Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

This part of the NCAA tournament is always the toughest—after four straight days of non-stop basketball, buzzer-beaters, and cutting-edge men’s fashion, you, the college basketball fan, is expected to quit cold turkey at sit at home in reflection for 72 hours. It’s downright cruel, but worry not: Graceland’s Justin…Read more...

Kevin Byard plays safety for the Tennessee Titans and was a first-team All-Pro after making 87 tackles and eight interceptions last season. Given his performance, Byard he wondered how Hall of Fame defensive back and current NFL Network analyst Deion Sanders could think that Tyrann Mathieu is the best safety in the…Read more...

We can quantify so many things in the automotive world. Quarter-mile times, points in a race, engine displacements. But how do you measure the greatness of a mechanic? How do you quantify that? Is it how quickly they can fix a vehicle? Is it how many vehicles return to their shop for do-overs or further repair, known…Read more...

Of course Anthony Vallejo knew about The Streak. He wasn’t overly concerned about it when he enrolled at St. Louis College of Pharmacy this past fall, but, during his recruitment, the 6-foot-5 guard did ask head coach Danny Brown why the team hadn’t won a game since November 2014.

Margo Kline, formerly a community development coordinator for the Atlanta Hawks, has filed a lawsuit against the team in which she claims she was discriminated against because of her race and gender.

After the surprising news that Daniel Bryan was cleared to return to wrestling, he showed up on WWE SmackDown Tuesday, talked about the brain injuries that caused him to retire, and got right back to wrestling. Even for WWE, it felt on the nose.Read more...

Iso-ball, for all its associations with acts of heroism in the clutch, is supposed to be a dicey proposition for the guy with the ball in his hands. Sure, it has created some cinematic shots throughout the years, but its defining trait is its inefficiency. Iso-ball is a tactic that’s more defined by contested, clanked…Read more...

Kotaku PUBG Mobile Players Are Pretty Sure The Game Is Full Of Bots | Lifehacker This Free Ad Blocker for Samsung Phones Also Kills Bloatware and Manages App Permissions | io9 Sam Worthington Evolves Into Something Interesting in the First Trailer for Netflix’s The Titan | Jalopnik Here’s What Interference Engines Are…Read more...

I’ve bought a couple of these PetFusion cat scratcher lounges for my cat over the years, and I can confirm that it’s probably the only thing on Earth that he actually likes. It also has a ridiculous 4.8 star review average from nearly 6,000 customers, and it basically never goes on sale. Today’s $40 price tag is a…Read more...

A group of former NFL players who have made medical claims through their class-action lawsuit on concussions say that the league has rigged the settlement program and is not paying up as promised, according to their latest court filing.Read more...

A pair of Russell Westbrook free throws put the Thunder up six over the Celtics tonight with 24.7 seconds to play. Boston quickly shrunk that deficit with one bucket from Jayson Tatum and another from Terry Rozier, plus some strategic fouling (and some bad free-throw shooting from Carmelo Anthony)—and finally, with…Read more...

Buffalo Bills wide receiver Isaiah “Zay” Jones has been arrested on a charge of felony vandalism after breaking glass doors and windows at an apartment building in Los Angeles, according to police. It appears to get a lot weirder from there.Read more...

In the month since DeMar DeRozan spoke publicly about his struggle with depression, fellow NBA players Kevin Love and Kelly Oubre have come forward with stories of their own mental health battles and the league has announced plans to name a director of mental health and wellness. The change is encouraging—and starkly…Read more...

For exclusive videos, pictures, and more, like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter and Instagram. Send us your confidential tips at tips@deadspin.com, call our confidential tips hotline at (347) 746-8471, contact our writers directly, or use our anonymous SecureDrop system.Read more...

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

Melissa Weishaupt, who worked in the marketing and game operations department for the Dallas Mavericks from 2010 to 2014, has revealed herself as one of the women who told Sports Illustrated about the Mavericks’ culture of harassment. In a piece published in SI today, Weishaupt revealed her identity and called for…Read more...

WWE announced today that Daniel Bryan, who retired more than two years ago and hasn’t wrestled since 2015 due to repeated concussions, has been cleared to return to pro wrestling.Read more...

That the Colts would trade out of the No. 3 spot in the NFL draft has a fairly straightforward explanation: Indianapolis is pretty confident Andrew Luck’s shoulder will be fine (at some point), and the return the Colts got from the Jets—the No. 6 pick and two second-round selections this year, plus another second…Read more...

Spring training is for trying your absolute hardest—up to but not inclusive of any effort that might land you on the DL for Opening Day. Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin very nearly tried too hard today.Read more...

Prepare yourself for badminton back and forth, forever.

Meet Jean Meneses, a midfielder for Chilean first division team, Universidad de Concepción. I’m sure he’s scored some great goals and hit some beautiful passes during his career, but it will be hard to top this truly exceptional dive of his from this weekend’s match against Colo-Colo as his career-defining highlight:Read more...

It’s been a few months since the Mikes stopped hosting Mike & Mike together every morning on ESPN radio. Since the dissolution of this Mike partnership, Mike Golic (Big Mike) has started a new radio show with a new Mike named Trey, and Mike Greenberg (Little Mike) has been hard at work preparing to launch a new ESPN…Read more...

I never pass up the opportunity to drink in a game. I’ve visited every bar in The Witcher 3. I’ve filled Adam Jensen’s pockets with booze in Deus Ex; I’ve chugged those drinks in the bars in Hengsha and Prague, alone in his apartment, or on street corners just because. I’ve gotten Commander Shepard blackout drunk in…Read more...

Time for your weekly edition of the Deadspin Funbag. Got something on your mind? Email the Funbag. Today, we’re talking about the NCAA tournament, jingles, butter, stadium amenities, and more.

Tennis players do press constantly; it’s part of their job. They field questions about all the unforced errors on their forehand, why their first serve was so effective, or what does it feel like to pull off an upset like this, and they generally give tame and compact answers. So the journalists can write off of a…Read more...

In a game between two dead-end teams waiting for the draft, the Pistons stuck around for two-and-a-half quarters before the Kings gutted it out and pulled off the loss. Blake Griffin came up big for the Pistons, but the night belonged to Vince Carter, who moved up to 22nd on the NBA’s all-time scoring list and had a…Read more...

Overwatch’s healer-monk Zenyatta floats cross-legged while delivering voice lines like “embrace tranquility” and “be one with the universe.” He was a frail, peace-loving healer, it seemed—until Sung-hyeon “JJonak” Bang’s January debut in the Overwatch League. Four days after the League launched, JJonak’s Zenyatta…Read more...

Cycling season has well and truly started up and that means that cycling fighting season has also begun. Zhiwen Chen of Giant Cycling was kicked out of the Tour de Langkawi—this is perhaps the most egregious usage of the superfluous “de” to remind people that this is the same sport as the Tour de France—after video…Read more...

Kermit Davis, the new head coach of a college basketball team with a mascot named after confederate secessionists who wanted to destroy the union of American states, has vowed his team will respect the flag and the national anthem of the United States of America.Read more...

Black Panther is the biggest hit of 2018 and stands poised to become one of the five highest grossing movies in the history of this continent. It’s a rare movie that serves as both an artistic and financial success and has absolutely destroyed any preconceived boardroom notions about a movie with a nearly all-black…Read more...

This has been a heated topic of debate for many years, most recently in The Atlantic and on the Hello Internet podcast: Are tennis balls green or yellow?

Another hockey guy upended, another close call for a fellow player’s major arteries. Kings defenseman Derek Forbort had his ear butterflied in Monday’s 4-3 win after Wild forward Zach Parise’s skate caught him on the side of the head. Forbort’s lucky it wasn’t his neck.Read more...

Bob Uecker is 84 years old and still going strong, but the longtime Brewers broadcaster has had some health issues in recent years. His latest scare was when a poisonous brown recluse spider bit him in October after last season. From the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel’s Tom Haudricourt:Read more...

We are just 12 weeks away from some soccer games, but more importantly we are just 12 weeks away from a bunch of animals picking the winners of those soccer games. Following in the footsteps of Paul the octopus and Clam the psychic clam, a veritable menagerie of clairvoyant creatures are preparing to flex their…Read more...

This time two months ago, Real Madrid were struggling. Their defense of the league title had already all but mathematically failed. Their Champions League fate also looked shaky, with the back-to-back winners in the club’s favorite competition finishing second in their group and receiving a tough draw against Paris…Read more...

Former Browns tackle Joe Thomas, who rules, is finally free of the Sadness Factory after 11 seasons. Yesterday, he held a press conference to make his retirement official, and spent a portion of it playfully roasting various characters from the Browns’ depressing universe.Read more...

The New York Knicks hosted the Chicago Bulls last night. Here’s some stuff that happened in that game.Read more...

Gizmodo What You Need to Know About Stephen Hawking’s Final Physics Paper | Jalopnik Cargo Ship Crashes Into Cargo Ship Sending Cars Falling Into The Water | Kotaku The Reason Why Super Saiyan Hair Is Blond | Lifehacker How to Get the Closest Thing to American Coffee Around the World |Read more...

As you may have realized by now, Facebook can’t be trusted with your data, and has been caught out time and time again letting it leak out to places it shouldn’t. If you can’t quite bring yourself to close down your account—maybe there’s a support group or family connections you’d like to keep active—then here’s how…Read more...

Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner will miss opening day, and likely at least the first month of the season, after suffering a broken wrist when being hit by a pitch in Monday night’s spring training game against the A’s.

It can be easy to take LeBron James for granted, to feel like you know what you’re getting after a decade and a half of this particular brand of greatness and decide that you’d rather watch someone else on any given night. Fine. Fair enough. But—c’mon!—look at him, look at what he did tonight in a game so ordinary for…Read more...

Three weeks after former NFL offensive lineman Jonathan Martin used Instagram to share a photograph of a gun and ammunition with a ominous message, he has been charged by the Los Angeles County District Attorney with four counts of making criminal threats and one count of possessing a loaded firearm, as reported by TMZRead more...

One of the stranger injuries of baseball’s offseason was Texas Rangers pitcher Martín Pérez’s broken elbow, the result of a bull that startled him and caused him to fall on his ranch in Venezuela.Read more...

In a revealing piece about LeBron James’s too-good-to-be-believed body and injury prevention, this anecdote from ESPN’s Brian Windhorst stands out:Read more...

Gizmodo This Time, Facebook Really Might Be Fucked | Kotaku The Paul Brothers’ Attempt To Bandwagon Fortnite Turns Messy | Lifehacker Make a Map for Your Phone’s Lock Screen | Jalopnik Uber Self-Driving Test Car Kills Pedestrian In Arizona |Read more...

New Cavaliers players Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr. went on Uninterrupted’s Road Trippin’ podcast with DJ Montage and Allie Clifton. Anytime an NBA player who has ever played for the Cavs appears on a podcast, they are apparently bound to give their takes on science, and Clarkson did not disappoint. After…Read more...

Mike Lupica, whose little fingers are still, somehow, busy banging out columns for the New York Daily News and MLB.com, has a bit of a reputation for being a smug jerk to people he deems beneath him. From Shannon Hale, a well-known author of young-adult novels, comes yet another tale of Lil’ Mike being a big asshole.

In previous years, Jezebel’s annual March Madness brackets have spanned a number of fun categories—Internet vs. IRL, Sex vs. Chocolate, Childhood vs. Adulthood. And what a gas it has been. This year, however, we have thrown caution and also optimism to the wind. We have let our hair down. We have unbuttoned our pants…Read more...

A single word in the sweeping tax bill that House Republicans passed in December could lead to a host of unintended consequences for American pro sports teams when making trades, according to a report from Jim Tankersley in the New York Times.Read more...

Collin Sexton is a star freshman point guard for the University of Alabama’s basketball team. He’s so good that although Oklahoma’s Trae Young has a bigger name, Sexton will probably be picked ahead of him in the NBA draft. And while Alabama had an up-and-down season this year, that they even made it to the NCAA…Read more...