WASHINGTON: Two-time NBA Most Valuable Player Giannis Antetokounmpo and NBA scoring leader Joel Embiid lead a record-tying four international starters in Sunday’s 71st NBA All-Star Game.
Greek star Antetokounmpo, last year’s NBA Finals MVP after leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their first title in 50 years, will spark Team LeBron James in the elite talent showdown at James’s home area of Cleveland, Ohio.
Antetokoumpo averages 29.4 points a game, second in the NBA, just ahead of Los Angeles Lakers superstar James at 29.1 per contest.
James called Antetokounmpo “the hardest playing player in All-Star history” upon taking him in a player draft and the “Greek Freak” has the Bucks contending for another crown.
“I just try to play as hard as I can, play for the team and always play to win,” Antetokounmpo said.
“We’re happy we won the championship last year, but we’re not satisfied. We’re trying to put ourselves in a position that we can be one of those teams that play down the stretch in June.”
Embiid, the Cameroonian forward who leads the NBA with 29.6 points a game for Philadelphia, will ignite Team Kevin Durant, whose namesake captain is injured and will not play.
The Sixers star could be the first center to win the scoring title since Shaquille O’Neal in 2000.
“You have to do whatever it takes to win,” Embiid said. “I know my role and it’s to go out there and dominate. I’m going to get the ball a lot and I’m going to make things happen.
“It’s all about making the right plays, finding my teammates, looking to score and just being aggressive.”
Serbian center Nikola Jokic, the 2021 NBA MVP, will also start for Team LeBron while Canadian forward Andrew Wiggins of the Golden State Warriors is also in the opening lineup for Durant’s squad in his first All-Star appearance.
Memphis standout guard Ja Morant, averaging 26.4 points a game, makes his first All-Star Game appearance as a starter for Team Durant, which also features Boston swingman Jayson Tatum in Durant’s place and Atlanta guard Trae Young, who ranks fifth in the NBA with 27.8 points a game and fourth in the league with 9.3 assists a contest.
LeBron’s other fellow starters include eight-time NBA All-Star Stephen Curry of Golden State and five-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan of the Chicago Bulls.
Each team has a global big man among the reserves with Utah’s Rudy Gobert, a Frenchman who leads the NBA with 14.8 rebounds a game, on the bench for Team Durant and Slovenian playmaker Luka Doncic of Dallas among Team LeBron substitutes.
This becomes the fifth consecutive year that James has served as captain of an All-Star team since the format changed from an East versus West matchup and he is trying to stay unbeaten.
Team LeBron beat a Curry-captained squad in 2018, another guided by Antetokounmpo in 2019 and 2020 and defeated Team Durant 170-150 last year with Antetokounmpo taking All-Star MVP honors.
Philadelphia guard James Harden is injured and will not play for Team LeBron while Team Durant lacks injured Golden State forward Draymond Green.
Miami Heat coach Erik Spoelstra will coach Team Durant while Phoenix’s Monty Williams coaches Team LeBron.
Among veteran All-Star reserves are 12-time All-Star Chris Paul of Phoenix and six-time All-Star Jimmy Butler of Miami for Team LeBron and Team Durant’s three-time All-Star Devin Booker of Phoenix and two-time All-Star Zach LaVine of Chicago.
First-time All-Stars include Charlotte guard LaMelo Ball for Team Durant and Cleveland guard Darius Garland and Cleveland center Jarrett Allen for Team LeBron.
Global talent powers LeBron v. Durant at NBA All-Star Game
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Global talent powers LeBron v. Durant at NBA All-Star Game

- Greek star Antetokounmpo will spark Team LeBron James in the elite talent showdown at James's home area of Cleveland
- Embiid will ignite Team Kevin Durant, whose namesake captain is injured and will not play
Ten-woman Germany in Euros semis after stunning shootout win over France

- Ann-Katrin Berger was the hero by saving Amel Majri and Alice Sombath’s penalties to secure a last-four clash with Spain to Germany
- France have now fallen at the quarter-finals stage in eight of their last 10 Euros after losing a match in which they had two goals ruled out for offside
BASEL, Switzerland: Gritty Germany reached the Women’s Euro 2025 semifinals on Saturday after prevailing 6-5 in a penalty shootout against France after playing with 10 women for almost all of a gruelling match which finished 1-1 after extra time.
Ann-Katrin Berger was the hero by saving Amel Majri and Alice Sombath’s penalties to secure a last-four clash with Spain to Germany, who will take on the world champions in Zurich on Wednesday.
Germany maintained their record of having never lost to France in a major summer tournament after battling back from going a goal and a woman down in the first 15 minutes to win a bruising encounter in Basel.
“I would have loved to have had the game in 90 minutes and done and dusted,” Berger told reporters.
“I did my part of the game. In 120 minutes they (the team) worked incredibly hard and I think all the credit should go to the team, not me.
“Maybe it was the decisive moment in the penalty shootout but everyone here should talk about it with him (coach Christian Wueck) now about the performance of the team because that was amazing and incredible.”
St. Jakob-Park was dominated by fierce German support which flocked over the nearby border with Switzerland and roared their team on even after Kathrin Hendrich was sent off and gave away the penalty from which Grace Geyoro opened the scoring.
Sjoeke Nuesken — who also missed a penalty in the second half — levelled the scores 10 minutes later and, after a long battle to hold off France, Berger sent the majority of the crowd wild with her shootout stops.
France have now fallen at the quarter-finals stage in eight of their last 10 Euros after losing a match in which they had two goals ruled out for offside.
“I don’t think it was down to character, you have to remember that Germany are third in the FIFA rankings. They sat back and it was hard to break them down — they put in a huge effort against us,” said France coach Laurent Bonadei.
“We couldn’t make the difference, we had two goals ruled out for offside... it’s a lack of being clinical in front of goal.”
Germany came into the match already missing key defenders Giulia Gwinn and Carlotta Wamser, to injury and suspension respectively, while star striker Lea Schueller was also surprisingly left on the bench.
And the Germans’ task was made even harder in the 13th minute when Hendrich was rightly dismissed for inexplicably pulling Griedge Mbock’s hair while defending a free-kick, and giving Geyoro a chance to score she didn’t pass up.
But out of nowhere Nuesken drew a huge roar from Germany fans when she rose, completely unmarked, to glance home Klara Buehl’s inswinging corner.
From there Germany were content to sit back and hold France off by fair means or foul, and they were saved from being behind at the break by Delphone Cascarino needlessly straying offside before she flicked home Kadidiatou Diani’s low cross.
That was one of the few decent attacks France managed to conjure up with an extra woman, and they continued to struggle after the break.
Even when Geyoro had the ball in the net for the second time, lashing home on the rebound after a fine save from Berger, the goal was ruled out as Maelle Lakrar impeded the Germany goalkeeper while in an offside position.
And Pauline Peyraud-Magnin saved France’s skin when she kept out Nuesken’s awful penalty in the 69th minute, given for a soft foul on Jule Brand.
But it was Ann-Katrin Berger who made possibly the save of the tournament 12 minutes into extra time when she somehow clawed out Janina Minge’s inadvertant header and stopped Germany going out to an own goal.
Berger could only watch as Melvine Malard shook the crossbar with almost the last kick of the game before the shootout, but she stepped up in the shootout to allow Germany to win against all odds.
Egyptian club Al Ahly ban star striker Abou Ali from training camp

JOHANNESBURG: Star striker Wessam Abou Ali from Egyptian club Al Ahly has shunned pre-season medical checks and skipped training in a row reportedly linked to his desire for a transfer from the Cairo club.
In other African football news, Brazil-born Mamelodi Sundowns striker Lucas Ribeiro has been nominated for several end-of-season South African awards.
A rift has developed between Abou Ali, one of only two scorers of a hat-trick at the 2025 Club World Cup, and record 12-time African champions Al Ahly.
It has led to recently appointed Spanish coach Jose Riveiro excluding the Denmark-born Palestine international from a pre-season camp in Tunisia.
While Abou Ali wants to leave the Red Devils, no interested club has matched the reported selling price of $12 million (EUR10.3 mn) set by the record 12-time African champions.
Ribeiro is among three nominees for the footballer of the season and players’ player of the season awards in South Africa, with the winners to be named on July 29.
His rivals in both categories are two other forward, Relebohile Mofokeng of Orlando Pirates and Keletso Makgalwa from Sekhukhune United.
Ribeiro, 26, joined champions Sundowns from Belgian club Beveren in 2023 and scored an outstanding goal against Borussia Dortmund at the recent Club World Cup in the United States.
Five-time African champions TP Mazembe have successfully appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over the premature conclusion of the Democratic Republic of Congo national league season.
League officials in the central African country declared the campaign over after 16 of the scheduled 22 matchdays, with Eagles topping the table, five points ahead of fifth-placed Mazembe.
The CAS decision means the remaining six rounds must be played — renewing the chances of Mazembe securing a top-two finish and qualification for the lucrative CAF Champions League.
Al Merrikh edged Al Amal Atbara 1-0 and Al Hilal hammered Al Merrikh Obeid 5-0 to remain first and second respectively with one round left in the Sudan Elite League play-offs.
The mini-league, in which each club plays seven others, is being staged in the northeast of a country where the national army have been battling a paramilitary force in a civil war since 2023.
Merrikh hold a one-point lead over record 30-time Sudanese champions Hilal, who are above Al Ahly Madani and Al Zamala Ruwaba on goal difference.
Veteran former Wydad Casablanca midfielder Yahya Jabrane has rejoined the club after one season with Kuwait Sports Club.
The 34-year-old was a key figure when the Casablanca outfit won a third CAF Champions League title by defeating Al Ahly in the 2021/22 final.
Wydad finished third behind Renaissance Berkane and FAR Rabat in the Moroccan league. Only the top two finishers go into the CAF Champions League so Wydad will compete in the second-tier Confederation Cup.
Usyk knocks out Dubois to become undisputed world heavyweight champion

LONDON: Oleksandr Usyk cemented his status as the outstanding heavyweight of his generation with an emphatic fifth-round knockout of Daniel Dubois in their undisputed world title bout at London’s Wembley Stadium on Saturday.
Victory saw Ukraine’s Usyk extend his unbeaten professional record to 24 fights as the WBA, WBC and WBO champion added his British opponent’s IBF belt to his collection.
Usyk dominated the opening four rounds and early in the fifth he dropped Dubois to the canvas.
Moments later he finished the fight in decisive fashion after a trademark left hook left his British rival unable to beat the count one minute and 52 seconds into the round.
It was the second time Usyk, at 38 some 11 years older than his opponent, had defeated Dubois following a ninth-round stoppage success in Krakow, Poland, in 2023, where the Briton was ruled to have landed an illegal low blow in the fifth round.
Lennox Lewis, the last British boxer to be undisputed world champion in 1999, forecast before Saturday’s fight that Usyk would face a vastly-improved Dubois, saying: “Dubois was a baby in the sport and now he’s a man...You’re not going to see the same Daniel Dubois from 18 months ago.”
But after Usyk was roared into the ring by a huge contingent of supporters, many of them waving Ukraine national flags in a 90,000 capacity crowd at Wembley, best known as the London base of England’s national football team, it was largely one-way traffic as their hero conducted a ruthless masterclass against local favorite Dubois.
“38 is a young guy, remember!,” Usyk told DAZN in the ring after dropping to his knees in celebration. “38 is only start!
“I want to say thank you to Jesus Christ. I want to say thank you to my team and Wembley, thank you so much! It’s for the people.
“Nothing is next. It’s enough, next, I don’t know. I want to rest. My family, my wife, my children, I want to rest now. Two or three months, I want to just rest.”
Asked about his next opponent Usyk, who has already twice beaten former world heavyweight champion Tyson Fury, added: “Maybe it’s Tyson Fury. Maybe we have three choices, Derek Chisora and Anthony Joshua. Maybe Joseph Parker. Listen, I cannot now say because I want to go back home.”
Dubois insisted he would return to the ring, saying: “I have to commend him (Usyk) on the performance, I gave everything I had. Take no credit away from that man, I’ll be back.”
Saudi Motorsport accelerates as 2nd Round of Hill Climb Championship concludes in Taif

- Faisal Al-Qabbani overall clocked the fastest time of 1 minute, 43.116 seconds
- The event was held under the supervision of the Ministry of Sport, and organized by the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation
TAIF: Saudi driver Faisal Al-Qabbani secured first place in the second round of the Saudi Toyota Championship Hill Climb that concluded on Saturday in Aqabat Al Muhammadiyah, Al Shafa.
Al-Qabbani overall clocked the fastest time of 1 minute, 43.116 seconds, meanwhile Maamoun Al-Qabbani came in second with a time of 1 minute, 43.962 seconds, said a media statement.
Jean Lahoud claimed third place with a time of 1 minute, 45.681 seconds.
The event was held under the supervision of the Ministry of Sport, and organized by the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF), in collaboration with official partner Jameel Motorsport and the Saudi Motorsport Marshals Club.
The second round was marked by a high standard of organization and notable participation, reflecting the rapid progress of motorsport in the Kingdom and the growing stature of the championship across the regional motorsport landscape.
Mohammed Madani, Executive Vice President for Strategic Management and Business Development at the SAMF, expressed his satisfaction with the successful conclusion of the second round. He conveyed his pride in the outstanding level of organization and the spirit of competition, both of which reflect the ongoing development of motorsport in the Kingdom.
“This championship reflects the commitment of the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation to advancing motorsport and providing high-quality competitive platforms that support the discovery and development of young Saudi talent. It also reflects the Federation’s vision to build a sustainable and professional motorsport ecosystem,” Madani said.
In Class 1, Faisal Al-Qabbani also took first place with his leading time of 1:43.116, ahead of Maamoun Al-Qabbani in second, and Mahmoud Abed in third.
In Class 2a, Jean Lahoud topped the leaderboard with a time of 1:45.681, followed by Ahmed Al-Qaidi in second and Ahmed Bajunaid in third. Meanwhile, Class 2b was won by Rabih Al-Aawar with a time of 1:50.820, with Abdullah Al-Qabbani and Mohammed Al-Sharyan securing second and third respectively.
In Class 3a, Ibrahim Al-Shouraida led with a time of 1:52.508, followed by Sultan Hamdi and Hazem Al-Dabbagh in second and third. Class 3b saw Hamza Bakhashab take first place with a time of 1:58.785, ahead of Riyadh Batal in second and Abdullah Khoja in third.
In Class 4a, Abdullah Al-Khuriji secured the top spot with a time of 1:59.538, followed by Hisham Al-Badea and Bandar Al-Sulami. In Class 4b, Ali Al-Khadhair took first with a time of 2:04.960, while Abi Wael Zafar and Khaled Baghdadi placed second and third respectively.
In Class 5a, Abdulaziz Al-Fadhili claimed first place with a time of 2:09.574, followed by female driver Enas Abtini in second and Mohammed Abdelghaffar in third. Class 5b was won by Hatem Al-Hazmi, who clocked a time of 2:10.043, ahead of Mohammed Habbal and Saeed Al-Ghamdi in second and third positions.
As for the additional competition categories, Abdulaziz Al-Rumaih won Category 2 SS with a time of 1:52.767. In Category 2 SC, Saeed Al-Mouri came first with a time of 1:54.291, followed by Abdullah Al-Omari in second and Talal Al-Asimi in third.
It is worth noting that the third and final round of the Saudi Toyota Championship Hill Climb will take place from 7 to 9 August.
The final round is expected to play a pivotal role in further embedding motorsport culture within the Kingdom and inspiring the next generation of Saudi talent to pursue a future in this thrilling sport.
Australia winger Irankunda completes Watford switch from Bayern Munich

- The highly-rated 19-year-old made the switch for an undisclosed transfer fee
- “Nestory can be a very special player and we believe he can realize his potential here, with us,” said Watford sporting director Gian Luca Nani
LONDON: Australia international Nestory Irankunda has joined Watford on a five-year deal from Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich, the English Championship club announced on Friday.
The highly-rated 19-year-old, who made his debut for the Socceroos last June, made the switch for an undisclosed transfer fee.
“Nestory can be a very special player and we believe he can realize his potential here, with us,” said Watford sporting director Gian Luca Nani.
“Nestory was extremely sought-after and thanks to our established scouting network and connections we were able to be ahead of others in the race to sign players of this potential.”
Irankunda made his professional debut as a 15-year-old for Adelaide United during the 2021/22 season and came to prominence with an eye-catching performance playing for an A-League select side against Barcelona.
Born in Tanzania to parents from Burundi who moved to Australia when he was three months old, Irankunda chose to represent Australia at international level and was given his first cap by former coach Graham Arnold in June 2024.
He scored his first goal for the country later that month against Palestine in his second appearance for the Socceroos before completing a move to Bayern Munich in an A-League record deal.
He made his fifth appearance for Australia in a 3-1 win over China in October last year during Asia’s World Cup preliminaries but has not been selected since by current coach Tony Popovic.