HOUSTON -- Texans chairman and CEO Cal McNair acknowledged he hasn't heard from Deshaun Watson since he hired Nick Caserio as general manager but said he hopes to speak with the franchise quarterback soon about the move.

"I've come to understand that it's been reported that Deshaun feels left out of the process, but he and I had several visits and I understood his point of view before meeting with candidates," McNair said Friday. "I've reached out to Deshaun about Nick's hire, and I look forward to him getting back to me when he returns from his vacation."

On Thursday, ESPN's Adam Schefter reported that Watson offered input on potential general manager candidates but that the Texans did not consider or consult with those endorsed by their franchise quarterback.

"Some things never change...." Watson tweeted Tuesday, with sources telling ESPN that the quarterback's feelings were directed at the way business was conducted by the Texans.

Watson met with McNair over Zoom during the season to discuss candidates and the future of the franchise, and in his end-of-season news conference, Watson said he told McNair he hoped the team keeps offensive coordinator Tim Kelly on staff.

McNair, who held a news conference for the first time since taking over for his father in 2018, spoke while introducing Caserio. When Caserio was asked about the rumors that Watson wanted to be traded after finding out about his hire on social media, the general manager said Watson "is our quarterback."

"Once we have an opportunity to spend some time together, we'll further our discussion," Caserio said. "Can't tell you how much respect and admiration that I have for him for who he is as a player and what he means to this franchise."

If the Texans were to trade Watson, they would have to absorb a salary-cap charge of $22 million.

The Texans hired Caserio just over four months after firing Bill O'Brien, the team's former head coach and general manager. Despite hiring a coach who had spent the previous 20 years in New England, McNair said the Texans aren't trying to duplicate the Patriots' culture.

"With respect to their organization, we do not consider ourselves Patriots South," McNair said. "We are here to lead this team the Texans way."

Jim Harbaugh has reached a contract extension to remain Michigan's football coach through the 2025 season, athletic director Warde Manuel announced Friday.

"I continue to believe that Jim is the right man to lead our program in pursuit of Big Ten and CFP championships," Manuel said in a statement. "Our program didn't achieve at a level that anyone expected this year but I know those setbacks will drive the coaches, players and staff moving forward. Jim is a tireless worker and competitor. Following the completion of the season we talked for many hours on what it will take for Jim to lead and get us back on the right trajectory."

Harbaugh's new contract will pay him a base salary of $4 million in 2021, which will increase to $4.426 million in 2025. He can earn a maximum bonus of $3.475 million in each year of the contract, including $1 million bonuses for winning the Big Ten championship and College Football Playoff National Championship, and $500,000 bonuses for winning the Big Ten East Division and reaching the CFP.

Michigan would owe Harbaugh $4 million if it fired him in 2021, a guarantee that goes down $1 million each subsequent year of the contract. Harbaugh's buyout to leave Michigan begins at $2 million in 2021 and drops by $500,000 in each subsequent year until 2025.

"Over the past few weeks, Warde and I had discussions that have been honest, open, insightful and constructive in moving our football program forward," Harbaugh said in a statement. "Discussions that I look forward to continuing over the months and years ahead. We have a plan.

"There is work to be done and challenges to be addressed. These challenges are being addressed as we continue to strive for excellence in the classroom and championships on the field, a message that I hope is noted in the language of our agreed-upon contract."

Harbaugh had one year left on his initial contract at Michigan, which paid the coach slightly over $8 million in 2020.

Michigan and Harbaugh began discussing a new contract after the team's regular season ended in November. Harbaugh spent much of the past few weeks vacationing in California but returned to Ann Arbor this week, a source said.

The Wolverines finished the 2020 season at 2-4, canceling their final three games because of COVID-19 concerns within the program.

Harbaugh, a former star quarterback at Michigan, is 49-22 in six seasons at the school and 34-16 in Big Ten play but is coming off by far his worst season at his alma mater. Michigan won 10 games and finished in the top 15 in three of his first four seasons but has yet to defeat rival Ohio State and has dropped four straight bowl games.

Michigan fired defensive coordinator Don Brown last month, and six other assistants have contracts that expire Sunday.

The school said in its release that Harbaugh was "in the process of evaluating and putting together his staff for the 2021 season."

ESPN's Dan Murphy contributed to this report.

Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns -- who has missed six games because of a left wrist injury -- is expected to be a game-time decision Saturday against the San Antonio Spurs, sources told ESPN.

The Timberwolves upgraded Towns' status to questionable on Friday. He has been working out with the team this week and has been eager to return as soon as possible.

Towns suffered the injury after landing on his left hand in a Dec. 27 win over the Utah Jazz. The star big man had season-ending surgery on his left wrist a year ago, but this injury was in a different spot, sources said.

Towns, 25, is averaging 19 points, 11.5 rebounds and 5 assists across the two games he has played this season.

The Philadelphia 76ers are expected to have multiple players miss time due to contact tracing and are still awaiting results of Friday's coronavirus testing, sources tell ESPN.

Those players were in close contact with Seth Curry, who sources say returned a positive test on Thursday. The team learned of Curry's positive test near the start of its 122-109 loss to the Nets in Brooklyn on Thursday night, sources said.

Curry, who sat out Thursday's game with left ankle soreness, spent the first quarter on the bench before the Sixers were made aware of a positive test, sources said. He was wearing a mask and was seated next to assistant coach Sam Cassell and center Joel Embiid.

Curry then left the court area and headed into isolation. He left the Barclays Center separately from the team. The Sixers stayed overnight in New York.

Philadelphia is next scheduled to play Saturday at home against the Denver Nuggets.

Utah Jazz forward Joe Ingles' iron man streak will end in Milwaukee on Friday night after 384 consecutive regular-season games played.

Ingles, who held the longest active streak in the NBA, will miss the game with right Achilles soreness. He hadn't missed a game since Dec. 16, 2015, against New Orleans. Including the postseason, Ingles had played in 418 straight games.

Over the years, he played through a middle finger sprain and left ankle sprain and even after learning that his son, Jacob, was diagnosed with autism.

"I know he'd be playing if he could," Snyder said ahead of Friday's tip-off. "There's been a lot of times that he's played through pain and probably an injury that he hasn't told us about at times. But, obviously, you miss a player in the short run like Joe, but he'll be back.

"He's just gotta get healthy and we try to do what we can do to make up for not having him. But as much as anything, it makes you pause for a second and you reflect on what a streak of consecutive games like that means and what it says about Joe, his toughness, his commitment, what type of teammate he is. You pause and reflect for a second and you understand why you respect him like you do."

With Ingles out, Cory Joseph of the Sacramento Kings is the NBA's active leader at 274 straight games. A.C. Green holds the NBA's all-time record at 1,192 straight games.

Ingles, 33, is averaging 10.0 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.4 assists this season for the Jazz. His streak was the longest by a Jazz player since John Stockton from 1997-2003, when he played 442 consecutive regular-season games.

Denver Nuggets forward Michael Porter Jr. will remain in the league's health and safety protocol for an indefinite period and continue to be tested daily for the coronavirus, sources told ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski.

Porter, 22, has been in the protocol since last Thursday as a result of contract tracing. He has missed the Nuggets' past four games since posting 30 points and 10 rebounds in a loss at Sacramento on Dec 29.

A talented prospect who found his way into the team's playoff rotation last season, Porter was inserted into Denver's starting lineup to begin the year.

Porter is averaging 19.5 points and 6.8 rebounds in four games this season.

BOSTON -- Celtics All-Star point guard Kemba Walker has been cleared to practice, the team announced Friday, and coach Brad Stevens says Walker's troublesome left knee has been pain-free for "over a month."

Walker's left knee has been an ongoing issue for Boston going back for a calendar year, to January 2020. In the weeks leading up to last year's All-Star Game, he was dealing with on-again, off-again discomfort in the knee. Then, after playing heavy minutes in the midseason showcase in Chicago, he struggled before the league shutdown in March because of COVID-19.

Then, when teams resumed practice in late June, Walker said he felt further discomfort in the knee, leading to the Celtics having him on a strict minutes limit during the team's seeding games inside the NBA's bubble at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida.

After an up-and-down postseason, with Walker initially looking great against the Philadelphia 76ers in the first round before running into more struggles against the Toronto Raptors and then the Miami Heat, he and the team agreed to have him go on a 12-week strengthening program to try to improve the long-term condition of that left knee in early October, as well as give him an injection into the knee.

Last month, the team said there would be an update on Walker's status during the first week of January. Now that there is one, the question will now shift to when Walker will be ready to make his season debut.

Stevens said he gave Walker credit for his willingness to take the time to get his knee right, rather than gutting it out and playing a level below what he's capable of instead. Walker has earned a reputation as someone willing to play through injuries, rarely sitting out at all during his first eight years in the league with the Charlotte Hornets.

"Credit to Kemba for saying, 'I gotta get this thing stronger, and I gotta make sure that it is ready to go through a season and then, if we're fortunate, a postseason,'" Stevens said. "But he and [strength coach Jace Delaney] have done a nice job putting together a plan of attack, along with Phil Coles, and then hopefully he'll be back soon.

"But we're not going to rush that. We'll see how the practice goes and all that other stuff."

Meanwhile, Boston is going to have to deal with a significantly depleted frontcourt rotation after center Robert Williams III tested positive for COVID-19, and fellow big men Grant Williams and Tristan Thompson were ruled out because of contact tracing under the league's Health and Safety Protocols.

That leaves Boston with just two available big men on their roster: starter Daniel Theis, and Tacko Fall, who is on a two-way contract.

"Well, obviously, we're going to be limited with the amount of guys that can play that spot. We'll basically have two bigs on our roster for the next couple of games," Stevens said. "It is what it is. I think the biggest concern for me is that when we're playing small at times, it's awfully small. And that's the challenge, right? We have to make sure that we mix and match as well as we can to keep as much of our wing depth on the floor, at least a couple of our wings on the floor, whenever we can."

Boston will, however, have veteran point guard Jeff Teague back, after he missed the past two games with a sprained ankle, as well as guard Javonte Green, who missed Boston's four-game road trip because of being placed in those health and safety protocols.

Stevens said that, while the team's depth is obviously taking a hit because of the protocols at the moment, he trusts what the league is doing and how it is handling the virus.

"The NBA goes through a incredibly detailed program whenever there are any concerns at all," Stevens said. "They basically relived the last few days, your time all together. And I know they do that with every team. It's a long, arduous task for our people that are in charge of all of our protocols and following all the protocols and for all the people at the league. Those people are putting in a lot of time and effort and they are the experts. I listen to them, and they tell me what we can and can't do.

Scott Brooks, who echoed Stevens' belief in the league to handle things the right way, added that Russell Westbrook, who dislocated a finger on his right hand late in Washington's loss in Philadelphia Wednesday, is "good to go" against the Celtics.

South African long jumper won world gold in 2017 and Olympic silver in 2016 but is now provisionally suspended after missing drugs tests

Long jumper Luvo Manyonga, who overcame a crystal meth drug addiction in early life before going on to win the world title at London 2017, has been provisionally suspended for anti-doping whereabouts failures.

The 30-year-old from South Africa joins sprinter Christian Coleman and 1500m man Eilijah Manangoi as recent world champions who have fallen foul of the same rules.

If he has missed at least three drugs tests in a 12-month period, Manyonga could now face a four-year ban for a second offence, following his previous 18-month suspension in 2012 after testing positive for crystal meth.

If so this means he will miss the Olympics in Tokyo and will be unable to try to improve on the silver medal he won at the Games in Rio four years ago.

Manyonga has been one of the most exciting athletes in track and field in recent years. After that Olympic silver behind Jeff Henderson of the United States, he went on to take the world title in London the next year followed by the Commonwealth crown on the Gold Coast of Australia in 2018.

In 2017 alone he jumped further than 8.60m on four occasions – with a best of 8.65m – a remarkable achievement given his troubled past.

Growing up in extreme poverty, his talent was evident when he won the world under-20 title in 2010 but then served an 18-month ban after taking the recreational drug ‘tik’ – which is a type of crystal meth – but he used athletics to help him recover from the addiction.

Kenya’s 2014 world U20 800m champion is suspended for whereabouts failures

Almost a year to the day since 800m runner Alfred Kipketer was provisionally suspended for whereabouts failures, the Kenyan has been officially handed a two-year ban.

He missed drugs tests on November 27 in 2018 plus March 16, August 5 and September 11 in 2019. He did not challenge the first two nor the final missed test decision, but for the crucial third test he argued that he had to rush to Nairobi for an “emergency”, which he subsequently explained was his son being hospitalised with a fever, vomiting and dizziness.

However the Athletics Integrity Unit decided the athlete had enough time to alter his whereabouts information. For each of the tests he was not where he was supposed to be and his ban will now last until November 26, 2021, which means he will be eligible to return for major championships in 2022.

Kipketer has a colourful racing history. At the World Under-18 Championships in 2013 he blasted through the first lap of the 800m in a phenomenal 48.63 and faded dramatically but still managed to hold off Britain’s Kyle Langford to win in 1:48.01.

Amid doubts about his date of birth, he won the world under-20 title in 2014 at the apparent age of 17. He later employed his trademark fast first lap in the Olympic final in 2016 although he faded to seventh on that occasion.

However shortly after those Games he ran a PB of 1:42.87 to win the Paris Diamond League.

Friday's Pro14 game between Glasgow Warriors and Edinburgh has been postponed 30 minutes before kick-off.

Glasgow had expected the game to go ahead on their artificial surface and the home side underwent a training session after their opponents left.

Edinburgh coach Richard Cockerill told BBC Scotland that "the pitch wasn't fit to scrummage on".

"We made a decision, I made a decision," he said. "It is frozen underneath the plastic grass. As far as I'm aware, everybody is in agreement.

"We want to play, for obvious reasons, so it's disappointing all-round. It doesn't look great, does it?"

The decision came after Edinburgh had attempted to scrummage in their warm-up before Glasgow, but Cockerill's home counterpart, Danny Wilson, was in agreement.

"Our scrum part of our warm-up is a little bit later and I guess we would have probably got there and come to the same conclusion," Wilson said.

"It's fine to run on and have some contact on it. However, scrums seem to be the problem.

"The scrums aren't staying in the floor at scrum time. As the night goes on, it is only going to get colder so this is not going to get any better."

Wilson explained why his players were able to have a practice on the Scotstoun pitch despite the postponement.

"You can see the boys are out there now trying to run off a bit of caffeine," he said.

Injured Glasgow forward Fraser Brown told BBC Scotland he was "pretty surprised" at the decision.

"The Glasgow guys had a full training session here on Wednesday," he told BBC Radio Scotland. "It was pretty hard but still safe to train on. We had guys doing rehab here today and it wasn't anywhere as hard.

"Perhaps Glasgow players are just more used to it because we play on the 3G pitch every single weekend. They have been putting salt on it for about three days. They put that on it to stop it freezing."