basketball Page 164 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
James Harden Gave The NBA Too Much Of What It Wanted
What happened to James Harden and the Houston Rockets? This time last year, Harden was receiving his coronation as the league’s MVP and the Rockets were seen as the only real challengers to the Warriors’ dynasty, which they very nearly ended through an almost religious adherence to what we’ve devoti...
Giannis Antetokounmpo Is Your 2018–19 NBA Most Valuable Player
Monday night Milwaukee Bucks destroyer of worlds Giannis Antetokounmpo became the first European import to win the NBA Most Valuable Player award since Dirk Nowitzki in 2007, and the first NBA player ever to win MVP after having won the NBA’s Most Improved Player, which Giannis won after the 2016–17...
Luka Dončić, True To Form, Dominates Rookie Of The Year Voting
Dallas Mavericks sensation Luka Dončić won Rookie of the Year honors Monday night at the annual NBA Awards, inexplicably broadcast live on TNT, which presumably ran out of rerun episodes of Bones with which to fill their primetime schedule....
Former Kings Executive Sentenced To Seven Years In Prison For Repurposing $13.4 Million Of Sponsorship Loot
Former Sacramento Kings and Miami Heat chief revenue officer Jeffrey David was sentenced to seven years in prison Monday for embezzling $13.4 million from two Kings sponsors in an arena naming rights scheme he executed in 2015. David pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft charges...
KawhiWatch: Kawhi Leonard Enjoys Baseball Game, Proving He'll Stay In Toronto
Kawhi Leonard is the prize of this summer’s NBA free agency bonanza, and the reigning Finals MVP will be courted by a bevy of teams starting July 1, all of whom will do all they can to prostrate themselves as his feet. When we checked in with Leonard yesterday, he was making a run on cardboard boxe...
All NBA Draft Grades Are Useless. Here Are My NBA Draft Grades
Now that the mock drafts are dead, the fashion show is done, all the crying parents have come and gone and Woj and Shams are back in the holster for a few hours, let us see what Postseason Advent has wrought:...
Jordan Bone's Draft Party Went From Tragic To Joyful In A Flash
As this video of undrafted Fred VanVleet that made the rounds last night showed, there are at least some NBA draft parties that fizzle out before anyone can enjoy the ecstatic release they all came for, and it looked like Tennessee standout Jordan Bone’s party was headed that way as the draft wound ...
Bol Bol Heads To Denver Nuggets After Agonizing Draft Night Slide
Extremely fun one-and-done Oregon prospect Bol Bol showed up to Thursday night’s NBA draft decked out in a black suit featuring a garish sequined spider web on the left shoulder, smiling and optimistic and looking forward to being drafted somewhere in the lottery. His night ended with him gloomily t...
Here Are The Lottery Picks Of The 2019 NBA Draft
The saddest teams in the NBA have gone ahead and taken prospects they hope can lead their franchise into next year’s tank when they race for whoever 2020's best college player will be. Here are the lottery picks of 2019....
Chauncey Billups Drags Out Tired Trope, Says Zion Williamson Was "Raised Right" Because He Had "Two Parents In His Home"
With the first pick in the NBA Draft, ESPN draft analyst Chauncey Billups selected one of the worst possible approaches to complimenting a player’s character, after Zion Williamson had finished taking his ceremonial photo with commissioner Adam Silver and was making his way over to ESPN’s Maria Tayl...
Darren Rovell Overdoes It On Attempt At Human Emotion With A Pennywise-Ass Giggle
The 2019 NBA Draft is almost underway and, in a surprise to absolutely no one, Darren Rovell is in attendance talking about the only thing that matters to him: the brands. With this access, he approached the guaranteed first-overall pick of the draft in Zion Williamson and asked him when the shoe de...
All Your Assets Are Belong To The Pelicans
The trade that sent Anthony Davis from the New Orleans Pelicans to the Los Angeles Lakers was a good one. The Lakers got a superstar to pair with LeBron James, and the Pelicans got a hefty package of young players and draft picks to put toward rebuilding their roster. One of the top assets to change...
Dick Vitale Breaks Huge NBA Trade, Walks It Back, Probably Misread A Tweet
This afternoon, ESPN basketball broadcaster Dick Vitale praised the New Orleans Pelicans for flipping the fourth pick in the NBA Draft for Indiana Pacers center Myles Turner. The alleged trade also somehow involved the Atlanta Hawks, who have the 10th pick....
Lakers GM Rob Pelinka Is Reportedly Learning How The Salary Cap Works In Real Time
The Los Angeles Lakers are going to enter next season with a roster of extremes. On one hand, LeBron James and Anthony Davis seem like the league’s most seamless pick-and-roll partnership. On the other, the team seems determined to add a third maximum salary player to its books, which will inherentl...
Getting A Medal From Donald Trump Fits Jerry West All Too Well
Have you ever seen Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping, The Lonely Island’s 2016 mockumentary about a very specific kind of post-Obama cultural success? It’s a good movie. Funny gags, and some insight into the sort of of-this-moment famous person who is transparently drowning in narcissism but also d...
![It Just Keeps Getting Worse For The Celtics [UPDATE]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/pnvjvgq34oi61ddate0s.jpg)
It Just Keeps Getting Worse For The Celtics [UPDATE]
Think back to two summers ago. The Boston Celtics, after enduring yet another round of criticism for failing to dig into their war chest of draft picks in order to make a trade for Paul George or Jimmy Butler, had swooped in to pluck Kyrie Irving away from the Cavs and team him up with Gordon Haywar...
Wizards Wish To Make It Known They Have No Interest In Hiring A Competent General Manager
The woebegone Washington Wizards fired longtime president of basketball operations and architect of 15 years of fan frustration Ernie Grunfeld back on April 2, one week before the end of their rotten 2018–19 season. Firing a front office honcho before the end of the season would usually give a team ...
There's No Good Reason To Believe What The Golden State Warriors' Doctors Say
Before he took to the court last Monday night, every piece of publicly available information suggested that Kevin Durant wasn’t ready to start a professional basketball game, let alone play in the NBA Finals, after suffering what his team, the Golden State Warriors, called a calf injury. For four we...
Kawhi Leonard Did The Laugh
Not to dump on the Toronto Raptors’ parade, but it’d be awesome if Kawhi Leonard signed somewhere else this offseason, if only because it would solidify how badass this season’s accomplishment was. The dude had an acrimonious split from the Spurs, was traded to a team he “had no desire to play” for,...
The NHL Offseason Is Off To A Roaring, Boring Start
This right here is why the National Hockey League doesn’t get it. Erik Karlsson just signed a record-setting eight-year deal worth more than $11 million per year with the San Jose Sharks without any fuss or muss. Deal framed, talked about, signed. Couldn’t be easier....