Kemba Walker is joining his hometown New York Knicks after agreeing to a buyout with the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday.

ESPN and The Athletic reported the move, which sees Walker leave the Thunder without playing a game.

The four-time All-Star was part of a June trade that saw OKC send Al Horford back to the Boston Celtics and receive the 16th pick in the 2021 NBA Draft.

The Thunder, who are building a young team after trading superstars Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Chris Paul in recent seasons, turned that selection into two more in a deal with the Houston Rockets.

Walker's exit gives OKC more minutes to dish out to prospects and sees the Knicks recruit the starting point guard they badly needed.

Elfrid Payton started 63 games last season but lost his place after 13 minutes, one point and one assist in the playoffs. Frank Ntilikina appeared fleetingly in three postseason games.

Derrick Rose was promoted to a starting role, having rediscovered some form leading the second unit, but the Knicks lost all three of his starts and badly missed his consistent contributions from the bench.

Rose has returned to Madison Square Garden on a three-year, $43million contract yet will likely now serve as back-up to Walker.

Walker is expected to fit into the $10m salary cap space left in New York following the Knicks' free agency business, which included the signing of the guard's former Celtics team-mate Evan Fournier.

Walker, who is only two years removed from an All-NBA Third Team season with the Charlotte Hornets, still had two years and $74m remaining on his previous deal before Wednesday's agreement with the Thunder.

The Knicks will be hoping for an offensive boost from Walker, who was born in The Bronx and went to high school at Rice in Manhatten.

The best defense in the league, giving up only 104.7 points per game, carried the Knicks to the playoffs for the first time in eight years, but they scored only 107.0 points on offense, ranking 26th, and lost to the Atlanta Hawks in the first round.

Walker scored 25.6 points and played all 82 games for the Hornets in a career year in 2018-19, earning the move to Boston.

But a series of injuries kept him from playing or performing consistently for the Celtics, while his usage rate last year fell to 26.3 per cent alongside ball-dominant duo Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown.

Walker will get the opportunity to shine again in a prominent role at MSG, as long as he can stay fit.

The Boston Celtics have reportedly agreed to trade Kemba Walker and a 2021 first-round draft pick to the Oklahoma City Thunder in exchange for former favourite Al Horford.

Walker arrived in Boston in 2019 in a sign-and-trade deal with the Charlotte Hornets that would see the point guard paid a mammoth $140.8million over four years.

The Celtics made that move after losing Kyrie Irving and Horford in free agency.

Horford got a four-year, $97m contract with the Philadelphia 76ers but was traded to the Thunder 17 months later.

Friday's agreement ends miserable stays for both Walker and Horford on their respective teams, while Boston also receive 21-year-old center Moses Brown.

The trade, reported by ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski, sees Walker, this year's 16th overall pick and a 2025 second-round selection sent to Oklahoma City.

In return, the Celtics get Horford, Brown and a 2023 second-round pick in Brad Stevens' first trade since leaving his role as head coach to become president of basketball operations.

The move crucially allows Boston to get off Walker's contract, which still has $73.7m owed. Horford's deal has a slightly more palatable $53.5m remaining.

For the Thunder, who have already traded the majority of their assets for picks, it means they will have three selections in the first round of this year's draft.

Walker started all 82 games in his final year in Charlotte, contributing 25.6 points per game.

However, in Boston, he dealt with repeated knee injuries, scoring 20.4 points in his first season and 19.3 in his second, which concluded with a 4-1 playoff defeat to the Brooklyn Nets. Walker played three games and averaged 12.7 points.

Horford dropped from 13.6 points and 1.3 blocks on the Celtics to 11.9 and 0.9 on the 76ers.

He did improve after joining Oklahoma City but was then sat for the final two months of the season as the team tanked, handing greater opportunities to fellow big man Brown.

Brown averaged 8.6 points and 8.9 rebounds in 21.4 minutes per game in his only season with the Thunder. He ended the year with a career-high 24 points against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Boston Celtics pair Kemba Walker and Rob Williams have both been ruled out of Game 5 on Tuesday against the Brooklyn Nets with their NBA first round playoffs series on the line.

The Nets lead 3-1, having won 141-126 on Sunday in Game 4 over the Celtics who were without Walker (knee) and Williams (ankle).

Point guard Walker had played in Friday's 125-119 Game 3 win but is battling bone bruising in his left knee and coach Brad Stevens confirmed he would not take his place on Tuesday.

Bigman Williams only managed six minutes in Game 3 due to a sprained left ankle.

Boston are already without forward Jaylen Brown for the rest of the season due to a wrist injury, leaving a heavy burden on star Jayson Tatum.

Brooklyn can wrap up the series on Tuesday with victory and were aided by their 'big three' firing in Game 4.

Kevin Durant scored 42 points had four rebounds and five assists, while Kyrie Irving added 39 points and 11 rebounds and James Harden had 23 points and 18 assists in the win.

Kemba Walker is confident the Boston Celtics will overcome their form slump after falling to another loss on Sunday.

The Celtics suffered their 10th loss in their past 15 games with a 104-91 defeat to the Washington Wizards.

Walker, who posted 25 points in the loss, was upbeat about the Celtics' chances of turning their season around.

"We've got to change some things, and we will. We will," Walker said.

"I'm very confident that we will change things and we will continue to get better. It'll change because it's not a great feeling the way we're playing. It can't get no worse than this. We're going to fix it."

Jaylen Brown also posted 25 points, but Jayson Tatum struggled, going three-of-14 from the field for just six points in 23 minutes.

Walker said the Celtics, who are now 13-13, would work together, with their next outing coming against the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday.

"Teams go through adversity every single year at some point in the season," he said.

"It's all about how you overcome it. The only way you can overcome adversity is by doing it as a whole, doing it together. And that we will do."

LeBron James compared his achievements with the Los Angeles Lakers to Tom Brady's early success at the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as the legendary quarterback prepares for his latest Super Bowl appearance.

James, a four-time champion and four-time MVP in the NBA, led the Lakers to the title last year in just his second season in LA.

Meanwhile, Brady is in his first year in Tampa Bay, having ended a glittering career with the New England Patriots, and has taken the Bucs to next week's big game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

James turned 36 last month but is still averaging an impressive 25.2 points per game in 2020-21, a mark he has not dipped below since his rookie season in 2003-04.

Meanwhile, Brady – a three-time NFL MVP chasing a seventh championship – is now 43 yet ended the regular season with 40 touchdowns, the second best return of his career, and a passer rating of 102.2.

Neither man shows signs of slowing and James was asked on Saturday what he made of the continued excellence of a fellow sporting great.

"It doesn't do anything for me as far as what I do in my profession, but it does let me know – lets both of us know – that we can still play this game at a high level," James said after the Lakers' 96-95 win at the Boston Celtics.

"No matter how many miles, how many games, no matter how many dollars, no matter the statistics – in our respective professions, at our age, we can still dominate our sport.

"Also we can bring together groups that we may have not been around for long periods of time.

"It's our professionalism, how we attack the sport, how we attack every single day of being a professional, wanting to win every single day – in practice, on the film, in games, and so on and so on.

"We gravitate towards people and people gravitate towards us because we have one common goal and that's to win and to win at the highest level."

James had 21 points, seven rebounds and seven assists against the Celtics, ending the Lakers' first two-game losing streak of the season with his 854th career win – outright eighth on the all-time list.

"We didn't want to lose one and we lost two in a row, Philly and Detroit," he said, with the Lakers at Atlanta next in the final game of a seven-game road trip.

"We understood we were coming into a hostile environment and we know how good this team is.

"We'd have to play good basketball in order to win and we were able to win one possession more than they did."

Those fine margins came as Kemba Walker missed a game-winning chance for the Celtics in the final seconds, capping a dismal night on which he shot 1-of-12 from the field and 0-of-5 from three.

Walker scored only four points in just over 28 minutes; it was the seventh time in his career he had scored no more than four points in at least 28 minutes in the regular season.

"I thought I had a good look [on the final shot] but I struggled all game shooting the basketball," Walker said.

He added: "It's more mental, I think. I'm trying my hardest not to get frustrated but I thought tonight I got frustrated at myself and it put me in a bad place.

"I'm not the type of player to get frustrated – I'm always smiling and I wasn't that tonight. I got into my own head and, mentally, I hurt myself.

"I can't do that to this team. These guys look to me, especially when things are going tough. I can't put my head down and not mentally be engaged in the game like I was tonight."

Kemba Walker is available to play for the first time this season and could feature for up to 20 minutes for the Boston Celtics against the New York Knicks.

Walker has not appeared since the Celtics' Eastern Conference Finals defeat to the Miami Heat in Orlando last year.

The former Charlotte Hornets point guard has been working on strengthening his left knee in an attempt to avoid any further lay-offs in the remainder of the campaign.

Knee soreness contributed to Walker missing 16 of Boston's 72 regular season games in 2019-20, his first year after leaving Charlotte, so the team are hoping to avoid a repeat.

Walker was listed as questionable this week for the first time all season and was then upgraded to available on Sunday ahead of the game at TD Garden at 1300 ET.

Coach Brad Stevens subsequently confirmed Walker would have a restriction of around 20 minutes.

The 8-3 Celtics are still without Jayson Tatum, among others, due to NBA health and safety protocols in the aftermath of the team's coronavirus crisis.

Boston had three consecutive games postponed and their practices cancelled - contributing to Walker's delayed return - before beating the Orlando Magic 124-97 on Friday.

Walker averaged 20.4 points per game last season, trailing only Tatum (23.4) for the Celtics, while also contributing 4.8 assists, behind just Marcus Smart (4.9).

The 30-year-old's scoring dropped slightly to 19.6 in the postseason - putting Tatum (25.7) and Jaylen Brown (21.8) ahead of him - but he led the team in playoff assists with 5.1 per game.