steph Page 9 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Oklahoma City showed Golden State what Basketball Darwinism looks like
Victor Wembanyama has dominated so much of the rookie phenom discourse that Chet Holmgren’s gotten lost in the trees. Holmgren is finally emerging from the forest though. Scoring a commanding 36 points and hitting the game-tying three in an overtime win over the Golden State Warriors will open some ...
The NFL has become too big to fail
Kneeling and racism couldn’t do it. Misogyny and homophobia never stood a chance. Presidential jabs fell short. The NFL is unbreakable. ...
Why does Stephen A. Smith continue to get a pass for sexually harassing female colleagues on air?
I get it. Stephen A. Smith is a necessary annoyance on the sports landscape. He provides comic relief and “shock value” to a large number of fans who eat up that sort of stuff. It’s not my thing, but fine, let him and ESPN treat every one of his opinions as if they have just been delivered from on h...
Draymond Green is straight out of the WWE — and the NBA is better for it
There is a reason that professional wrestling has remained popular for decades even though the action is scripted. The business understands that in order to sell a story there has to be a hero and a heel. Cheering is fun, but jeering is cathartic. In team sports, the heel is automatically included l...
Rudy Gobert might be the least-respected star in NBA history
If you haven’t seen it by now, you’ve either been asleep or in a cave with Aaron Rodgers over the past 14 hours. We had another NBA skirmish Tuesday night, but this time it escalated into an all-out brawl with everybody’s favorite Warrior, Draymond Green, in the middle of the mayhem. And, of course,...
Draymond Green wins another personal battle — at Golden State's expense
Tuesday night’s Warriors-Timberwolves rematch was advertised as an In-season Tournament group play match. Instead, a Draymond Green slobberknocker broke out. Early in the first quarter, Klay Thompson and Jaden McDaniels got into a tussle, Rudy Gobert did what happens in 1,000 routine NBA fights, by ...
Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma are the Kobe and Shaq of the Tanking Title
It’s never a good thing when your two superstars are trending on social media after another loss. That has become the norm for Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma. Their first run-in with infamy came when Poole lobbed an oop to Kuzma off the backboard while losing by 20. Together they’re the Bennifer of pro...
Stefon Diggs and Josh Allen could be headed for a breakup
The relationship between Stefon Diggs and the Buffalo Bills has reportedly been shaky for some time. Monday Night’s performance at home against the Denver Broncos did little to make Diggs want to stick around past this season. Diggs’ brother Trevon (Dallas Cowboys cornerback) couldn’t contain his fr...
James Harden is the NBA’s worst clutch superstar
There are volumes that could be written about what’s wrong with the Los Angeles Clippers superteam. After all the ruckus James Harden started this summer, if you thought he’d arrive in tip-top shape, ready to make one last push at a title with the Clippers, then you’re as gullible as every other tea...
These are the worst NBA player custom sneakers
An NBA player’s signature shoe is the ultimate signifier of their brand. These kicks reflect and refract the personality and power of those who wear them. Since Michael Jordan signed with Nike in 1984, the shoe skyrocketed from casual mediocrity into a phenomenon all its own. Almost every major bask...
Zion Williamson is the NBA’s most polarizing talent
Zion Williamson is a series of contradictions. He’s a near-300-pound space mover who elevates like he’s in zero gravity. He’s both the mythic John Henry racing a machine and the steam-powered drill he beat in a race because it continuously broke down. Williamson has the build of a defensive end, but...
Emphasis on 82-game schedule won’t solve NBA’s biggest problem
In case the NBA has not made itself clear over the last few months, the league office is fed up with load management. There are 82 games on the schedule, and players are expected to play in every single game unless they are actually injured. The NBA is going so far now as to claim it has data that t...
Stephen A. Smith is beefing with another former ESPN colleague
Stephen A. Smith is fanning the flames again in his ongoing beef with former ESPN colleagues. ...
Chet Holmgren and Victor Wembanyama are finishing what Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic started
If there’s anything the most recent NBA champions taught us, it’s that the center can still be the focal point of an offense. Sixty-six-million years ago, Michael Jordan’s arrival was a terraforming meteor that ended the age of the pivots and began the reign of guards. Prior to His Airness, NBA cham...
The Beard's ego has him stuck between a Rock(et) and a Harden place
James Harden is in limbo. Last season, he was all in on taking a pay cut in an effort to give the Philadelphia 76ers cap flexibility to sign glue guys who would put them over the edge come playoff time. A year later, he’s the acetone on their franchise continuity. His constant bellyaching stemming f...
Did Joel Embiid commit to Team USA just for the tampering?
Apparently, all it takes to convince American hoops players to represent their country is an insult or a loss at the FIBAs. Whether it was Noah Lyles, the B team’s fourth-place finish, or the human instinct to ape the cool kids, Team USA looks to be loaded for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. ...
Kawhi Leonard thinks the NBA’s new Player Participation Policy is aimed at him
Kawhi Leonard is not happy about the NBA’s new Player Participation Policy. In fact, Leonard seemed to take it as a personal jab by the association when asked about it during the Clippers media day. The so-called “king” of Los Angeles is not impressed with the new rule and says it won’t help him pla...
The NBA doesn’t take bad behavior against women seriously when stars aren’t involved
If Jayson Tatum, Kyrie Irving, Steph Curry, Draymond Green, LeBron James, Paolo Banchero, or Victor Wembanyama did what Josh Primo did, it would be the talk of the NBA as Media Days took place this week. But the NBA knows that, which is why most sports fans have no idea that the free-agent guard is ...
Pablo Torre (might) know what Jordan Poole said that got him punched in the face
In the history of NBA talkers, Draymond Green is top five. He’s burrowed into the heads of far more opponents than vice versa, but it’s always the ones closest to you who know how to hurt you, and though Jordan Poole didn’t say anything that offensive to get decked in the face, it was enough....
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard are about to become masters of the basketball universe
For years, the NBA Republic imagined a union of Steph Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo. However, the partnership of basketball’s greatest gravitational forces would only happen unless Antetekounmpo initiated a desire to play in Golden State before he signed a supermax contract in 2020. Six months lat...