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A Debate on College Sports June 30, 2026 College sports are not a topic I address often, though the subject has surfaced occasionally in my writing. Most recently, in “A Rally on Campus,” I argued that the rapid growth of pickleball on college campuses is a positive development. It gets students off their phones, helps them build friendships, and deepens their connection to campus life. But, earlier this year, in “A Dangerous Bet,” I also criticized colleges and universities for partnering with sports-betting companies that normalize gambling. Much of our coverage of collegiate athletics has likewise taken a skeptical view....

Being the United States president can be pretty overwhelming. Fortunately for the 44th U.S. President Obama, had basketball to turn to relieve himself of some of the stress. ...Obama played and he played without any reservations. "they didn't adopt any "presidential rules," and he paid for it dearly one time as someone caught him on the mouth and gave him a busted lip. "There ain't no presidential rule?" Stak chimed in. "I got the scars to prove it," Obama bragged. The affable U.S. president said hoops was as much a part of his schedule as meeting diplomats from other countries....

in a letter to MLB Commissioner Robert D. Manfred Jr., AG Hanaway made it crystal clear: Missouri will not tolerate MLB punishing players for exercising sincerely held religious beliefs. “It has come to my attention that MLB is considering disciplining members of the San Francisco Giants who expressed their dissent from wearing ‘Pride Night’ hats—by either writing Bible verses on those hats or wearing the regular Giants cap. In response to these actions, MLB said, ‘The writing on the cap violates our rules, and consistent with normal practice, we have warned the players about future violations,’” Hanaway wrote. “Missouri will...

YORK, Pa. — The York Revolution announced it has canceled its scheduled Thursday game against the Southern Maryland Blue Crabs after several players refused to wear the team's planned Pride Night jerseys. In a statement issued late Wednesday, the club said the decision was made with “great disappointment” and that tickets for the June 18 game will be treated as a rainout and may be redeemed for any future 2026 regular-season home game, subject to availability. "Unfortunately, several of our players have refused to wear the scheduled Pride Night jersey and the club decided that hosting the event is more...

Owner James Dolan says the Knicks are going to the White House: "We just received an invitation which we've accepted, still have to figure out the details…I've known the president 30 years and I'm very proud to bring the team to the White House"

Who celebrates a basketball victory by torching a school bus?New York City reacted to a championship victory by its Knicks basketball team with an orgy of violence and property damage, torching school buses, shattering a police-vehicle windshield, and attacking police officers. The riot was downplayed by the city’s political class and press.The city’s "there is only one solution, intifada revolution" mayor, socialist Zohran Mamdani, offered a generalized, "it is, frankly, unacceptable when we see violence, whether it's directed at those around them or at police officers," while insisting, "there were a select few who acted in a way that does...

Late last week, the San Francisco Giants hosted their "Pride Night," with the team wearing hats with a rainbow-colored Giants logo. Several Giants pitchers, in a statement of their faith, wrote Bible verse designations on their hats. One, starting pitcher Landen Roupp, addressed his reasoning after the game, saying that the verse is about representing "God's covenant." "It's just about God's covenant and a promise that he makes to us that, you know, his faithfulness and his mercy," Roupp said to reporters. "That's just kind of something I believe in, and I stand firm in that, and I'm thankful we...

Irony alert: Baseball players who wore Bible verses on ‘Pride’ caps accused of ‘weaponizing rainbow’The rainbow never belonged to the LGBT movement. It is the LGBT movement which repeatedly weaponizes it.After Christian players for the San Francisco Giants cited verses from Genesis chapter 9 on their team’s specially issued “Pride Night” ball caps, they were accused of hatefully “weaponizing” the rainbow against members of the LGBT community.LGBT sports site Outsports published a commentary lamenting, “Three SF Giants pitchers disgraced themselves at the team’s Pride Night, weaponizing the Pride rainbow and attacking the LGBTQ community.”Outsports’ co-founder Cyd Zigler went further: “As...

New York was a picture of pandemonium on Saturday night as the city's rowdy NBA Championship celebrations culminated in police officers tackling manic fans as they clambered on top of cop cars and school buses. Thousands of the Big Apple's raucous citizens invaded the streets to celebrate the Knicks' first NBA Championship in 53 years. The Knicks completed a fairytale playoffs with the ultimate prize as they produced another epic comeback on the road to beat the San Antonio Spurs 94-90 in a dramatic Game 5 in front of a star-studded crowd that included even Prince Harry. The Knicks won...

The New York Knicks are NBA champions. In a Game 5 of the NBA Finals Saturday night that looked much like the previous four, the San Antonio Spurs took a double-digit lead in the first quarter. But like in three of the previous four games, the Knicks rallied — this time from a 16-point deficit — to secure a 94-90 Game 5 win and a 4-1 series victory in the NBA Finals. Jalen Brunson led the way with a legacy-securing 45-point effort as New York’s only reliable source of offense on a night in which both teams struggled from the...

It looks from afar more UFO than UFC. Maybe it’s the kind of contraption that has carried space aliens to the White House to force a meeting with America’s leader. But come closer and you’ll see the contours of the eight-sided cage, 30 feet (9 meters) in diameter and shaped, with careful precision, like the MMA league’s signature Octagon. That is, a STOP! sign flipped on its edge, with wire-mesh sides and padded corners fitted with different sponsors’ logos: Morgan & Morgan, Bud Light, Dodge Ram, Corona Extra and Polymarket, which identifies itself as the world’s largest prediction market. Overhead...

A Washington high school wrestler and her mother have filed a federal lawsuit after Pierce County prosecutors declined to file charges against a transgender competitor accused of assaulting the student during a girls' wrestling match. The lawsuit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Tacoma, seeks damages and policy changes related to transgender participation in girls' sports, reporting of sexual assault allegations, and parental notification requirements. Defendants include the Puyallup School District, the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association (WIAA), state education officials, and others, facing allegations that officials failed to respond appropriately after the reported assault. The complaint stems from a...

Donald Trump has been booed at a basketball match in New York as he became the first sitting US president to attend the NBA Finals. The catcalls came after frustrated ticketholders waited for hours in queues that stretched more than two blocks outside Madison Square Garden on Monday due to the intense security restrictions that came with the US president's appearance. The New York Knicks lost 111-115 to the San Antonio Spurs in game three of the best-of-seven NBA finals, cutting the Knicks' lead in the series to 2-1. After the game, Trump told reporters: "It was, I think, mostly...

🚨 JUST IN: CROWDS CHEER as President Trump's motorcade just ARRIVED to Madison Square Garden in NYC for NBA Finals Game 3, after he flew in from Marine One There he is, waving! Some liberals booed, but patriots began to drown them out 🤣 LFG! First sitting president to do this! Stay safe, Mr. President 🙏🏻

One of the WNBA’s most prominent voices wants her league to consider the place of women in America at the birth of the country before agreeing to wear a celebratory jersey patch. Aces forward Brianna Turner, the players association treasurer, balked at the idea that WNBA All-Stars should wear the “USA 250” patch on their jerseys that other professional sports leagues have adopted to celebrate America’s upcoming 250th birthday.

Ned Jarrett, twice a NASCAR premier-series champion as well as a second-year inductee into the NASCAR Hall of Fame and one of the first competitors to make a successful transition from the race car to the television booth, has died. He was 93. The Jarrett family made the following statement: “With profound sadness, the family of NASCAR Hall of Fame driver and radio/TV personality, Ned Jarrett, announces his passing on Thursday, June 4, 2026. He died peacefully of natural causes at his home in Newton, North Carolina, with his family by his side. He was 93 years old. Our father...

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he has accepted an invitation from New York Knicks owner James Dolan to attend an NBA Finals game at Madison Square Garden next week. "The answer is yes," Trump said. "[Dolan] has invited me, and I'm going. I'll be there. It could be Monday. Maybe I'll do both [Game 3 and Game 4]." The Knicks, who are playing in the NBA Finals for the first time since 1999, hold a 1-0 series lead over the San Antonio Spurs before Friday's Game 2 in San Antonio. New York's 14-point comeback victory in Game 1 on...

Transgender athlete AB Hernandez advanced in three girls' jumping events, earning the top place in two, during the preliminary round of the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) state track & field championships on Friday. Hernandez, who has been at the center of a national controversy for competing in girls' competitions dating back to last May, will now contend for the state title in girls' long jump, high jump and triple jump on Saturday evening.

Americans long have leavened their powerful global image with goofiness, a cheerful confidence that can deflect international wonder over certain strains of ignorance into a smile. Behold, for example, the cheesehead hat. Made of sofa foam and sunny yellow defiance, the hat was created in the late 1980s in response to the taunting faced by supporters of sports teams in Wisconsin, which has long called itself America’s dairyland. “Cheeseheads!” residents of neighboring Illinois said. The insult was embraced and, yes, turned on its head — particularly in the realm of a certain football team named the Green Bay Packers. Soon,...

Trans athlete AB Hernandez turned in first place finishes in long jump, triple jump and high jump MOORPARK, Calif. – "It’s an outlier." That’s the common argument from left-wing transgender activists. They say that biological males taking the spotlight from girls in girls' sports isn’t the big deal that it’s made out to be by "the right" ... because it "hardly ever happens." Tell that to the high school girls from California, like senior Reese Hogan of Crean Lutheran, who are watching it happen, yet again. Transgender track athlete AB Hernandez was standing atop multiple podiums on Saturday and is...