jr Page 18 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

March Badness: Scandals defined the year in college hoops
In a year devoid of a dominant blue blood or player, college basketball stayed in the headlines for the worst reasons. Preseason No. 1 UNC whiffed on the season and missed the tournament entirely. Gonzaga is relying on a normal supply of veteran talent, but is less interesting to watch for casual fa...

Damian Lillard sounds like he’s threatening to Barry Sanders his career
Damian Lillard was in the news Wednesday for sounding like an old head during an appearance on J.J. Redick’s The Old Man and the Three podcast. From saying young players were entitled, to worrying about the direction of the league, and all the championship tropes that have followed him in between, i...

Deadspin presents: The Great Debates tournament
Welcome to the Great Debates bracket, where we’re trying to find out what is life’s greatest argument. The queries below have stumped philosophers, presidents, priests, and peasants alike. They’ve inspired books, memes, Twitter threads, and even entire fields of study....

Jerry Jones prepared to penny-pinch his way through free agency — again
America’s Team is worth more money than any other team in the NFL. In fact, the Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable team in the world, according to Forbes. Whether you want to believe they are still “America’s Team” or not is irrelevant. The Cowboys are raking in dollar bills hand over fist. So, it...

Baseball is getting increasingly liberal with the term ‘perfect game’
There was a perfect game in the World Baseball Classic on Monday. The Puerto Rico pitching staff, led by a perfect 5.2 innings from journeyman José De León, didn’t surrender a baserunner to Israel. Normally, that’d be pretty amazing, even by modern-day pitching standards. But — and I definitely fore...

OBJ reportedly wants $20M pay day — good luck with that
Odell Beckham Jr. is back on the field and reportedly expecting to cash in big time with a new contract in free agency. After winning a ring with the Los Angeles Rams in Super Bowl LVI, Beckham missed all of last season recovering from an injured ACL he suffered in that game. He’s finally able to wo...

The top 18 NBA Draft prospects to watch in the NCAA tournament
We’re less than a week away from the start of the NCAA Tournament and several of the stars that will shine during March Madness will end their college careers during the showcase. While the lose-o-rama for Victor Wembanyama, the projected No. 1 overall pick, has been underway for several months now,...

Baker Mayfield is running out of time in the NFL
Now that Tom Brady is gone for good (supposedly), the Tampa Bay Buccaneers need a quarterback. It’s been reported by NFL Network that the Bucs have their sights set on former No. 1 overall pick Baker Mayfield. The Bucs could be looking at Mayfield to compete with former second-round pick Kyle Trask ...

Chicago just took everything from Carolina and then asked for Moore
It had been long rumored that the Chicago Bears were going to move off the first overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft. In such a quarterback-heavy class, a team with a solid situation under center was destined for a great haul in exchange for a top draft pick. While most experts assumed the Indianapol...

George Karl tried to stick up for JJ Redick and should have sat this one out
George Karl picked the wrong day to go after Kendrick Perkins. On the Tuesday episode of First Take, JJ Redick and Perkins had a discussion about the NBA MVP that was loud, animated, and eventually went viral on social media. Perkins is not one to back off of his opinions so after the episode, he pa...

JJ Redick and Kendrick Perkins are becoming ESPN’s new debate-show circus
JJ Redick looks like he’d rather be receiving a colonoscopy than embracing the debate on First Take. Redick joined ESPN after retirement, riding the success of his podcast The Old Man and the Three, and initially seemed like an odd fit for First Take. However, the more he strikes a nerve with his co...

B1G Disappointment: The teams that have won national titles since the Big Ten last cut down the nets
Facebook hadn’t been invented yet, Zion Williamson didn’t exist, Mad Cow Disease was the “pandemic” of the time, and Y2K is what so many thought would be the end of modern civilization. The year 2000 feels like it was so long ago, but it feels even further away for Big Ten hoops fans. Twenty-three y...

Deadspin’s 2023 Men's NCAA Tournament Automatic Bid Tracker
The Men’s NCAA Tournament is just over the horizon and as its 32 automatic bids are earned in rapid-fire over the next week, it can be too much to track on your own. That’s what this space is for. One of these 32 automatic bids from a smaller conference is likely to become a Cinderella, but first ga...

The best father-son duos to ever play in the NBA
It is an insurmountable stroke of luck to make the NBA. So when a former NBA player can watch his son make the league as well, it is an act of poetry. As the all-time leading scorer, LeBron James is set to be the first NBA player to play in the league simultaneously with his son, Bronny James. We lo...

Michael Jordan, the best shooting guard in college basketball history? This can’t become canon, it's David Thompson
What do Michael Jordan, JJ Redick, Jerry West, David Thompson, and Ray Allen have in common? College basketball analyst and Lord of Listicles John Whitaker released his top shooting guards in men’s college basketball history last week, and whittled his top five to that group. Unfortunately, his top ...

These are the athletes that could reasonably fight in the next <i>Creed</i> movie
The Creed and Rocky franchises have not only felt like an expanding cloth weaving through the sports zeitgeist for nearly 50 years. Beyond its cultural footprint, its nine installments have launched or sunk the burgeoning acting careers of several retired and active athletes. From former Raiders lin...

The NBA All-Hunk rankings would make George Clooney jealous
The NBA All-Hunk team was released Thursday, and I have to say, it was reassuring to discover that I have no idea what qualifies as attractive for men. It’s nothing against who’s hot or not. I’m just saying my needle isn’t moved one way or the other. ...

Gather the kids for this teachable moment from Paul George
Being the go-to option sounds fun. It looks great. Michael Jordan making last-second shots; Patrick Mahomes spinning out of trouble and throwing a laser for a touchdown; Quinta Brunson delivering on another great episode of Abbott Elementary as the show’s creator and lead actor. Paul George has held...

Commanders minority owners are alleging that Dan Snyder used the franchise as a personal 'piggy bank'
The Dan Snyder era has had a dumpster-grade stench from the beginning. But just when it seemed like he’d leave peacefully, his destructive personality kicked back in. Snyder is finally leaning towards selling the team on his own, but not without kicking and screaming. ...

The NBA old heads have spoken — and they think LeBron is currently the Association's best player
It’s official, the old heads of the NBA heads have welcomed LeBron James as one of their own. The Athletic recently polled 101 former NBA players, asking which current player is the best player in the Association. In a league that has an abundance of under-30-year-old talent that it is bursting out ...