Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

USA Today’s Sam Amick obtained a memo that Adam Silver sent to all 30 NBA teams a week ago, warning them that they faced the “swiftest and harshest response possible” from the league office if they get caught outwardly trying to lose games. The memo was sent on Feb. 21, the same day that Silver fined Mavericks owner…Read more...

INDIANAPOLIS — Greetings from the bowels of the Indiana Convention Center, where the media sausage is churning its way through the 2018 NFL scouting combine. If you just got here and can’t find the shitter, make your way toward Podium 1, where Colts general manager Chris Ballard (pictured) has wrapped up his presser,…Read more...

Kei Nishikori, you were missed. The Japanese star popped a tendon in his right wrist in mid-August, closed up shop for the year, and then sat out the Aussie Open last month. Since then he’s warmed up with some low-key Challengers, and this week entered just his second tour-level event since his injury, at Acapulco.Read more...

Steelers GM Kevin Colbert said today that injured linebacker Ryan Shazier won’t play in 2018. “He knows that, and we know that, and we’re gonna continue to support him in his recovery,” Colbert said, adding that they will keep him on the roster next year. “We know that’s a challenge, ‘cause we’ll be at 89 players and…Read more...

The Clymb has everything you could need to get outdoors and do it properly, for a whole lot less than you’d think you’d need to pay. Right now, take your pick of apparel, gear, hiking accessories, and more, and grab 15% off when you use the code KinjaFifteen, today only. With brands like Prana, Burton, Merrel, New…Read more...

Although Rob Gronkowski goes about his everyday life like an ageless high schooler, he’ll be 29 in May and has had a bunch of surgeries to his back and limbs. Add in his marketability and the fact that he’s already sealed up a Hall of Fame spot whenever he walks away from the NFL, and it’s not completely shocking that…Read more...

Last Friday, ESPN published a big piece by Mark Schlabach that revealed the FBI had recorded phone conversations between Arizona head coach Sean Miller and sports agency runner Christian Dawkins in which they devised a pay-for-play scheme.Read more...

The brave Milwaukee Bucks tried their best. After falling behind the invincible Washington Wizards by 21 points in the first quarter of last night’s game, the deer men scraped and clawed nearly all the way back, drawing the deficit down to a single point five times in the fourth quarter. Alas, each time they bounced…Read more...

Bronx-born fencer and Olympic silver medalist Daryl Homer has previously been kind enough to teach us how to wield a saber and rank things. Recently he took us inside the Peter Westbrook Foundation in New York City, the place he was first introduced to fencing. He talked about the importance of the culture created by…Read more...

Late in the third quarter, with all their wings whirring and Nikola Jokic calmly calling the shots from the center, the Nuggets stretched their lead over the Clippers to 19. Tuesday’s game took on the shape of a blowout. If you want to radically alter the shape of a basketball game, add 7-foot-3 Boban Marjanovic to…Read more...

Dwyane Wade, paying tribute to Parkland shooting victim Joaquin Oliver, hit the game-winning shot last night in the Miami Heat’s 102-101 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers. He scored 15 of Miami’s 17 final points (and assisted on the other bucket). But it was a foul he made that actually won the Heat the game.Read more...

In a blessed confluence of somewhat unexpected events, Donald Trump’s presidency has thus far avoided bringing permanent ruin to the country and the world. The sheer odiousness of his status as president of the U.S. does, however, appear at risk of ruining this country’s shot at hosting the 2026 World Cup.Read more...

When I watched Nathan Chen’s figure skating performance with my family, my 28-year-old cousin asked if there was some sort of dancing sport in the Olympics. “No!” my mom responded emphatically. “Don’t you know this is the winter Olympics?? It’s all about snow and ice.”Read more...

In the grand metaphor of life, where the ocean is the world and we are the surfer getting battered against some rocks, it’s comforting to know that there are people like Australian Ross Clarke-Jones.Read more...

The NFL’s competition committee is currently discussing possible changes to the league’s catch rule, which is commonly interpreted by replay officials throwing tea leaves and chicken bones against a wall. According to committee member and Giants owner John Mara, the group is in agreement that the rule needs to be…Read more...

If you’re ready to add a treadmill to your home gym, the NordicTrack C 990 treadmill will only set you back $700 - that’s $300 off the usual $1,000 price tag, and it comes with free expert assembly (an $86 value).

The Philips Norelco Multigroom 5000 is a platform for 16 included tools and combs to manage all of the hair on your body, including nose hair. And unlike a lot of all-in-one trimmer systems, it also mercifully includes a storage case to keep everything organized.

Dwyane Wade briefly looked like his vintage self tonight, putting up 15 of Miami’s 17 final points in a close fourth quarter against Philadelphia—including the game-winning shot with just a few seconds remaining.Read more...

No. 9 North Carolina looked like they were set for overtime against unranked Miami tonight, with a clutch game-tying three-pointer from Joel Berry with just four seconds remaining. But those four seconds gave Hurricanes guard Ja’Quan Newton enough time to launch a buzzer-beating shot from well beyond the arc, and that…Read more...

In the third period of tonight’s Senators-Capitals game, Erik Karlsson wasn’t exactly where he should have been. His location wasn’t good for him, and it wasn’t really doing anything to help his team. There were plenty of other places where he could have been more of a threat, or more fun to pay attention to. Instead,…Read more...

Here are the facts: The Winds Of Winter, the sixth book in George RR Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire series, is still not out. Science predicted it would come out about a year ago, and the first chapters surfaced in 2011 (though they were cut from his previous book). GRRM himself claimed he was months away two years…Read more...

The NFL’s stupid pizza wars have, at last, come to their natural conclusion.Read more...

Tim Lincecum’s showcase for major-league scouts went well—or well enough, anyway—and he looked pretty healthy. So now he has a contract with the chance to mount his comeback.Read more...

Newly acquired Rick Nash is only playing his second game as a Bruin tonight, but he’s already making all of his other Boston teammates look like slackers. Early in their game against the Hurricanes, a rebounding shot from Jaccob Slavin deflected off a skate, trickled past Bruins goalie Tuukka Rask, and looked to be…Read more...

Snow days were great, and if you have the opportunity to get one as an adult, you should absolutely take it. But props to third-tier English soccer team Peterborough United for powering through and doing the absolute most they could do to avoid going home early on account of the late-February flurries.Read more...

The California State Athletic Commission held a hearing today to set former UFC champion Jon Jones’s punishment for testing positive for a banned steroid after beating Daniel Cormier last July. As many anticipated, he was fined $205,000 and stripped of his license for a year. However, Jones was not suspended by the…Read more...

Neymar went down in a heap in the latter stages of PSG’s big 3-0 rivalry victory over Marseille on Sunday. Neymar going down didn’t appear to be anything out of the ordinary, and the non-contact incident that brought him to the grass—a rolled right ankle—didn’t look all that bad on replay. Neymar’s response, though,…Read more...

LeBron James, the greatest basketball player ever not to play college hoops, spoke up about the very stupid FBI investigation that has currently engulfed the sport. While James didn’t play college ball, he dipped his toe in the recruiting process and has firsthand experience with its shady side. His take on how to fix…Read more...

Aww hell, here’s a pass Isaiah Thomas made last night.Read more...

Time for your weekly edition of the Deadspin Funbag. Got something on your mind? Email the Funbag. Today, we’re talking dad rock, playing cards, the NCAA, and more.

Last November, my team played in a World Curling Tour event. Our team couldn’t be considered “competitive”—we play about one such event a year, whereas the good ones are looking at about a dozen weeks a year. We know what we’re doing; we’re just out of shape. Still, we finished 0-3 in our pool and out of championship…Read more...

Affordable and attractive swimwear (that will actually last more than a season) seems like an oxymoron, but you really don’t need to look further than Target. What’s even better is that they’re helping you get ready for the warmer weather with a buy one, get one 50% off sale on all swimwear, flip-flops and canvas shoesRead more...

Since college football coaches can’t offer recruits the opportunity to earn real money, they often have to resort to wooing them with the promise of future earnings, which of course will only become available after submitting themselves to a few years of getting yelled at by sunburned men in polos. That’s how you end…Read more...

Just before Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School senior Emma González launched into her now-iconic 11-minute gun control speech, she warned the crowd that it was going to be a long one.Read more...

The Brooklyn Nets had a real, honest highlight in the third quarter of Monday’s 104-87 win over the Bulls. Nineteen-year-old Jarrett Allen rolled and found himself in the perfect position to throw down a dunk; Bulls rookie Lauri Markkanen found himself in the worst spot to receive it.Read more...

Let us use the Rays as an example, because, hell, if the Rays didn’t want to be used as the poster team for hemorrhaging salary with no clear goal other than to shovel cash into its ownership’s maw, maybe they shouldn’t have so conspicuously nuked a roster that was five games out of a playoff spot.

If you are a professional basketball player there is one thing you have to understand: Even though losing a casual shooting contest to a non-professional basketball player is not an objectively big deal, it is something you absolutely cannot allow to happen. Why? Because when it does happen, you have to deal with shit…Read more...

For an entire century, the corporate class in America has dreamed of destroying organized labor, which eats into their ability to amass endless profits. They’ve chipped away at unions for 40 years. Now, it is no exaggeration to say that they are two steps away from total victory.Read more...

Today’s best deals kick off with a crazy deal on an Apple TV 4K, Cuisinart stainless steel cookware, an Alexa device for your car, and more.

The AD and Boogie show was one of the best things going in the NBA, which made Boogie snapping his achilles tendon just before the All-Star break a downright depressing development. What’s definitely not depressing are the things Anthony Davis has been doing to the chumps who have had the misfortune of lining up…Read more...

io9 Rebels Just Introduced Something We Never Thought We’d See in Star Wars | Jalopnik Montana Craigslist Is Full Of Insanely Good Cars | Kotaku Rurouni Kenshin Creator Fined For Child Pornography Possession | Two Cents How Movie Stars Negotiate Their Salaries |Read more...

There’s an old, dumb, incorrect football saying that goes, “If you have two quarterbacks, you have none.” Well, the Vikings this season had three quarterbacks. And now, it appears, they actually do have none.Read more...

Three weeks after Golden State Warriors-owned League of Legends team Golden Guardians fired head coach Yoonsup “Locodoco” Choi, the former coach broke his silence. Choi, who was fired just four games into the team’s season, said tonight that his firing was a result of him telling a “personal story” which was not…Read more...

Today in tremendously stupid updates from the FBI’s college basketball investigation: Michigan State’s Miles Bridges has officially been cleared to play. The sophomore guard has been absolved of his sins (allowing an agent to buy dinner for several members of his family last winter, which reportedly took place without…Read more...

When Virginia Tech fans started chanting “bullshit” after an iffy foul call that sent Grayson Allen to the line, head coach Buzz Williams wasted no time in grabbing the nearest microphone—out of someone else’s hand—and telling off the crowd:Read more...

The off-the-record talk that Barack Obama gave at MIT’s Sloan Sports Analytics Conference last Friday didn’t stay under wraps for long. The folks at Reason obtained a recording of the former president’s hour-long speech and published it today, and—surprise—it doesn’t have anything too different from most of the on…Read more...

Larry Eustachy has resigned as head coach of men’s basketball at Colorado State, two weeks after he was placed on a paid leave of absence while the university investigated him for violating a zero-tolerance policy of abusive behavior toward players.Read more...

Kotaku Monster Hunter: World, One Month Later | Gizmodo Ancient Elephants and Mastodons Were Totally Down With Inter-Species Boning | Jalopnik Here’s Exactly How Volkswagen’s Diesel Defeat Device Worked | Lifehacker The Best Way to Buy the Galaxy S9 Is Straight From Samsung |Read more...

Liverpool’s Brazilian striker Roberto Firmino may be the hardest working center forward in the game, but don’t get it twisted: he still manages to couple his indefatigable off-ball work with more than a little of that old samba flair. His elaborate goal celebrations are probably the most indicative of his flashy…Read more...

Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones’s reported bitching and moaning about Roger Goodell’s actions over the last season has earned him a dose of NFL justice, which is regular justice that comes with an even more hollow feeling. Ken Belson of the New York Times reports the NFL commissioner will fine Jones “millions of…Read more...