NBA

The man who obtained a restraining order against Ray Allen says he was NOT catfishing the NBA star -- the two were in a romantic relationship ... but Ray's attorney tells TMZ Sports the man is lying.

As we previously reported, Allen is in a legal war with Bryant Coleman -- a staffer in the communications dept. at the University of Central Florida.

Coleman says Allen's allegations that he pretended to be a woman to obtain "private information" about Ray are false.

The truth, according to Coleman, is that Allen offered up info -- along with pictures and videos -- knowing full well that Coleman is a man. He says their relationship goes back several years.

"[Ray's] account of our relationship is false," Coleman says in a statement to TMZ Sports.

"Ray knows how I look, he knows how my voice sounds, he knows how I think, and most importantly, he knows my heart."

"However, because of confidentially considerations, I am not in a position to provide a more detailed response to Mr. Allen's false and salacious claims. I will rely on the courts to protect me against Mr. Allen's violent threats and false accusations."

The exact nature of the alleged "violent threats" is unclear, but as we previously reported ... Coleman obtained a restraining order, claiming Allen was stalking him.

We reached out to Allen's legal team for comment and his attorney shot down Coleman's claims.

"Mr. Coleman’s statement would be funny if it wasn’t so crazy," Ray's lawyer tells us.

"There has never been and never will be a relationship or friendship between Ray Allen and Mr. Coleman. They have never met and never have spoken."

"Ray obviously hasn’t threatened anyone. Any statement or inference otherwise is a complete fabrication. Ray wants nothing to do with Mr. Coleman, who obviously has some serious issues with understanding the difference between fact and fantasy.”

NBA #1 overall pick Markelle Fultz has a new BFF -- 17-year-old cancer survivor Mike Shelly, who's insane half-court shot at Saturday's 76ers game led to a once-in-a-lifetime VIP experience.

Here's the deal ... Mike balled out in a shooting contest during Sixers vs. Warriors, winning Chick-fil-A (Markelle's favorite thing ever) for all the fans in the arena.

Pretty epic -- but Shelly's no stranger to overcoming the odds ... crushing stage 4 cancer to suit up for his high school football team.

So when Mike got an invite back to the Wells Fargo Center, Fultz gave him a hero's welcome -- telling him he had a better jumper and asking if they could bro out over some chicken sandwiches! (The 76ers hooked Mike up with 76 Chick-fil-A gift cards, FYI).

The franchise also gave Shelly courtside seats, a future road trip with the squad and more!

Awesome story.

Ray Allen claims he was catfished by a man pretending to be a number of attractive women -- and now he's filed legal docs to make sure the alleged catfisher doesn't leak his private information.

It's all in legal docs obtained by TMZ Sports ... the ex-NBA superstar claims he met these "women" in "various online forums" and communicated with them ... sometimes sharing "private information."

Ray claims he eventually figured out he was being catfished and ended the relationships -- but the man behind the rouse became obsessed and began posting items on social media about Ray and his family.

In the docs, Allen claims the man would physically go to Ray's wife's restaurant in Orlando and post about Ray -- tagging family members in the posts. Creepy stuff.

Ray says he got the guy to sign a confidentiality agreement in which he agreed to stop posting about Ray -- but the guy violated the deal.

Things continued to escalate -- and the man eventually filed for a restraining order against Ray claiming the NBA star was stalking him, which the court granted.

Ray is adamantly denying the stalking allegations and is now seeking a restraining order of his own.

"Ray wants nothing to do with [the alleged catfisher] and merely wants to be left alone," Allen says in the court docs.

We spoke with Allen's attorney, David Oscar Markus, who tells us, "Ray Allen was the victim of an online scheme to extract money and embarrass him by someone who appears to be troubled."

"The person who perpetrated this scheme has now started to stalk him and make threats against Ray and his family. Ray has taken legal action to put an end to the threats and to expose his manipulation and wrongdoing."

"Ray regrets ever engaging with this person online and is thankful they never met in person. This experience has negatively impacted Ray, and he hopes that others might use his mistake to learn the dangers of communicating online with strangers."

Lonzo Ball just became the youngest NBA player to ever record a triple-double, but he's got a looong way to go to reach Harlem Globetrotter status ... so says a real-deal Harlem Globetrotter!!

TMZ Sports spoke with "Hoops" Green -- the 15th woman in the team's 91-year history -- who says Zo doesn't have enough swag to don the Red, White and Blue.

Hey Adam Silver, you know what would be dope, like literally DOPE?

Your entire league running up and down the court COKED OUT OF THEIR MINDS ... but that's not a TMZ Sports suggestion, it's coming straight from Mr. "I'm In Love With The Coco" himself, O.T. Genasis.

We got O.T. out at Le Jardin (Hollywood hot spot) and asked him if the NBA should consider legalizing not only weed but COCAINE (and basically all drugs) for the players to use.

O.T. thinks it's a great idea, and now that we think about it it'd be pretty awesome to see Russell Westbrook going berserk on the court completely co- NO, NO, NO, NO, NO.

How did it feel to jam the rock down Lonzo Ball's throat??

Ben Simmons wouldn't say ... but his smirk told us everything we needed to know.

TMZ Sports got Ben hitting Delilah and Warwick with 76ers bro Robert Covington after they took out Lonzo's Lakers at Staples -- why not celebrate, right?!

Simmons straight up dominated their matchup ... so when we asked about his dunk that sent 'Zo to the shadow realm, Ben reacted pretty much how you'd expect.

B.S. seems to love the club scene -- and so far, it hasn't impacted his play. He was out early Wednesday morning and still killed it later that day.

FYI, we bumped into a couple of the 76ers assistants on gameday ... and they didn't seem to mind.

Great news for Shaq's kids -- there are more MILLION DOLLAR PARTIES in your future, and this is coming straight from the man with the cash, dear old Shaq Daddy.

The Diesel has already thrown huge 7-figure blowout Sweet 16 parties for Shareef and Amirah -- renting out swanky Hollywood hot spots, with celeb performances and expensive cars.

So, when we saw Shaq in Bev Hills Tuesday -- we had to ask if he's already budgeted the additional cheese to fund more million-dollar bashes for his two youngest kids.

Here's Ben Simmons trying to level the playing field for the Lakers -- hitting a Hollywood nightclub hours before taking the court at Staples ... and TMZ Sports has video.

The 21-year-old 76ers superstar had dined at Catch LA restaurant late Tuesday evening and left around 1:10 AM on Wednesday morning. He ended up at 1 Oak ... one of the top nightclubs in L.A.

Here's the deal ... Philadelphia takes on the Lakers at 7:30 PM on Wednesday -- so, nightclubbing the morning of the game could be a tricky situation.

But Philly's on fire right now ... playing out of their minds (just ask the Clippers) -- and maybe Ben thinks nothing in L.A. can stop him, not even L.A. thots.

This has happened before ... the Milwaukee Bucks partied at an L.A. strip club before playing the Lakers in 2015 ... but L.A was much more terrible back then. Oh, and Milwaukee lost that game.

Good luck, Ben ...

Leslie Jones REALLY likes Dwyane Wade -- or maybe she's just an undercover sneakerhead??

Probably both -- 'cause check out the 'SNL' star fangirling out like a teeny bopper at a Britney concert when D-Wade hooks her up with his game-worn shoes ... after his Cavs took the Knicks' souls Monday night at MSG.

Wade gets down on a knee for the proposal ... and Leslie LOSES IT.

"It's my shoooeees! I get my shoooeees!"

"Will you accept my shoes?"

"YES!"

FYI, Leslie gave away 1 of Wade's Li-Ning kicks -- but NO WAY she was saying bye to both.

Shaq and his ex-wife Shaunie O'Neal spared no expense for their daughter's sweet 16 ... and by expense, we mean they dropped almost a mil for the kid.

The O'Neals threw Amirah -- aka Mimi -- an EPIC 16th birthday party Saturday night in L.A. that was fit for royalty -- 'cause the proud parents spent nearly a million dollars on the whole shebang. Yep, you read that right ... $1,000,000.

Sources close to the family tell TMZ Sports that Shaq and Shaunie rented out out the entire rooftop area of the W Hotel in Hollywood, and they gifted Mimi a brand new Mercedes-Benz G-Wagen.

Oh, and they also booked YG to perform ... who we're told did 8 songs, including his hits "Toot It And Boot It" and "Why You Always Hatin?"

From the looks of the party, we'd say it was money well spent. Especially if you were lucky enough to end up at Mimi's.

The LiAngelo Ball arrest is no joke -- it's really scary -- and ex-Lakers player Devean George says the entire Ball family better be taking the situation seriously.

"I'm scared for him," George tells TMZ Sports ... "You gotta be real careful when you're doing stuff overseas."

Of course, George played 11 seasons in the NBA -- won 3 rings with the Lakers -- and says he's also concerned for Lonzo Ball ... because it's virtually impossible for Zo not to be distracted by his bro's legal situation.

Klay Thompson got a lesson in unlimited range at Warriors practice yesterday -- but it wasn't from Steph or KD.

Harlem Globetrotters Zeus McClurkin and Dizzy English hit the hardwood in Oakland to show Klay how to get wet from 4-point distance (30 FEET) ... but it looked like the Splash Bro had it covered.

The best part of the vid was definitely when Zeus asked Klay if he thought the NBA should add a 4-point line. Thompson's answer -- "I think it would only really benefit us."

Burn.

Hard to argue with Klay, though -- remember when he did THIS?!

Lamar Odom + nightclubs = danger ... so says John Salley.

Salley says it's simple math ... Odom struggles with substance abuse and the club scene is one of the WORST places for him to be.

Clearly, Salley isn't buying Odom's excuse that "dehydration" caused him to collapse at a Hollywood nightclub on Sunday morning.

So what should Lamar do? Get new friends that support a healthier lifestyle ... and STAY OUT OF THE DAMN NIGHTCLUBS!

Scottie Pippen LOVES Novak Djokovic -- and wasn't afraid to show it yesterday at lunch.

We got Pippen leaving il Pastaio in the Beverly Hills ... that is, until the NBA legend spotted Novak at an outside table.

Scottie made a hard cut over to the tennis superstar -- giving him daps, busting out his cellphone for a pic and just generally fanboying out.

Pip didn't wanna talk about him and Larsa getting back together ... but his bromance with Djoker's on lock.

Bonus: Scottie just shared his shot with the "tennis GOAT" -- and it's dope.

Move over, Lonzo Ball -- Nick Young's not only down to star in his own reality show -- he says he's already gotten a bunch of offers to put the life of Swaggy P on TV!!

Swaggy dropped the news at Warriors practice today -- looking happy as hell telling reporters about his future plans for Hollywood domination.

But there's a catch -- "I gotta get the best offers ... gotta take my talents to the best place."

His asking price -- "Kardashian prices."

Nick lives the life reality producers gush over -- dates celebs (Iggy Azalea), has famous friends (Gilbert Arenas) and has all sorts of real life drama (D'Angelo Russell).

Kinda doubt Swaggy's worth $150 mil ... but hey -- shooters gonna shoot.

Dennis Rodman is making a plea to POTUS on the eve of his trip to South Korea -- asking him to make peace with his North Korean bro, Kim Jong-un, as tensions rise over nuclear warfare.

"Donald Trump, please, help us," Rodman said to TMZ Sports in Newport Beach. "You always say, 'unite.' I'm all about that."

Dennis told us he trusts Trump ... but feels like he's gotta be involved for his former "Celebrity Apprentice" boss to break bread with the supreme leader.

Highly doubt the Donald's down ... but at least we know the Worm's still trying to play peacemaker.