Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

God bless ESPN’s Chris Haynes, who has tossed a bomb right into the NBA’s mid-season swoon by reporting that LeBron James is willing to meet with the Golden State Warriors about potentially joining them via free agency this summer.

Gizmodo 19-Year-Old Bitcoin Millionaire Says ‘It’s Your Own Fault’ If You Don’t Become a Millionaire Within the Next Decade | Steamed It Sure Looks Like The Winner Of This PUBG Charity Match Cheated | Jalopnik Not All Cars Need ‘Short Throw’ Shifters | Lifehacker The Best Atlanta Tips From Our Readers |Read more...

The first time Larry Nassar was reported to law enforcement—when Brianne Randall-Gay filed a complaint with the Meridian township police department in 2004—the case never made it to the prosecutor. In a newly released police report, it’s easy to see why. There was little police investigation beyond a few interviews…Read more...

Anker makes some of our readers’ favorite Bluetooth speakers, and three different models are on sale in today’s Amazon Gold Box.

A streaker fully embraced the Phoenix Open’s reputation as the most laidback event in golf by running on the course, doing some basic tumbling, jumping in a sand trap, and generally being an idiot during today’s pre-tournament pro-am. In all his naked glory:

Suns guard Isaiah Canaan left tonight’s game against the Mavericks after suffering a brutal leg injury while driving to the basket. It’s somewhat reminiscent of Gordon Hayward’s season-ending ankle fracture from opening night; I can’t describe it in any more definitive detail, because I could not watch it closely more…Read more...

C.J. McCollum wasted no time in getting a little piece of Trail Blazers history for himself tonight, breaking the team record for points in a single quarter with 28 in the first. That wasn’t just enough to give the Blazers a sizable lead over the Bulls, it was enough to outscore the Bulls—by nine—all on his own, on…Read more...

Back in the olden days of baseball writers and fans arguing about wins above replacement—say, five or 10 years ago—there was this claim that the concept of the replacement-level player was completely made-up, something too squishy to define concretely. What are you measuring from? said the wised-up fan. Show me a…Read more...

After being confronted with leaked emails in which he advocated against signing a Senegalese player, West Ham’s director of player recruitment Tony Henry admitted to the Daily Mail that the club does not want to sign any more African players.

Tom Brady, who has previously been revealed as a fancy dog by this very website, told a story today in which he outlined one of the primary dangers a fancy dog faces in today’s world: unwanted attention from a mean dog.

In 2004, Justin Timberlake and Janet Jackson performed at the Super Bowl halftime show. During this performance, Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson’s nipple—covered by a pasty, but still—to millions of Americans, causing an international crisis from which the world is still reeling.Read more...

For the past 29 years, the Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women has released an annual Femicide Report, which publicizes domestic violence and homicide in the state. This year, the report included information about the 24 Minnesotans who died as a result of domestic violence in 2017. The report recommended increased…Read more...

One week after being sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison by Ingham County Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, Larry Nassar appeared in an Eaton County court room today for another sentencing hearing. Nassar pleaded guilty to three counts criminal sexual conduct in November, all of which took place between Sep. 2009 and Sep.…Read more...

Late on during a tight and tense cup match between PSG and Rennes, Neymar—trying to wrangle a long punt and wind down the clock to protect his team’s 3-2 lead—was whistled for what he believed to be a soft foul on Rennes’s Hamari Traoré. To whittle away even more time, Neymar kicked away the ball before Rennes could…Read more...

If you’re someone who goes to a lot of basketball games—professional or college—there’s a good chance you’ve seen Red Panda. Rong Niu, a native of China’s Shanxi province who performs as Red Panda, has an amazing act: She rides a seven-foot tall unicycle while balancing bowls on her head. She also kicks bowls from her…Read more...

Last night’s megatrade that will send Alex Smith to Washington ensures that this offseason is almost certain to feature that rarest of NFL species: an experienced starting quarterback venturing into unrestricted free agency. Brace yourself, gentle reader: We live in a world in which Kirk Cousins will likely soon be…Read more...

Watching Counter-Strike: Global Offensive in a 7,000-seat arena for 24 hours over the course of three days made me feel like I was 19 years old again. I don’t miss it, especially after being surrounded by fans around that age at Eleague’s CS:GO major in Boston.

Houston-based radio guys Josh Innes of SportsTalk 790 and Seth Payne of SportsRadio 610 spent time at Radio Row today being loud at each other on air. It created a weird, beautiful situation where the radio shouters were shouting live on radio while other radio shouters around them focused their attention on the…Read more...

I remember the moment well, save for all of the details. It was a bar with food, or maybe a restaurant with drinks. It was for sure on the North Side of Chicago. There was beautiful reclaimed wood everywhere, with tables to match. Big windows looking onto the street covered all of one wall. I was there with one, two,…Read more...

According to TMZ Sports and CBS2, longtime NBA player Rasual Butler and his wife Leah LaBelle died in a car crash around 2:00 a.m. this morning in Los Angeles. Butler was 38, and LaBelle was 31. Their car apparently hit a parking meter, flipped over, and slammed into a wall after the driver lost control on Ventura…Read more...

A friend of mine pointed out that Mirka Federer, after attending her 30th Grand Slam final, still bothered to record the trophy ceremony for her husband—whose every offhand utterance, let alone metal-hoisting victory speech, is documented by a flickering panopticon of cameras and instantly cemented into Tennis…Read more...

All Larry Nassar had to do to get investigators off his case in 2004 was say he was doing medical treatment, according to police documents released by Meridian Township police. The reports, released today, catalogue the steps police took when Brianne Randall (now Brianne Randall-Gay) came to them with her mother in…Read more...

Pierre Agnes, the 54-year-old CEO of surfing company Quiksilver, has been declared missing at sea by French authorities, after his fishing boat washed ashore Tuesday without him inside.Read more...

Former Patriots tight end Aaron Hernandez has been dead for nearly a year. He’s been out of the NFL since 2012, was put away for life in 2015, and realistically, the time to litigate Aaron Hernandez has long since passed. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Bob Brookover disagrees.

Washington and Kansas City are reportedly set to pull off something of a blockbuster trade, with the Chiefs sending quarterback Alex Smith to D.C. in exchange for a third-round draft pick and cornerback Kendall Fuller. Upon learning that Fuller was included in the deal, Skins safety D.J. Swearinger’s tweeted “Never…Read more...

Well, well, would you look at that. Ol’ Arsène had an ace up his sleeve after all, and Arsenal have locked in two players on this transfer deadline day who will give Gooners everywhere something to cheer for once and, even more importantly, some much needed hope.Read more...

After only two days on Australia’s Survivor-like reality TV show called I’m a Celebrity ... Get Me Outta Here!, 25-year-old tennis player Bernard Tomic, Australian’s non-Kyrgios bad boy who’s best known for tanking matches and acting like a jerk, quit the show saying it made him depressed and that he wanted to return…Read more...

The A.V. Club It turns out that people don’t really want to spend $1,000 on an iPhone | Jalopnik Harley-Davidson Is Sad And Getting Sadder | io9 Updates On The First Purge, Channel Zero, And More | Kotaku Nintendo Printing Money, Profits Up 261 Percent | Lifehacker I Made My Girlfriend Choose Between Me and Weed |Read more...

Here’s a familiar song in an unfamiliar setting:Read more...

Here is a post-all-star-break sentence that absolutely nobody in hockey could have predicted at the start of the year: with their 4-2 win last night against the Calgary Flames, the Vegas Golden Knights added two more points to the best record in the Western Conference. We’re far enough into the season now that this…Read more...

After some consideration, Formula One has finally decided to end its use of grid girls starting with the 2018 FIA F1 World Championship season. About freaking time.Read more...

There’s always that one person in your life that has nothing on their walls. Add some awesome infographics to gifting list with 25% off sitewide at Pop Chart Lab. Check out their newest prints, like the Permutations of Pasta and the Magnificent Multitudes of Beer. Enter the code GROUNDHOGDATA at checkout to see your…Read more...

Fox will reportedly be a new home for Thursday Night Football next year, taking over from two seasons of split custody by NBC and CBS. Bloomberg initially reported that the network was close to a deal, and John Ourand of Sports Business Journal followed up:Read more...

There are several ways to express that James Harden’s performance tonight was historic—a personal high score, a franchise high score, the first 60-point triple-double in NBA history—but there’s maybe nothing that’s quite so impressive as just looking at the stat line itself:Read more...

According to the Kansas City Star, the Kansas City Chiefs have reached an agreement to trade longtime starting quarterback Alex Smith to Washington, freeing the Chiefs from a $17 million cap hit.Read more...

Kevin Love will reportedly be out for six to eight weeks after injuring his hand in the first quarter of tonight’s game against the Pistons. He left the game shortly after making contact with Andre Drummond while trying to grab a pass, and initial x-rays showed a fracture.Read more...

Tonight we will be subjected to a word stir-fry (Trump would never have anything to do with a salad) of nationalistic, xenophobic, dog-whistle prose, delivered by our reluctant president, a congealed adult-shaped mound of the grease run-off collected by a George Foreman grill.Read more...

The South Carolina and Missouri women’s basketball teams have played and split two heated games this month, and in each match-up, fans from both sides have been accused of increasingly shitty and racist behavior. In the first game, a Missouri fan reportedly called USC players “thugs.” In this past Sunday’s game,…Read more...

Stefan Loibl of the Straubing Tigers was just giving a routine interview in the second intermission of a 4-2 loss to fellow German hockey club Kölner Haie. But just when you’re feeling safe—that’s when Der Eismaschine will strike.Read more...

The Rays have cut ties with team doctor Michael Reilly, who’s worked with the franchise since its 1998 inaugural season, after a former employee at his private practice accused him of sexual abuse that began when she was a teenager.Read more...

Famously star-crossed Premier League club Arsenal have already had a bad winter transfer window. Just last week the Gunners let Manchester United Debo them out of their best player, Alexis Sánchez, and the only thing that could even kind of almost halfway redeem them from that humiliating chump move was the promise of…Read more...

Foxtrot Alpha A Russian Fighter Jet Just Came Screaming Within Five Feet Of An American Navy Spy Plane | Gizmodo Naked Mole-Rats Could Theoretically Live Forever, Study Suggests | Kotaku People Are Putting Video Game Faces On Real Porn, The End Is Nigh | The Takeout Ask The Salty Waitress: What should I do if my food…Read more...

Canadian 22-year-old Cyle Larin—MLS Rookie of the Year in 2015, and leading scorer for Orlando City in all three of his seasons with the club—decided he’d had enough of his MLS team this offseason. Larin, presumably seeking a step up from a bad American squad and into potential Champions League minutes, went overseas…Read more...

Being unfamiliar with Peter Brock is pretty much unthinkable to Australian auto racing fans, but for much of the rest of the world, that’s the sorry state we live in. This is a shame, not just because Peter Brock was a truly gifted driver and ran a great factory-approved tuning company, but because the story of his…Read more...

If you’re in South Carolina on Super Bowl Sunday and you hear the national anthem start, stand up and yell every last word, or else the patriotism police will take you to the office of Governor Henry McMaster for a spanking. Today McMaster issued a proclamation, which means nothing, that everyone in his state should…Read more...

Fabiano Caruana is the No. 2-ranked chess player in the world. He achieved Grandmaster status just before his 15th birthday back in 2007. In the 2016 Chess Olympiad he represented the United States on the first board as the Americans took home the gold for the first time since 1976. In March, he will compete in the…Read more...

After the Cleveland Indians announced that they’ll be taking Chief Wahoo off of team uniforms by 2019, the Washington NFL team naturally drew scrutiny. Would they follow suit and ditch their comically racist name for something more palatable, or at least scrub their logo for something more neutral?

If the Eagles do the unthinkable and actually win the Super Bowl, Philadelphians will rush out onto the streets in celebration. If they want to climb some light poles to celebrate, they will be able to do so unencumbered: Philadelphia Police Commissioner Richard Ross announced today that the city won’t be greasing up…Read more...

Time for your weekly edition of the Deadspin Funbag. Got something on your mind? Email the Funbag. Today, we’re talking Garys, hats, fried rice, telecommuting, and more.Read more...

Some people have “good” skin, some people have “bad” skin, some people just don’t give a shit about the visible condition of their skin. Personally, I have what I call “problem skin” and boy, do I like buying a bunch of random chemicals to try to beat it into submission.Read more...