We've, as a family, sacrificed a lot and so it's almost like it's time for him to kind of take one for the team. It might not be like a championship. | | | | Surf's up or wipeout?
(Charles McQuillan/Getty Images) | | | | | | “We've, as a family, sacrificed a lot and so it's almost like it's time for him to kind of take one for the team. It might not be like a championship.”
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| | rantnrave:// NBA SUMMER LEAGUE has gone from basketball's favorite dive bar to a bustling club in just a few years. It was always an important stop for the league's insiders but its popularity has grown significantly among fans. Ratings are up. Games are sold out. It's given the league a buzz deep into July. All this to watch rookies, journeymen and fringe players. What received more attention this month: LONZO BALL or the MLB ALL-STAR GAME? That shouldn't be an argument. But NBA Summer League is a LAS VEGAS basketball bacchanal. Everyone there is looking for action. Its growth is a testament to how the NBA found a way to become a year-round sport. SportsSET: "The NBA's Summer Fling"... Bravo, SUE BIRD. She revealed she's gay and dating soccer star MEGAN RAPINOE in this superb profile by MECHELLE VOEPEL. Kudos to Voepel for not blasting the news up top in the story and telling Bird's story subtly and appropriately. The WNBA has become one of the more socially conscious pro sports leagues, while its players have found their voices too. A number of its stars are out and use their podium to push for awareness and change. This week, the SEATTLE STORM, Bird's team, fundraised for PLANNED PARENTHOOD and held a pre-game rally for the organization. It hadn't always been that way. The league was slow to reach out to LGBTQ fans. "Homophobia hurts our league; racism hurts it; sexism hurts it," Bird said. Those issues flared up this spring when CANDICE WIGGINS said she was bullied during her career for being straight. WNBA players rushed to dispute her claims. It showed that the issue is never too far from the surface for the league. But with stars like Bird leading the way and teams willing to speak up for the ideals that matter most to its fans and players, the WNBA seems to be on good footing and growing... NETS owner MIKHAIL PROKHOROV explains how to be a RUSSIAN oligarch... THE JUICE is loose. What's next for O.J. SIMPSON? Hopefully, the last time we'll hear from O.J. is when he leaves the prison he's sat in for the last nine years. He's a supermarket checkout-line celebrity whose Hall of Fame NFL career gets second billing on his WIKIPEDIA page. He's famous for being infamous. At 70, the best thing O.J. can do is recede into his private life quietly. His carnival doesn't need any more acts... AMERICA's least-liked baseball team. | | | - Mike Vorkunov, curator |
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| NBA Summer League is a Las Vegas basketball bacchanal. Newly drafted rookies make their debuts. D-League dreamers try to make an impression. And everyone is movin' and shakin'. | | |
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| Sue Bird is self-admittedly private. But the WNBA All-Star is finally opening up on her career, her relationship with girlfriend Megan Rapinoe and why it's important to talk now. | | |
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| Dozens of major leaguers are speaking out in favor of the protests against president Nicolas Maduro, who wants to rewrite Venezuela’s constitution and consolidate even more power. | | |
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| Jordan Murphy and Reichen Posey share a deep, mutual understanding -- and a love for football. | | |
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| Stacked with four DI players, including the reigning WNBA MVP, two aspiring doctors and a broadcaster-in-the-making, the Ogwumike sisters are ready to take on anything and anyone-even the Ball family. | | |
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| When Ramzan Kadyrov stepped into the Akhmat-Arena in Grozny on a brisk December morning in 2014, a sinister smile crept across his bearded face. Dressed in black, the longtime head of the Chechen Republic surveyed the scene within the country's primary soccer stadium, where 20,000 soldiers dressed in fatigues stood in place of the sports fans who usually occupied the bleachers. | | |
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| No one can resist nature's call, but for athletes, knowing when to let it flow can be the difference between victory and defeat. | | |
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| Redskins punter Tress Way has created a trivia board game for everyone. A Kickstarter campaign for What's Your Bid launches on July 31. | | |
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| The Slovenian youngster is only 18 years old, but he’s about as accomplished as a player can be outside of the states. | | |
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| The NBA, once irrelevant in July, is now essential in a month long dominated by baseball. | | |
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| A 13-year-old prodigy stole the spotlight, and his opponents that day will never forget it. | | |
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| Every black male gets what’s going on here. We all have to dress and keep our hair a certain way. Sometimes we feel like it. Sometimes we don’t. | | |
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| America went from ‘post-racial’ to back to reality during his prison term. | | |
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| Hint: it has to do with money. | | |
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| Tiffany Beers, engineer and innovator at the footwear and apparel company, describes her path to a coveted $720 shoe. (P.S. She hates feet.) | | |
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| Quietly, the United States Soccer Federation and the Federacion Mexicana de Futbol Asociacion have been waging a battle for control of the last great untapped well of soccer talent in the Western Hemisphere--and maybe beyond that. The Mexican-American. | | |
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| During the 2017 free-agency period, former Clippers shooting guard JJ Redick considers how signing with a new team and moving to a different city will not only affect himself, but his wife and children. | | |
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| Once, umpires were like popes: You could argue they were flawed, but their decisions were sacrosanct. Joe West does his job as if those days never ended. | | |
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| Serious golf people who have spoken with Donald Trump as president or president-elect say the same thing: All he really wants to talk about is golf. | | |
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| Ken Bradshaw, 58, may be the greatest big-wave surfer ever, but as William Langewiesche learns, he’s not interested in money or fame. Just don’t steal his waves. | | |
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| © Copyright 2017, The REDEF Group |
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