alds Page 22 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Pat Riley has lost his touch and the Miami Heat have jumped the shark
What does your imagination conjure when you think about Pat Riley, the executive? Is it the silver-foxed Riley dumping the nine championship rings he won as a player, executive, head coach, and assistant coach onto the table and letting their presence speak for itself? That finalized LeBron James a...
The feel-good story of a sports Sunday, the Los Angeles Lakers?
We, the American people, have had a lot of fun at the Los Angeles Lakers’ expense for most of 2022. LeBron James missed significant time early last season, and Anthony Davis missed the majority of the 2021-22 season. However, it became clear in January, when both of them were on the court around the...
The Second Coming of Dennis Smith Jr.
Maybe all he needed was to come home. Smith is from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is now playing with the Charlotte Hornets, just a mere three hours from his hometown. The Hornets are Smith’s fifth team in six seasons. Last year, he split time between three teams, including the Hornets. So why h...
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 ...
Early NBA season superlatives: Let’s hope this version of the Knicks lasts longer than ‘Bing bong!’
It’s hard to get a vibe on the NBA after one week of games. The Wizards started last 10-3, and New York fans were excitedly yelling “Bing bong!” before both came to depressing finishes. Klay Thompson didn’t return until midseason, and it looks like it may take Jamal Murray and Kawhi Leonard some tim...
Is Ben Simmons the most overrated player in NBA history?
Ben Simmons fouled out again Monday night. He’s fouled out of two of his first three games as a member of the Brooklyn Nets and has nearly as many fouls as points. So far, Simmons has posted 17 points, 14 fouls, 18 rebounds, and 21 assists in three games. This is the guy who was once touted as the “...
The Yankees deserved this
“New York Yankees” and “inferiority complex” are two combinations of words that have probably never met in a sentence for over 100 years or so. This is the New York Yankees, the absolute biggest symbol of American exceptionalism, even when it’s a sport that no other place plays. They’re the Yankees,...
The NBA has a load management problem that Commissioner Adam Silver has done nothing about
The battle of La La land renews Thursday night when the Clippers take on the Lakers for the first time this season. This has recently been a critical matchup in the NBA, especially in Los Angeles. But reports have already surfaced that Clippers star Kawhi Leonard, who’s returning from an ACL tear th...
It’s time for sports media personalities like Stephen A. Smith to jump off the Brooklyn Nets train
The NBA world finally got its first look at the Brooklyn Nets’ new big three, and most are already disgusted with the return they’ve yielded. It was only the first game of the season, but if lack of motivation (LOM) were a stock, this team would rise in a bullish market. Brooklyn came out on its ope...
Athletes-turned-broadcasters have too many conflicts of interest to be fully trusted
J.J. Redick is Exhibit A why you can’t trust most former athletes to tell you the truth....
LeBron James has something in common with Tom Brady this season
While talking to the media following the Lakers’ 123-109 loss to the defending champion Warriors, LeBron James was measured. When asked about the Lakers’ shooting problems, he spoke matter-of-factly, about how the 3-pointer is not a team strength....
On NBA opening night Golden State looked ready to repeat while the Lakers chucked up bricks all night
The Golden State Warriors collected their NBA championship rings on opening night before smashing the Los Angeles Lakers, 123-109. After watching this game, it looks like we could experience déjà vu this time next year. It’s only one game, but there isn’t a team in the NBA that can contain this offe...
Deadspin's NBA awards predictions
Perhaps it’s the COVID fatigue, partisan politics, or the malaise of a slumping economy, but this off-season has felt like forever. With elections ramping up in November, we need the NBA back to distract us from our country headed toward political chaos. Both sides of the aisle have become insuffera...
Jordan Brand keeps signing Duke guys because North Carolina can’t produce worthy candidates
Rivalries are all about tradition — and being petty....
Catching up with the soap opera drama of the NBA
The NBA is one of the longest-running unscripted nighttime soaps on television. Even outside of tip-offs and the final buzzer, its headliners are some of the most accessible figures in professional sports. The rosters are smaller, their faces aren’t obstructed, their games air nightly for at least h...
It’s the NBA’s turn to take up the mantle for Brittney Griner
They say, “out of sight, out of mind.” Thankfully, that hasn’t been the case for Brittney Griner, largely due to her wife and the women of the WNBA....
10 NBA preseason takeaways that provide insight into the regular season
The NBA will give everyone their first real look at the league’s rapidly transforming landscape and its latest rookie class when the regular season tips off on Tuesday, but the preseason is a window into what to expect from certain teams. Wins and losses are mostly meaningless, so don’t read into th...
Is this why Daniel Snyder hasn’t been drop-kicked out of the NFL?
It’s still blackmail if it’s done in plain sight. Daniel Snyder’s alleged antics to uncover disparaging information about other league owners — and possibly NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell himself — were detailed in Thursday morning’s near-8,000-word ESPN expose written by Don Van Natta Jr., Seth Wic...
And the nominees for this NBA season’s only-great-in-video-games teams are …
There’s a rage-inducing aspect of NBA 2K every year that makes me feel like I need to take those seminars to avoid turning into my dad. A few crazy-talented teams become fan favorites and get overused to the point of exhaustion due to sheer star power despite being middling to garbage in real life. ...
Warriors’ enabling has brought us here
The Golden State Warriors aren’t just champions, but enablers, too....