With Mike Modano being honored with a statue tonight, I wrote about his legacy as the man who put Sun Belt hockey on the map: neilpaine.substack.com/p/mike-modanos…

In my latest for ESPN, I looked at why the Basketball Power Index projections say it’s more than likely that Caitlin Clark and Iowa WON’T make it back to the Final Four, despite all the brilliant accomplishments of this season: espn.com/womens-college…

At ESPN today, I dug into the teams that have exceeded expectations 🔥 — or fallen short of them 🧊 — the most in the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments so far… and which players are responsible for those trends: espn.com/mens-college-b…

New ESPN piece from me today — this year, we have the best odds of seeing a Canadian Stanley Cup winner since 1994! I go through why each of the four contenders (Oilers, Leafs, Canucks, Jets) will or won’t bring the Cup back home: espn.com/nhl/insider/in…

Long before Caitlin Clark was a household name, Paige Bueckers was supposed to be the best player from their HS class. Multiple devastating injuries later, Bueckers is finally back to proving why she was the best in a stacked group of freshmen 4 years ago.neilpaine.substack.com/p/paige-buecke…

diving into baseball season like

I got weirdly philosophical in this one… But the futility of Trout is the futility of man. His Sisyphean struggle is ours. neilpaine.substack.com/p/the-futility…

We got Neil Paine writing a history of the American economy through stadium name rights sherwood.news/business/a-his…

Throwback NBA chat with Neil Paine! Audio only, but we had a lot of fun. natesilver.net/p/nba-playoffs…

College football FPI is out! Here's Neil Paine with the story: espn.com/college-footba…

For Philadelphia Inquirer Sports , I wrote about what it would take for the Sixers to build enough ✨ star power ✨ to win a title around Joel Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, either through free agency or potential trades: inquirer.com/sixers/sixers-…

At Philadelphia Inquirer Sports, I wrote about the 1977 Sixers’ 2-0 NBA Finals collapse as a cautionary tale for the 2024 Celtics, if they allow their focus to let up (and if Dallas can make any big strategic adjustments) from Game 3 onward. inquirer.com/sixers/sixers-…

This was a great personal tribute to Willie Mays by my friend (((Harry Enten))) — whose father (a wonderful man & lifelong NY Giants fan, even after they left NY) watched Mays at the Polo Grounds, and even saw him around the neighborhood in his retirement. cnn.com/2024/06/20/spo…

For Philadelphia Inquirer Sports , I wrote about the depth of this year’s draft, and why it might be an OK time to be picking outside the lottery (the Sixers pick 16th): inquirer.com/sixers/sixers-…

At Philadelphia Inquirer Sports , I used my NBA free agent surplus value data since 2011 (neilpaine.substack.com/p/which-nba-te…) to look at the Sixers’ track record in free agency over the years (as they lead the NBA in projected practical cap space): inquirer.com/sixers/sixers-…

NEW POD with the great Neil Paine. A data driven exploration of sports mysteries houseofstrauss.com/p/hos-neil-pai…

I wrote about the bleak state of sports video gaming, and why College Football 25 might be a beacon of light in the darkness: neilpaine.substack.com/p/will-college…

For Philadelphia Inquirer Sports, I looked at some of the biggest questions facing the Phillies in the season's second half (including, yes, that uptick in schedule difficulty) inquirer.com/phillies/phill…

and with my time at Forbes wrapping up, that means I am once again a free agent! 👋 Open to *remote* freelance, full time or part time. editorial design, art direction, photo illustrations, etc. 💌 DM's open, contact info on my site! let's work together! emilyscherer.com