🎧Sports Brief: NBA Jams Into New All-Star Tourney; Racers Rev Up for Daytona 500

The world’s best basketball players gather for an all-star slam fest in the City by the Bay...

Nikola Jokic #15 of Team Serbia and LeBron James #6 of Team United States fight for a rebound during the second half of the game between Serbia and the United States on day two of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille, France, on July 28, 2024. Pool/Getty Images

What’s cookin’, sports fans? Welcome to the Valentine’s Day edition of the extra large and turbo-charged Epoch Times Sports Brief for Friday, Feb. 14, 2025. I’m your Valentine, Bill Thomas, and we’ve got some rockin’ good stories to share with you right now. Here’s what’s going on in the thrilling world of sports.

The world’s best basketball players gather for an all-star slam fest in the City by the Bay; the NASCAR season roars into action with a legendary opening race in Daytona; and hockey greats from around the world skate for gold and glory in a fabulous four-nation face-off.

Also, it’s batter up for major league baseball as spring training swings into high gear, and with next season’s kick-off just around the corner, we’ll break down the latest action as we charge full-speed toward the NFL draft.

Sports Brief host commentary: Time permitting, at the conclusion of today’s Sports Brief program, along with the Sports Brief 39-piece orchestra, I will sing for you that great romantic classic, My Funny Valentine. Again, that’s time permitting. Back to the program.

We’ve got a ton of juicy sports items to pick apart for you today, and we tip it all off with a Sunday night San Francisco treat, and we don’t mean the Rice-A-Roni kind. This one features thunderous dunks, sky-high alley-oops, a bunch of intentional fouls, and the very best players in the NBA, and here’s what’s up.

NBA Jams Into New All-Star Tourney

This year’s All-Star game features three packed eight-man teams recently drafted by NBA legends Charles Barkley, Shaquille O’Neal, and Kenny “the Jet” Smith, who all happen to be commentators on “Inside the NBA.”

For my money, it’s a slam dunk. Shaq drafted the best team; he’s got LeBron James, who’s playing in his 21st All-Star game, along with Bay Area favorite Steph Curry, who’s gonna be draining threes on his home court. They’re gonna be joined by the legendary Kevin Durant, along with a pair from the defending champion Celtics, Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown. If this team of old-timers doesn’t run out of gas, they could run the table.

Meanwhile, Barkley’s team is loaded with international players, with three-time MVP Nikola Jokic manning the pivot, along with budding superstars Victor “I Can Touch the Sky” Wembanyama and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander backing him up.

Smith’s team is led by Wolves guard Anthony Edwards (yeah, the ER guy), and the fourth team will be the winner of tonight’s Rising Stars tournament, which features some of the league’s best up-and-coming players; they’ll eventually be coached by WNBA legend Candace Parker when they square off against the grown-ups.

On Sunday, Team Kenny faces Team Chuck in one semi, while Team Shaq plays the Rising Stars winner in the other. The first team to score 40 points wins each game, with the two winners eventually throwing down for bragging rights as well as the big prize of $125,000 per player—not a bad chunk of change for what’s basically an entertaining shootaround. (It’s kind of like a Harlem Globetrotters game ... but for beginners.)

By the way, the losers in the big game bag $50,000 apiece, while everyone else walks away with $25,000 just for showing up.

Sports Brief commentary: 25 large just for being there? Far better than the participation trophy they gave me in third grade for coming in last place in my school’s tether ball tournament. Yeah—still hurts.

Let’s shift into high gear now, and on Sunday, the field is set, the checkered flag’s gonna fly, and more than 40 top drivers are gonna put pedal to the metal as the NASCAR season kicks off with The Great American Race. Gentlemen, crank up those Pintos!

Racers Rev Up for Daytona 500

Stock car racing’s signature event is held at the 2.5-mile-long Daytona International Speedway, where over 120,000 screaming, well-behaved, sober, tie-wearing fans in the stands are gonna make more noise than the high-powered engines roaring around the tri-oval track below.

The 41-driver lineup is set, with Chase Briscoe of Joe Gibbs Racing earning the pole position for Toyota for the very first time.

Joining him on the front row will be Penske’s Austin Cindric, who drives a Ford and won last night’s second Duel at Daytona to grab his prime spot. Directly behind them will be the winner of the first Duel, Erik Jones, who begins the 500 on the inside of the second row. So, you know, the results of those duels determined the entire starting lineup for the race.

Another driver to keep your eye on is last year’s Cup winner, Joey Logano; he’s gonna be lining up on the outside of the fifth row as he begins his quest for a fourth Cup Series championship in his Penske Ford.

Additionally, a pair of racing legends— seven-time Cup champion Jimmie Johnson and open-wheel driver Helio Castroneves—are also competing. They’ll both be starting at the back of the field when the green flag drops, the Daytona 500 thunders into high gear, and the first of 36 NASCAR Cup races jams into action.

We head now to the ice, and this year, instead of an all-star game, the NHL’s playing a competitive four-nation tournament featuring some of the world’s best players as the puck drops on this spectacular skate-off.

Puck Drops on Fabulous 4-Nations Face-Off

It’s called the 4-Nations Face-Off, and it’s a round-robin competition featuring teams from the United States, Canada, Sweden, and Finland. All the players are from the NHL; they’ll all play each other at least once, and each game’s gonna take place at either the TD Garden in Boston or the Bell Centre in Montreal, Canada. (I love Canada! They gave us Gordon Lightfoot, and they make great soda pop, Canada Dry.)

In their first game last night, the U.S. team looked dominant in a 6-1 win over Finland. The red, white, and blue were led by the Tkachuk boys, Matthew and Brady (no relation to Greg, Peter, and Bobby), who each netted a pair of goals in the victory.

Team USA skates into action again tomorrow night when we face off in a pivotal match against our neighbors to the north, Canada, who squeaked out an overtime victory in their opener against Sweden earlier this week. Both the Canada and U.S. squads look formidable and are absolutely stacked with some of the top skaters on the continent.

For their part, both Sweden and Finland have a significant presence in the NHL. They’re fast on the ice and solid in front of the net, and they meet tomorrow afternoon in Montreal.

By the way, the top two teams will eventually meet for the championship this coming Thursday—just six days and a couple of hours from now.

Let’s go now to the diamond, where pitchers and catchers have already reported for workouts, and MLB spring training is officially underway. Play ball!

Baseball Returns as Spring Training Begins

Good news, baseball fans: The sound of the ball popping into the mitt can now be heard in both the Grapefruit League in Florida and the Cactus League in Arizona. The pitchers are already throwing, and the rest of the players will report in just a few days.

This season, everyone’s gonna be staring straight up at the defending champion Los Angeles Dodgers and their gazillion-dollar payroll. They’ve just added better depth on the mound and at the plate and, to make things even more frightening, all-world Shohei Ohtani is beginning to throw again as well.

Meanwhile, longtime Astros third baseman Andrew Bregman, who’s a proven winner and a solid dugout presence, just signed a massive three-year, $120 million deal to play for the Red Sox as the boys from Beantown look to take another step up in the competitive AL East. (Gimme a bag full of those Boston Baked Beans!)

Other off-season moves we’re keeping an eye on as the season ramps up include Juan Soto and his 15-year, three-quarters-of-a-trillion-dollar contract with last year’s biggest surprise, the New York Mets.

We’ll also be watching as pitcher Corbin Burnes heads to the Diamondbacks, Kyle Tucker moves to the Cubs, and pitchers Blake Snell and Roki Sasaki land in L.A. to join the Dodgers.

Sports Brief host commentary: Hey, Sports Brief writer Davey Ross—correction: to join the World Champion Dodgers! Back to the program currently in progress.

Also, we’ll be cheering for the White Sox, simply because last year they were the worst team in modern baseball history—and here in the Sports Brief dugout, we always root for the underdog. And we’ll certainly be following last year’s World Series non-winners, the New York Yankees, to see how well they bounce back after being positively pummeled in the Fall Classic.

By the way, the regular season opens up in Tokyo, Japan, in just over a month, with a pair of games between the Cubs and the Dodgers. Go Cubbies!

(I can’t wait for baseball: $75 dollar bleacher seats, $35 dollar parking spots, and $23 dollar hot dogs ... Batter up!)

We have just enough time now to show a little Brotherly Love to the Super Bowl Champion Philadelphia Eagles, who absolutely mauled the Kansas City Chiefs in front of more than 120 million viewers on their way to that humongous parade down Benjamin Franklin Parkway, which was held earlier today.

Eagles Parade Kicks Off Busy NFL Offseason

The Broad Street bullies showed the entire world that they’re clearly the best team in the universe, that they’re here to stay, and that they’re absolutely the team to beat as we barrel ahead toward next season, which, by the way, kicks off in just over 200 days.

Now for the rest of the league. The coaching carousel has finally stopped rotating, and the last open position was filled earlier this week when former Eagles offensive coordinator Kellen Moore accepted the top spot in New Orleans.

Meanwhile, yesterday, the league announced their list of more than 300 draft hopefuls who’ve just been invited to showcase their skills at the upcoming NFL scouting combine, which begins in Indianapolis in only 10 days.

They include some of the biggest stars in college football, who are all hoping to up their stock for the coming NFL draft that’s gonna be held at Green Bay’s legendary Lambeau Field in late April.

Additionally, the hapless New York Jets have just announced that they’re parting ways with future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers following a pair of disastrous campaigns.

If your team is in the market for a 41-year-old, four-time MVP, Rodgers is your man. Here at the Sports Brief, we’re hoping he gets one more chance to ride off into the sunset as a champion. We love you, Rog, and you are the real deal.

Hey, we’re out of time now, so we’re gonna make a break for it, but we’re gonna be back next week with another edition of The Epoch Times Sports Brief.

Truth is, we’re not really out of time. It’s just that one of the cable channels is running a Get Smart marathon, and we simply can’t miss even one episode: Max, 99, the Chief, Larabee, and all the rest. It’s TV worth watching.

If you have any thoughts, comments, or suggestions about the Sports Brief program, we’d love to hear from you, but only if you have chocolate-covered kudos for the Sports Brief crew. C’mon, man—it’s Valentine’s Day, and you can find us at [email protected].

Hey, don’t forget the Sports Brief motto. Actually, I already forgot it, or maybe we never had one, so if you have a rockin’ good Sports Brief Motto you can share with us, that would be just groovy. Send along your best Sports Brief motto to [email protected] or simply post your motto here in the comments thread. We really do need a Sports Brief Motto. Chop chop, man … help us out.

As I promised at the start of today’s Valentine’s Day edition of the Sports Brief program, time permitting, I vowed to sing “My Funny Valentine.” Unfortunately, the producers say we’re out of time. There’s always next year.

For all of us here at The Epoch Times Sports Brief, I’m your Valentine, Bill Thomas.

The Sports Brief is written every week by the inimitable Davey Ross.

Finally, sometimes every week on this almost award-winning program, we leave you with a highly notable quote, and this comes to us from Pat Riley, who said:

“Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.”

Riley has won five NBA championships as a head coach, four with the Los Angeles Lakers during their Showtime era in the 1980s and one with the Heat in 2006. Coach Riley … one of the best that ever was.

America: Thank you for making us your one-stop source for a concise, accurate, and engaging rundown of all the sports stories you absolutely need to know about.

Enjoy another great weekend of sports, stay safe, and remember—let’s all continue to watch out for one another. Have a superb day today, and don’t forget to keep your eyes on the game. Bye for now.