Yahoo SportsReggie Bullock with a deep 3 vs the Golden State Warriors
Reggie Bullock (New York Knicks) with a deep 3 vs the Golden State Warriors, 01/21/2021
Reggie Bullock (New York Knicks) with a deep 3 vs the Golden State Warriors, 01/21/2021
There's going to be no shortage of drama for the Raptors in the second half of the season.
Washington wants to upgrade at QB, so Alex Smith will likely become a free agent for the first time in his career.
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The operation was related to last year’s “Barçagate,” in which club officials were accused of launching a smear campaign against current and former players.
Toni Stone couldn't play in an all-white women's league, so she decided to play with men.
Kerri Einarson's second Canadian women's curling championship was very different from her first.
After Aaron Rodgers name-dropped Jodie Foster during his MVP speech, Foster returned the favor on Sunday night.
The golf world wore red shirts and black pants to honor Tiger Woods on Sunday.
One BetMGM customer in Tennessee had a very eventful Sunday.
CALGARY — Spruce Meadows is cancelling its summer show jumping series for a second straight year because of the pandemic. The equestrian and soccer facility in Calgary draws dozens of the world's top riders to its annual summer and fall tournaments, but those competitions were wiped out in 2020. The summer series is four tournaments over five weeks starting in June, and would have been important preparation for international riders for the Summer Olympics in Tokyo starting in July. Spruce Meadows is working with Equestrian Canada and the international governing body of equestrian, FEI, to rework September's series to include the Nations Cup competition traditionally held in the summer series. Spruce Meadows had planned to award a total of $6 million in prize money in 2020. The facility founded by Ron and Margaret Southern opened in 1975 and continues to be run by the family. "Current circumstances, brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic and its related impacts and restrictions, will prevent the Spruce Meadows Summer Series from being organized and run on its historic June-July dates," Spruce Meadows said Monday in a statement. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 1, 2021. Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press
The race for the final NCAA tournament bids should have a little more juice than normal this year, with high-profile programs accustomed to vying for No. 1 seeds and national titles still fighting just to make the field of 68.
HALIFAX — The Canadian women's hockey team opened a camp Monday in Halifax, which is co-hosting the upcoming world championship. Hockey Canada invited 35 players to participate in the seven-day camp closed to the public and media at Scotiabank Centre. The women are training under restrictions because of the COVID-19 pandemic, including a limit of 25 players on the ice at one time. "They will continue to follow strict COVID-19 testing as per team health and safety protocols that have been detailed and approved by Nova Scotia Public Health," Hockey Canada said Monday in a statement. The women's world hockey championship is scheduled for April 7-17 in Halifax and Truro, N.S., and replaces the 2020 tournament cancelled because of the pandemic. “We are grateful to government officials and health authorities in Nova Scotia and Canadian Sports Center Atlantic who worked with us to ensure we are able to hold this camp in a safe and secure environment," said Gina Kingsbury, director of women’s national teams with Hockey Canada. “Health and safety remain our priorities, and with the few chances we have had to get together as a team, this camp is important to our season." The women had a January camp in Calgary, which was the first gathering of the national team since March, 2020. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 1, 2021. The Canadian Press
Mets president Sandy Alderson says the team may have been naive to think it could manage Trevor Bauer’s habit of inflammatory social media posts but says he’s happy with New York's off-season changes despite failing to sign the NL Cy Young Award winner. Bauer agreed Feb. 5 to a $102 million, three-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers, a deal that was finalized a week later. He has been involved in multiple controversies on social media, where he has a huge following and is actively involved in creating and writing content for his channels. Two higher-profile incidents both involved women, including a college student who accused the 30-year-old Bauer of harassing her online. Bauer tweeted the student “was obsessed with me.” “I think that he would have added a dimension to our team, maybe a third or fourth dimension,” Alderson said with a laugh during a news conference Monday in Port St. Lucie, Florida, ahead of the Mets' spring training opener. “And hard to know how that would have turned out. But we thought we could manage it. And maybe that was naive. We’ll see. “But look, we’re very happy with the roster we have, and I’m not here to say, wow, we dodged a bullet. I’m here to say we made an effort. We thought he would help our team. We understood what the risks were associated with some of the social media stuff. We actually had discussions internally with group or groups in our organization to talk about that, including women. And so I was happy with where we ended up, and he made a choice. And now maybe I’m even happier with where we ended up, given the fact that we were able to add someone like Taijuan Walker and others.” Alderson, the Mets' former general manager, returned as team president when Steve Cohen completed his $2.4 billion purchase of the team from the Wilpon and Katz families on Nov. 6. Alderson said he never spoke directly with Bauer but talked with the pitcher’s agent about the social media presence and the need for Bauer to take responsibility for it. “We did spend a lot of time on it and felt that, look, we weren’t being naive. I don’t think in the sense that, OK, we turn this guy around on a dime and turn him into something that that he wasn’t before,” Alderson said. “I did feel that we could manage it as long as we were communicating with him and being sort of attuned to what was going on.” Alderson said the Mets spoke with women in the organization about their views of Bauer. “I’m not talking about senior management. There were others that were involved to get their perception," Alderson said. “I thought it was pretty inclusive." General manager Jared Porter was fired for cause on Jan. 19, 38 days after he was hired, after ESPN reported he sent sexually explicit, uninvited text messages and images to a female reporter in 2016 while he was working for the Chicago Cubs. Former Mets manager Mickey Callaway was suspended as pitching coach of the Los Angeles Angels on Feb. 2 after allegations of inappropriate behaviour toward several women who work in sports media were reported by The Athletic. “With respect to the vetting process, we’ll be more intentional about communicating with women who may have had some contact, not necessarily fellow employees, but other third parties that might have come in contact,” Alderson said. “We’re probably taking our background checks and so forth to a somewhat higher level to the extent that we can.” Zack Scott was promoted to acting GM, and Alderson said the Mets may hire assistant GMs from within. ___ More AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports Ronald Blum, The Associated Press
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — Canada's Felix Auger-Aliassime lost 7-6 (4), 6-1 to Japan's Kei Nishikori in the first round of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament on Monday. The seventh-seeded Auger-Aliassime, from Montreal, got just 54 per cent of his first serves in, well below Nishikori's 74 per-cent clip. Nishikori, ranked 45th in the world, hasn't dropped a set in two career matches against Auger-Aliassime. The 20-year-old Canadian was playing for the first time since blowing a two-set lead in a fourth-round loss to Aslan Karatsev at the Australian Open. Nishikori will play the winner of a match between Australians John Millman and Alex de Minaur in the second round of the ATP Tour 500 event. This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 1, 2021. The Canadian Press
BIELEFELD, Germany — Relegation-threatened Arminia Bielefeld fired Uwe Neuhaus on Monday less than a season after the coach led the club to Bundesliga promotion. The club said it was also letting go of assistant coach Peter Nemeth, and it would make an announcement regarding Neuhaus' successor soon. Bielefeld is third-to-last in the relegation/promotion playoff place in the 18-team division. Hertha Berlin is just ahead on goal difference, and improving Mainz is only one point behind in a direct relegation place. Bielefeld still has a game in hand, however. Bielefeld claimed just one point from its last five games – a 3-3 draw at Bayern Munich – and the 3-0 loss at Borussia Dortmund on Saturday was the fifth in a row in which the team conceded at least three goals. The 61-year-old Neuhaus was immensely popular with Bielefeld’s fans after leading it to its surprise promotion after 11 years away from the Bundesliga. He had been in charge of the club since December 2018. But Neuhaus reportedly clashed with sporting director Samir Arabi over squad selections and tactics. Neuhaus’ position was already under threat in the opening half of the season after seven straight defeats, but the team stabilized with 13 points from its following eight games. Bielefeld next plays Neuhaus’ ex-club, Union Berlin, on Sunday, while it faces Werder Bremen in their rescheduled game on March 10. ___ More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports The Associated Press
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CHICAGO — The U.S. men’s soccer team will play 47th-ranked Jamaica on March 25 at Wiener Neustadt, Austria, the first of two exhibitions with the full player pool in Europe on FIFA international fixture dates. The Americans had previously scheduled a March 28 match against Northern Ireland in Belfast. The Jamaica game was announced Monday by the U.S. Soccer Federation. The matches will be just the third and fourth in 16 months with the full player pool, a schedule caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The 22nd-ranked U.S. tied 0-0 at Wales on Nov. 12, followed four days later by a 6-2 win over Panama at Wiener Neustadt. The U.S. is preparing for a June 3 match against Honduras in a semifinal of the CONCACAF Nations League followed by a championship or third-place game on June 6 against Mexico or Costa Rica. The CONCACAF Gold Cup starts July 10 and includes first-round matches against Canada, Martinique and either Haiti, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Guatemala or Guyana. Exhibitions also are planned for May 30 and June 9. The delayed start of World Cup qualifying from Aug. 30 to Sept. 8 includes a match at El Salvador or Trinidad and Tobago, a home game that could be against Canada or Haiti, and a road game at Honduras. October includes home qualifiers against Jamaica and Costa Rica around a road qualifier at Guatemala or Panama, and November has a home qualifier against Mexico and a road qualifier at Jamaica. ___ More AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports The Associated Press
If you turned off the Kings game with a minute to go, you were surprised to wake up to a loss.
FC Barcelona allegedly paid a PR firm to defame its own players, including the best in the world, Lionel Messi.
TORONTO — Professional rugby league in Canada lasted less than four seasons with the Toronto Wolfpack. The Ottawa Aces have yet to take the field. But there are plans to kick-start the sport at the grassroots level in Canada, in the form of the Canada Co-Operative Championship Rugby League (CCCRL). Organizers hope to eventually establish a 12 -team league with both men's and women's teams with fans literally able to buy into the concept. Sandy Domingos-Shipley, a Toronto native now based in Leeds, England, is looking to help get the project off the ground. "I've got children born and raised here," the mother of three said in an interview. "And I've seen the impact of rugby league from a kid's point of view — how much they really do get involved in community and the good that comes out of the sport from the grassroots level. "And I really want the people in Canada to have a bit of that. I want them to have more of it … We can make rugby league grow in Canada the right way." The Canadian co-op league idea is the brainchild of 37-year-old Chris Coates, an English native who is the founding firector of CCCRL. He has been mulling over the concept for some years now. Coates is coach of the Sheffield Forgers, who play in the Yorkshire Men's League. He also has a hand in the international game as coach of the Lithuania men's team, describing himself as a "diehard expansionist at heart." "I believe that the game really should be for everybody," he said. "And I find it perplexing that so many people love the game but don't want to see it grow outside its (northern England) heartlands." His day job is in the tech world. "I build super-computers for a living." Looking to develop the sport, the league will feature rugby league nines which is akin to rugby union's sevens — a faster, condensed nine-a-side version of the rugby league game. They believe nines is an easier introduction to the game. The idea is to start with a six-team league in 2023, with plans of increasing up to 12 teams — six men's and six women's — with representation from B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec. Divisional competition will be followed by championship play. Domingos-Shipley says the league will also serve as a home for members of the Canadian national teams: the Wolverines (men) and Ravens (women). Players will be paid on a pro-am model. The Canadian Rugby League Association is on board, although not contributing financially. " What's exciting from our point of view is that the initiative is based on the development of grassroots rugby league," said CRLA president Bob Jowett. "We certainly wish them al the best with it and are supportive of the initiative." Domingos-Shipley says the plan calls for the governing body to benefit from some of the profits from the proposed league. Coates says the league will be funded 40 per cent in the form of private equity and 60 per cent by fans. Investors would get an annual return. They have not yet disclosed the minimum investment but say the average fan will be able to afford to get involved. "The thing with a co-operative is it effectively buys brand loyalty," said Coates. "People who invest in something are inclined to want to make that work." "Fans want to be part of growing something and this is the way they can do that," added Domingos-Shipley, who moved to England in 2001. Her passion for rugby league started four years ago when she started following the Wolfpack in England, becoming essentially a super-fan. Coates applauded the expansion to Toronto although he says he saw "risks" with the Wolfpack agreeing to pay visiting teams' travel and accommodation costs. Unable to play at home due to the pandemic, the Wolfpack stood down in July saying it could not afford to play out the remainder of the 2020 Super League season. The club's subsequent bid for reinstatement under new ownership in 2021 was voted down in November. "As a business owner, I couldn't get my head around how we got to the place where we were," said Domingos-Shipley, who runs a consulting company. Coates, meanwhile, was prompted to look for alternate ways to grow the game. In his words, "If you could do it completely differently, how would you do it?" He started talking to other people about the Wolfpack, including Domingos-Shipley, sharing his idea for a co-op league. "I was like 'Right I'm helping you do this. I want this to work,'" said Domingos-Shipley, who is billed as the CCCRL co-founder and director of governance and compliance. Coates also watched tape of the East-West game played at Lamport Stadium in January 2020. "It was good quality stuff," he said. He believes the talent and interest for a domestic league are both there. "The Wolfpack have done fantastic job of growing that market, from nothing. To grow to 10,000 fans in four years from zero fans is a great achievement. But the problem is that it was done in an unsustainable way." Organizers say they are working with "appropriate organizations" to ensure that all financial participation is in line with regulations and expectations. Coates says his group already has some commercial partners "in the pipeline." --- Follow @NeilMDavidson on Twitter This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 1, 2021 Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press