Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Late last night, after Dallas citizens had finished dinner and stretched out on the couch, ready to watch reruns of Cheaters, the Mavericks front office and The Athletic’s Shams Charania dropped a bomb out of nowhere. The Mavericks would be trading the No. 26 overall pick of the 2022 draft, Boban Marjanovic, Sterling…Read more...

Brian Windhorst saying anything that even a handful of people don’t like is going to bring out the toxicity on social media. Pissing off one of the most annoying fan bases in sports makes it so toxic it’s nearly radioactive. So those of you who went where you know you shouldn’t have gone in criticizing Windhorst — you…Read more...

Usually, especially in a Stanley Cup Final, you need at least a few games before the level of play truly takes off. Coaches and teams want to try different things, chase their matchups, or keep things tight as they can to preserve already exhausted players until there is absolutely no choice. No one fears chaos quite…Read more...

Payoffs, pal.

An NFL season with two bye weeks, which the 49ers tight end advocated for on comedian Kevin Hart’s Cold As Balls show, could solve some scheduling and logistical issues for the league as well as allow athletes to have more time to recover during the season.Read more...

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, such as another Zion Williamson injury, in the 2022-23 season expect to see the full New Orleans Pelicans team that basketball fans wish had taken on the Phoenix Suns in the first round of the NBA Playoffs. The Pelicans can offer Williamson a max contract extension, which for him…Read more...

During a recent vacation, I binged HBO’s We Own This City, which plays out like an epilogue to The Wire. I could go into the plot points and actor Jon Bernthal’s exquisite performance as corrupt supercop Wayne Jenkins, but all you really need to know, as it pertains to this piece is, god damn, the Orioles were…Read more...

Let’s start by not overreacting to a 1-1 draw against El Salvador. It was the same result that kicked off the United States’ Octagonal round of World Cup qualifying. That matchup from last September mattered way more to the US. And the Yanks didn’t score in that game.

After losing to Naomi Osaka in the semifinals of the 2021 Australian Open, Serena Williams’ response to a reporter’s inquiry about whether her tearful exit was her subconsciously saying goodbye went somewhat unnoticed.

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The internet strikes again. Well, Twitter, to be exact.

The greatest tennis player of all time is returning to the sport’s most prestigious tournament. But this time around, one side needs the other more than ever. And Serena Williams isn’t the thirsty one.

How many will it take? The answer wasn’t 10. It wasn’t 20. We’re quickly approaching 30 — perhaps that will be the number of women coming forward with allegations of sexual misconduct about Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson that will finally get people to stop defending him or claiming that all of these women are…Read more...

Hockey being what it is, mostly weird and random, rarely throws up the two best teams in the NHL’s showpiece, the Stanley Cup Final. Sometimes we get close, and most seasons it’s actually hard to decipher who are clearly the best teams. With shootouts and overtime goofiness affecting the standings, injuries, differing…Read more...

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There was just something about Kevin Durant on the Golden State Warriors that almost ruined basketball. It wasn’t ever about the burner accounts and snowflake sensitivity. The lack of competitive advantage made the NBA challenging to enjoy while Durant was in the Bay Area from 2016 to 2019. Now that he is three…Read more...

Clowning the University of Texas has become somewhat of a tradition on this website. It may be the delusional self-perception, the overrated and underperforming football team, Steve Sarkisian, a racist fight song, or any matter of Friday Night Lights-type drama that seems to bubble out of Austin every few months.Read more...

It’s the 2043 NBA Finals. The erosion of the east coast is impossible to ignore, and it will be illegal to hold summer football activities outdoors because the average temperature in most places will be 115 degrees. But indoors, the matchup the world has been waiting for will finally take place. That June, four months…Read more...

We are past the time when it is acceptable for anyone who covers sports, no matter how old, to be able to claim that they’re just not equipped to cover the kind of story that Deshaun Watson is. There may have been a time, when all the things that come into play when covering a sexual assault story may have been beyond…Read more...

Rooting for the Dallas Cowboys has become an arduous task. Even mentioning the Cowboys and postseason success in the same sentence is oxymoronic in the 21st century. Mississippi weatherman and weekend anchor Ethan Bird knocked one out of the park when he inserted a Cowboys joke into his 10-day forecast.Read more...

Since the Minneapolis Lakers won half of the league’s first 10 NBA titles and then shuffled off to Los Angeles where they won13 more, Minnesota has been an incubator for NBA championship parades–in other cities. After the Lakers’ relocated to L.A., the NBA didn’t return to Minnesota until 1989. The Timberwolves…Read more...

Phil Mickelson is facing the golf media in the lead-up to this weekend’s U.S. Open, and suffice it to say: it isn’t pretty. It’s not that the LIV press conferences have exactly gone easy on the defecting golfers, but the press has faced more moderation and censorship from people who have also been paid quite a bit to…Read more...

Well, someone was going to do it.Read more...

There will be no more Craig Robinson and JuJu Smith-Schuster Super Bowl pizza commercials. Because the NFL feels the need to let the world know that they have an official sponsor for everything whether it be pizza, beer, or tablets that Tom Brady smashes into pieces.

I tend to cringe when NBA pundits incredulously ask, “How could anyone root against Steph Curry?!” I’m not a LeBron true believer, here to disparage the greatest shooter in the history of the game. He’s incredible. The hand-eye coordination is something out of Star Wars. When little Anakin Skywalker told Qui-Gon Jinn…Read more...

It’s undeniable at this point. Jeff Hardy must come to terms with how lucky he is that his reckless behavior has not seriously hurt anyone thus far. He’s repeatedly put himself in danger outside the squared circle after making his career with a high-flying, daredevil style. Hardy seeking professional help for his…Read more...

If you’ve ever been walking around your city and passed by someone who resembles you, then you and Warriors guard Klay Thompson have something in common. Dawson Gurley has gone around the Bay Area, impersonating Thompson during the team’s championship run, fooling people into thinking he’s actually the Warriors’…Read more...

It’s a given in baseball that every team will have a winning streak and a losing streak. The season is too long, too many games, meaning that the roulette wheel will eventually spin on to even the most hapless for a week or 10 days simply because. It used to be that you didn’t think too much about it, because the…Read more...

Jack Del Rio is a coward.

Before San Francisco became synonymous with exorbitant real estate prices and tech bros, it was known as a beacon of acceptance for the LGBTQ+ community. While that distinction hasn’t gone anywhere — the San Francisco Pride parade is one of the largest gatherings of LGBTQ+ people annually, and it’s expected to get…Read more...

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Nobody wants to hear it.Read more...

I suppose, when it’s all over, if the Warriors close this out, this Finals will be billed as an example of just how much experience in the championship round matters. It’s the easy-to-reach conclusion as the Celtics sure look like the better team most of the time. And yet they find themselves down 3-2 to the Warriors,…Read more...

Stephen Curry was mesmerizing on Friday night. If the Golden State Warriors do go on to win their fourth NBA Championship in eight seasons, it will be one of the most memorable championship performances in league history. Curry, a generational talent and one of the NBA’s most popular players, responded when his team…Read more...

Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant were supposed to be a generational duo on the hardwood. Three years later, Durant has been about what we expected, but Irving hasn’t held up his end of the bargain. Even on social media, Durant is running circles around Kyrie. Durant and Kyrie have waaaay too much free time on their…Read more...

In the social media age, everyone has a platform to voice their opinion on everything under the sun. Although just because you can say it doesn’t mean you always should. Dallas Cowboys linebacker Micah Parsons is quickly finding out that some things are better left unsaid. Parsons was not impressed with Draymond…Read more...

It would be nice if we could frequently have fun on social media like A.J. Brown did on Friday. If people were responsible, we could throw random thoughts out and have ironic detailed conversations about the legitimacy of them. But it’s 2022, all fun can, and eventually will, be taken the wrong way.Read more...

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Well, spring. But whatever.Read more...

Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid is one of the greatest coaches of his era and possesses one of the more creative offensive minds the NFL has seen over the last 20 years. Like any coach, Reid has a set of rules and guidelines he lives by, and one that was revealed recently might shock you. Apparently, Reid…Read more...

ESPN baseball reporter Tim Kurkjian’s report on the firing of Joe Maddon included a juicy morsel of information that couldn’t be ignored. According to Kurkjian, Joe Maddon shaved a mohawk into his head in a last ditch effort to awaken his team. However, it was a day late and a dollar short because the team never even…Read more...

The narrative between Liverpool and Manchester City has always been something like the A’s and Yankees from the early 2000s. The two powers of a league operating on completely different planes and through wildly different methods. The Big Bad with all the money that can buy their way out of anything, and the plucky…Read more...

The New York Yankees blew out another opponent, and won another game on Sunday.Read more...

The story of the weekend was the LIV Golf…whatever, or LIV Golf Whatever, finally going from theory or proposal to the real thing. Even complete with the suppression of the press, which is an astonishingly good look for a company funded by a government that is mostly known for suppressing the press in murderous…Read more...

Fortunately, for Tony La Russa, the chants for his firing won’t follow him everywhere around Chicago. Even if the Chicago Bulls were playing in the NBA Finals right now, there likely wouldn’t be enough White Sox fans at the game for the chant to ring out enough for a viral moment. Also, La Russa’s kids aren’t young…Read more...

After being named 2020’s Prospect of the Year by several publications, including Sports Illustrated and The Athletic, Edgar Berlanga, 25, was acclaimed as the Puerto Rican Mike Tyson. The 16 opponents Berlanga put to sleep in his first 16 fights against journeyman fighters tied the record and led to those early Tyson…Read more...

In some families, the apple not falling far from the tree is a perfect way of describing a parent and their offspring. This seems to be the case with LaVar and LaMelo Ball, where business is concerned.Read more...

To figure out where the New York Rangers are going after being dumped out on their ass by the Tampa Bay Lightning, it’s important to retrace how, and especially why, they got here.

The Chicago Cubs matter insomuch as they give the fine people of the Windy City an excuse to day drink and eat hot dogs. Outside of that one year, this season isn’t that much different from most others. They’re 23-35, 10 games back of the division leading St. Louis Cardinals, and nine games out of the last wild card…Read more...

The LIV tour is live. The lines have been drawn and the hammers thrown down, and Charl Schwartzel has taken home the first ever LIV win in London, and yet with each declaration from a defecting golfer or a pissed-off PGA exec, more and more questions arise. The biggest one on everyone’s minds right now: Whether the…Read more...