vic Page 20 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Ukrainian tennis star Marta Kostyuk refuses to shake hands with Russian opponent after win
As her father and grandfather remained trapped in Kyiv with war raging around them, Ukrainian tennis star Marta Kostyuk was making headlines, taking down Russian competitor Varvara Gracheva in the finals of the ATX Open on Sunday. After winning the match in two sets (6-3, 7-5), Kostyuk shook the ump...

Ask Becky Hammon about an NBA coaching gig again, I dare you
Becky Hammon to the NBA feels like a tired story, one that gets revived on occasions like International Women’s Day to remind sports fans that she’s more than capable of leading a basketball team in any league. However, I’m not going to do that because I want to highlight just how exhausting this na...

Six former Phillies all died of the same brain cancer — was it the turf?
The Philadelphia Inquirer gave a masterclass on journalism this week, publishing a report on the toxic chemicals infused in the turf at Veterans Stadium, which was (at least in part) launched by someone coming to the realization that six former Phillies players all died of the same rare brain cancer...

Young people make mistakes, but Ja Morant had better learn quickly from his latest one
I’m not here to psychoanalyze Ja Morant, ask if he has any gang affiliations, or question the influence that his parents are playing in his life. I will say, however, that if Morant was trying to emulate mid-2000s Michael Vick by having an illicit business on the side we probably would have heard ab...

2023 NFL Draft QB prospects spoke! What a world! Come read!
The three biggest names in the 2023 NFL Draft — projected top 10 quarterbacks Bryce Young, C.J. Stroud, and Will Levis — spoke with the media Friday at the combine, and it was electric. No, no, it wasn’t, but football fans hung on every word. No, no, they didn’t. It was pretty standard fare, but let...

The NBA All-Hunk rankings would make George Clooney jealous
The NBA All-Hunk team was released Thursday, and I have to say, it was reassuring to discover that I have no idea what qualifies as attractive for men. It’s nothing against who’s hot or not. I’m just saying my needle isn’t moved one way or the other. ...
![Zack Greinke shakes himself off, a cat on the diamond — Spring Training has been <i>weird</i> [Updated]](https://images.deadspin.com/tr:w-900/82541c3a94f8db05e1a3fdd138d2cb81.png)
Zack Greinke shakes himself off, a cat on the diamond — Spring Training has been <i>weird</i> [Updated]
Every year, MLB spring training provides some sort of insight into the upcoming season, whether it be emerging stars or the adoption of new rule changes. Well if the early goings of this year’s spring training are any indicator, we’re in for some wild times. I’m at the point where nothing on my Twit...

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...

Down to the wire
What are the odds that the NCAA and the NBA’s scoring records would fall within a month? Nothing lasts forever, but the fact that it took a global pandemic and the NCAA granting athletes an extra year of eligibility for Detroit Mercy guard Antoine Davis to come within 26 points of eclipsing the NCAA...

NFL Films cataloged female fan, cheerleader footage with sexualized, offensive descriptions: lawsuit
It’s combine week in the NFL, and to celebrate the league’s views of human flesh, it’s in the news for objectifying women — again. Per a report by the Wall Street Journal, the league and NFL Films allegedly had an archive of fan and cheerleader footage categorized like PornHub kinks — “cheerleaders ...

Vic Fangio's short Eagles stint may be new way NFL franchises get around the Rooney Rule
Super Bowl LVII was a thriller involving all the drama and storylines we’ve come to love about the NFL. We saw multiple big plays, quarterback heroics, and even got a controversial penalty that some feel should’ve been overlooked, even though it was clearly a penalty. Something else occurred in the ...

Trading Justin Fields shouldn’t even be a discussion
The Chicago Bears own the No. 1 pick — congratulations on yet another successful tank — and some hosts of sports debate shows are weighing whether they should trade Justin Fields and then draft Bryce Young. This is ridiculous and not going to happen. ...

The 2023 basketball HOF finalists have a legacy worthy of the honor
The list of finalists for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame is a snapshot of an era. Dirk Nowitzki and Dwyane Wade headline the class, having met twice in the NBA Finals, splitting the titles between them. Gregg Popovich, Tony Parker, and Becky Hammon are forever San Antonio Spurs. And t...

Maybe blowing it up is the right call
About six weeks ago, I came here to lament how whenever one thing went wrong for a team, in any sport these days, the immediate call from fans and media alike was to simply blow things up. We have become so attuned to teams either being contenders or driving themselves into the dirt to start over th...

Nuggets’ All-Star power outage is either disrespect from the league or a playoff omen
Nikola Jokić’s season has been one for the ages. The Denver Nuggets are first in the West, first in offensive efficiency, Jokić is a god according to almost every analytics metric as well as the runaway favorite to become the first MVP in three consecutive seasons since Larry Bird ran the table betw...

Here's what you need to know as the Champions League returns
It only feels like the Champions League is late in returning for its knockout stage, but this is the normal time of year. What isn’t normal is cramming a World Cup in between the group stages and the knockouts, which makes it seem like this season has already gone on forever even when most leagues a...

Chris Berman's emancipation reference is why we need to teach more Black history
Chris Berman’s postgame NFL Primetime ramblings were the soundtrack of my childhood, man. But in Sunday night’s Super Bowl postgame, Berman stepped way outside of his expertise with his ponderings about the first showdown in Super Bowl history between black quarterbacks– and placed his foot squarely...

Remember LaMelo Ball?
Coming into the season you could see the Charlotte Hornets heading for a ravine. They lost their second-best player to off-the-court issues, and LaMelo Ball was literally limping into the year. Well, the family wagon smashed right off that cliff. ...

Durant to Phoenix, Lake Show reboot: Recapping the NBA Trade Deadline’s biggest deals
The 2023 NBA Trade Deadline was one last chance for intrepid NBA contenders to separate themselves from the pack and for a select group of sluggish teams to stow a stimulant onto their rosters. Unless you’re John Collins still stuck on the runway in Atlanta, it didn’t disappoint. The relative parity...

This is new — the Lakers are making reasonable yet still helpful trades
Look at the Los Angeles Lakers. After years of flicking away rotation players and first-round draft picks like doughnut crumbs, they have finally made some moves that go towards building a full-fledged NBA roster. On Wednesday they finally unloaded Russell Westbrook’s expiring contract, and in retur...