Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Russell Westbrook scored 26 points in Oklahoma City’s loss to the Lakers on Thursday night, including the three clutch free throws that sent the game to overtime. Start there and work backwards across the box score, and you will go from feeling pretty good about Russ’s contributions—hey, 26 points, 13 assists, only 3…Read more...

Today the Daily Beast published a story titled “Is a Serial-Killer Gang Murdering Young Men Across the U.S.?” Boldly defying Betteridge’s Law, the report—written by crime reporter Nicole Weisensee Egan, who covered the Bill Cosby trial for the Beast—suggests that the answer to the question posed in the headline may…Read more...

Tomorrow night, the UFC will make its long-awaited debut on ESPN. The fight card is headlined by a flyweight title superfight between bantamweight champ T.J. Dillashaw and current flyweight belt-holder Henry Cejudo, a bout that will likely result in Dillashaw becoming the company’s latest double champion only for the …Read more...

A colossal milestone is about to be smashed in the world of billiards. Five-time world snooker champion Ronnie O’Sullivan, fresh off winning his 19th triple crown event at this year’s UK Championship, is on the verge of making 1000 century breaks in competition. He has three already in early UK Masters play, bringing…Read more...

Nick Saban treats nearly everyone in his life with maximum contempt at all times. His own fans, the media, the college football playoff scheduling committee—everyone is a target for the Alabama head coach when he’s in a pissy mood, which is about 99 percent of the time. Saban rules by fear, and that high-intensity…Read more...

Aryna Sabalenka has resting tigress face, and she is apt to pounce on any tennis ball that hasn’t been fired at her at bullet pace. The 20-year-old plays to kill, announcing her intentions with loud, flat force. She was the only player to give Naomi Osaka a good fight at the U.S. Open, she already picked up a title…Read more...

Nalgene bottles, Dagne Dover bags, and a Harmony Remote lead off Friday’s best deals.Read more...

Bruins winger Chris Wagner had an excellent game in Thursday’s 5-2 home win over the Blues, scoring the go-ahead goal on a pretty breakaway and assisting on another. But the fourth-liner’s not much of a scorer, so when St. Louis pulled its goalie and Wagner found himself in on an empty net with a good shot at the…Read more...

Murray State blew out Eastern Illinois on Thursday, 83-61, and improved to a 5-0 start to Ohio Valley Conference play in the process. And while I am 99.9 percent sure that virtually all living sports fans could not possibly care less about that result, I am equally confident that you will love watching Murray State…Read more...

Washington defensive lineman Jonathan Allen gave out doughnuts to sick kids in D.C. today. The treats came with a photo of him alongside the words “We Hail!” Allen probably should’ve checked with his boss.Read more...

Gizmodo Netflix Says It Won’t Pull Controversial Footage of Actual Deadly Incident From Bird Box | Jalopnik At $6,200, Could This 2004 Honda Sport-Ute Put You In Your Element? | Kotaku Ace Combat 7 Is A Proper Ace Combat Game | Lifehacker How Do I Create a Searchable Archive of PDFs? | The Takeout Ask The Salty…Read more...

Last night before the Oklahoma City Thunder’s game against the Los Angeles Lakers, Russell Westbrook warmed up with his (extremely well-dressed) son Noah. Noah isn’t even two yet and he’s already sprint-toddling down the court and lobbing shots into his dad’s makeshift hoop arms.Read more...

Michigan attorney general Dana Nessel has requested an interview with John Engler, who resigned as Michigan State University interim president earlier this week to avoid being fired the next day. The AG’s office has accused Engler and MSU of “stonewalling” its investigation into the university’s handling of Larry…Read more...

January is high time for supplement manufacturers, because Amazon just kicked off the seventh protein-packed Gold Box deal of 2019. Whether you missed out on the other sales or just didn’t like what you saw, you’ve got another chance today to save on protein bars, powders, and more from the subtly-named Muscletech.…Read more...

No matter what your physical ailment may be, this Swanson Health Vitamin and Supplement Gold Box has something to help. Everything from turmeric for healthy joints to omega-3 fish oil to support the heart and brain is on sale for today only, so be sure to stock your medicine cabinet now.

It’s no secret that the consensus on Lonzo Ball here is that he’s a bad young player. But in the Lakers 138-128 victory over the Thunder, he showed more than a few flashes of not being total ass, and might have proven to coach Luke Walton that the team’s best chance of surviving this LeBron-less period is by running…Read more...

Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid was listed as questionable for tonight’s game against the Pacers due to lingering tightness in his back. Despite signs before the game that he was not feeling 100 percent, he played anyways, and the initial returns weren’t great. Embiid started the game 0-for-3 from the field and…Read more...

The Bulls are taking on the Nuggets in Denver in a game that’s a lot closer than it should be. On the basis of the scoreline alone, it’s hard to tell that one team is the second-best squad in the West by record, and the other is trying hard to bring Zion Williamson onto their team. There are some indicators, however,…Read more...

Despite the fact that the team has already played 17 games this season, the Oklahoma State Cowboys are scrambling to add more players to their roster for the remainder of their schedule. Desperate for bodies to fill the bench, the team turned to the student population of OSU, offering walk-on tryouts on eight-hours…Read more...

Though Congress has yet to designate it an official act of war, the NBA sent the Knicks to London.

We see a lot of deals around the web over on Kinja Deals, but these were our ten favorites today.Read more...

By the time Johanna Konta and Garbiñe Muguruza finished up their second-round match, it was 3:12 a.m., Melbourne time. Play only began after midnight. It would have started earlier, if not for all the obstacles: the rain delays earlier in the day, the pileup of five-setters beforehand, the seagull poop, and the rain…Read more...

Earlier this week, more than two years after the Indianapolis Star reported the first allegations against former USA Gymnastics/Michigan State doctor Larry Nassar, Senator Cory Gardner, a Republican who represents Colorado, introduced the “Strengthening U.S. Olympics Act” to closely scrutinize the USOC—among other…Read more...

In an effort to taunt the visiting team, a group of Minnesota high school students brought a Trump 2020 flag to a boys basketball game Tuesday night. Considering that the road team, Minneapolis Roosevelt High School, has a predominantly black student body and has been staying in the locker room during the national…Read more...

Last weekend’s playoff game between the Saints and Eagles turned when the Saints successfully ran a fake punt while down 14-0 in the second quarter. They went on to end that extended drive with a touchdown, and eventually won the game 20-14. Thanks to a new clip released by the NFL Network, we know that the fake punt…Read more...

Okay, so, on Saturday night in Las Vegas, Manny Pacquiao—a semi-washed 40-year-old homophobe and ally of a murderous dictator—will fight Adrien Broner—a somehow-even-more-washed occasional creep and an all-the-time dick. Broner was supposed to be the next big thing, but instead he’s lost and drawn his last two fights…Read more...

I remember where I was the day that Triple H, Vince, Stephanie, and Shane McMahon announced that they themselves would be taking charge over both Monday night RAW and SmackDown Live. I shouldn’t, probably: it was a very average Monday, I had made a very average dinner, and was ready to live tweet the latest…Read more...

Former NFL offensive lineman Jonathan Martin will stand trial over a threatening photo he posted on Instagram in February 2018, the New York Daily News reported.Read more...

When basketball giant Boban Marjanovic was named among the cast in the next installment of the John Wick franchise, I feared that his cameo would be a forgettable one. Maybe he’d be spotted sipping champagne in a dark corner of a European night club, or at best be a faceless goon who catches a bullet from Wick in a…Read more...

Aukey Powerstrips, Retinol Cream, and a PSVR bundle lead off Wednesday’s best deals.

No matter what they do, the Anaheim Ducks cannot grab a win to save their lives. The franchise-worst 12-game losing streak that this team has been suffering through since Dec. 18 has featured a cavalcade of leads slipping through their fingers. In just the past week, the Ducks have blown 3-0 and 4-3 leads against the…Read more...

The Boston Celtics prevented a bad week from becoming a disastrous one by beating the conference-leading Toronto Raptors last night. Kyrie Irving played particularly well, scoring 27 points and handing out 18 assists while making some big plays in the fourth quarter. The win must have had him feeling sentimental,…Read more...

Gizmodo Netflix Criticized for Using Actual Footage of Deadly Event in Travelers and Possibly Bird Box | Jalopnik Chevrolet Pulls ‘Most Reliable’ Ad After Being Challenged By Toyota | Lifehacker This Is the Best Time to Book Flights in 2019 | Kotaku Assassin’s Creed Odyssey Director Says ‘We…Read more...

The Australian Open has been criticized in the past (even as recently as this week) for its haphazard scheduling, both for heat and for match congestion, and Thursday’s slate of games added another point of evidence to the growing list of reasons why the first Grand Slam of the year needs a bit of an overhaul.Read more...

Ghanaian undercover journalist Ahmed Hussein-Suale was murdered Wednesday night in Accra, when two men on a motorbike fired into the car he was driving. Hussein-Suale was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital.

Social media is great for connecting people, sharing news and information, and giving your grandmother the opportunity to air her political opinions unfettered. Unfortunately, its anonymity and widespread reach makes it an easy way for people to spread hate, and since Donald Trump’s election in 2016, social media…Read more...

It was not all that long ago that baseball people—smart, evenhanded baseball people—were wondering if Manny Machado would become MLB’s first $400-million man. Now we’re all wondering if he’s going to make that much more than Chris Davis.

Sometimes, there’s too much stuff, not enough space. Keep all your odds and ends at bay with one of these tiered metal utility carts, now on sale in today’s Amazon Gold Box. They come in a variety of colors, and two tier options: a three-tiered cart for $37, and a four-tiered cart for $45.Read more...

The Pelicans came into the second half Wednesday night up five over the Warriors, and quickly added to the lead until it got as big as 16 points. The Pelicans are a fun and surprisingly tough matchup for the Warriors, and they appeared to have the game firmly in their grasp with 4:49 left in the third quarter and the…Read more...

The Memphis Grizzlies were never really in their Wednesday night loss to the Milwaukee Bucks, falling behind by double digits in the first quarter, later trailing by 31 points, and eventually yanking their starters at around the 25-minute threshold. The only positives to take away from the game, for Memphis, were…Read more...

The fun and frisky Brooklyn Nets deserve enormous credit for their overtime road win in Houston Wednesday night. Even with almost every useful non-Harden Rockets player either on the shelf or suddenly a member of the Rio Grande Valley Vipers, that’s still an impressive outcome, especially on a night when Harden went…Read more...

James Harden right now is like no one else in basketball history in at least this one way: he is taking more combined free throws and three pointers than anyone ever. But don’t take my word for it—here are some cool graphs:Read more...

The Celtics are playing in a pretty big game against the Raptors right now, and Marcus Smart added two points for his team and a ton of humiliation for his opponents on a “dunk” that ended with the guard landing a forearm drop on a hurt Kyle Lowry.Read more...

In late December, German soccer club BV Cloppenburg handed the reins of their fifth-division men’s team to Imke Wübbenhorst, making her the first woman to coach a German men’s team at that high of a level. You could probably imagine some of the moronic questions Wübbenhorst has had to field in light of her new gig,…Read more...

A tennis player who is down a set and 0-3 against a huge-serving top-five seed at a Grand Slam is typically cooked. Frances Tiafoe is the most intriguing men’s American tennis prospect alive at the moment, but when staring down that deficit against South Africa’s Kevin Anderson he looked about as dead as any other…Read more...

Professional bull rider Mason Lowe died last night in Denver after a bull he was riding stepped on his chest. Lowe was competing for PBR at the National Western Stock Show, riding a bull named Hard Times, when he sustained his injuries. He was 25 years old.

A new start-up called Ambrosia, profiled today in Business Insider, is offering olds the opportunity to fill their veins with young people’s blood, which provides vague and questionable benefits for the vampiric elderly. At current prices, one liter of youthful blood will run you $8,000, while two liters are a steal…Read more...

We see a lot of deals around the web over on Kinja Deals, but these were our ten favorites today.

Jalen Hurts announced today that he would be leaving the Crimson Tide and transferring to play at Oklahoma next season. Since the QB graduated from Alabama already, he can use his final season of NCAA eligibility for the Sooners without having to sit a year. In an essay at the Players’ Tribune, someone with Hurts’s…Read more...

During the Chargers-Patriots ass-beating on Sunday, the NFL officially announced what had been rumored for months: the Super Bowl XLIII halftime show will feature Maroon 5 as headliners, with supporting slots from Travis Scott and, in what amounted to the only surprising bit of the announcement, Outkast’s Big Boi.