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Aaron Gash / AP Giannis Antetokounmpo Is Thinking Like the MVP
The Milwaukee Bucks’ do-everything prodigy has simplified his approach and become the NBA’s best player.
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Jonathan Ernst / Reuters Why Tiger Woods’s Masters Win Was Different This Time
The most appealing aspect of the golf pro’s 15th major championship is that it doesn’t quite signal a return to dominance.
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Brad Mills / USA TODAY Sports / Reuters MLB’s Bold Efforts to Remake Baseball
Opening Day 2019 finds the league tinkering with the sport to draw younger audiences—and weighing which aspects of the game are essential.
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Rick Scuteri / USA Today / Reuters Baseball’s Best Player Deserves More Than $430 Million
Mike Trout just signed a record-breaking contract extension with the Los Angeles Angels. What he really needs is a team that can win championships.
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Dale Zanine / USA Today Sports / Reuters The Patriots’ Super Bowl Victory Was Boring—Yet Inimitable
In a tedious championship game against the Los Angeles Rams, New England confirmed that the ingredients of its success can’t be replicated by the rest of the NFL.
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Elise Amendola / AP Photo Rob Gronkowski and the Cost of Greatness
As the ageless Tom Brady and Bill Belichick lead the Patriots to another Super Bowl, the star tight end shows signs of wear and tear.
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Butch Dill / AP How the Showtime Saints Became Championship Favorites
With shrewd drafting and a style adjustment, New Orleans built a team capable of helping out its star quarterback—and winning a Super Bowl.
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John David Mercer / USA Today Sports / ... In the New College Football, Alabama Is Still Out Front
As the sport gets faster and scores climb higher, a formerly traditionalist program and its star quarterback embrace the future.
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Jon Durr / USA TODAY Sports / Reuters If the Dodgers Win the World Series
A championship victory for Los Angeles would mean the team’s sustained ability to make it to the postseason—year after year—has finally paid off.
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Charlie Riedel / AP Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid Are Torching the NFL
The Kansas City Chiefs’ upstart signal-caller and oft-imitated coach have the league buzzing.
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Matt Marton / AP The Chicago Cubs’ Best Player Can Do It All
Javier Báez stands out for his incredible versatility—a trait not common to, or usually required of, MLB superstars.
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Alexandrian Sage / Reuters Colin Kaepernick’s Shadow Still Looms Over the NFL
As the league begins its 2018 regular season, a player whose presence it hoped would fade from view is very much in the spotlight—and on multiple fronts.
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Kirby Lee / USA TODAY Sports / Reuters Randy Moss and Terrell Owens Reach the Hall of Fame
The wide receivers, known as much for their off-the-field antics as their game-day accomplishments, challenged the NFL’s domineering mores.
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Amber Searls / USA Today Sports / Reuters Baseball Needs Bryce Harper to Be Better
The Washington Nationals slugger, arguably the sport’s most famous player, no longer numbers among its best.
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Tony Dejak / AP Photo The Warriors' All but Inevitable Victory
The outcome of the NBA Finals between Golden State and Cleveland was rarely in doubt, even if the winner didn’t need to play its very best.
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Kevin Jairaj / USA TODAY Sports / Reuters Bartolo Colón, One of the Last of His Kind
As baseball grows younger and faster, there’s less opportunity for the type of late-stage reinvention that salvaged the Texas Rangers pitcher’s career.
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Greg M. Cooper / USA Today Sports / ... LeBron James and the Championship Question
Having led the Cavaliers to a fourth consecutive Finals showdown with the Warriors, the game’s best player doesn’t need another ring to prove himself.
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Andrew Boyers / Reuters / Action Images The NFL Tries to Push Protest Out of Sight
The league’s new policy on how teams should behave during the national anthem adopts a familiar strategy: Focus on the spectacle of the game, and hide the rest.
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Kyle Terada / USA TODAY Sports / Reuters The NBA’s New Age Is on Full Display
Inspired by the dominance of the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers, a new generation of superstars-to-be looks to unseat them—sooner or later.
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Lynne Sladky / AP The Yankees’ Biggest Strength May Be Their Greatest Weakness
New York’s power-hitting duo, Giancarlo Stanton and Aaron Judge, have set high marks in both homers and strikeouts—underscoring one of baseball’s most pressing issues.
