Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

In an Instagram post on Sunday, Manchester City forward Raheem Sterling accused English publications of helping to “fuel racism” with the way they portray young black players in the media. The accusation came in the wake of Saturday’s game against Chelsea, where Sterling allegedly faced racial abuse from opposing…Read more...

With a little over four minutes remaining in last night’s Rockets-Mavericks game, Chris Paul drove hard at rookie Luka Dončić, then used a step-back dribble (and a, uh, conspicuously extended left elbow) to separate for a short jumper in the middle of the lane. The basket gave the Rockets an eight-point lead, 100-92;…Read more...

Jason Witten retired in May after 15 NFL seasons, leaving for a job as a color commentator on Monday Night Football. Jason Garrett has apparently been trying to get him to un-retire.Read more...

The city of Atlanta has a championship for the first time since 1995 thanks to the efforts of second-year MLS franchise Atlanta United. In front of an MLS Cup-record crowd of 73,019, United defeated the Portland Timbers 2-0 to bring their immaculate sophomore season to a close.

Congratulations to Jimmy Gressier, a 21-year-old French runner who defended his title in the Under-23 European men’s cross country championships today. We’d also like to extend our apologies to Jimmy Gressier, the two-time defending Euro cross country champ who many people now know only because he face-planted while…Read more...

The Army Black Knights held a 10-0 lead against their bitter rivals, the Navy Midshipmen, heading into the fourth quarter of the 119th game between the two academies. Faced with a fourth-and-two situation, and having used the break between quarters to mull things over, Army coach Jeff Monken elected to go for the…Read more...

College basketball promotional contests have a way of displaying the athletic ineptitude of fellow classmates or visiting alumni to the delight of an observing crowd. But every now and again, someone will show up to dominate the competition in way that’s just as exciting.Read more...

During a lull in play between the Rochester Americans and the Providence Bruins, longtime play-by-play broadcaster Don Stevens did what any good announcer would do and decided to fill the moment with some mindless banter. Stevens gave his color commentator, Ric Seiling, an opportunity to talk about his ongoing work as…Read more...

Will Grier became the latest college football player to declare his choice to focus on his future, and the upcoming NFL draft, over participating in a meaningless exhibition game. West Virginia football’s Twitter account released Grier’s statement on Saturday that announced he would be missing the Mountaineers’ match…Read more...

Something’s eating Joel Embiid. The 76ers center has seen a recent dip in form, with a string of mediocre performances that are a far cry from the MVP-like numbers he was putting up towards the beginning of the season. Over his last three games, he’s shot just 14-for-42 (1-for-9 from three), with his worst game of the…Read more...

With less than two minutes left in regulation, the Michigan Tech Huskies pulled their goalie as they attempted to chip away at what was then a 4-2 deficit against their rivals: the Northern Michigan Wildcats. This move gave NMU goaltender Atte Tolvanen the window he needed to make history. Less than a minute after the…Read more...

What kind of person still reads physical books? The best kind of person, IMO. If you’re one of them, this is probably your favorite time of year, because you know that Amazon always drops an awesome coupon. Just like Black Friday, the discount this time around is $5 off $20 via code GIFTBOOK18, and it works on…Read more...

At the Golden Spin of Zagreb, a skating competition in Croatia, the American pair skaters Ashley Cain and Timothy LeDuc were in the final third of their long program on Friday, heading into their last overhead lift, when LeDuc’s hand appeared to slip as Cain was exiting the lift. She fell, headfirst, onto the ice.…Read more...

Today, Adrian Wojnarowski reported that the Cleveland Cavaliers and Milwaukee Bucks will be swapping some junk in boxes from their respective garages. The trade is centered around guard George Hill, who’s shooting 46.4 percent from three and could be useful to Milwaukee, but the real draw here is Australian five…Read more...

David Silva has long been one of the most aesthetically pleasing players in soccer, mostly because he is a wizard with the ball at his feet but also due to a handsome look that married strong, angular facial features with what was a delightfully messy mop of hair. Then last year he buzzed off that flowing mane, which…Read more...

Redheaded American forward Josh Sargent—probably the first- or second-most likely American teenager to inherit the mantle of “Wonderteen” from Christian Pulisic—has been behind in the pecking order for striker-rich Bundesliga squad Werder Bremen for most of the season. However, this afternoon, the 18-year-old was…Read more...

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

The Bryce Harper free agency sweepstakes are underway, and the Nationals seem to already know where they stand in the race. Their offer to Harper, which was first reported last month, is somewhere in the range of 10 years and $300 million. That is probably less than other interested parties will put on the table, and…Read more...

This story, co-bylined by current Trump-scandal reporter and former tribune of the MLB commissioner’s office Michael Schmidt for the New York Times, surely isn’t the worst thing you will read this week, but for any baseball fan who lived through MLB’s steroid hysteria, it will be jarring.

According to reports, Japanese kickboxing prodigy Tenshin Nasukawa will be crossing over into another sport on New Year’s Eve, engaging in an exhibition match with a boxer at a Rizin card after weeks of back and forth over the promotional details. MMAFighting reporter Marc Raimondi has information about the rules the…Read more...

WWE confirmed on Wednesday that Tom Billington, the former pro wrestler best known as Dynamite Kid of the British Bulldogs tag team, had passed away at the age of 60. He leaves one of the more hugely complicated legacies of just about anyone who has ever been a part of this hugely complicated business. In the ring, he…Read more...

Disgraced former Baylor AD Ian McCaw and fearmongering reactionary legacy kid Jerry Falwell Jr. introduced Hugh Freeze as Liberty University’s new head football coach on Friday. Everyone had a great time. Here were the best parts:

To the surprise of not one single person on earth, a Knicks team missing Kristaps Porzingis and giving major rotation minutes to all of Tim Hardaway Jr., Mario Hezonja, and Emmanuel Mudiay sucks major ass and is losing lots of games. They’ve dropped two in a row and four of five, and they’ve got the fifth-worst point…Read more...

The way baseball’s Hall of Fame and the veteran sportswriters who vote in its elections have responded to the presence of drug users on the ballot over the last several years has been terrible for the institution, turning what should be an annual celebration of the game’s great players and rich history into an annual…Read more...

Former major leaguers Luis Valbuena and Jose Castillo were killed in a car crash in Venezuela Thursday, as reported by the Orange County Register. Valbuena was 33; Castillo was 37.Read more...

It’s here. It’s really here.

Football can be perfect and beautiful. It can also suck complete and total ass for everyone involved. Today, we travel to Mankato, Minn. for the latter experience.

An on-sale iPad, the LEGO Bat-Space Shuttle, and discounted ugly Christmas sweaters lead off Friday’s best deals from around the web.

Hugh Freeze, the former Ole Miss coach who resigned a month before the 2017 college football season over some alleged improper horniness, has finally found a new job after one-and-a-half years on the shelf. As Football Scoop first reported and ESPN later confirmed, Freeze will take over the head coaching job for…Read more...

Nashville Predators netminder Pekka Rinne may be the best goaltender in the NHL. Last season, he led the league in goals saved above average, and so far this year, his goals against average is tops in the league at 1.96, with a .931 save percentage to boot. Rinne is incredible at his job, in short, but when he’s…Read more...

The Phoenix Suns were never expected to resolve into a good team this year, but they at least seemed ready to play some fun, occasionally winning basketball. Devin Booker was all set to continue his ascent and become one of the best pure scorers in the league, Trevor Ariza was there to provide some steady veteran…Read more...

There are few things that will drive an NBA big man crazier than picking up two early fouls and being forced to the bench in the first quarter. It is particularly annoying when those two fouls occur in the first three minutes of the damn game, as Jazz center Rudy Gobert demonstrated last night.

Amazon is killing it with the fashion deals today. Of course you should check out the major brands on sale, but don’t sleep on this batch of Amazon-branded men’s goods including sweaters, wallets, pants, and shirts, with prices starting at $10. Your future self will thank you next time you have no trouble deciding…Read more...

Derrick Henry did much, much more last night against the Jaguars than run 99 yards, impale All-Pro corner A.J. Bouye with a halberd of a stiff arm, shrug Leon Jacobs off like a bathrobe, and then gas half the Jags’ defense, but since he did all that and more on his way to the NFL’s second-ever 99-yard rushing…Read more...

We’ve had months to recover from Avengers: Infinity War’s cataclysmic outcome, as Thanos, gauntlet in hand, snapped the snap heard ‘round the world. Now, after what feels like eons of waiting, we have our first look at what the original icons of the Marvel Cinematic Universe plan on doing to avenge their fallen…Read more...

Amazon isn’t really a place I’d expect to shop for J.Crew brand clothes, but today, there’s an entire Gold Box filled with styles for both men and women. Specifically, the items up for grabs are J.Crew Mercantile, the brand’s more affordable line that’s akin to what’s sold in J.Crew Factory outlets — but that doesn’t…Read more...

Dominique “SonicFox” McLean took home the award for Best Esports Player tonight at The Game Awards in Los Angeles. The 20-year-old full-time student and fighting game ace gave a candid acceptance speech that was one of the night’s more heartfelt moments.Read more...

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This competition really heated up, but our readers managed to chose their three favorite space heaters. Here they are, coming in hot, and don’t forget to scroll down to give us your hot take in the poll.

Thank you for your continued support of Deadspin.Read more...

Last week LeBron James went on wine-drunk lifehacker Tim Ferriss’s podcast to talk about the day-to-day maintenance of one of the most natural wonders on earth: that is, his body. Among other fine-grained details, James said he listens to the “rain on leaves” sound all night long, and that he sleeps for eons.

Gonzaga played Washington last night. It was a pretty good game! Rui Hachimura hit a foul-line jumper with less than a second left to give the Bulldogs the win. But, obviously, this exciting 81-79 game was overshadowed by Bill Walton’s announcing, who was working with play-by-play announcer Dave Pasch. He pontificated…Read more...

The St. Louis Cardinals became a much more fun team yesterday, and they barely gave up anything to pull it off. On Wednesday, baseball’s most uptight franchise sent three fairly irrelevant players to the Arizona Diamondbacks, who in return gave them big-time slugging first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who was…Read more...

A four-time winner of the Iditarod Trail Race has been cleared in a nearly-two-year old case involving four of his dogs testing positive for a banned substance. Except—it’s weird. What’s been overturned is not that Dallas Seavey’s dogs were doped. Oh, those dogs were doped to the gills. What has apparently been…Read more...

It’s been nearly two weeks since Washington quarterback Alex Smith had emergency surgery after breaking his tibia and fibula in a game against the Texans. Smith had his surgery on Nov. 18, and now it’s been revealed that complications from that surgery have left him fighting an infection and that he may still be…Read more...

In an interview that aired this morning on Good Morning America, Elissa Ennis explains the abuse she says she sustained from her ex-boyfriend, NFL linebacker Reuben Foster, her reaction to Washington’s decision to sign Foster just days after the 49ers released him following his second domestic-violence arrest, and why…Read more...

Formula One’s halo cockpit-protection bar did its job more than once this year, and made viewers question its role at least once. But in the ugly August wreck involving Charles Leclerc and Fernando Alonso, an investigation found that the halo protected Leclerc from a smack in the visor by the front of Alonso’s car.

The first big Instant Pot Max discount, a Christmas decorations Gold Box, and luggage from Amazon lead off Thursday’s best deals from around the web.

Zion Williamson had 18 and 12 and Duke won 84-54 on Wednesday night—which would have been impressive if they hadn’t been playing the Hartford Hawks (apparently a real college basketball team and not, like, a D-League franchise). As per usual, there were powerful, highlight-reel dunks from the Blue Devils’ mighty…Read more...

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