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The Kawhi Leonard Investigation Is Now Holding Up The Kawhi Leonard Trade
In September 2025, the NBA hired the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate the Los Angeles Clippers for potential salary cap circumvention after Pablo Torre Finds Out reported that the team had arranged a no-show endorsement deal for Kawhi Leonard with a fraudulent tree-planting company called Aspiration. On June 30, 2026, the Clippers agreed to trade Leonard to the Toronto Raptors. That trade is now on hold because, somehow, the aforementioned investigation is still ongoing. ...
France Feels Inevitable
World Cups are rarely wire-to-wire coronations. In fact, the competition is so fierce, and the margins so small, that usually there isn't a single clear "best" team that goes ahead and wins it all. In 2010, you could argue that Germany looked stronger than eventual champions Spain, up until the Spaniards pulled off a narrow 1-0 win against them in the semifinal. The Dutch were probably the strongest team overall in 2014, even though they fell to Argentina in the semis. As the legendary final i...
Karolina Muchova And Coco Gauff Played A Tiebreak Neither Will Forget
Nervy tennis is so rich. It can contain both the worst of the sport (in a technical sense) and the best of it (in a narrative sense). You can witness breakdowns in routine strokes, diseased shot selection, and facial expressions that indicate a horrible geyser of bile into the esophagus. But you'll also see the bravery of a player who is flagging, hurting, and still playing gorgeous tennis from a land beyond conscious thought. Rarely will there be tennis nervier than the third-set tiebreak tha...
Meet Torstein Træen, The Stoic Norwegian Survivor Who Briefly Lit Up The Tour de France
PAU, France — Some people are natural performers. Torstein Træen is not, though his work on the bike might have been the last exciting general classification action before we get to Paris. As the 30-year-old Norwegian rider ascended the podium in Foix after Stage 4, to be wrapped in the yellow jersey, he grinned sheepishly and his Uno-X teammates gathered below to cheer him on. You wouldn't know he was bringing such a strange, interesting cycling career to an ecstatic new high. Træen looked...
Trump’s State Fair Was Ass In All The Ways I’d Been Warned
I went to the Great American State Fair figuring it would make me feel lousy about my country. I don't remember being so right about anything. I'd read all about how entertainers wouldn't take the stage , how states wouldn't staff the booths , and how nobody was showing up because the president had hijacked America's 250th birthday celebration and messed everything up. But with only a few days before this circus leaves town—the fair closes tomorrow—I wanted to see for myself if The Mess on...
The Other Elephant
There was always an irony to Happy's name. The elephant's misfortune stamped her a celebrity. In their home in the wild, female Asian elephants roam for hundreds of miles and form lifelong attachments to a group of around seven relatives. In her home in the Bronx Zoo, Happy lived alone in a small exhibit. She had been separated for decades from the zoo's other two Asian elephants, Maxine and Patty, for her own protection. So Happy became famous for her loneliness , deprived of companionship, o...
A Front-Row Seat To The Worst Team In Pro Baseball
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — If you regret that you never got a chance to see the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, the losingest team in MLB history, can I interest you in a trip to Staten Island? No wait, come back. Just a few steps away from the ferry terminal, a morbidly curious fan can catch the independent Atlantic League's Staten Island FerryHawks, who have suffered through such a hapless year that they're legitimately challenging the Spiders' historic futility. With just over two months left in the sea...
I’m Not Sure There Are Enough Dundons On The Stanley Cup
The Carolina Hurricanes are worthy NHL champs, plowing through the playoffs with a 16-3 record. It's a victory of commitment to an approach, as head coach Rod Brind'Amour's system finally paid ultimate dividends after seven years of postseason exits. It's a victory for bloggers everywhere, thanks to the employment of GM Eric Tulsky and analyst Tyler Dellow(!). But most important, it's a victory for family. The Dundon family, specifically. No other families. Notoriously cheap owner Tom Dundo...
The World Cup Quarterfinals Are Here. Pick A Team Or DIE
OK, now shit is about to get even realer. The FIFA World Cup sponsored by FIFA and presented by FIFA is now down to eight teams. If your favorite team isn’t among the last countries standing, that’s tough shit. You must pick a NEW favorite country, and you must do it right this instant or else suffer the consequences. [I draw my sword] But how can anyone pick just one team from France, Morocco, Belgium, Spain, Norway, England, Argentina, and Switzerland? Fear not, amigo, because this wee...
The Bears Wouldn’t Be The First NFL Team In Hammond, Indiana
The Chicago Bears are one of the most storied franchises in the NFL. One of just two charter members of the league still playing today (the other being the Cardinals, a somewhat less-storied franchise), the Bears have had a lengthy and stalwart kinship with the City of Big Shoulders. That could change. Bears ownership announced on June 5 that they are focusing their attention on building a new stadium that not only isn’t in Chicago, but isn’t in Illinois at all. “[T]he Chicago Bears Boar...
Am I The Asshole For Judging The Screen Time Habits Of Other People’s Kids?
Welcome back to Minor Dilemmas , where a member of Defector's Parents Council will answer your questions on surviving family life. Have a question? Email us at [email protected] . This week, Billy dives into the tricky question of screen time .
Hell Hath No Fury Like A Pitcher Scorned
Spite is a powerful emotion too often cast in an ugly light. To feel slighted or doubted is a natural urge, as is our desire to press our doubters' eyes up against a window to watch as we prove them wrong. We are taught to repress and do away with such unbecoming resentments. But how else can we stunt on the haters? If there's an underdog story you love, there's a good chance that it required a healthy grudge. By conservative estimates, I would say that half of my greatest accomplishments h...
The Long-Awaited Blowup Between Skylar Diggins And The Sky Has Finally Arrived
Skylar Diggins, to her credit, isn't one to trade in the classic cryptic fare of her fellow disgruntled athletes. What she writes on social media requires no close reading or careful analysis. There's no Crazy how people switch up on you or TIME WILL TELL with an enigmatic emoji. The Instagram story she posted on Monday was perfectly straightforward: "Now I'm coming off the bench?????? 👍🏽 Cool." https://bsky.app/profile/maggiehendricks.bsky.social/post/3mpyrcswc6c2f Two questions s...
What Do The Boston Celtics Intend To Be?
As an online basketball fan, you are encouraged by the discourse to consider the Jaylen Brown trade as a matter of asset valuation. One day the Celtics seemed to consider Brown, the asset, as approximately valuable enough to swap for Giannis Antetokounmpo, plus or minus some draft capital. When they didn't complete the trade, it was possible to believe, just for a few minutes, that Celtics president Brad Stevens maybe even considered Brown too valuable for Milwaukee's proposed terms. Then a co...
Dana White Stars In History’s Worst Truck Ad
Vanity pickup trucks: I fucking hate these things, and so you do. The second I see a Ram SuperUltraMegaSoldierDuty on the highway, I already know that it'll have a Blue Lives Matter decal splashed across its rear windshield, a pristine flatbed untouched by manual labor equipment, and a driver who has no fucking idea how to park. These are vehicles made by assholes, for assholes . Knowing all of that, it was destiny that Ram, a brand owned by Dutch auto conglomerate Stellantis, would hire on...
Who Pranks The Pranksters?
Some things are just timeless. Gossip, for instance, has likely been around as long as humans have been able to communicate with one another, and then share someone else’s business. Ötzi, the 5,000-year-old ice man ? Probably a gossiper and definitely a messy guy. Something else just as timeless? Pranks! Normal Gossip is back for its 10th season! Who could have guessed that so many friends had silly, outrageous and harrowing stories they wanted to share with the world. We’re grateful to eve...
The Mets Have Turned It Around 360 Degrees
The crud-ass New York Mets were able to manage a series split on the road against division-leading Atlanta during the long weekend, overcoming severe bullpen issues for 10-9 and 7-6 victories on Sunday and Monday. But before any fan could even begin to think about letting their guard down or their hopes up, New York returned home to kick off a series with the Royals and deliver another entry in this year's contest for "Most Frustrating Loss." Again, the Mets offense did their part, but Kansas ...
You Don’t Have To Love Grass To Win On It
Heading into this year's Wimbledon, neither Coco Gauff nor Naomi Osaka had made a deep run at the tournament, despite winning a total of six Slams elsewhere. Gauff had peaked at the fourth round, and Osaka at the third round, three times apiece for both players. An observer trying to make sense of this history could argue that their styles of play weren't flattered by the demands of grass-court tennis. Osaka's power game relies on rhythm, which she gets from the ball's consistent and reliable ...
The Tour de France’s Infernal Present Portends Its Impossible Future
SAINT-GAUDENS, France — On Monday morning, the Tour de France's media wranglers sent us all a text announcing something genuinely shocking for such a French organization: They had banned smoking. The ASO said nobody could smoke in the TV areas "in order to combat fire risks," as that day's racing finished 60 kilometers west of the Trévillach wildfire, which has forced over 12,000 people to evacuate their homes. That day, the race entered France to 44 kilometers of quiet roads after organizers ...
‘The Furious’ Kicks Ass
What’s the sickest action sequence you’ve ever witnessed on screen? I’ll give you five. There’s the tea parlor shootout at the top of John Woo’s Hard Boiled , of course, as well as Jackie Chan’s multi-level shopping mall free-for-all at the close of Police Story . William Friedkin constructed more than a few throughout his career, none better than the stalking-slashing set piece at the climax of The Hunted . I still don’t know how John Frankenheimer made Ronin ’s Paris sedan chase without kill...
The Atlanta Dream Are Getting Drowsy
A man goes to the doctor and says, "Doctor! Doctor! It hurts when I do this." The doctor replies, "Then stop doing that." To some extent, the solution to the Atlanta Dream's recent woes is for them to play well instead of playing poorly, and head coach Karl Smesko isn't panicking. "I don't think it's anything drastic. It's just a play here, a play there, a call here, a call there," he said after Atlanta's 88-83 loss to Golden State on Saturday, his team's fifth straight loss. "I think as soon ...
Lionel Messi Refuses To Let Time Win
For 79 minutes of Tuesday afternoon's round-of-16 match against Egypt, Lionel Messi was terrible, and by extension so was Argentina. "Terrible" might be overstating it, but when confronted with the enormity of Messi's talent, even at this sunset period of his career, anything other than something we've never seen before feels, well, terrible. Messi spent the first 79 minutes of the match misplaying passes, dribbling to nowhere, missing yet another penalty —boy, am I glad that he made his two p...
The Hot Take Industrial Complex Cannot Be Killed By Conventional Means
Time for your weekly edition of the Defector Funbag. Got something on your mind? Email the Funbag . You can also read Drew over at SFGATE , and buy Drew’s books while you’re at it . Today, we're talking malls, flopping, hero instincts, and more. Before I get started today, let's go ahead and open up the submissions for Why Your Team Sucks 2026. Does your NFL team suck? Well then, email us here and tell us why. A quick refresher of the guidelines for you. One: put your team's name and "WYTS"...
Meet The Broadway Actor Teaching Public Defenders How To Win In Court
On Sunday, June 7, LeeAnne Hutchison was at the Tony Awards, watching her Broadway debut Liberation win for Best Play. The next morning, she woke up and clocked in at Defenders Academy, a week-long trial skills program for public defenders from across the country. She’s spent the last two decades using her acting skills to teach lawyers how to be more compelling in court. Hutchison and I met over Zoom to talk about what a courtroom has in common with a theater, and what keeps bringing her ...
Paraguayan Senator Gets Shockingly Racist Toward Kylian Mbappé
Heading into the 2026 World Cup, one of FIFA's points of focus was curbing on-field racism. That is the genesis of the "covered your mouth" red card that so far has taken out Ecuador's Piero Hincapié and Paraguay's Miguel Almirón. The logic was sound: Players are probably less likely to do a racismo if their lips can be easily read in the moment, potentially heading off the kind of paralytic he-said-he-said that protected Benfica's Gianluca Prestianni in his racism incident with Vinícius last ...
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