U.S./World Sports category, Page 21
Denny Hamlin goes for 3 consecutive wins amid history at Bristol
At a track where he has enjoyed more success than any active NASCAR driver, history awaits Denny Hamlin at Bristol Motor Speedway. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver will make his 400th consecutive start in the Cup Series and the 36th of his career at the 0.533-mile oval in Bristol, Tenn....
Nuggets fire coach Michael Malone, oust GM Calvin Booth in stunning moveVideo
Michael Malone, who coached the Denver Nuggets to the NBA title in 2023 and has led the team to eight consecutive winning seasons, was fired Tuesday in a stunning move that comes with less than a week in the regular season. Also out: general manager Calvin Booth, whose contract will...
Denny Hamlin holds off William Byron in OT to win at Darlington
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Denny Hamlin took the lead coming out of the pits before a final overtime finish and held off William Byron to win the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday. Hamlin won for a second straight week after his success at Martinsville and for the fifth time...
Denny Hamlin looks for 5th win at Darlington Raceway
DARLINGTON, S.C. — Denny Hamlin is continually questioning his confidence as he navigates his latest try for a NASCAR Cup Series title. Hamlin’s win last week at Martinsville has him in the field of 16 when the playoffs come around in about five months. And he’s prepping to run the...
Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard and Sue Bird highlight Basketball Hall of Fame class
Carmelo Anthony and Dwight Howard are going into the Basketball Hall of Fame later this year, not once but twice. And LeBron James and Chris Paul are part of the group that’s headed to the Hall as well, even before their playing careers end. Anthony and Howard were announced Saturday...
Duke freshman star Cooper Flagg named AP men’s college basketball player of the year
SAN ANTONIO — Cooper Flagg and his Duke teammates were days away from clinching a spot in the Final Four, and the Blue Devils’ freshman star was planning ahead. It wasn’t about anything on the court, though. It was to be ready the next time teammates Khaman Maluach and Patrick...
UCLA coach Cori Close uses lessons learned from time with UConn’s Geno Auriemma over a decade agoVideo
TAMPA, Fla. — When Cori Close was starting out at UCLA 14 years ago, she called Geno Auriemma and asked if she could fly across the country to watch his UConn team practice during the NCAA Tournament because her team wasn’t playing in March Madness. It was Close’s first head...
Texas and South Carolina are familiar foes and bring stingy defenses into Final Four meetingVideo
TAMPA, Fla. — Among the many things Texas coach Vic Schaefer admires about South Carolina’s Dawn Staley, her consistency stands out the most. UConn’s Geno Auriemma has set the standard in women’s basketball with 24 Final Four appearances and 11 national titles, both records. For Schaefer, Staley — who’s in...
NBA suspends 5 players for Pistons-Timberwolves fight that spilled into stands
NEW YORK — Detroit’s Isaiah Stewart was suspended for two games, and four other players from the Pistons and Minnesota Timberwolves drew one-game suspensions for their roles in an on-court altercation between the teams earlier this week, the NBA said Tuesday. Stewart got two games “based in part on his...
Trump tariff tumult has ripples for sporting goods, puts costly hockey gear in price-hike crosshair
MINNEAPOLIS — Calls from the U.S. to Roustan Hockey headquarters in Canada in recent weeks have been anything but routine, as bulk orders of name-brand sticks have suddenly become complicated conversations. “These customers want to know: When their orders ship, will they have to pay an additional 25% tariff? And...
Denny Hamlin ends 10-year win drought at Martinsville Speedway
MARTINSVILLE, Va. — Denny Hamlin ended an agonizing 10-year winless streak at Martinsville Speedway, holding off teammate Christopher Bell in his home state to secure a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs. The Joe Gibbs Racing star, who was raised a few hours away in the Richmond suburb of...
Wood Brothers Racing makes triumphant return to MartinsvilleVideo
Wood Brothers Racing returned to a spirited welcome this weekend at Martinsville Speedway. The pedestrian tunnel leading into the infield and garage area was lined with two dozen life-size images saluting the longtime connection between NASCAR’s oldest track and its oldest team. “Seeing all the photos in the tunnel walking...
Kyle Larson wins Cup Series at Homestead, finishes 1 race shy of triple-header sweepVideo
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Larson passed Alex Bowman with six laps remaining in NASCAR’s Cup Series race Sunday at Homestead-Miami Speedway, giving the Hendrick Motorsports driver the 30th win of his career at one of his best tracks. Larson sped by as Bowman scraped the wall on Turn 4 with...
Fired high school girls basketball coach apologizes for hair-pulling incident with playerVideo
NORTHVILLE, N.Y. — A coach who was fired within hours of pulling a player’s ponytail after a loss in a New York girls basketball state championship game issued an apology Sunday, saying his actions were unacceptable. Jim Zullo, formerly the coach of the girls team at Northville Central, was dismissed...
Kyle Larson trying to avoid another disappointing weekend at HomesteadVideo
HOMESTEAD, Fla. — Kyle Larson is tired of his weekends at Homestead-Miami Speedway ending in disappointment. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has won a NASCAR Cup Series race and Xfinity Series race in his career at the South Florida track, but he mostly just remembers the heartbreaks there. Last year it...
George Foreman, the glowering heavyweight who became a lovable champion, dies at 76
George Foreman, the fearsome heavyweight who lost the “Rumble in the Jungle” to Muhammad Ali before his inspiring second act as a 45-year-old champion and a successful businessman, died Friday night. He was 76. Foreman’s family announced his death on social media, not saying how or where he died. “A...
LSU ‘walking double-double’ Aneesah Morrow is closing out her prolific career in March Madness
BATON ROUGE, La. — When Aneesah Morrow, LSU’s prolific forward, is around her family, she’ll sometimes be teased about her prodigious appetite. “She can probably outeat my sons,” Morrow’s mother, Nafeesah, said with a laugh this week as she also recalled telling LSU’s basketball staff, “you won’t have a problem...
Freshman star Cooper Flagg is ready to go for No. 1 seed Duke in NCAA’s East Region bracket
RALEIGH, N.C. — Duke freshman star Cooper Flagg says he’s good to go after spraining his left ankle last week, just in time for March Madness. The top-seeded Blue Devils said Flagg will be active for Friday’s first-round game against Mount St. Mary’s in the NCAA Tournament’s East Region. Meanwhile,...
NBA champ Celtics sold for record $6.1 billion to group led by private equity mogul Bill Chisholm
BOSTON — Private equity mogul William Chisholm agreed to buy the Boston Celtics on Thursday in a deal that values the NBA’s reigning champions and the most-decorated franchise in league history at a minimum of $6.1 billion — the largest price ever for American professional sports team. If the deal...
Skipping this year’s March Madness brackets? It’s not just you
WASHINGTON — In East Lansing, Michigan, college sports often dominate conversations — especially in March, when everyone seems to be filling out their NCAA brackets. Jessica Caruss would know; she has lived in the area for most of her life. She loves sports, and she’s a Michigan State fan, but...
Here are some non-traditional ways to fill in your March Madness bracket
You’ve spent the whole season glued to the scores and rankings. You’ve memorized players’ names and stats. Selection Sunday has come and gone, and now it’s time for March Madness — and you feel certain that your uber-informed NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament bracket will dominate the work poll....
Heat-Knicks game is delayed after Tracy Morgan gets sick at Madison Square Garden
NEW YORK — Actor and comedian Tracy Morgan got sick in the second half of Monday night’s Heat-Knicks game, interrupting the action at Madison Square Garden. There was a pause in play with 6:09 left in the third quarter while workers cleaned up the area around Morgan’s seat. The delay...
In NASCAR antitrust fight, Michael Jordan’s manager goes from adviser to stock car series to targetVideo
LAS VEGAS — Long before the battle over the charter system led to the antitrust lawsuit now engulfing NASCAR, its executives found Michael Jordan and his small group of advisers a beneficial resource in discussing growth for the top racing series in the United States. They held meetings with Curtis...
UCLA and South Carolina headline AP Top 25 women’s poll and are top seeds in NCAA Tournament
UCLA remained No. 1 in The Associated Press women’s basketball Top 25 on Monday one day after the Bruins earned the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history. The Bruins head into March Madness with two losses, both coming to Southern Cal during...
Duke remains at No. 1 in AP Top 25 entering March Madness; St. John’s rises to No. 5
Duke remained atop The Associated Press Top 25 men’s college basketball poll on Monday a day after the committee that selects the 68-team field for the NCAA Tournament went with Auburn as the No. 1 overall seed. The Blue Devils (31-3) earned 49 of 59 first-place votes in the latest...
