Sports

7:20 AM ET Tim BontempsESPN The past two seasons have seen the NBA — like the rest of the world — deal with unprecedented circumstances. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused as much upheaval across the NBA as any sports league in North America and beyond, with the 2019-20 season ending in a bubble inside the

10:17 AM ET ESPN News Services NEW YORK — Defending champion Dominic Thiem has pulled out of the US Open tennis tournament, saying Wednesday he will miss the rest of the year because of a right wrist injury. Thiem was hurt in June while playing in the Mallorca Open and said the pain returned last

7:00 AM ET FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — New York Jets offensive coordinator Mike LaFleur used to be called “Mikey,” the little squirt forced to relinquish the TV remote and prime couch space when his big brother and brother’s best friend came barging into the house seeking entertainment, nourishment and an occasional dip in the pool.

7:15 AM ET College football’s last two national title games were perfect encapsulations of the two types of stars we end up with: the ones we saw coming and the ones we didn’t. In 2019, Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, college football’s star recruit and golden boy and the defending national champion, squared off against LSU’s late-rising

7:00 AM ET Nikolaj Ehlers is a great example of the “breakout player” life cycle in the NHL. The Winnipeg Jets forward was heralded as a prospect, as the ninth overall pick in 2014. He made a leap in quality from his rookie season in 2015-16 to his second campaign in 2016-17, and then stayed

7:00 AM ET Editor’s note: From rising strikeout totals and unwritten-rules debates to connecting with a new generation of fans and a looming labor battle, baseball is at a crossroads. As MLB faces these challenges, we are embarking on a season-long look at The State of Baseball, examining the issues and storylines that will determine

6:14 PM ET Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS — AJ Allmendinger screamed in elation after winning Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Just about everyone else left the world-famous speedway frustrated, angry or bewildered by a bizarre Brickyard 200 finish that involved 16 wrecked cars, two red flags, a spin out of the race leader and a penalty

12:27 PM ET Associated Press INDIANAPOLIS — Helio Castroneves celebrated his record-tying fourth Indianapolis 500 victory in May. The rewards are still rolling in. When the popular 46-year-old Brazilian driver returned to Indianapolis Motor Speedway on Thursday, track officials presented him with a bronze brick, and on Friday, he was named as the headliner of

Aug 9, 2021 With the 2021-22 Premier League campaign upon us, it’s time to dive into the most exciting thing about the new season: the kits each club will be wearing for the next year. 2 Related After Euro 2020, the Copa America and the Olympic football tournaments have stolen the focus over the past

6:06 PM ET Associated Press NEW YORK — A racehorse trainer pleaded guilty in New York on Wednesday to charges related to a scheme to give horses performance-enhancing drugs. Jorge Navarro entered the plea in Manhattan federal court, where sentencing was scheduled for Dec. 17. Navarro was charged last year along with over two dozen

7:32 AM ET Mike CoppingerESPN Guillermo Rigondeaux has heard it all before. He’s boring. Unwatchable. The opposite of entertaining. The two-time Olympic gold medalist absorbed all the criticism even as he was boxing circles around his opponents. Nonito Donaire, then the reigning ESPN fighter of the year, was thoroughly outboxed by Rigondeaux in 2013. Despite

10:38 AM BST The decision to launch a female British & Irish Lions touring team will be made before the end of the year, Lions’ chief executive Ben Calveley has said. A feasibility study is underway to address the financial and logistical hurdles that exist within the women’s game and to look into the viability

5:47 PM ET Dallas Mavericks superstar Luka Doncic has agreed to sign a landmark five-year, $207 million supermax rookie extension, his agent Bill Duffy of BDA Sports told ESPN on Monday. Doncic, one of the most accomplished players in NBA history at 22 years old and rapidly evolving into the future face of the league,

5:51 PM ET ESPN staff With the first full slate of preseason games kicking off on Thursday, teams continued to work in training camps across the NFL on Monday. That included Houston Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson, who practiced for the first time in five days and running back Saquon Barkley, who was activated off the

1:13 PM ET Associated Press Andy Murray moved into the field for the US Open on Monday when another past champion at Flushing Meadows, Stan Wawrinka, pulled out because he still is recovering from foot surgery. Murray is a former No. 1 and three-time Grand Slam title winner, including in New York in 2012. His

6:00 AM ET Georgia is the inspiration for the underachiever tiers. The last 40 years in college football have featured some surprising droughts, including extended lulls without conference championships for former powers Tennessee (1998), Nebraska (1999), Miami (2003) and Michigan (2004), and well-positioned programs such as Texas A&M (1998) and UCLA (1998). But I keep

6:20 PM ET Jeff PassanESPN Close ESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports” An autistic man accused longtime major league player Omar Vizquel of sexual harassment while he was managing a Chicago White Sox minor league affiliate, alleging in a civil lawsuit filed this week

Aug 7, 2021 Associated Press EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Captain Corey took the lead early, held off one challenge and then drew off in the stretch to give trainer-driver Ake Svanstedt his second win in the $1 million Hambletonian on Saturday at the Meadowlands. Svanstedt didn’t need any help from the judges this time. He

Aug 7, 2021 Associated Press SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — Hall of Fame trainer Steve Asmussen broke the North American record for victories by a trainer Saturday when Stellar Tap won the fifth race on Whitney Day at Saratoga Race Course. Asmussen has 9,446 victories to break the mark set by the late Dale Baird during

4:33 PM ET Associated Press WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. — Pole-sitter Austin Hill won the NASCAR Truck Series race at Watkins Glen International on Saturday, taking the victory when lightning struck nearby and rain halted the race with 11 laps to go. Hill held off John Hunter Nemechek on a restart with 15 laps left as