us Page 333 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Who are we taking to Qatar?
The USMNT punched their ticket with a true let’s-not-fuck-this-up-royally performance in Costa Rica. So now the attention turns to who are the 23 souls that Gregg Berhalter will be putting on the plane for the tournament. Our intrepid soccer goofuses Sam Fels and Eric Blum have some ideas....

WrestleMania Night 1 Preview
Whatever it is, it’s upon us. WWE’s, and the industry’s, biggest week and show happens in Dallas. WrestleMania 38 is just about the best representation of what “New York” is these days: scrambled, lazy, nonsensical, yet intriguing, loud, brash, and when they actually bother to try, containing some o...

Evan Mobley has been great all season, but he’s been outplayed by Scottie Barnes for Rookie of the Year
The NBA Rookie of the Year vote has gotten even more complicated. Yesterday, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski reported that Evan Mobley sprained his left ankle and is out for the next three games. This comes at an especially difficult time for the Cleveland Cavaliers, who have lost four of their last five ...

James Harden has the most to prove of any star player this postseason
The NBA postseason is nearly upon us, and each year you can pick out a few players that have something to prove. Giannis Antetokounmpo did it last season (no matter how many breaks they got along the way), leading Milwaukee to the title, and LeBron James the year before when he led the Lakers to the...

Big Shot Bob saves the day after another disappointing Lakers loss and Russell Westbrook
However you feel about that era of Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs, the world is a better place because Robert Horry played for them in the 2000s. His performance in Game 5 of the 2005 NBA Finals against the Detroit Pistons gave us something to remember from that dry white toast of a seven-...

Man gets jail time for racist tweets at Marcus Rashford, humanity rejoices
On the list of things in England that I love, add jailing a racist internet troll for abusing Marcus Rashford next to the Great British Bakeoff, an accent that makes everything sound classy, using holiday as a verb, and Tom Holland. News that Justin Lee Price, 19, of Worcester, will be spending the ...

Japanese baseball is light years ahead of MLB
Major League Baseball is great. As long as no one is complaining about the unwritten rules and Nick Castellanos isn’t at the plate, the game is laid back and fun. I doubt I could enjoy it any more than I already do....

The White Sox are getting to their proper level of cantankerous
The term “White Sox” in baseball basically means anger. Or at least a heavy pinch of it to go with however else it might be defined. There is always an undercurrent of seething with the White Sox and their fans. It’s part of their identity. The White Sox are a symbol of their part of Chicago, the So...

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s take on the Will Smith/Chris Rock situation is an outdated view of progress
Sometimes, even the NBA’s all-time leading scorer misses an easy one....

Three teams that could be next in line to improve drastically in a short amount of time like the Memphis Grizzlies
In the NBA, teams with stars and veteran leadership usually make waves in the postseason and win championships. It’s rare to see a team of young inexperienced players going deep in the postseason, no matter how talented they are. Of course, there are outliers to everything....

The Kansas City Chiefs’ dynasty window still has a draft
Championship windows are an interesting concept, in theory. However, they assume too much. One one hand, it’s impossible to project how rosters will look from year-to-year. Half the league’s championship prospects are a one-window apartment facing an alley. Teams like the Chiefs, Packers, and Bills ...

Roman Abramovich tries to help himself by helping peace negotiations, allegedly gets poisoned
If no good deed goes unpunished, what happens when you perform a good deed from a place of self-interest? Soon-to-be-former owner of Chelsea FC Roman Abramovich found out after he tried to “help” the peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine....

Five trade destinations for DK Metcalf should the Seahawks decide to move on
It’s been a whirlwind offseason for the Seattle Seahawks and their fanbase, with the potential to get even worse. The team started down the path of rebuilding by trading away Russell Wilson earlier this month. Soon after, rumors began circulating around 24-year-old wide receiver DK Metcalf potential...

UConn turns the page, and turns to Paige
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — There was no good answer for the NCAA when it came to seeding Connecticut for March Madness....

The NFL ‘reinvested’ in its diversity efforts the same week FOX passed on promoting Gus Johnson — go figure
The people that thought Brian Flores was lying have gone predictably silent....

Is the USMNT midfield better off without Weston McKennie?
On the surface, it’s a patently ridiculous question. Of course the US can’t go without a player who regularly plays for one of the biggest clubs in the world, where his manager loves him, and comes up with goals for a national team that still struggles to find them. And to ask this question after ju...

Fictional Hooper Bracket: The Elite Eight
Welcome to the Elite Eight of the Fictional Hoopers Tournament. All the fat and sinew (Sandy Lyle and Steve Urkel) have been trimmed, and the characters left are all from powerhouse pictures. No one has been able to knock off either of White Men Can’t Jump’s main characters (celebrated last night at...

Like Lakers’ season, LeBron James’ numbers are empty in MVP race
Never before has a player done so much, but it meant so little. Enter LeBron James....

Tis but a glimpse
It’s not official yet. The USMNT still has to dot the i’s and cross the t’s and all that. Which means they have to manage to not lose to Costa Rica by six goals or more on Wednesday. Quite frankly, the more impressive feat than qualifying for the World Cup would be losing by six in Costa Rica, and e...

Photo Essay: N.C. State and UConn punch tickets to Elite Eight
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — N.C. State, the top seed in the Bridgeport Regional, advanced to its first Elite Eight in 24 years on Saturday, Raina Perez’s steal and fast break layup in the closing seconds put the Wolfpack ahead to stay in their 66-63 triumph over No. 4 Notre Dame which led most of the way. D...