ick Page 312 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Penguins tried to game the system and lost big
One of the many catchphrases that Eddie Olczyk has been trying to “fetch” for more than a decade is “Goaltending: If you don’t have it, you got no chance.” Like most of the things Eddie O says, it probably sounds way cooler and more clever in his head. It’s not a play on words, it doesn’t rhyme, it’...

J. Cole’s pro basketball career is over — it should never have begun
Dreams are something J. Cole often raps about. It’s the name of his music label — Dreamville Records. But dreams aren’t promised. Sometimes one person’s dream can be another’s nightmare....

Knicks fans are making the most of this run
America, they here. ...

The Mickey Callaways should never be able to don a uniform again, period
Rob Manfred finally finished reading The Athletic’s report from February about Mickey Callaway’s sexual harassment. Or perhaps he clicked on the tube this week and caught Andrea Kremer’s HBO Real Sports piece on the sex harrassment women in sports media regularly receive that was partly based on The...

Pol's son says Trump hinted at 'a lot of money' in 2008 for Spygate probe to go away
The New England Patriots have as much of a scandalous underbelly as any NFL organization, in no small part due to the example that is set from the top down. Prostitution, spying, cheating, altering games from the stadium to the ball itself — you name it, they’ve done it, or have at least been accuse...

Ice Trae embracing his new NYC villain role would benefit the rest of his career
For most fan bases, if you become their villain, they’ll hate you forever. But for villains of the New York Knicks, you also might just get a documentary one day....

People are yelling about the Cowboys letting another player wear Tony Romo’s No. 9, because everything’s louder in Texas
Retiring jerseys is kinda a weird thing. Across all sports, each team has their own process. Some retire numbers liberally (ahem, ex-New York Yankees Nos. 1 through 10), and others have retired the numbers of seemingly unworthy players, like the Oklahoma City Thunder retiring… Nick Collison’s No. 4....

Look at the rim, Bam — you’ve done it plenty of times before
We’ve had two opposite responses this month to the phrase, “If you don’t learn from history, you’re doomed to repeat it.”...

The NFL’s statement on George Floyd proves the league will never care about Black people
In America, there are two types of racism. Type-A is often “tolerated.” It leads to microaggressions, redlining, gerrymandering, and voter suppression. These are the people that will donate money to just causes, but also get uncomfortable when their daughter brings a Black man home. Type-B, on the o...

Maybe it’s about Connor Hellebuyck, not Connor McDavid
The reflex is to point and laugh at the Edmonton Oilers once again. It’s combined with frustration that the game’s best player is leashed to such a clown car of an organization, one of the most brilliant individual seasons going completely to waste. And if you’re a long-term hockey writer or analyst...

Who are the oldest champions in sports?
Sports aren’t always a young person’s game....

The NBA’s young players don’t GAF and it’s beautiful
The opening weekend of the playoffs confirmed that the future of the NBA is in good hands. Young, playmaking guards highlighted the weekend and not only brought their game, but brought their attitude, disrespect, and pettiness as well....

Stop putting athletes in danger to manufacture camera-friendly moments
Do you remember Monica Seles?...

Knicks lose playoff game at Madison Square Garden, water is wet
On Sunday, almost eight years to the day since the last time it happened — May 16, 2013 — the Knicks had a chance to win a playoff game inside Madison Square Garden. As usual, they didn’t. And shockingly enough, Knicks fans are dumbfounded about how this happened, as if this isn’t a franchise that h...

Basketball returns home
Even as just a casual basketball fan, I have not missed out on the schadenfreude of the New York Knicks the past decade. It’s always affirming when a place that considers itself essential to a sport, perhaps to the world through that sport, is rendered irrelevant. Watching the Knicks’ sense of self ...

Old Man Mickelson becomes oldest golfer to win a major
Before the 2021 PGA championship, Vegas gave Phil Mickelson 200-1 odds to win his sixth major. You probably didn’t give him much of a chance, either. Lefty came in 69th place in his last tournament and missed the cut at the one before. He couldn’t crack the top 20 at the 2021 Masters. Hell, he could...

How can you not root for ‘old man’ Phil Mickelson?
In a day and age where Phil Mickelson makes more money starring in advertisements about psoriatic arthritis than playing golf, you’d think his days of winning majors were far behind him....

Blazers-Nuggets briefly bumped to ESPN2, still a far cry from tape-delayed 1981 Finals
The start of Trail Blazers-Nuggets was bumped to ESPN2 as Jose Ramírez and Josh Taylor fought for the undisputed junior welterweight title on ESPN, which is barely fathomable in 2021. Taylor won by unanimous decision, and ESPN switched over to the action in Denver with 6:40 left in the first quarter...

Five pitchers whose Cy Young-caliber seasons are going unnoticed
Baseball has gone through an entire “repressed Catholic kid going into their freshman year of college”-type transformation over the past several years. With baseball moving ever closer to a “three true outcomes” game, several pitchers have revitalized their careers and several more have just started...

Gimme an X! MLB’s 20,000th player reminds us what baseball desperately needs
In 1975, Bob Watson scored Major League Baseball’s one millionth run, an achievement which earned him one million Tootsie Rolls and one million pennies from the candy company, all of which Watson donated to charity....