rant Page 49 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
Doc Rivers’ head coaching days must end
While he won Coach of the Year this year, his second such accolade, it becomes clearer and clearer that Tom Thibodeau’s greatest accomplishment was as assistant head coach: getting those Boston Celtics teams around whatever roadblocks Doc Rivers threw in front of them to win that one championship an...
Paul George has chance, and not by choice, to lead a team to new heights
The NBA playoffs have been a brutal war of attrition, with nearly every team left standing dealing with injuries to star players. The Los Angeles Clippers are no different — Kawhi Leonard reportedly has an ACL injury and is out indefinitely. Much like how Kevin Durant was thrown into the fray withou...
Kevin Durant: Solo artist
We’ve never seen Kevin Durant do it on his own. It’s often felt like he needed a complementary piece to excel — or at least that’s the prevailing stigma. In Oklahoma City, he had Russell Westbrook and James Harden. In Golden State, he was second to Steph Curry. Sure, he has his ring (for which most ...
NYC should appreciate and take notice of what’s happening in Brooklyn
To: New York NBA fans ...
Giannis is going to wear this one, no matter how the rest of this series goes
The Bucks might still win this series. Getting harder to see how, as Kyrie Irving could be back for Games 6 and/or 7 and James Harden might actually gain the use of a second leg. And even if neither of those things happen, they still found a way in Game 5. And it’s not that Giannis Antetokounmpo was...
Deadspin presents: Madden old GOAT/young GOAT combos
On Monday, the NFL posted a video teasing a forthcoming announcement in regards to their Madden 22 cover. The social media post suggests that the announcement will be shared at 10 a.m. Thursday. ...
James Harden will reportedly test out his hamstring, taking a huge risk amid injury-plagued season
One day, we’ll learn how this collection of injuries from the 2021 NBA Playoffs could be quantified historically, but, unfortunately, this has to be one of the most football-ass NBA seasons yet....
NBA needs to reevaluate these flagrant-foul rules
The NBA must reconsider the definitions of these fouls. ...
Deadspin looks at all the injuries that have affected the NBA playoffs
When Kyrie Irving went down with an ankle injury halfway through the second quarter of Sunday’s Bucks and Nets Game 4 matchup, basketball fans simultaneously let out a loud groan. The injury bug had hit another star in a season that may be remembered for who was left standing, instead of who was the...
These NBA Playoffs have been painful to play and watch
We are watching the worst NBA playoffs ever....
Hey, another country is forcing an international sporting event down its citizens’ throats
Only 29 percent of the people in Brazil want the country to host Copa America, with 64 percent opposed, but that’s what’s happening anyway, even with 2,000 deaths a day from COVID-19 in Brazil, even with 65,000 new daily cases of coronavirus, even after a dozen members of Venezuela’s contingent test...
Stop the Bubble slander
The Denver Nuggets are down 3-0, meaning no team who reached the NBA’s Final Four in The Bubble has won a game past Round 1, and one of them didn’t even do that. But these four teams — the Nuggets, Los Angeles Lakers, Miami Heat, and Boston Celtics — shouldn’t be diminished for accomplishing what th...
Wheat, chaff, separation, etc., in NBA’s second round
It’s beginning to look a lot like a short second round of the NBA playoffs after the Suns rolled out to a 3-0 lead on the Nuggets with a 116-102 win in Denver on Friday night, behind 28 points from Devin Booker and a 27-point, eight-assist night from Chris Paul....
What happened to all the NBA’s best playoff heel teams?
The NBA playoffs have featured excellent basketball as players who have been on the rise as stars in the league have battled to grab the spotlight....
Euro 2021: So how is England going to screw this up?
The English are the Chicago Bears of international soccer. Even though they basically created the sport, and have one of the biggest fan bases as well, they have sat by and watched others pass them as the game changed and evolved, still clinging to what they believed, all the while bleating about th...
Is Brooklyn's rout of Milwaukee meaningful?
The Bucks lost by 39 points in Brooklyn on Monday night, and it felt like something of a denouement for this current Milwaukee team, which has gone 162-65 over the past three seasons but disappointed in the playoffs....
Do those MVP trophies come with a receipt?
No individual award in American sports generates more debate than the NBA MVP. No one cares about hockey, and half the awards are given to players where the voters don’t really understand why they’re voting for them. Baseball awards are too mired in the debate between how we view the game today and ...
With Harden knocked out early, Nets remind Bucks they’re still stacked
James Harden left Game 1 of the Nets-Bucks series in the first minute, after aggravating the hamstring injury that cost him 21 games during the regular season. Steve Nash doesn’t know whether Harden will be available for Game 2 — either way, the former MVP’s health coming into question reshapes ever...
Devin Booker goes off, joins rarified NBA royalty in slaying L.A.
The NBA has a superstar that not enough people talk about as being in the top tier of league talents, but last night he showcased that he belongs. On the road, to close out the defending champions, Devin Booker went ballistic — he dropped 47 points (a playoff career-high), 11 rebounds, eight three-p...
Lakers roll dice with A.D.’s career for LeBron’s legacy
Shame on the Los Angeles Lakers....