basketball Page 14 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The budding rivalry between the Aces and Liberty is a massive win for the WNBA
Aside from the Connecticut Sun possibly playing spoiler, the current WNBA season has been conducted essentially known its champion resides in Las Vegas or Brooklyn. The Aces are putting together arguably the most impressive regular season in league history. But there’s always an asterisk. A road to ...

If players on the Orlando Magic had heart they’d kneel during the national anthem — again
Jonathan Isaac being one of only two members left (Markelle Fultz) from the Orlando Magic’s roster from their time in the 2020 Bubble is irony at its finest. It speaks to the high amount of turnover that occurs in the league, as well as being an example of just how fast the “Black Lives Matter” move...

Don’t sleep on the men’s team that America is sending to the FIBA World Cup
Since NBA players have been permitted to play in international competition, the United States has never sent over a unit like the one they are sending to Asia later this month for the FIBA World Cup. Not a single player on this roster has made an All-NBA team — a first since American pros were allow...

The stars and emcees who crossed the line between hip-hop and the NBA
This story is part of our new Hip-Hop: ’73 Till Infinity series, a celebration of the genre’s 50th anniversary....

Doris Burke, Mike Breen, and Doc Rivers are a match made in…something
Weeks after ESPN split up the NBA’s quirkiest broadcast TRIO by inexplicably laying off Jeff Van Gundy, the suits in Bristol had a high bar to reach for the new three-man-weave in its NEXT lead broadcast team. Mike Breen was a certified starter as the voice of the Worldwide Leader’s play-by-play NBA...

Deadspin Investigation: Another Brandeis basketball coach accused of racial animus toward Black players
Five years after a Deadspin investigation prompted Brandeis University to fire its men’s basketball coach following allegations of blatant racism, the school finds itself once again facing allegations of racism, and unequal treatment, this time in its women’s basketball program....

NBA needs to up the ante with its international game slate
What happens when a seventh seed and a 13th seed meet on a basketball court in a country that doesn’t have an NBA franchise? Who knows, but we’re going to find out....

Colorado’s impending Big 12 reunion signals chaos for the Pac-12
Last week at the Pac-12 Conference’s annual football media days, Colorado was considered by far the league’s biggest flight risk. It’s USC and UCLA’s last season affiliated with the West Coasters before, let’s be honest, being promoted to the Big Ten. The Power Five is truly a supreme duo, with the ...

So this is what it feels like to be a howling soccer fan at the World Cup?
There’s a unique frustration to watching Team USA men’s basketball in the Olympics after the world caught up. Yes, America has a better collection of raw talent, and when motivated, and conducted like an actual team, they can come away with gold. However, it’s always a slog at some point, with savvy...

Tracy McGrady seems perplexed by James Harden trade request
Over the past 20 years, the marker that separates great from all-time great in the NBA has become more about how many rings an elite player wins than almost anything else. You see it in other sports like football, but the ring conversation is always most prominent with fans, media, and even players ...

His disastrous ownership tenure is over — it’s time Michael Jordan fix his relationship with Charles Barkley
His best friend told the truth about him, and he “took that personally.”...

Saudi Arabia poaching NBA talent is possible, but unlikely
In a jocular response to the Saudi Public Investment Fund offering a record $1.1 billion to PSG and Kylian Mbappé for the French icon to play one season in Saudi Arabia, two-time NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo offered up his services to the Al Hilal club. ...

It’s fair to ask Nick Saban about Alabama’s racist politics
Kay Ivey — the Republican Governor of Alabama — doesn’t have more juice than Nick Saban. That’s how things work in the South, especially when you’ve won seven national championships as a head coach in the SEC. And since people are more familiar with Saban than Ivey, it’s fair to ask him about a ruli...

World Cup Day 5: We cannot run from who we are
Day 5 of the World Cup was probably the most rewarding, and a great example of how football is football no matter who is playing it, no matter where they come from. We do our best to not compare or relate the women’s game to the men’s, as they’re two different sports. But Sunday night’s fare was per...

Without Deion Sanders in attendance, Pac-12 Media Day might as well pack it up and go home
Things have grown so dire for the Pac-12 that they’re one cycle away from returning to tape delay airings. The Left Coast’s elite has always found themselves at a disadvantage in cuing up interest for its football campaign. Cue the beat of Deion Sanders drum. ...

Las Vegas Aces are the solution to the Oppenheimer-Barbie conundrum
The WNBA’s All-Star Break provided the Las Vegas Ace’s “Core 4” with a showcase for 80 percent of a historically stacked starting lineup to strut their stuff in an exhibition. On the downside, it also cracked open a conduit for the cranks to spew their usual bile. ...

Emoni Bates is fighting his way back from the abyss
It’s hard to believe that it’s been six years since Emoni Bates was the nation’s No. 1 middle schooler in the country. Three years ago, Bates was imagined as the type of ethereal prospect who would have viewed the summer league as a formality. By the time he arrived in Memphis during the fall of 202...

'Vacating' wins is the dumbest punishment of all time — do better, NCAA
The kids might not realize it, but in 1997 the movie of the summer was Men In Black. In the ‘90s, Will Smith was the king of summer blockbusters, especially if they opened July 4th weekend — or included aliens. One of the best parts of the MiB franchise was the Neuralyzers, a device that was used to...

Thank goodness the WNBA learned from last year’s all-star mistake
The WNBA decided to put minimal effort into one of its most prestigious individual honors this season. During last season’s All-Star Game, the league was embarrassed by the MVP trophy that winner — Kelsey Plum — could have dangled and referred to as “her little teacup.” Jewell Loyd was named MVP of ...

NCAA treating violations with the leniency of a Boulder beat cop on 4/20
The University of Tennessee was hit with an $8 million fine, among other penalties, on Friday for “hundreds” of NCAA violations. Former coach Jeremy Pruitt and his staff committed north of 200 infractions, and while pretty much all of them weren’t a huge deal individually, when you rattle them off i...