I agree completely. I’m not sure I had a point in there, but format is definitely the biggest issue for me. Even something like Around the Horn was painful to watch compared to PTI and that wasn’t all based on personality. That said, I wholeheartedly think Kornheiser and Wilbon see the bigger picture of sports and its…

There still hasn’t been a show capable of doing this better than PTI. They don’t beat an issue to death and when they agree on something, the other person adds something materially useful to the discussion. They can be just as annoying as any other pair, but PTI has the best format and two hosts who can be enormous…

This exactly. I won’t pretend she isn’t a sore loser to some small degree, but so is nearly every other player in the circuit. And if we’re going to call Serena out for her attitude when losing, we have to note Pliskova’s Djokovic-like arrogance when winning. Her interviews were extremely awkward in her dismissal of…

I still think Jim Bouton had a great take on this in ‘Ball Four’ almost 50 years ago that rings just a true today:

I absolutely lost it. +1000

I think maybe Barry just failed to elaborate on what he meant. To me the issue isn’t “it sucked to lose in the playoffs” it was having teams that you desperately wanted to believe could contend for a title but you knew deep down they had no shot of winning the Series. From 2004-2008 the teams often consisted of True…

Was going to ask the same thing. Genuinely can’t tell.

Was going to ask the same thing. Genuinely can’t tell.

His mudda was a mudder?

100% on board with this new way of spelling ‘muttering’.

Sure is! RIP to the 5-foot Assassin

Only looked at data for NBA/ABA Finals, but here’s the breakdown of the 20 Finals Series that ended 4-1:

Despite Burneko’s smartass response, I think this is a pretty solid point. Rebounding has clearly been a trouble spot for the Warriors all season when playing their “death lineup” and OKC can exploit that more dangerously than anyone. Look at how many defensive rebounds have turned into points for OKC this series and…

Laughable, man. Ha!

I think what you mean is “casual” NBA fans forgot the Warriors existed four years ago. Their core fans have supported them relentlessly for a long time now. Look at the attendance stats, they’ve consistently been above 90% per-game attendance, which is almost unheard of in this league even for teams that were making…

Hasn’t Nick Young been popularizing this for years?

After watching 3 Plumlees play for Duke the last 25 years (give or take), we’ve started referring to this as a “Plumlee” - usually a bad turnover/shot followed by a dumb foul. They were all good for a couple a game.

My Ñíguez

Super insightful. Fantastic comment. 10/10 would read again.

I think that’s just something that varies wildly by person. If you get your kicks out of seeing a once-great athlete no longer able to perform at a high level, that’s fine, I just don’t see why it’s worth posting on Deadspin as though it’s newsworthy or even moderately entertaining. I dont’ care if people hate Kobe…

Right, they’re not *specifically* hating on him for his age, they’re hating on him for the reasons you detailed. I have fewer issues with the contract and season-long retirement because the franchise has been a shitshow under Jim Buss and was in no position to compete for even an 8-seed this year, regardless of Kobe.…