Florida center Micah Handlogten, who gruesomely broke his left leg in the SEC championship game in March, is returning to the court.

Handlogten announced Friday that he decided to forgo a redshirt and play this season, beginning Saturday against South Carolina.

The 7-foot-1 junior will help the third-ranked Gators (21-3, 8-3 SEC) deal with the loss of starter Alex Condon, who is expected to miss a week or two with a sprained right ankle. Backup Sam Alexis also is sidelined with a sprained left ankle.

"I'm ready to get out and hoop for the Gators," Handlogten said.

Handlogten has been cleared for more than a month, and coach Todd Golden has said repeatedly that Handlogten would have final say in whether he plays this season or waits for the next one. Handlogten initially planned to return three weeks ago but changed his mind hours before a home game.

He started taking part in team activities in December and can regularly be found dunking in pregame warmups. He would provide a boost for an inexperienced frontcourt that has been pushed around at times this season and is now down two guys.

Handlogten has a unique skill set in the post.

The North Carolina native has totaled 419 points, 544 rebounds and 104 blocked shots in two collegiate seasons, one at Marshall and one at Florida. His 108 offensive rebounds last season were the second most in school history.

Handlogten averaged 5.9 points and 6.3 rebounds per game with the Gators in 2023-24 before his season ended abruptly in the SEC tournament.

He landed awkwardly on his left foot while going for a rebound against Auburn. He immediately fell to the court in pain and rolled onto his side, putting his hands to his face. Handlogten's parents were escorted onto the court to be by his side. Handlogten's leg was stabilized in an air cast before he was placed on a backboard and taken off the court on a stretcher.

He had a rod and two screws inserted into his leg at Vanderbilt University Medical Center but managed to rejoin the team for the NCAA tournament in Indianapolis a few days later. The Gators lost to Colorado in the opening round with Handlogten watching from behind the bench.

Handlogten has been a cheerleader through 24 games this season, often leading the bench in organized celebrations and pregame pageantry.

His return will allow him to play alongside close friends and seniors Walter Clayton Jr. and Will Richard. More importantly, it would leave Florida pushing all-in on trying to win a championship with its talented and deep roster.

NEW YORK -- Travis Hunter, the Heisman Trophy winner who played offense and defense at Colorado, is listed as a defensive back for the NFL scouting combine.

The league on Thursday released the list of 329 players invited to the scouting combine in Indianapolis from Feb. 24 to March 3.

Hunter is regarded as one of the greatest two-way college athletes since football shifted away from such players in the 1940s. He was named first-team cornerback, first-team all-purpose player and second-team receiver on the 2024 Associated Press All-America team.

Hunter has said he wants to play on both sides of the ball in the NFL. His being listed as a defensive back indicates that's where scouts believe he will play as a pro.

He finished last season with four interceptions, 11 pass breakups and 36 tackles, including one for loss. Offensively, he had 96 catches for 1,258 yards with 15 receiving touchdowns and one rushing.

His coach at Colorado, Deion Sanders, is regarded as one of the best defensive backs in NFL history, but he also played some wide receiver. The Pro Football Hall of Fame member caught 36 passes for 475 yards and a touchdown for the Dallas Cowboys in 1996.

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- There's always noise on game days. On a windy Sunday afternoon in January outside Colonial Life Arena, traffic snarls in all directions, fans dressed in garnet and black form long lines, and laughter seems ever present.

Inside, closer to tipoff, 18,000 Gamecock faithful -- known as the G-Hive -- bring nonstop energy, treating game day like a cross between a holiday party and a concert for their favorite band.

Welcome to South Carolina women's basketball.

For the opponent, the atmosphere -- not to mention the Gamecocks -- can be overwhelming. On this day, Oklahoma, one of eight ranked teams in the SEC, can't find any answers. The Sooners, used to running their opponents into the ground with their fast pace, lose by 41 points. Gamecocks sophomore MiLaysia Fulwiley and freshman Joyce Edwards make highlight reel plays; five SC players score in double figures.

It was the 18th win of the season for South Carolina, which hosts UConn on Sunday (1 p.m. ET, ABC). After a 38-0 national championship season last year, the Gamecocks are looking to run it back in 2025 -- and to cement their reputation as one of the top teams in all of college sports.

"They're who all of us are looking at in terms of being able to build the depth, the culture they have, the crowd," Oklahoma coach Jennie Baranczyk said. "This is, right now, the example in women's basketball."

But when coach Dawn Staley took over the Gamecocks in 2008, they had been to the NCAA tournament just twice in the previous 17 seasons. After finishing 10-18 and 11th in the SEC in Staley's first season, the Gamecocks were 29-5 and league champions -- with a trip to the NCAA tournament Sweet 16 -- in her sixth.

Early on in Columbia, Staley built the program's talent with regional recruits and its attendance with almost tireless accessibility. She chatted with fans, in person and on social media, stopped in restaurants for lunch and gave away game tickets, becoming the approachable face of her team, the university and the city of Columbia.

What came next was even harder: maintaining it. Staley has done that, too. From 2014-15 through 2023-24, the Gamecocks went 319-35 overall and 147-13 in the SEC. They won three NCAA titles, made another three Final Four appearances, won eight SEC regular-season and tournament titles, led Division I in attendance every year and produced two WNBA No. 1 draft picks in A'ja Wilson and Aliyah Boston.

South Carolina's dominance has changed not only the program and the SEC, but the balance of power in women's college basketball. And the No. 4 Gamecocks, 23-2 overall and 11-1 in the SEC, are once again a national championship contender. UCLA and Texas, which are also in the mix for No. 1 seeds in the NCAA tournament, are the only teams to beat South Carolina this season.

"I just came here wanting to win, wanting to be a sponge to it all," said Wilson, a three-time WNBA MVP whose South Carolina career from 2014 to 2018 helped launch the decade of dominance. "To see the legacy and longevity of this program, where it's going ... that's what we were built on, that's our culture."

Here are some of the milestones, pivotal moments, triumphs and heartbreaks over the past 10 seasons that helped South Carolina become the dynasty of women's college basketball.

April 16, 2014: A'ja Wilson announces she is staying home

A statue of Wilson was unveiled outside Colonial Life Arena in 2021, and her No. 22 jersey was retired there earlier this month. She's an NCAA champion with two WNBA titles and two Olympic gold medals. No player has had more impact on the program -- all thanks to two weekly phone calls that helped Staley land Wilson, the No. 1 recruit in the country in 2014.

Wilson grew up in greater Columbia and attended Gamecock basketball camps. Her father, Roscoe Wilson, was a former basketball player who had trained her and brought her to Staley's attention. As Wilson blossomed into a superstar recruit every program wanted, Staley realized someone else held the key to getting her to be a Gamecock.

"In every process, you have to find that person who really knows what's going [on] inside the recruit's mind. And it was her mom, Eva, for A'ja," Staley told ESPN. "I usually try to talk to recruits once a week. And then we added her mom once a week."

"Few have impacted women's basketball quite like Dawn Staley." @GamecockWBB's Dawn Staley is a legend in the game and a pioneer, whose legacy will have a lasting impact pic.twitter.com/zr61LvSmDj

SEC Network (@SECNetwork) February 13, 2025

Eva Wilson told Staley that her daughter was dealing with dyslexia, something A'ja would open up about near the end of her college career to help inspire others. Staley told Eva every resource would be available to Wilson, and she would be there for her, too.

But as the time came for Wilson to publicly announce her college choice, Staley and her staff weren't sure of her decision.

"We found out like eight minutes before she was going on TV to say it," South Carolina associate head coach Lisa Boyer told ESPN. "She was heavily recruited. We were dealing with UConn, with North Carolina, with Tennessee at that point."

Tennessee coaching legend Pat Summitt had stepped down in 2012 because of early onset Alzheimer's. North Carolina coach Sylvia Hatchell missed the 2013-14 season battling cancer, while then-assistant Andrew Calder guided the Tar Heels to the Elite Eight, beating South Carolina in the Sweet 16. Wilson made her decision less than a month later.

"I don't know what would have happened if Pat and Coach Hatchell hadn't been sick then, if that might have changed anything," Boyer said. "But we did know how strong a connection Dawn had formed with A'ja and her family."

Wilson has had the most impact on the program, but she wasn't the first foundational recruit for Staley. That was guard Tiffany Mitchell of Charlotte, North Carolina, who picked the Gamecocks in 2012.

"Tiffany committed to me and our program before it was popular," Staley said. "She was one of the top players in the country and chose us."

Mitchell was the spark that lit South Carolina's torch, and getting Wilson ensured the flame wouldn't go out. Her success and popularity opened even more recruiting doors nationwide for South Carolina, while her local roots further endeared the program to fans.

Wilson has said that Staley always understood the right buttons to push and that her mother sensed that, too.

"Eva knew, just from our conversations, what we needed and what A'ja needed, and that it would be the perfect fit," Staley said. "It probably would not have worked out as beautifully if she wasn't from here. Like if she was the No. 1 recruit from the Midwest, or the Northeast or the West Coast or someplace? I don't think we would have this kind of momentum that we've built from the time she walked on campus."

March 29, 2015: Gamecocks reach their first Final Four

The Gamecocks entered 2014-15 knowing there was a huge step to take.

The season before, they won Staley's first SEC regular-season title and then made the Sweet 16. With standouts like Mitchell returning and Wilson joining them as a freshman, excitement around the program had never been higher.

Mitchell, then a junior, realized South Carolina was on the verge of something much bigger than she had dreamed when she chose the Gamecocks.

"I never knew committing would ignite such a change in the program," Mitchell said. "But I trusted Dawn and she trusted me to help change the narrative at South Carolina."

In 2015, the Gamecocks went 15-1 in the SEC, their best record since joining the conference in 1991-92. They won the SEC tournament for the first time, beating Tennessee -- the league's long-time standard-bearer -- in the final.

After cruising through the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament, the Gamecocks met North Carolina in the Sweet 16 for the second year in a row. The regional, in Greensboro, North Carolina, was closer to the Tar Heels' campus, but by this point the traveling party with the Gamecocks was enormous.

South Carolina prevailed 67-65. The first Final Four in program history was one win away. But with three minutes to play in the Gamecocks' regional final against Florida State, they trailed 67-65. Someone had to take over.

Mitchell did, with an assist and then seven consecutive points in an 80-74 win that sent South Carolina to the national semifinals in Tampa, Florida. The Gamecocks were the newcomers in a Final Four where the other three teams -- Notre Dame, UConn and Maryland -- all previously had won at least one national championship.

South Carolina lost 66-65 to Notre Dame in the semifinals. Wilson, who came off the bench that season, led South Carolina with 20 points and 9 rebounds.

For Staley, who went to three Final Fours as a player at Virginia but never won a title, was disappointed but resolute after her first trip as a coach.

"I told our team that I hope they take note of how hard it is to get to this point and how much work it took," Staley said after the loss. "We're not far off. We just have to continue and get these experiences. If we ever get to this point again, we can have different results. I want us to have a certain hunger, a certain bad taste in our mouths from being so close to competing for a national championship that it will fuel us."

April 2, 2017: Mission accomplished

Staley knew a key part of the path to the top was staying present and not jumping ahead. She said her 2015-16 team had to learn that the hard way.

"They had a taste of the Final Four. We had a pretty good team coming back, and they just didn't appreciate the process of getting back there," she said. "We were drunk on our success. And although we were good, I could almost feel the team shortchanging the process."

A No. 1 seed in the 2016 NCAA tournament, South Carolina lost in the Sweet 16 to Syracuse. Mitchell -- her college career over -- was despondent in the locker room afterward.

Staley's college career had ended with a national semifinal loss 25 years earlier. She went on to play professionally in the ABL and WNBA for 10 seasons, win three Olympic gold medals, be the United States flag-bearer in the 2004 Athens Games and was now a high-profile coach. But she knew how empty Mitchell felt.

"The big losses drive me because our players hurt," Staley said. "Really hurt. And that hurts me, deeply."

Staley funneled all that emotion into 2016-17. Wilson was a junior. Top transfer Allisha Gray -- who had played for North Carolina against South Carolina twice previously in the NCAA tournament -- joined the Gamecocks. This time, Staley said, she reminded the players to focus on every step: the regular-season title, the SEC tournament crown and each game of the NCAA tournament, which included a too-close-for-comfort 71-68 second-round win over Arizona State.

The regional was across the country in Stockton, California, with Florida State the Elite Eight opponent. The Gamecocks won 71-64, then beat Stanford 62-53 in the semifinals in Dallas.

Still absorbing the fact they had advanced to their first national championship game, Staley and her staff watched, as shocked as the rest of the women's basketball world, as Mississippi State ended UConn's 111-game winning streak in the second semifinal.

South Carolina, which had already defeated the Bulldogs twice that season, did it again in the final. Staley became the second Black head coach -- Carolyn Peck at Purdue in 1999 was the first -- to win the NCAA women's basketball title.

Boyer said the celebration at the Gamecocks' hotel that night went into the wee hours. At about 3 a.m., after most of the well-wishers had left, two coaches remained.

"I just turned to Dawn and said, 'We finally did it. What do we do now?'" Boyer recalled. "And she said, 'We've got to win another one.'"

Feb. 10, 2020: Gamecocks clear the UConn hurdle

Staley had at least one other big ticket to punch: a victory over UConn. The programs' first meeting was in December 2007, the season before Staley took over at South Carolina, and UConn won by 58 points. In Staley's first seven games against the Huskies, South Carolina lost by an average of 21.3 points. The closest the Gamecocks got was an 11-point loss in 2017.

But Staley was committed to keeping the series going.

"People will shy away from playing them, but for me, it was more magnetic to play them," Staley said of the Huskies. "Because they were the standard, and you're always measuring yourself against them.

"It hurt me when we used to lose by 20 points. You change things up -- one year we tried to take the air out of the ball. You have to learn how to beat them."

The Gamecocks' celebrated freshman class of 2019-20, led by Aliyah Boston and nicknamed "The Freshies," finally cracked the UConn code. South Carolina won 70-52 behind 13 points and 12 rebounds from Boston.

South Carolina then won the SEC tournament and was 32-1 and ranked No. 1 when the NCAA announced the 2020 men's and women's basketball tournaments were canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In early May, Staley had a milestone birthday: 50. Amid so much uncertainty in the world and an extension of her time as Olympic coach with the Tokyo Games delayed to 2021, Staley said she recommitted to her next big goal: getting the Freshies a national championship.

April 3, 2022: After a crushing ending, the Freshies finish the job

After leading the nation in attendance the previous six seasons, the Gamecocks had to adjust to mostly empty arenas in the 2020-21 season due to COVID-19 restrictions. The 2021 NCAA tournament was played in a bubble in San Antonio.

South Carolina, a No. 1 seed, won its second-round game over Oregon State on March 23. Two days later, Gamecocks assistant coach Jolette Law's mother, who had been battling illness, died in her hometown of Florence, South Carolina.

If Law left the bubble, she wouldn't be able to return for the rest of the tournament.

"It was the hardest, most painful time in my life," Law said. "After we won the SEC tournament, I went to the hospital and saw my mother. We talked, listened to gospel music, she kept saying she was tired. But in your mind, you don't think your mom is going to die."

Law asked Staley not to tell the players, hoping not to distract them.

"But when I didn't show up at dinner, they wanted to know why," Law said. "Those kids wrote letters to me, and they made a video for me. I knew my mom would want me to stay and finish this out with them."

The Gamecocks advanced to the national semifinals against No. 1 seed Stanford. Boston's putback at the buzzer bounced out, and South Carolina lost 66-65. Boston doubled over in tears, her reaction so raw even some Stanford players comforted her while their teammates were celebrating.

"Aliyah, all our kids, were just devastated. And I had to go home and bury my mother," Law said. "But God said, 'If you trust me, if you lean on me, I will give you the strength to be able to do what you need to do.'"

Just as the players helped her deal with her personal loss, Law said she and the staff helped them deal with the game loss. Having overcome her own recent grief, Law had the perspective to help Boston deal with her heartbreak.

"She finally started to get over it that summer," Staley said. "But then she had to relive it, because [the video] kept being plastered all over the place. So then we talked about, 'The only thing to do to get past it would be to come back and win the championship.'"

Boston followed Wilson as a superstar post recruit; they had different personalities, but a similar resolve. Boston spent the next summer improving her diet and strength. With a strong 2022 season, she was on her way to being the National Player of the Year, and South Carolina had lost just one game as it headed into the 2022 SEC tournament.

It lost the SEC final 64-62 to Kentucky on a 3-pointer with 4 seconds left. But that disappointment didn't rattle Staley; she said she thought it made the Gamecocks more determined going into the NCAA tournament.

They faced UConn -- and coach Geno Auriemma, 11-0 in NCAA finals -- for the title.

"There was a lot of talk about Geno being undefeated in national championship games. I was like, 'Well, I am, too. I'm 1-0,'" Staley said, laughing.

That became 2-0 in Minneapolis after a 64-49 victory, the second-fewest points UConn had ever scored in an NCAA tournament game. The fewest (47) had come 30 years earlier.

Boston had 11 points, 16 rebounds and two blocks. The image of her from the 2021 semifinal loss had stayed with her, not as failure but as fuel.

"I don't want anyone to use a photo of me crying ever again," Boston said.

March 31, 2023: A full reset after an imperfect ending

Unlike the 2021-22 season, Staley said in 2023 that she didn't think the Gamecocks needed a loss to refocus. The Freshies were now seniors ready to deliver South Carolina's first perfect season. Everything pointed to it. Everyone expected it.

But the Gamecocks lost in the national semifinals when Iowa's Caitlin Clark scored 41 points and led the Hawkeyes to a 77-73 upset.

Afterward, Staley was furious about many things, including the officiating and the fact that as the overall No. 1 seed, South Carolina played a Saturday-Monday regional schedule instead of Friday-Sunday, which meant the Gamecocks got one fewer day of rest before the Final Four than Iowa.

"With every loss, I fine-tooth-comb everything," Staley said, adding she later talked privately to the semifinal officials. "I got stuff off my chest. I said something to all of them. I've mended those things."

Five Gamecocks seniors were picked in the 2023 WNBA draft, led by No. 1 Boston. It was a tough summer for Staley trying to adjust to what she knew would be a very different kind of team.

"I said during that time, 'I don't know how much longer I can do this,'" Staley said.

Law and the rest of the staff helped her move forward.

"One day, we were sitting in her office, and she was just like, 'OK, guys, our season this year is going to be a white, blank canvas. Give me your thoughts,'" Law said. "We just went around the room, and it was almost like a little retreat. We started talking about what we could do with that canvas. It was like breathing life back into her."

That's when Staley accepted she couldn't treat this team the same as any previous group.

"I am a coach that can meet players where they are," Staley said. "I just didn't think I would ever have to go that far. I'm OK with moving 75% to their 25. But they took me to 90. The consistent thing was they worked hard, but they had fun doing it. I thought it was too much fun.

"Then I just realized, 'This is who they are.' You could mess that up thinking about how regimented and disciplined you had to be. We just gave into it. We just start laughing with them sometimes."

April 7, 2024: The perfect ending

The Iowa loss was painful to think about and worse to rewatch. One image stood out: South Carolina guard Raven Johnson dribbling, wide open, behind the 3-point arc, and Clark waving her off, as if to say, "Don't worry, she's not going to shoot it."

South Carolina needed more perimeter shooting, and guard Te-Hina Paopao, a transfer from Oregon, fit the bill. Johnson also worked on her shooting, preparing for what she called her revenge tour.

South Carolina made 163 3-pointers and shot 31% from behind the arc in 2022-23. That jumped to 253 and 39.5% in 2023-24. Johnson, who shot 24.1% (14 of 58) in 2022-23, improved to 35.0% (25 of 80). And Paopao led the way with 87 3-pointers on 46.8% shooting from downtown.

Khadijah Sessions, a Gamecocks player from 2012 to '16 and now one of South Carolina's assistant coaches, said Staley is always open to changing tactics.

"She adjusts with the times," Sessions said. "She understood in this day and age, you have to shoot the 3 more."

The closest South Carolina came to a loss last season was in the SEC tournament semifinals against Tennessee. Down 73-71 in the closing seconds, Staley put the game in the hands of 6-foot-7 center Kamilla Cardoso. Cardoso made the only 3-pointer of her college career for a 74-73 victory.

At the Final Four, the Gamecocks faced Iowa again, this time in the championship game. The demons from 2023 were gone. South Carolina won 87-75, and Staley had her third NCAA title.

South Carolina became the 10th Division I women's basketball team in the NCAA era to have a perfect season. UConn has done it six times; South Carolina, Tennessee, Baylor and Texas once.

"Going from where we were to where we went," Staley said, smiling and shaking her head, "I still can't believe it was that team that went undefeated."

Ten months later, the Gamecocks are in the hunt for the 2025 title. In that 101-60 win over Oklahoma on Jan. 19, Paopao, who returned to South Carolina for a fifth season, was one of the five players to hit double figures. The performance showcased South Carolina's depth, even after losing junior forward Ashlyn Watkins to an ACL injury in January. Seven South Carolina players average between 12.3 and 7.2 points per game.

Law said everyone likely assumes now it's easy to recruit to South Carolina because of all the Gamecocks' success.

"That's not the case at all, because you've got to recruit that much harder," Law said. "Everybody else is saying, 'Why would you want to go there? They're loaded. You're not needed. Come here and be the star.'

"We had to change our approach. We sell our culture: Do you want to be a part of a dynasty, be among other women that are trying to win championships?"

Staley thinks back to South Carolina's first NCAA title in 2017, at a time when UConn had won the previous four in a row and seemed invincible with its triple-digit winning streak.

"We gave everybody else hope then," Staley said. "Because we weren't quite a powerhouse yet. We were still up-and-coming. So it was a win not just for us, but for the overall game."

Now the Gamecocks set the standards they once chased.

"When you're successful, there are direct correlations to your habits," Staley said. "When you've won one championship, you know what contributes to you getting another one. And then another. And you just try to keep it going."

Dallas Mavericks center Daniel Gafford will sit out at least six weeks because of a Grade 3 sprain of the MCL in his right knee, sources told ESPN on Thursday night.

Gafford suffered the injury during Monday's loss to the Sacramento Kings. The team announced the next day that he would be reevaluated in two weeks.

Gafford took to Instagram on Thursday and wrote in a story: "Y'all wait for me...Be back soon."

The severity of Gafford's injury means the Mavericks will be without their top three big men for weeks after the All-Star break.

Sources said All-Star forward/center Anthony Davis, the headliner of the return package in the Luka Doncic trade, was expected to be sidelined for at least four weeks as the Mavericks proceed with caution in his recovery from the left adductor strain suffered in his Dallas debut.

Dereck Lively II, who had been the Mavericks' starting center, has been sidelined for a month because of a stress fracture in his right ankle and remains in a walking boot. Reserve center Dwight Powell has sat out the past 14 games because of a strained hip.

The Mavericks managed to win back-to-back games over the Golden State Warriors and Miami Heat with 6-foot-7 two-way player Kessler Edwards starting at center.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is calling on the NBA, Formula 1 and major international soccer clubs to end multimillion-dollar deals with Rwanda's autocratic government.

The NBA, whose recent Africa expansion is centered in Rwanda, was the latest to receive a letter from Congo officials. Soccer teams Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Paris Saint-Germain and racing's Formula 1 received similarly worded pleas in recent weeks.

In her letter Thursday to NBA commissioner Adam Silver, DRC Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner questioned the NBA's morality, calling on Silver to consider whether the league's "commitment to social justice and respect for human rights" aligns with its business ties to Rwanda, which the DRC blames for a surge in violence in its country. The letter asked Silver to sever the league's dealings with Rwanda, "If not for your own conscience, then at least in solidarity with the innocent victims of Rwandan aggression."

The NBA launched the Basketball Africa League, its first league outside North America, five years ago in Rwanda's capital of Kigali. The NBA has said the U.S. government encouraged it to do business in Rwanda, and when asked about the DRC letter, a league spokesman said, "We will continue to follow U.S. government guidance everywhere we operate."

The DRC earlier called on Arsenal, Bayern Munich and PSG to end their "blood-stained" sponsorship deals and on F1 to end ongoing talks with Rwanda over its bid to host a future grand prix event.

"We have been closely monitoring the developments relating to the DRC and Rwanda and continue to do so," an F1 spokesman wrote in an email to ESPN, adding of potential race sites, "We assess any potential request in detail and any future decisions would be based on the full information and what is in the best interests of our sport and our values."

The letters come amid violence driven by the Rwandan-backed rebel group M23 and as many as 4,000 Rwandan troops, according to the United Nations.

Kayikwamba Wagner calls Rwanda President Paul Kagame an "imperialist autocrat" whose army and support of the M23 has led to the displacement of more than 700,000 people and more than 3,000 deaths in eastern Congo. Kagame has been likened to Russian President Vladimir Putin and accused of orchestrating a range of human rights violations.

Kayikwamba Wagner asked in the Thursday letter whether the NBA was aware that Rwanda's actions have left "thousands trapped in Goma without access to food, water, or security."

Central to the conflict in the DRC are vast amounts of valuable minerals used to make smartphones, laptop computers, electric vehicles and many more electronic staples. The U.N. and DRC have accused Rwanda of backing the M23 to steal minerals and seize control of mines in the Congo. In her letter to Silver, Kayikwamba Wagner asked, "How certain are you that blood mineral cash is not being used to fund the sponsorships for the [Basketball Africa League]?"

ESPN previously reported that the NBA's partnership with Rwanda was central to establishing the Basketball Africa League, which launched in 2021; each of the first four championships were played in Kigali at a $104 million arena built in less than a year. As part of a five-year contract extension signed in 2023, Rwanda pays the NBA's business entity in Africa $6 million to $7 million annually in exchange for teams displaying "Visit Rwanda" on their jerseys and the Kigali arena hosting some playoffs. Rwanda's national airline, RwandAir, also is the league's official travel partner.

In an interview Tuesday with Sky News, Kayikwamba Wagner said the soccer teams' Visit Rwanda deals are "advertising for a country that is wreaking havoc in the Great Lakes Region and that is de factor a warmonger."

Kagame told CNN last week that the DRC's letters to the soccer teams are a "wasted effort," adding, "I think they should direct the effort towards managing their own problems, their own politics properly."

The United States, along with the other countries that make up the G7, recently condemned the offensive in Eastern Congo and urged the M23 and the Rwanda Defense Force to end their attacks.

Last season, Burundi's Basketball Africa League team was removed from competition after forfeiting two games because its players refused to wear jerseys that displayed the Visit Rwanda logo. Burundi had closed its border with Rwanda after accusing Kagame's government of supporting rebel fighters in Burundi.

HOUSTON -- The Golden State Warriors go into the All-Star break feeling much more confident about their season with Jimmy Butler III on their side.

The Warriors improved to 3-1 since trading for Butler with a 105-98 victory over the Houston Rockets at the Toyota Center on Thursday.

"He's a franchise changer," Warriors power forward Draymond Green said about Butler. "He's done that everywhere he's gone, and he is helping revitalize what we got here. The belief amongst this team, now that he's arrived, as opposed to what it was before he got here, it's night and day."

Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Butler is the finisher they have desperately needed to give Stephen Curry, who finished with 27 points and two big fourth-quarter 3-pointers, some help down the stretch of tight games.

Butler finished with 19 points, 8 rebounds and 4 assists. When the Warriors watched a 24-point lead dwindle to 91-89 with 6:03 left, Butler returned at the 4:42 mark with the lead at four. The Warriors went on a 9-2 run with Butler scoring four points.

"Jimmy, he's a real deal," Kerr said. "I mean, just a complete basketball player, methodical, under control all the time, plays at his own pace, never turns it over, sees the game and then can get to the line frequently. Great closer, not in the traditional sense where he's going to be Kevin Durant and make four straight midrange jumpers, but it's more of a complete game. Get to the line, make the right pass, get somebody else an open look, get a defensive stop, get a rebound. He's a fantastic player."

Butler was beating himself up for not being undefeated as a Warrior. The Warriors' 111-107 loss at the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday still stung.

"We should be 4-0," Butler said. "I am not going to lie to you. I have been sick to my stomach because of it since I got here. But we are going to figure it out. We are going to go streaking."

Considering the Warriors got to their hotel around 3:30 a.m. after the loss in Dallas and nearly let a 24-point lead slip away, Green said Thursday's game could have easily gone the other way if not for Butler's presence.

"We let one get away last night, but this one tonight, we would've lost," Green said. "But just having a guy like that changes everything for us. So after four games ... the assessment [on Butler] is, it's great."

Right-hander Kendall Graveman and the Arizona Diamondbacks are in agreement on a one-year contract, sources told ESPN's Jesse Rogers on Friday.

The deal has a base salary of $1.35 million, and he can make up to $3.3 million with performance bonuses, per source.

The Diamondbacks are adding Graveman with the hope that he can recapture his prior frontline reliever status after missing the 2024 season following shoulder surgery. The deal is pending a physical.

Graveman, 34, has the 15th-best ERA among relievers since 2021, when he converted to the bullpen full time with the Seattle Mariners. He pitched there and Houston before signing a three-year, $24 million deal with the Chicago White Sox. He was traded back to Houston and pitched well before undergoing labrum surgery in January 2024.

He is likely to grab a late-inning spot as long as his performance is as electric as it was pre-injury. He complemented a heavy, hard sinker with a solid slider and changeup, flipping in a curveball occasionally and relying more on a four-seam fastball. After posting a 1.77 ERA in 56 innings in 2021, Graveman put up ERAs of 3.18 and 3.12. He has struck out 193 in 187 innings and saved 24 games since 2021.

Graveman will join a bullpen that returns left-hander A.J. Puk and right-hander Justin Martinez working high-leverage spots, along with right-handers Kevin Ginkel and Ryan Thompson and left-hander Joe Mantiply. Whether the rest of the bullpen is filled with pitchers who don't make the rotation or hard throwers like right-hander Drey Jameson will be for spring training to decide.