Stephen

World number one Judd Trump secured a hard-fought first-round win over Scotland’s Stephen Maguire on the opening day of the 2025 UK Championship at York Barbican.

Trump, who won this event in 2024 and 2011, defeated the Scot 6-4 in an entertaining clash to move into the last 16 where he will play China’s Si Jiahui.

Maguire, the 2004 winner, made breaks of 86, 111, 82 and 86 but also made costly errors, with Trump stealing the eighth frame on a respotted black having trailed 26-61.

Trump has not won a tournament since his success at the same venue 12 months ago. He lost in the final of the Players Championship, the Northern Ireland Open and the Champion of Champions.

Earlier on Saturday, Si became the first man through to the last 16 after making easy work of Wales’ Ryan Day with a 6-0 victory in just over two hours.

The Welshman failed to register a single point in four of those six frames, scoring only 55 points in total compared to 521 from Si, who made breaks of 61, 80 and 68.

Sixteenth seed Si also potted 151 balls, with only 16 from Day, whose highest break of the afternoon was only 22.

More to follow

With the symbolic passing of a golden bear pin, Democratic businessman Stephen Cloobeck announced Monday evening that he was bowing out of the governor’s race and throwing his support behind noted Trump critic and close friend Rep. Eric Swalwell.

Cloobeck shared this news while appearing alongside Swallwell on CNN, saying that the San Francisco Bay Area Democrat will be the “greatest leader of this great state California.”

“I’m happy to say tonight that I’m going to merge my campaign into his and give him all the hard work that I’ve worked on,” said Cloobeck.

The announcement puts an end to the entrepreneur and philanthropist’s first-ever political campaign, which he funded through a fortune amassed in the real estate industry. In a recent UC Berkeley poll co-sponsored by The Times, Cloobeck received less than half of 1% of the support of registered voters polled.

Cloobeck said he had launched his run because he could not find a single qualified candidate — that was until Swalwell tossed his hat into the ring last week, sending an infusion of energy into the relatively sleepy race.

Pin now affixed to the lapel of his navy blue suit, Swalwell thanked his pal for the support and said he was looking forward to drawing on Cloobeck’s expertise as he worked to bring more housing and small business to the Golden State.

Swalwell, a former Republican who unsuccessfully ran for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, has said he is seeking the governorship to combat the threats President Trump poses to the state and to increase housing affordability and homeownership for Californians.

During his Monday evening interview, Swalwell doubled down on his proposal to implement a vote-by-phone system, despite the sharp criticism it invoked from the White House and two of his Republican challengers for governor, Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco and conservative political commentator Steve Hilton.

Swalwell said the proposal would make democracy more accessible, contending that if phones are secure enough to access finances and healthcare records, then they can be made secure enough to cast a ballot.

The backing of Cloobeck, a major Democratic donor, is good news for the congressman, who seeks to make a splash in an unusually wide open race to lead the world’s fourth-largest economy and the country’s most populous state.

About 44% of registered voters said in late October they did not have a preferred candidate for governor. The recent decisions of former Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Alex Padilla to opt out of the running further solidified that the state’s top job is anyone’s to win.

Times staff writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.

Stephen A. Smith is a very busy man.

He is the star of ESPN’s “First Take.”

He hosts two radio shows on SiriusXM.

He has his own production company.

Since 2021, Smith also has been an analyst on ESPN’s “NBA Countdown” pregame and halftime studio show.

But he isn’t anymore, at least not on a full-time basis.

This week, ESPN announced a new “NBA Countdown” broadcast team that features host Malika Andrews and analysts Brian Windhorst, Michael Malone and Kendrick Perkins, with frequent contributions from Shams Charania.

Smith said Tuesday on “The Stephen A. Smith Show” that he hadn’t been demoted from his status as a show regular, as some outlets suggested. Instead, he said, the change was something he had asked for while negotiating his reported five-year, $100-million contract to remain with the network earlier this year.

Why? Smith said he simply no longer has the time.

“I didn’t want to be on the show,” Smith said. “I negotiated coming off of it. Now I love doing ‘NBA Countdown,’ but once the countdown show is over, I got other things to do than to be in studio, watching the doubleheader and coming on at halftimes. I got other stuff that I want to do, to prepare for ‘First Take’ the next day, the next morning, and to do an abundance of other things that I aspire to do.”

Smith said his departure from “NBA Countdown” had been reported “months ago,” and he is correct. In breaking the news of Smith’s new deal with ESPN in March, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand wrote that Smith “will not be a regular on ESPN’s premiere NBA pregame show anymore.”

ESPN did not immediately respond on Wednesday to a request for a comment.

Smith added that he will continue to make frequent guest appearances on several ESPN shows, and that includes “NBA Countdown.”

“If they need me in L.A. for ‘NBA Countdown,’ I’ll be there,” Smith said. “Matter of fact, I have days in my contract to be there. I just don’t have to be there full time.”

Stephen Curry scored 46 points as the Golden State Warriors inflicted a first home NBA defeat of the season on the San Antonio Spurs.

The two-time Most Valuable Player (MVP) helped the Warriors end a six-game losing streak on the road with a 125-120 victory at Frost Bank Center in Texas.

Victor Wembanyama and Stephon Castle became the first Spurs players to record triple-doubles in the same game, but Curry scored 29 points in the second half as the Warriors outscored the Spurs 76-64.

“That third quarter is what we do – getting stops, pushing, creating easy offence. Thankfully I was able to knock a couple down,” Curry said.

Jimmy Butler contributed 28 points and eight assists for the Warriors, while Moses Moody scored 19 points.