stern Page 37 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Knicks shouldn't agree to a trade with Danny Ainge
The New York Knicks are in a tough spot. They recently gained some future first-round draft capital, but all three picks are lottery-protected next season. In fact, only one of those picks – the first-rounder from the Washington Wizards — can be at best the 11th pick by 2025. ...
Hey Coach Cal, Kentucky isn’t just a basketball school anymore
Standing up for your program and athletes is commonplace for a college head coach, especially one with the pedigree of John Calipari. Coaching one of the royal bluebloods of college athletics in Lexington, with a lifetime contract no less, certainly skews his view of things from the mountaintop. A l...
Predicting college football’s New Year’s Six teams
College football starts in a little more than two weeks. And for 135 days, the jostling to become a national champion will be ongoing. Obviously, only four teams will compete in the College Football Playoff but a dozen teams will be selected to the most lucrative bowls, otherwise known as the New Ye...
How bloated are the preseason win totals for the NBA teams fans love to hate?
When oddsmakers release NBA win-total futures, most casual fans scan right to their teams’ over/under and say, “My team’s better than that.” After a prolonged and misguided rant about sharps who do this for a living doing their job, the next move is to find the franchises they hate and bitch about t...
The WNBA is the league of ‘contract divorces’
The thing about marriage that most people don’t realize, or forget, is that it’s a binding legal document — thus making it a contract. But, despite how divorce is the breaking of a contract, and union, the thought of putting the two terms together has generally been a foreign concept — until the WNB...
Our Conference Mock Draft: ACC Edition
This new ACC is all about the show. We kept a couple of rivalries but our main goal is to entertain you. There are Hurricanes, Badgers, three different Tigers, and some of the most annoying people on the planet wearing their stupid scarlet. So lean back in your drop top, and turn on the 8 Ball & MJG...
Danny Ainge has turned the Utah Jazz into a League Pass offseason team
Now in his third decade as a general manager or team president, Danny Ainge is in the next stage of what’s been a blessed NBA existence. As a supporting player on a pair of championship Celtics teams, he was one of the league’s first 3-point specialists, and reached the NBA Finals with Portland, the...
Chet Holmgren and NBA Summer League overreactions
Here’s a story about how boatloads of fans and media members annually exaggerate offseason performances as if they’re indicators of what basketball players will and won’t be for the duration of their careers. We’ve reached that moment now as the No. 2 overall pick in last month’s draft had a good ga...
The SEC is still better
There’s a confident nature among the collective of Southeastern Conference fan bases, and what their conglomerate represents. Having covered the league as a hometown beat writer for one of the oddball geographic teams in the league, Mizzou, and therefore having traveled to many of the other cities a...
Predicting the future NCAA landscape
As we approach an era where USC kicking off at 9 a.m. Pacific time in freezing November East Lansing temperatures is a very realistic and potentially biennial situation, let’s look at the options for college athletics going forward....
It’s time to stop kicking the word ‘superstar’ around the NBA like it’s a game of hacky sack
Some words in the English lexicon get tossed around like loose change on a rollercoaster. Professional sports take it to another level when players, coaches, and pundits feel the need to hand out compliments. The word “superstar” has become as commonly attached to guys as the word “player.” Yes, the...
The Atlanta Hawks adding Dejounte Murray would change the entire landscape of the Eastern Conference
The Atlanta Hawks were the second best offensive team in the NBA this past season. Trae Young had the best season of his career averaging 28.4 points and 9.7 assists per game on 46/38.2/90.4 shooting splits. He kept his team’s offense rolling all season despite many injuries. Of players who averaged...
Here go the Knicks, willing to pay top dollar, but about to not get top talent in return
Nothing screams free agency like the New York Knicks ready to throw millions of dollars at the wrong player....
Hornets buy back favorite hoodie from Goodwill
When Kenny Atkinson ultimately passed on the Charlotte Hornets head coaching job, the thought was at least Mike D’Antoni will keep LaMelo Ball, Miles Bridges, and the rest of Buzz City entertaining. After the former Houston head coach’s meeting with part-owner Michael Jordan this week, it seemed all...
The plan in is place and the pieces are set — now the Pelicans just have to execute
The New Orleans Pelicans blueprint was on display in the 2022 NBA Finals....
Jabari Smith could put Orlando back on the right track
The Orlando Magic seems to have finally figured it out. Since Dwight Howard left in the clumsiest way possible in 2012, the franchise has been mired in mediocrity. They have been the poster child for the dreaded NBA purgatory. Since Howard’s departure, they’ve made the playoffs twice, losing in the ...
Your 2022 NBA All-Postseason Team
In the NBA, the playoffs are truly a second season. There are no more back-to-backs, but there are also no more rest games for players. Also, there are no more sub-.400 teams on the schedule. To recover from a bad loss in the postseason, requires returning to the court 48 hours later and playing aga...
Kenny Atkinson pulled a Whitley, leaving Michael Jordan and the Charlotte Hornets at the altar
This is not said very often, but poor Michael Jordan. The NBA legend got Whitleyed by Kenny Atkinson. Jordan was about to start a new life with Atkinson leading his Charlotte Hornets. They fit together as well as Byron and Whitley in the fifth season of A Different World, but then Dwayne Wayne, a.k....
Jayson Tatum is not a superstar (yet)
More than in previous seasons, these playoffs exposed frauds masquerading as superstars. The list is long — Donovan Mitchell, Zach LaVine, Jimmy Butler, Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker. You can add Jayson Tatum to that list. After putting on a blitzkrieg throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs, ...
Why the Warriors dominated the Celtics
Sometimes it just feels good to be right. After proclaiming before the NBA Finals started that the Boston Celtics had zero chance against the Golden State Warriors, the Dubs beat the Celtics by double-digits in Game 6 to end the series 4-2. Many across the internet chided this bold proclamation base...