ac Page 449 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Be patient, but more importantly, not cheap, Chicago
If Zach LaVine and Demar DeRozan thought backup was coming in the form of Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso, or Patrick Williams, they might want to try buddy-copping their way out of the jam Chicago is in now. Fake argue like Will Smith and Martin Lawrence, or mix karate with charisma like Chris Tucker and J...

This is why you don’t do team-friendly deals
Patrick Mahomes was duped....

Kevin Durant says Dirk Nowitzki is the best shooting big of all time, but it's actually Kevin Durant
I’m not surprised that Kevin Durant has a great deal of respect for Dirk Nowitzki’s game. Prior to Dirk becoming one of the best players in the league, all the basketball players who were bigger than most of the other basketball players were scoffed at for not playing with their back to the basket. ...

What milestones might we see in baseball this year?
The coronavirus pandemic is going to wreak havoc on long-term baseball achievements for years to come. Obviously, anyone chasing career records took a hit from the 60-game season in 2020, and a lot of players were in and out of the lineup last season due to the virus. That also means interruptions t...

NFL teams, don’t think too hard, if you need a QB, draft Malik Willis
Malik Willis played quarterback at Liberty University (yuck and yuck) for two years after transferring from Auburn. He measured in at the combine at 6½-feet tall, and in Liberty’s biggest game of the year, at Mississippi, he threw for less than 200 yards, three interceptions, and rushed for less tha...

Jack Hughes is quietly having a historic season
The buzz over the 2019 draft seems quaint now. Or it did. Back then, especially because it involved the rivals Devils and Rangers trying to race to the bottom to get one of the top two picks, it picked up more buzz than hockey lotteries normally do. No, it wasn’t the McDavid-Eichel draft (and the Ei...

Fictional Hooper Bracket: Hickory Region - Round 2
An overweight out-of-work actor who didn’t make a bucket on screen, a cartoon grade school kid, and Urkel all prevailed in the Hickory Region, meaning the 11, 13, and 14 seeds came up Milhouse in an upset-riddled round. Now, Urkel and Recess’ Vince LaSalle face off to go to the Sweet 16....

Fictional Hooper Bracket: Western U. Region - Round 2
The Western University Region is strictly for hoopers, and the matchups reflected that. Love & Basketball’s Monica Wright McCall and White Men Can’t Jump’s Sidney Dean adore the game, and people clearly rewarded them for it. The talent and force of Grandmama and Ty Crane were too much for Deacon Mos...

A tribute to the omnipresent NBA stars who never played a minute
Let’s pour one out for the lost souls of the 2021-22 NBA season. This season was a void on their resumes for a select few stars. An entire missed season can be an opportunity to step back, reevaluate and return for a bounce-back campaign. Or they can smack into the 2023 season like porcelain against...

This Kyrie situation is starting to feel like the Mayor of New York is trying to beat him in a game of one-on-one
I know this is March Madness and NFL Free Agency season, but the NBA Playoffs start in less than 30 days. That last, and most entertaining, mile of the NBA season, but maximum entertainment value is only achieved if all of the stars are playing. That appears to still be in jeopardy with Kyrie Irving...

The man, the myth, the… mustache?
Doug Edert has quickly risen to fame in the past week, going from the sixth man for a small Catholic school’s basketball team in Jersey City, playing in an arena the size of a suburban high school gym, to the face of the 2022 NCAA Championship....

College hockey is just as mad in March
You and I have probably been spending the last week the same way, staring at our monitors watching St. Peter’s destroy any chance we had at winning our office bracket challenge. We’ve been so enticed by the upsets, bracket busters, and magical run by Michigan (with Juwan Howard returning to the side...

The Golden Knights are so desperate they tried to trade a player they couldn’t trade
It was only a few days ago we chronicled that increasingly desperate situation the Golden Knights find themselves in. They have nothing more than a crimp grip on the last wildcard spot in the Western Conference, with the Dallas Stars having four games in hand on them just a point behind. ...

Cris Collinsworth bids farewell to Al Michaels the only way that he knows how
Cris Collinsworth didn’t need a thread, a notes app, or seven Instagram story slides to bid farewell to his longtime broadcasting partner, Al Michaels. He kept it brief, and gave the people what they wanted, and I’m sure Michaels chuckled when he saw it. ...

We all know Liverpool can’t win the Quadruple, but what my book presupposes…
To say winning the Quadruple–the League Cup, the FA Cup, the Champions League, and the Premier League–is a dream isn’t accurate. No fan ever really thinks of it before a season starts, or really before even February. It’s beyond fantasy. It’s not something you’d ever give the time of day. Perhaps En...

Fictional Hooper Bracket: The Rucker Region - Round 2
The only havoc in the first round of the Rucker Regional was a 5-12 upset, which has become almost commonplace in March Madnesses everywhere. We’ll see how things tighten up heading into the Silver Screen 16 with matchups like Kyrie Irving alter ego Uncle Drew getting his first real test of the tour...

Fictional Hooper Bracket: Venice Beach Regional - Round 2
The first round of the Venice Beach Regional went mostly according to the seedings, with an easily predicted upset (12-seed Buggs beating the 5-seed Pound in a Space Jam rematch), and one I didn’t see coming (13-seed Clarence Withers toppling 4-seed Quincy McCall). At the top of the bracket, Billy H...

Don’t discuss Lia Thomas without mentioning how Caster Semenya was treated
Labeling Lia Thomas as a lightning rod is an understatement....

The Colts have the ingredients to resurrect Matt Ryan
Since Andrew Luck’s surprise retirement during the 2019 preseason, the Indianapolis Colts have been salvaging every down-on-his-luck quarterback they find. During the 2020 season, they took a flier on Philip Rivers. Rivers became available in his 17th season and led the Colts to an 11-5 campaign, lo...

Phil Mickelson is such a weiner
A rite of spring, The Masters, is sneaking up on us. It’s less than three weeks away. It’s about the first time anyone seriously pays attention to golf, though the recently concluded Players Championship might have stolen some of that shine. Still, the entire sports world generally casts a stare at ...