TMZ Sports - Page 50

Another good sign for Lakers fans -- LeBron James' 13-year-old superstar son is very "likely" to enroll at Sierra Canyon School in L.A. ... but our sources say "it's not a done deal."

Sierra Canyon's basketball team is loaded with the DNA of NBA legends -- with the spawn of Scottie Pippen and Kenyon Martin playing side by side with Derek Fisher's nephew.

Earlier this month, ex-NBA star Gary Payton told BSO that Bronny is definitely heading to Sierra Canyon -- but our sources say nothing is official ... at least not yet.

As one source with knowledge of the situation put it ... all signs point to Bronny ending up at SC, and the school is holding a place for him when he makes his final decision.

Bronny is considered the best 13-year-old baller in the country -- he's currently going to school in Ohio.

As for Sierra Canyon ... it's a private school in the San Fernando Valley where the likes of Kendall and Kylie Jenner, Ireland Baldwin and Willow Smith once roamed the halls.

Christmas came WAY early for Saquon Barkley's parents -- the NY Giants rookie just dropped more than $400,000 on a brand new crib in Pennsylvania for Mom and Dad!!!

"Something I promised my parents, ever since I was a young kid," the former Penn State running back posted on social media.

The house is pretty nice ... it's got 3,355 square feet, 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms.

It's right in the area where Barkley grew up -- and about 90 miles from his new office, MetLife Stadium in New Jersey.

The pad was last listed at $424,500 -- unclear what the final price was.

5:21 PM PT -- Officials have identified the victim as 25-year-old Roosevelt Rene -- a friend of Janoris.

Rene was a music producer who had been living at the home.

1:52 PM PT --The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office tells TMZ Sports ... the dead body is a man, but he's NOT the owner of the house.

Officials will not release the identity until next of kin have been notified.

"The investigation is ongoing, and additional information will be provided when it is available and appropriate for release."

A dead body was found at the New Jersey home of NY Giants star Janoris Jenkins on Tuesday and now the Major Crimes Unit is investigating ... TMZ Sports has learned.

First off, we're told Janoris was out of the state when the body was discovered early Tuesday morning -- but sources connected to the NFL player tell us his camp is aware of the situation.

We don't know if cops have identified a suspect or even have a working theory on how the person died.

Sources tell us the body was discovered in the basement by a worker at the house. Law enforcement officers in Bergen County raced to the scene. We're told the coroner showed up a short time later.

The identity of the victim is unclear -- we know investigators are actively working the case.

One source connected to Jenkins says the NFL player has been in Florida and was not at the home when cops arrived.

We've reached out to JJ's reps for comment -- but, so far, no word back.

Argentina's do-or-die game against Nigeria was almost do-or-die for Diego Maradona -- the dude suffered a medical scare at the end of the World Cup game and was reportedly hospitalized in Russia.

Throughout the game, the 57-year-old legend was wildin' out in his seats at St. Petersburg Stadium -- shouting, praying and flipping people off.

But, when Argentina's Marcos Rojo scored the go-ahead goal in the 87th minute, Maradona's body couldn't handle the excitement ... and paramedics raced to treat him.

Don't worry, he's alive ... but according to ESPN's Diego Cora, he was eventually taken to a nearby hospital to be checked out.

Maradona has a history of health problems, including breathing and heart issues ... as well as a much-publicized cocaine addiction.

Argentina's next game is against France on Saturday ... hopefully, he'll be rested up and ready to go by then.

Even in the off-season, Tristan Thompson is still working on his handling skills ... with his newborn baby girl, True.

The Cavaliers star made his daddy-daughter debut, with video, anyway ... with this footage of himself cradling True. It's not the first time we've seen Tristan and Khloe Kardashian's bundle, but usually she's been snuggling with Mom since she arrived in April.

True even got Tristan to bust out some baby talk and a kissie face. She's THAT freakin' cute.

Tom Brady can cross sixth member of the Backstreet Boys off his post-football plans ... 'cause AJ McLean says the Pats QB's singing is way too garbage for that.

We brought you the story last week ... TB12 had a date night with Gisele out at U2's concert in Boston when he screeched out the words to "Vertigo" and "Pride (In The Name of Love)."

When we showed AJ the clips ... his reaction was the same as mostly everyone else's ... "Not everybody is supposed to be a singer."

McLean did give props to Brady for sharing his, um, voice with the world ... saying it took "cajones" for Brady to do that.

Olivia Culpo and Danny Amendola are vacationing in Spain together ... and when we say the views are spectacular, we ain't talkin' the Torre de Savinar.

The on-again, off-again couple are getting some quality time on the Spanish islands this week ... but Olivia ditched the dudes for an all-girl yacht trip with friends.

So, what are they up to? Taking lots of photos of each other in sexy poses ... and for good reason, they're all insanely hot models.

As for Amendola, the two were spotted at dinner together the other night -- not the greatest body language -- but couply enough.

At least his tan looks great!

Remember, the two broke up back in March after dating for 2 years -- but they started hanging out again at a friend's wedding earlier this month ... and now, boom -- European vacation.

Totally back together, right?

Klay Thompson took a break from celebrating his Warriors championship in China this week to get his ass whooped in Pop-A-Shot ... BY A BALLER-ASS LITTLE GIRL!!

The video is incredible ... a kid half of Klay's size hits shot after shot after shot -- while one of the NBA's greatest all-time shooters throws up bricks.

Unclear what the final score was ... but, at one point, it was 100 to 38.

Klay's college teammate at Wazzu appropriately captioned the video, "this girl is legend."

He's a living legend in Africa -- he was born there, he does a ton of charity work there ... but when it comes to the World Cup, Dikembe Mutombo says his #1 team is from ANOTHER continent.

"My #1 team is still Brazil," Mutombo told TMZ Sports on his way out of Catch in West Hollywood.

"If I have to pick a #2, I think I would go with Senegal & Nigeria. I got to cheer for my homeboys."

Mutombo was born in the Congo -- and has been a huge force in bringing his sport to Africa with "Basketball without Borders" and even built a hospital in Kinshasa through his foundation.

But, despite all that, he likes Brazil -- and says he's rooting for the boys in green and yellow to take home the trophy.

Victor Oladipo's got the key for LeBron James to beat the Golden State Warriors next year ... and it only requires one thing from the King -- join the Pacers!!

We got the Indiana star leaving TAO on Monday night -- fresh off winning Most Improved Player at the NBA Awards -- and he told us all his squad needs in order to win a ring is a little LBJ.

Then, he gave us his best pitch to the NBA's top player.

"If you want to win, come to Indy!!"

Remember ... LeBron's been the reason the Pacers haven't advanced in the Eastern Conference Playoffs two years in a row -- so the move kills two birds with one stone for Oladipo.

Antonio Brown and Cam Newton worked out with each other in Miami this week ... and as the Panthers star QB put it -- there was "so much swag and juice" on the videos of it all ... "your phone probably leakin' right now!!"

Before you get ahead of yourself ... Cam's in the middle of a monster 5-year deal with Carolina, and A.B.'s in a huge 4-year contract of his own with the Steelers ... so this ain't a preview of anything.

But still ... it's one of the top QBs in the NFL with the best wideout in the game ... and it's awesome to see.

If you're unfamiliar ... A.B.'s been in Florida this offseason, grinding away with a crazy trainer -- and he's had fellow NFLers tag along sometimes. This week was Cam's turn.

They banged out abs with weights ... then hit the football field, where Newton dropped some heavy long balls to the Pittsburgh wideout.

Sadly ... unless A.B. posts more clips these next few weeks -- you won't see this on a football field again, 'cause there's no way in hell their teams are trading them away.

Yu Darvish -- who's in a $126 MILLION contract -- completed his first minor league rehab start this week ... and celebrated by spoiling BOTH TEAMS with a very expensive Ruth's Chris steak dinner.

The Chicago Cubs had sent the pitcher down to the Class A Affiliate South Bend Cubs to help him work his way back from a triceps injury ... and, Monday night, he took the mound with a bunch of guys who make WAY less cash.

In fact, most of the players only make around $45k per year (and that's if they're playing consistently for the entire year).

So, Yu -- being the generous rich dude that he is -- pulled out the checkbook and bought a massive spread of steak, salmon, sides and some bomb ass cookies for his team and the opposing West Michigan Whitecaps.

Total bill for it all had to be pricey ... a steak from the fancy spot runs about $50 a pop, while the fish costs about $30 a piece.

As for the minor leaguers ... Whitecaps reliever Max Green took to Twitter to thank Yu for the meal afterward.

"What a guy!"

Joel Embiid says his next career goal is to win NBA MVP next season ... and he's already got a plan on how he'll celebrate!

The Philadelphia 76ers superstar was leaving Catch in L.A. after the NBA Awards -- hours after it was revealed Embiid will grace the cover of the upcoming NBA Live 19 video game.

What's interesting is ... the guy he's replacing is James Harden -- who just won NBA MVP after being the cover guy for NBA Live for the 2018 version of the game.

UFC star Rose Namajunas says she was downright OFFENDED by Conor McGregor's pathetic attempt to apologize for that whole bus attack thing ... because he only reached out over Instagram.

Remember, Rose was on the bus at Barclays Center when Conor and his goons went berserk -- and Dana White told us she nearly broke her hand in the chaos.

Now, Rose is explaining what happened in the aftermath -- saying, "I did get an Instagram message from him, but I don't really know if that was really him."

"To me, that doesn't seem like the type of, it just didn't seem like a sincere apology from an actual person," Rose said on Ariel Helwani's MMA Show on ESPN.

"To me, I didn't really, I guess, consider it a real apology."

So, what did the IG message say?

"It said, 'I'm sorry for what happened' ... but then he immediately went on to like justifying what he did and stuff like that and the reasons why he did it."

"That to me was like, it really doesn't matter. I don't care what beef he's got with who. That's none of my business, I don't need to know that information. Do you know what I mean? That doesn't do anything for me."

"So there was an apology and I'm a pretty cool person and I always accept apologies, but to me, I'm like a personal person, I like face to face. That's how I like to handle things. I feel like anything can be worked out, you just gotta talk through it as adults."

Chris Paul is going to bat for his teammate -- saying James Harden deserved to win MVP over LeBron James ... but now, he needs to add an NBA title to his resume.

"He's gonna get that too," CP3 told TMZ Sports on the way out of Catch ... "but he deserved the MVP."

There's an argument James got screwed at the NBA Award ceremony Monday night -- since he played in more games than Harden, scored more points than Harden, got more rebounds, more assists and took his team further with less talent around him.

But, Rockets coach Mike D'Antoni is also siding with Paul -- saying Harden was "without a doubt" the best player in the league and "has been ready to get [MVP] for the last 3 years."