SPORTS – Page 3

The Release Of WNBA Star Brittney Griner Still Uncertain As Her Trial Begins In A Russian Court

4Jul

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS, POLITICS, SPORTS

The Release Of WNBA Star Brittney Griner Still Uncertain As Her Trial Begins In A Russian Court

Although a Russian court ruled that WNBA star Brittney Griner’s detention may be extended for six more months, her trial on alleged drug charges begins on July 1, 2022, and gives her supporters a glimmer of hope that her release is still possible. Since her arrest on Feb. 17, Griner has been locked up in a Russian prison. She was charged with drug smuggling after Russian officials allegedly found vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis in her luggage. She faces up to 10 years in prison. It’s a stark contrast to her life as a millionaire athlete playing in professional basketball leagues in both the United States and, for the past seven years, Russia, where she earns nearly four times as much as her nearly US$282,000 annual WNBA salary. Speculation on the reason for Griner’s...

The Biden Administration Is Finally Making Moves To Free WNBA Star Brittney Griner From Russian Detention – After Initial Silence

22May

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

IN OTHER NEWS, POLITICS, SPORTS

The Biden Administration Is Finally Making Moves To Free WNBA Star Brittney Griner From Russian Detention – After Initial Silence

A week before Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Russian authorities arrested American basketball star Brittney Griner at the Moscow airport. She was charged with drug smuggling after Russian officials allegedly found vape cartridges containing oil derived from cannabis in her luggage. Since her arrest on Feb. 17, Griner has been locked up in a Russian prison. It’s a stark contrast to her life as a millionaire athlete playing in professional basketball leagues in both the United States and, for the last seven years, Russia, where she earns nearly four times as much as her nearly US$282,000 annual WNBA salary. Speculation on the reason for Griner’s arrest centers on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s alleged desire to use the American star as a geopolitical pawn at a time when U.S.-...

Only Some Players Have The Ability To Go On These Basket-Making Streaks – The ‘Hot Hand’ Is A Real Basketball Phenomenon

18Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SPORTS

Only Some Players Have The Ability To Go On These Basket-Making Streaks – The ‘Hot Hand’ Is A Real Basketball Phenomenon

To say a player is “hot” or has “hot hands” means the player is on a streak of making many consecutive shots. A question that has dogged researchers, coaches and fans for years is whether players on these streaks can defy random chance, or if hot hands are just an illusion and fit within statistical norms. We are two researchers who study information sciences and operations and decision technologies. In our recent study, we examined whether players can indeed get hot in actual live-game situations. Our analysis showed that some players do get consistently “hot” during games and make more shots than expected following two shots made consecutively. However, when we looked at all players together, we found that usually when a player makes more shots than normal after making consecutive shots...

Why Super-Rich US Sports Owner (Ted Lasso) Is Looking To Buy A London Soccer Team

14Apr

By THEIRL1ADMIN01No Comments

SPORTS

Why Super-Rich US Sports Owner (Ted Lasso) Is Looking To Buy A London Soccer Team

Ted Lasso, the story of an American football coach bringing his unique management skills to a fictional soccer club in West London, has entertained TV viewers since 2020. It now appears that some investors stateside are looking to experience this close up by buying a real English Premier League club in West London: Chelsea FC. For the fictional Lasso, swap in the very real Ricketts family. The Chicago Cubs owners have joined up with hedge fund billionaire Ken Griffin to bid for the club and have flown to London to meet with Chelsea stakeholders. Meanwhile, Woody Johnson, owner of the New York Jets and a former Ambassador to the U.K., also reportedly threw his hat into the ring. The fire sale of the club is part of the fallout from the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine. The current ...

Some Limits Set By States And Universities May Still Be Unconstitutional – But March Madness Stars Can Now Cash In On Endorsements

25Mar

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SPORTS

Some Limits Set By States And Universities May Still Be Unconstitutional – But March Madness Stars Can Now Cash In On Endorsements

March Madness is proving lucrative for some of its Cinderella stories and standout stars, thanks to a 2021 Supreme Court ruling that led the NCAA to end its longstanding ban on student athletes earning money from endorsement deals. Doug “Dougie Buckets” Edert, who led the Saint Peter’s Peacocks to their first ever Sweet 16 appearance on March 25, 2022, has already signed deals with Buffalo Wild Wings and sports site Barstool. Drew Timme, the mustachioed star forward at Gonzaga, agreed to use his whiskers to sell razors for Dollar Shave Club. And Deja Kelly, a star sophomore at the University of North Carolina, became one of Dunkin’s’ first college endorsements in February when she agreed to promote the brand’s doughnuts and coffee. But the Supreme Court ruling doesn’t mean anything goes....

Players Biggest Grievances – What MLB’s New Collective Bargaining Agreement Fails To Address

14Mar

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SPORTS

Players Biggest Grievances – What MLB’s New Collective Bargaining Agreement Fails To Address

“People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball,” second baseman Rogers Hornsby once said. “I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring.” For a while, it was looking like the start of spring would come and go without any baseball on the horizon. But just when fan morale was at its nadir, Major League Baseball announced a five-year agreement with its players, ending the second-longest labor interruption in MLB history. Now, April 7, 2022, will serve as most teams’ opening day. Sports economists like me have long studied labor disruptions in sports. In this dispute – the first major one in baseball since the mid-1990s – player grievances largely centered on two issues: the length of time it takes them to reach free agency and the lack of a payroll floor...

The Super Bowl And In All Other Sports The Risk Of Concussion Lurks

3Apr

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SPORTS, VIDEO REELS

The Super Bowl And In All Other Sports The Risk Of Concussion Lurks

An estimated 90 million to 100 million Americans will tune in to watch the Super Bowl this Sunday. Unlikely to be mentioned during the festivities is this sobering but significant side note: Athletes participating in collision sports are among those at highest risk for concussion. That risk is not limited to professional football. Researchers estimate that 4 million sports and recreation-related concussions occur in the U.S. every year, across all sports and all levels of play and in both games and practices. They happen to athletes and kids playing basketball and soccer and weekend warriors who bicycle and ski. But thousands of concussions also result from car accidents, slips and trips or other blows to the head. I have been researching brain injuries for nearly a quarter-century. Acro...

Behind The NFL’s Abysmal Record On Diversity – Why 30 Out Of 32 NFL Head Coaches Are White

21Jan

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SPORTS

Behind The NFL’s Abysmal Record On Diversity – Why 30 Out Of 32 NFL Head Coaches Are White

A couple of weeks after the close of the National Football League’s regular season, there is just one Black head coach and one Latino head coach left in the League – Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers, and Ron Rivera of the Washington Football Team, respectively. This follows the firing of Brian Flores by the Miami Dolphins and David Culley by the Houston Texans. In other words, in a league in which most of the players are Black, 30 of the 32 NFL head coaches are white. I have studied diversity and inclusion in sport for more than two decades, including the ways in which race and gender intersect to affect leadership opportunities for women and men. My research shows that biased decision-making, organizational cultures that value similarity, and societal forms of bias and discriminat...

‘Not Ever Over’ – Simone Biles, U.S. Gymnasts Castigate FBI Over Its Failures On Larry Nassar Case

16Sep

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SPORTS

‘Not Ever Over’ – Simone Biles, U.S. Gymnasts Castigate FBI Over Its Failures On Larry Nassar Case

The gymnasts testified at a Senate hearing on the bureau's delayed -- and flawed -- response to early accusations against the team doctor. Candice Norwood Originally published by The 19th American gymnast and Olympian McKayla Maroney condemned the FBI on Wednesday for failing to act on her reports of sexual abuse against former USA gymnastics national team doctor Larry Nassar in the summer of 2015. “Not only did the FBI not report my abuse, but when they eventually documented my report 17 months later, they made entirely false claims about what I said,” Maroney told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Maroney appeared before the committee alongside fellow gymnasts and survivors Simone Biles, Maggie Nichols and Aly Raisman during a hearing to examine how the FBI handled its inve...

What LaMelo Ball Got Right – And Wrong About Why Star Athletes Who Want To Play For The NBA Don’t Really Need College

26Aug

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SPORTS

What LaMelo Ball Got Right – And Wrong About Why Star Athletes Who Want To Play For The NBA Don’t Really Need College

SPORTS John Holden, Oklahoma State University In a recent interview published in GQ, NBA star LaMelo Ball downplayed the importance of college for athletes who aspire to play professional basketball. When asked about his decision to forgo college and play professional basketball overseas before entering the NBA draft, Ball said: “You wanna go to the league, so school’s not your priority.” The then-19-year-old Ball, now 20, quickly clarified his quotes in GQ via Instagram, stating that he was only referencing his own situation and that while school is “not for everybody,” it is for many people. LaMelo Ball’s GQ interview is only the most recent point in a long-standing debate over the necessity of college for superstar athletes. Here are four points to help put Ball’s comments into shar...