v Page 1737 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

NBA Daily Fantasy: Why would you <em>not</em> play Kevin Durant? And is the debuting Kristaps Porzingis worth a look?
We’ll have to wait and see how he feels in March or so, but so far, Kevin Durant’s been an MVP candidate. Did you see him last night against the Denver Nuggets? And people think the Nets will drop off without Kyrie Irving. Pffft. The Slim Reaper won’t let that happen. Let’s stay in Brooklyn for the ...

How do you solve a problem like Kyrie? Enigmatic star is kind of all of us right now: Lost and trying to find himself
Kyrie Irving is tough to pin down, and not just when it comes to figuring out his whereabouts....

NHL West Preview: Some top-tier teams, but mostly trash
We move out West, which is probably the most top-heavy of the new-fangled, COVID-adjusted divisions this season. There are three genuine contenders here...and then a whole lot of trash. Colorado, Vegas, and St. Louis will feast on the chum on offer in this intra-division only schedule, and the race ...

COVID-19 will define Adam Silver’s legacy
At its core, leadership is unfair. When things go well, leaders get all the praise. But, when things don’t, the burden is theirs alone to carry....

NHL Central Preview: This division makes no geographical sense
For the sake of this season, Florida is apparently central, and Dallas is central even though it’s west of St. Paul and St. Louis, which are both in the west this year. This is truly the season of people throwing ducks at balloons and nothing is the way it seems. Whatever the odd alignments, this di...

Shouldn’t all publicly-funded stadiums become mass vaccination sites?
The vaccine rollout hasn’t exactly happened at warp speed. So far, nearly 9 million Americans have received a first dose of the COVID shot. If we want to move faster, we may need super-centers and round-the-clock immunizations to accommodate the hundreds of millions of Americans still waiting to be ...

Batty ’Bama fans test the theory of herd immunity after national title win
After seeing their team win their fifth national championship in the last decade, Alabama fans apparently weren’t interested in letting a teeny tiny pandemic stop them from celebrating in the streets really, really close together....
![NBA probes video appearing to show Kyrie Irving partying during mysterious absence [UPDATED]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/cuawwmddhyufecbqecyu.jpg)
NBA probes video appearing to show Kyrie Irving partying during mysterious absence [UPDATED]
Fans of the Boston Celtics and Cleveland Cavaliers warned the Brooklyn Nets contingent that things would be abnormal....

Steelers were total garbage in end-of-year stench stretch
It’s Trash Talking Tuesday, and today I’m trashing the Pittsburgh Steelers for getting embarrassed by the Cleveland Browns in the playoffs....

Bill Belichick backpedaled into right decision on top of a soapbox he’s never used
It has come to Bill Belichick’s attention that he will not be getting the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Thursday at the White House....

NHL East Preview: The gang's all here
This division is loaded with veteran teams like Pittsburgh, Washington, and Boston that still expect to compete for the Stanley Cup, teams on the rise in the Islanders and Flyers, and teams bolstered by recent No. 1 overall picks like the Rangers, Devils and Sabres who are hoping to break through....

Sheldon Adelson, enemy of the free press — and online poker — dies at 87
Sheldon Adelson, chairman and CEO of Las Vegas Sands casino group, and the largest individual donor to Donald Trump’s presidential campaigns, died on Monday night, according to a statement released by Las Vegas Sands....

Lo! The NFL divisional playoff round draws hither
This crazy, six-game slate on Wild Card Weekend lived up to the hype, delivering history and upsets and exciting games, wire to wire. We now have a Divisional Round in the NFL Playoffs that includes the Buffalo Bills and the Cleveland Browns. Crazy, right?...

Alabama provides yet another COVID-era chalk title
With the added obstacle of a pandemic, you’d think we would be ripe for surprises. The greater protocols, disrupted or interrupted preparation schedules, the increased pressure based on not really being able to do anything else (not to mention the mental strain), the shortened seasons increasing the...

WWE Champion Drew McIntyre tests positive for COVID 20 days before Royal Rumble
This afternoon, the WWE announced that two-time and current WWE Champion Drew McIntyre tested positive for COVID-19 and is in quarantine. McIntyre’s positive test was reported hours before RAW was set to air live on USA at its usual 8 p.m. EST....
![Bill Belichick has some integrity, turns down Trump’s Medal of Freedom [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/ydzh8w5at6msazqn6kf5.jpg)
Bill Belichick has some integrity, turns down Trump’s Medal of Freedom [Updated]
Updated on Jan. 11, 2021 at 7:45 p.m. EST: Several hours after posting this column, Bill Belichick released a statement saying he will not accept the Medal of Freedom offered by Donald Trump. You can read Belichick’s statement in the tweet below from ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Beneath that is our origina...

Ravens send Titans to Cancun with an L and plenty of disrespect
In a highly competitive Wild Card playoff matchup, the Baltimore Ravens pulled out a 20-13 win in Nashville against the Titans. While any win in the playoffs is sweet, this one obviously meant more to the Ravens, who took home a grudge match today....

Florida government declares college football more important than COVID vaccine
It’s pretty easy to feel hopeless after the past week. There have been far more dangerous, frightening, and completely deflating examples of how our priorities and perceptions have been borked beyond repair. So to find comedy in the state of Florida putting a halt to COVID testing and vaccinations a...

Like most everything the NHL does, this season is a wreck before it even starts
Credit to the NHL, in that its summer bubble went off about as smoothly as could be imagined, allowing the league to complete its playoffs and award the Stanley Cup. Betting that the NHL wouldn’t be able to get through anything without fucking up royally was a very chalky play, so it was a real upse...

Gardner-Webb wrestles with the concept of negative numbers
What we’re learning so far in 2021 is that when you think things are as bad as they possibly could be, you’re wrong, because there’s always a way that it could be worse....