Colin McGowan

Since returning to Cleveland, LeBron James has largely failed to mesh with his hand-picked teammates. Then, when it mattered most, he made that all irrelevant.

Harrison Barnes has been more of a prospect than a productive player for most of his life in basketball. He's been a champion, and is about to be rich, despite that.

Portland Trail Blazers point guard Damian Lillard has the confidence that all scorers share, which is the most useful delusion a player can have. In these playoffs, especially against the Golden State Warriors, he's shown what that's worth.

The first round of the NBA Playoffs is mostly an exercise in anticlimax. But one first-round match-up has an electricity that the rest of the first round doesn't.

The Chicago Bulls changed coaches in the most pissily passive-aggressive way imaginable. It was exceptionally weird, but not an exception. This is the Bulls' way.

Tom Thibodeau is the hardest-driving, loudest-yelling coach in the NBA, and one of the league's better offensive minds to boot. He's also looking for a job.

Real Madrid got rid of manager Carlo Ancelotti after a brief, blameless, and successful stint. They don't seem to know why, but this club has never cared about that.

The Europa League is not the Champions League, and that's enough to make it a punchline. But European soccer's middle class tournament is a lot more than that.

As always, LeBron James is in the midst of a public identity pivot. The many versions we've seen point to a resolution that few expected.

The end appears to have come for Xavi, the avatar of and prime mover in Spain's tiki-taka attack. These moments are always sad, but nothing ever really ends.

Raheem Sterling is one of soccer's brightest young stars, and wants to change teams. He probably will, but he'll have to do so on European soccer's strange terms.

UEFA's "Financial Fair Play" rules were never about a level playing field. In a game that courts the global superrich, even these rules became inconvenient.