pie Page 16 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

LaMelo Ball could return by May, and Hornets could sting from playoff play-in position
We weren’t sure if LaMelo Ball would play again this season, but it looks like he will....

Marcus Smart passing Larry Bird on all-time Celts’ 3-pointer list is a wake-up call
It’s not a revelation that the NBA today is heavier on three-pointers than it’s ever been. Teams are taking more threes per game than ever before — 34.7 per game, per team, and with good reason: at 36.7 percent, this season’s success rate is the highest of all time....

It's great to see Isaiah Thomas again, and hopefully other NBA veterans can follow
Being labeled an NBA journeyman has to be awkward....

Jacob deGrom was excellent, again, before the Mets Mets’d it all up
“Ughhhhhhhhhh.”...

Paul Pierce getting fired on his day off is hilarious, but should he have?
When I saw the news that Paul Pierce got fired from ESPN, I and many others had this initial reaction:...

Grant Hill named director of USA Men’s National Basketball Team
You could go so far as to say Grant Hill was always meant for this. ...

The players we’d most like to see in the Big 3’s new season
According to a report from Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports, the Big3 is returning after their 2020 cancelation due to COVID....

Deadspin reseeds this senseless men’s Sweet 16
A week into the NCAA Tournament, and madness is the perfect word to describe what has taken place so far in March. The only logical explanation for how things have gone is based on just how nuts this season has been from the jump — given all the pauses and disruptions that have occurred due to COVID...

The Colorado Avalanche make medicine sick
It isn’t much of a story when a preseason favorite starts rising to the top of the standings. Most everyone thought the Colorado Avalanche would be a Cup contender this year, playing 56 preseason games and one warm-up series before a West Division final with the Vegas Golden Knights that will contai...

TAKE THE QUIZ! Here's an 'Elite Eight' trivia questions for NCAA Tourney's opening day
Welcome, welcome. Come on, sit down — you know you’re not leaving your couch for the next four days. The first game tips off in a few hours, which gives you some time to test your Men’s March Madness knowledge. Are you up for the task? We have assembled an “Elite” list of eight questions that you ma...

Duke? UNC? UConn? Ranking the best NCAA national champs over the past 20 years
Selection Sunday will be the first time we’ve been able to fill out a bracket in two years. A lot has changed since then, especially in college basketball, as it’s been as upside down as the rest of the world is. Juniors and seniors are the biggest draws this season, as only a few freshmen like Okla...

The Minnesota Wild have a fun player in Kirill Kaprizov, and suddenly everything seems possible
Even if you’re a hockey fan, it always takes a second to remember that the Minnesota Wild exist and what their jerseys look like. In all of the four major sports, the Wild are the most guy-in-the-work-kitchen that no one really knows. You see him there, he might nod to someone once a month, and then...

Ranking the greatest college basketball championship teams of the 2010s
There are a lot of words you could use to describe a college basketball season that has been wrecked by COVID-19, but the best one is “weird.” Besides the blue bloods of Duke and Kentucky missing the tournament, and North Carolina and Michigan State having subpar years with even lower seeds than usu...

The best NCAA Tournament performances ever
The NCAA tournament is one of the most captivating sporting events of the year. For an entire month, the world of college basketball takes center stage and the world is introduced to young, new stars trying to make a name for themselves. Many players have had great NCAA tournament performances over ...

The 10 best men’s college basketball national champions from 1990-1999
If you lived through the ‘90s then you understand just how important and historic that decade was. And if you didn’t, someone who did has probably tried to explain it to you over, and over, and over again....

ESPN rediscovers the NHL
For fans my age, the soundtrack of hockey, when we get wistful, can at times still be Steve Levy and Darren Pang calling yet another multiple overtime game. Or Bill Pidto hosting NHL 2night. It was eons ago now, but when ESPN launched ESPN2 “The Deuce,” one of its main tenets was that it was to show...

Back in the Saddle(dome) for Darryl Sutter
Nine years ago, the Kings were 13-12-4 when they fired coach Terry Murray. After four games with John Stevens behind the bench as interim coach, Los Angeles tapped Darryl Sutter, six seasons removed from his last job with the Flames, to return to the NHL and take the helm....

Rick Pitino’s ‘Larry Bird is not walking through that door’ speech is now old enough to drink
On this day, 21 year ago, one of the greatest quotes in sports history happened....

Stop ignoring fighters in your 'greatest athlete ever' conversations
Somehow, someone decided that that speculation of Tom Brady’s standing amongst all athletes following Sunday’s Super Bowl was a spectacular idea. And days later, here we are, still extrapolating over it....

Wizards and Beal should consider parting ways
Ray Allen didn’t ask to be traded when it was clear he probably should’ve done so if he wanted to win. Not when the Milwaukee Bucks sent him to the Seattle Sonics in season seven, and not when the Sonics shipped him to the Boston Celtics before season 12....