Listen, whenever the hell it actually started, this seems like a great moment to look ahead, “pre-view” what is to come this season, and address some of the key questions. Who are the teams? Are they the same teams as before? Why wouldn’t they be the same teams as before? Is that really a key question going into the 2019-20 season? Can we just get on with this? The answer to all of the above, and more, is: You can go to hell.Below you’ll find the NBA teams, in alphabetical order, along with important information about each of them, such as whether they are any good or not. Please print this blog out and carry it with you in preparation for any sudden basketball conversations that might break out. Onward, to the teams! Atlanta Hawks credits: Brynn Anderson | source: [object Object]…

Many years could have been the year of Juan Martin del Potro. So many of them weren’t. This, in part, explains why rooting for this 6-foot-6 lunk remains such an appealing proposition to so many: none of the buttery mundanity of rooting for Federer, none of the monotony of hyping up a Nadal or Djokovic who’ve already enjoyed their soul-crushing runs of dominance with double-digit major haul. It is instead rooting for someone whose gifts explode off the television screen but who remains, in some sense, unproven. Much of that Delpo appeal is that faint air of melancholy, the whiff of what-if. What if his wrists hadn’t failed him? But they did. Now his every gesture reads as impossibly soulful. The hugs (of linespeople, of injured opponents), even the protests (of his own errors, o…

Time to pull back the curtain a bit and reveal our 101 most popular posts of the year. We have our own ideas about which posts best represent what the site is all about, but this list is all about what you, the readers, flocked to. Manti Te'o's Dead Girlfriend, The Most Heartbreaking And Inspirational Story Of The College Football Season, Is A Hoax Notre Dame's Manti Te'o, the stories said, played this season under a terrible burden. A Mormon linebacker who led his Catholic school's football program back to glory, Te'o was whipsawed between personal tragedies along the way. In the span of six hours in September, as Sports Illustrated told it, Te'o learned first of the death of his grandmother, Annette Santiago, and then of the death of his girlfriend…

Oh, sure. The original story was about her qualms with the McCain camp's decision a month before the election not to campaign actively in Michigan. But now that Seth Davis has called everyone's attention to it again, let's all completely reconsider its thrust. …

Remember the lullaby afternoons of September, when we all figured we'd see a Heisman winner who merited the award? Maybe a Geno Smith, slinging the ball all over the yard, or even a Matt Barkley, who despite being named after Big Bird's dog had the right pedigree and weaponry (Robert Woods and Marquise Lee catching his passes). Maybe it would be a pure quantity guy like Montee Ball, whose junior year at Wisconsin saw him tie the FBS record for touchdowns in a season (Barry Sanders; 39) and lead the nation in rushing yards (1,923) and still place just fourth in the Heisman voting. This award is usually a son of a bitch to win. But here's what happened. Barkley started in four USC losses, throwing a pair of interceptions in each. Wisconsin lost five games, only one of whi…

data-mm-id=”_j47bo9viy”>One of the most storied names in Carolina Panthers history is taking issue with how the tenure of another may end. Former Carolina running back DeAngelo Williams appeared on ESPN's First Take on Monday to discuss whether Newton has lost his starting job to fellow Carolina quarterback to Kyle Allen, who has filled in admirably while Newton has been sidelined with a foot injury. Williams not only believed Newton should still be the Panthers' man under center, but he called out Carolina's staff for its treatment of the former Heisman Trophy winner. DeAngelo Williams is mad at the Panthers' coaching staff for their treatment of Cam Newton. pic.twitter.com/TfjsNOso64— First Take (@FirstTake) November 4, 2019"I'm mad at (Carolina offens…

data-mm-id=”_4aqywndks”>Tua Tagovailoa didn't do so hot on the Wonderlic test. As we learned on Friday, he had the lowest score among the quarterbacks in the 2020 NFL Draft. But here's the thing, in the end, the Alabama quarterback's score on the test doesn't matter one bit. On Friday we posted his Wonderlic score. I did, in fact. I know a lot of people are against doing that, and maybe it isn't the right thing to do. After all, Wonderlic scores don't mean a whole lot. One thing I do know is that in Tagovailoa's case, it definitely doesn't matter. Joe Burrow is the only quarterback in this draft class who can read a defense and spot an open receiver like Tagovailoa. Other than Burrow, he's also the most accurate passer in the draft. Those ar…

data-mm-id=”_hz4w5r1le”>Similar to basketball, hockey is currently in the doldrums of the regular season. Fans are just trying to make it to playoff hockey, one of the most exciting times of year in sports overall, much less hockey. To help pass the time, some Islanders fans decided to have some fun. And by that I mean an entire section of fans dressed up in referee garb and cheer for every blown whistle and call by their fellow men in stripes. There is an entire section of zebras at this Islanders game and they are chanting “let’s go refs” and going NUTS for every icing and offside call. pic.twitter.com/lPfY0Bx5j9— Barry Petchesky (@barry) February 1, 2020Islanders vs Canucks at the Barclays: a section of fans have declared themselves the ref fans section and are going nuts ev…

data-mm-id=”_lsnr7mfdc”>It's no surprise considering all that's happened since early March, but the shock of Kenny Atkinson's out-of-nowhere resignation has faded rather considerably. He took over the worst roster in the NBA and turned a bunch of castoffs and mid-round picks into a playoff team with nothing more than quality coaching and GM Sean Marks' eye for underutilized talent. Once Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant agreed to sign in Brooklyn, the hard part was supposed to be over. We still don't really know why Atkinson decided to step down after only five months of coaching Irving and, to an extent, Durant, who spent this year rehabbing from a torn Achilles. Reports from the NY Post suggest the players, and especially Irving, weren't listening to Atkinso…

data-mm-id=”_415f7g861″>Tim Kurkjian wakes up at dawn, grabs a newspaper and a Diet Mountain Dew, and hunts for his white whale. He makes for an all-too-agreeable Ahab, poring over box scores like a baseball doctor scanning for abnormalities. "They tell you so much," he explains, his mind both entirely present and perusing the overcrowded bins of quirky inventory he's banked through the years. "I still love to get up to see who had three hits last night. Every single day I look to see — and this is really pathetic —to see if anybody had a reverse triple-double. That's what I call two grounded into double plays, two strikeouts, and two errors in the same game. I check that every day just to make sure that it hasn't happened because it's only happe…