phil Page 32 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

HEAR ME OUT! Maxey, Harden, and Embiid make up the best Big 3 in the NBA
The term “Big 3” gets tossed around like nothing nowadays. I mean, prior to the season, Nikola Jokić, Jamal Murray, and Michael Porter Jr. were being considered a “Big 3" by some outlets. To say any team in the NBA has a true “Big 3” is questionable, but in just six games with James Harden Philadelp...

Joel Embiid is deserving of the MVP, but the award should go to Nikola Jokić
Nikola Jokić and Joel Embiid showed on Monday night why they are the two front runners for MVP in the NBA. Embiid scored 43 points and tallied 14 rebounds and three blocks while leading the Philadelphia 76ers to an important 121-106 victory over the Chicago Bulls that vaulted them past the Milwaukee...

Don’t expect Gregg Popovich to go the Coach K retirement ceremony route
Going out to dinner with Gregg Popovich is up there with golfing with Charles Barkley, gambling with Michael Jordan, watching football with John Madden, and talking shit with Gary Payton on the list of activities with sports figures that sound like fun. As awesome as good food and better wine with C...

What is it Manchester United are trying to do?
At the end of Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s run as Manchester United, they got absolutely dog-walked by Liverpool and Manchester City at home. The combined score was 7-1, but no one would have been surprised had it ended up 17-0. Plenty will tell you it should have. Even for the notoriously directionless ye...

Tiger bests Lefty again, wins PIP initiative
Sorry, Phil — Tiger might be out of the game for now, but you’re still sitting at second best....

The Avs are really going to trust this to Mr. Darcy?
Once again, the Colorado Avalanche are the Showtime of the NHL. They were last year, though last season being what it was it doesn’t really count for evaluation/analytic purposes. But reverting back to an actual NHL schedule (or something closely resembling one) hasn’t slowed the Avs much. They pick...

Jesse Marsch tries again, this time at Leeds United
You can’t accuse Jesse Marsch of being unambitious. He replaced Julian Nagelsmann at RB Leipzig, and Nagelsmann had only left for Bayern Munich — one of the biggest jobs in the world — and is considered maybe the leading young genius on the European continent (whether this letterman’s jacket is evid...

IDIOT OF THE MONTH: Annex a history book, you dummies
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH, our monthly series (hence the name!) in which we make fun of people in and around the sports world. And, boy, are the pastures green this month. But first: an honorable mention!...

So that James Harden guy is pretty good
Yes, it’s only one game. But what a game it was....

PGA commissioner cites complacent business plan as proof it isn’t complacent
Denying complacency is a telltale sign of complacency. PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan did just that when he said the tour has “zero complacency” while addressing the rival Saudi golf league with the urgency of someone conducting business on the turn. ...

It’s been a year since the accident that nearly cost Tiger Woods his golf career
It’s been 365 days since Tiger Woods almost lost his life on the side of a road near Los Angeles after driving over a median, through two lanes of oncoming traffic, and hit a tree. It had been just over a month since HBO’s Tiger, a two-part documentary on the golfer’s life and struggles with addicti...

Calling Ben Simmons
It’s been about two weeks since the monster NBA trade that interrupted Super Bowl week between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Brooklyn Nets. All that build-up and neither Ben Simmons nor James Harden have debuted with their new teams yet. Harden is dealing with a recurring hamstring injury. But what...

Lefty’s wrong turn lands him in the long stuff
Phil Mickelson was served a delightful slice of shit sandwich Tuesday as he and one of his longtime sponsors KPMG parted ways. You’d have to assume it was over the golfer’s comments on his willingness to do deals with the Saudis for the betterment of golf, but you also can’t rule out Mickelson’s “co...

Let’s see All-Stars, Pro Bowlers mess around with generational wealth on the line
The reason why I’m against an NBA midseason tournament is the same reason why All-Star weekend events and Pro Bowls don’t work: incentive. Rings are the only unit of bragging rights that matters. It’s why people laugh when Carmelo Anthony talks about all of his Olympic gold medals. There’s no reason...

Where will these quarterbacks go?
I can’t remember an offseason that was filled with so much uncertainty for so many of the game’s elite signal-callers. It’s not just the big names, too. Several mid-tier starters and quarterbacks with Super Bowl experience are on the trade block, as well. With many of these teams looking to replace ...

Phil Mickelson doesn’t care about Saudi Arabia’s awful human rights record
Phil Mickelson will stop at nothing to spite the PGA Tour — not even willingly joining up with the Saudis’ new golf league while simultaneously acknowledging their human rights abuses....

Please, please, please let us see Giannis vs. Embiid in the playoffs
Giannis Antetokounmpo has been playing at an MVP level for so long the media stopped giving him the award. It’s a level that very few players have reached. Depending on their side of the argument, people lament that Michael Jordan and/or LeBron James should have considerably more MVP trophies becaus...

Never a silver lining in this rivalry
Talk your shit, Natalie Spooner. ...

Frisky NFL teams that could get friskier with the right QB
Watching the Rams walk a tightrope without a net this season was exhilarating. They traded two first round picks for Matthew Stafford, and people who hated the deal were a Tom Brady comeback away from laughing at Stan Kroenke and Los Angeles for being so frivolous with their assets. (I would’ve been...