cia Page 66 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

It appears Kevin Durant has made peace with treading water in a sea of Nets chaos
Kevin Durant most definitely wanted to be traded this past summer....

The Thunder shouldn’t move Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, but they should make a trade elsewhere
Of the eight players currently averaging more than 30 points per game, there’s one who’s not like the others. Out of Luka Dončić , Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid, Jayson Tatum, Donovan Mitchell, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, I think it’s easy to pick out who I’m referri...

It’s no less a referendum on Neymar — World Cup 2022 Group G preview
This World Cup is setting up as either a treatise or a coronation for Lionel Messi. He recently collected his first major trophy with Argentina — 2021’s Copa America — but still needs the World Cup to stand on the same pedestal as Diego Maradona in most’s eyes. He’s coming to Qatar with unquestionab...

Kevin Durant’s legacy is at risk with these dumpster-fire Nets
The Sacramento Kings have been one of the biggest jokes of the NBA for well over a decade. On Tuesday night, Sacramento passed the torch of league laughing stock over to the Brooklyn Nets by stomping them out 153-121. This Nets squad is an embarrassment even with a superstar in Kevin Durant “leading...

Five vacancies, five white coaching hires — the WNBA needs a Rooney Rule
Life comes at you fast. Regression comes at you faster....

The NBA's worst owners
When Robert Sarver announced he was selling the Phoenix Suns, the NBA team he had owned since 2006, after a lengthy investigation by the NBA for workplace malfeasance and offenses, I barely shrugged. How awful could it have been, I thought to myself. My concept of the workplace was poisoned by an ei...

Your 2022 World Cup safe bets
While every World Cup is unique in its own way, and this one especially, there are certain happenings you can count on. They come about every tournament. The pressure, the coverage, the overall oeuvre of the whole thing just drives people into the same patterns. Over the next month, you can look for...

'Brick for Vic' Stock Report
Victor Wembanyama is out of sight, but never out of mind. He’s still crushing it across the Atlantic, but one month into the NBA season, it’s time to take stock of which “Brick for Vic” NBA candidates are closest to completing their Wembanyama-sized mansion. For the franchise that wins the lottery, ...

World Cup 2022 Preview — Group F: Old man take a look at my defense, I’m a lot like you
“BELGIUM’S LAST CHANCE!” You’ve heard or seen this already. They are Europe’s big waste of the last decade. There has been no bigger collection of talent than what Belgium has sported for the last four major tournaments, and a 3rd place in Russia is all they’ve had to show for it. Either this is whe...

I guess pop stars will be our moral compasses for the Qatar World Cup
Qatar’s effort to sportswash its abysmal human rights record has received a couple of assists from notable soccer players, with David Beckham taking some cash to be an ambassador for the country during the World Cup, and French goalkeeper Hugo Lloris essentially saying he will shut up and dribble....

Tim Hardaway returns to San Francisco, makes flippant sexual assault reference
On Monday night, the Golden State Warriors learned a valuable lesson about who to not put in front of a live microphone. During the Warriors’ live telecast of their game against the San Antonio Spurs, the team brought back Bay Area legends Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin. They called ...

The warm glow of MLB Hot Stove’s warming glow — the NL East
We’ve come to the last of our offseason previews, where all eyes are basically on one team and everyone might react off of that. It’s time for the NL East, or as it may be known from now on, Days of Our Steven Cohen....

Why the 76ers’ Joel Embiid scored 101 points in 24 hours
In professional sports, team executives and coaches can over-complicate a situation by attempting to outthink the room. This frequently happens in the NBA when general managers are building teams. Or they just become so blinded by certain players that they fail to see their inadequacies clearly....

World Cup 2022 Preview - Group E: They got the bread but not the butter, let’s be big on Japan
Let’s be brave. For most, it’s a foregone conclusion that Germany and Spain are going to come out of this group. Except neither’s recent World Cup history is all that glossy. Yeah, Germany won the tournament just two editions ago. They were also rightly kicked into the trash in the group stage last ...

FTX’s collapse cost a who’s who of pro athletes and sports brands millions
The Crypto craze has infiltrated the sports realm for years, however, no crypto firm has been more ubiquitous of late than FTX. Franchises, athletes, and venture capitalists who advise these figures all rose for the bullish crypto market. FTX sniveled its way into mainstream culture through brand sp...

Josh McDaniels needs to be fired immediately
Josh McDonald’s, er, McDaniels should be fired....

The casual American soccer fan's guide to the best international players ahead of the World Cup
For the fair-weather soccer fan, and let’s be real, that’s 99 percent or more of American sports fans, the World Cup is the one event taking place over multiple weeks where general interest is at a high. The United States men’s national team didn’t make the world’s best 32 in 2018, and a huge chunk ...

Cristiano Ronaldo goes to Kevin Durant’s school
You’d be severely challenged to come up with a duo more up their own ass than Cristiano Ronaldo and Piers Morgan, so it was kind of perfect and perfectly puke-worthy that Ronaldo carefully chose Morgan for his tactical masterplan to get booted out of Manchester as soon as possible. It was right as t...

Coming off the bench has brought back some semblance of vintage Russell Westbrook
Russell Westbrook’s first season in L.A. was an unmitigated failure. He was plugged into a lineup of non-shooters including LeBron James, Anthony Davis, and a confusing mix of ill-fitting pieces. Of Rob Pelinka’s misfit toys, though, nobody took last season’s debacle harder on the chin than Westbroo...

Drake may have lost a couple of big bets on Saturday
At the start of the fifth round UFC 281’s main event, the rapper with the Instagram handle @champagnepapi might have been ready to go get a ridiculously overpriced bottle. His $2 million bet on Israel Adesanya looked certain to be a winner....