The future of the Miami Open is in doubt. The facilities at the Crandon Park Tennis Center are woefully out of date. IMG, a sports management firm that owns the tournament, wants to spend $50 million to renovate and expand the facilities. Miami-Dade voters approved of the plan at the ballot box…
Erik Spoelstra has accomplished quite a bit since taking over as head coach of the Miami Heat in 2008. He’s won nearly 400 regular season games, 63 playoff games, and two championships. He led the Heat to four straight NBA Finals appearances. He’s coached an All-Star team. He’s the second-longest…
You can take the LeBron out of Cleveland, but you can’t take the Cleveland out of … Cleveland. Unfortunately for LeBron, the honeymoon on his return to Ohio seems to have a quickly approaching expiration date. The Cavs have become increasingly inconsistent, and even as they remain the first seed…
Growing up in Palmetto Bay, 26-year-old Nick Katz might never have met his childhood best friends if it hadn’t been for skateboarding. He was a Jewish kid who lived in a nice home next to Biscayne Bay. The guys he skated with were young Jamaican dudes from West Perrine. “The…
Not many saw this coming. Not when the Heat lost Chris Bosh for the season. Not when Dwyane Wade was ruled out for a pair of games after the All Star break. Not when Hassan Whiteside seemed to be regressing after another suspension. Not when Luol Deng looked washed. But…
A who’s who of Miami’s mascot community came out last night to American Airlines Arean to “Feel the Burn.” No, that’s not a political statement. It was Miami Heat mascot Burnie’s birthday, and the team celebrated during the game against the Philadelphia 76ers. Some of the mascots ended up feeling…
On Monday night the Los Angeles Clippers unveiled their new mascot: Chuck the California Condor. Unfortunately for Clippers fans, it was not free therapy session giveaway night. The image of Chuck will haunt their dreams until the end of time. Chuck’s ill-fated debut got us thinking; Which of our South Florida…
If Miamians and our leaders thinks a five-minute walk covering just three blocks is “too far,” well, we probably don’t have much hope for more effective mass transit in this city. Sure, we know the humidity can get bad here during the summer, but how sweaty can you get in…
The Miami Marlins, a professional baseballing team and a suspected longform improv troupe specializing in dark comedy, have tried everything in recent years to turn their fortunes around: a new stadium, three different managers, and occasional star signings followed by roster shaking trades. Nothing has worked. Well, maybe just maybe newly…
Marlins Park has been open for four years now. The team continues to lack in both wins and attracting much attendance. The county Mayor who oversaw the deal was long ago recalled by voters, and other politicians who went along with the deal are also out of office. However, it appears…
For baseball fans, Spring Training is a time for hope, naive innocence and the glorious chance to drink ballpark beers that cost less than 15 bucks. Sure, the Marlins were wretched again last year, but in Jupiter at least, Fish fans can forget all that pain, snag a few autographs…
The constant college football recruiting race knows only the bounds the NCAA places on it, and the body says nothing about how old a potential player has to be to start getting attention from coaches. In fact, recruiting mega-website Rivals.com now has profiles on players in the sixth grade! New…
“The most difficult thing for individuals to do when they become part of a team is to sacrifice, it is much easier to be selfish.” — Pat Riley Arguably the most memorable, and consistently-sports-relative part of Pat Riley’s book The Winner Within is a portion where he speaks about an…
Lakatriona Brunson has been a lot of things in her life: A high school track star, a college basketball player, a 10-year-veteran of a woman’s football league, and a physical education. Perhaps she’s best known as her alter-ego “Bernice,” the cult hero of the reality TV program South Beach Tow. …
Ah, the Super Bowl. The one non-international soccer match sporting event that Miamians will watch en mass that a Miami team won’t actually play in. The only problem for many of us is figuring out which team to root for. Sure, in some cases it was obvious. Take last year…
Max Martinez spent his youth worshipping David Beckham’s exploits on the soccer pitch. Growing up in Miami with a Real Madrid fanatic for a father, Martinez used to wear his number 23 Madrid shirt everywhere. So when MLS made it official that Beckham will be bringing an MLS club to…
Ten years ago, if you would have told anyone that the Miami Hurricanes basketball team trouncing the Duke Blue Devils would become a regular occurrence, they probably would have scoffed. The Blue Devils are the most successful college basketball team since 1985. They’re the elite of an already stacked ACC…
Miami Heat fans are a fragile bunch at the moment, much like the team itself. Twitter arguments are erupting. Families are fighting families. Because midway through this wobbly season, so many questions remain for a Heat team that most figured would be on a roll by now. Instead, the Heat suffered…
A coach being fired and replaced can often wreck havoc on a college football team’s recruiting class during the first year, but Mark Richt seems to be determined to make sure that the Miami Hurricanes keep their class in the top 25. And he’s doing something sort of odd to…
Things have taken a turn for the worse for the Miami Heat this month, and it doesn’t appear they are trending toward getting any better any time soon. The Heat’s loss to the Clippers on Wednesday was their third straight, dropping the team to 22-17 — good for sixth in…
New coaches can have the effect of having causing an immediate turn around for a team, but if you think new Miami Hurricanes coach Mark Richt is going to be able to come in and collect a National Championship in his first year, well, Vegas wants to tamper your expectations…
When Cristiano Ronaldo spent his Christmas holiday in Miami and popped up at a Miami Heat game, local fans couldn’t help but fantasize about the idea of the Portuguese soccer superstar someday playing for David Beckham’s Major League soccer team in Miami. It was, at the time, the stuff of what basically…
