Browsing: History

The Oklahoma City Thunder equalled the best 25-game start to a season in NBA history as they overpowered the Phoenix Suns 138-89 in the NBA Cup quarter-finals.

Defending champions the Thunder have won 24 of their first 25 games, equalling the Golden State Warriors’ record from 2015-16.

Advertisement

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, last season’s Most Valuable Player, scored 28 points at Paycom Center, hitting the 20-point mark for a 96th straight game.

It was a franchise record 16th straight win for the Thunder, who face the San Antonio Spurs in the semi-finals in Las Vegas on Saturday.

“Winning is never boring,” said Thunder forward Jalen Williams.

The Thunder have won 92 of their 107 regular-season games since the start of 2024-25, having topped last season’s Western Conference with a 68-14 record.

The record for most wins in an NBA season is 73, achieved by the Warriors in 2015-16.

Advertisement

The Spurs reached the semi-finals by beating the Los Angeles Lakers 132-119 at Crypto.com Arena.

The NBA Cup is the competition’s annual in-season tournament, with all matches except the final counting towards the regular-season standings.

The Thunder were beaten in last year’s final by the Milwaukee Bucks.

Source link

Yet Newcastle found a way to climb it.

Following some strong words at half-time, the visitors rallied after the break and won a penalty courtesy of Nick Woltemade aggressively pressing Leverkusen goalkeeper Mark Flekken.

And after equalising from the spot, Gordon then went on to set up substitute Lewis Miley’s header to put Newcastle in front.

However, another familiar issue reared its head.

Despite taking the lead in the 74th minute, Newcastle were unable to see out the game.

This side have dropped more points from winning positions – 11 – than any other team in the Premier League.

They have failed to win four of their past five away games in all competitions despite taking the lead in all of them at some stage.

Newcastle may have hit the upright through substitute Jacob Murphy after going in front, but Howe’s side began to drop deep against Leverkusen late on, consciously or not.

And Grimaldo’s clever dummy took Newcastle’s midfield out of the game before Leverkusen’s talisman levelled.

It was a familiar story for Howe.

“I don’t think it’s ever a case of sitting back and absorbing pressure,” the Newcastle head coach said.

“That’s not number one in our aim, but you need to do whatever it takes to win. Sometimes that is par for the course, that’s what you have to do.”

Newcastle remain on course for at least a play-off spot and are only a couple of points off the automatic qualification places for the last 16.

But Howe’s team cannot afford to let history repeat itself when they host a PSV side who are starting to hit form, on 21 January, before a trip to the Parc des Princes to take on holders Paris St-Germain a week later.

“We have it all to prove,” Howe added. “The two games we have are very difficult games but I believe in the group. Wherever we go, if we’re near our best, we can win.”

Source link

This content was first published inGolf Journal, a quarterly print publication exclusively for USGA Members. To be among the first to receiveGolf Journal and to learn how you can ensure a strong future for the game, become a USGA Member today!

Golf’s great irony is that golfers don’t do it, they play it. No doubt you’ve been part of a conversation where someone says, “I love to golf” or “I’m golfing today.” You instantly know one thing: That person missed the memo that using the word as a verb is akin to fingernails on a blackboard. I mean, does anyone go “tennis-ing”?

It’s not enough to hit the shots, you’ve got to talk the talk, which can sometimes be challenging for a game that seems to have its own language. The patois includes technical terms like carry and fade and even “moment of inertia” ditM-O-I. You have to take divots on doglegs and hit explosion shots to elevated greens. On the slangier side, you must know your breakfast ball from your banana ball, and you’ve seen both while playing better ball — which is not the same as better golf. You can even dine out on cabbage and chili dip and the occasional fried egg. When it comes to clichés, you’ve played cart golf, army golf and more than once made the acquaintance of the ubiquitous blind squirrel.

Your mastery of “golf speak” signals your insider status, but don’t get too comfortable. Do you know that bogey once meant par and par meant you should check in with your financial advisor? “Curlew” or “whaup” probably aren’t part of your lexicon, but trust me, you’d love to have one. The language of golf brims with color and life, like the game itself, but both evolve. Consider the modifications to match-play vernacular, where those tongue-tied by “all square” were instead just tied, and anyone who didn’t like “dormie” found they couldn’t lose.

Those changes to match-play vocabulary emerged from the 2019 revisions to the Rules of Golf, which have played a role in shaping speech about the game since they were first codified by the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in 1891.

“The widespread use of a golf language coincided with the rise of the printed word,” says Elizabeth Beeck, exhibitions curator at the USGA Golf Museum in Liberty Corner, N.J. “That’s why so many of the common terms emerged around the 1880s and ’90s, the start of the industrial age, when it became easier to travel and communicate on a broader scale.”

Still, many golf terms stretch back centuries, and contested origins are common. What follows is an attempt to sort through the competing etymologies, past reporting and scholarly guesswork to deliver a history of some of golf’s most fundamental words. As for curlew and whaup, they’re names of a European seabird that were proposed and disposed of as stand-ins for hole-in-one… which turned out aces.

Par

Like “muckraking” and “gag order,” par came to the world via a journalist bending the language. In this case, one Alexander Hamilton (A.H.) Doleman, an amateur golfer and writer from Scotland who competed in the 1870 British Open at Prestwick, asked professional counterparts Davie Straith and James Anderson to predict a winning score. After conferring, the pair said a perfect outing on the 12-hole course would amount to 49.

Par comes from Latin and means “equal” or “equality.” At the time of the championship, Brits used the word to describe a stock’s average performance; one could trade above or below that standard. A few days later, when Young Tom Morris shot a 149 over the three-round competition to win his third straight Championship Belt, Doleman wrote that he’d finished two “over par.” Doleman himself finished 20 shots back, which is why his greatest contribution to the game is linguistic.

Even that success took time, though. The first standardized Course Rating system didn’t emerge until the 1890s, and par itself didn’t gain official recognition until 1911, when the USGA codified a rating standard that called it “perfect play without flukes and under ordinary weather conditions, always allowing two strokes on each putting green.” The R&A followed suit in 1925.

Robert Neubecker

Bogey

Bogey originally meant what par does today in the sense that it represented the target score for any given hole. That definition emerged in 1890, when the secretary of Coventry Golf Club in England, Hugh Rotherman, established a scoring standard at his club. He called the target total a “ground score.”

For the Scots, since the 1500s, a “bogey” represented a demon or gremlin, leading to the term “bogey man” and a popular song of the 1880s called “Hush! Hush! Hush! Here Comes the Bogey Man.” By then the term connoted an elusive figure who was difficult to capture, something like the modern Bigfoot.

As the ground score concept spread, golfers replaced that phrase with “bogey score” and adopted the idea that they were chasing or competing against Mr. Bogey. A good player might be called a real “bogey man” and anyone who fell short of the standard “lost to Mr. Bogey.” At the United Services Club, open only to the military, they altered the persona to Colonel Bogey, who stood guard for decades.

As equipment and courses improved, good golfers could easily beat the Colonel and “par” emerged as a target score for pros and proficient amateurs. It was well into the 20th century when U.S. golfers began to use bogey as a term meaning 1 over par, which at the time was just another reason for the game’s founders to dislike Americans.

Robert Neubecker

Birdie

“Bird” was “lit” before it became birdie, if that makes sense. The standard term for shooting 1 under par on a hole is purely American, and it derives from the slang term “bird,” which at the dawn of the 1900s meant anything excellent.

Its specific application to golf, according to legend, traces to Atlantic City (N.J.) Country Club, where A.B. Smith, his brother, William, and George Crump, who designed Pine Valley Golf Club, were playing the second hole. A.B. hit his second shot close on the par 4, and when he tapped in for a 3, called it “a bird of a shot.” After that, the threesome began calling any such feat a “birdie,” and it stuck. The club commemorated the event with a plaque that puts the date at 1903.

The Americans weren’t done with birds. The eagle landed on 2 under par for a hole shortly after the arrival of birdie, with A.B. Smith and friends again claiming credit, although the term wasn’t fully accepted everywhere until the 1930s. The logic was simple enough — if a regular old bird was good, the symbol of the U.S. must be even better.

Smith and his companions used double eagle for 3 under, but that nomenclature was largely undone by a different bird, the albatross, which emerged as the preferred choice in the 1920s. The exact derivation appears to have gone undocumented, although the species brings a logical continuity since it’s a majestic and exceedingly rare bird.

Robert Neubecker

Caddie

This is where the story of the game detours to France. There are written references to “golf” in France dating to the 1400s, and many speculate that caddie comes from the French word “cadet,” which means “boy.” As the story goes, Mary, Queen of Scots, encountered the word on her travels and brought it back to her homeland, where it came to refer to anyone working as a porter or messenger. Eventually, it made the leap to golf.

That sounds tidy enough, but there’s a problem. Other historians say the French didn’t play golf at the time of Mary’s visit, but a different game that used only one club, for which a caddie wouldn’t have been necessary. Whatever the truth, Mary spoke French, as did many nobles, and “cadet” made its way to Scotland (as did “dormie” from the French “dormir,” meaning “to sleep”) and became “caddie” by the 1600s. Dictionaries tagged it as a golf-centric term by the mid-1800s.

Robert Neubecker

Fore

It feels like “fore” should simply be a shortened version of “foreword,” used as a general warning to those ahead of you. It’s not.

A more fun possibility revolves around military history, particularly the formations of riflemen aligned in rows, with one set kneeling in front of a standing set. “Beware foreword” served as a warning to the soldiers in front when the back row was firing and, according to the theory, that eventually morphed into “fore.” There’s a particular connection to Leith Links in Edinburgh, Scotland, which stood next to a fort, bringing soldiers and golfers into close contact, although the warning there related to a pair of cannons flanking the entry. Either way, it puts the fear of getting plunked by a small white orb into perspective.

A second option concerns forecaddies, which were popular in the age of the feathery ball, because they were expensive and hard to make. To keep track of those leather-wrapped projectiles, forecaddies would stand in the landing area. Before hitting, golfers would yell “forecaddie” to alert his man that the ball was incoming. Eventually, they shortened the warning to “fore.” This, as has been noted, holds a certain logical appeal, since the words “caddie,” “forecaddie” and “fore” all emerged around the same time.

Robert Neubecker

Golf

They say success has 1,000 fathers, which might explain golf’s unresolved paternal roots.

Contenders for the title include colf, kolf, chole, kolbe and kolven, all of which basically mean “club” and are associated with some sort of game that involves hitting an orb with a stick. Some historians trace them back to the ancient Greek word kolaphos or the Latin words colapus or colpus, meaning “to strike” or “to cuff.” The games also seem to have some root in the Roman game paganica, which featured a feather-stuffed ball hit with a curved stick and was spread throughout Europe by the conquering legions.

Other experts propose that the Dutch game kolf — played with a stick and ball on frozen canals or fields – migrated across the North Sea to Scotland. Of course, it doesn’t help that once the game arrived the Scots called it all kinds of names, including goff, goif, golf, goiff, gof, glove, gowf, gouff and gowfe. In Gaelic, the word is goilf.

The truth is elusive, but all that matters is that at some point the Scots began playing a game directly related to the current version of the sport and agreed to call it “golf.” Back then, they may have even “golfed,” but no one does that anymore. At least not if they really know what they’re talking about.

• Joey Lynch

  Close

  Joey Lynch is a Melbourne-based sports journalist and AYA cancer advocate. Primarily working on football, he has covered the Socceroos, Matildas and A-Leagues for ESPN for over a decade.

Dec 9, 2025, 08:02 PM ET

Australia’s game against the United States at the 2026 FIFA World Cup won’t be the biggest game that the Socceroos have ever played at the global footballing showpiece.

In all honesty, between round-of-16 appearances against eventual champions Italy and Argentina, the drought-breaking win over Japan in 2006, the knockout-stage-securing win over Croatia in that same tournament, or group-stage games against defending champions such as France and Spain, it would struggle to break into the top 10. But when Tony Popovic’s side run out to face the Americans in Seattle on June 19, it might just be one of the most hyped games that the Socceroos have ever played.

Drawn into Group D at next year’s tournament alongside the co-hosts, as well as Paraguay and a European qualifier to be drawn from one of Slovakia, Kosovo, Türkiye, or Romania, Australia now, for the most part, knows what they’ll need to secure back-to-back appearances in the World Cup knockout stages. Supporters, meanwhile, can start to plan their journey alongside the Socceroos throughout the group and possibly beyond, trying to figure out how they’ll source tickets amongst high demand and significant prices, but also grapple with accommodation costs that a quick perusal of booking sites would suggest will run them back more than a grand for just a couple of nights.

– O’Hanlon: How the 2026 World Cup killed the ‘Group of Death’
– How travel will impact 2026 World Cup group stage, and why it matters
– 2026 World Cup Group D: How U.S. matches up against group-stage foes

Both cohorts also now know that their journey will begin on the West Coast of North America, with the Socceroos’ opening game against the European qualifier to take place in Vancouver, followed by the Seattle clash against the Americans and then a meeting with Paraguay in Santa Clara. Travel and logistics-wise, this should prove relatively simple for the team and travelling supporters alike, while the timezone also ensures favourable broadcast times for those watching at home. It also means that, for the most part, the sweltering heat of the North American summer will be dodged.

And while the progression of the eight best third-placed sides across a record 12 groups at the expanded 48-team World Cup somewhat reduces the jeopardy compared to previous 32-team tournaments, this also means that Popovic’s side’s knockout destiny likely rests upon their form in the Pacific Northwest.

Which brings us back to the United States. While Mauricio Pochettino’s side was placed in Pot 1 of the World Cup draw by virtue of their status as co-hosts (with Mexico in Group A and Canada in Group B afforded similar privileges), the USMNT’s FIFA ranking of 14 wasn’t too far off earning that right — only bettered in Pot 2 by Croatia, Morocco, and Colombia. In recent months, the side’s form, which had been stuttering and raising a few alarm bells, has taken a turn under their Argentine coach: unbeaten in five with wins over Japan, Uruguay, Paraguay and, back in September, Australia. And highlighted by the likes of Weston McKennie and Christian Pulisic, they field top-line talent playing at some of the best clubs in the world.

When you add the luxury of hosting the tournament, which, Qatar aside, generally correlates with improved performances, the Americans are the favourites to top Group D and should hold hopes of staging a deep run into the competition. Indeed, if they don’t achieve the former, it will have to be considered a letdown on their part. Even if, given how difficult Australia and Paraguay (who conceded just 10 goals across 18 South American qualifiers) have proven to be in competitive games, to say nothing of Türkiye potentially joining, topping the group will perhaps not be as comfortable as some of the more boisterous sections of their professional commentariat, one of whom described Australia as a “lay-up” suggest.

play

3:17

Should USMNT be happy with their World Cup draw?

The “Futbol Americas” crew react to USMNT’s 2026 FIFA World Cup group draw.

From an Australian perspective, this means that if they can take something from that game in Seattle, a point or even a win, they’ll go a long way towards the knockouts — being able to take points off the strongest team in your group, assuming that they go ahead and do the job against your other rivals, carries obvious benefits.

Further, heavy lies the crown of favoritism and expectation, and with the weight of anticipation on the Americans’ shoulders from an expectant home crowd, it’s very easy to envisage the game being played out in a manner that suits the Socceroos’ strengths and tests their opponents with something they’ve struggled with: the hosts taking the onus of possession as they seek to break down an Australian outfit comfortable in sitting back in a low block, who can then look to pick their moments and break through in transition. This feeling may only heighten if the United States are frustrated by the stout Paraguayans in their opening game.

Their recent fixtures may have exposed the perils of regression to the mean and heightened scrutiny of the side’s urgent need to improve in possession, but if the Socceroos can be clinical — as they did when they vastly outperformed their expected goals (xG) in World Cup qualifying and secured wins over Japan and Saudi Arabia — this approach can prove effective. It wouldn’t be pretty — by any stretch — nor probably fun to watch. But if it gets wins at a World Cup, Popovic, who has already engineered one unfancied run when he took an unheralded Western Sydney Wanderers to a 2014 Asian Champions League crown, wouldn’t mind too much.

Yet the footballing aspects of the game against the United States are only part of the picture of why it will likely be so big. For one, this will be the first time that Australia has played a host nation since 1974, when a team largely comprised of semiprofessionals captained by the legendary Johnny Warren were grouped with West Germany. This means that the spotlight will be well and truly on Lumen Field when kick-off arrives, and that the stands and build-up will be just that bit more circus-like than otherwise.

While there were inevitably plenty of hot takes about the quality of Australian sides that took on Germany, Brazil, and Spain before they played in previous tournaments, these weren’t written in English and easily consumed Down Under. Nor were they as readily available as they will be in 2026, where the ability to spew outrage and polarisation is not only available to anyone with an internet connection but boosted by algorithms and monetisation programs that ensure that even the most Johnny No-Mates or Becky Bad-Opinions amongst us, Aussie or American, can be seen by tens of thousands if they hit the timeline just right.

Combine this with more of the “lay-up”-esque analysis likely to ramp up as kick-off approaches and the hyper-online and prickly habits of Aussie footballing fans (observe their reaction to the late Grant Wahl’s suggestion that the Socceroos’ might not have been very good in 2018), Australian sporting fans (just look at Oscar Piastri’s online following), and there’s going to be a lot of kindling for the fire. Common sense? Goodwill? Touching grass? The actual human interaction being fun and friendly? Not on my internet!

On- and off-the-field, then, the Socceroos being drawn against the United States promises to be big, potentially defining both of their World Cup campaigns. Toxic, too. But big. And fun.

Source link

One of the many disappointments was that, where Australia’s lower order contributed vital runs and equally vital hours, England’s again evaporated rapidly.

The Mitchell Starc-Scott Boland ninth-wicket partnership, which shifted the tone of the series and consolidated Australia’s first-innings advantage into domination, lasted 27.2 overs

England’s eighth, ninth and 10th-wicket partnerships, in four innings across the two Tests combined, have lasted 27.5 overs, equating to a wicket lost every 14 balls.

To illustrate the gulf between on-paper potential and on-pitch actuality, Gus Atkinson (with a century and four other scores over 35 in his 15-Test career) and Brydon Carse (three 35-plus scores in the recent India series, County Championship average over 30, two first-class hundreds) have scored 78-8 off 91 balls in Perth and Brisbane.

Brendan Doggett (Test novice, with a domestic first-class average of 8.5) and Boland (domestic average 12.1, previous Test high score of 20) have scored 41-2 off 125 balls. Australia have scored at a Bazballistic rate, but also played with a flexibility and awareness England have failed to apply for more than fleeting passages.

On the plus side, England’s spin attack is leading Australia’s in wickets taken after the first two Tests.

In the last 50 years of Ashes cricket in Australia, every time England’s spinners have taken more wickets than Australia’s in the first two Tests, they have gone on to win the series – in 2010-11, 1986-87 and 1978-79.

In Brisbane, when Will Jacks took the first wicket by a spinner in an Ashes Test in the southern hemisphere since Steve Smith dismissed Jack Leach in the fourth Test four years ago, England roared into a 1-0 lead in the spinners’ wickets tally for the series.

Admittedly, England were 2-0 up after two Tests in 1978-79, and 1-0 ahead in the other two series, but where there is a statistical straw, let us clutch it, and clutch it hard, before it floats off into the wind.

For those wishing to build an entire house of statistical straws, you could also point to the fact that the last time England were bowled out in under 80 overs in the first four innings of an Ashes was in 2005, another triumphant series.

And, after Stokes and Jacks’ 96-run stand, you could note that every time England have had a seventh-wicket stand of more than 90 in Australia since the Second World War, they have won the Ashes (Ian Bell and Matt Prior putting on 107 in 2010-11, Geoff Miller and Bob Taylor combining for 135 in 1978-79).

Blow that one down, Mr Wolf.

Source link

It seems like Kenny Omega might want to delete the search history on his cellphone.

On this weekâ€s episode of Being The Elite, the Young Bucks tried to get Kenny Omega to do “a bit†for the show, but claimed he just wasnâ€t feeling it.

Despite that, Omega did some hilarious bits of his own on this episode. Starting with revealing his NSFW Google search history, with search terms including:

• top 10 gay porn in 2025
• michael nakazawa deepfake
• grindr coupon code
• young bucks ozempic use?

You can get a look at the screenshot in the embedded post below:

Kenny Omega wants to be taken seriously… while chugging ridiculous amounts of water

The Best Bout Machine was in rare form on Being The Elite this week. Omega goes on a hilarious diatribe to the Young Bucks about wanting to be taken seriously, all the while crushing a bottle of water into his mouth.

“I mean, it sounds like a fun idea. It really does,†Kenny Omega began. “Itâ€s just that the old times five, six years ago, weâ€ve been doing this for how long? It feels like decades, letâ€s be honest. And I mean, we can talk about your cell phone wides and your rusty trombones, your alligator fuck houses. We can do that stuff till the cows come home.

“But I just feel like, as a person, as a human, I just feel like Iâ€ve grown up. Iâ€m not into the low-hanging fruit, and just, I feel like Iâ€ve grown as a person, as a human, as a CIS white male. So Iâ€d rather not do all that silly stuff. Iâ€m done talking about all this tongue-in-cheek humor and ridiculous stuff.

“I donâ€t want to do any of that old, weird stuff that I was doing just to get like, a reaction. I mean, Iâ€m just a normal guy, and I think people got the wrong idea that here I am showing up and acting like this geek and this nerd on this weekly show. Iâ€d like to be taken seriously. I donâ€t know about you guys.â€

You can check out the latest episode of BTE in the embedded video below:

READ MORE: AEW Star Hilariously Spoofs Triple H

What do you make of Kenny Omegaâ€s overall comments? Are you happy to see the three of these guys basically having fun again on Being The Elite? Let us know your overall thoughts by sounding off in the comments section below.

If you use any of these quotes, please credit Being The Elite with a link to this article for the transcription.

Source link

Jasprit Bumrah is heading into the T20I series against South Africa with several major records within touching distance, adding extra intrigue as India resume white-ball action on Tuesday in Cuttack. India arrive at the five-match contest after a mixed fortnight in international cricket. A bruising 0–2 Test defeat at home was followed by a gripping ODI series, which India edged 2–1. Now, under the leadership duo of Suryakumar Yadav and Gautam Gambhir, who have maintained a perfect T20I series record so far, the focus shifts firmly to gearing up for next yearâ€s T20 World Cup on home soil.

Team India arrive in Cuttack for T20Is | Fans will miss Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma

For Bumrah, the opening match could be historic. The fast bowler is just one wicket away from joining Arshdeep Singh in Indiaâ€s exclusive 100-wicket club in T20 Internationals. Bumrah currently has 99 wickets from 80 matches at an outstanding average of 18.11, with 3/7 as his best return. Arshdeep leads the tally with 105 wickets from 68 games. Reaching the landmark will also make Bumrah the first Indian in history to claim a century of wickets in each international format. Another milestone is also looming. Bumrah needs only 18 more wickets to become the eighth Indian bowler to reach a combined 500 across formats. He is currently on 482 wickets in 221 appearances, averaging 20.60, including 13 four-wicket hauls and 18 five-fors, with career-best figures of 6/19.India squad for T20I series against SA: Suryakumar Yadav (C), Shubman Gill (VC)*, Abhishek Sharma, Tilak Varma, Hardik Pandya, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Jitesh Sharma (WK), Sanju Samson (WK), Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakaravarthy, Arshdeep Singh, Kuldeep Yadav, Harshit Rana, Washington SundarNote: * Subject to fitness clearance from BCCI COE. With India looking to build momentum and Bumrah chasing rare statistical heights, the series opener promises high stakes on multiple fronts.

Source link

Each week during the 2025-26 NBA season, we will take a deeper dive into some of the leagueâ€s biggest storylines in an attempt to determine whether trends are based more in fact or fiction moving forward.

Last week:The NBA’s new ‘heaves’ rule is working

Fact or Fiction: Chris Paul is a top-five point guard in NBA history

We have convened a Hall of Fame panel, made up entirely by me, to officially determine whether Chris Paul, a.k.a. The Point God, will retire at season’s end as one of the five greatest point guards in history.

Advertisement

The 40-year-old Paul was sent home this week by the Los Angeles Clippers, his NBA future in peril.

On The Bill Russell Scale, which we created to rank players’ legacies across time, Paul sits fourth among point guards, trailing only Magic Johnson, Stephen Curry and Oscar Robertson. And that probably is the definitive list of players at the position who are undoubtedly superior to Paul. But even I, the creator of The Bill Russell Scale, can recognize potential flaws, since the system bends toward favoring longevity.

Only 10 other point guards cracked the Russell Scale’s top 75 — Bob Cousy, John Stockton, Russell Westbrook, Steve Nash, Gary Payton, Jason Kidd, Isiah Thomas, Walt Frazier, Tony Parker and Kyrie Irving — and that is a good list of players at the position who could stake a claim to being better than Paul.

Let us start by reaffirming Johnson, Curry and Robertson as the three greatest point guards ever.

Advertisement

Johnson is a five-time champion and three-time MVP who served as the NBA’s best point guard — or got the highest number of MVP votes at the position — for 10 of his 13 seasons. He is widely considered one of the 10 greatest players ever, and at 6-foot-9 he held an advantage a 6-foot Paul never could replicate.

Curry is a four-time champion. He garnered more MVP votes than any other point guard in five of his 16 seasons, winning the award twice, including unanimously in 2016. And he did it all during Paul’s career, establishing himself as undeniably the greatest shooter to ever live. He is knocking on the all-time top 10.

Robertson finished top-five in MVP voting for eight straight seasons and won the award in 1964, when Wilt Chamberlain averaged 50.4 points and Bill Russell was en route to his sixth of eight straight titles, and he was the second-best player (to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) on the 1971 champion Milwaukee Bucks.

Paul could match neither feat. He never finished higher than second in the MVP race, which he did in 2008, losing to Kobe Bryant, though he placed top five on five occasions over a 14-year stretch. He collected more MVP votes than any other point guard in five of his 21 seasons (2008-09, 2012-13, 2021).

Advertisement

Every one of those 10 other point guards but Stockton can make a claim that Paul cannot, either winning an MVP or a title, and Stockton owns the NBA’s all-time records for assists and steals — by a wide margin.

Paul is second to Stockton on both lists.

Having a championship ring or an MVP trophy alone does not make someone better than Paul. Russell Westbrook, for example, won the 2017 MVP award, even if some folks do not consider him worthy (I am not one of them). If you needed to win a title, though, and had to pick between Paul and Westbrook to get you there, there are few — if any — executives in the league who would choose Westbrook over Paul.

Advertisement

(Exhibit A: The Houston Rockets from 2017-20.)

While Irving won as the second-best player (to LeBron James) on the 2016 champion Cleveland Cavaliers, he has never achieved the heights as a player that Paul did. Not once has Irving received an MVP vote, let alone ranked as the league’s best point guard, in any of his 14 seasons. Something similar could be said of Tony Parker, who never made an All-NBA First Team, as his San Antonio Spurs won four championships.

Paul earned four All-NBA First Team selections, as did Frazier, who won championships as the league’s best point guard for the New York Knicks in 1970 and 1973. Frazier peaked over a seven-year stretch. Paul’s prime lasted twice as long, and his longevity has to count for something. That argument is close.

Chris Paul’s future is up in the air, but there’s no doubt he is headed to the Hall of Fame. (AP Photo/Sue Ogrocki)

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

It is closer still to Stockton, Nash, Payton and Kidd. Stockton recorded 3,254 more assists and 537 more steals in his career than Paul, though he never finished higher than seventh in any MVP voting. Nash won back-to-back MVPs in the mid-2000s, but he never made an All-Defensive roster. Paul, on the other hand, made nine All-Defensive teams, as did Payton and Kidd, who each won a championship later in his career.

Advertisement

We could easily imagine Paul winning a title as a bit player on the right team. He just never found it. (At least not yet. There’s still a chance!) And we could make the case that Paul’s path to the 2021 NBA Finals as the second-best player on the Phoenix Suns was every bit as impressive as anything Payton and Kidd accomplished, including Payton’s trip to the 1996 NBA Finals and Kidd’s back-to-back Finals appearances.

But we are not here to debate whether Paul belongs among the 10 best point guards ever. The question posed was whether he is one of the best five, and I think there are two others definitely ahead of him.

Cousy won the league’s 1957 MVP honor during a span when he was the NBA’s best point guard for more than a decade. He was also the second-best player (to Russell) on six championship teams. Sure, you can make the argument that Paul would have dominated in the 1950s, but you could also say that — with the benefit of modern-day training — Cousy may have been every bit as good. What we cannot really debate is whether Paul would have been Paul if not for Cousy, for he revolutionized the position as we know it.

Thomas was the best player on back-to-back championship teams in 1989 and 1990, at a time when Johnson, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan were plying their trade. Might Paul have steered those stout Detroit Pistons defenses to titles in that era? Maybe, but getting the job done must count for something.

Advertisement

So, too, must Paul’s failures in big moments. His collapse as a member of the Clippers against the Oklahoma City Thunder in Game 5 of the Western Conference semifinals remains a stain on his legacy. He was also on the floor for multiple other collapses, including Game 6 of the 2015 conference semifinals.

Injuries marred several other opportunities in the playoffs, including 2017 and 2018, but that is part of the game. Just ask Thomas, who tore his Achilles and retired at age 32 — but not after he accomplished something that Paul simply cannot touch, back-to-back titles as his team’s best player in a stacked era.

So, there you have it, folks — a pretty clear top five: Johnson, Curry, Robertson, Cousy and Thomas.

Paul just as clearly belongs in the top 10, along with Stockton, Nash, Payton and Kidd. Then, we must figure where Frazier belongs, and whom he replaces in the top 10, but that is a debate for a different day.

Determination: Fiction. Paul is more comfortably in the top 10 than he is any top five.

Source link

Ashes 2025-26:- England batted first after Ben Stokes won the toss in the second Ashes Australia vs England Test. Joe Root scored his first Test century in Australia, reaching 135. He and Jofra Archer added fast runs for the last wicket, taking England past 300. Their stand reached 50 runs in just 29 balls. Archer made 32.

Mitchell Starc was the best bowler for Australia. He took 6 wickets and kept England under pressure. Michael Neser took one wicket.

England ended Day 1 at 325/9.

Australia used an all-pace attack in this pink-ball Test. The ball moved more under the lights and gave their bowlers help. Scott Boland bowled tight spells. Australia missed Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood again. Root batted calmly through tough periods and then attacked later. His century ended his long wait for a hundred in Australia.

Ashes 2025-26: Joe Root Hits His First Test Hundred on Australian Soil in the Second Ashes Australia vs England Test

Root finally scored his first Test century in Australia during the second Australia vs England Ashes Test in Brisbane. He reached the landmark in his 30th innings in the country. England were 5 for 2 when he came in, and he survived an early drop on two. He kept England steady as wickets kept falling at the other end. He reached his hundred with a flick to fine leg and achieved his 40th Test century.

Root had made nine fifties and 900 runs in Australia before this but had never reached three figures. His average in Australia was 33.33, his lowest in any country where he had batted more than twice. This century puts him one behind Ricky Pontingâ€s tally of 41 Test hundreds.

Former captain Alastair Cook called it a brilliant and pressure-heavy innings. Commentator Jonathan Agnew said the knock silenced Rootâ€s critics, including those who questioned if he could be considered an all-time great without a century in Australia.

Root survived lbw reviews on 62 and 73, and a catch that Steve Smith dropped when Root was on two. He adjusted his scoring areas early by avoiding shots behind the point, which usually troubles him in Australia, and focused on playing straight. As the ball softened later, he returned to his usual strokes.

Mitchell Starc Takes Sixth Pink-Ball Five-Wicket Haul in Ashes 2nd Australia vs England Test

Mitchell Starc took a five-wicket haul in the Ashes Australia vs England second Test, giving him a record six five-fors in day-night matches. No other bowler has more than two, showing how dominant he is with the pink ball.

He completed the milestone by dismissing Gus Atkinson. Atkinson tried to flick the ball, top-edged it, and it flew behind the keeper. Alex Carey and Marnus Labuschagne both chased it, dove together, and Carey caught it just above the ground. The catch was seen as one of the best of the year.

Starc also became the left-arm fast bowler with the most Test wickets, going past Wasim Akramâ€s record. He reached the milestone during Day 1 of the second Ashes Test when he dismissed Harry Brook. Starc achieved this in 102 Tests. He started the Ashes series strongly, taking seven wickets in the first innings and three in the second during the Perth Test.

Q. Where is the second Ashes Test in 2025?

A. The second Ashes Test is being played in Brisbane.

Q. Is the second Ashes Test a day-night match?

A.Yes, the second Ashes Test is a day-night match.

Q. Is the second Ashes Test a pink-ball match?

A. Yes, the second Ashes Test is a pink-ball match.

Get the Latest Cricket Updates at IceCric.News. Also, Follow Our Social Media for live updates on Facebook and Instagram.

Source link

Weâ€ve reached the NBA seasonâ€s one-quarter mark, where every team will have played 20 games by weekâ€s end. What conclusions can we make about the East and West standings at this point? Who are the top title contenders? And can the Thunder really break the NBA record for most wins in a season? Letâ€s break it all down.

What’s one big takeaway from the East standings?

Ben Rohrbach: The Pistons are legit. The Knicks have a middling defense, though they have been better, and the Cavaliers own a middling record, sitting in seventh place, which opens the door to Detroit. The Pistons are the class of the conference, both by record and eye test, and while we now accept them as possible NBA finalists, they also may be one piece (Lauri Markkanen?) away from more serious title contention against the West winner. The iron is hot. Time to strike.

Advertisement

Kelly Iko: The fifth-place Hawks survived November without Trae Young. Atlanta won 10 of its 15 games with a top-10 defense — and fifth-year forward Jalen Johnson has been flat-out awesome as a playmaker and distributor. Combine that with his elite rebounding, floor spacing (45.9% from 3 on over four attempts) and aggressive three-level scoring and you could make the argument that Johnson should be the focal point in Atlanta moving forward, even when Young returns.

Nekias Duncan: Iâ€ll put on my Propaganda Pants: the Southeast Division is the most fascinating group in the East. The Heatâ€s new-but-not-really-new-but-certainly-different offense has made headlines and theyâ€re now looking to fully implement Tyler Herro into the fold. The Magic are rounding into form defensively and scoring all of the buckets since Paolo Banchero has been out. The Hawks have ramped up their activity defensively, and their everyone-eats offensive style without Young has kept them afloat. Only a game sets them apart, and theyâ€re allplayoff teams right now. Itâ€s been a blast.

Steve Jones: Itâ€s a land of opportunity in the East this year, so the overall competition stands out. As I write this, nine teams have records of .500 or above and seven have won 7 of their last 10 games. Detroit has earned its way to the top, but the Knicks are knocking on the door. If you look at the standings, every single one of these teams believes they can beat each other. Makes for some fun basketball every night.

Advertisement

Dan Devine: The East feels like itâ€s going to be a game of rock-paper-scissors. How the teams up top navigate their respective top-line injury absences and reintegrations — Jaden Ivey in Detroit, OG Anunoby in New York, Tyler Herro in Miami, Trae Young in Atlanta, Paolo Banchero in Orlando, et al. — figures to go a long way toward determining seeding, which in turn will determine matchups, which in turn will determine which styles wind up making which kind of fights. Damn near everybody has at least some reason to believe they can win a playoff series, given health and the right opponent. But that also means everybody can get got.

What’s one big takeaway from the West standings?

Iko: The Lakers, Nuggets and Rockets are staying within closing distance of the Thunder. All three are in the top 10 in net rating against the leagueâ€s elite, all three possess top-five offenses and all three have the depth that necessitates a seven-game slugfest with the reigning champs. Iâ€m not exactly betting against a team that has won 20 of its 21 games, but donâ€t be so quick to crown Oklahoma City.

Rohrbach: The Clippers stink. The last-place Pelicans, who owe their first-round draft pick to the Hawks, are about as bad as anyone could have anticipated, but the Clips, whose first-rounder belongs to the West-leading Thunder, are almost as bad. There was a time not long ago, at the start of last yearâ€s playoffs, when we figured them for the conferenceâ€s second-best team. That now feels quaint. How does their deep-pocketed owner, Steve Ballmer, respond? As a buyer?

Advertisement

Devine: Zach Edey: small sample size MVP?

The sophomore center is averaging 13.6 points on 67.2% shooting to go with 11.1 rebounds and 2.3 blocks in just 25.4 minutes per game since returning from offseason surgery on his troublesome left ankle. Memphis has gone 5-2 in the seven games Edey has finished thus far and has walloped opponents by 103 points in his 203 minutes. As loudly bad as the vibes in Memphis were amid a 4-9, Ja Morant saga-inflected start, theyâ€ve quietly and dramatically improved as the Grizz have climbed back into the play-in mix and within hailing distance of .500, thanks in large part to the return of one very, very large man.

Jones: The Thunder have not stopped rolling, but the current battle between the Lakers, Rockets and Nuggets has been fun to watch. Itâ€s not just that all three are stacking up early wins, itâ€s that theyâ€re getting it done on the road (a combined 8-2 on the road as of this writing). The Western Conference is a gauntlet, and a tough week can send you sliding down the standings, but establishing yourself early can open up a pathway for a run.

Advertisement

Duncan: [Looks around] Well, Iâ€ll talk about the Thunder! With all due respect to the fun jockeying below them, and the sadness I will personally ignore as it pertains to the Clippers, itâ€s hard to overstate how ridiculous the Thunder have been. Theyâ€re a top-five offense despite an early shooting slump. Theyâ€ve flat-out been the best defense of the modern era. Theyâ€re on pace for an easy70-win season. Itâ€s hard to have a bigger takeaway than that.

Power rank your top-5 title contenders.

Devine: 1. Thunder; 2. Rockets; 3. Nuggets; 4. Lakers; 5. Knicks

Oklahoma City, a runaway war rig thatâ€s only now getting whole, remains the rabbit everyoneâ€s chasing. Houston — the only other team besides OKC to rank in the top five in offensive and defensive efficiency — has looked since opening night like the leagueâ€s best rabbit hunter. What Nikola Jokić (and Jamal Murray) and Luka DonÄić (and Austin Reaves, and now LeBron James) are capable of doing offensively at the controls of top-four seeds merits respect. And amid a mish-mash of imperfect options atop the East, I still think I buy New York — now 5-2 since losing Anunoby, their best defender and a viable All-Star candidate before his injury — more than Detroit, Toronto, Miami or Orlando.

Advertisement

Rohrbach:1. Thunder; 2. Nuggets; 3. Rockets; 4. Pistons; 5. Knicks

I donâ€t think anyone could argue against the Thunder (20-1) as clear-cut favorites to repeat as champions. The Nuggets and Rockets, probably in that order, have been the leagueâ€s next two best teams. The Pistons, firmly in first place in the East, belong in any conversation of serious title contenders, as do the Knicks, who have as good a chance as anyone to emerge from the weaker conference, as their record is now commensurate with their potential.

Jones: 1. Thunder; 2. Nuggets; 3. Rockets; 4. Lakers; 5. Pistons

OKC has lost one game since winning a championship. The Nuggets have shown a high ceiling on both ends when at full strength. The Rockets, whose defense is their identity, now have offensive punch with the two-man game of Kevin Durant and Alperen Åžengün and the growth of Amen Thompson/Reed Sheppard/Jabari Smith Jr. In L.A., Luka DonÄić is playing at an unreal level, Austin Reaves has grown and LeBron James has returned to elevate this team on both ends. And the Pistons have showcased a belief in who they are: a physical defense that gets after you and a two-man game between Cade Cunningham and Jalen Duren that keeps pressure on you.

Advertisement

Duncan: 1. Thunder; 2. Nuggets; 3. Rockets; 4. Knicks; 5. Wolves

The real answer here is probably the full-strength Thunder, then four different variations of the Thunder missing a role player. Theyâ€ve been that good. The Jokić-Murray-Gordon trio with more defensive answers is a formula that speaks to me. Houstonâ€s collective size paired with the Åžengün-Durant duo has been a force to be reckoned with. The Knicks are finding the right balance between general flow, off-ball movement, and KAT-centric possessions offensively; I also trust that their defense will return to a more passable form once OG Anunoby returns. I lean Wolves here, very slightly ahead of the Pistons and Lakers. Anthony Edwards has gotten better, Julius Randle is having one heck of a year. The defense, while shakier than weâ€re accustomed to, has worked its way back to top-10 levels. The Edwards-Randle-McDaniels-Gobert quartet is blowing teams out of the building, and this is a group thatâ€s fresh off back-to-back conference finals appearances.

Iko: 1. Thunder; 2. (fully healthy) Nuggets; 3. Lakers; 4. Rockets; 5. Knicks

Denverâ€s defense was allowing a stingy 109.4 points per 100 possessions with both Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun on the floor. The reshuffling of the Lakers†hierarchy — moving Austin Reaves ahead of LeBron — was necessary and gives them an edge no other team has (James as the third option). The Durant/Åžengün two-man game has given Houston a deeper Xâ€s and Oâ€s look. Once Anunuoby returns, New Yorkâ€s eight-man playoff rotation looks exquisite — and Iâ€m taking the All-NBA-esque defender shooting 40% from 3, with that depth, over Detroitâ€s fantastic story.

Name a contender that concerns you.

Duncan: Well, I thought the [redacted non-Lakers team in Los Angeles] would be a contender, but that seems firmly out. Iâ€ll roll with the Cavs, who are firmly goodbut havenâ€t hit the high notes on either end of the floor that Iâ€ve expected them to. Injuries have derailed the chemistry-building process; Donovan Mitchell and Evan Mobley are seeing multiple bodies virtually every time they try to attack, which has put a damper on some of the Beautiful Game flow we saw last year. Thereâ€s still plenty of time for them to round into elite form, but Iâ€d like to see that soon.

Advertisement

Rohrbach: Cavaliers. Darius Garland cannot stay healthy. Mobley has not taken the leap necessary to vault Cleveland into another stratosphere. Mitchell has to do too much. The problems that have plagued them in the playoffs are starting to impact their success in the regular season, and we have to wonder whether the awkward fits between Garland and Mitchell in the backcourt and Mobley and Jarrett Allen in the frontcourt are their Achilles heels.

Jones: Nuggets. Yes, I have them at No. 2, but they need to navigate this stretch without Aaron Gordon and keep their defense at a high level. The concern is less with the whole and more if a losing streak could bump them down the standings. The Spurs have not gone away without Wemby and the Wolves always make a run.

Devine: Cavaliers. They entered the season with the best championship odds of any team in the East. Theyâ€re now 4-9 against teams over .500, and their offense has generally been a disaster whenever Mitchellâ€s been off the floor. Meanwhile, their core four has played a grand total of 57 minutes together due to injuries. Viewed through one lens, thatâ€s cause for optimism: Get the main guys healthy, and maybe Cleveland starts looking more like last yearâ€s No. 1 seed. The longer the Cavs go without clicking into gear, though, the further away last year looks … and the further away they seem from being the contender they were purported to be.

Advertisement

Iko:76ers. I was alive when they were propped up by some to be the most dangerous team in the East in a year where the Celtics, Bucks and Pacers were decimated by injuries or lack of depth. Philadelphia today is 10-9, sitting in ninth place and struggling against good teams. Paul Georgeâ€s reincorporation has been rough. You could debate some of Nick Nurseâ€s rotations — Jared McCain is averaging just 17 minutes per night a season — but the vibes just donâ€t look great, Joel Embiid looks different and something is off in the city of brotherly love.

Fill in the blank: The Thunder will win _____ games.

Jones: 69. The Thunder have been outstanding on both ends, and Jalen Williams†return only makes them tougher, but they are going to keep getting everyoneâ€s best shot.

Rohrbach: 70. At the quarter mark, the Thunder are operating at a 78-win pace, largely without Williams, who only recently returned from wrist surgery. Another injury, especially one to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, could send them “spiraling†toward 60-something wins, as could the relentlessness of another 82-game campaign in the wake of a championship run, but at worst they have a shot to be the third team ever to eclipse 70 wins.

Advertisement

Iko: 72. I canâ€t really see this team losing more than nine more times the rest of the season, barring any major injuries. SGA looks better than last season, Williams is back and theyâ€re  brilliantly coached on both sides of the ball. After winning a title and starting this year at this blistering rate, why not go for 70+?

Duncan: 71. Iâ€m already on record with that prediction so I donâ€t think I can change it in good faith. Just know that I am very, very prepared to be wrong. It feels closer to 74 or 75 at this rate.

Devine: 75. Unlikely? Of course. But if these Thunder are historically good — and considering theyâ€re the fourth team ever to win 20 of their first 21 games, that they currently boast the best defense since the ABA-NBA merger, and that theyâ€re on pace for the largest average margin of victory ever — then why not have a little fun and project a little bit of history?

Source link