Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

About an hour into Paris Saint-Germain’s Coupe de France match against Strasbourg yesterday, Neymar was clowning on his inferiors with his imperial dribbling skills, as is his wont. Strasbourg midfielder Moataz Zemzemi must’ve taken Neymar’s casual demonstration of superiority personally, because he then lashed out in…Read more...

Rafael Nadal gored YouTuber Stefanos Tsitsipas 6-2, 6-4, 6-0 today. Their Australian Open semifinal match took just 1:46, but in that span the winner erected a monument to one of tennis’s historic shots: the Rafa banana forehand. Above is as pristine a specimen as has ever appeared in nature.Read more...

There is a scene near the start of Joshua Oppenheimer’s award-winning 2012 documentary The Act Of Killing in which Japto Soerjosoemarno—the leader of far-right paramilitary group Pancasila Youth—is being interviewed on a golf course about his role in the Indonesian genocide of 1965-66. As he’s warming up for a drive,…Read more...

Let us now embark on a tortuous NFL offseason journey that includes all of our favorite dummies and involves a starting quarterback trying to challenge two-thirds of First Take to an “octagon fight.”

After 113 games with the Knicks, 94 of them in the starting lineup, Enes Kanter was hit with his first DNP Wednesday night. That 114-110 loss to the Rockets had plenty to gawk at, including David Fizdale’s “fuck this, what the fuck are you doing” ejection, James Harden’s unassisted 61 points, P.J Tucker’s sudden…Read more...

There are three automotive truths that I consider indisputable. First, nobody looks good in a head sock and an open-faced driving helmet. Second, nitrous does not automatically mean warp speed. And third, no matter how many drifting videos, movies and events you’ve seen, you will always be ass at it the first time you…Read more...

The spiritual sequel to Dwight and Stan isn’t as consequential as the original, but it’s nonetheless compelling.

In the late 1980s, the makers of L&M cigarettes were looking to diversify. They settled on an old idea, something cigarette companies began doing in the late 19th century: Trading cards. In 1990, the company split its business and moved its sports card division into a company called Impel Marketing.Read more...

My exact moment of religious conversion on Naomi Osaka came while watching her play Karolina Pliskova from a few feet away in Indian Wells. Pliskova was and still is a spindly winner machine, and she sent balls bounding into the corners with no desire to see or deal with them ever again. Osaka was doing the same…Read more...

There’s no sense in waiting for it at this point. The New England Patriots, who have been shitting up the mid-winter for sports fans throughout this entire terrible millennium, are not remotely close to going away, not any more than, say, measles or famine are close to going away. They’re a problem, but one that gets…Read more...

Last season, the NWSL’s Sky Blue FC limped its way to a 1-17-6 record, landing at the bottom of the league table with a whopping -31 goal difference. Despite having USWNT star Carli Lloyd, the 2018 Sky Blue season was the worst in league history: nine total points, “beating” the previous record of 11, set by the 2016…Read more...

ESPN’s Seth Wickersham has a new story out detailing the internal dysfunction that has plagued the Cleveland Browns throughout Jimmy Haslam’s ownership of the team. There’s all sorts of good reporting in here that explains what kind of owner Haslam is and how the Browns have been a franchise at war with itself, and…Read more...

A 65" Vizio TV, melatonin supplements, and an air fryer lead off Thursday’s best deals from around the web.

It is glaringly obvious that Dutch midfielder Frenkie de Jong is one of the most exciting prospects in world soccer today. While I and most others writing about him now, after the hotly contested courtship that involved pretty much all the game’s biggest clubs finally came to a close when Barcelona announced yesterday…Read more...

Hockey players can’t stop doing weird things with their mouths, and P.K. Subban might be the latest victim. At the end of the second period in an eventual 2-1 win for his Predators over the Golden Knights on Wednesday, the Nashville defender very visibly claimed that he was bitten on the finger while grabbing hold of…Read more...

Gizmodo Amazon and Chase Will Not Give Me a Straight Answer About What They Do With My Credit Card Data | Jalopnik Detroit’s Famous Packard Plant Bridge Has Collapsed | Kotaku Kingdom Hearts III Is An Unreviewable Video Game | Lifehacker Reddit’s Favorite Psychological Tricks | The Takeout MillerCoors loses Brewers…Read more...

By a vote of 6-2, the Phoenix City Council approved public funding for renovations to the Suns’ arena and a lease that will keep them in town through 2037. The negotiations over the arena deal were short, shady, and resulted in the Suns getting one of the cushiest deals in recent times. And, because this is Phoenix,…Read more...

The Knicks dropped a narrow one at home to the Houston Rockets Wednesday night. Afterward, several Knicks fans, already all aboard the Zion Williamson tank, tweeted their gratitude for some extremely butt point-of-attack defense that let Eric Gordon waltz into a game-winning three-pointer. Here’s the play:Read more...

I defy you to make sense of this sequence, from late in Houston’s road win over the lousy Knicks. The Rockets were up three after an Allonzo Trier free throw with 59 seconds on the clock. The Knicks pressed up the court to deny the inbound to James Harden, who went for another 61 points in the game. Eric Gordon, doing…Read more...

Brandy Halladay, the widow of Hall of Fame pitcher Roy Halladay, announced Wednesday her family’s decision to have Roy’s bust in Cooperstown feature a blank cap, representing neither the Toronto Blue Jays nor the Philadelphia Phillies. The Halladays figure this way Roy can represent “something to all of baseball,”…Read more...

Victor Oladipo, the leading scorer on what’s been a really impressive Indiana Pacers team so far this year, had to be taken off on a stretcher in the second quarter of his game against the Raptors on Wednesday, after going down with what looked like a non-contact right knee injury.Read more...

Gizmodo A Collision With Another Planet May Have Seeded Earth With the Ingredients for Life | Kotaku Kingdom Hearts III Is An Unreviewable Video Game | Lifehacker What’s Coming and Going From Netflix in February 2019 | Jalopnik Ford Confirms It’s Making a Truck Smaller Than the Ranger | The Takeout McDonald’s Bacon…Read more...

Timothy Weah—18-year-old attacking dynamo for the USMNT and Paris Saint-Germain—recently arrived in Glasgow for a half-season loan with Celtic after a few months spent on the fringes of one of the biggest clubs in the world. Earlier this year, he talked about wanting to spend the first half of the year mostly training…Read more...

Larry Fitzgerald is not ready to sit at home and get better at trolling his son. Today the Arizona Cardinals announced that the wide receiver would return for another season, his 16th with the team.Read more...

We see a lot of deals around the web over on Kinja Deals, but these were our ten favorites today.

The dominance of the Big Four has stunted the winning potential of a promising crop of men’s tennis players who are good, but not that good. This group of twenty-something not-so-hopefuls has earned the shopworn label “Lost Generation.”Read more...

The Memphis Grizzlies are swan-diving at a high rate of speed to the bottom of the West, and according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski they’re finally ready to see about trading away the two aging faces of the franchise, guard Mike Conley and center Marc Gasol. The team would likely need to get a lot back for either…Read more...

Landon Donovan’s latest attempt to retire from soccer is apparently over. Sports Illustrated’s Grant Wahl reports that Donovan will join the San Diego Sockers of the Major Arena Soccer League.Read more...

This dude looks like a fuckin’ baby with a woeful haircut! Incredible!

The drama that’s been surrounding likely relegation-bound Fulham keeps getting juicier, as an argument over a missed penalty kick that happened nearly a month ago has since spiraled into an arrest. On Monday, striker Aboubakar Kamara was reportedly arrested on suspicion of actual bodily harm and criminal damage after…Read more...

Agents, it’s time to clean out your glocks and shine your domes. Hitman 2 is on sale for just $30 on both Xbox One and PS4.Read more...

In my time as a journalist, stories about child abuse have always been the one genre that everyone, even internet commenters, agree are bad. But preventing child abuse—which costs money and takes long-term dedication of resources—who has time for that?Read more...

Watch out! You don’t want to miss this this Timex watch sale. Now’s the time to take advantage of up to 50% off a selection of Timex watches for men and women, plus an extra 20% off with promo code SAVE20. And — bonus! — shipping is free. But you don’t have a minute to spare; shop now before the clock runs out on…Read more...

The WNBA announced today that the New York Liberty have been sold to Taiwanese-Canadian billionaire Joe Tsai, who is also a minority owner of the Brooklyn Nets.

Last week, we asked readers to send us their accounts of how they’re dealing with the partial federal government shutdown—whether as employees of the federal government, a contractor, beneficiaries of government services, or otherwise.

Serena Williams appeared to have booked her spot in the Australian Open semifinal. After a listless first set, she’d locked in to take the second, then run up a 5-1 lead on Karolina Pliskova in the third. Up two breaks, with the match on her racket, she had plenty of breathing room. And then her left foot became the…Read more...

The Thunder beat the Blazers 123-114 last night, and Russell Westbrook finished the game with a 29-14-10 triple-double on 9-of-20 shooting. Games in which Westbrook’s shooting percentage rises above 40 percent are rare these days, so this counted as a relatively hot shooting night, and an excuse for Westbrook to get…Read more...

Crucial SSDs, Nike clearance, and the BodyBoss 2.0 lead off Wednesday’s best deals from around the web.

For all its oversights, Hall of Fame announcement day is a day of joy. As a fan, it’s a day to remember great players, and how much fun it was to watch them play, and, if you were lucky enough to root for a team of an inductee, to remember the specific moments that player brought you the deepest, purest sports joy…Read more...

On Monday, the self-described “conservative comedian” Steven Crowder tweeted out the guest list for his online talk show, Louder With Crowder, which streams on the Glenn Beck-owned BlazeTV. There is no reason any person should care about this beyond the fact that, among those guests, was the WWE star A.J. Styles.…Read more...

io9 New Shazam Toys Hint at Some Mighty Mortals Making Their Debut | Gizmodo I Tried to Block Amazon From My Life. It Was Impossible. | Jalopnik The 2020 GMC Sierra HD Adds Luxury and Loses That Face | Kotaku A Bunch Of New Indies We’ve Been Eager For Are Coming To Switch Soon (Like CrossCode) | The Takeout Navajo…Read more...

The Edmonton Oilers under GM Peter Chiarelli have been a slow-motion car crash, in that everyone can see—has seen, and has said so!—his bad moves as they’re happening. There is no hindsight involved here. And they’ve just kept piling up.

In the third quarter of Tuesday night’s Timberwolves-Suns game, with the Suns already getting their inconsequential asses kicked off, Timberwolves guy Gorgui Dieng caught trumped-up Suns guy Devin Booker with a stray elbow following a Suns turnover. Performative toughness ensued.Read more...

The late Roy Halladay earned a well-deserved first-ballot nod from the BBWAA on Tuesday, with 85.4 percent of voters enshrining him in the Baseball Hall of Fame. The two-time Cy Young winner Halladay enters Cooperstown with 203 career wins, 2,117 strikeouts, 64.3 WAR, and a whole lotta hats worn, as shown off by …Read more...

The San Jose Sharks and Washington Capitals both decided not to play defense on Tuesday night, and we were all better off for it, as their game ended in a thrilling 7-6 overtime Sharks victory. It was this close, however, to being a 6-5 Caps win on the strength of an Alex Ovechkin hat trick, until the Sharks scored…Read more...

The Mavericks fan whose verbal exchange with Clippers guard Patrick Beverley last month ended with Beverley getting ejected for throwing the ball into the stands has been banned from the arena for the rest of this season.Read more...

Throughout the first half of the NBA season, the Western Conference standings were an intractable mess, with 14 teams all harboring legitimate hopes of nabbing a playoff spot. Young upstarts like the Mavericks and Kings threatened the balance of power, while established playoff mainstays like the Pelicans, the Jazz,…Read more...

For the seventh straight year, the greatest hitter of all time and the greatest pitcher of his era will not be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens received 59.1 and 59.5 percent of the vote, respectively, short of the 75 percent needed to enter Cooperstown.

Gizmodo Holy Crap, the Moon Was Struck by a Meteorite During the ‘Super Wolf Blood Moon’ Eclipse | Jalopnik The Four-Cylinder Chevy Silverado Got Worse MPG Than The V8 Because Fuel Economy Is Complicated | Kotaku Dragon Ball Super: Broly Makes Broly The Hero And Goku More Selfish Than Ever | Lifehacker You Can Take…Read more...

We see a lot of deals around the web over on Kinja Deals, but these were our ten favorites today.