For 41 years, the city of Seattle enjoyed NBA basketball. And then the Sonics moved to Oklahoma City and became the Thunder.

Across the past year, though, there was hope that the NBA was returning to the Emerald City. Sure the team was the Kings -- a squad that has...

LeBron James was recently given his 4^th Most Valuable Player award by 120 sportswriters. Well, at least 119 sportswriters agreed LeBron was MVP. Gary Washburn -- of the Boston Globe -- thought Carmelo Anthony was the league's MVP in 2012-13.

It doesn't take...

Rutgers University fired Mike Rice -- the head basketball coach -- last Wednesday. This firing came about after ESPN released a video that showed Rice abusing his players. Such a video had already been seen by Rice's boss at Rutgers in November, but until the video was...

In 2010, CBS and Turner Broadcasting agreed to pay $10.8 billion to broadcast the NCAA men's basketball tournament from 2011 to 2024. As a result of this contract, fans of this tournament can watch these games on four different networks. And perhaps more importantly (for those of...

The "best" picture of 2012 was Argo.

At least that's the film that won the Oscar for best picture. According to the Oscars, the decision to give this award toArgo was made by the nearly 6,000 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. As

This blog post first appeared on Wages of Wins.

"Analysis" is defined by Websters as "separation of a whole into its component parts."

So when we listen to an analyst on television during a basketball game, we should hope to hear analysis that takes what we...

This blog post originally appeared on Freakonomics.com

Kobe Bryant says that "other team" in LA -- the Clippers -- are title contenders in 2013.

And Kobe made this statement before the Clippers defeated the Lakers on Friday night and then destroyed the Golden State...

This post first appeared on Freakonomics.com

More than 25 college football teamshave decided to change head coaches in the past few weeks. As the new coaches get hired and settled into their new jobs, one suspects that all of them believe that they will be...

This post originally appeared on Freakonomics.com

Much of the focus today on college football is on the teams at the top. Will Notre Dame win the national title and finish undefeated? Can Alabama win another championship? Then there are the 34 other bowl games. In all,...

This post originally appeared on Freakonomics.com.

It's been a few days. And although I ain't over it yet, I think I can write about the Detroit Tigers losing the World Series.

When the playoff in baseball began, 10 teams -- and their fans -- were very happy. But...

This post originally appeared on Freakonomics.com

Much has been made of the plan the Oklahoma City Thunder followed in building a title contender. Here are the basic steps the Thunder supposedly followed:

1. Lose a bunch of games across a few seasons, which allows a team to accumulate...

This post first appeared on Freakonomic.com

If you wish to win in baseball, your team has to spend money. Just look at the New York Yankees. USA Today reports that in 2012 the Yankees led the American League in spending. And the Yankees finished with the best record...

The post originally appeared on Freakonomics.com

Economists are often asked -- and perhaps, just as often just volunteer -- to make predictions. This is odd, since -- as the old joke goes -- economists only seem to exist to make meteorologists look good. In other words, economists often...

The post originally appeared on Freakonomics.com

ESPN.com recently offered a somewhat confusing article comparing the 2012 U.S. Men's Olympic basketball team to the 1992 Dream Team. The headline of the article -- "LeBron: We Would Beat Dream Team" -- makes it clear that LeBron...

The post originally appeared on Freakonomics.com

The NBA free agent market opened this month and the moves making headlines include:

• Steve Nash signing with the L.A. Lakers
• Ray Allen signing with the Miami Heat
• Jason Kidd signing with the New York Knicks
• Deron Williams re-signing with the Brooklyn...

The Charlotte Bobcats came into existence in 2004. At the conclusion of the next five seasons, the Bobcats finished out of the playoffs and hence earned a trip to the NBA's lottery.

After all of these lottery picks, the Bobcats finally made the playoffs in 2010. That Bobcat team...

The blog post originally appeared on Freakonomics.com

Matthew Yglesias recently noted that the very rich are unhappy with President Obama because he would like to increase the taxes on the very rich. Although this might be true, the number of people unhappy with...

This post originally appeared on Freakonomics.com

Here is how the Associated Press led the story describing the Miami Heat's elimination of the New York Knicks in the 2012 NBA Playoffs:

The final horn sounded, and LeBron James wrapped his arms around Carmelo Anthony in a warm...

This post originally appeared on Freakonomics.com

If you have been watching the NBA recently -- and with the playoffs going on, you should be -- you may have seen the following ad for Sprint:

The article was originally published on Freakonomics.com

When we think of money and college sports, we tend to think only about basketball and football. In fact, defenders of the excesses we see in those sports -- with respect to salaries to coaches and university expenditures -- argue that...