f Page 987 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Pascal Siakam And Fred VanVleet Were Pure Joy
The very end of Game 6 was like holding in a sneeze. At the end of the NBA Finals you might expect a satisfying, full release of tension, but that moment never really came. Instead the refs puttered and dithered over what to do with that ersatz timeout and then a foul on Kawhi Leonard and then how m...
There's A Difference Between Luck That's Received And Luck That's Found
Other franchises will want to make a replicable plan out of the Toronto Raptors’ journey to one of the truly amazing championships in NBA history. That’s how it goes. There has to be some parable in what everybody just watched, even if it’s the dullest kind, the kind about the friggin’ salary cap. ...
Fuck Your Asterisk
I heard someone on sports talk radio the other day say that if the Raptors pulled out a win in these NBA Finals, fans would forget about what exactly happened to Golden State during the series—he made this supposition after Kevin Durant’s calf rolled up but before Klay Thompson’s knee buckled like a...
If You Think About It, The 76ers Might As Well Have Won The NBA Title
Whew! What an NBA Finals that was. The Warriors and Raptors played six incredibly entertaining games, and a team winning its first NBA title by vanquishing the Warriors dynasty makes it all extra memorable. For once, Toronto’s streets are swarmed by humans celebrating a title and not hordes of racco...
Kyle Lowry Kept The Raptors Alive
It was an up-and-down postseason in what’s been an up-and-down career for Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry, but on Thursday night, when all of his teammates struggled to score out of the gate in Game 6, it was Lowry who helped give them the jumpstart they needed to eventually cross the finish line. As...
Drake Had Three Weeks To Workshop His Next Promo, And This Is What He Came Up With
The last time we did this, Drake had descended from his stage in the heart of Toronto—why does Drake get a stage? Why doesn’t he watch the game among the rest of the fans?—to tell us that Raptors fans are very good at following the rules. The performance left some clear opportunities for improvement...
Kawhi Leonard, Whenever You Get A Minute, This Extremely Drunk Raptors Fan Has A Plant For You
Kawhi Leonard had one of the great NBA postseasons, dismantling the Process, outplaying the MVP, and being the single best player in a Finals that brought down a dynasty. He was near-unanimous Finals MVP, and is now the first player in the history of the league to earn that honor in both conferences...
Oakland's Past Is Brighter Than The Warriors' Future
OAKLAND — The nostalgia in the building was thick enough to cut with DeMarcus Cousins, so much so that many of the last 19,596 humans shoved into what has always been known by the locals as “The Coliseum” almost forgot that there was a championship to defend, a season to prolong and a summer to defe...
It Appears That Raptors President Masai Ujiri Got Into It With A Cop
Toronto Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri has always been known as a fiery dude—recall when he yelled, “Fuck Brooklyn!” before a game against the Nets—but after the buzzer sounded last night and the Raptors became NBA champions, he reportedly reached a new level of not giving a ...
Draymond Green Has Done Many Dumb Things, But Calling A Non-Existent Timeout Wasn't One Of Them
For people who enjoy watching nard-kicker and general loudmouth Draymond Green suck and fail, the 2019 NBA Finals provided few moments of satisfaction. He was mostly brilliant in the series, and made a couple of the best plays in Golden State’s Game 5 road win to push the series back to Oakland. Aft...
Report: Klay Thompson Tore His ACL
Klay Thompson taking a nasty fall in Game 6, limping into the tunnel, then turning around to get back on the floor and drain his free throws was about as heroic as basketball gets. The Warriors guard even told head coach Steve Kerr he’d be back after a two-minute rest, only to leave the arena on cru...
The Toronto Freaking Raptors Are Now NBA Champions
The Toronto Raptors, of all teams, are your new NBA champions, after pulling out a 114–110 win in Oakland in Thursday night’s Game 6. It wasn’t necessarily a series that will be remembered for its aesthetic beauty, but in the end the Raptors earned their first title with six games of incredibly suff...
Klay Thompson Helped Off With Bad Knee Injury, Heroically Returns, Sinks Free Throws, Runs Back Off, Is Out
Toward the end of the third quarter of Thursday night’s Game 6 in Oakland, Klay Thompson landed awkwardly after he was fouled on a breakaway layup by Danny Green, and appeared to badly mess up his left knee. Klay has already missed a game of this series with an injured left hamstring; the Warriors a...
![Shohei Ohtani's Superpowers Are Slowly But Surely Returning [Update]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/glimirjxlxsei4gpdlsg.jpg)
Shohei Ohtani's Superpowers Are Slowly But Surely Returning [Update]
Shohei Ohtani has been having a ho-hum season as a hitter, entering Thursday batting .256 with a mediocre .775 OPS in 133 plate appearances, with seven home runs and just eight total extra base hits. The good news is, his power seems to be picking up. Ohtani has now socked five homers in his last ni...
Ex-Texans Employee Claims Fired GM Brian Gaine "Targeted" And "Replaced" Black Employees
USA Today has obtained a copy of a discrimination complaint filed by former Texans security coordinator Jeff Pope against recently fired GM Brian Gaine with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in which Pope alleges he was one of several black employees singled out and let go by Gaine. ...
Larry Wilmore Welcomes Mosque Shooter's Favorite Twitter User To His Ringer Podcast
What is there to gain from having Ben Shapiro on your platform of choice? Is it the possibility that he shares his appearance with his audience, and hopefully some of that traffic drips down to you? Is that tradeoff worth it? On the latest episode of his podcast for The Ringer, Larry Wilmore chose t...
Report: Kellen Winslow II Couldn't Stop Masturbating In Front Of His Teammates
Former NFL tight end Kellen Winslow II was convicted of rape, indecent exposure, and lewd conduct on Monday—charges that stem from separate incidents involving Winslow sexually assaulting a woman, exposing himself to another woman, and touching himself in front of a third woman. A mistrial was decl...
We Must Remove Mark Jackson From NBA Broadcasts Post-Haste
There is the constant travel and the dreary tape-eating research and the broader long-season ennui and the oppressive non-negotiable formalwear, and all of that is unpleasant. All the bleak hotel club sandwiches and the time away from family and periodically having to go to literally Phoenix and the...
Disgraced Former NFL Network And Ringer Executive Eric Weinberger Wants Back In The Game
Eric Weinberger, who last year had to leave his job as president of The Ringer because he was accused of multiple instances of egregious sexual misconduct while he was an executive at NFL Network, is looking to get back into media. Through a press release he announced today that he has formed an apt...
What Do Germany Have To Do To Get Anyone At Home To Pay Attention?
BERLIN — “We play for a nation that doesn’t even know our name.” So begins a video released last month by the German national women’s soccer team, right in time for the start of the Women’s World Cup. Die Nationalelf, two-time World Cup winners and one of the favorites in the tournament, was packing...