joel Page 15 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

James Harden expects us to believe he had no choice in going to the Nets last year
So, apparently, James Harden didn’t pick and choose his trade destination in the deal that sent him to the Brooklyn Nets last January. If you’d asked most people, including those in the media, about how that trade went down, most would undoubtedly have told you that Harden chose to play with old OKC...

What will make James Harden happy?
James Harden has just strong-armed his way out of his second team in two years. What’s weird is that he was in two completely different situations. ...

Well, well, well, if it isn’t the consequences of Kyrie Irving’s own actions
This is what it’s come to for the Nets....

NBA steals the spotlight from Super Bowl week with blockbuster James Harden for Ben Simmons trade
Wow. So, the trade that felt like it would never happen finally went down. The Brooklyn Nets have agreed to send James Harden to the Philadelphia 76ers for Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, Andre Drummond, and two first-round picks, sources told ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski....

James Wiseman deserves to be more than Kevon Looney with an upside
There’s still time for James Wiseman to turn into the player the Warriors thought he would be. This is his second season, he’s only 20 years old, and a meniscus tear isn’t microfracture surgery. He participated in contact drills Tuesday for the first time since the tear last season, according to ESP...

Guess what Ben Simmons? You proved Shaq’s point
Philadelphia 76ers’ guard Ben Simmons has not played a single game all season. Why? He wants to be traded. Why? Because after an abysmal 2021 postseason that saw Simmons shoot 34.2 percent from the free throw line before getting bounced by the Atlanta Hawks in the second round, Simmons rightfully re...

Ben Simmons is reportedly still mad at Joel Embiid for last season
It’s unfortunate that it came to this in Philadelphia....

No Ben Simmons, no problem: Joel Embiid is carrying Philly on his shoulders like a backpack
Unless you live in Philly, most of you probably haven’t paid much attention to the 76ers over the past four to six weeks. Philadelphia has been on quite the roll, winning 16 of their last 20 games since having their Dec. 19 game postponed against the New Orleans Pelicans due to COVID-19. Philly had ...

Don’t fumble the bag
Just like a loose ball, when the bag is in reach, you dive headfirst for it. Every summer, a handful of teams, big and small markets, choose to resign, extend, or offer big money to one of their rising players. Sometimes it works out. Other times, you’re stuck with Kevin Love. Although kudos to Love...

Now Daryl Morey thinks he can land Harden in the offseason? Just make a trade already, man!
Daryl Morey is really trying to apply that “shoot for the moon, if you miss you’ll land among the stars,” saying to his attempts at a Ben Simmons trade. Actually, knowing what we know about Morey he would probably debunk that saying with the explanation, “the stars are actually light years farther a...

Joel Embiid is the MVP in our hearts and on the charts
There was nothing lost in Joel Embiid’s 50 points in 27 minutes against the Orlando Magic on Wednesday night because it’s impossible to talk about the 76ers without mentioning you know who. Every conversation about Philly starts and stops with, “Imagine if Ben Simmons…” Imagine if they traded him he...

Let’s try to understand the NBA’s defensive player rating and all its absurdity
Analytics can be misleading. Over the last decade, we’ve seen an influx of statistics take over the sports world, and basketball hasn’t been exempt from this revolution — just look at all the three-point attempts we see now across the NBA. But one stat in particular can be even dangerously misleadin...

Three possible trade scenarios for John Collins
What the hell is happening in Atlanta? They went on a Cinderella-esque run in last season’s playoffs, reaching the Eastern Conference Finals. This year? They currently sit 12th in the East, out of the Play-In Tournament, and 22nd in the entire NBA. During the summer of 2020-21, the Hawks happily wen...

At this point, Anthony Davis is what he is
The 2021-22 season has been less than stellar thus far for Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers, and much of that falls on the shoulders of the former No. 1 pick. This was supposed to be the year Davis took over as the Lakers’ best player, but that blueprint hasn’t worked out the way it was draw...

LeBron James sets his sights on Kareem’s points record you never thought would be broken
Remember, LeBron James is not a pure scorer, so we’ve been told since his high school days. What was supposed to make his game special was his once-in-a-generation athleticism to go along with his Magic Johnson-like court vision. James dunking on the world and launching passes from one side of the c...

IDIOT OF THE YEAR #4: Chicago Blackhawks, equal parts heinous and incompetent
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE YEAR festivities! Nos. 50 through 11 are available for your enjoyment here. And our top 10 thus far:...

Centers aren’t extinct, they’ve just evolved
As humans, we tend to eulogize the extinct with reverence. The Dodo Bird. The Rocky Mountain Locust. The Golden Toad. And why wouldn’t we? It was us who eradicated these precious, sentient creatures. Some theorists would argue it had to do with their inability to adapt. But what if things are adapti...

Well, Mike McCarthy has COVID
The Dallas Cowboys are continuing to deal with the spread of COVID-19 in their organization. This time it’s their coach, Mike McCarthy. The Cowboys announced on Monday that McCarthy tested positive and will not be with the team in person as they prepare for Thursday’s game against the New Orleans Sa...

The Timberwolves are on a roll and if you don’t believe us, check the standings
The Minnesota Timberwolves are on the rise. It’s possible to play a thrilling late November NBA game in the middle of an exciting College Football rivalry Saturday, and the Timberwolves played a double overtime thriller against the Philadelphia 76ers. It was center Joel Embiid’s return to the lineup...

Corporate names on sports venues are dumb, we have suggestions
Sick of corporate names on your sports stadiums and arenas? So are we. So, let’s fix it, and get the names of all these places right, once and for all. ...