Author: rb809rb

Just 10 seconds into NASCAR’s 2026 Super Bowl ad touting the sport’s new slogan — “Hell Yeah” — there’s a telling detail on a license plate: The “e” in “Hell” is a 3. And in case you missed that, there’s a fan wearing a 3 jacket, and a Craftsman truck decked out in a familiar black paint scheme doing a dramatic slow-mo burnout. The message is unmistakable: No more screwing around. NASCAR’s bringing back that Dale Earnhardt attitude.

Twenty-five years after his sudden, shocking death on the final lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt remains as vital to NASCAR as ever. A quarter-century after we last saw his Goodwrench No. 3 knifing through the pack, Dale Earnhardt is still exactly what NASCAR wants to be.

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Sure, the tattoos Earnhardt fans got during his lifetime are fading and sagging. The last Cup driver to run in a race with Earnhardt, Ryan Newman, retired more than two years ago. But you don’t have to look far to see Earnhardt’s persistent influence. He’s the focus of new documentaries, books, endless social media recollections. His image — sunglasses, mustache, attitude, black No. 3 flag — is still everywhere at NASCAR tracks.

No other driver — not Jeff Gordon, not Chase Elliott, not even Earnhardt’s boy — has ever come close to matching The Intimidator’s impact. And given the way that NASCAR, and American culture, have trended in the years since his death, it’s likely no one ever will.

If Dale Earnhardt hadn’t existed, a team of marketers — or a superhero movie screenwriter — couldn’t have created a more perfect avatar of NASCAR’s ideal self-image. Born in the blue-collar mill town of Kannapolis, North Carolina, he lived hard and raced harder. Some people climb over obstacles; Earnhardt just drove right through them.

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He was mean as hell; you don’t get the name “The Intimidator” because you’re a go-along, get-along kind of guy. But he also inspired deep respect up and down the garage. You might not like him, you definitely wouldn’t outrun him, but you damn sure respected him. Drivers from Jeff Gordon to Jimmie Johnson to Kurt Busch have spent the last 25 years telling stories of how nervous they were in Earnhardt’s presence, and these are NASCAR’s champions.

But Earnhardt wasn’t just a surly S.O.B. Besides being tougher than a three-dollar steak, Earnhardt was also funny as hell. His disgust at drivers who complained about going too fast at Talladega created one of racing’s all-time great quotes: “Put a kerosene rag around your ankles so the ants won’t climb up and eat that candy ass.” It’s tough to say which was scarier — Earnhardt in your rear-view mirror charging at you, or Earnhardt in his sunglasses smiling at you.

Sure, he wasn’t perfect. He played by the rules right up until the rules didn’t suit him. If he needed to turn someone to win a race, like Terry Labonte in Bristol, well, he’d rattle their cage and plead innocence later. He could be a tough man to love, whether you were his wife or his friend or his child. And he was beyond stubborn; it’s tough to reconcile the fact that he refused to wear the neck-protecting HANS device that could have saved him from the exact spinal injury that killed him.

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In the years since Earnhardt died, American culture has swung away from the worship of the car, and of Earnhardt’s brand of tough, unapologetic masculinity. Maybe he would have changed with the times, or maybe he would have stubbornly remained set in his ways. Or maybe both. He was complex and unpredictable, and he swerved away from expectations just like he swerved around slower-moving cars.

Earnhardt swung conservative in his political beliefs, but famously once cut the Confederate flag off his truck’s bumper sticker after he understood the offense it caused. He was as wealthy as a king, but he loved driving his tractor on his farm — sometimes even riding up to unsuspecting onlookers trying to catch a glimpse of his estate. He stoked a public rivalry with Gordon, but privately went into business with him, monetizing their personality clashes.

But he didn’t whine. He didn’t play victim. He just strapped himself into his Goodwrench No. 3 and figured out how to beat you, one way or another.

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Even now, Earnhardt’s influence persists far beyond the grandstands of NASCAR tracks. Anyone who’s ever felt the hum of an engine in their bones, or mashed the gas on an open highway, discovers that bit of Earnhardt in their soul. Maybe that’s why his absence still hurts, and always will.

Raise hell. Praise Dale. Now and forever.

Ukrainian officials will not attend the Winter Paralympics following the news that Russian athletes will be allowed to compete under their country’s flag at the games. Ukrainian officials will boycott the event due to the ongoing war with Russia. The country will allow its athletes to compete in the Paralympic Games, however.

Ukraine’s minister of youth and sports Matvii Bidnyi announced the news in a statement on X, saying the Paralympics’ decision “to allow killers and their accomplices to compete at the Paralympic Games under national flags is both disappointing and outrageous.”

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Bidnyi went on to say that the flags of Russia and Belarus have “no place at international sporting events that stand for fairness, integrity, and respect.” He added that those flags have “turned sport into a tool of war, lies and contempt.”

Bidnyi said the inclusion of Russian athletes in the Paralympics was a way to normalize the war in Ukraine. He vowed to keep fighting “against Russia’s attempts to politicize sport.”

That response came just hours after the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) announced that athletes from Russia and Belarus will be allowed to compete at the Paralympics under their respective country’s flags. A total of 10 athletes from those countries are expected to take part in the Winter Paralympics.

The IPC voted in 2025 to lift the suspensions of both countries, paving the way for Wednesday’s announcement.

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That ruling is not consistent with the one made by the International Olympics Committee (IOC) ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics. The IOC allowed athletes from Russia and Belarus to take part in the Olympics, but as independent neutral athletes. Those athletes compete under the abbreviation AIN, which stands for “Athlètes Individuels Neutres,” the French translation of independent neutral athletes. The IPC and IOC operate independently, which is why the two events will handle the situation differently in 2026.

As of Wednesday morning, AIN athletes have yet to win a medal at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics.

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While Ukraine has taken part in the 2026 Olympics, the country has been the subject of controversy. Ukrainian skeleton athlete Vladyslav Heraskevych was disqualified from the Olympics by the IOC for wearing a helmet honoring Ukrainian athletes killed in the war with Russia. The Olympic charter has rules against “political, religious or racial propaganda” being displayed at the event.

Heraskevych’s decision to insist on wearing that helmet was praised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said the country was “proud of Vladyslav and of what he did.”

The Winter Paralympics will begin March 6 and run through March 15 in Milan and Cortina. Ukrainian athletes will be present at the games, but officials will boycott the event, including the Opening Ceremony.

The Winter Games have begun in Italy. From the rink to the slopes, a new generation of stars has emerged to chase gold. We’ll keep you connected to all of the thrilling moments and top stories as we track the medal race each day of the Games.

Team USA is up to 23 medals after two early podium appearances Wednesday. There are several opportunities for the Americans to add to that count on Wednesday, too. And, while there’s no medal up for grabs yet, the men’s hockey team is back in action in a must-win quarterfinal game against Sweden.

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Here are the top five things to watch on Wednesday at the 2026 Milan Cortina Olympics:

Men’s snowboard slopestyle final (5:20 a.m. ET)

This was rescheduled due to weather, and a trio of Americans attempted to reach the podium in the final. While Red Gerard, who won the gold medal in 2018 as a 17-year-old, failed to finish on the podium this time around, Jake Canter came through.

With a fantastic final run, which saw Canter land a 1980, he secured a 79.36 score, which was good enough to move him into third place. Canter then had to watch as other riders tried to knock him off the podium. While one came extremely close — Norway’s Marcus Kleveland — Canter held on in the end, taking home the bronze.

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Gerard finished sixth and Oliver Martin of Team USA finished ninth.

China’s Su Yiming, who won the silver in Beijing, managed to take the gold this time around. Japan’s Taiga Hasegawa grabbed the silver medal.

Mark McMorris of Canada who was seeking his fourth straight medal in the event, finished in eighth.

Team USA takes silver in men’s cross-country team sprint

Ben Ogden and Gus Schumacher rallied after a slow start to take silver in the men’s cross-country team sprint Wednesday. Team USA finished behind Norway, which is led by Johannes Hoesflot Klaebo. With the win, Klaebo set an Olympic record with his 10th gold medal in cross-country over his Olympic career.

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For Team USA, it marked Ogden’s second silver medal of the Olympics. It was Schumacher’s first-ever Olympic medal.

Mikaela Shiffrin wins gold in her signature event

It had not been the start to these Olympics that Shiffrin had hoped for, after finishing off the podium in the team event (where she gave up the lead Breezy Johnson had posted her) and the giant slalom. But she delivered Wednesday in the women’s slalom, the event where she has made her name. She crushed the field to win the gold medal.

Shiffrin looked ready from the start with a dominant first run in a time of 47.13, 0.82 ahead of her nearest competitor, Germany’s Lena Duerr. That allowed Shiffrin to not have to risk much in her second run to take home the gold.

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Switzerland’s Camille Rust win silver, while Sweden’s Anna Larsson Swenn took bronze.

Women’s snowboard slopestyle final (8:30 a.m. ET)

Like the men’s competition, the women’s snowboard slopestyle final was also rescheduled to Wednesday. Jessica Perlmutter and Lily Dhawornvej reached the final, but neither medaled in the event. Perlmutter finished sixth and Dhawornvej came in 11th.

Japan’s Mari Fukada came away with the gold, beating favorite Zoi Sadowski Synnott, who took silver. Kokomo Murase of Japan took home the bronze.

Women’s and men’s curling vs. Great Britain (3:05 a.m. ET/8:05 a.m. ET)

The U.S. men’s and women’s curling teams will each take on Great Britain on Wednesday in group play.

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The women’s team holds a 5-2 record so far in group play after a dominant 10-3 win over Denmark on Tuesday, their largest win so far of the Games. They lost a narrow one to Great Britain on Wednesday, however, falling 8-7. They’ll wrap up with a match against Switzerland on Thursday before the knockout stage gets going.

The men’s team is in worse shape entering the match. They hold a 4-4 record after falling to both China and Italy on Tuesday, which has them in fifth. A win is critical, and still may not get them into the finals.

They couldn’t get it done, falling 9-2 to Great Britain. The loss doesn’t completely eliminate Team USA from the playoff, but they need a lot of help to get there now.

Men’s hockey quarterfinals vs Sweden (3:10 p.m. ET)

After an undefeated run throughout the group stage, the U.S. men’s hockey team will take the ice again on Wednesday in the quarterfinals. They’ll take on Sweden, who beat Latvia 5-1 in a qualification round game on Tuesday.

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Men’s hockey beat Germany 5-1 after a slow start on Sunday to wrap up the group stage action, though they were far less dominant than they could have been. Sweden entered Milan as a medal favorite, too, and only lost their group due to a goal differential. Wednesday’s match looks like it’ll be far from easy for the Americans.

Men’s short track speed skating 500m finals (2:15 p.m. ET)

Andrew Heo made it through qualifying on Monday, so he’ll have a shot at a medal in the men’s 500-meter short track speed skating final on Wednesday night. The 24-year-old won the event at the ISU Short Track World Tour last fall, and he won his qualifying heat handily.

Heo will have to get past Canada’s Steven Dubois, who won bronze in the event in Beijing four years ago, and favorite William Dandjinou to reach the podium. The Canadian duo posted two of the fastest three qualifying times on Monday.

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Olympics schedule for Wednesday, Feb. 18 (Day 12)

All times ET

Alpine Skiing

Slalom

Biathlon

Relay

Cross-Country Skiing

Team sprint

• 3:45 a.m.: Men’s and women’s qualifying (airs on USA Network 5 a.m.)

Curling

Women’s round-robin

• 3:05 a.m.: USA vs. Great Britain (airs on USA Network at 9:15 a.m.), China vs. Denmark, Sweden vs. South Korea

• 1:05 p.m.: Great Britain vs. Japan, Switzerland vs. Denmark, Canada vs. Italy (airs on USA Network at 8 p.m.), China vs. Sweden

Men’s round-robin

• 8:05 a.m.: USA vs. Great Britain (airs on CNBC at 5 p.m.), Italy vs. Canada, China vs. Czechia, Norway vs. Switzerland

Freestyle Skiing

Aerials

Hockey

Men’s quarterfinals

• 6:10 a.m.: Slovakia vs. Germany (airs on USA Network at 1 p.m.)

• 10:40 a.m.: Canada va. Czechia (USA Network)

• 12:10 p.m.: Finland vs. Switzerland (airs on USA Network at 6 p.m.)

• 3:10 p.m.: USA vs. Sweden (NBC)

Short Track

• 2:15 p.m.: Men’s 500m, women’s 3000m relay (airs on USA Network at 2:30 p.m.)🏅

Snowboarding

Men’s Slopestyle

• 5:20 a.m.: Men’s final (USA Network coverage begins at 5:20 a.m.; airs on NBC at 2:15 p.m.)🏅

Women’s Slopestyle

• 8:30 a.m.: Women’s final (Peacock coverage begins at 8:30 a.m.) 🏅

We’re at the part of the fantasy basketball season where sitting on your hands is a strategy — but it’s a bad one. The Yahoo standard league trade deadline is March 5, which falls in Week 19. After that, you’re not reshaping your roster — you’re managing around it. With fantasy basketball playoffs starting in Week 21 for most Yahoo standard leagues, there are only a few weeks left to make changes and lock in for a shot at the fantasy playoffs.

As of early Wednesday, we’re still waiting on injury reports and updates on some key players, so here are four principles for deciding whether to trade or drop a player at this point in the season.

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Veterans on tanking teams are a liability

This one’s always uncomfortable because we’re talking about names you recognize. But late in the season, incentives shift fast. Teams outside the playoff race start experimenting — younger guys get more run, veteran’s minutes dip or even get DNP’d.

Players I’d drop right now are:

• Trae Young, Ja Morant, Jordan Poole, Malik Monk

If you’re contending, I’d be shopping these players before March 5:

• Kings: DeMar DeRozan, Domantas Sabonis and Russell Westbrook

• Pelicans: Zion Williamson and Trey Murphy III

• Bucks: Giannis Antetokounmpo and Myles Turner

• Nets: Michael Porter Jr. and Nic Claxton

• Pacers: Pascal Siakam, Ivica Zubac and Andrew Nembhard

• Jazz: Lauri Markkanen and Keyonte George

Name value has a shelf life and right now is when you can still cash it in for someone with more late-season potential. Once the deadline passes and losing teams go full tank, you’re either riding it out or cutting them. Teams like the Jazz have viable replacement-level players like Isaiah Collier and Kyle Filipowski ready to go if they want to hold out Markkanen and George.

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Just look at the Western Conference standings. The Grizzlies are in 11th place, 5.5 games behind the 10th-place Clippers. Memphis is not catching up for a Play-In appearance; neither will any of the teams beneath the Grizz. It’s a valid concern rostering any high-caliber fantasy assets on those teams down the stretch.

Trade players with unfavorable schedules

Atlanta’s looking suspect on the schedule front and not enough managers are paying attention.

The Hawks play eight games across Weeks 18-20. That’s the fewest in the league. Week 19 is a two-game week, and several of their games throughout the next three weeks land on nights where your lineup is already full.

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If you’re on the bubble and rostering high-valued Hawks, now might be a good time to test the trade market to get players who can offer 11 or 12 games during that span. Don’t get me wrong — Jalen Johnson and Onyeka Okongwu can generate enough value across categories to hold. But Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Dyson Daniels and CJ McCollum? I’d consider moving them before the March 5 fantasy trade deadline.

Chicago and Phoenix are in a similar bracket, playing just nine games over the next three weeks. It’s not the end of the world, but you’re still potentially missing out on some volume, especially in points leagues. Josh Giddey, Matas Buzelis, Mark Williams, Jalen Green and Collin Gillespie are all guys worth shopping if you can get something back before the deadline.

Downward trends are a bat signal to drop players

A 6-8 week decline in usage, shot attempts, defensive stats or minutes isn’t a slump — it’s a role shift. And once that recalibration becomes visible across multiple categories, the market often won’t pay for past production.

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Here’s how to approach it:

• Before March 5, shop the player if season-long averages still look strong

• If there’s no trade interest, that’s your signal that the value has already adjusted

• If the trend continues into Weeks 18-19, dropping becomes the rational move

A player who fits this criteria is Lakers C Deandre Ayton. His numbers and production have been trending down for three months. The problem is, he’s unlikely to get much on the trade market, so you can cut him and grab someone off waivers. A player like Kings big man Max Raynaud could garner 80-90% of Ayton’s production. That’s not being reckless, that’s playing the percentages.

Availability beats upside right now

Teams get cautious this time of year. If a guy is sitting back-to-backs, on a minutes restriction or “managing something” — you need an answer before March 5. Can you move them on season-long name value? Great. Someone like Jalen Williams comes to mind as he re-tweaked a hamstring injury that already cost him 10 games before the All-Star Break.

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If not, (depending on the player) hitting the wire for four guaranteed games from a decent contributor can be more useful than a couple of shaky appearances from a bigger name — especially when you’re still fighting for playoff seeding. Joel Embiid, Jakob Poeltl, Markkanen, Kristaps Porziņģis and Darius Garland are several players whose injury history will factor into late-season absences.

Every roster spot needs to justify itself

My framework for trading or cutting a player is: look at every player and ask the hard questions. Are they trending up? Is the role secure? Are they in a favorable position to help you win the next three weeks? Are their games actually startable? And if you put them on the trade block today, would anyone actually want them?

If the answers aren’t convincing, don’t wait for clarity that probably isn’t coming. Trade while you still can. Drop when the math says to and stream with purpose. This is the final moment to switch up your strategy for a chance at a fantasy championship.

MILAN — Abbey Murphy couldn’t resist being aggressive Monday night when Swedish goaltender Emma Soderberg clumsily handled the puck behind her own net.

The American provocateur charged toward Soderberg to try to poke the puck away, slamming into the Swede hard enough to jerk her head backward and send her sprawling.

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After referees assessed a minor penalty on Murphy for goalie interference, Swedish defender Jessica Adolfsson intercepted the American on the way to the penalty box and shoved her in the chest with her right hand. Murphy theatrically fell to the ice, drawing a roughing penalty on Adolfsson and nullifying the Swedish power play.

The sequence was still fresh in the minds of Swedish players when speaking to Swedish media outlets after their 5-0 semifinal loss to the U.S. Soderberg accused Murphy of hitting her “right in the head” and questioned why the American didn’t receive a more severe penalty. Defender Mira Jungåker called Murphy’s alleged flop “pathetic” for someone “as skilled as she is.” Adolfsson said she takes pride in serving as her goalie’s “bodyguard.”

“If you want to lie down and cry on the ice after a little push, you can do that,” Adolfsson continued. “I can’t do anything about that.”

There is no other player in women’s hockey more gifted than Murphy at getting under the skin of rival teams. The 23-year-old from the suburbs of Chicago has driven Olympic opponents crazy with her unprecedented blend of mind-blowing skill, relentless motor, prolific trash talking and penchant for embellishment.

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In the U.S.’s 5-0 group-stage thrashing of rival Canada, Murphy drew not one, not two, but four Canadian penalties. Murphy was also the first to respond when Italy’s Franziska Stocker cross-checked one of her American teammates, shoving the Italian twice and then following with a stiff left jab to the face mask. She smirked as she skated to the penalty box, chirping at Stocker the whole way.

Murphy is tied for third among players at these Olympics with seven points, but her two goals and five assists only hint at her impact. She is the emotional spark plug for a juggernaut U.S. team that enters Thursday’s gold-medal match against Canada having demolished its first six Olympic opponents by a combined score of 31-1.

“Obviously you love to have her on your team,” American defender Haley Winn said. “Whether it’s a goal, an assist or a big hit, she’ll do whatever it takes for our team to win.”

Though Murphy is the first in her family to play hockey, her toughness is a product of how she was raised. Her father, Ed, is a Marine veteran and former college football player. Her mother, Lynne, is an emergency room nurse and a former college softball star. Both her older brothers were athletes, Patrick a college football player at Division III Carthage College and Dominic an all-American wrestler at Division II St. Cloud State.

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In a 2023 interview with The Rink Live Podcast, Murphy described the environment in her household as a “free-for-all.”

“Whenever there was a fight, my dad would love it and my mom would be like, ‘Cut it out, cut it out,’” Murphy said. “We would never stop until someone got hurt or someone took it too far.”

Then, laughing, she added, “It worked pretty well for all three of us.”

Murphy took an interest in hockey after an across-the-street neighbor taught her how to roller blade. Her parents bought her some hockey skates, enrolled her in youth hockey programs and then watched her thrive, first competing against boys and later for the all-girls Chicago Mission Youth Hockey Club.

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By 16, she earned a spot on the U.S. roster for the U-18 World Championships.

By 18, she blossomed into the University of Minnesota’s second-leading points scorer as a freshman.

By 19, she became the second-youngest player to make the U.S. Olympic team for the 2022 Games in Beijing.

When Murphy left the University of Minnesota to join her U.S. Olympic teammates in Milan, she was the Gophers’ runaway leader in goals (36), assists (25) and penalties taken (23). She also had just produced one of the plays of the year at any level of hockey, a highlight-reel bounce pass that hockey analyst John Buccigross called “the greatest assist of all time.”

The inspiration behind Murphy’s YouTube-worthy assist was watching Michigan State forward Ryker Lee pull off a similar pass in early January. Murphy said she didn’t plan on attempting it in a game. It just happened.

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“I think the biggest thing I’m proud of is the eyes it put on women’s hockey,” she said. “That’s my most important takeaway from it — a lot of people commenting, ‘Oh my God, women’s hockey, this is awesome.’”

Murphy has produced several more moments on the Olympic stage that have gotten the hockey world buzzing.

There was her top-shelf goal from a tight angle against Sweden to ignite a scoring spree.

There was her slick no-look pass from the corner that caught Canada’s defense by surprise and set up Hannah Bilka for the easiest goal she’ll ever score.

And there was the moment against Italy when she rushed to Bilka’s defense after the hit from Stocker that Murphy perceived as dirty.

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“Anyone in front of the net that gets cross-checked, I’m not going to just watch that happen,” Murphy said. “That’s not me. I’m not just going to let it go. But obviously our coach says find that fine line. Don’t get in trouble. Don’t do anything stupid that’s going to keep me out of the next game.”

With the possible exception of her hit on the Swedish goaltender, Murphy has effectively traced that razor’s edge. She has been a menace for U.S. opponents, a threat to score, set up a teammate or draw a penalty at any moment.

American forward Kirsten Simms plays for the University of Wisconsin and has faced Murphy a handful of times per year in college the past few seasons.

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When asked about Murphy earlier in these Olympics, Simms smiled and said, “When she’s on your team, it’s a lot more fun.”

Expectations are high in South Bend for Notre Dame quarterback CJ Carr; he opens as the +700 favorite to win the 2026 Heisman Trophy at BetMGM. The Fighting Irish currently have +700 odds to win the national championship, tied for the second-best odds with Oregon and Texas — and right behind favorite Ohio State at +600.

Texas QB Arch Manning (+800) and Oregon QB Dante Moore (11-1) have the next-best Heisman odds, followed by Ohio State QB Julian Sayin (12-1) and Indiana QB Josh Hoover (12-1).

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Superstar Ohio State wide receiver Jeremiah Smith has the best odds for any non-QB at 14-1.

Here are the Heisman odds for every college football player listed at BetMGM, entering the 2025-26 season:

Heisman Trophy odds

CJ Carr: +700

Arch Manning: +800

Dante Moore: 11-1

Julian Sayin, Josh Hoover: 12-1

Jayden Maiava, Jeremiah Smith, Sam Leavitt: 14-1

Gunner Stockton: 15-1

Darian Mensah: 16-1

Marcel Reed: 22-1

John Mateer, Brendan Sorsby, Byrum Brown: 25-1

Bryce Underwood: 35-1

Malachi Toney, LaNorris Sellers: 40-1

Demond Williams Jr.: 45-1

Austin Mack: 50-1

Rocco Becht, Kevin Jennings, Bear Bachmeier: 66-1

Lincoln Kienholz, Keelon Russell, Conner Weigman, Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele: 80-1

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100-1

Kewan Lacy, Nico Iamaleava, Austin Simmons, Drew Mestemaker, Bo Jackson, Ahmad Hardy, Noah Fifita, Cam Coleman

125-1

Christopher Vizzina, Anthony Colandrea

150-1

Dylan Raiola, Alberto Mendoza, Kamario Taylor, Cutter Boley

175-1

CJ Bailey, Cameron Dickey

200-1

Nick Marsh, Charlie Becker, Malik Washington, Mark Fletcher Jr, Alonza Barnett, Ryan Williams, KJ Jackson

225-1

Aneyas Williams, Hollywood Smothers, Nate Frazier, Jaylen Raynor, Maddux Madsen, Mason Heintschel, J’Koby Williams, Colton Joseph, Justice Haynes, Jordan Marshall, LJ Martin

250-1

Kenny Minchey

300-1

Isaac Brown, DeSean Bishop, Billy Edwards Jr., Turbo Richard

350-1

Julian Lewis

500-1

Danny Scudero, Nick Minicucci, Jordan Faison, Broc Lowry, Dylan Riley, Caden Creel

Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving will miss the remainder of this season as he continues to rehab his ACL injury, the team announced Wednesday.

“The decision wasn’t easy, but it’s the right one,” Irving said in a statement. “I am grateful for the Mavericks organization, my teammates and our fans for their continued support throughout the process. I am looking forward to coming back stronger next season. The belief and drive I have inside only grows.

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“And I wanted to send a huge shoutout to ALL of my brothers and sisters out there who’ve torn their ACL or gotten injured doing what they love to do every day. THANK YOU for the inspiration. No fear!”

Irving’s agent, Shetellia Riley Irving, told ESPN: “This is about Kyrie being 1000% when he comes back and giving himself the best chance to chase a championship next season.”

Irving hasn’t appeared in an NBA game for nearly 12 months. His last game with the Mavs was on Mar. 3 of last season, a 122-98 loss against the Sacramento Kings. He played just over nine minutes during that game, scored seven points, and then suffered a season-ending knee injury.

In 2024, the Mavs advanced to the NBA Finals on the backs of Luka Dončić and Irving, and it looked like Dallas would be a Western Conference contender for the foreseeable future. Two years later, Dončić is a Laker and Irving is approaching an entire year without touching the hardwood.

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When Irving does return next season, he’ll be heading into his 15th NBA season at age 33. The former No. 1 overall pick has been a phenomenal player and one of the best point guards in the league for well over a decade, despite his injury history. Irving is a nine-time All-Star, three-time All-NBA selection and won an NBA championship with the Cleveland Cavaliers in 2016.

MILAN — Quick, name the skater who’s been on the ice more than anyone this Olympics. No, it’s not Alysa Liu or Ilia Malinin. The skater who’s spent more time on the ice than any Olympian won’t medal at these Games, but he’s nonetheless opening up the image of skating in an entirely new way.

After every skater finishes their routine, Jordan Cowan steps onto the ice to accompany them to the kiss and cry couch. He circles them, capturing their emotions while deftly skating backward to accompany them off the ice. There are plenty of jobs that one can step into with no experience, but “skating cameraman” most definitely is not one of them.

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Cowan grew up in Los Angeles, but fell in love with ice dancing and moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, to train. He was good, too, joining Team USA as an ice dancer; alongside partner Anastasia Olson, he finished 7th in the U.S. national championships in 2012.

All the while, though, he was working with video, making funny clips and enjoying himself. A child of Los Angeles, his first love was film. After he retired from skating, he observed how cameras in ballroom dancing were revolutionizing the viewing experience. Steadicams can move with the dancers, bringing a new dimension of intimacy to shows like “Dancing with the Stars” and “So You Think You Can Dance.”

And then an idea hit him: What if a camera could move with skaters?

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Cowan is a freelance videographer, working in Madison Square Garden filming the Knicks and Rangers. But he knew there was an untapped opportunity for on-ice filming, so he began developing his own Steadicam rig, a hybrid of various systems and equipment tailored specifically to his needs. He founded On Ice Perspectives to provide skating camerawork for TV and national competitions. He’s filmed three U.S. championships, including breakout moments with stars like Amber Glenn:

The Olympics represent a new level of fame and responsibility. “This is a very traditional kind of sport, filmed mostly the same way for the last 50 years,” Cowan says. “Fans love the tradition of ice skating. So having a camera on the ice is a very important privilege. I respect it a lot.”

In these Olympics in Milan, Cowan enters the rink after the skaters have finished their routines, giving a sweeping, cinematic view of their faces in joy or devastation. He skates in slow, sweeping arcs around them, carrying a camera — he says it weighs about as much as a heavy bag of groceries — out in front of his chest, capturing the spectrum of emotion on skaters’ faces.

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“I recognize and respect their emotional privacy,” he says. “I’m trying to bring the audience closer to the story, getting the audience to empathize. The skaters understand that I’m not there to put a camera in their face, but to show them in the best light possible.”

He also tries to remain unobtrusive. Two skaters he’s filmed before — Great Britain’s Lewis Gibson and Canada’s Paul Poirier — were excited to see he was on the ice … but only when they saw him filming other skaters. They hadn’t even noticed him while he was on the ice in front of them.

“That’s the best feedback I can get,” Cowan says. “I’m not taking anything away from the skaters on the ice.”

That’s in part because he blends into the ice. Cowan sports a sharp custom-made white suit, a tribute, he says, to the fashionable host city of Milan.

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“Sometimes I’m caught in a wide shot,” he says, “so instead of trying to make a feeble attempt to hide myself, I tried to match the mood of skaters in expensive designer costumes.”

Saturday night will bring the famed skater’s gala, an exhibition of the figure skating medalists and special invitees where Cowan will get the opportunity to shine. “That’s my specialty. I love filming live shows,” he says. “It’s a celebration, a performance to please the crowd.” Freed of the concerns about competition, both Cowan and the skaters will be able to cut loose, enjoy the pleasure of performing, and bring the audience along for the skate.

“Being on ice, getting to film skaters during their tricks, having people at home watch it live and behind the scenes,” he says, “it’s even better than a front-row seat.”

MILAN — There are bad omens, and then there are the grim tidings that rose up before Mikaela Shiffrin in the most important race of her life. Olympic preparation can take you a long way, but it can’t quite prepare you for what she saw in front of her as she prepared to take her second, and final, run in the women’s slalom in Cortina.

Shiffrin had laid down the fastest time in the first run, meaning she had the chance to watch every single medal-capable skier post their second run before she skied. Two skiers before Shiffrin’s turn, Sweden’s Cornelia Oehlund was carving out a fast time — 0.22 ahead of the leaders’ pace, to start — when disaster struck from nowhere. Oehlund’s left pole snapped, leaving her holding the stub and scrambling for balance. She held on as long as she could, then spun out and failed to finish.

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An even worse fate awaited Germany’s Lena Duerr, the second-fastest skier in the first round. As Duerr pushed onto the course, her right ski clipped the wrong way around the first gate, an instant disqualification seconds into a potential medal run. That’s an elementary-level mistake, and a heartbreaking one.

Shiffrin had to watch all this unfolding right in front of her as she prepared to ski her second run. But this wasn’t any ordinary race; Shiffrin can, and does, handle those with ease. This was the Olympics, the demon that has tortured and tormented Shiffrin for so many years now. On her back hung the weight of expectation, pressure, condemnation, anxiety.

And somehow, for the first time in eight years, she used all that weight to propel her, not drag her down. Shiffrin fired down the course in Cortina at such a speed that she increased her already-massive lead over the field, from 0.82 to 1.5 seconds. She claimed her third Olympic gold medal, and reclaimed her headspace.

“It’s just so much effort and work and focus and preparation for two runs of 47, 50 seconds,” Shiffrin said. “To actually be in the right mentality in the right moment is nearly impossible.”

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According to NBC, Shiffrin’s margin of victory was the largest since 1998. She’s now the first American woman skier to win three Olympic gold medals, and has the distinction of being both the youngest and oldest American woman to win gold.

More than that, though, Shiffrin won back her legacy. One of the cruel ironies about the Olympics is that it’s better to be a one-and-done medalist than a win-a-few, lose-a-bunch multi-time Olympian. Beijing blanked Shiffrin; she didn’t even finish three of the events she entered. Milano-Cortina was a bit kinder — she at least made it down the mountain in her earlier events, though at underwhelming-for-her speeds.

With every event that passed without hardware, though, the muttering grew louder. Was Shiffrin spooked by the Olympics? Cursed? How could the most decorated World Cup skier in history dominate everywhere else on the calendar except these two weeks every four years?

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Shiffrin has been upfront about her mental health challenges, from the Olympic drought to the PTSD she suffered after a horrific crash in 2024. And while there’s far more attention paid to the mental strains and struggles of Olympic athletes now than ever before, that doesn’t make those struggles go away. Sharing your challenges with the world can keep them a bit more manageable, but there’s no gold medal for sharing.

So that’s why Wednesday’s race was so critical for Shiffrin. Imagine if she’d fallen short yet again. Imagine if her pole had broken, or if she’d caught that first gate, or suffered any of the other hundred woes that would have kept her off the podium. Imagine the questions that would have followed her, the media second-guessing, the social-media garbage, the internal anxieties that would have wracked her for another four years, and maybe for forever.

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“There will always be criticism, but I was here to earn the moment and that is going to require some risk,” she said. “Risk of not finishing. It’s also risk of being criticized, and to accept that. (It is) not the easiest thing to do, but in the end today we were able to do that.”

She stared that grim future in the face … and she flat-out skied right through it.

“I wanted to be free, I wanted to unleash,” she said afterward. “It’s not easy to do that, but I’ve been so focused every single day.

“… In the end, today, showing up — that was the thing I wanted most. More than the medal. Now, to also get to have a medal is unbelievable.”

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In an Olympics where pressure is becoming a key subtext, Shiffrin met the moment, and made it hers. She rewrote her legacy at full speed, high in the mountains of Cortina.

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NBA skills coach Drew Hanlen joins Kevin O’Connor to break down the season’s hottest topics, from star player development to the reality of tanking in the league. Drew shares inside stories about working with Joel Embiid, Tyrese Maxey, Jayson Tatum and others and explains why self-belief can be both a gift and a curse for rising talent.

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(0:48) When will Tatum return for Celtics?

(12:13) Player development & Deni Avdija

(21:43) Can Hornets maintain their winning ways?

(26:25) How can NBA stop tanking?

(31:09) Joel Embiid’s recovery and development

(43:02) How teams use data & analytics to improve

(49:03) Chris Paul retires from NBA

(56:43) How will defensive coaching evolve?

(01:00:11) Future of the All-Star game

🖥️ Watch this full episode on the Yahoo Sports NBA YouTube channel

Check out all episodes of The Kevin O’Connor Show and the rest of the Yahoo Sports podcast family at https://apple.co/3zEuTQj or at yahoosports.tv