neal Page 3 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Whose personality is more irritating: Current Jimmy Butler or prime Dwight Howard?
Everyone has had that coworker who kind of sucks but is really good at his job so the manager looks the other way when Glen takes 20 minute out of the weekly staff meeting to brag about his weekend jet skiing. Yeah, he’s annoying, but holy shit can he sell the hell out of reasonably priced Kias. Dwi...
Can we get a more bingeable NBA Playoffs, please?
As we near the halfway point of the NBA Playoffs, it’s a good time to take inventory of what’s working, and what’s driving viewers to dive for the mute button any time they hear Lizzo’s “Now here go!” at the top of that commercial for cruise ships. While I could do an entire post about how I’d rathe...
2022 NFL Draft: A few thoughts on each pick in the first round
The first 10 picks of the NFL Draft are the Oscars in reverse. The biggest honorees are rewarded first. Fans show up and shout insults at the host and bone-rattling contact with Roger Goodell is encouraged....
2022 NFL Draft: All eyes on New York
Will 2022 be the year that New York NFL football finally gives its metropolitan area something to watch on Sundays? Following double-digit victory seasons from the Jets in 2015 and the yacht club Giants in 2016, neither franchise has sniffed a .500 record since. At first glance, tri-state area resid...
The Mocking 2022 NFL Draft: Which realistic picks would anger their fans the most?
If you’ve followed this NFL Draft closely, you know that consensus isn’t exactly a thing. There’s no quarterback prospect worth lusting over, and even if that won’t stop teams from reaching on one, we won’t have a storyline until Chicago actually drafts Mitch Trubisky with the No. 2 overall pick....
2022 NFL Draft: Here are the worst fits for each of the big-name quarterbacks
We’re exactly six days away from the NFL draft, and yet we still aren’t sure what the first round is going to look like. Perhaps Deebo Samuel, A.J. Brown, and/or Terry McLaurin are traded in the next few days and shake up the first round. Maybe the Panthers make a move for Baker Mayfield. And I don’...
Ranking the top postseason performances in Miami Heat history
Jimmy Butler had a memorable Game 4 against the Milwaukee Bucks on Monday, dropping 56 points in a 119-114 victory over the No. 1 seed....
Why Embiid’s scoring title is a BIG deal
Joel Embiid capped off his chase for the scoring crown on Saturday night by summoning a brilliant 41-point, 20-rebound outing in the Philadelphia 76ers’ 133-120 win over the Indiana Pacers. A dazzling 40/20 game was the perfect way to secure the best individual accomplishment of his career....
Becoming Kareem
To capture the intellectual acuity of Lakers legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, an actor portraying the seven-footer would need to possess a towering level of gravitas. Winning Time creator Max Borenstein had said casting Kareem was the hardest of the Showtime Lakers. When Solomon Hughes walked through the...
Fictional Hooper Bracket: The Elite Eight
Welcome to the Elite Eight of the Fictional Hoopers Tournament. All the fat and sinew (Sandy Lyle and Steve Urkel) have been trimmed, and the characters left are all from powerhouse pictures. No one has been able to knock off either of White Men Can’t Jump’s main characters (celebrated last night at...
Fictional Hooper Bracket: Venice Beach Regional - Round 2
The first round of the Venice Beach Regional went mostly according to the seedings, with an easily predicted upset (12-seed Buggs beating the 5-seed Pound in a Space Jam rematch), and one I didn’t see coming (13-seed Clarence Withers toppling 4-seed Quincy McCall). At the top of the bracket, Billy H...
Fictional Hooper Bracket: Hickory Region
Welcome to the old-head section of the bracket. There’s a lot of striped socks and short shorts in this region, so it’s only right that these games are played in the dusty gym in Hickory, Ind. JImmy Chitwood catches a break getting to play at home, but he’s not the upset that is looming in this regi...
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...
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 ...
Kobe on Dwight Howard: 'This shit ain't gonna work'
Anybody who watched the late Kobe Bryant’s career knows he was all business and no-nonsense on the basketball court. So, it’s no surprise that the tandem of Bryant and Dwight Howard didn’t work out when the Lakers acquired the big man back in 2012. Current ESPN analyst and former NBA player Jalen Ro...
Guess what Ben Simmons? You proved Shaq’s point
Philadelphia 76ers’ guard Ben Simmons has not played a single game all season. Why? He wants to be traded. Why? Because after an abysmal 2021 postseason that saw Simmons shoot 34.2 percent from the free throw line before getting bounced by the Atlanta Hawks in the second round, Simmons rightfully re...
The NFL will feature three Black officials in the Super Bowl but still only has one Black coach
This week, the NFL announced their officiating crew for Super Bowl LVI, which features three Black men. On Thursday morning, there were multiple reports that the Denver Broncos were going to be the first team to fill their head coaching vacancy, as they were finalizing a deal to hire Packers offensi...
Shaq punching Kyrie Irving would be like a grizzly bear mauling a weasel
Shaquille O’Neal is stirring up trouble again with his comments stemming from a recent episode of The Big Podcast With Shaq. While discussing Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving and his part-time player status, O’Neal casually stated that things would get physical if he and Irving were on the same team...
Hamilton vs. Hutchinson/Thibodeaux is this year’s Chase vs. Sewell
When a team has as many holes as the Jacksonville Jaguars and is in rebuild mode, it can be difficult to determine who to take, not because of talent level, but because certain positions are more vital to a rebuild than others. Obviously, the most important position for a successful rebuild is quart...