August 9, 2013
Second Round, First Priority: Ricky Ledo and Exploiting the CBA's Inefficiencies
Ricky Ledo’s contract negotiations were going badly. Which sounds a little ridiculous. The Mavs selected Ledo with the 43rd pick in the draft, meaning he was a second-rounder with very little leverage and almost certainly no place else to go if he wished to play in the NBA anytime soon. His track record to that […]
Read more
The BestCoolest Players I've Ever Seen: Hitters
After writing about pitchers yesterday, a refresher on the rules: • “Best” remains the most important criterion here. We’ll lean on objective metrics as we always do. But there’ll be some subjectivity too. I’m not above giving bonus points for flair. Roughly speaking, we’re counting a player’s accomplishments as 70 percent of the equation, cool […]
Read more
Defending A-Rod: Breaking Down the Rodriguez Appeal
It finally happened. After months of rumors and speculation surrounding the Biogenesis fallout, Major League Baseball suspended 13 players for performance-enhancing drug violations this week. The suspensions included a 211-game ban for Alex Rodriguez, intended to cover the remainder of the 2013 and 2014 seasons. According to a statement from MLB, A-Rod was punished under […]
Read more
The Breaking Bad–to–NBA Translator
[FAIR WARNING: There are spoilers here up through the current aired episodes. And one pretty graphic/gross Photoshop that’s also a spoiler.] At first glance, it may not seem like there’s a lot in common between professional basketball and the story of a chemistry teacher turning to a life of crime in the face of a […]
Read more
About Last Night: Quoth the Ravens
In case you were busy getting way too excited about preseason football, here’s what you missed in sports on Thursday: The reigning Super Bowl champion Baltimore Ravens sent a message to the league with a 44-16 preseason win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their preseason opener. That message: “Dearest League, has it really been […]
Read moreAugust 8, 2013
28-Day NFL Warning: The Transitions of DeMarcus Ware and Wes Welker (With Video Interviews!)
What’s that? You were wondering exactly how many days until the start of the NFL season? Well, you’re in luck! We here at the Triangle are set to spend the next month providing a daily reason to get excited about pro football’s return. In the past six years, it’s impossible to find two players more […]
Read more
Four Takeaways From Adidas Nations
As we filed into the stands of the Hall of Champions Gym in Long Beach, California, for the first game of the Adidas Nations Global Championships on Monday, I overheard a brief exchange between an amateur scout and a man who wandered in, sure of a spectacle, but unsure of what he was looking at: […]
Read more
Tyrann Mathieu and Two Sides of Sports
Almost exactly a year ago, an LSU beat writer sent word early one Friday morning that big news was coming later in the day. #LSU football with a BIG press conference today at noon. The news will be substantial. — Jacques Doucet (@JacquesDoucet) August 10, 2012 A few hours later, Tyrann Mathieu was officially kicked […]
Read more
The BestCoolest Players I've Ever Seen: Pitchers
This week, Grantland profiled the best player in today’s game and also lamented/scrutinized/mourned/HotTake’d one of the greatest players of all time. Any time a discussion of best-sports-anything starts, it has a tendency to get heated. Float a couple of top-of-the-head tweets even hinting at ranking the best baseball players of this generation, and suddenly everyone […]
Read more
Text Messages to Dwight Howard: Less Than Sebastian Telfair!??!
Dwight Howard has been a Houston Rocket for four weeks. I sent him some text messages. Me: hey. You read that thing about LeBron if he was a football player? Think you could make it in the nfl? Dwight: didn’t see it. Gary was sick. Me: what? Who’s gary? Dwight: gary’s my reader. Me: your […]
Read more
The All-22 All-Star Team: Casey Hayward and the Value of a Nickel
The All-22 All-Star Team is an attempt to provide some insight on the NFL’s 22 most underappreciated players. Some will be All-Pros who haven’t fully gotten their due; some will be names few casual fans have ever heard. All will, for one reason or another, have been overlooked. The concept isn’t new. It was first […]
Read more
How We’d Keep It the Same: 15 Things That Should Never Change in the NHL
So it turns out the NHL has a few things to work on during its summer vacation. But things aren’t all bad! Here, in no particular order, are 15 things the NHL should never change. 1. The Goalie Masks I feel strongly on this subject. 2. The Reliable Pregame Routines I am specifically referring to […]
Read more
Why Tiger Woods, Warrior-Golfer, Will Win the PGA Championship
Normally I write a “top 10 contenders” post before each major, but after witnessing Tiger Woods’s recent form, I decided it wasn’t necessary. I’m convinced he’s going to end his long drought and win this year’s PGA Championship, “Glory’s Last Shot,” per the dramatic men on television. So rather than giving token lip service to […]
Read more
B.S. Report: Nate Silver and Malcolm Gladwell
Nate Silver and Malcolm Gladwell join Bill to discuss how periodicals are adjusting to the Internet age, PED use in sports, and Nate’s vision for his new partnership with ESPN. To listen to this podcast, download it on iTunes here, or to listen at the ESPN.com Podcenter, here.
Read more
We Went There: The Jaguars and Ravens Show Why They Are Who They Are in Training Camp
It’s really easy to compare the training camps of the Jaguars and Ravens. It’s more difficult to avoid letting your preconceived notions filter in. If I asked you to compare the experience at each camp without actually having been there, you’d probably get most of the notes right. You would expect the Ravens to be […]
Read more
About Last Night: Working Hard, Harvey Working
In case you were busy declaring that your rap career is one and done, here’s what you missed in sports on Wednesday: Matt Harvey dominated the Rockies, throwing a four-hit shutout as the Mets took down Colorado, 5-0. Harvey entered the postgame press conference wearing a fedora, sitting with confidence at the microphone to tell […]
Read more