Sports

A few years ago when the NCAA started letting transfers play without sitting out, Tony Bennett polled his former stars who made it in the NBA. Bennett prided himself on developing players, but it was a process and some guys “had to fight for it.” Some redshirted. Most had to …

Part V of a five-part series ahead of the 2024-25 NBA season, chronicling how the league reached this era of parity and the key questions that remain.• Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV Going back to the days of George Mikan’s Minneapolis Lakers and continuing …

Troy Aikman was exasperated — and honest. “I don’t like the call at all,” Aikman said. Aikman, ESPN’s lead analyst for “Monday Night Football,” was reacting to a penalty during the most recent game broadcast. With the Buffalo Bills up 20-17 over the New York Jets and 9:32 left in …

How much has the outlook for the college football season changed since the preseason? It may not feel like a lot, but The Athletic’s consensus midseason national championship pick received zero votes two months ago in the preseason, and the Heisman Trophy favorite is now a running back from a …

Fifty is the new 30, and we’re not talking about age. NFL kickers have improved significantly in recent years. It’s felt as obvious as ever this season, but the numbers have validated the eye test. Through the first six weeks of the season, we have seen all-time highs in 50-plus-yard …

When Gareth Southgate resigned the day after the Euro 2024 final, the Football Association had a huge task ahead of it: to replace England’s greatest manager of the modern era, the man who had redefined the role. It was not a position it ever wanted to be in. The hope …

NEW YORK — When Francisco Lindor led off the bottom of the seventh inning, reality reduced Citi Field’s a cappella rendition of “My Girl” to a faint mumble. It sounded appropriate, given all the fun that was had over the last handful of months juxtapositioned against what’s at stake now …

World No. 9 Danielle Collins has postponed her plan to retire from tennis at the end of the 2024 season, and will play on the WTA Tour in 2025. Collins, 30, has taken advice on her “personal fertility journey” since her last match, which was a defeat to Australian qualifier …

Virginia coach Tony Bennett — one of the winningest college basketball coaches in the history of the ACC and the sport at large, who delivered the program’s first and only national championship in 2019 — is retiring, the school announced Thursday afternoon. Bennett’s retirement is effective immediately and he will …

Some people name-drop. With Rick Barry, it’s more like a name-deluge. It takes only a few questions for the former NBA and ABA star to recount conversations with his fellow basketball Hall of Famers, life-changing advice from a golf icon, a bond with a group of tennis greats and a …