Larry Bird had Magic Johnson. Muhammad Ali had Joe Frazier. Roger Federer has Rafael Nadal. To make Coral Springs’ Alexis Thompson a national sports icon, she’ll need a nemesis, and she may have found one in Alison Lee. They’re both 14-year-old golfers, and this past weekend’s slug-out at the U.S…
This week, New Times publishes “Dwyane’s Disaster,” a cover story about Dwyane Wade’s catastrophic partnership with Richard von Houtman, a British baron with a sordid past. Von Houtman has been making wild allegations about the Heat superstar’s personal life since their business relationship dissolved. Two weeks after Wade responded by…
flickr.com Madison Keys, 14, of Boca Raton Sports Illustrated has an interesting piece this week on 14 American teenagers who have “already found their places in the sun” but have promise to become the next generation of superstar athletes. Two of those teens are 14-year-olds from South Florida: Tennis phenom…
The NFL has a lot of hate-able wide receivers. Liberty City product, Chad Ochocinco (former Chad Johnson) is not one of them. A brief background: Three years ago, as Chad Johnson, he declared a new nickname for himself, based on his Cincinnati Bengals jersey number: Ocho Cinco (no, that isn’t…
He can’t legally drive down the Glades Parkway in his hometown of Weston, but 15-year-old Gabby Chaves has a half-million dollar Formula BMW race car that he’s driven at speeds of 150 mph en route to being the league’s youngest champion ever.Weston, apparently, is where the U.S. hides its world-class…
Ronald Belisario was just 16 years old when he was signed to the Florida Marlins in 1999. The right-handed pitcher from Venezuela worked his way through baseball’s farm teams, missing the 2005 and 2006 seasons due to surgery, then landing in the Pittsburgh Pirates’ minor league system. This year, the…
Deon Thomas, the former University of Illinois basketball star who had retired in South Florida and who started a new career coaching junior varsity at The University School in Fort Lauderdale, just landed his first collegiate coaching job. Thomas is the new head basketball coach and athletic director of Lewis…
Will the last Panther fan in South Florida please turn off the lights in the BankAtlantic? Late Friday, star defenseman Jay Bouwmeester was traded to the Calgary Flames for… well… nothing.As a hockey fan who wants to see the team thrive in South Florida, I tried to give management subtle…
Yesterday, just before leaving to represent the U.S. in its only appearance in the FIFA Confederations Cup, in Johannesburg, South Africa, Boca Raton native Jozy Altidore tweeted: “Do you believe? I know I do!!!”On Wednesday, the 19-year-old striker scored the first of the two goals (video above) that toppled the…
With Roger Federer looming, Andy Roddick may be the only one of the three tennis players from Boca Raton who has a chance to win Wimbledon — and a slight one at that. Mardy Fish has looked better than his 28 ranking. But the real Cinderella is 21-year-old Jesse Levine,…
Matthew Mitcham, the reigning Olympic champion diver with the highest-scoring dive in the sport’s history, told an Australian newspaper today that he’s terrified of diving in Fort Lauderdale. “Petrified,” actually. My own theory is that it’s because Mitcham’s coach seems prone to vivid descriptions of the worst-case scenario. Here’s what…
Before he became the assistant athletic director of Nova Southeastern, Larry Starr spent 30 years working as a trainer in clubhouses for the Cincinnati Reds and Florida Marlins. In a Chicago Sun-Times article published Sunday, he paints a ghoulish picture of the behind-scenes baseball culture that preceded the recent scandals…
For a teen-aged immigrant from Brazil, I’m sure it’s mighty tough to acclimate to America, let alone a city with Weston’s wide boulevards and tranquil pace. So maybe it’s best that transfer rules prevented young Fabrecio de Melo from suiting up this past year for the Sagemont School basketball team…
flickr.com Obama has game, but can he beat MV3? When the president says he wants you to come over to play some hoops, you go. Especially if you’re a gold-medal-winning NBA champion who comes from the same neighborhood in Chicago. Dwyane Wade will meet with Obama in Washington, D.C., for…
The biggest news in the world’s biggest sport is that international soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, of Manchester United, has been sold to Real Madrid for a stunning $131 million. The architect of this blockbuster may have a South Florida address. Financial tycoon Malcolm Glazer of Palm Beach is the majority…
Deven Marrero is a shortstop from Davie who goes to American Heritage High School. He looked like the Broward player most likely to be picked on the first day in the Major League Baseball Amateur Draft, which had its first three rounds last night. But Marrero didn’t hear his name…
flicker.com Joey Porter and Jason Taylor may karate chop an opposing QB or two. Joey Porter knows a thing or two about fighting. He also knows about carrying a gun in South Florida and getting shot in the ass in Colorado. Now Bill Parcells has called in a team to…
Since the Major League Baseball debut of Fort Lauderdale native Anthony Swarzak, Southport Raw Bar has turned into the best place in South Florida to watch a Minnesota Twins game. At least on every fifth day.On days when Swarzak starts, as he did Wednesday, a banner out front welcomes a…
This is video of Glen Johnson after losing by decision to Chad Dawson last April. Note the cheers from the crowd as Johnson begins to speak. It’s hard to find anyone who watched the fight and thinks Dawson deserved to win. New Times profiled South Florida-based Johnson in a cover story…
At only 21 years old, Hillary Dobbs of Palm Beach (and Sussex, N.J. — among other homes) is now a veteran of the same horse-jumping world where two years ago she was a prodigy. This week the daughter of the grumpy CNN financial anchor goes up against an 18-year-old who’s…
[jump] Tom Selleck joked about it in Mr. Baseball, as a washed-up American ball player in Japan (easily 1992’s funniest fish-out-of-water baseball movie starring a mustache). And in that movie, Selleck bowling over his Japanese counterparts represented the aggressive, disrespectful, violent way American’s play their own game. Yesterday Mike Berardino reported…
Being a Cleveland sports fan requires a lifetime commitment to Prozac. The underdog city’s teams have a habit of fostering great hopes before losing in some spectacular, nail-biting way. It’s a bruising, emotional roller coaster that would make Rihanna and Chris Brown wince. Yet we keep coming back for more.Now…
