Daniel J. Flynn - Page 35

Joel Embiid left a country deemed unfree by human rights organizations to play basketball. Is the draft by which the Cameroon-by-way-of-Kansas seven-footer gets to live his dream also a despotic institution? Sports drafts have been decried as socialistic schemes that

Tommy John has been retired for a quarter century, but the sinkerballer’s name strangely remains in the conversation more than any current player in Major League Baseball. Nineteen major leaguers, including two of the game’s best young aces–Patrick Corbin of

The Cleveland Cavaliers, entering the NBA draft lottery with a 1.7 percent chance of winning the top pick in the draft, won the drawing for the third time in four years Tuesday night. A positive sign came for the Cavs

A 17-degree mean temperature plus $498 million in corporate welfare equals a Super Bowl.  The NFL’s owners voted today to award Super Bowl 52 to Minneapolis. The vote comes as a payback to Minnesota for pouring at least $498 million

Undefeated welterweight Floyd Mayweather has announced a September 13 date for his next fight. The fight date, coming as it does six weeks after Ramadan, surely won’t please one of his potential foes. “Look, Ramadan only comes once a year

The Sports Hangover recuperates from a weekend of a final-furlong-finish Preakness, the NBA and NHL playoffs weeding out weakness, and an MMA card with several losing fighters peddling a grievance. Don’t Hate Me Because I’m Beautiful “F— France and F—

The concussion crusaders who have attacked American football now set their sights on European football. When does the ban come on “duck, duck, goose” head patting? Association football, a phrase that degenerated into “soccer,” shares a name, eleven players to

Jason Collins proved in his return to the NBA this season that he no longer possesses the skills or athleticism he enjoyed when the New Jersey Nets drafted him in the first round thirteen years ago. He also proved that

Martin Perez became the latest MLB pitcher to opt for Tommy John surgery to heal a ligament tear in his throwing arm. The decision comes on the heels of the Miami Marlins losing ace Jose Fernandez to the procedure. By

Michael Sam, the only NFL seventh-round draft choice to appear on the cover of Sports Illustrated, in a Visa commercial, and within a White House tweet, also boasts his own reality television program. Oprah Winfrey’s OWN network will broadcast the

The new NFL substance-abuse policy will reduce the penalty for positive marijuana tests and will make it easier for players to pass urinalysis screenings by increasing the amount of chemicals in the system that would trigger a positive result, reports

Reche Caldwell looked like a deer caught in the headlights as Tom Brady’s go-to receiver back in 2006 when #12 didn’t have much to go to. Might his arrest today shed light on why his eyes looked bigger than footballs

How absolutely enormous is tonight’s Bruins-Canadiens Game Seven? Montreal’s fans have sold out the 21,000-seat Bell Centre to watch. Do they know Boston’s TD Bank Garden hosts the deciding contest 300 miles away? It’s tempting to reach into the past

The Detroit Pistons have hired Stan Van Gundy to coach their team and serve as president of basketball operations. The team will formally announce the 7-year, $35 million deal at a press conference tomorrow. The enormous contract lured the former

Jose Fernandez, the 22-year-old ace of the Miami Marlins staff, has torn his ulnar collateral ligament in his throwing arm. The strikeout leader of the major leagues has been advised to undergo season-ending Tommy John surgery. Fernandez, should a second

The shift used to be for David Ortiz. Now it’s for just about anyone.  The New York Times covers the shift in the philosophy toward the shift. A strategy once aimed at neutralizing pull hitters, the infield shift now diminishes

Magic Johnson boasts five NBA championships, three MVP awards, a chain of movie theaters, and a net worth of a half-billion dollars. But intracity nemesis Donald Sterling wonders what the basketball Hall of Famer has ever done. In a remarkable

The Sports Hangover recovers from the NFL Draft, a weekend of NBA and NHL playoff action, and a fight of the year in the UFC. WWKPD? What would Kenny Powers do? If Mitch “Wild Thing” Williams follows this guide to

What in the name of Otto Graham has been going on with Cleveland quarterbacks?  The ghosts of Tim Couch, Brady Quinn, and Brandon Weeden haunt Johnny Manziel. The 2012 Heisman Trophy winner found an NFL suitor. Can he become a

They fed their little boys so they could become big boys. They drove them to practice. They cheered the loudest on game day. And their sons, made millionaires this weekend in the NFL Draft, demonstrated their appreciation with more than

“Judge me for what I do on the field,” Michael Sam asks in a new Visa commercial. Unfortunately for the University of Missouri defensive end, that’s just what NFL teams are doing. It’s Day Three of the NFL Draft, and

Who killed it in the first round of the NFL Draft? Who killed their team’s future? We posed these and other questions to NFL insider Dan Leberfeld, who covered last night’s proceedings from Jets headquarters in Florham Park, New Jersey.

Drake, a sports groupie who raps on the side, hung out with Johnny Manziel after last night’s draft. His songs hung around Radio City Music Hall all night long. The NFL allowed draft picks to select their own walk-up music,

How enormous is the NFL? Like the State of the Union, the NFL Draft is too big for one channel. Add up the ratings of last night’s two NBA playoff games, including one featuring the league’s marquee player, and the

The 2014 NFL Draft started as everyone expected it to with Roger Goodell saying Jadeveon Clowney’s name. From there, the first round of the 79th annual NFL Player Selection Meeting traveled into unanticipated and interesting directions. “I had no idea,”

Hello, Cleveland! Johnny Manziel, the charismatic quarterback predicted to go first by some and not even in the first round of the draft by others, wound up with the Cleveland Browns. The AFC North team appeared to be a natural

Roger Goodell read Jadeveon Clowney’s name as the first selection in the 2014 NFL Draft. The crowd responded to Goodell’s announcement with cheers and Clowney responded with hugs and handshakes before donning a Houston Texans hat and embracing the NFL

The WBC, the governing body once widely-accused of being covertly governed by a shock-topped boxing promoter who killed two people, has suspended former three-division world champion Adrien Broner. The Mexico City-based outfit takes offense to a comment Broner made after

Jimmy Ellis once beat Cassius Clay as a teenager. But he could never quite beat Muhammad Ali. Saved by a referee from further punishment by Ali in the Astrodome in 1971, Ellis outside of the ring fruitlessly shadow boxed the

Roger Bannister never won an Olympic medal. He nevertheless remains one of the most important figures in track and field history. Sixty years ago today, the speedy Englishman set a world record and more importantly broke the four-minute mark in

A lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in Philadelphia contends that the $765 settlement between the National Football League and retired players doesn’t provide enough funds to cover the football-related ailments of all former NFL competitors. Attorney Steven Molo challenged

Pat Tillman went from the NFL to the Army Rangers. Alejandro Villanueva hopes to go from the Army Rangers to the NFL. The Philadelphia Eagles signed the 6′ 9” defensive lineman to their 90-man roster today. Villanueva led the West

The Sports Hangover recovers from the best weekend in sports–five NBA Game 7s, the second round of the NHL playoffs, Mayweather-Maidana, the Kentucky Derby, and more–that you’ll see all year. May the fifth be with you. Donald Sterling’s Silly Rabbit

“Dallas is a woman who will walk on you when you’re down…. a steel and concrete soul in a warm-hearted love disguised,” Jimmie Dale Gilmore famously sang. The NYPD baseball team learned about this harsher side of the Big D

If you love sports, today loves you.  If sports were astronomy, today would be a solar eclipse during the transit of Mercury. If it were presidential politics, it would be an election decided in the House of Representatives. If it

Is abortion now a litmus test gauging whether one is morally qualified to own a basketball team? Floyd Mayweather’s tweet condemning abortion has sparked the alleged mother of his aborted twins to suggest that the opinion disqualifies the boxer from