cia Page 38 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Phoenix Suns owner Mat Ishbia is doing a bad job of proving he’s not Robert Sarver
Monday morning, people weren’t talking about how the Phoenix Suns beat the Denver Nuggets in a crucial Game 4 of the Western Conference Semifinals. They skipped over the fact Devin Booker and Kevin Durant combined to score 72 points on a night that Nikola Jokic proved that he’s the rightful MVP with...
Celtics' Joe Mazzulla’s reluctance to call a timeout is a blunder that’s become too common
The use of timeouts in one-possession games is a contentious philosophical debate in NBA circles. Each end-of-game episode presents coaches with an ambiguous multiple-choice equation. Timeouts have an expiration date, but that hasn’t stopped coaches from attempting to carry them into the next game o...
Phoenix Suns' Landry Shamet made the haters eat crow in Game 4
For those who wish to offer Landry Shamet a public apology, feel free. People with questions about the Phoenix Suns’ depth most certainly did not expect him to carry the team when Devin Booker picked up his fourth foul at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Without Shamet’s showcase from beyond the...
The NBA is incentivizing flopping
NBA players have cause to be upset with the officiating in the playoffs. Just last week a ball clearly bounced off of a rim and the Miami Heat still were called for a crucial shot clock violation. I am never inclined to defend Scott Foster, but maybe his brain was fried from a flop fest that night b...
The NBA Playoffs are Anthony Davis’ world and Golden State is just living in it
On an early defensive possession in the Los Angeles Lakers’ Game 3 victory, Steph Curry turned on the jets along the baseline and left Jarred Vanderbilt eating dust on a drive to the rim. The only deterrent between Curry and two points was Anthony Davis stepping up to contest. Curry attempted to lof...
It’s going to take a lot to subdue Kevin Durant and Devin Booker
One of the most glorious occurrences in all of sports is when an NBA player goes on a heater in the playoffs. Think Donovan Mitchell and Jamal Murray in the Bubble, or Damian Lillard against the Nuggets a couple of years ago when he dropped a double-nickel while hitting shots that take a level of ma...
In the battle of COVID vs. sports, evil vs. entertainment, sports won
Now that COVID is officially over, and everyone can throw their masks in the trash, (Is that how this works?), it feels like a good time to declare that sports beat COVID. If you’re wondering who was keeping score, I was, and sports handily outlasted the virus — that killed very few, if any, athlete...
The Gang Enters The Soccer Tournament
This is a fever dream for soccer, or a fever nightmare depending on what team you root for. The Soccer Tournament, or TST for short, was announced this week as a 32-team showcase taking place in early June in North Carolina. Based on The Basketball Tournament, it’s a winner-take-all, 7-on-7, $1 mill...
Denver Post columnist pens love letter to Nikola Jokić's undies
The low point of the NBA season has been the interminable debate over the MVP. From Kendrick Perkins and JJ Redick stirring an empty pot about prejudice giving the leg up to Nikola Jokić in the MVP race to Doug Gottlieb bashing his own skull in, blithering on about how race helped Joel Embiid win MV...
Celtics-Sixers Game on TNT foisted an unnecessary drone upon us
Game 2 of the Philadelphia 76ers vs. the Boston Celtics on TNT received a brief shot of life when it was announced that 2023 NBA MVP Joel Embiid was returning to the floor. He was ready to play after suffering a knee sprain that was more serious than viewers were led to believe, and is ready to go a...
AI is all fun and games, until it’s not, which is part of why Hollywood has shut down
For those people who turned on The Tonight Show on Tuesday and the wacky game that Jimmy Fallon was playing with a guest looked familiar, that’s because it was a rerun. There will be no late-night television while the television and film scribes of the Writers Guild of America are on strike....
Real Madrid enter the next Galactico Era with the capture of Jude Bellingham
“The best players in the world must play for Real Madrid.”...
Overanalyzing Jordan Poole’s shot is NBA voyeurism at its finest
After nearly 48 minutes, the Los Angeles Lakers were spent as the Golden State Warriors were hitting their stride and discovering their second wind. Following a late flurry of points, the Warriors trailed by three in the final seconds when Jordan Poole launched a three-pointer from the parking lot. ...
Enes Kanter Freedom is auditioning to be the next Herschel Walker
In the wake of Herschel Walker losing in Georgia’s December runoff with Democratic U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, the Republican Party didn’t just suffer a crushing defeat —they missed out on having an athlete in politics that could garner attention. But never fear, Enes Kanter Freedom is here. And it f...
You’re going to show Joel Em-V-Biid some respect, and you’re going to like it
The NBA’s most annoying PR push is over. Joel Embiid is the league’s MVP for the 2022-23 season, and as per the unwritten rules of NBA Twitter, is now immune to criticism. Anyone with something bad to say about the Philadelphia 76er big man shall henceforth be declared objectively wrong and exiled t...
Anthony Davis gives Golden State a browbeating
When the Los Angeles Lakers and LeBron James were pushing to acquire Anthony Davis during the 2018-19 season, they had every reason to believe that they were going after the future face of the franchise. In the Lakers’ 117-112 Game 1 victory over the Golden State Warriors in the second round of the ...
FIFA wants to promote women’s soccer — as long as there’s money in it
“FIFA is a non-profit organization” is one of the biggest oxymorons in the world. You don’t get a good portion of the organization indicted for corruption if the body is mainly focused on merely the health of the sport and building it from the bottom up. Gianni Infantino’s latest episode of throwing...
The NBA playoff ratings have been FANtastic
Well, Phil Jackson, it turns out that the NBA has not woked itself out of the American television landscape. Some news that you won’t find on the disingenuous provocateur in Nashville’s timeline is that the first round of the 2023 NBA Playoffs was a smash hit. ...
Another year, another Chris Paul injury
One of my favorite title teams ever was the 2006 Miami Heat, and it wasn’t because of Dwyane Wade or Shaquille O’Neal. There were three elder players on that squad who I thought deserved the validation that comes with a ring, and it was great seeing happiness ooze out of Gary Payton, Jason Williams,...
James Harden actually rose to the occasion with Joel Embiid out
James Harden deserved to take a bow on Monday night, even if he decided to wait until he put back on his enormous pants to do so. In a game in which the Philadelphia 76ers were undermanned with their MVP candidate dealing an injury more serious than what was first made public knowledge, Harden was t...