With the NBA draft just around the corner, Lonzo Ball is not the only Ball being talked about. And no, we are not talking about one of his other basketball prodigy brothers, we are talking about LaVar Ball. LaVar Ball has been a popular name in the sports world without even stepping foot on a court since he played back in college. Lonzo’s loud mouth father is easily his biggest supporter out there, but it’s time for him to let his son do the talking.

There’s no doubt that Lonzo will be taken in the first round, hopefully, for his father’s sake, by the Las Angeles Lakers, but just how good is he? Well according to his father, he is better than Steph Curry, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook. And that’s without having even played in a single NBA game. It’s time for LaVar Ball to sit back and let his son’s skills prove that to the world. 

We’ve had enough of him, much like Stephen A. Smith and Charles Barkley have. In fact, having only averaged 2.2 points per game while playing at Washington State, LaVar claims back in his day he could kill Michael Jordan one-on-one. Now that just doesn’t seem right.

One of the latest and craziest things LaVar Ball has done is ask for $3 billion for his Big Baller Brand. Yes, you read that correctly. $3 billion. This seems like quite a crazy move considering he could not get a deal with Nike, Adidas, or Under Armor for $1 billon. The shoes are extremely over priced and have not even sold that well.

Even though we are not all fans of LaVar Ball, we have to admit, his son’s got game. We’re looking forward to the draft and seeing what crazy things LaVar has left to say.

The Men’s Soccer World Cup is one of the world’s most anticipated events.  The Men’s World Cup only occurs once every four years, making everything surrounding this champion soccer league extremely anticipated and exciting. Nations go all out in support for their national teams.  The last World Cup title was competed for between Argentina and Germany. However, Germany prevailed and has since held the Men’s World Cup title.

The World Cup is a worldwide soccer tournament where teams from all different countries compete with one another by playing soccer matches against one another until eventually, there’s one team that prevails.  Many countries such as Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, England, and many others pride themselves on their soccer abilities. Soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world, if not the most popular, and soccer fans from many nations look forward to watching the World Cup each year.

However, before a country has the ability to compete in the World Cup, which is being hosted in Russia in 2018, the teams have to undergo a decent amount of qualifying rounds. Unfortunately, for the first time in a very long time, the men’s team of the United States of America did not qualify to compete in this year’s games. And although soccer is not the most popular sport among America’s sports fanatics, the fact that the all powerful United States did not qualify for a multi national and global competition was very sad and disheartening for many of the Americans who are, in fact, devout soccer fans.

No matter where your job is or what position you are in, one thing you can’t ever miss is your child’s birth. In this case, Augusto Lima, star player of Lithuanian basketball team, Zalgiris Kuanas, missed the team’s semifinals match to attend the birth of his daughter. The person who decided whether or not he was allowed to be dismissed was his head coach, Sarunas Jasikevicius.

Coach Jasikevicius who is also a father of two, agreed to let Lima attend the birth of his first child. Even that did not do much damage to the team because the Zalgiris still won the game obtaining a 2-1 lead in the best-of-three series.

During the press conference, a childish reporter who is of course not a father continuously asked Jasikevicius about Lima’s absence and how it was not normal for him to be dismissed during the semifinals. Of course, Jasikevicius schooled the reporter with beautiful responses telling him that once he has kids he will understand the meaning of importance. He defends his statements with “Because nothing can be more majestic in the world than the birth of a child. Not titles, not anything else.”

For the first time in more than three decades, the U.S. men’s national team will not compete in the World Cup. In the final qualifying round for the 2018 World Cup last October, the U.S. men’s national team lost 2-1 against Trinidad and Tobago in a stunning defeat. Trinidad and Tobago, which hadn’t won in its last nine matches (0-8-1), defeated the United States in October of 2017.

An own goal from Omar Gonzalez and a rocket from Alvin Jones provided the offense, while Christian Pulisic’s second-half goal wasn’t enough to save the Americans. As sad as it is to admit, the American team will not be playing in Russia this summer. It’s the first World Cup the USA has missed since 1986.

Despite the USA’s no show in this years World Cup, a large number of tickets sold in one country is to, of course, the U.S. Other than host Russia, which has sold 796,875 tickets, the country with the most ticket sales so far is the United States, with 80,161 tickets purchased before the final phase of sales.

Brazil is next with 65,863, followed by Colombia (60,199), Germany (55,136), Mexico (51,736), Argentina (44,882), Peru (38,544), Australia (34,628), and England (30,711). Although the U.S. number is less than half the 200,000 sold for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, it is still an impressive fan presence considering the distance and geopolitical issues between the nations.

The World Cup kicks off June 14 and the Final is July 15. Nearly 1.7 million tickets have already been sold through FIFA’s official website since tickets went on sale in September 2017. The “Last-Minute Phase” of ticket sales opened on April 18 and runs through the end of the tournament on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Many Americans often joke about Canada. Whether this joking stems from the overly- friendly stereotypical behavior that many Americans perceive Canadians to have, or whether they just find the Canadian accent slightly goofy, one this that is definitely not a joke is the Canadian women’s hockey team. Canada’s women’s hockey team is known to be one of the best in the entire world.

They were the four year reigning gold medalists, having competed in the championship round for many of the recent Winter Olympics. The United States women’s hockey team is also extremely talented. Often times, the U.S women are faced with the challenge of competing with Canada’s women’s team for the gold- something that the American team hasn’t quite been able to grasp- until now.

The winter Olympics are in full swing and have gained countless amounts of international attention from sports fans and non sports fans alike. This year’s game was once again, played by the United States women’s team against Canada’s women’s team. The game came down to the wire and the U.S was down by a goal with about seven minutes left in the game.

Luckily, Monique Lamourex- Morando scored an equalizing goal, allowing for an overtime when both teams stayed consistent and equal in their scores. After over time was played, the game moved into a decisive shootout round where Monique Lamourex-Morando’s sister, Jocelyne Lamoureux- Davidson scored the game winning goal in a sudden death shootout. This victory has led to the American women’s team’s first gold medal since 1998 when women’s hockey was first introduced as a sport in the Olympics.

The back-to-back 2015 and 2016 unanimous NBA Most Valuable Player has just signed the fattest contract in NBA history. Steph Curry has managed to amaze us again by agreeing to a 5 year $201 Million deal with the Golden State Warriors.

There was much suspense with many of the NBA stars and where they would sign as free agency came around the corner, but Steph was one that did not worry us too much. On July 1, news broke that Steph would be back with the Warriors for another 5 years, this time making the largest pay check of NBA history. For the last 4 seasons, Steph had been paid a total of $44 million, but this time he will be averaging $40.2 million in each of the next 5 seasons.

Curry has only been in the league for 8 years so far, but he has sure already left his mark. He just recently won his second NBA championship, making it to the finals for the past 3 years. Curry’s supermax contract has generated much noise and excitement amongst the public. LeBron James, an opponent and one of Golden State’s biggest rivals, even congratulated Steph on twitter.

These large contracts will become way more popular in the upcoming years, which is a huge bonus for many of the greats in the league. 

The Golden State Warriors was ranked Number 1 in the West for quite some time until recently. The team’s success was mainly due to the fact that Keven Durant was signed to the team last summer.

Despite the benefits that came with Durant playing with and for them, there were also sacrifices that has to be made in order for Durant, one of the most wanted basketball players in the NBA, to be on their side.

Many fans are wondering if the Warriors are going to make it through this momentary downfall as Durant’s knee injury is causing some trouble. We aren’t sure what the developments are just yet.

However, The Vertical’s Michael Lee has provided insight on how the Warrior’ could still finish the season strongly by showing some hard-statistical facts.

He mentioned that despite their loss against the Spurs this past Saturday, the Warriors are still on a 65-win pace. There have only been 19 examples of a 65-win season in NBA history, 3 of them being potentially from the Warriors.

He then compared this striking piece of data to Michael Jordan’s memorizing 3 year winning stretch playing for the Chicago Bulls.

Lonzo Ball, a familiar name in the NBA now despite not even having played a regular season game, made his summer league debut for the Lakers and well, we were a tad thrown off. We all know it is not fair to judge someone on one game, but what was up with the star who is supposedly, according to his father, better than Michael Jordan?

His dad even went on to say after the game that Lonzo played his worst game ever. LaVar needs to take a seat. However, the number 2 pick in the NBA draft did have a better game on Saturday against the Celtics. He had a nice triple-double, scoring 11 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists.

Even though the fans may have not been impressed with Lonzo’s first game, he did manage to get a huge crowd to the game. The Thomas and Mack Center was sold out on Saturday night, with fans there to see him and Jayson Tatum, who was the third pick of the draft by the Celtics, go face to face for the first time. This was actually the first time a summer league game was sold out.

Lonzo has time to improve, but regardless of how well he plays, he’s going to be a pretty good addition to the Lakers franchise.  

American basketball star Michael Jordan was born on February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York. Jordan left college after his junior year to join the NBA. Drafted by the Chicago Bulls, he helped the team make it to the playoffs. For his efforts there, Jordan received the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. With five regular-season MVPs and three All-Star MVPs, Jordan became the most decorated player in the NBA.

Jordan left college after his junior year to join the NBA. Drafted by the Chicago Bulls, he soon proved himself on the court. He helped the team make it to the playoffs and scored an average of 28.2 points per game that season.

In 1985, he finished his bachelor’s degree in geography and continued to play basketball professionally. While his second season was marred by injury, Jordan was breaking new ground on the court during the 1986-1987 season.

He became the first player since Wilt Chamberlin to score more than 3,000 points in a single season.

In April 2009, Jordan received one of the basketball world’s greatest honors: He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Attending the induction ceremony was a bittersweet affair for Jordan because being at the event meant “your basketball career is completely over,” he explained.

With the NBA draft just around the corner, Lonzo Ball is not the only Ball being talked about. And no, we are not talking about one of his other basketball prodigy brothers, we are talking about LaVar Ball. LaVar Ball has been a popular name in the sports world without even stepping foot on a court since he played back in college. Lonzo’s loud mouth father is easily his biggest supporter out there, but it’s time for him to let his son do the talking.

There’s no doubt that Lonzo will be taken in the first round, hopefully, for his father’s sake, by the Las Angeles Lakers, but just how good is he? Well according to his father, he is better than Steph Curry, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook. And that’s without having even played in a single NBA game. It’s time for LaVar Ball to sit back and let his son’s skills prove that to the world. 

We’ve had enough of him, much like Stephen A. Smith and Charles Barkley have. In fact, having only averaged 2.2 points per game while playing at Washington State, LaVar claims back in his day he could kill Michael Jordan one-on-one. Now that just doesn’t seem right.

One of the latest and craziest things LaVar Ball has done is ask for $3 billion for his Big Baller Brand. Yes, you read that correctly. $3 billion. This seems like quite a crazy move considering he could not get a deal with Nike, Adidas, or Under Armor for $1 billon. The shoes are extremely over priced and have not even sold that well.

Even though we are not all fans of LaVar Ball, we have to admit, his son’s got game. We’re looking forward to the draft and seeing what crazy things LaVar has left to say.

The Men’s Soccer World Cup is one of the world’s most anticipated events.  The Men’s World Cup only occurs once every four years, making everything surrounding this champion soccer league extremely anticipated and exciting. Nations go all out in support for their national teams.  The last World Cup title was competed for between Argentina and Germany. However, Germany prevailed and has since held the Men’s World Cup title.

The World Cup is a worldwide soccer tournament where teams from all different countries compete with one another by playing soccer matches against one another until eventually, there’s one team that prevails.  Many countries such as Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Brazil, Portugal, England, and many others pride themselves on their soccer abilities. Soccer is one of the most popular sports in the world, if not the most popular, and soccer fans from many nations look forward to watching the World Cup each year.

However, before a country has the ability to compete in the World Cup, which is being hosted in Russia in 2018, the teams have to undergo a decent amount of qualifying rounds. Unfortunately, for the first time in a very long time, the men’s team of the United States of America did not qualify to compete in this year’s games. And although soccer is not the most popular sport among America’s sports fanatics, the fact that the all powerful United States did not qualify for a multi national and global competition was very sad and disheartening for many of the Americans who are, in fact, devout soccer fans.

No matter where your job is or what position you are in, one thing you can’t ever miss is your child’s birth. In this case, Augusto Lima, star player of Lithuanian basketball team, Zalgiris Kuanas, missed the team’s semifinals match to attend the birth of his daughter. The person who decided whether or not he was allowed to be dismissed was his head coach, Sarunas Jasikevicius.

Coach Jasikevicius who is also a father of two, agreed to let Lima attend the birth of his first child. Even that did not do much damage to the team because the Zalgiris still won the game obtaining a 2-1 lead in the best-of-three series.

During the press conference, a childish reporter who is of course not a father continuously asked Jasikevicius about Lima’s absence and how it was not normal for him to be dismissed during the semifinals. Of course, Jasikevicius schooled the reporter with beautiful responses telling him that once he has kids he will understand the meaning of importance. He defends his statements with “Because nothing can be more majestic in the world than the birth of a child. Not titles, not anything else.”

For the first time in more than three decades, the U.S. men’s national team will not compete in the World Cup. In the final qualifying round for the 2018 World Cup last October, the U.S. men’s national team lost 2-1 against Trinidad and Tobago in a stunning defeat. Trinidad and Tobago, which hadn’t won in its last nine matches (0-8-1), defeated the United States in October of 2017.

An own goal from Omar Gonzalez and a rocket from Alvin Jones provided the offense, while Christian Pulisic’s second-half goal wasn’t enough to save the Americans. As sad as it is to admit, the American team will not be playing in Russia this summer. It’s the first World Cup the USA has missed since 1986.

Despite the USA’s no show in this years World Cup, a large number of tickets sold in one country is to, of course, the U.S. Other than host Russia, which has sold 796,875 tickets, the country with the most ticket sales so far is the United States, with 80,161 tickets purchased before the final phase of sales.

Brazil is next with 65,863, followed by Colombia (60,199), Germany (55,136), Mexico (51,736), Argentina (44,882), Peru (38,544), Australia (34,628), and England (30,711). Although the U.S. number is less than half the 200,000 sold for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, it is still an impressive fan presence considering the distance and geopolitical issues between the nations.

The World Cup kicks off June 14 and the Final is July 15. Nearly 1.7 million tickets have already been sold through FIFA’s official website since tickets went on sale in September 2017. The “Last-Minute Phase” of ticket sales opened on April 18 and runs through the end of the tournament on a first-come, first-serve basis.

Many Americans often joke about Canada. Whether this joking stems from the overly- friendly stereotypical behavior that many Americans perceive Canadians to have, or whether they just find the Canadian accent slightly goofy, one this that is definitely not a joke is the Canadian women’s hockey team. Canada’s women’s hockey team is known to be one of the best in the entire world.

They were the four year reigning gold medalists, having competed in the championship round for many of the recent Winter Olympics. The United States women’s hockey team is also extremely talented. Often times, the U.S women are faced with the challenge of competing with Canada’s women’s team for the gold- something that the American team hasn’t quite been able to grasp- until now.

The winter Olympics are in full swing and have gained countless amounts of international attention from sports fans and non sports fans alike. This year’s game was once again, played by the United States women’s team against Canada’s women’s team. The game came down to the wire and the U.S was down by a goal with about seven minutes left in the game.

Luckily, Monique Lamourex- Morando scored an equalizing goal, allowing for an overtime when both teams stayed consistent and equal in their scores. After over time was played, the game moved into a decisive shootout round where Monique Lamourex-Morando’s sister, Jocelyne Lamoureux- Davidson scored the game winning goal in a sudden death shootout. This victory has led to the American women’s team’s first gold medal since 1998 when women’s hockey was first introduced as a sport in the Olympics.

The back-to-back 2015 and 2016 unanimous NBA Most Valuable Player has just signed the fattest contract in NBA history. Steph Curry has managed to amaze us again by agreeing to a 5 year $201 Million deal with the Golden State Warriors.

There was much suspense with many of the NBA stars and where they would sign as free agency came around the corner, but Steph was one that did not worry us too much. On July 1, news broke that Steph would be back with the Warriors for another 5 years, this time making the largest pay check of NBA history. For the last 4 seasons, Steph had been paid a total of $44 million, but this time he will be averaging $40.2 million in each of the next 5 seasons.

Curry has only been in the league for 8 years so far, but he has sure already left his mark. He just recently won his second NBA championship, making it to the finals for the past 3 years. Curry’s supermax contract has generated much noise and excitement amongst the public. LeBron James, an opponent and one of Golden State’s biggest rivals, even congratulated Steph on twitter.

These large contracts will become way more popular in the upcoming years, which is a huge bonus for many of the greats in the league. 

The Golden State Warriors was ranked Number 1 in the West for quite some time until recently. The team’s success was mainly due to the fact that Keven Durant was signed to the team last summer.

Despite the benefits that came with Durant playing with and for them, there were also sacrifices that has to be made in order for Durant, one of the most wanted basketball players in the NBA, to be on their side.

Many fans are wondering if the Warriors are going to make it through this momentary downfall as Durant’s knee injury is causing some trouble. We aren’t sure what the developments are just yet.

However, The Vertical’s Michael Lee has provided insight on how the Warrior’ could still finish the season strongly by showing some hard-statistical facts.

He mentioned that despite their loss against the Spurs this past Saturday, the Warriors are still on a 65-win pace. There have only been 19 examples of a 65-win season in NBA history, 3 of them being potentially from the Warriors.

He then compared this striking piece of data to Michael Jordan’s memorizing 3 year winning stretch playing for the Chicago Bulls.

Lonzo Ball, a familiar name in the NBA now despite not even having played a regular season game, made his summer league debut for the Lakers and well, we were a tad thrown off. We all know it is not fair to judge someone on one game, but what was up with the star who is supposedly, according to his father, better than Michael Jordan?

His dad even went on to say after the game that Lonzo played his worst game ever. LaVar needs to take a seat. However, the number 2 pick in the NBA draft did have a better game on Saturday against the Celtics. He had a nice triple-double, scoring 11 points, 11 rebounds, and 11 assists.

Even though the fans may have not been impressed with Lonzo’s first game, he did manage to get a huge crowd to the game. The Thomas and Mack Center was sold out on Saturday night, with fans there to see him and Jayson Tatum, who was the third pick of the draft by the Celtics, go face to face for the first time. This was actually the first time a summer league game was sold out.

Lonzo has time to improve, but regardless of how well he plays, he’s going to be a pretty good addition to the Lakers franchise.  

American basketball star Michael Jordan was born on February 17, 1963, in Brooklyn, New York. Jordan left college after his junior year to join the NBA. Drafted by the Chicago Bulls, he helped the team make it to the playoffs. For his efforts there, Jordan received the NBA Rookie of the Year Award. With five regular-season MVPs and three All-Star MVPs, Jordan became the most decorated player in the NBA.

Jordan left college after his junior year to join the NBA. Drafted by the Chicago Bulls, he soon proved himself on the court. He helped the team make it to the playoffs and scored an average of 28.2 points per game that season.

In 1985, he finished his bachelor’s degree in geography and continued to play basketball professionally. While his second season was marred by injury, Jordan was breaking new ground on the court during the 1986-1987 season.

He became the first player since Wilt Chamberlin to score more than 3,000 points in a single season.

In April 2009, Jordan received one of the basketball world’s greatest honors: He was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Attending the induction ceremony was a bittersweet affair for Jordan because being at the event meant “your basketball career is completely over,” he explained.