Ed Graney is a sports columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, covering a variety of topics and the Las Vegas sports scene.
egraney@reviewjournal.com … @edgraney on Twitter. 702-383-4618
This is what makes the World Series of Poker so inviting each year, players such as Paul Conelly and those journeys that bring them to the Rio, regular people with fascinating backgrounds who dream of reaching a final table and watching a river card turn in their favor to earn them massive amounts of cash.
In a week during which U.S. authorities indicted 14 people on bribery, racketeering, fraud and money-laundering charges within international soccer dating to the 1990s, Sepp Blatter’s 17-year run as president of FIFA continued when his opponent surrendered after one round of voting.
Palo Verde High School lacrosse coach Gary Campo was in Philadelphia over Memorial Day weekend to watch the collegiate Final Four, but more so to offer support for Jeremy Huber’s family, which also made the trip. Jeremy, who played for Campo, was found dead in his dorm at Johns Hopkins on Jan. 26.
The teenager who rushed Roger Federer at the French Open meant no harm when requesting a selfie, but other such snapshots across the sports world have led to horrible endings and rightly suggested the security in charge of protecting athletes is often negligent. Not that it’s always their fault.
John Dodson comes back from a serious knee injury Saturday night to face Zach Makovsky on the UFC 187 preliminary card at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. “I’m going to knock somebody out and do a flip off the cage,” says the ever-confident Dodson.
Wally Backman is still old-school enough to prefer a mix of metrics and instinct, the 51s manager who should be running the Miami Marlins right now but isn’t because owner Jeffrey Loria is a bigger lunatic than we ever imagined.
NCAA officials hope proposed rule changes, including a shorter shot clock, will help increase scoring in college basketball. But it looks as if the rule changes will make things much tougher for lesser-talented teams to upset bigger, faster, more athletic ones.
Like most college sports in this era of the BCS and now playoff football, the national championship for men’s golf is more about generating fan interest than fretting over what might be the most demanding test for its participants. It’s all about the number of eyeballs watching. Just ask UNLV coach Dwaine Knight.
Jelan Kendrick on Saturday walked in a procession far more important than any half-court set he has been part of, graduating from UNLV with a degree in sociology. His journey to the reality of a cap and gown, more than anything else, is best described as complex.
Cerruti Brown labels himself as a man who thinks outside the box. He wants to form a team — the Las Vegas Dealers — made up of McDonald’s All-American prep players and current college and NBA Development League players to compete against professionals from Europe over a six-month season that would begin in October.
The strategy of fouling DeAndre Jordan, Dwight Howard or any big man who can’t shoot free throws seems to be slowly killing what is meant to be a beautiful game and the NBA may try to change its rules to prevent it. But the strategy seldom works.
In his quest to continue denying any involvement over the deflation of footballs, New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady will reach retirement and beyond having never admitted to any wrongdoing. He will always lie about this. Isn’t that why the NFL hammer was swung with such ferocity on Monday?
Dantley Walker has departed UNLV for a land of mangoes and guava and cooling trade winds, for a Division II program in Chaminade whose history is defined by one of the biggest upsets in college basketball history.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship this week announced a tiered payment system for its athletes from its partnership with Reebok, and if all 586 currently under contract didn’t voice their displeasure across social media, well, a good chunk of them did.
A lawsuit has been filed claiming Manny Pacquiao deceived pay-per-view fans by not disclosing his injury before his fight with Floyd Mayweather Jr. If you paid to watch the fight, you were owed a championship fight. You got it — a typical Mayweather one.
