Jim Lampley is entering the ring again. His ring – a place the award-winning announcer called home for more than 30 years until HBO Boxing turned off the lights in 2018.

The Emmy winner, 76, is scheduled to call a boxing card featuring Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney and Teofimo Lopez on Friday in Times Square. It’ll be the first time in more than six years viewers will hear the smooth-toned, distinctive voice on the blow-by-blow call.

“I had dispensed with the notion that anybody was ever going to ask me to call fights again,’’ Lampley told USA TODAY Sports. “So it’s thrilling. It really is.’’

Fred Sternburg, a publicist inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame, said he thinks Lampley might become the oldest announcer to handle blow-by-blow duties.

“If it’s a fact, it scares me,’’ said Lampley, who was inducted into the International Boxing Hall of Fame in 2015. “But being scared is often good.’’

So says the announcer who covered 14 Olympics and called legendary boxing matches such as Buster Douglas’ shocking knockout victory over Mike Tyson in 1990 and George Foreman winning the heavyweight title at age 45 with a knockout of then 26-year-old Michael Moorer in 1994.

Now it’ll be Garcia vs. Rolando “Rolly’’ Romero, Haney vs. Jose Carlos Ramirez and Lopez vs. Arnold Barboza Jr. Lampley has had to prepare while promoting his recently released memoir – “It Happened! A Uniquely Lucky Life In Sports Television,’’ – and also welcoming a 12th grandchild into his blended family.

And now, a new chapter unfolds in New York.

“You don’t expect at my age to become the busiest man on the planet,’’ Lampley said, “but I kind of feel as though I am at this particular time.’’

How did Jim Lampley boxing return unfold?

On Feb. 1, Lampley was at the David Benavidez-David Morrell Jr. fight when members of the media found him. They called his attention to a post on X from Turki Al-Sheikh, the Saudi who’s become arguably the most powerful figure in boxing.

“I would like to have and invite Mr. Jim Lampley on the live broadcast of one of our upcoming cards,’’ the post read.

They were words Lampley had been waiting to hear since HBO shuttered its boxing division.

“It was a change in his life that he maybe still hasn’t entirely gotten over,’’ said Lampley’s wife, Debra, who of HBO’s Boxing closing down added, “It was dark days. They still had his contract, so he couldn’t work anyplace else.’’

When HBO bought out Lampley’s contract in 2020, the offers he thought would come never did.

So Lampley, who lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, taught a class in media for five semesters at his alma mater, North Carolina. Then, in 2023, he joined PPV.com, for whom he has co-hosted a live viewer chat during pay-per-view fights and also interviewed boxers. He was visible again.

Then came Al-Sheikh’s post. Followed by a meeting with the Saudi power broker.

“I shook his hand, I looked him in the eye,’’ Lampley said. “I have a personal relationship now and a friendship with Turki Al-Sheikh.’’

Perhaps a friendship that could lead to more announcing work for Lampley?

“Let’s do one and see what Turki thinks about it,’’ Lampley said. “It’s all up to him. … I’m not going to jump the gun or take any step ahead beyond where he wants to be. And all I know for certain about where he wants to be is let’s do this. So let’s do this and not get ahead of ourselves.’’

Jim Lampley, John Grisham and a book tour

On April 24, best-selling author John Grisham appeared with Lampley at a book signing event in Chapel Hill to help promote Lampley’s book.

“If you had told me a year ago, oh, you’ll be promoting your own book and John Grisham will be your co-host at a bookstore, I would’ve thought, this is insane,’’ Lampley said. “What are we talking about here? And we sold a hundred books, which is a pretty good haul.’’

Soon Lampley and his wife will be traveling to California to continue promoting the book. But first comes fight night.

“Am I going to be underprepared? I sort of feel like that might possibly be the case,’’ Lampley said. “I felt under-prepared for every one of the hundreds of fights that I called in my career leading up to this point. And I will feel the same way again next Friday night.

“In a way that’s good because it leaves you open to the spontaneous discovery of whatever happens in front of you in the fight, and you never know for sure.’’

Garcia, the featured fighter on the boxing card Friday night, is among those excited about Lampley’s return.

‘That’s one of the biggest things I think boxing was missing,” Garcia said. ‘A great voice, great commentator, and he tells the story good while you’re fighting. … I mean, he’s the best in the game. So for him to come back is huge. Shout out Turki for that.”

Ryan Garcia vs. Rolly Romero

Maia and Alex Shibutani are making a stunning return to competitive figure skating.

The ‘Shib Sibs’ announced Thursday morning that they will be back in competition next season ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan-Cortina, returning to the sport more than seven years after they last skated for Team USA. Maia Shibutani, now 30, and Alex Shibutani, now 34, stepped away from figure skating after winning Olympic bronze in ice dance at the 2018 Pyeongchang Games.

‘Our experiences and the new skills we’ve developed during our time away from competition have brought us different perspectives and created some exciting new possibilities,’ Alex Shibutani said in a news release. ‘We don’t take any of this for granted. We’re really enjoying the process and look forward to performing and competing together again.’

The Shibutani siblings are among the most prominent ice dancing teams in U.S. history. After making their senior world championships debut in 2011, they went on to win three world medals, two national titles and two Olympic medals − in the ice dance and team events at the 2018 Games. They were inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame in 2023, which was their first year of eligibility.

While the Shibutanis never formally announced their retirement, they were thought to be done after the 2018 Winter Olympics. Following those Games, they declined to compete at the 2018 world championships and said they would be taking a year off. Maia Shibutani then had surgery in late 2019 to remove a tumor from one of her kidneys, which was found to be cancerous.

As she recovered, the siblings began to shift their focus to other endeavors, writing four children’s books and trying new roles in choreography, photography and other creative lanes.

‘These past seven years have challenged and inspired us in ways we never expected,’ Maia Shibutani said in a statement. ‘I’m so happy and grateful to be healthy and in a position to make the decision to return to the sport I love in this way.’

The Shibutanis announced they will be training with two of their longtime coaches, Marina Zoueva and Massimo Scali − presumably with hopes of making it back to the Olympic Games for a third time. They finished ninth at the 2014 Sochi Games.

The ‘Shib Sibs’ will join a competitive U.S. ice dancing field that had one of its best ever performances at the most recent world figure skating championships in Boston, led by Madison Chock and Evan Bates, who won their third consecutive title. Christina Carreira and Anthony Ponomarenko finished just off the podium in fifth, followed by Caroline Green and Michael Parsons in ninth. Only three U.S. ice dance teams will compete in Milan.

Contact Tom Schad at tschad@usatoday.com or on social media @tomschad.bsky.social.

Was this — a blowout in a potential closeout game — an aberration, or did the Houston Rockets just unlock a formula to steal this series from the Golden State Warriors?

Wednesday night was just one game, so it’s difficult to put too much stock into this being an NBA playoffs series-defining momentum shift that spells trouble for the experienced and well-coached Warriors. But Houston’s 131-116 demolition showed that the Rockets’ best bet is unleashing their speed and athleticism to destabilize Golden State’s offense.

Still, the Warriors need just one win to dispatch the No. 2 seed.

But from tipoff, this game felt different.

The Rockets pressed Golden State on defense, using their length and speed to force the Warriors into long possessions and making Golden State work deep into the shot clock. The Rockets often forced turnovers, swiping seven steals before halftime. Houston also dropped into a zone, further slowing and frustrating Golden State’s operation.

Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler, the two prominent Warriors players, missed their first seven combined shots, and forward Amen Thompson lulled Curry into a pair of uncharacteristic early giveaways.

The saving grace for Golden State was its bench, which scored 21 of the team’s first 29 points. But, by the time Golden State had scored its 29th point, the Rockets were already up by 25.

The Warriors clearly cannot compete against elite teams in the West if both Curry and Butler are off.

Houston’s defensive assault and subsequent up-tempo pace injected confidence and flow into the young offense. At the half, the Rockets were shooting a ridiculous 69.4% from the field — including 9-of-15 (60%) from 3. Houston also hammered the paint, with a 28-12 advantage there. Those seven Rockets steals before halftime also sparked a 10-2 lead on fastbreak points headed into the locker room.

And, as Golden State tried to contain Houston’s speed, the Warriors found themselves out of position; the Rockets made 20 trips to the free throw stripe by the end of the second quarter, converting 17.

It was telling that Warriors coach Steve Kerr subbed out his veteran Big 3 of Curry, Butler and Draymond Green with 5:50 left to play … in the third quarter. It was a concession that showed Kerr understood this was a lost game.

The Warriors did eventually close the gap to 14 on a 25-7 run, but that was sparked by Golden State’s third-string players after Kerr had emptied the bench.

Kerr, however, is a four-time NBA champion as a head coach, and one of the premier minds in basketball. He and the Warriors will almost certainly scheme up tweaks to try to neutralize Houston’s pace ahead of Friday’s Game 6 matchup in San Francisco.

The Rockets are trying to become just the 14th team in NBA history to overcome a 3-1 series deficit to advance in the playoffs, a deficit that has claimed a whopping 95.5% of teams that have encountered it.

Wednesday night showed if Houston is to push this series to the brink, it must keep leaning into its speed and athleticism — things that the Warriors cannot match on the floor, no matter what Kerr draws up on the clipboard.

The Los Angeles Lakers’ regular-season success with LeBron James and Luka Doncic and the prospect of a deep playoff run faded and disappeared before May arrived on the West Coast.

No deep playoff run. No chance of a second-round series against Golden State or Houston and no chance of a conference finals series against Oklahoma City.

The Lakers’ season is over, and it took the sixth-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves just five games to upend the third-seeded Lakers.

Minnesota took Game 5 103-96, a road victory in which All-Star Anthony Edwards was 0-for-11 on 3-pointers and the Timberwolves were 7-for-47 on 3s. And they still won.

Since the NBA went from best-of-five to best-of-seven in the first round in 2003, the No. 6 seed has beaten the No. 3 seed 10 times. But don’t let Minnesota’s seed fool you. The Timberwolves, who reached last year’s Western Conference finals, are also capable of a deep playoff run.

Lakers coach JJ Redick, before he got testy with a reporter’s question and ended his pregame news conference before Game 5, said, “Any team that we play is going to be a challenge, and Minnesota has been more than a formidable challenge. They’re a really good basketball team.”

Edwards had a superior supporting cast than James and Doncic, and that includes Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert who demolished the Lakers in Game 5 with 27 points, 24 rebounds and two blocks.

The final game of the series was a microcosm of the series. Minnesota exposed the Lakers’ weaknesses over and over.

The Timberwolves outrebounded the Lakers 54-37, leading to a 20-10 edge in second-chance points. The Lakers also committed 15 turnovers, reducing their offensive opportunities, they were outscored in points in the paint 56-40 and were outscored 22-4 in bench points.

Those were issues for the Lakers throughout the series. Didn’t rebound enough. Didn’t defend enough. Didn’t have roster flexibility or depth.

Los Angeles rescinded the trade it made for Charlotte center Mark Williams at the trade deadline, but the Lakers rescinded the deal after the deadline expired, leaving it with no option to make an improvement at center or power forward.

Doncic played at least 40 minutes in all five games, and James played at least 40 minutes in the final four games, including 46 minutes in Game 4. They struggled offensively in the fourth quarter, including a combined 4-for-18 shooting from the field in the fourth quarter of Games 4 and 5.

That isn’t to shortchange the Timberwolves. Clearly, they were the better team, had the two-way players to make offense difficult for James and Doncic, and Julius Randle scored 27, 22, 25 and 23 points in the final four games of the series.

Whether the Timberwolves face Golden State or Houston in the second round – the Warriors lead the series 3-2 and Game 6 is Friday in San Francisco – they can win the series.

Follow NBA columnist Jeff Zillgitt on social media @JeffZillgitt

A fan is in critical condition after he fell out of the outfield stands and onto the warning track at Pittsburgh’s PNC Park during the April 30 game between the Pirates and Chicago Cubs.

The incident occurred during the bottom of the seventh inning.

Per a video shared on social media, the fan appeared to be sitting in the front row of seats in right before he tumbled over the top rail and fell to the dirt below. The scary fall was from one of the highest stretches of seats in the outfield — the tallest fence in the outfield is right field at 21 feet, per the Pirates, in honor of Hall of Famer Roberto Clemente, who wore the number and manned right field.

The fan received medical attention on the field and was placed on a backboard and taken off on a cart, per social media videos.

In an update Thursday morning, Pittsburgh Public Safety said the incident was being treated as an accident and that the man remained in critical condition

The Pirates released a statement about the incident after the game, which was restarted after a brief delay (the Pirates won 4-3):

‘Tonight, during the seventh inning of the game at PNC Park, an adult male fell from the right field bleachers onto the field of play. Pittsburgh EMS, as well as the Pirates and Cubs athletic training teams and other PNC Park personnel reacted and responded immediately and administered care. He was transported to Allegheny General Hospital.

‘No further information is available at this time. Our thoughts and prayers are with him and his family.’

Pittsburgh Public Safety said ‘VCU detectives are investigating’ the incident.

In the past 15 years, at least two fans have died as the result of significant falls that occurred at MLB stadiums. One occurred at the Texas Rangers’ old stadium in 2011; another took place at Turner Field, the former home of the Atlanta Braves, in 2015. 

This story has been updated with new information.