Note to Phil Jackson: Hire Patrick Ewing as the Knicks Head Coach
By Liam Beatus For ten years, Patrick Ewing sought a position as a head coach in the NBA without ever being seen as a serious contender. The New York Knicks should hire arguably the greatest player in...
View ArticleDeath of an Icon
By Mark Naison I just received an email from one of my students informing me that Muhammad Ali passed at the age of 74. I feel empty inside. Ali reinvented what it meant to be an athlete in American...
View ArticleMuhammad Ali: The Greatest
By Chris Barnes On June 3, 2016, Muhammad Ali shook up the world for a second time we he lost his bout with Parkinson’s Disease. May he rest in peace. When I heard of his passing, I conscientiously...
View ArticleR.I.P. to The Greatest of All Time
By C. Liegh McInnis As a child, I saw Muhammad Ali as the ultimate symbol of Blackness—a combination of intelligence, socio-political activism, and style. (Many years later, even Prince used video of...
View ArticleMuhammad Ali’s Fists of Freedom
By Bijan C. Bayne On February 26, 1964, known as Saviour’s Day in the Nation of Islam, not many in the world would have forecast the eventual global reach of Cassius Marcellus Clay. It was the morning...
View ArticleMuhammad Ali to the Millennial
By Liam Beatus I did not grow up to see a live fight of Muhammad Ali. I heard great stories, I saw some footage of his fights on YouTube, and I watched the movie Ali years ago with Will Smith …...
View ArticleMuhammad Ali: Worthy of All Praise
By Dr. Matthew Whitaker As we mourn the loss of Muhammad Ali, let us also celebrate his life and legacy. As I wrote in the forward to the Butterfly Ball: A National Tribute to Muhammad Ali in 2005, we...
View ArticleMore Than a Woman: The Legacy of Pat Summitt
By Nikasi Doorn I was shocked to hear that Pat Summitt had recently passed due to early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. The woman who initially brought the excitement and popularity to women’s college...
View ArticleKnicks 2016 Offseason Grades: Part I
By Liam Beatus In last year’s evaluation of the Knicks, I criticized the selection of Kristaps Porzingis with the fourth pick of the draft. Porzingis showed himself to be more NBA-ready than the scouts...
View ArticleKnicks 2016 Off-Season Grades: Part II
By Liam Beatus Part I of my off-season grades considered the first two, and arguably, the most important, moves the Knicks made this off-season. Let’s take a look at several other roster...
View Article2016 With A Bullet
By Leslie Lyons My hero is and always will be Muhammad Ali. For all the obvious reasons, yes, but also because I am from Louisville, KY, and my father was a Golden Gloves champion at age 17, training...
View ArticleWorld Series: Chicago Cubs vs. Cleveland Indians
By Chris Barnes Harry Caray, the legendary Cubs broadcaster, just rolled over in his grave, and screamed, “The Cubs Win. The Cubs win.” And Bob Uecker has been resting his Cleveland Indian’s raspy...
View ArticleLebron’s Witnesses
By Terry Williams When he first knocked on the windows of our souls, he amazed us: a teenaged phenom who graced the pages of Sports Illustrated. From humble beginnings to accepting gifts *(clears...
View ArticleSports and Our Not-So-Secret Identities
By Jonathan Miller From dodging politics over the turkey table, to a looming recount and counterpunch, to the death of one more Kentucky legend, this Thanksgiving weekend was poised to be yet another...
View ArticleWould You Play?
Stanford RB Christian McCaffery By Jonathan Miller You’re a college football phenom. After helping lead your team to a solid winning season — short of the championship playoffs, but entry into a...
View ArticleNo No North Carolina
By Jonathan Miller For much of my Kentucky youth, our North Carolina neighbors had our number. On the hardwood, between Goose’s Greatest Game and Rick’s Resurrection, the Wildcats struggled mightily:...
View ArticleLorenzo Romar, Michael Porter Jr, Brandon Roy & the Unlikely High School...
By Daudi Abe The often under-appreciated championship history of sports in Seattle includes—among other milestones—achieving three-fourths of what could be called the EGOT of professional sports. The...
View ArticleEnd UNC’s Mockery of College Sport
By Jonathan Miller There was something special about yesterday afternoon’s Elite Eight matchup between the University of Kentucky Wildcats and the University of North Carolina Tar Heels. Arguably, the...
View ArticleA World Without Refs?
By Jonathan Miller Ever since the final 0.3 seconds of Kentucky’s season expired, tongues have been tattering across the Commonwealth about BBN’s newest anti-celebrity, 2017’s Christian Laettner:...
View ArticleKnicks Draft Grades 2017
By Liam Beatus Two years ago, when the Knicks made their last top 10 pick, I was highly critical of Phil Jackson’s first attempt as executive in the NBA Draft. Porzingis was a raw, European talent that...
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