College football
Giannis Antetokounmpo’s historic year earned him a historic awardssweep.
The Milwaukee forward is the NBA’s Most Valuable Player for the second consecutive season, receiving that award Friday. He got the Defensive Player of the Year award earlier in these NBA playoffs.
The 25-year-old Antetokounmpo becomes just the third player in league history to win MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season, joining only Hall of Famers Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon.
“Michael Jordan, one of the best players who’s ever done it, if not the best,” Antetokounmpo said. “Hakeem, a guy that I look up to, he came from where I’m from, Nigeria, where I have roots . ... Just being in the same sentence with them, that means a lot to me.”
Antetokounmpo — who was in his native Athens, Greece, with his family when the award was announced — received 85 votes from the 100-person panel of global sports writers and broadcasters who cover the league, plus the one additional vote granted by winning fan balloting. HEAT 106, CELTICS 101 (THUR.) >> Goran Dragic scored 25 points, Bam Adebayo led a big third-quarter rally to finish with 21, and Miami pulled off another comeback to beat Boston and take a 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference finals Duncan Robinson scored 18 points, Jimmy Butler had 14, Jae Crowder 12 and Tyler Herro 11. The Heat were down by 17 in the second quarter and trailed by 13 at halftime.
They had been 0-21 in playoff games when trailing by at least that many at intermission. They’re 1-21 now, and two wins away from their first NBA Finals since 2014.
BAYLOR-HOUSTON, FAUGA SOUTHERN POSTPONED DAY BEFORE GAMES >> Baylor’s season opener against Houston, scheduled less than a week ago, was one of two Bowl Subdivision games postponed Friday — the day before before they were supposed to play.
Florida Atlantic’s opener against Georgia Southern was postponed earlier in the day, following the results of FAU’s COVID-19 testing Thursday. In both cases, the schools involved said they would try to find make-up dates.
The postponements illustrate the uncertainty surrounding college sports. The number of FBS games postponed or canceled because of COVID-19 issues since Aug. 26 is 16 and the pandemic’s impact is being felt in other sports; one of college basketball’s premier tournaments is moving from Hawaii to North Carolina and the NCAA delayed the start of the basketball season to Nov. 25.
NFL
CARDINALS HALL OF FAME SAFETY LARRY WILSON DIES AT82>> Larry Wilson, a former Cardinals safety and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, has died. He was82.
Wilson died Thursday evening, according to a news release from the team.
the short grass in front of the green to make a birdie.
He finished with five birdies, five bogeys and the eagle that put him in the red for the round.
Wilson spent more than 43 years in the Cardinals’ organization as a player and an executive.
A seventh-round draft pick out of Utah in 1960, Wilson played 13 seasons with the Cardinals. He was an eight-time Pro Bowl selection and was a first-team All Pro five times.
BROWNS 35, BROWNS 30 (THUR.) >> Baker Mayfield threw two touchdown passes, Nick Chubb ran for two scores and 124 yards and Cleveland beating Cincinnati on Thursday.
Mayfield connected with Odell Beckham Jr. on a 43yard scoring pass in the first half, and the Browns (1-1) rebounded from an atrocious performance last week in Baltimore, where they were roughed up 38-6 by the Ravens and looked mostly inept in coach Kevin Stefanski’s debut.
Cycling
ANDERSEN DOUBLES DOWN AT TOUR DE FRANCE, WINS STAGE 19 >> That’s deux for Soren Kragh Andersen at the Tour de France.
The Danish rider who won Stage 14 doubled down and raised his arms in victory again on Stage 19 on Friday, with another cunningly timed attack.
Behind him, saving their last reserves of strength for a time trial on Saturday that will decide the Tour podium, race leader Primoz Roglic and his rivals preferred to coast to the finish while Andersen hared off for the prestige of the stage victory.
He left 11 other riders he’d been with in a breakaway for dead with an acceleration 16 kilometers (10 miles) from the finish in Champagnole in eastern France.
He held up two fingers at the line — one for each of his stage wins.
NHL
LIGHTNING 2, ISLANDERS 1, OT (THUR.) >> Anthony Cirelli scored in overtime to send Tampa Bay to the Stanley Cup Final with a win over the New York Islanders in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final.
Cirelli returned in the third after injuring his right knee in the second. Trade deadline pickup Barclay Goodrow set him up for the goal 13:18 into overtime.