port Page 416 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The WTA stood up to China, thank goodness somebody did
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) decided that enough was enough and it could not continue its business relationship with China, but the right decision could come with a significant financial cost. WTA Chairman and CEO Steve Simon released a statement that the organization will be suspending all ...

Rob Manfred is fertilizer
I can’t say that Rob Manfred is bad at his job, at least not entirely. Because his job is to make sure that all 30 owners squeeze the sport for every last dollar possible, and he’s done that. It doesn’t really matter if he kills the league in the process, because his bosses don’t care. It’s simply a...

Capping NCAA coaches’ pay isn’t the answer
Brian Kelly just left a Notre Dame team in playoff contention for $95 million. Lincoln Riley said good-bye to his SEC future and reportedly took $110 millon to attempt to revive a mediocre USC program. Ed Orgeron can sit at home doing nothing but drinking beer and eating gumbo for the next four year...

Tampering so egregious the NBA couldn’t ignore it
It appears that the going rate for tampering punishments in the NBA is a second round draft pick. ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting that the NBA has concluded its tampering investigations into the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat for sign and trades during the 2021 offseason. Both teams were punish...

Everybody hates Harden
Some people have the innate ability to make people dislike them no matter how great they are at whatever it is they do. James Harden is one of those personalities in the NBA. Harden isn’t necessarily a bad guy, but for some reason, many fans and even other players don’t really jive with him. ...

MLB secretly used two different types of baseballs last season, according to report
Can’t we go six months without a scandal in Major League Baseball? Just six months. That’s all I’m asking for....

Would you look at that — the Dolphins and Tua finally showed up this season
It’s amazing how far above average quarterback play can get you in the NFL. A lot of these teams trying to crack the hard candy shell of contending — the Broncos, Dolphins, Falcons, Colts — can take leaps with the right QB, and in the Bucs case, win it all. ...

The only question for the Canadiens is what took so long?
So If you feel like you heard some faint swearing in the air, and it vaguely sounded French (though Quebecois only vaguely sound French), don’t worry, you weren’t alone....

Michael Porter Jr. is the latest NBA player that believes in science when they need surgery, but not when it comes to vaccines
Injuries and Michael Porter Jr. go together like Urban Meyer and scandals. This is why it’s so odd that the uber-talented 23-year-old that’s about to have his third back surgery is an anti-vaxxer....

Idiot of the Month: November’s most mind-blowing acts of stupidity
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH! The year is almost over, mercifully. Here are some people who stood out in November for doing dumb things....

MLS is just silly, and it loves it, apparently
The MLS playoffs concluded their second round last night, with some of its trademark goofiness. And in true nothing-means-anything fashion of the whole league, both No. 1 seeds failed to win a game....

Baseball's fake deadline nears
And so MLB heads into the final jump today, with the current CBA expiring today at 11:59 p.m. It’s important to remember that the owners don’t have to lock out the players when it expires. They can keep talking, and both sides would if both sides felt there was progress being made. Apparently, they ...

Blake Griffin was blindsided by his benching, and the end could be closer than he’d imagined
Former No. 1 overall pick and slam dunk champion Blake Griffin received a rude awakening recently when he was not only benched by head coach Steve Nash but removed from the Nets’ rotation altogether. LaMarcus Aldridge certainly appears to have more left in the tank than Griffin, so being replaced by...

Rangers are spending big, Blue Jays are playing smart
We knew Hot Stove season was going to come earlier than usual, given the ongoing MLB CBA dispute, but holy smokes! This got nuts real quick! Over the weekend, a myriad of moves were made involving the biggest free agents on the market. ...

Please God, just anyone but Urban Meyer
I, along with the rest of the Notre Dame fanbase, was hit with an absolute punch in the gut yesterday that has thrown me for the loop of my life. Maybe Jack Swarbrick saw this coming, but this announcement was a complete blindside to everyone else involved with Notre Dame football, players included....

L.A. didn’t work out, LaVar Ball has sights set on his sons taking over Chicago
Everybody knows LaVar Ball is a character who’s never short on words, but he’s also someone whose words you should be taken with a grain of salt at times. Ball’s latest plan is to have all three sons reunite in Chicago as Bulls....

Sooners’ planned move to the SEC might’ve pushed Riley to USC
There were too many openings at too many big colleges for a notable school or two not to be on the losing side even after being on the side of winning for so long. In a not so subtle reminder that there’s always a bigger fish, Lincoln Riley opted for Southern California rather than the Southeastern ...

Javy Báez, the most interesting man in baseball
I wouldn’t pretend to not have a personal connection to Javier Báez, who is signing with the Detroit Tigers at some point today for six years, $140 million. He’s always been the most interesting player to watch first on the Cubs, back when I cared a lot, and in baseball overall. And it was both good...

College athletes get criticized for being selfish — college coaches get huge contracts
In the olden days of 2016, many of the favorite people you like to follow on Twitter or watch on TV were upset that three future first-round draft picks in Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey, LSU’s Leonard Fournette, and Michigan’s Jabrill Peppers were sitting out of their bowl games due to injury, as t...

As rivalry week comes to a close, what does the CFP picture look like now?
It took 10 years for Michigan to beat Ohio State, and what feels like another 10 years in college football has passed since the Wolverines finally claimed their first-ever spot in a Big Ten championship game....