Basketball

Pacers-Celtics canceled, to be made up at Sports.ws

That this post is even necessary is a shame in itself, but an individual or series of individuals who fancied themselves important enough to inflict their disturbed will upon the lives of hundreds and thousands of innocents – physically, through the successful detonation of a pair of explosives at the world-renowned Boston Marathon, and emotionally, as any attack close to home does.

Basketball

Kobe Bryant’s Achilles Injury: Coincidence or Fate?

Kobe Bryant injured his Achilles this weekend, that much we all know. What’s been lost in the shuffle of disappointment however, is that the actual name of the tendon that the future Hall of Fame guard tore isn’t the only similarity he and the mythological hero share. Mark Milner explains.

Hockey

Steve Ott, Boos Brother

For those who follow the NHL, Steve Ott falls into one of two categories. He’s either a beloved player or a hated rival. Checking in at 6’0″, 193 lbs., Ott isn’t the most physically imposing player in the league, but he’s a “shift disturber” extraordinaire, the epitome of a “pest”, and until recently a player […]

Baseball

The Ballpark at the End of the Universe

The actual fictional book edition of “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” according to the inimitable Douglas Adams, “has the words DON’T PANIC inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover. But there is no official Guide to the Baseball Season, and so panicking comes easily.

Basketball

Allen Iverson and the Troubling Non-Retirement

On March 30, the Philadelphia Sixers celebrated Allen Iverson bobblehead night during a home game. The diminutive former MVP shooting guard was in attendance himself, making the media rounds and enjoying the adulation of Sixers fans. Of course, this wasn’t the first time that Philly has trotted out Iverson during a home game and it probably won’t be the last, but it has been the most transparent so far.

Football

Making sense of Mike McNeil and the Auburn Tigers

What the hell, if anything, is going on at Auburn University? It’s some kind of mess and in the end, Mike McNeil will have pleaded guilty to first-degree robbery and will serve three years in jail. But if that’s how it ends, it’s sure tough to know exactly what happened that lead to this. McNeil […]

Football

Lessons Learned from the Mike Rice Rutgers Firing

Football coaches everywhere should be keeping a close eye on the story of Mike Rice. The former Rutgers men’s basketball coach was fired this week after video evidence of him physically and verbally abusing players surfaced, and the scandal has since engulfed athletic director Tim Pernetti (who resigned) and school president Robert Barchi (who’s still there, for the moment). It’s a story that could go well beyond basketball, though, and there are plenty of implications for football, a sport where many coaches have long been known for being hard on their players.

Hockey

Jeff Halpern and the Tale of the Lost Draw

There’s something to be said for face-offs in hockey. But, then again, you already knew that. In a sport where puck possession is the name of the game, one who rules the face-off circle is considered king. Joe Scaringi takes a good, romantic and at times tragic, look at how one draw in particular sent an entire NHL playoff run crashing down.

Basketball

March Madness Social Media Trends

While we’ll still have to wait until Monday to determine who will be crowned the 2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball Champions, there is no doubt that we can proclaim social media to be a winner when it comes to its growing involvement and popularity in the sporting realm. By providing fans with up-to-the second type access and an avenue for interaction with athletes, media members and other fans, the use of social media has become an adjunct to our sports watching experience. March Madness has only stoked the fire, but how? And why?

Basketball

Looking Beyond the Kevin Ware Injury

Kevin Ware has become a household name, and not for reasons that he would have hoped for. When Ware gruesomely broke his leg on national television fans, players and consumers of March Madness in general were forced to take a step back and evaluate the game and the role that student athletes play in it.