vic Page 23 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Remember LaMelo Ball?
Coming into the season you could see the Charlotte Hornets heading for a ravine. They lost their second-best player to off-the-court issues, and LaMelo Ball was literally limping into the year. Well, the family wagon smashed right off that cliff. ...

Durant to Phoenix, Lake Show reboot: Recapping the NBA Trade Deadline’s biggest deals
The 2023 NBA Trade Deadline was one last chance for intrepid NBA contenders to separate themselves from the pack and for a select group of sluggish teams to stow a stimulant onto their rosters. Unless you’re John Collins still stuck on the runway in Atlanta, it didn’t disappoint. The relative parity...

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...

These are the best Super Bowl QB matchups we wish got to happen
The Super Bowl is home to some of the NFL’s most iconic matchups and showcases its biggest stars. The biggest stage, however, has still managed to lack some quarterback matchups — brother vs. brother or Hall of Famer vs. Hall of Famer — that would be even more iconic. Here are some of the head-to-he...

How far can LeBron James stretch the limits of the NBA scoring record?
On Tuesday night, LeBron James became the NBA’s Vitruvian Scorer, a divine manifestation of athlete and bucket generator. The constant progression of statistical landmarks makes them even tougher to attain for the next generation. The higher records climb, the tougher the gravity becomes to reach. I...

Keep politics out of sports!
Hey you, guy at the Phoenix police station who got arrested for climbing that building, no one cares about your politics right now. It’s Super Bowl week....

Super Bowl LVII: A Kelce by any other name is just an offensive lineman
Welcome to Deadspin’s The Sports Nihilist, where all is for naught and we are but accidental jolts of electrified meat stuck to the surface of a rock in an indifferent universe. Fuck you....

Damar Hamlin's first public speaking appearance since cardiac arrest is at <i>Masked Singer</i> taping
Less than a month since he went into cardiac arrest on Monday Night Football, Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin made his first public speaking appearance since the incident on Tuesday night as a surprise guest at a taping of FOX’s upcoming season of The Masked Singer. Per TMZ Sports, Hamlin attended...

<i>Power Slap </i>sucks so<i> </i>we've conceived 10 'combat sports' shows we'd rather watch
Have you watched Power Slap: Road to the Title on TBS? Highly recommended for torturing prisoners of war. It’s awful and I wrote about just how infuriating the show is at length. Something about the mind-numbing act of unprotected slaps to the face did get me thinking of combat sports that would do ...

So do Chelsea have a plan?
You have to hand it to Chelsea FC’s new-ish owner Todd Boehly. If you’re replacing Roman Abramovich as owner, and ushering in a new era after the club’s trophy-laden one that the Russian Oligarch oversaw, you can win over the fans by going on a spending binge that would even make Abramovich raise on...

Not adding up: There are 2 Black QBs in the Super Bowl, but only 2 Black head coaches in the NFL
Marlin Briscoe is smiling in heaven. Doug Williams probably has a huge grin on his face. The first Black starting quarterback in NFL history — Briscoe — and the first Black quarterback to start and win Super Bowl MVP — Williams — are the giants whose shoulders Kansas City’s Patrick Mahomes and Phila...

Novak Djokovic once again wins Djokovic Open
Once you claim a trophy double-digit times, the tournament is yours. So if the French Open is the Nadal Open, then the Australian Open is now the Djokovic Open. Djoker didn’t so much ease to a straight-sets win over Stefanos Tsitsipas in the final, two sets went to a tiebreak, so much as he simply m...

2023 Baseball Hall of Fame voting results fallout
Unlike most sports’ Hall of Fame votes nowadays, the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame voting process has been the subject of much analysis, scrutiny, and often ridicule in recent years. There isn’t another major sport with so much elitism that all-time great players aren’t offered immortality via ...

So you’re telling me there’s a chance!
Tommy Paul didn’t play collegiate tennis. Instead, he came up through the junior circuit and turned pro in 2015. He’s one of the rare Americans who plays best on clay, yet his career breakthrough has come on the hardcourt of the Australian Open. Paul took down fellow American Ben Shelton on Wednesda...

Serie A has another massive financial scandal on its hands
Maybe you were a wee lad or lass all the way back in…2006? Is that what it says here? OK. Well maybe you were just in high school or college then, and that was the last big Serie A scandal, known as “Calciopoli,” which saw Juventus punted to Serie B and other clubs docked points and money. That was ...

Andy Murray can’t help himself
Andy Murray must really love tennis. At least he’d better, considering what he puts himself through every match in the past few years and over his whole career. It’s like he can’t get off the court when there have definitely been times he should get off the court, both in making his wins easier and ...

Does LaMelo Ball’s tortuous season have a light at the end of the tunnel?
LaMelo Ball’s lost season was cursed before it even began. On Wednesday night, the Charlotte Hornets guard sprained his ankle after teammate P.J. Washington landed on it during a rare win over the Houston Rockets. Entering the night, Houston was the only team in the league with a more hopeless recor...

Once again, we’re left to ask the big question about Rafael Nadal
No one gets the Pete Sampras, except for Pete Sampras, obviously. It’s so rare to see a tennis player walk off the court for the final time having just won a Grand Slam, still capable of more but sated with what was already accomplished and unable to ignore the poetry of that particular signoff. The...

The best NBA games to watch this week
Of course, a single game does not impact a team’s overall record the same way that it does an NFL team. In the NBA, teams play multiple games per week. That is not changing anytime soon, especially with the Golden State Warriors needing to host as many events as possible in their palatial $1.4 billi...

There is no circumstance where Brian Daboll wins Coach of the Year
The biggest lies in human history are as follows: ...