basketball Page 89 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

LeBron winds up playing the fool
April 1, 10:09 a.m. Pacific Time: LeBron James sends a tweet saying, “I’m out for the season officially. See y’all in the fall....

Democrats introduce bill that would put NCAA’s gender gap on notice
As the women’s Final Four kicks off tonight, the cloud looming over the NCAA only grows. Having gotten away with treating their female athletes like second-class citizens for decades, the crackdown is truly beginning, as the organization gets piled on from all sides with growing expectations to crea...

Doc Rivers needs more than motivational tactics to get through to James Harden
It only took 15 games of watching James Harden for Doc Rivers to get annoyed. After a loss against the Detroit Pistons last night — the team’s third straight — where the 76ers got all of eight points from the bench, the coach didn’t put the lack of production on them....

Fictional Hooper Bracket: The Final Four
We got an all-blueblood Final Four. I know we enjoyed Saint Peter’s, but as happy as I am for Shaheen Holloway’s new contract — of course this is yet another example of a college coach capitalizing off of his hard-playing talent for a much better job, but the Peacocks pull their home bleachers out o...

IDIOT OF THE MONTH: Cleveland Browns stand out among crowded March pack
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH, where we laugh at people and organizations around the sports world because otherwise we would cry. An honorable mention for March goes out to none other than You, the reader! That’s right — You, most dearest sports media consumer, honestly believed your Marc...

It’s the Bucks’ until they say it isn’t
It’s a strange phenomenon, not exclusive to basketball, where somehow the defending champs get lost. Perhaps most people just conclude that the fatigue from a playoff run the previous season is just a bit too much to overcome. It’s doubly so for the Milwaukee Bucks, as their Finals run didn’t end un...

Shaheen Holloway is the 2022 March Madness Champ
If Duke, UNC, Kansas or Villanova are going to win another national title, we have to celebrate something besides another blueblood champion. Watching another blueblood Final Four is nauseating and almost seems antithetical to the glorified ideal of March Madness....

We need to change our perception of the NBA’s scoring title
First things first, I know LeBron James fans are going to think I’m only saying this because LeBron currently leads the scoring race, but that’s just not the case. I don’t hate LeBron. He’s the GOAT in my eyes. He’s still one of the best players in the league, and what he’s been able to do at 37 is ...

If Giannis wins his third MVP this year we can put the best player on the planet debate to rest
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo can join some elite company, should he take home his third NBA MVP award at the end of the regular season. If he can edge out Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokić, we can finally lay the best player in the world debate to rest. We can’t continue to deny Antetoko...

Evan Mobley has been great all season, but he’s been outplayed by Scottie Barnes for Rookie of the Year
The NBA Rookie of the Year vote has gotten even more complicated. Yesterday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Evan Mobley sprained his left ankle and is out for the next three games. This comes at an especially difficult time for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have lost four of their last five ...

Eric Church cancels concert to watch UNC-Duke
Sorry to all the Eric Church fans out there, but I’ve just got to respect the man’s commitment to the game. The country singer canceled a sold-out concert in San Antonio this Saturday so that he could watch North Carolina face Duke in a Final Four game that, if all goes well, is sure to go down in h...

James Harden has the most to prove of any star player this postseason
The NBA postseason is nearly upon us, and each year you can pick out a few players that have something to prove. Giannis Antetokounmpo did it last season (no matter how many breaks they got along the way), leading Milwaukee to the title, and LeBron James the year before when he led the Lakers to the...

ESPN’s latest MVP straw poll...explain yourself
This year’s NBA MVP Award has several contenders: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ja Morant, Devin Booker, Luka Dončić, etc. However, most fans and analysts would agree that the award is really a two-horse race between Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid and the reigning MVP, Denver’s Nikola Jokić. It’s been that way...

Big Shot Bob saves the day after another disappointing Lakers loss and Russell Westbrook
However you feel about that era of Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs, the world is a better place because Robert Horry played for them in the 2000s. His performance in Game 5 of the 2005 NBA Finals against the Detroit Pistons gave us something to remember from that dry white toast of a seven-...

Giannis outshines Embiid in latest installment of the best rivalry in the NBA
Joel Embiid learned a valuable lesson in Tuesday night’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in the waning seconds. When you come at the king, you best not miss. Or at least go up for game-tying shots more aggressively when the king of weakside blocks is prowling....

Paul George looks like he hasn’t missed a beat
The Clippers appear to be operating like a team that’s extremely aware of its mortality. Paul George returned from injury Tuesday to help lead LA to a comeback win over the Utah Jazz, scoring 34 points in 31 minutes. If his right elbow — which could’ve been repaired via surgery but he opted to play ...

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s take on the Will Smith/Chris Rock situation is an outdated view of progress
Sometimes, even the NBA’s all-time leading scorer misses an easy one....

Three teams that could be next in line to improve drastically in a short amount of time like the Memphis Grizzlies
In the NBA, teams with stars and veteran leadership usually make waves in the postseason and win championships. It’s rare to see a team of young inexperienced players going deep in the postseason, no matter how talented they are. Of course, there are outliers to everything....

I guess I know how hockey fans feel now
Last night, there was one of those rare regular-season NBA games that rise to the level of must-see. The Sixers and Bucks met in Philadelphia, and with the top four seeds in the Eastern Conference still in flux, and could very well finish in any order, it had some real meaning. And it was a classic,...

Coed sports can be a thing
For all the energy devoted to the Lia Thomas story, you’d think there was an army of transitioning athletes looking to snatch Division I titles from the women who rightfully won them. Laws have been written, passed, vetoed and passed again to prevent people assigned one sex at birth from competing w...