Think back to two summers ago. The Boston Celtics, after enduring yet another round of criticism for failing to dig into their war chest of draft picks in order to make a trade for Paul George or Jimmy Butler, had swooped in to pluck Kyrie Irving away from the Cavs and team him up with Gordon Hayward. Now zoom ahead…

The New York Yankees took another important step on their quest to assemble an all-beef lineup by trading for dinger-mashing DH Edwin Encarnacion over the weekend. Once Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton return to action, a lineup featuring those two, Gary Sanchez, Luke Voit, and Encarnacion is going to scare a lot of…

The last time we did this, Drake had descended from his stage in the heart of Toronto—why does Drake get a stage? Why doesn’t he watch the game among the rest of the fans?—to tell us that Raptors fans are very good at following the rules. The performance left some clear opportunities for improvement, but I don’t think…

Toronto Raptors president of basketball operations Masai Ujiri has always been known as a fiery dude—recall when he yelled, “Fuck Brooklyn!” before a game against the Nets—but after the buzzer sounded last night and the Raptors became NBA champions, he reportedly reached a new level of not giving a fuck by fighting a…

Because you’re normal, you probably did not read a Q&A with Ringer CEO Bill Simmons that was published yesterday. Bear with me for a moment, though, and take a look at the final question and answer, concerning The Ringer’s ad partnerships:

Sports Illustrated has published a long profile of NBA agent and LeBron James confidant Rich Paul, who is probably the most famous agent in sports right now given his involvement in the Anthony Davis trade saga. It’s about as compelling as a long story about a sports agent can possibly be, but it’s hard not to come…

There isn’t an umpire more widely despised by MLB players than Ángel Hernández, who has been infuriating people with his terrible calls for years now. This frustration has often boiled over into profane arguments followed by ejections, which is just how these things tend to go. But during last night’s game between the…

The reactions to a catastrophic NBA injury usually unfold in very simple terms. Stomachs drop, deep sympathies are expressed for the player involved, and everyone moves on while shaking their heads and grumbling about how sometimes life just isn’t fair. Rarely do such injuries lead to the general manager of the…

Kevin Durant’s month-long absence from the Golden State Warriors while he tries to recover from a calf injury has thrown the NBA Finals totally out of whack. Now, with the Warriors down 3-1 to the Raptors and facing a potential dynasty-ending Game 5 on Monday, Durant’s return seems like the only thing that could…

In the top of the second inning of today’s game between the White Sox and Royals, White Sox outfielder Eloy Jiménez latched onto a hanging curveball at the top of the zone. It didn’t even look like he put that hard of a swing on the ball, but then it just... kept... going... and going:

The Fort Myers News-Press is reporting that Tony Joiner, former standout football player at the University of Florida, has been arrested and charged with murdering his wife.

The latest string of updates about the quad injury that’s hounding Mets second baseman Robinson Cano are so familiar that it’s hard to absorb them without feeling intense déjà vu. Let me assure you that this is not news you have read before, or a memory from some past life bubbling to the surface of your conscience.…

Valentina Shevchenko defended her UFC flyweight title against Jessica Eye last night, and she wrapped up the fight in the second round with one of the most devastating head-kick knockouts the world has ever seen:

Vanderbilt found themselves down 1-0 in the best-of-three Nashville Super Regional against Duke, and so they sent stud pitcher Kumar Rocker to the mound to start Game 2 yesterday and asked him to save the season. Rocker responded with 19 strikeouts and a no-hitter, leading Vandy to a 3-0 win.

The first Women’s World Cup match of the day, between Italy and Australia, was a spicy one. Australia took a 1-0 lead early in the first half thanks to a Sam Kerr penalty kick, but their aggressive, attacking style left them open to counter attacks from Italy all match. Italy could have had multiple goals from…

Yankees outfielder Brett Gardner has had a pretty rough season so far, so you can’t blame him for being mad about the fact that he had what looked like a sure extra-base hit taken away from him by Indians right fielder Jordan Luplow. What you can blame him for is busting his own lip open like a damn dingus!

There is no shortage of arguments to be made against the proliferation of replay review in soccer, and I won’t bog down this blog post with points we’ve already made on the site many times over. Besides, the argument against the VAR decision from today’s Women’s World Cup opening match between France and Korea is a…

One fun subplot of these NBA playoffs has been the resurgence of Raptors backup point guard Fred VanVleet. Through the first 15 games of the postseason, VanVleet was just one of the many Raptors role players struggling to find his shot while Kawhi Leonard dragged the team forward. He finally emerged from stasis in…