NBA

OKC center Steven Adams says he's ALL ABOUT playing with Carmelo Anthony -- but warns that talk of Melo being signed by the Thunder is still just a fantasy.

The 7-footer was flying out of LAX when we asked about the possible move.

"That's just like saying if Michael Jordan could play for us. That would be awesome too."

He added that the rumblings don't really matter right now -- "It's all just like fantasizing."

Speaking of which, Adams says he's a hardcore video gamer -- particularly when it comes to "Dota 2."

Kyrie Irving & LeBron James need to beat the hell out of each other immediately ... so says an ex-teammate of LBJ who tells TMZ Sports a healthy dose of fisticuffs can fix the beef.

We got Drew Gooden at LAX, who played with LeBron from '04 - '08 and asked him if there's any way these two NBA titans can put the bad blood behind them and get back to losing to Golden State.

According to Drew there is, and involves some fists, 'cause he told our guy the two men need to just kick the crap out of each other, get all the bad vibes out, and then start over.

There were reports LeBron wanted to do just that, which he refuted, but still, maybe Drew has a point?

Allen Iverson tested his luck in Chicago this week ... hitting up a local casino while his BIG3 team was in town for a game.

The Answer posted up at the roulette table at the Rivers Casino on Thursday -- where witnesses say he was flanked by private security during his gambling run.

No word on how much he was betting. We're told he was drinking water.

A.I. has a penchant for the casinos -- he was spotted at the SugarHouse Casino in Philly earlier this month while the BIG3 was there.

There have been reports over the years that Iverson has a gambling problem -- but he's publicly denied that.

Ex-ATL Hawks player Pero Antic just took an "L" in his legal war with the NYPD -- after a judge decided the cop who pushed him during a 2015 incident didn't use excessive force.

Antic and then-teammate Thabo Sefolosha both sued the NYPD claiming cops got unnecessarily violent with them on the street ... after another NBA player got stabbed in a separate incident.

Officials initially said Antic grabbed an officer on the shoulder while the cop was trying to arrest Thabo. Antic claims the cop pushed him to the ground.

Antic was arrested for disorderly conduct, obstruction and menacing -- but the charges were later dropped. He then sued the NYPD looking for up to $25 million in damages.

But in court docs obtained by TMZ Sports, the judge shot down Antic's case -- essentially saying the officer had to make a split-second decision and his actions were not unreasonable. Plus, the judge points out Antic was not injured as a result.

We spoke with Antic's attorney, Derek Sells, who says he's disappointed in the judge's decision and considering an appeal.

"We believe there are questions of fact that should be determined by a jury."

Here's proof your friends don't ever let you live anything down ... the OKC Thunder taking shots at Andre Roberson and his (non?) tipping habits after a dinner out in L.A.

Remember, Roberson found himself in a public tipping scandal a couple weeks back, when a server claims the $30 million man bricked his gratuity ... leaving a $14 tip on a nearly $500 check.

The guys were out at Catch last night, and by the guys we mean the WHOLE DAMN SQUAD basically, including Russell Westbrook, Steven Adams, Enes Kanter, and Kyle Singler.

Of course we had to ask who paid, which the bros wouldn't tell us, but Kanter did take the time to (jokingly) call out Dre, for his end of the night courtesy.

Lamar Odom says he knew he hit rock bottom with his coke addiction when his wife, Khloe Kardashian, walked in on him getting high with a random chick in a motel ... calling it "one of the darkest places I've ever been."

The ex-NBA star opened up on "The Players' Tribune" -- explaining how his cocaine addiction consumed his life leading up to the overdose at a Nevada brothel in 2015.

"At that point in my life, I was doing coke every day. Pretty much every second of free time that I had, I was doing coke. I couldn't control it."

Lamar even quoted Rick James -- "Cocaine is a hell of a drug."

In the article, Odom also admits to cheating on Khloe -- and finally realized how out of control his life had gotten when she caught him red-handed with another woman.

"One of the darkest places I've ever been was when I was in a motel room, getting high with this chick, and my wife (at the time) walked in. That probably was like rock bottom."

"My dick and my habit took me down all the roads that you don't ever wanna go down."

Chris Bosh has some advice for Kyrie Irving and LeBron James -- "Work it out."

Of course, Bosh knows firsthand what it takes to have a successful NBA relationship with James -- the two won 'ships together with the Miami Heat. Plus, they're still good friends.

So, with a reported beef currently underway between Bron and Kyrie, Bosh was asked if he thinks Kyrie wants to pave his own way and become his own man.

Ray Allen says Donald Trump's decision to ban transgender people from serving in the military is not only "insane" -- but suggests it ain't how Jesus Christ would handle things.

The NBA legend was furious with Trump's Twitter statement Wednesday -- in which he announced the United States will "no longer accept transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military."

The message didn't sit well with Allen ...

"I'm sorry but this is insane!!!! Why does it matter how people identify themselves???"

He continued, "Anyone who wants to serve this country should have the right to serve this country. What happened to the most powerful person in this country bringing everyone together?? What a shame!!"

"We must resist these idiotic ideas being spread about from this White House."

Cavaliers superstar Kyrie Irving arrived at his reported decision to ask out of Cleveland the same way Justin Bieber chose to end his tour -- through long chats with pastor Carl Lentz of Hillsong Church ... TMZ Sports has learned.

Church sources tell us Kyrie, who's been an active member for a long time, met with Lentz earlier this month about his desires to step out of LeBron James' shadow. We're told Lentz didn't tell Kyrie to "leave Cleveland" -- instead he listened to Kyrie's concerns, and encouraged him to make the decision he felt was best.

There's a reason it sounds so similar to Justin's Purpose tour shocker -- Bieber, Lentz and Irving all hung out together in L.A. just over a week ago. You could say they were on Kyrie's turf ... playing pop-a-shot at Dave & Buster's.

We're told Kyrie and Carl have been close for years, but Justin and the NBA star are more like acquaintances.

NBA fans have been baffled as to why Kyrie would want to leave a team that's been to the NBA Finals 3 years straight. Now we know -- it's God-approved.

Close your eyes, Clippers fans ... here's the first footage of James Harden & Chris Paul hooping together since CP3 joined the Rockets, and the guys look pretty freakin' good together.

The game went down in L.A., and Paul and Harden weren't the only NBA guys playing -- they were joined by Rockets teammate Trevor Ariza and NBA champion JaVale McGee.

It's a pretty sick video uploaded by YouBall Training honchos Thomas Scott and Anthony Davis (not that one).

Ready to call 'em a superteam yet?

Andre Drummond is keeping it pretty real when it comes to his future -- telling TMZ Sports when it comes to blockbuster trade rumors, "Anything is possible in this league."

The rumors are heating up that the Detroit Pistons star could be shipped out before the season starts -- and even engaged with a Twitter fan this week who suggested Drummond could be part of a mega trade to Cleveland for Kyrie Irving.

But when we asked about it, he didn't exactly rule it out -- "I play for Detroit now, so we'll keep it at that."

That said, Drummond still has big hopes for the Motor City -- telling us the Pistons picked up a lot of great talents in the off-season including Avery Bradley.

"We got a lot of great pieces to be a great team."

The man who claims he was punched in the face by Draymond Green last summer says he got violent threats after the incident and still wakes up crying ... and now he's suing the NBA star.

The man behind the suit is ex-Michigan State football player Jermaine Edmondson -- who says Draymond's posse attacked him and his GF at an East Lansing bar on July 10, 2016.

Edmonson says he confronted Green the next night -- and Draymond punched him in the face. A cop who witnessed the attack arrested the Warriors star for assault.

But Edmondson says his life has been hell since the incident -- and things got so bad at MSU (where Draymond went to school) that he quit the team and left the university for a while.

Edmondson says he's still haunted by the attacks -- and feels his name has been turned into a joke thanks to Green.

"I think about what happened with Draymond every day. I still feel his hand on my jaw."

Now, he and his GF have lawyered up with Lisa Bloom -- who's repped stars like Blac Chyna and Kathy Griffin -- and have sued Green for assault and battery.

As for Green, he cut a sweet deal in the criminal case -- he agreed to stay out of trouble for a year and the charge was reduced from a misdemeanor to a civil infraction. The year ended on July 22 so he's basically in the clear with prosecutors.

11:22 AM PT -- Draymond's camp issued a statement saying, "This lawsuit relates to an incident that occurred in East Lansing, Michigan over a year ago, for which Draymond paid a noise violation fine."

LeBron James is channeling his inner Donald Trump -- calling "fake news" on reports he wants to throw down with his teammate, Kyrie Irving.

It's been all over that LeBron is super pissed at Kyrie -- with some reports saying he's so unhappy that Irving wants a trade that, "LeBron James would be tempted to beat his ass."

Well, James has now broken his silence ... saying, "#NotFacts people! Boooo!!"

He added, "Get another source."

So, what's really going down with LeBron and Kyrie? Guess it depends on who ya wanna believe.

Charles Barkley says any Laker fan thinking the team will make a playoff run behind new star, Lonzo Ball, is smoking purple and gold CRACK ... telling TMZ Sports the Lake Show has ZERO CHANCE.

The hype is officially here, Lonzo balled out so hard in the Summer league (winning the MVP), that a lot of fans are thinking postseason, so when we got Barkley out at LAX we asked him if it was possible.

"Hell no."

Pretty simple. In fact, Sir Charles says in his opinion the 76ers with their young core of guys like Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Markelle Fultz are waaaay better than the Lakers are right now.

You'd think it was a diss ... if you didn't know any better.

But when Jimmy Butler took a shot at his friend Kyrie Irving in Malibu this week, we're guessing it's all in good fun.

With all the Kyrie rumors going around, we asked Jimmy Buckets if he wanted Irving to join him in Minnesota.

Jimmy's response: "I don't even know who that is."

Turns out, they're pretty tight -- they played on the '16 Team USA Olympic squad and Butler once hailed him as his favorite player in the NBA.

So, will Kyrie end up in Minnesota? Butler hopes so ... even if he doesn't wanna say it.

Charles Barkley is rooting for O.J. Simpson -- telling TMZ Sports he really hopes the guy can "keep his act together" after prison ... and he's offering up some advice to stay out of trouble.

Unclear if Barkley and Simpson were friends before he went to prison, but it seems Sir Chuck feels bad for the disgraced NFL running back, judging by the clip.

Charles also makes it clear he wasn't impressed with the way O.J. handled himself during his parole hearing last week -- saying, "He's done everything possible to screw this thing up."