st Page 493 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Is Sam Cassell the heir apparent in Boston?
Sam Cassell’s been the heir apparent for multiple head coaching jobs over 15 years. It’s an inescapable cycle for one of the NBA’s most recognizable names. Next season, Cassell will join the Celtics bench as an assistant to 34-year-old Boston head coach Joe Mazzulla. That feels backwards. If these t...

The Sooners survived Stanford again and appear destined for another WCWS title
It’s over. Maybe it was over before the festivities began in Oklahoma City? That’s why you play the game right? This year’s Women’s College World Series had eight national seeds survive regionals and super regionals to become the elite group in college softball. Seven teams hoping to knock the crown...

Steelers QB Kenny Pickett's car was stolen during a radio appearance
Pittsburgh Steelers country is not like Los Angeles. On the West Coast, athletes are like other celebrities, people with public schedules so burglars know the best times to break into their homes. The way that Pittsburgh rides for the Steelers, it could be reasonably assumed that Kenny Pickett has f...

MLB’s shift ban hasn’t solved baseball's real problem, but it also probably can’t
A little more than two months into the MLB season, the first with a shift-ban that keeps two infielders on each side of second base, and the league will probably declare victory. There are more hits, and left-handed batters are seeing more grounders and line-drives are resulting in base hits, which ...

Kyler Murray’s career is trending in the wrong direction
Kyler Murray was considered one of the most promising young NFL quarterbacks not too long ago, and now he’s viewed in a much less favorable light around the league. After a messy contract dispute with the Arizona Cardinals, Murray got his money, and now some think they may have overpaid the former R...

Rose Zhang announces her LGPA presence with authority
As Tiger Woods, LeBron James, Tom Brady, Serena Williams depart for their respective GOAT farms upstate, their respective sports are in desperate search of phenoms to replace them. Tiger’s departure from golf’s summit has cleared the way for a new generation to take the reins. On Sunday, in her firs...

Stephen A. Smith’s political takes are beyond concerning — they’re dangerous
Another day, another bad take from Stephen A. Smith. But, this isn’t about how he hilariously thought the Miami Heat would lose to the New York Knicks in the playoffs, wrongly implied that the late Dwayne Haskins was “more of a runner than a thrower,” or falsely assumed that Alabama State University...

Zlatan Ibrahimović retired from soccer, and the world is a bit duller today
To say we’ll be Zlatan-less is probably wide of the mark. Whatever Zlatan Ibrahimović goes on to do, you can be sure it’ll be loud and full of bravado. But he won’t be on the field, which is a loss for the sport, if only because there simply can’t be anyone like him again. First off, no one’s going...

Jimmy Butler was good enough in Game 2
There was a little too much fouling of 3-point shooters for my taste on Sunday night, but other than that, the Miami Heat and Denver Nuggets played quite the thrilling Game 2. The Nuggets threw run after run at the Heat, who ate every blow and kept countering. Eventually the Heat put the Nuggets on ...

The Columbus Blue Jackets hate their players
In the discussion of most irrelevant franchises in North American sports, the Columbus Blue Jackets would be high on the list, if not on top of it, if anyone could remember them enough to add them. You’d think they’d take some inspiration from one of their former fellow whos-its, the Denver Nuggets,...

Nuggets' Mike Malone has coached more in the past two days than he has all playoffs
In-game coaching is only a part of the equation, which is evident by the way Denver Nuggets coach Michael Malone has been waving his hands and trying to get his players attention since their Game 1 win. While he can’t call a timeout, huddle up his team, and scream at them to stay focused, he’s been ...

Thanks for the memories, Bartolo Colon
Bartolo Colon hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2018 but is finally retiring — at age 50. His former club, the New York Mets, will hold an official retirement ceremony for “Big Sexy” on Aug. 26 before a game against another one of Colon’s ex-teams, the Los Angeles Angels. ...

Horse racing needs a stoppage, not a change of scenery
One of the rebuttals to Churchill Downs’ suspension of horse racing after this weekend was that officials couldn’t find proof of the venue’s role in the dozen horses who’ve died there this year. While that logic comes off like an amusement park owner saying “Nothing to see here” as kids get launched...

French Open fans are the best
It was never a secret that Novak Djokovic was the third wheel to Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. Yet the Serbian planted himself into the conversation in two ways. First, a machine-like greatness over the past 12 years — 21 of his 22 Grand Slams have come since 2011, which is a period of condensed d...

Frank Vogel is an upgrade over Monty Williams — for a discount price
A year after getting unceremoniously released through the trap door LeBron James has designed into the floor beneath the head coach’s seat on the bench, Frank Vogel has re-emerged as the head coach of the Phoenix Suns. The 49-year-old Vogel and the Phoenix Suns are familiar with each other’s games. ...

Miami Heat can’t survive NBA Finals with a punchdrunk Jimmy Butler
Jimmy Buckets was in standby mode for Game 1. Maybe it was the altitude that Ball Center resides at, or the altitude of expectations, but regular season Jimmy Butler pulled up for Game 1. Butler seemed more intent on picking his spots and taking the Denver Nuggets’ temperature. Likewise, the Miami H...

Jimmer Fredette is still out there nailing jumpers
Former BYU and Shanghai Sharks star Jimmer Fredette will be donning the red, white, and blue this summer. Fredette is a member of the United States Men’s 3x3 team. That team will attempt to win a gold medal in the FIBA 3x3 World Championships. The tournament began on May 30, and a champion will be c...

It’s Tom Brady’s fault nobody believes he’ll stay retired
Tom Brady wants all you skeptics craning your neck hoping he reverses his retirement announcement to know that you’re wasting your time. Go pick up a hobby. Make some more of that pandemic lockdown sourdough bread. The only way you’re seeing Brady in uniform next season is in Aaron Rodgers’ ayahuasc...

The Denver Nuggets did something no team has done in a long time — beat the Miami Heat in Game 1
The last time the Miami Heat lost the first game of a series they got swept. Game 1 is always important, but Thursday night was essential for the Denver Nuggets — a franchise that is making its first appearance in the NBA Finals. It’s why Mike Malone knew his team was a must-win scenario....
