basketball Page 59 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Finally, the Warriors know how it feels to have the rug pulled out

It’ll be OK. It’ll be OK. It’ll be OK. At least that’s what Golden State Warriors fans are telling themselves this season. Currently sitting at 14-15, Steph Curry and Co. are 10th in the West, right on the bubble for a play-in game. ...

Best in the West

The Golden State Warriors lost again last night. On Tuesday, the Phoenix Suns dropped a game to the lowly Houston Rockets for the second time this month. Those two wins account for 22.2 percent of the Rockets’ victories this season....

Told ya: Chris Beard will likely coach again — this time at Ole Miss [Updated]

Updated March 8: Chris Beard is emerging as the front-runner for the men’s basketball head coaching job at Ole Miss, according to ESPN, citing sources. Beard was fired from his position at the University of Texas following a Dec. 12, 2022 arrest....

NBA answers G.O.A.T. debate by picking MJ over LeBron for MVP trophy’s namesake

LeBron James’ fans must simply concede. The charade is over. That flimsy argument is washed. James isn’t the G.O.A.T. And who said so? Who settled this long-running barbershop debate? Well, the NBA, itself....

If Joel Embiid thinks Philly fans want him traded, he’s on the wrong Reddit threads

I don’t know who incepted Joel Embiid, but someone got him to question Philly fans’ faith in him. The All-NBA center has been strangely disconnected this season. The team is lifeless, and you wouldn’t suspect that Embiid leads the league in scoring if he didn’t pop up on the ticker with a 40- or 50-...

Could the Knicks already unload Cam Reddish after recently acquiring him?

As the trade market heats up as the NBA’s Dec. 15 moratorium nears, allowing players who signed new contracts this league year to be traded, the Knicks are expected to be active on the trade market. During this cycle, they’re on the other side of the Cam Reddish sweepstakes. Before the 2022 trade de...

Which NBA title contender will Jae Crowder join?

Championship NBA teams have always revolved around star players, but the glue guys/role players make it possible for franchises to become title contenders. There are stars all over the Association, but only those with the best supporting casts can make deep runs into the postseason year after year. ...

The San Francisco move has been Golden for the Warriors

This Golden State Warriors in San Francisco thing will never sit right with me. ...

Hey Adam Silver, glossy new trophies won’t fix the NBA’s regular season

They say millennials are obsessed with trophies, but our elders have been expanding the ones propping up that industry. Commissioner Adam Silver’s quest to revitalize the regular season’s infrastructure has been his pet project for almost his entire eight-year stint. One day after Kawhi Leonard expr...

I’m not ready to go all in on the Brooklyn Nets — no matter how good they look currently

After so much turmoil to start the 2022 campaign, the Brooklyn Nets have finally begun to look like the contenders many expected. The Nets have had two different four-game win streaks since Nov. 27, winning eight of their last nine. Suddenly Brooklyn is five games over .500 (17-12) and in fourth pla...

Culture isn’t going to fix the Miami Heat’s offense

When trying to illustrate how much a team is struggling, one of sportswriters’ favorite go-to’s is, “If the season ended today…” As in, “If the season ended today, the Miami Heat would need to win two play-in games only to face the team that beat them in 2022 in the first round.”...

Players and recruits shouldn’t trust Kim Mulkey, who was useless when it came to Brittney Griner

Editor’s note: This column has been updated to include a comment from Kim Mulkey....

The Golden State Warriors are clutch test-takers

Boston’s league-leading winning percentage meant nothing once Golden State decides to ascend to a higher plane of basketball nirvana. Golden State’s geezers might sprint out the gates as quickly as they did in years past, but when they need to hit the thrusters, they still have the energy to tap int...

Chris Paul is going to lose any argument that’s anti-Zion Williamson dunking

The NBA season is nearly one-third over, and the team with the best record in the Western Conference is… the New Orleans Pelicans. They have the highest average point differential of any team in the conference by almost two points, outscoring teams by 7.1 points per outing....

Brittney Griner is free

At long last, a deal has been struck to release WNBA player Brittney Griner from a Russian prison. She was sentenced to a draconian nine years after a small amount of cannabis oil was found in a vape cartridge in her luggage....

A decade-plus of Eastern Conference mediocrity can’t be easily forgotten

It’s weird how much energy goes into debating which conference is the NBA’s best. It makes sense in college football because schools can’t play all 100-plus teams each year, and strength of schedule determines playoff spots. But in basketball, with all 30 organizations facing each other at least twi...

The NBA’s newest award is a better fit for MLB teams

It’s bad enough that there have been 16 NBA playoff spots since 1984. At that time there were only 23 teams in the league. It’s 2022, and still more than half of the league gets into the playoffs, and that’s not even counting the highly entertaining Play-in Tournament. Sure the New Orleans Pelicans ...

The ManningCast sports media revolution should not have been televised

It would be interesting to see how much ESPN was responsible for of the $1.5 billion that Disney lost last quarter in the streaming section. What section of the Mothership do the contracts for Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, and the Mannings fall under? After a year-plus, the nuance of the ManningCast has wo...

Knicks underpaid Jalen Brunson? | Max Greenfield

Austin Reaves is young, but his steady presence has been crucial for the Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers have turned their season around....