smith Page 45 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

The Greatest Game 1 NBA Finals performances of the 21st century
And now for our second NBA Finals in about nine months....

Cat Osterman tells Deadspin about her return to Olympic softball ahead of the Games
Cat Osterman will wear a different number when she steps onto the Tokyo dirt this summer — 38. It was her tryout number for USA softball after taking a few years away from playing the game. She wore No. 8 when she won Olympic gold in 2004 and silver in 2008 and in her storied career at Texas. Now, i...

This is what the Blackhawks have always been
It’s probably a story that you’ve heard a million times by now if you have any sports leanings, but it needs emphasizing. In the spring of 2010, the Chicago Blackhawks were the center of Chicago. Not just Chicago sports, but Chicago. It was a meteoric and shocking rise, simply because three years be...

Steelers release David DeCastro, and I feel for Najee Harris
I’m a big fan of strong O-lines. A great offensive line can make an average quarterback good. It can make a bad running back look great. Consistent high-level offensive line play almost guarantees a playoff appearance. That’s why I always scratch my head when a team makes a move like the Steelers di...

The Golden Knights sure know how to lose, just like the tourists they’re built around
It’s no secret that Las Vegas is built on losers. They don’t construct a new hotel per week because everyone goes there and takes down the blackjack tables. It’s a town with a foundation on losing. You lose, they win....

SEE IT: Here’s the exact moment the Diamondbacks became a parody of themselves
Some plays are so bad, they’re good. We had one down in Phoenix last night. ...
![Both Team USA Basketball squads looking super stacked [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/51503b88e262f7715869fc26bc8e9bcb.jpg)
Both Team USA Basketball squads looking super stacked [Updated]
Yesterday, the Team USA women’s basketball squad announced its full 12 for next month’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, and the men’s roster, while yet to be finalized, is taking shape....

Carl Nassib becomes first openly gay player on an active NFL roster
Carl Nassib, defensive end for the Las Vegas Raiders, has come out as gay. He is the first openly gay player on an active roster of an NFL team in league history. Nassib did so in a video on his Instagram. ...

Even with a promising QB, Matt Nagy could still screw this up for the Bears
When the Chicago Bears traded up in the first round of the NFL Draft and selected quarterback Justin Fields out of The Ohio State University, Chicagoland felt cautiously optimistic that maybe they finally found the franchise quarterback that has long eluded them....

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. ...

Cool take: Four hours is too much baseball
Ryan Butcher started the 10th inning for the Diamondbacks in their game against the Angels on Friday night, with Jared Walsh serving as the courtesy runner at second base. But it was another of baseball’s unnecessary and irritating new rules that really wound up causing trouble for Arizona....

Nazem Kadri cost the Avs everything
Hockey is a truly vicious sport, in that the team that wins the Presidents’ Trophy — i.e. the team that is best over the largest sample size — rarely “justifies” that achievement in the playoffs. You have to go all the way back to the Hawks in 2013, another shortened season, to find a team that was ...

Ravens will take to the air
I’m going to keep talking about it until people start understanding what’s happening, because the clues just keep on coming: The Baltimore Ravens and Lamar Jackson are going to throw the football a lot more this year. ...

The Avalanche are granny shifting
It’s hard to think of a series the past few years that has been more anticipated than Avalanche-Golden Knights. Rarely do the two best teams in the NHL meet up before the third round, or more likely at all given the vagaries of hockey. But with the divisional setup this year, it was going to be hard...

The 10 coaches with the most wins in NCAA Tournament history — guess who's at the top?
Since we found out that Mike Krzyzewski was retiring after this upcoming season on Wednesday, the Duke head coach has been the lead story throughout the sports world. At the age of 74, the G.O.A.T. has decided to hang it up....

MLB doesn’t need a 'face of baseball,' and the proof is in the playoffs
Mike Trout has as many MVP awards as career playoff games played, with three, and for as much talk as there might be in baseball — even from the commissioner — about MLB’s need for the best player of his generation to take on the mantle of the face of the game, no amount of marketing can make up for...

Ja Morant’s mom won't attend Game 5 in Salt Lake City after harassment from racist fans
I know the overwhelming majority of NBA fans haven’t been throwing water bottles, or running onto the court, or spitting on players, ect. But the actions of a few Utah “fans” have caused Ja Morant’s mom to opt out of a complimentary offer to watch her son play on the road. For her, it’s just not wor...

This Memorial Day, let’s honor the real Pat Tillman
It’s Memorial Day, which means it’s time for the NFL and the right to start co-opting the life and death of Pat Tillman, a former safety for the Arizona Cardinals who passed on a $3.6 million deal to enlist in the Army after 9/11. Rarely mentioned is Tillman’s brother, Kevin, who left the Cleveland ...

Matt Nagy being on the hot seat in Chicago makes zero sense (to non-Bears fans)
When the Chicago Bears shocked the NFL world by trading up nine spots to select Ohio State quarterback Justin Fields with the 11th overall pick, the entire football world applauded Chicago for such a great move. The lack of a consistent starting quarterback had been the biggest elephant on the Bears...

The Penguins tried to game the system and lost big
One of the many catchphrases that Eddie Olczyk has been trying to “fetch” for more than a decade is “Goaltending: If you don’t have it, you got no chance.” Like most of the things Eddie O says, it probably sounds way cooler and more clever in his head. It’s not a play on words, it doesn’t rhyme, it’...