cia Page 20 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Giannis and Zion sure sounded like they, too, didn’t take the In-Season Tournament seriously
The biggest questions facing the NBA’s In-Season Tournament were: Would people care? Would fans care? Would players care? Because if no one cares, then we’re back to square one of the Association’s conundrum and watching effortless (not the good kind) December basketball. ...

If NBA teams can raise division-title banners, they should be able to raise a banner for the In-Season Cup
The inaugural In-Season Tournament is nearing its conclusion, which can only mean one thing: How can we find a new way to dump on it? Fortunately, a contrived controversy has been delivered on cue. The winner of this weekend’s In-Season Tournament will have to navigate the thorny situation over how ...

Why is no one screaming about the NBA’s MVP race yet?
There’s one unquestioned upside to the NBA’s In-Season Tournament. The endless promos and exhausting exposure to promote Adam Silver’s baby — and debate over if it’s working or if it matters — has overshadowed the usual topic de jour as we hit the quarter-season mark: The MVP race....

How did Ron DeSantis get to be so weird?
If you thought Ron DeSantis stumbling around debate stages in what looked like a pair of high heels, attempting and failing to resemble a human being when he smiles, and being hyper-focused on other people’s genitals is weird, wait until you find out how DeSantis wants to spend a million dollars of ...

Anthony Edwards is salty about being called an All-Star
The next time you’re out and about and happen to run into Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards, don’t dare refer to him as an All-Star. Even though he is indeed a one-time All-Star “selection,” he won’t acknowledge this fact. He doesn’t count it since he wasn’t a first-choice selection to the...

Biden supports Indigenous Olympic lacrosse team
With lacrosse being added to the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, it is only right that the group of people who invented the sport get an invite too. ...

LeBron James wants to win the NBA Cup because Michael Jordan didn't
The NBA Cup/In-Season Tournament finally concludes in Las Vegas this week. LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers outlasted the Phoenix Suns in a scrappy game Tuesday night to advance to the semifinals. James put on a show against Kevin Durant and Devin Booker, scoring 31 points, dishing 11 dimes, ...

Tyrese Haliburton has the Pacers skipping the NBA waiting line
There are three tiers of NBA existence: Teams stuck in the mud, teams trying to fit through a championship window and future contenders waiting their turn. Prior to Tyrese Haliburton’s first full season as a Pacer, Indiana was rudderless and stuck on a road to nowhere. Aside from Haliburton, there w...

Refs defend controversial LeBron timeout call
Officials from last night’s Los Angeles Lakers-Phoenix Suns game have confirmed the controversial timeout call that helped punch L.A.’s ticket to the In-Season Tournament semifinal....

The NCAA's latest NIL 'solution' is nothing but a shell game
College sports’ has once again ripped off its student-athlete robe and revealed its naked capitalistic body. By leaving out Florida State because its starting quarterback suffered a season-ending injury in late November, the College Football Playoff Committee showed that its goal is to put the best ...

Oregon just got hit with a Title IX lawsuit and the allegations are rough
On Friday, 32 members of the University of Oregon’s women’s beach volleyball and rowing teams filed a class action lawsuit in federal court that accuses the University of depriving female athletes of “equal treatment and benefits, equal athletic aid, and equal opportunities to participate in varsity...

NCAA wants to try something new with NIL
The NCAA has proposed a new rule to its NIL format that would allow for Division I schools to directly enter deals with its athletes. ...

The Baseball Writers Association of America’s anonymous ballot problem is hopefully ending soon
According to FanGraphs senior writer Jay Jaffe, the BBWAA has voted to make all Hall of Fame ballots an opt-out disclosure instead of an opt-in. The decision is still implemented to the Hall of Fame’s approval....

How to hate-watch the rest of the NBA's In-Season Tournament, Part 2
Human nature drives us to dump on new concepts and the IST has inspired a whole host of reasons for the NBA Cup to receive hate. There’s a lot not to like including the scoring differentials playing a role in who advances, sneakers sliding around on the NBA’s personalized ice rinks, the 30-team fiel...

This year’s College Football Playoff controversy is the sport at its best
Amidst all the outrage and taunting on Sunday, I hope everyone took the time to enjoy the rush. A reminder about college sports: the athletes are not as good as the pros. The game is not nearly as polished. What makes up for the majority of participants having no chance at becoming well-paid profess...

Golden State’s third quarter super powers are gone and that’s left them mortal
For the second time, this week, the Golden State Warriors went cold in the fourth quarter. Twice this week, the Warriors blew leads of 20-plus points. Against the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday, they played so frantically trying to achieve a +13 points differential in a win that would allow them to adv...

Saints' Alvin Kamara did a number on this sideline official's leg
Let’s get the content warning out of the way: While not as gruesome as, say, slow motion video of Joe Theisman’s leg swinging the opposite way it’s supposed to, the video of Saints running back Alvin Kamara rolling up on a sideline official is not exactly pleasant to watch. Proceed with caution and ...

IDIOT OF THE MONTH: Defending Trevor Bauer is never a good look
Hello there, esteemed reader, and welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH, the world-renowned series in which we mostly just make fun of Aaron Rodgers every few weeks. (Hi, Tom Laforgia!)...

We've seen Klay Thompson overcome the whispers that he's washed
The Golden State Warriors should be reeling after squandering a 24-point lead against the Sacramento Kings in their NBA In-Season Tournament’s group stage exit. Yet, they’re oddly sanguine about backsliding below .500 since they launched out of the regular season gates to a 6-2 start. Klay Thompson ...

The NBA's In-Season Tournament takes from soccer but isn’t a cup
I’ll give the NBA this, as a soccer fan. It’s the only league to take notice of soccer’s consistently rising popularity and attempt to capitalize on that by co-opting some element of it. This is where anyone like me has to fight a blinding urge to scream about promotion and relegation, and earlier t...