00 Page 16 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
UNSUNG GENIUS: Dissecting Dusty Baker's bullpen brilliance for his sabermetric critics
Dusty Baker “ought to be part of the conversation around MLB’s best-ever managers,” concluded Neil Paine from FiveThirtyEight after studying the most overachieving managers, and “shouldn’t need a ring to validate his career.” Agreed. Let’s go further....
Dejounte Murray has been better than advertised to start the season
Following last season’s disappointing journey and final destination, the Atlanta Hawks are off to a blazing start to this season. They are 7-3 and not only look like the clear best team in the Southeast division, but also like one of the better squads in the Eastern Conference....
Washington Wizards trying to relive glory days of mid-2000s mediocrity
The Washington Wizards of the mid-aughts will always be remembered more for how their time together ended than the actual run itself — and for good reason. The team only won one playoff series, and that was the year before it traded Kwame Brown for Caron Butler, who would make his only two all-star ...
Wouldn’t you know it, Cristiano Ronaldo is being a whiny turd again
If one were interested in fairness when it comes to Cristiano Ronaldo — and I’m not for a host of reasons, including the big glaring one (actually two) — one would have to concede that being a professional athlete requires an absurd amount of defiance. At some point in our childhood, we’re all told ...
Week 7 of college football was perfect
Coming into the weekend, we knew at least three unbeaten programs were guaranteed to end Saturday with a smudge on their immaculate records as six perfect top 13 teams were set to face off against each other. ...
The Pelicans have finally taken flight
Bourbon Street in New Orleans exists in a loop. Every night the street clicks back into a state of debauchery, repeated with perverse precision. Lonely men drift in and out of red neon strip clubs holding cans of Natty Light. Police on horses stroll between sleeping bums, screaming preachers, pools ...
Rafael Leão is carrying AC Milan, and should punt Cristiano Ronaldo off of Portugal
In a lot of ways, AC Milan mirrors Serie A overall. They’re incredibly fun, and were able to take advantage of Juventus’s slide into the abyss and a blip from Inter to win the Scudetto last year. But how good they actually are, much like the league as a whole, is hard to pin down. Considering that t...
Tom Brady vs. Aaron Rodgers was a complete dud
No one except delusional fans of both Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers would have expected a barnburner on Sunday....
Portland Trail Blazers hired Chauncey Billups over Dawn Staley and Becky Hammon, who both won championships this year
Becky Hammon and Dawn Staley were literally right there. ...
The Favorite
I won’t be alone in saying that Roger Federer was the first winner I consistently cheered for. Part of that was growing up in Chicago, when as a child, being a fan of a consistent winner really wasn’t much of an option (as it is now. And everything turns, turns, turns…). But a sports fan’s natural i...
Card subject to change
The Ultimate Fighting Championship isn’t having a banner week with plenty of drama and changes surrounding Saturday’s UFC 279 PPV, mostly caused by headlining welterweight Khamzat Chimaev. The Swedish fighter couldn’t wait until he entered the octagon to throw hands, first getting into a verbal alte...
Home sweet home?
Returning home for one last season is a sacred ideal for NBA vets. Dwyane Wade made his way to Chicago in 2016. Kyrie Irving’s desire to play with Durant in Brooklyn instead of Madison Square Garden with the New York Knicks was influenced by the New Jersey native’s fondness for the New Jersey Nets o...
Behold! Your 2022 NFL all-washed team
Even the greatest NFL players eventually peak and begin that tumble back down the mountain. For some, the peak is long and luxurious; for others, that peak is short, and the fall comes after a couple years of prosperity. This list features players nearing the end of the road or those having held on ...
Greater need for Angels sale as Ohtani continues to amaze
The Los Angeles Angels should be appointment television viewing. Two of their players have won half of the American League MVP awards since 2014. The most recent winner of that award — Shohei Ohtani — is playing baseball in a way in which the NFL equivalent would be Patrick Mahomes putting up T.J. W...
Rams Twitter wilds out over Tom Brady ranking No. 1 in NFL’s Top 100 over Aaron Donald
The NFL Top 100 players ranking, conducted by the players, is complete. For the fourth time in its history, Thomas Edward Patrick Brady Jr. comes in at No. 1. One team’s social media account immediately pounced with an objection to Brady being the best player in the league for 2022....
Jazz go young, Lakers go old
After weeks of stillness on the NBA free agency and trading front, due largely to Kevin Durant’s trade request and eventual decision to remain a Net, the Lakers and Jazz finally broke the silence....
A big heavyweight title fight in on the horizon, so of course boxing is about to get crazy
Some people get annoyed by the process of how big fights are set up. For me, it’s the one time that I love raw, unregulated capitalism. People openly doing whatever it takes to get as much guaranteed money as possible, and as many eyeballs on the screen as possible....
LeBron James is all about L.A., not the Lakers
LeBron James has changed....
Pau Gasol is absolutely an all-time Laker great
Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals was a rock fight....
Looking at possible numbers for the NFL to retire league-wide
The NFL is now the only big-four pro sports league in North America to not have a number retired throughout the league. The NBA retired Bill Russell’s No. 6 earlier this month after his death. Major League Baseball gave that honor to Jackie Robinson’s No. 42, while the NHL has barred anyone from don...