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Kobe Bryant and the Los Angeles Lakers lost at home against their city rival, the Clippers, on Tuesday, 103-81. It was a game where the retiring NBA legend was off, scoring just six points on 2-of-12 shooting. So what did Kobe do when his team was getting blown out and he wasn’t having his best night? He switched sports, of course. Check it out as Kobe’s soccer skills were on…

Rugby has the potential to rival soccer as an international sport as it returns to the Olympics this year for the first time since 1924, according to a new HSBC report. By 2026, HSBC predicts the number of global rugby players to hit 15 million, nearly double the current 7.6 million, as 150 countries embrace the rough-and-tumble sport. While that’s still well off the global reach of football, or soccer,…

RELATED: Gaughan talks strategy for Bristol heat races   FORT WORTH, Texas—Brendan Gaughan is aware of the talk that he might retire after the 2016 NASCAR XFINITY Series season. He even has that conversation every year.   “Every year, I almost retire,” Gaughan said at Texas Motor Speedway, site of Friday’s NASCAR XFINITY Series O’Reilly Auto Parts 300 (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).   “When I closed my team down in 2007 and…

Organizers on Friday unveiled four designs shortlisted to become the official logo of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The designs were selected from 14,599 entries in a contest open to the public. The Tokyo organizing committee said the public will have a week to 10 days to give their opinions of the designs either online or by postcard. Those opinions will be considered during the final review by the Emblem Selection…

RELATED: Practice 1 results   Martin Truex Jr. rose to the top of an ever-changing leaderboard Thursday to lead the opening NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Texas Motor Speedway.   Truex, the Daytona 500 runner-up, powered to a best lap of 192.892 mph around the 1.5-mile track in the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota. His lap was significantly slower than the track qualifying record of 200.111 mph set by Tony Stewart in October 2014.   “We were…

Stewart-Haas Racing announced Thursday that Tony Gibson, crew chief for driver Kurt Busch and the No. 41 Chevrolet team, will miss the first two days of the race weekend at Texas Motor Speedway.   SHR said through its official Twitter account that Gibson, 51, will stay home in North Carolina to care for his wife, who is dealing with an unspecified illness. The team indicated that Gibson planned to rejoin the No. 41 team…

Rugby has the potential to rival soccer as an international sport as it returns to the Olympics this year for the first time since 1924, according to a new HSBC report. By 2026, HSBC predicts the number of global rugby players to hit 15 million, nearly double the current 7.6 million, as 150 countries embrace the rough-and-tumble sport. While that’s still well off the global reach of football, or soccer,…

print Our experts weigh in on four of the biggest questions in NASCAR: Turn 1: Texas Motor Speedway is celebrating its 20th year of racing. What’s your favorite Texas moment? Ricky Craven, ESPN NASCAR analyst: Texas Motor Speedway has become a fabulous racing facility, but it did not begin that way. I get a kick out of Victory Lane and the drivers firing off the pistols. I do not have…

print We honestly don’t have a lot to say about this video of two dachshunds dressed up like hockey players. It’s not like watching this is going to drastically change your outlook on life, or cure some disease, or somehow reveal to you the secrets of the universe. So, you know, don’t go in expecting that. What you should expect is two dogs dressed like hockey players attempting to play…

Meldonium is available over-the-counter in Russia and in other Eastern European nations. (REUTERS/Ints Kalnins/Files) Russian athletes’ systemic use of the banned performance-enhancer meldonium came into sharper focus this week, when the country’s sports media outlets reported that Russia’s under-18 hockey team would be replaced by the under-17 team at the upcoming world championships after a number of the under-18 players reportedly tested positive for the drug, which was banned this…

A 24-point game from Kawhi Leonard led the San Antonio Spurs to an easy victory over the Indiana Pacers on the last Monday before Christmas, but this was not the biggest news of the day for the formidable NBA franchise. San Antonio’s local authorities bought a minor-league football stadium on 21 December last year and charged the Spurs’ parent company with the task of wooing Major League Soccer – and…

The BBC will send 455 staff to cover this summer’s Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro – 40% down on the number it employed for London 2012. The BBC acknowledged that its staff numbers often attracted criticism and said its total deployment was one-fifth of the number being sent by US broadcaster NBC. The number of accredited staff is down on the 765 who covered the 2012 Games, and slightly…

1. It wasn’t the first attempt at reviving the Olympics. Even after the Romans snuffed out the classical Greek games in 393 A.D., the Olympic flame had continued to simmer. Informal Olympic festivals took place as early as the 1600s, and the 19th century brought a series of local revivals including the Jeux Olmpiques Scandinaves in Sweden and the Zappas Olympics in Greece. In England, meanwhile, a doctor named William…

The IIHF World U18 Championships begin in Grand Forks, N.D., next week, and the Russian team was set to fly out tomorrow. Today it was revealed that the head coach has been fired and the entire roster will be replaced because too many players tested positive for the recently banned substance Meldonium. The doping aspect was first reported by AllHockey.ru, which says the under-18 roster is expected to be replaced…

“It’s hard to explain,” he said. “Those players back in the day, when they wore the Indian head jersey, they wore it with pride. I wear it with pride. I fly my flag with pride. I show respect for my team, and like I said, it’s an addiction.” Boger is one of many who are traveling, tuning in and turning their attention Thursday to Tampa as the UND men’s hockey…

Portage Mayor James Snyder, center, and Sport Resort Managing Partner Tony Czapla, right, talk during a groundbreaking for the $75 million Sport Resort development Tuesday in Portage.

Fairbanks Ice Dogs’ Alex Mehnert, left, is checked by Johnstown Tomahawksí Anthony Parrucci during a North American Hockey League game in Johnstown, Pa., Friday Jan. 8, 2016.(Photo: John Rucosky, AP) Fighting in the NHL continues to decrease, but U.S junior hockey is where radical changes are being seen. “Fighting is not part of the fabric in junior hockey in the United States anymore,” said Marc Boxer, USA Hockey’s director of…

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (April 5, 2016) — NASCAR fans once again have the power to put a driver of their choice in the 2016 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race. The Sprint Fan Vote is now open, and will send one of 30 drivers into the annual star-studded event on May 21 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. The race will be broadcast live at 7 p.m. ET, on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.  …

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Nearly a year after Matt Kenseth drove to victory in the Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes and Stand Up To Cancer at Bristol Motor Speedway, the former series champion met with members of Byrnes family for a special presentation at the NASCAR Hall of Fame.   On Tuesday, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver presented Karen Byrnes, widow of the former NASCAR broadcaster, and son Bryson with a replica of the sword…