BASKETBALL
Nets ban Kyrie Irving
The Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday barred star guard Kyrie Irving from practice, as well as games in the NBA season that starts next week, because he refuses to be vaccinated against COVID-19. “Given the evolving nature of the situation and after thorough deliberation, we have decided Kyrie Irving will not play or practice with the team until he is eligible to be a full participant,” Nets general manager Sean Marks said. “Kyrie has made a personal choice, and we respect his individual right to choose... Currently, his choice restricts his ability to be a full-time member of the team, and we will not permit any member of our team to participate with part-time availability.” Due to COVID-19, New York has implemented new health and safety regulations that do not allow unvaccinated athletes to take part in practices and games. Irving could have played in road games without being vaccinated, but Marks’ statement rules that out.
RUGBY UNION
Men in tights allowed
Skinned knees could soon be a thing of the past in rugby after the sport’s governing body amended its laws to allow players at all levels to wear tights or leggings during games. Law 4 of the sport, which covers players’ clothing, previously only permitted women to wear “cotton blend tights or leggings, with single inside seam under their shorts and socks,” but it has now been extended to all participants with immediate effect, World Rugby said on Tuesday. The amendment has been implemented on “welfare and accessibility grounds,” amid the increasing use of artificial surfaces. “With some players susceptible to abrasions on artificial surfaces, the decision gives players the option to wear tights or leggings as a preventative measure, maximizing access to the game,” World Rugby said. “World Rugby will also work with unions and registered artificial turf providers to ensure that rigorous best-practice maintenance programs are observed.”
GOLF
Hornets attack J.R. Smith
J.R. Smith on Tuesday stepped into a hornets’ nest in his first college golf tournament and it had nothing to do with his high score. The 36-year-old two-time NBA champion was literally stung by hornets while completing his round for North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University on the second day of the Elon Phoenix Invitational. That could not have helped with the nerves he experienced when the competition began on Monday, lining up tee shots as a 36-year-old freshman walk-on playing his first college golf tournament. “I was nervous, I was,” said Smith, who shot a 12-over-par 83 in Round 1 and then a seven-over 78 in Round 2. “I didn’t really know what to expect.”
OLYMPICS
‘No IOC challenge for China’
International Olympic Committee (IOC) vice president John Coates yesterday swatted aside suggestions that China should be challenged over its human rights record ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics. Asked about the treatment of the Uighur minority in China, Coates said the body has no mandate to act. “We are not a world government. We have to respect the sovereignty of the countries who are hosting the games,” Coates told an event in his native Australia. “We have no ability to go into a country and tell them what to do ... it’s not our remit.”
RECORD DEFEAT: The Shanghai-based ‘Oriental Sports Daily’ said the drubbing was so disastrous, and taste so bitter, that all that is left is ‘numbness’ Chinese soccer fans and media rounded on the national team yesterday after they experienced fresh humiliation in a 7-0 thrashing to rivals Japan in their opening Group C match in the third phase of Asian qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. The humiliation in Saitama on Thursday against Asia’s top-ranked team was China’s worst defeat in World Cup qualifying and only a goal short of their record 8-0 loss to Brazil in 2012. Chinese President Xi Jinping once said he wanted China to host and even win the World Cup one day, but that ambition looked further away than ever after a
‘KHELIFMANIA’: In the weeks since the Algerian boxer won gold in Paris, national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women In the weeks since Algeria’s Imane Khelif won an Olympic gold medal in women’s boxing, athletes and coaches in the North African nation say national enthusiasm is inspiring newfound interest in the sport, particularly among women. Khelif’s image is practically everywhere, featured in advertisements at airports, on highway billboards and in boxing gyms. The 25-year-old welterweight’s success in Paris has vaulted her to national hero status, especially after Algerians rallied behind her in the face of uninformed speculation about her gender and eligibility to compete. Amateur boxer Zougar Amina, a medical student who has been practicing for a year, called Khelif an
Crowds descended on the home of 17-year-old Chinese diver Quan Hongchan after she won two golds at the Paris Olympics while gymnast Zhang Boheng hid in a Beijing airport toilet to escape overzealous throngs of fans. They are just two recent examples of what state media are calling “toxic fandom” and Chinese authorities have vowed to crack down on it. Some of the adulation toward China’s sports stars has been more sinister — fans obsessing over athletes’ personal lives, cyberbullying opponents or slamming supposedly crooked judges. Experts say it mirrors the kind of behavior once reserved for entertainment celebrities before
GOING GLOBAL: The regular season fixture is part of the football league’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the sport to international destinations The US National Football League (NFL) breaks new ground in its global expansion strategy tomorrow when the Philadelphia Eagles and Green Bay Packers face off in the first-ever grid-iron game staged in Brazil. For one night only, the land of Pele and ‘The Beautiful Game’ will get a rare glimpse into the bone-crunching world of American football as the Packers and Eagles collide at Sao Paulo’s Neo Quimica Arena, the 46,000-seat home of soccer club Corinthians. The regular season fixture is part of the NFL’s increasingly ambitious plans to spread the US’ most popular sport to new territories following previous international fixtures
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