2 Page 415 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Starting In The Basement: A Day At Open Tryouts For The NBA's D-League
One of the first things that Jay Larranaga, head coach of the Erie Bayhawks, tells the 35 players who have paid $150 apiece to possibly have a shot at maybe earning a spot on his NBA Development League team, is that they are not really talented. Well, he doesn't say it exactly like that. But everyon...

Deadspin's College Top 25 Or So: Buzz For The Yellow Jackets
It's time for a new installment of Deadspin's college football rankings. As always, the teams are ranked according to the logic and values of college football, no matter how bizarre or contradictory they may be. ...

Your Viewing Guide To The 2011 MLB Playoffs
It's October (almost)! And you know what that means: everyone you know will now pretend to have cared about baseball for the past six months so that they can safely pretend to care about it for the next month. Prepare yourself for those unendurable office talks with the guy who just learned that the...

Deadspin's College Football Top 25 Or So: Tiger Eat Tiger
It's time for a new installment of Deadspin's college football rankings. As always, the teams are ranked according to the logic and values of college football, no matter how bizarre or contradictory they may be. ...

Pearl Jam Fan Notes: Eddie Vedder Hates Me; Or, How To Kill Your Idols With A Used Condom In A Sorbet Cup
I'm sure Ed doesn't hate me in a visceral sense or even knows my name or the name of the site, but that's what it felt like, yesterday afternoon, when Sony called to tell me that a Pearl Jam-related post needed to come down immediately. "What happened?," I asked Sony Guy on the phone. He was vague, ...

When Rap Ruled The World: A White Boy MC's Photo Album, 1986-1991
Ed. note: Inside, you'll find some of Peter Nash's (formerly Prime Minister Pete Nice) personal memory box from his early days as the cane-wielding MC of hip-hop group 3rd Bass. It's full of gaudy jewelry, tough-guy posing, unfortunate fades, and candid shots of some of the most famous hip-hop stars...

"Life Is Like A Jump Shot": Reviewing The Unremarkable History Of NBA Rappers
NBA players like rapping, and that is a fact of the universe that we are powerless to stop. The way that I have tended to deal this phenomenon is generally to ignore it completely. It is shockingly easy to do: Just as I do with Kreayshawn, I pretend that NBA rappers do not exist, that they have neve...

Put A Björk In It: How A 14-Year-Old Album Is Still Influencing Music
For Music Week, our own Jack Dickey will be defending his seemingly indefensible music tastes. Tuesday: Drake. Today: Björk....

Pearl Jam Fan Notes: Joe Buck Talks About The Night Eddie Vedder Made Him Squeal
My homework assignment from my good friends at Deadspin was to write about my interaction with Pearl Jam and in particular Eddie Vedder in honor of their 20th Anniversary. The difficulty in this assignment is writing it without coming off like a name-dropping ass. Well for those of you who don't lik...

Pearl Jam Fan Notes: The Perks Of Bartending Near Wrigley When Eddie Vedder's In Town
Here's another batch of PJ fan notes submitted by readers. If you have more, please send them our way. Ed's storytelling on the rooftop at Murphy's, a possible urban legend, and a memorable autograph snub....

Pearl Jam Fan Notes: Eddie Vedder And His Suitcase Full Of Wine Stroll A Tennessee Runway
Here's the first batch of PJ fan notes submitted by readers. If you have more, please send them our way. In this batch you'll find Ed on a Tennessee runway, Ed making an anniversary special, and Ed landing on someone's head....

Lady Gaga Won’t Empower You For Shit
I don't quite know when Lady Gaga evolved from talented pop star into the world's least convincing self-help guru, but that shit needs to stop immediately. ...

Your Pearl Jam Fan Notes Contest Assignment: One Ed Vedder, Captured.
Just as I suspected, there are dozens of lame white people with shitty musical tastes that read Deadspin. Take Erik, who submitted the Eddie Vedder autograph you see above with this accompanying story:...

I Bought My Ticket But The Game Was Gone: Pearl Jam And The SuperSonics, 1990-2008
If you were going to pick a day to be a fly on the wall, you could do a lot worse than Oct. 8, 1990, in the dank downtown Seattle basement-cum-rehearsal space where Eddie Vedder, having arrived on a plane from California that morning, sang with Pearl Jam for the first time....

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Drake
For Music Week, our own Jack Dickey will be defending his seemingly indefensible music tastes....

Texas A&M Fans Provoke Baylor With Waco Billboard: "Thou Shalt Not Covet Thy Neighbor's Conference Deal"
Just when we think we've gone and boiled Texas football down to its essence, the Texans go and out-Texan themselves....

The Enduring Myth Of Mookie Blaylock And Pearl Jam
Vacuous, unchecked rock lore holds that Pearl Jam—before they settled on the sploogiest name in pop music history—were first called Mookie Blaylock. Grunge's stadium heroes would have been named after a very good, but never great, NBA point guard, if only Blaylock hadn't taken notice and forced a na...

Here's Video Of Charles Barkley Singing Karaoke This Weekend
Charles Barkley was on Long Island this weekend for a charity golf tournament hosted by Bill Russell when he decided to take his Alabama warble—like "popcorn covered in pine sap"—to Jerry and the Mermaid bar and restaurant for some karaoke. Naturally, he chose Sinatra. Now, you're never supposed t...

Deadspin Music Week 2011: The PJ20 Edition
Fine. I admit, this is selfish. No one else on the staff was ever as excited about the prospect of a Music Week featuring Pearl Jam as the unifying theme, even though this band's sports-music connection is more obvious than most. They'll deal. ...

EA Sports' New "Dive" Feature In <i>FIFA 12</i> Could Have Been More Subtle
When you put out a football game every year (American or European), you're faced with the difficult task of keeping it fresh. To that end, one of the most hyped additions to FIFA 12 is the heralded Player Impact Engine. It's an "advanced procedural animation system tied with accurate collision phy...