Hours after winning the top pick at the 2013 NBA Draft Lottery, the Cleveland Cavaliers have decided they will keep any and all options open when it comes to trades.
According to a tweet from ESPN's Brian Windhorst, the Cavaliers will use their two first round picks and salary cap space to investigate any deals that may be sent their way. Kyrie Irving isn't going anywhere at the point, but any other spot on the roster could stand to be improved.
Given Anderson Varejao's injury concerns, the frontcourt could use some bolstering in the offseason. Nerlens Noel is projected to be best prospect available in the draft, though, and would provide Cleveland with a defensive presence around the rim that is rare in today's game. For that reason alone, it seems unlikely a trade for the No. 1 pick is made.
One thing that could keep Cleveland from taking Noel with the top pick would be the health of his surgically-repaired knee. The Kentucky forward tore his ACL in February and is not expected to be back until December, although he has not had any hiccups while rehabbing.
There is also the chance the Cavaliers fall in love with another prospect. Someone like Otto Porter of Georgetown or Victor Oladipo would appear to be terrific fits on the wing, especially given their ability to dig in defensively. Neither have the upside of Noel, though, and could likely be had with a later pick in the 2-5 range.
With more than a month remaining before draft night, expect to hear the Cavaliers mentioned in more trade rumors. Just don't expect the No. 1 pick to be dealt anytime soon.
Build a new stadium, host the Super Bowl to show it off.
The NFL rewarded the San Francisco Bay Area on Tuesday with hosting rights for the 2016 championship game, slotting the 50th Super Bowl in the 49ers' high-tech Santa Clara stadium scheduled to open next year.
The league also voted at its spring meetings to give the 2017 game to Houston, which last hosted the big game in 2004.
"After losing a Super Bowl, it feels really good to win a Super Bowl," said 49ers CEO Jed York, whose team lost to Baltimore in the NFL title game in February. "We are so excited to be able to put on the 'Golden Super Bowl' in the Golden State."
The back-to-back, first-ballot votes also sent a message to South Florida that it needs to settle its squabble over renovations at the Miami Dolphins' stadium before it will get a chance to host its 11th Super Bowl.
"I can tell you that I think the stadium is a very import part of any of these proposals. The condition of the stadium is a factor," commissioner Roger Goodell said. "I think it's the stadium, at the end of the day. Their proposal was really quite exciting. I think owners would like to be in Miami. But it's competitive right now."
It may have been a lost year for the tech titan in many respects, but Apple's position as the world's most valuable brand remains undisputed.
Still, rivals are gaining share of the smartphone market, profits and margins have been squeezed, Apple stock is 30% off its 2012 peak, and the company hasn't unveiled a major new product since the iPad mini last October.
The company has picked itself up off the mat again in recent weeks by announcing it will hand back $100 billion to shareholders over the next three years and is working on "exciting new product categories." Cue the long-rumored iWatch or iTV?
The NFL and NFL Players Association are on the verge of pushing back the draft to May and moving up the start of the league year to before the Indianapolis scouting combine, according to league and union sources.
The change of the draft to May would be effective in 2014, according to a source.
As for the draft, the NFLPA is close to signing off on allowing the NFL to move the draft to May from April for at least the next three years, according to sources. Under the current collective bargaining agreement, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell can set the date of the draft without the NFLPA's approval, although he would prefer to have the union's blessing to maintain league harmony.
The start of the new league year is now expected to be moved to before the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis rather than after it, per league sources. The NFLPA wanted to give free agents a chance to find new teams sooner.
The new league year would start before the combine in 2015 and 2016, a source said.
The NFL originally proposed a league year that would have started later in the calendar year and the NFLPA rejected that idea, believing it to be unfair to its players.
This year's scouting combine took place from Feb. 20-26. The 2013 league year began on March 12.
Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia are set to face off during the 2013 U.S. Open, but the Spanish pro golfer took the rivalry to a new extreme when he made a racially offensive comment towards Tiger at an awards dinner.
During the European Tour’s awards dinner on May 21, Sergio made a racist comment when someone asked him jokingly if he was going to have his rival Tiger over for dinner during the U.S. Open.
“We will have him round every night. We will serve fried chicken,” he said.
The racially-charged comment shocked attendees and the public after The Guardian published the remark, especially since Tiger’s dad is African American.
After he made the statement, the Spanish golfer released a statement in which he apologized for the comments.
“I apologise for any offence that may have been caused by my comment on stage during The European Tour Players’ Awards dinner. I answered a question that was clearly made towards me as a joke with a silly remark, but in no way was the comment meant in a racist manner,” Sergio said in a statement.
Joining Facebook was once an eagerly awaited milestone for teenagers, who rushed to sign up once they finally obtained the necessary ".edu" email address from their college.
But as Facebook has vastly broadened its reach, teens say they're less enthusiastic about the social-networking site.
A new report from the Pew Research Center finds that social media use is skyrocketing among teenagers, but teens aren't happy with a Facebook community that involves "drama," stress and their parents.
Pew says 81 percent of teens use social-networking sites, up from 55 percent in 2006. And 94 percent of teens said they use Facebook, despite their complaints.
The report says teens "dislike the increasing number of adults on the site, get annoyed when their Facebook friends share inane details, and are drained by the 'drama' that they described as happening frequently on the site. The stress of needing to manage their reputation on Facebook also contributes to the lack of enthusiasm."
Facebook opened to anyone above age 13 in 2006, two years after it launched. At the start, the site was only open to those with valid college email addresses. Adults -- not high school or college students -- have been Facebook's fastest-growing demographic for several years.
That growth means that 70 percent of teens say they're Facebook friends with the parents, according to the Pew report. And 91 percent are friends with members of their extended family; 30 percent are friends with teachers or coaches.
For the first time since 2004 and just the third since 1962, the U.S. Men's National Team will return home with a medal from the International Ice Hockey Federation World Championship. Team USA captured the bronze medal in Stockholm Sunday with a 3-2 shootout win over Finland.
In the end, it was a pair of 19-year-olds sealing the medal for the United States in the shootout. Goaltender John Gibson stopped two of three shooters, while Montreal Canadiens rookie Alex Galchenyuk scored twice on identical moves to help the U.S. claim bronze.
Galchenyuk's winner brought a big sigh of relief for Team USA. The Americans surrendered a 2-0 lead in the third period on a pair of goals by Phoenix Coyotes forward Lauri Korpikoski within a three-minute span.
Nashville Predators sophomore Craig Smith and Colorado Avalanche star Paul Stastny scored in the first period for Team USA. Stastny tied for the tournament's scoring lead with 15 points, including seven goals and eight assists. Smith had 14 points, including a tournament-high 10 assists.
While both those offensive performances are notable, it's the play of Team USA's young goaltender that stands out most. Gibson, an Anaheim Ducks prospect, made 36 saves against Finland and also made a dazzling stop on Petri Kontiola in the shootout to give the U.S. a chance. Gibson finished the tournament with a .951 save percentage, 1.56 goals-against average and one shutout in five starts.
This U.S. team lacked a lot of star power, with Stastny and Erik Johnson representing the biggest names on the roster as 2010 Olympians. With an average age of a shade under 25, it was also a relatively young outfit compared to its competition.
Most followers of the World Championship didn't expect Team USA to make it out of the quarterfinals, which has been an annual stalling point for U.S. squads. So the medal is meaningful, even if it isn't a best-on-best tournament.
The men's team winning bronze also completed a rare year for USA Hockey. There are five annual IIHF top division tournaments in men's and women's hockey. U.S. teams medaled in all of them in 2013, including gold at the World Women's Championship and World Junior Championship; silver at the Men's and Women's World Under-18 Championship and now bronze at the men's worlds. USA Hockey's sled hockey team also took silver at its World Championship, which is not sanctioned by the IIHF. No other country has accomplished that since 2008 (Canada), according to TSN play-by-play man Dave Randorf.
So that's a huge year for USA Hockey and a great indicator of where it is headed as an international hockey power.
The World Championship may be seen more by NHL fans as more trouble than it's worth, especially after the injury to Canada's Eric Staal showed the type of risks this tournament represents, but it is an important event for the international hockey community. Maybe stars shouldn't go, but this tournament allows the depth of each country to compete in a high-level event, which helps with development. As hockey grows, the parity is beginning to show, and this tournament is one of the many reasons why.
Switzerland will meet Sweden for the gold medal at the IIHF World Championship at 2:30 p.m. ET to close things out in Stockholm.
The Houston Super Bowl committee is in Boston, making its pitch to host Super Bowl 51. Houston is competing against the city that loses out on Super Bowl 50 in 2016.
With the Dolphins unable to secure public funding to refurbish Sunlife Stadium in Miami, San Francisco is the favorite to host Super Bowl 50. That means Houston's chances of hosting the Super Bowl in 2017 look real good.
We won't know for sure until the owners vote Tuesday morning.
Samsung will host a US$800,000 contest for developers that build apps for the Galaxy S4 using the company's peer-to-peer software interface.
The South Korean company said Monday entrants in its "Smart App Challenge 2013" must make use of the Samsung Chord SDK (software development kit). Chord is a software interface for creating wireless connections directly between Samsung smartphones, without the use of an online server or mobile phone network.
Samsung is marketing its peer-to-peer technology to end users as "Group Play," a service for multiplayer games or sharing music and photos among users of its phones and tablets. The company is the world's largest smartphone manufacturer but relies on Google's Android ecosystem for the bulk of its online offerings and apps, most of which also run on rival phones.
The company said apps in the contest will be judged on categories such as uniqueness, commercial potential, and design. Apps must be entered for consideration from June 20 to Aug. 31, and the judging will run through November.
In addition to the use of Chord, entries must be sold on the "Samsung Apps" marketplace and use Samsung's application programming interfaces (APIs) for in-app purchases and displaying advertisements.
The contest will have 10 overall winners, awarding $200,000 to one first-place winner, $100,000 each to three second-place winners, and $50,000 each to six developers that come in third. Winning apps will also be candidates for investments from Samsung's venture arm and be promoted through the company's online properties and press events.
Give American Airlines credit for trying a new method to board passengers more quickly. Airlines constantly tinker with the boarding process, and this time American says it has found a way to cut an average of two minutes from the 40 minutes to 45 minutes that it takes to board a narrowbody aircraft. American narrow bodies take off about 3,000 times a day, so two minutes per flight is a lot of time.
American’s new method involves allowing passengers who are traveling light, with only a carry-on item that fits under the seat in front of them, to board early, before “group two.” The policy was implemented systemwide on Thursday, after testing that began several months ago in seven cities.
The intent is to improve on-time performance, said Kevin Doeksen, American director of customer planning, in an interview. American, like all airlines, boards its premium passengers first. “To have this group of customers follow the premium passengers basically shortens the buildup (involving) premiums looking for bin space,” he said. “This group is very quick because once they get on board, they are not looking for bin space. They board the aircraft and find seating and sit down.”