ick Page 482 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Knicks Win A Playoff Series For The First Time Since 2000
It almost didn't happen (again), but the Knicks were able to hold off an increasingly uncomfortable fourth-quarter comeback from Boston to advance past the first round of playoffs for the first time in more than a decade....

Looks Like Mickey Mantle Used To Cork His Bat
Even one of the greatest hitters of all time wasn't above cheating to get a little extra bat speed....

How Frank Isola Became The Most Hated Man At Madison Square Garden
Frank Isola started on the Knicks beat for the New York Daily News in the fall of 1996, when he was 29 years old. Now, at 46, he has been covering the team longer than anyone else....

Melo's Wife To Jordan Crawford: "You On The Bench For A Reason"
This is really the only comeback necessary....

Blackhawks Raise Ticket Prices For The Fourth Time In Six Years
And the season ticket packages won't even include the outdoor game at Soldier Field. This is the price you pay for a good team and good attendance, Chicago....

Nate Kaeding Retires, But We'll Always Have This Gif
A month after signing with Tampa Bay, longtime Chargers kicker Nate Kaeding has decided to retire instead. That'll happen....

So Put That in Your Pipe and Smoke it
Random baseball rap lyric of the day......

Jordan Crawford To Melo: "That Motherfucker Fucked Your Wife"
You know things have gone horribly wrong when J.R. Smith is the one playing peacemaker....

Mama Says...
Here's more from Peter Richmond, on Larry Johnson and homophobia:...

![Patrick Kane's Middle Finger Is Ready For The Playoffs [Update: Doppelkaner]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/18m8f0w2e57rqjpg.jpg)
Patrick Kane's Middle Finger Is Ready For The Playoffs [Update: Doppelkaner]
Rest easy, Blackhawks fans. The Stanley Cup playoffs begin tonight, and Patrick Kane looks like for all the world like he's back to behaving like Patrick Kane, which is to say he and his middle finger were spotted at a bar in Lincoln Park the other night....

Kenneth Faried Kicked This Hole In A Wall After Last Night's Loss
"I hate to lose," Kenneth Faried told USA Today's Sam Amick after the Nuggets fell behind the Warriors three games to one. "I hate to lose more than I like winning." Translation: This poor bit of drywall in Oracle Arena's visitors locker room had it coming....

Grand Master
Spring brings with it a bum's rush of new sports books. This year, one of the most prized titles comes from the distinguished Library of America—American Pastimes: The Very Best of Red Smith (edited by Dan Okrent). Smith is our most venerated sports columnist and we'll have much more on him and this...

Security Guard Celebration Is An Homage To Rasheed Wallace
It's natural to focus on all the Knicks celebrating Raymond Felton's huge, buzzer-beating three at the end of the third quarter of today's Boston win. Melo is pumped up. So is Tyson Chandler. Steve Novak is undoubtedly doing a very subtle and very intense discount double check that we just can't see...

Jason Terry Prolongs Celtics-Knicks Series
At the end of the first half, Boston owned a 54-35 lead over the Knicks. With 1:18 left in the fourth, Raymond Felton gave the Knicks their first lead of the day at 84-82 on a pull-up jumper just inside the key. Kevin Garnett immediately tied the game and after a couple misses from Carmelo and anot...

"I'm Coming To Kill You": OKC Ball Boy Not Happy With Westbrook Injury
When Russell Westbrook went down earlier this week with a potentially season-ending knee injury, basketball fans everywhere sighed loudly. Crazy, stupid and crazy-stupid people shouted at Patrick Beverley, the man who ran into Russell Westbrook's knee during the second quarter of Game 2 between the ...

Taste Test: Popeyes Rip'n Chick'n. Who Thought This Was A Good Idea?
It began, one imagines, as a simple question, posed conspiratorially around a gleaming boardroom conference table in an upper floor of AFC Enterprises headquarters in Sandy Springs, Ga.: Why settle for chicken fingers, when you could have an entire horrifying rheumatoid chicken hand that you grimly ...

Russell Westbrook Will Undergo Surgery For A Torn Meniscus
The Oklahoma City Thunder announced today that Russell Westbrook tore his meniscus in the second quarter of Game 2 against Houston on Wednesday and is out indefinitely. There's no timetable for his return yet, which potentially leaves the West wide open and sets up the Heat for an easy run to the ti...

Here's A Picture Of Rick Pitino's New Tattoo
Pitino promised us that he would get a tattoo to commemorate his team's 2013 championship run, and he has followed through on that promise. It's a perfectly fine tattoo, I guess. Although we were hoping for something with a little more oomph. ...