Chinook, a trained bald eagle from the Los Angeles Zoo, was supposed to thrill fans and honor America on July 4th by swooping from the top of Dodger Stadium to his handler on the field. Chinook had other plans out in the parking lot:

So, it sucks to be a Thunder fan right now. Kevin Durant, the face of your team for as long as your team has existed, has left for your rivals. Your title hopes are, for the immediate future, nonexistent. How do you deal with this shock? (Other than, you know, coating a Durant jersey in kerosene and opening up on it…

I am baffled by the blowback against Kevin Durant—every bit as baffled by the even larger backlash against LeBron James six years ago—for doing nothing more than taking the job in which he believes he’ll be most successful and fulfilled. Everyone criticizing Durant for joining a dominant team would leap at the…

Yesterday, I wrote a blog post about Zack Hample, who had complained about being bumped by a fan, causing him to lose a home run ball at Yankee Stadium. Hample, by his own count, got 11 other baseballs at that game, bringing his career total to 9,079—but he was unhappy about what would have been No. 9,080.

One of the scariest moments for a wrestler is the rare occasion when a fan decides to get involved. You never know what they’re going to do—just last month one woman pulled a gun on a heel at a small indy show in Georgia—and the wrestler’s response is universal: subdue them by any means necessary.

Donald Trump, a stack of 64 slices of American cheese that has been left out on the counter too long, has some more questions to answer about his charitable efforts. This one involves using money donated to his own nonprofit to win a charity auction for some signed Tim Tebow gear.

I did not stay up for the start of NBA free agency. I never do, and sometimes I regret it (like last year’s truly incredible DeAndre Jordan saga), but there really is no reason it has to start at midnight. It could start at 9 a.m., or noon (like the NHL will today), or 4 in the afternoon, and it would be just as wild,…

Last Friday, Phillies minor-league pitcher Matt Imhof suffered a serious eye injury in an absolutely freakish accident. He was stretching using a rubber resistance band anchored to a wall when the metal base broke, and a piece struck him in the eye. Doctors tried to save it, but Imhof revealed today that he has had…

The Yankees staged a wild comeback last night, erasing a four-run ninth inning deficit and walking off on a Didi Gregorius home run to beat the Rangers 9-7. But also, who gives a shit about the Yankees? We’re here for the grown man getting snitty over a baseball.

The most medaled human being in existence is going to make some more Olympic history. By winning the 200-meter butterfly at the Olympic trials in Omaha yesterday, Michael Phelps has qualified for his fifth summer games, a first for an American male swimmer.

There is nothing that gets hockey people riled up quite like offer sheets. Nothing. The mere rumor of their existence is enough to send fans clogging talk radio lines, and set GMs to vowing revenge and—quite literally—challenging each other to fights. Well, we’re two days away and I am fucking psyched.

Former NFL QB Jake Plummer has reinvented himself as an advocate for medical marijuana as a safe, effective treatment for the pain and depression that so many players find themselves faced with when they leave the league. (Plummer even ran QB camps to raise money for research.) So Plummer definitely doesn’t have time…

For the third straight summer, LeBron James is a free agent, free and clear to sign with whichever team he wants. And for the third straight summer, James is going to sign with the Cavaliers.

By now you are entirely on board with Iceland, the most surprising, most exciting, most likable team at the European Championship. More Jörmungandr than minnow, Iceland is still undefeated and has now dispatched Austria and England in consecutive matches.

The story of women’s basketball is so incomplete without Pat Summitt, it’s almost not worth telling. Not just the winningest coach in D1 history, Summitt is the modern game, her success mirroring its rise, her ascendancy propelling the sport out of obscurity. And now she’s gone.

A useful exercise in Richard Deitsch’s SI.com column today, as he asks seven sports media members for their opinions on whether it’s their place to introduce politics into their work. And the most bearish of them all is NFL robot Adam Schefter.

The Videotron Centre was built with one goal in mind: to play host to the reborn Nordiques, because NHL expansion wasn’t going to consider Quebec City without a modern arena in place. Well, the arena exists, and Quebec City still isn’t getting an NHL team. Money well spent?