vic Page 11 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Virgil van Dijk and Alisson Becker saved Arsenal’s season
We spend a lot of time trying to unearth the little tactical nugget, or superlative performance from one player, or decoding the 3D art that most soccer matches at the highest level usually are to figure out why one team won or lost and why this team is higher in the table than the other. But someti...
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP heist is nearly complete
Joel Embiid’s departure from the MVP race while he undergoes minor surgery to repair a displaced flap in his meniscus has created a vacancy. His coronation has now become a vastly different two-man heat. With due respect to Luka Doncic’s gaudy numbers, he’ll be a long shot as long as the Dallas Mave...
Kim Mulkey needs to do right by Brittney Griner; Ben Simmons a hero?; Klay Thompson being traded?
Anyone who dresses the way Kim Mulkey does loves attention. And since the ultra-competitive and always controversial head coach has never shied away from the camera, she might as well show up in Waco next month for a photo-op on Brittney Griner’s big night — even if the two can’t stand each other. -...
Saudi Arabia doesn't grant women equal rights, but plans to host WTA Finals
Saudi Arabia has already invested heavily in several sports. Now, the nation plans to make headway into women’s tennis and host the 2024 WTA Finals — if a deal can be reached....
Hey, let's give Chelsea a swift kicking while they are down
Far be it from me to kick Chelsea while they’re down after a 4-1 fustigation at the hands of Liverpool . . . wait, that’s precisely what I’d do! So let’s get to it! It’ll be fun!...
Caitlin Clark is the NCAA's all-time scoring leader. Who did she pass?
Iowa’s Caitlin Clark surpassed Pete Maravich as the NCAA’s all-time leading scorer in college basketball — and continues to add to her legacy in her final collegiate season before entering the WNBA Draft. ...
The NFL’s sole desire to get Taylor Swift in the Super Bowl? Money
So let me get this straight: The NFL is in bed with the left, Taylor Swift, President Joe Biden and Travis Kelce all in order to what? Improve Biden’s poll numbers and alienate a segment of its fanbase that’s been unwavering in its loyalty since Colin Kaepernick started kneeling in protest of police...
Oh, you thought you were different, Lions?
Really thought you’d built something, didn’t you, Detroit Lions? The uniform change, the positivity, the belief, the empty catchphrases, whatever they were. Thought you’d shed that old Honolulu blue-and-silver skin and become something new, something better, didn’t you? Were sure you’d left the deca...
Draymond Green nearing end of Warriors' stint?; Why Joel Embiid's 70 points isn' that great; League just can't quit Doc Rivers
Years of incidents both on and off the basketball court have finally caught up with Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green. It was announced Tuesday that Green would not be part of Team USA at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. Green’s suspension history played a role in the decision according to...
Novak Djokovic had a bad day at the office, for once
If beating Rafael Nadal at Roland Garros is sport’s toughest assignment, beating Novak Djokovic in Melbourne can’t be too far behind it. He hadn’t lost there in some 3,000 days (a COVID deportation playing some role in that), he’s won the tournament 10 times and he was still coming off a previous se...
Coco Gauff-Aryna Sabalenka is tennis' best rivalry
Women’s tennis hasn’t had a great rivalry in some time. The tour was dominated by Serena Williams for so long and no one could have managed to look her in the eye for very long. The closest was her sister Venus, yet matches between the two regularly and mostly were hard on the eyes, because both see...
Milwaukee Bucks should trade Doc Rivers for Jrue Holiday
The NBA has done a spectacular job with Rivalry Week. Sam Presti vs. his mentors in Oklahoma City took a backseat to Chet Holmgren vs. Victor Wembanyama. That clash felt like a future NBA Finals showdown. Devin Booker and Luka Doncic exchanged their usual vitriol and potshots at one another. However...
Andy Reid’s career arc is the inverse of Bill Belichick’s
Now in his sixth consecutive AFC Title game, Andy Reid is making up for lost time after struggling to get over the hump during his decade and change in Philadelphia. The venerable Chiefs coach is a virtuoso playcaller who has shepherded Kansas City to three Super Bowls, two Lombardi Trophies and has...
Taking the Daniil Medvedev ride at the Australian Open
Most of my life, I have found tennis very easy and yet very hard to watch. It’s easy in that it’s a beautiful sport to gaze upon, the players’ ballet-like movements and the steady rhythm of the sound of the ball hitting the racket and then the court over and over can lull one into a lovely state of ...
Novak Djokovic was the boulder, Taylor Fritz was Sisyphus
It has to be hard enough to work through the mental gymnastics it takes to take the court against Novak Djokovic, convinced you can win. That’s what professional athletes do, of course, it’s part of the job. But they’re also still human, and it gets hard to shut out the list that makes Djokovic the ...
What do the Edmonton Oilers want with Corey Perry?
The Edmonton Oilers have been the NHL’s hottest team for a good long while now. They’ve won 13 in a row, and since that woeful 2-9-1 start, they’ve gone 24-6-0, which over a full season would be a 131-point pace. They’ve vaulted themselves out of the Motel For Men where the Sharks live, that they sp...
If Karl-Anthony Towns drops 62 in a forest on the same night Embiid delivers 70, does it make a sound?
That sound you heard last night was Karl-Anthony Towns reminding us that he’ll always be in the shadows of his peers. On Monday night in Philadelphia, Joel Embiid painted his magnum opus en route to a 70-point, 18-rebound exhibition of scoring prowess. Embiid’s 70 also came on the 18th anniversary o...
Don't mean to rain on Joel Embiid, but scoring 70 points isn't getting the Sixers out of the second round
Reigning NBA MVP Joel Embiid ran amuck on the San Antonio Spurs Monday night in Philly, dropping 70 on Victor Wembanyama and crew. Even Kevin Durant was thoroughly impressed when learning of Embiid’s feat during his postgame presser after the Suns’ win over the Bulls. In doing this, Embiid set a new...
Luka Doncic and each NBA team's leading single-game scorer
Update: Luka Doncic is the latest NBA star to drop 70+ points this season. It topped his Dallas Mavericks single-game record of 60, set in 2022. ...
Blame Michael Jordan for Krause widow disgrace; Rudy Gobert trade finally paying off; Lakers need Zach LaVine
Michael Jordan won a widow getting booed. My colleague Stephen Knox covered this yesterday, the booing of Jerry Krause’s widow Thelma during the Chicago Bulls’ Ring of Honor ceremony on Friday, and he isn’t wrong. It’s another “feather” in the “cap” of Jerry Reinsdorf, though he wouldn’t have been i...