Sports
Revived Wizards move forward against skidding Nets
Feb 5, 2026; Detroit, Michigan, USA; Detroit Pistons forward Paul Reed (7) battles for position between Washington Wizards guard Will Riley (27) and forward Anthony Gill (16) during the second half at Little Caesars Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Reginek-Imagn Images The Washington Wizards and Brooklyn Nets share similar struggles this season, although they will move forward with vastly different strategies.
While the Wizards are banking on the veteran pairing of Trae Young and Anthony Davis to guide them to new heights, the Nets forge ahead with far less star power as they are set to take plenty of cap space into the summer shopping season.
With new arrivals Young and Davis watching some of the Wizards’ younger players from the bench on Saturday afternoon, Washington will face Brooklyn, which has lost 10 of 11 games.
The Wizards were early into a nine-game losing streak when Young was acquired from the Atlanta Hawks on Jan. 9 for Corey Kispert and CJ McCollum.
Since the skid ended, Washington has gone respectable 4-2 since Jan. 27 and posted its most impressive win this season, 126-117 over the first-place Detroit Pistons on the road Thursday. Young continued to sit out with a quad injury that will be re-evaluated after the All-Star break.
Washington surpassed 120 points for the eighth time on Thursday, its 53.8% from the floor was its third best and 18 made 3-pointers were the second-most this season.
The showing on offense came after making a surprising move to acquire Davis from the Dallas Mavericks — a little over a year after the center was traded from the Los Angeles Lakers for Luka Doncic.
“We’re thrilled to have him,” Wizards coach Brian Keefe said. “Obviously he’s a Hall of Fame player, top 75 all-time. To add him to our roster, it’s obviously exciting. We’re looking forward to integrating him. I think it’s a really great step for our organization that we’re all excited about.”
Davis is sidelined with a finger injury and likely will get re-evaluated in early March. The Wizards also acquired D’Angelo Russell, Jaden Hardy and Dante Exum in the deal. While Exum is out for the season, Hardy and Russell might be available Saturday.
The Wizards are hoping to see another balanced showing from its young group. Eight players reached double figures against the Pistons, including rookie Will Riley, whose career-high 20 points gave him 55 in the past three games.
The Nets split a pair of games at Washington earlier this season and their 119-99 loss on Jan. 2 is among six by at least 20 points during their current 3-18 slide. The latest was a 118-98 road loss to the Orlando Magic on Thursday night.
That loss occurred after the Nets kept Michael Porter Jr. on the roster, made a pair of small trades and waived Cam Thomas and Tyrese Martin.
“I think that we were not connected at all throughout the whole game,” Nets coach Jordi Fernandez said. “I know our guys are willing to do the right things.
“When you’re always half a second late or not talking when you’re supposed to, all those things are, it’s really hard to win a game.”
The Nets trailed by as many as 26 points against the Magic, shot 41.5% and committed 19 turnovers. Rookie Egor Demin had another encouraging performance with a career-high 26 points and six 3-pointers, one shy of his career-best.
Demin and fellow rookie Nolan Traore combined for 47 points on 15 of 25 from the floor on a night when Porter and Noah Clowney were a combined 2 of 19.
Porter is 2 of 16 from 3-point range in his past two games while Clowney is shooting 34.5% while playing in six of 11 games since Jan. 16.
–Field Level Media
Sports
Why the Anthony Davis Trade to Washington Wizards Feels Like a Dead End
According to reports, former Dallas Mavericks big man Anthony Davis wasn’t thrilled about being traded to the Washington Wizards.
Davis claims these reports were “overblown,” which comes off as not being completely false, but maybe a bit exaggerated. Regardless, what’s left of the 32-year-old will be forced to report to the Wizards, one of the worst NBA teams over the last decade.
Already, reports are surfacing that the Wizards will plan on shutting down Davis for the remainder of the season. During his one year in Dallas, Davis only played 29 total games. He’s dealing with a hand injury and a groin injury and hasn’t suited up since early January.
The Mavericks severed ties with Davis after just one year following the catastrophic failure that was the Luka Doncic trade. Moving on from the injury-prone center allows the Mavericks to build around No. 1 overall pick Cooper Flagg, who has looked the part during his rookie season.
Superstar point guard Kyrie Irving has yet to make his season debut for the Mavericks after tearing his ACL in late March of last season.
But Davis was the real loser of this trade.
His agent, Rich Paul, publicly and privately demanded that the Mavericks would find a new home for him prior to Thursday’s NBA trade deadline.
In a blockbuster deal, Davis wound up on the Wizards, who still have not won 15 games this season and currently find themselves as the No. 13 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Washington’s first-round draft pick is protected as long as they find themselves within the top eight selections. By sidelining Davis, the Wizards could continue to let their tank roll on, improving their probability of drafting one of college basketball’s biggest stars this offseason.
After this season, Davis is owed two very large sums of money on his deal with the Wizards that should keep him in Washington over the next two seasons. By shutting down Davis, the Wizards are planning for the long term, where they’ll hope he can get healthy and contribute on a young roster next season.
The Wizards are awful, but they do have a little bit of young talent.
They’ve invested draft picks into Alex Sarr, who could pair nicely with Davis in Washington’s front court next season. Bub Carrington and Bilal Coulibaly are one of the worst backcourt duos in the league, but individually, they are decent role players. Kyshawn George and Shariffe Cooper are both capable of surprises, also.
Washington will need to keep their fingers crossed that their ping pong ball strikes gold in the NBA Draft Lottery. Adding Darryn Peterson or AJ Dybantsa to the young core will help the Wizards grow quickly.
The Wizards will also keep their fingers crossed that Davis can give them any production. In the last decade, David played in over 60 games just once, appearing in 76 games with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2023. If the Wizards can get that All-Star version of Davis, this trade looks like a steal.
But even with Davis healthy, how will the Wizards be much better unless they land Peterson or Dybantsa?
Davis should be thanking LeBron James for that championship they won together in the NBA bubble. Now on the most irrelevant team in the NBA, Davis will spend the rest of the regular season in the shadows instead of contending for more titles.
Sports
Wizards' Anthony Davis expected to sit out rest of season
Jan 6, 2026; Sacramento, California, USA; Dallas Mavericks forward Anthony Davis (3) stands on the court before the start of the game against the Sacramento Kings at the Golden 1 Center. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images Newly acquired Anthony Davis is not expected to make his debut with the Washington Wizards until the 2026-27 season, NBA TV reported.
Davis, 32, has ligament damage in his left hand as well as a groin injury. The Wizards, who have a 14-36 record and are nine games out of the final play-in spot in the Eastern Conference, reportedly would prefer giving Davis the time off to heal.
He was acquired from the Dallas Mavericks at the trade deadline on Thursday as part of a nine-player, three-team deal that also involved multiple draft picks.
Davis has not played since Jan. 8, when he was injured in a loss to the Utah Jazz.
He appeared in just 20 games this season with Dallas and averaged 20.4 points, 11.1 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.7 blocks.
A 10-time All-Star, Davis was the centerpiece of the trade last February that sent Dallas star Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers. After his arrival with the Mavericks, Davis played only nine games because of injuries.
The Wizards also are waiting for the debut of Trae Young, the four-time All-Star guard they acquired from the Atlanta Hawks in a trade on Jan. 9. He has yet to play because of a right knee MCL sprain and a bruised right quad.
–Field Level Media
Sports
IOC: Sports leaders reach consensus on new gender policy
Kirsty Coventry, president of the International Olympic Committee, speaks at the opening ceremony of the 2026 Winter Olympics on Friday in Milan. MILAN — Global sports leaders have reached consensus on a new set of eligibility criteria for transgender athletes, with the new policy expected to be announced within the first half of this year, the International Olympic Committee said Saturday.
It would be the first uniform policy adopted by the IOC and international sports federations, applying to major events in dozens of sports, including the Games and world championships. Currently, federations have their own rules which can vary.
Details of the new policy are unclear but it is expected to severely restrict the participation of transgender athletes who compete in women’s categories if they have undergone full male puberty before any subsequent medical transition.
The IOC, under its first female president, Kirsty Coventry, took the lead in June, opting for a uniform approach.
“Protecting the female category is one of the key reforms she wants to bring in,” IOC spokesman Mark Adams told a news conference at the Milan-Cortina Winter Games on Saturday.
“I would say it is going to happen shortly, within the next few months.”
“It has been out to consultation phase and we had the ‘pause and reflect’ (period) on it,” Adams said. “Generally speaking there is consensus within the sporting movement. I think you will have a new policy in the first half of this year. Don’t hold me to it, but that is roughly the timescale.”
In September, Coventry set up the “Protection of the Female Category” working group, made up of experts as well as representatives of international federations, to look into how best to protect the female category in sports.
Before Coventry’s decision, the IOC had balked at any universal rule on transgender participation for the Games, instructing international federations in 2021 to come up with their own guidelines. Under current rules, still in force, transgender athletes are eligible to take part in the Olympics once cleared by their respective federations.
Only a handful of openly transgender athletes have taken part in the Games. New Zealand’s Laurel Hubbard became the first openly transgender athlete to compete in a different gender category to that assigned at birth when the weightlifter took part in the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.
Currently, for example, World Aquatics allows transgender athletes who have transitioned before the age of 12, to compete. World Rugby bans all transgender athletes from elite-level competitions.
President Donald Trump has banned transgender athletes from competing in school, college and pro events in the female category in the United States, as Los Angeles prepares to host the 2028 Summer Olympics.
Trump, who signed the “Keeping Men Out of Women’s Sports” order in February, has said he would not allow transgender athletes to compete at the LA Games.
–Reuters, special to Field Level Media
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