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Tom Izzo becomes latest in irritatingly long list of sports figures with coronavirus
College sports are having a day....

We Rank the Worst No. 1 Picks in NBA Lottery History
Since the NBA’s first draft lottery in 1985, there have been 11 first-overall picks who did not make an All-NBA team or appear in an All-Star Game. That number is a little inflated because Zion Williamson and DeAndre Ayton are just getting started, so when you’re trying to figure out which is the wo...

What if the NFL Had Taken COVID Seriously From the Start?
Sunday saw NFL players, in a coordinated approach, posting tweets with the hashtag #WeWantToPlay, calling for the league to listen to experts when it comes to opening up training camps as COVID-19 continues to spread throughout the country....

Baseball Coronavirus Round-Up: Literally Everyone Will Become Infected at This Rate
On Tuesday, four weeks after testing positive for COVID-19, Phillies second baseman Scott Kingery talked to Jim Salisbury of NBC Sports Philadelphia. He wanted to let everyone know to take the virus seriously, that “it can creep up on you and get you pretty bad like it did with me.”...

MLS’s ‘New Normal’ Is a Bleak, Barren Field With Ads Plastered Everywhere
As the first American men’s league and the first league to actually bring to life the dog-in-a-burning-room meme, MLS hit the field last night. We didn’t know what it was before, other than a vague, bad idea, and it doesn’t feel like we have much more of an idea now....

Josh Gibson and the Long Gone Summers That Should Have Been
The following is adapted from the podcast script for Stick to Pods Episode 11, “Josh Gibson,” which originally aired on April 12, 2018...

Gregg Popovich’s Message To White America: It's On Us
San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich has never had a problem expressing himself. On the sidelines, and outside the lines, his words are honest and blunt. He doesn’t care what you think, but his personality carries enough weight for people to at least listen....

NWSL Will Be America's First Team Sports League To Resume Play In Pandemic's Wake
Today, The NWSL announced their “2020 Challenge Cup,” which follows the tournament guidelines we outlined last week. ...

The COVID Class: How Will History Remember The 2020 NBA Draft?
Athletes are creatures of habit. It’s why so many of them get lost in translation when their playing days are over....

The Best No. 1 Picks Of The Last Decade? We Ranked Them
The 2020 NFL Draft starts a new decade for prospects looking to make their childhood dreams come true. ...

Parallel Lives: Opening Topps Packs From 1990 and 2020 Side by Side
While searching the aisles at Rite Aid recently for more rubbing alcohol and toilet paper, I came to one of the displays at the end of the aisle that gets stocked with Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, and baseball cards. To my joy, the 2020 Topps packs had arrived, so instead of the out-of-stock items...

Gonzaga Coach Mark Few On Paying Players: What About Mexico, And Also, Uh, The Homeless?
Stadium’s Jeff Goodman spoke with Gonzaga coach Mark Few yesterday about California’s recently passed Fair Pay to Play Act and the broader movement to see college athletes compensated for their labor. Few expressed some wishy-washy support for players being able to make some money, but only after bi...

Darren Rovell Squeals At The Sky About The Sanctity Of Endorsements
So California’s Fair Pay to Play Act, a bill permitting athletes at the state’s colleges and universities to seek endorsement deals and make money off the use of their names and likenesses without losing their eligibility or scholarships, became law yesterday. People have concerns!...

Dodgers' Kristopher Negrón Faceplants Attempting Diving Catch, Comes Up With Nose Full Of Blood
Things were already going poorly for the Dodgers going into the bottom of the fifth on Thursday, as the team had only just broken up a no-hitter against the Marlins(!) and had allowed the National League bottom-feeder to build a 6-1 lead. But things soon got decidedly worse when Miami’s Lewis Brinso...

Another Hiker Dies Trying To Reach <i>Into The Wild</i> Bus
Veramika Maikamava, a 24-year-old Belarusian woman, died on Thursday in Alaska when she was swept away while trying to cross a rain-swelled river while hiking to the bus where Chris McCandless starved to death in 1992....

Tyson Fury Defeats Tom Schwarz To Retain His Lineal Heavyweight Title, Whatever That Means
Unlike the last notable heavyweight bout that featured one of the biggest names in the division, the no-name actually succumbed to the blows of the main event’s star attraction on Saturday when Tyson Fury took down Tom Schwarz by TKO in the second round....

Huddersfield Town Snapped A Corner Flag And Manchester United's Top-Four Chances
Manchester United didn’t control their top-four destiny going into Sunday’s match against Huddersfield Town—a club that had been guaranteed relegation for quite some time now. Three points from a win was the minimum required to keep any hopes of Champions League qualification alive, but they also ne...

Even American Soccer Fandom Is Plagued By Pay-To-Play
If you had to point out a single factor that most contributes to the U.S.’s stunted development as a soccer nation, you could make a good case for pay-to-play as the culprit. Pay-to-play is the system that sections off the best youth coaching and competition and reserves it only for those who can af...

One Week After Declaring They Would Not Trade Otto Porter, The Wizards Trade Otto Porter For A Pile Of Trash
Almost exactly one week ago, Wizards owner Ted Leonsis mocked the very notion of his team trading any of John Wall, Bradley Beal, or Otto Porter, describing it as essentially a wacky, unworkable, and short-sighted fan theory....

USL And Former MLS Owner Dies In Small Plane Crash
Wayne Estopinal, former minority owner of MLS’s Orlando City SC and founding owner of the USL’s Louisville City FC, was one of three people who died in a small plane crash in Southern Indiana. He was 63 years old....