The swift turn against the Raptor’s All-Star reflects society’s worst ills – Toronto can do better As Osgoode’s resident faithful Pascal Siakam fan, I have been recruited to write an article anticipating his return to the NBA after suffering a season-ending injury in May 2021. While I am eagerly waiting for his return, I cannot help but think of the terms on which he left last season. ...
After another shortened season and a summer filled with TMZ-level basketball drama, the NBA basketball season is back with a full 82 game schedule for its 75th season which began on Tuesday October 19. Let’s get reacquainted with some of the Eastern Conference teams that are expected to contend for the Larry O’Brien Trophy come April 2022. Brooklyn Nets On paper, this is the most volatile team in...
Hockey is back and for Leafs fans, it’s the start of an 82-game regular season, which means close to nothing without that second-round appearance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. With a far from exciting off-season and the departure of some key pieces to the lineup, it is hard to gauge whether the Leafs are better equipped to face their playoff demons. The answer to whether this team is better than...
And other storylines of note as the NHL resumes With the NHL now a week into its new season, I figured it would be a good time to circle back to the league and discuss the interesting storylines I expect to see out of this season. Oh and don’t worry, my fearless (read: unfounded) predictions will be here as well. Much like the past nearly two years of our lives, COVID-19 will still be a major...
The Lewisham Ballack is finally threatening to return back to his best for Chelsea after years of injury kept him from fulfilling his ridiculous potential Football is a cruel sport that moves on quickly from past glory days, just ask Arsenal. After having threatened to move on from Ruben Loftus-Cheek, the player opted for a decidedly non-North London response and rose from the ashes. In 2019...
Amazon’s new series, All or Nothing: Toronto Maple Leafs features an in-depth behind the scenes look at the Leafs throughout their last season When I first heard the Leafs were going to be featured in an Amazon documentary, I was ecstatic. As a fan of similarly styled programs with the Dallas Cowboys, I was eagerly anticipating seeing some behind the scenes footage that the regular hockey viewer...
If you’ve been paying attention to the major headlines coming out of the National Hockey League (NHL), you have seen the name Jack Eichel a lot recently. Eichel has been the subject of much debate over the last six months, and in that time has been called everything from stubborn to whiny to selfish. To string together exactly how we got here, to an ongoing violation of personal and medical...
The MLB playoffs are well underway. Why did this article come out after the Wild Card games? Wild Card games are not playoff baseball. So without further ado, here is my ranking: The Contenders 1. The Los Angeles Dodgers The defending World Series champions are looking to repeat. The Dodgers boasted one of the best starting rotations in baseball. However, star off-season acquisition Trevor Bauer...
During the 2015 Major League Baseball (MLB) Trade Deadline, the Toronto Blue-Jays made a blockbuster move when they acquired ace pitcher David Price. The Jays would go on to reach the American League (AL) Championship Series, where they ultimately fell to the Kansas City Royals. The Royals would go on to win the World Series that year but Jays fans still relished in the success their team had...
The Philadelphia 76ers appeared to be a team that had it all sorted out on paper: 2 NBA All Stars in Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons, playoff success for the past 5 years, the top seed during the 2020-2021 NBA Playoffs, and a city cheering them on every step of the way. The NBA championship seemed to be within the 76ers’ grasp as many believed that the 76ers would quickly dispatch of the Atlanta...
When Simone Biles walked off the floor and opted out of six of her six artistic gymnastics finals during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to a mental block, she shone a bright light on mental health issues in sports and the pressure that high-level athletes competing at both the Olympics and in professional sports leagues face on a near daily basis. Athletes such as Simone Biles, tennis player Naomi...
Of the myriad of sports that saw an increase in uptake over the course of the pandemic, tennis was perhaps the most noticeable. With social distancing restrictions limiting other sports that require closer contact from the menu, standing seventy-eight feet away from one’s adversary while thwacking a fluorescent ball back and forth became both one of the few options on the cards, as well as a good...
With transfers occurring left and right after clubs loosened their purse strings, this season in the English top flight will prove to be exciting Last year’s Premier League season saw Manchester City win the league title with a few games to spare with a relatively paltry sum of eighty-six points. Although their devilish city neighbour’s form saw them only mathematically win their third league...
From Tom Brady to an additional game, the year promises to be an exciting one With the 102 season of the National Football League just underway, fans can look forward to the numerous intriguing storylines that are present in the league this year. Here are a few: “It’s a man! It’s a plane! No, it’s the GOAT!” Former First Take analyst Max Kellerman is famous for theorizing in 2016 that then-New...
As some 65,000 unmasked fans flooded the stands of Raymond James Stadium in Tampa Bay on Thursday, the National Football League (NFL) season kicked off with quite a bang. The classic Buccaneer cannons rang out with each touchdown scored — and there were a lot of them! In the end, the Bucs (and the refs) stole one in the dying seconds from a Cowboys team that gave it their all. Final score: 31-29...
The cost of hosting the famous Games grows more and more each iteration Every Winter or Summer Olympics, heartwarming sports moments flood our discourse. For the Tokyo 2020 Olympics this past summer, those heartwarming moments came again in full force. Two of my favourite moments were Andre De Grasse from my hometown of Markham, Ontario winning gold in the 200 m, and weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz...
A Recap of the 2021 NBA Trade Deadline The NBA trade deadline day has always been a nerve-wracking day for NBA fans waiting to see whether their favourite players will be traded. For Raptors fans, this year’s trade deadline had the potential to be franchise-altering with the possibility of trading both franchise star and GROAT (Greatest Raptor of All Time) Kyle Lowry and long-time Raptor Norman...
Staff Writer Luke Giffen Reflects on his NHL Predictions and Takes Us Back Through What’s Been a Truly Bizarre, One-of-a-Kind NHL Season As we move well past the halfway point of this strange NHL season, I thought it would be a good idea to look back on how my predictions stacked up from when the season first began. Also, I’ll recap the multitude of interesting stories that have popped up along...
Boxer Marvelous Marvin Hagler passed away on March 13, 2021. He had his name legally changed to “Marvelous” after announcers did not refer to his nickname. He was marvelous in the ring and was considered one of the “Four Kings” of his generation of boxers, which included Thomas Hearns, Roberto Durán, and Sugar Ray Leonard. I love the sport of boxing, and it’s taught me some transferrable skills...
Why we ought to give the future HOFer his flowers while he is still here As the adage goes, you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. For a brief moment in time, Raptors fans were given no choice but to stare into the unknown and envision a world without Kyle Lowry. The whirlwind of a nine-game losing streak, talks of a rebuild in the media, and rumours of a frugal real estate transaction...
I have known my friend Mike (real name withheld) for about ten years. We grew up together attending the same summer camp, and then we spent four more years in Montreal completing our undergraduate degrees. For as long as I have known him, Mike has bought, sold, and traded sports cards. And for as long as he has been collecting, I have been telling him to stop wasting his money. Of course...
Osgoode teams crowned champions, reach semi-finals, among 26 teams across North America in National Sports Moot hosted by U of T On March 13th, Osgoode Hall sent two teams (virtually) to the annual Hockey Arbitration Competition of Canada, hosted by the University of Toronto. This year’s Osgoode teams were executive members from the Osgoode Entertainment & Sports Law Association, Jordan Kazan...
When Thomas Tuchel first joined up with a struggling Chelsea squad, he vowed to make them into a team that no one enjoyed playing against. Given their dire form at the time, most probably wrote off this task as one that would have to wait until the following season when Tuchel had come to grips with the rollercoaster nature of Premier League life. However, the rangy German has proved himself to...
The unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic has made 2020 a year to forget for businesses and industries alike. One of the hardest hit by the pandemic seems to be the live sports and entertainment industry. Many professional sports leagues have been postponed or cancelled, and only those with healthy financial resources or lucrative TV broadcasting contracts have survived. For smaller corporations...
March has finally arrived. March has always been my favourite time of the year because of the excitement surrounding the NCAA Basketball March Madness tournament. From a young age, my dad would print out the brackets and we would fill them out by hand. We would then track our success throughout the tournament with red X’s and blue circles. As I grew up, the pen and paper brackets evolved into...