hi Page 473 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

A decade-plus of Eastern Conference mediocrity can’t be easily forgotten
It’s weird how much energy goes into debating which conference is the NBA’s best. It makes sense in college football because schools can’t play all 100-plus teams each year, and strength of schedule determines playoff spots. But in basketball, with all 30 organizations facing each other at least twi...

The NBA’s newest award is a better fit for MLB teams
It’s bad enough that there have been 16 NBA playoff spots since 1984. At that time there were only 23 teams in the league. It’s 2022, and still more than half of the league gets into the playoffs, and that’s not even counting the highly entertaining Play-in Tournament. Sure the New Orleans Pelicans ...

Don’t hate on Tyler Lockett
In an era of the NFL where yards after the catch reign supreme, with star ankle-breakers like Justin Jefferson, Deebo Samuel, and Cooper Kupp constantly putting on shows with their ability to turn screens and slants into scores, it’s weird to think about how successful someone like Tyler Lockett has...

Make the Heisman Trophy more than the 'Best QB' award it’s become
The Heisman Trophy has been college football’s most prestigious award since University of Chicago halfback Jay Berwanger was awarded the first stiff-armed prototype in 1935. Since then, Chicago has dumped its football program and the award has morphed into a Quarterback of the Year award. That lazin...

Austin Reaves is young, but his steady presence has been crucial for the Lakers
The Los Angeles Lakers have turned their season around....

The Phillies don’t know when to settle
Dave Dombrowski and the Philadelphia Phillies apparently don’t understand the new atmosphere of baseball. The expanded playoffs mean, or were supposed to mean, that teams don’t have to go all out for 95-to-100 wins anymore. The Phightins are proof! 87 wins and a trip to the World Series!! You just h...

Deion Sanders is borrowing too much of his Colorado strategy from Elon Musk
Fear not Boulder, Colorado, Deion Sanders is here to save Colorado football. All he needed when he stepped off a private jet was his own silk cape to accompany his messiah complex. If the extremes and excesses of the NIL era were molded into human form, it would be the man known as Coach Prime....

Lotta goals in the desert - World Cup Daily Diary: Day 16
Brazil finally become all they can be, and Croatia do their thing of refusing to end a match in 90 minutes. They must really like each other! Let’s spin it right round!...

Get the NFC South out of here
Nearly every NFL season there is at least one division that if ripped from the league and cast into the sea, the product would be much better. This season, that division is the NFC South. ...

The Mets prove you don’t have to have holes if you don’t want to
The Mets don’t have to be unique. There are plenty of teams that wouldn’t have to use the departure of a player like Jacob deGrom as an excuse to declare it’s all over for them, that they’d have to find a new way, and to take a step back. You can get away with that if you’re the Astros and your mino...

Trae Young and Nate McMillan are surviving instead of thriving with each other
Here’s a multiple-choice essay question. You’ve got a blossoming superstar in Trae Young who has plateaued after some early career triumphs. Young is 24, played in a conference finals two seasons ago, but he’s also got a penchant for taking too many heat-check shots which are exhilarating to watch g...

Week 13 NFL Takeaways: Separation Sunday, the air at the top is getting thinner
The NFL regular season goes way too far into winter, but the home stretch is here. The time for some to assert dominance and others to sink claws into the final playoff spots has come....

Can the 49ers reset the NFL quarterback market?
If any team can settle the quarterback market a bit it’s the 2022 San Francisco 49ers....

Draymond Green eclipsing Michael Jordan illustrates how much offenses have evolved
In the opening minute of regulation against the Houston Rockets on Saturday night, Jordan Poole picked up his between-the-legs dribble and whipped a pass to Draymond Green in the short corner. Green caught the pass and rose to drain his only points of the night. It had no effect on the final score, ...

Gregg Berhalter deserves a lot of credit… and the exit door
At the top, we should refresh the list of things Gregg Berhalter can’t help. Everyone knows this list by now, but it deserves reinforcing. He can’t help that the US doesn’t have a genuine striker. He’s hardly the only international manager affected by such a thing. They’re just not that common. Spai...

All hail Hypnotoad: TCU is still in
Legal disclaimer: This article is for the express written purpose of helping my Dad, whose worldview is so obscured by his SEC bias that he can’t see his hand waving inches in front of his face. I’m writing this as a service to him and others like him who need to be de-brainwashed like liberated cul...
