rant Page 14 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Reggie Evans Bad Basketball Basketball Hall of Fame 2023 inductees
Studies have shown that negative news garners more of the public’s attention than positive news, so with that knowledge, I propose an alternative to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. The Basketball Hall of Fame has the prestige, but it doesn’t generate as much conversation as Twitter ramblings f...

Kevin Durant jumps in Twitter Space about himself and sons the participants
In 2023, there is nothing unusual about staying inside on a Friday night. Outside are gouged prices for steaks and cocktails, while inside provides unimpeded toilet access and a personal wifi connection. Spending the night in a Twitter Space arguing about whether or not Kevin Durant is currently a t...

Are no-trade clauses still needed in the NBA?
It’s like the holy grail of professional sports contracts. The elusive no-trade clause. This stipulation is preserved for a select few, but they almost seem pointless in the NBA. Last week Bradley Beal waived the no-trade clause in his deal with the Washington Wizards to clear a path to Phoenix. He ...

Chris Paul brings stability to the Warriors' dreadful reserves
Title-chasing leads to strange bedfellows. Steph Curry has now been tasked with accomplishing what Kevin Durant failed — dragging Chris Paul’s withering body to an NBA title. He’s no longer an All-Star caliber player, but there’s still something left. Now, the future Hall of Famer will be imported i...

Dame Lillard and Portland are dancing around an uncomfortable truth
Every amateur couples therapist I’ve ever encountered on the web or on Twitter threads talks about passive-aggressiveness as a relationship killer. This offseason, the Portland Blazers, and Damian Lillard seem to have conflicting goals. The Miami Heat’s interest persists, but Portland has reportedly...

Marcus Smart might be exactly what the Memphis Grizzlies need
After nine years in Boston, Marcus Smart was sent packing to Memphis. On the surface, it might sound like a raw deal for Smart, but his arrival in Tennessee could be the best thing to happen to the Memphis Grizzlies since Ja Morant fell in their laps four years ago. Smart isn’t a superstar, but much...

NBA contenders might have to start holding onto those first- and second-round picks
The Golden State Warriors have been the model franchise for how to keep a core group together. Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green were able to stay united for a decade for a few different reasons — salary cap increase, luck, well-timed contracts — but No. 1 on that list is they spent mon...

The Beal-Porzingis-Paul deals feel like a D.C. psyops campaign
After blundering through the last decade, The D.C. Universe is rebooting. Not the Snyderverse IP. I’m talking about the grotesque prospects for basketball in the District of Columbia. Hang around there long enough and you’ll catch me moaning about the bleak times facing the Commanders, Nats, and Wiz...
![With addition of Bradley Beal, Phoenix Suns are determined to become the NBA’s next superteam [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/661d17efbe5fe1a89cb6b35eeaa5f074.jpg)

Ja Morant fittingly suspended 25 games for a couple moments of idiocy
The other Nike dropped for Ja Morant on Friday with NBA commissioner Adam Silver levying a 25-game suspension for one the league’s brightest stars. The Memphis Grizzlies All-NBA point guard also will have to fulfill a program that he formulates himself (whatever good that’ll do) as part of his punis...

2023 All-Postseason Team, a FANtastic performance by these 5 players
America, glad to see the NBA playoffs were able to hold your attention again. With an average of 5.47 million viewers per game, the 2023 postseason was the most watched in five years. And more importantly, per Darren Rovell, since April of the 20 most watched programs by Americans under 50, the NBA ...

Here we go with this Kylian Mbappe nonsense again
Some transfer/trade/free agency stories go on for years, which is what it appears Kylian Mbappe is intent on creating. We all knew about LeBron James’s first free agency three years beforehand as ESPN turned it into its own Odyssey. And his second one a couple years before. Kevin Durant’s next desti...

Nikola Jokić made a mockery of Heat culture
Imagine being Pat Riley, Jimmy Butler, and the Miami Heat’s training staff right now. They spent two decades preaching the advantages of elite fitness, conditioning, and mining for diamonds in the rough. Every season, Miami mandates that its players maintain a body fat percentage low enough to go wa...

A chaotic NBA season punctuated by a chaotic championship finish
The perfection of basketball offense. The shooting is too great. There is no way to defend the entire floor. The 3-point shot has ruined basketball. The Denver Nuggets had one of the greatest statistical offenses in NBA history during the 2022-23 NBA regular season, and defeated the Miami Heat in Ga...

What the hell is holding back Damian Lillard?
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....

Is NBA commish Adam Silver going to teach Ja Morant gun safety?
Ja Morant is clearly going to be punished. There is no way that he can be allowed on the court for the Memphis Grizzlies’ season opener after so quickly proving that he didn’t understand the severity of playing with guns on social media. Adam Silver confirmed Thursday that Morant will be away from b...

Could James Harden reunite with Kevin Durant in Phoenix?
Just when you thought super teams were fading away, ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne dropped this bomb on us. The senior NBA writer says to keep an eye on James Harden making his way to the Phoenix Suns, as this bombshell comes just a day after news broke about Chris Paul being shown the door. This is anothe...

Chris Paul is done as a starting point guard
On Wednesday evening, Bleacher Report insider Chris Haynes’ report that the Suns were prepared to waive point guard Chris Paul before a June 28 deadline which would guarantee his entire $30 million salary for the next season triggered a fury of interest in the 38-year-old. Shams Charania and Adrian ...

Chris Paul is gonna be a Laker, isn't he?
The dark postseason cloud that’s followed Chris Paul’s Hall of Fame career is moving on from Phoenix after the 12-time All-Star was informed by Suns executives that he will be waived this offseason, according to Bleacher Report’s Chris Haynes....