Mark Hale

There are seven teams in the NBA playing .700 basketball or better — Thunder, Pistons, Nuggets, Rockets, Knicks, Spurs, Lakers. Remarkable.

Why is coaching so hard to quantify? In an era in which nearly everything can be quantified with metrics and analytics, it’s the one area that remains shrouded in ambiguity.

In a sports era in which EVERYTHING can now be measured in analytics, there’s still no metric to evaluate who’s a good or bad coach/manager:

Why? What makes a good coach or manager? And how do we determine their effect on winning?

shorturl.at/WLsED

A bronze statue of Bill Withers, sitting on a stool, playing guitar in an outdoor public plaza

My hometown, Beckley, West Virginia, put up a statue of Bill Withers last weekend in what is now called Bill Withers Plaza. Small towns celebrating locals who made it good always makes me smile.

Exclusive | Mets pushing for Pete Alonso resolution with time of the essence While the sides appear amenable to a short-term structure, one question remains: Can they bridge the gap in finances to keep Pete Alonso in Flushing?

nypost.com/2025/01/15/s... a story with @JonHeyman and Dan Martin on where Mets and Alonso are in negotiations.

I will never understand running backs who cut back instead of plunging forward on 2nd and 1 or 3rd and 1 or 4th and 1

Jacobs just did it. Judkins did it for Ohio State on Friday.

Get the first down. THEN try for more.

Good for Ryan Day. He’s about the right things.

Marcus Freeman and Day couldn’t be two easier national championship game coaches to root for

Anyone who thought Ohio State was going 4-0 in the playoffs and cruising in all four games didn’t watch Ohio State all season

Some people will hopefully understand this…

The Thunder being this great without Holmgren and Caruso is like Inigo and Westley being that great at fencing lefty in The Princess Bride. And at some point they’ll get those guys back and it’ll be, “I am not left-handed!”

Exclusive | Mets doing right by David Wright with number retirement: ‘He owned it all’ Wright almost certainly will never get the day in Cooperstown his old friend covets for him, one for which he was on a fast track until his back began to bark. July 19 will have to do.

Column: from the start, Cliff Floyd knew David Wright had the “it” factor to be a star. What started as a mentorship has grown into a bond, and Floyd is one of millions of #Mets fans happy to see No. 5 go into the CitiField rooftop, forever. nypost.com/2025/01/07/s...

Just my take but there was no world, none, in which Joe Douglas could get six seasons and never sniff the playoffs… Dave Gettleman could get four seasons and never sniff .500… and Joe Schoen, who won a PLAYOFF GAME, would only get three

Don’t see anyone beating the Thunder this season. Best team in the league.

I wonder if anyone has ever scored 17 points in like 50 seconds before like Notre Dame just did

If Oregon wins, it’s completely unfair that they’d have to play Texas in the Cotton Bowl. That means the No 1 seed would basically have a road game? That’s absurd.

Jeremiah Smith could be the most talented freshman since Trevor Lawrence in 2018

Great read here by Joel

All year the narrative is…

“The quarterback class is terrible, and it’d be a reach to take one at 1 or 2.”

Giants win today…

“The Giants screwed up their chance to take a quarterback.”

Make that 20 of 21

Imagine if before the season someone said, “The 49ers, Cowboys, Jets, Bengals and Dolphins will all miss the playoffs.”

Weird how when the Jets don’t play one of the worst defenses in the league, the offense has 9 points…

The Chiefs have now won 19 of their last 20 games, including their second straight Super Bowl. But yeah, they’re lucky.

The Knicks got a bargain with Miles McBride’s contract. I talked to him about that and canvassed the league to see what he’d get in the open market today

t.co/FAOID6mAqy

ICYMI, Column: please don’t let Rob Manfred’s Visigoths scare you. The Golden At-Bat is every bit the idiotic, imbecilic, and moronic idea that you think it is. And it must be silenced. Immediately. nypost.com/2024/12/04/s...

The backpage: CUP OF 'O'

Knicks blow out Magic behind high-octane offense to reach NBA Cup knockout round.

Read more: trib.al/zVBfYs8