More Max Dickstein columns

Week 5 NFL predictions: The zaniness comes out

Allow me to share some predictions for the fifth week of the NFL's 2008 season.

U.S. Open title quiets Roger Federer's critics

Wherever Roger Federer went in Manhattan yesterday -- to the sets of two network morning shows, to a photo op at the observation deck of the Empire State Building -- the Swiss star's fifth U.S. Open trophy was his constant, seven-pound companion.

OPINION COLUMN

Column: Roger Federer will falter eventually

Whether it's this weekend, or at one of next year's Slams, or the year after, the inevitable will happen: Roger Federer will falter and fail to reach a Grand Slam semifinal.

OPINION COLUMN

Journalists at the U.S. Open often the farthest away from it

Day sessions at this Labor Day weekend at Flushing Meadows will challenge U.S. Open ticket-holders to enter the stands for just one of several simultaneous, appealing matches.

Column: Best without Artest

Captivating and quirky, stormy and difficult, Ron Artest is moving on to the Rockets next season. And Knicks fans who have pined for the forward to join their team should be glad that his new home will be Houston and not Manhattan.

A grad among the pros

Sam Warburg reckons he is one of just two men in the U.S. Open singles field of 128 who has a four-year college degree.

OPINION COLUMN: MAX DICKSTEIN

Andy Roddick set to turn it around at U.S. Open

With a hot start to the year and a debilitating shoulder injury behind him, Andy Roddick said Thursday that 2008 has been "a tale of two years."

OPINION COLUMN: MAX DICKSTEIN

Brett Favre, Brett Favre... the most beautiful sound I ever heard

Brett Favre Brett Favre Brett Favre

Men's field lacks true favorite

Entering the final Grand Slam of the year, an unfamiliar feeling pervades the tennis world. The "Federer Era" is apparently coming to a close, but talk of a new"Nadal Era" is premature.

Column: Nothing like Yanks-Sox

It seems unthinkable that there would ever be a season when the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry is not the playground of two elite squads with immediate postseason destinies.

Is the All-Star game over yet?

In my dream they are still there, baseball players trotting onto the bright Yankee Stadium field, warming up for the 16th inning like eternally wound-up toys.

Mark Spitz talks about his mustache (and Michael Phelps)

Whether for his mustache or his seven gold medals -- or both -- Mark Spitz enters the conversation each Olympic season.

After Wimbledon, Federer, Nadal attain unrivaled rivalry

Following Rafael Nadal's epic Wimbledon defeat of Roger Federer in the final on Sunday, the question for the top two players in the men's game is: What next? The 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(8), 9-7 victory Nadal accomplished against the top-ranked Federer affirmed that the Spaniard, once an awkwardly muscular teenager, has grown into arguably the game's best player -- an all-court, all-around force. Nadal showed the flair and fortitude needed to win the grueling French Open-Wimbledon double. But what could keep the 22-year-old Nadal from piling up Grand Slam titles -- he now has five -- is the same all-out effort that helps him win. Nadal's withdrawal from Stuttgart on Monday was a reminder that he typically starts slow and ends with a crash. He never has gotten past the quarterfinals at the Australian Open or the semifinals of the U.S. Open.

OPINION COLUMN: MAX DICKSTEIN

Federer no longer dominates tennis

Roger Federer will return to New York next month as the four-time defending U.S. Open champion, but without the Wimbledon title and aura of invincibility that have attended him for his 232 weeks at No. 1.

OPINION COLUMN: MAX DICKSTEIN

Olympic wrestler's secret weapon? His age

Why is 18-year-old Jake Dietchler headed to Beijing as just the third high school wrestler in U.S. Olympic history?

OPINION COLUMN: MAX DICKSTEIN

Smacking tennis balls with Lindsay Davenport, Tracy Austin

I began pondering my retirement from professional tennis Thursday.

OPINION COLUMN: MAX DICKSTEIN

Willie should find inspiration with Joe Torre

Willie Randolph has twice survived dismissal by the Mets -- once last fall, days after the team's September collapse, and again on Monday after a meeting with Mets brass.

OPINION COLUMN: MAX DICKSTEIN

IndyCar racing being left in the dust

Ah, the Indy Racing League. Let us count the ways of its potential appeal:

Blessings keep coming for D'Antoni family

After the official introduction of Mike D'Antoni Tuesday, Knicks president Donnie Walsh mentioned that his new coach would join him at the draft lottery in Secaucus next Tuesday, when the Knicks find out if their seventh straight losing season will earn them the No. 1 draft pick.

Finding humanity in horses

No human being can match a thoroughbred racehorse's package of speed, strength, determination and grace.

Postgame ritual melds Rangers with fans

It happens after every Rangers home win.

Column: Steph and Isiah should get over it

It's become easy to forget that Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury was once a rare basketball talent.

Might be just the beginning for Roger Federer

Roger Federer has been the world's No. 1 men's tennis player for four years, uninterrupted.

Modeling swimwear for Sports Illustrated swimsuit models

"This is very adorable," said Anne V, a $14 million diamond necklace draped below her exquisite Russian visage. "I'm very happy."

Giants win wouldn't haunt one Pats fan

The undefeated Patriots have lost countless games this season -- in my uncle's nightmares.

SPORTS COLUMN

Dallas fans: Cowboys dialed in for Giants

I reached out and touched Dallas.

SPORTS COLUMN

Don't believe the hype around Giants/Pats

There are obvious problems with the Patriots' effort to complete the NFL's first perfect 16-0 regular season against the Giants on Saturday

SPORTS COLUMN

Knicks fans should boo themselves

The contagious negativity surrounding the basketball team that plays at Madison Square Garden has infected the Knicks' loyal fans, to everyone's detriment.

SPORTS COLUMN

Grandpa's Eagle eye

On Sunday night, my grandfather watched his Philadelphia Eagles mount a surprising challenge to perhaps their toughest opponent ever -- the fearsome New England Patriots -- before the Eagles lost 31-28, following an interception late in the fourth quarter.

SPORTS COLUMN

Formal Bonds charges come too late

Charges come one home run record too late

SPORTS COLUMN

Knicks may actually be worth watching

There's this entertaining thing you can do now: buy a ticket to a Knicks game, go to Madison Square Garden and have fun.

SPORTS COLUMN

Just another Yanked employee

Firings, rumblings, ultimatums and general off-stage bluster are the Yankees' style under George Steinbrenner.

Rockies sweep away some pain

Like sunlight brought forth when a window shade ravels into its roller, the Colorado Rockies' flawless run to the World Series sheds new light on the Mets' abysmal September.

SPORTS COLUMNIST

Questionable behavior very typical for Isiah

Back in June, Isiah Thomas' former coach Chuck Daly told me that Thomas is a "barracuda-tough guy." This week, the Knicks' president and head coach was pretty much judged an impolitic pig, and from what we learned during his trial, we might add that he is Machiavelli-manipulative and Nixon-ambitious.

City's football fans on verge of despair

The first, light chills of autumn are in the air and Jets and Giants fans enter this weekend with nary an NFL victory to which they might anchor any feelings of promise.

Sporting gifts from South Asia

Jaded after a long, disillusioning summer of news about the American sportscape, I turned my eyes to kabaddi and kho-kho, two indigenous sports that I believe South Asia has offered for international adherence.

Gambling suspicions cloud tennis world

Eh tu, tennis?

Celtics miss shot at basketball immortality

Way to go, Celtics.

SPORT COLUMN

Baseball could learn from cycling

While baseball trembles in near-motionless contemplation of its own performance-enhanced past, cycling has sprinted ahead with a doping reconciliation that might be a model for the foot-dragging MLB.

SPORTS COLUMN

Is Portland passing on Jordan (again)?

The talent frothing at the top of next week's NBA draft, particularly at the top two spots, takes me back to when I was 4 1/2 years old.