smith Page 14 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

World Cup Day 3: A demolition to start the United States’ three-peat campaign didn’t happen
The last time the United States women’s national team opened a World Cup, it scored 13 goals against Thailand. That pile-on isn’t typical and wasn’t a drubbing for the sake of sticking it to Yul Brynner. There was no downside to putting up the unanswered baker’s dozen for the sake of goal difference...

The Seahawks are taking a trip back to 90s this season with a brief uniform change
Unlike the orange popsicle colored uniforms in Tampa Bay, the Seattle Seahawks have a throwback jersey worthy of throwing back to. The Kingdome may be long gone, but the royal blue home jerseys have returned. Rookie Jaxon Smith-Njigba was featured in 90s inspired promo for the old jerseys, and there...

Russell Wilson attends Tyler Lockett’s wedding, proves charisma not totally gone
Russell Wilson is back in the good graces of his teammates — at least a couple of them. The longtime Seattle Seahawks quarterback attended the wedding of past No. 1 receiver Tyler Lockett. There’s even photographic evidence of the party so Wilson now has proof of affability when he gets back to Denv...

'Vacating' wins is the dumbest punishment of all time — do better, NCAA
The kids might not realize it, but in 1997 the movie of the summer was Men In Black. In the ‘90s, Will Smith was the king of summer blockbusters, especially if they opened July 4th weekend — or included aliens. One of the best parts of the MiB franchise was the Neuralyzers, a device that was used to...

Skip and Rich are Undisputed, it could work
If Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez can share a set together then why not Richard Sherman and Skip Bayless? That was a one-time viral social media beef 10 years ago. Bayless is several controversies removed from that one. That A-Rod and Jeter beef stewed for decades, much of it with them next to each ...

The NFL’s leading rusher seems like an afterthought during the offseason
Running backs have been devalued for some time in the NFL. Top RB paydays pale compared to quarterbacks and wide receivers around the league. NFL offenses once coveted backs who could carry the rock 20-plus times each game and were willing to pay them accordingly. Now all that’s out there for the le...

The NFL’s most dysfunctional team operates out of 345 Park Avenue
For years, Dan Snyder caused maximum chaos for the Washington Commanders, and months after agreeing to sell his team, he’s still a reliable source of drama. If the NFL can’t convince its franchises to willingly submit to HBO’s Hard Knocks anymore, maybe the league needs to open its own kimono. Trans...

Here we go already with the Wemby MVP talk
Hyperbole often rules the day in sports media in the social media age. Everyone is almost subconsciously attempting to go viral during every waking moment. Enter former NBA player and current TNT analyst Kenny Smith. While calling a summer league game this week, Victor Wembanyama’s name came up in t...

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...

Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier’s spinoff league offers a platform for WNBA stars
Every offseason, women’s basketball’s finest head abroad to take part in leagues that run concurrently with the NBA schedule. Unfortunately, that often creates a problem for the WNBA teams that have them under contract between May and the completion of their respective seasons in early fall. That’s ...

Hoops, she did it again
This year’s No. 1 overall pick, Victor Wembanyama, has only been an official NBA player for a week, and he’s already had his first wild encounter with a fan. But this wasn’t some random fan walking around Las Vegas, where Wemby will make his summer league debut on Friday. No, this was former teen po...

Where should expectations be set for Victor Wembanyama’s summer league dress rehearsal?
Victor Wembanyama’s career prologue is almost as long as he is. It already feels like Wembanyama’s in his second NBA season doesn’t it? It feels like just yesterday, when he was in the (French) Finals at the exact same time as Nikola Jokic. According to Marc Stein, Wembanyama’s scheduled NBA debut h...

The Rockets have become the NBA’s most polarizing team
The Houston Rockets have been stuck in zero gravity since their post-Harden rebuild began two years ago. Despite their lottery successes they still have no direction. The Rockets lit the fuse this summer expecting a controlled explosion and witnessed the creation of the NBA’s most opulent sparkler....

Dan Le Batard was right — ‘Embrace Debate’ has destroyed sports television
Too much of anything is bad for you. Excessive amounts can be catastrophic. Dan Le Batard hinted at this a few months ago. And after the reported cancellation of Bomani Jones’ Game Theory on HBO, it’s become quite clear — “embrace debate” killed sports television shows. ...

Hey, at least the Houston Rockets are trying
We laughed at Dillon Brooks’ unceremonious exit from the Memphis Grizzlies, but it will be him with the cheshire grin plastered to his face every time that a direct deposit hits his account. On Saturday he signed a four-year, $80 million contract with the Houston Rockets. The day before, Fred VanVle...

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 ...

We have a new Michael Jordan gambling-related conspiracy theory
Michael Jordan’s sale of his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets to Melvin Capital founder Gabe Plotkin prompted a new strain of conspiracy theories pertaining to the relationship between MJ’s purported half-billion dollars in stock losses due to the GameStop meme-stock short squeeze in January ...

If schadenfreude is Damian Lillard’s last gift to Trail Blazer fans, so be it
Seemingly the entire world of sports media is screaming at Damian Lillard to pick up his basketball and go to a contender. It’s demand-a-trade season, we do it every summer, and Dame is off galavanting with Veronica Corningstone, while a bevy of Champ Kinds pine for his musk. Brian Windhorst, Stephe...

DeAndre Hopkins is the latest pass catcher Bill Belichick wants from the department store
Once again, Bill Belichick is shopping for No. 1 wide receivers at Ross. Which is not to say that it’s impossible to find good clothing there. Customers simply have to be willing to pour through the racks and try on a lot of clothing— especially tops — if they want to find a Randy Moss at 60 percent...

There’s less shame in porn than on the set of <i>First Take</i>
The easiest way to get clicks for the past week or so hasn’t been Victor Wembanyama content, or Damian Lillard trade destinations. No, if you really wanted to gin up page views and subscribers, put Zion Williamson and Moriah Mills in a headline. It’s the reason why Stephen A. Smith has repeatedly go...