cia Page 26 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

A non-USWNT World Cup Final is still good for the game
As tough as it is not to have the U.S. Women’s National Team in the FIFA Women’s World Cup final after winning the last two tournaments, the Spain-England final on Sunday is arguably better for the overall health of the game worldwide....

Sage Steele paved the way for her own demise at ESPN
Typically when a longtime SportsCenter anchor decamps, it’s a solemn affair. Just two months ago, ESPN’s Neil Everett’s departure left his colleagues saddened. ESPN vets like Marty Smith, Scott Van Pelt and Stan Verrett were among the talent who publicly sang Everett’s praises....

The 2023 Basketball Hall of Fame class represents 40 years of growth in the sport
The way that the NBA game is currently played — the spacing, position fluidity, the resting of stars during the regular season — all of that and more has been in the works for 20 years. Prioritizing 3-point shooting to maximize room for drivers and post players did not start and end with Mike D’Anto...

Who’s up for a non-NBA pro athlete slam dunk contest?
Everyone loves a good slam dunk contest. It doesn’t matter if it involves NBA players, college athletes, or dudes from the neighborhood. If those involved are talented, creative highflyers, folks will gather around to enjoy the festivities. Obviously, the NBA owns the crown when it comes to spectacu...

USWNT’s treatment is the latest example of right-wing hatred for ‘nasty women’
Indigenous Americans were almost eradicated. Black people were enslaved. Asians are mistreated. Millions still want to “build a wall.” People of color have been oppressed for centuries, and each group has its own plight. But misogyny has stood the test of time. The overturning of Roe v. Wade, the re...

Nikola Jokić might be the most boring top-rated player ever in <em>NBA 2K24</em>
The player most deserving of the highest rating in NBA 2K24 is Nikola Jokić. Whether he is actually the best player in the NBA is irrelevant to him earning that distinction. The way that he bulldozed his opposition while leading the Denver Nuggets to their first NBA Championship, no other player sho...

The budding rivalry between the Aces and Liberty is a massive win for the WNBA
Aside from the Connecticut Sun possibly playing spoiler, the current WNBA season has been conducted essentially known its champion resides in Las Vegas or Brooklyn. The Aces are putting together arguably the most impressive regular season in league history. But there’s always an asterisk. A road to ...

If players on the Orlando Magic had heart they’d kneel during the national anthem — again
Jonathan Isaac being one of only two members left (Markelle Fultz) from the Orlando Magic’s roster from their time in the 2020 Bubble is irony at its finest. It speaks to the high amount of turnover that occurs in the league, as well as being an example of just how fast the “Black Lives Matter” move...

Don’t sleep on the men’s team that America is sending to the FIBA World Cup
Since NBA players have been permitted to play in international competition, the United States has never sent over a unit like the one they are sending to Asia later this month for the FIBA World Cup. Not a single player on this roster has made an All-NBA team — a first since American pros were allow...

If Penguins GM Kyle Dubas is going to go down, it’s going to be with the most flames possible
Whatever Pittsburgh Penguins GM Kyle Dubas’s analytic-rep is, he’s going to be remembered for always opting for the big swing. While he may have been championed as a hockey sabermetric darling who rose to the biggest chair in the sport in Toronto, those that deride him would happily point out that a...

The USWNT exits the World Cup on the cruelest margin
The symbolism of the final moment can’t be shoved off. The USWNT’s Alyssa Naeher can’t do much more to keep the final penalty out. But sometimes…the bear eats you....

Dodgers, Chelsea FC owner might be the uniting force to save women's hockey
There are two famous rivalries in North American women’s hockey: Canada vs. the USA, and the PWHPA versus the PHF. One rivalry will continue in perpetuity at every World Championship and Olympic Games, while the other is dead....

You better be Travis Kelce if you're gonna start a training camp fight
A crude trait most human beings possess is that we enjoy watching people fight. It’s the reason that football is the most popular sport in America, and prize fights generate millions in pay-per-view sales all over the world. In a controlled setting governed by bells and whistles, physical confrontat...

Conference realignment, NIL deals, and the end of loyalty in college sports
The recently prophesied collapse of college athletics is being attributed to the transfer portal, and name, image, and likeness deals. The chaos caused by player movement and an unregulated free market has caught the eye of politicians, quick to offer assistance with a handout for universities that ...

The stars and emcees who crossed the line between hip-hop and the NBA
This story is part of our new Hip-Hop: ’73 Till Infinity series, a celebration of the genre’s 50th anniversary....

And on the seventh day, Jonathan Isaac created sneakers
Business is about seeing the marketplace before the consumer knows they need it, and then capitalizing. I’m actually pretty certain that’s why it’s called capitalism. Sure, I didn’t go to business school, I don’t have an MBA, but you know who else didn’t go to business school? LeBron James, Tracy Mc...

Playing football at Northwestern University haunts me to this day: Ex-Wildcat lineman
Ramon Diaz hasn’t watched a football game in more than 10 years, since he abruptly left Northwestern University’s football team in 2008. Wednesday morning, standing in a room of reporters, Diaz, a former offensive lineman, detailed why he didn’t return for his fifth season, why he snuck into the loc...

World Cup Day 14: New kids on the block
As the group stage nears its close, we got some more surprises going through, and an old favorite calling it a career at this level. We also got some hilarity, which the last group games always promise but don’t always deliver. Let’s spin this right round!...
