World Sports

What we too often expect from people we wouldn’t — couldn’t — expect from ourselves. Take the running back on a sweep toward either sideline (now called “the edges”) late in a game, his team winning and eager to keep the clock moving. A force of defenders forces him out of bounds, stopping the clock. Almost invariably, the TV and radio commentators then scold him for “not staying inbounds.” Really?…

UFC featherweight champion Conor McGregor tries to make UFC history Saturday against lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez when he tries to become the promotion’s first ever simultaneous two-weight champion. McGregor is coming off a majority decision win over Nate Diaz at UFC 196 and is eager to add yet another record to his long list of accomplishments in the UFC. He’ll take on lightweight Eddie Alvarez, who won the belt from…

Since Indiana’s unexpected defensive resurgence last January coincided with James Blackmon’s season-ending knee injury, the 6-foot-4 guard became a scapegoat for the team’s inability to generate enough early-season stops. There was even a misguided school of thought that the Hoosiers were better off without their second-leading scorer. You won’t find any Indiana fans making that argument this season after Blackmon’s brilliant performance during the 11th-ranked Hoosiers 103-99 overtime victory over third-ranked Kansas on Friday night in…

Electric cars are the future. Thanks to emissions restrictions and fuel efficiency requirements, plus the ease of using renewable energy to power an electric car means nearly every manufacturer will need to embrace it sooner or later. One of those manufacturers is Porsche, which is working on the Mission E electric sports sedan. And that means the company’s engineers have an interesting problem. Porsche makes sports cars (or sports SUVs),…

Seldom in sports is there such a perfect storm as Conor McGregor right now. Such a perfect, wild, surreal storm. Ireland’s McGregor headlines the first UFC show to take place at the hallowed fight sport halls of Madison Square Garden on Saturday, after New York finally legalised mixed martial arts. It comes at a time when Conor is aiming to make history as the company’s first fighter to hold two…

Working the count to three balls and two strikes, the man Mets fans knew as “Professor” dug back in the box. A little nervous, he called for time to collect himself. One of the greatest careers in the history of American sports was coming to its crescendo. Professor’s prolific home run hitting not only brought baseball back to prominence in American popular culture; he brought African-Americans back to the game….

It was the mid-1990s when Gov. George Pataki asked Randy Gordon of the New York State Athletic Commission his opinion regarding UFC and mixed martial arts. Gordon watched videos of UFC 1 and UFC 2 and figured he had seen enough. Gordon went before the State Legislature in Albany and compared the UFC to “street fighting without the beer bottles” and offered this scathing assessment: “I said, ‘If you allow…

Since Indiana’s unexpected defensive resurgence last January coincided with James Blackmon’s season-ending knee injury, the 6-foot-4 guard became a scapegoat for the team’s inability to generate enough early-season stops. There was even a misguided school of thought that the Hoosiers were better off without their second-leading scorer. You won’t find any Indiana fans making that argument this season after Blackmon’s brilliant performance during the 11th-ranked Hoosiers 103-99 overtime victory over third-ranked Kansas on Friday night in…

It was the mid-1990s when Gov. George Pataki asked Randy Gordon of the New York State Athletic Commission his opinion regarding UFC and mixed martial arts. Gordon watched videos of UFC 1 and UFC 2 and figured he had seen enough. Gordon went before the State Legislature in Albany and compared the UFC to “street fighting without the beer bottles” and offered this scathing assessment: “I said, ‘If you allow…

Next week, a UNC-Chapel Hill class on college sports will delve into the athletic and academic scandal that has dogged the university for years. On Tuesday, according to the syllabus, the topic will be “covering up.” The course, “Big-Time College Sports and the Rights of Athletes, 1956 to the present,” is taught by history professor Jay Smith, a frequent critic of the university administration and co-author of a 2015 book…

Gregg Popovich spoke to the media ahead of Friday night’s game against the Detroit Pistons and ripped into the election of Donald Trump as the next president of the United States, according to MySanAntonio.com. Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a stunning election result that has sparked conversation about how the country will move forward. Popovich said that he was still trying to formulate his thoughts…

We’re a nation bitterly divided. And, no, I’m not talking about who should be the fourth-ranked team in the College Football Playoff. A presidential election like no other has come and gone, sending half the nation into the streets for a euphoric dance, the other half into the streets for a defiant protest. There seems no middle ground, nothing we can all agree on. It’s time for sports to bring…

Trying to make some sense about where the green sports movement goes from here in the immediate aftermath of Donald J. Trump’s election as President of the United States and to see if there are any silver linings, I spoke to Allen Hershkowitz, co-founder and former president of the Green Sports Alliance and co-founder of Green Sports International. He did not sugarcoat the seriousness of the election results for the…

LeBron James made his third championship-celebrating trip to the White House on Thursday, welcomed as he was for the first two such trips by President Barack Obama. If James returns in the next four years, it may seem very awkward. James is no fan of President-elect Donald Trump, and — after a most divisive presidential campaign ended this week — athletes and coaches are dealing with the same emotions as…

Young people are switching off from TV sport as part of a drop in average audiences of nearly a tenth in six years, analysts have be claimed. The findings come amid concerns at BT and Sky about a sharp decline in football audience this season. Research by Ampere Analysis found that 18 to 24-year-olds, the younger end of the so-called “millennial” age group, were significantly less likely to consider themselves sports fans…

ESPN NBA analyst Jalen Rose thinks some professional athletes, especially those in the NBA, who are invited to the White House to be recognized for winning championships will skip the festivities because Donald Trump will be president. After Trump won the presidential election on Tuesday, there has been talk about how sports teams will handle the tradition of visiting the executive office. The Cleveland Cavaliers are scheduled to…

The 2015 Florida Gators women’s national championship gymnastics team.Tony Gutierrez/AP The University of Florida has the most dominant athletics program in the country. Business Insider has compiled a list of the schools that run the most dominating sports programs from top to bottom. To create the ranking we used data from the last three years of the Capital One Cup (which ranks how well schools do in all sports each…

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USA TODAY Sports’ Lorenzo Reyes looks at the three biggest story lines heading into this week. USA TODAY Sports

LeBron James wants to reflexively tell you that “you’re not supposed to be here” this season. In many ways, what LeBron wants to tell you about himself in his new Nike commercial is wrong. You’re not supposed to be here? You were on the cover of Sports Illustrated as a high school junior, LeBron — this is exactly where you’re supposed to be. But in one significant way, LeBron is…