Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

The funny thing about sportswriters complaining about how a professional season is too long is if you ask a person if they’re overworked, how many are going to say no? Any amount of work is too much. Interview me after a long shift or following a session with a therapist, and I’m ready to chase get retired quick…Read more...

In the NBA, the playoffs are truly a second season. There are no more back-to-backs, but there are also no more rest games for players. Also, there are no more sub-.400 teams on the schedule. To recover from a bad loss in the postseason, requires returning to the court 48 hours later and playing against the very same…Read more...

What is Shaedon Sharpe? Future bust? Future superstar? Role player? Sharpe is the enigma of this Thursday’s draft. He could be many different things, perhaps a few at the same time. The only thing we know for sure is he’s going to be a Lottery pick. Nevertheless, Sharpe has been projected to go in the Top 10 in almost…Read more...

To stay physically and mentally fit with zero setbacks for a grueling, 10-month soccer season is impossible. Truly putting on the blinders from the outside world for a month, maintaining your peak condition both on the field and away from training was the treacherous, yet not impossible goal. Curtailing every day to…Read more...

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The black swan theory was an idea developed by former Stock trader Nassim Taleb in 2007. As explained by Taleb, the theoretical black swan can be summarized as an event or outlier outside the realm of realistic expectations that has an extreme impact on history and makes experts invent explanations, but not until well…Read more...

This is not said very often, but poor Michael Jordan. The NBA legend got Whitleyed by Kenny Atkinson. Jordan was about to start a new life with Atkinson leading his Charlotte Hornets. They fit together as well as Byron and Whitley in the fifth season of A Different World, but then Dwayne Wayne, a.k.a. The Golden State…Read more...

More than in previous seasons, these playoffs exposed frauds masquerading as superstars. The list is long — Donovan Mitchell, Zach LaVine, Jimmy Butler, Karl-Anthony Towns, Devin Booker. You can add Jayson Tatum to that list. After putting on a blitzkrieg throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs, his game fell apart…Read more...

Finding a Father’s Day gift is difficult, especially when you have a dad like mine who keeps every tool and gadget — outside of that marble-headed Coors putter he broke that was a real life Billy Baroo and the only club of his I coveted — in pristine condition. If there’s an oil or a treatment for it, he’ll find it…Read more...

The College World Series has officially kicked off, and with one hell of an opening day. On Friday, the Oklahoma Sooners racked up eight runs in the first two innings against Texas A&M, including a three-run homer from catcher Jimmy Crooks. The Aggies just couldn’t catch up for the rest of the game and dropped it 13-8.Read more...

Sometimes it just feels good to be right. After proclaiming before the NBA Finals started that the Boston Celtics had zero chance against the Golden State Warriors, the Dubs beat the Celtics by double-digits in Game 6 to end the series 4-2. Many across the internet chided this bold proclamation based on the Cinderella…Read more...

Phil Mickelson slid out of the U.S. Open on the oil slick he oozed in on not a penny richer from his appearance in Brookline, Mass. He missed the cut after a 3-over round Friday that put him at +11 after 36 holes, and if you don’t make it to the final two days of the tournament, you don’t get a cent toward your…Read more...

“Unprecedented” and “significant.” From ProFootballTalk and the Washington Post, these are the two words we have right now to describe what the NFL is planning for Deshaun Watson’s punishment for breaking the league’s Personal Conduct Policy. Both publications have reportedly spoken to insiders familiar with the NFL’s…Read more...

Rory McIlroy has never been bad — not even close to it — but he has lost his grasp on greatness (or, at the very least, how the sport has chosen to define the word) in the eight years since he last won a major tournament. He’s found continued success on the Tour, racking up consistent wins and high World Golf Ranking…Read more...

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There is no team that embodies the feeling of wanting to shut off your Playstation and whip your controller at the wall more than the Warriors.

As Wednesday’s bombshell report dropped of WWE Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon allegedly having a sexual relationship with an ex-company staffer and paying her $3 million in hush money, no longtime wrestling fan read the headline and was shocked. McMahon has been the Harvey Weinstein of professional wrestling. A…Read more...

As Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals ended late Wednesday night, with the opening game of the championship series going to overtime, a hero and villain presented themself. For Colorado, Andre Burakovsky, a player commonly thought to be one needed to step up in order to lift the Cup did just that. In defeat, Tampa Bay…Read more...

It was only a week ago or so that I wondered… Last night provided an answer about why you’d bother.Read more...

Steph Curry collected the Finals MVP last night that, the award that for some reason, some people think was required to validate him. As repeated ad nauseam by me and others, there are few players who changed the game completely, and Curry is one of them. Even when he was off, as he was in Game 5, he warps a defense…Read more...

Vince McMahon, longtime WWE impresario, is stepping down as chairman and CEO during an investigation into an allegation he paid a former employee $3M in hush money to keep their sexual affair quiet, the company announced Friday.

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Sue Bird announced today that this WNBA season will be her last after 21 years in the league. She was drafted first overall in 2002 to the Seattle Storm, where she has remained throughout her two-decade career, during which she was a 12-time All-Star and won four WNBA championships, the most recent in 2020.

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Lane Kiffin’s dog is on a quest for lunch.

Although the 2022 NBA Finals has been an up and down series for veteran Draymond Green, that hasn’t stopped him from giving his honest opinion during media sessions. Ahead of Game 6 in Boston, Green was asked about the mental challenge of preparing to face the Celtics as opposed to getting ready for LeBron James.Read more...

Lamar Jackson talked to the media for the first time this offseason today. He elected to train on his own during OTAs and did not report to the Baltimore Ravens facility until the start of mandatory minicamp on Tuesday.Read more...

Herschel Walker’s proclivity for spewing absolute nonsense is surpassed only by his habitual lying and noxious hypocrisy. Walker has already lied about being his high school valedictorian, lied about being a cop, he held a gun to his ex-wife’s head and to top it off is virtually unintelligible in discussing policy…Read more...

Given my history of putting the kibosh on stuff I proclaim, I’m probably putting paid to one of the things I want most in the world. But, wrestling media and social media were alight last night with reports that Sasha Banks had secured her release from WWE. No one has confirmed it, but no one has denied it either. And…Read more...

It seems like any and all TV and film studios are willing to green light content remotely resembling IP. We’re getting universes that we didn’t know existed — think the Warner Bros. expansion from Toon Town to every movie they’ve ever made in Space Jam 2. So, if an exec bereft of creativity could please get started on…Read more...

In the aftermath of the “Fake Klay Thompson” incident before Game 5 of the NBA Finals in San Francisco, we now have video confirmation of Dawson Gurley walking right into Chase Center with no problems.

The following is a story about supply, demand, and how the NCAA is a bunch of haters.Read more...

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...