Vikram Muller

But instead, Spurs fans and basketball fans alike were treated to an emotional display of sport, an outpouring of love for Popovich. And this power of athletics to unite communities emotionally is exactly what I love about sports.

Just because a team may be lacking a star player does not mean that it can’t overcome the injury ─ as Anthony Davis and the New Orleans Pelicans have shown.

I still come to the same conclusion I reached as a kid: This sport is just plain boring, at least in the regular season.

Well, it seems like that glory — which came both from the Mavericks’ wins and from the lack of controversial publicity — is a thing of the past now.

I genuinely believe that building a bracket and betting on it is arguably the worst thing for basketball, because the financial incentive takes the humanity out of sports.

What Cal has now, one year into the destructive wake of Martin’s tanking of that game, is its worst overall record since the late 1970s.

I desperately hope that LAFC helps bring the MLS and United States soccer to new heights, but unfortunately, neither the club, nor columns like these are likely to effect that change.

Lou Williams. Tyson Chandler. Tracy McGrady. Kevin Garnett. LeBron James. Kobe Bryant. Just to name a few.

Eventually, the game turned into Team LeBron vs. Team Popcorn, with one team led by its captain on a fourth-quarter rally to win, and the other team showing just how unimportant the game really was.

I really feel for any athlete who could have made it, had their place not been taken by a potential cheater.