LOS ANGELES – Sitting in the bowels of Staples Center, just a few minutes removed from a 16-point, eight-rebound, three-block performance, Carl Hall talked about making light bulbs.

"I worked in what they called the paint booth – I painted the lights," the Shockers' forward explained after helping ninth-seeded Wichita State beat LaSalle 72-58 to move within a game of reaching the Final Four. "I worked the graveyard shift, from 11 at night to 7 in the morning."

Shockers forward Carl Hall shoots over La Salle Explorers forward Jerrell Wright on Thursday night. (USA TODAY Sports)He made 12 bucks an hour – which was a lot, he said, for an 18-year-old living at home with his mother. When he'd get home from work he'd go straight to school, head home for a quick na, then back to the factory.

Working in the factory wasn't part of his plan. Playing basketball was, but while playing one day in high school, he fainted. Dehydration, the doctors told him. Then he fainted again six months later. And then again. And that's when he found out he suffered from neurocardiogenic syncope, a condition that means the

Read More »from Wichita State's Carl Hall trades in light bulbs for hoops after overcoming heart condition

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Neither NASCAR nor Daytona International Speedway has a lot of answers following the horrific crash at the conclusion of Saturday's Nationwide Series race that sent shards of metal and two tires flying into the stands injuring at least 28 fans.

The prevailing sentiment offered from NASCAR's vice president of operations Steve O'Donnell and track president Joie Chitwood was they don't have a lot of answers, they're going to look into the situation and they'll do whatever they can to create an even safer environment in the future.

Rescue workers respond next to a hole in the catchfence. (REUTERS)Track officials worked into the early morning Sunday to repair the hole ripped in the catchfence following the 12-car accident on the final lap of the Race4COPD 300. Work was completed at 2 a.m. ET. Chitwood and O'Donnell met at 8 a.m. Sunday morning to review the repairs, are confident they are satisfactory and the 55th running of the Daytona 500 will start on time, at 1:30 p.m.

Asked if the speedway would consider

Read More »from Fence repaired, Daytona 500 will go on, NASCAR searching for answers

It's been a tradition that the winning Super Bowl coach gets a call from the president after the game. But in 1972, Don Shula received a phone call from President Richard Nixon before Super Bowl VI, a game that pitted Shula's Miami Dolphins against the Dallas Cowboys.

President Richard Nixon, here with former Redskins coach George Allen, was a big NFL fan. (AP)"They had the 'Nixon White House' on Key Biscayne," Shula, 83, told Yahoo! Sports recently. "He'd spend whatever time he could there. I guess he became a Dolphin fan."

On the arm of quarterback Bob Griese, the legs of running back Larry Csonka and the hands of wide receiver Paul Warfield, the 1971 Miami Dolphins cruised through the regular season with a 10-3-1 record.

Still, they entered Super Bowl VI in New Orleans a six-point underdog to the Cowboys, winners of nine straight. Nixon, apparently, thought the Dolphins could use some help.

"I still think you can hit Paul Warfield on that down-and-in pattern," Nixon reportedly told Shula.

"I said, 'Yeah, that's a good idea,' " Shula told Yahoo! Sports.

[Also:

Read More »from President Nixon tried to help the Miami Dolphins win Super Bowl VI

The number of people lined up to take pot shots at Lance Armstrong on Friday morning in the wake of his "truth-telling" interview with Oprah Winfrey is lengthy. Tyler Hamilton is not one of them.

"I understand the general reaction, the general public reaction," Hamilton said in a phone interview with Yahoo! Sports. "He is a fighter, one of the toughest dudes I've ever met. I'd ask the public to give him a little bit of freedom going through this. They don't need to write the guy love letters, but show a little support and encourage him to do the right things.

Tyler Hamilton has a unique understanding of Lance Armstrong's burden. (Getty Images)"There are only two people in this world that I've personally hated. I no longer hate him," he continued. "In a roundabout way I feel fortunate I met him. Together, we went through some of the best of times and some of the worst of times."

Hamilton has come a long way. There was a time not too long ago when he hated Lance Armstrong, regretted ever meeting him. It was just two years ago when the two former teammates

Read More »from Switching gears: Tyler Hamilton's feelings about Lance Armstrong change

Of all the questions Lance Armstrong needs to answer about his use of performance-enhancing drugs and subsequent years of denial, explaining why he's decided to come clean now might be the most revealing. According to Oprah Winfrey, who conducted the yet-to-be-broadcast interview with Armstrong on Monday, the disgraced former Tour de France champion didn't provide a clear answer into that psyche. That's because there is no easy answer.

Armstrong made millions of dollars on a fairy tale that turned out to be a ruse, and cleaning up that mess isn't as simple as just saying, "Sorry, I cheated." There's litigation involved, financial repercussions to face and, in his case, a foundation that's much bigger than him to consider.

Here are five reasons why Armstrong may have decided to admit the truth now:

He no longer can face perjury charges. In 2005, Armstrong testified under oath that he never used performance-enhancing drugs. The statute of limitations on that testimony

Read More »from After years of denial, why is Lance Armstrong admitting he used PEDs now?

After years of swirling around Tim Tebow, the vultures now have something else to pick on.

It's barely a scrap, if that, for holier-than-Tebow critics who have been foaming at the mouth to dig up a granule of dirt on the man ever since he announced he was still a virgin.

So as reports surfaced that Tebow informed New York Jets head coach Rex Ryan that he didn't want to be a part of the wildcat offense in Sunday's game against the San Diego Chargers, apparently angry at being passed over for the starting quarterback job in place of maligned Mark Sanchez, the vultures closed in.

He's a "fraud," a "loser" and, as ESPN's Merril Hoge declared, is as "phony as a three-dollar bill."

[Related: Legacy on line for rookie Robert Griffin III?]

Never mind that reports of Tebow's insubordination all came via secondhand, unnamed sources or that Ryan wouldn't confirm the story. One reported moment of a frustrated quarterback is enough for some to assassinate the character of a man who has

Read More »from No let up in senseless attacks of Tim Tebow

David Beckham walks off the field with his sons. (Getty)

CARSON, Calif. – Next to a table full of empty champagne bottles, the contents of which were now flooding the floor inside the L.A. Galaxy locker room, there was Cruz Beckham trying to egg on Christian Wilhelmsson.

"I can spin on my head," the 7-year-old dared. "Want to see?"

Cruz, wearing a pair of soccer cleats and a No. 23 Galaxy jersey with "Daddy" printed on the back, was keeping busy while waiting for his father to get out of the shower. Daddy had just spent the previous 89 minutes helping ignite a second-half rally that saw the Galaxy win the MLS Cup in a 3-1 victory over the Houston Dyanamo. It was Daddy's second straight championship with the Galaxy, this one coming in his last Major League Soccer game.

"Yeah, I want to see," Wilhelmsson said to Cruz.

Like a typical 7-year-old, Cruz changed his mind, too embarrassed to show off in front of a crowd.

He gets that from his daddy, who's always looking to pass. Like in the 64th minute of Saturday's final when he had a

Read More »from Make room for Daddy: Beckham does his boys proud with championship ending to Galaxy run

CARSON, Calif. – Like Wayne Gretzky before him, David Beckham's arrival in America came with the baggage of selling to an audience a product it mostly didn't want. And now the clock starts on finding out if he succeeded.

David Beckham will leave the MLS after the Cup final.Beckham will play his final game in Major League Soccer on Saturday, a contest against the Houston Dynamo that just happens to be for the MLS Cup. Mentioning the championship game is this weekend has to be noted because six years after Beckham joined the L.A. Galaxy, much of America still doesn't care about the MLS.

That's not a dig. It's reality. And Beckham and the league know it.

But the other reality is that Beckham's time here was never going to have a microwave effect on Americans' interest in soccer – fast-baking it to be served up in 30 seconds. Like trying to forge peace in the Middle East, it seems the effort to convince America to like soccer has been going on since forever.

What Beckham has done is open the league's eyes to something it didn't see

Read More »from Beckham opened the soccer world’s eyes to MLS