ESPN NBA Free Agency & Trade Tracker
ESPN NBA Free Agency & Trade Tracker
Pulls NBA news and roster transactions directly from ESPN's API. Returns free-agent signings, trades, waivers, draft picks, and coaching hires in clean JSON — no browser, no scraping, no waiting.
The NBA calendar has one moment where everything happens at once. July 1 free agency open: 450 million dollars changes hands in 48 hours. This scraper is pointed at the right endpoints to catch all of it as it lands.
What It Returns
Two data streams, one scraper. Set mode: "news" for the latest NBA news articles, mode: "transactions" for roster moves, or mode: "both" to get everything. The default is both.
Output Fields
| Field | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
news_id |
string | Unique ESPN article or transaction ID |
headline |
string | Article headline or full transaction description |
description |
string | Article body summary (news items only) |
publication_time_utc |
string | Publication or transaction date in UTC ISO 8601 |
byline |
string | Author attribution (news items only) |
linked_player_name |
string | NBA player name linked to this item |
linked_team |
string | NBA team name linked to this item |
transaction_type |
string | SIGN / TRADE / WAIVE / DRAFT / COACHING / OTHER |
contract_years |
integer | Contract length in years (when parseable from description) |
contract_value_usd |
number | Total contract value in USD (when parseable from description) |
is_breaking |
boolean | Whether the item is flagged as breaking/premium |
source |
string | Data origin: news or transactions |
ESPN's transaction feed provides free-text descriptions rather than structured contract fields. contract_years and contract_value_usd are parsed from the description text when present — they're populated for most signing announcements and null for coaching hires, waivers, and other moves where no contract details are mentioned.
Input
| Parameter | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
mode |
string | both |
Which endpoints to query: news, transactions, or both |
maxItems |
integer | 10 |
Maximum records to return across all sources |
Keep maxItems modest during testing. The transactions endpoint has ~150 records in a typical off-season window; news returns up to 50 articles per run.
Use Cases
Free agency tracking. July 1–15 is the highest-velocity period in NBA roster movement. Run this on a schedule to capture each signing as it's announced, then join against Spotrac contract data for cap-context analysis.
AI sports content. Feed today's transactions into an LLM prompt for automated "NBA news brief" generation. The structured output means you're not parsing unstructured press releases.
DFS and fantasy prep. Waiver pickups and trades affect lineup decisions. Pair the transactions feed with game-day injury reports for a complete roster-movement picture.
Research and archiving. ESPN's API returns current data. For historical coverage, run periodically and accumulate — the publication_time_utc field makes deduplication straightforward.
Data Source
ESPN's hidden public API at site.api.espn.com. No authentication required. The endpoints are undocumented but stable — they've served the ESPN app and web for years. No proxy needed; the API is open to any IP.
Notes
- The news endpoint returns the 50 most recent NBA articles per run. It doesn't paginate — if you need more, run more frequently.
- The transactions endpoint paginates fully and returns all available moves for the current NBA season window (~150 in a typical off-season).
- Player names in transaction descriptions follow the format "Signed F John Doe to..." — the
Fis a position abbreviation that the extractor skips, returningJohn Doe. - Coaching transactions (hires, extensions, resignations) are categorized as
COACHINGand never carry contract detail fields.