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“Pieces were stolen from me

On your typical playoff team that features a wizened old veteran looking for his first-ever championship, the old guy isn’t much more than a walking feel-good story, there to positively affect the locker room and take charge with the media. As the San Jose Sharks moved through the Western Conference Playoffs, it…Read more...

For North America’s amateur baseball players, be they generational talents like Mike Trout or organizational filler like Mike Fish, the road to the majors begins in the same place: with Major League Baseball’s amateur draft. There is no such system in place for international players, at least not yet, but MLB…Read more...

io9 VFX Artists Explain What It Would Actually Take to Redo Sonic the Hedgehog | Jalopnik How the 2020 Toyota Supra Compares to the Toyota 86 in Real-World Driving | Lifehacker Ogle These Vintage Public-Domain Cat Pictures From the Library of Congress | Kotaku How …Read more...

If you are going to run onto a major league baseball field in the middle of a game, there are two keys to survival. The first is to always keep moving, and the second is to have an exit strategy. The fan who invaded the field at last night’s Braves game followed the first rule, but failed miserably when it came to the…Read more...

1. Daenerys walks up to the Iron Throne and sits in it. “This is nice,” she says. “I won.” As soon as she sits in it, everyone in Westeros disintegrates, just like Melisandre did, and Daenerys is the only one left in the world. “Or did I?” she wonders.

If there’s one thing better than a good goalkeeper boner, it’s a goalkeeper thwarting an attacking onslaught by turning into a brick wall. Think Tim Howard at the 2014 World Cup, or David de Gea last season (before his brain broke and he became sometimes maybe good, sometimes maybe shit).

Images the NHL wants to linger after an hard-fought overtime game: the jubilation of the goalscorer; his teammates erupting on the bench and spilling over to celebrate on the ice; the disappointment and hard-earned exhaustion of the losers, skating off in disbelief.Read more...

Now that Alabama Governor Kay Ivey has signed a near-total ban on abortion into law, Missouri is the latest state to follow suit.Read more...

In an epic matchup of global basketball superstars, Brook Lopez led his top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks over Kyle Lowry and the second-seeded Toronto Raptors, 108–100, in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. Lowry led the Raptors to an early lead and kept them in front for the first three quarters, but in the fourth…Read more...

You’re not going to believe this, but there was a huge controversy in the NHL Playoffs tonight. In overtime of Game 3 between the Sharks and the Blues, Erik Karlsson scored the winner, his second goal of the game, to give San Jose a 2-1 lead in the series. The Sharks’ 5-4 victory was not received politely by the St.…Read more...

Wednesday afternoon the Angels lost a close one to the Minnesota Twins, 8–7. Angels pitcher Trevor Cahill took the loss, allowing six earned runs in 4.1 innings pitched, so right there you already know it wasn’t his best day. The defining moment of Cahill’s lousy outing, and certainly the most regrettable one, came in…Read more...

Seems like Bucks scrapper Ersan Ilyasova thought he’d have more help in the paint when he overplayed the right hand of Raptors forward Pascal Siakam, in the first quarter of Wednesday night’s Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals. In an unfortunate coincidence, it seems like Bucks center Brook “Splash Mountain”…Read more...

San Diego Padres rookie pitcher Chris Paddack got roughed up in his start Tuesday against the Dodgers, needing 92 pitches to get through 4.2 innings, surrendering six runs, and taking the loss. Beyond reinforcing that the Dodgers lineup is a beast—they lead the National League in runs, slugging, and OPS—this was…Read more...

The day after the tragicomic New York Knicks were denied the opportunity to draft Zion Williamson, a nation alternately laughing at more Knicks misery and consoling those who got their hopes up turned their eyes to the cranky bard of Knicks angst: Stephen A. Smith.

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

Our beloved colleague Dave McKenna tells good stories. He’s done a lot of cool shit, met many weird people in weird ways, and had his run-ins with the law. And after selfishly squirreling all his stories away in Slack and our brains for years, we’ve realized we have a societal obligation to share.Read more...

Annoyingly, the vile Boston Celtics might get what they wanted after all. While the draft lottery ended in the most frustrating fashion for every team involved except New Orleans, the Boston brain trust had to be ecstatic to see the main Anthony Davis trade asset (Zion Williamson) off the board. Though some of their…Read more...

Oh, come on. Selective memory is a hell of a thing.Read more...

Tiger Woods went to the White House last week to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Donald Trump. As is the case whenever a notable celebrity willingly enters the orbit of our white supremacist president, this raised plenty of questions about Woods’s political leanings. Does he agree with Donald Trump’s…Read more...

Last night, Alabama lawmakers gleefully passed a bill that, if signed by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, will effectively ban abortions in the state. In passing a near-total abortion prohibition—with the only exception being when the mother’s life is at serious risk, and no exceptions for rape or incest—Alabama Republicans…Read more...

Shockingly, it wasn’t actually worth it in the end.Read more...

Electoral reform is coming to America. This year in MLB, a simple first-past-the-post voting system will no longer determine all-star starters. Fans will instead select three finalists in a Primary Round and then vote from among those finalists on a single Election Day.

Less than a month after the NFL Draft, and long after any notable free-agent signings, the New York Jets have decided to get rid of GM Mike Maccagnan. The team also fired VP of player personnel Brian Heimerdinger, Maccagnan’s right-hand man and presumptive heir, installing new head coach Adam Gase as the acting GM.Read more...

A loyal reader reached out this morning with a fantastic question:

When the New Orleans Pelicans landed the right to seize the beginning of Zion Williamson’s basketball career, the reaction was swift, predictable and consistent: “What did those people do to deserve such a prize?”

Gizmodo Netflix Is Losing Some of Its Most Popular Shows, Thanks to AT&T | Jalopnik Volkswagen Is Spending a Billion on a Battery Factory to Try to Leapfrog Tesla | Kotaku Pokémon Rumble Rush Is Heading To iOS And Android | Lifehacker Bookmark This Site to Try Microsoft’s New Windows PowerToys This Summer | The Takeout…Read more...

Lucky-ass shot.Read more...

Robert Kraft is trying—again—to get the video evidence from his solicitation case kept out of the public record. On Tuesday, his lawyers submitted a motion asking a Palm Beach County judge to permanently prohibit any Florida agency from releasing video that, according to police documents, shows him getting a hand job.…Read more...

There is no great shame in losing to the Golden State Warriors and Steph Curry, and no matter how the Western Conference final shakes out, the Blazers should be proud of their season. But if there’s one thing that should have them feeling a bit embarrassed in the aftermath of their 116-94 Game 1 loss, it’s the way…Read more...

Sometimes, it just isn’t your series. Sometimes, you just run into a buzzsaw—or perhaps a brick wall. The Carolina Hurricanes, now down 3-0 to the Boston Bruins in the Eastern Conference final, may not particularly care which of those two cases is more applicable here, but it’s really a Venn diagram, and in the center…Read more...

It’s 2019, and your vacuum shouldn’t have a cord anymore. Dyson’s cordless V-series stick vacs have long been go-to cordless options, but the powerful new V10 is arguably the first that can truly, completely replace a corded vacuum, at least for smaller homes.

Tuesday night the Colorado Rockies became the third team since 1908 to strike out at least 24 times in a major league game and also win. They did it by beating the Boston Red Sox in extra innings, 5–4, on a game-winning RBI single from Mark Reynolds, who knows a thing or two about striking out a lot.Read more...

Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals had a familiar look for anyone who’s watched many Golden State Warriors home games during the Steph Curry era. The Warriors held the tough and determined Trail Blazers at a comfortable arm’s length for most of the night, and then just sort of cruised out of view by the final…Read more...

Holding to the principle that if a person doesn’t have anything nice to say they should say nothing at all, there hasn’t been a whole lot to say about Vlad Guerrero Jr. since his call up to the majors back on April 26. Entering Tuesday night, Vlad had played in 13 Blue Jays games, and was slashing a rather dismal…Read more...

The NBA’s new odds format did the job of scrambling the draft order. Four teams played especially horrendous basketball last season, and of those four teams, three were bounced out of the draft’s top four selections. This was satisfying. The Cavaliers, represented by Nick Gilbert, dropped to fifth, where their prize…Read more...

The Knicks, Pelicans, Grizzlies, and Lakers all had a shot at Zion Williamson heading into the final reveals of the NBA Draft Lottery, and the sensational Duke forward might have gotten stuck in the most disastrous possible situation. The New Orleans Pelicans—who had a six percent chance of winning the lottery—will…Read more...

Here’s a weird and frightening offseason NFL story: The unoccupied home of Indianapolis Colts assistant Parks Frazier was reportedly shot dozens of times by a group of as many as eight unknown gunmen, according to a story from RTV6 in Indianapolis.Read more...

Longtime Michigan men’s basketball coach John Beilein announced yesterday that he’s leaving the university to take over as coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. It’s a move plenty of other college coaches have made before, but the departure of Beilein—reportedly beloved, supposedly clean, and, at 66, downright old, and…Read more...

The Deadspin staff recently moved its office to Times Square, so we’ve been absolutely dying to check out every single frothy tourist trap around us that can sell grilled chicken sandwiches for $25 a pop because it has some sort of cute gimmick. Chief among these is the big bright sports bar that boasts endless rows…Read more...

Atlético Madrid striker and Fortnite enthusiast Antoine Griezmann has announced today via a video released on Atleti’s Twitter account that he intends leave for pastures new this summer. In the video, Griezmann says he wants new challenges after “five incredible years” in Madrid:Read more...

When Li Li Leung, USA Gymnastics’ fourth CEO in under two years, came to the job in February, she had her work cut out for her. She’s been tasked with guiding the organization as it attempts to resolve dozens of lawsuits, survive a bankruptcy, and restore trust with a community of athletes USAG has failed repeatedly…Read more...

The family of Nicholas Immesberger filed a wrongful death lawsuit in Florida court yesterday against Tiger Woods, his girlfriend Erica Herman, and Woods’s restaurant The Woods Jupiter, where Herman is a manager, alleging that the staff overserved Immesberger the night he died in a car crash in December.Read more...

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

John Urschel spent three seasons as an offensive lineman for the Ravens. He’s also a candidate for a Ph.D. in mathematics at MIT—a pursuit he began in 2016, during his final season in the NFL. He’s also written a book, Mind and Matter: A Life in Math and Football, that’s being released today by Penguin Random House.Read more...

In tonight’s draft lottery the Knicks have a 14 percent chance of obtaining the first pick and Zion Williamson. They were the worst team in the NBA, but this year, odds have been flattened out at the top of the lottery to disincentivize tanking. So the three worst teams all enjoy a 14 percent chance at the No. 1 pick.…Read more...

Most relief pitchers good enough to last eight seasons in the Major Leagues will have careers that look roughly as bizarre as Cory Gearrin’s. Some of those relievers are closers or setup aces or multi-inning firemen types, and they’ll have a more linear lot and make more money, but for the ones living a tranche…Read more...

Turkish NBA fans hoping to catch the Western Conference Finals won’t be able to do so on network TV. According to the schedule for the NBA’s official broadcaster in Turkey, the network S Sport will only carry the Eastern Conference Finals after previously showing nearly every other playoff series thus far. Today a rep…Read more...

Today, we’re talking about J.R.R. Tolkien, OK symbols, plastic knives, beer cans, and more.

Just days before Palermo were set to play in the Italian second division promotion playoffs with a spot in Serie A hanging in the balance, the Italian soccer authorities hit the Sicilian club with a relegation penalty that will send them into the third division next season. The authorities handed down this automatic…Read more...