Sports

Rafael Nadal is ready to play again. In America. On hard courts. Should he?

Rafael Nadal is ready to play again. In America. On hard courts. Should he?

Related media - Related media For more than a month, the smoke signals out of Rafael Nadal’s camp have kept the tennis world on its toes, sparking predictions of everything from a triumphant spring on the red clay of Paris to him never playing another competitive match following yet another hip injury in Australia in January. The only thing that seemed clear was that the 22-time Grand Slam champion was prioritizing the clay court season in Europe this spring. Nadal said as much in January when he returned following a year-long layoff because of hip surgery. Sure, he was happy…
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How Phoenix Fans Watch Their Teams May Change How You Watch Yours

How Phoenix Fans Watch Their Teams May Change How You Watch Yours

Linked media - Associated media The Phoenix-area franchises are part of a growing wave of teams doing the same. The San Diego Padres, like the Diamondbacks, ended their agreement with Diamond Sports, the largest regional sports network provider. Major League Baseball used its broadcasting and streaming capabilities to keep the teams on the air and guaranteed they would get 80 percent of the revenue they received in their Diamond Sports deals. Diamond Sports, which must make at least $400 million in annual debt payments, is in talks with its creditors, some of whom want to reshape the company’s business while…
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Anthony Kim expected to play LIV Golf event after 12 years away from the game

Anthony Kim expected to play LIV Golf event after 12 years away from the game

Connected media - Associated media Golf’s great prodigy turned mysterious recluse is returning to the sport. Anthony Kim is expected to make his return to professional golf for the first time in 12 years and play LIV Golf’s event in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, this week as a wild card. LIV commissioner Greg Norman teased Kim’s return in a video on social media Monday, and Kim’s presence on the driving range did not go unnoticed Tuesday. Sports Business Journal’s Josh Carpenter snapped a photo of a placard featuring Kim’s name, and then YouTube golfer Andy Carter posted a video of Kim’s…
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How love, Warriors basketball and poetry brought Tom Meschery back

How love, Warriors basketball and poetry brought Tom Meschery back

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The poet has been upstairs in his office, tapping at the keyboard on various projects. Most of his mornings begin this way … so much work to do. Some days he tends to his blog, and on other days he tidies up his memoir that is nearing publication. Or he may put the finishing touches on another of his mystery novels. And of course, his poetry. There is always his poetry.Much of his poetry chronicles his remarkable life. He was born in Manchuria to Russian parents, and from ages 3 to 6 lived in a World War…
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Bucky McMillan has built Samford into a mid-major power, without leaving home

Bucky McMillan has built Samford into a mid-major power, without leaving home

HOMEWOOD, Ala. — The house Bucky McMillan grew up in, the one in the Birmingham suburbs where a new owner discovered 18 waterlogged basketballs buried beneath years of leaves in a ditch where they’d collected after running off the driveway, is only three miles from his office at Samford University. The Shades Valley YMCA, where McMillan played his first organized basketball, is less than half a mile away. Mountain Brook High School, where McMillan starred as a player and then built the Spartans into a national prep power as head coach, is six miles away. Birmingham-Southern College, where McMillan walked…
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Amid tragedy, one high school basketball team shows the power of sports

Amid tragedy, one high school basketball team shows the power of sports

GRETNA, Neb. — This is not a story about high school basketball. It’s not about a treasured coach who died midway through a season. It’s not a story of redemption, sorrow or achievement.It’s about togetherness. This is a story about community and a team that has revealed, through its resilience and fight to honor a lost leader, what the best of sports looks like.Wednesday night at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln, Neb., Gretna High School will play a first-round game in the Class A boys state tournament against Millard North.Brad Feeken coached the Dragons to win. He coached them with…
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Max Verstappen’s father: Red Bull could be ‘torn apart’ if Horner stays amid controversy

Max Verstappen’s father: Red Bull could be ‘torn apart’ if Horner stays amid controversy

Stay informed on all the biggest stories in Formula One. Sign up here to receive the Prime Tire newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday and Friday.Fractures within Red Bull Racing appear to have grown after Max Verstappen’s father, Jos, warned the team was “in danger of being torn apart” if Christian Horner remained in charge amid the ongoing controversy surrounding the team principal.Horner remains in the spotlight after a turbulent few days in Bahrain to start the new Formula One season. Although Verstappen scored his eighth consecutive grand prix victory with a dominant display, beating teammate Sergio Pérez by over 20 seconds,…
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How should broadcasts handle court-storming? On the line between documenting and glamorizing

How should broadcasts handle court-storming? On the line between documenting and glamorizing

Throughout a three-decade career as a prominent ESPN play-by-play broadcaster, Dave Pasch says he has been on the mic for two college basketball games that ended in a court-storming. One occurred earlier this month as unranked LSU upset Kentucky as time expired at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La. Pasch recalled this week a conversation he and analyst Jay Williams had with an LSU athletics department staffer prior to the game.“We asked, if they beat Kentucky, will they storm the court?” Pasch said. “He was like, ‘Nope, we don’t storm the court here. We’ve beaten Kentucky before.’…
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. leaving NBC for Amazon Prime, Warner Bros. Discovery: Sources

Dale Earnhardt Jr. leaving NBC for Amazon Prime, Warner Bros. Discovery: Sources

The biggest name in NASCAR is on the move.Dale Earnhardt Jr. is leaving NBC and heading to racing newcomers Amazon Prime Video and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports, sources briefed on his decision told The Athletic.Earnhardt is expected to take this season off and then resume his broadcasting career in 2025 when WBD Sports and Amazon begin their coverage.The move figures to give WBD Sports and Amazon instant credibility when they start their series. Each will have five races a season. WBD Sports’ races will be broadcast on TNT, streamed on Max and have a Bleacher Report component. NASCAR complements WBD…
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The business of Sarah Nurse: She’s one of the faces of hockey, but her sights are set on more

The business of Sarah Nurse: She’s one of the faces of hockey, but her sights are set on more

TORONTO — Sarah Nurse was driving home from a recent PWHL Toronto practice when she got a bit of sage advice.It wasn’t from a podcast or a friend on the phone. The advice came courtesy of a billboard on the side of the road in Canada’s most populous city, featuring her own face with the Adidas slogan “You got this.”“I was like, yeah, I do,” Nurse said with a laugh.The billboard she drove past is one of many across the country, including a massive advertisement at Yonge-Dundas Square — Toronto’s closest approximation to Times Square in New York City —…
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