nas Page 31 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

MLB free agency predictions - who will go where?
With over 200 names still facing free agency and less than one month to go before the start of the MLB season, we are in for an absolute flurry of moves. There are still dozens of big names on the table for any team looking to make a game-changing acquisition. Those teams that were right on the bord...

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....

Will Wade’s LSU benefit scandal resurfaces in NIL era
For 50 years, NCAA Narcs were the equivalent of law enforcement locking up upstanding citizens for possession. Rather than actively fighting for the rights that they were forced to finally accept last year, their Infractions Committee doggedly pursued victimless crimes like Rick Majeris paying for p...

Now seating: Simmons, party of one
Count me among those who enjoy a good soft opening. You get to check out the restaurant space, try a newly created menu, and judge the decor while waitstaff fumble over pronunciations and the back of the house yell at each other over ticket times. There are no real consequences because nothing is at...

The most dazzling tournament runs (by players who didn’t win it all)
One byproduct of college basketball’s March Madness’ 68-team, single-elimination format is it provides an avenue for players from programs major and mid-major to upgrade their stature. When certain players get their opportunity, they unlock a level few mortals can reach and sustain for multiple week...

The Western Conference had better hope that Zion returning to New Orleans is another false alarm
A lot happened this past weekend. So much that Duke fans cried and Duke haters laughed at the same time for about five minutes following Duke’s 94-81 loss in Mike Krzyzewski’s last game at Cameron Indoor Stadium, before LeBron James got to work scoring 56 points to help get the Los Angeles Lakers’ t...

Whew… we need to talk about the Russian gymnasts
This morning, I woke up to the sight of a river of people, from the elderly down to the babies carried in their parents’ arms, trying to escape Ukraine. I watched my TV in horror as they slipped and slid uphill, some of them falling, wondering if they were going to get back up again. Behind them, a ...

And your SEC women’s hoop champion is… Kentucky?
For the first time in 40 seasons, the Kentucky Wildcats emerged as champions of the SEC conference tournament. The Wildcats have been NCAA Tournament regulars, but Sunday’s final marks only their third conference regular season or tournament championship. The Wildcats’ conference championship wouldn...

<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. ...

Coach K’s all-Duke ‘Duke’ Team
After Saturday’s regular-season finale against North Carolina, the last time Mike Krzyzewski will take the floor at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Duke Blue Devils are only guaranteed two more games this season between the ACC and NCAA Tournaments....

Strikes and Balks: A list of things ailing Major League Baseball
Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire aren’t walking through that door....

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...

Why you never dance with devils
The reckoning has finally come for the sports organizations that have played footsie with autocratic nations. And not just FIFA and the International Olympic Committee, but for the Premier League, Formula One, and any sports league that has cashed checks from questionable international sources while...

Zion might want to leave the Pelicans, but he really shouldn’t
Zion Williamson’s absence from the New Orleans Pelicans has of late led to tons of speculation about his future. Former teammate JJ Redick made the rounds on ESPN shows to talk about Zion’s lack of professionalism, even saying on First Take that he had even addressed it with Zion in front of the tea...

Calling Ben Simmons
It’s been about two weeks since the monster NBA trade that interrupted Super Bowl week between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets. All that build-up and neither Ben Simmons nor James Harden have debuted with their new teams yet. Harden is dealing with a recurring hamstring injury. But what...

Gilbert Arenas is 40 years old and still pissing off teammates, this time it’s Richard Jefferson
There goes Gilbert Arenas doing what he does best again, making teammates angry....

Can we talk about the most dominant team in sports right now?
There’s an outlier on the South Carolina women’s basketball schedule. It happened nearly two months ago in Columbia, Missouri to begin Southeastern Conference play against Mizzou. The Gamecocks were at full strength while the Tigers were far from it. An Omicron outbreak knocked out six players, leav...

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....

Jim Harbaugh can’t lose
Apparently, it’s possible to play poker, bet big on a hand, fold, and win anyway. At least, it’s possible if you’re Jim Harbaugh....