Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Zion Williamson made his Summer League debut on Friday and, for a little while, it looked like those watching were in store for an absolute show from the No. 1 overall pick. Those kind of expectations tend to get set when one’s first NBA highlight involves taking the lunch money of a second-year player. In this case,…Read more...

Smart Home Special Buy of the Day | Home DepotRead more...

Reigning NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard is heading to the Los Angeles Clippers, ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski is reporting, and he’ll be joined by MVP finalist Paul George. The news ends weeks of speculation about which team might woo the two-time Finals MVP, coming off an amazing postseason, away from re-signing with the…Read more...

Days after prosecutors dropped domestic violence charges against Phillies outfielder Odubel Herrera, Major League Baseball announced that Herrera has been suspended for 85 games.

A steady stream of high and inside pitches from Pirates starter Jordan Lyles set off Cubs manager Joe Maddon yesterday, causing him to hop out of his dugout, to angrily shout at the Pirates’ dugout, and to even uncork a nifty little spin move in his efforts to break free of the umpire’s grip. Maddon’s antics earned…Read more...

Frank Meza, the 70-year-old distance runner who had his age group–record time at the L.A. Marathon disqualified on Monday after officials deemed that he had cheated, was found dead in the Los Angeles River on Thursday morning, according to local TV station ABC 7.Read more...

A Kate Spade sale, a $5 Kindle credit, and a discounted donut pan lead off Friday’s best deals from around the web.

The second round of Wimbledon offered Nick Kyrgios the opportunity to do what he loves best, which is to try to beat Rafael Nadal. Though he failed in that quest, falling in four sets in yesterday’s match, Kyrgios was able to realize his other great love, which is to try to annoy Rafael Nadal. No moment encapsulated…Read more...

Extra 30% Off Sale | PUMA | Promo code EXTRA30Read more...

Earlier this week, Nike pulled the release of what the Wall Street Journal described as “a U.S.A.-themed sneaker” that had been slated to be released on July 4. The sneakers, which featured the circa-1770 “Betsy Ross flag” on the heel of the shoe, were shipped to retailers and then recalled. “Nike has chosen not to…Read more...

Here’s a new twist on a classic, courtesy of reader Henry. That’s what you get for willingly going to the NBA team with the dullest uniform, Kyrie!Read more...

It’s Independence Day, the day on which every American feels especially proud to be American, which also now means every taking it upon yourself, as an American, to make sure that every other American is behaving in a suitably proud way re: how American they are. In real life, this holiday mostly resolves to hanging…Read more...

Miami Dolphins defensive tackle Kendrick Norton was involved in a car wreck in Florida overnight Thursday, and although he is expected to live, his injuries are serious.

Kevin Pillar wanted to call time during Wednesday’s game in San Diego, but home plate umpire Jeff Nelson didn’t grant it to him. That ended up benefitting the Giants outfielder, because Padres pitcher Luis Perdomo threw a hilariously soft pitch which ended up “plunking” the batter.Read more...

A Fire HD 10 Tablet, a ZonLi Cooling Weighted Blanket, and the Stranger Things Dungeons & Dragons Roleplaying Starter Set lead off Thursday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

Chris Froome casts a long shadow over the Tour de France. Or he did, until three weeks ago.Read more...

Former New York Giants and Kentucky Wildcats quarterback Jared Lorenzen died Wednesday of multiple health issues. He was 38.Read more...

The Netherlands haven’t exactly been the free-flowing, highlight-making, net-assaulting bunch at this World Cup that their talent and our expectations would’ve predicted, though I’m sure the Dutch and their endearingly rabid fans aren’t too bothered by that. Not after today, when the Oranje beat Sweden and won…Read more...

Stephen A. Smith shared three spicy Kevin Durant reports on Wednesday’s episode of First Take. The least spicy of the three (since it’s three years old, now) had Durant, entering unrestricted free agency in the summer of 2016, telling several Thunder teammates to their faces that he would not be leaving Oklahoma City,…Read more...

The United States Women’s National Team—a squad headed to the World Cup Final this weekend—has spent the duration of the tournament kicking ass and having fun. England—a squad not headed to the World Cup Final—have spent the last week of the tournament wringing their hands over the USWNT’s habit of scoring cool goals,…Read more...

So you’ve got the hyphen. That’s the “-” guy. It joins words together. When you put “-ass” at the end of an adjective, you are using a hyphen. Also when you are separating out the syllables of a word, like for effect—“pre-pos-ter-ous”—that is also a hyphen job. The hyphen’s function in that case is to make clear that…Read more...

The pool of NBA free agents available as of July 3 is shockingly small. The vast majority of marquee names settled within a few hours of the official kickoff of free agency Sunday afternoon; a huge number of rotation guys and role players have already grabbed up much of what remained of the open salary cap space…Read more...

17.76% Off Sitewide | Greats | Promo code FIREWORKSRead more...

Perhaps lost in the shuffle of the USWNT rolling England up into a little ball and kicking them all the way into the third-place match was a late-game tactical shift that was as confounding as it was ill-advised. For the second straight game, the best team in the world protected a slim lead with Mourinho-esque levels…Read more...

While I know that Stranger Things premiering on the Fourth of July was a strategic decision planned and approved by at least 15 levels of marketing managers at Netflix to tie the release to the show’s summer of 1985-set third season, it still feels like a fun, fizzy coincidence! Because there’s something about the…Read more...

Following a hearing today in Atlantic City Municipal Court, domestic violence charges against Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Odubel Herrera have been dropped, because his girlfriend and alleged victim decided she did not want to proceed with the case. Herrera, who was facing charges of simple assault and knowingly…Read more...

VAR has been a disaster at the Copa América this summer, and last night’s Brazil-Argentina semifinal was no different. And as evidenced by his scathing postgame comments slamming VAR and the refereeing in general after his team fell to Brazil, Lionel Messi is fed the fuck up with it.Read more...

A Levi’s sale, Harmony Hub, lobster claw oven mitt, and a Sunglass Warehouse sale lead off Wednesday’s best deals from around the web.Read more...

If a walk-off win is exciting, and a walk-off walk is peculiar and charming, what is a walk-off walk, walk, walk, walk, walk? Perhaps something too grotesque to even imagine, let alone witness with your own eyes? Let’s find out.

The Salt Lake Tribune has obtained records from the University of Utah that show one of the police officers accused of mishandling the Lauren McCluskey case was disciplined about four months following her murder for his mistakes in another domestic violence case.Read more...

After three days of embarrassing attendance at the Stomping Grounds pay-per-view and the subsequent editions of Raw and SmackDown, and after months of chatter that the product had sagged and stagnated, WWE finally decided to make a big move last week. That the move in question wound up being the shock announcement of…Read more...

Just in time for July 4th, Michelin-starred chef and angry British person Gordon Ramsay made the below YouTube video to show you how to grill a hamburger. Why you would trust this man to make you a proper burger over Ron Swanson, I do not know. Why Ramsay needs a full 10 minutes to show you how he does this, I again…Read more...

Ken Stabler, the late Hall of Fame quarterback, suffered from CTE and Alzheimer’s before his death; not even the NFL or its lawyers dispute that. Yet Stabler’s family will not collect any money from the NFL’s class-action concussion settlement, which has proven to be a disaster for hundreds of former players and their…Read more...

The USWNT’s 2-1 World Cup semifinal win over England was a nailbiter, and that was just watching it on TV. From the bench, it was a pressure-cooker. “It’s terrible,” said Megan Rapinoe, who didn’t play due to injury. “It’s so stressful. It’s hard. You put everything into this game ... You have everything invested in…Read more...

Fire Pit Table Gold Box | AmazonRead more...

In the bottom of the fifth inning of Tuesday night’s game between the Twins and the Athletics, golden-armed A’s outfielder Ramon Laureano scalded a one-out liner up the line in left. Mark Canha, who’d walked one batter earlier, hoofed it around the bases in an attempt to score from first on the double. Against any…Read more...

I have no idea if Yasiel Puig is as dumb as Pedro Strop says he is, but on this we can all agree: Puig routinely does very cool stuff on a baseball field. Tuesday night he made a very bold and cool play in extra innings to give his Reds a walk-off win over the division leading Milwaukee Brewers.Read more...

White Sox outfielder Daniel Palka finished his rookie season last year with a healthy 27 home runs and 67 runs batted in, in 417 at-bats. It was a promising year, even if Palka also struck out a whopping 153 times. His sophomore year has not been so promising—Palka opened the season 1-for-35 from the plate with 16…Read more...

Baseball got it absolutely right when it made sure Toronto’s rookie slugger Vladimir Guerrero Jr. would be swinging his bat in next week’s Home Run Derby, even if his debut season hasn’t quite produced the eye-popping numbers everyone expected. Baby Vlad’s eight homers in 231 plate appearances may not be able to hang…Read more...

If USWNT manager Jill Ellis is in need of an instructional video to teach her players the finer points of shielding the ball from the opposition when trying to waste time down by the corner flag, she need look no further than this video of an Indian soccer cow’s impressive display of defensive possession:

For the second summer in a row, it will not come home. Alyssa Naeher made sure of that.Read more...

Two days into free agency, and it’s been a severe drought of Kawhi Leonard news, excluding sources who may be Jeanie Buss’s Reddit-loving nephew or Shams Charania-cosplayers. Bone-dry. In an era where a lone emoji can kick off a 12-hour news cycle, there’ve been no inklings as to whether Leonard’s preference is…Read more...

Congratulations, Spurs fans: the club’s long transfer market nightmare is finally over. On Tuesday, Tottenham Hotspur announced not just one, but two transfers, the first by the club since signing right winger (both on the field and off of it) Lucas Moura back in January of 2018. And judging by the quality of player…Read more...

Anyone concerned by Megan Rapinoe’s absence from the starting lineup of today’s USWNT Women’s World Cup semifinal against England was given swift reassurance that everything would be okay when Christen Press, Rapinoe’s replacement, scored this arrowing header just 10 minutes in:

To understand how and why the Guys that have lodged in my mind are where they are, you must remember that this was the 1980s and 1990s, and that I lived in the suburbs, and that I am an idiot. There were things to do there, and various places within a moderate bike’s ride at which to do them; I had a little crew of…Read more...

Today, we’re talking about pizza, garbage, morning radio, college email addresses, and more.

After scoring two goals in back-to-back games, Megan Rapinoe will start Tuesday’s Women’s World Cup semifinal match-up against England...on the bench. Per the USWNT’s announcement of the lineup, Rapinoe has been benched in favor of Christen Press, one of two changes to the starting XI that faced France (the other is,…Read more...

Every summer, the best wrestling on the planet happens half a world away from the sterile confines of WWE. Starting on Saturday, New Japan Pro Wrestling puts on its mammoth undertaking of a tournament, the G1 Climax. (Yes, Climax is part of the name, let’s all just try to be adults about this.) Over the course of a…Read more...

When Scott Udall first played Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance shortly after it came out in 2005, he was in a vulnerable spot. Udall, who grew up Mormon in Salt Lake City, Utah, was very religious, and his family were all politically active Republicans. His parents had gone through a messy divorce, and he’d lost contact…Read more...

This March, septuagenarian distance runner Frank Meza finished the Los Angeles Marathon in 2:53:10. That would be a record time for his age group, only it’s been stripped from him after L.A. Marathon officials disqualified the result and ruled that one particularly suspicious stretch of his alleged record-setting run…Read more...