larry Page 9 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The return of the Celtics
It wasn’t long ago that the Boston Celtics were viewed as one of the more underachieving teams in the NBA this season. ...

March Madness has turned to goo for MSU coach Tom Izzo
The time has come to downgrade Tom Izzo’s rep. For the lack of a better word, it has turned to goo....

The Cavs have again swept up the ashes left by LeBron’s departure, and built something impressive
They did it again, damn it. The Cleveland Cavaliers have somehow avoided the hellish purgatory typically levied against small-market teams in between superstar stints. The first time LeBron James left, after an initial seven-year stretch with Cleveland, it only took four seasons and four top-four Lo...

The Fictional Hooper Bracket: Western University Region
The regional sites worked out well for Monica Wright McCall. Western University and USC are on different sides of L.A., but she’s still at home. However, if she advances to the regional final, as expected, another hometown hero might be waiting for her, the trash-talkingest king of the Venice Beach ...

The best to not do it
Over the years, we’ve seen some great runs during March Madness and some highly talented teams. But the most talented teams don’t always take it all the way to a national championship. Many have fallen short, and some didn’t even make it to the Final Four. Here we rank some of the best teams in NCAA...

Kyrie brings loser energy to Brooklyn
Thanks to a change in arena policy last week removing the vaccine requirement for entry, Kyrie Irving was allowed in the building in Brooklyn on Saturday night for the first time all season – as a spectator, for Duke-Virginia Tech in the ACC championship game....

Stephen A. Smith and Chris 'Mad Dog' Russo scream at each other
Is Stephen A. Smith and Christopher “Mad Dog” Russo screaming at each other on Wednesdays producing hot air at a speed so ferocious that it threatens to blow out the windows at ESPN’s Seaport Studios? Yes....

<em>Winning Time</em> ‘The Swan’ a review
For Americans, but specifically African-Americans, 1991 was a hell of a year....

Let’s talk the Lakers, the Magic and HBO's '<em>Winning Time'</em><em></em>
Before the Los Angeles Lakers drafted Earvin “Magic” Johnson with the first overall pick in 1979, the league was on the verge of a fate worse than death — irrelevancy. ...

Nate McMillan’s tenure with the Hawks is downright Thibs-ian
The Hawks are lucky the Knicks are so disappointing or Stephen A. Smith would be melting down about them instead. The team that ended the Ben Simmons era in Philly, banished Julius Randle to a place from which he has yet to return, and competed with eventual NBA championship Milwaukee in the Eastern...

The best NCAA March Madness teams by seed
The NCAA Tournament has become one of the most unpredictable, edge-of-your-seat sporting events of the year due to its knockout nature. It’s a clash of college basketball styles coming together as the calendar turns from winter to spring, pitting teams that usually never see each other on the same c...

Lakers fans might be upset that Shaq didn’t make ESPN’s 75th anniversary top 10, but is there even a legit argument for him making it?
Shaquille O’Neal is seen by many as the most physically dominant and imposing player the NBA has ever produced. Knowing this, you’d think O’Neal would be a lock as a top 10 all-time player on any list. ESPN recently released its ranking of the top 75 NBA players (76 to be exact) for the league’s 75t...

The best NBA Players to never make an All-Star appearance
The National Basketball Association has had some great players step onto the court in its 75-year history. Some outstanding players have been left off the All-Star team each season in the NBA. Many of these names get snubbed year after year, and others made their names off big moments but probably s...

Debacle on ice: Olympics women’s figure skating was the opposite of heartwarming
The scene after the end of the women’s free skate was hard to watch Thursday — tears, screaming, and heartbreak pouring from the Russian athletes expected to sweep the podium, their Olympic experience destroyed by a doping scandal involving the country’s 15-year-old star, Kamila Valieva....

Kupp was phenomenal this season, but he’s not the best WR in the league, yet
I know he had an amazing, arguably perfect year, but let’s chill out on the talk of Cooper Kupp being the greatest receiver in the game....

Super Bowl Ads Roundup: More cameo than commercial
It feels like tweens put more effort into their TikToks than ad agencies put man hours into Super Bowl ads. Feature a celebrity endorsement — or six — into a commercial and we’re good, right? Don Draper called Peggy Olsen lazy for pitching a Joe Namath cameo in the ’60s, and here we are, 60 years la...

Which Super Bowl team will be more affected by injury?
After 17 regular-season games and four postseason matchups, a Super Bowl berth can mean an immense physical toll for participants on both sidelines. Despite the NFL’s best attempts to cut down on the grizzly knee ligament injuries and concussions that threatened their league, injuries are a part of ...

Top 10 Super Bowl one-hit wonders
We all know Tom Brady, Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw, and Roger Staubach. People like them made a name for themselves by coming up big in the Super Bowl on numerous occasions. Their ability to stay calm and play phenomenal football on the game’s biggest stage is what made them all-time NFL greats, but...

Automated offside is here, and it’s pretty damn cool
Even through its many, many bumps and hiccups (the kind of hiccups where you feel like you’ve pulled an oblique) I have been pro-VAR. It is hardly perfect, and far too much of it still depends on the whims and judgements of people. Except now being in the hands of whatever is floating between one pe...

If Lillard and McCollum didn’t work, then why was it so much fun?
I just saw CJ McCollum in Chicago like a week ago. He seemed fine — he had 29 on 13-of-23 from the floor and played well — but the team wasn’t itself anymore. It was a Sunday morning, and I was in bed when my girlfriend asked, “Hey Portland’s playing today. Want to go?”...