Nathan Carpenter and Alexis Dill
November 16, 2018
Filed under SPORTS, Sports Editorials & Features
As former Miami Heat teammates LeBron James and Dwyane Wade laced up their sneakers and jogged onto the Amway Center basketball court for warm-ups, a 17-year-old boy just 30 minutes northeast of Orlando, in Sanford, FL, put up his hood and stuck a bag of Skittles in his pocket upon leaving a 7-Eleven.
At the same time as over seven million people tuned in for the tip-off of the 61st NBA All-Star Game — 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 26, 2012 — Trayvon Martin was pronounced dead.
Martin, a Black teenager from Miami Gardens, FL, was visiting his future stepmother with his father the night he was fatally shot in the back by George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman. Martin was unarmed and committing no crimes when he...
Alexis Dill, Sports Editor
May 11, 2018
Filed under SPORTS, Sports Editorials & Features
As a girl who grew up playing sports and dreaming of one day becoming a sports journalist, I have always been supported and encouraged by the men in my life. However, many of the women I look up to have been victims of sexism at one point or another throughout their careers. Fox NFL Sportscaster Erin Andrews was labeled “Sideline Barbie” by sports blogs. Serena Williams, one of the best tennis players ever, was told by former tennis star John McEnroe that if she played the men’s circuit, she’d be “ranked 700th in the world.”
When the Oberlin College Athletic Department brought Justine Siegal to campus in November 2016, I made sure I was there. Siegal became the first female coach in Major League Baseball ...
Alexis Dill, Sports Editor
May 4, 2018
Filed under SPORTS, Sports Editorials & Features
Quicken Loans Arena erupted last Wednesday as LeBron James sank a game-winning, buzzer-beating three-pointer over the outstretched arm of Indiana’s Thaddeus Young to give the Cleveland Cavaliers a 3–2 lead going into Game 6 of the series.
After chest-bumping Cedi Osman and receiving embraces from his other teammates, James jumped onto the scoring table and pounded his chest as he looked into the sea of Cavs fans. Even if the Toronto Raptors eliminate my hometown team in this upcoming series, I’m grateful that one day I’ll be able to tell my kids I watched the greatest player to ever grace the NBA hardwood and was blessed with celebratory moments like this. As the end of the NBA season looms, James will have t...
Alex McNicoll, Sports Editor
April 20, 2018
Filed under SPORTS, Sports Column
Tanking is no secret in the NBA. Teams like the Chicago Bulls or the Sacramento Kings openly sit their top veterans in an attempt to “develop young talent,” but in reality, they are intentionally losing to get a better pick. It’s not a new phenomenon. The Philadelphia 76ers did it for three or four years to get Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, and Markelle Fultz. Even the San Antonio Spurs did it so they could draft Tim Duncan first overall in 1997, and he helped them win five NBA Championships. But tanking is a serious problem that kills the competitive nature of basketball, and commissioner Adam Silver must find a solution, no matter how drastic it may be.
At the end of the 82-game regular season, the top 16 teams compet...
Alex McNicoll, Sports Editor
April 13, 2018
Filed under SPORTS, Sports Editorials & Features
Since the 2015–2016 season in the NBA, when the Golden State Warriors — the reigning champions — passed Michael Jordan’s 1995–1996 Chicago Bulls for a seemingly unbreakable record of 73 wins and nine losses in a single season, the NBA regular season has largely been considered boring and predictable. While finals duels between the Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers are always entertaining, fans of the league often prefer following player’s Instagram accounts or pre-game outfits during the regular season, and then only tune in for LeBron James’ yearly championship cameo. However, if this past regular season has proven anything, it’s that the Warriors and Cavaliers matchup we’ve grown accustomed to isn’t go...
Alex McNicoll, Sports Editor
December 1, 2017
Filed under SPORTS, Sports Editorials & Features
New York sports fans found a novel way of honoring their athletes off the field last month, as the New York Yankees’ Aaron Judge and Knick’s Kristaps Porzingis received write-in votes for mayor of New York City in November’s election. Judge, the Rookie of the Year who came in second place for American League MVP; and Porzingis, the Latvian-born phenom averaging 27 points a game this year, were not the first — and certainly won’t be the last — athletes to earn this sort of appreciation from fans. Instead, their write-ins indicate how athletes play multifaceted roles in fans’ lives beyond in the sports themselves.
Fresh off a Boston Red Sox world series win, World Series MVP David Ortiz came in third place...
Alex McNicoll, Sports Editor
November 10, 2017
Filed under SPORTS, Sports Column
Eric Bledsoe, who tweeted “I don’t wanna be here” Oct. 22, was traded from the Phoenix Suns to the Milwaukee Bucks Tuesday. While he claimed that he referenced being in a barber shop, Bledsoe has not been with the team since being sent home by Suns General Manager Ryan McDonough after the tweet. Bledsoe’s bizarre departure from Phoenix is just the latest installment in athletes using social media to voice their opinions and the risks that run with it.
The Phoenix Suns had no place for Eric Bledsoe on their roster, and keeping him there was a waste of his prime years. With one of the youngest cores in the league, centered around 21-year-old Devin Booker, the Suns do not plan to contend for a while. Bledsoe, o...
Alex McNicoll, Sports Editor
November 3, 2017
Filed under SPORTS, Sports Editorials & Features
Just over two weeks into the NBA season, the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers are already sure to face off in a championship rematch — their fourth straight Finals duel — and once again take all of the suspense out of the league. The 82-game season may not be exciting, but the MVP race has historically added drama to the regular season. Last year was one of the tightest MVP races in history. Russell Westbrook, James Harden, LeBron James, and Kawhi Leonard all had MVP-worthy seasons, and Westbrook ultimately came away with the award after becoming the second player ever to average a triple-double over the course of a season. This year, the race is shaping up to be just as good, with the usual suspect...
Alex McNicoll, Sports Editor
October 6, 2017
Filed under SPORTS, Sports Column
Professional sports plays dirty. From performance-enhancing drugs to the NBA fixing the 1985 draft, cheating and out-of-sport advantages have always created unfair playing fields. However, some advantages are more hidden than others.
Big market teams like the New York Yankees have been poised to get whichever free agents they want, fast-forwarding the rebuilding process to just a year or two. Meanwhile, for small market teams, such as the Buffalo Bills, it is not so easy to develop into a competitor. A strategy that has been gaining momentum amongst the less fortunate professional teams, however, has finally broken into the mainstream: tanking. In other words, the best way to win in the future is to lose as often as p...
Alex McNicoll, Sports Editor
September 15, 2017
Filed under SPORTS, Sports Editorials & Features
The Golden State Warriors inked yet another eight-figure contract this week that will completely reshape the NBA. Instead of adding another MVP to their roster, however, the reigning world champions signed a deal to let Rakuten, a major Japanese tech company, advertise on their jerseys. The three-year, $60-million agreement is the latest and largest in the NBA’s decision to let teams put ads on their jerseys. This move by the NBA shows how corporate sponsorships are taking yet another step in defining the way we experience sports.
Rakuten is not new to the sports world, as it signed a similar contract with soccer powerhouse FC Barcelona last November. Its soccer deal was much more lucrative, totaling at $262 million...
Dan Bisno, Columnist
April 21, 2017
Filed under SPORTS, Sports Column
As a 10-time NBA All-Star, three-time Olympic gold medalist and former NCAA Champion, Carmelo Anthony commands respect. But he’s received anything but from New York Knicks executive Phil Jackson.
Ever since Jackson joined the Knicks organization in 2014, he has been eager to take cheap shots at Anthony whenever possible. As the poster child of the Knicks for six years, Anthony is an easy target. He is a once-in-a-generation talent without an NBA title to his name. Prior to an early-April exit meeting with the Knicks front office, Anthony hinted that basketball is becoming less fun for him — echoing the sentiment shared by players who left teams headed by Jackson in Chicago and Los Angeles.
There is no question ...
Jack Brewster, Columnist
April 14, 2017
Filed under SPORTS, Sports Column
This past week, the 2016–2017 NBA regular season came to a close. The playoff seeding is now set and the teams who clinched playoff spots are preparing to make a run. Fans are hopeful the 2017 Finals will be as good as last year’s, when the Cleveland Cavaliers rallied back from a 3–1 deficit to defeat the powerhouse Golden State Warriors in seven games.
But while the 2016 NBA Finals were exciting, most NBA playoff series are uncompetitive, lopsided and uninteresting. The playoff format is to blame.
The NBA allots 16 playoff spots overall, eight per conference. This means that more than half of the NBA’s 30 teams make the playoffs every year. In contrast, there are only 10 playoff spots in the MLB (the two Wil...
