Basketball Page 816 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

How has Kyrie Irving not been suspended?
Is it just me, or is it kind of wild that Kyrie Irving didn’t even get a game reprieve for tweeting out a movie featuring antisemitic cliches, and then doubling down on it, before eventually deleting it? The same week that Kanye West got himself canceled for offering up some Nazi shit, the NBA’s big...

Pat Riley has lost his touch and the Miami Heat have jumped the shark
What does your imagination conjure when you think about Pat Riley, the executive? Is it the silver-foxed Riley dumping the nine championship rings he won as a player, executive, head coach, and assistant coach onto the table and letting their presence speak for itself? That finalized LeBron James a...

The feel-good story of a sports Sunday, the Los Angeles Lakers?
We, the American people, have had a lot of fun at the Los Angeles Lakers’ expense for most of 2022. LeBron James missed significant time early last season, and Anthony Davis missed the majority of the 2021-22 season. However, it became clear in January, when both of them were on the court around the...

The Second Coming of Dennis Smith Jr.
Maybe all he needed was to come home. Smith is from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is now playing with the Charlotte Hornets, just a mere three hours from his hometown. The Hornets are Smith’s fifth team in six seasons. Last year, he split time between three teams, including the Hornets. So why h...

Waiving Josh Primo demonstrates why the Spurs are still a first-rate franchise
The Spurs’ announcement that they had released Josh Primo was the ultimate Friday evening news dump that caught the entire league by surprise. Lottery picks don’t get waived heading into their second season, and definitely not an hour before tipoff for a regular season matchup without forewarning. T...

Anti-vaxxer, flat earther...anti-Semite?
Do you know how easy it is to not promote antisemitism? If you’re even uncertain as to whether a tweet or a message of any kind would be controversial and alienate the Jewish people, Google it. Give a little bit of effort. And Kyrie Irving didn’t do that, or didn’t care to. And both are awful. ...

LeBron James dropping the Dallas Cowboys over ethical reasons yet somehow rooting for the Cleveland Browns? Who wants to tell him?
Noted frontrunner LeBron James has switched his NFL allegiances because it’s clear the Cowboys aren’t going to win the Super Bowl — oh, wait. He’s actually dropping Jerry Jones and Dallas because of the owner’s stance on players kneeling. If the story stopped there — and of course, it doesn’t becaus...

Gus Johnson, not Ian Eagle, should succeed Jim Nantz as the voice of March Madness
Ian Eagle is really good at his job. Gus Johnson’s just better....

A decade after the Thunder traded James Harden, regret should linger
A decade after Oklahoma City traded James Harden on the eve of the 2012-13 regular season, it still stands as an atrocity upon the art of dynasty-building. As the central players involved in that deal wind down their Hall of Fame careers in bleak situations, there is no more denying it, Oklahoma Cit...

Westbrook definitely needs to be traded, but he’s far from the only reason Lakers are losing
Russell Westbrook was out Wednesday night with a hamstring injury as the Lakers were soundly defeated on the road against a Denver Nuggets squad missing Michael Porter Jr. and featuring a sub-100 percent Jamal Murray. Truthfully, the Lakers could have used Westbrook’s energy. Someone needed to stand...
![Cross Donda Academy off the list of landing spots for aspiring hoops stars [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/d6b2cba62de8c036e29798d9b9e5583e.jpg)
Cross Donda Academy off the list of landing spots for aspiring hoops stars [Updated]
Kanye West has been in the Tom Cruise Bat-shit Crazy Celebrity Zone for so long that it’s been renamed the Ye Bat-shit Crazy Celebrity Zone. I’m assuming you’ve read the anti-semitic statements by now, and saw that Jaylen Brown and Aaron Donald — like almost every other sane person/company — cut tie...

Washington Wizards trying to relive glory days of mid-2000s mediocrity
The Washington Wizards of the mid-aughts will always be remembered more for how their time together ended than the actual run itself — and for good reason. The team only won one playoff series, and that was the year before it traded Kwame Brown for Caron Butler, who would make his only two all-star ...

Early returns for NBA stars… returning
While it’s too early to define the theme of this NBA season, the first week-plus has showcased stars returning from serious injuries. Damian Lillard, Zion Williamson, Jamal Murray, and Kawhi Leonard all saw their first action after lengthy absences, and the reviews have been all over the place....

Don’t applaud Jaylen Brown and Aaron Donald for severing ties with Kanye West
You know you’ve f*cked up when the head of your former agency is run by a clown like Antonio Brown....

Did you know Manhattan College canned its coach less than two weeks before the start of the season?
The Manhattan Jaspers start the 2022 college basketball season in a dozen days. Sounds like a great time to fire your head coach. And that’s exactly what happened in The Bronx (yes, Manhattan College is in The Bronx, get over it), as Steve Masiello was dismissed from the program just short of starti...

Will have some more of this, thank you
Tuesday night was Klay Thompson’s 651st regular-season game as a Golden State Warrior. When you add the 145 playoff games, Thompson’s been a part of 796 games in his career, and he’d never been ejected from one — until Tuesday night in Phoenix. ...

Early NBA season superlatives: Let’s hope this version of the Knicks lasts longer than ‘Bing bong!’
It’s hard to get a vibe on the NBA after one week of games. The Wizards started last 10-3, and New York fans were excitedly yelling “Bing bong!” before both came to depressing finishes. Klay Thompson didn’t return until midseason, and it looks like it may take Jamal Murray and Kawhi Leonard some tim...

Ten players that teams in the 'Lose-O-Rama for Wembanyama' should ship
After the matchup between Victor Wembanyama’s Metropolitans and Scoot Henderson’s G League Ignite teams earlier this month, where the projected No. 1 and No. 2 picks faced off in must-see-TV, half the NBA should have shifted into full-on tank mode. Why meddle in mediocrity if you’re the Orlando Magi...
![Jaylen Brown has cut ties with Kanye West [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/541992806d3cc59c75d12f2a54b3a59e.jpg)
Jaylen Brown has cut ties with Kanye West [Updated]
This piece was posted nearly two hours before Jaylen Brown announced he was leaving Kanye West’s Donda Sports marketing firm. It has been updated with the latest news....
