stephenasmith Page 4 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights
LeBron James isn’t retiring
Going to get this in writing real quick just so I can do the sports media thing in a couple of months and say I told you so: LeBron James isn’t retiring. The guy had 40, 10, and 9 in a closeout game, and the Los Angeles Lakers were a second scorer away from the NBA Finals. This is simply a little mo...
ESPN spent millions on Pat McAfee in the middle of company-wide layoffs
You have to spend money to make money. But you can’t save money if you keep spending — unless you’re ESPN....
LeBron James vs. Nikola Jokić, and the other Lakers-Nuggets Western Conference Finals storylines
We did not get Kevin Durant vs. Stephen Curry in the Western Conference Finals. Instead, the participants in the series are the best teams in the conference — the Denver Nuggets and Los Angeles Lakers....
We're all for the Miami Heat dunking on Stephen A. Smith
Longtime ESPN on-air personality Stephen A. Smith has made no secrets about where his NBA loyalties lie, and it’s in The Big Apple with the Knicks. And New York’s season ended Friday night with a Game 6 loss to the Heat. Of course, Smith took the loss personally, but that didn’t stop Miami from reco...
The idea of Kevin Durant was always better than the real Kevin Durant
Whenever someone talks about Kevin Durant, they bring up what he is capable of doing a lot more than they bring up what he actually does. I could retire if I had a dollar for every time Stephen A. Smith has said “6-foot-11, can pull up from 30.” But he doesn’t actually get the job done very often....
IDIOT OF THE MONTH: April was bad
Welcome to Deadspin’s IDIOT OF THE MONTH! We’re here to make you think about death and get sad and stuff....
Roger Goodell and the Top 10 sports figures we’d like to...'celebrate' 4/20 with
There’s something communal about smoking weed. Whether at a bar or house party, one of my favorite parts of any evening of imbibing is sneaking off to an inconspicuous alley and passing around a joint while cracking jokes, coughing, and getting that perfect head rush before re-entering the foray daz...
Leave Zion Williamson alone. Did Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka not teach us anything?
From college to the NBA, as long as we’ve been watching Zion Williamson play basketball, he’s never had a season that wasn’t impacted by an injury. Since his one-and-done year at Duke to his four seasons with the New Orleans Pelicans, the league’s most electrifying player still hasn’t been able to s...
Did Michael Jordan shave his head because of Onyx?
One of my favorite Bill Burr observations didn’t take place on stage. He was talking about the ESPN 30 for 30 film The U, and for all that he liked about it, he especially enjoyed the players overexaggerating their accomplishments as people sometimes do as they get older. For example, Bennie Blades ...
ESPN is set to be the next sports media company to get rocked with layoffs
Hard economic times have come for ESPN and its parent company — Disney. Like many companies, Disney is doing some downsizing. There have been rumors for a while and returning CEO Bob Iger dropped the hammer when he sent out a memo in which he states that the company is beginning the process of layin...
Jackass Tournament: The rest of Round 1
Welcome back to Deadspin’s March Madness-themed Jackass Tournament. Here are the rest of the results from Round 1. Yesterday’s batch is available here....
Baltimore Ravens could've avoided the Lamar Jackson contract drama 2 years ago
In August 2021, the Buffalo Bills guaranteed Josh Allen $150 million. He played at a draft-bust level as a rookie, slightly improved in his second season, and after the Bills signed Stefon Diggs, Allen took off in season three. Lamar Jackson was selected in that same draft and in his first full seas...
JJ Redick and Kendrick Perkins are becoming ESPN’s new debate-show circus
JJ Redick looks like he’d rather be receiving a colonoscopy than embracing the debate on First Take. Redick joined ESPN after retirement, riding the success of his podcast The Old Man and the Three, and initially seemed like an odd fit for First Take. However, the more he strikes a nerve with his co...
Things you wouldn’t have believed in 2018: The Ball bros will be sympathetic figures
If Lavar Ball was to be believed, NBA fans should be nearing phase two of the Ball-aissance. Lonzo is in his sixth year, LaMelo is in his third, and LiAngelo, well, if things had panned out, he’d be somewhere in between. But LiAngelo currently has no entries on his Basketball Reference page, Lonzo i...
Charles Barkley bashes players (again) but he isn’t completely wrong
TNT analyst and Hall of Famer Charles Barkley appeared on First Take Tuesday morning and said something wild. Shocker. While some might take offense to what Sir Charles said, he did have a point. Barkley hasn’t been shy in sharing his thoughts on load management over the years. While on First Take w...
Darvin Ham says Lakers' goal is playoffs — but the team faces a post-All-Star break gaunlet
The Los Angeles Lakers are entering a critical time in their schedule after the All-Star break. With just 23 games remaining in the regular season, the Lakers are five games under .500 (27-32) and have a seven-game stretch where they’ll play all Western Conference foes, starting with the Golden Stat...
JJ Redick is taking the path less interesting
I never thought I’d say, “You know what, maybe J.J. Redick doesn’t suck,” but he’s surprisingly insightful in his post-playing career gig at ESPN. The former Blue Devil understands how the current iteration of the game is played as well as any analyst for the network and takes a refreshing approach ...
These are the most obnoxious fan bases in sports (and pop culture)
The easiest way to protect yourself from outside criticism is to critique others. Negativity begets negativity, and I don’t even know where this is going because I’m here to tell you about insufferable fan bases....
If Chris Paul, Suns can’t win a championship with Kevin Durant, it’s time to drop the 'Point God' moniker
Once the Phoenix Suns pulled off the blockbuster trade of the year for Kevin Durant, many pundits began to pencil them in as the Western Conference representative in the NBA Finals. Looking at their core of Devin Booker, Chris Paul, DeAndre Ayton, plus Durant, it’s easy to see why they’d be catapult...
Chandler Parsons taken to task on Twitter over LeBron James critique
In case you missed it, we had Chandler Parsons sighting recently, and it wasn’t on an NBA team’s injured reserve list. The oft-injured former NBA player is no longer on a roster in the Association if you can believe that. Now that his play days are officially over, Parsons can be seen on FanDuel TV ...