russ Page 22 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Ovechkin ‘calls for peace’ but fails to denounce Putin’s invasion of Ukraine
Alexander Ovechkin finally addressed the crisis in Ukraine, saying some words in a press conference in Philadelphia that sounded nice but were ultimately meaningless....

Fedor Smolov is that guy
After years of political tension between the countries, Russia officially invaded Ukraine on Wednesday, bringing swift sanctions and reaction from around the world, as countries almost unanimously opposed the actions spearheaded by Russian President Vladimir Putin....

Lakers fans might be upset that Shaq didn’t make ESPN’s 75th anniversary top 10, but is there even a legit argument for him making it?
Shaquille O’Neal is seen by many as the most physically dominant and imposing player the NBA has ever produced. Knowing this, you’d think O’Neal would be a lock as a top 10 all-time player on any list. ESPN recently released its ranking of the top 75 NBA players (76 to be exact) for the league’s 75t...

Even when Michael Jordan turns 75, there will still be no athlete that stops a room like him
Michael Jordan turned 59 years old last week, hasn’t played professional basketball since 2003, hit that game-winning shot against the Utah Jazz nearly 25 years ago, and the NBA still belongs to him....

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 ...

Kamila Valieva was just a figurine in a Game among nations
What a farce the International Olympic Committee has made of the Games this year. By not installing real sanctions against Russia for institutionalizing a surreptitious doping program in Sochi, and by not barring an athlete who tested positive for a banned substance, we were witness to the oddest of...

The Lakers might want to look into trading Anthony Davis after the season
The Lakers have been on the struggle bus all season long. Now the idea of the team trading Anthony Davis has been broached, and it might make more sense than people think. Stephen A. Smith talked about this on First Take and made some valid points. ...

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...

Kamila Valieva’s saga sets a dangerous precedent for skaters
It wouldn’t be a proper Winter Olympics without a figure skating melodrama. It’s earned a reputation as the Olympics’ closest equivalent to soap opera. In 2002, a judge cheating scandal led to a reform of the entire scoring system. Tonya Harding’s sabotage of Nancy Kerrigan before the ‘92 Olympics a...

What will make James Harden happy?
James Harden has just strong-armed his way out of his second team in two years. What’s weird is that he was in two completely different situations. ...

Aaron Donald’s reign of terror places him in pantheon of generational defensive players
Offensive highlights litter every catalog of the greatest plays in Super Bowl history, and even fewer of those great plays involve lumbering defensive linemen. A two-yard loss isn’t as exciting as a 25-yard scoring throw or a running back trampling an entire defense. But when the story of Super Bowl...

White Sox vaccine mandate has minor (league) flaw
Even when baseball’s management side gets it right, they manage to get it wrong....

Kevin Durant makes James Harden the last pick on the playground... and it's awesome
I don’t know whose idea it was to hold the NBA All-Star Draft the same day as the trade deadline, but they deserve a massive raise....

In a surprise to no one, Russian Olympic team in another doping scandal
Only seven years after a comprehensive Russian state-sponsored doping program was discovered, and two years after Russia was consequently sanctioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency, the Russian Olympic Committee’s 15-year-old star skater Kamila Valieva has tested positive for a banned substance, pos...
![It feels like LeBron James is done with this Lakers team after Tuesday night’s post-game presser [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/8a0a1c7973a224367148b5d438d6c797.jpg)
It feels like LeBron James is done with this Lakers team after Tuesday night’s post-game presser [Updated]
LeBron James is fed up, and it feels like he’s throwing in the towel on this year’s L.A. Lakers team after Tuesday night’s 131-116 beating at the hands of Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. When asked after the game if he thought the Lakers could reach the level of the Bucks, James got r...

The biggest NBA bandwagon fan base at the midseason mark
As someone who is loyal to a fault, people who hop team allegiances never cease to make my brain hemorrhage. I don’t know how the LeBron James cult does it. “He’s my favorite player” is what a child says when they first discover what sports are. Yeah, I loved Penny Hardaway, too, but when I moved to...

Tennis is having the goldenest of all Golden Ages
It’s strange how normalized greatness is during something’s golden age. If you look at music for example, hip-hop peaked in the ’90s for a lot of people like classic rock did in the ’60s and ’70s. However, even when 2Pac and Biggie were at the apex, rappers like Nas and Jay-Z weren’t in the picture ...

Why this Chicago Bulls moment matters
It wasn’t supposed to last this long. When Michael Jordan slightly pushed off Bryon Russell to square up for a 17-foot jump shot with 5.2 seconds left in 1998, the future was a giant question mark. The moment the shot clock expired, the rebuild began. Bulls fans knew the band was broken up. This wou...

Who are Tom Brady’s peers in other sports?
There’s no doubt Tom Brady won championships at a rate we’ve never seen before in the NFL, with no fellow football players lifting as many titles as the longtime Patriot and most-recent Buccaneer did. He alone holds the record for most Super Bowls won by an individual player....

Spencer Dinwiddie might be on the first thing smoking out of Washington much sooner than anyone expected
It appears that Wizards guard Spencer Dinwiddie’s stay in the nation’s capital could be short-lived. Apparently, Washington is feeling buyer’s remorse halfway through a terrible comeback year for Dinwiddie. He missed pretty much all of last season in Brooklyn with an ACL injury. He may also be a bit...