PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Portland Trail Blazers guard Shaedon Sharpe will be sidelined for at least six months after surgery to repair a lateral meniscus tear in his right knee, the team announced Thursday.
Sharpe was injured last week during a workout and had surgery Monday in Los Angeles.
The 6-foot-5 shooting guard averaged 20.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 50 games last season with Portland, but missed time because of a stress reaction in his left fibula.
Sharpe, 23, was the seventh overall pick in the 2022 draft by the Blazers. Over his four years with Portland, he has averaged 15.7 points, with four rebounds and 2.2 assists per game.
Last October he agreed to a four-year, $90 million contract extension.
The Blazers said Sharpe would be reevaluated in six months.
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FILE - Portland Trail Blazers guard Shaedon Sharpe dribbles during the second half of an NBA basketball game against the Sacramento Kings, Sunday, April 12, 2026, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane,File)
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The release of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer from a Texas jail on Thursday despite Minnesota’s request for his return could set a dangerous precedent, increasing friction between states and helping criminal defendants avoid justice, legal experts said.
Christian Castro was released from a detention center in Brownsville after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declined to immediately sign his extradition warrant. A federal judge also declined to block Castro’s release or order Abbott to sign the warrant.
Minnesota officials say they believe Castro could flee to Mexico to avoid prosecution on charges he shot a man and lied about it during an immigration crackdown in Minneapolis in January. Extradition from Mexico would require action by the Trump administration, which opened an investigation into Castro's actions but also has argued ICE agents have “absolute immunity” for their actions on duty.
The standoff between the two states is highly unusual. Under federal law, states have little discretion to reject extradition requests from fellow states. Thousands of fugitives are sent to other states each year as a matter of routine.
But Abbott, a Republican, said last week he would not respond to Minnesota’s extradition request, citing the ongoing investigation into fraud in government social service programs in the state, which President Donald Trump used to justify his immigration crackdown there.
The decision is alarming because it injects politics into the extradition process, said Marsh Halberg, a criminal defense attorney and former prosecutor in Minnesota.
“Something that’s been a routine process may now turn into a political card,” he said in a phone interview.
In recent months, California and New York have rejected extradition requests from Louisiana for doctors accused of mailing abortion pills.
But legal scholars say those cases are different because the doctors weren’t in Louisiana and never fled the state and became fugitives.
Under federal law, the New York and California governors had no duty to turn over the doctors, Georgetown University law professor Stephen Vladeck wrote on Substack.
“Abbot is just refusing to perform his,” he said.
An email to Abbott's office was not immediately returned, but he wrote in a Wednesday post on the social platform X that Minnesota's attorneys did not know the law.
Castro is charged in Minnesota with assault and falsely reporting a crime in the Jan. 14 shooting of 24-year-old Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis. Prosecutors in Hennepin County, where the county attorney is a Democrat, say he fired a gun through the front door of a Minneapolis home, shooting Sosa-Celis in the leg, and then falsely accused Sosa-Celis and another man of attacking an ICE officer with a broom handle and a snow shovel.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that “the officer in question has been suspended without pay" while the U.S. Attorney's Office investigates statements by officers involved in the Minneapolis altercation.
“Upon conclusion of the investigation, the officers may face disciplinary action, including termination of employment, as well as potential criminal prosecution,” the DHS statement said.
After a Minnesota judge issued a nationwide warrant for Castro’s arrest in May, authorities, including Minnesota’s Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, arrested him in Texas' Cameron County on May 29. Minnesota authorities have sought his extradition since then, but he remained in custody in Brownsville, a city bordering Mexico.
Under Texas law and barring extradition, Castro had to be released Thursday after 90 days in detention. Though he is free, he remains a fugitive subject to arrest in Minnesota and other states.
Abbott has exposed one of several loopholes in extradition laws that are likely to lead to more conflict between states in the future, said Ethan Lowens, a fellow at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.
Texas attorneys have argued that Abbott's extradition decision is still pending, as he awaits the outcome of an internal state investigation considering whether Castro was legally a fugitive.
U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. wrote Wednesday that the court couldn’t intervene without a final decision by Abbott. Minnesota had asked him to compel Castro’s extradition.
Lowens said other governors could make similar arguments to avoid extradition requests they oppose. As states diverge on laws over abortion, gender-affirming care and other issues, he said he expects such extradition conflicts to “come up more and more.”
Gonzalez reported from McAllen, Texas, and Thanawala from Atlanta. Associated Press writer Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to this story.
The Carrizalez-Rucker Cameron County Detention Center, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Christian Castro was held, is shown in Brownsville, Texas on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Gonzalez)
Cameron County Sheriff Manuel Treviño speaks during a news conference outside of the Carrizalez-Rucker Cameron County Detention Center shortly after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Christian Castro was released in Brownsville, Texas on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Gonzalez)
A vehicle waits outside of the Carrizalez-Rucker Cameron County Detention Center for the release of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Christian Castro in Brownsville, Texas on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Gonzalez)
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer Christian Castro gets into a car surrounded by news reporters moments after being released from the Carrizalez-Rucker Cameron County Detention Center in Brownsville, Texas on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Gonzalez)
FILE - Hennepin County attorney Mary Moriarty holds up a document containing charges against ICE agent Christian Castro during a news conference at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, on Monday, May 18, 2026. (Renée Jones Schneider/Minnesota Star Tribune via AP,File)
