Deadspin > Sports News Without Fear, Favor or Compromise

Last season, the trade of DeMarcus Cousins from Sacramento to New Orleans realigned the league just in time to lend some shape to the NBA’s annual trade deadline; the feelings of Sacramento Kings fans notwithstanding, that was a vastly happier way for Cousins to find himself functioning as the starting gun for NBA…Read more...

The Pelicans will play the rest of the season without their star big man after DeMarcus Cousins tore his left Achilles tendon trying to rebound his own free throw miss with just ten seconds remaining in New Orleans’s game against Houston tonight.Read more...

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A Jefferson Parish, La. jury deliberated for seven hours before finding Ronald Gasser guilty of manslaughter in the 2016 slaying of former NFL player Joe McKnight.Read more...

The Athletic’s Nicole Auerbach reports tonight that NCAA president Mark Emmert was personally told in 2010 of more than three dozen reports of sexual assault committed by Michigan State athletes, but took no apparent action.Read more...

Daniel Cormier and Stipe Miocic both enjoy such dominance over their divisions (light heavyweight and heavyweight, respectively) that there aren’t really that many interesting opponents for either man to fight. Both won their UFC 220 title fights against overhyped power punchers with comical ease, and now that Volkan…Read more...

Like many Americans, Jan Lastocy was watching the Larry Nassar sentencing hearing this week. She listened to Judge Rosemarie Aquilina.Read more...

For its first two weeks, Overwatch League settled into a predictable rhythm: top-tier teams Seoul Dynasty, New York Excelsior, and London Spitfire sat perched atop their perfect records while everybody else squabbled for scraps beneath the table. At the end of last week, those three teams were at a combined 12-0. This…Read more...

It can be hard to keep track of how many different pieces of news broke today, all of them illuminating one larger point—Michigan State really didn’t want to try too hard, if at all, to prevent or investigate sexual assault or gender violence on its campus, and they were especially reluctant to do so if that case…Read more...

“The offseason has been so slow,” you say. “Nothing is happening. Nothing has been happening.” But have you considered that the offseason actually has not been so slow if you take into account the activity of non-prospect minor-league defensive specialist Engelb Vielma? A quick look, with some in-season backstory for…Read more...

Here’s a stat I’ve been thinking about ever since Chris Herring reported it over at FiveThirtyEight:

A day after the U.S. Olympic Committee gave them an ultimatum to resign within six days or have the entire governing body decertified, the 16 remaining USA Gymnastics board members agreed to step down in the wake of the organization enabling Larry Nassar to sexually abuse dozens of girls and women while he was a…Read more...

Michigan State trustee Joel Ferguson said it first, and he said it best: “There’s so many more things going on at the university than just this Nassar thing.”Read more...

Even in a shamelessly slow offseason, the Miami Marlins have clobbered all competitors in a race to become the least interesting team in baseball. They traded Giancarlo Stanton, who is possibly the most exciting dude in the entire sport, for peanuts. The main goal, which the team barely bothered to conceal, was not…Read more...

Bucks rookie Sterling Brown was subdued with a taser and arrested in the parking lot of a Milwaukee Walgreens early this morning, after cops claim he had parked his car across a pair of handicap spots. News/Talk 1130 first reported the arrest, and apparently cops were writing Brown a ticket when he allegedly…Read more...

Coral Springs native Lewis Brinson is excited to patrol the field in front of the Marlins’ dinger machine for his childhood team. The Marlins acquired the 23-year-old prospect yesterday as part of the return package for trading Christian Yelich to Milwaukee.

Because like any good New Jersey native I have a Google Alert set for “Taylor ham,” I was greeted by news this week that the New York Yankees’ AA team, the Trenton Thunder, will rename themselves Trenton Pork Roll on Friday nights beginning May 18. ESPN reports the team will wear uniforms depicting the processed pork…Read more...

Welcome back to Dead Letters, the feature in which we reprint our favorite reader mail. We should take this moment to remind you that all emails to Deadspin and its editors and writers are on the record unless otherwise specified. Now for your letters.Read more...

My friends, truly I say to you today: Markelle Fultz has discovered the solution and fixed his fucked-up shooting form.Read more...

Former Pro Bowler and longtime Bills offensive lineman Eric Wood announced this morning that he’s been diagnosed with a neck injury that will end his career. Adam Schefter didn’t shed much light on it, but apparently standard football wear and tear is at least a factor.

The one thing we know for sure after Vince McMahon announced in a conference call on Thursday that he will relaunch the XFL is that McMahon himself is still cagey. It’s tough to say we know much about the league, beyond McMahon’s promise that it’s coming in two years; we’re still in the stage of development in which…Read more...

The semifinal between Roger Federer and breakout Hyeon Chung had little chance of being a close match, something like dropping a tired, brave guppy into the mouth of a shark and hoping something interesting might happen. Due in part to Chung’s blisters—built up over two weeks of tough matches and plenty of his…Read more...

Jaguars defensive end Yannick Ngakoue said Bills offensive lineman Richie Incognito used racist slurs towards him in the two teams’ playoff game, but the two players have settled their differences—according to the guy who supposedly said the racist slurs.Read more...

Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis announced his resignation at a Friday morning press conference, shortly after it was first reported by The Detroit Free-Press.Read more...

Right now, GAP has a huge sale where everything is discounted up to 50%, which is great, sure. But they have two other deals you’re going to want to check out.Read more...

The longest running professional women’s soccer team in the country has reportedly folded after a deal for potential new ownership fell apart. The Boston Breakers, which were founded in 2000 and were part of NWSL predecessor leagues the WUSA and WPS, is the first NWSL team to fold since the league was established in…Read more...

C’mon. C’mon. This is not ever actually going to happen. You know it isn’t!

The Roman Empire in the west fell for a great many reasons. We could cite a lengthy series of breakdowns in its political structures, feckless leadership by a series of child-emperors and self-interested court officials, and aggressive and opportunistic barbarian groups. As the Empire fell apart, the whole Roman world…Read more...

Now that Apple’s jumped aboard the Qi train, we’re seeing a lot more charging pad deals than we used to. This new model from RAVPower supports 10W fast charging for compatible Android phones, and is just $11 with promo code KINJA014. At that price, you can afford to put them all over your house.

Kotaku Tips For Playing Monster Hunter: World | Offspring Stop Asking Your Kid About Their Day | Jalopnik No Carmaker Has The Guts To Make A Chevrolet 454 SS Today | io9 Could Another DC Hero Make an Appearance in Shazam? | The A.V. Club The Good Place warily contemplates the rules in “The Burrito” |Read more...

Walking baseball almanac David Roth and I have spent a lot of time remembering the vaguely known guys of the diamond, but today, we’re switching it up. While we’re sticking around in the same dawn-of-grunge/golden age of hip-hop era (the late ’80s and early ’90s), the shorts are shorter, and the retro Washington…Read more...

The release of the Sonos One effectively pushed the going rate of the old Play:1 down to $150, but right now on Amazon, you can get the white model for an even cheaper $137.

Russell Westbrook went off last night, scoring 46 points and adding six boards and six assists in the Thunder’s 121-112 victory over the Wizards. Westbrook, it seems, was playing angry. And his teammates appear to have been happy not to disabuse him of his motivation.

You should own a stainless steel pan. Actually, you should own several of them, and you can pick up seven (plus five lids) from Amazon today for just $130.

Gun Runner was named Horse of the Year at Thursday night’s Eclipse Awards in Florida, the annual shindig hosted by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association. What a lovely accomplishment! Good for Gun Runner! The golden horse is all his, and he’s earned it!Read more...

The United States Olympic Committee has requested that the entire USA Gymnastics board resign by next Wednesday, or the federation will lose its status as the governing body of the sport, according to a new report from USA Today.Read more...

Sacramento rookie De’Aaron Fox had an absolutely wonderful put-back slam to win the game for the Kings tonight in Miami.Read more...

In the third quarter of tonight’s Wizards-Thunder game, Bradley Beal went up for a rebound and came down with a direct kick to the dick and balls from Steven Adams. Said kick did not exactly look like a natural act, especially not in the slo-mo replay below:Read more...

Keita Bates-Diop’s desperation, long-range three with five seconds remaining drew Ohio State tied with visiting Penn State before Nittany Lion guard Tony Carr threw up his own long-range shot that went in off the glass as time expired and earned Penn State an 82-79 win over the 13th-ranked Buckeyes.Read more...

The Chicago Blackhawks have been skating the Red Wings out of their shiny new arena since tonight’s opening puck drop. They chased starting goalie Jimmy Howard after less than nine minutes, but they saved their prettiest goal yet for Petr Mrazek. Twenty-year-old native Michigander Alex DeBrincat, high off one goal and…Read more...

The NFL has filed their formal response to Jami Cantor’s harassment lawsuit, which alleged that Marshall Faulk, Ike Taylor, Heath Evans, and other prominent NFL Network employees sexually harassed her when she was working for the network. They did not confirm a single count in Cantor’s original lawsuit, writing that…Read more...

Scarcely an hour after acquiring Christian Yelich in a trade with the Marlins, the Brewers have gotten themselves another outfielder: Lorenzo Cain, signed to a five-year, $80 million deal as reported by ESPN’s Jerry Crasnick and first broken by The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal.Read more...

The hot stove is warm, baby. A week after Christian Yelich’s agent announced the outfielder’s relationship with the Marlins was “irretrievably broken,” he’s been shipped off to the Brewers in exchange for a solid haul of prospects: outfielders Lewis Brinson and Monte Harrison, second baseman Isan Diaz and pitcher…Read more...

With the Australian Open semifinals on the line, the mixed doubles team of Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Andrea Hlavackova were standing in aggressive position at net. They were then served a gentle ball that looked like it’d land within six feet of the net. What a relief! That’s a routine put-away for any professional…Read more...

Floyd Mayweather Sr. was charged with battery last week for an incident that took place after the Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin fight on Sept. 17, 2017, according to Clark County court records. An arrest warrant was issued on Jan. 16; he turned himself in today and pleaded not guilty.Read more...

Overwatch League matches are played across four maps, and usually, the result is a win or loss in those four maps. More often than not it’s a 4-0 sweep, or a decisive 3-1. You can even tie on certain maps, leading to score lines like week 1's Dallas v. Seoul game that ended 2-1. But every now and then, a game goes to…Read more...

Earlier today, a random series of events brought to my mind the rap song from Donkey Kong 64. A great song, and a great game. Maybe you’ve forgotten about Donkey Kong 64 :( But now you remember it. Let’s remember some other video games:Read more...

The XFL returned today with a rap. Really.

Drew Magary’s Thursday Afternoon NFL Dick Joke Jamboroo runs every Thursday during the NFL season. Email Drew here. Buy his book here.

An exclusive broadcasting deal between ESL, one of the largest esports organizations in the world, and Facebook, a malignant social media tumor too insinuated into daily life to safely remove, has shown the shortcomings of gaming company Valve’s hands-off approach after the first major Dota 2 tournament subject to the…Read more...