basketball on Vice

The Mercy Rule

Hearing the Spurs

As I age, my ear is retuning itself; I can finally hear something other than “ugh” watching the San Antonio Spurs play, which is cool, except how it parallels suddenly finding a 'Rod Stewart Sings the Standards' record soulful and great. Full story

"Rise and Fall" - Fascinator

Johnny from Children Collide is releasing a solo mini-album under the name Fascinator and we're premiering the first video. Warning: do not watch if you're not into pretty girls in bikinis playing basketball. Full story

The Mercy Rule

Leave Derrick Rose Alone

Derrick Rose, who won an MVP award in 2011 then wrecked his ACL and has been out for a year, has spent the last week getting kicked around by tough-guy sportswriters outraged that he's not back on the floor in his Chicago Bulls' series against the Miami Heat. He refuses to engage… Full story

Joe Johnson Is Very Big in China: A Love Story

By day, Yonsan Johnson is an electrical engineer who ekes out the equivalent of $2,400 a year in a factory in northern China. By night, though, he manages the Chinese Joe Johnson Fan Club, and he has accumulated and edited what is likely the world’s largest cache of Joe Johnson-r… Full story

Jason Collins Proves Coming Out Is a Great Career Move

Even if no NBA team picks up Jason Collins for next season, he has a golden career as a public homosexual ahead of him, if he wants it, which shows just how different being gay in 2013 is from being black in 1947—back then, no one was talking about how much money Jackie Robinson… Full story

The Mercy Rule

Bill Walton, the Tallest Troll

During his time in the announcer's booth, Bill Walton has demonstrated both a deep understanding of basketball and a sharp, sometimes vicious, sense of sarcasm. The worse the basketball gets, the better Walton gets at projecting his disdain for it. Full story

North Korea Has a Friend in Dennis Rodman and VICE

Earlier today former Chicago Bulls superstar Dennis Rodman presided over a mixed-match basketball game in Pyongyang alongside Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un. The teams consisted of VICE correspondent Ryan Duffy, three Harlem Globetrotters, and North Korea's "Dream Team." Full story

The Mercy Rule

The Pelicans’ Grief

Team names work best when they’re both goofy and ambitious. The very words Utah Jazz conjure someone pouring a quart of milk into a clarinet; the idea of a Sacramento King mostly just gives you the image of a winking Guy Fieri sitting on a pepperoni throne wearing a crown made of… Full story

Sports Epiphany: It's Just Guys Running Around

A crappy Maryland-Northwestern basketball game last week previewed what awaits the Terps in the Big Ten for 2014. But does it matter? Nah. Sports is just guys running around. Full story

Polishing a Terp: Why Maryland Left the ACC

At a time when football and its megabucks are steering athletics departments nationwide, the ACC has been unsuccessful in its efforts to build a gridiron powerhouse out of a conference whose identity has been tied to men’s basketball and the four North Carolina schools who’ve dom… Full story