journalism Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Cal's Defensive Turnaround Is A Marvel<em></em>
Two seasons ago, the California Golden Bears had one of the most abominable defenses in the country. Cal allowed opponents to score an astonishing 42.6 points per game (the second-worst in the nation among FBS schools), rack up 518.3 yards per game (fourth-worst), and rush for 272.9 yards per game (...
The Sacramento Kings Are, Uh, Fine? Maybe?
Okay, so, here we are, eight games into the NBA season, and the Sacramento Kings are 5-3. Sure, it’s early, and sure, the Kings have had decent starts before only to collapse into piles of shit. All the usual caveats apply, and the Kings could very easily turn back into a pumpkin when the clock stri...
<i>Washington Post</i> Takes Desperate Phony Britt McHenry Seriously, With Embarrassing Results
Britt McHenry—the replacement-level rabble-rouser and laid-off sports reporter most famous for getting caught on video being an entitled asshole to a towing-company employee—has, for some time, been in the process of pivoting to a career in right-wing punditry. Today, the Washington Post Magazine pi...
The John Smoltz Urban Legend That Was Too Good To Check
John Smoltz is, at this point in his second career as a color commentator, not really that good at the job. He understands the game well, but he’s also drowsy and grouchy in all the ways that old ballplayers tend to be: checked out and skeptical and reflexively salty about today’s players, grumpily ...
ESPN President Jimmy Pitaro Delivers Hollow Speech About Sticking To Sports
At a Sports Business Journal conference today, ESPN president Jimmy Pitaro— who said two months ago that ESPN’s future was in sticking to sports and kowtowing to the NFL’s interests—reiterated that ESPN was going to stay away from “pure politics.”...
Jimmy Butler Called A Players-Only Meeting To Smooth Things Over. Unless He Didn't. Unless He Did. This Is Exhausting.
Are you tired yet? Let me help....
Which NBA Team Is Most Like Your Favorite NBA Team?
It’s almost time for the tip-off of the new basketball season, and you know what that means: It’s time to point out that not only does the NBA exist, but that other things also exist. A few outlets have already beaten us to the punch here, imagining NBA teams as rom-coms or TV shows or fake movies, ...
Q&A: Reporter Antje Windmann On Convincing Ronaldo's Rape Accuser To Speak, And Why Media Was So Slow To Pick Up The Story
In April 2017, German newsmagazine Der Spiegel reported that Cristiano Ronaldo in 2010 reached a $375,000 settlement with a woman who said he raped her in a Las Vegas hotel in 2009. The story barely made a ripple in the sports world, even after Der Spiegel followed up the initial story a week later ...
Khris Davis Made His MVP Case
This wasn’t supposed to happen. The Astros were the reigning World Series champions, the Mariners were considered a real contender. The A’s, meanwhile, were “rebuilding.” They weren’t supposed to be good even when they had a Major League–caliber pitching rotation, and then projected Opening Day star...
How The Shit Are The Oakland A's Still Doing This?
Back in July, when the Oakland Athletics won a million games, suddenly emerged as this year’s most surprising ballclub, and roared towards a wild card berth, it still seemed that they could go bust at any moment, thanks to an obvious Achilles heel. The starting rotation was so comically injured that...
Hypothetical Grievances Presented By An Australian Newspaper To Defend Its Big-Lipped Serena Williams Cartoon, Ranked<em></em>
To riff on Serena Williams’s spat with umpire Carlos Ramos in the U.S. Open final, the Melbourne Herald Sun published an illustration of the tennis player, drawn by editorial cartoonist Mark Knight, which has since been met with international disgust. Today, like any normal newspaper, the Herald Sun...
Damian Lillard Is Scooping The NBA's Scoopsters
C.J. McCollum is not the only member of the Trail Blazers’ backcourt who’s also a practicing journalist. Damian Lillard has spent the week outscooping the basketball press. The point guard has turned into a reverse Adrian Wojnarowski and broke news about where a pair of national basketball writers a...
"I Received A Check For $4": Letters From FanSided Writers
On Wednesday, Deadspin published a report about how FanSided uses unpaid and underpaid labor to power its websites, which in turn bolster Sports Illustrated and its parent company, Meredith Corporation. With names and other identifying information redacted by request, here are some of the dozens of ...
There's Nothing Candid About LeBron's <i>The Shop</i>
When you’re watching porn, especially one of those gauzy-lensed sensual ones, you generally do not find yourself thinking, Boy, that porn star fellow must be quite the gentleman at home....
It Doesn't Matter If Michelle Beadle Doesn't Watch Football
You probably don’t care about ESPN’s new-ish morning talk show, Get Up, because why would you? It’s a glossy, inoffensive talk show meant to be half-watched by people who fell asleep watching a game on ESPN the night before and are too lazy to change the channel in the morning while getting ready fo...
Holy Shit, The Athletic Just Swiped A Bunch Of NFL Beat Writers
The Athletic is committed to pulverizing newspapers, and it brought out the sledgehammer today. The site announced the launch of six new localized verticals plus additional football coverage in four cities in which it already had a presence:...
There Are No Clean Hands In The Latest WWE Twitter Blow-Up<em></em>
Pro wrestling Twitter completely imploded on Wednesday. Well, more than usual....
Athletic Writer Throws Fit Over Rhode Island Not Giving Into Stadium Financing Scheme
A hot new sports media startup may not be the place you’d expect to find a braindead take lifted straight from a dead-tree columnist’s 1996 notebook, but then you remember that The Athletic, in its quest to destroy all print sports sections, did hire plenty of middle-aged white guys. One of those gu...
Oh, Good, Now The Sports Media Is Slurping Up Elon Musk's Bullshit
Go to any sports website today and you are likely to see a headline about Tesla founder Elon Musk’s brilliant new plan to alleviate traffic before and after Los Angeles Dodgers games. ESPN: “Elon Musk’s tunnel company aims to reduce Dodger Stadium traffic with ‘Dugout Loop.’” Sports Illustrated: “El...
The Clippers Are Embarrassingly Thirsty For Kawhi Leonard
Kawhi Leonard wasn’t happy to be in San Antonio. Now, he’s not happy to be in Toronto. Regardless of his feelings, he’ll be stuck in Canada for the foreseeable future on a year-long recruiting pitch, all while he’s seemingly got his sights set on his hometown of Los Angeles. As Adrian Wojnarowski an...