aw Page 251 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Serena Williams Is Back, And She's Not In The Mood To Talk Drugs
INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — The first two points of Serena Williams’s comeback ended on unforced errors, and the arena, just over half-full on a cool desert night, was silent, totally, as if smothered by a heavy quilt. Maybe they weren’t sure to expect, after the childbirth, the complications, the blood ...

Birds Are Good
It has come to my attention that some people do not like all birds. This or that bird is not good, they are saying or thinking or blogging nearly two years ago. But actually, whatever bird they are talking about is good. Birds are good....

Alex Ovechkin Has A Painting Of Himself Riding A Horse While Playing The Mandolin
A Washington Post article today detailed Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin’s extensive memorabilia collection, which spans both his basement in Virginia and his family’s house outside Moscow. Via the Post:...

Serena Williams's Comeback Starts Now, Ready Or Not
On Thursday at Indian Wells, Serena Williams will play her first tour event in more than a year. Is she ready? Yesterday in an interview with the BBC, Williams heaved a sigh and answered:...
![Jemele Hill Denies That Chris Berman Left Her A "Racially Disparaging" Voicemail [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/ihcvl8ji15h6pmcn5lfc.jpg)
Jemele Hill Denies That Chris Berman Left Her A "Racially Disparaging" Voicemail [Update]
Ex-ESPN employee Adrienne Lawrence filed a discrimination lawsuit against the company this past weekend, and her suit included the claim that Chris Berman left SportsCenter host Jemele Hill a “threatening and racially disparaging voicemail.” Hill released a statement this evening, confirming that sh...
![Former ESPN Employee Who Accused John Buccigross Of Sexual Harassment Files Discrimination Lawsuit [Update]<em></em>](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/gyj6tbgavdwdx9xtkemx.jpg)
Former ESPN Employee Who Accused John Buccigross Of Sexual Harassment Files Discrimination Lawsuit [Update]<em></em>
Former ESPN employee Adrienne Lawrence, who spent two years working for the network through a fellowship program, has filed a lawsuit against ESPN alleging that she was the victim of sexual discrimination and harassment....

We're A Month Out And WrestleMania Weekend Looks Fucking Insane
Every year, WrestleMania weekend gets bigger. Not on the WWE side, to be clear—the promotion’s biggest event is about as big as it always is. It’s everything else, all the many non-WWE wrestling events that are, at least for the most hardcore fans, now as big a draw as or bigger than pro wrestling’s...

Now This Is An Old-School Hockey Fight
The argument for fighting in hockey is twofold: that the threat of a beating serves as a deterrent, policing dirty hits against skill players, and that a good, rousing rumble can fire up an uninspired team. That hockey has neither gotten more dangerous nor less inspired as fighting had decreased dra...

Kobe Bryant Now Has As Many Oscars As He Does NBA MVP Awards
Kobe Bryant and Glen Keane tonight won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film tonight in Los Angeles for Dear Basketball, based on the poem he wrote to announce his retirement from basketball in 2015. In his brief speech, he noted that while some expect basketball players to “shut up and dri...

Arizona Loses Its Last 2018 Basketball Recruit
One day after Sean Miller defiantly denied ESPN’s report that he’d been caught on an FBI wiretap promising to pay a recruit $100,000, point guard Brandon Williams (24/7 Sports’s 31st-ranked national prospect) announced that he’s reopening his recruitment due to the “current climate surrounding U of ...

ESPN Retracts Correction In Sean Miller Wiretap Story, Reaffirms Original Timeline
The Arizona-ESPN saga is continuing to heat up, and shortly after Arizona’s Sean Miller vehemently castigated ESPN’s reporting, the Worldwide Leader doubled down on its initial scoop that Miller had knowingly violated NCAA rules....

Sean Miller Denies All Wrongdoing After ESPN Wiretap Report
At a press conference today, Arizona basketball coach Sean Miller read a defiant statement, denying that he’d done anything wrong and calling ESPN’s report about him being caught on FBI wiretaps discussing a $100,000 payment to then-recruit DeAndre Ayton “completely false and defamatory.”...

A Serena Williams Practice Is Where Discipline Meets Greatness
It’s a gray afternoon on Feb. 7 and the windows of the U.S. Cellular Center in Asheville, North Carolina are decorated with large, human-sized tennis balls. Crows pick through the trash near a sign announcing the symphony, and someone has vomited coleslaw in the mulch near a satellite truck. It is o...

Rich Rodriguez's Guide To Marriage: "Educate Her And Control Her Talk"
As part of the ongoing legal battle over claims that former Arizona football coach Rich Rodriguez serially harassed his assistant, Rodriguez’s legal team has released Arizona’s “Hideaway Book” of team rules from 2015. Rodriguez’s accuser said in her lawsuit that the Hideaway Book’s purpose was to “...

Red Sox Will Change Yawkey Way's Name So That It No Longer Honors A Dumb Racist
Red Sox owner John Henry said last August that he would consider changing the name of Yawkey Way, since Tom Yawkey was a racist who owned the last major-league team to integrate, and also once rejected a deal for Willie Mays. Today, the team announced the switch....

Is There A Good Reason To Doubt ESPN's Sean Miller Report?
Last Friday, ESPN published a big piece by Mark Schlabach that revealed the FBI had recorded phone conversations between Arizona head coach Sean Miller and sports agency runner Christian Dawkins in which they devised a pay-for-play scheme....

Erik Karlsson Makes The Most Of A Bad Situation
In the third period of tonight’s Senators-Capitals game, Erik Karlsson wasn’t exactly where he should have been. His location wasn’t good for him, and it wasn’t really doing anything to help his team. There were plenty of other places where he could have been more of a threat, or more fun to pay att...

A Disgusted Bill Walton On Arizona's Role In FBI Investigation: "I Wish I Were Out Riding My Bike Up A Mountain Instead Of Being Here"
ESPN basketball analyst and lifelong Pac-12 maven Bill Walton reacted in disgust when asked by Dave Pasch to respond to the news that Arizona coach Sean Miller was caught on an FBI wiretap arranging a $100,000 payment for recruiting purposes, calling the scandal an incident on par with the Malice at...

Shaq's Son Shareef O'Neal Withdraws Commitment To Arizona In Wake Of Wiretap Revelation
Dominoes are falling at Arizona as a result of the FBI investigation into recruiting violations at NCAA schools: Sean Miller might be out at Arizona—he is for sure not coaching the team tonight against Oregon—and now star recruit Shareef O’Neal is apparently withdrawing his commitment to the school:...

Report: Sean Miller May Be Owed Twice As Much By Arizona If He's Fired With Cause
Ah, now here is a sensible way to write a contract: make sure you include in there some significant monetary incentive for behavior that breaches the terms of the contract....