basketball Page 117 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Kyle Lowry’s leadership will be key to Heat’s success this season
Miami guard Kyle Lowry’s value to his new team is already being realized, just a couple of games into the season. After blowing out the defending champion Milwaukee Bucks, the Heat suffered their first loss against the Indiana Pacers in overtime, 102-91, without Lowry....

The Kyrie Liberation Army has arrived to take over Barclays Center
“Let Kyrie Play, let Kyrie play, let Kyrie play.”...

Kyrie Irving is not one of the 75 greatest players in NBA history, so just get over it
The outrage over the NBA’s 75th-anniversary team has shed light on the lack of respect for some of the legends of the past. But everybody cannot make this team. And with Kyrie Irving not making the cut, some fans and even current players strongly oppose this decision. Simply having a sweet handle wi...

Fare Thee Well, Penn State, it was’t even fun while it lasted
Penn State has now lost back-to-back games by blowing a two-touchdown lead at Iowa and scoring eight points over the course of nine overtimes at home against Illinois. That’s quite a way to go from being No. 4 in the country to having no hope for the national title whatsoever....

Even without Ben Simmons, 76ers’ collapse shows why they need to trade Ben Simmons
The second game of the season is hardly time to panic, so the 76ers shouldn’t. They’ve got a really good team, the Ben Simmons drama will eventually work itself out with either a trade or a return to the lineup and eventual “but what about the playoffs?” storyline (that would grate on everyone until...

Dwight Howard in another Hollywood disaster? It’s too soon to tell, but yikes
If only the NBA season were the Colecovision game that the Lakers roster grew up playing, they could unplug it, and plug it back in....

Sometimes you have to just sit back and appreciate what’s on offer
Perhaps I’m feeling wistful because last October, we didn’t have our normal schedule. There’s a clock to this, a rhythm, that we have spent our entire lives attuned to. Hockey and basketball start during the MLB playoffs. Go a year without it, and suddenly the axis is off, red lights are blinking, t...

Ex-exec offers peek inside the high school nightmare that is the Mavericks’ front office
You always have to take the word of a former/disgruntled employee with a few grains of a salt and a shot of tequila (and a lime if that’s your thing), so when former Mavs front office exec Haralabos Voulgaris compares your franchise’s dysfunction to “high school drama,” it’s fair to be skeptical. Ye...

Daryl Morey: ‘This could take years’
Philadelphia 76ers general manager Daryl Morey saw what happened Tuesday just like the rest of the world. He knows that 76ers guard/forward Ben Simmons refused to fully participate in practice and was asked to leave by coach Doc Rivers. He knows that center Joel Embiid is on the record expressing hi...

Gordon Hayward and Miles Bridges, the rap duo for a better America
If you thought Run the Jewels’ RTJ3 slapped, just wait until a new interracial rap duo from North Carolina releases their debut project. They don’t have a name yet, but for now let’s just call them “A Couple of Forwards for the Hornets.”...

Champagne Papi vs Montrezl Harrell: Who wants the smoke?
Former L.A. Laker and Clipper Montrezl Harrell completely showed out in his debut with the Washington Wizards Wednesday night — but not just in the context of the game. Harrell scored 22 points and grabbed 9 rebounds in the Wizards’ 98-93 victory over the Toronto Raptors. But it was Harrell’s intera...

Creighton lost a top recruit after coach’s ‘plantation’ plea — now he’s at Kentucky with an NIL Porsche deal!
Greg McDermott was “this close” to signing TyTy Washington — arguably the highest-ranked recruit in the history of Creighton basketball — last season in a year in which he was coaching a Top-25 team. But then, he just had to mess it all up by saying something super racist:...

Who’s the weird-ass video game rendering now, chumps?
Night two of the NBA season came through strong, delivering a double-overtime thriller where the New York Knicks bested the Boston Celtics, 138-134, in front of the home crowd at Madison Square Garden. This night was supposed to be about the return of NYC’s own Kemba Walker, but by the end of the ni...

Warriors fire warning shot to NBA by laying smack down on Lakers
The NBA season officially began Tuesday night with a doubleheader, and in the main event, the hoops world was treated to a showdown between the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers. One thing I took away from the season opener is what I’ve been saying all along. The Warriors will contend...

Bucks/Nets is still NBA’s best David vs. Goliath storyline these days… only David has a ring now
It was déjà vu in Milwaukee last night as the Bucks took on the Brooklyn Nets in their season opener — a team they had last faced in a Game 7 overtime thriller in the Eastern Conference Semifinals just a few months earlier. In that one, memorably, the Bucks were saved from a loss by none other than ...

Daryl Morey — not Ben Simmons or Doc Rivers — should be getting the blame in Philadelphia
If there was a scouting report on Daryl Morey, under strengths it would read — “uncanny ability to never get blamed for creating disasters.”...

Do your worst, Jeremy Pruitt, because no one cares about violations or the NCAA anymore
Complaining about college athletics being crooked is as pointless as bitching about New York streets being dirty. So when yet another “bombshell” is rumored — say former University of Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt threatening to expose the athletic program in a lawsuit that “could ensnare the p...

Deandre Ayton — and Suns fans — deserve better
Usually, opening day is met with optimism. Teams have yet to get blown out by 50, lose a key player to injury, or quit on a coach. (Well, except for that Ben Simmons situation.)...

Ben Simmons is going full James Harden, which you should never do if you don't actually shoot the ball
For those who saw clips from the Philadelphia 76ers practice on Monday, it would have been reasonable to draw the conclusion that guard/forward Ben Simmons didn’t want to be there. One picture showed him practicing with his phone in his sweatpants pocket, and in a viral clip he was dribbling a baske...

Tyrese Haliburton would like you to care about his team
The NBA’s opening night is upon us, and one of the great things about that is all 30 teams have hope and high expectations for themselves. Every NBA fan base across the nation can say this might be their team’s year. All those hopes and dreams are still in play until a player like Tyrese Haliburton ...