke up with him when he knocked up his ex behind Iggy's back.