james Page 29 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The best NBA games on this week’s schedule
This is the time of year in which sports fans should be primarily focused on the Men’s and Women’s college basketball postseason tournaments. The “amateurs” have put on quite a show that deserves attention this week....

The craziest storylines of the NBA season (so far)
The NBA is never drama-free, and there’s a reason the NBA playoffs are one of the few reasons to remain on the toxic hell site that is Twitter these days. But even for the NBA, this season has been a spectacle worth of Vanderpump Rules. As we inch ever closer to the post-season, here’s a look back a...

Joel Embiid has overtaken Nikola Jokić for MVP
Don’t count MVPs before they hatch. Nikola Jokić’s third consecutive MVP has seemed like an inevitability during the first three-quarters of the season. Jokić’s triple-double averages, improved offensive efficiency, advanced statistics, and Denver’s No. 1 seed in the Western Conference all appeared ...

The Great Debates tournament: Round of 32
Alright, things are heating up for those of you who understand the concept. The big-name debates largely rolled on with a couple of alliterative exceptions as Rest vs. Rust and Nature vs. Nurture were ousted. ...

South Carolina women’s basketball team is the best in the NCAA Tournament — regardless of gender
Whether you call it irony or coincidence, the best team playing during college basketball’s biggest moment during a month that’s dedicated to the history of women makes too much sense. Yes, we all think of the men’s game when we think of March Madness. And yes, the men’s game brings in all the money...

Damian Lillard sounds like he’s threatening to Barry Sanders his career
Damian Lillard was in the news Wednesday for sounding like an old head during an appearance on J.J. Redick’s The Old Man and the Three podcast. From saying young players were entitled, to worrying about the direction of the league, and all the championship tropes that have followed him in between, i...

These are the types of decisions that destroy offenses
I’m firmly in the corner of you should never pay a running back for all the cliche arguments that go along with it. But there are exceptions to every rule, like when a running back is more receiver than Derrick Henry. Quarterbacks love having outlet guys on their team, and like you could argue that ...

Deadspin presents: The Great Debates tournament
Welcome to the Great Debates bracket, where we’re trying to find out what is life’s greatest argument. The queries below have stumped philosophers, presidents, priests, and peasants alike. They’ve inspired books, memes, Twitter threads, and even entire fields of study....

All the NBA action you'll want to catch this week
This week is the first of the NCAA basketball tournaments, and freak injuries have befallen both Kevin Durant and Luka Dončić. Some sports fans might believe this is a good week to step away from the NBA....

Does the US have anyone who would stand up like Gary Lineker?
The farcical idea that sports and politics don’t mix has once again been shaken to its cardboard foundation with what’s been going on in the UK with Gary Lineker and the BBC (every time I hear or see “BBC” I can’t help but shout it like Austin Powers during the end credits of the first film, but tha...

College ump made a call so bad, he's been indefinitely suspended
Somewhere Fred VanVleet is smiling and cursing happily after a subpar official received his just due. The University of New Orleans defeated Mississippi Valley State 7-3 in a college baseball game on Friday. As the college basketball season is heating up, millions of people still found time to view ...

Mikaela Shiffrin is the GOAT, and 'medalz culture' can shove it
I know I’m one of the few sports writers leaping to my keyboard to riff on Mikaela Shiffrin breaking the all-time record for wins — earning No. 87 in Åre, Sweden, and passing Ingemar Stenmark on Saturday — but I wanted to issue this as a reminder that Olympic success is kind of bullshit. The last im...

Fred VanVleet’s expletive-laden remarks cost him $30,000 and put him in a special group
Fred VanVleet is now immortal. Hitting nearly every 3-pointer you attempt for two playoff rounds and winning a championship is great. However, only Toronto Raptors’ fans and non-causal NBA watchers remember that. The narrative in the 2019 NBA Finals was Kevin Durant’s injury and Kawhi Leonard playin...

Mikal Bridges is the calm after the storm of Brooklyn’s tumultuous Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant era
Today is the one-month anniversary of the NBA trade deadline that put the league in a blender. While the Phoenix Suns seem content with their half of the trade that netted them Kevin Durant, the Brooklyn Nets have quietly been winners in their own way. In addition to the first-round picks Phoenix su...

This NFL wide receiver is Gargoyle on <i>The Masked Singer</i>
On Wednesday afternoon, FOX’s hit show The Masked Singer released footage from its new episode that aired last night. It’s of someone with a rather large and athletic build singing “One Call Away” by Charlie Puth. The tone sounded like a professional singer and I had some preliminary guesses of Ne-Y...

Congrats, you were right about Zion Williamson, now shut up about it
One of the most maddening things about take culture is people want to be right so badly that they end up rooting for the take over all else. So if your reaction to the latest, depressing Zion Williamson injury update was: “I told you he was made of glass,” I don’t have the time or energy to entertai...

Now is the time to buy a women’s professional sports franchise
Last month, the WNBA’s Seattle Storm was valued at a record $151 million as reported in the Wall Street Journal. The team isn’t for sale, but investors can purchase one of 15 shares of the team, as it looks to finance a $64 million practice facility....

Jalen Williams is becoming the jewel of this NBA rookie class
For much of the past year, Jalen Williams has been an underground jewel for NBA mole people. He won’t be discussed on First Take because he came from a mid-major and got jammed into one of the NBA’s smallest media markets. ...

Nobody in the NBA ever told Giannis about Ricky Davis?
Giannis Antetokounmpo was nine years old in Greece in March 2003, so it’s likely that he didn’t watch too many Cleveland Cavaliers games before the Franchise selected LeBron James with the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft that June. Still, a veteran should have told him the story about Ricky Davi...

The best father-son duos to ever play in the NBA
It is an insurmountable stroke of luck to make the NBA. So when a former NBA player can watch his son make the league as well, it is an act of poetry. As the all-time leading scorer, LeBron James is set to be the first NBA player to play in the league simultaneously with his son, Bronny James. We lo...