rant Page 85 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
The Time Has Come For America's Flight Attendants To Shut Up
I think we can all agree that the emcee-ization of America's flight attendants has grown steadily worse over the past decade. And today, reader Kurt has sent us (and Gawker) arguably the nadir of flight attendant pep talks. I must warn you in advance that these will be among the two most painfully a...
Two Golfers, A Kicker, A Lemonade-Lovin' Linebacker, And One Crazy Goalie: The Few Athletes Who Endorsed Chick-Fil-A
A rule of thumb: if you'd like to learn about the next culture-war shitstorm before it hits, you're best served by visiting sort-of Bruins goalie Tim Thomas's Facebook page. (I say "sort-of" because Thomas has announced he'll take next year off from the NHL.) Thomas weighed in on Obamacare and birth...
Why Would An Olympic Basketball Player Not Want To Lead His Team In Scoring? To Avoid Drug Testing.
Thanks to Grant Hill, another interesting piece of Olympic basketball lore has risen to the surface. Yesterday, Hill went on the Dan Patrick Show, and talked about how nobody on the 1996 Olympic basketball team wanted to be the team's leading scorer, because that person would automatically have to ...
Kevin Durant, James Harden, And Deron Williams Are On A Segway Tour Across Europe
Durant posted this picture of himself and a couple USA basketball teammates on Segways this morning with the caption, "Barcelona." The 1992 Dream Team partied with the locals 'til all hours; the 2012 version of USA Basketball Instagrams photos of themselves on Segways, wearing helmets....
Ryan Kalil Takes Out Full-Page Newspaper Ad Guaranteeing A Panthers Super Bowl Victory
Athletes have to mince words. You ask them if they think they're the best, or if their team is going to win it all, and they probably believe the answer is yes, but know they can't just say that. They know they'll get roasted in the media and by opposing fans and players, so they pussyfoot around. T...
Counterpoint: Ads On Jerseys Are Bush-League Crap, And If You Think They're OK, You're A Stooge
Oh, gee, the NBA wants to build on its incredible globe-spanning success and goodwill by putting ads on its uniforms, because...that's how they do it in the WNBA. And MLS. And various other unpopular and/or foreign sports leagues, and uh NASCAR, which, really? NASCAR was a long-form automobile comme...
Read The Full Saga Of The Piggyback Bandit
Back in 2009, we wrote about the strange antics of Sherwin Shayegan, otherwise known as the Piggyback Bandit. Intrigued by Sherwin's story, the fine folks at Grantland sent Bryan Curtis on the bandit's trail in the hopes that some sense could be made of the man's obsession with piggyback rides....
Everything You Could Ever Want To Know About The Early Years Of WFAN, And More
Grantland's oral history whizzes have cooked up a doozy today on WFAN, the all-day New York sports talk radio station. Mike Francesa doesn't speak in the piece—a footnote explains that it's a "matter of principle" regarding his beef with ESPN—but everybody else does. Imus, Rose, Russo, Somers, Eagle...
Kevin Durant's Post-Game Tears Are Sad, Chilling
While the Heat celebrated their second NBA championship on the court, Kevin Durant's private-turned-public moment caught plenty of attention as tears streamed down the Thunder star's face as he hugged his mother....
Everyone Relax: The Guy Burning The Kevin Durant Jersey Isn't A Thunder Fan
This Twitter photo of a man in a Braves cap setting fire to a Kevin Durant jersey is making the rounds this morning. There's all kinds of hand-wringing about Thunder fans and fake fans and bandwagoners and what do you people want, James Harden was cold and Russell Westbrook made a dumb mistake and S...
The Thunder-Heat Series Isn't About The Noise; It's About The Beauty
Before turning on the television to watch Game 3 of the NBA Finals last night, I made the mistake of going to ESPN.com to read about the game, and then I compounded that mistake by clicking on this link, which led me to a video clip of Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless screaming about how terrible ...
Yes, LeBron James Fouled Kevin Durant
Kevin Durant's shot with 10 seconds left to tie last night's NBA Finals Game 2 didn't drop, and now the series is tied 1-1. Arguing over whether a foul should have been called on LeBron James is silly; Durant just as easily could have been called for a charge moments before, and there's no guaran...
What Dwyane Wade And LeBron James Can Learn From Kevin Durant And Russell Westbrook After Game 1
The Miami Heat began the third quarter of Game 1 of the NBA finals leading by seven points. The Heat had played brilliantly throughout the first half, executing crisp passes that criscrossed the floor and left the Thunder unable to close out on wide open three-point shooters. It looked like the Hea...
Dear ESPN: Your Movie-Tie-In Promos Suck
I was watching the NBA Finals last night. Or, at least, I was attempting to watch them. ESPN was unconcerned with my ability to watch the fucking game and much more interested in running 17 different introductory segments to the game. This is what ESPN always does. They run a dramatic intro to the g...
Thunder Take Game 1, Send Pat Riley Into His Own Personal Hell
Bless you, Pat Riley. For all your maniacal tendencies and consistently omnipresent persona, you're just willing to put yourself out there in the Chesapeake Energy Arena crowd and subject yourself to a first-hand view of the Thunder's gripping comeback in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Kevin Durant chipp...
Happy First Birthday, Grantland! It's Been A Delight Watching You Grow.
Sock photo via Grantland director of business development David Cho's Instagram....
I'm Worried About Quentin Tarantino's <em>Django Unchained</em>
It'd be difficult to find a bigger Quentin Tarantino fanboy than I am. It's a little embarrassing, actually; I was one of those nerds posting on alt.fans.tarantino dorkboards the year Justin Bieber was born. (The fact that Google archives Usenet forums from 20 years ago is just cruel.) I think Jacki...
ESPN's Going To Produce A Bunch More <em>30 For 30</em> Films
So, fantastic news. ESPN will announce at today's upfront that they will roll out a second series of sports documentaries under the 30 For 30 umbrella, even though it's no longer the network's 30th anniversary and there may not be 30 of them. The first one will premier this fall, and new films will ...
Summer Is The Goddamn Worst
May has started, which means that we're quickly running out of May and I don't want May to end because that means summer is here and OH FUCK GOD PLEASE NOT AGAIN....