Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Even though we Chicagoans don’t get a spring — it’s winter until one day somewhere in May when it’s just suddenly summer and we’re all instantly drunk outside — that doesn’t mean we can’t recognize the signs of spring approaching elsewhere. Sure, we’ve been robbed of one of them in spring training. But the desperate…Read more...

Brittney Griner should be at home right now.Read more...

Mike Krzyzewski coached his final game at Cameron Indoor Stadium on Saturday night, and North Carolina spoiled the party, knocking off fourth-ranked Duke, 94-81, and disappointing everyone from Jerry Seinfeld to Terrell Owens, who took the weird step of publicly admitting to rooting for Duke.Read more...

Seven-time WNBA All-Star Brittney Griner is being held in Russian custody, according to a report from the New York Times on Saturday morning.

The Los Angeles Rams had a plan. Gather an elite roster and then trade everything away for a quarterback who can take that roster to the promised land. It worked. Now, every team with a half-decent roster and some draft capital is looking to follow in their footsteps. But who is the quarterback that can bring them…Read more...

Tonight will mark the final time Mike Krzyzewski coaches a basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium after 42 seasons as Duke’s head coach. It’s a game against archrival North Carolina, with Hubert Davis patrolling the other sideline in his first season guiding the Tar Heels after the retirement of Roy Williams. Next…Read more...

Whether it was on purpose or, as Derrick Jones Jr. insists, by accident, the Bulls have finally (sort of) gotten their payback on Grayson Allen. In a late January matchup between the Bucks and the Bulls, Allen had a flagrant 2 foul that put Bulls point guard Alex Caruso out of commission for months with a broken wrist.

In their obsession with Daniel Faalele’s weight, the mainstream media are missing the real story of the Minnesota offensive tackle at the NFL scouting combine.

The Suns are the best team in the NBA, and the Knicks are the Knicks, so of course Cam Johnson’s buzzer beater went in, lifting Phoenix to a 115-114 victory.Read more...

For Americans, but specifically African-Americans, 1991 was a hell of a year.

As the MLB lockout turned from days to weeks to months with negative progress on the new CBA, it’s become abundantly clear that we’re not going to get the start to the MLB season anytime soon.

The only reason to watch the Giants — or justify putting them on national television — is Saquon Barkley. New York shopping him around is like getting rid of the last real tiger left in their depressing traveling circus. The only acts remaining would be a sad clown of a quarterback and the high-wire act that has been…Read more...

The only reason to watch the Giants — or justify putting them on national television — is Saquon Barkley. New York shopping him around is like getting rid of the last real tiger left in their depressing traveling circus. The only acts remaining would be a sad clown of a quarterback and the high wire act that has been…Read more...

Ten inches — it was a putt that should have been nothing for the world’s current top golfer, Jon Rahm. But something just went wrong. He didn’t take a full stance, strolling up to the ball on the green to tap it in. The ball traveled about three inches before coming to a stop, turning what would have been a par-3 into…Read more...

Before the Los Angeles Lakers drafted Earvin “Magic” Johnson with the first overall pick in 1979, the league was on the verge of a fate worse than death ⁠— irrelevancy.

Nineteen-year-old Ukranian biathlete Yevhen Malyshev was killed in action on Tuesday while fighting for the Ukrainian military against the ongoing Russian military invasion. His death was confirmed Wednesday by the International Biathlon Union, who wrote, “Above all, the IBU expresses its deepest condolences on the…Read more...

I haven’t made any attempt to hide my enjoyment of Alex Ovechkin when writing about him in the past. I find his pursuit of Wayne Gretzky’s goal record to be one of the more fascinating aspects of the NHL right now. His metronomic yet stratospheric production over 17 years now is really astonishing, and we all do this…Read more...

It seems like every time we gather to preview an AEW PPV, we marvel at how it’s the biggest card they’ve put together. I’ve said “Jiminiy Jillikers!” so much the words have lost all meaning! But we can’t help it, as this card is probably as stacked, maybe more so, than September’s “All Out.” I guess when you do this…Read more...

After Saturday’s regular-season finale against North Carolina, the last time Mike Krzyzewski will take the floor at Cameron Indoor Stadium, the Duke Blue Devils are only guaranteed two more games this season between the ACC and NCAA Tournaments.

There are a lot of harrowing things coming out of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, including sports figures who are literally coming out of the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Maurice Creek, an American basketball player trying to make a career overseas, and Paulo Fonseca, a former soccer player turned manager, each had a hell…Read more...

The fingerprints of those who elevated Ring of Honor from a tiny independent promotion designed to help save a fledgling video distribution company to cult-favorite national phenomenon have their smudge inked all over professional wrestling’s landscape. Look at a random ROH show lineup from 2009-11. Plenty of…Read more...

Former Liberty University quarterback Malik Willis, who is projected to be one of the first three QBs selected in the 2022 draft, was caught on video performing a random act of kindness.

So far, the Major League Baseball lockout is only really hitting home for 19 of the 30 franchises. That’s because, with only the first week of games canceled – so far – there still are 11 teams who don’t yet have to deal with the mess of rescheduling a home opener.Read more...

James Harden made his much-anticipated home debut for Philadelphia on Wednesday in a win over the hapless Knicks. He delivered a casual 26, 9 and 9, and could be seen smiling and giggling like a sociopath who just stepped on a couple children to get to the front of the ice cream line.Read more...

Remember when NCAA programs, basketball or football, would impose sanctions on themselves in the hopes it would keep the NCAA’s great wandering eye from looking at them too closely? And then if that didn’t work, the coach would have to fall on his sword? That’s sort of what’s happening with Roman Abramovich and…Read more...

Somewhere at the beginning of his head coaching career, Lovie Smith got the label of being a pretty good guy. Maybe it’s because he went to church. Maybe it’s because he has a soft delivery when he speaks. He certainly commanded respect from his players, though that’s not indicative of much. Lovie certainly never blew…Read more...

Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire aren’t walking through that door.

Welcome to March! Selection Sunday inches closer. The upsets, heart-racing moments and brilliant individual performances are also near. We’re looking at ten of the best individual NCAA Tournament performers of all-time, with one big qualifier — their teams actually won the national title.

Sorry, Phil — Tiger might be out of the game for now, but you’re still sitting at second best.Read more...

Former UFC champion Cain Velasquez was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder Tuesday, after police ID’d him in a shooting that sent a man to a San Jose-area hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He is being held without bail and an arraignment was set for Wednesday afternoon.

The Major League Baseball lockout isn’t ending anytime soon. There was some hope that the Jupiter meetings could lead to a new CBA, but those meetings proved as useless as Pat Light against anyone not named Mike Trout. Now, with Opening Day canceled along with the first two series of the season, some MLB players…Read more...

The Arizona Cardinals are a team on the verge of ruin, draped in Gucci. Their situation appears ideal from the outside looking in, but underneath the aesthetic of an exhilarating No. 1 overall pick and a stacked offense is a team who took a dirt nap after their 10-2 start. Going 1-5 in a crucial portion of their…Read more...

The NFL Scouting Combine starts this week, and top prospects from colleges throughout the country will travel to Indianapolis to perform a series of physical challenges and medical evaluations that may determine their future in the NFL.

I almost wrote about the Celtics on Tuesday because I heard about these projections that had them with heavy title odds, but when I went to FiveThirtyEight to try to find them, it felt like I was trying to decipher binary code. So I held off to wait to see if anything came of the research I loosely started.Read more...

For the first time this year, the NCAA Women’s Tournament will expand to 68 teams, matching the men’s showcase, which expanded to that number of teams chasing a national championship in 2011. That’s more chances for a longshot to make a run and take down the sport’s elite.

We’re going to be without big league baseball for the foreseeable future, launching a sport that’s already been on the decline into what feels like its death throes.Read more...

Once again, the Colorado Avalanche are the Showtime of the NHL. They were last year, though last season being what it was it doesn’t really count for evaluation/analytic purposes. But reverting back to an actual NHL schedule (or something closely resembling one) hasn’t slowed the Avs much. They picked up their 83rd…Read more...

The NFL Scouting Combine starts this week, and top prospects from colleges throughout the country will travel to Indianapolis to perform a series of physical challenges and medical evaluations that may determine their future in the NFL.Read more...

Not that Rob Manfred would care, but his smirking and laughing visage as he announced the first cancellations of the 2022 regular season, which caused just about every baseball fan to have an urge to reach through their screens and thrust their fist through to the back of his skull, is the image that will endure. The…Read more...

Wait, there’s still a debate about the quarterbacking abilities of Kirk Cousins? I thought we were past this, like the, “Is Joe Flacco elite?” argument. Apparently, new Minnesota coach Kevin O’Connell will continue living out a Twitter argument in real time.Read more...

It wasn’t supposed to go this way. This essay was going to make a case for why the Utah Jazz could finally win a championship this season. But when it was all written out, the facts just didn’t line up. Can the Utah Jazz do it? Can they win it all? It seems unlikely, doesn’t it? Especially with the Warriors, Bucks,…Read more...

The new USFL is bullshit.Read more...

Rob “Piece of Metal” Manfred came out into the Florida sun, made an announcement that everyone knew was coming about the cancellation of Opening Day, as well as the first two series of the season, and then proceeded to tell some lies, which everyone should have known was coming.

The WNBA is apparently trying to compete with the MLB for how much it can hate its own players.

San Francisco 49ers’ Twitter woke up this past Saturday and chose violence.

A self-made superstar has propelled the Memphis Grizzlies’ upward trajectory.

The Hawks are lucky the Knicks are so disappointing or Stephen A. Smith would be melting down about them instead. The team that ended the Ben Simmons era in Philly, banished Julius Randle to a place from which he has yet to return, and competed with eventual NBA championship Milwaukee in the Eastern Conference Finals…Read more...

Sure, the 2022 QB class isn’t the best we’ve ever seen. There’s not a Trevor Lawrence to fight over or a Joe Burrow to trade picks for. But is it really so bad that we have to continue to manufacture drama over poor Kenny Pickett’s hand size?

You can’t accuse Jesse Marsch of being unambitious. He replaced Julian Nagelsmann at RB Leipzig, and Nagelsmann had only left for Bayern Munich — one of the biggest jobs in the world — and is considered maybe the leading young genius on the European continent (whether this letterman’s jacket is evidence of that, I…Read more...