March 7, 2013
Q&A: David Price Is Not Good at Baseball
We recently got a chance to talk to Tampa Bay Rays ace (and 2012 Cy Young Award winner) David Price about MLB 2K13, having a dog named after a different American League team, and more. Your face is all over the place now courtesy of being on the cover of MLB 2K13. Are you a […]
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The Designated Player: Kyle Beckerman for Real, Part 1
“I knew you’d have to get tough or die / And it’s the name that helped to make you strong.” Real Salt Lake. Real Salt Lake. As a boy-named-Sue of a name goes, that one must be right up there. Teams have always borrowed from unlikely sources, especially during the happenstance of travel patterns that […]
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Who Is the Funniest NBA Player?
If scoring and rebounding are the meat and potatoes of an NBA player’s stat line, a sense of humor is the dessert. It adds flavor to postgame interviews, sparkle to halftime shows, punch to sneaker commercials. But which player has the best comedic stats of all? This is typical of the questions we ask. The […]
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The NBA Arrives in Manila, 80 Years After the Love of the Game
When David Stern’s magnanimous grin flashed across an LED jumbotron in metro Manila Monday afternoon to announce that “the NBA will play its first preseason game in the Philippines this October,” a pulse of enthusiasm shot through Filipino communities from Mandaluyong City to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to Daly City, California. Basketball has been the most […]
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NBA Shootaround: And You May Ask Yourself, How Did I Get Here?
So much amazing is happening, and the Shootaround crew is here to help you keep track of it all. You’ll find takes on moments you might’ve missed from the previous night, along with ones you will remember forever. Tower of Power Chris Ryan: Yesterday a couple of us were sitting around when Brian Schmitz’s Orlando […]
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2013 Free-Agent Book: Danny Amendola
Reminder: These pieces are written from the perspective of an agent trying to hype up his client as he’s about to hit free agency. My goal in writing these isn’t to be accurate (or to lie), but instead to employ whatever arguments I can to make the player in question look as valuable as possible. […]
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Checking in on Your (Old) Favorite NHL Player
It’s easy to forget that last summer featured some major player transactions in the NHL. Between free agency and an unusually active trade market, plenty of players found new homes. Some of those moves have worked out well. Others … not so much. Here are a dozen of the biggest names who switched teams before […]
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Hey, Don’t F*$& This Up: The Cowboys’ Transition to a 4-3 Defense
With free agency and the draft process revving up, there are plenty of questions for every NFL team. But for most, there’s one issue that trumps the rest. This is the latest in a team-by-team look at the offseason tasks that just can’t get botched. In the latest installment of this series, there was a […]
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About Last Night: Heat Advance to Sweet 16
In case you were out walking your dog, really walking him, here’s what you missed in sports on Wednesday. LeBron James netted his first game-winning shot since coming to Miami, and the Heat ran their winning streak to 16, beating the Orlando Magic, 97-96. “He’s a bad man,” Magic point guard Jameer Nelson said after […]
Read moreMarch 6, 2013
Men in Blazers: The Relegation Battle, MLS Opening Weekend, and Special Guest Bob Ley
The song remains the same. Manchester United, Manchester City, Tottenham, and Chelsea all managed wins. But while there wasn’t a change in the Top Four, the weekend wasn’t without its drama. Gareth Bale was like clockwork in Spurs’ all-important triumph over Arsenal, leaving their North London rivals with more lingering questions about the club’s direction. […]
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Finding the True Bright Spots in the Bucks’ Recent Success
It was just eight days ago that the Milwaukee Bucks were left for dead on the side of the NBA highway. Losers of three straight, the team clung to the final Eastern Conference playoff spot strictly by default. The trigger-happy duo of Monta Ellis and Brandon Jennings had seemingly shot the team out of any […]
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The Sartorial Civil War: Oregon State Teaches Its College Football Brethren How to Stunt
The football rivalry between Oregon and Oregon State, nicknamed the “Civil War,” has always had something of an image problem. Take the name, for starters: Though quite common, it’s not as deliciously ironic as the BYU-Utah “Holy War,” or as geographically appropriate as the West Virginia–Pittsburgh “Backyard Brawl.” But for decades, that name was all […]
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The Big Sieve: Analyzing Dwight Howard’s Defensive Woes This Season
The Thunder are still two and a half games behind the Spurs in the standings, but they’re favorites to make the Finals again, regardless of whether Tony Parker’s injury allows them to slide into the no. 1 spot — where there’s about a 50-50 chance they’d meet the Lakers in the first round. Oklahoma City […]
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The New Springfield Nine
The baseball analytics revolution has helped us answer many questions that might have seemed unknowable before. We can now measure not only a pitcher’s velocity but also the exact horizontal and vertical break on his pitches, the precise coordinates of his arm slot, and dozens of other variables. We can calculate the worth of catchers […]
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Ohio State’s Unlikely Revenge at Indiana
The game that changed my mind about no. 2 Indiana and made me realize that maybe the Hoosiers weren’t overrated, came on February 10, when I saw them play in Columbus, Ohio. That road win was so dominant, and so clear-cut, that the critiques previously leveled against Indiana — poor perimeter defense outside Victor Oladipo, […]
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2013 Free-Agent Book: Reggie Bush
An introduction: Last year, I put together free-agent books from the perspective of a player agent for four different players, starting with Mike Wallace before moving on to Matt Flynn, Mario Williams, and Arian Foster. This year, I’ll be doing the same for three players, starting today with Reggie Bush. For those who weren’t around […]
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NBA Short-Attention-Span Power Rankings: It’s a Young Man’s Game
A survey of the players and teams making moves in last night’s NBA action. 1. Reggie Jackson Robert Mays: Because Russell Westbrook was playing in a basketball game last night, the broadcast team was contractually obligated to engage in the Most Athletic Point Guard Ever discussion at some point in the telecast. Usually, Westbrook’s now […]
Read moreBest B.S.: Tony Parker and Bill Simmons
Tony Parker talks to Bill Simmons about last year’s conference finals loss, playing for Coach Popovich, and the international nature of the San Antonio Spurs during NBA All-Star weekend.
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About Last Night: Technical Difficulties for the Lake Show
In case you were out drunkenly explaining that Joel Schumacher was never a good enough director to “lose it Rob Reiner style,” here’s what you missed in sports on Tuesday. The Los Angeles Lakers were again bested by the Oklahoma City Thunder, 122-105. The Thunder played solid fundamental basketball, limiting themselves to only two turnovers […]
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