utah Page 3 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

A Major League Baseball team in Utah is a terrible idea
At a time in which it appears that Major League Baseball is seemingly doing all it can to keep African-Americans from being on Big League rosters, a group in Salt Lake, Utah is throwing its hat in the ring to land a franchise in the coming years. Remember this the next time MLB Commissioner Rob Manf...

Who will win as the Lakers, Timberwolves, Pelicans, and Thunder battle for play-in spots?
The 2022-23 NBA regular season has come to a close, and it’s time again for the league’s newest tradition, the play-in tournament. This year the Western Conference had the race to watch down the stretch as it was tighter than spandex in the wrestling ring. In fact, the west was close for most of the...

The Timberwolves’ awful season just got a level worse than awful
The Minnesota Timberwolves’ season from hell continued Friday night as they lost to the Chicago Bulls in double overtime and may have lost Anthony Edwards for the remainder of the regular season to an ankle injury. There hasn’t been an official update from the team. Edwards returned to the bench in ...

These NBA playoff performers have the most to prove
Every year a group of players enters the NBA playoffs with the weight of their legacy on their shoulders. And every year, all but one player exits bearing even more weight than they went in with. This season is no different, despite the unprecedented parity in the league. So we’ve pinpointed the pla...

The NBA asked us to watch basketball that made load management a priority
At least the NBA, unlike some of its sporting league counterparts, keeps its CBA negotiations mostly under wraps. They’re going on right now, as both owners and players have the option of opting out of the current agreement by March 31, which would end the deal on June 30. One of the things to leak ...

This is new — the Lakers are making reasonable yet still helpful trades
Look at the Los Angeles Lakers. After years of flicking away rotation players and first-round draft picks like doughnut crumbs, they have finally made some moves that go towards building a full-fledged NBA roster. On Wednesday they finally unloaded Russell Westbrook’s expiring contract, and in retur...

Donovan Mitchell finally said the quiet part out loud about being Black in Utah
Timing is everything. And on Dec. 19, 2022, it all came together....

The Utah Jazz are George Costanza-ing their way to the top of the West
“What is going on in Utah?” was the Brian Windhorst query that ruled the summer as the Jazz’s CEO of basketball operations Danny Ainge jettisoned Rudy Gobert to the Minnesota Timberwolves for a boatload of first-round picks through 2029. The answer was Utah gutting their roster and Quin Snyder walki...

Wouldn’t you love to hear what executives for the Panthers and Jazz are honestly thinking right now?
Professional sports are like many other industries. The goals of management and the employees are not always aligned....

Don’t celebrate just yet, SEC fans, there’s another independent who could claim a CFP bid
For the segment of college football fans who blackout with anger every time Notre Dame makes the College Football Playoff, this season could not have started better. Marcus Freeman’s team came up short against Ohio State and then stumbled trying to get back up against Marshall, and there’s really no...

BYU completely failed at protecting a Black volleyball player from a racist fan
BYU has championed itself as an institution built on honor and virtue. The third bullet point in their Church of Latter Day Saints Educational Honor System demands the respect of others, including the avoidance of profane and vulgar language. On Friday evening, BYU’s athletic department threw blinde...

Cardinals cave to public, remove independent study clause from Kyler’s contract
When Kyler Murray signed his $230.5 million contract extension this past Monday, it seemed as though the disputes that plagued the Cardinals’ offseason were finally behind them. Until the public started looking into Murray’s contract details. Within minutes, it was revealed that the contract include...

The Jazz wouldn’t say it, but Donovan Mitchell’s days in Utah are likely numbered
Danny Ainge gave no tells during the Utah Jazz summer league press conference on Saturday. The Jazz team president answered, maybe, three questions during the whole session, leaving most of the talking to General Manager Justin Zanik....

Who’s going to win (lose?) the Rudy Gobert trade extravaganza?
Rudy Gobert is this offseason’s CJ McCollum in that every GM is going to call about the star player and get counteroffered with the secondary player. Yes, we know you called about Donovan, but for the low price of a couple draft picks and a salary dump, you can have Rudy at $38 million to $46 millio...

The NBA still hasn’t properly addressed fan behavior — don’t be mad when players take matters into their own hands
When the second edition of Malice at the Palace eventually occurs, I don’t want to see or hear from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver....

Message to Jazz: Trade Donovan Mitchell to the Knicks... and other fire-sale moves
Before the Utah Jazz even began their first-round playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks, there were significant questions about their chemistry, viability as a winner, and ceiling. It was no secret that their two superstars, Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, don’t care for one another. The ten...

The NBA X Factors
The playoffs have started, and it’s been one of the most chaotic first rounds in recent memory. Both conferences feel very wide open thanks to critical injuries and various superstars playing underwhelming basketball. Going into this year’s postseason, it felt like a rematch of last year’s Finals be...

The Mavericks had better pack some vaseline and boots if Luka isn’t full strength for their first round series against the Jazz
Bless the Dallas Mavericks’ hearts, they went for it on Sunday. They were one game behind the Golden State Warriors in the Western Conference standings. If the Warriors — sans Stephen Curry — had lost to the New Orleans Pelicans and the Mavericks defeated the San Antonio Spurs, the Mavs would have j...

Rudy Gobert and Donovan Mitchell need to head for Splitsville soon
It’s time to face the music. Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert are a more discordant duo than Salt Lake City and jazz. Always have been and always will be. Their partnership has been filled with more personal drama than team success. The oversized egos don’t match the playoff wins. Great partnerships...

Rudy Gobert going all Draymond
Rudy Gobert is one of the better defenders of his era and, depending on what region of the country you live in, could be one of the all-time greats on the defensive end of the court. He’s a three-time Defensive Player of the Year award winner (tied for second most all-time) and gets treated like a c...