si Page 997 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Isiah Thomas Seeks To Ruin Indiana Basketball Program?
The New York Post's Peter Vecsey—and yes, I'm aware that just saying those six words makes any words that follow completely meaningless—reports this morning that Knicks GM Isiah Thomas may want to be the next head coach of the Indiana Hoosiers. Vecsey says that before he came to New York, Isiah ha...

Steve Francis Will Attempt To Love Stephon Marbury As He Once Loved Cuttino Mobley
And Larry Brown will hate them both....

A-Rod Chucks Dominicans Under the Bus
Well, not really. But regardless of how it plays out, that's what most people will think. Everybody seems to just HATE this guy. Yesterday, Alex Rodriguez spoke openly about his decision to play for America in the upcoming World Baseball Classic, mostly because, well, he was born here. He didn't ...

Elsewhere...
• Reads the caption: "Michelle Kwan was named one of People Magazine's '50 Most Beautiful People' in 2000." And here's her nipple. Or, as I like to call it, Kwannipple....

Poll: Isiah Wins, But It's Closer Than You Think
Well, the results are in from our poll about a theoretical (for now) fight between Isiah Thomas and Bill Simmons, and, well, we're rather shocked: You give Simmons a lot better chance of winning this duel than we possibly could have though. Out of Deadspin readers, 46.2 percent of you think Simmo...

A-Rod Finally Stops Spinning
Honestly, we're starting to get a little embarrassed to even post about this, but hey, we're here, this is our job, this is what we do ... it's time for another Alex Rodriguez in the World Baseball Classic post. (We've covered this, let's see, here, here and here.)...

Isiah Thomas. Bill Simmons. Quien Es Mas Macho?
In one of those stories that almost seem too good to be true around here, it appears that good ole' Bill Simmons has been threatened by Knicks general "manager" Isiah Thomas on — of all things — Stephen A. Smith's radio show. In his newest "More Cowbell" post, a Simmons reader writes in:...

J.J. Redick's Coming Out Party
And we thought the USC girl celebrating a Texas touchdown would've been the best photo of the week? Never underestimate the cleverness of a sneaky Terrapin fan....

Elsewhere...
• Morris Peterson gets ejected from the Raptors/Nets game for slapping Vince Carter in the face. I didn't see it, so I can't comment, but I can't think of too many reasons to not slap Vince Carter. Sorry. I'm not a Vince Carter fan....

A-Rod Changes His Mind On Who He Is Again
Baseball Think Factory (via Baseball Musings) reports that endless external to-and-fro, Yankees lipstick model Alex Rodriguez has finally decided to play for the United States in the upcoming World Baseball Classic....

MLB, Feel The Excitement!
In typical finger-on-the-pulse fashion, MLB.com promotes the World Baseball Classic, encouraging readers to tap into the electric current of excitement by showing us ... a picture of two pasty white guys. To be fair, the guy on the left has a pretty sweater vest that is packing much funk....

A Beer Gut For A Beer City
We know it hasn't been the most productive offseason for our beloved St. Louis Cardinals, and we feared they would, in the face of growing public criticism in the face of a new stadium, make a rash deal just to say they're doing something. But jeez: We didn't think they'd start paying guys by the ...

A-Rod Loves His Countries Just Too Damn Much
Well, after much careful deliberation — that is to say:...

Barry Zito's Suddenly A Zesty Italian!
In response to our light tapping of Alex Rodriguez for playing for the Dominican Republic in the upcoming World Baseball Classic, reader Gerald Smith emails us to set us straight:...

A-Rod, The World's Free Agent
Much talk this morning about Yankees hero of the working man Alex Rodriguez telling a radio station that he is leaning toward playing for the Dominican Republic in the upcoming World Baseball Classic rather than the United States. A-Rod has never, in fact, lived in the Dominican; he was born in Ne...

Sources: Roy S. Johnson Leaving SI
All kinds of job cuts happening at Time Inc. today — because it's not just important to make gobs of money; you must make gobs and gobs of money — and our fine friends at Sports Illustrated were not spared, it seems....

Athlete Run-In: Chris Simms', Truckin'
Today's first athlete run-in story comes to us from Austin, Tex., where an unusually high number of our athlete run-in stories originate. It's from Robert, an Austin resident, about current Buccaneer and former Longhorn Chris Simms....

Choose Bill Simmons' Next Move
We've been accused, in polite circles, of being too nice to Our Boy Bill Simmons and, in not-so-polite ones, of "kissing his ass." We don't quite understand this; we make fun of Simmons as much as any non-"Cold Pizza" employee. We think it's because the rest of the Web has made it a mission, it se...

The Jet Lag Games
We'll admit: All this talk about the World Baseball Classic is starting to get us somewhat all a-twitter. Not only are we being promised meaningful baseball a month early, but everyone appears to be showing up: Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, even Roger Clemens, delaying his I'll-retir...

Who's Your Favorite Sportswriter's Binkie?
Inspired by a comment in this morning's story about Jason Whitlock and his rips on Michael Irvin, a commenter named Mr. Poon — who runs this site — pointed out something curious about Whitlock. Namely, that Whitlock, in pinch, will fall back on his blind spot; his odd belief that Jeff George (a hi...