As more and more NBA players sit out games due to load management, the league has been actively exploring ways to combat the issue, such as eliminating back-to-backs attached to nationally televised games and fining teams for sitting players in those contests.

One frequently proposed, and rather simple, solution from players and fans has been to shorten the length of the 82-game season. However, ESPN’s top NBA broadcast crew doesn’t see it happening in the near future.

“We play the same schedule that they’ve played [since the 1967-68 season], so what is going on? We’ve spent hundreds of millions of dollars in sports science, so what’s going on?” game analyst Richard Jefferson said on a preseason press call with reporters.

“The players have more resources, more trainers, more planes, more equipment, all of the stuff. The quality of the product is how players are taking care of themselves, how they’re doing things. There are not as many back-to-backs, [and] less practice days, so that ‘Ferrari’ stays in the garage until race day. …You are disrespecting the older players that were doing back-to-backs on commercial planes with one equipment manager. It’s like, how easy do we want to make this?”

Tim Legler largely agreed with Jefferson, noting that even with a shortened schedule, key players would find ways to rest ahead of the playoffs, reducing the opportunities fans would have to see the game’s stars.

“In an 82-game season, our expectations right now of how much we’re going to see guys has changed. You’re not expecting 82. You’re praying for 70 and realistically you’re going to get 65,” Legler said. “Say you played a 70-game season. I don’t think you then see guys play 65, 70 games. You’re going to have a lot of guys play 60 games. Maybe 58 becomes the number. Now there’s even fewer nights when you’re seeing the top guys. …You’re just hoping you can get the top guys upright and healthy on April 15 for a two-month playoff run because it still will be the salvation of the NBA season.”

Mike Breen, who has served as ESPN’s lead play-by-play voice since 2006, focused on the economic ramifications of reducing the games played, before ultimately arriving at the same conclusion as his colleagues.

“It’s never going to happen,” Breen asserted. “Everyone is going to have to take less money. Ten games away to make it 72. That’s a lot of revenue over 10 games, and not just players, coaches, owners. How about all the peripheral people that work those games? Whether you work in the arena, whether you have businesses around the arena that rely on those 41 home games to make sure they pay their bills, etc. I think it impacts so many people in so many different ways financially that I don’t ever see it happening.”

The post ESPN’s top NBA crew dismisses possibility of NBA shortening regular season appeared first on Awful Announcing.

ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — The U.S. women's gymnastics team’s long run of dominance at the world championships is over.

China used a spectacular performance on balance beam in the third rotation to surge to the lead and then held on late to claim gold during a tense team final on Wednesday.

The five-woman Chinese team's total of 165.764 was just enough to edge the Americans at 165.531, ending the Americans' run of seven straight world championship titles that began in 2011.

The gold was the first for China at a major international competition since the 2008 Olympics and first at the world championships since 2006.

Japan captured the bronze, its first podium finish at worlds in 60 years. France was fourth.

Russia, which finished third behind China and the U.S. in qualifying and is competing at a major international team competition for the first time since winning gold at the 2020 Olympics, struggled from the outset in the finals.

Taking the floor without a handful of their most experienced competitors — including 2020 Olympic gold medalist and 2021 world all-around champion Angelina Melnikova — after they were denied visas by the Netherlands, their competition began with a fall on uneven bars, and they never threatened to catch up on their way to a sixth-place finish.

The Americans led by nearly two points through two rotations after excellent turns on vault and uneven bars, but it vanished quickly on balance beam.

The Chinese, by far the best in the world on an event that requires gymnasts to navigate a 4-inch-wide piece of wood 4 feet off the floor, wasted little time erasing the deficit. Spectacular routines by Qinqin Ke and Zhang Qingying powered China to the front, with Zhang's 15.066 the highest score by any athlete on any event.

A fall by Dulcy Caylor on her dismount opened the door for China to move ahead by over two points heading into floor exercise. Caylor was competing in place of 2024 Olympic gold medalist and two-time national champion Hezly Rivera, who withdrew from the competition over the weekend due to a lingering ankle injur y.

Solid routines by Caylor, Claire Pease and Reese Esponda on an event the Americans routinely dominate put pressure on China, but it wasn't enough.

While China's routines lack the difficulty of the U.S.'s on floor, it avoided any major miscues that would have allowed the Americans to maintain their spot atop the sport. When Qiu Qiyuan's score of 12.833 flashed and China's flag moved to the top of the leaderboard, she was mobbed by her teammates.

China's victory over an American team comprised largely of athletes making their debut on the sport's biggest stage outside of the Olympics ramps up the stakes ahead of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

Several of the U.S. stars who helped guide the Americans to gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics, including 2020 Olympic all-around champion Suni Lee and two-time Olympic gold medalist Jade Carey, are pointing toward Los Angeles.

The biggest question is whether superstar Simone Biles — the 2016 and 2024 all-around champion and the most decorated women's gymnast of all time — will join them.

Biles told The Associated Press in September she's getting close to making a decision. The U.S.'s respectable if slightly nervy performance on Wednesday will do little to dampen speculation that the Americans might need Biles at her best to emerge from an increasingly crowded group at the top of the sport.

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See AP’s full sports coverage here

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Warriors’ Steve Kerr makes prediction on his retirement alongside Stephen Curry, Draymond Green appeared first on ClutchPoints. Add ClutchPoints as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

While Golden State Warriors veterans Stephen Curry and Draymond Green adjust amidst the final stages of their respective careers, head coach Steve Kerr is doing the same. Much like the future Hall of Fame players he’s guided for over a decade, Kerr can’t say when he’ll retire from coaching. It’s a subject in which his feelings towards have changed over the years.

Kerr addressed his future with the Warriors, per ESPN’s Wright Thompson.

“I don’t want to go too late and I don’t want to go too early,” Kerr said.

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When head coach Steve Kerr was asked whether walking away from the Warriors after the 2025-26 season was too soon, he was uncertain.

“I didn’t know. I didn’t know until I took those two, three weeks if it was too early. And then after talking to my wife, talking to Mike and Joe and Kirk [Lacob] and really examining what it would look like going forward, I came to the conclusion that, no, it was too early,” Kerr explained. “I still have something to offer.

“And I think the team they have shown that they still want me here, and we still make a really good group. I’m talking about management, players, and coaches. And I’m so excited about this team, this season, our training camp. So I know without a doubt, it’s too soon, but I don’t want to be too late.”

With two years left on his contract with the Warriors, Kerr envisions himself coming back for at least one more season in 2027-28. Then, perhaps retiring alongside the Warriors’ longest-tenured players — Stephen Curry and Draymond Green.

“I signed for two years and I can’t see myself walking away after this year, but it feels now like there’s some shape to this thing,” Kerr said. “There’s some clarity. I could see this ending where Steph, Dray, we all leave around the same time. I could see that happening.”

Kerr will begin his 13th season with the Warriors with an Opening Night matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday.

Related: Warriors’ Steve Kerr not touching Draymond Green’s ‘face of the franchise’ expectations for Yaxel Lendeborg

Related: Collin Sexton out for Lakers’ season opener vs. Warriors with calf injury

Michael Carrick was not best pleased with what he saw from his Manchester United players during their 4-1 defeat away against Como in the Champions League on Tuesday night, slamming an ‘unacceptable’ performance but insisting that ‘I 100% take responsibility, it stops with me’.

Goals from Nico Paz (x2), Tasos Douvikas and Jacobo Ramon sent Como 4-0 up against Manchester United at the Stadio Sinigaglia on Wednesday evening, former Bologna forward Joshua Zirkzee pulling back a late consolation in injury time.

You can see how the action unfolded on the Football Italia Liveblog.

ITALY – OCTOBER 21: Nico Paz of Como 1907 celebrates scoring his team’s third goal with teammates during the UEFA Champions League 2026/27 League Phase MD3 match between Como 1907 and Manchester United at Giuseppe Sinigaglia Stadium on October 21, 2026 in Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

When he spoke ahead of kick-off, Carrick siad that he wanted to see his players take control of the game, but in the end, they were bettered in terms of possession, passes made, completed, pass accuracy, shots and shots on target.

“It was more than disappointing,” the United head coach said after the full-time whistle. “I think everybody has got to take responsibility for that. I 100% take responsibility for the overall team and the performance – that’s where it stops. It stops with me and I’m absolutely fine with that. I accept that totally.

“But as a supporter of this football club for so long, to see a performance like that is unacceptable, I have to say.”

Carrick had to apologise in front of the traveling Manchester United fans who had remained in the stadium until the end of the game. Many of them packed up and left at 4-0.

ITALY – OCTOBER 21: Michael Carrick, Manager of Manchester United, reacts after during the UEFA Champions League 2026/27 League Phase MD3 match between Como 1907 and Manchester United at Giuseppe Sinigaglia Stadium on October 21, 2026 in Como, Italy. (Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images)

“I care an unbelievable amount about the supporters,” said Carrick.  They are the heartbeat of this football club and they always will be.

“For them to travel, I had to apologise for the performance. To have to watch a performance like that, I totally feel for them. There are no excuses at all. It is not acceptable.”

Carrick was also asked if he feels he has the backing of the Manchester United board, to which he replied: “It’s not about me. It’s about digesting the game and how it went. That is the most important thing right now.”