GLENDALE, Ariz. — Portland Trail Blazers coach and former Detroit Pistons guard Chauncey Billups lives by the saying “If it ain’t rough, it ain’t right.” The phrase was sewn into his Adidas game shoes during his 17-year NBA career. On Saturday, Billups’ enshrinement into the Basketball Hall of Fame was formally announced before the NCAA...
Bronny James officially declares for 2024 NBA Draft
Written by Sara Jane Gamelli X Instagram TikTok (Photo by Brian Rothmuller/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) LeBron James might finally get the chance to team up with his son in the NBA after all. On Friday morning, USC freshman Bronny James announced on Instagram that he will be entering the 2024 NBA Draft with a...
What it takes to stay in the NBA
The NBA has showcased scoring since George Mikan was making hook shots in the 1950s. The scoring of Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird, Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Luka Dončić has filled arena seats for decades. But as attractive as scoring is to a hoops fan, it isn’t always the formula for a lengthy...
DJ Burns Jr. rewards NC State for building around him en route to men’s Final Four
Watching NC State forward DJ Burns Jr. reduce a long line of defenders to barbecue chicken (Shaquille O’Neal’s recipe) this past weekend took Frank Hamrick back to the years he coached the breakout star of the 2024 NCAA tournament in high school. It was in the gym at York Preparatory Academy in Rock Hill, South...
Columbia outfielder Olivia Madkins sees opportunity as school’s first Black softball player
Olivia Madkins has been playing softball since she was 8 years old and knew early on that her dream was to play in college. It wasn’t until the day she got her offer letter to Columbia University, however, that she realized chasing her dreams would also mean making history. She is the first Black player...
WWE’s R-Truth nearly lost a leg two years ago — he’s now more popular than ever
As Valhalla, a wrestler who wears antlers and whose face is spray-painted black down to the nose, enters during the WWE streaming event Royal Rumble on Jan. 27, the familiar guitar strums of someone else’s music interrupt. The camera pans from the menacing Valhalla walking toward the ring to R-Truth jogging behind her. R-Truth gives...
WWE’s R-Truth nearly lost a leg two years ago — he’s now more popular than ever
As Valhalla, a wrestler who wears antlers and whose face is spray-painted black down to the nose, enters during the WWE streaming event Royal Rumble on Jan. 27, the familiar guitar strums of someone else’s music interrupt. The camera pans from the menacing Valhalla walking toward the ring to R-Truth jogging behind her. R-Truth gives...
The NCAA women’s tournament is better than the racist, misogynistic press coverage it receives
For more than a week, LSU women’s basketball coach Kim Mulkey launched a preemptive strike against a Washington Post story that that was expected to drop before LSU’s Sweet 16 game against UCLA. Kent Babb’s well-reported story that dropped on Saturday offered an in-depth though not surprising look into Mulkey’s style as a coach, her...
South Carolina guard MiLaysia Fulwiley has skills you haven’t even seen yet
It’s not enough for South Carolina guard MiLaysia Fulwiley to push the tempo in transition. She blows by two Clemson defenders, fakes a pass and finishes the layup. A few sequences later, she crosses up a defender and drops a no-look dime to forward Ashlyn Watkins. Too skilled. Too fast. Too good. Many plays for...
Actor Louis Gossett Jr. loved Hollywood even when it didn’t love him back
For the casually initiated, an Academy Award is the key that unlocks doors of opportunities for one’s Hollywood career. But everything that glitters isn’t always gold in a place built on creating and maintaining illusion. Take Louis Gossett Jr., the Academy Award-winning actor who died March 29 at 87. Conventional wisdom says that after winning...







