cia Page 81 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Charlotte Hornets have been linked to Russell Westbrook, Kemba Walker, and Isaiah Thomas this offseason — why?
Five years after Michael Jordan infamously told the world that “the ceiling is the roof,” his team looks to still be as confused as we are....

The two trains of thought are colliding on the Kevin Durant-Jaylen Brown trade
The Boston Celtics have reached their offseason garden of forking paths. After falling short in the NBA Finals, they now seem willing to break up their young tandem, and potentially a fulcrum of their asphyxiating defense. ...

How do you foul out in a Drew League game?
NBA stars have largely disappeared from the Rucker Park, Barry Farms and Drew League runs of the past they used to regularly lace up for. LeBron James’ 42-point show at The Drew League a week ago was a clarion call for his NBA peers. After two years of being disrupted by the pandemic, the Drew Leagu...

Karl-Anthony Towns saying ‘championship or bust’ was more for his teammates than the media
It’s always a good idea to consider all answers when an athlete opts to give a boneheaded response to a reporter. In some instances, the player goes off the rails on their own volition. In other cases, it’s a lose-lose situation, and Karl-Anthony Towns is forced to pick between getting scorched by t...

Which state can field the best starting 5?
Now that the Warriors have returned to glory post-Durant, NBA fans just survived one of the most unbearable periods of the NBA. One filled with superteams and razor-thin parity between the three to four coastal teams with stacked talent (Warriors, Lakers, Nets), and the rest of the small-market team...

What if the Saudis come for tennis next?
Let’s paint a picture for a moment. It’s two, maybe three years from now. The Saudi Golf League has taken off, gotten its sponsorships and TV deals, and superstar commitments. It’s expanded its tournaments, the majors are now allowing defectors to return, and — all in all, it’s a success....

The CFBPA is not a union, but it’s making demands like one
It appears the jig is up — as if it hasn’t been for some time — and it’s clear there’s actually enough money to pay student-athletes. The thing about alleged educational institutions unapologetically trampling tradition en route to exorbitant TV deals is people notice....

Bo knows kindness, too
Bo Jackson, the former MLB and NFL star considered by many to be one of the greatest athletes of all time, donated to help cover the funeral costs for the 19 children and two adults murdered at Robb Elementary School in after the Uvalde, Texas in May....

MLB trade deadline candidates — Bats
There’s still a lot of talent on the table, but not nearly as much as there was 365 days ago....

Darwin Núñez’s courting of Liverpool holdouts is underway
It must be a slow period for sports in the U.K. as well. There’s not a dart league or a cricket game (match?) going on either? It could be the record-breaking heat that’s made fans more irritable than normal. Whatever it is, overreacting to a player’s preseason debut during a couple of friendlies is...

Carl Nassib came out to help a movement push forward
When Ryan O’Callaghan decided to come out as openly gay, for him it was supposed to be the end of the world. He thought that he would lose everything. His family, his friends, his career, it would all be over with so his plan in 2011 was to kill himself after the conclusion of his NFL career. ...

Deshaun Watson’s potential punishment could be a slap on the wrist compared to suspensions for betting, deflating the football
The latest Deshaun Watson rumor, coming from Pro Football Talk’s Mike Florio, is that Judge Sue L. Robinson is planning to hand down a suspension of between two and eight games for the new Browns quarterback under the league’s Personal Conduct Policy. This is a significant reduction from earlier rep...

Lane Kiffin’s terrible NIL fix could have been enlightening if he’d completed the thought
Lane Kiffin’s mouth is moving, which history tells us, means obnoxious words are spilling out. At Monday’s SEC Media Day, the Ole Miss head coach performed a cover of the same song every obstinate coach has been playing for the past year. Kiffin was just one of the few foolish enough to pitch a terr...

Bring Brittney back: Griner needs to return to the U.S. ASAP
Brittney Griner is not forgotten, as she sits in a Russian jail cell after pleading guilty to having a tiny amount of cannabis oil in her luggage after playing basketball for UMMC Ekaterinburg in the WNBA offseason....

LeBron James told the truth about Brittney Griner and Boston… people got mad — in other news, water is wet
The first step is always the hardest because people hate admitting their faults, especially in a place like America where denial is a part of this country’s DNA....

Danny Ainge has turned the Utah Jazz into a League Pass offseason team
Now in his third decade as a general manager or team president, Danny Ainge is in the next stage of what’s been a blessed NBA existence. As a supporting player on a pair of championship Celtics teams, he was one of the league’s first 3-point specialists, and reached the NBA Finals with Portland, the...

Ryan Garcia vs. Gervonta Davis would be spectacular, but it takes more than a good matchup for fights to materialize
There are few things more overwhelming than the tornado that forms when two pugilists circle each other for months, and even years, before finally engaging each other in the ring. Right now, between King Vasiliy Lomachenko, Teófimo López, Devin Haney, Shakur Stevenson, Ryan Garcia, and Gervonta Davi...

Juan Soto is on the trade block — and GMs better be prepared to break the bank
Washington Nationals outfielder Juan Soto is a 23-year-old superstar. In just four and a half years in the bigs, he has established himself as one of the best pure hitters in the game. He’s a perennial MVP candidate, a master of plate discipline — and now he’s on the trade block....

Stubbornness and health — that’s all Russell Westbrook has left
Short guards are notorious for aging poorly in the NBA. When quickness is your best asset, losing a step can be fatal. Only the craftiest players — think Jason Kidd, or Chris Paul — can remain effective. Whether it’s changing their playing style, using so many defensive tricks it borders on dirty pl...

NBA player movement junkies stuck smoking roaches this offseason
Rudy Gobert being the biggest name to change teams during free agency made this iteration feel like an overhyped, under-delivered trade deadline. While there’s still quite a bit of time left in the offseason, all but a star is running it back with last year’s team. Unless the Brooklyn Nets find a tr...