br Page 397 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

I Can't Stop Thinking About Jim Nantz Calling Tom Brady "Mr. Cool"
Jim Nantz is too fundamentally bland as a human for a conflict of interest to be concerning, but what fresh hell was this? During Sunday’s Patriots-Steelers game, the CBS broadcaster betrayed his WASPy exterior with an ejaculated moment of unrestrained happiness for his good chum Tom Brady. “Mr. Coo...

Spencer Dinwiddie Is A Refreshing Change Of Pace From The Standard Brandbot Athlete<em></em>
Nets guard Spencer Dinwiddie—who after a patchy early career just inked a three-year, $34 million extension with Brooklyn, and seems to be a generally hilarious dude—has a refreshing worldview on the brands. Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic wrote about the population of NBA players who navigate the le...

It's No Fun To Get Stuck Between Superstars<em></em>
This excerpt from Sam Anderson’s new book Boom Town, a book on the rapid rise of Oklahoma City and its NBA franchise, joins the team at home for Game 46 of the 2012-13 season, and considers the least-heralded member of what looked at the time like a rising dynasty....

Maniac Football Coach Teams With Maniac Basketball Player To Deliver Watered-Down Gordon Gekko Speech To Impressionable Young Browns
This is just an unbelievably cursed combination of proper nouns: Browns head coach Gregg Williams used help from retired coin-operated fortune-teller Phil Jackson to arrange for dead-eyed thinkfluencer Kobe Bryant to deliver a motivational talk to his young team ahead of their week 15 game this past...

Dan Hooker Took Just So Much Punishment From Edson Barboza
The worst way to fight Edson Barboza is to let the lanky Brazilian have the necessary space to get his terrifying kicks off. Kiwi action fighter Dan Hooker very occasionally (so, like, twice) ruffled Barboza with spurts of pressure in the second round of their fight last weekend on the UFC’s final c...

Man, Vance Joseph Really Messed That One Up
It’s been nearly 48 hours since Broncos head coach Vance Joseph made what might have been this season’s worst coaching decision (non–Nathan Peterman, Starting Quarterback Division). But now there’s math to let us know just how brutal Joseph’s play-call actually was....

Hmm, The Patriots Are Supposed To Be Scary In December
There was no Jesse James horror play this time around for the Steelers. Although Tom Brady did make all of Pittsburgh nervous with a methodical and eerily familiar fourth-quarter drive, it was hindered by a holding penalty and ended with a turnover on downs. The Steelers maintain their slim lead in...

Who The Hell Was Supposed To Catch This Pass?
Rodions Kurucs, an intriguing prospect out of Latvia, earned his second career start for the Brooklyn Nets today. At one point in the third quarter, the 20-year-old rookie grabbed a board and headed up the fast break. Kurucs tore down the floor until he spotted a teammate wide-open in the left corne...

Paul George Is In His Zone
Russell Westbrook needed 22 minutes to get on the board. It didn’t matter, because the Thunder have that other guy, too. Carrying the scoring load for Oklahoma City once again was Paul George, who went off for 33 points, seven rebounds, and six assists, with no turnovers. Behind another wild Decembe...

LeBron And Lonzo Post A Rare Double Triple-Double
LeBron James posted 24 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists, his second triple-double of the season, and then sat out the whole fourth quarter as the Lakers lashed the Hornets Saturday. As LeBron headed off the court to rest his bones, he took Lonzo Ball aside and told him to look up: the 21-year-old...

Stanford Apologizes For Volleyball Team's Drawing Of Tree Sticking Up Herbie Husker
As Stanford women’s volleyball players filed into the locker room following their title-winning, five-set victory over Nebraska Saturday, one well-placed photographer captured some mascot violence drawn on the Cardinal’s whiteboard. The @NCAAVolleyball account tweeted then deleted the photo, presuma...

The Browns Are Respectable, And That's Already A Major Achievement
The Cleveland Browns have not had a winning season since 2007. The closest they’ve been to .500 was a 7-9 campaign in 2014, and that becomes even sadder with the reminder that those Browns, under then-head coach Mike Pettine, had squandered a 7-4 start to get there. (He was fired after his second se...

An NBA Trade Just Fell Apart Because Someone Confused Two Guys Named Brooks
I am, admittedly, not the typical source of NBA information at Deadspin, let alone in the sports journalism universe writ large. But it’s Friday, I live on the West Coast, I’m home sick with a sinus infection, and my husband is a huge Phoenix Suns fan. I’ve been hearing about this all night. Also, a...

This Obscure College Basketball Game Had A Nutty Finish<em></em>
You won’t know either of these schools, but man, this was fun. Down two points with 12.7 seconds left in overtime Wednesday against Bryant and Stratton, the Cazenovia Wildcats needed a miracle. First, Raishun Richardson nailed a reverse layup with 2.6 seconds left to tie the score at 112, then fres...

Report: Anonymous Executive Says "That Whole Anthem Issue" Will Keep Bruce Maxwell Out Of Baseball
Former Athletic Bruce Maxwell is currently without a team, and is distressed enough about it that he recently fired his agent. Teams need catchers—it seems like half the league is circling around Marlins catcher J.T. Realmuto—and Maxwell is a catcher, and while he would be exactly no one’s idea of a...

BONK<em></em>
This ref’s smile after LeBron bonked him with a basketball is disconcerting....

I Don't Think Stephen A. Smith Watches Much Football
On this morning’s First Take, an ESPN show for people who really should have slept in, Stephen A. Smith broke down tonight’s Chargers-Chiefs throwdown by reminding us to keep an eye on Spencer Ware (out with a foot injury), Hunter Henry (out since May with a torn ACL), and Derrick Johnson (no longer...

Everything's Going Great With The Skins, Why Do You Ask?
Washington is a half-game out of a playoff spot, and yet somehow it feels like they’ve been eliminated for weeks. It’s a function of vibe: This is a miserable team to be on or around right now....

Spencer Dinwiddie Channels His Inner Steph Curry, Torches The 76ers
Spencer Dinwiddie is a good basketball man with a good name and a slick, good-looking offensive game. He’s spent all but the first 46 games of his four-plus years in the NBA on miserable, rebuilding Brooklyn teams, which means neither his fun basketball skills nor his delightful personality have got...

The Intrafamily Squabble For Ownership Of The Broncos Is Only Getting Uglier
Since 2014, the Denver Broncos have been operated by a three-person trust, set up after longtime owner Pat Bowlen was forced to step down from his post due to advancing Alzheimer’s disease. The trust was responsible for running the team, as well as deciding which of Bowlen’s seven children from two ...