NBA

LaVar Ball is taking his son LaMelo's hoops career into his own hands -- pulling the top prospect out of Chino Hills High School so he can personally train 'Melo over the next 2 years.

"I'm going to make him the best basketball player ever," LaVar told the L.A. Times' Eric Sondheimer.

LaVar says LaMelo will officially be checked outta Chino on Tuesday ... and won't play any games in public until AAU ball rolls around in the spring.

The Big Baller dad says the shift will benefit 'Melo since there will be "less distractions."

High school officials told us LaMelo's BBB shoe deal would NOT disqualify him from playing HS basketball ... so this is probably just LaVar trying to get his kid to the next level.

Khloe Kardashian's boyfriend is going to be her baby daddy now ... so he's stepping up his real estate game for the sake of his family.

Our Kardashian sources tell us ... Tristan Thompson's plan to simply rent a place in L.A. went out the window as soon as the couple found out she was pregnant. Now we're told he's looking to buy a pad in Bel Air, Bev Hills or the Hollywood Hills.

As we reported ... Khloe and Tristan were out hunting for a rental for him in July, looking for places in the $60k a month range. Our sources say now that he's planning to become an L.A. homeowner ... his budget's around $20 million.

We're told Tristan wants his own place in the city so they don't have to drive back to Khloe's house in Calabasas ... which is about an hour away.

And he probably wants to design his own baby room, too.

Matt Barnes says he's blessed to have won a ring with the Warriors ... but tells TMZ Sports the whole thing was "bittersweet."

Matt grinded 15 YEARS for a 'chip -- and says it was an "amazing experience" being a part of one of the greatest teams in NBA history ... but the injury he suffered right before the playoffs really put a damper on things.

"It's bittersweet 'cause I wanted to be out there crying and bleeding and sweating with my teammates," Barnes said ... "I had to sit back and watch our team win the finals."

Makes sense -- Barnes is one of the toughest competitors in pro sports ... so you can understand how hard it must have been to sit back and watch even when his team was dominating.

Overall, though, Matt says the experience was dope.

Just like the after-parties.

Atlanta Hawks star Dennis Schroder was arrested for battery, according to police in Georgia -- and the team says its scrambling to gather info.

Details are scarce, but ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting the 24-year-old guard was busted on suspicion of battery, a misdemeanor. Police records confirm Schroder was arrested for battery.

The Hawks have issued a statement saying, "We are aware of an incident involving Dennis Schröder earlier this morning."

"We are still gathering information as it pertains to the situation, and out of respect for the legal process, we will have no further comment at this time."

It was date night for Michael Jordan in NYC on Thursday.

Hot wife? Check.

Chauffeur driven SUV? Check.

MJ's trademark overly baggy dad pants? Check.

Expensive, rare Air Jordans? Of course.

The NBA legend took Yvette Prieto out to Marea bar and restaurant in Midtown. He was in a great mood. He was super nice to the paparazzi and fans on the street.

But we wanted to know what the face of one of the biggest shoe lines on the planet rocks out for a fancy dinner.

The answer -- it appears MJ's wearing the Air Jordan 1 Pinnacles ... brown leather kicks with 24K gold-plated accents. They retail for $400 a pair.

Wonder if he ever wears the same pair twice?

Chad Johnson says NFL protests have been "politically whitewashed from why it started in the first place" -- and says kneeling has turned into "a goddamn Ice Bucket Challenge."

The ex-NFL superstar was smokin' a stogie in West Hollywood on Thursday when we asked how he felt about the Denver Broncos releasing a statement saying they will no longer kneel for the anthem.

Johnson sighed ... and said the whole protest situation in the NFL has become "unfortunate."

"We're not kneeling for the same reasons that Kaepernick kneeled for 14 months ago," Johnson said ... "It's completely different."

Johnson essentially echoed the feelings of L.A. Sparks player Essence Carson -- who told us why she's upset people have made the protest about the flag and Trump ... instead of racism and police brutality.

Washington Wizards baller Kelly Oubre is setting the record straight -- saying he's "NOT a lesbian" ... despite what some fans say.

The 21-year-old rising star was talking to CSN Mid Atlantic about some of the crap he gets from opposing fans ... and dropped this shocker.

"People call me a lesbian a lot. They think I look like a female girl or a teenage girl or something."

So, why the lesbian jabs? Oubre says he thinks he knows why ...

"I understand I'm a pretty dude. They might be mad that their wife likes me or something."

But to be clear -- "I'm not a lesbian. I'm a grown man."

"I've heard that multiple times. I guess it's something to try to get under my skin, but at the end of the day I know who I am."

And now you know.

Ex-NBA player Bonzi Wells underwent surgery in an Indiana hospital after suffering a heart attack -- but the 41-year-old says he's okay now.

Unclear when Wells was admitted to St. Vincent Hospital in Indianapolis -- but Wells says he's back home now and "feeling good."

Wells told the Star Press the heart attack was "minor" -- explaining, "Small clot hit bottom part of the heart. Had surgery so I'm back to 100% no restrictions."

Wells posted a photo with one of the nurses at the hospital and wrote, "I wanna thank these ladies for saving my life."

"They went above and beyond to make sure I would be ok."

Bonzi played 10 seasons in the NBA for teams including the Sacramento Kings, Memphis Grizzlies and Houston Rockets.

Matt Barnes says pro athletes aren't "dumbasses" -- despite what Donald Trump thinks -- and says the biggest sports stars in the world are ready to unite to rise up against POTUS.

TMZ Sports spoke with the hoops star about the open letter he penned to Trump ... and if he's concerned that Donald could turn his ire from the NFL to the NBA.

Barnes says he would definitely consider taking a knee during the anthem when the NBA season begins -- but only if ALL of his teammates are down.

The twist ... the NBA has a rule against kneeling during the national anthem. Gonna be interesting to see how the league responds if/when guys like LeBron James decide to make a Kaepernick-esque statement.

Hey, NCAA -- here's a simple solution to all your corruption problems ... PAY YOUR DAMN PLAYERS -- so says former NBA star Stephen Jackson.

Stack wasn't too in the know on college basketball's recruiting scandal when we got him at LAX ... but he told TMZ Sports he was 100% behind the idea of NCAA hoops stars makin' bank.

"If you can go to war at 18 and kill yourself, why you can't get paid for basketball?"

Ohio Gov. John Kasich says OKC adding Carmelo Anthony ain't enough to win a title ... saying the Thunder needs to make one more acquisition to compete, another basketball.

FYI -- 'Melo shoots a lot.

We got Kasich -- a huge hoops fan -- out in NYC and asked him what he thought about the Thunder adding Anthony to a team that already has Russell Westbrook and Paul George.

Turns out he doesn't think much of it, telling our guy there's just not gonna be enough Spalding available to make everyone on that stacked team happy.

It wasn't all doom & gloom with Kasich though, the Cavs fanatic did something most Cleveland fans aren't doing right now ... said some really nice things about Kyrie Irving.

Zach Randolph says he feels he was "wrongfully arrested" during an August 9 incident in Los Angeles -- in which cops initially said the NBA star was in possession of a TON of weed.

TMZ Sports broke the story ... Randolph was initially arrested for possession with intent to sell because of the large quantity of weed cops say he had. He eventually pled no contest to resisting arrest and the weed charge was dismissed completely.

Randolph finally broke his silence about the situation on Monday telling reporters, "I'm not speaking a lot about it but I felt that I was wrongfully arrested."

"Things that was put out there wasn't true. But I don't want to be a distraction to my team, my organization, so I'm just going to move forward and play basketball."

Randolph was sentenced to 150 hours of community service and was ordered to stay away from drug dealers. He's due back in court in December.

LeBron James says people who voted for Donald Trump made a mistake -- but it's okay, because even LeBron makes mistakes.

The NBA superstar spoke with reporters at Cavs media day and refused to say Trump's name -- or even call him the President. Bron repeatedly referred to him as "that guy."

James accused "that guy" of using sports to try and divide the country -- and he says he'll do everything in his power to fight back.

Then he dropped this ...

"If you voted for him or not, you may have made a mistake, and that's okay."

"If you voted for him, it's okay. I mean I've done things for my kids and realized I shouldn't have given my daughter that many damn Skittles. Maybe I shouldn't have done that. She won't go to sleep now."

Wizards star Bradley Beal just went off on Donald Trump ... trashing POTUS in a big way ... and essentially teasing more protests when the NBA season starts.

Beal used the mic at Wizards media day to call Trump a "clown" and voice his displeasure with everything the President is doing ... from race issues to Puerto Rico to Twitter.

"I disagree with what he's doing. I disagree with his thoughts. Hopefully as a nation we can come together better and really see things through the perspective of the people really going through it."

The NBA season begins on Oct. 17 -- and with several prominent NBA players from LeBron to KD to Steph to Beal speaking out against Trump, it'll be interesting to see if they demonstrate against him during games.

Lonzo Ball's rap career just got real 'cause DJ Mustard, one of the greatest rap producers on planet Earth, just told TMZ Sports he's down to work with the Big Baller prince, for a big baller price.

If you don't know who Mustard is (you don't listen to music), he's made beats for peeps like YG, Rihanna, 2 Chainz, Travis Scott, Nicki Minaj, T.I., Big Sean, and Fergie.

He told us he'd be down to add Lonzo -- who just kicked off his rap career -- to that list when we got him out in Beverly Hills (shutting down Balenciaga), as long as the price is right.

Get your checkbook, LaVar.

Ex-Lakers player Jordan Hill is getting called out by one of the most famous booty models on the 'Gram -- with Ghetto Barbie claiming Hill tried to fly her out to smash, but she burned him good instead.

Here's the deal ... Ghetto Barbie and 'Love and Hip Hop' star Jhonni Blaze appeared on "Raq Rants" where they talked about some of their NBA crushes.

Blaze shouted out Hill as her crush -- and that's when Ghetto Barbie revealed that he once slid into her DMs and bought her a ticket to fly.

Why, you ask?

Barbie says she wanted to teach Hill a lesson -- don't think a free airplane ticket means you automatically get the booty.

Lesson learned.