Basketball Page 861 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The WNBA All-Star Game Will Include One Really Dumb Rule Change
This is apparently the summer of zany, experimental All-Star games. The WNBA will use its showcase Saturday afternoon to experiment with a couple rule tweaks, one of which is straight out of left field—or, well, straight out of hockey, the most dreaded sport of all....

The WNBA Players Association Is Contesting Riquna Williams's Domestic-Violence Suspension
On Tuesday, the WNBA issued a statement announcing that Los Angeles Sparks guard Riquna Williams would be suspended for 10 games as a result of an incident of suspected domestic violence in December, which led to Williams’s arrest on April 29 of this year. Williams allegedly broke into a home in Pal...

Murray State Only Discovered Ja Morant Because A Coach On A Recruiting Trip Decided To Go For A Snack
By now you’re probably aware that Ja Morant, one of the top players heading into this year’s NBA Draft, was not the most heralded prospect coming out of high school. Though he averaged 27 points, eight rebounds and eight assists through his junior and senior years, he wasn’t ranked on any recruiting...

They Want Her To Be The Next Yao Ming, But What Does She Want?
Han Xu, the tallest player in the WNBA, hunched over the menu at a trendy Brooklyn pizza spot, trying to figure out what to order in a place that lists “bèchamel” as an ingredient. This would possibly be difficult even if she could read English, but the Chinese center does not. Decked head to toe in...

Brittney Sykes Gave A 9-Year-Old Fan Her Shoes And The Girl Could Not Physically Handle Being So Happy
Atlanta Dream guard Brittney Sykes led her team with 15 points in a home loss to the Las Vegas Aces on Thursday night. Afterward, Sykes presented her autographed, game-used sneakers to a certain superfan....

The NCAA Graciously Allows Kansas' Silvio De Sousa To Return For Another Unpaid Season Of Basketball
Kansas forward Silvio De Sousa will not have to sit out for a second consecutive season as the NCAA announced Friday that his appeal against the association was approved. The decision came just hours after the Jayhawks officially appealed the NCAA’s two-season suspension on Friday, almost as if the ...

A Good And Smart Preview Of A Wide-Open 2019 WNBA Season
Hockey is almost over, and the NBA is basically done, so now all we have to look forward to over these impending hot summer months is a World Cup, the ability to blast Bad Girls out of our apartment windows, and some goddamn WNBA basketball. That last thing starts tonight, folks! Let’s get to the pr...

Sue Bird Has A Knee Injury And The Storm Look Totally Screwed
The defending champion Seattle Storm are going to have an awful hard time repeating in 2019. Not only is reigning MVP Breanna Stewart going to miss this year after tearing her Achilles, but now, veteran leader Sue Bird will be out for most, if not all, of this upcoming season, as the team announced ...

The Las Vegas Aces Swung A Huge Trade For Liz Cambage
The best big in the WNBA is on the move to what had been one of the league’s worst teams. Australian scoring champ Liz Cambage has received the trade from Dallas that she requested, though it won’t be to her reported favored team, the Los Angeles Sparks. She’ll go instead to the rebuilding Las Vegas...

UNC Basketball Coach Sylvia Hatchell, Who Sounds Like A Real Nightmare, Resigns After Investigation
Longtime University of North Carolina women’s basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell has resigned after more than three decades with the program, following the conclusion of an investigation that found she made “racially insensitive” remarks, pressured players to play injured, and generally failed to conn...

Another Coach Rejects The Disaster Area That Is Now St. John's
A month after St. John’s snuck into its first NCAA Tournament in four years, the program is once again an absolute mess. Their coach, an iconic and beloved figure at the school, is gone; they have struck out repeatedly in searching for his replacement. A bunch of players are leaving, and the program...

Breanna Stewart Likely Out For Season After Tearing Her Achilles With Russian Team
Well, this sucks. Seattle Storm forward and reigning WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart is probably going to miss the entirety of the upcoming season, because she tore her Achilles while playing for Russian team Dynamo Kursk in the EuroLeague title game on Sunday....

Did Michael Avenatti Fall For A Hoax Invoice Claiming That Nike Paid Zion Williamson's Mom?
Two weeks ago, before he was indicted in United States District Court for a wide variety of crimes, lawyer Michael Avenatti intimated that he had proof of Nike paying Zion Williamson to attend Duke, and doing so by paying Williamson’s mother for bogus consulting services. His threats were quite spe...

Las Vegas Aces Choose Jackie Young Over Asia Durr In WNBA Draft
For the third year in a row, the Las Vegas Aces franchise had the first pick in the WNBA draft, and after selecting first-year All-Star and Rookie of the Year A’Ja Wilson in 2018, the worst team in the West took Notre Dame guard Jackie Young with their first pick in 2019....

Report: Chris Mullin Out At St. John's Despite Winning Due To Sleazy And Failed Recruiting Efforts
Today, Chris Mullin announced that he was stepping down as St. John’s basketball coach after four seasons at the helm. Jon Rothstein first broke the news that Mullin was leaving last night. Mullin cited “a recent personal loss” in his resignation statement (his older brother died of cancer in March)...

Civil Rights Icon Andrew Young Came Up With A Compelling Reason To Root For UVA
American icon Andrew Young was in Austin last night opening a Summit on Race at the LBJ Library....

Fuck This Instant Replay Bullshit
With 68 seconds left in overtime of the NCAA Tournament’s championship game, Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter poked the ball out from the hands of Texas Tech guard Davide Moretti, sending the ball out of bounds. To everyone watching, from the fans in attendance to those at home and especially to the CBS a...

De'Andre Hunter Was Worth The Wait
It was, right up until it wasn’t, the sort of tournament that can crumble a draft stock. Virginia’s De’Andre Hunter, a projected lottery pick, had had a mediocre (by his standards) tournament, averaging 11.25 points per game over his previous four, and failing to score more than 14—still below his s...

Virginia's Ugly Basketball Now Has Undeniable Results
In basketball, at what point does one team’s incompetence become a credit to the other team’s ability to provoke that incompetence? What separates bad shooting from good defense? Well, the Virginia Cavaliers don’t need to ponder those questions right now, because their sludge style of play let them ...
