ja Page 525 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Here's More Proof That Larry Sanders Is The NBA's Best Interior Defender
One of the best things to come out of this year's Sloan Sports Analytics Conference was Kirk Goldsberry's paper on interior defense, in which he details which defenders are the best and worst at lowering opponent field goal percentage on shots at the rim. Surprisingly, the paper pointed to little-...

JaVale McGee Spikes A Shot Into The Crowd, Preens, Throws Down Alley-Oop
Some advice for Anthony Tolliver: Next time, just forgo the pump fake and shoot the ball over Wilson Chandler. Chandler may have gotten a hand in your face and disrupted your shot, but he probably wouldn't have infantilized you with a vicious volleyball-spike, mean mugged at the crowd until he got...

Here's JaVale McGee Dancing In A Predator Mask
After this and this, and surely after this, we allowed ourselves to hope that, maybe, the Internet meme of the Harlem Shake would quickly fade and then die, because fuck the fake Harlem Shake and everyone who condones its existence....

Report From The Future: Colby Rasmus Says His Quotes About John Farrell Were Taken Out Of Context
We can probably start a countdown because this will likely be walked back shortly. That's usually what happens when a quote starts "I'm not trying to bash anybody by starting up crap..." and does not end in a period. It's the "but" that gets you....

LeBron Considering Magic Johnson's $1 Million To Compete In The Dunk Contest
LeBron's been on a highly-publicized tear recently, where he's completed insane dunk after insane dunk in the layup line while dressed in full sweats to prove to everyone, we guess, that even though he's not going to compete in the dunk contest, he would win if he tried. Then when people took to Tw...

The NFL Appears Totally Ready For An Openly Gay Player, So Long As You Overlook Its Teams And Players
One of the most unintentionally hilarious sentences currently in print can be found on this SB Nation post by Robert Wheel, a.k.a. Bobby Big Wheel, called "What the NFL can do to support gay players." Beneath, a comma-spliced subhed reads: "The NFL is ready for a gay player, the problem is the rest ...

Andre Iguodala Doesn't Like Clubs Because They Are Too Damn Loud
GQ just posted an interview with Nuggets guard Andre Iguodala that includes a few entertaining insights. Iguodala talks about the "chill" spot he retreats to for hours at a time where he can "watch SportsCenter and text people and just relax," and he also tells us that Deadspin favorite JaVale McGe...

Miami Heat Do The Harlem Shake, <i>SportsCenter</i> Explains It For The Stupids
The Heat released their Harlem Shake video yesterday, and as much as we'd like to call this a dead meme, it's racked up 2.3 million views in under a day. It's watchable as far as these go because of who's in it: where else but in your Stygian nightmares can you see Chris Andersen flapping towards ...

The Flames Just Made The Most Inexplicable Trade Of The Year
Brian McGrattan is no catch: the journeyman brawler has bounced around from team to team, and up and down from the AHL, since the lockout. So when the Predators waived him, he cleared easily. He was assigned to their AHL affiliate yesterday. This morning, Calgary traded for him....

Once Upon A Time, They Made Fantasy Movies Like This. <em>Jack The Giant Slayer</em>, Reviewed.
1. It's sort of amazing how low the bar has fallen for big tentpole action/fantasy films. With the rise of 3-D (and, more to the point, 3-D surcharges), spectacle is the minimum entrance requirement, and even that has been watered down to the point of monotony. You can pick your poison, but I've alw...

LeBron James Threatens To End His Pregame Dunking
Look what we did, internet. We ruined a good thing. LeBron James's casually thunderous, between-the-legs-and-off-the-glass slam during warmups for Sunday's game went viral, shining a light on a relatively recent Heat tradition: the layup line mini-dunk contest. But people have been getting on James ...

Dwight Howard's Shortcomings Were On Full Display Last Night
Dwight Howard finished last night's Lakers-Nuggets game with 15 points, 14 rebounds, and four blocked shots. That is a perfectly acceptable stat line, and it's the kind of line that Howard has been putting up all year. But last night's game also featured a collection of moments that served as remi...

After Loss To Kansas, Angry Iowa State Fan Rushes Court, Tries To Confront Bill Self
According to various accounts from the end of Kansas's 108-96 overtime win over Iowa State, a fan attempted to rush the court and confront Kansas head coach Bill Self. The game was already mildly controversial after a puzzling block or charge no-call on an Elijah Johnson drive in the final seconds ...

LeBron James's Pregame Warmup Dunk Was Better Than Anything In The Dunk Contest
If you are an optimist who dreams of a better, more just world, then surely you have envisioned a world in which LeBron James participates in the NBA's annual Slam Dunk Contest. What would he do? An alley-oop, perhaps? A free-throw line jam? Or something really cool that we don't even know about y...

Nike Gave Jabari Parker's High School Branded Apparel And That's OK
Grid, a weekly magazine in Chicago, noticed that the best public high schools for basketball in Chicago—a city where high school basketball gets foldout sections in newspapers and crowds pack the stands for big match-ups—wear a lot of Nike gear. Grid correctly assumed that most of those schools lack...

When JaVale McGee Was 18, He Wore A Grill Made Of Aluminum Foil
First off, JaVale looks about 13 here. But he was 18, according to J-Mac himself when he posted the photo to his Instagram yesterday (throwback Thursday!). He was either about to start college, or was already Nevada's starting center. A little too old (and recent—just seven years ago) to be living t...

LeBron James Misses Wide-Open Dunk, Is Still Basically Infallible
LeBron James was stupid good again last night. He played 34 minutes in a blowout win against the Bulls, scoring 26 points on 11-15 shooting while adding 12 rebounds and seven assists. LeBron was, however, caught in a moment of imperfection during the third quarter when he lost the handle on an unc...

Bulls Fans Roared With Approval When They Realized LeBron James Was Injured By A Hard Foul
Midway through the final stanza of tonight's Heat-Bulls matchup, Chicago hadn't shown much bite. Down 16 and lacking much motivation at all, Chicago brought United Center fans to their feet, finally, when Nate Robinson chased down LeBron James and stopped the Heat star from making an easy transiti...

Flyers-Penguins Is The NHL's Best Rivalry
You could call it hockey for people who don't like hockey, but that's a disservice to those of us who love a good, boring, defensive clinic, and also love Flyers-Penguins barnburners. Last night's edition featured everything you'd want to show a friend who isn't sold about the NHL: end-to-end action...

The Only Field Goal Kansas Made In Two Overtimes Was The Game-Winner
Kansas beat Oklahoma State 68-67 Wednesday night in a double-overtime thriller that had Bill Self dancing like a mad man. Kansas won, remarkably, despite failing to make a field goal for about nine minutes and 45 seconds of the 10 minutes played in overtime....