cia Page 78 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Chelsea and Tottenham is why we watch
After yesterday’s fracas (it was certainly more than a game,) the temptation is to call Chelsea-Spurs the best rivalry going in the Premier League. Liverpool-City might have more quality, and the best quality in Europe arguably, but everything is pretty civil and they’re too respectful of each other...

Retiring Russell’s jersey number should have happened a long time ago
Shame on the NBA....

NBA players way too excited over fellow pros balling out in ProAm leagues
It’s become a tradition more irrelevant than any other....

The NBA retires Bill Russell’s number
The NBA retired its first number ever Thursday, and Bill Russell’s No. 6 couldn’t be a better choice — if it’s not the only choice. A transcendent figure as a player, as a coach, and as a civil rights leader, Russell’s legacy takes dictionaries’ to define. Of the four major professional sports in Am...

How bloated are the preseason win totals for the NBA teams fans love to hate?
When oddsmakers release NBA win-total futures, most casual fans scan right to their teams’ over/under and say, “My team’s better than that.” After a prolonged and misguided rant about sharps who do this for a living doing their job, the next move is to find the franchises they hate and bitch about t...

How rare is the HR cycle?
Since 1900, a player has hit three home runs in an MLB game 624 times. Only 16 times has a player hit four. Nobody has ever hit five....

Brenden Aaronson is going to be just fine
Amongst the excitement of any US player heading overseas, there’s always a tremor of trepidation (I’m usually anti-alliteration but here we are). This angst is sure said player will fail, and will cast a pall over any future Yank moving to that team or even that league. We’re probably past that, giv...

And, voila, Cameron Smith’s charisma is gone
We’ve reached a point where a golfer has to take a blood oath on their mother’s grave while stabbing a voodoo doll of Greg Norman for me to believe that any of these amoral sociopaths are staying with the PGA Tour. My hopes weren’t high for Cameron Smith, the young Australian who just won the Open C...

Expect more illegal contact calls from refs this NFL season
It is bad enough how bold the league is about its financial goals. The NFL wants to bring in $25 billion in revenue by 2027. It has been two years since the start of the pandemic, and the league generated $11 billion per Sportico. That number includes no local revenue dollars....

How can Steph Curry be the petty king when that’s already Kevin Durant’s lane?
Steph Curry’s new moniker, The Petty King, feels contrived. He’s on this post-Finals MVP mission to call out everyone who’s ever slighted him. Cool, man, your legacy is as pristine as they come. Why didn’t this persona come out before his long-sought Finals MVP, when you were still vulnerable? ...

Never mind the draw, just enjoy Darwin Núñez’s first EPL goal for Liverpool
It took Darwin Núñez 13 minutes to notch his first goal in the English Premier League, but it came at the 64th minute because he was brought on as an £85m super sub during a swirling match at Craven College that saw Liverpool and newly promoted Fulham finish in a 2-2 draw. This is the first game of ...

Will Liverpool’s season be defined by children?
It depends on how you define drama whether or not you find any in the Premier League season. We pretty much know that either Manchester City or Liverpool will win the title. Some combination of Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, and maybe United will fill out the other Champions League places. Perhaps Newcast...

Brittney Griner sentenced to 9 years in Russian prison
After more than six months of incarceration since her February arrest for having less than one gram of cannabis oil in her luggage at a Russian airport, eight-time WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in prison on Thursday for drug possession and smuggling. That harsh but expect...

Do video games affect Kyler Murray’s play?
Sports fans, especially NBA fans, I’m sure are familiar with the family of viruses the “Miami Flu,” the “LA Flu,” etc. It can be caught in places with a pleasant year-round climate and a plethora of places for young, rich people with lots of energy to party when their teams visit. The result, especi...

A serene Tottenham Hotspur will take some getting used to
It’s pretty obvious a team has a habit, even a reputation or history, of being a fuckaround when its very name is used as a definition of that. “Spursinees” has been a term thrown around since just about the Premier League’s beginning, which makes it clear what everyone thinks of Tottenham. No matte...

The NIL era is offering new avenues of exploitation
Name, image, and likeness deals were appropriately celebrated after the NCAA announced it was finally allowing the people making them billions of dollars to also get paid. However insane that sounds, NIL deals are a large step from what was the norm. Unfortunately, the gluttons at the table won’t ev...

