May 3, 2013
Grantland Network: The Basketball Jones
On today’s show, The Basketball Jones discuss Andrew Bogut’s impact, Steph Curry’s third quarter, the David Lee card, the Nuggets’ 3-point shooting, Andray Clutche, the shorthanded (vomiting) Bulls, jump balls, KAAAAAAAAAAAAAHN!, players who’ve impressed this postseason, our favorite off-the-court moments, and the games we’re most looking forward to this weekend. All that, plus “Hey, Hey, […]
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Game 6 Madness: The Keys to a Killer Night of Playoff Basketball
Do you guys remember the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs? They’re still in the playoffs, I swear! That Heat-Bucks series was actually this season. I know — it seems like it might have been Miami’s first-round series last season, but it really was just a week ago the Heat wrapped up the most predictable […]
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How to Beat Floyd Mayweather
With apologies to Bernard Hopkins, Richard Alpert, and the girls of Lee High School, everybody gets old. The notion of an athlete growing old “overnight” is mostly a myth; it almost always occurs gradually. In the case of boxers, sure, one punch can ruin a man. But typically, that one punch was the logical successor […]
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Come Together: The Remaking of Minnesota United FC
On a still-wintry April 20, I filed into Minneapolis’s Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome for the second game of Minnesota United FC’s first season, kind of. Although the name is new, the team — technically speaking — is not. Technically, they were the champions of the inaugural season of the North American Soccer League in 2011, […]
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NHL Grab Bag: The Thrill of Victory, the Agony of Da Feet
Welcome to a weekly blog post of thoughts and observations from the past few days and/or decades of NHL hockey. What Has Don Cherry Gone and Done Now? Whether it’s Coach’s Corner, his regular media appearances, or a Twitter account that’s presumably meant to be performance art, Don Cherry is everywhere. What’s he been up […]
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Houston’s Hope: The Thunder’s Unspeakably Bad Defense
The Thunder offense has been tough to watch since Russell Westbrook’s injury, mostly because it’s less an “offense” than a series of predictable, slow-moving sets designed to maximize the talent of two individual superstars. Take one of those superstars away, and those same predictable, slow-moving sets aren’t as powerful. This isn’t Miami or San Antonio, […]
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We Went There: Caps vs. Rangers, Puck vs. Steve Oleksy’s Face
The Hockey Gods are capricious. The Hockey Gods are cruel, but they are fair. The Hockey Gods giveth, and then they taketh away, and then they giveth again, occasionally right in the chops. (The Hockey Gods also get mysterious and nasty rashes for which they take a lot of guff from the other gods, which […]
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NBA Playoffs Short-Attention-Span Power Rankings: Stephen Curry and the Upsetters
A survey of the players and teams making moves in last night’s NBA action. 1. Stephen Curry Brett Koremenos: Though he has made a number of incredible, acrobatic shots over the course of this series, the first 3-pointer Steph Curry made in the third quarter last night particularly stood out. As far as degree of […]
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We Went There: Warriors-Nuggets, Game 6
The first hug was for Draymond Green. As Oracle Arena fogged up with gold confetti, while the Warriors began to celebrate a series-clinching win that they nearly threw away, Green grabbed hold of Mark Jackson and held on for a while. Soon, Jackson would grab Stephen Curry. Earlier in the night, he’d told his young […]
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About Last Night: Goin’ Back to Brooklyn
In case you were busy making a new nonalcoholic mixed drink that’s half soda water, half tonic water called the Van de Velde, here’s what you missed in sports on Thursday: Playing without Luol Deng, Derrick Rose, and Kirk Hinrich was too much for the Bulls, who fell 95-92 to the Brooklyn Nets. Bulls head […]
Read moreMay 2, 2013
Building the Next Landon Donovan
Spend enough time in American soccer circles, and a casual fan will inevitably ask why the United States hasn’t produced its own Lionel Messi. Which, of course, is an absurd question. The little Argentine followed a truly unique path to his otherworldly greatness, one that no country’s soccer program could hope to replicate. If they […]
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NHL Playoff Preview: An All-Canada Series … Plus Caps-Rangers! (Again!)
This week, Grantland’s Katie Baker will be previewing the NHL playoffs’ first-round series. Today: Senators-Canadiens and Rangers-Capitals. Read Tuesday’s installment here and Wednesday’s here. Ottawa Senators (7) at Montreal Canadiens (2) Backstory: While it might not have been all that much of a stretch to predict that Ottawa and Montreal would both make it to […]
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Threats, Lies, and Videoboard: Tom Ricketts and His Wrigley Field Problem
On the one hand it’s hard not to conjure up a little sympathy for Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts. Travel south about 15 stops down the CTA Red Line from the Addison station next to Wrigley Field and there sits another major league ballpark built for Jerry Reinsdorf with tax dollars from the kind people […]
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Meet the Timmy Chang All-Stars: College Football’s Lovable Folk Heroes
The 2012 college football season was something else, right? Remember all those killer pancake blocks from Eric Fisher? Ryan Nassib leading Syracuse to glory in a series of fearless two-minute drills? Cordarrelle Patterson making an impossible leap to secure a touchdown during a thrilling Tennessee comeback? See, this is what happens when college football spends […]
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Six Takeaways From the Champions League Semifinals
Let’s take a look at what we learned (aside from “fear the rise of Germany”) from four matches in which we certainly learned to fear the rise of Germany. Life After Gotze Borussia Dortmund midfielder (and soon to be Bayern Munich player) Mario Gotze was subbed off after less than 20 minutes of their second-leg […]
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CourtVision: Just How Good Are Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson?
The first reason I like Steph Curry is that he’s a relatively normally sized human being who has figured out a way to become an NBA superstar. When you look at guys like Dwight Howard, LeBron James, or Dirk Nowitzki, it’s easy to see why they might be incredible basketball players. Stephen Curry doesn’t look […]
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Roster Doctor: The Incredibles
For as long as people have written words on the Internet, there’s been a baseball snarkiarchy. This devoted group of provocateurs has made a sport of mocking numerous players over the years. Often analytically inclined, they home in on a certain kind of player, prolific outmakers who get too much playing time, too much money, […]
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We Went There: The Celtics Survive Their Funeral
Minutes after Boston held on for a 92-86 win against the Knicks — nudging the series to 3-2 and squeezing out at least one more home game this season — the Celtics were back in the visitor’s locker room at MSG, breaking down a little dustup. At the end of the game, Jordan Crawford, who […]
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The Jalen Rose Report With Jalen Rose and David Jacoby (Plus Video!)
Jalen Rose tells David Jacoby what Mark Jackson is really doing with his postgame comments, what the Clippers aren’t doing against Z-Bo, and that he used to watch soap operas. Listen to the full podcast here and check out the videos below.
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Brian Kenny Is Making Sense
If Brian Kenny has a tell, it’s his eyebrows. Flip over to MLB Network — where Kenny is a studio host, talking head, and defender of sabermetricians — and you’ll see his eyebrows shoot up until they form twin quotation marks on his forehead. This means Kenny is about to blow his top. Like Fox […]
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NBA Playoffs Short-Attention-Span Power Rankings: The Walking Dead
A survey of the players and teams making moves in last night’s NBA action. 1. “Playoff Basketball” (All GIFs by @HeyBelinda) Your browser does not support iframes. Chris Ryan: I think it was Pete Carril who said the the playoffs don’t really start until one guy taunts another guy about a separate guy sleeping with […]
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About Last Night: Back to Boston
In case you were busy having an adorable cat on your chest and being unable to move, or breathe, or — hey, this cat’s trying to kill me! — here’s what you missed in sports on Wednesday: We’re headed back to Boston after the Celtics held on for a 92-86 win over the New York […]
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