ESPN Daily

The 2020 Tokyo Olympics are here, one year late, and much to the dismay of many in Japan. The Tokyo Games will be unlike any other in Olympic history. Fans will not be allowed in any of the arenas. Athletes, officials and media are required to remain in the Olympic “bubble” and stay separated from the general public. And the Olympic Village, which typically serves as a giant party for the athletes...

The Bucks are NBA Champions! Pablo reacts to the win in Milwaukee and why a title takes skill, not luck. Then, Layshia Clarendon is a WNBA all-star now with the Minnesota Lynx, parent to an infant, activist off the court, and they’re the first openly nonbinary and transgender player in the league. ESPN’s Katie Barnes shares their story, from how faith impacted Clarendon’s upbringing to the complex...

Tonight the Milwaukee Bucks have a chance to close out the NBA Finals on their home floor and secure their first championship in 50 years. Standing in their way is future Hall of Famer Chris Paul and his squad of young guns on the Suns, desperate to send the series back to Phoenix for a seventh game. ESPN’s Malika Andrews has been on the sidelines throughout the NBA playoffs, and previews this cru...

Ryan Fitzpatrick has 22 helmets in his Zoom background...and that just makes sense. The veteran quarterback has been in the NFL since 2005, as both a star and a journeyman in a career that’s spanned many teams and cities. And it wasn’t a given in college at Harvard that he’d even go pro at all. Pablo Torre has known “Fitzmagic” since those days, and talks lessons on the field and off with the 2021...

It’s been 11 years since NBA veteran Lorenzen Wright was murdered, his body found in a remote field in Memphis. Wright’s twin sons, Lamar and Shamar were 10 years old when their father was killed. Now, Shamar and Lamar are finally ready to share their perspective on their father, his murder, and the accusations against their mother, Sherra. Sherra Wright pleaded guilty to facilitating the murder o...

The New York Yankees have become a disappointment. Their heartbreaking loss to the Houston Astros right before the All-Star break is a prime example of the struggles they’ve been through this year, and their season doesn’t get any easier from here. In their path to redemption lie their storied rivals, the Boston Red Sox, who sit atop the American League East, enjoying an 8-game lead over their riv...

Phoenix Suns Center DeAndre Ayton has been arguably the most important big man in the NBA this postseason. ESPN Senior NBA Writer Zach Lowe joins the show to tell us how Ayton has made the journey from #1 pick, to borderline bust, to the key of the Suns defense. On the other side is two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo, who has battled back from a scary knee injury to dominate Game 3. Lowe breaks do...

Meet two of the best stuntwomen in Hollywood: Heidi and Renae Moneymaker. You’ve seen them in Avengers: Endgame, Ant-Man and the Wasp, and now, Black Widow, to name a few. The Moneymaker sisters take us through the bumps and bruises that come from being real life superheroes as stuntwomen. Heidi has helped craft the character of Black Widow with Scarlett Johnasson, as her stunt double for the last...

The Angels’ Shohei Ohtani has been slugging homers to corners of ballparks few humans have ever reached, making this year’s MLB Home Run Derby a must-see. He leads the league in home runs AND he’s piling up strikeouts on the mound. That two-way dominance has him set to light up the All-Star Game, too. Alden Gonzalez, our guide to the Ohtani experiment, says the Babe Ruth comparison doesn’t even ap...

Franchise owners are some of the wealthiest Americans. Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer’s net worth is estimated at more than $100 billion. He’s just one of the billionaires in ProPublica’s investigation on how teams are handled, when it comes to owners’ tax liability. Investigative reporter Robert Faturechi of ProPublica walks us through the tax code as it relates to franchise executives,...

It’s finally here! One of ESPN’s most prestigious events, the Scripps National Spelling Bee, names a champion tonight. Families from across the country cheer on their finalist spellers, and it’s all broadcast live on ESPN2 at 8PM Eastern. Host Kevin Negandhi shares how the bee works, and why it means so much to the Indian-American community. Hear about the fierce field of competitors, and see how...

It may have been his NBA Finals debut, but Chris Paul looked like he’d been preparing for his whole life. Now in his 16th season, the 36 year old Paul took control of Game 1 of the NBA Finals leading Phoenix to a 118-105 victory over Milwaukee. It was a vintage CP3 performance, complete with surgical pick-and-rolls, attacking drives to the rim, and opportunistic outside jumpers. Kevin Arnovitz has...

You know and love the Marvin Gaye song “What’s Going On,” which turned 50 this year. But do you know the background voices on the hit song belong to two Detroit Lions? The Motown superstar developed a deep friendship with NFL players Mel Farr and Lem Barney, and it led to music history. Plus the story gets even better, as Farr and Barney helped Marvin Gaye take his dream of playing pro football to...

50 years ago, Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier met in their first iconic boxing match, known as “The Fight of the Century.” It was 1971, with the civil rights movement in full swing and the nation divided over the war in Vietnam. Jeremy Schaap, boxing historian and host of E60 and Outside the Lines, shares how political and cultural views were projected onto Ali and Frazier, with their different perso...

July 1, 2021 marks a new era in college sports. It’s a day which some believed would never come, because student-athletes are now free to make money off of their name, image, and likeness. Many stars at the collegiate level have already begun to partake in their newfound compensatory freedom, but what will these game changing new laws mean for the collegiate world as a whole? ESPN’s Dan Murphy joi...

Major League Baseball’s crackdown is underway on pitchers using foreign substances for better grip. ESPN MLB Insider Jeff Passan explains why we’re seeing players being undressed by umpires as they come off the field (in one case literally). Questions remain about how smart a move this was to make in the middle of the season, and if it is having the effect that MLB wants. Then, Sarah reflects on B...

P.K. Subban, ESPN’s newest NHL playoff analyst and three-time NHL All-Star, joins Sarah Spain to dive deep into the Stanley Cup Final. Subban, who played sevens seasons for the Canadiens, shares what it means for most storied franchise in the NHL to be back playing for the Cup after last winning it nearly 30 years ago. Standing in their way are the reigning Stanley Cup champions, the Tampa Bay Lig...

Simone Biles has been the face of USA Gymnastics ever since she began competing on the international stage. The most decorated gymnast of all time has sealed her position on the U.S. Olympic roster for the second straight games, and will travel to Tokyo with a scary good team. ESPN’s Alyssa Roenigk shares what she saw at the Olympic trials, and breaks down the moves that make Biles legendary. Lear...

The NBA Conference Finals are heating up - especially for Khris Middleton, whose surge helped the Bucks come back to rout the Hawks 113-102, and they lead the series 2-1. The Hawks led for almost the entire game thanks to Trae Young, who got injured during the game but returned. And in the west, the Phoenix Suns are one win away from their first NBA Finals appearance since 1993. Propelled by veter...

Ahead of his book, “Reborn in the USA: An Englishman's Love Letter to His Chosen Home,” Roger Bennett of Men in Blazers fame shares how his love for U.S. sports and culture as a kid in Liverpool led him in search of his own American dream. From meeting his childhood idol William “The Refrigerator” Perry, to the emotion of being sworn in as a US Citizen, Bennett's story truly captures the wonder an...

Every four years, athletes compete for glory at the Olympic Games, and this year’s Tokyo Games will feel even greater for two-time gold medalist Susan Francia. Her mother, Dr. Kate Karikó, has seen her lifelong work come to fruition in the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Karikó’s dedication to her research amidst adversity inspired her daughter, who became an elite rower and Olympian. ESPN’s Julie Fo...

From the playground to the gym to the NBA Conference Finals...the basketball court is ruled not by an iron fist, but by the “hot hand.” Shooters demand the ball when they get a hot hand. Teammates feed the player with the hot hand. Coaches draw up plays for the hot hand. But what if there is actually no such thing as the “hot hand?” For decades, that’s been the belief of Nobel Prize winning scient...

On Monday the Supreme Court unanimously ruled to uphold Alston v. NCAA, saying the NCAA could not bar certain types of payments to college athletes. It’s largely seen as having opened the door to a wider challenge to the NCAA’s ban on college athletes receiving compensation, writ large. ESPN Analyst Jay Bilas, college athlete and longtime critic of the NCAA’s claims around amateurism, breaks down...

This weekend’s NBA playoffs included a pair of Game 7s and the first game of the Western Conference Finals. In the East, the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Brooklyn Nets in overtime, despite a 48-point performance from Nets star Kevin Durant. The Bucks will meet the Hawks, following the thrilling finish to that series where the Hawks soared to victory, thanks to Trae Young’s fourth quarter heroics....

Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker is perhaps the most overlooked superstar in the NBA. At age 24, he’s one of the league’s premiere scorers. And his domination has continued this season, through the Phoenix Suns’ playoff run - they’re in the Western Conference Finals for the first time in 11 years. In a re-air of our episode from February, ESPN analyst Michael Wilbon takes us back to Booker’s roots...