fl Page 298 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Raptors Are The Warriors Now
Recency bias is a hateful but dominant force in the best-of-seven world, so the clear assumption to be made from Game 4 of the NBA Finals is that Game 6 seems unlikely. The Toronto Raptors are the new Golden State Warriors, and the Golden State Warriors are finally all about the trailing step, the a...
When Your Country Is On Fire, There's Always Softball
When he lived in Venezuela, Freddy de Freitas played baseball every day of the week, except for the occasional Monday. He played and baked under the Caracas sun on weekends, and on weekdays after work he’d rush over to his local stadium to play under the lights. That was before the stadium lights st...
Simone Biles Reminds Us How Deep Every Gymnast's Bag Of Tricks Really Is
If I had been drinking something when I clicked play on a video Simone Biles tweeted out on May 28, I would have spat it out. The video in question shows Biles during a training session, once again challenging what I thought I knew about gravity:...
The Night Climbers Of Islamabad
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Every night during Ramadan, about a dozen boys meet up in a parking lot that sits near Islamabad’s network of hiking trails to play cricket under the streetlights. You’re likely to see the same scene play out in any well-lit parking lot across the predominantly Muslim city. Bu...
Blues Honor Rent-A-Car Company With Color Guard Flag, Then Quietly Dishonor It
You might think sports are about sports. No. They’re about the troops. And America. And sometimes Canada too, but rarely in the NHL playoffs. But how can you prove, if you’re a team in, say, the Stanley Cup Final, that you really care about America and its uniformed services? (If you go one day with...
Can’t Everyone Just Stop Hollering At Phil Kessel While He’s Tryin’ To Watch The Teevee?
With the long NHL offseason here and no more hockey being played at all*, a young fan’s fancy turns, of course, to trade drama. This year’s downright biblical playoffs mean lots of teams are likely to be in the mix this summer—Columbus is about to lose high-value Russians faster than Petrograd afte...
What Happened To All The Interesting Refs?
One of the nerdier things a basketball fan can do at 9 a.m. Eastern Weirdo Time is to go to the NBA website and glom onto the identities of the officials who will work whatever game interests you True, NBA ref nerddom is an exceedingly small subset of Nerdvania, but let a thousand sets of hipster gl...
The Scummy Bucs Tried To Keep Secret Their Failed Attempt To Get Millions From The BP Oil Spill Settlement
This is old, but so what. The more we can talk about how the Tampa Bay Buccaneers cooked their books in a failed attempt to claim settlement money from a far-off oil spill that didn’t actually affect them, the better. Turns out there’s one more twist to pass along: The Bucs sought to keep from publi...
Even If The Warriors Win, Oakland Loses
This is the real NBA Finals, the one that transcends Larry O’Brien, Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Doris Burke, Woj, Adam Silver, dynasties, the next Why-The-Lakers-Are-On-Fire tell-all, the works. This is Oakland’s last stand with the team it raised from a pup, its last healthy bite of an apple that ...
Rough-Touch Football Gave Me More Than Just Money And Bruises
Bear called around seven and told me to wake up Moe....
The Buccaneers Tried Accounting Tricks To Claim Money From The BP Oil Spill
This is something else: A federal appeals court rejected the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ attempt to secure nearly $20 million from a settlement fund designed to compensate victims of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, on the grounds that the Bucs tried to use some shady-ass accounting to justify their ...
Aston Villa Are Returning To The Premier League
Aston Villa have made their way back to the Premier League after defeating Derby County 2-1 at Wembley in the Championship playoff final. The club joins Norwich City and Sheffield United as the three clubs heading to the top flight and replacing Huddersfield Town, Fulham and Cardiff City....
Dennis Rodman Accused Of Randomly Slapping Guest At His 58th Birthday Party
Dennis Rodman’s travel schedule can seem pretty hectic these days. Two weeks ago he was in Newport Beach, California, moseying nonchalantly around a yoga studio while several associates crammed un-purchased merchandise into handbags and reduced a huge amethyst geode crystal to a fine powder. Ten day...
Let's Remember Some Guys: The Large Men Of Fleer
There are ways in which the basketball currently being played in the NBA is an evolved version of the basketball played there a decade or so ago. It really is more open in a bunch of ways, for instance, and as a result there are new possibilities in each game that simply would not have fit in the NB...
Local Weatherman Is Fed Up With NBA Fans Complaining About A Tornado Warning Interrupting Game 7
Last month, Michael Wilbon got his undies in a bunch when a local CBS affiliate interrupted a Masters rerun with a tornado warning, and it turns out he’s not the only cranky sports fan out who can’t be bothered to think about potentially life-threatening weather systems when the game is on....
The Bitter Life Of A Shattered Jockey: A Mostly True Story
The 1973 Philadelphia Sports Writers Association Awards banquet wasn’t lacking for starpower. Flyers legend Bobby Clarke, who became only the ninth player in NHL history to score 100 points with his 104-point 1972-73 campaign, was one of the honorees. So too was Penn State running back and newly-min...
This Is The Most Entertaining The Lakers Have Been In Years
Now THIS is the kind of story fantasists are asking for, and there isn’t as much as a matchbook in sight. There is an attempt here by several people of power and influence to seize the Los Angeles Lakers, and though you may wish this kind of plot turn concerned a team relevant enough to actively hat...
Portland Wronged The Jail Blazers More Than The Jail Blazers Wronged Portland
Late last year I attended a jersey release party thrown by the Portland Trail Blazers and Trillblazin, a Trail Blazers-centric independent clothing concern. The Cleaners, a gallery in Portland’s Pearl District, was flooded with people looking to get free t-shirts and tote bags, and looking at a doze...
Florida State Becomes First Softball Team In NCAA Tournament History To Hit Four Consecutive Dingers
For the first time in NCAA tournament history, a softball team hit back-to-back-to-back-to-back homers in a single game. Florida State smashed four dingers in a row in the Seminoles’ eventual 12-1 win over South Florida on Saturday. The game was over after five innings....
The NFL Concussion Settlement Just Keeps Getting Worse And Worse
In what plaintiffs’ attorneys view as a total disaster, the federal judge overseeing the NFL concussion settlement on Thursday denied a motion to reconsider rules changes for physicians she had approved last month. Those changes, as noted earlier, stand to make it even more difficult for players to ...