as Page 428 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Why is no one screaming about the NBA’s MVP race yet?
There’s one unquestioned upside to the NBA’s In-Season Tournament. The endless promos and exhausting exposure to promote Adam Silver’s baby — and debate over if it’s working or if it matters — has overshadowed the usual topic de jour as we hit the quarter-season mark: The MVP race....

Paul Pogba's career could be done after 4-year doping ban
Juventus midfielder and French National team player Paul Pogba’s future career remains uncertain after Italy’s national anti-doping prosecutors requested a four-year ban from soccer after testing positive for testosterone in September. ...

Ms. 3,000: Iowa's Caitlin Clark in pursuit of Plum
Iowa basketball phenom Caitlin Clark continues to do things that will put her on the Mount Rushmore of women’s college basketball. ...

America is better at shooting people than basketballs
The United States set a record over the weekend. There were two mass shootings on Sunday, one in Texas and another thousands of miles to the northwest in Washington. Those were the 37th and 38th mass killings of 2023 — a new record. With 24 days left in the year the 2022 record of 36 has been surpas...

Why is Juan Soto such a burden?
Juan Soto might be the best hitter of his generation. In the past 53 years, only six players have accumulated more fWAR than Soto has before hitting age 25. They are Mike Trout, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Ken Griffey Jr, and Andruw Jones. All of them Hall of Famers except for Jones. And the othe...

Juan Soto is finally a New York Yankee. Took long enough
The New York Yankees have finally acquired outfielder Juan Soto from the San Diego Padres, according to New York Post columnist Joel Sherman, and ESPN’s Jeff Passan. ...

Anthony Edwards is salty about being called an All-Star
The next time you’re out and about and happen to run into Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, don’t dare refer to him as an All-Star. Even though he is indeed a one-time All-Star “selection,” he won’t acknowledge this fact. He doesn’t count it since he wasn’t a first-choice selection to the...

The Jags need to keep an injured Trevor Lawrence on the bench this week
Trevor Lawrence’s injury is apparently not as bad as it looked on Monday night. He has been diagnosed with a high ankle sprain and Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Doug Pederson said on Tuesday that Lawrence has not yet been ruled out for Sunday....
![Jon Rahm takes LIV handout [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/c18d05b9e135ef80adf8c769d73efb6a.jpg)
Jon Rahm takes LIV handout [Updated]
Update Dec. 7: Rahm has officially joined the Saudi Tour. ESPN, citing sources, said the deal is believed to be three-plus years, and reportedly worth more than $300 million....

Darko Rajakovic using food as Raptors' motivator
Toronto Raptors head coach Darko Rajakovic is getting creative to attempt to create a winning streak– by offering to buy the team dinner if they beat the Miami Heat on Wednesday night. ...

Biden supports Indigenous Olympic lacrosse team
With lacrosse being added to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, it is only right that the group of people who invented the sport get an invite too. ...

Every trade ever made between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox
Amidst slow winter meetings, two of baseball’s biggest rivals broke the ice by making a rare trade. The New York Yankees acquired Boston Red Sox outfielder Alex Verdugo in exchange for Richard Fitts, Greg Weissert, and Nicholas Judice. ...

LeBron James wants to win the NBA Cup because Michael Jordan didn't
The NBA Cup/In-Season Tournament finally concludes in Las Vegas this week. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers outlasted the Phoenix Suns in a scrappy game Tuesday night to advance to the semifinals. James put on a show against Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, scoring 31 points, dishing 11 dimes, ...

Go ahead Jerry Reinsdorf, make everyone’s day
As has often been stated on these pages, Jerry Reinsdorf hates Chicago White Sox fans. And White Sox fans hate him. That’s the only fundamental anyone has to understand to get what’s going on the Southside. Or in this case, Nashville (insert Steve Harvey voice, “Takin’ his punk ass to Nashville…”)...

Happy anniversary to Jon Heyman's Arson Judge tweet
As rumblings of a Juan Soto-to-New York trade draw ever louder, we reflect on this day one year ago, when one name set baseball Twitter ablaze: Arson Judge....

The NBA’s top 3 rookies are tough to watch (for reasons outside of their control)
The 2023 NBA Draft was supposedly a three-team draft. The main prize was Victor Wembanyama, with Brandon Miller and Scoot Henderson in the trail positions. Regardless of which guard, wing, or big you got, each could be a franchise cornerstone. The caveat is what exactly would they be holding up? ...

The Winter Meetings don’t work that way, Shohei
If you exist on a plane outside the insular world of sports Twitter (sports X?), you might not be aware that the world currently hinges on MLB free agent Shohei Ohtani picking a new baseball team. Until said team is chosen, those of us left behind in the bubble can do nothing but hit “refresh” on th...

Selling the Mavs is a Faustian bargain for Mark Cuban
What do Donald Trump, casinos, the Holocaust, and the Dallas Mavericks have in common? The answer can be found in a comic book. In Art Spiegelman’s seminal tome on his family’s survival of the Holocaust, the graphic novel Maus, the underground comix writer analyzes the cyclical effect of trauma, not...

Tyrese Haliburton has the Pacers skipping the NBA waiting line
There are three tiers of NBA existence: Teams stuck in the mud, teams trying to fit through a championship window and future contenders waiting their turn. Prior to Tyrese Haliburton’s first full season as a Pacer, Indiana was rudderless and stuck on a road to nowhere. Aside from Haliburton, there w...

The Maple Leafs are in their own heads
The Toronto Maple Leafs fixated on the wrong things? I know, it’s a crazy time and we’ll have to get through it together, with intellect and a savoir-faire. ...