July 16, 2013
About Last Night: Going, Going, Gone
In case you were busy getting up close and personal with nature, really getting in there, getting deep, all the way into nature, here’s what you missed in sports on Monday: Oakland slugger Yoenis Cespedes blasted his way to the Home Run Derby championship, easily outpacing Bryce Harper to take home the title. Cespedes will […]
Read moreJuly 15, 2013
Why the System, and Not Its Pieces, Will Determine the Clippers’ Defensive Success
It’s been quite the offseason for the Los Angeles Clippers. By re-signing Chris Paul, snatching Doc Rivers away from the Celtics, turning Eric Bledsoe’s potential and Caron Butler’s contract into J.J. Redick and Jared Dudley, and retaining Matt Barnes, the Clips have been remolded as a true Western Conference power. Paul’s presence on the roster […]
Read more
‘He’s a Man of the People, and Wants to Party With Them’: Bass Drum of Death’s John Barrett Talks About Marshall Henderson at Ole Miss
The chaotic, hooky garage rock John Barrett makes as Bass Drum of Death can sound like a reaction to his hometown of Oxford, Mississippi, more than a reflection of it. After all, the Ole Miss college town is widely known as a genteel, artsy, and Faulkner-approved enclave in the Magnolia State, a place everyone with […]
Read more
Winners and Losers of Ilya Kovalchuk’s Retirement
Ilya Kovalchuk stunned the hockey world Thursday when he announced his retirement from the NHL. The decision came with 12 years and $77 million still left on Kovalchuk’s controversial contract with the New Jersey Devils, and paved the way for the 30-year-old to sign a deal with the rival KHL. We’ve had a few days […]
Read more
What If the Jaegers in Pacific Rim Were Run by Professional Athletes?
Welcome to the Grantlandiest Grantland piece ever, in which we examine the “intersection between sports and culture” in completely self-serious, stentorian ways. We will be scoring each “Grantlandiest Grantland piece ever” for Grantland moments as we go along. If you haven’t seen it already (and you should), Pacific Rim is a movie about giant robots […]
Read more
52-Day NFL Warning: Ryan Clady’s Big Bet Pays Off
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 two months providing a daily reason to get excited about pro football’s return. Last summer, Ryan Clady walked away from a five-year, $50 million […]
Read more
James Harden, Gilbert Arenas, Nick Young, and a Field Trip to the Drew League
On Friday afternoon as I was leaving the Grantland office, someone mentioned that James Harden was going to be at the Drew League this weekend. This left me with a choice: I could spend my Sunday doing responsible adult things like buying plates for my new apartment in L.A., and getting a real trash can […]
Read more
The Bizarre Brilliance of Andrew Bynum’s Time in Philadelphia
Last week, Andrew Bynum agreed to a deal with the Cleveland Cavaliers. For a 25-year-old All-Star center who won two titles with the Lakers, the terms of Bynum’s incentive-freighted deal are fantastically reasonable: Only $6 million and the first season of the two-year deal are even guaranteed. During the courting and negotiating process, there was […]
Read more
The Promise and the Mirage of Las Vegas Summer League
The desert makes you see things. On the flight in, we passed over untold stretching miles of nothing but sand, dust, and scattered brush before suddenly: Las Vegas. Like the Mall of America teleported Watchmen-style into Times Square, Vegas is not so much a place as an ever-evolving event bent on rending the fabric of […]
Read moreFor Sage Rosenfels, Upon His Retirement
Sage Rosenfels ain’t got time to bleed. Well, actually, he has plenty of time. He’s retiring with 12 starts for five different teams, across 10 NFL seasons. He had a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 30-29, which means he is going to Canton. Can’t wait for his induction speech.
Read more
The Six Skill Competitions That Could Fix MLB All-Star Week
Baseball might be the only one of the four major sports in which the All-Star Game is more entertaining than its baggage. The Pro Bowl is awful, a chore so eye-roll worthy that players routinely look for reasons to beg out of a free postseason trip to Hawaii. But because it’s the NFL, everyone watches […]
Read more
About Last Weekend: The Freak’s No-No
In case you were busy learning about all of the horrific things that can happen to the human body after a sunburn, here’s what you missed in sports last weekend: Two-time Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum threw the season’s second no-hitter, throwing 148 pitches as the Giants beat the San Diego Padres, 9-0. “Hate to […]
Read more