mad Page 16 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Investing in NFT ticket stubs is likely one of the NBA’s next big crypto ventures
NBA Top Shot, a collection of NBA NFTs featuring highlights, GIFs, and other classic NBA moments, recently surpassed $1 billion in sales. There have been ups and downs during the company’s lifespan, and it surely hasn’t reached the same heights it teased in early 2021, but Top Shot has remained a vi...

Is the NHL now rigging games for Connor McDavid?
OK, obviously not. But maybe?...

What are the Miami Heat?
Three teams have been pillars of culture in the modern NBA: The San Antonio Spurs, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Miami Heat. No matter the players, these three franchises have established systems where players come in to fill a role, commit to the vision, and buy in completely. Of the trio, onl...

Real Madrid have more than just black magic against Liverpool
While four years is a long time in soccer, and teams can greatly transform a couple times in that timespan, Real Madrid and Liverpool look a lot like they did four years ago. Liverpool are still anchored by Virgil van Dijk, Trent Alexander-Arnold, and Andrew Robertson in defense and Sadio Mane and M...

At Last! The NFL’s Pro Bowl may be no more!
Yesterday we finally got news that the NFL is considering eliminating the Pro Bowl!...

Kylian Mbappé is PSG’s only hope
Let’s be fair, it isn’t much of a sacrifice or even a hard choice to make more money than a lot of countries’ GDP and live in Paris. It’s a pretty sweet deal, and something 95 percent of the world would opt for (with the other five percent either already living there, making millions somewhere bette...

Who would win? Pitchers or position players?
Baseball is wacky nowadays. Just a few nights ago we watched Tampa Bay outfielder Brett Phillips pitch to reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani. The very next day, Ohtani was on the mound pitching to Phillips. When was the last time something like that happened? We’ve got a universal DH now. This stuff shou...

Miami and Boston meet again in the conference finals and this time their coaches even have history
This year’s Eastern Conference Finals matchup should be a rough, rugged, defensive series that will most likely come down to game seven. The Heat and Celtics are pretty evenly matched and familiar, having faced off in the ECF just two years ago. This will be the third meeting for the Heat and Celtic...

Knicks fans have bought the most expensive tickets in the NBA for 12 consecutive years — this is so New York
The city that never sleeps doesn’t know how to budget, either....

The NBA is foolishly applying outdated sensibilities into its fresh product
Woop!-woop! That’s the sound of da (NBA image) police....

Roman Reigns has become stale, but does Vince even want a way out?
At the top, I should state that I’m all for anybody making their bag with putting their body at less and less risk. If Roman Reigns wants to continue to make his millions by wrestling only 20 times a year, you get that, my friend. If he wants to do it by removing all risk and and just going to make ...

FIFA forgoing $150 million annually to pursue delusions of grandeur
Like people who are addicted to Coca-Cola products, gamers can spot a knockoff within the first three seconds of tasting one. Try giving a Coke lover a Pepsi, and they get offended. A waiter responding to a request for a Coke with, “We only have Pepsi. Is that OK?” is met with a laugh more often tha...

How is Justin Verlander still doing this?
Justin Verlander served notice to those sleeping on the Houston Astros and their 39-year-old ace: He’s all the way back. ...

Mad Dog Russo went there
For Knicks fans born before 1990, Mike and the Mad Dog was a rite of passage for their fandom. The NYC afternoon radio show on WFAN ran from 1989 to 2008 and was a seminal source for New York Knicks talk. In addition, the show inspired many of the current Knicks YouTube creators, like Casey Powell, ...

COVID-19 is still the biggest X-factor of the NBA playoffs
The fat lady may be singing, but the coronavirus and all of its variants are still dancing like the party just started....

How do you plan for devil magic?
So Pep Guardiola has to eat shit again. I’ll pause if that sentence makes you giggle (I know I am). Once again, armed with probably the most stacked team in Europe — as he was in Munich, and as he has been in Manchester — and armed with the most cohesive team in Europe, and probably the best team in...

Robo umps can’t get here soon enough as unhinged humans remind sports fans that baseball still has worst officials
The MLB’s umpires are really milking their last few minutes of relevance, and in the process aren’t doing themselves any favors in the argument against robot umpires taking their jobs. No, Triple A isn’t testing out a robo-ump at the moment, but maybe they should be because what happened to Madison ...

Are the Yankees frauds? Will the Angels come down to earth?
Saying “it’s only April” is out, because it’s been May for a few days now. We’re about 15 percent of the way through baseball’s regular season, give or take depending on how many games each team has played, and while that’s not a big sample size, the teams that are in first place now have those wins...

Rangers give Igor Shesterkin the Henrik Lundqvist treatment in 79 save performance
Perhaps the one downside of the NHL game speeding up is that more and more teams look the same. It gets harder to identify a specific style to a specific team as rosters are just packed with players who can move at a high pace and are directed to just get the fuck up the ice as quickly as fucking po...

Atlético Madrid are being delightfully bitchy
There are some traditions in sports that, while aesthetically pleasing, aren’t really enjoyed by the players all that much. The handshake line in the NHL playoffs comes to mind. While we enjoy what we think of as the ultimate act of sportsmanship, talk to a lot of players privately and they’d tell y...