The record crowds that flocked to the NBA’s Las Vegas Summer League were treated to lots more than the Victor Wembanyama Show. Our correspondent in the desert empties her notebookThe most common mistake people make post-Vegas is overreacting, whether positive or negative. Yes, the NBA’s Summer League provides a high-profile showcase for undrafted and G League players to show their mettle, so if they impress, it shouldn’t be discounted. And some rookies display their rough edges in their first NBA-branded outing in ways that might raise flags for concern. But, on the whole, sweeping generalizations from the past 11 days shouldn’t be made in either direction off a handful of games that in the long run don’t carry a whole...
With less gifted players around him, Inter’s defence-shy superstar could struggle with the physicality of MLSInter Miami are now the fifth most-followed American sports franchise on Instagram, their numbers leaping from 900,000 to almost nine million. They are having to expand their stadium and tickets for their remaining home games this season are going for $350. All this for a team that went into the weekend bottom of the Eastern Conference. Lionel Messi has already had an enormous impact on his new club. As the MLS commissioner, Don Garber, said, Messi’s move to the United States is a “massive financial opportunity”.It’s easy to be seduced by this. It’s easy to be relieved that the greatest player of his generation will...
Swede’s reappointment for 2025 would offer proof of compromise as LIV joins forces with the DP World and PGA ToursThe only current certainty in elite golf is uncertainty. A month has passed since confirmation that Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund has joined forces with the PGA and DP World Tours to promote peace on the fairways but nobody apparently has a clue about details for the future. The situation is so stark that golfers who prefer root canal treatment to media duties are suddenly stopping journalists to elicit information about how this all unfolds. This is a wonderful mess.LIV and its much-maligned rebels have understandably seized upon the vacuum. Full steam ahead is the unrelenting message from this tour. It...
Baseball’s pace-of-play rules have made for quicker games than in recent memory. But they’ll be hard-pressed to approach the all-time record set by the Giants and Phillies in 1919 No matter how many rules Major League Baseball adds to speed up play, it is safe to say that no two teams will ever be able to beat the record for the fastest nine-inning game in big-league history: 51 minutes. Not one hour and 51 minutes. Fifty-one minutes.On 28 September 1919, five days before the Cincinnati Reds met the Chicago White Sox in an infamous World Series tattered by gambling, the New York Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 6-1, in New York in the first game of a doubleheader – in...
Alliance with PGA and DP World Tours sparked talk of an end for the startup but this elite golf element carries momentumAlmost 13 months have passed since the confirmation that a wind of change had swept through golf. In sleepy, leafy Hertfordshire, LIV Golf teed off against the backdrop of intense acrimony and serious doubts. “Golf, but louder” was the chosen advertising slogan.It was golf, but jitterier. Players looked over shoulders, nosy interlopers were concerned about even being spotted in the rebel environment. Partly through concerns over the sportswashing element attached to the LIV plan and partly through the belief that the establishment, the PGA and DP World Tours, could not be overhauled, the tournament at the Centurion Club was...