Some of the best players in the world playing basketball and one dunk, from a non-player, outshone them all.
It's far from actual, legit, regular-season hoops, but Team USA's Blue-White Scrimmage in Las Vegas last night was just what we needed to get through the summer.
Via: Ethan Miller / Getty Images
There was John Wall's put-back slam in Tyler Zeller's mug.
Damian Lillard's baseline jam was thunderous.
And ankles are still sore from Kyrie Irving's crossover and drive through the paint.
Hey, everybody, come and see how cool Lando is.
What am I on? I’m on my bike, in a movie about bicyclists.
Via: Peter Dejong, File / AP
Via: Armstrong: Peter Dejong, File; Foster: Getty, Ilya S. Savenok
Source: i.imgur.com
Check under the bed for Boban Marjanovic.
Boban Marjanovic, a 7'3" Serbian center who recently played for the Atlanta Hawks in the NBA's summer league, looks pretty normal in some contexts.
Via: b92.net
Pretty normal here too.
But when Marjanovic gets on the court, He. Is. A. Terrifying Beast-Nightmare From The Depths.
HOOOOOOOOOLY SMOKES.
Via: Luca Sgamellotti / Getty Images
He certainly has interesting form.
Via: Warner Bros. / Getty Images
Via: Jim Zenk / Getty Images
Via: Jim Zenk / Getty Images
The 30-second spot is currently running on the Jumbotron outside of the entrance to NASCAR’s Brickyard 400, which is Sunday in Indianapolis.
Uh. Oh.
"The new beer?"
In a pig's ass.
The Marijuana Policy Project is the media buyer of this here commercial, which started running yesterday, and runs through tomorrow on a big screen outside the Indianapolis Motor Speedway
If the MPP thinks that, by using an obviously fake good ol' boy v/o, they're going to assuage the anger of real good ol' boys, they are fucking stoned.
As fellow hillbilly-ish ad critic David Griner points out at Adweek, Miller Lite is one of NASCAR's biggest sponsors, and they sure as shit is stinky ain't gonna sit on the sidelines of this shitfaced debate.
I'm the son of Appalachian Trail hillbillies, and I have several uncles, aunts, and cousins (and a father) who are HUGE race fans. And they also will not take this disparaging of Cold Gold lightly.
Via: adweek.com
This is the reason all baseball stadiums should have hot tubs.
It was lucha libre wrestling mask giveaway night at Chase Field on Saturday, and while the cameras scanned the crowd of masked spectators, they caught something borderline-NSFW...
...namely, this sexy beast emerging from the outfield hot tub.
Oooooh yeah. Chick-chicka-chicka.
It's like Fast Times at Ridgemont High all over again.
Simultaneously solves world hunger and finds peace in the Middle East.
Living legend Derek Jeter returned to the Yankee lineup this Sunday against the Rays in the Bronx. The 39-year-old captain has been hampered by injuries since last year's postseason.
In the bottom of the first inning, Jeter strode to the plate while the Yankee faithful gave him a standing ovation, and, in typical Jeter fashion, he gave them a reason to continue standing.
Big Papi, can you hear us now? No, because you killed a phone with a bat? Okay.
David Ortiz took a high strike on Saturday on a 3-0 count and, upon subsequently striking out, proceeded to act as any rational ballplayer might.
Ortiz mouthed off to the umpire and got ejected...
...before proceeding to beat the ever-living bejesus out of the dugout bullpen phone. Dustin Pedroia, against all odds, managed to avoid decapitation at Ortiz's hands.
Via: wapc.mlb.com
Pedroia was none too pleased.
Honest Abe is kind of a bastard.
One new tradition that seems to have caught on among baseball fans is the "Presidents Race" during the fourth inning of Washington Nationals games.
This tradition has one gimmick: Teddy Roosevelt loses a lot — often in dramatic fashion. So for Teddy this "fun" race becomes a sick, twisted mental and physical challenge that has ruined his self-esteem. Basically, he still speaks softly, but now he merely carries a twig.
Besides diving into my heart.
Clive Rose / Getty Images
Clive Rose / Getty Images
Source: Clive Rose / Getty Images
Source: Quinn Rooney / Getty Images
Even Landon Donovan’s goofs were effective in the Gold Cup.
Stressful times abounded on Sunday afternoon as the United States men's national soccer team was deadlocked with Panama in the Gold Cup final in Chicago. Enter Brek Shea as a 68th-minute substitution.
It took just 42 seconds for Shea to put the American side on top for good — with an inadvertent assist from all-time national scoring leader Landon Donovan, who tried and failed to put in a great pass from Alejandro Bedoya.
The ball would have probably gone in regardless, but only because Donovan's whiff was so utterly perfect.
Meanwhile, up in one of the press boxes, suspended USMNT coach Jürgen Klinsmann COULD NOT CONTAIN HIS EXCITEMENT. A close call in the 84th minute caused him to basically vaporize into the ether.
Miami’s branding efforts aren’t going so well.
The Miami Marlins may not have the worst record in baseball, but they're certainly its most depressing franchise. Merely a year ago they had so much promise. Today they are the George Costanza of the MLB. With the exception of Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Fernandez, they have no prospects, nothing on the horizon and no conceivable reason for even getting up in the morning. This poll from the MLB Network says it all.
Source: i.imgur.com
Let's take a quick look at these candidates.
The overwhelming leading vote-getter to be the face of the franchise most likely will be traded for prospects within a year or so. And only started going by "Giancarlo" instead of "Mike" last year.
Via: Dilip Vishwanat / Getty Images
Get ready for Qatar 2022.
Vladimir Putin with, at left, International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge.
Via: Kudrill Kuvyatsev / Getty Images
You may have heard about the anti-LGBT laws passed last month in Russia, which criminalize gay "propaganda." You may specifically have heard about these laws in reference to next year's Sochi Winter Olympics. Sochi is in Russia, and some advocates believe that athletes (as well as other Russian institutions) should boycott the games to protest the laws. Not every activist agrees on that point, but either way, in a sports world that is increasingly LGBT-friendly, the Russian laws — and the wisdom of rewarding a civil rights-hostile country with a prestigious prize like hosting the Olympics — will continue to be a huge issue.
A huge issue — but perhaps only a small preview of what's coming. The Winter Olympics are a relatively minor sporting event, and these repressive laws were passed recently enough as to make the idea of moving the Olympics impractical. But Russia is set to host the World Cup in 2018. And the World Cup after that is slated to take place in Qatar, where homosexuality is punishable by seven years in prison. Those will be much larger events than Sochi in terms of worldwide audience, in-person attendance, and scope. The Olympics are a two-week event in one location, but World Cups last a month and take place in several cities at once. That means fans and players spending more time in more places.
Which gets at perhaps the central problem that Russia and Qatar have, and a way in which their events could differ from past Olympics and World Cups held under politically controversial circumstances. Because political controversy itself is nothing new for global competitions, of course. Critics of the decisions to hold the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the 2010 World Cup in South Africa had plenty to complain about in China's human rights and labor records and the South African government's decision to spend huge sums on stadium construction and other preparation in a country with serious poverty issues. The mothers of "disappeared" and murdered dissidents protested in public when Argentina's military regime hosted the 1978 World Cup. The USSR and United States were considered inappropriate Olympic hosts in 1980 and 1984, and boycotted by giant and mutually exclusive blocs of world governments.
What all those political issues had in common, from Beijing to Los Angeles, is that they did not present any imminent threat to the well-being of athletes or spectators. When the Chinese, American, Argentinian and Soviets acted as hosts, they downplayed their own internal conflicts and charmed their guests. They were trying to win the respect of international visitors, even those from countries with hostile governments. The Cold War-era United States was happy to host Soviet athletes and citizens permanently if they so chose. The Chinese created an impressive, borderline-sublime mass spectacle of an Opening Ceremony as if to make a point to visitors about the benefits of subsuming oneself to society.
The official positions of Russia and Qatar toward LGBT rights make no room for charm or persuasion; a gay man visiting and making his identity known in either of those countries can simply be considered a criminal and prosecuted as such. Even a few years ago, this did not seem, to the relevant authorities in soccer's governing body, to be a problem at all. (FIFA president Sepp Blatter, asked in 2010 about Qatar's laws, answered glibly that gay World Cup fans should simply avoid having sex during their time in the country.) And why should it have? Not long ago the official laws of even a relatively LGBT-friendly country like the United States prohibited gays and lesbians from marrying or serving in the armed forces. The idea of a world-class gay athlete was only theoretical. To hide one's identity for a month in Russia or Qatar — what's so absurd about that, if Americans serving in the army had to do the same thing every day? The reasoning was disappointing, but understandable.
Things change, though, and in the case of LGBT rights in the U.S. they have changed quite rapidly. There are few remaining official corners of the American closet in any part of life; in sports, Jason Collins and Robbie Rogers have broken the taboo against active professional athletes discussing their sexual orientation; even the NFL, the most macho league of all, is creeping toward tolerance. The idea that there aren't elite gay athletes is beginning to seem as absurd as the idea that there aren't gay people everywhere, in every part of society.
But in Russia, with anti-LGBT violence rising and these new laws having just been passed, the paradigm is moving in the opposite direction. It might have been possible to imagine, a few years ago, a controlled two-week Winter Olympic interlude where anti-gay sentiment could be cravenly hidden. But two monthlong World Cups, with millions and millions of spectators coming from nations where LGBT openness has suddenly become the norm, spread out all over an increasingly intolerant Russia and Qatar for a month each? It is hard to picture this happening without dire, possibly violent conflict — and it's even harder to picture it happening in 2022, when there will almost certainly be openly gay world-class soccer players participating in matches. Rather than a convergence or at least an uneasy comingling of values — which, if not the ideal of global competition, is at least a necessary condition for its existence, and what has generally happened in politically dicey circumstances in the past — we have two worlds moving further apart, one into the darkness, and one into the light. If anything good is to come from the Russian government's recent inhumane behavior, perhaps it's this: showing how much trouble we're headed for in 2018 and 2022 while there's still time to do something about it.
You go try chopping logs as fast as these guys.
If frisbees are your business, business is good.
Everything's coming up frisbee! Earlier this year the USA Ultimate organization — amateur ultimate frisbee's governing body — signed a television deal with ESPN that will see 23 games aired via ESPN3 and on ESPNU. Meanwhile, two ultimate frisbee pro leagues have launched in the past two years (players make a modest $25 per game). And one of them, Major League Ultimate, actually sells its own iPad/iPhone video game — featuring real pro frisbee-ists — for $2.99.
A Boston-based game designer and avid Ultimate player named Axis Sivitz created the "Championship Frisbee" app; it was recently rebranded in partnership with the Major League Ultimate league. There are eight teams from the East and West coasts in the league, which play a 10-game season from April to July. The game features all officially rostered players and jersey numbers. Number 21 above, shown preparing to "pull" the disc to the opposing team (Ultimate's equivalent of a kick-off in football)? That's Joseph Anderson from the New York Rumble.
Players can design their own jerseys via color-customized shorts and shirts. You want blue board shorts? You got blue board shorts, friend!
The app includes training levels for honing running, cutting, throwing and bidding skills (bidding = layout dive). Throwing, as is often the case with the sport in real life, is the hardest aspect to master.
Put your baseball knowledge to the ultimate test: a 15-question multiple-choice quiz.
With a controversial Winter Olympics six months away, let’s get to know the host city.
Source: 1000lonelyplaces.com
Source: 1000lonelyplaces.com
Sochi's average temperature during the day in the winter is a mild 52 degrees, and in the summer it averages out at 75 degrees.
So glad we have this footage.
Via: Christian Petersen / Getty Images
During a recent practice at the Oakland Raiders training camp, punter Chris Kluwe strapped on a Google Glass headset to show the world what it's like to be the most important player on the punting unit. And not surprisingly, it is super boring. Here are some of the highlights:
Never realizes he’s on television.
Garrit Cole is a 22-year-old starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. The 2011 No.1 overall draft pick is currently 5-4 with a 3.56 ERA. He has a ton of potential and is going to be a cornerstone for the Pirates in the future.
Via: Greg Fiume / Getty Images
But right now, Gerrit Cole is a rookie, and rookies tend to do dumb things — like pick their nose on camera.
