ESPN Daily

For decades the NBA has been in an intricate, expensive dance with China’s government. While the league has become wildly popular in China, its business there is increasingly complicated over issues like free speech and China’s record on human rights. If there’s one man who personifies the layers and complexities of NBA-China relations it’s Joe Tsai, the Chinese billionaire who owns the Brooklyn N...

If ever there was an NFL team that was going to be investigated by the United States Congress, it was going to be the Washington Commanders. From allegations of fostering a toxic workplace environment to sexual harrassment to their long overdue name change, the franchise under owner Daniel Snyder is constantly in the news…and not for success on the field. But if previous scandals and offenses have...

The NFL Draft is an American institution. And for the past four decades, the unmistakable voice of that institution has been Mel Kiper Jr. His “Big Board” and mock drafts have become a rite of spring, a yearly ritual that signals your team will soon be “on the clock.” It is a remarkable climb for someone who used a typewriter to compile draft reports as a teenager, before the NFL Draft was even te...

It’s been 75 years since Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, becoming the first Black player to take the field in Major League Baseball in 1947. Jackie was a specific player chosen at a specific time, when baseball was highly aligned with Black popular culture. But what happened between baseball and Black America in the decades after Jackie’s pivotal act? Why didn’t baseball becom...

The NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Championships begin today in Fort Worth, but you’d be forgiven if you mistook it for the Tokyo Olympics this past summer. That’s because no sport has been transformed by the Name, Image and Likeness revolution across college athletics as much as Women’s Gymnastics. Previously, Olympic stars like Tokyo All-Around Gold Medalist Suni Lee had to choose between cashing in on...

Sports betting has become exponentially more popular and accessible, with gambling on games now legal in more than 30 states. It’s a wildly difficult industry to oversee, though, with a patchwork of legislative details in each state, and varying rules on the types of bets that are legal or not. Even who has jurisdiction over what changes when you cross state lines. Paula Lavigne took a deep dive i...

When Michael Jordan began to cry during his Basketball Hall of Fame induction speech, that moment would turn one of basketball’s greatest players to the meme seen ‘round the Internet. Now, 10 years after Crying Jordan first became a meme, it's still just as popular as ever, popping up anywhere and everywhere. ESPN’s Dave Fleming brings us the origin story of this legendary meme, and tells us why e...

We catch America’s Caddie, Michael Collins, fresh off the Masters in Augusta. He breaks down how Scheffler staved off the competition, and what got him his first winning green jacket. Plus, why Tiger Woods’ return was full of a different kind of love than we’ve seen from him in the past, even as all of us fans managed our greedy expectations. And what can we expect from the all-time great, as he c...

An NBA halftime lasts just 15 minutes. It’s a time for players to leave the court, fans to run to the bathroom or grab another beer, or, a break, for all intents and purposes. But for Rong Niu - it’s her time to shine. Rong, better known to audiences as the Red Panda, has been astounding NBA fans around the country for thirty years, with her 7-and-a-half-foot-tall unicycle, a stack of white bowls,...

After a lockout that put the entire 2022 MLB season in jeopardy, Opening Day has miraculously arrived. The start of a new season represents a blank slate for all teams, both contenders and pretenders. MLB Insider Jeff Passan makes sense of the offseason’s most dramatic moves and shares which teams he finds most intriguing this coming season. Are the Dodgers setting up for a World Series repeat? Wi...

The 2022 Masters Tournament tees off Thursday, but it will be without at least one of golf’s all-time greats: Phil Mickelson, who has won three times at Augusta and in 2021 became the oldest major champion ever by winning the PGA Championship at the age of 50. Mark Schlabach shares the stunning story of how Mickelson flirted with joining a breakaway golf league funded by the Saudi Arabian governme...

As the NBA regular season winds down, there’s plenty of drama unfolding across the league. In Los Angeles, LeBron and the Lakers’ experiment continues to implode, hampered by injuries and a porous defense. Is there enough time for the team to bounce back and sneak into the postseason? And in the Eastern Conference, where Kyrie Irving is now free to play in Brooklyn’s home games: could the Nets be...

Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks are your women’s NCAA basketball champions! Katie Barnes joins us from Minneapolis to break down how Aliyah Boston and company steamrolled over the Huskies, and handed UConn head coach Geno Auriemma his first ever loss in a championship game. Then, Myron Medcalf sets the scene for the men’s championship tonight, after a pair of semifinal matchups which saw Du...

Love him or hate him, the mark that Mike Krzyzewski has left on men’s college basketball is indelible. Nobody has won more Division I men’s college basketball games than Coach K; he has won five national titles, made 13 Final Fours, and turned Duke University into one of the most iconic institutions in American life. And now, with his retirement imminent, he heads into his final Final Four, where...

Shocking upsets. Buzzer beaters. Cinderella stories. This year’s Women’s NCAA Basketball Tournament has been overflowing with drama and thrills. But last March, Oregon’s Sedona Prince posted a TikTok revealing the drastic differences between the women’s and men’s college basketball weight rooms during the NCAA tournament. After the video went viral, and reports of other disparities circulated, the...

Duke vs. UNC: when a rivalry is as storied as the one, it's hard to find ground that hasn’t already been tread. However, through the grace of the sports gods, that rivalry is headed towards uncharted territory. This Saturday, Duke will face UNC in the NCAA’s Final Four - and it’s the very first time these two teams have met in the tournament. ESPN Senior Writer and North Carolina native Ryan McGee...

In the fall of 2017, the US Men’s National Soccer Team lost a decisive qualifying match against Trinidad & Tobago, and with it, a spot in the 2018 FIFA World Cup. It was a humiliating defeat for a team that hadn’t missed a World Cup since 1986. Afterwards, ESPN analyst Taylor Twellman delivered an epic rant, blasting the culture of US Soccer that, in his view, had grown complacent and arrogant. No...

NBA veteran Aron Baynes arrived at the Tokyo Olympics as one of Team Australia's most trusted big men. But during a group stage game against Italy, Baynes mysteriously fell in the bathroom during a break. When he was discovered by team staff, he had lost the ability to walk and had to be carried out on a stretcher. No one knew what was wrong. Brian Windhorst tells the story of Baynes’ medical myst...

The Final Four is set! On Sunday, we learned UNC and Duke will meet for the first time ever in the NCAA tournament. And the Kansas Jayhawks punched their ticket to the next round, taking down Miami 76-50. And this year’s Cinderella story, the Saint Peter’s Peacocks, finally got turned back into a pumpkin by UNC. On Saturday, Duke beat Arkansas 78-69, sending Coach K to his 13th and final Final Fou...

The South Carolina Gamecocks are the women’s number one overall seed, and take the court in the Sweet Sixteen tonight. After blowing out their first two opponents by an average of 37 points, SC coach Dawn Staley will be looking to take another step towards her second national title. But before Staley won her first championship came coach Carolyn Peck, the first Black woman to coach a team to an NC...

It’s been over a decade since NBA veteran Lorenzen Wright was murdered. Wright’s twin sons, Lamar and Shamar were just ten years old when their father was killed. Their mother, and Wright’s ex-wife, Sherra pleaded guilty to facilitating the murder of her husband in 2019, then attempted to reverse her plea to not guilty, but has since dropped the bid and will serve out the remainder of her sentence...

Gonzaga’s Drew Timme might be the biggest star in college basketball. From his questionable facial hair to his taunting theatrics, Timme is more than just the top scorer on the #1 team in the country. He’s an entertainer who is part of a dying species in the one-and-done era: a star upper-classman who lives and plays like he never wants college to end. Timme and the Zags are in search of redemptio...

Bryce Weiler grew up listening to the likes of Brian Barnhart call Illinois basketball games, and as a young man who’d been blind since infancy, he fell in love with the pictures painted on the radio. During college in Indiana Weiler forged a relationship with the basketball team, and then found his way to the broadcast booth himself. ESPN’s Sam Borden went to visit Weiler and learn more about his...

On Friday, the Cleveland Browns acquired QB Deshaun Watson, in a massive trade that sent shockwaves across the NFL. Last year, Watson was accused of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior by multiple massage therapists, and there are currently 22 pending civil lawsuits against him. The Watson trade comes on the heels of a Texas grand jury declining to indict Watson on criminal charges, which...

The Iditarod is the most famous dog sled race in the entire world, run across 1000 miles through the Alaskan wilderness. And while the event brings to mind images of furry dogs and beautiful landscapes, the race is incredibly challenging and dangerous. Liz Merrill traveled up north and spent time with Bridgett Watkins, an ER nurse who is competing in the race for the first time this year despite h...