Yahoo SportsKawhi Leonard with a dunk vs the Sacramento Kings
Kawhi Leonard (LA Clippers) with a dunk vs the Sacramento Kings, 01/15/2021
Kawhi Leonard (LA Clippers) with a dunk vs the Sacramento Kings, 01/15/2021
After 14 years in the NBA, Mike Conley is an All-Star.
Mark Pavelich had been committed to a mental health treatment center after assaulting a friend in 2019.
It is the longest suspension handed down to a player under the domestic violence policy.
Kevyn Adams called his underperforming team’s play “flat-out not good enough” during a wide-ranging conference call on Friday.
Josh Palacios had a home run, triple and double and ace Hyun Jin Ryu allowed one run in two innings in his spring-training debut as the Jays beat the Orioles 13-4.
Brad Gushue picked up where he left off at the Canadian men's curling championship on Friday night.
It’s an exciting week ahead in the Premier League as the battle for Champions League qualification spots heats up.
Calgary Flames general manager Brad Treliving explains why he felt a change was needed and what new coach Darryl Sutter brings to the team.
The Group Chat gets together to admit NBA takes they were wrong about and offer thoughts on NBA All-Star Weekend....during a pandemic.
All the focus will be on new coach Darryl Sutter, but it will be on the players to turn the tide in Calgary.
Kevin De Bruyne has won every domestic honour on offer with Manchester City but Europe's biggest prize still eludes the Belgian midfielder maestro.
An Arlington High School fan said he punched the opposing team's coach several times after a semifinals game this week, landing the coach in the hospital.
SHEFFIELD, England — Southampton shrugged off the disappointment of losing Danny Ings to another injury by beating last-place Sheffield United 2-0 to end its nine-match Premier League winless run Saturday. The England striker walked off the field in the 12th minute with an apparent right leg injury that was sustained off the ball and in seemingly innocuous circumstances at a free kick. Southampton overcame Ings’ absence as his replacement, Che Adams, scored from a fierce 25-meter shot in the 49th minute to add to a penalty converted by James Ward-Prowse in the 32nd. A first league win in more than two months moved Southampton 10 points clear of the bottom three and will alleviate fears that Ralph Hasenhuttl’s team was being dragged into a relegation fight, despite a brilliant start to the season that saw it briefly in first place in November. Sheffield United was destined for demotion to the second-tier Championship even before this 22nd loss of the campaign, with the team 12 points from safety. Ings is set to spend a third spell on the sidelines because of injury this season. He has struggled with fitness issues in recent years, although managed to stay injury-free last season and finished second in the league’s scoring list. It remains to be seen how long this latest problem keeps him out, and Hasenhuttl will be happy fellow striker Adams got back scoring after a 16-match goal drought. It was a superb strike, too, as Stuart Armstrong chested down the ball after a clearance by Sheffield United was blocked and Adams thrashed a rising shot into the net from outside the area. Southampton had gone in front after Ethan Ampadu brought down Nathan Tella in the area. Ward-Prowse sent Aaron Ramsdale the wrong way from the spot. The defeat could have been much heavier for the hosts, with Ramsdale saving well from Adams and Takumi Minamino shooting wide when free 10 metres out. ___ More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports The Associated Press
The only instances of NBA referees Tom Washington, Tony Brown and Courtney Kirkland all officiating together are some off-season pro-am games in Atlanta, the city they all call home. That will change Sunday. The trio was chosen as the officiating crew for this year’s All-Star Game, and those selections are significant for a number of reasons — including that they get to represent Atlanta and that all three are graduates of historically Black institutions, a primary focus of this game from a charitable and exposure standpoint. “I’ll tell you right now, one of the things is significant for me is that I’m working with Tom and I’m working with Tony. We could stop right there if we had to,” Kirkland said. “The HBCU thing, that’s awesome. But having the opportunity to work with two guys that are really close with me, it’s just an honour to work with them.” They have a combined 70 seasons of experience, a neat coincidence given that this is the 70th All-Star Game. Washington is working the game for the third time, Brown for the second time and Kirkland also for the second time. Kirkland becomes the first ref to work back-to-back All-Star Games since Jack Madden in 1993 and 1994. Washington is a graduate of Norfolk State, Kirkland a graduate of Southern and Brown a graduate of Clark Atlanta. They fully understand the significance of this game and what the NBA shining the spotlight on HBCUs may wind up meaning for those institutions. “I think that exposure from this game is going to be fantastic because we’re going to actually enlighten people on another subset of our educational process here,” Washington said. “I’d like to see them exist on the same level as Ivy League schools, as Big Ten schools. And I also think that the fact that they’re doing that and the fact that us three are going to be out there representing them should be empowering and encouraging to the young people behind us. There is quality education being provided by HBCUs.” Even though this All-Star Game will differ from all others — the arena will be largely empty because of the pandemic — Brown said it’s still an honour to be selected. “The most important part about this entire game, for us, is that we are representing the NBA officials and we have to do an outstanding job for them,” Brown said. “Every night that we go on that floor we are representing each other. And that’s the greatest accolade and accomplishment that we can ever have, doing our job.” ___ More AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Tim Reynolds, The Associated Press
BERLIN — Leipzig increased the pressure on Bayern Munich ahead of its clash with Borussia Dortmund by moving top of the Bundesliga with a 3-0 win at Freiburg on Saturday. Goals from Christopher Nkunku, Alexander Sörloth and substitute Emil Forsberg gave the visitors their sixth straight league win to go a point ahead of Bayern before the defending champions’ late game. Nkunku scored minutes before the interval for Leipzig, taking advantage of the first lapse from Freiburg’s defence. Kevin Kampl forced Baptiste Santamaria to loose the ball and it fell to Yussuf Poulsen, who set up Nkunku to score in the 41st. French midfielder Nkunku provided the assist for Sörloth in the 64th, and Sörloth followed up by setting up Forsberg to seal the result in the 79th. A late penalty from Dodi Lukebakio earned Hertha Berlin a 2-1 win over Augsburg to end its nine-game run without a win. Patrik Schick’s 77th-minute strike on a counterattack was enough for Bayer Leverkusen to win 1-0 at Borussia Mönchengladbach. Third-place Wolfsburg slumped to a 2-1 loss at Hoffenheim, and fourth-place Eintracht Frankfurt drew with Stuttgart 1-1. ___ More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports ___ Ciarán Fahey on Twitter: https://twitter.com/cfaheyAP CiaráN Fahey, The Associated Press
BARCELONA, Spain — Just days after their last elected president spent a night in jail, members of Football Club Barcelona will vote for a new one to steer the club out of its most tumultuous period in recent memory. Over 110,000 members are eligible to cast ballots on Sunday to choose from three men: former president Joan Laporta, businessman Víctor Font, and longtime board member Toni Freixa. The winner — to be announced late Sunday night — will inherit a club facing daunting problems. Barcelona’s reputation of being a socially conscientious institution expressed in its slogan “More than a club” has been tarnished by an odd scandal that has bloomed into a police investigation into alleged misdoing. The so-called “Barçagate” centred on allegations that the former executive board had hired an internet services company to spread negative messages about its own players and opponents on social media to boost the image of senior club officials. Former president Josep Bartomeu denied the accusations. But after several months of investigation, Catalan police arrested him and three other club officials on Monday on suspicions of administrative irregularities. In addition to restoring the image of a well-run club, the new president will be hampered by a numbing debt of 1.1 billion euros ($1.3 billion). That debt load was caused in part by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic that has left Camp Nou void of spectators since March, but also because of the highest payroll in football. The 48-year-old Font, as the only outsider of the candidates with no experience in the club's administration, is calling for a renewal of the club. “What the (scandal surrounding Bartomeu) shows is that we need to change the way the club is run,” Font said Friday in the candidates' final debate. “We have (over) a billion euros in debt, Camp Nou is in need of a renovation, and since Monday a club president is in jail. We are sick and tired of it, and it is time to turn the page.” The future of Lionel Messi has also weighed heavily on the campaign, which has been widely followed in Spain. The club’s all-time leading scorer wanted to leave last summer. Messi has since said he will decide his future after the season ends, when his contract expires and he could walk away for free. Laporta presided over Barcelona between 2003-2010 during Messi's breakout and the start of Pep Guardiola’s coaching career. In addition to his successful first stint, his top lure for voters is his claim that he is the best positioned to convince Messi to stay put. “For Messi to smile again he must be convinced that the team can be back winning Champions League, La Liga, Copa del Rey, Super Cups and Club World Cups,” the 58-year-old Laporta said. “I think this will be the key factor for him to decide whether to stay with Barça or leave.” Based on the member signatures that candidates needed to get on the ballot, Laporta appears to be the favourite. The former president gathered 9,625 signatures, compared to 4,432 by Font and 2,634 by Freixa. Freixa was a board member for Barcelona from 2010-15. He rejects the image of a club on the border of collapse and says that he can win as an underdog. Of the three, 52-year-old Freixa is the one only one who guaranteed on Friday that coach Ronald Koeman would complete his contract through the end of next season. Font, by contrast, has promised to bring back midfield great Xavi Hernández in some capacity, either as sports director or as coach. Koeman, who has guided the team into the Copa del Rey final and kept it in the Spanish league title chase, said in a press conference before Saturday’s match at Osasuna that he was “tired of answering questions” about his future. “It is normal that names like Xavi and others come up,” the Dutch coach said. “That doesn’t bother me. I am focused on my job.” The election was called after Bartomeu and his board resigned in October facing a possible no-confidence referendum by club members angry about the team’s trophy-less 2019-20 season that ended in a humiliating 8-2 loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarterfinals. Members can vote not only at Camp Nou stadium, but also by mail and at five other polling stations in northeast Catalonia and neighbouring Andorra that have been opened due to the pandemic. The winner gets a five-and-a-half-year term. ___ More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Joseph Wilson, The Associated Press
Tommy Tuberville's amendment was called an attack on transgender kids by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin.
BURNLEY, England — Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka gifted a bizarre equalizer to Burnley in a 1-1 draw in the Premier League on Saturday that further damaged his team’s chances of reaching the European qualification positions. Xhaka received a pass from goalkeeper Bernd Leno inside Arsenal’s penalty area and attempted a pass around Burnley striker Chris Wood to teammate David Luiz with his weaker right foot. The ball went straight to Wood and deflected into the net off the striker’s hip in the 39th minute. That cancelled out a fifth-minute opener by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in a game that only really came to life in the final 15 minutes. After Arsenal was denied a penalty for an apparent handball against substitute Erik Pieters, the Burnley defender seemed to give away a spot kick in a separate incident in the 84th when a goal-bound volley from Nicolas Pepe appeared to strike Pieters’ arm and deflect onto the crossbar. Pieters was also shown the red card, but VAR looked at the incident and deemed the ball hit his shoulder, so both the awarding of the penalty and the sending-off were overturned. Burnley also came close to snatching victory, with Leno first tipping over a dipping long-range effort from Pieters and then saving with his feet from Wood. Then, in the final seconds, Arsenal substitute Dani Ceballos struck the post following a goalmouth scramble. Arsenal started the game nine points from European spots and has only 11 games left. Burnley moved seven points clear of the relegation zone. ___ More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports The Associated Press
JASNA, Slovakia — Mikaela Shiffrin denied her Slovakian rival Petra Vlhova a home victory Saturday, winning the first World Cup slalom following the world championships. Shiffrin trailed first-run leader Vlhova by 0.27 seconds on a hill where the Slovakian regularly trains. But the American had a blistering final run to win the race by 0.34 as the pair continued its dominance in the discipline. They combined have won 31 of the 32 World Cup slaloms held since January 2017, a streak interrupted only once by Switzerland’s Michelle Gisin. “I feel pretty amazing about it,” Shiffrin said about her 45th career slalom win and 69th overall. “It was a really good fight for me and that’s a pretty nice feeling to have right now.” Laurence St-Germain of St-Ferreol-les-Neiges, Que., was 10th, Ali Nullmeyer of Toronto was 22nd and Erin Mielzynski of Collingwood, Ont., was 24th. The result moved Shiffrin within one victory of a World Cup record. Only one skier, male or female, has won more races in a single discipline: Swedish great Ingemar Stenmark triumphed 46 times in giant slalom in the 1970s and 80s. Wendy Holdener finished 0.52 behind in third. It was the 26th career slalom podium for the Swiss skier, who is yet to win a race in the discipline. Katharina Liensberger was 1.42 off the lead in fourth and missed a slalom podium for the first time this season. The Austrian beat Vlhova and Shiffrin to gold in the slalom at the world championships two weeks ago, ending the American’s streak of four world titles. Shiffrin won bronze at the worlds but later said she was disappointed in her skiing. On Saturday, though, the three-time overall champion was back to her best. “That was good, it was a really big step,” said Shiffrin, who still found “some small things” she could have done better. “But it was OK as I kept pushing. That’s the feeling that I want to have,” she said. “Today it was good enough to win, sometimes it’s not. But that’s the feeling, that’s the fight.” The race resembled the victory from Shiffrin’s only previous visit to the Slovakian resort, in 2016, when she also beat the home nation’s favourite, Veronika Velez-Zuzulova. “Last time it was the fight between Zuzu and me,” Shiffrin said. “It’s actually quite a pleasure to come here and have that fight with these girls. The two times we came to Jasna, we had a Slovakian girl who was on top level.” The main difference, however, was the lack of spectators on Saturday amid anti-coronavirus measures. “Last time, for sure, the crowd was bigger and you could feel the atmosphere more for the hometown girl,” Shiffrin said. The result gave new impetus to the battle for the slalom season title. With three races left, Vlhova was leading Shiffrin by 45 points, with Liensberger 70 points behind in third. Vlhova narrowed the gap on overall World Cup leader Lara Gut-Behrami. The Swiss skier sat out the race and was holding a lead of 107 points. The race weekend was initially scheduled to start with a giant slalom, but organizers swapped the program as unfavourable weather was forecast and moved the GS to Sunday. ___ More AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/skiing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports The Associated Press
SAALBACH-HINTERGLEMM, Austria — Vincent Kriechmayr ended his two-year-long victory drought in men’s World Cup downhills by winning Saturday, three weeks after he took the world title in the discipline. Wearing bib No. 1, the Austrian opened the race on the Schneekristall course with a near-flawless run. Kriechmayr found the fastest line coming out of the start gate, as most of his rivals were already a few tenths of a second behind at the first split. Beat Feuz, who leads the downhill season standings, came closest but the Swiss skier finished 0.17 off the lead. "You can always do better but it was a good run,” Kriechmayr said. "I had the right tactics at the start and could carry my pace into the middle section.” Last month, Kriechmayr became the first skier to win gold in both downhill and super-G at world championships since American standout Bode Miller did it in 2005. “I wanted to win a downhill on the World Cup circuit again to show everyone that I am no accidental world champion,” Kriechmayr said. The Austrian had two previous downhill wins on the World Cup but none since his triumph in Wengen, Switzerland, in January 2019. Matthias Mayer — also Austrian — was 0.27 behind in third. Jeffrey Read of Canmore, Alta., was 23rd, Brodie Seger of North Vancouver, B.C., was 26th, Broderick Thompson of Whistler, B.C., was 40th and James Crawford of Toronto was 43rd. Feuz increased his lead over Mayer in the discipline standings to 68 points, with only the season-ending downhill at the World Cup Finals remaining. A race win is worth 100 points. “I'm not a genius in mathematics, but I believe everything is still possible,” Feuz said. Mayer, however, rather thought his chances were gone. "I think we can congratulate Beat. He is an extremely consistent downhiller. He’s not going to give this away,” said Mayer, who was the 2014 Olympic champion. Feuz can become the second skier to earn the downhill globe in four straight seasons. Only Austrian great Franz Klammer managed that feat once, in the 1970s. Dominik Paris, who won the last World Cup downhill before the worlds, trailed by 0.42 in fourth. The Italian led Kriechmayr by 0.07 seconds in Friday’s downhill until that race was stopped after nine starters because of fog and snowfall. The weather improved overnight and conditions were perfect for Saturday’s race. A super-G on Sunday will conclude the race weekend at the Austrian resort, which will host the worlds in 2025. ___ More AP skiing: https://apnews.com/hub/skiing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports The Associated Press