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Articles on Professional sports

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Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) goes up for a shot over New Orleans Pelicans forward Herbert Jones (5) during a semifinal in the NBA In-Season Tournament, on Dec. 7, 2023, in Las Vegas. The Lakers won 133-89. (AP Photo/Ian Maule)

The NBA In-Season Tournament is a play for viewer attention — will it succeed over time?

Attention is a limited resource and the sports leagues face a long list of competing choices for viewers. The NBA is trying to pull in more viewers this year with its new In-Season Tournament.
Nashville Predators and Vancouver Canucks players and spectators stand for a moment of silence for Adam Johnson, before an NHL hockey game in Vancouver, on Oct. 31, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Hockey organizations need to address the psychological impacts of team trauma, not just the physical ones

Hockey culture’s tendency to prefer attributes like mental toughness over emotional vulnerability can damage athletes when they’re confronted with traumatic events. This needs to change.
Players voted to accept Major League Baseball’s offer on a new labor deal, paving the way to end the 99-day lockout and salvage the season. AP Photo/Gregory Bull

MLB’s new collective bargaining agreement fails to address players’ biggest grievances

A sports economist explains how the deal leaves players with a fundamentally different – and in many ways, worse – arrangement than their counterparts in the other major US sports leagues.
The Chicago Blackhawks are currently being sued by a former player who is accusing an assistant coach of sexual assault in 2010, at the time the team largely ignored the allegations. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

From the Chicago Blackhawks to Washington’s football team, there’s an urgent need for more accountability in pro sports

Incidents of sexual misconduct, and how they have been handled, highlight the lack of accountability in professional sports, and the problems that this situation creates.
On the occasion of a 2011 match between Portugal and Argentina, Cristiano Ronaldo (left) and Lionel Messi (right) show off a pair of high-end watches. The riches have only continued to flow in. Fanny Schertzer/Wikipedia

Top football stars: famous because they’re rich, or rich because they’re famous?

A new study explores the how the celebrity and status of professional footballers in the “Big Five” European leagues can affect both performance and pay.
A New York Mets employee places cutouts of fans in the seats before the team’s first game of the year on July 24. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

The business of sports resumes amid COVID-19, but at what cost?

Sports is typically a reflection of society, not an exception to it. COVID-19 seems to have turned the model of professional sport inside out.
Protesters stand outside the Federal Court of Canada building for a hearing of the designation of the U.S. as a safe third country for refugees in Toronto in November 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan Denette

Whose travel is ‘essential’ during coronavirus: Hockey players or asylum-seekers?

Many of us would probably like to watch some professional sports right now. But wouldn’t we rather Canada live up to its international legal responsibilities to respect the rights of asylum-seekers?
Former Les Canadiennes de Montréal players Mélodie Daoust, Marie-Philip Poulin and Ann-Sophie Bettez wait for their shift at a Dream Gap Tour game in Toronto. (Courtney/flickr)

A union of women’s hockey players looking for a league of its own

Professional women’s hockey is trying to emerge from a crisis by creating a players’ union to improve pay and working conditions.

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