Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Earlier this week there was a phony report about the Golden State Warriors deciding not to go to the White House after winning their second title in three years. That prompted Washington Post columnist Sally Jenkins to write this column calling for all of the Warriors to go and shake Donald Trump’s hand in the name of…Read more...

Former 49ers coach Jim Tomsula is now handling the Skins’ defensive line, and not only is he free of the crushing burden of working for Jed York, but he’s also lost some facial hair and fat.Read more...

It’s really happening.

NORRISTOWN, Pa.—When word came out Thursday night that Bill Cosby spokesman Andrew Wyatt would talk to the media, everyone started running. The camera operators grabbed their gear and hustled, with reporters trailing behind them. They moved like a school of fish; you couldn’t miss it. The microphones quickly collected…Read more...

Draymond Green and LeBron James had a bit of a back-and-forth yesterday, and the good-natured ribbing ended with Green taking a shot at James during his speech at the Warriors’ victory parade, much to James’s delight.

NORRISTOWN, Pa.—On the fifth day of deliberations, the Bill Cosby criminal trial jurors started with a familiar update: They had a question. The jurors, who will decide if Cosby is guilty or not of three counts of aggravated indecent assault, have so far asks to rehear multiple pieces of evidence and twice had…Read more...

This week, much has been made of the main event of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual Dominion event, which took place on Sunday. IWGP heavyweight champion Kazuchika Okada and challenger Kenny Omega went to a 60-minute time-limit draw, the hallmark of classic title matches for decades. It came five months after their…Read more...

Last night my dog ate a shitload of flour off the floor when I spilled it, which seemed bad until I tweeted out the story and learned that readers’ pets have perpetrated far, far worse culinary crimes. Here now are some of the best:

Randy Moss was inducted into the Minnesota Vikings’ ring of honor this week, and at a press conference on Wednesday he was asked what he would say to Dennis Green, who coached Moss in Minnesota and died last June, if he had the chance.

Gedvydas Vainauskas, the president of Lithuanian professional basketball team BC Lietuvos Rytas, had this to say about black players on his basketball team.

Gizmodo Holy Heck: Amazon Is Buying Whole Foods for $13.7 Billion in Cash | Jalopnik Maybe You Shouldn’t Buy A New Car Right Now | Kotaku The Real Story Behind Xenogears’ ‘Unfinished’ Disc 2 | Skillet Will It Sous Vide? A Beer-Soaked Sausage Party |Read more...

Darren Baker, the son of Nationals skipper Dusty Baker and probably best known for almost being trampled at home plate during the 2002 World Series, was selected by the Nationals on Wednesday in the 27th round of the MLB Draft. We’re all so very old.Read more...

Brydan Klein, the Australian-born British tennis player who was banned from the sport for six months in 2009 for racially abusing an opponent, was assessed an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty during his ATP Nottingham Challenger match on Thursday for calling himself a “stupid person” after he dumped a shot into the…Read more...

The June 22 NBA Draft feels as set, at least on its opening picks, as any in recent memory: Markelle Fultz will go to the Celtics at No. 1, then Lonzo Ball to the Lakers at No. 2. But a week out, everyone is doing their darndest to cast some doubts.

After falling behind 9-1 to the Rockies by the seventh inning, the Giants stormed back to tie the game—only to ultimately fall short, as Colorado walked off with a run in the bottom of the ninth.Read more...

Chris Sale pitched seven shutout innings against the Phillies before giving up just one run in the eighth. He allowed five baserunners over his complete game. He struck out 10. He got the only extra-base hit of the game for the Red Sox (and the first of his career), in the form of an eighth-inning leadoff double to…Read more...

Stand up paddleboarding—is it surfing, or is it canoeing?Read more...

Orlando City SC forward Cyle Larin was arrested early this morning for driving under the influence after driving on the wrong side of the road in Orlando.Read more...

Thank you for your continued support of Deadspin. Enjoy your night.Read more...

“I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”Read more...

Adrian Wojnarowski did not report that LeBron James plans to opt out in 2018 and create a super-team in Los Angeles; “WojVertioalNBA” did. Around the Horn didn’t catch the faux Woj before the tweet aired, though, so the panel debated whether James would actually execute this not-actually-reported plan.

The Steelers placed the franchise tag on running back Le’Veon Bell, but Bell has yet to sign his tender and did not report for any of the team’s offseason program. That includes this week’s mandatory minicamp, which for Bell was actually not mandatory because he’s not officially not under contract.Read more...

NORRISTOWN, Pa.—When the judge announced Thursday that jurors in the Bill Cosby trial were deadlocked, first there was silence. Shock from the women in the courtroom who have said that Cosby also drugged and assaulted them. Quiet pleasure from the Cosby supporters. And eventually flurries of typing and tweeting from…Read more...

Let’s check in with the New York Mets, who are supposedly a Major League Baseball team playing in the NL East.

In the first of what I hope are many blockbuster trades over the next couple of days, the Tampa Bay Lightning are sending forward Jonathan Drouin and a conditional sixth-round 2018 draft pick to the Montreal Canadiens for defense prospect Mikhail Sergachev and a conditional 2018 second-round pick. We don’t yet know…Read more...

David toppled Goliath in the form of this antelope taking down a long-necked victim desperately trying to avoid it at a Netherlands zoo. The gritty attacker showed no mercy, even as helpless zoo visitors looked on in disbelief.Read more...

The last time the Warriors won a title (the year before they blew a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals), Draymond Green got tipsy at the team’s victory parade in Oakland. He mocked the Cleveland Cavaliers by rapping “Cavaliers? Nope. We won? Yupp. They suck? Yupp. We here? Yupp. They not? Nooope.”

Luka Modrić should be a national hero. The Croatian midfielder has been a regular for several seasons now on Real Madrid, one of the most famous teams in world soccer, and he’s appeared in nearly 100 matches for his nation. Modrić has been one of the most consistent players of his generation, and he’s been honored in…Read more...

Oregon State star pitcher Luke Heimlich has removed himself from the baseball team, according to a press release sent Thursday out by university president Ed Ray.Read more...

Steve Ballmer, the recently woke owner of the Clippers, has been trying to get his team out of the arena that they share with the Lakers for some time. He bought the Clippers during the summer of 2014, and every year since then, he’s talked about the possibility of leaving with a rising sense of urgency. In 2015, he …Read more...

Maybe you have heard that some or all of the Golden State Warriors may decline an invitation to celebrate their NBA championship at Donald Trump’s White House, if Donald Trump chooses to invite them, which he has not yet. Maybe you have also heard that yesterday morning, an angry man with Bernie Sanders themes on his…Read more...

Just before the 2016 MLB playoffs, Baseball Prospectus emailed its staff and contributors to tell them that they would not be paid for work they did in August and September until January 2017. The costs of a website redesign and the collapse of daily-fantasy ad spending, the email explained, led to the payment freeze.

Louisville’s attempt to convince the NCAA that it should avoid punishment because it only hired cheap prostitutes that barely assisted their recruiting efforts has, predictably, failed.Read more...

Here is one video with (almost) every Stanley Cup-winning goal, minus those from the pre-TV era that just weren’t filmed. Patric Hornqvist’s winner is still a real dog.Read more...

Devin Harris might be a career 80 percent free-throw shooter, but that didn’t mean diddly once this game of knockout shifted to half-court chucking. An older man who appears to be a staffer at the Mavs Hoop Camp took Harris out with a remarkable heave. Mild fleeing and CPR ensued.Read more...

The start of the Confederations Cup is essentially the first day of Advent before the Christmas that is the World Cup. Played in the World Cup’s host country the year before and consisting of 8 teams—the champion of each continent, the host, and the defending World Cup champs—this tournament is unimportant in the…Read more...

The number of postseason college football bowls has steadily ballooned from a sensible number of games featuring only the best teams in the nation to the stultifying monstrosity we have today, where 82 teams (including several with losing records) play each other in increasingly irrelevant games spread out over three…Read more...

NORRISTOWN, Pa.—Jurors in the Bill Cosby criminal trial told the judge Thursday afternoon, “We cannot come to a unanimous consensus on any of the counts.” Judge Steven T. O’Neill said he considered them deadlocked but sent them back to keep trying.Read more...

Based on reports and video evidence from the scene, a blimp just crashed at Erin Hills golf course, the site of this year’s U.S. Open.Read more...

Underdogs sometimes resort to somewhat underhanded tactics in order to win. Parking the bus, faking injuries to waste time, hard fouling—these are all acceptable albeit unsporting strategies overmatched soccer teams commonly use when coming up against the big boys. But this Argentine lower division defender, who…Read more...

In an interview with CNN, Alexey Smertin, the head of anti-racism for the Russian football union, who just two years ago denied that racism existed in Russia and said giving bananas to black players was “just for fun,” was asked how racist incidents could damage the World Cup in Russia next year. He said:Read more...

Sometimes, I’ll lay awake at night and dream of the day I can write a lede as chilling as the one Alex Acquisto has written for the Bangor Daily News:

According to a report from Jeff Passan at Yahoo Sports, Major League Baseball will change its uniform policies for one weekend only later this year. An MLB memo announced that from August 25-27, “Players Weekend,” everyone will be allowed to get a little creative:Read more...

The Big Lead’s Stephen Douglas has done the world a service today by discovering some old clips of Stephen A. Smith talking about sex, relationships, and what an accomplished sex-doer he is.

Jalopnik Fiat Chrysler Recalling Nearly 300,000 Minivans For Spontaneously Deploying Airbags | io9 X-Men: Dark Phoenix Is Getting One Thing Extremely Right | Kotaku Chun-Li And Dante Look Weird Now, Capcom | Lifehacker 11 Career Paths for New Grads Who Hate Offices |Read more...

In a pretty grim return on their investment, the Los Angeles Rams have traded 2014 No. 2 overall pick OT Greg Robinson to Detroit for a 2018 sixth-round pick, reports Adam Schefter.

Earlier this week, irresponsible and unfounded reporting claimed the Golden State Warriors will not be visiting the White House following their NBA Finals victory. That story was false; there’s still good reason to think that the team, or at least a few key members, might skip out on the tradition.

The Browns, impressively, did not screw up their draft, taking DE Myles Garrett with the first overall pick. But offseason activities have barely begun and already there may be reason to worry.

Scarcely two days since the Golden State Warriors won the second title in three years, Jerry West is leaving the team to become a special consultant to the Los Angeles Clippers.Read more...

The Yankees got out to a four-run lead over the Angels in the top of the first inning tonight, and Aaron Hicks wasn’t ready to see it slip away. With the bases loaded for Anaheim in the bottom of the inning, he leaped for a perfectly-timed grab over the wall in center field in order to rob Luis Valbuena of what would…Read more...