Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

2018 was the best of times, and the worst of times. We’re here to talk about that second bit, though we’re keeping things focused on video games. If we went any broader, this would take all day.

The best price we’ve seen on the latest iPad, reader-favorite travel mugs, and a huge sale on coats are here to get you over the hump.Read more...

On Sunday night, Sports Illustrated producer Jessica Smetana delivered, to no one in particular, a mild criticism of the very bad Sunday Night Football theme performed by Carrie Underwood. The musician saw it and was mad.

Sometimes it’s hard to imagine soft-bodied, sweet-passing Nuggets center Nikola Jokic as the kind of blue-chip superstar who can carry a team all by himself. Part of this is due to that aforementioned body, which manages to be both gangly and plump, and totally out of place during an era in which the NBA is ruled by…Read more...

Cold drinks in winter should be a crime. Keep your beverages toasty warm for hours on end with our readers’ most beloved Contigo’s Autoseal West Loop insulated travel mug, now on sale in Amazon’s Gold Box. Both 16- and 20-ounce mugs are available in metallic and matte finishes for $9 to $17. And while Contigo will…Read more...

Former Bills quarterback Nathan Peterman is reportedly doing the rounds this week, hoping to catch on at the bottom end of some poor team’s depth chart and begin rebuilding his football career. He worked out with the Buccaneers on Tuesday, and his tour will reportedly soon take him out west, where a certain…Read more...

The Nuggets have that glow these days. Competent role-players are oozing out of the woodwork. Dumb shots are falling. Mason Plumlee is dusting Harrison Barnes with a slick behind-the-back dribble and a lefty scoop layup to beat the buzzer and put a goofy exclamation point on a 74-point first half, wait what—Read more...

Let’s face the facts; you don’t need the iPad Pro. The standard 2018 iPad is a terrific tablet for both consuming and creating media. (And it works with the Apple Pencil, the first non-Pro model to do so.)Read more...

They say that in times of intense stress, human beings can manage to perform impossible, superhuman feats of “hysterical strength.” I can’t think of a more terrifying situation than seeing LeBron James barreling directly at you with eyes on a monster slam, but for young Brooklyn Nets big man Jarrett Allen, adrenaline…Read more...

We are used to Zion Williamson’s rare combination of dump truck size and comic book athleticism putting the opposition in grave danger, but this is maybe the first sign that young Zion can truly fuck himself up if he isn’t real careful out there:Read more...

Tennessee’s 102-92 victory over Memphis on Saturday featured a very chill imitation of a scuffle between the two teams in the final minute. A few days after the game, however, this once-lean beef is starting to look pretty appetizing. At his Tuesday press conference, Memphis first-year coach Penny Hardaway threw some…Read more...

AZ Alkmaar plastered PEC Zwolle in the Dutch Cup today by a score of 5-0. However, due to some wicked backspin and an insanely precise smack off the crossbar and the possible imposition of dark magic, AZ forward Mats Seuntjins’s 15th-minute strike somehow was not one of those five goals:Read more...

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

I’m as guilty as anyone of stockpiling unused tech accessories in my drawers, but a new charging accessory company called Nimble really made me stop and think about where all this stuff comes from, and where it goes when we’re done with it. And yeah, they also make good products.

Over at The Athletic, author Robert Andrew Powell wrote an entertaining and comprehensive story about Mike Piazza’s disastrous two-year tenure as owner of third-tier Italian soccer team Reggio Emilia, and it has everything: Piazza’s obvious desire to recapture the thrill of his playing days (Piazza after a game: “I’ve…Read more...

Jim Nantz is too fundamentally bland as a human for a conflict of interest to be concerning, but what fresh hell was this? During Sunday’s Patriots-Steelers game, the CBS broadcaster betrayed his WASPy exterior with an ejaculated moment of unrestrained happiness for his good chum Tom Brady. “Mr. Cool”? What?

In the nine years since Monopoly-man-come-to-life Joe Ricketts and his cartoonishly wealthy progeny purchased the Chicago Cubs from the Tribune Company, the Ricketts dynasty—publicly represented by 55-year-old investment banker and public transit enthusiast Tom—have found themselves in repeated disagreement with the…Read more...

Miami has arguably been hit harder by the pro sports stadium scam than any other city in America. When former Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria managed to get a publicly financed stadium built in 2012, he stuck Miami-Dade County with a stupefying bill that will eventually cost taxpayers $2.4 billion. Given these…Read more...

Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie—who after a patchy early career just inked a three-year, $34 million extension with Brooklyn, and seems to be a generally hilarious dude—has a refreshing worldview on the brands. Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic wrote about the population of NBA players who navigate the league without a…Read more...

Today, we’re talking about chuds, Nick Foles, Home Depot, overpopulation, and more.Read more...

University of Toledo freshman Maison Hullibarger killed himself on Dec. 4. He was 18. Hullibarger’s Dec. 8 funeral in Michigan was spoiled by not only the Catholic priest overseeing the service, but his former high school football coach who wasn’t invited. Quite a team effort.Read more...

This excerpt from Sam Anderson’s new book Boom Town, a book on the rapid rise of Oklahoma City and its NBA franchise, joins the team at home for Game 46 of the 2012-13 season, and considers the least-heralded member of what looked at the time like a rising dynasty.Read more...

The Detroit Lions lost 14-13 to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, a result that guaranteed both a losing season and official elimination from the playoffs. It’s never a good thing for a team to have its season effectively ended by a one-point loss, and it is an even worse thing to have that loss come against the damn…Read more...

I once picked up the first novel in Elena Ferrante’s bestselling series, after the very impressive Argentine mother of a dear friend described the books as erotic masterpieces that can never be appreciated in America so long as they have such hideously Victorian book covers. When I abandoned this first attempt to…Read more...

Way back in January of last season, Devin Booker was ejected from a game after gently shoving Enes Kanter in the Suns’ 107-85 loss to the Knicks. Kanter, being as exhaustingly online as he is, made an insipid meme depicting Booker holding a large “L” right after the game.Read more...

It’s that time again: time to take stock of the year that was 2018. We’ll start with the nice stuff.Read more...

James Harden is one of the very best basketball players in the world and the NBA would be worse off without his handles and shooting and creative abilities. He’s also an annoying pile of crap!

Earther New Poll Shows Basically Everyone Likes Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal | Jalopnik The 2019 Ford Ranger Isn’t the Ranger You Remember, but It’s Good at What It Does | Kotaku Switch’s New NES Controllers Do More Than You Might Think | Skillet A Use For Those Dumb Whiskey Stones Someone Gave You | The…Read more...

CC Sabathia finished the 2018 regular season six outs shy of a performance bonus in his contract that would have paid him $500,000 for reaching 155 innings. He would have gotten it, had life and Tampa Bay not intervened. In his final start he was rolling through five, having thrown only 55 pitches, when the Yankees …Read more...

After two-and-a-half bad and boring seasons at Manchester United, the club announced today in some euphemistic language that manager José Mourinho has been tossed out on his ass. This decision to get rid of Mourinho is both overdue and yet still surprising, which says so much about the ruinous state of what was once…Read more...

Amazon’s run a few gift-friendly tool sales for the holidays, but today’s is specifically about stocking stuffers. Everything in the sale is physically (fairly) small, and on sale for under $45.

Stanley drinkware is ostensibly designed for camping, but that trademark hammertone green will look great on your desk at work too (unless it’s the flask, maybe keep that in a drawer).

The Joe Tessitore-Jason Witten-Booger McFarland Monday Night Football crew has been very, hmm, uneven in its first season. Tessitore is blandly Fine; Witten sometimes talks himself into dizzying circles; McFarland’s sideline scooter seems to produce an awful lot of confusion in his analysis. If you are a fan of…Read more...

Taj Gibson lost his shoe on a post move early in the first quarter of tonight’s Kings-Timberwolves game. His shoeless layup went down, which is cool enough, but play did not stop, and so Gibson was forced to hoof it down to the defensive end in a sock, holding his shoe in his right hand.Read more...

The sad, demoralized Bulls are having their asses handed to them in Oklahoma City tonight. Perhaps the familiarity of another grim drubbing was more than they could bear—in the third quarter, down 21 points, they picked several fights all at once:Read more...

This is just an unbelievably cursed combination of proper nouns: Browns head coach Gregg Williams used help from retired coin-operated fortune-teller Phil Jackson to arrange for dead-eyed thinkfluencer Kobe Bryant to deliver a motivational talk to his young team ahead of their week 15 game this past weekend.Read more...

The worst way to fight Edson Barboza is to let the lanky Brazilian have the necessary space to get his terrifying kicks off. Kiwi action fighter Dan Hooker very occasionally (so, like, twice) ruffled Barboza with spurts of pressure in the second round of their fight last weekend on the UFC’s final card on Fox, but…Read more...

The good young Kings beat the good young Mavericks on Sunday, in Luka Dončić’s first career regular season game against the team that unexpectedly passed on drafting him with the second overall pick back in June. Dončić had 28 points on 15 shots and was excellent; Marvin Bagley III, whom the Kings selected ahead of …Read more...

In its effort to continue to tweak every single thing imaginable, MLS announced on Monday that there will be a new playoff format starting in 2019. The league is doing away with the European-influenced two-legged playoffs in favor of a single-elimination tournament, akin to March Madness.

Jalopnik Run for the Hills If You Encounter Any of These Car-Buying Red Flags | Two Cents These Are the 2019 Tax Brackets | Gizmodo It’s 2018, and the iPhone Is Still Super Annoying | Kotaku I Just Unlocked A 2016 Nintendo Game In The Silliest Way Possible | The Takeout Guess which 2 chains that aren’t Papa John’s…Read more...

It’s been nearly 48 hours since Broncos head coach Vance Joseph made what might have been this season’s worst coaching decision (non–Nathan Peterman, Starting Quarterback Division). But now there’s math to let us know just how brutal Joseph’s play-call actually was.Read more...

Here we have 46-year-old surf dude Kelly Slater getting mega pitted at Billabong Pipe Masters this weekend and living to tell the tale. Slater won his matchup against Brazilian surfer Filipe Toledo, though the most impressive thing he did was get back on his board after eating a wave. Slater was pretty much all the…Read more...

Liverpool are legitimate contenders to win all the big trophies this season for the simple reason that their starting lineup is crammed full of players who are amongst the very best at their positions. Mohamed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Alisson, Trent Alexander-Arnold, the forward line generally, the full back tandem…Read more...

If you haven’t heard, white-supremacist whisperer Olivia Nuzzi and guy who was fired from the New Yorker after a sexual misconduct investigation Ryan Lizza are a couple. Congrats to the sex-havers. While I’d usually try to avoid thinking about a woman my age being with a guy who is old enough to be her father, it was…Read more...

There’s a whole lot to chew on (and possibly also retch up) in ESPN reporter Ian O’Connor’s substantial profile of James Dolan up today. Over the course of a two-hour interview, Dolan faced good, tough questions and responded at surprising length. He also displayed his trademark sensitivity and thoughtfulness on a…Read more...

During the Rams’ loss to the Eagles last night, a heckler behind the Rams bench kept pestering cornerback Marcus Peters. Instead of chilling on the bench and ignoring him, Peters walked over and confronted the heckler, repeatedly asking him where he was from.Read more...

The last-place Philadelphia Flyers—a playoff team last year that has already fired its GM this season—have nothing to lose. And when a team is backed into the bottom of the standings without anywhere further to drop, they start to make riskier and more desperate moves. Today, the Flyers made two—firing their coach and…Read more...

This weekend, American rider Katie Compton dusted the field to win the 2018 national cyclocross championships. It was a dominant performance; she overtook hotshot young rider Ellen Noble on a gutsy descent during the first lap, and was then unseen for the remainder of her almost one hour out on the course. She won by…Read more...

Bose’s wireless QuietComfort 35 headphones set the standard for all other brands to follow when it comes to noise-cancelling technology. And right now you can get a pair for $300.Read more...

There is plenty to discuss about Jared Goff and the suddenly mortal Los Angeles Rams, but Goff’s panicked third-quarter interception was so inexplicable that it’d be a disservice to push it any further down this post, so:Read more...