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World Cup Day 18: And then, sometimes, you just win
If the previous day’s lesson, at least for the USWNT, was that soccer sometimes just decides you’re going to lose because that’s what it wants, then the current European champions England showed that sometimes you just win, even when all logic dictates that you shouldn’t. Who knows what’s left on th...
Has the rest of the world finally caught up to the U.S. Women's soccer team?
For those used to the United States women’s national team dominating the globe, this edition of the Women’s World Cup has come as a shock. Those who don’t tune in every four years expected turbulence, but the level of bumps and lumps the Americans have taken in Australia and New Zealand has already ...
World Cup Group H Preview: Why can’t there be more like Morocco?
The women’s World Cup should be, and still is in a lot of ways, a celebration of how far the game has come from where it was even just four years ago. The attention is more, the players, and teams are better, the quality of play keeps rising, the anticipation grows, as does the appreciation when it ...
Victor Wembanyama won't be NBA Rookie of the Year
Every betting site has Victor Wembanyama installed as the runaway favorite to earn Rookie of the Year. In case you want to start engraving Victor Wembanyama’s name on the award already, take a moment to consider this. Rookie of the Year hasn’t always gone to the incandescent talent from every draft ...
Amanda Nunes, one of the greatest to ever punch a human being in the face for money
Legends come in all shapes and sizes and if people are too closed-minded to accept that fact, then they can miss truly special talent. Dana White’s closed-mindedness almost caused sports fans to miss out on one of the greatest fighters of her generation — Amanda Nunes....
Anthony Bennett and the NBA Lottery's biggest draft busts of the last decade
Every day, fans of Aleksej “Poku” Pokusevski, Josh Green, or James Wiseman swear next year is the year their favorite players are not the bums the rest of the NBA thinks they are. I went through the last decade, from 2013-2023, and highlighted the 10 players who are on track to be the biggest busts ...
The Stanley Cup will be lifted by the Oilers-Golden Knights victor
Among a final eight that feels like a changing of the guard in hockey more than most years, with old standbys proving their age by exiting the ice until the fall, the duo of the Las Vegas Golden Knights and the Edmonton Oilers stand out like a sore thumb. Not necessarily because they don’t also repr...
IDIOT OF THE MONTH: April was bad
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH! We’re here to make you think about death and get sad and stuff....
Finding the NBA playoff X factors
The NBA playoffs are where superstars can add to — or subtract from — their legacies. They may come up clutch, or absolutely choke under the spotlight. The same goes for coaches. But there are always subplots around certain youngsters, role players, and unknowns who can make a name for themselves. T...
Who will win as the Lakers, Timberwolves, Pelicans, and Thunder battle for play-in spots?
The 2022-23 NBA regular season has come to a close, and it’s time again for the league’s newest tradition, the play-in tournament. This year the Western Conference had the race to watch down the stretch as it was tighter than spandex in the wrestling ring. In fact, the west was close for most of the...
Treat Rudy Gobert worse than Draymond Green — at least his punch was behind closed doors
It’s not about what was done, it’s about who did it. And if you don’t believe that, this week will be a sports debate-off on the events from the final day of the NBA’s regular season — which included Minnesota Timberwolves star center Rudy Gobert taking a swing at teammate Kyle Anderson on the bench...
Warriors' turnover problem submarines a needed victory
There was a four-second difference between the game clock and the shot clock. The Golden State Warriors had the lead with less than 24 seconds remaining in the game. A victory against the Minnesota Timberwolves would have put the Warriors firmly 1.5 games ahead of the play-in tournament. The Warrior...
These are the top 10 young cores in the NBA right now
The “middle class” of the NBA is slowly eroding. Surprisingly, it’s not totally a bad thing. Almost every team has a talented young core with potential, raising parity within the NBA. Even the teams at the bottom of the standings have enough young players to have something to look forward to in two ...
ESPN’s top draft analyst is mocking mock drafts by anointing Bronny James as a future top-10 pick
There’s no high school basketball LeaguePass — yet. Aside from the Bronny James hypebeast machine, the top prospects in the upcoming draft are previewed to the general public through the diligent scouting done by professional analysts or scouts who scour camps, national showcases, and high school gy...
Let's remember (forget?) the worst Super Bowl halftime shows
When you think of the Super Bowl Halftime Show, the names that come to mind are the biggest stars and best performers in the music industry. It didn’t used to be that glamorous, though. ...
These are the best — and worst — Super Bowl National Anthems
Assuming you’ve got all your Super Bowl snacks and fixings in time, the Super Bowl National Anthem is the first real indication that the game is about to start. At least, that’s usually when everyone at the Super Bowl party starts shhhing everyone else. Not necessarily because everyone gets misty-ey...
Super Bowl LVII: A Kelce by any other name is just an offensive lineman
Welcome to Deadspin’s The Sports Nihilist, where all is for naught and we are but accidental jolts of electrified meat stuck to the surface of a rock in an indifferent universe. Fuck you....
Should Brian Kelly have to give $1 million back to LSU over a clerical mistake?
Louisiana State University (LSU) reset the college football coaching market in 2021 when they signed former Notre Dame head coach Brian Kelly to a 10-year, $95 million contract. Kelly responded by winning 10 games in his first season in Baton Rouge highlighted by a home win over Alabama and an appea...
The Big Lead’s ‘2022 Sports Media Awards’ were given to a bunch of white dudes
The same people keep picking the same people because they only surround themselves with the same people....