Basketball Page 860 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Connecticut Sun Survive Massive Mystics Comeback, Force Winner-Take-All Game 5
Kristi Toliver should have worn a different shirt. The Washington Mystics’ veteran guard was not quiet about her and her team’s intentions as they walked into enemy territory in Connecticut for Game 4 of the WNBA Finals: They wanted to clinch the franchise’s first-ever championship, and they wanted ...

Kansas AD Apologizes For "Acrobatic Dancers," Unclean Lyrics After Spicy Snoop Dogg Performance
When the Kansas athletic department hired Snoop Dogg to perform at its annual “Late Night in the Phog” kickoff event for the school’s men’s and women’s basketball teams, they expected, as anyone does when hiring the artist behind “Gin and Juice,” some good, clean fun for the whole family. Imagine th...

Report: The Sparks Imploded Because Derek Fisher Is An Overmatched Dingus Who Can't Handle Criticism
The Los Angeles Sparks’ 2019 season ended in ignominious fashion, as they were swept by the Connecticut Sun while their best player, Candace Parker, inexplicably sat on the bench for almost an entire half of a closeout game. After the loss, Parker raised an eyebrow toward her head coach Derek Fisher...

Right On Cue, Elena Delle Donne's Back Is All Screwed Up
Elena Delle Donne left Game 2 of the WNBA Finals with back spasms after just three minutes in the first quarter Tuesday night, not 24 hours after I (a blithering, cheeky idiot!) proclaimed the Washington Mystics more or less invincible. The Connecticut Sun managed to steal the game on Washington tur...

The Mystics Lost Elena Delle Donne And, Obviously, They Lost Game 2
The Washington Mystics were likely feeling confident heading into Tuesday’s WNBA Finals Game 2, as they looked all-around fantastic in their Game 1 win against the Connecticut Sun. But just a few minutes into tonight’s match-up, the Mystics would experience a disturbing flashback to last year’s Fina...

This Time Around, The Mystics Look Inevitable
Last September, the Washington Mystics skulked out of the WNBA Finals, having been swept in three games by the unstoppable Seattle Storm. A year later, the tables have turned. Elena Delle Donne has recovered from last year’s inconvenient knee injury; crafty Belgian forward Emma Meesseman is back aft...

Liz Cambage Talked Trash To The Washington Mystics And They Gave It Right Back To Her
After dropping 28 points in a dominant Game 3 semifinals win, Las Vegas Aces center Liz Cambage flexed on her opponents, saying in her postgame interview, “If they can’t handle it, get in the weight room or get out of the post.” The Washington Mystics heeded her advice. ...

Candace Parker Was Peeved After Derek Fisher Benched Her In An Elimination Game
Down 2-0 to the Connecticut Sun in the WNBA Semifinals, the Los Angeles Sparks played out the last quarter and a half of their season Sunday night without Candace Parker, to the surprise of everyone involved, including Candace Parker....

Alyssa Thomas Couldn't Lift Her Arms Above Her Head, But She Carried A Team To Victory
The Connecticut Sun left the first game of their best-of-five semifinals series against the Los Angeles Sparks Tuesday night not only with a 84-75 win, but also with a narratively sweet one. For a season, the No. 2 Sun have felt like the WNBA’s most underrated team, beloved by their women’s basketba...

Abysmal New York Basketball Team Wins Draft Lottery
Here’s something to make a Knicks fan weep: In January, the New York Liberty threw off the yoke of James Dolan. Tuesday evening, for the first time in franchise history, they secured the first pick in the 2020 WNBA draft....

Dearica Hamby Wins Playoff Game With Absurd Steal-And-Heave
The Las Vegas Aces and Chicago Sky went back and forth throughout today’s highly entertaining single-elimination playoff game, and as the final seconds were ticking away, it looked like the Sky were on their way to escaping with a 92-90 win. That is not what happened....

The Story Behind The Biggest Brawl In WNBA History
Last month, Brittney Griner of the Phoenix Mercury and Kristine Anigwe of the Dallas Wings got into a fight, which resulted in six ejections and five suspensions. It was the largest WNBA fight since 2008, when the Detroit Shock (now the Dallas Wings) and the Los Angeles Sparks were part of brawl tha...

Jordin Canada Might Just Be The Heir To Sue Bird's Throne
The defending champion Seattle Storm took the expected fall that came with a pair of devastating preseason injuries, going a mere 18-16 in 2019 after dominating the league with a 26-8 record last year. But even without reigning MVP Breanna Stewart or living legend Sue Bird, the Storm managed to snea...

WNBA Referee Walks Into Astou Ndour’s Hand, Delivers Emphatic Ejection
You can’t touch a referee. That’s the rule in basketball and basically every sport. So, the ejection of the Chicago Sky’s Astou Ndour from today’s game against the Washington Mystics was understandable. But the reaction of WNBA ref Kevin Fahey was a bit over the top....

College Basketball Player Says Coach Kicked Him Off Team Because Of His Dreadlocks
Tyler Williams was a guard on the D-II University of Arkansas-Fort Smith Lions men’s basketball team as recently as last month, and he was set to come back for his senior season as the program’s leading returning scorer until he was abruptly dismissed from the team by new head coach Jim Boone on Aug...

No Matter How Good You Are, The Washington Mystics Will Be Better
The Los Angeles Sparks, to be sure, are no scrubs. They’re sitting near the top of the WNBA standings, with a future Hall of Famer in Candace Parker, All-Star forwards in the Ogwumike sisters, and one of the league’s greatest perimeter threats in Chelsea Gray. Alas, none of it was enough to prevent ...

Video Shows Mateen Cleaves's Accuser Struggling To Flee His Motel Room
Former Michigan State men’s basketball player Mateen Cleaves was acquitted on Tuesday of four sexual assault charges stemming from an incident with a 24-year-old woman in September of 2015. Video of the incident that was shown in the courtroom has since been released because of a public records requ...

That Is Not Markelle Fultz Or His Mom
During the third quarter of Sunday’s Indiana Fever-Washington Mystics game, the broadcast thought it had spotted a celebrity in the front row: Orlando Magic guard Markelle Fultz, who was identified alongside his mom. Great! Only it wasn’t Markelle Fultz....

Brittney Griner Ejected After Chasing Wings' Kristine Anigwe Down The Court
Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner was one of six players ejected from her team’s game against the Dallas Wings on Saturday. The ejections occurred when after Griner took exception to getting punched in the head while going for a rebound and began to chase Dallas’ Kristine Anigwe—the puncher in ...

NCAA Suspends BYU Forward Nine Games Next Season For Not Filing Proper Paperwork
BYU star forward Yoeli Childs has been suspended nine games for this upcoming season because the NCAA determined that the player had hired an agent before filing the proper paperwork with the association. The announcement came on Friday and Childs addressed a group of local media members in Provo, U...