ja Page 527 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

NCAA Investigator Asked Judge To Take It Easy On Convicted Ponzi Schemer Nevin Shapiro
An NCAA investigator wrote a letter on Nevin Shapiro's behalf before his 2011 sentencing, the Associated Press reported last night. This should feel surprising: The NCAA is nominally devoted to preserving beautiful, ancient Greek ideals: competitive integrity, athletic amateurism, and scholarship, w...

The Heat Win Their 16th Straight, But Not Without Getting Every Single Break
The Heat got lucky. They got all the rolls, all the whistles, and the winner, a LeBron James layup with three seconds left, came off a timeout that was never called. It's almost a paradox: You get all the breaks when you're the type of team that can win 16 in a row, but you also don't win 16 in a ro...

Jamal Crawford Goes Between-The-Legs To Set Up Blake Griffin Windmill Alley-Oop
Just watch it. I could describe it for you, put it in context and all the usual jazz, but that would be time spent not watching a between-the-legs, windmill alley-oop. Why would you want to waste your time like that?...

Jose Bautista Did A Reddit AMA And It Was Mostly Boring, Until He Was Asked About His Favorite TV Show
Toronto Blue Jays outfielder and feared power hitter Jose Bautista did a Reddit AMA as part of a marketing campaign for some baseball video game earlier today that was, for the most part, thoroughly unremarkable....

Do Not Lecture JaVale McGee On The Differences Between The Atmosphere And The Stratosphere
In the video above, you will see JaVale McGee throw down a very nice alley-oop during last night's Nuggets-Kings game. McGee enjoyed the play so much that he sent out the following celebratory tweet, in his usual house style:...

What Gift Should You Buy From Jay Cutler And Kristin Cavallari's Wedding Registry?
American royalty Jay Cutler and Kristin Cavallari have finally announced a date for their upcoming wedding (It's July 13. Get excited!), and like any good soon-to-be-married couple, they've registered for gifts at Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel. Thanks to some sleuthing from DNAinfo.com, we are...

Jay Gruden On What Andy Dalton Needs To Improve: "Everything"
Every morning, the fine folks at Sports Radio Interviews sift through the a.m. drive-time chatter to bring you the best interviews with coaches, players, and personalities across the sports landscape. Today: The Bengals OC says there's always room for improvement....

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 ...