Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

For those who watched the Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Memphis Grizzlies first-round series, their assessment might fall in line with how they feel about The Beatles’ Revolution No. 9. Some people think it’s one of the highest forms of entertainment that a person can consume, exquisite excellence in the midst of…Read more...

Hockey followers love to taut that not only is hockey the ultimate team game — everyone gets a shift after all — but that the playoffs highlight this. It’s somewhat true, though it’s usually a top-end player or goalie taking home the Conn Smythe as the playoff’s most valuable player when all is said and done.

Well it wasn’t that nervous. The Angels won 12-0. But it got tense at the end, as Angels rookie Reid Detmers threw a no-hitter in just his 11th big-league start. And he did it while only striking out two batters, which is strange indeed. Eleven groundouts always helps, though. But in this day and age of nothing…Read more...

If the Boston Celtics go on to win an NBA championship, Al Horford’s Game 4 performance will live in Boston sports lore until the east coast breaks off into the Atlantic Ocean, or however climate change really sinks its teeth into this planet.Read more...

The Baltimore Ravens were ravaged with injuries in 2021. So much so that PFF’s WAR-Adjusted Injuries Lost (WAIL) statistic indicates that the Ravens lost about 2.86 wins last season. That would’ve put the team in the playoffs with either a 10-7 or 11-6 record. They possibly would’ve been ahead of the Bengals in the…Read more...

As we near the halfway point of the NBA Playoffs, it’s a good time to take inventory of what’s working, and what’s driving viewers to dive for the mute button any time they hear Lizzo’s “Now here go!” at the top of that commercial for cruise ships. While I could do an entire post about how I’d rather have my eardrums…Read more...

The end is near. You can feel it in the air. Mark Emmert is gone, the board is shrinking, the indiscriminate and omnipresent power the organization once held over schools, coaches, and athletes is disappearing. The words “NCAA investigation” no longer spark fear in the hearts of those threatened. School leadership and…Read more...

For Knicks fans born before 1990, Mike and the Mad Dog was a rite of passage for their fandom. The NYC afternoon radio show on WFAN ran from 1989 to 2008 and was a seminal source for New York Knicks talk. In addition, the show inspired many of the current Knicks YouTube creators, like Casey Powell, aka CP The…Read more...

For anyone who’s ever sat at work, thinking, “this meeting could’ve been an email,” this question is for you: Why are you transfixed by the NFL’s schedule being released in bits and pieces for a whole week?

Very few sane fans tune into Sunday afternoon NFL broadcasts regularly to see or hear their favorite announcers — except for Cris Collinsworth’s slide-in intro. The allure for fans is the product on the field, which is why the Redzone Channel is so popular. It’s also the reasoning behind the NFL giving Monday and…Read more...

It still feels weird seeing Russell Wilson in Denver Broncos colors. If it feels that way for me, I can only imagine what it’s like for Seattle’s 12th Man fan base. But Wilson is already embracing his new surroundings with the Broncos franchise and within the Denver community.

A couple notable additions to next week’s PGA Championship field could bring more eyes to the sleepiest major in golf, as Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson are both listed to play. The last time golf fans saw Woods, he was limping around Augusta in his first return to competitive golf since a car accident nearly ended…Read more...

There are few things out there that soften the edges of this cruel world quite like a funny sports video on Twitter and the even funnier armchair-expert responses that come along with it. The video making the rounds today depicts a group of Best Buy employees caught on the store’s security camera defending the exit as…Read more...

The Predators bit the dust last night, as we all suspected they would. The Avalanche are just too much, the Preds were a wonky team whose best player on both ends is a defenseman, Roman Josi, because he has to be. For their entire existence, which is getting up near 25 years now, the Predators have been seeking a…Read more...

Brazilian soccer player Marcelo couldn’t stop busting ass in the Lyon locker room and laughing about it. His flatulence became too much for his teammates to handle, as ESPN reported his farting and cackling about crackin’ a rat was the reason behind Marcelo’s expulsion from Lyon last August.

Read more...

The fat lady may be singing, but the coronavirus and all of its variants are still dancing like the party just started.Read more...

Read more...

Cale Makar, man.

There is something so wonderfully juxtaposed about the Celtics-Bucks series. The only thing we need is for them to wear different colors. Shame they’re both based on green. But it’s a minor complaint.

The Philadelphia 76ers tied their semifinals series 2-2 with the Miami Heat on Sunday night, defeating them 116-108. The momentum in this series has completely swung in Philly’s favor, and it’s no mystery why. Joel Embiid’s return, coupled with Miami missing 51 threes in the last two games, has made this a series. One…Read more...

Read more...

The impending news that Nikola Jokić will be awarded his second-consecutive MVP award has sent the NBA community into a border war formation between respect for analytics and the eye test. Jokic’s back-to-back wins is a resounding victory for the NBA’s mathlete contingency. This isn’t a diatribe against the existence…Read more...

There’s no question that Barry Trotz has a shelf life with any team he coaches. His high-intensity defensive style is never going to be something players are going to want to do year-after-year, especially now when more and more teams are crashing in goals left and right. He was in Nashville forever, but definitely…Read more...

The Sacramento Kings chose their new head coach over the weekend. It came down to two finalists. In the end, the Kings are going with current Golden State Warriors assistant Mike Brown over former Warriors head coach Mark Jackson. Neither name is all that exciting, but Sacramento made the right choice going with…Read more...

The Premier League title chase took a massive turn this weekend. Liverpool dropped points at home to Tottenham, drawing 1-1 on Saturday afternoon. Buoyed by watching that, and in the wake of trying to recover from their Champions League collapse, Manchester City rubbed Newcastle’s ass in the moonshine to the tune of…Read more...

When the second edition of Malice at the Palace eventually occurs, I don’t want to see or hear from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver.Read more...

Read more...

In the final episode of Winning Time, Season 1 quickly does away with the spectacle and gets straight to the facts. The series’ biggest conceit is as a series based on real-life, it can’t deviate from the truth. But, for all the defending creators Max Borenstein and Adam McKay have done for the series against…Read more...

In a playoff series, especially one between two very good teams which the Lightning and Maple Leafs are, you expect some swings. No one expected a short series, which means twists and turns as teams exchange wins. Momentum generally swings on the performance level of your goalie the next night, but hockey things can…Read more...

The Golden State Warriors don’t always have to grind out a victory. They can press the right buttons on their good nights and have defenses whiffing on the wrong reads and getting lost on StephCurry/Klay Thompson/Jordan Poole relocations when Draymond Green is dealing.Read more...

The NHL playoffs haven’t had the most amount of drama so far. There’s only been two overtime games in the eight series combined, and not too many more that have been all that close or in doubt in the closing minutes of the third period. Some scores have been blown up by multiple empty-net goals, but what there have…Read more...

Apparently, Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson is ready for a battle with one Jerry Jones. In response to a Tweet posted by the NFL on CBS, posing the question of which city deserves the next NFL expansion team, Johnson promptly answered Dallas.Read more...

Ask any Pirates fan and they’ll tell you how bad a second baseman Josh VanMeter is. The 27-year-old is hitting .171 with a .496 OPS in 15 games this season. Well, after today, he’s not only the worst second baseman some Pirates fans have ever seen, but the worst catcher as well.Read more...

After months of negotiations to have Chelsea FC land in different ownership and away from the leadership of Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, the Blues will be sold to a group led by Los Angeles Dodgers part-owner Todd Boehly, who was at Stamford Bridge on Saturday to watch his new team tie Wolverhampton.Read more...

It’s a very cool thing for Trevor Bayne that there’s a chance he’ll get back behind the wheel in NASCAR’s Cup Series. Bayne, the Rich Strike-esque winner of the 2011 Daytona 500 on his 20th birthday, is the standby driver if Kyle Busch’s surrogate goes into labor and Busch misses either Darlington today or Kansas next…Read more...

Rich Strike wasn’t in the Kentucky Derby field when head trainer Eric Reid woke up Friday morning. After a late scratch to Ethereal Road, a spot opened up for a 21st horse in the 20-thoroughbred field. And one of the longest shots in the field at 80-1 at post time just won the 148th Kentucky Derby.Read more...

The President’s Trophy winners are in trouble. The resilient regular season champion Florida Panthers have a tough task ahead of them to win their first playoff series in 26 years. They were overmatched Saturday afternoon by the Washington Capitals 6-1, giving the 2018 Stanley Cup Champions a 2-1 overall series lead.

It’s crazy how quickly NFL head coaches forget how much a great quarterback matters after having one on their staff for an extended period of time. They get this notion in their head that it was solely their coaching that made these guys great, and all of the sudden you get Bill Belichick signing Cam Newton.Read more...

It may have been an impossible task after all. What more could Connor Ingram have done to stop the Colorado Avalanche other than grow a third arm or leg? In his second-ever NHL start, and first in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Ingram went from Nashville’s No. 3 goaltender to Patrick Roy overnight. He’ll get another chance…Read more...

The last two NBA Finals losers, the Heat and Suns, are in very similar positions in the second round of the playoffs. Both took care of business at home, then went on the road Friday night and got smoked.

Read more...

The Reds are a joke. Not a gut-wrenching knee slapper either. I’m talking about a “force the audience to ask for a refund”-type joke, AKA just normal Amy Schumer material. The Reds’ record is an abysmal 3-22. To put that in perspective, only one team in the Modern Era of baseball (since 1901) had a worse 25-game…Read more...

The New York Giants haven’t just found their next Michael Strahan. As lofty as putting the former Oregon Ducks’ All-American into a threshold in the stratosphere, in Kayvon Thibodeaux they might have found a player better than the gap-toothed Hall of Famer. And perhaps Thibodeaux will end up hosting Good Morning…Read more...

Christian Pulisic is the closest thing to he who was promised for American soccer fans who have been pining for a legitimate star. I’m not sure what’s the equivalent to being brought onto Chelsea after a successful start to a career at Dortmund, but the closest approximation I can think of is going from a standup…Read more...

The New York Yankees are a good baseball team. Contrary to what any rational baseball fan wants to believe, the Yankees are currently leading the AL East and are top-5 in MLB in average, OPS, and home runs. They are a great team, and a big part of their offensive prowess in 2022 has been first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

No wonder Phil Mickelson has been hiding out in Dagobah — or is it Elba? Golf’s second-biggest name, who has taken a self-imposed hiatus since his comments on working with a Saudi-backed golf league went viral for all the wrong reasons, is getting the unauthorized biography treatment from Alan Shipnuck, the former…Read more...

Canelo Álvarez has always been up for a challenge throughout his career. By the time he took on Floyd Mayweather in 2013, he had 43 fights under his belt at just 23-years-old. He has won titles at light middleweight, middleweight, super middleweight, and light heavyweight. On Saturday, Álvarez will fight Dimitri Bivol…Read more...

“Kid’s breathing down my neck.”

The 2022 NBA Draft’s most enigmatic player has arrived.