basketball Page 28 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

China is a good place to be when you’re kicking Daryl Morey in the head
James Harden’s China trip may wind up being one of the most monumental offseason moments of the year. He’s running around China complaining about his contract, throwing Daryl Morey’s name out there as red meat to a ravenous audience eager to villainize his boss, and selling his alcohol brand more fe...

After the ESPN shakeup, we still have Hubie Brown to keep teaching us basketball
Following its highest-rated NBA Playoff in two decades, ESPN decided to take a hatchet to its game coverage of the league. Gone from the network entirely are Mark Jackson and Jeff Van Gundy. Replacing them on the No. 1 commentator team alongside Mike Breen are Doris Burke and Doc Rivers. Ryan Ruocco...
![James Harden's Daryl Morey comments will cost him $100k [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/d3847cc53204d78a7eaacfe79e6981f5.jpg)
James Harden's Daryl Morey comments will cost him $100k [Updated]
Update Aug. 22: The NBA announced it would fine Harden $100,000 for indicating that he would not perform the services called for under his player contract unless traded to another team. Since Harden referred to Philadelphia 76ers president Daryl Morey as a liar and essentially threatened to sit out ...

The 2023 Basketball Hall of Fame class represents 40 years of growth in the sport
The way that the NBA game is currently played — the spacing, position fluidity, the resting of stars during the regular season — all of that and more has been in the works for 20 years. Prioritizing 3-point shooting to maximize room for drivers and post players did not start and end with Mike D’Anto...

Who’s up for a non-NBA pro athlete slam dunk contest?
Everyone loves a good slam dunk contest. It doesn’t matter if it involves NBA players, college athletes, or dudes from the neighborhood. If those involved are talented, creative highflyers, folks will gather around to enjoy the festivities. Obviously, the NBA owns the crown when it comes to spectacu...

Whoa! The Premier League starts this weekend!
Most of the attention of the soccer world is fixed on the Women’s World Cup. And whatever’s left over is on Lionel Messi’s daily brace. But the world of soccer never stops, and in that fashion, the Premier League returns this weekend (so does La Liga but we can hold off on yet another discussion of ...

Nikola Jokić might be the most boring top-rated player ever in <em>NBA 2K24</em>
The player most deserving of the highest rating in NBA 2K24 is Nikola Jokić. Whether he is actually the best player in the NBA is irrelevant to him earning that distinction. The way that he bulldozed his opposition while leading the Denver Nuggets to their first NBA Championship, no other player sho...

Stanford is the most vulnerable school in college athletics because of conference realignment
The domino effect of Oklahoma and Texas leaving the Big 12 for the SEC (leading to the dismantling of the Pac-12 two years later) is a turn of events that would’ve been nearly impossible to predict. The catalyst for the Power Five’s west coast entry point being almost no more wasn’t UCLA and USC tra...

The Tampa Bay Rays are running out of dudes, and ESPN somehow becomes more of a farce
The Rays might be the best developmental organization in baseball, staying on top of an AL East where they’re constantly outspent by factors of three by their competitors by consistently bringing dudes through their system and onto the MLB roster. Or they toast other organizations in trades and turn...

The budding rivalry between the Aces and Liberty is a massive win for the WNBA
Aside from the Connecticut Sun possibly playing spoiler, the current WNBA season has been conducted essentially known its champion resides in Las Vegas or Brooklyn. The Aces are putting together arguably the most impressive regular season in league history. But there’s always an asterisk. A road to ...

If players on the Orlando Magic had heart they’d kneel during the national anthem — again
Jonathan Isaac being one of only two members left (Markelle Fultz) from the Orlando Magic’s roster from their time in the 2020 Bubble is irony at its finest. It speaks to the high amount of turnover that occurs in the league, as well as being an example of just how fast the “Black Lives Matter” move...

The backlash to USWNT's loss is predictably sexist
Imagine, if you will, an American team. One that is known the world over as not only being the best, but the best by a wide margin. One that is so good, so exhilarating in their play that they’ve inspired kids (and adults!) the world over to take up the sport. A team so good that they’ve been the ob...

Don’t sleep on the men’s team that America is sending to the FIBA World Cup
Since NBA players have been permitted to play in international competition, the United States has never sent over a unit like the one they are sending to Asia later this month for the FIBA World Cup. Not a single player on this roster has made an All-NBA team — a first since American pros were allow...

The stars and emcees who crossed the line between hip-hop and the NBA
This story is part of our new Hip-Hop: ’73 Till Infinity series, a celebration of the genre’s 50th anniversary....

Doris Burke, Mike Breen, and Doc Rivers are a match made in…something
Weeks after ESPN split up the NBA’s quirkiest broadcast TRIO by inexplicably laying off Jeff Van Gundy, the suits in Bristol had a high bar to reach for the new three-man-weave in its NEXT lead broadcast team. Mike Breen was a certified starter as the voice of the Worldwide Leader’s play-by-play NBA...

Deadspin Investigation: Another Brandeis basketball coach accused of racial animus toward Black players
Five years after a Deadspin investigation prompted Brandeis University to fire its men’s basketball coach following allegations of blatant racism, the school finds itself once again facing allegations of racism, and unequal treatment, this time in its women’s basketball program....

NBA needs to up the ante with its international game slate
What happens when a seventh seed and a 13th seed meet on a basketball court in a country that doesn’t have an NBA franchise? Who knows, but we’re going to find out....

Playoff expansion in MLB, NBA has led to neither buying nor selling
I come to you today with a philosophical query: Is it better to have more and tighter playoff races, or a more active trade deadline? In previous MLB seasons, the Los Angeles Angels would already be looking ahead to next year. They’re five games out of what would’ve been the last play-in game spot u...

Colorado’s impending Big 12 reunion signals chaos for the Pac-12
Last week at the Pac-12 Conference’s annual football media days, Colorado was considered by far the league’s biggest flight risk. It’s USC and UCLA’s last season affiliated with the West Coasters before, let’s be honest, being promoted to the Big Ten. The Power Five is truly a supreme duo, with the ...
