Phillip Barnett Archives

January 19, 2018

Sports & Politics Intersect: Nassar's victims put USA Gymnastics, MSU on trial

Front Five: The top stories that shaped both sports & politics this week "I have represented the United States of America in two Olympics and have done so successfully.

January 18, 2018 | Phoenix Suns

Devin Booker is expanding his game beyond getting buckets

“Once teams found out that I could actually play a little bit, I started seeing teams’ best defender,” Devin Booker told The Ringer. “So just going in

January 12, 2018

Sports & Politics Intersect: After all the bluster, college football sticks to sports

Front Five: The top stories that shaped both sports & politics this week "We want our flag respected, and we want our national anthem respected also.

January 10, 2018 | Boston Celtics

Jayson Tatum is making a living in the clutch

He’s been doing it all season. Big shots down the stretch. Huge defensive plays. The baseline dunk against Brooklyn. The James Harden block. The late-game, lead-expanding three in Detroit.

January 5, 2018 | NFL

Sports & Politics Intersect: Raiders gamble with Rooney Rule ahead of Vegas

Front Five: The top stories that shaped both sports & politics this week “Many have asked me whether I think OAK should be required to comply w/Rooney Rule or whether OAK should be given leeway b/c of Al’s legacy.

December 29, 2017

Sports & Politics Intersect 2017 in review: #MeToo reaches the highest levels in sports

It would be borderline impossible to cover the breadth of sexual assault, sexual harassment and sexual abuse stories that plagued not just the world at large, but in the sports world specifically.

December 22, 2017 | NFL

Sports & Politics Intersect: Reckoning claims one of NFL's good ol' boys

Front Five: The top stories that shaped both sports & politics this week “It’s just another person’s word versus that person’s word. But needless to say, I still think extremely highly of Mr.

December 20, 2017 | Utah Jazz

Donovan Mitchell is the NBA's most confident rookie

Donovan Mitchell’s confidence should be bottled and sold next to energy drinks in convenience stores. The Utah Jazz’s rookie is playing like a multi-year veteran, and Quin Snyder has no problem letting the kid learn on the job.

December 18, 2017 | NBA

Catching up on the biggest stories of the young NBA season

The holiday season is always a great time to refresh and rehash everything that’s transpired in the NBA before we head into the new year. There have been plenty of surprises, like the underachieving Thunder and this overachieving rookie class.

December 15, 2017 | NBA

Sports & Politics Intersect: Mr. Jones goes to Washington

Front Five: The top stories that shaped both sports & politics this week “I am pledging $1,000,000 to black women in Alabama to start IT startups. [...] Black women really came out and supported Doug Jones.” - Charles Barkley on "Inside The NBA" On Dec.

December 15, 2017

Donald Trump's quotes vs. the sports world in 2017

Donald Trump was inaugurated to become the 45th president of the United States on Jan. 20 of this year, and more than any other president before him, he's found himself in an array of sports stories.

December 13, 2017 | Sacramento Kings

How Buddy Hield became the NBA's newest sniper

There’s a wild phenomenon going on in Sacramento right now: Every player is performing much better when coming off the bench. Willie Cauley-Stein has seen his scoring and rebounding averages jump from 7.5 points and 5.2 rebounds to 15.9 and 7.3 when moving from the starting lineup to the bench.

December 8, 2017

Sports & Politics Intersect: When Olympic gold corrupts

Front Five: The top stories that shaped both sports & politics this week “I fear that there are still people working at these organizations who put

December 6, 2017 | Philadelphia 76ers

Joel Embiid and displacing fundamental truths

Everyone wants to talk about Joel Embiid, but what I want to talk about is the future that Joel Embiid’s short career alludes to. I want to talk about an NBA in which NBA titles only matter to provide context to a point in time instead of a watermarked description of what the league presumably was for that particular season.

December 1, 2017

Sports & Politics Intersect: NFL, Players Coalition forge a separate peace

Front Five: The top stories that shaped both sports & politics this week "Don't believe the hype." - Russell Okung, Los Angeles Chargers offensive tackle The National Football League's season of messiness and drama continues on for another week, and this time Jerry Jones is not involved.

November 29, 2017 | Washington Wizards

Bradley Beal must embrace change to keep Wizards afloat

The players who capture the essence of any particular era are those who find comfort in, instead of shying away from, the variability that naturally comes with the game.

November 22, 2017 | New Orleans Pelicans

Anthony Davis may never escape his biggest flaw

The only negative thing to come of the emergence of this new swath of young talent is how quickly we forget the once-in-a-generation players who, for all intents and purposes, just got here.

November 17, 2017

Sports & Politics Intersect: Is Jerry out of his league?

Front Five: The top stories that shaped both sports & politics this week "I'm gonna come after you with everything I have." - Jerry Jones, Dallas Cowboys owner In this week's episode of the ongoing soap opera that is the NFL, it's Jerry Jones versus the whole world.

November 16, 2017 | Philadelphia 76ers

Follow Ben Simmons as he leads us to the NBA's unknown future

It's midway through the third quarter, and Ben Simmons is initiating a horns set against the Los Angeles Lakers. Joel Embiid and Dario Saric have met Simmons at the top of the perimeter to set the requisite screens with Simmons 40 feet away from the basket, surveying the whole floor.