Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

What has Jason Kidd done to earn a third opportunity as head coach of an NBA franchise? I’m legitimately curious. All he did in his one year with the Nets and three and a half with Milwaukee was win one playoff series while consistently underperforming and failing to win a single division title. There’s also, you…Read more...

Khris Middleton was once a relatively unknown prospect, packaged by the Detroit Pistons — along with Brandon Knight and Viacheslav Kravtsov — to acquire Brandon Jennings eight years ago.Read more...

I’m a big fan of strong O-lines. A great offensive line can make an average quarterback good. It can make a bad running back look great. Consistent high-level offensive line play almost guarantees a playoff appearance. That’s why I always scratch my head when a team makes a move like the Steelers did last night.Read more...

Reggie Jackson always wanted to be empowered. Who doesn’t? But you could always tell early on that his career revolved around striving for that seemingly unattainable belief system.Read more...

“E-A Sports… it’s a bad game”

People who live in so-called “progressive” cities and states love to tell you how “progressive” they are. Then something racist will happen, and all the people of color from that community will remind them how wrong they were.Read more...

It’s no secret that Las Vegas is built on losers. They don’t construct a new hotel per week because everyone goes there and takes down the blackjack tables. It’s a town with a foundation on losing. You lose, they win.

I don’t usually get too worked up about uniforms. That’s probably because the teams I grew up supporting never strayed from their usual colors. I can say “Big Blue” and “pinstripes” and you’ll probably know who I’m talking about.

The baseball gods brought their mighty hammer of destiny down hard on the Stanford-Vanderbilt College World Series game last night. In a game that Vanderbilt tried their absolute damnedest to lose, the Commodores still came out on top.

Richmond AFC coach Ted Lasso and his less-wordy assistant, Coach Beard emerged from their offseason on Wednesday to announce the players named to the U.S. Women’s National Team that will compete for soccer gold in the Olympics this summer in Japan.Read more...

About once a month, you see a headline or hear about a story so absurd that it could only happen in one place – Florida. Well, here are a few more.Read more...

Hoo-hoo, hahahahaha. The Seattle Kraken have hired their first coach. Bahahahaha. It’s Dave Hakstol.

You can be forgiven if you thought the MLBPA had figured out Rob Manfred’s game. The way they left him completely naked over last year’s 60-game season, or refused to move the season back a month this time around which would have opened up the CBA again, the union seemed to have finally figured out what the game was…Read more...

Former Duke star and current ESPN analyst Jay Williams was under fire yesterday after a tweet was sent out from his account congratulating new Celtics head coach Ime Udoka on becoming the next man in charge in Boston.

The emperor of Japan doesn’t have any political power, but he is a symbol of the state — a fairly popular one, for what it’s worth. Today, that symbol said he is fearful of COVID cases surging as a result of the Olympics.Read more...

Kurt Angle says he’s in pain every day.

The NHL will get another Game 7, this one between the Islanders and Lightning, as the Isles fought back from a 2-0 deficit to win 3-2 in overtime to tie the series. And I really should spend this section talking about Mathew Barzal’s star turn, as he was basically unplayable for all of Game 6 (even if his name is…Read more...

It’s always neat when a European sporting event comes along and provides some games to watch during the daytime hours here in North America. Right now, it’s the pandemic-delayed Euro 2020 soccer tournament, and while the teams involved are national sides, part of the nature of soccer is that there’s a lot of time…Read more...

I’m glad “The Noid” has made a return to TV commercials. It’s important that we remember he’s actually the hero in the struggle against people eating Domino’s. He’s just trying to protect us. Sadly, he’s not very good at protecting us, but maybe one day.

Candace Parker’s own peers voted her the most overrated player in the WNBA in 2019.

How much would it take for you to show your genitals online? Some people do it for free. Some people say they would never do it in a million years, but let’s be real… everybody’s got a price, and it has just been named for some of Major League Baseball’s elite pitchers.

When it comes to poker, Phil Ivey proved he’s still the GOAT.

Tom Brady drama is like Thanksgiving. It doesn’t come around very often, but when it does, we feast. Brady has gone through his two-decade career only giving us bloodthirsty drama fanatics minor glimpses into what really goes on behind the scenes. He gave us one of those glimpses toward the end of his career with the…Read more...

The Portland Trail Blazers are looking for a new head coach after parting ways with Terry Stotts earlier this month, and they’re honing in on a few candidates. According to reports, three of the finalists for the position, who have all had two interviews, are Clippers assistant Chauncy Billups, longtime coach Mike…Read more...

Three years in, and you could already safely assume that the ‘18 class will be one of the best from their decade.Read more...

Dear college basketball recruits, if a white coach with the name Greg(g) from a program located in the Midwest is calling you, block him on your phone.

Earlier this week, organizers from the Tokyo Olympic committee were considering allowing alcohol sales at Olympic events. But, like many things the Olympic committee has done, they were met with immediate backlash from Japanese citizens.Read more...

Fifty years ago today, Rick Wise performed arguably the most impressive single-game performance in baseball history, throwing a no-hitter while hitting two home runs. The feat has never been duplicated, and is in no danger of being matched unless Shohei Ohtani goes off in a National League park.Read more...

Nothing could possibly be more fitting than Major League Baseball being sponsored by currently-plummeting cryptocurrencies. FTX is now the “Official Cryptocurrency Exchange brand of MLB,” according to a release, because apparently MLB thinks they’re cool and hip and “with it.”Read more...

You would think after winning the group, having the second-tightest defense in Euro 2020 so far (1.4 x GA), and being safely into the Round of 16 would be enough for England fans. But of course, this is England, and if they’re not complaining or being miserable, much like sharks not swimming, they die. Or so it seems.

Ever watch a game and you’re sure that one player out on the field just has their circuits short out for a second? Their brain becomes the rainbow pinwheel of frustration as things fail to load? It can happen to all of us. It just doesn’t happen to us on a stage quite as big as the one Slovakia’s Martin Dúbravka…Read more...

Always get the call right.

Some plays are so bad, they’re good. We had one down in Phoenix last night.Read more...

We knew this already. We knew baseball players were a bunch of babies, because if you think about how they behave, there’s no other sport even close to having the level of pissbaby-dom that baseball does. Hell, let’s just go back a few days to that adorable Joey Votto story with that cute little girl who came to see…Read more...

Whenever a team does poorly, many fans of said team will point to luck as a contributing factor.

The NHL playoffs have been robust, entertaining, competitive, hard-hitting, and full of intrigue. Last night, however, was none of those things. The defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning absolutely waxed the New York Islanders 8-0. Although former General Manager Steve Yzerman has returned to his Detroit…Read more...

Yesterday, the Team USA women’s basketball squad announced its full 12 for next month’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, and the men’s roster, while yet to be finalized, is taking shape.

The NBA is thinking about expanding. The likely destinations? Seattle and Las Vegas. Both make sense for a myriad of reasons. Seattle, once home to the SuperSonics, has been without an NBA franchise since 2008, and just got its first NHL team, the Kraken. Vegas, meanwhile, is a growing haven for pro sports. The Vegas…Read more...

Money management is a thing that we all deal with. But when it comes to athletes, the stakes are even higher as their salaries are just as accessible as their stats. And with Lamar Jackson closing in on a contract extension that will pay him hundreds of millions of dollars, many are curious how this is going to work…Read more...

You have to hand it to Tottenham. While they certainly haven’t come anywhere close to curing their basketcase ways, they’ve at least learned to shroud it in bigger happenings in the soccer world to avoid attention. When they fired Jose Mourinho, essentially admitting to and correcting a gargantuan mistake all at once,…Read more...

I’m glad NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell is trying to say the right thing, but I don’t buy it. Not for a second, and I’ll gladly tell you why. Here was the statement from Goodell yesterday in response to Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib coming out as gay:Read more...

Don’t get it twisted — these Los Angeles Clippers could do it again, but would you really want to doubt them this time?

The Kansas City Chiefs offense is filled to the brim with elite weapons. Well, last night we learned that their defense has some weapons of their own, just not the kind any football team wants to have.

Major League Baseball’s crackdown on sticky stuff began on Monday, and the program already is a sweeping success.

Isaiah Jewett is tired.

I haven’t bothered to look, because no one needs to, but I know there’s already the cliche and tired backlash to Carl Nassib’s coming out as gay while an active NFL player (or as ESPN put it, “actively gay”). Sure, there’s just the hateful, bigoted insults openly hurled. And then there’s the “why is this even a…Read more...

Carl Nassib, defensive end for the Las Vegas Raiders, has come out as gay. He is the first openly gay player on an active roster of an NFL team in league history. Nassib did so in a video on his Instagram.Read more...

For years, the NCAA has seemed legally untouchable. It is a corporate structure complete with lavishly compensated executives, but was able to avoid paying its labor class by invoking a long-ago tradition derived from British private schools, where wealthy competitors were able to exclude the unwealthy by refusing…Read more...

Ben Zobrist claimed that his wife, Julianna, had an affair with their former pastor. That’s according to a copy of a May lawsuit filed on behalf of the former MLB player. The court document also accuses the minister, who also worked at Ben’s non-profit, of defrauding the foundation.

Denmark’s last group game in Copenhagen was always going to be an emotional wringer. After all, they’ve been through, and all the fans have witnessed, with their advancement hopes riding on not just their result but the one from the Belgium-Finland game, it set up to be a night full of torture, glory, euphoria,…Read more...