Sports

How do you take a classic and make it better? It seems that Victor Solomon has done that by subtly redesigning the NBA’s top honors. Having already rolled out a number of new trophies, including the awards for the NBA All-Star weekend and the D-League, the Los Angeles-based artist has crafted a suite of new trophies, from the Conference Championship to the new-look Larry O’Brien trophy. Starting with the Conference finals, the silhouette has been evolved conceptually through a quartered ball with each segment representing one step in the journey. The NBA is also introducing for the first time, two new honors for Conference finals MVPs named after Magic Johnson and Larry Bird. Following up to the the NBA Finals, the prestigious Larry O’Brien trophy is re-orientated to be pitched forward – s...

Charles Barkley will be opening up the discussion of what it means to be basketball’s greatest of all the time in the upcoming Turner Sports documentary, The Great Debate. Set to premiere on May 18 — just before Game 1 of the 2022 NBA Western Conference Finals — The Great Debate “seeks to reframe the classic debate about basketball’s greatest of all time by redefining the very concept of ‘greatness,’” and arrives months after October 2021’s 75 Greatest Players in NBA History list, which includes Barkley himself. Fans can expect the Hall-of-Famer to shine a light on the players who have inspired him throughout his career, as well touch on what it means to be part of the NBA’s 75-year history. “I am so proud of this film,” Barkley said in a statement, with the producers stating that The Grea...

Forbes has officially named Lionel Messi — who came in at No. 2 last year — as the highest-paid athlete of 2022. The Paris Saint-Germain forward and 2021 Ballon d’Or winner earned a total of $130 million USD, with $75 million USD from on the field and $55 million USD off the field, thanks to his annual $20 million USD Socios partnership and additional adidas, Budweiser and PepsiCo endorsements. His deal as Hard Rock International’s first athlete brand ambassador also allowed him to catch up with Cristiano Ronaldo‘s off-field earnings for the first time ever. Trailing Messi is LeBron James with $121.2 million USD, Ronaldo with $115 million USD, Neymar with $95 million USD and Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry with $92.8 million USD. Making up the bottom half of 2022’s top 10 are Kevi...

Tom Brady is set to join Fox Sports as a lead NFL analyst following his eventual retirement from the league, according to ESPN. Fox CEO Lachlan Murdoch made the announcement on Tuesday during an investor call, stating that Brady “will not only call our biggest NFL games with Kevin Burkhardt, but will also serve as an ambassador for us, particularly with respect to client and promotional initiatives.” Fox did not disclose details of the NFL star’s deal, though the New York Post reported that Brady has agreed to a 10-year, $375 million USD contract, marking the highest deal in sports broadcasting history. Brady took to Twitter to share the news, writing, “Excited, but a lot of unfinished business on the field with the Buccaneers.” Excited, but a lot of unfinished business on the field w...

After suffering a bone bruise in his right knee, the Memphis Grizzlies have likely ruled out their star guard for the rest of the 2022 NBA playoffs. Morant suffered the injury to his knee in Game 3 on a play against Golden State Warriors‘s Jordan Poole. With 6:19 remaining in the game, Poole grabbed at Morant’s knee, a play the Warriors have said was an accident due to an effort to strip the ball away. Morant later tweeted a video and wrote “broke the code,” in a now-deleted post on his Twitter feed. The Grizzlies lost 142-112 in Game 3 and has sat out for Game 4 as well. The Grizzlies suffered a 101-98 loss in Game 4 and are now currently trailing behind the Warriors 3-1 in the series. Morant recently won the league’s MIP award, averaging 38.3 points per game. Despite his injury, the team...

This past weekend, Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone was forced to pull out of his UFC 274 Lightweight matchup against fellow veteran Joe Lauzon due to an “illness.” Disappointed fans would learn that the UFC legend was hit with a case of food poisoning that could not be remedied by the organization’s medical staff. On Sunday, Cerrone took to Instagram to express his regret over not being able to make it into the octagon and announced plans to end his 16-year pro MMA career. “My heart is broken and torn,” said Cerrone in the video. “I cannot believe I had to make that call. If you know me you know I only pulled out because I had to. Thank you for the UFC and the medical division for helping me as far as we could to try and make that buzzer but we just couldn’t get it.” Now 39-years-old, the UFC titl...

Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic has officially been voted as the NBA‘s Most Valuable Player. ESPN‘s Adrian Wojnarowski has been told by sources that a formal announcement will come from the league later this week. This season, The Joker averaged a career-high of 27.1 points and 13.8 rebounds per game. He also averaged 7.9 assists, the eight highest in the NBA. Jokic also became the first player in the history of the league to hit 2,000 points, 1,000 rebounds and 500 assists. With his second consecutive MVP win, Jokic has also become the 15th player in the NBA to win the award multiple times and the second player to go back-to-back after Milwaukee Bucks‘ Giannis Antetokounmpo won it in 2018-19 and 2019-20. Jokic’s win caused some fans to think that Philadelphia 76ers‘ Joel Embiid should ha...

Red Bull‘s Max Verstappen gained control of the inaugural Miami Grand Prix with an early aggressive takeover of Charles Leclerc to stay ahead and become the reigning world champion. The race marked Verstappen’s third victory this season and also the second consecutive race that the Red Bull team bested the Ferrari team. While Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz also podiumed alongside Verstappen, they were held off due to Verstappen’s lead in the ninth lap. Verstappen edged out his competition early on and continued unchallenged until a late crash between Lando Noris and Pierre Gasly led to the safety car and a 10-lap sprint to the finish. Verstappen won by 3.7 second while Ferrari’s Leclerc and Sainz settled for second and third and Perez for fourth and Mercedes in fifth and sixth for George...

Marred by controversy, Charles Olivera defeated Justin Gaethje by rear-naked choke in Round 1 of their main event matchup at UFC 274. A packed crowd at the Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona was stunned when the former UFC Undisputed Lightweight Champion came back from being dropped multiple times, getting his opponent on the ground and securing the submission. Ahead of the fight, the Brazillian fighter was stripped of his title and moved to the number one contender position after missing weight by half a pound (155.5 lbs). Due to the weight controversy, Gaethje was the only fighter eligible to win the belt in the main event. Earlier in the night, Rose Namajunas faced off against Carla Esparza in a rematch with her Women’s Strawweight title on the line. The two went all five rounds in a ...

Shaking up the boxing world, Russia’s Dmitry Bivol defeated Mexican boxing superstar Saul “Canelo” Alvarez to retain his WBA Light-Heavyweight title. Meeting for the “Legacy is Earned” event at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, Bivol pull out a unanimous points decision win (115-113), extending his undefeated record to 20 bouts. Undisputed World Super-Middleweight Champion “Canelo” Alvarez moved up a weight class for the fight, which resulted in his second defeat in 61 bouts. Despite a competitive match, Dmitry Bivol controlled the fight from the outset. Showcasing his signature penchant for shutting down the offense of his opponents. Throughout the fight, Bivol’s jab layed down a technical structure that simply could not be broken, consistently delivering combinations in return for...

With just one sleep away from UFC 274, the MMA promotion has released a statement confirming that defending Lightweight Champion Charles “Do Bronx” Oliveira has missed weight. He stood on the scale at 155.5 over the 155-weight class limit. This is the first time in UFC history that a champion has missed weight ahead of a main-event fight. Oliveira defended his position by stating that he was on weight the night before according to his scale and had no food or water before the weigh-in. This is also becoming a bit of a scale-gate scandal as many other fighters like Ariane Carnelossi and Casey O’Neill have responded confirming that the digital scales are 0.5 pounds off. Of course, Justin Gaethje was not impressed as he called out the missed weight by saying that he did not believe there was ...