Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Before continuing with this article please take a moment to give Geno Smith a round of applause. There is no need to stand, but do acknowledge that his entire life has changed with the contract that he signed with the Seattle Seahawks.Read more...

Giannis Antetokounmpo was nine years old in Greece in March 2003, so it’s likely that he didn’t watch too many Cleveland Cavaliers games before the Franchise selected LeBron James with the No. 1 overall pick in the NBA Draft that June. Still, a veteran should have told him the story about Ricky Davis so Antetokoumnpo…Read more...

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I’m not here to psychoanalyze Ja Morant, ask if he has any gang affiliations, or question the influence that his parents are playing in his life. I will say, however, that if Morant was trying to emulate mid-2000s Michael Vick by having an illicit business on the side we probably would have heard about it by now. It…Read more...

In just a couple of years, Dallas Cowboys running back Tony Pollard has gone from being a scrappy backup to the team’s most dangerous weapon out of the backfield. The 2019 fourth-round draft pick became Dallas’ primary rusher in most people’s eyes during the ‘22 campaign. The Cowboys would like to keep Pollard around…Read more...

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This is the juncture in the seesawing NBA season when champions begin raising their games and pretenders plummet into sinkholes. Disarray isn’t a permanent status. Over the course of an 82-game season, lulls, injuries, suspensions and a lack of focus can derail even the steadiest contenders. However, it’s all…Read more...

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After months of speculation, Derek Carr has decided on his next NFL home, and it’s not the destination we’d been led to believe it would likely land. No, Carr has not signed with the New York Jets. The former Las Vegas/Oakland Raider has signed a long-term contract with the New Orleans Saints and is now the best…Read more...

Bing-bong, bang-bang, pick whatever onomatopoeia you desire to properly emphasize the 2022-23 New York Knicks, as long as you acknowledge that this team is for real. They have won nine games in a row and are 4.5 games ahead of a play-in tournament appearance.Read more...

People who claim to know/read the Bible often do things that prove that they don’t actually know/read the Bible — like Mark Adams. If the Texas Tech’s men’s basketball head coach was the theologian he claims to be, he wouldn’t be currently suspended for using language that was marinated with slavery and deep-fried in…Read more...

It is an insurmountable stroke of luck to make the NBA. So when a former NBA player can watch his son make the league as well, it is an act of poetry. As the all-time leading scorer, LeBron James is set to be the first NBA player to play in the league simultaneously with his son, Bronny James. We look back on the best…Read more...

An Alabama youth girls’ basketball team that was told they would lose their practice facility unless they agreed to play in a boys’ league went on to win the whole thing — and yet was denied the championship trophy. Instead, the trophies were given to the boys who, to be clear, were beaten by the girls in the league…Read more...

NBA fight s are bogus.Read more...

What do Michael Jordan, JJ Redick, Jerry West, David Thompson, and Ray Allen have in common? College basketball analyst and Lord of Listicles John Whitaker released his top shooting guards in men’s college basketball history last week, and whittled his top five to that group. Unfortunately, his top five is a confusing…Read more...

The rule when talking about the vile 200-plus year slavery period in American history is simple: If you make a reference to chattel slavery, it had better be about how wretched it was, or your job will be in serious jeopardy. The only exception to that rule, sadly, seems to be elected officials. Texas Tech Men’s…Read more...

Josh Gordon is thriving again, and this time it’s for the XFL. The league created by Vincent Kennedy McMahon, now run by The Rock, is back, providing an alternative for fans and another opportunity for NFL hopefuls and former players to grab a check for playing the game they love. While some XFLers will look to use…Read more...

Through two weeks in the XFL season, the Orlando Guardians are 0-2, in last place in the XFL South. Their offense has been particularly inept, scoring just twelve points in each game and absolutely zero points in the second or third quarters of each game. Quarterback Paxton Lynch has been clowned on and memed into…Read more...

The longest active win streak in the NBA ended Saturday night, as the Philadelphia 76ers stopped the Milwaukee Bucks’ 16-game run with a 133-130 win in Giannis Antetokuonmpo’s house. Joel Embiid and James Harden combined for 69 points, overcoming an 18-point deficit.

Every year, MLB spring training provides some sort of insight into the upcoming season, whether it be emerging stars or the adoption of new rule changes. Well if the early goings of this year’s spring training are any indicator, we’re in for some wild times. I’m at the point where nothing on my Twitter feed could…Read more...

Jackson Mahomes, the wannabe social media influencer and brother of two-time NFL MVP and Super Bowl champion Patrick Mahomes, is being accused of assault by the owner of Aspens Restaurant and Lounge in Overland Park, Kansas, and one of its employees.Read more...

It’s not that I don’t think Ja Morant can read a room. I think he can, which is why his Instagram Live story where he appears to hold a gun is so maddening. If you’re unaware, Morant has been in the news this week because details emerged from an incident where he allegedly punched a teenager and flashed a gun, along…Read more...

The question of the combine, draft, decade, football writ large is if smaller quarterbacks can make it in the NFL. Bryce Young’s literal judgment day arrived Saturday and came in at 5-foot-10 ⅛ inch, 204 pounds. Shorter QBs like Drew Brees, Russell Wilson, and Kyler Murray have all performed at MVP levels during their…Read more...

The traditions involved with going to a baseball game are unbeatable. Even if you’re not a fan of the game, enjoying a day out of the house and talking with friends and/or family about life while everyone around you partakes in a singular activity that they can root and cheer for is always a grand time. Taking in the…Read more...

The three biggest names in the 2023 NFL Draft — projected top 10 quarterbacks Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, and Will Levis — spoke with the media Friday at the combine, and it was electric. No, no, it wasn’t, but football fans hung on every word. No, no, they didn’t. It was pretty standard fare, but let’s pretend it was…Read more...

The Creed and Rocky franchises have not only felt like an expanding cloth weaving through the sports zeitgeist for nearly 50 years. Beyond its cultural footprint, its nine installments have launched or sunk the burgeoning acting careers of several retired and active athletes. From former Raiders linebacker Carl…Read more...

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The days of seeing Carson Wentz suit up as an NFL team’s starting quarterback are likely long gone. After a series of years underperforming for three different teams, Wentz was released by the Washington Commanders. Yes, Wentz’s time in the spotlight may be closed, but his time in someone else’s shadow not named Nick…Read more...

Women’s history month is already off to a cringeworthy start in the NBA, with the Toronto Raptors paying tribute (their version of one) to women all over the world. Growing up a huge pro wrestling fan, I’ve seen some bad scripts in my day, but this one takes the cake. Whoever wrote this script needs to be drop-kicked…Read more...

There’s stupidity, and then there’s ignorance. A lot of time they can overlap, but what LSU gymnast and influencer Olivia Dunne did when she promoted Caktus AI as a homework tool was flat-out stupid. Even if it’s a new technology, and not officially banned, anybody with an iota of common sense knows that having AI do…Read more...

As Thursday’s eventual Jeopardy! winner Caleb so eloquently put it “the internet’s going to love that!” and he’s correct, unlike him and his two opponents during the “High School Reunion Tournament” who were at answering sports questions. The category “In The Sport” listed more peculiar sports terms relating to one…Read more...

The expression “two steps forward, one step back,” isn’t just the realization that progress is being hindered — it also describes a situation the NBA could potentially be in. After ridding itself of degenerate former governors (owners) who did heinous acts during their tenures in Los Angeles (Donald Sterling) and…Read more...

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With the release of the NFL Players Association’s first-ever Club Report Cards, players have more power than ever before. Of course, not everything that came from these reports was shocking. No one’s jaw hit the floor when it was revealed that the Los Angeles Chargers’ medical staff was voted one of the worst in the…Read more...

It’s no secret that last season the Baltimore Ravens’ passing attack at times looked like a little brother wildly swinging at air while his older brother holds his forehead. There is plenty of blame to be passed around for the Ravens’ struggling passing offense. General Manager Eric DeCosta gave an answer about it…Read more...

Welcome to Deadspin’s The Sports Nihilist, where all is for naught and we are but accidental jolts of electrified meat stuck to the surface of a rock in an indifferent universe. Fuck you.Read more...

The NBA All-Hunk team was released Thursday, and I have to say, it was reassuring to discover that I have no idea what qualifies as attractive for men. It’s nothing against who’s hot or not. I’m just saying my needle isn’t moved one way or the other.Read more...

Just like your local jungle gym, the NFL Combine hasn’t been modernized in decades. They’re still using the same stale gym equipment and drills Al Bundy practiced with at Polk High School to measure the relative strength and athleticism of NFL prospects. It’s past due time for the NFL combine to undergo a renovation.…Read more...

One of the biggest mysteries from the 2022 NFL season was “What the hell happened to Russell Wilson?” This was a conundrum that not even the Scooby Doo gang could solve. Danger-Russ was supposed to help the Denver Broncos compete with the Kansas City Chiefs and Los Angeles Chargers in the AFC West, but instead posted…Read more...

Quarterbacks are always under the biggest microscope in football, that’s a given. And there’s not a more unnecessary magnifying glass on signal callers than the NFL Combine. Going through all the scouting drills appears important for about five minutes. How many analysts quoted Tom Brady or Peyton Manning’s time in…Read more...

In this era of NFL parity, it’s rare to see the Super Bowl loser make it back the following year. Since 2000, it’s been rare to see Super Bowl losers make back-to-back appearances in the sport’s biggest game. Philadelphia Eagles general manager Howie Roseman is tasked with putting his team in a position to get back…Read more...

One of the observations that persists among people who watch Ja Morant play is, “Oh my god, he’s going to break his hip if he keeps going to the rim like that.” It’s hard for normal people to understand how someone is not only that fast and explosive, but that coordinated. Morant attempts stuff not even NBA defenses…Read more...

Kevin Durant is a master of disguise who is already blending in seamlessly with the Phoenix Suns. Not many teams can do the DMX Challenge and present as many looks as the Suns can with their new wing roaming the floor. Most guys take a second to re-integrate into an offense or to heal from an MCL sprain or, y’know, a…Read more...

Less than a month after Brian Flores’ class-action lawsuit against the league and multiple teams for their alleged racist hiring practices wasn’t mentioned at NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s annual press conference at the Super Bowl — where he was pressed again about the lack of diversity in the NFL and NFL Media…Read more...

If Lavar Ball was to be believed, NBA fans should be nearing phase two of the Ball-aissance. Lonzo is in his sixth year, LaMelo is in his third, and LiAngelo, well, if things had panned out, he’d be somewhere in between. But LiAngelo currently has no entries on his Basketball Reference page, Lonzo is shut down for the…Read more...

The last year Gonzaga missed the NCAA Tournament was 1998, quite a run from a lowly West Coast Conference school in the oddly placed town of Spokane, Washington to a national powerhouse. The most unique team in college sports is a fixture of March Madness, becoming more closely associated with the blue bloods than the…Read more...

Being the go-to option sounds fun. It looks great. Michael Jordan making last-second shots; Patrick Mahomes spinning out of trouble and throwing a laser for a touchdown; Quinta Brunson delivering on another great episode of Abbott Elementary as the show’s creator and lead actor. Paul George has held that role in his…Read more...

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Former Dodgers pitcher Trevor Bauer sued Deadspin and former managing editor Chris Baud over three statements in this article from 2021, written about a temporary restraining order a woman sought after a sexual encounter with Bauer. According to the woman, the sex was initially consensual but turned into a violent…Read more...

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