NYT Connections: Sports Edition Puzzle Stumps Players With Tricky Wordplay and Hidden NBA Team Names

The latest edition of Connections: Sports Edition has left even seasoned puzzle solvers scratching their heads, as today’s challenge delivers a masterclass in lateral thinking and sports trivia. Published by The Athletic, this brain-teasing game has quickly become a must-play for sports enthusiasts and word puzzle fans alike.

Today’s Puzzle Breakdown

The January 31, 2026 edition presents an unusually difficult configuration, featuring a mix of Ohio sports references, NBA coaching legends, iconic sports films from 1996, and a particularly devious purple category that requires identifying NBA team names hidden within seemingly unrelated words.

Category Hints Revealed

Yellow Group (Easiest): The theme revolves around “An Ohio athlete,” connecting four professional sports teams from the Buckeye State. Players needed to identify Bengal (Cincinnati Bengals), Blue Jacket (Columbus Blue Jackets), Guardian (Cleveland Guardians), and Red (Cincinnati Reds).

Green Group: This category focuses on “NBA head coaches,” featuring four prominent coaching names: Bickerstaff, Brown, Kidd, and Lue. These represent current and former NBA coaches who have made significant impacts in the league.

Blue Group: The theme “Sports films of 1996” requires knowledge of that year’s cinematic landscape, with answers including Happy Gilmore, Kingpin, Space Jam, and Tin Cup—all beloved sports comedies that defined the mid-90s.

Purple Group (Hardest): This category proves the most challenging, asking players to identify words that “Start with an NBA team, in singular form.” The answers—knickknack, network, Spurrier, and Sundance—each begin with the name of an NBA team (Knicks, Nets, Spurs, and Suns) when read as separate words.

Why This Puzzle Stands Out

What makes today’s edition particularly noteworthy is the purple category’s clever construction. Unlike typical Connections puzzles that might use obvious team names or player references, this one requires players to mentally separate compound words and recognize team names embedded within them. This level of wordplay demonstrates the puzzle’s evolution beyond simple categorization into true linguistic creativity.

The inclusion of 1996 sports films also taps into nostalgia, requiring players to have specific cultural knowledge from that era. Meanwhile, the Ohio teams category tests regional sports knowledge, and the NBA coaches group challenges players to recognize surnames without the context of team names.

How to Access Connections: Sports Edition

Unlike the original Connections puzzle found in the NYT Games app, this sports-themed variant lives exclusively in The Athletic’s app or can be played for free online. This separation has allowed for more specialized content that caters specifically to sports fans while maintaining the addictive puzzle mechanics that made the original so popular.

Pro Tips for Future Puzzles

For those looking to improve their Connections game, consider these strategies: Start with the yellow category as it’s typically the most straightforward, look for obvious connections between words before diving into more abstract relationships, and don’t be afraid to rearrange words multiple times as new patterns emerge. The purple category often requires the most creative thinking, so save it for last.

Player Reactions

Early feedback from the puzzle community suggests this edition has been particularly divisive. Some players praise the creative wordplay and diverse knowledge required, while others find the purple category unnecessarily obscure. Regardless of opinion, there’s consensus that this puzzle represents a significant step up in difficulty from previous editions.

Whether you solved it in record time or needed every hint available, today’s Connections: Sports Edition proves once again why this puzzle has captured the attention of sports fans and word game enthusiasts alike. With its unique blend of sports knowledge, cultural references, and linguistic puzzles, it continues to set itself apart in the crowded field of daily brain teasers.

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