rant Page 41 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

So, about that pandemic…
The Detroit Lions, finally in the win column after beating the Vikings last week, head into their game on Sunday without 19 percent of their roster due to injuries and coronavirus....

Nikola Jokić's performance brings up the age-old question: ‘How good must your team be in order to win MVP?’
The Denver Nuggets are currently 12-13, tied with the Dallas Mavericks for seventh in the Western Conference. Despite having Aaron Gordon for the entirety of this season, the Nuggets just can’t seem to get going. After starting the season 9-4, the Nuggets dropped six straight games and fell below .5...

CJ and Dame have been fun, but if the Blazers want to salvage this season it’s time to say bye to McCollum
It’s far from all CJ McCollum’s fault the Portland Trail Blazers are struggling, and currently the 10th seed in the Western Conference with an 11-14 record. His field goal and free throw percentages are down, but he’s still averaging 20.6 points per game and shooting nearly 40 percent from the 3-poi...

It’s almost time for college football’s most vacuous tradition: Bowl season! We tell you which bowl games are worth watching and why
Christmas approaches quickly, but college football fans are acutely aware that the real late December holiday is bowl season. Just when visions of the CFB content stream finally slowing to a crawl is dancing in your head, the NCAA presents the most meaningless postseason tradition in American sports...

These Bulls are so much goddamn fun
I won’t lie to you, dear reader. Things are pretty bleak around here in Chicago, sports-wise. And actually beyond sports-wise, but I’m not qualified to discuss those things, really. Our center, the Bears, are an elaborate prank played on all of us by a trickster god, or at least they’d better be. Fi...

No, Chet Holmgren isn’t too skinny to be great
Gonzaga freshman Chet Holmgren was the top high school recruit in his class and is the presumptive No. 1 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft. As such, he’s subject to a lot of scrutiny....

These are not your daddy’s showtime Lakers
As one of the cornerstone franchises in the NBA, it’s a rarity to see a Los Angeles Lakers game bumped from a scheduled National television slot the day before that game. But that’s what’s happened to the Lakers-Clippers matchup that was set to tip-off Friday night on ESPN. Instead, we get the remat...

Wait, I thought the NBA was lowering the age for draft eligibility?
The G League celebrated its 20th season of competition this season but is only on its second of genuine interest to NBA fans. Instead of the occasional player who makes the leap from AAA to a rotation player or a raw draft pick trying to hone their skills, there wasn’t too much to get amped about un...

The votes are in, and Aaron Judge is NYC’s (sports) mayor!
The Board of Elections in New York has released the full results of the mayoral election, confirming that Democrat Eric Adams got 753,801 votes, more than doubling Republican Curtis Sliwa’s tally of 302,680. Of course, we already knew that Adams won in a landslide — we knew that it was going to be t...

Scottie Pippen writes a book and all of a sudden he’s judging everyone’s greatness
Ever since Scottie Pippen’s memoir, Unguarded, was announced months ago, and excerpts were leaked of him taking wide-open shots at Michael Jordan, it feels like the onslaught against the GOAT has been unwavering. Now Pippen has taken aim at another recognized GOAT in seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom...

HBO filmed Colts’ Nyheim Hines fanboying out on Tavon Austin and it’s very sweet
I had no idea that Tavon Austin was playing for the Jacksonville Jaguars. Nine years ago he was the most explosive player in college football at West Virginia, and arguably one of the most dynamic players in the history of the sport. At 5-foot-8 and under 180 pounds, he was still the No. 8 overall p...

Stephen A. Smith got it right in his rant against the Brooklyn Nets
Welp, that’s it. It’s time to shut down the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Stephen A. Smith is done and never going back after the Nets’ lackluster performance Tuesday night against the Golden State Warriors....

A review of this week’s <em>Man in the Arena: Tom Brady</em> coming up as soon as I find literally anything else to watch
I don’t know how TV critics (like Alan Sepinwall) do their jobs when they’re forced to watch awful shows. How many spinoffs of rich people behaving poorly can you honestly consume before low-brow insults from high-class people lose their effect?...

The NBA future is... WOWZA!
The NBA has never felt younger and more reliant on up-and-coming stars than it does today. Teams are beginning to utilize the draft more and more. We’ve seen plenty of tank-a-thons by teams in the last five years, and these efforts have panned out to varying degrees. For some, it has materialized in...

The Warriors have been good this year but could still get a lump of Klay in their stockings for Christmas
The 30-day notice to vacate has been sent out, and teams around the NBA have been warned. That’s a notice to vacate wins courtesy of your Golden State Warriors. The other half of the Splash Brothers, Klay Thompson, is on schedule to make his return to the active roster much sooner than anyone though...

Evan Mobley and Scottie Barnes: Like… whoa
Saying Evan Mobley and Scottie Barnes are outperforming Cade Cunningham and Jalen Green is accurate. That also makes it seem like Cunningham and Green were somehow mistakes. To be clear, none of the top four picks in the 2021 NBA Draft look like misses, which is awesome for the Pistons, Rockets, Cav...

Kevin Durant might win you over with his explanation as to why he argues with Twitter eggs
Many people, including myself, find it strange that Kevin Durant likes to engage with people on social media, specifically people who make negative comments....

Mets searching for that elusive GM who likes big market, big stage
Mets team president Sandy Alderson offered up a Michael Scott-ism on Tuesday to explain why his team hasn’t been able to hire a general manager yet, saying their greatest strength — massive market — also is their greatest weakness....

A tale of two Windy Cities
It was comeback city in Chicago last night, as the Bulls and the Bears both mounted fourth quarter efforts against their respective opponents, to — ahem — varied success....

No shot for Kyrie to play for Brooklyn this season with no shot
Sorry, not sorry, Kyrie Irving, but those hopes that incoming New York mayor Eric Adams will relax the city’s vaccine rules to allow “World B. Flat” to suit up for the Nets after the inauguration at the turn of the new year?...