Sports
NBA Slam Dunk Contest Falls Flat Once Again
NBA All-Star Saturday Night honored its self-imposed curfew and ended before 8 p.m. Eastern, allowing viewers in certain markets to catch the end of “Wheel of Fortune.”
Fittingly, the conclusion of the Slam Dunk Contest that capped the festivities in Inglewood, Calif., recalled a would-be “Before & After” puzzle: VINCE CARTER BRYANT.
There stood Vince Carter, TV analyst and first dunk champ of the millennium, offering encouragement to San Antonio Spurs rookie Carter Bryant. Bryant needed a 47.5 on his second dunk of the final round to eclipse Miami’s Keshad Johnson after delivering a perfect 50 with his first.
A competition that introduced its greenhorn participants with fictitious action movie trailers had at last attained drama worthy of Tinseltown.
Instead, it limped to an anticlimactic finale as fans settled for lackluster over blockbuster again.
Johnson and Bryant defeated Jaxson Hayes of the Los Angeles Lakers and Orlando Magic rookie Jase Richardson to reach the finals. Each took part in the contest for the first time.
Along the way, Richardson fell on his back and appeared to bump his head after an ill-timed attempt on a 360 lob. He emerged uninjured.
As actor, comedian and noted roundball lover Michael Rapaport took to X to suggest the NBA “cancel this shit before someone gets hurt,” the men dunked on. Someone needed to win, and indeed, people wanted to, if only because it beat the alternative.
“Just losing in general, no matter what it is. I could care less if it was an Uno game, I could care less if it was running lines, I could care less if it’s a shooting competition,” Bryant said. “I feel like losing is something that burns. I just hate it. That’s just something you don’t want to feel.”
The same social media platforms that lazily lambasted the field for being relative unknowns featured footage of Bryant executing the very dunk he was aiming for: bouncing the ball off the glass and finishing with a thunderous reverse.
“I’ve been doing that dunk since I was 14 years old,” said Bryant, a 20-year-old from Riverside, Calif. “Just the ball didn’t roll my way tonight.”
Bryant settled for a different dunk to produce a score knowing it wouldn’t top the ever-smiling and dancing Johnson, who took the court alongside rapper E-40 and skied over him for his initial first-round dunk.
Johnson surely did his part to uphold the hype in a contest that has given fans only four participants in each of the past five All-Star weekends. As ever, the judges’ table housed dunking royalty representing an era when players’ attitudes toward the contest and game were different.
Kudos, then, to Carter. While he might have lingered around Bryant for a few seconds too long as Saturday afternoon approached evening out Cali way, he admirably threw support instead of shade. That produced what the peppy Johnson called “contagious” energy.
“I feel like he loved being out here. He loved giving back,” Johnson said. “Him being able to embrace me, embrace the other participants. You know when something is real, and I feel like his love, his knowledge he was trying to get to us and him being accessible to us, it was real love, and I felt that.”
Now for coaxing contemporary dunkers approaching Carter’s profile into the contest, too.
Whether dunks take flight outside LA or elsewhere, it shouldn’t take incentives to give fans a good show, but here we are.
Someone should grab the wheel, or else the “Wheel” could look even more attractive next year.
Sports
Arizona F Koa Peat nursing lower leg injury
Arizona Wildcats forward Koa Peat (10) looks for a pass against Kansas Jayhawks during the game inside Allen Fieldhouse on Feb. 9, 2026. Freshman forward Koa Peat sat out the second half of top-ranked Arizona’s 78-75 loss to No. 16 Texas Tech with a lower-body injury on Saturday in Tucson, Ariz.
“We’re gonna figure it out. It’s a lower leg deal,” Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd said of Peat’s injury. “I know (trainer Justin Kokoskie) and the doctors are on it and I’m sure they’ll do some testing and we’ll figure out where it’s at. But I don’t have anything other than that.”
Peat, who is a projected first-round NBA draft pick, finished with two points and a rebound in 11 minutes of action on Saturday.
He is averaging 13.8 points, 5.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists in 25 games for Arizona (23-2, 10-2 Big 12), which has lost two in a row following a 23-game winning streak to start the season.
The Wildcats return to action on Wednesday against BYU (19-6, 7-5).
–Field Level Media
Sports
Twisted Minds show grit in winning OWCS Pre-Season Bootcamp
A custom gaming keyboard backlit with red LED lights waits for tactile input before Manual took on Boone County in a Rocket League match, which was streamed on YouTube on Thursday, March 5, 2020. Twisted Minds overcame a two-map deficit in the semifinals before coasting to a 4-1 victory over Crazy Raccoon in the grand final of the Overwatch Champions Series Pre-Season Bootcamp on Sunday in Seoul.
Twisted Minds found themselves on the brink of elimination to Team Liquid in the semifinals after dropping a 2-1 setback on Lijiang Tower and 134.14m-85.66m decision on Esperanca. Twisted Minds, however, reversed course by posting a 3-0 win on Eichenwalde, a 3-1 victory on Havana and a 139.62m-45.31m triumph on Colosseo.
Twisted Minds had a much easier time of it versus Crazy Raccoon. They bolted out to a fast start, courtesy of a 2-1 win on Busan, 3-2 victory on Blizzard World and 139.62m-39.81m triumph on Colosseo. Crazy Raccoon briefly halted the momentum with a 2-1 win on Shambali Monastery, however Twisted Minds ended the match with a 138.31m-52.44m victory on Esperanca.
OWCS PRE-SEASON BOOTCAMP CHAMPIONS ????
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— Twisted Minds ?? (@TwisMinds) February 15, 2026
Crazy Raccoon advanced to the grand final with a 3-2 triumph over Team Falcons. Crazy Raccoon won the first two maps and Team Falcons countered with two victories of their own before the latter rebounded with a 2-0 victory on Lijiang Tower.
Twelve teams took part in the $25,000 event that kicked off the 2026 Overwatch Champions Series. Teams from North America, the EMEA region, China, Japan and elsewhere in Asia were invited.
The single-elimination bracket saw teams seeded by regional and 2025 World Finals performance. Sunday’s grand final was a first-to-four-wins competition.
Overwatch Champions Series 2026 Pre-Season Bootcamp prize pool
1. $15,000 — Twisted Minds
2. $5,000 — Crazy Raccoon
3-4. $2,500 — Team Falcons, Team Liquid
5-8. No money — Team Peps, Weibo Gaming, T1, Virtus.pro
9-12. No money — Disguised, VARREL, Dallas Fuel, All Gamers
–Field Level Media
Sports
Leylah Fernandez comes from set down to win in Dubai
Jan 20, 2026; Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; Leylah Fernandez of Canada in action against Janice Tjen of Indonesia in the first round of the women’s singles at the Australian Open at ANZ Arena in Melbourne Park. Mandatory Credit: Mike Frey-Imagn Images Leylah Fernandez of Canada rallied to upset No. 13 Liudmila Samsonova 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 in the opening round of the Dubai Duty Free Championship in the United Arab Emirates on Sunday.
With her loss in the two-hour, 52-minute match, Samsonova dropped to 0-5 in three-set matches in 2026.
Samsonova and Fernandez played a tough first set, punctuated by 11 deuce points spread over three games. It wasn’t until the 11th game of the set, with Fernandez serving at 5-5, that Samsonova was able to forge ahead with a break to take the lead, then serve for the win.
The second set was nearly a carbon copy with another late break. Samsonova was serving down 6-5 to stay in the set, but Fernandez broke serve to take the set.
In the third, Samsonova fell behind by two break points at 5-0 before Fernandez forged ahead for the win in the WTA 1000 event.
The only other seeded player in action Sunday was Czech Linda Noskova, a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 winner over Ann Li. Noskova withstood 13 aces from the American, also helped by winning points on 73% of her first serves.
Surviving another three-set match was Magda Linette of Poland, a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 winner over Lulu Su of New Zealand.
With the top two women’s players in the world, Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus and Iga Swiatek of Poland, pulling out of the Dubai tournament, Elena Rybakina of Ukraine is the top seed. She had a bye to the second round, and she will meet Kimberly Birrell of Australia, who topped Tatjana Maria of Germany. 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.
Also advancing to the second round were Janice Tjen of Indonesia, American Peyton Stearns, Elise Mertens of Belgium, Czech Barbora Krejcikova, Ella Seidel of Germany and Russia’s Diana Shnaider.
A trio of Americans — No. 2 seed Amanda Anisimova, No. 3 Coco Gauff and No. 4 Jessica Pegula — all have a first-round bye and will make their tournament debuts in the second round on either Monday or Tuesday.
–Field Level Media
Arizona F Koa Peat nursing lower leg injury
Twisted Minds show grit in winning OWCS Pre-Season Bootcamp
