joe Page 53 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

If Giannis wins his third MVP this year we can put the best player on the planet debate to rest
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo can join some elite company, should he take home his third NBA MVP award at the end of the regular season. If he can edge out Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokić, we can finally lay the best player in the world debate to rest. We can’t continue to deny Antetoko...

Who are we taking to Qatar?
The USMNT punched their ticket with a true let’s-not-fuck-this-up-royally performance in Costa Rica. So now the attention turns to who are the 23 souls that Gregg Berhalter will be putting on the plane for the tournament. Our intrepid soccer goofuses Sam Fels and Eric Blum have some ideas....

James Harden has the most to prove of any star player this postseason
The NBA postseason is nearly upon us, and each year you can pick out a few players that have something to prove. Giannis Antetokounmpo did it last season (no matter how many breaks they got along the way), leading Milwaukee to the title, and LeBron James the year before when he led the Lakers to the...

ESPN’s latest MVP straw poll...explain yourself
This year’s NBA MVP Award has several contenders: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ja Morant, Devin Booker, Luka Dončić, etc. However, most fans and analysts would agree that the award is really a two-horse race between Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid and the reigning MVP, Denver’s Nikola Jokić. It’s been that way...

Giannis outshines Embiid in latest installment of the best rivalry in the NBA
Joel Embiid learned a valuable lesson in Tuesday night’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks in the waning seconds. When you come at the king, you best not miss. Or at least go up for game-tying shots more aggressively when the king of weakside blocks is prowling....

I guess I know how hockey fans feel now
Last night, there was one of those rare regular-season NBA games that rise to the level of must-see. The Sixers and Bucks met in Philadelphia, and with the top four seeds in the Eastern Conference still in flux, and could very well finish in any order, it had some real meaning. And it was a classic,...

Tiger Woods’ possible return is amazing, but will the PGA accommodate his injuries?
The private flight tracking, the Medalist rumors, the never-ending hope — this morning, the last year of Tiger Woods news came to a head when he touched down at Augusta National, home of the Masters, for a practice round that almost no one saw coming. Just over a year after a car accident that nearl...

Deshaun Watson’s contract will change QB negotiations forever
Precedent, precedent, precedent. There may be countless takeaways from the Cleveland Browns’ newest QB hire, but the salary contingencies they’ve set up for Deshaun Watson are sure to set a league-wide standard that will have a significant impact on future quarterback contracts....

The NFL ‘reinvested’ in its diversity efforts the same week FOX passed on promoting Gus Johnson — go figure
The people that thought Brian Flores was lying have gone predictably silent....

Tom Brady swerved us all — now Peyton Manning wants his retirement gifts back
When Tom Brady announced his “retirement” in January, the sports media world seemed split on whether he was really done with football. Since the announcement, Brady’s already ditched retirement. Now there’s a rumor of a potential trade out of Tampa Bay....

Like Lakers’ season, LeBron James’ numbers are empty in MVP race
Never before has a player done so much, but it meant so little. Enter LeBron James....

Tis but a glimpse
It’s not official yet. The USMNT still has to dot the i’s and cross the t’s and all that. Which means they have to manage to not lose to Costa Rica by six goals or more on Wednesday. Quite frankly, the more impressive feat than qualifying for the World Cup would be losing by six in Costa Rica, and e...

LeBron’s entire year has been a Razzie
On Oscar weekend, Space Jam: A New Legacy is being honored with a surprising distinction that has LeBron James stans flying their flags at half-mast. This isn’t a LeBron hate space, but we’ve got to keep it 100. I used to joke that LeBron would have been the perfect casting choice for Magic Johnson ...

Triple H watched other wrestling, which is actually a big deal
Triple H announcing his retirement on Friday with Stephen A. Smith was more of a confirmation than a surprise. The dude nearly died due to heart failure, after all, and he hadn’t been in the ring in three years. He’s in his 50s too, though that hasn’t stopped a host of others. And there was still a ...

Didn’t know Jordan Mailata had those pipes, kinda knew Joe Buck didn’t
Jordan Mailata sang his ass off and probably shouldn’t have been revealed as Thingamabob on Wednesday night’s episode of FOX’s The Masked Singer. The Eagles’ offensive lineman made the transition from blocking defensive ends to singing “Wanted Dead or Alive” by Bon Jovi on national television....

Kevin Durant says Dirk Nowitzki is the best shooting big of all time, but it's actually Kevin Durant
I’m not surprised that Kevin Durant has a great deal of respect for Dirk Nowitzki’s game. Prior to Dirk becoming one of the best players in the league, all the basketball players who were bigger than most of the other basketball players were scoffed at for not playing with their back to the basket. ...

When Jimmy Butler shows you who he is…
We’ve all been down this road before, except so few want to call it what it is. It’s probably because Jimmy Butler is so eager to give the media what it wants, and that is juicy quotes and stories and also to make them feel like one of the guys. He’s happy to have them along, if not outright bring t...

LeBron is gunning for the scoring title because the Lakers are irrelevant
The Lakers are the hottest kind of garbage right now. The kind of refuse you smell on Bourbon Street the day after Mardi Gras. They’re 10 games below .500, sitting in ninth place, and fighting for a final chance to disappoint their home crowd in the first of possibly two play-in games. Russel Westbr...

A tribute to the omnipresent NBA stars who never played a minute
Let’s pour one out for the lost souls of the 2021-22 NBA season. This season was a void on their resumes for a select few stars. An entire missed season can be an opportunity to step back, reevaluate and return for a bounce-back campaign. Or they can smack into the 2023 season like porcelain against...

West London is not going to welcome The Ricketts Family
It’s pretty clear that the Ricketts family, who own the Cubs, look upon Fenway Sports Group as something of an idol. They took their GM from Boston and made him the president of the Cubs. You know him as Theo Epstein. They have remade Wrigley Field and the neighborhood around it in the same fashion ...