Cornerback Chris Harris Jr., a four-time Pro Bowl selection in 12 NFL seasons, told the Denver Gazette that he has retired.

Harris, 34, last played in the NFL in 2022 with the New Orleans Saints, and he told the Gazette that after not receiving interest from teams this offseason, he made the decision to retire.

"I just waited a year, and I stayed in shape, but I realized that everybody was pretty much moving on with the younger players, the younger wave,'' Harris told the Gazette. "So, I thought it would be great to just call it an end."

Harris signed with the Broncos as an undrafted free agent in 2011 and played his first nine seasons with Denver, during which he was selected to his four Pro Bowls and won a Super Bowl after the 2015 season. He was a first-team All-Pro selection in 2016 and was named to the 2010s All-Decade Team in 2020.

"I was able to accomplish pretty much everything,'' he told the Gazette. "... Getting All-Decade was the top thing. I feel definitely blessed, especially coming in as undrafted. I pretty much had to fight through all my career and being able to overcome that, that's one thing I'm definitely happy for."

He said his only regret was not being able to play safety later in his career.

He finishes his career, which also included two seasons with the Chargers, with 22 interceptions, 97 passes defended, 621 tackles, 7 forced fumbles and 6 sacks.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. -- The Jaguars released receiver Zay Jones on Tuesday morning, less than a week after drafting a receiver in the first round of the NFL draft.

The Jaguars save $4.49 million against the salary cap by releasing Jones, who signed a three-year contract with the team in March 2022. His release was among a list of moves the team made Tuesday, which included releasing kicker Joey Slye.

The Jaguars drafted LSU receiver Brian Thomas Jr. with the 23rd overall pick Thursday. Thomas led FBS with 17 touchdown catches in 2023. In addition, veteran receiver Jarvis Landry, a five-time Pro Bowl selection who did not play in the NFL last season, will be participating in the Jaguars' May 10-11 rookie minicamp on a tryout basis.

Jones caught 116 passes for 1,144 yards and seven touchdowns in two seasons with the Jaguars, including career highs in receptions (82) and receiving yards (823) in 2022. Jones missed eight games in 2023 because of a lingering knee injury that he suffered early in the season.

Jones was arrested in November and charged with misdemeanor domestic battery after an argument with the mother of his child allegedly resulted in an injury to her neck, according to an arrest and booking report. The Florida state attorney's office announced in March that it would not pursue the charges against Jones and the case was dropped.

Jones, 29, was a second-round draft pick by the Buffalo Bills in 2017 and caught 90 passes for 1,037 yards and nine touchdowns in 36 games with the Bills. He was traded to the Oakland Raiders in October 2019 and caught 81 passes for 847 yards and two touchdowns in 43 games with the Raiders.

Jones signed a three-year, $24 million contract with $14 million guaranteed with the Jaguars in March 2022.

Slye signed a one-year, $1.29 million contract with $25,000 guaranteed in March. The Jaguars drafted Arkansas kicker Cam Little in the sixth round Saturday. Veteran kicker Riley Patterson remains on the roster.

The Jaguars also announced Tuesday they had agreed to terms with 13 undrafted free agents.

MIAMI --The Miami Heat will be without yet another starter when they face an elimination game in Boston on Wednesday night.

Rookie forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. did not travel with the team Tuesday for a Game 5 against the Celtics, ruled out with a strained right hip flexor. Jaquez joins Jimmy Butler (knee) and Terry Rozier (neck) on the list of Miami starters sidelined by injuries. The Heat have also been without guard Josh Richardson for months following shoulder surgery.

Jaquez Jr. left Game 4 against the Celtics -- a 102-88 loss -- on Monday night after suffering the injury in the second half. He had nine points in 22 minutes before departing, and tests Tuesday showed the severity of the issue.

"Felt something give in the hip," Jaquez said after Game 4. He said it happened early in the third quarter while jumping for a rebound and that he tried to play through the injury to no avail.

Jaquez -- a likely All-Rookie team selection this season out of UCLA -- has started all four games in the series, averaging 12.8 points. Only Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro and Caleb Martin have played more minutes for Miami in the matchup against the Celtics than Jaquez has.

The Heat haven't been at full strength at any point in the series. Boston holds a 3-1 lead and can clinch a spot in the second round with a win Wednesday. Butler and Rozier have not played in the series, and Heat guard Duncan Robinson -- the team's all-time leader in 3-pointers -- is dealing with a back problem and has been limited to an average of about 10 minutes per game.

NEW YORK -- Both Joel Embiid and Kelly Oubre Jr. missed shootaround for the Philadelphia 76ers on Tuesday ahead of Game 5 of their first-round series against the New York Knicks.

Embiid missed it with a migraine, while Oubre had an illness. Embiid, who was already questionable with left knee injury management, remains so, while Oubre was put on the injury report as probable to play.

Philadelphia enters Game 5 trailing 3-1 in this best-of-seven series, and on the verge of being eliminated in the first two rounds of the playoffs for a seventh consecutive season, despite being outscored by a total of four points over the first four games of the series, thanks in part to blowing a 5-point lead in the final 30 seconds of Game 2 here last week.

Embiid, who is less than a month into his return from a procedure on the lateral meniscus in his left knee, is averaging 35 points, 9 rebounds and 5.5 assists through the first four games, while Oubre has been one of the primary defenders on Knicks star Jalen Brunson.

PLAYA VISTA, Calif. -- LA Clippers star Kawhi Leonard will miss his second straight game and remain out for Wednesday's Game 5 against the Dallas Mavericks, according to coach Ty Lue.

Lue said Leonard would not practice Tuesday as he continues to treat the inflammation in his surgically repaired right knee.

Leonard did not play Sunday when the Clippers won Game 4 in Dallas 116-111 to even the best-of-seven series at 2. Paul George and James Harden shouldered the load, combining for a total of 66 points, 15 assists and 12 rebounds.

After missing the final eight regular-season games and Game 1 of the series, Leonard returned and logged 35 minutes, scoring 15 points in Game 2. But Leonard said his knee did not respond the way he had hoped. Clippers president of basketball operations Lawrence Frank said Leonard experienced swelling.

The two-time Finals MVP gutted out 25 minutes and had nine points and nine rebounds but clearly did not move like his normal self in Game 3. Frank announced Sunday that Leonard will be out until he is able to move like he did in Game 2 and his return is uncertain.

Lue said Leonard still is a valuable presence for the team on the sideline.

"I mean he keeps himself involved," Lue said. "Just being in the shootarounds, being in the practices, understanding what we're trying to do.

"So when guys make mistakes, when they come out of the game, he can talk to those guys and let them know. And then also let them know what he sees as well with PG and with James. And he's been really vocal. He's helped us out a lot even though he's not playing."

LARRY DAVID said it best.

The beloved actor and writer, best known for "Curb Your Enthusiasm," made an appearance on "The Rich Eisen Show" last month, during which he talked about his beloved New York Knicks and their best player, point guard Jalen Brunson. "He's tremendous. He doesn't seem athletic in a way, but then he ..."

David, 76, then stood up from this seat, preparing to replicate the move. " ... He slithers in! And then he kind of does that [fadeaway] thing! Where his back is going backwards!"

As David sat back down, Eisen couldn't contain his laughter after the septuagenarian did a full-on kick to imitate Brunson's form.

But here's the thing: David isn't wrong. There is something about Brunson's game, and what makes it so unusual, yet so accessible. If the undersized, slight-of-frame Stephen Curry has given the younger generation something to aspire to with his otherworldly shooting range, Brunson, 27, may be inspiring people of all ages to perfect their old-man game -- one that depends far less on athleticism and more on impeccable footwork, strength and trickery.

"Man, it's so great to be on the other side of [his footwork] now," Knicks guard Donte DiVincenzo said to ESPN of Brunson, who played his first four NBA seasons in Dallas and was a teammate of DiVincenzo's at Villanova. "We played one-on-one so many times over the years to where I feel like I know exactly what he's gonna do. Honestly, a lot of defenders feel that way. But he's so crafty that they can't tell when he's gonna shoot, when he's gonna pass, or when he's gonna use a step-through.

"He knows he's not the most athletic, so he outsmarts and out-footworks people to get where he wants to go."

That precision is not just highly unpredictable and effective, though -- it's also the engine that drives a Knicks offense that ranked fifth over the final six weeks of the regular season without two-time All-NBA forward Julius Randle -- and fourth through the first two weeks of the playoffs.

KENTAVIOUS CALDWELL-POPE did almost everything right.

The two-time NBA champion, a proud stopper who entered the 2023-24 season saying that making the All-Defensive first team was among his individual goals this season, wasn't duped by the perimeter screen set by Knicks center Jericho Sims.

The high-IQ wing guessed correctly that Brunson would reject the screen, as he often does. Caldwell-Pope then stayed with Brunson step-for-step as the guard backed him into the paint. And he even managed to stay relatively grounded on the All-Star's first fake to the left.

But Caldwell-Pope flailed on the fourth action: Brunson up-faked before taking a beautiful step-through -- a nasty one-two combo -- before drawing contact across the arm as his floater lofted above the outstretched arm of Nikola Jokic and found the bottom of the net as the referee's whistle blew.

The Madison Square Garden crowd erupted.

And the defending champion Nuggets, down by 25 points after that failed defensive sequence, looked utterly confused. Between guard Jamal Murray raising his hands in frustration and forward Aaron Gordon putting his hands on his hips in exasperation, Denver seemed to be asking a question countless other teams have this season: How do we stop this freaking guy?

Brunson managed to shoot a blistering 7-for-8 from 2-point range that night against the Nuggets. The showing was far from an anomaly.

"When you have to guard a player on the catch, and then you have to guard him again when they dribble, and you have to guard him again when he picks up his dribble? That's a lot of opportunities for a defender to make a mistake. Unfortunately, I've seen it before," Hawks coach Quin Snyder told ESPN, a reference to the 2022 playoff series in which Brunson -- playing without injured Dallas Mavericks teammate Luka Doncic for the first three games -- torched Snyder and the Jazz for 24 points in Game 1, 41 in Game 2 and 31 in Game 3. Dallas won the series in six.

Consider, too, Game 4 of the Knicks' first-round series against the Philadelphia 76ers. Wing defender Tobias Harris also did just about everything right.

Twice in the third quarter Sunday, he took on the task of guarding Brunson one-on-one on the left wing. The first time, the New York star crossed the ball over between his legs three times -- left, right, then left again -- before going up for a shot. Or, at least to Harris, what certainly looked like one. Instead, Brunson used a shot fake to get Harris in the air from 16 feet out, then leaned into him and flung up a jumper as the whistle blew to signal a foul. As Harris tried desperately to land without making contact, it was already too late: Brunson's shot was good, and he'd add the free throw.

Two minutes later, Brunson called his own number against Harris from the same spot on the floor. This time, he dribbled between his legs four times in an effort to rock Harris to sleep. He then accelerated to his left toward the midpost, before being cut off and pulling the ball back out to reset. Or, at least to Harris, what looked like a reset. Instead, Brunson charged back downhill to his left just as Harris was beginning to exhale, thinking the job was done -- or at least paused.

Only it wasn't. Instead, Brunson slithered his way to the basket for a scoop layup off the glass. By day's end, he'd compiled 47 points -- a Knicks playoff record -- and 10 assists to take New York to a 3-1 series lead over the Sixers. Brunson managed to log the historic performance while just turning the ball over a single time.

And that's another thing: Brunson's largely mistake-free showing Sunday was par for the course this season. He posted a career-high 32.5% usage rate, but also had a career-low 9.1% turnover rate, even as he played through far more contact. Defenses blitzed Brunson as the pick-and-roll ball handler 36% more than they did a year ago, per Second Spectrum.

Despite possessing the ball for an NBA-high 662 minutes this season, and using highly intricate footwork countless times per game, Brunson was called for a total of four traveling violations all year. Four. Tied for the fewest for any All-Star guard or wing.

BRUNSON'S STAR TURN in New York is years in the making.

His father, Rick Brunson, was a member of the Knicks back in 1999, the last time the team reached the NBA Finals. He occasionally brought a 5-year-old Jalen into the team's locker room, and the youngster used it as an opportunity to show the players that he'd been studying their games.

"Everyone would just crack up. He had their footwork down -- jab steps, everything," Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau, who was a New York assistant in the late 1990s, said last year in recalling his first time meeting Jalen.

"[We'd tell him] 'Do Allan Houston,' boom, boom, boom. 'Do Latrell Sprewell,' boom, boom, boom. ... He was in the gym all the time, and he was a sponge." Yet for all the old-man tendencies Brunson uses as a player, he also makes frequent use of what closely resembles a children's game. It appears to be the world's most annoying game of duck, duck, goose.

Defenders chase him around the court when he's playing off the ball. And even when he has it on the perimeter, then gives it up to one of his big men, it's often just to relocate before getting the ball back in a better position to attack.

"It's like he's playing football," Golden State guard Moses Moody told ESPN. "He's a receiver trying to get open."

And he bypasses help if and when it comes -- by design. At nearly 17%, Brunson rejects screens at by far the NBA's highest rate, according to Second Spectrum, confusing defenders who are expecting him to make use of the blockade. Brunson plays off of two feet, his herky-jerky style and off-beat rhythm forming perhaps the most unpredictable offensive player in basketball.

"We've got a ton of players in the league who are really athletic and have great wingspans and all that stuff. But if I can be deceptive and do the things that I do, I can create an advantage," Brunson told ESPN. "And I definitely work on [my footwork] a lot."

The evidence would suggest it's working. Opposing players rarely block his shots, despite his height. Some of that is his underappreciated strength. "That first time he bumps into you with that shoulder, you're like, 'Damn, OK!' " Warriors guard Gary Payton II told ESPN.

Brunson took an NBA-high 330 floaters this season, 124 more than any other player. Just 18, or a little over 5% of them, were blocked. Just 6-7 Kawhi Leonard, 6-9 Bam Adebayo, 6-11 Kevin Durant, 6-10 Nikola Vucevic and Jokic, the two-time MVP who stands 6-11 -- have been blocked less frequently on a percentage basis than Brunson, according to data site PBP Stats.

He led all NBA guards with 276 buckets in the paint. And his 86 and-1 plays during the regular season were second most in the league, trailing only Giannis Antetokounmpo, whose hulking paint presence is often compared to Shaquille O'Neal's.

"When you look at the rearview mirror and it says, 'Objects are closer than they appear,' that's the kind of strength he has and the way he plays," Warriors star Draymond Green, a former Defensive Player of the Year, told ESPN. "You may look at him like, 'Ah, he's only 6-2 or however tall he is.' But he plays so much bigger than that. He's special, but it's not surprising."

Said DiVincenzo: "Playing against size doesn't bother him. In college, there was no defensive three seconds rule, so bigger guys could just stand there and clog the paint. ... To be able to do it now, he's got more space to go to work against defenses."

Giving Brunson more of anything -- be it space, or a screen he'll likely reject anyway -- at this point is normally a winning proposition for him. He's created a handful of nearly unstoppable old-school advantages for himself.

"I've found ways to be comfortable while being uncomfortable," Brunson said. "My game is a little unorthodox and a little different than most people's. But I work on finding ways to keep the defense off balance while remaining on balance myself."

The Colorado Rockies placed outfielder Nolan Jones on the 10-day injured list Tuesday with a low back strain.

Jones, who turns 26 on May 7, is batting just .170 with one homer, seven RBIs and 37 strikeouts in 26 games.

He is a .267 career hitter with 23 homers and 82 RBIs in 160 games with the Cleveland Guardians (2022) and Colorado.

The Rockies selected the contract of outfielder Jordan Beck from Triple-A Albuquerque and transferred left-hander Lucas Gilbreath to the 60-day injured list in corresponding moves.

Beck, 23, is ranked as Colorado's No. 4 prospect by MLB Pipeline. He is hitting .307 with five homers and 28 RBIs in 25 games this season at Triple-A.

Gilbreath, 28, had Tommy John surgery on his left elbow in March 2023 and was originally targeted for a return in late April. He went 5-2 with a 3.78 ERA and one save in 94 games (one start) with Colorado from 2021-22.

Fireballer Jhoan Duran is ready to join the Twins' roster for the first time this season as Minnesota takes on the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday.

Manager Rocco Baldelli said Duran likely was to be available for the surging Twins, who have won eight in a row with a makeshift bullpen compensating for not having the 100 mph heat from their planned closer yet in 2024. Duran went for testing on his aching side on March 16 and was shut down with an oblique strain.

For Duran, the radar gun told him it was time to return.

Duran wrapped up a two-game rehab assignment with Triple-A St. Paul on Saturday. During the second outing, his fastball clocked at an average of 101.8 mph.

"When I see that velocity, I feel more good," Duran said. "It's like, 'OK, you see it, let's go.'"

Duran joined the Twins in Chicago on Monday.

The 26-year-old right-hander has career 35 saves and a 2.15 ERA with 173 strikeouts in 130 innings.