A surprise winner has made off with the grand prize in the Paul George sweepstakes. The Oklahoma City Thunder traded Victor Oladipo and Domantas Sabonis for the Pacers star this evening, per a report from ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne.
Ever since the legacy of Penn State football patriarch Joe Paterno came crashing down amid revelations that his longtime defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was a serial child abuser, and Paterno himself did just the bare minimum when he found out about it, the Paterno family has stuck to a familiar line—none of this…
Competitive League of Legends has grown past just the five-player line-up. Coaching staff and more people in charge of training, guiding, and managing players are becoming necessary for a successful team eyeing a spot at the top of the League Championship Series.
Are you ready for the point guard shuffle? The first domino is a trade sending Ricky Rubio to Utah in exchange for a lottery-protected first-round pick.
Goddammit. You were so close to making it, Gerard, and then you had to go and do this.
The Mario Kart World Cup kicks off today, featuring teams from 10 nations competing in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe for the Nintendo Switch, as well as Mario Kart Wii, a 2008 classic that remains a touchstone for the Mario Kart competitive scene. Both games feature twelve-player races, so each nation will put forward its six…
Michael Johnson and Justin Gaethje will fight in Las Vegas in a week to close up this season of The Ultimate Fighter. The two exchanged barbs at the UFC’s summer press conference, and Gaethje revealed himself to be perhaps not the best shit-talker. Thursday, Johnson went at Gaethje and called him the product of incest.
Pack your stuff in a new Timbuk2 bag during their End of Season Sale. Get up to 30% off a ton of styles, no code needed, and make sure your commute is packed well. There’s everything from one of your favorite carry-ons to your favorite laptop bags.
Indoor American 800-meter record holder Ajee Wilson was stripped of that record for testing positive for zeranol, a prohibited substance that’s listed under Anabolic Agents. But according to USADA, Wilson will not serve a suspension because it was determined the source of the zeranol was beef that had been raised with…
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The NCAA Women’s Gymnastics Committee just announced that it’s changing the format for the national championships to make it more hospitable for TV broadcast. Who knew that NCAA sports had anything to do with money?
It’s the smallest thing, really. Maybe you already do it! But maybe you do not already do it, and you have wondered why the food you cook always seems underwhelming. Probably there are lots of reasons why the food you cook always seems underwhelming, not least among them your pathological inability to value anything…
Here’s video of UFC champion Conor McGregor, who will soon be stepping into a boxing ring to take on one of the best fighters in history, preparing for that match:
Brave? Yes. Desperate? Absolutely not. It has been said Warren Gatland is a man with nothing to lose, that he’s rolling the dice by picking Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell together. Make no mistake, Gatland has heaps to lose. Fail to win and the series is gone, so clearly a lot of thought has gone into this decision.
I think it’s an exciting selection. Before the tour started and as the warmup matches got going, I thought Sexton and Farrell would play together and Gatland has probably looked at the first Test, realised where the Lions were effective and realised they are going to have to score tries because he knows full well the All Blacks are going to score tries.
Related: All Blacks v Lions: tactical pointers and key clashes for second Test | Paul Rees and Gerard Meagher
Continue reading...I’ve been taking my kids to the beach for years now and in that time we have brought along any number of cumbersome, worthless beach toys: bulldozers and rakes and sand trowels and bad frisbees and this little wheel thingie where you put water in the top and it makes the wheel go spin-spin. I have carried these toys…
It wasn’t so long ago that Knicks head coach Jeff Hornacek, then presiding over the latest lost season in New York, stood in front of reporters and told them that it was a mistake to try to combine his own offensive concepts with Phil Jackson’s favored Triangle system, and implied that the team would be fully…
Ten years ago, it would have been hard to envisage the Tour de France starting here, or anywhere else in Germany. The 2007 Tour is remembered by British fans for the hugely successful Grand Départ in London but for German cycling it was a different kind of landmark: when the country’s broadcasters turned their backs on the Tour after a year-long rash of doping scandals and confessions involving the country’s flagship team T-Mobile.
The telecom company pulled out that November. It was followed by the backers of the country’s other two top-level professional teams after more doping cases and in 2009 the successful Deutschland Tour also ceased to exist. That seemed to mark the end of the German love affair with cycling, which had blossomed in the mid-1990s with the rise of Jan Ullrich and T-Mobile, whose distinctive pink kit remains one of the sport’s most recognisable outfits.
Related: Tour de France 2017: full team-by-team guide
Related: Tour de France 2017: stage-by-stage guide
Continue reading...A great deal on the Ecobee3 smart thermostat, a Harmony remote with the all-powerful Harmony Hub, and camping hammocks lead off Friday’s best deals from around the web.
Sam Warburton and Maro Itoje will give the Lions not only greater ball-winning capacity at the breakdown, more opportunity to slow down New Zealand’s ball and will put the scrum-half Aaron Smith under pressure. So far this tour, the Lions have looked to fracture their opponents’ supply line by rushing up in defence in midfield but the All Blacks neutralised that ploy in the first Test by playing through nine rather than 10 and creating space around the ruck. The Lions will need to generate quick ball and Alun Wyn Jones and Tadhg Furlong must clear out All Blacks on the fringe of rucks with Itoje and Warburton taking care of anyone grappling for possession. It is an area the Lions have to win to have a chance of ending New Zealand’s 16-match winning run in Wellington, which started after a defeat by England in 2003.
Related: All Blacks revolve around Beauden Barrett’s slow-motion mastery of No10 | Andy Bull
Related: Simmering Lions can restore pride in defining match of New Zealand tour
Continue reading...Jaromir Jagr played pretty well, not just for a 45 year old, but for any hockey player in 2017. He notched 16 goals and 30 assists for the Florida Panthers, and Jagr was first on the team in net on-ice shot attempts. As the season went on and Jagr kept skating in every game, the old man’s remark that he would play…
It’s that time of year again—the time where we American humans decide to blow things up in order to celebrate the birth of our country. But it just so happens that humans and explosions don’t get along so well—and they never have.
Last week the Star Wars braintrust shitcanned directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller from the upcoming Han Solo spinoff movie, and replaced them with longtime Ron “Opie Cunningham is a BASTARD” Howard. Should this concern the LEGENDARY FANS OF STAR WARS NATION, or does this movie still have a chance to not suck? That,…
It is unalloyed good news that live cricket is coming back to BBC television. One of the great national sports is reunited with the one broadcaster that can make big events bigger – and get the whole of the country talking about what they watch. The story of the falling-out between the England and Wales Cricket Board and the BBC feels, happily, to be in the far distant past.
It was two decades ago that live test cricket moved from the corporation to Channel 4 – which, by common consent, did an excellent job of covering the sport. And it was in 2004 that the whole of cricket was frogmarched behind a pay wall, when Sky made a knockout offer for a deal which ran from 2006. Again, its coverage has been first-rate but it has simply not been accessible to a majority of the population. The ECB now deserves credit for an imaginative restructuring of its rights package.
Related: Move to put cricket back on free-to-air TV a tacit admission ECB got it wrong
Continue reading...$70 for a Logitech Harmony remote is a great deal on its face, but the real reason to buy this model is the included Harmony Home Hub.
The riders of the Tour de France will not be required to climb the Mont Ventoux this year but they will find themselves unable to escape its shadow. Sometime in the afternoon of Friday 21 July, while pedalling through the vineyards and lavender fields of the Vaucluse, they will glance over to their right and see the Giant of Provence glowering in the distance.
There was a good reason for the Tour’s route planners to avoid the Ventoux this summer. On 13 July it will be 50 years since Tom Simpson collapsed and died at the roadside only 1,300m and a few hairpin bends from the finish line at the summit of the mountain. Ever since that day, images of the banks of scree lining the winding ribbon of asphalt have carried a certain sense of menace, even as they shine bone-white under the midsummer sun.
Related: In career best form: Richie Porte a genuine Tour de France contender | Kieran Pender
Related: Tour de France 2017: stage-by-stage guide
Continue reading...It’s possible that some of you may recall that last year noted painter of tinkering Christopher Walkens and improbable lunchboxes Brandon Bird revealed his plans to create a Jerry Orbach-themed art car. Those dreams are now a reality, as ORBACH1 is now complete.
Nationals shortstop Trea Turner took a pitch on his right wrist during last night’s game against the Cubs, and eventually had to come out of the game. Once the game was over, everyone’s worst fears were confirmed:
The new Ecobee4 smart thermostat has Alexa built right in, but the previous generation Ecobee3 is still great, and Amazon’s clearing them out for an all-time low $170 right now. That’s about the same price as an Ecobee Lite, but you get an all-important remote temperature sensor, plus the ability to control HVAC…
A captain is seldom more powerful in selection than before his first Test in charge. On Saturday morning Joe Root’s squad for the opening Test of the series against South Africa, which starts at Lord’s on Thursday, will be revealed and it will surely have the imprint of the new leader.
Root’s thoughts about the batting order, most specifically where he himself should bat, will be unusually relevant. There has been the suggestion that he may revert to No4 now that he is captain. But since England’s last Test match in Chennai in December such a move has become increasingly inconvenient.
Continue reading...There are several very competitive and classy events scattered around Friday’s five Flat meetings, and a card over the jumps at Cartmel as well, but the Gosforth Park Cup Handicap at Newcastle’s evening meeting is possibly the pick, with 14 runners due to go to post and even the 25-1 outsider Confessional offering the odd bit of recent form that gives him a squeak.
Orion’s Bow is the favourite for a race with a first prize of almost £30,000, despite having failed to register a win in three starts this season and his last half-dozen in all since a success from a mark of 97 at Hamilton last July. The bare form does not tell the whole story, however, and Tim Easterby’s gelding is likely to improve significantly on his latest run over five furlongs at Musselburgh, when he could not find running room in the final quarter mile and finished with plenty left to give. The six-year-old also has winning form on Newcastle’s Tapeta surface and even holds an entry in the Group One Nunthorpe Stakes at York in August, but he has top weight and a mark of 104 to defy, 7lb higher than for his most recent win, which makes a price of around 100-30 look thin in such a competitive race.
Related: Waldgeist continues to attract punters’ money in the Irish Derby
Continue reading...The Cleveland Cavaliers forward is a four-time All-Star but cannot escape his biggest crime: not being LeBron James or Kyrie Irving
The NBA offseason is in full swing, which means it’s peak season for dumping on Kevin Love. The NBA finals lead to the NBA draft, which leads to the start of free agency, which leads to the opening of the NBA summer league in Las Vegas. And in between all of it is discussion and rumors about what the Cavaliers might be able to get, if anything, for Love. It’s the modern NBA offseason life cycle.
The latest rumor was Love being dealt away from the Cavaliers in a three-team deal that would have sent him to Denver, enabling Paul George to join LeBron’s latest superteam incarnation in Cleveland. That specific deal working out is now supposedly “very unlikely”. The Cavaliers also reportedly spoke before the draft with Phoenix to gauge their interest in a three-way deal to ship Love out and land George. There have even been rumblings of a discussed five-team framework that would have landed Cleveland George and Carmelo Anthony, with Love going ... to a city never determined. Some of these discussions undoubtedly took place after the Cavs parted ways with general manager David Griffin, meaning even Cleveland’s interim front office staffers – people with limited power and long-term job prospects – are going with the approach of: “Uhhhhh ... I guess we could try to trade Kevin and see if that works?”
Related: Phil Jackson became an angry old guy in a young man's game | Les Carpenter
Continue reading...Even after the exposure of familiar failings by familiar opponents at a familiar stage of the Under-21 European Championship, a rosy glow remains about English youth football. World champions at under-20 level, victors in the Toulon tournament, finalists in the European Under-17 Championship and semi‑finalists in the European Under‑21s, we have never had it so good. Call this generation golden and prepare for the bitter retrospectives when they have won nothing in a decade and the question of whether the Lewises Cook and Baker can play together in the same midfield remains frustratingly unresolved.
But enough of that: the transfer window has officially been open for three weeks, but as aficionados know it is on 1 July, after all those contracts that expire on 30 June have expired, that the wheeling and dealing really gets into full swing. And, amid the decadence of late capitalism, with recent falling viewing figures leading some to theorise that younger generations can no longer endure a full 90 minutes of actual football, it is trading far more than any naive ideal of sporting prowess that really gets social media humming.
Related: Transfer window 2017 – every deal in Europe's top five leagues
Continue reading...When the British & Irish Lions set out a month ago this was the weekend they knew would define their tour. Could they be ahead in the series or at least in contention going into the final Test? The unpalatable third option – 2-0 down with one to play – was always lurking in the shrubbery but the 2017 squad, from day one, have refused to entertain the possibility.
It has been the same all around New Zealand as the Lions have set about earning respect in Auckland, Christchurch, Dunedin, Rotorua, Hamilton and, now, the nation’s capital. They have not always found it but Kiwi cafe owners and camper van rental firms would happily have the red-shirted fans and their wallets back every year. The All Black captain Kieran Read is also among those baffled by talk of the Lions concept dying: “I don’t think that will happen, mate. It’s just been so exciting being around the country the last couple of weeks. I’m sure it will continue.”
Related: Sam Warburton warns All Blacks to be braced for Lions physical backlash
Related: Sam Warburton’s return provides Lions with welcome injection of belief
Continue reading...Homer Bailey made his first major-league start of the year last week. He lasted less than two innings and allowed eight runs. He made his second major-league start of the year tonight, and it was... better! Definitely better. It sucked, but it was better. (Bailey, as a reminder, is making $19 million this year. He’s…
Dustin Fowler’s debut in the bigs ended as quickly and disastrously as one could imagine as the rookie Yankees outfielder crashed into the wall in foul territory in Chicago and had to be carted off with what appears to be a serious leg injury.
Warriors head coach Steve Kerr says that the team has not yet received an invitation to the White House, but they’ll have a group discussion about it if they do and will consider attending.
Two days after signing Francisco Rodriguez to a minor-league deal, the Nationals have kept things going by scooping up yet another shaky reliever who has seen better days—Kevin Jepsen, whose “better days” in this case were really never all that great.
If you haven’t replaced your metal spring mattress with a giant block of foam that you bought on the internet, what are you even doing with your life? Today only, Amazon’s marking Zinus 12" foam mattresses down to just $120 for a twin, $160 for a full, or $190 for a queen, all of which are all-time low prices, beating…
Jan Bakelants, most famous for winning the first stage of the 2013 Tour de France and wearing the yellow jersey for a spell, is going to this year’s Tour for AG2R La Mondiale, and he wants everyone to know he’s really horny.
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Ibrahim Johnson, brother of five-star Texas commit Mohamed Bamba, posted a 22-minute Facebook Live video on Monday in which he repeated the phrase “long story short” at least a dozen times and claimed Bamba received, amongst other things, shoes, vacations, dental work, a television, a $200-per-week allowance, and…
The New York Times announced earlier this month that it was “restructuring” its copy desk, which is corporate-speak for laying off lots of copy editors, turning more than 100 jobs into about 50. Today, fellow Times reporters protested. As they should.
Police have found Venus Williams to be at fault in a car crash that killed a 78-year-old man in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla. She has not, as of yet, been issued any citations or traffic violations.
A suspect who led cops on a chase from Louisville to the southeast Indiana backwoods treated a few dozen police cruisers like Barry Sanders treated NFL defenses as he juked, reversed, and eventually ran around in laps before being corralled and eventually–it appears—kicked and punched by the presumably embarrassed…
Jimmy Butler held his introductory press conference up in Minnesota this morning, and when he was asked about rumors of his discontent in Chicago, he waved it off and encouraged anyone who wanted to to hit him up. “My phone’s in my back pocket,” he said, “773-899-6071.”
By the end of his reign in New York, the Knicks president was nothing like the free thinker who opened an era of new-age coaching
Despite the misguided perceptions of many sports fans, running an NBA team is actually a grinder’s pursuit. The men charged with picking players and managing rosters must spend the time scouting, scheming and building. Phil Jackson, who was let go Wednesday as New York Knicks president, seemed to believe his own cult of personality was enough to make the league’s most dysfunctional franchise whole again.
The message Jackson lost as he took a rich man’s millions and wasted three years of the franchise is that his entire name was built on the managing the brilliance of others. His 11 NBA titles were less about his devotion to zen and more about the brilliance of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal. The foundations of those championships were built by Jerry Krause in Chicago and Jerry West in Los Angeles. Even his beloved triangle offense was perfected by an old college coach named Tex Winter, who brought it to Jackson when he took over Jordan’s Bulls.
Related: From Least Valuable Player to non-play of the year: our NBA season awards
Continue reading...This has already proved an eventful British & Irish Lions tour in all kinds of ways but the most gripping 80 minutes may still be to come. If Warren Gatland’s team-sheet for the second Test carries no guarantee of success there is at least a genuine can-do feel about it. Gatland has clearly promised himself that, whatever transpires, he will give this series a real go.
And, glory be, the 2017 Lions are going for it on Saturday. By pairing Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell at 10 and 12 they have sent the plainest of messages to Steve Hansen and the All Blacks: you ain’t seen nothing yet. Gatland and his coaches have long known that what might have worked in the first Test of a major series is not necessarily the best answer the following weekend. Hansen will look at this selection and conclude the Lions are not quite done yet.
Related: Lions’ Johnny Sexton and Owen Farrell start in second All Blacks Test
Related: George North and Robbie Henshaw ruled out of remaining Lions Tests
Continue reading...At least this time, an England team made it to a penalty shootout. In recent tournaments, the senior team finished bottom of their 2014 World Cup group, and lost against Iceland in their first Euro 2016 knockout match. So when England Under-21s reached the Euro 2017 semi-final and took a far more experienced Germany team to penalties, that in itself represented progress – until the penalty curse struck again.
This was an opportunity for England to exorcise some serious penalty ghosts. The Germany coach was Stefan Kuntz, who had scored Germany’s fifth penalty in the Euro 96 semi-final at Wembley. I spoke to Kuntz in researching my book Twelve Yards: The Art and Psychology of the Perfect Penalty. He understands the pressure of a penalty and did not want to take one at all. He chose to kick fifth because he hoped the shootout would be over before he was required. The kicker after him was Gareth Southgate; his penalty was saved.
Related: England’s Under-21s now need Premier League games or it will count for nothing | Ed Aarons
Continue reading...The morning after the night before, it was left to Nathaniel Chalobah to sum up just how it feels to lose against Germany in a penalty shootout in the semi-finals of a major international tournament.
Chalobah wrote on Twitter: “7 years playing together through the England ranks with @NathanRedmond22. True winner in my eyes. Couldn’t have got where we did if it weren’t for you bro so keep your head up.” The Chelsea midfielder added: “We win as a team & lose as a team. So proud of the squad. Bigger and better things to come.”
Related: The science of shootouts offers escape from England’s penalty complex | Ben Lyttleton
Related: England lose to Germany on penalties in European U21 Championship semi-final
Continue reading...What’s a cool thing to do in Turkey if you’re a dog? Check out some classical music, duh.
In the 89th minute of the Confederations Cup semifinal between Mexico and Germany, Mexico substitute Marco Fabián, while standing midway between the halfway line and the penalty box, received a pass off a free kick, stepped up to the ball, and clobbered the hell out of it.
For the 104th time in history, a horde of bird-shaped dudes will climb onto their bikes, ride circles around France, and finish in Paris even more bird-shaped than when they started. Yes, the Tour de France starts this weekend in Germany (we’ll get to that) and will track a 3,540-kilometer course south from Düsseldorf…
Red Sox starter Rick Porcello seems to have been body-snatched. After winning the AL Cy Young last year, Porcello has now allowed four or more runs 10 times this season, which, per The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier, leads the majors. His ERA is an unsightly 5.06, and opponents are hitting .309 against him, up from .228…
Lionel Messi is getting married to his longtime partner and the mother of his two children, Antonella Roccuzzo, on Friday in their hometown of Rosario, Argentina. The wedding is every bit the lavish extravaganza you’d expect from the rich and famous, and Messi and co. have ensured the event will be duly covered.
Li Haotong bogeyed the par-3 11th hole at the French Open today, and in a moment of frustration snapped his putter over his knee and tossed it into a nearby water hazard. A little later, while Li was playing the 13th hole, his mother went into the lake to retrieve the putter:
Donald Trump tweeted something very unkind about one of the hosts of a stupid-ass worthless morning cable news politics show. Oh no. The Republicans, they are very disappointed.
For the first time in Dota 2 history, there will be no defending champion at this year’s International (barring the very first).
While it lacks the brand recognition of the Fitbit Aria, this $30 smart scale can still sync your weight, body fat, and other stats to your phone over Bluetooth so you can track your measurements over time. And if you own an iPhone, it’ll even sync to the Health app, so you can integrate the stats with tons of other…
Imagine the scenario. Golden State Warriors are locked in a fierce play-off battle when Jordan Spieth – inspired by his brother’s basketball success and a capable player in his own right – decides he wants to feature in match five. Spieth’s overtures are accepted, thereby handing the golfer a key spot in another sport’s top domain.
Ludicrous, right? It certainly should be but while the circumstances are not identical there is cause to wonder about the legitimacy of the web.com Tour’s dispensation as given to Steph Curry. The Ellie Mae Classic in California will feature Curry – a basketball superstar and Under Armour icon who plays off two – after the Warriors player was handed a sponsor’s invitation. If it sounds like a vanity project and looks like a vanity project, it tends to be a vanity project.
Related: Steph Curry's revival, not Durant's brilliance, may be the Warriors' best weapon
Continue reading...Las Vegas Fox station KVVU’s Ted Pretty found himself assigned to fireworks-biz coverage yesterday afternoon, and the meteorologist’s interaction with a back-talking young boy made the clip an internet sensation. It’s all a setup, of course; that’s Pretty’s son doing the ownage, as is made pretty obvious by the…
Jimmy Butler held his introductory press conference up in Minnesota this morning, and when he was asked about rumors of his discontent in Chicago, he waved it off and encouraged anyone who wanted to to hit him up. “My phone’s in my back pocket,” he said, “773-899-6071.”
A pigeon briefly disrupted a Wimbledon qualifying match Tuesday between Amandine Hesse and Miyu Kato. Hesse swatted at the invader with her racket and a ball boy chased after it, trying to scare it off the court. Unperturbed, the pigeon alighted briefly on the net, before heading to a tree next to the court.
Thirty years ago The Untouchables, Brian De Palma’s most commercial movie to that point, was released and helped launch Kevin Costner as an All-American star. This review by Pauline Kael originally appeared in The New Yorker and appears here with permission from the author’s estate.
No matter how you spin it, some guys are faster than others. Newly released data from MLB’s Statcast give us a new depth of insight into just how quickly one can get from A to B, and just how much that matters. (It does; it’s not all that does.)
My fellow San Franciscans, the time has come to celebrate, for Shaquille O’Neal— Overwatch guru and the guy from that bad genie movie—has ...
