World Sports

LOS ANGELES – Midnight had passed, and Kobe Bryant didn’t want to leave the Staples Center court. Come on, one more photo. Everyone push closer. Smile now. The black suit he wore into the night was gone, replaced with a pullover Los Angeles Lakers sweatshirt. All around him, his wife and daughters, there were confetti and purple and gold balloons. Everyone pushed closer, the flashes flickering, and soon Bryant’s eyes…

Kevin Barrows is a New Jersey man who brought down mobsters in the late 1990s and early 2000s working as an FBI agent in New York. Now a private investigator, Barrows’ new quest will be searching with sports reporter Lauren Gardner for sports treasures in a new six-episode reality TV show on “Sports Detectives,” which will debut April 24 on the Smithsonian Channel, Barrows go on the hunt for priceless…

There’s a hotel in Williamsburg—the expensive part of Brooklyn that still feels ‘edgy’ to a certain set—called the Wythe. It’s a trendy restored warehouse that often hosts hip soirees and parties for famous brands. On a freezing January evening, its exposed-brick walls and man-bunned bartenders hosted a launch party for a new sports league, called The Drone Racing League. It’s the brainchild of Nick Horbaczewski, who previously helped turn Tough…

Ireland’s most popular sports show and the winner of a record nine PPI radio awards Monday to Thursday from 7-10pm, Fridays from 7-9pm, Saturdays from 1-6pm and Sundays from 12-6pm Show page

In contrast, e-sports games are unending tests of skill and dedication, not the intricately crafted but finite experiences of narratively rich blockbuster titles. E-sports games are more similar to basketball or chess than to The Last of Us, which unfolds like an interactive movie. In Dota 2, you enter the matchmaking queue to look for other people to play with. After choosing their characters, or “heroes,” each team of five…

Meldonium is widely available in eastern Europe but not licensed in most western countries Athletes caught using meldonium could avoid a ban after anti-doping chiefs said it was not clear how long it takes the drug to leave the body. Wada announced in September that it was adding the heart disease medicine to its banned list from 1 January. Since the start of the year, there have been 172 positive…

The Golden State Warriors are preparing for history. Wednesday night, at home against the Memphis Grizzlies, the defending NBA champions will take its shot at league-record 73 victories, one more than the Chicago Bulls registered in the 1995-96 season. But do 73 victories make Golden State the best regular-season franchise in NBA history? How do the 2015-16 Warriors compare with the top seasons in North America’s other three major sports?…

The Golden State Warriors are preparing for history. Wednesday night, at home against the Memphis Grizzlies, the defending NBA champions will take its shot at league-record 73 victories, one more than the Chicago Bulls registered in the 1995-96 season. But do 73 victories make Golden State the best regular-season franchise in NBA history? How do the 2015-16 Warriors compare with the top seasons in North America’s other three major sports?…

To save articles or get newsletters, alerts or recommendations – all free. Don’t have an account yet?Create an account » Subscribed through iTunes and need an NYTimes.com account?Learn more » Need to connect your Home Delivery subscription to NYTimes.com?Link your subscription »

The BBC and BT Sport have extended their deal to air the FA Cup until 2021 and pledged to increase coverage of women’s football. The three-year extension to the existing £200m-plus deal, which was struck in 2013 and brought the world’s oldest knockout cup competition back to the BBC after seven years, is crucial for the increasingly cash-strapped corporation. The BBC’s sports right budget has been a major target of…

Photo credit: Lloyd Belcher Visuals See the steam rising off Nepali mountain runner Mira Rai? Sweet effect, right? “Well, the truth is that we tried to film the same scene the day before, but Mira was bitten by a wild dog on that hillside & so we had to cut filming short & get her to a clinic in Kathmandu for rabies shots,” filmmaker Lloyd Belcher detailed on his Facebook…

European governing body Uefa consider BT Sport’s exclusive coverage of the Champions League ‘a mistake,’ according to a report. The channel signed a record £897million, three-year deal with Uefa in November 2013 to show exclusive coverage of Europe’s premier club competition but, according to the Daily Mail, declining viewing figures have Uefa bosses considering a return to terrestrial television. The report states that while Uefa believes BT Sport are delivering…

Sports Direct is to pay £108m for a refurbished property on Oxford Street to become the first London branch of its upmarket Flannels chain, in a deal done by the boyfriend of founder Mike Ashley’s daughter. The sports retailer has agreed to buy the freehold of Academy House on the corner of Oxford Street and Soho’s Poland Street. It will open a flagship 20,000 sq ft Flannels store and use…

PHILADELPHIA lost its most influential sports figure in history with Monday’s passing of Flyers co-founder and Comcast Spectacor creator Ed Snider at 83 after a long battle with bladder cancer. The icon was a sports “futurist” who played some kind of role in virtually every major sporting occurrence in Philadelphia over the past five decades….

PHILADELPHIA lost its most influential sports figure in history with Monday’s passing of Flyers co-founder and Comcast Spectacor creator Ed Snider at 83 after a long battle with bladder cancer. The icon was a sports “futurist” who played some kind of role in virtually every major sporting occurrence in Philadelphia over the past five decades….

Since the digital video recorder became commonly used, the rights to professional sports have become steadily more valuable. That’s because while people may watch their favorite drama or sitcom on a delayed, time-shifted basis (while fast-forwarding through the commercials), sports are still generally watched live. That means the audience sees the ads as they air, which of course makes the commercial inventory more valuable. “Sports accounted for 93 of the…

Jordan Spieth stunningly blew his chance to repeat as Masters champion on Sunday with consecutive bogeys on the 10th and 11th holes followed by a blooper reel-worthy quadruple bogey on the par-3 12th turned a five-stroke lead to a three-stroke deficit. Where does it rank in the recent history of memorable sports meltdowns? Here are the top 10 worst sports collapses of the last 25 years. 10. Jana Novotna, 1993…

Team Fort Green: Johnson, Chapin-Rienzo, and Taylor Related Links Reverb Kitchen & Bar, the Polk Street sibling to Berkeley’s Gather, has closed Mister Jiu’s: Eight things to know about Brandon Jew’s new Chinatown restaurant It wasn’t that long ago that downtown Oakland was an extremely tough sell for business owners. Now it’s getting to the point where vacancies are hard to come by and restaurant/bar groups are doubling down on the area with additional locations….

Aston Villa have won only three Premier League games all season Aston Villa’s staff could face compulsory redundancy as the club prepare for relegation from the Premier League to the Championship. Saturday’s loss to Bournemouth all but sealed Villa’s fate. The club say “every effort” will be made to offer voluntary redundancy. Villa added: “The objective is to secure a sound financial platform from which the club can rebuild. We…

“Aston Villa’s football board plans to meet on Wednesday to formulate the next stage in the move to appoint a new manager. “Almost a fortnight after Remi Garde left the club,the board has a shortlist but next the respective claims of the candidates will be scrutinised by the four members together – chairman David Bernstein, Lord King, Adrian Bevington and former Villa player and chairman, Brian Little. Could one of these…