ja Page 171 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Budding Grizzlies-Warriors rivalry is highlighted by maturation of Ja Morant
The first two games of the Grizzlies-Warriors semifinals series have provided something for every NBA fan, no matter which side you’re on. If you can’t get excited about this series, then you aren’t a hardcore hoops fan....

Don’t let Mike D’Antoni grant superpowers to LaMelo Ball
Mike D’Antoni is to star players what a radioactive accident is to superheroes and supervillains. He gets to a team and grants the best player powers beyond their greatest imagination. What they do with them is their choice. While the best case results have been Icarian flights that flirt with title...

Rangers give Igor Shesterkin the Henrik Lundqvist treatment in 79 save performance
Perhaps the one downside of the NHL game speeding up is that more and more teams look the same. It gets harder to identify a specific style to a specific team as rosters are just packed with players who can move at a high pace and are directed to just get the fuck up the ice as quickly as fucking po...

Hits and misses from the Dallas Cowboys’ 2022 NFL draft
The Dallas Cowboys made it through the 2022 NFL NFL draft without making any big waves. Two weeks before the draft, Jerry Jones went on the record stating he’d be willing to move up in this draft which left fans in Big D on pins and needles. Dallas didn’t make any move to jump up and played it safe ...

Joel Embiid might be a world champion after all
Joel Embiid’s best chance of becoming a champion is unlikely to happen in 2022. A concussion and right orbital bone fracture have cast doubt on his availability for the Sixers’ semifinal series against the Miami Heat. If he’s unable to play, the Sixers are doomed and The Process-era Sixers will repe...

How every team will lose in the 2022 NHL playoffs
As the chase to the Stanley Cup begins, the Eastern and Western Conferences have completely different outlooks. Colorado or Calgary look the part to be the Western Conference champions, and I’m not sure there’s anything the rest of the field of six can do about it. The Eastern Conference is as wide ...

Congrats, Browns, you weren’t inept <em>and</em> unethical
Congratulations are in order for Jimmy Haslam and the Cleveland Browns. The NFL’s independent investigation into former head coach Hue Jackson’s claims that the team paid him to lose games found “no evidence” to substantiate those allegations, proving that the team did not intentionally lose games b...

Didn’t take long for the NHL Department of Player Safety to sour the playoffs
This train is never late. The NHL had a good night last night. The playoffs kicked off, and it’s hard to find a bad matchup anywhere (though Flames-Stars and Avs-Predators should be nothing more than ritual killings). And though there were only two competitive games of the four last night (the Canes...

Message to Jazz: Trade Donovan Mitchell to the Knicks... and other fire-sale moves
Before the Utah Jazz even began their first-round playoff series against the Dallas Mavericks, there were significant questions about their chemistry, viability as a winner, and ceiling. It was no secret that their two superstars, Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert, don’t care for one another. The ten...

Draymond is winning in the court of public opinion and basking in it
Look who gets to be the good guy. It is hard to get ejected from an NBA playoff game, but Draymond Green figured out how to pull it off on Sunday. He got sent to the showers in the first half for clocking Brandon Clarke during the Golden State Warriors Game 1, 117-116 victory against the Memphis Gri...

Men like Herschel Walker are coming for my rights and probably yours, too
If you have a young daughter, I feel for you today. She will likely be part of the first group of American women to have fewer rights than their mothers and grandmothers. If you’re a woman living in a red state, you’re about to have fewer rights than women in blue states. ...

The Arizona Cardinals are trying, but they just can’t avoid bad news this offseason
Just as the future was beginning to look bright for the Arizona Cardinals, it has been looking rough since Week 14. They led not only the NFC West, but the entire conference for much of the season. Then No. 1 wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins went down with a torn MCL in a home loss to a division rival,...

The NBA is always best with celebrity fans, but Jack Harlow needs to do better
So Jack Harlow is gunning for the top NBA celebrity fan award. It’s clear with him taking logo threes during the celebrity all star game, recording singles about Tyler Herro, and getting advice from Kawhi Leonard about how to improve his game. Part of the charm of the NBA is the celebrities in court...

IDIOT OF THE MONTH: It’s pretty much downhill from here
Welcome, once more, to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH, in which we catalogue the most bleak recesses of professional athletics and mock them. Hooray!...

Let's jump the gun on the 2023 QB draft class
The talent pendulum swings between NFL Drafts at a dizzying rate. The 2022 NFL Draft was a mirage in the desert for teams thirsty for a franchise quarterback. Aside from Kenny Pickett and his leprechaun hands, teams distanced themselves from the top signal-callers, who were mocked as first-rounders ...

There were some outstanding performances in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, and those players deserve some recognition
The playoffs are not about individual accomplishments. This is the time where players make every single sacrifice from points to minutes without complaint — at least they’re supposed to. That’s why there aren’t any playoff awards except for Finals MVP and, of course, the championship....

<em>Winning Time </em>Episode 9 “Acceptable Loss”
Jerry West is out for blood. The real Jerry West, that is, not the Jason Clarke avatar we have seen stalk and storm through the first season of Winning Time. The flesh and bone West, who is a part of the Lakers organization as much as Kobe Bryant or Magic Johnson, is really fucking pissed. Recently...

Draft winners: Ravens, Eagles and yes, the Jets did the most
Round 5 has wrapped up, and all the big names have been plucked off the board and placed onto their future rosters. Quarterbacks fell, punters rose, Chattanooga had a first-round pick — what a weekend it’s been. With a dwindling selection left, we take a look at the winners of this year’s draft. ...

Sixers fans, gird your loins for Harden time
Before Sixers fans could even breathe a sigh of relief over the possibility of going to a Game 7 despite a 3-0 lead, they’re gasping for air upon hearing the news that Joel Embiid is out indefinitely with a right orbital fracture and a mild concussion. The injury, courtesy of an elbow from Pascal Si...
