Whiner. Before this year's NBA playoffs, that would have been one of the first words that came to mind, for many people, if someone mentioned Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban. After all, this is the guy who has racked up around $1.7 million in fines over the last decade for criticizing the league and its referees. Go ahead and Google it. "Mark Cuban and Whiner." You'll only see 533,000 results. Another insult frequently directed at Cuban was baby. ...

Updated: June 16, 2011, 3 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time The police in Vancouver did little at first, when drunken and angry sports fans took to making sport of the streets of the city. It all started with the flipping of a car on Georgia Street, inside one of the outdoor spectator zones set up to watch the seventh and deciding game of the National Hockey League's Stanley Cup championship between the Vancouver Canucks and the Boston Bruins. The ...

Oliver Wendell Holmes once observed that every profession is great that is greatly pursued. Boxing in the early '60s, largely controlled by the Mob, was in a moribund state until Muhammad Ali--Cassius Clay, in those days--appeared on the scene. "Just when the sweet science appears to lie like a painted ship upon a painted ocean," wrote A.J. Liebling, "a new Hero...comes along like a Moran tug to pull it out of the ocean." Though Ali won the gold medal at ...

When the University of Connecticut beat Butler on Monday night to win the NCAA championship, they brought down the curtain on an unusually exciting men's college basketball tournament. But one aspect of the tournament was entirely predictable: The handwringing about the low-graduation rates for many basketball programs. While graduation rates for student athletes are improving, poor outcomes remain a serious problem. In this year's tournament, only 42 of the 68 teams graduated at least 60 percent of their players, according to the Institute ...

Eben MacBurney Byers, 51, popular Pittsburgh sportsman and ironmaster, fell out of an upper berth five years ago returning from a Yale-Harvard football game. He hurt his arm. His Pittsburgh physiotherapist, Dr. Charles Clinton Moyar, prescribed a patented drink called ''Radithor." It was distilled water containing traces of radium and mesothorium . The dope eased the arm pain, braced Byers up. He enthusiastically recommended it to friends, sent them cases of it, even gave some to one of his horses. ...

College football may seem like a religion to Americans, but to many American Catholics the University of Notre Dame football team is the incarnation of their faith in sport. Yet, apart from the battle for the college football national championship, the biggest biggest news in college football this season has been the continued decline of Notre Dame. After another disappointing season, the University of Notre Dame has lost another football coach. Charlie Weis tried to make the ...

Rubens Barrichello boosted his chances of overhauling Brawn teammate Jenson Button and winning his first world title by claiming pole position for his home Brazilian Grand Prix in treacherous conditions on Saturday. The 37-year-old will start a race from the front for the first time in five years on Sunday after championship leader Button -- who he trails by 14 points with two races left -- failed to make the final session of qualifying as rain drenched the Interlagos circuit ...

Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel kept alive his faint hopes of winning this year's Formula One world title with a convincing success in Sunday's Japan Grand Prix at Suzuka. The 22-year-old German cruised to victory from pole position, his third of the season and fourth of his career. World championship leader Jenson Button collected a single point after finishing eighth, meaning he is now 14 points ahead of Brawn GP team-mate Rubens Barrichello, who finished one place ahead of him in ...

Tiger Woods admitted he was happy with his overall consistency as he landed the FedEx Cup despite missing out on the Tour Championship to Phil Mickelson in Atlanta on Sunday. The court said the abduction and torture in custody of Jestina Mukoko grossly violated her rights. Mukoko, the leader of Zimbabwe Peace Project, challenged her prosecution in an appeal to the country's Supreme Court saying state security agents had abducted her from her home during a dawn raid and ...

Lewis Hamilton led from start to finish to win the Singapore Grand Prix at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. It was the Briton's second win of the season and the eleventh of his career. Toyota's Timo Glock secured his highest placing this season coming in second with Renault's Fernando Alonso coming home in third. Championship leader Jenson Button bounced back after a disappointing qualifying session to finish fifth, ahead of his teammate and rival for the title Rubens Barrichello who ...