Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

On the one-year anniversary of Rudy Gobert testing positive for COVID-19, which led to a suspension of the 2019-20 NBA season, we were reminded this morning that we’re still in this same nationwide pandemic.

Before my trip to Salt Lake City, I signed up for Delta SkyMiles I would never use.

Look, I know you’re expecting a rant and a rave and perhaps for your laptop to start emitting smoke from this, but that would just be wasted emotion. Justin Bieber wrote a song about the Leafs, because of course he did.

On April 3, the national championship trophy inside of the Breslin Center at Michigan State University will be old enough to drink. When that day arrives in three weeks, it will mark 21 years since the Spartans, led by Mateen Cleaves, won their last national title.Read more...

It was the only logical conclusion, probably should have happened weeks ago, but there’s still some spiritual affirmation with the news that Jeff Long was shitcanned as AD of Kansas University.

College athletes are challenging the NCAA to stand up for the rights of transgender athletes.

ESPN Colombia anchor Carlos Orduz was able to escape, largely uninjured, after a horrifying set accident yesterday. Part of the set fell on him from behind, crushing him against the desk. The camera immediately cuts away from him.Read more...

In the fallout of Meyers Leonard using an antisemitic slur during a livestream, further adding to a resumé of ignorance, Jewish NFL wide receiver Julian Edelman has posted a compassionate statement to Leonard with an offer to meet and discuss antisemitism.

James Wiseman is on the clock.

Who wants Victor Oladipo?Read more...

I know you’ll have to get over the shock that someone who spent their whole career trading on the label of “idiot” got arrested for a DUI. It’s a cold world. That’s what Johnny Damon did last month in Florida, as well as resisting arrest without violence. Damon’s blood-alcohol level was .30, some four times over the…Read more...

Today is the anniversary of two of the most iconic basketball moments in the 21st century.

The franchise tag deadline was yesterday and, without languishing too much over the fact that it’s an unfair practice that is designed strictly for the benefit of the team and not for the player, let’s get into what transpired yesterday.Read more...

Blame Steph Curry.

There’s no such thing as buzzer beater season. But if there was, it would start around championship week (now) and wrap up in early April. You and I have seen plenty of game-winning shots in our time. Do buzzer beaters ever get old? You know the answer. (They do not.)

The NBA trade deadline is on March 25. It’s reasonable to anticipate ample movement in a standard NBA season, but because of COVID, we’re obviously in unique times. Are teams going to be hesitant to make moves while pushing for the playoffs because of the lingering disease and all that comes with it? Or are so many…Read more...

For fans my age, the soundtrack of hockey, when we get wistful, can at times still be Steve Levy and Darren Pang calling yet another multiple overtime game. Or Bill Pidto hosting NHL 2night. It was eons ago now, but when ESPN launched ESPN2 “The Deuce,” one of its main tenets was that it was to show more hockey. At…Read more...

I’ve been dreaming of doing one of these “Old Lady” headlines ever since I started here, so thank you for coming on this journey with me.

It’s only fitting that the NCAA is very concerned with dicks. The NCAA is petitioning to cancel a urology center’s trademark for “VASECTOMY MAYHEM” – which is a phrase that honestly shouldn’t exist and especially shouldn’t exist around the word “vasectomy”– because they’re concerned that people will confuse it with…Read more...

Whatever holiday you’re having, whatever group you’re honoring, you can expect hockey to somehow completely step on a rake before falling off a cliff and into an open sewer.

Most Japanese citizens don’t want the large international event to begin with. But now, according to the Kyodo News, the Japanese government will not allow foreign spectators to attend this summer’s Olympics and Paralympic Games. The decision to bar overseas fans, according to the report, stems from lingering concerns…Read more...

You may remember Meyers Leonard as the one guy who stood during the National Anthem during the NBA bubble last summer. He claimed at the time it wasn’t due to a lack of respect or dismissal of Black Lives Matter, but an attempt to thread a needle apparently only he could see. Somehow he was let off the hook for it.…Read more...

Philadelphia 76ers general manager Daryl Morey sat down with Sports Illustrated NBA Senior Writer Howard Beck for a recent si.com story. Within the interview, Morey knowingly referred to Sixers star center Joel Embiid, as in, not James Harden, as the most impregnable offensive force he’s seen.

Late Monday night, the University of Kansas announced it had “mutually agreed to part ways” with head football coach Les Miles. The fact that Miles is out as head coach on International Women’s Day is truly a delightful display of life imitating art.Read more...

It’s a Trash Talking Tuesday, and today I’m trashing the NBA All-Star Game.Read more...

“Now they are canceling Looney Tunes characters!”Read more...

Roughly 150 NBA players were in Miami during All-Star Weekend, according to ESPN’s Brian Windhorst.

Exactly one year ago, this happened.

There’s a little anxiety brewing in London for USMNT fans. Christian Pulisic once again didn’t start in Chelsea’s match yesterday against Everton. Just like he’s failed to in every match since new manager Thomas Tuchel took over. He hasn’t started a match in two months.Read more...

Yesterday was the 50th anniversary of “The Fight Of The Century,” the first of three Joe Frazier-Muhammad Ali fights. Even though it took place a decade before I was born, anyone can glean the importance of it by listening to just about anyone who was alive at the time talk about it or even read a few paragraphs about…Read more...

Dak Prescott finally got his contract extension, and it’s a doozy. The Dallas Cowboys announced today that Prescott has signed a 4-year, $160 million contract, including $66 million at signing. A record $126M of the deal is guaranteed. On top of that, Dak will be paid $75 million in the first year of the deal, the…Read more...

This fight isn’t over.Read more...

I will say it loudly and frequently – celebrate women in sports. They belong in sports. They belong wherever the hell they want to belong. Gender has zero bearing on knowledge about a topic. It has always been a battle for equality, and it should not have to be. And it’s not just athletes. Before and even after…Read more...

For everyone hurting today after Steph Curry burned your pockets in the three-point contest, you should have known better.Read more...

For years, I felt like the only person who didn’t watch Game of Thrones. On Monday mornings in the spring and summer, I would leave my friends and social media to talk about who got killed, who got screwed, or which dragon appeared.

Seahawks general manager John Schneider continues to make me a very angry Seahawks fan. So, Schneider, let’s check in to see what you’ve done today to piss me off. Oh, I see, you decided to cut the best pass rusher the team currently has on its roster, less than six months after trading for him. Cool, cool.Read more...

They actually went through with it.

Professional boxing had come a long way in the half-century that preceded March 8, 1971, the night Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali stepped into the Madison Square Garden ring for what remains history’s greatest heavyweight championship fight.

It’s probably too soon to tell, but the new paid basketball league for 16- to 18-year-olds is certainly intriguing.Read more...

On Saturday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver asked for grace and time.

Don’t worry, the NHL can still find a way to show its ass even with the NBA having a showcase event. On the same day that Tom Wilson was suspended for braining Boston’s Brandon Carlo into the boards with a cheap shot, Brad Marchand couldn’t be upstaged. And this is the same Brad Marchand who openly bitched about…Read more...

College basketball is about to head into hyperdrive this week, but thankfully one of the big media members, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein has revealed everything that it really is.Read more...

Tom Wilson barely even took a week to lay another dirty hit after the last time he made headlines for laying a dirty hit.Read more...

According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Blake Griffin has officially been bought out by the Detroit Pistons, and is now cleared to sign with another team via free agency.

One of the great things about sports is the comfort that they provide. While the world is always changing, sometimes at a pace that’s hard to process, sports are largely static. If you watch a football game from 50 years ago, there certainly are differences in strategy and the size and speed of the players, but it’s…Read more...

Someone in the NFL league office apparently doesn’t understand that March 17 is St. Patrick’s Day, because they decided to make that the day that free agency begins this year. Thinking about it a little more though, nothing goes together quite like Guinness and top-tier talent changing teams and causing pandemonium…Read more...

Whispers of a notable hand involving Doug Polk have been circulating ever since his high-stakes grudge match vs. Daniel Negreanu started last fall. Although Polk had “retired” from poker, he came back to score a cool $1.2 million. During live streams of the match, commentator Jamie Kerstetter alluded to a big hand…Read more...

If there’s any former player who deserves an ownership stake in a franchise he helped build, it’s Kevin Garnett. But unfortunately, the Minnesota Timberwolves don’t see it that way.

Nine years ago, the Kings were 13-12-4 when they fired coach Terry Murray. After four games with John Stevens behind the bench as interim coach, Los Angeles tapped Darryl Sutter, six seasons removed from his last job with the Flames, to return to the NHL and take the helm.Read more...

The Cleveland Browns are in some serious trouble.Read more...