nit Page 45 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Women’s World Cup preview: The Americans will run into trouble in Group E
The most deceiving thing about the United States women’s national team’s chances of a three-peat isn’t that it has a major target on its back and therefore is part of the game plan to knock out from every other nation in Australia and New Zealand. That was true for the 2019 showcase in France. How’d...
World Cup Group D Preview: Can England complete the set?
The question in all sports has been that once you break through and win, does winning again become easier? Is the mental block gone? Or does the pressure simply build even more, as triumphs go from hoped for to expected? This is only one of the few things that England will be wrestling with at the W...
The Gold Cup was never about lifting another trophy for the US
The reinforcements won’t be coming from this group. Outside of goalkeeper Matt Turner — whose status as the unquestioned No. 1 goalkeeper for the United States men’s national team didn’t change after five games in this year’s CONCACAF Gold Cup — what player from this American squad that only defeate...
Women’s World Cup preview: Can the Japanese bookend the American’s dominance from Group C?
This should be pretty straightforward. It’s a matter of whether Spain or Japan advances from Group C as the winners, and who heads to the knockout stage as runners-up. That leaves Costa Rica and Zambia leaving Oceania early, but does anything exactly go to plan on the world stage? Group C has as cle...
The USMNT looked terrible against Canada, and it doesn’t matter
It took until the 88th minute for the United States men’s national team’s C-squad to score a goal on home soil in a major-tournament quarterfinal and 15 seconds after play resumed for the offense to take place that gave Canada a golden opportunity to take it away. An uninspired first half, saved by ...
Assessment after 2 summer league games: Victor Wembanyama is scary
Victor Wembayama’s rookie summer league didn’t have quite the immediate impact of Zion Williamson’s. There was no steal in which he wrestled the ball from the clutches of NBA starter and went Daryl Dawkins on the rim, nor an earthquake that stopped the game. What Wembayama was able to accomplish thr...
Larry Nassar got shanked in prison — it’ll be hard finding anyone who feels sorry for him
Larry Nassar got gutted like a fish....
Long live student journalism
I spent two college summers delivering Edy’s Ice Cream to Jewels, Moo & Oinks, and 7 Eleven’s throughout the Chicagoland area. The summer after my junior year I interned for NBA.com and thought I was hot stuff with a feature I wrote on Josh Smith’s basketball camp. Nicole Markus, Alyce Brown, Cole R...
The 15 Most Valuable Professional Sports Franchises
This story was corrected and revised on July 6, 2023. ...
Christian Pulisic’s move to AC Milan is the USMNT’s biggest news of the summer
The most substantial story for the United States men’s national team this summer has nothing to do with the Gold Cup. Nor any of the drama surrounding Gregg Berhalter’s return to the Yanks’ helm. It was always where the best American male soccer player on the planet, Christian Pulisic, landed in the...
Maybe Kyrie Irving believes in the Suns' rotation after all
It turns out that Kyrie Irving, the NBA’s foremost flat earther does believe in the Suns’ rotation. So much so that he’s considering joining it. At least that appears to be the case if there’s any veracity to Bleacher Report’s Kyrie code talker Chris Haynes’ report on the 31-year-old free agent’s sc...
USMNT striker Jesús Ferreira is best against crappy teams
The surest bet for the United States men’s national team to score a goal is Jesús Ferreira against a shitty team. The FC Dallas striker has padded stats that look much more impressive than they are. In 20 appearances for the Yanks, Ferreira has 11 goals. He became the 29th American to score 10 or mo...
Arsenal are loading up
Little ammunition joke for ya there. Anyway, if the accusation, and thought was that Stan Kroenke regularly cheaped out when it came to strengthening Arsenal, this week might change all that. While Kroenke has had no problem finding success in the salary-capped worlds of the NFL, NBA, and NHL, with ...
The Spurs like to mess with us, but it would have been unwise to use Victor Wembanyama to do so
Look at the San Antonio Spurs doing their part to properly sell the NBA. For a time there was a chance that Victor Wembanyama might be making his handful of NBA Summer League games in Sacramento and not during the league’s big event in Las Vegas....
Team USA Basketball needs to bring back multi-year commitments
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. And if it does break, fix it the same way you did after you originally broke it. Grant Hill, this is for you....
First-round NBA Draft grades on a pass/fail system
If you’re like most underachievers and procrastinators, the letter grade doesn’t matter as long as you pass. I’ve lived most of my life by the mantra that “C’s are for degrees” and look where it’s gotten me: Writing about sports for living, and passing judgment upon others without retaliation....
Dame Lillard and Portland are dancing around an uncomfortable truth
Every amateur couples therapist I’ve ever encountered on the web or on Twitter threads talks about passive-aggressiveness as a relationship killer. This offseason, the Portland Blazers, and Damian Lillard seem to have conflicting goals. The Miami Heat’s interest persists, but Portland has reportedly...
Marcus Smart might be exactly what the Memphis Grizzlies need
After nine years in Boston, Marcus Smart was sent packing to Memphis. On the surface, it might sound like a raw deal for Smart, but his arrival in Tennessee could be the best thing to happen to the Memphis Grizzlies since Ja Morant fell in their laps four years ago. Smart isn’t a superstar, but much...