abl Page 8 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The JaMarcus Russell story is much more complicated than you think
JaMarcus Russell really does feel like one word. That’s the way that it goes for athletes like him, Tony Mandrich, Ryan Leaf, Anthony Bennett, and Trent Richardson. The reason for that, only one word comes to mind at the thought of them: Bust....
Put MacKenzie Gore in the All-Star Game!
Voting for the MLB All-Star Game opened yesterday. While the fans have all the power to send their favorite position players to the Midsummer Classic, pitchers will once again be determined by each of the league’s managers: Houston’s Dusty Baker and Atlanta’s Brian Snitker. While each of them will f...
Who would win? Pitchers or position players?
Baseball is wacky nowadays. Just a few nights ago we watched Tampa Bay outfielder Brett Phillips pitch to reigning AL MVP Shohei Ohtani. The very next day, Ohtani was on the mound pitching to Phillips. When was the last time something like that happened? We’ve got a universal DH now. This stuff shou...
New Oklahoma QB is named… General Booty
Brace yourselves — we’ve got an automatic addition to the college football all-name team coming to Oklahoma from Tyler Junior College. Joining the ranks of Nebraska’s DeColdest “ToEvaDoIt” Crawford and Alabama’s Kool-Aid McKinstry, the Sooners throw their hat into the ring with sophomore quarterback...
The GOP is obsessed with dunking on the NBA
Conservative politics and professional sports leagues have long been intertwined as bedfellows. However, that attitude has shifted since the Trump era. Now, more Republicans despise the NFL than ever, according to a L.A. Times/SurveyMonkey poll conducted early this year. Despite watching it on Sunda...
Long live Nikola Jokić, the NBA’s Most VORPable Player
The impending news that Nikola Jokić will be awarded his second-consecutive MVP award has sent the NBA community into a border war formation between respect for analytics and the eye test. Jokic’s back-to-back wins is a resounding victory for the NBA’s mathlete contingency. This isn’t a diatribe aga...
Men like Herschel Walker are coming for my rights and probably yours, too
If you have a young daughter, I feel for you today. She will likely be part of the first group of American women to have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers. If you’re a woman living in a red state, you’re about to have fewer rights than women in blue states. ...
NBA Playoff ratings were on fire opening weekend, but that’s not the only way to define the league’s success
Television ratings are one of the most archaic ways to measure what people care about. We’re more than 20 years into the new millennium. Who has time to be held to a live television schedule? I remember as a child watching an episode of Home Improvement when Tim “The Toolman” Taylor was trying to av...
There are several reasons Joel Embiid isn’t the MVP, but the biggest one is availability
I’m already on the record as pro Nikola Jokić for NBA MVP, so don’t take this article as me piling on Joel Embiid — I know, says the person who is expressing more negative thoughts about him. With the regular season in its final week, the Philadelphia 76ers struggled with three consecutive losses, t...
The NBA MVP race is headlined by three international players, but we should’ve seen this coming
This year’s NBA Most Valuable Player award race is coming down to the regular season’s final days. We’re almost a week into April with a handful of games remaining, and the pack leader seems to change by the day. There is no clear-cut leader, but one thing we do know is the winner is almost assured ...
If Giannis wins his third MVP this year we can put the best player on the planet debate to rest
Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo can join some elite company, should he take home his third NBA MVP award at the end of the regular season. If he can edge out Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokić, we can finally lay the best player in the world debate to rest. We can’t continue to deny Antetoko...
ESPN’s latest MVP straw poll...explain yourself
This year’s NBA MVP Award has several contenders: Giannis Antetokounmpo, Ja Morant, Devin Booker, Luka Dončić, etc. However, most fans and analysts would agree that the award is really a two-horse race between Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid and the reigning MVP, Denver’s Nikola Jokić. It’s been that way...
Senate looks to stop NCAA from punishing old infractions
Marsha Blackburn and Cory Booker — now there’s two names you don’t expect to see co-authoring a Senate bill. But I guess if there’s one thing that can bridge the ever-widening political chasm in the United States, it’s the universal experience of being fed up with the NCAA....
The Fictional Hooper Bracket: Venice Beach Region
It’s basketball time folks. Ignore Tom Brady trying to own the spotlight on Selection Sunday and decipher Progressive Insurance sales representative Baker Mayfield’s social media post later, and give the hardwood the attention it deserves. It’s almost spring, hit the CBS music, pull Ernie, Kenny, an...
Joel Embiid is deserving of the MVP, but the award should go to Nikola Jokić
Nikola Jokić and Joel Embiid showed on Monday night why they are the two front runners for MVP in the NBA. Embiid scored 43 points and tallied 14 rebounds and three blocks while leading the Philadelphia 76ers to an important 121-106 victory over the Chicago Bulls that vaulted them past the Milwaukee...
![Juwan Howard suspended for rest of regular season [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/4d8120eeb9222a7b80663cf7a72a7684.jpg)
Juwan Howard suspended for rest of regular season [Updated]
A tough season for Juwan Howard got tougher on Sunday. Following Sunday’s 77-63 loss to Wisconsin, Howard and Wisconsin coach Greg Gard turned a post-game handshake line into a mosh pit of bruised egos. What began with Howard taking offense to Wisconsin calling a timeout up 15 in the final 15 second...
WWE Royal Rumble predictions: Return of Ronda Rousey?
No matter how down you are on WWE, and Eric and I certainly are somewhere around ankle-level, there’s still something special about the Royal Rumble. It’s still the only of its kind. It signals the beginning of the build to WrestleMania, but mostly it’s because it’s still the only event on the calen...
These skiers, snowboarders, curlers, and skaters will have you chanting ‘U-S-A!’
Yes! The Winter Olympics are here, and I’m not going to be sitting at a copy desk in a Colorado ski town awaiting results from halfway around the world this time. I don’t know what to be happier about: My work inbox being free of Olympic coverage plans, or my knowledge of skiers, snowboarders, cross...
Deadspin takes a look at every Black coach that’s been hired in the NFL since 2000 and how they fared
When Stephen Ross’ Miami Dolphins fired Brian Flores on Monday, it sent shockwaves around the NFL. For some reason, fans of all genders and races were stunned that Flores was unemployed as if Ross doesn’t have a long history of being a contradictory figure. This is the NFL, a place where Black coac...
Give Justin Jefferson his flowers (and a QB) you cowards!
Lost in Minnesota trying to kick their fans in the junk again Thursday night like they have so many times this season — or last — was the performance of Vikings wide receiver Justin Jefferson....