Manchester United look increasingly likely to sack head coach Michael Carrick.
The club opted to stick with Carrick after the side’s 3-0 home defeat by Bournemouth on 25 October, with the intention of reassessing the situation during this month’s international break.
Multiple sources have told BBC Sport that the board remain committed to that process, and that no final decision on Carrick’s future has been made.
However, there is a growing expectation that chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox will recommend to minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazer family for Carrick to be sacked.
The 4-4 draw with Aston Villa on Sunday means United, who are 18th in the table, have made their worst start to a domestic campaign in 40 years.
BBC Sport reported in October that the club had sounded out former Newcastle boss Eddie Howe and ex-Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann over replacing Carrick.
Former Chelsea coach Antonio Conte is known to be keen on the role, while multiple sources have told BBC Sport that former Spurs boss Mauricio Pochettino is open to a move to Old Trafford.
Pochettino signed an extension to his contract as USA coach in August.
However, the deal is thought to contain clauses that would allow him to leave for specific high-profile jobs. The US have a two-legged Concacaf Nations League play-off with Haiti on 14 and 18 November.
While United’s victory was certainly well received, it will not mask wider issues.
‘Green and gold’ protests against the ownership took place before kick-off and during a first-half when the home side were abysmal.
Chants against the Glazer family, minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe and director of football Jason Wilcox will not stop just because of this victory, no matter how thrilling.
The sober assessment should also recall United came from behind to beat Atalanta 3-2 at Old Trafford during Solskjaer’s time. They lost 5-0 at home to Liverpool four days later. Within a month, the Norwegian had been sacked.
In October 2018, Jose Mourinho was on the brink of dismissal before a Premier League encounter with Newcastle. United trailed 2-0 after 10 minutes but fought back to win. Mourinho lasted 13 more games.
No-one can know how much time Carrick has bought himself with this victory.
“I don’t have a crystal ball to know what happens next,” he told Amazon Prime. “We move on to the weekend. We’ve got a really important game here against Aston Villa, which we need to prepare for.”
Chief executive Omar Berrada and Wilcox certainly looked much happier at the final whistle than they had done midway through the first half.
Suddenly United look like they can qualify for the next phase of the Champions League. For the first time since September, Carrick’s players are enjoying the winning feeling.
But it will mean little unless they can maintain the momentum against Villa, who were getting beaten heavily by Barcelona as Old Trafford was in tumult.
Asked if he will sleep better thanks to the win, Carrick was honest enough to admit that would not be the case.
“Genuinely, no. I don’t. Really, I don’t,” he said. “Whether that’s right or wrong, or normal or not, I don’t know, but I didn’t feel relief. It was more I was genuinely pleased for the players.
“I know how much they care, I know what they’re giving. Sometimes it looks like that, sometimes it doesn’t, sometimes we play well, sometimes we haven’t, and I understand that.
“But I could feel their willingness to do well, and so for them to have to dig really deep, and to see everybody having that feeling that we all crave, that’s why we’re all here.”
Bruno Fernandes says Manchester United’s players “don’t need to save anyone’s job” after their improbable comeback win against Roma in the Champions League.
The Red Devils produced a remarkable second-half fightback to come from 2-0 down to win 3-2 and end a run of nine games without a victory.
Restored to the team for the Premier League defeat by Chelsea, the 32-year-old’s penalty on 58 minutes sparked an incredible revival to ease some of the pressure on Carrick.
But when asked if the result would save his job, United captain Fernandes told Amazon Prime: “We don’t need to save anyone’s job.”
He continued: “The club needed that win, the players needed that win. We have been working so hard to get out of this situation all together.
“It’s been tough, there’s been a lot of speculation in the media. A lot of lies around many things that have happened between me and the manager, that we have cleared the air, then after that the manager took the decision to put me on the bench because I’m not performing.
“Everyone thought that was a punishment for the words that I had. If it was, it was right. The manager is the one who makes the decisions.
“It doesn’t change the belief I have of the manager and the staff and every player in this club. It doesn’t change my aim to win every game that I have ahead of me.”
ESPN personality Michael Wilbon announced he is taking an indefinite leave of absence from “Pardon the Interruption,” the sports debate show he has hosted with Tony Kornheiser for 25 years, and his NBA duties with the network and on ABC.
In a statement posted to social media on Monday, Wilbon cited “struggles with multiple health issues in recent months.”
“This isn’t retirement, but it is a trip to the injured list,” Wilbon, 67, wrote. “Hopefully not an extended one.”
He added: “Probably, I should have listened to medical professionals and people closest to me, yep Kornheiser included, who saw worrisome signs in recent years that suggested I take time away earlier. But I didn’t.
“And as one close friend has said as my issues have become bigger, ‘the bill has come due.’ The struggles are all health related, not to alcohol (I’m not swearing off the now-and-then Kier Royale) and not to gambling (those winds of change I find loathsome).”
Appearing on “The Tony Kornheiser Show” podcast Monday morning, Wilbon said he had taken last week off from “PTI” because “I was just, I mean, exhausted. Beyond exhausted — lifeless. And this has been going on for a while.”
He said that “part of what I have to deal with right now” stems from having diabetes. But, Wilbon added, “that’s not the entirety of it.”
Wilbon and Kornheiser, both former Washington Post sports writers, have hosted “PTI” since it debuted Oct. 22, 2001. The show has won the Sports Emmy Award for daily studio show three times (2009, 2016 and 2019). The hosts signed multi-year contracts in September 2025.
“Michael and his family have ESPN’s full support as he takes time away to focus on his health and well-being,” ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said in a statement. “He’s an important member of our ESPN team and widely respected by his peers, sports fans and so many others throughout our industry. We are here for Michael every step of the way and look forward to welcoming him back whenever he is ready.”
ESPN likely will have guest hosts fill in for Wilbon on “PTI” while calling on some of its other analysts to handle his NBA duties.
“I have loved sparring and hosting PTI with Tony every single day these past 25 years,” Wilbon wrote. “And I’m incredibly grateful for the support and encouragement of my colleagues as I take this time away to concentrate on me, specifically on my well-being. I have no idea exactly how this part of my journey will wind up. The goal is to come out of it feeling much better than I do now and ready to return to sparring with Tony.”
Michael Mann, the acclaimed filmmaker behind crime thrillers including “Heat” (1995) and “Collateral” (2004), accidentally shot himself in the leg Saturday at a Los Angeles gun range, suffering a minor injury.
“On Saturday, at a gun range, a weapon accidentally discharged while holstered, resulting in a superficial injury to film director Michael Mann,” his representative said in a statement Sunday. “He was treated and is being released.”
Mann, 83, was engaged in target practice at a sanctioned shooting range when the accident occurred. The director has been an experienced target shooter for decades, according to a person familiar with the circumstances, who described the injury as minor and subcutaneous.
The shooting occurred around 4 p.m. Saturday at the Range LA, according to TMZ, which first reported the incident. Police and paramedics responded, and Mann was taken by ambulance to a hospital.
Mann is known for his painstaking attention to detail and realistic depictions of gun violence, perhaps most famously in the elaborate bank robbery shootout in “Heat,” in which Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer’s heavily armed crew exchange gunfire with police on the streets of downtown Los Angeles. He is developing a sequel to the film, which is expected to begin shooting early next year.
Mann also helped define the look and feel of the influential 1980s television series “Miami Vice,” serving as executive producer before directing a 2006 film adaptation. His other credits include “Thief” (1981), “The Last of the Mohicans” (1992), “The Insider” (1999), which earned seven Oscar nominations, “Ali” (2001) and “Ferrari” (2023).
PLANS for a musical based on the songs of late chart superstar George Michael have been confirmed.
His lifelong best friend David Austin has told The Sun that preparations are in motion for the stage show to help keep George’s legacy alive.
Plans for a new musical featuring the biggest hits of late pop legend George Michael have been officially confirmedCredit: GettyGeorge first found fame alongside Andrew Ridgeley in 1980s pop duo Wham! before becoming one of the biggest-selling music stars in historyCredit: Getty
Those involved have set their sights on Broadway — with a West End run almost certain to follow if the project proves popular enough.
George shot to fame in 1980s pop duo Wham! with Andrew Ridgeley and became one of the best-selling recording artists of all time.
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Speaking at the world premiere of concert film George Michael: The Faith Tour at the BFI IMAX in London, David said: “There is talk about Broadway. We’ve got our fingers in a lot of pies.”
In April, we revealed that George’s sister Yioda Panayiotou, 64, had held confidential talks with producers.
A source said at the time: “As things stand, it’s all in the very early development stage, but the plan is to tell the story of George’s life and career with some of his hits mixed in.
“Right now it’s not a Mamma Mia! situation where his songs soundtrack a new story — this is about his life.”
The production is already being workshopped in New York, with seven-time Olivier Award nominee Maria Friedman in talks to direct.
George, died aged 53 on Christmas Day 2016 at home in Goring-on-Thames, Oxfordshire.
United have gone eight games without a win as they head to Chelsea – their worst run of results since 2015-16.
Not since the 1988-89 campaign have they had a sequence of nine matches without a win.
Nearly 40 hours passed between United losing against Bournemouth on Sunday and the club providing clarification on Carrick’s future, with the Englishman being given a chance to turn things around at Old Trafford.
Talks involving the Glazer family, minority owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe, chief executive Omar Berrada and director of football Jason Wilcox took place before Carrick’s immediate future was confirmed.
It seems likely he will remain in post for next Tuesday’s Champions League match against Roma, and the Premier League encounter with Aston Villa at Old Trafford on 8 November, after which there is a two-week international break.
Carrick, though, says he does not need guarantees over his position.
“I don’t need any assurances from anyone,” he said.
“I totally get the position. I understand the job. I understand the responsibilities. I understand what comes with that. So, I really don’t need any assurances from anyone in that regard.”
Asked if he was surprised to still be in a job, Carrick said: “No. I’m here to do my job. I’m here to do the best for the team, and I’m desperate to make us better and improve things. So, I’m not surprised, no.”
Eddie Howe and Julian Nagelsmann are emerging as early contenders to become the next Manchester United head coach if Michael Carrick loses his job.
Carrick’s position at Old Trafford is under major threat following the club’s poor start to the season, with work towards identifying his successor believed to be ongoing.
It is understood Howe and Nagelsmann both feature prominently on the list of candidates the club has explored to potentially replace him, and that both managers are aware of United’s interest.
Sources have also indicated Aston Villa boss Unai Emery is admired at United, but the fact he is under contract would complicate any move for the Spaniard.
Howe, Nagelsmann and Antonio Conte – who is interested in the job – are out of work, making their potential appointments easier.
Multiple sources have told BBC Sport that former Newcastle boss Howe is fully open to joining United if Carrick loses his job.
Nagelsmann is available after leaving his job as Germany head coach after the World Cup, while Conte – who has also been linked with Juventus – is open to returning to football after leaving Napoli in May.
Should Carrick be dismissed, the 20-time English top-flight champions will be looking to appoint their eighth permanent manager or head coach since Sir Alex Ferguson departed the club in 2013 on the back of winning their most recent title.
Here, BBC Sport takes a closer look at the contenders who could be up for the job.
Manchester United’s 0-3 home loss to Bournemouth has left the 20-time champions winless in eight Premier League games.
Published On 25 Oct 202625 Oct 2026
Amid increasing pressure on his team and a growing threat to his own position as manager, Michael Carrick says he will do what is best for Manchester United after a 3-0 demolition by Bournemouth plunged his future into doubt.
Winless in eight games in all competitions, the 20-time English champions slipped to within one point of the relegation zone after a damaging defeat at Old Trafford on Sunday.
“It’s a tough situation,” Carrick told British broadcaster Sky Sports. “What is next? I don’t know.
“I’ll always do what’s best for this football club. I’ve said it all along; I don’t change that now. I love what I do. I love the responsibility, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
Asked in a post-match news conference if he expects to be sacked in the coming days, Carrick replied: “I totally understand the situation. I’m not expecting anything in particular, to be honest. I’m carrying on as normal. I love this place.”
Despite a dismal run of results, the United fans largely supported the former midfielder as he made his way off the field at full-time before they turned on the club’s players.
“I have mixed emotions to have that connection with the supporters in the moment we’re in. I need time to digest that,” added Carrick.
“I appreciate their support but the situation is where it’s at. We haven’t been good enough.”
Manchester United’s captain Bruno Fernandes did not feature in the match against Bournemouth [File: Darren Staples/AFP]
Carrick’s decision to drop captain Bruno Fernandes to the bench and not even introduce the Portuguese international as a substitute backfired.
Fernandes, last season’s Premier League player of the year, had criticised Carrick’s tactics after the 4-1 thrashing by Como on Wednesday.
Carrick said before the game that his call was a “pure football” decision, but it was hard to believe Fernandes was not being punished as he was left on the bench for the entire match.
“There’s always times in games when you are trying to change the course of the game and to make a difference,” said Carrick as he swerved questions on Fernandes’s absence. “Those were the decisions we made today.”
Carrick was appointed on a two-year deal only in May after a successful caretaker spell in charge led United to third place in the Premier League last season.
However, he has been unable to arrest the club’s steep decline since his former boss Alex Ferguson retired as manager in 2013.
United were outspent by many of their rivals in the transfer market as they added just three midfielders – Youri Tielemans, Andrey Santos and Carlos Baleba.
But Carrick said a lack of investment did not justify such a decline in results.
“Last season to finish third was a really good achievement in the circumstances,” added Carrick.
“We understood where that left us, what was next, what needed to be done and how we needed to improve, and where we were at as a team and as a group at that stage.
“I definitely knew that we hadn’t cracked it and there was a lot of work to be done, but that doesn’t mean to say that it should have gone this way.”
Michael Gray, who played the teenager who could turn into a superhero in the 1970s live-action Saturday morning children’s TV series “Shazam!,” has died. He was 75.
Gray died Oct. 16 from natural causes in Palm Desert, a representative for the actor announced Thursday. No other details were provided.
Based on the comic book superhero Captain Marvel, who first appeared in an issue of Whiz Comics in 1939, “Shazam!” aired for three seasons on CBS from 1974 to 1976. Gray starred as Billy Batson, a teenager who could transform into a grown-up superhero by saying the magic word “Shazam!” In his enhanced form, Captain Marvel possesses powers such as superhuman strength and speed, heightened intelligence and the ability to wield lightning. The character has since been renamed to Shazam.
“It was a lot of fun,” Gray said of the role in a 2012 interview with Fanboy Planet. “I didn’t know how much I would like it until years later when I found out how much of an influence my character was, and the show was, in people’s lives.
“There were such good moral values to the show,” he added. “I meet people 1792821573 who say, ‘You have no idea what you did for me as a child. You helped me get through life.’ … I didn’t know the show had that much strength and power back then.”
Born Sept. 2, 1951, in Chicago, Gray grew up in Miami Beach before making his way out west to pursue a career in Hollywood. He would frequently grace the covers of teen pop magazines, including Tiger Beat, thanks at least in part to his manager Charles Laufer, the magazine’s publisher.
“The teen idol angle was orchestrated to some degree,” Gray said during a Q&A event in 2012, according to Comic Book Resources. “I was interviewing for ‘The Brian Keith Show’ with Warner Brothers, and they also owned a news company that produced a lot of magazines. They wanted me to be the next David Cassidy. I was on the front cover of ‘Tiger Beat’ and it worked.”
Among Gray’s earliest screen credits were appearances on shows such as “Room 222” (1969), “The Flying Nun” (1970) and “Marcus Welby, M.D.” (1970). His first recurring role was on “The Little People,” also known as “The Brian Keith Show,” where he played a student doctor named Ronnie Collins. Gray also appeared in an episode of “The Brady Bunch” as Marcia’s boyfriend, Jeff.
Gray left acting not long after his run on “Shazam!” after feeling typecast in the roles that were offered to him. His later pursuits included work in children’s theater education and men’s fashion and owning a West Hollywood flower shop.
More recently, Gray’s legacy from “Shazam!” pulled him back into Hollywood. He voiced a version of himself as Sterling Archer’s childhood hero in four episodes of FX’s adult animated series “Archer” from 2015 to 2019. He also appeared in a cameo in the 2023 film “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” where he interacted with the latest incarnation of the superhero played by Zachary Levi.
Gray is survived by his wife, Stacy Benon Gray; his stepchildren Ryan Cooper and Laurel Cooper; and son-in-law Lee Barker.
To many observers, the Manchester United left-back situation was one that could have been anticipated and should have been addressed in the summer.
The fact United spoke to Manchester City about Algeria international Rayan Ait-Nouri on deadline day suggests they did view it as a potential issue.
After starting all 38 Premier League games last term and the first three this, Shaw has played only twice since, and the number of games missed could reach double figures before the 31-year-old returns.
When Diogo Dalot lined up at left-back against Leeds, he became the fifth different player to start there for United in six games.
Aside from Shaw, none of the quintet could be regarded as a natural left-back.
However, after it was suggested Martinez’s post-match outburst following the defeat by Atletico Madrid was partly down to 20-year-old Ayden Heaven playing at left-back, sources did point out the youngster played more often in that role than in the centre during his youth days at Arsenal.
It was also suggested in the summer that United’s coaching team did not believe 19-year-old Harry Amass, who was Shaw’s stand-in during pre-season, was yet at the right level.
Amass’ single appearance so far this season, as a substitute for the final 18 minutes against Sabah, backs up that view, although Carrick has countered it.
“He’s right in contention,” Carrick said.
“At some point, young players need an opportunity. It’s just finding the right time.
“Sometimes it’s because there’s an unfortunate thing happened to somebody else. Sometimes it’s just you’re doing so well we have to give you a chance.
“All the young players are in a similar boat. There’s maybe four, five, or six of them trying to make that next step in terms of getting into the team and trying to start games, and Harry’s definitely one of them.”
Manchester United head coach Michael Carrick says he is “telling the truth” when he says the club have moved on from Lisandro Martinez’s explosive post-match comments this week.
Carrick’s close friend and team-mate Wayne Rooney led the condemnation of Martinez, saying the Argentine defender could “rip the dressing room apart” with his attack on United’s hierarchy after the 2-0 Champions League defeat by Atletico Madrid.
Former United skippers Roy Keane and Gary Neville have also had their say, among a huge amount of analysis.
“There’s a lot of people who say a lot of things – ex-pros or not ex-pros – it doesn’t necessarily mean they understand what is going on here,” said Carrick in his pre-match media conference at United’s Carrington training ground.
“Just because people talk on the outside doesn’t mean that is the truth. I am telling you the truth. The squad today was in a fantastic place, better than I have seen it for a while. That is it, plain and simple. We are living it every day and know what it feels like.
“We are emotional and care a lot. Sometimes someone says something that maybe you shouldn’t say at that certain time, but it doesn’t distract us from what we are creating here and the environment and spirit within the group.
“It [the squad] is not affected, I am telling you.”
Carrick confirmed Martinez would be “part of the squad” for Sunday’s Premier League trip to Leeds at Elland Road (14:00 BST).
McArdle has shown throughout his tenure so far that he is keen to expand Northern Ireland’s squad depth and gave four players their debuts during the Portugal double header.
One of those debutants, Elmore, scored Northern Ireland’s only goal of the tie and became the second player to score on her debut under McArdle after Emily Cassap netted during the 2-1 defeat by Switzerland in June.
“I’m delighted for Kess,” McArdle continued.
“I knew she could bring that, and it’s just great that she has had that impact in Larne and also got the reward with a goal tonight.
“She’s going to add so much to the group moving forward, but so will a lot of the debutants this week, which was exciting.”
It has been a challenging window for McArdle’s side with key players such as captain Simone Magill and the experienced Laura Rafferty, Nadene Caldwell and Caragh Hamilton missing.
However, the Scot still thinks the side have set “a real enthusiastic marker” down during the tough Portugal tie.
“There have been those moments that have went against us, moments of misfortune. We’re playing a risky style of football,” he continued.
“We were on the front foot from the first whistle, and I couldn’t be prouder of the girls. This is a real enthusiastic marker for moving forward. This is getting closer to the identity that I would like for us moving forward.
“We want more energy, we want more mobility, and we want to be a lot more versatile as well. I’m really proud but also really frustrated with the scoreline.”
It has been five years since Michael Che’s last stand-up special. Of course, he has a good excuse, being busy much of the year co-writing and performing “Weekend Update” on “Saturday Night Live,” and he also wrote and starred in two series of his acclaimed sketch comedy show, “That Damn Michael Che.”
But he feels more like himself on the stage, he said in a recent interview. “I really miss stand-up when I’m not doing it because I can really let loose on stage and say all the words I want,” he says.
In his new Netflix hour, with the pointed title, “Michael Che: Shot in Minnesota,” he wastes no time in getting into it, opening with a series of jokes saying a lot of words about Charlie Kirk’s murder: He believes that it happened because “straight white conservative Christian men are being silenced.”
He clearly loves poking at people’s sensitive spots. His favorite joke, he says onstage, is, “Men want anal sex the way women want a sensitive man. It just sounds nice… until you see them crying.”
He talks about race (“I don’t care what color you are — if you’re rich, you’re white”) and goes after President Trump and people who try to police language, but he also talks up how much fun he had at a Pride parade and about growing up poor, with his mother cleaning houses to help make ends meet. In our interview done via Zoom (without a camera on) while he was stuck in traffic on the way to 30 Rockefeller Center and then in an elevator and then in the SNL offices, he discussed it all.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Did anyone in your family shape your humor and your storytelling?
My family has a different kind of humor. It’s a little meaner, if I’m being honest with you.
I’d like to see Thanksgiving at your house.
A lot of people would. It’s kind of crazy.
But the one person was my grandfather who was a pastor. He knew how to hold court and tell a story and he was a funny guy. He could be silly or absurd or dry. So maybe there’s a lot of him in what I do. But he did it week after week with different material.
Speaking of week after week, which is closer to your real self, the “Weekend Update” persona or your stand-up persona?
The stand-up is the most me; “Update” is a job and it’s a character. On stage you get to hear more nuances — on “Weekend Update” it’s a short segment, and I’m splitting time with Colin and guests. There are more needs being met than just mine. I say that respectfully, but there are things we have to touch on that I wouldn’t in my personal work and there are things other people write so it’s never all me.
I can listen, I can build, I can take you on a journey, I can make you think this is a bad joke, but it’s actually a good joke. I can make you think it’s a dirty joke, but it’s a clean joke.
I miss doing stand-up full time, but maybe that’s only because I don’t do it full time. But maybe if I did it full time, I’d miss doing it part time. Getting this hour together for the special, Lorne [Michaels, SNL’s iconic boss] was nice enough to let me go on the road even during show weeks, and he didn’t ask as much of me this past season. He was really kind, and I really appreciate it.
Colin Jost, left, and Michael Che on “Weekend Update” on “Saturday Night Live” on Saturday, March 11, 2023. Che has been doing “Weekend Update” for 12 years, as has Jost.
(Will Heath / NBC)
Your stand-up persona is definitely more thoughtful and open-minded than your “Weekend Update” one. Are you conscious of revealing yourself onstage or just thinking about what’s funny?
They tell you in the criminal world that the longer you talk to the police the more chances there are you’re going to reveal something. And I feel like it’s true for comedy, too. A lot of the stuff that I do is just thoughts that we haven’t said out loud and explored yet. I start with the thought, and if I can get a joke, a one liner out of the thought, that’s then I start to explore it onstage. I only write one line because I can’t write in a vacuum. I need to be able to listen to see what an audience gives me; otherwise, I only know how it makes me feel.
You open this special with that riff on Charlie Kirk’s murder. Your audience is not filled with Turning Point members, but people still may be hesitant to laugh. Are you starting there to challenge yourself or challenge your audience, or is it just because you think it’s funny?
I think all three of those things can be true. Those jokes are funny, but it is hard to laugh at. That’s the sort of feat I seek to pull off, to make people laugh about things that they’re not necessarily expecting to hear without being gross and gratuitous. I did those jokes on Shane Gillis’ show and his audience reacted favorably.
None of this is to make any kind of larger point other than I want you to laugh at the things that horrify you. It’s just horrifying on the surface so people think you can’t make a joke about it. People are afraid of the attempt. And I say, “Well, what about this one?” I do like that.
Then you move on to the R-word and the N-word. Are you simply pushing buttons for laughs or pushing people to think about their own biases and preconceptions about language and their political sensibilities?
I don’t want to let words dictate my next emotions. I want you to put the responsibility of self-control on yourself. People are going to say nasty things literally just to get a rise out of you, and it’s up to you to decide how you’re going to handle that. Also, I’m trying to be consistent. If I start with jokes about Charlie Kirk, but then somebody wants to call me the N-word, I can’t say, “Well, that’s crossing the line.” Right now there ain’t no more lines. We’re in a culture war and bombs are going to fly. So let’s see who’s got the stomach for it.
When you refer to a guy buying you drinks in a bar as “visibly gay,” the audience gets uncomfortably quiet in a way. How do you feel when they hush over a line like that?
With a lot of these jokes it’s like dribbling a football, you just don’t know where it’s going to land. But I like putting people on their heels and being a Black comic of my generation, they expect the joke to go one way because they’ve heard the jokes that come from others so they’re apprehensive. I expect them to be apprehensive and then talk them through it. When the joke lands differently with a punchline they’re not expecting, they’re pleasantly surprised.
The basketball memorabilia ranks as the second-largest sale in history among game-worn sports jerseys.
By Reuters and The Associated Press
Published On 13 Oct 202613 Oct 2026
The jersey Michael Jordan wore during Game 2 of the “Last Dance” 1998 NBA Finals has sold for a record $14m.
Hunt Auctions announced on Monday that the game-worn, autographed Chicago Bulls jersey was bought by Miami real estate investor Ron Firman in a private sale.
It is the highest price ever paid for a piece of basketball memorabilia and, according to the auction house, the newly sold Jordan jersey ranks as the second-largest sale in history among game-worn sports jerseys.
The New York Yankees jersey worn by Babe Ruth in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series – during which Ruth called his shot before a home run – went for $24.12m in 2024.
Jordan and the Bulls defeated the Utah Jazz in six games to win the 1998 championship, the sixth and final title of his career in Chicago.
Game 2, played on June 5, 1998, in Salt Lake City, saw Chicago even the series 1-1, largely thanks to a dominant performance by its superstar guard.
Jordan put up 37 points, five rebounds, and three assists in a 93-88 victory. He would go on to collect his sixth and final Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, two more than anyone else in NBA history, nine days later.
The wildly popular “Last Dance” documentary, released in 2020, was centred around that 1997-98 Bulls season.
“The record-setting price achieved for the related Michael Jordan jersey is yet another corroborative result as to the significance of Jordan within the industry and popular culture. This remarkable garment bore witness to one of Jordan’s most hallowed NBA Finals appearances as part of his ‘Last Dance’ season to complete his illustrious career,” David Hunt, president of Hunt Auctions, said in a statement.
“While Michael Jordan’s importance within the sports memorabilia marketplace has long been established, it has now escalated to an elite asset class more typically reserved for iconic works of art. We are very pleased to have been able to facilitate this historic sale which serves as another benchmark for our industry.”
This sale becomes at least the third time a Jordan jersey from that 1998 Finals has fetched at least $10m. A jersey from Game 1 was sold at auction for about $10.1m in 2022, and a jersey from Game 3 was auctioned last month for about $12.3m via an auction in September.
“Michael Jordan was an incredibly talented player who is admired around the world,” Firman said in a news release distributed by the auction house. “I’m very excited about the purchase.”
The jersey that Firman bought was originally bought from the Bulls by a private collector in 2003, Hunt said, adding that it “has remained within a succinct chain of custody, having only changed hands once from the original purchaser”.
Just about anything related to the 1998 Finals and Jordan’s final season with the Bulls has been the subject of huge interest in the collector space. In 2023, a pair of Air Jordan sneakers that he wore in Game 2 against the Jazz was sold by Sotheby’s for $2.2m, touted at the time as “a new world record for the most valuable sneakers ever sold”.
An autographed Chicago Bulls jersey worn by Michael Jordan during Game 2 of the 1998 NBA Finals was privately sold to a Miami real estate investor for $14 million, an auction house announced Monday. The price is believed to be the highest ever paid for basketball memorabilia.
A game-worn red road jersey was purchased by Ron Firman, according to Philadelphia-based Hunt Auctions. Jordan wore it June 5, 1998, while scoring 37 points in the Bulls’ victory over the Utah Jazz. The Bulls went on to win the series in six games, giving Jordan his sixth and final championship.
This is the third Jordan jersey from the 1998 Finals that has sold for more than $10 million. Jordan’s Game 3 white home jersey was auctioned in September for $12.26 million and his Game 1 red road jersey was sold at auction for $10.09 million in 2022.
“While Michael Jordan’s importance within the sports memorabilia marketplace has long been established, it has now escalated to an elite asset class more typically reserved for iconic works of art,” said David Hunt, president of Hunt Auctions, in a statement.
Firman’s X account describes him as a “Commercial Real Estate Co. Principal. Partner in private co. who’s trading is comparable to a hedge fund’s. Rare Vintage Sports Memorabilia Collector.”
His most recent post came Nov. 29, 2022, and features a signed photo of Joe DiMaggio belting a single in the seventh inning of the 42st consecutive game he recorded a hit in 1941, setting an American League record. DiMaggio extended the streak to 56 games, a Major League record that still stands.
Firman also recently set a record by spending $3 million for a 1951 Mickey Mantle first-generation photo used as the basis for Mantle’s celebrated 1952 Topps rookie card. Now Firman owns another piece of legendary memorabilia. The Bulls’ 1997-98 season was the subject of the “Last Dance” documentary series released in 2020.
“Michael Jordan was an incredibly talented player who is admired around the world,” Firman said in a statement distributed by Hunt Auctions. “I’m very excited about the purchase.”
The only game-worn jersey publicly to fetch more than $14 million was worn by Babe Ruth when he supposedly called his shot before hitting a home run against the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field in Game 3 of the 1932 World Series. That jersey sold for $24.12 million in 2024 at Heritage Auctions, setting a world record for the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia. It appreciated more than 25 times from the $940,000 it went for in 2005.
“In our opinion, and 36 years of market experience, Babe Ruth and Michael Jordan stand above all others in the history of American sports,” Hunt said. “The record-setting price achieved for the related Michael Jordan jersey is yet another corroborative result as to the significance of Jordan within the industry and popular culture.”
A Michael Jordan jersey from his ‘Last Dance’ season has sold for $14m (£10.6m), a record for a piece of basketball memorabilia.
Jordan wore the Chicago Bulls jersey during game two of the 1998 NBA Finals and has autographed it too.
He scored a game-high 37 points that evening before ending his last season with the Bulls with a 4-2 series win for his sixth and final NBA Championship. He was named the Finals’ Most Valuable Player in all six.
The only item of sports memorabilia that has cost more is the jersey worn by baseball legend Babe Ruth when he “called the shot” during the 1932 World Series, which was sold for $24.1m (£18.2m) in 2024.
The previous high for a basketball item was a card featuring Jordan and Kobe Bryant from 2007-08 which sold for $12.9m (£9.8m) last year.
The previous record for a piece of game-worn Jordan memorabilia was set just two weeks ago when his jersey from game three of the 1998 Finals, which is not autographed, sold via auction for $12.3m (£9.3m).
The latest purchase was made by Miami real estate investor Ron Firman in a private sale through Hunt Auctions.
David Hunt, president of Hunt Auctions, said in a statement: “While Michael Jordan’s importance within the sports memorabilia marketplace has long been established, it has now escalated to an elite asset class more typically reserved for iconic works of art.”
The Swedish academy says the academics’ models are ‘now used by central banks and governments around the world’.
Published On 12 Oct 202612 Oct 2026
The 2026 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences has been awarded to US academics Robert Hall and Michael Woodford for their work on how monetary and fiscal policy can help stabilise fluctuations in the economy, according to the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
The winners of the prestigious award, formally known as the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel and the final prize to be given out this year, were announced on Monday.
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The two laureates developed new macroeconomic models that improve people’s ability to implement effective stabilisation policies, enabling fiscal and monetary policy measures that can reduce damaging swings in the economy.
“The laureates’ work has provided us with a stable theoretical foundation for the models that are now used by central banks and governments around the world,” John Hassler, chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, said in a statement.
“With them, we are better equipped to deal with shocks in the economy, such as energy crises or sudden changes in how much households consume.”
During the oil crises in the 1970s, the existing Keynesian models used to determine when and how measures should be implemented to tackle recessions or other economic fluctuations stopped working. Hall and Woodford then developed new tools to understand what policy responses could be the most effective.
“Rather than basing the models on statistical links between macroeconomic variables, such as inflation, production and consumption, they chose to build them on a microeconomic foundation,” the academy said. “This encompasses an understanding of how the total mass of individual households and businesses affect the economy through their actions.”
The economics prize, first awarded in 1969, is not part of the five original awards created in the 1895 will of industrialist and dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel, but was instead established by Sweden’s central bank.
The majority of previous laureates have been from the United States. Only three women have ever won, most recently Claudia Goldin in 2023 for her work on how gender has affected pay and employment over time in the US.
Last year’s winners – Joel Mokyr, Philippe Aghion and Peter Howitt – won for their work on “creative destruction” and how new technology and production methods can boost growth and living standards.
Like the other Nobel awards, the economics prize consists of a diploma, a gold medal, and a $1.2m cheque.
Movie stars are an endangered species. They still exist, sure. Their beautiful faces still fill 50-foot screens, beaming down on us. Yet, there is a shortage of, say, Michael Douglas. A man who, over the span of decades, played an American president, a troubled detective, and a Wall Street tycoon so convincingly that the FBI recruited the actor to do a PSA for investment bankers about the perils of financial fraud.
On the Shelf
One Helluva Ride
By Michael Douglas Grand Central Publishing: 496 pages, $35
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The night before I meet Michael Douglas on Zoom, I have a hard time sleeping. I want to be well-rested before I meet the leading man — perhaps one of the last leading men from an era in Hollywood that felt limitless. What do I mean by that? He’ll tell you. His new memoir details his movie-making career as a prolific producer and actor, along with his affair with his “Romancing the Stone” co-star Kathleen Turner, mudslides in Mexico, snorting cocaine with O.J. Simpson, encounters with Princess Diana and screaming matches with Paul Verhoeven that end in blood. In short: the life of a movie star.
“People say to me: Michael Douglas. When I see your name, I don’t know what I’m going to get, but I know it’s going to be good,” Michael Douglas says.
(David Urbanke / For The Times)
Halfway through our conversation, something unanticipated happens: Douglas reveals that he doesn’t quite see himself as a movie star. After gentle pushback, he elaborates. Instead, Douglas sees himself as a chameleon.
“People say to me: Michael Douglas. When I see your name, I don’t know what I’m going to get, but I know it’s going to be good,” he says.
He’s speaking from his home in New York. Behind him is a moody 18th-century Orientalist painting, its scene too indistinct for me to make out. His smiling face — which, like most American moviegoers, I had watched 50 feet tall in the dark — glows with warmth even on my laptop screen. It seems abnormal even to witness him in miniature.
To be clear: Michael Douglas is a movie star, whether or not he wants to cop to it over Zoom. It’s in his blood. His father, Kirk Douglas — born Issur Danielovitch to Russian Jewish immigrant parents — was a legendary actor whose shadow Douglas struggled to escape, as he details in the early chapters of his memoir. He spent his childhood on movie sets, watching his father spar with iconic directors like Stanley Kubrick. Michael Douglas was subject to violent and angry outbursts as well. “Dad’s volatility kept us on edge,” he writes. He felt suffocated by his father’s legacy, often hoping to shake the title of “Kirk Douglas’ son.”
Early in his career, Douglas left his starring role on TV’s “The Streets of San Francisco” after producing his first film, “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” which became a breakout success. On that film, he had to deliver the shattering news to his father that he was too old to play the lead — essentially, firing his father from his dream role. It was a betrayal. Instead, the role went to Jack Nicholson, who would later win an Academy Award for his humanizing portrayal of Randle McMurphy. The film won multiple Academy Awards, launching Douglas’ career as a heavyweight producer and later an actor. Escaping the shadow of being Kirk Douglas’ son has been a lifelong battle for the actor.
(Grand Central Publishing)
Occasionally, inheritance can be a burden. In his own life, Douglas details how he was a distracted father and husband who lost sight of his son, Cameron Douglas. During Cameron’s childhood, Douglas was elsewhere — on location in the Mexican jungle in “Romancing the Stone,” then a disastrous film production in Morocco for “Jewel of the Nile” that included a fatal plane crash that resulted in three crew members’ deaths. To cope with the breakneck pace of show business, Douglas sought refuge in women, cocaine and work.
Cameron’s troubled youth reached a crescendo when he was sentenced to five years in federal prison for drug smuggling, with an additional sentence for drug possession in prison — serving seven years in the end. It was enormously painful for Douglas, who also struggled with addiction, and had sought out treatment to provide an example to his son.
In a late chapter, he recalls confiding in Rob Reiner, who also had a son who struggled with addiction issues. In the memoir, Douglas addresses the killing of Rob and Michelle Reiner in December 2025; their son Nick has been charged with murder. “We both had sons with serious drug issues and we both, at times, had been at the end of our rope,” Douglas writes. “It was a heartbreaking confessional for us, but I know we gave each other some measure of comfort during the hard times.”
Why trudge through movie history, turning over every stone and every wound, in a nearly 500-page memoir? Because, according to Douglas, it’s time.
“Your 80s may be a good time to share,” the actor says, who recently turned 82. “People interested in movies, we give them a certain insight into the process, and maybe they could learn something. For others, it’s just gossip.” His battle with Stage 4 oral cancer brought the contours of his life into stark relief, sharpened by seven weeks of radiation and chemotherapy. His official diagnosis was tongue cancer, but he told the public he had throat cancer, hoping to stall speculation in the press about the possibility of disfigurement — and, more specifically, the prospect of losing his tongue. It was isolating, and Shane Salerno — the memoir’s co-author — stayed by Douglas’ side.
Michael Douglas.
(David Urbanke / For The Times)
As much as Douglas’ memoir, “One Helluva Ride,” is a revealing and delightful account of a life in show business, it is also a love letter to California — a place where Douglas spent much of his adult life, beginning at UC Santa Barbara. The college travel brochure read: campus by the sea. “I remember the cover of it was a guy walking down the beach with a surfboard, two girls in two-piece bathing suits. In 1963, I never saw a two-piece bathing suit back east.” He was sold.
The California years made an impression. Douglas is still, at heart, a hippie. Raised in stiff East Coast prep culture, he was reborn in the California sunshine. “I transferred into becoming a hippie, influenced by the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, hallucinatory drugs, and the world that existed in the early ‘60s in San Francisco.”
Strangely, Douglas argued that some of the utopic sentiments of the 1960s are returning. “People are beginning to look back at that time, and realize how important family is — cooperation, sharing,” he says. “Socialism is not a four-letter word or something that’s terrible. There are other things to pursue in life other than just making money.”
“Your 80s may be a good time to share,” Michael Douglas says.
(David Urbanke / For The Times)
Like the characters he portrayed, Douglas is far from perfect. He admits that he struggled — in his first marriage, and later as a father. After marrying Diandra Luker, Douglas was unfaithful, having relationships with co-stars, most notably Turner on the set of “Romancing the Stone” in the Mexican jungle. The two denied the relationship for years. Now, with Turner’s blessing, Douglas writes about their involvement in his memoir.
Before Turner, there was Diane Thomas, the film’s waitress-turned-screenwriter, with whom Douglas had an affair. Thomas’ life was tragically cut short in a car accident involving a Porsche that Douglas had gifted her.
Then there were the rumors. On the set of “Basic Instinct,” some speculated that Douglas and Sharon Stone were having an affair. They weren’t, he explains. Douglas was instead locked in a power struggle with director Verhoeven, who, during one particularly heated argument with the actor, suffered a burst artery in his nose, turning the confrontation into a bloody scene. Douglas, meanwhile, was involved with another co-star, Jeanne Tripplehorn. “They were so focused on a possible relationship between Sharon and me, they missed the real relationship happening between me and Jeanne,” he writes.
When he and his current wife, actor Catherine Zeta-Jones, made it official, Douglas went to the other room to make breakup calls to five other women. (By this point in the memoir, Douglas has enough goodwill to pass this off as charming.) “From the moment I met Catherine, and we formed our family, I was a new man,” he writes.
The memoir enshrines Douglas’ petty show-business grievances too: a repaired grudge against David Letterman, a TV co-star who stole his longtime girlfriend, and a bouquet sent to Julia Roberts to apologize for his drunken buffoonery. In Douglas’ words: “There’s two or three people that I share my hostilities with.” He clashed with Brian De Palma, who was originally attached to direct “Fatal Attraction” and tried to have Douglas fired. De Palma underestimated Douglas and was replaced by Adrian Lyne. Years later, De Palma apologized, but Douglas rejected it.
It is impossible to tell the story of Douglas’ career without the women he encountered. The films he championed helped establish a new type of female lead — in all their powerful, morally ambiguous and deranged glory. “An actress was not allowed to play a villain,” he says. In “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” the actor struggled to cast Nurse Ratched. “A whole number of leading actresses turned that part down until we found Louise Fletcher, who went on to win an Oscar.”
For Glenn Close, Sharon Stone and Kathleen Turner, acting opposite Michael Douglas was transformative. After her role as a murderous, sex-crazed bisexual in “Basic Instinct,” Stone became one of the biggest stars of the 1990s and earned an Oscar nomination for Martin Scorsese’s “Casino.” Close‘s portrayal of the mistress-turned-lovesick psychopath in “Fatal Attraction” earned the actor her first lead Oscar nomination after three supporting nods. Turner went from being primarily known as the sexy femme fatale of “Body Heat” to a Golden Globe-winning star with box-office clout after her collaboration with Douglas. Sure, she sued him, too, but their friendship survived.
However, it wasn’t until his role as Gordon Gekko, the fast-talking, impulsive tycoon in 1987’s “Wall Street,” that Douglas was in full force, winning an Academy Award for lead actor. Directed by Vietnam veteran Oliver Stone, Douglas delivered an unforgettable performance about the dangers of unchecked capitalism and greed. At an early New York screening, Douglas recalls Wall Street traders being stunned by the film’s stinging accuracy. “A lot of the Wall Street characters were there, very cocky at the time; they all were shocked because we caught them.”
To his surprise, Wall Street financiers approached him on the street to praise Gekko — anointing him as their hero. “I said, ‘I was the villain.’ ‘No, no, no,’” he said. “So it showed me a lot.”
It speaks to Douglas’ gifts as an actor that he could transcend the caricature of white male entitlement he portrayed with such precision. In “Falling Down,” filmed during the 1992 uprising triggered by the Rodney King verdict, Douglas plays an unemployed defense worker, a man so consumed by disillusionment and blinded by his own sense of victimhood that he cannot recognize the harm he inflicts on others. The character would prove eerily prescient, anticipating an archetype that would take shape in the decades to come. An entire generation mistaking the actor’s brilliance as an invitation.
Perhaps that is the strange thing about being a movie star: Audiences decide who you are, and what you mean to them. For a chameleon, an actor who spent a lifetime resisting other people’s definitions of him, that might be the ultimate paradox.
As our conversation winds down, I remind him of his immense contributions to filmmaking, through producing and acting. It seems redundant, but I say it anyway. His response is polite.
“Quirky,” he said. “‘Falling Down,’ ‘The War of the Roses’ — I love those quirky films.”
“I’m proud of my movies,” he says. “I’m very proud of my movies.”
Connors is a culture journalist in L.A. She covers books, food, entertainment and offbeat Los Angeles. She’s currently at work on a book of essays about tourism in all its forms.
