steph Page 28 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Jimmy Butler’s superstar card got declined when Miami needed it most
Earlier this month, FS1’s Nick Wright debuted a bit called the Superstar Club. I don’t usually endorse debate show takes, but this was a solid metaphor. Jimmy Butler was depicted standing in line, waiting for entry. In this year’s Eastern Conference Finals against the Boston Celtics, he nearly cemen...

Reformatting the NBA Playoffs could solve the league’s injury issue
The NBA Playoffs are gradually winding down, and to be honest, it’s been a bit of a mixed bag where quality is concerned. Despite the rating increase early in the postseason, some of these games have been hard to watch. Injuries to stars and the lack of downtime between games have some thinking it m...

International stars are here to stay on All-NBA Teams
Thirty years after the Dream Team introduced the NBA to the world at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, the league has transformed into something that the late David Stern would be proud of. Basketball has truly become an international game....

Does Deebo Samuel have an infatuation with Dallas or merely trolling to get what he wants?
Deebo Samuel might have 19 problemz, but his contract is the biggest one. In pursuit of a big-money extension or trade, Samuel is taking the troll route. Deebo was in Dallas for Game 3 of the NBA Western Conference finals, surely showing support for the Golden State Warriors, and was seen shaking ha...

The Dallas Mavericks turned into pumpkins
When I wrote the Dallas Mavericks were a mess earlier this season, it was right after they traded one terrible contract in Kristaps Porziņģis for two terrible contracts in Spencer Dwindiddle and Davis Bertans. My argument was not that the Mavs had made the wrong move in ditching the Latvian bum. Nor...

Winning fourth ring and first finals MVP would quiet critics and crush many narratives surrounding Stephen Curry’s legacy
On the cusp of returning to the NBA Finals for the first time since 2019, Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors find themselves in prime position to silence critics. With a 3-0 lead, the Warriors are all but guaranteed to have a spot saved for them on June 2 when the Finals begin. Winning a four...

True Basketball Crime: Andrew Wiggins delivered the coup de grace to Luka and the Mavericks’ season
Entering this series, Luka Dončić’s heft, weight and skill were expected to overwhelm Andrew Wiggins. Instead, Wiggins’ capstone moment in his jewel of a playoff series came during Golden State’s 109-100 victory at the expense of the 23-year-old Dončić....

Whose personality is more irritating: Current Jimmy Butler or prime Dwight Howard?
Everyone has had that coworker who kind of sucks but is really good at his job so the manager looks the other way when Glen takes 20 minute out of the weekly staff meeting to brag about his weekend jet skiing. Yeah, he’s annoying, but holy shit can he sell the hell out of reasonably priced Kias. Dwi...

An incomplete list of people we’d like to see at the 2023 Tom Brady Netflix roast
Tom Brady’s love affair with the spotlight will take yet another form come 2023 — Netflix announced yesterday that the recently unretired QB will be the executive producer and first subject of a new series, Greatest Roasts of All Time....

Timberwolves huffing fumes of playoff berth instead of coasting off them
The Minnesota Timberwolves were eliminated from the playoffs on April 29, and with that 114-106 loss to Memphis, we thought all aspects of the T-Wolves franchise would be gone until next season. For those of us who enjoy Anthony Edwards putting guys on posters and stupid fouls from Karl Anthony-Town...

The sky’s the limit for Ja Morant
There are one or two players who make the leap toward legitimate superstar status every playoffs. This year it was Jason Tatum and Ja Morant. To those who have been watching, Luka Dončić was finally given the opportunity to show what he could do in the second round, which is much of the same domina...

The origins of the Chris Paul-Patrick Beverley feud, explained
Patrick Beverley sure didn’t waste any time jumping on the Chris Paul slander wagon following Phoenix’ Game 7 loss to Dallas. Pat Bev was up bright and early on ESPN, throwing jab after jab after jab at long-time rival CP3. Nowadays, it feels like we hear the phrase, “keep it real,” far too often, b...

It’s going to be a long summer in Phoenix after a Game 7 no-show against Dallas
Wow. Freaking wow....

Kendrick Perkins says Draymond Green isn’t scoring enough, Draymond Green says Kendrick Perkins is ugly
Playoff Draymond Green showed up in Game 6 against the Memphis Grizzlies. Then, the Golden State Warriors forward took a break from basking in the glow of his 14 point, 15-rebound, eight-assist performance to address ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins’ comments about his 24 combined points in the first f...

Kyrie Irving goes off on livestream rant, and it’s awesome
Now that the Brooklyn Nets no longer have any games on their schedule, Kyrie Irving has plenty of time on his hands. And he’s using some of that time to let the world of internet trolls, or “cockroaches,” as he calls them, know exactly how he feels about ‘em. ...

This inconsistent and deteriorating version of James Harden is a present and future problem for Sixers
After Tuesday night’s 120-85 loss to the Miami Heat, James Harden and Joel Embiid are Thelma and Louise-ing towards a cliff’s edge. In Embiid’s defense, the MVP runner-up has played with a broken bone in his face since Game 3. The franchise cornerstone will have better days ahead. Harden’s 31-point,...

Mad Dog Russo went there
For Knicks fans born before 1990, Mike and the Mad Dog was a rite of passage for their fandom. The NYC afternoon radio show on WFAN ran from 1989 to 2008 and was a seminal source for New York Knicks talk. In addition, the show inspired many of the current Knicks YouTube creators, like Casey Powell, ...

Sacramento Kings may have dodged a bullet by choosing Mike Brown over Mark Jackson, yet they continued same failed hiring pattern
The Sacramento Kings chose their new head coach over the weekend. It came down to two finalists. In the end, the Kings are going with current Golden State Warriors assistant Mike Brown over former Warriors head coach Mark Jackson. Neither name is all that exciting, but Sacramento made the right choi...

Big home win, hobbled star on opposing team — Golden State could get overconfident in Game 4, but they better not
The Golden State Warriors don’t always have to grind out a victory. They can press the right buttons on their good nights and have defenses whiffing on the wrong reads and getting lost on StephCurry/Klay Thompson/Jordan Poole relocations when Draymond Green is dealing....

Josh VanMeter was forced to catch for the first time in 12 years. It didn’t go well
Ask any Pirates fan and they’ll tell you how bad a second baseman Josh VanMeter is. The 27-year-old is hitting .171 with a .496 OPS in 15 games this season. Well, after today, he’s not only the worst second baseman some Pirates fans have ever seen, but the worst catcher as well. ...