ja Page 79 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Northwestern’s decision to keep Pat Fitzgerald’s assistants is proof that Northwestern isn’t a serious place
The “intellectual elite” are failing in Evanston. In the same week in which we discovered that Northwestern’s head football coach Pat Fitzgerald’s laughable two-week suspension should have led to his eventual firing for running a program that’s “allegedly” allowed hazing and racism to run rampant fo...

World Cup Group D Preview: Can England complete the set?
The question in all sports has been that once you break through and win, does winning again become easier? Is the mental block gone? Or does the pressure simply build even more, as triumphs go from hoped for to expected? This is only one of the few things that England will be wrestling with at the W...

The Gold Cup was never about lifting another trophy for the US
The reinforcements won’t be coming from this group. Outside of goalkeeper Matt Turner — whose status as the unquestioned No. 1 goalkeeper for the United States men’s national team didn’t change after five games in this year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup — what player from this American squad that only defeate...

Rand Paul’s thoughts on Black athletes reflects the GOP’s company line
It’s not exactly a revelation to discover that white conservatives identify more with the PGA Tour than the NBA. It’s become part of their doctrine to attack the largely black National Basketball Association for just about anything. So we shouldn’t be shocked that one of their most prominent members...

World Cup Group B Preview: It’s time for Sam Kerr to take this itty bitty world by storm
We spilled some ink in these parts about Mallory Swanson by herself making the USWNT a threat to win the World Cup, before her unfortunate injury. But the US isn’t the only team with a player who is capable of grabbing a short tournament by the haunches, and the co-hosts Australia may have the bigge...

Dillon Brooks has got to be kidding
Making it to any professional sport and sticking around for a considerable amount of time requires a certain level of talent, dedication, and confidence in oneself. We often see players pump themselves up, making proclamations of being the best, although others don’t view them in that same light. Th...

Cooper Flagg was playing in the wrong summer league
Victor Wembanyama’s NBA summer league debut was a mixed bag that had quick-take artists calling him Raef “LaFrench” after a 3-for-14 shooting performance. Nevermind that he rejected several shots and affected a slew of others. On Sunday night, Wembanyama had to respond to the best player in a summer...

Sha’Carri Richardson is as speedy and swaggy as ever
If a young, talented, and boisterous Black woman bothers you, then divert your eyes from track and field — also, you’re probably racist. Sha’Carri Richardson’s feet torched the track at the 2021 Olympic Trials. Unfortunately for her, much of her career following her dynamic performance was littered ...

The Charlotte Hornets are a soap opera
Throughout the history of NBA teams that have called Charlotte, North Carolina home, a second-round trip to the playoffs has been the furthest point any franchise has made it. And while this iteration of the Hornets has nothing to do with the ones from yesteryear, they do feature something that prob...

Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier’s spinoff league offers a platform for WNBA stars
Every offseason, women’s basketball’s finest head abroad to take part in leagues that run concurrently with the NBA schedule. Unfortunately, that often creates a problem for the WNBA teams that have them under contract between May and the completion of their respective seasons in early fall. That’s ...

The Orioles need to trade for Shohei Ohtani, and Christian Pulisic in Milan
Sure, it’s completely ridiculous. But being a baseball fan is about being ridiculous and, before owners crushed our spirits, discussing trades used to be the most fun part. Are the Angels going to admit that thanks to Mike Trout’s injury on top of all their others that it’s probably over for them? N...

MLB's Home Run Derby Chain is terribly uncool
Look at MLB attempting to improve its All Star production with 2004 John Cena-levels of swagger jacking. Remember the G-Unit spinner chain? It has gone from Cena’s WWE championship belt now to the Home Run Derby. The 2023 winner will receive a chain with a bejeweled spinning plus sign....

LeBron James, Rajon Rondo coaching Nike Elite youth team
Imagine being 16 years old, warming up for a youth basketball game, then you look up, and LeBron James and Rajon Rondo walk through the door. There are only a few realistic scenarios to cause such an event. You’re either a teammate or opponent of Bryce James, The King’s youngest son. Or you’re dream...

It’s the summer of Grant!
The NBA Playoffs were not nearly as kind to Grant Williams in 2023 as 2022. However, the summer has been his oyster, specifically this month. He spent Independence Day weekend at the event of the summer — Michael Rubin’s White Party. A couple of days after mingling with A-Listers, the Boston Celtics...

The sports world takes sports betting more seriously than violence against women and racism — go figure
Greg Hardy got to play football again. Antonio Brown keeps hanging around. Donald Sterling and Robert Sarver made millions after selling their teams. The NCAA keeps making billions off the backs of unpaid teenage Black basketball players in March. Pete Rose still can’t get into the Hall of Fame — ma...

The 15 Most Valuable Professional Sports Franchises
This story was corrected and revised on July 6, 2023. ...

The Rockets have become the NBA’s most polarizing team
The Houston Rockets have been stuck in zero gravity since their post-Harden rebuild began two years ago. Despite their lottery successes they still have no direction. The Rockets lit the fuse this summer expecting a controlled explosion and witnessed the creation of the NBA’s most opulent sparkler....

Michelle Wie West is retiring and she’s leaving behind a weird legacy
Somehow, Michelle Wie West is only 33. She was a grown adult when I was a kid and now the prodigy is only two years older than me. After a professional golf career of nearly two decades, Wie West is hanging up the clubs after this week’s U.S. Open. Wie West, who didn’t marry Kanye or Adam, but Golde...

Will the NBA’s new flopping rule really change anything?
The NBA is testing a new rule to dissuade players from flopping every time down the court. Flopping has become so common over the past 20 years that it’s part of the association’s culture. However, the league has finally decided to make an attempt to cut down on guys flopping all over the court....
