Sports | Thinking Pipe

[139]

One sponsor of this team went to jail for failing to appear before a court.
The next sponsor is merging its business with a competitor after losing market share.
The one after that had to break its business due to geo-political reasons.
Another sponsor has lost its valuation by 90%.
Which sports team have all these businesses sponsored?

Show Answer

The Indian National Cricket Team, who else!
The sponsors in the question are:
Sahara Parivar India - whose founder saw jail time
Star India - who is merging its business with Reliance
Oppo - splitting its India business into Oppo, Realme & OnePlus
Byju - going through their own business troubles
Even the current sponsor, Dream11 is facing a sudden increase in tax in its category.
Read about the Curse of Sponsorship on Indian Cricket Team.

[135]

Los Angeles Lakers are one of the most celebrated basketball teams in NBA. However my question is, why is the team called Lakers, when Los Angeles area is not known for its lakes.
Los Angeles Lakers logo.svg

Show Answer

Because the team did not start in Los Angeles!
It started as Minnesota Lakers, an area adjacent to the Great Lakes in the US. Over the years, due to changes in ownership, the team moved from Minnesota to Los Angeles & eventually got renamed as Los Angeles Lakers.
Read More about the history of the team.

[121]

Who recently ended their multi-decade partnership with a major sports company, to launched their own brand called – Sun Day Red?
sdr

Show Answer

Tiger Woods.
Woods ended his partnership with Nike of 27 years, to launch his own brand called Sun Day Red, inspired by his clothing at Golf events. The logo is a tiger with 15 stripes for his 15 major championships, with the provision to add more stripes to count future wins.
Read More.

[119]

Connect the following clues from a non-exhaustive list:
1988 – a dove carrying a laurel branch
2000 – Sydney Opera House
2008 – Jade ring
2012 – Thames river
2024 – scrap of iron from the Eiffel Tower

Show Answer

These are the different designs on the Olympic (Summer) medals over the years.
1988 - Seoul - a dove carrying a laurel branch
2000 - Sydney - Sydney Opera House
2008 - Beijing - Jade ring
2012 - London - Thames River
2024 - Paris - scrap of iron from the Eiffel Tower
Read About the history of Olympic medal designs.
Take a Look at the designs in detail.

[115]

Prior to his most famous match, X announced that he would win by a margin of 5-0, or 4-1, in the 5 game series. The match did end up with a 4-1 result, only it was in favour of X’s opponent. He later said of the match (after his win in game 4)
“I don’t think I’ve ever felt so good after winning just one match. I remember when I said I will win all or lose just one game in the beginning. If this had really happened ― I won 3 rounds and lost this round ― it would have had a great bearing on my reputation. However, since I won after losing 3 games in a row, I am so happy. I will never exchange this win for anything in the world. I, X, lost, but mankind did not.”
Id X.

Show Answer

X is Lee Sudol who played 5 games against Google's AlphaGo, the computer trained to play the strategy game of Go. Even though the player lost 4 games, he was impressed to see how well the computer played the game.
Read More about the match.

[99]

This athlete’s signature move was born when his younger brother dared him to perform a Tony Yayo/50 Cent dance move on stage infront of spectators.
The athlete added a line along with the move and both because hugely popular.
Name the athlete & the move.

Show Answer

The athlete is John Cena & the move is 'You can't see me'.
Here's a Video of John Cena talking about the origin.
Here's the Video with Tony Yayo performing the original move, at 0:30 mark.

[98]

The Scientific Revolution is commonly regarded to have been in full swing at the turn of the 17th century, and it was right around this time that a German scientist came up with a quick and easy (for the time, at least) nomenclature system for his particular field of study. This system, named after the scientist himself, originally consisted of a lowercase Greek or Latin letter that (loosely) pinpointed a particular attribute, coupled with a specific set of Latin words that worked to swiftly assign names to what he was working on.

The system has since been tweaked and expanded by other scientists building off of his work, but is still very much recognizable and in use today.

What is this naming system called, and what does it classify?

(Bonus: In an interesting overlap, one of the subjects of study under this classification indirectly inspired the name of a former Formula 1 team.)

Show Answer

Bayer designation, named after astronomer Johann Bayer. The initial letter represents the star's brightness, followed by the genitive Latin name of the constellation the star is in.

Aldebaran is the brightest star in the constellation Taurus, and its Bayer designation is therefore α-Tauri - which inspired Scuderia AlphaTauri.

[83]

Which sport are these 4 trophies connected to? Can you name all of them?

Show Answer

There are the 4 Grand Slam trophies of tennis.
From top left in clockwise direction these are
Australian Open: Held annually in Melbourne, Australia, typically in January. It is played on hard courts.
French Open (Roland Garros): Held annually in Paris, France, usually from late May to early June. It is played on clay courts.
Wimbledon: Held annually in London, United Kingdom, typically in late June and early July. It is played on grass courts.
US Open: Held annually in New York City, United States, usually from late August to early September. It is played on hard courts.