Javaris Crittenton had separated himself from the pack, joining the sliver of men who play hoops well enough to reach the NBA. He overcome astronomical odds, achieving the childhood dream of millions, to enter a fraternity with about 450 active members in any given season. But if the allegations are true, if Crittenton fired the…

Hoops action was a blast this summer for the lucky fans who crammed small gyms and lined playground fences for a live glimpse of NBA stars balling during the lockout. Unfortunate others had to be content with highlights on the Internet and, in select cases, ESPN. Maybe they’ll have better luck next time. There’s talk…

Serena Williams should have been the feel-good story of the U.S. Open, returning to tennis after hardly playing at all, recovering from a pulmonary embolism that could have killed her. And the tournament was playing out just right, as Williams knocked off six consecutive opponents before losing against Australia’s Samantha Stosur in the finals Sunday.…

Erik Moses escaped into his RFK Stadium office for a brief respite Saturday afternoon, but not before someone asked him about the cheerleaders, who wanted to know if they should perform on the grass or the dirt surrounding the field. “Sometimes I wonder why I got a law degree, when all I do is put…

Another college football season started Sept. 1, with the bulk of attention heaped on the usual suspects, powerhouse programs such as Oklahoma, Alabama and Louisiana State. Such schools — members of lucrative Bowl Championship Series conferences — enjoy regular appearances on national TV, play in stadiums that seat 80,000 to 100,000 fans and often appear…

Aug. 29 was a bad day for Michael Vick haters, who already couldn’t stand the fact that he successfully resurrected his NFL career last year after spending 19 months in jail for running a dogfighting ring. Now, not only that, but the Philadelphia Eagles made matters worse Monday by signing him to a reported six-year,…

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial has moved visitors to tears. It has also sparked more talk about the need to be a “colorblind” society. Racists and bigots push that agenda, sure, but many well-intentioned liberals suggest the same thing, like those who say they forget sometimes that President Obama is black —…

Fifty or so years ago, before they became commonplace at major colleges such as Louisiana State, the University of North Carolina and the University of Florida, the nation’s top African-American student-athletes played at HBCUs such as Grambling, North Carolina Central and Florida A&M. Professional scouts knew where to find them, too, traveling to black schools…

Nearly 60 years after Willie Thrower became the NFL’s first black quarterback in the modern T formation, players from Donovan McNabb and Vince Young to Doug Williams and Warren Moon have faced aspects of the same debate: “Do they have what it takes upstairs?” The question lurks and lingers even today, notwithstanding their success in…

Here we go again. Just two months after ESPN’s The Fab Five documentary sparked a controversy involving Jalen Rose and Grant Hill, we’ve suffered another instance of black athletes sorting our dirty laundry in public. This time it’s boxer Bernard Hopkins, who claims in a recent Philadelphia Daily News article that Washington Redskins quarterback Donovan…