ESPN Daily

You aren’t nuts, we did just do a Shohei Ohtani episode two weeks ago. But when you’re dealing with MLB’s brightest star, a unicorn who can blow you away from the pitcher’s mound and then blow you out from the batter’s box, every day is something brand new. So, do a piece on Ohtani one day, and just a few hours after it’s published, he might have another historic moment.   ESPN’s Tim Keown took a...

The United States Women’s National Soccer Team has established themselves as one of the most dominant powerhouses in sports - ever. In the eight Women’s World Cups played, USA has won four of them, reached the semifinals each tournament, and has never finished lower than third place. As this edition of the team takes the field for the 2023 World Cup in Australia and New Zealand, we’ll see the fami...

Lionel Messi, the best soccer player of the 21st century, perhaps of all time, is coming to America. And yes, Pele decamped to New York to join the Cosmos nearly half a century ago… and David Beckham bent the soccer universe by joining the LA Galaxy in 2007. But THIS is different…this is quite possibly even bigger.  So today, ahead of Messi’s official debut for Inter Miami in MLS, ESPN’s Luis Migu...

Six months ago, ESPN’s Liz Merrill introduced us to the mystery of Chiefsaholic, the Kansas City Chiefs superfan who lived a lavish lifestyle, but also had been arrested for robbing an Oklahoma bank in December. So much has happened since we told that story: while awaiting his next court date, Chiefsaholic, whose real name is Xavier Babudar, reportedly cut off his ankle monitor, threw it in the wo...

It’s been 21 months since then-Las Vegas Raiders head coach Jon Gruden announced his resignation. Gruden had faced mounting criticism after the Wall Street Journal and New York Times obtained emails he had written between 2011 and 2018, while Gruden was working at ESPN. Several messages contained racist, homophobic, and misogynistic language directed towards several people, including NFL Commissio...

When former national champion college basketball coach and ESPN analyst Jim Valvano accepted the Arthur Ashe Courage Award for his battle with cancer at the first ESPY Awards, no one was sure if he would have the strength to even take the stage. What followed was a rousing 11-minute long call to action that spurred a new chapter in the fight against cancer. Michael O’Connor, director of the SC Fea...

When you think of historically bad professional sports teams, there are the 1962 Mets, the 1976 Buccaneers. More recently, you’ve got the 2008 Detroit Lions or the 2017 Cleveland Browns or even this year’s Oakland Athletics…and then, there are the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers. The storied franchise that had recently parted with Wilt Chamberlain and three other Hall of Famers, and hired their new coa...

The Negro Leagues’ biggest star, pitcher Satchel Paige, made his MLB debut 75 years ago this Sunday when he took the mound for the Cleveland Indians. Paige is a figure who at times feels more myth, more legend than man: his fastball was supposedly clocked at 105 mph, he estimated that he threw more than 50 no-hitters throughout his career, and he claimed to have had such a command of the baseball...

At this point, we’ve run out of superlatives to describe Shohei Ohtani. He’s not just doing things that nobody has seen in a century, he’s doing things that nobody has ever seen. In the month of June alone, Ohtani hit 15 home runs and drove in 29 RBI, while averaging .394, all while pitching over 30 innings, with 37 strikeouts along the way. And it all has us wondering, was that the best month fro...

When you think of a top baseball prospect, or really any prospect in modern sports, you probably think of the kid who’s specialized from an early age and spent countless hours with personal coaches and trainers to perfect their craft…and then, there’s Arjun Nimmala. Nimmala grew up playing cricket on his family trips to India, but those skills have translated pretty well to the baseball diamond…an...

The story of Barry Bremen, a.k.a. “The Great Imposter” was already sufficiently ridiculous. Bremen was an average, suburban dad, husband, and insurance salesman who’d risen to national fame by sneaking into major sporting events. But in 2019, nearly a decade after Barry Bremen’s death, his family received a mysterious letter that changed everything. The Barry Bremen legacy was bigger and more prof...

It’s a story so wild we couldn’t fit it into one podcast. If you’re of a certain age, you probably remember Barry Bremen. In the late 70’s, Barry was best known for dressing up as pro athletes and sneaking into televised sporting events…including the 1979 MLB All-Star Game in Seattle, where he was berated by an unamused Tommy Lasorda. And while his “Great Imposter” persona brought him fame, an app...

Novak Djokovic is a man on a mission heading into next week’s Wimbledon: following wins at the Australian and French Opens this year, Djokovic is at the top of his game and looks nearly unstoppable. Will #1 seed Carlos Alcaraz or Daniil Medvedev be up to the challenge? On the women’s side, Poland’s Iga Swiatek is ranked #1, but she’ll face tough competition from Aryna Sabalenka and last year’s cha...

It’s not exactly a hot take to say Steph Curry and Klay Thompson are the greatest shooting backcourt in NBA history. And today, their shot-making ability of a different kind will be on display, as they go head-to-head against Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce in The Match, a nationally televised charity golf event. But when it comes to sharpshooters hitting the links, the Splash Brothers are just t...

Elly De La Cruz just might be the most exciting player in baseball, and he hasn’t even been in the Major Leagues for a full month yet. While his performance has been turning heads, it’s his unique combination of power and speed that has infused the Cincinnati Reds with an energy that the city hasn’t seen in a long time. So today, Jeff Passan brings us the story of De La Cruz, tells us how real the...

The NBA offseason is underway, with several big names already tied into upcoming trades. The next step is free agency, which officially begins on Friday. Bradley Beal, Chris Paul, Kristaps Porzingis, Kyrie Irving, Marcus Smart and James Harden are all in the news, as are the annual “will Damian Lillard leave Portland” questions. So today, Brian Windhorst unpacks the moves we’ve already seen, and b...

The US Women's National Team opens training camp today in preparation for next month’s World Cup hosted by Australia and New Zealand. The goal for team USA? Nothing less than a three-peat. The roster returns some of the biggest names in soccer…like Megan Rapinoe, Julie Ertz, and Alex Morgan…but also features 14 players making their World Cup debuts. So today ESPN reporter Charlotte Gibson tells th...

Frederic Weis was supposed to be Victor Wembanyama before Victor Wembanyama. The 7’2 Frenchman was drafted by the Knicks in the first round of the 1999 NBA Draft, and was thought to be the next great European star to crossover to the States. But one year later, in the Olympics, Weis would be on the receiving end of one of the most memorable dunks ever, when Vince Carter literally dunked over him....

The way NBA prospects get to the league looks nothing like it used to. We’ve been importing future MVPs from overseas for years now: that’s the story of Victor Wembanyama, tonight’s projected No. 1 pick. And we’ve watched the G League become the NBA’s own minor league system. That’s the story of Scoot Henderson, projected to go either No. 2 or No. 3. But the story of Amen and Ausar Thompson — who...

Class is officially in session at Tight End University. Think of an offseason trade event, featuring the best tight ends in the NFL. It’s happening right now in Nashville for the third year in a row, and it’s the brainchild of San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle. So today, NFL reporter Turron Davenport gives us a crash course on his experience at TEU…and breaks down how the position is cha...

He’s the most talked about NBA prospect since LeBron James, but Victor Wembanyama is unlike any basketball player we’ve seen before. The 7’5 Frenchman is just 19 years old, and dazzles fans and scouts alike with his dynamic movement and impressive eight-foot wingspan. But until now, we hadn’t heard much from Wembanyama himself. Jonathan Givony sat down with Wembanyama for an hour in Paris to talk...

Over 55 years ago, one of the most horrible tragedies of the civil rights movement took place in Orangeburg, South Carolina when police opened fire on a group of Black protesters outside of a bowling alley. The protesters had gathered to push for the desegregation of All-Star Bowling Lane, and when all was said and done 31 people had been shot, most of them students at nearby South Carolina State...

For much of his life, Luke Russert felt he was growing up in the shadow of his late father, political journalist and moderator of NBC’s “Meet the Press” Tim Russert - who was a huge Buffalo Bills fan. After pursuing journalism himself, Luke decided to confront the pain of his loss and go on a journey of self discovery, which he wrote about in his new book, Look For Me There: Grieving My Father, Fi...

Jonathan Givony has been covering the NBA Draft for twenty years. And so he breaks out his notebook to review his draft notes on one Nikola Jokic, maybe the biggest steal in draft history. He also provides an update on Victor Wembanyama’s all but certain path to joining the Spurs. And then he takes us through the rest of the draft. Who will go second between Brandon Miller and Scoot Henderson? Wil...

With hindsight being 20/20, there appear to be a few things PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan would like to take a mulligan on. And towards the top of this list would be using the word “merger” to describe this new alliance between three crucial parties: the PGA Tour itself, Europe’s DP World Tour, and the Saudi Public Investment Fund. It was just one of many confusing developments that shook the...