Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Y’see, the thing is, Trail Blazers, you can’t play-act being some sort of feminist champion organization for five minutes, just long enough to get people to notice, and then hope it all goes away when your credentials on that prove to be thinner than a playing card. You can’t dip your toe into these issues to give the…Read more...

Earlier this year, NBA star Draymond Green courted the wrath of female athletes and fans of women’s sports everywhere by suggesting that pro women’s leagues haven’t done enough to court corporate dollars, adding that they can’t complain about the pay gap between men and women’s pro sports until they do. Green’s…Read more...

“Kyle Schwarber is a powerhouse!” says the Cubs fan after Schwarber’s first season in the bigs.Read more...

Tennis fans don’t like to think about the day, even if we can bring ourselves to admit that it will arrive. The opening rounds of Wimbledon are certainly just about the furthest distance from picturing the day when Serena Williams and Roger Federer won’t be playing anymore. This is where they’ve strutted best, after…Read more...

Mookie Betts was asked earlier this year, before the Major League Baseball season began, about taking the vaccine.Read more...

At the start of Stage 4 of the Tour de France, riders dismounted their bikes and stopped the race for a full minute to protest for safer racing conditions.Read more...

The 2021 NFL Draft class was filled to the brim with elite cornerback prospects. Nine were selected in the first two rounds, yet still after the first 64 picks, several talented DBs remained available. Among the names not yet called was Stanford corner, and two-time All-Pac 12 defender, Paulson Adebo.Read more...

Gay people have been around a lot longer than football. But don’t tell the NFL that, as “gay” has become the latest bandwagon the league has jumped on after short stints of acting as if it cares about social and racial justice, breast cancer, and patriotism.Read more...

John Collins has a point.

Trade season is underway in baseball, with the Blue Jays acquiring Adam Cimber and Corey Dickerson from the Marlins, while the White Sox pursue Diamondbacks infielder Eduardo Escobar. The deadline is back to its usual date of July 31 this year, and over the next month, plenty of teams will try to patch holes on their…Read more...

It’s Trash Talking Tuesday and today I’m trashing all the cry baby pitchers mad that MLB wants them to stop cheating.Read more...

Yesterday, we dove into the very nature of Spain. How its championship pedigree is still around, but how the frustrating, and at times incomprehensible, frailties that surrounded that glorious era are in their DNA, too. And you’ll see all of them in the same match. They can’t help it. It’s who they are. They can’t run…Read more...

I don’t know where you live, but it’s been hot as hell in New York. And that’s led to some not feeling so hot.

The Stanley Cup Final kicked off, and while most news outlets spend the majority of their coverage of the Tampa Bay Lightning whining about their salary cap, and not their roster building or coaching which allows them to do things like have Nikita Kucherov miss the season and still be fine. John Cooper behind the…Read more...

It’ll take two more wins for it to really matter. And you can certainly say things bent toward Paul George to give him this platform. The Jazz had their injuries and problems. Kawhi Leonard got hurt, leaving the Clippers not much choice but to give George the keys and the blueprints. You still have to make the most of…Read more...

Here’s Shohei Ohtani — currently tied with Vlad Guerrero Jr. for the MLB lead in home runs with 26 — ethering yet another baseball in his first ever at-bat at Yankee Stadium:Read more...

I’ve been using the term “Spain’ing” a lot during Euro 2020, harkening back to the era before Spain was drenched in medals, where they would always squander any tournament despite fielding one of the most talented squads. They could find any way to lose back then, whether through simple malaise, or leaky defense, or…Read more...

Gwen Berry is a patriot.Read more...

Scottie Pippen just called Phil Jackson a racist.

TO has still got it.

The Montreal Canadiens aren’t quite as chained to their history and tradition as the rest of the hockey world (including yours truly) likes to joke about. They can never escape it, and nor should they. it’s the MONTREAL CANADIENS, for fuck’s sake. But the drawn-out pregame ceremonies and insistence on being at the…Read more...

It wasn’t supposed to be this way for the Yankees. The pundits proclaimed 2021 could be their year. But it’s just not.Read more...

Spain benefitted in their last group game from Slovakia’s Martin Dubravka throwing the ball into his own net, so clearly frustrated at Spain’s inability to find the area between the posts that he felt there was no choice but to show them how easy it could be. People in sports love to say these things even out over a…Read more...

Back in the mid-2000s, long before she would eventually get the GM position she so desperately deserved, Kim Ng’s name used to pop up in every single GM search. “Oh, (insert MLB team name)? They’re interviewing this guy, that guy, this guy over here, and Kim Ng.”

The Bucks are an interesting team.

It’s easier for me to lower my standards. I’m a cisgender male, and never been sexually assaulted. I shouldn’t, and it’s just the path of lesser resistance, but it happens. So when it comes to coverage from networks or major websites or newspapers of athletes whose involvement in sexual assault is known, I can live…Read more...

It wasn’t so long ago that the European Championships were kind of perfect, in that it all made sense. Only 16 teams made it, which is just about the same amount of European teams that make the World Cup, so rarely were there true no-hopers in the draw. Four groups of four meant teams couldn’t duck each other, and…Read more...

Kevin “K’Von” Huerter has been a revelation for the Hawks on this playoff run.

It’s probably a story that you’ve heard a million times by now if you have any sports leanings, but it needs emphasizing. In the spring of 2010, the Chicago Blackhawks were the center of Chicago. Not just Chicago sports, but Chicago. It was a meteoric and shocking rise, simply because three years before that, most of…Read more...

There’s a reason the NBA altered its style of play to allow for more scoring.

First off, I want everyone to know that I know that neither Randy Arozarena nor Adolis Garcia were pieces in St. Louis’s trade for the former Rockies’ third baseman. This is merely a hypothetical question. Both of the young up-and-comers started their professional baseball careers within the St. Louis Cardinals…Read more...

As the NBA playoffs continue, 24 national teams across the world are vying for the final four open men’s basketball Olympic berths. The tournaments will run from June 29 through July 4 in Canada, Croatia, Serbia, and Lithuania.Read more...

North Carolina State baseball had the unthinkable happen to them prior to yesterday’s game against Vanderbilt. With a trip to the national championship on the line, the NCAA stepped in and notified the Wolfpack that several of their players — including two unvaccinated players — had tested positive for COVID, minutes…Read more...

One unlucky fan will have to live forever knowing they sparked an epic, but terrifying, pile-up at the Tour de France — just trying to cheer the riders on.Read more...

Is this like when LeBron James opted out of the dunk contest early on in his career? Maybe.

What has Jason Kidd done to earn a third opportunity as head coach of an NBA franchise? I’m legitimately curious. All he did in his one year with the Nets and three and a half with Milwaukee was win one playoff series while consistently underperforming and failing to win a single division title. There’s also, you…Read more...

Khris Middleton was once a relatively unknown prospect, packaged by the Detroit Pistons — along with Brandon Knight and Viacheslav Kravtsov — to acquire Brandon Jennings eight years ago.Read more...

I’m a big fan of strong O-lines. A great offensive line can make an average quarterback good. It can make a bad running back look great. Consistent high-level offensive line play almost guarantees a playoff appearance. That’s why I always scratch my head when a team makes a move like the Steelers did last night.Read more...

Reggie Jackson always wanted to be empowered. Who doesn’t? But you could always tell early on that his career revolved around striving for that seemingly unattainable belief system.Read more...

“E-A Sports… it’s a bad game”

People who live in so-called “progressive” cities and states love to tell you how “progressive” they are. Then something racist will happen, and all the people of color from that community will remind them how wrong they were.Read more...

It’s no secret that Las Vegas is built on losers. They don’t construct a new hotel per week because everyone goes there and takes down the blackjack tables. It’s a town with a foundation on losing. You lose, they win.

I don’t usually get too worked up about uniforms. That’s probably because the teams I grew up supporting never strayed from their usual colors. I can say “Big Blue” and “pinstripes” and you’ll probably know who I’m talking about.

The baseball gods brought their mighty hammer of destiny down hard on the Stanford-Vanderbilt College World Series game last night. In a game that Vanderbilt tried their absolute damnedest to lose, the Commodores still came out on top.

Richmond AFC coach Ted Lasso and his less-wordy assistant, Coach Beard emerged from their offseason on Wednesday to announce the players named to the U.S. Women’s National Team that will compete for soccer gold in the Olympics this summer in Japan.Read more...

About once a month, you see a headline or hear about a story so absurd that it could only happen in one place – Florida. Well, here are a few more.Read more...

Hoo-hoo, hahahahaha. The Seattle Kraken have hired their first coach. Bahahahaha. It’s Dave Hakstol.

You can be forgiven if you thought the MLBPA had figured out Rob Manfred’s game. The way they left him completely naked over last year’s 60-game season, or refused to move the season back a month this time around which would have opened up the CBA again, the union seemed to have finally figured out what the game was…Read more...

Former Duke star and current ESPN analyst Jay Williams was under fire yesterday after a tweet was sent out from his account congratulating new Celtics head coach Ime Udoka on becoming the next man in charge in Boston.

The emperor of Japan doesn’t have any political power, but he is a symbol of the state — a fairly popular one, for what it’s worth. Today, that symbol said he is fearful of COVID cases surging as a result of the Olympics.Read more...