basketball Page 39 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

5 surprising NBA rookies you need to know about
As Paolo Banchero begins to run away with the Rookie of the Year award, there are still hidden gems and surprise showings by first-year players selected outside the top 10. We have highlighted which ones have been the biggest surprises thus far and project comps for their young career....

Tom Thibodeau, Tony Soprano, and the New York Knicks
Almost a year ago, I contemplated the soul of Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau, searching for answers to his most pressing coaching quandaries. Humans are prone to making connections, comparing and contrasting, to make sense of the chaos around us. In the world of the NBA, Thibodeau shares much of th...

Patrick Beverley is an insufferable jackass
Has there ever been a more irrelevant player to make more headlines than Patrick Beverley? The 11-year guard was up to the only tricks he knows again Tuesday night, getting ejected for having his teammate’s back by violently pushing Deandre Ayton from behind....

Is there closure for Ben Simmons in Philly?
Maybe one day Philadelphia sports fans will forgive Ben Simmons for not taking the court at all for the 76ers last season, not shooting in four consecutive fourth quarters, and the play in which he passed the ball to the only Sixer who was arguably a worse shooter than him instead of dunking on Trae...

Luka Dončić can’t do it all himself
The Dallas Mavericks’ struggles this season are well-documented and likely won’t be put to rest anytime soon. Their All-World leader, Luka Dončić, is off to another hot start, but that’s only translated into a 9-7 record, and the team barely keeping their heads above water. While Dončić is playing a...

Only one player can save this season for the Lakers, that player is Anthony Davis
There is a reason that the Los Angeles Lakers have so little draft capital. ...

Kyrie Irving’s apology tour comes to a close, but he still has a few kinks to work out
In Brooklyn’s precarious position, scandal is a pitfall and Kyrie Irving has supplied it in abundance. Mics and social media are as much of an occupational hazard for Irving as soft tissue and ligament injuries are for his peers. In that regard, the Nets All-NBA point guard can be a walking OSHA vio...

Zach LaVine is grumbling — and so are Bulls fans
The contemporary NBA has conditioned basketball fans to seek out unhappy All-Stars like lions stalk the most vulnerable wildebeest. The Chicago Bulls dropped to 6-10 on the season after a one-point home loss to a Paolo Banchero-less Orlando Magic on Friday, and Zach LaVine set off some alerts....

New Mexico-New Mexico State men's basketball game postponed after homicide involving player: Reports
A men’s basketball player from New Mexico State University was injured in an overnight homicide on the University of New Mexico campus in Albuquerque, which caused the game between the in-state rivals to be postponed, according to reports....

10 NBA storylines that deserve more love
It feels like we’re already in midseason form. Truth is, we’re barely a month in....

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the next big thing
Let’s get this out of the way. This is not a trend piece arguing why Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander needs to be playing in a bigger market. SGA is just fine where he is. Sure, he could “save” plenty of franchises like the New York Knicks, Toronto Raptors, or Los Angeles Lakers....

It appears Kevin Durant has made peace with treading water in a sea of Nets chaos
Kevin Durant most definitely wanted to be traded this past summer....

The Thunder shouldn’t move Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but they should make a trade elsewhere
Of the eight players currently averaging more than 30 points per game, there’s one who’s not like the others. Out of Luka Dončić , Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, I think it’s easy to pick out who I’m referri...

Is Louisville's men's basketball team cursed?
Louisville, a once proud basketball school, is off to a historically and uniquely bad start. They’re 0-3 to start the season with all three losses coming by exactly one point....

Kevin Durant’s legacy is at risk with these dumpster-fire Nets
The Sacramento Kings have been one of the biggest jokes of the NBA for well over a decade. On Tuesday night, Sacramento passed the torch of league laughing stock over to the Brooklyn Nets by stomping them out 153-121. This Nets squad is an embarrassment even with a superstar in Kevin Durant “leading...

Five vacancies, five white coaching hires — the WNBA needs a Rooney Rule
Life comes at you fast. Regression comes at you faster....

The NBA's worst owners
When Robert Sarver announced he was selling the Phoenix Suns, the NBA team he had owned since 2006, after a lengthy investigation by the NBA for workplace malfeasance and offenses, I barely shrugged. How awful could it have been, I thought to myself. My concept of the workplace was poisoned by an ei...

Aaron Patrick is pulling a Reggie Bush
By signing an NFL contract, players assume a significant risk. Injury is commonplace in all athletics, but football is a collision sport. Combine the contact of combat sports with stopping, accelerating, and the changing of direction required in basketball, and a significant number of injuries are e...

'Brick for Vic' Stock Report
Victor Wembanyama is out of sight, but never out of mind. He’s still crushing it across the Atlantic, but one month into the NBA season, it’s time to take stock of which “Brick for Vic” NBA candidates are closest to completing their Wembanyama-sized mansion. For the franchise that wins the lottery, ...

James Dolan continues to run his business more like a despot than a businessperson
America may have largely voted against authoritarianism last week, but the New York Knicks continue to lean into it. ...