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Ranking the NBA’s first round matchups by how likely we are to see an upset
The NBA’s playoffs are easily the most predictable of the major American sports leagues. Without the variability of baseball or the single playoff game format like football, it’s pretty rare that there are any true upsets in the first round of the NBA playoffs. In most years you look at the bracket ...

Charles Tillman’s next act: Joining the FBI and raiding rappers’ houses?
Former Bears cornerback Charles Tillman can apparently add rapper Lil Reese to the lengthy list of people he forced to fumble the bag. Known for clamping down on receivers during his playing days, apparently he also clamped down on crime during his time as an FBI agent....

Can we please get an LS-U <em>30 for 30</em> already?
It’s hard to quantify what makes a thing charismatic. I recently went to New Orleans for the first time, and before I arrived, I was a little skeptical because often when people can’t shut up about how great something is, the expectation is set so high that anything but perfection is going to be a l...

Unlikely heroes lead way to start NBA playoffs
The stars were out for the first day of the NBA playoffs, with Donovan Mitchelll scoring 32 points to lead the Jazz to a 99-93 win in Dallas, Karl-Anthony Towns putting up 29 points and 13 boards to lead the Timberwolves to a Game 1 upset in Memphis, 130-117, and then Tyrese Maxey scored 38 points f...
![MLB, please don’t reinstate Trevor Bauer anytime soon [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/a7127441d92c0f9b92b40621643b502e.jpg)
MLB, please don’t reinstate Trevor Bauer anytime soon [Updated]
Trevor Bauer is going to be reinstated by Major League Baseball at some point. We might as well accept it from the outset. We don’t know when the reinstatement will come. Earlier this week, MLB extended Bauer’s administrative leave through April 22....

NHL Players Association clears itself of any fault in Chicago sexual assault case
Aren’t those supposedly independent self-investigations just so handy? The NHL Players’ Association released a report Friday (late on a Friday afternoon on a holiday weekend, more specifically) indicating that NHLPA executive director Donald Fehr did nothing wrong in handling reports of sexual assau...

Joe Maddon out-galaxy brains himself, manages to win anyway
There are a couple of key questions in baseball over the past several years that regularly intersect: “Why can’t the Angels win anything when they have Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani, two unique talents among the greatest the game has ever seen?” and “How did Joe Maddon ever win a World Series with th...

Civil servant Kyrie Irving probably shouldn’t Google ‘Nets owner-China ties’
Two of the people not quoted in ESPN’s nearly flawless piece about Brooklyn Nets owner Joe Tsai’s problematic ties to China — including a business under the umbrella of his company developing facial recognition software that may or may not have been equipped with an “Uyghur alarm” to alert police of...

Sure seems as if Ryan Tannehill’s job ain't safe
Prior to 2021, I was chugging along on the Ryan Tannehill hype train. I still believed Derrick Henry was the key to Tennessee’s success, but I saw way too many people claiming Tannehill was a bum. He hadn’t done anything to prove he wasn’t able to contend in the AFC. He’d defeated Lamar Jackson and ...
![It's CJ McCollum's moment now: Paul George out [UPDATED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/8d247f9aab987ffa757f9f5429d7b167.jpg)
It's CJ McCollum's moment now: Paul George out [UPDATED]
This story has been updated....

Zion Williamson got to show off his dunking ability, too bad he’s not playing
The fans who tuned into ESPN’s pregame coverage of San Antonio and New Orleans Wednesday night got a little extra treat. There was a Zion Williamson sighting on the court. Before the game, Williamson did some on-court work and put on a show for those in attendance, mostly team staff....

Gabe Kapler backing over the unwritten rules all the way to the bank
The buddy cops driving the MLB’s unwritten rules squad car last night were Bob Melvin and Eric Hosmer of the SDPD. The Padres’ manager and first baseman respectively took issue with a bunt single by Giants’ utility man Mauricio Dubón in the sixth inning with San Francisco up nine runs....

Here’s a solution for college coaches pissed off at the transfer portal
College coaches griping about the transfer portal and NIL deals turning college athletics into the Wild West is the new salmon crudo, aka a dish that’s so popular and served so often that Padma and Tom made fun of its omnipresence during an episode of Top Chef....

The XFL having more Black coaches than the NFL is why Brian Flores is suing the league
No one knows how long this iteration of the XFL will last, but the league has already proven that NFL owners are liars....

Sorry not sorry, Clayton Kershaw deserved a chance to finish that game
Look, I understand the arguments and the rationale. Clayton Kershaw is coming off an injury-plagued season and he didn’t even have a proper spring training to prepare for this season. He’s 34 and hasn’t had a 200-inning season since 2015. ...

Jerry Jones says he’s willing to trade up in the draft
Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones got fans buzzing Wednesday when he stated the team would consider trading up in this year’s NFL draft. This immediately got Cowboys nations’ minds working regarding who Jones has his eye on if he’s willing to move up the ladder from their current draft spot of No. 24...

It’s math time with Chris Pronger boys and girls!
As one of my editors pointed out yesterday, maybe we should just be relieved that Chris Pronger can type at all given how his career was ended. That’s generally the hope for any hockey player, as forlorn as it may be. And perhaps Pronger was trying to do the right thing and illustrate how so many fo...

Staying quiet about Brittney Griner hasn’t worked
For the past two months, people around Brittney Griner and the WNBA have been low-key. The idea was that any loud calls to have the basketball star released from her Russian prison as Vladimir Putin launched an assault against Ukraine would only upset the authoritarian, and so the wise course was to...

Narrative Ball: Tom Murphy
Welcome to Narrative Ball, a series dedicated to pointing out some lesser known players and changing the narrative surrounding them in an effort to put them in the same class as some of the best players in baseball. This is not just an attempt to shine a light on someone worthy of more praise than t...

Women tries, fails to glue herself to NBA floor
The animal rights protestors never fail to keep us entertained (remember when they wanted to rename the bullpen in baseball?), and Glue Lady is no different. Late in the second quarter of the play-in game between the Timberwolves and the Clippers last night, the cameras cut away from a Minnesota fre...