World Sports

Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print comment sports + biz + culture + lifeGet REDEF delivered to your inbox rantnrave:// The NFL’s ratings problem — down 9 percent this past season — has drawn endless scrutiny. NASCAR is in trouble. The NBA’s regional sports networks have seen theirs fall by 15 percent this season and 20 of 30 teams have flat or lower numbers. Ratings have been used as…

Facebook Twitter Facebook Messenger Pinterest Email print comment sports + biz + culture + lifeGet REDEF delivered to your inbox rantnrave:// Is there an archetype for a successful sports owner? Legacy sons have run the Knicks and Lakers aground. The Kings are climbing the rankings of craziest organizations in sports despite a self-made tech maven who received the Malcolm Gladwell treatment before taking over. Building a profile is difficult. If…

“Today, sports writing is basically a liberal profession, practiced by liberals who enforce an unapologetically liberal code,” writes Bryan Curtis at The Ringer. He’s right. You can see it in the way sportswriters police a consensus against the Washington Redskins’ name, or for on-field political activism. They tweet against President Trump, and for undocumented immigrants. They pile on populist loudmouths like former Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling, and may even…

British Cycling’s reputation faces the prospect of another battering after it was accused of misleading UK Sport, the body that provides it with millions of pounds of public money each year, by covering up allegations of bullying in an internal report after London 2012. Liz Nicholl, the chief executive of UK Sport, said British Cycling had displayed “a complete lack of transparency” by giving UK Sport a summary of an…

PRO BASKETBALL Sacramento general manager Vlade Divac headed into All-Star weekend convinced it was finally time to part ways with ultra-talented center DeMarcus Cousins. When asked why he didn’t wait for a better offer closer to Thursday’s trade deadline, Divac gave a curious response that raised more questions than it answered. ”Most likely we would get less because I had a better deal two days ago,” Divac said. ”I don’t…

CLOSE x Embed x Share USA TODAY Sports’ Rachel Axon explains the major story lines to follow heading to Pyeongchang, South Korea. USA TODAY Sports Lee Hee-beom, president and CEO of the Pyeongchang Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games (POCOG), delivers speech during a media conference in Sapporo, northern Japan, Tuesday, Feb. 21, 2017. Lee expects the 2018 Olympics to usher in a new era for winter…

When Gail Emms was asked about UK Sport’s decision to reject the desperate pleas of seven sports, including GB Badminton, to be funded for the Tokyo Olympics, she was poetic in her response. “It’s like someone just taking your heart, your emotions, your dreams and basically tearing them up,” said Emms, a badminton silver medallist at the 2004 Olympics, with a sigh. But UK Sport has a tin ear for…

Rod Simons, a longtime Twin Cities and former Seattle and Pacific Northwest sports personality, has died while covering the Minnesota Twins spring training in Fort Myers Fla., according to the Twins. He was 56. A cause of death was not given. A graduate of Washington State, Simons spent more than 20 years in the sports-media profession, and he worked for multiple causes including his Golf for the Gift charity that…

It took seven years, but Boogie finally broke the back of the Kings. Back in 2010, Sacramento took the temperemental Kentucky star at No. 5 fully aware he was a powder keg waiting to explode. They stayed by him through technicals, suspensions, attitude problems, stupidity, beefs with teammates, beefs with refs, beefs with announcers, beefs with George Karl and beefs (for some reason) with Tim Duncan, continuing to defend him,…

Getty Images As the Patriots bask in the afterglow of a fifth Super Bowl win, their owner will step into the spotlight of HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. A profile of Robert Kraft will be included in Tuesday’s episode of the show (10:00 p.m. ET/PT), with Andrea Kremer having exclusive access to him. Coincidentally (or not), Kremer will join Tuesday’s PFT Live to discuss the project. It’s part of…

North Carolina Tar Heels forward Isaiah Hicks (4) dunks the ball during the second half against the Virginia Cavaliers at Dean E. Smith Center. The Tar Heels won 65-41.(Photo: Rob Kinnan, USA TODAY Sports) North Carolina, currently leading the country’s deepest conference (ahem, 13 of 15 teams considered for tourney bids), has vaulted to one of the top four seeds in USA TODAY Sports’ bracketology. Credit that leap to an…

The NBA will never again veto a trade — there was far too much blowback from the last time the league did that. But commissioner Adam Silver should seriously consider following in the bold footsteps of his predecessor, David Stern, and veto a deal involving New Orleans. That’s how lopsided the Sacramento Kings’ trade with the New Orleans Pelicans for DeMarcus Cousins was Sunday night. In a word, it was comical….

SURPRISE, Az. — He wants to stay. All of the Royals’ potential free agents want to stay. But as first baseman Eric Hosmer puts it, “I realize what hand Dayton was dealt.” Which isn’t to say that “Dayton” — Royals general manager Dayton Moore — is conceding that he will lose Hosmer, the most coveted of the four Royals players entering their walk years. Hosmer said Sunday that he, his…

Here is a look at what’s going on in San Diego sports for the week for February 20th-26th. PADRES: After a week of workouts the Padres play the Mariners Saturday and Sunday in Peoria. First pitch is 12:10 p.m. both days. GULLS: It’s a double dose of hockey at the Valley View Casino Center. Friday the Gulls host the Texas Stars before the Rockford Ice Hogs come to San Diego….

There’s a bit of a void in the NFL schedule, with the scouting combine moved back until the end of the month, delaying the flurry of pre-free agency activity that usually takes place right about now in Indianapolis. Yet the NFL’s never-ending news cycle churns on, which leaves us with a nexus of not much going on between teams and agents, but plenty of time to pontificate about the many…

The UFC hits Halifax, Canada tonight for a hard-hitting heavyweight clash between eighth-ranked Derrick Lewis and ninth-ranked Travis Browne. Lewis has been an absolute force in the heavyweight division since signing with the promotion in 2014, winning eight of his 10 fights, including seven by KO/TKO. He has a chance to jump into title contention with a big win on Saturday night, but he’ll face a tough challenge in Browne,…

SURPRISE, Az. — He wants to stay. All of the Royals’ potential free agents want to stay. But as first baseman Eric Hosmer puts it, “I realize what hand Dayton was dealt.” Which isn’t to say that “Dayton” — Royals general manager Dayton Moore — is conceding that he will lose Hosmer, the most coveted of the four Royals players entering their walk years. Hosmer said Sunday that he, his…

There’s a bit of a void in the NFL schedule, with the scouting combine moved back until the end of the month, delaying the flurry of pre-free agency activity that usually takes place right about now in Indianapolis. Yet the NFL’s never-ending news cycle churns on, which leaves us with a nexus of not much going on between teams and agents, but plenty of time to pontificate about the many…

The Sacramento Kings, after promising DeMarcus Cousins privately and publicly that he wouldn’t be moved prior to Thursday’s NBA trade deadline, agreed to trade the center to the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday night, league sources told The Vertical. The Pelicans are sending guards Buddy Hield, Tyreke Evans and Langston Galloway, and 2017 first- and second-round picks to the Kings, league sources said, with forward Omri Casspi going to New Orleans….

Sports secretary Injeti Srinivas said “accepting the recommendation is easy, but implementing it is the challenge”. Starting next year, sport is likely to be integrated into the school curriculum. A sports ministry proposal to this effect is in the “finishing stage”, a senior ministry official said on Sunday. According to the ministry’s plan, students will be marked on their involvement in sporting activities, and sport will be a subject they…