cc Page 117 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

How is Brazil the better choice for Copa America?
You may be getting your large-sporting-events-that-shouldn’t-be-taking-place confused, and it would be understandable. There’s the Olympics, which just lost 10,000 volunteers, is in a state of emergency, and yet welcoming thousands of athletes from 200 countries — doesn’t seem all that sharp. There’...

Grizzlies are closer than you think to being a part of the NBA’s upper echelon
The Grizzlies are a front office move away from wrecking the entire NBA....

Coach K is retiring — Duke Basketball will be buck wild next season
Bonkers. Crazy. Nuts....

Saints’ Michael Thomas is going to prove all his haters wrong in 2021
If you ask a bunch of random people on the street who the best receiver in the National Football League is right now, you’d probably get a wide array of different answers. Green Bay’s Davante Adams would probably get a couple votes. Arizona’s DeAndre Hopkins would as well. Tyreek Hill, Stefon Diggs,...

Hear me out: Great as he is, it may be time for Blazers to move CJ McCollum
By now, I’m sure you’ve heard of the otherworldly performance Damian Lillard gave last night in a losing effort — 55 points, 10 assists, six rebounds, three blocks. He’s the first NBA player ever — EVER — regular season or postseason, to post at least 50 points, 10 assists, and 10 three-pointers mad...

I enjoy whatever sport it is Damian Lillard plays
Back when I was in school in Boston in the pre-2004 days (yeah, I’m that fucking old and I don’t need you to remind me), I used to joke with the Red Sox fans in my circle that somehow the fact that the Sox lost the 1975 World Series had been erased from the record books thanks to Carlton Fisk’s home...

Ertz so good, but he’s 31
Philadelphia Eagles tight end Zach Ertz is a 3-time Pro Bowler, Super Bowl champ, and husband to a gold medalist soccer player. Those are some pretty solid accomplishments. Mr. Julie Ertz is just two years removed from a Pro Bowl season in which he caught 88 passes for 916 yards and six touchdowns. ...

Does MLB even have a marketing department?
Last weekend, when writing about José Godoy becoming the 20,000th player in Major League Baseball history, I brought up the story of Bob Watson being the man who scored MLB’s one-millionth run, and all the hoopla around that in 1975....

Christian Pulisic just made American men’s soccer history — in Europe’s Champions League final
American men’s soccer remains, even with all the growth of Major League Soccer and the rise in popularity of the sport, very much a sleeping giant on the world stage....

It's 1, 2, 3 balls, you're on!
It’s not quite Javier Báez stealing a run for the Cubs by going backward, but Yankees third baseman Gio Urshela also did something you probably haven’t seen before on Friday night in Detroit....

Great job, Japan… FIFA… IOC… y’all really just nailed everyone’s mood
The latest wave of COVID-19 appears to be ebbing in Japan, but on Friday the country still extended the state of emergency for many areas, and “pre-emergency measures” for other prefectures, including Chiba, just outside of Tokyo....

Matt Nagy being on the hot seat in Chicago makes zero sense (to non-Bears fans)
When the Chicago Bears shocked the NFL world by trading up nine spots to select Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields with the 11th overall pick, the entire football world applauded Chicago for such a great move. The lack of a consistent starting quarterback had been the biggest elephant on the Bears...

Nuggets/Blazers is so much more than just Jokić vs. Lillard
Nikola Jokić and Damian Lillard are doing exactly what they’re supposed to do....

VAR isn’t the problem, the people using it are
The return of supporters to various terraces last week in the Premier League brought back some rites of soccer that we didn’t even realize how much we missed and cherished. The mocking of a shot well over or wide of the goal. The vitriol for a ref after a foul. The applause after a relatively simple...

Run the NBA play-in tournament as a series of high-stakes gauntlet matches
The NBA wants to have an in-season tournament, and a lot of the reaction to this idea is that it’s terrible, that it’s basketball trying to be soccer, that it’s a huge waste of time....

Connecticut high school phenom tosses fourth no-hitter in a row
If you think the no-hitters are getting out of control in Major League Baseball, you ought to check out the high school scene in northern Connecticut. ...

Hey Adam Silver, stop tinkering with the NBA. You’re welcome
The NBA is lost....

Judge cracks open NSWL door to 15-year-old phenom Olivia Moultrie
Interesting decision out of Portland. We talked about Olivia Moultrie’s case against the NWSL as she seeks to play professionally at 15 years old for Portland Thorns FC. The NWSL has an age minimum of 18, but that wasn’t collectively bargained, just something the league installed. Considering MLS al...

LeBron James drinking tequila with Drake shows NBA has moved past COVID
“It’s not a big deal.”...

Luis Suárez gets his revenge
No one will ever feel bad for Luis Suárez. We’ve seen him try to eat several opponents (though it did lead to one of the best terrace songs of all-time, “He cheats! He dives! He likes his snacks alive!”) Even more seriously, he was suspended for racially abusing Patrice Evra, an event that, had it h...