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politics
Diagramming Sarah Palin's "Full-Court Press" Metaphor
Last Friday, Sarah Palin shrugged into her respectable Republican cloth coat and announced she was resigning from office. Along the way, she dropped a somewhat baffling basketball analogy, which we've helpfully diagrammed for you below, just as Palin described it.
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barack obama
Who's Got Next At The White House?
Did you know Barack Obama plays basketball? I certainly didn't. Word on the street, though, is that he's all about playing a little pick-up ball every now and voting day. More » -
basketball
Beware The Slow-Footed Enormity Of Sun MingMing
There's a new Asian monster stomping through the Japanese leagues and he is the tallest human being ever to play basketball. At 7'9", Sun MingMing is three inches taller than Yao Ming. (No relation.) More » -
basketball
Malcolm Gladwell Wants To Know Why Your Team Doesn't Press More
There's a very lengthy article in The New Yorker this week, from uber-contrarian Malcolm Gladwell arguing that basketball teams should press more often, because it helps weak teams upset strong ones. (Except when it doesn't.) More » -
basketball
Jeremy Tyler Is Too Cool For School
Sorry Rick Pitino; Jeremy Tyler will not need your services in 2011. In fact, not only is the 6-foot-11 center bypassing Louisville to play in Europe, he's even skipping his senior year of high school. More » -
basketball
Well To Be Fair, It Was A Bad Call
Parent sets some kind of record after being ejected for swearing at the refs after only 30 seconds ... from a fifth grade girls basketball game. [Des Moines Register] -
prep basketball
Patrick Thibodeau Finally Gets His Shot
If you don't appreciate the story of Patrick Thibodeau, the team manager for the Greely High (Cumberland Center, Maine) boys basketball squad, then your heart is old and wooden. More » -
basketball
Probably Not A Good Way To Get Extra Playing Time
A Western High School (Louisville. Ky.) student is facing assault charges after police say he punched his basketball coach in the face. [WHAS-TV11] -
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cheerleaders
New Jersey Senator Demands You T Up Those Cheerleaders
Governing a large state like New Jersey takes a special kind of politician, one with an iron will and mighty intelligence. Nothing can derail his mission ... except 11-year-old cheerleaders! More » -
basketball
College Basketball Prospect Hopes to Sign Letter of Intent With Only Hand
As the old basketball axiom goes, you can't teach 6'10", but you can teach two hands when you only have one. More » -
parents gone wild
If This Is A Fling At Racial Profiling, They're Doing It Wrong
Community leaders are in an uproar over the situation at Danville (Ill.) High School, where the basketball coach, they say, used racial profiling when he cut eight members of the varsity team recently. Here's where they lost me, however: It's an all-black team. Racial profiling attempt in Danville, Illinois: FAIL. More » -
carl joseph
They Called Him Sugarfoot: Carl Joseph, The One-Legged Wonder
Well, if this story doesn't inspire you, you're a rather hopeless cynic. Take a look at this amazing video on the athletic career of one Carl Joseph, who has just been nominated for the Florida Sports Hall of Fame. Joseph, who grew up in poverty on a tobacco farm in north Florida, was born with only one leg, but went on to become an eight-time letterman in high school sports and play college football. He did it without a prosthesis of any kind, relying only on his one good leg and a pretty damned big heart. I got the opportunity to talk with him recently, and that interview, along with the video, is after the jump.
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wnba
The Home Of Your New WNBA Champions: Ypsilanti!
If you're the kind of person who pays attention to such things, you may have noticed that the Detroit Shock will not be playing their WNBA Finals games in Detroit or Auburn Hills or any place else within the I-275 belt. Instead, their playoffs are being held in beautiful and spacious Ypsilanti, Michigan, on the campus of Eastern Michigan University. As you can imagine, the chance to crown a world champion right there in their sleepy little burg has the entire town jumping for joy, especially Mayor Paul Schreiber. "What?" he excitedly replied. “That's news to me.” More » -
jose calderon
Jose Calderon Would Like to Apologize Personally For That Whole Slant-Eyed Team Photo Thing
Remember the tempest over the Spanish basketball team photo at the Beijing Olympics; the one where the players all pulled back back the skin at the corner of their eyes to make them look slanted? Jose Calderon is overcome with remorse over that. He's apologizing in the press, but not only that; He's personally replying to everyone who emailed him about it and apologizing to them as well. Holy Hochuli! More » -
shawn kemp
That Will Be All For Shawn Kemp
Well, this appears to be it for Shawn Kemp, the former NBA All-Star whose comeback has ended before it even began. Kemp, who recently signed a one-year contract to play for the Italian club Montegranaro Premiata, was cut by the team when he left training camp last week and didn't return. Kemp spent nine days in Italy training with the club and playing in three preseason games. He then returned to the United States to check on his home in Houston after Hurricane Ike. More » -
prodigy
Twelve-Year-Old Girl Kicked Off Boys' Basketball Team For Being Too Good
Oh man, those boys on that basketball team are done. Jaime Nared is a 12-year-old, 6-foot, 1-inch basketball player from outside Portland, OR. She's just finished sixth grade and she's now playing with a girls high school traveling team because she's too good to play with girls her own age. Perhaps the next Candace Parker. Or better. But being a prodigy has its costs, namely, where should Nared be playing? The last time she played against girls her own age, her team won 90-7. Her coach described the game as "like having Shaq on the floor." Oregon State has already offered her a scholarship. More » -
ft. wayne mad ants
Nightmare Ant Shall Have His Revenge, In This Life Or The Next
I've always said it: Deadspin will never really make it until we can count D-League basketball owners among our readership. Well now we've achieved that lofty goal. In an open letter in his blog on Thursday, Ft. Wayne Mad Ants co-owner Jeff Potter described last month's thrilling Deadspin Hall of Fame election in which his team mascot, the Mad Ant (known here as Nightmare Ant), was nominated, and then lost, in a vote of Deadspin readers. And in a chilling post-script, Potter vows that Nightmare Ant shall have his revenge. More » -
Sarah Palin
Barack Isn't the Only Baller In This Race
Barack Obama has gotten plenty of attention for his love of basketball, but it's worth noting that the GOP Veep candidate was a bit of a baller back in the day. Sarah Palin (nee Heath) was known as "Sarah Barracuda" (barracudas being the most tenacious on-ball defenders in the ocean) while captaining her high school basketball team. (She's #22 on the Wasilla squad.) More » -
beijing olympics 2008
Nike's US Division Defeats Nike's Spanish Division at Company Picnic
Jesus H. on a medal stand. While you were sleeping, the United States and Spain put on an offensive show that impressed the inventors of fireworks themselves. Both teams combined for 225 points in a mere 40 minutes of action that moved so quickly that the paint on the hardwood melted. The United States won 118-107, but this game didn't reach safe ground until the final minute. More » -
duan
Why Does That Chinese Tattoo Look Like a Bar Code?
We don't want to throw a cold bucket of confetti on the proceedings late tonight, but could it be that all of the perceived new focus by USA Basketball and its players on preparation and presenting a warm face to the public has an awful lot to do with the 1.3 billion consumers the shoe companies (and others) want to reach in China during these Games? (Not that we would suggest corporate interests influence national sporting efforts. Sorry, Liu Xiang.) More » -
mike krzyzewski
Mike Krzyzewski Welcomes You Aboard The Showboat
Seems like a fair question to me: Why did the U.S. men dunk 20 times against China, considering the blowout nature of the game? But when a foreign journalist asked it of head coach Mike Krzyzewski, he almost lost a hand. More » -
basketball
Spanish Basketball Team Celebrates Trip to China With Slant-Eye Team Photo
Spain, patron saint of the New World, land of low-priced cerveza, Sergio Garcia's homeland, and where slant-eyed jokes by the Spanish national basketball team leave the entire country rolling on the floor with laughter. Those were the fourth grade days. Just imagine what would have happened if they'd followed up this team photo with bunny ears behind every player's head. More » -
basketball
Shawn Kemp Cashing in On Rising Euro; Has Offer From Team in Italy
There are a couple of surprises here, first, Shawn Kemp is only 40. Surprising only because Kemp has a daughter who's 32. Second, an Italian basketball team called Premiata Montegranaro has offered him a contract. Of course this report comes via Ball Don't Lie (via The Sport Count) who claims that this article reports that. Only the article is in Italian. And my mom's basement doesn't have a pocket Italian translator. More » -
dunking
20 Ways to Die While Trying to Dunk a Basketball
What happens when a chunky kid tries to dunk on a 7 foot goal? Six seconds of pure bliss. There are 19 more of these inluding a refresher on the trampoline dunk attempt that became a Deadspin HOF nominee. Cease all work. Immediately. More » -
nike
Nike Bows To Pressure From Screeching Morons and Pulls Dunk Ads
According to the Wall Street Journal, Nike acted because the new Hyperdunk ads were deemed by some to be offensive to blacks and gays. Which is, in two words, patently absurd. It also raises an interesting question: why can't a sports company just say that their ads are meant for non-idiots?
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randy moss
Randy Moss' Daughter Is The Female Teen Wolf
Randy Moss has a 14-year-old daughter? Try as I might, I can't imagine him shuffling through the kitchen in slippers, making sack lunches and driving someone to school. Who was more precocious, I wonder; Sydney Moss or Rudy Huxtable? At any rate, young Moss is evidently a pretty strong hoopster; just ask all the college coaches who are already pursuing her. More » -
dunks
Dunks As Life Changers
We’ve all seen dunks that left us speechless. Especially if you witnessed them in person. I knew this was true, sort of vaguely, but that realization crystallized for me when I read Bruce Feldman’s article about a then unknown Tracy McGrady throwing down on a top basketball recruit, James Felton.
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wild thing
Mitch Williams Supports Youth Athletics, Is Not At All Insane
Former Phillies reliever Mitch Williams has never been one to see an injustice go unchallenged, even if that does mean being unceremoniously tossed from his 10-year-old daughter's youth league basketball game for screaming the F-word several times at a female referee. More » -
parents gone wild
We Can Only Imagine What The Parent-Teacher Conferences Are Like
Further proof that Texas is tougher than your state: Even the first-grade teachers are bad-ass. A couple of them engaged in fisticuffs at a youth basketball game on Saturday, leaving one bloody and bruised, and the other on the lam from police. No word yet on whether either of them is hot. More » -
they should have pantsed them
Those Eight Percent Shooting Nights Will Get You Every Time
Just great. One round into the District 3 Class A high school boys basketball playoffs in Pennsylvania, and my brackets are already in shambles. The team I had picked to reach the finals, the York Country Day Greyhounds, lost to the Scotland Cadets 74-5 last week. Yeah, think that the Knicks' 40-point loss to the 76ers on Wednesday was bad? That was nothing. More » -
nba closer
Warriors Refuse To Come Out And Play
• Who Still Believes? A glaring absence of celebrity fans on Tuesday in Oakland, as the Warriors dropped to 0-4 with a 108-104 loss to the Cavaliers. My yellow "We Believe" T-shirt has only been worn once, and already is in danger of becoming obsolete. In the meantime, let's let Golden State of Mind talk about seeing LeBron in person: More » -
nba closer
The Mavericks Invite You To Eat Their Dust
Those of you constantly demanding to see Dirk Nowitzki leaning out of a car window while taking a lap at the Texas Motor Speedway can stop your letters and e-mails: Your wish has finally been granted. Of course now that I see it, I have the urge to jump in the car and take my dog for a drive. Come'n, boy! (shakes keys). It all occurred on Sunday, as Nowitzki attended a NASCAR race with, among others, Vince Vaughn. Here we have Dirk trying on a helmet and looking a bit like a frightened giraffe. Why the Dirk-NASCAR connection? I have no clue. But I do know that it inspired greatness the following evening, as Nowitzki and the Mavericks lapped the Rockets, 107-98. More » -
nba closer
Isiah, Knicks Manage To Stay Out Of Trouble For A Day
Ed. note: This was supposed to go up this morning, but better late than never.• Are You Going To Get In The Truck? More » -
interviews from hell
The Picturesque Word Stylings Of Darco Milicic
Sure, I took Serbian in high school — who didn't? — but it's really rusty. So let's leave it to AOL Fanhouse to translate the worst bit of this Darco Milicic tirade against the refs following Serbia's loss to Greece in the European championships. Fanhouse surmises that one of the lines is: More » -
it's like the time ge took away his microwave division
Tim "Douche" Donaghy Did It and I Called It
The now ex-NBA referee has had a really shitty week, and deservedly so. Just as I predicted Donaghy was identified as the target of the FBI's gambling investigation. While part of me feels for a guy who obviously suffers from a gambling addiction the rest of me is fucking ecstatic. The reason I kept mentioning Donaghy's name to anyone who would ask yesterday morning is because I've seen it all up close and personal. More » -
where's gilligan?
All Hail The Harlem Globetrotters!
When we were kids, we were obsessed with the Harlem Globetrotters. We went to see them at the Assembly Hall in the mid-80s, and granting for the fact that the only real entertainment we had back then was running over G.I. Joe figurines with the lawn mower, it kind of blew our minds. More »




































