Here are our bold predictions for 2018. Please note the bold (or should that be bold?) in bold predictions – these are to be taken with a pinch of salt. Especially the Tebow one.

LeBron signs with the Philadelphia 76ers this summer



King James can opt to become a free agent after this season and what better team for the 33-year old to throw his late-career lot in with than the NBA franchise that has spent the last near-eternity stockpiling young talent? While Golden State Warriors stars Steph Curry and Kevin Durant will be 30 next season, Joel Embiid will be 24 and Ben Simmons 22, with Markelle Fultz, Dario Saric and two more first-round draft picks coming this offseason. The Warriors would remain the favorite against a LeBron-led Sixers team for a year or two, but then it would be the Sixers’ time with Embiid and Simmons entering their primes. Philly LeBron might win titles all the way through his 40th birthday. DJG

Tim Tebow becomes a college football coach

Don’t laugh, this isn’t far-fetched. The more people see of the former Florida football star as an analyst on the SEC Network the more they understand why bright NFL coaches like Bill Belichick, Josh McDaniels and Chip Kelly have wanted to give him chances: they love his mind. Tebow is a football junkie, a man whose great obsession is digesting offensive systems. Two years ago, he expressed to the Associated Press an interest in coaching. While he isn’t ready for a college or NFL head coaching job or even an offensive coordinator position, there is an excellent chance he will be approached for an offensive coaching job with the idea of grooming him into a head coach. LC

Christian Pulisic will become the most expensive teenager in world soccer

For decades, American soccer has waited for its superstar. In Christian Pulisic, that superstar has arrived. The 19-year-old has carried a faltering Borussia Dortmund side this season, also becoming the face and voice of the US men’s national team in 2017. But come the summer, the time will be right for the Hershey, Pennsylvania, native to make the next step in his burgeoning career.

Great fortune awaits Borussia Dortmund and USA starlet Christian Pulisic. Photograph: Pixathlon/Rex/Shutterstock

Pulisic will have the pick of the European elite and they will pay big money to sign the young American. Liverpool have previously registered their interest, but once his availability is marked a bidding war will ensue. At present, Anthony Martial holds the record as the priciest teenager in world soccer (at £36m), at least until Kylian Mbappé’s move to Paris Saint-Germain becomes permanent. Pulisic will command a larger fee than Martial. He’s a superstar, after all. GR



The Golden State Warriors will not repeat as NBA champions

Yes, it seems unlikely, especially as right now the reigning champions are once again eyeing the best record in the NBA. Here’s the truth about basketball: too much can happen between now and the finals. What would happen if the Chris Paul/James Harden-led Houston Rockets, who recently went on a 14-game winning streak, find the best version of themselves in the play-offs and find a way to dethrone them in the conference finals? What if LeBron goes a long way towards establishing himself as the best player in NBA history by leading the Cavaliers to a victory over the Warriors, arguably the most talent-stacked team in NBA history, for the second time in three years? Then, of course, there comes the most likely scenario where Kevin Durant, Steph Curry or Draymond Green suffer an injury at the exact wrong time, leaving them vulnerable throughout the post-season, not unlike what happened in 2016. Nothing is inevitable in sports, not even the Warriors. HF



Levon Aronian will dethrone Magnus Carlsen as world chess champion

The 27-year-old Norwegian grandmaster, the closest thing to a mainstream star in chess today, was regarded as the world’s best player even before he unseated Vishy Anand for the world title with clinical efficiency in 2013. But Carlsen’s aura of invincibility has been punctured since he was made to work overtime in a stiffer-than-expected defense against Sergey Karjakin last year in New York before a prolonged slump nearly cost him the No1 ranking he’s held for more than six and a half years uninterrupted. Keep an eye on Armenia’s Aronian, the world No2 who’s been in form throughout the past year and has closed the gap significantly with Carlsen in their recent head-to-head matchups. Look for the 35-year-old to earn the spot as Carlsen’s world title challenger at the eight-man Candidates Tournament in March, then score a seismic upset at November’s world championship in London to dramatically end one of the sport’s most memorable title reigns. BAG

Levon Aronian, the world No2, has his eyes on Magnus Carlsen’s world chess championship. Photograph: Joel Saget/AFP/Getty Images

Golf technology will change forever

Recent statements by Tiger Woods and Dustin Johnson, coupled with more concerted efforts by the likes of Gary Player, suggest something is imminent regarding the distance of modern golf ball travel. When such individuals speak, let alone in unison, authority listens. The sport, in short, has fallen out with the idea of extending courses time and again because players can overpower all before them. Nothing like this ever happens quickly but expect 2018 to be the year where meaningful efforts are made by governing bodies to “roll back” the ball, perhaps even by breaking with history by applying a professional and amateur standard. Golf purists – and traditionalists – will roar with approval. EM

Clayton Kershaw will leave the Los Angeles Dodgers



Kershaw has been the best pitcher in baseball for seven years now, the most essential piece in the Dodgers five-year run of National League West division titles. At 29 he still should have at least four or five more prime seasons left in his brilliant left arm. But his $35m/year contract has an opt-out clause at season’s end that he will almost certainly use. While he has become the face of the Dodgers his price could soar over $40m. Despite his dominance he has not brought Los Angeles a world championship and couldn’t hold leads of 4-0 and 7-4 in Game 5 of this year’s World Series. Are the Dodgers already considering the unthinkable and letting Kershaw leave? LC

Could the Dodgers do the unthinkable and let three-time Cy Young award winner Clayton Kershaw walk? Photograph: Richard Mackson/USA Today Sports

The new year will ring in significant upheaval for MMA

With the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s ownership negotiating a pivotal broadcast rights agreement, the quandary for content buyers lies in what, exactly, they’re getting over the life of the deal. What’s different? In Washington DC, Oklahoma assemblyman Markwayne Mullin continues to spearhead the Muhammad Ali Expansion Act, which inherently threatens the promotion-driven model that propelled Endeavor to purchase the UFC for billions of dollars in 2016. If the Republican congressman and former fighter gets what he wants, the UFC (and every other US-based MMA promoter) will face a seismic restructuring in which fighters take more of the pie and have far greater control regarding who, how and when they compete. JG

The NFL turns to AI

The NFL will finally recognize that a reliable and sensible conclusion to one of the game’s oldest and most confusing questions – what in God’s name constitutes a catch? – is well beyond the reach of their competition committee. Tapping the best and brightest from Silicon Valley, engineers will fire up an infallible algorithm via artificial intelligence that is capable of reaching a conclusive judgment in splits of split seconds, combining several thousand factors including the infamous “surviving the ground”. It will be undermined immediately during the Hall of Fame game, sending the season into chaos before opening night. The good news? Concussions will be eliminated thanks to the NFL’s adoption of the Hövding, a bicycle air bag that inflates moments before impact, protecting the player from even the most egregious of Vontaze Burfict late hits. DL

Tiger Woods posts a top-five finish at a major

Remember how Mike Tyson soldiered on for a whole decade after he was ruined by Evander Holyfield in 1996? Our Eldrick has in a way become the Iron Mike of professional golf: a prodigy who captured the imagination of the public so completely that it’s left in a state of denial over his downfall. We will all keep watching, but deep down we know it’s over, and the end won’t be pleasant. That’s the naysayers’ line, anyhow. But if Woods, 42 on Saturday, can reach enough toward the form we remember – and a promising soft relaunch at November’s Hero World Challenge is reason for optimism – it would be one of the greatest and most attention-grabbing stories in the history of sports, even if only because at this point it would seem that it is almost impossible. BAG

