pe Page 839 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

We Turned Spelling Bee Loser Jacob "What?" Williamson Into A Rap Star
We all had our laughs about poor Jacob Williamson, the 15-year-old eighth grader whose excited misspelling of "kabaragoya" left him a spelling bee loser but viral video hit. We thought he deserved something better, and when it comes to "WHAT?" there's only one expert: Lil Jon....

Report: Steve Ballmer Agrees To Buy Clippers For $2 Billion (Updated)
The LA Times is reporting that Steve Ballmer, the hugely Photoshoppable former Microsoft CEO, has agreed to buy the Los Angeles Clippers for $2 billion, winning the bidding war to take over ownership from Donald Sterling. ...


Have Spelling Bee "Winning Words" Always Been So Obscure?
Arvind Mahankali won the 2013 National Spelling Bee on "knaidel," a type of dumpling. The winning word the year prior was "guetapens," before that "cymotrichous," and before that "stromuhr." Have bee-winning words always been this insane, or is this a recent development? ...

Report: Steve Ballmer Bid $1.8 Billion For The Clippers
According to a Forbes source, former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer has offered a bid of $1.8 billion to buy the L.A. Clippers. But don't get your hopes up, Seattle....

The Most Commonly Misspelled Sports Names
In honor of the National Spelling Bee (which really ought to be a federal holiday), The Wall Street Journal has compiled a ranking of the athletes (and one Polish-Catholic coach) whose names are most commonly misspelled in print and online articles. You will probably guess No. 1....

Spelling Bee Semifinalists Set To Ultimate Warrior's Intro Music
Is there anything better than watching kids gleefully race to the stage after hearing their names called as Scripps National Spelling Bee semifinalists? Yes, there is! It's watching kids gleefully race to the stage with the Ultimate Warrior's theme music, "Unstable," as musical backing....

Sterling Calls Ban "Illegal," Claims Team Can Be Sold For $2.5 Billion
Remember when it was reported that Donald Sterling would peacefully relinquish his ownership of the Los Angeles Clippers and let his estranged wife Shelly take the team? Yeah, that's probably not happening....

I'm David Peace, Author Of <em>The Damned Utd</em> And <em>Red Or Dead</em>. Let's Chat.
We're joined by novelist David Peace. Named one of Granta's Best of Young Novelists in 2003, he's the author of the Red Riding Quartet, the Tokyo Trilogy, GB84, The Damned Utd—"probably the best novel ever written about sport," per The Times—and, most recently, Red or Dead, an exploration of the lif...

Reporter Congratulates Nicolas Mahut For Losing; Mahut Is Not Amused
We linked to the transcript of this unfortunate yet hilarious exchange yesterday, but now we finally have video of a confused reporter congratulating Nicolas Mahut on his loss at the French Open. It's better than we could have ever imagined. ...


Novak Djokovic Chills With Ball Boy During Rain Delay
During a rain delay in his first-round French Open match yesterday, Novak Djokovic made a buddy—a ball boy, whom he invited to sit down, out of the rain, and grab a beverage....

The Grizzlies' Front Office Is A Dysfunctional Zoo Of Obtuseness
The briefly open relationship between the Memphis Grizzlies and head coach Dave Joerger reset curiously this week when the Minnesota Timberwolves did not hire him away. Hall pass thus revoked, Joerger came back and made nice with his bosses, who, if this delightful bit of reportage by SI's Chris Man...

The Cold, Dead Eyes Of Cody Cepeda
Cody Cepeda does not celebrate as he embarrasses professional skateboarders. At Battle At The Berrics VII, the skateboarding adaptation of basketball's HORSE, just the briefest of emotion flickers across his face—a faint grimace or smile—when he misses a trick or beats the hell out of some unsuspect...

Here Is Your Memorial Day Menu
So it's Memorial Day, a day designated by the federal government for inching glacially northward on I-95 with ten trillion other weekend beachgoers, cursing the day this humid blue turd congealed out of space-garbage in the orbit of a giant ignited fart, secretly desperate to return to the climate-c...

Gael Monfils And Laurent Lokoli Engage In Dance-Off Before French Open
The French Open Kids' Day featured tennis players Gael Monfils and Laurent Lokoli stealing the show for a few minutes. It was an old-fashioned dance-off, with the clay court as the stage....

V. Stiviano Text With Audio To Clippers Employee: "LET THE GAMES BEGAN"
Before the recordings of Donald Sterling leaked to the public, V. Stiviano sent one tape to a Clippers employee—along with an ominous, all-caps message—when Sterling distanced himself from her....

Pedro Martinez Says Pitching Is All About Properly Sexing The Baseball
Our pals at Fangraphs got Pedro Martinez to sit down with them and wax on about his thoughts on pitching, and the results are fantastic. You should read the entire interview—Martinez is one of the smartest pitchers to ever play and he says a lot of wise and illuminating things—but we felt compelled ...

Reports: Donald Sterling Steps Aside, Wife To Sell Clippers
As first reported by TMZ, and just confirmed by ESPN's Ramona Shelburne, the Donald Sterling saga may end painlessly and without going to court. According to the reports, Sterling will leave it to his maybe-estranged wife Shelly to negotiate the sale of the Clippers....

When Bill Shankly Ruled Liverpool
One of the best books of 2013 will come out in its first American edition next week when Melville House publishes Red or Dead, David Peace's long, strange, and transfixing novel about Bill Shankly's career at Liverpool FC. The single most convincing fictional depiction of the endless repetition that...