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This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

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Defector

2019-01-01 00:15:14.989

Maitreyi Anantharaman

A collage of Detroit Tigers in-game parlays on Bally Sports

tigers-parlay-bally-sports

Gambling

How Often Would You Lose On 81 Tigers Same-Game Parlays Pushed By Bally Sports Detroit?

charismatic megafauna (they/them)

Typing

Sabrina Imbler

150-million-year-old fossil of Stegosaurus specimen is on display at Sotheby's in New York on July 10, 2024.

Creaturefector

No One Person Should Be Able To Own A Dinosaur

Moths around Light Bulb

Wings Week

How I Learned To Moth And Embrace The Dark

Hamilton Nolan is a journalist based in New York City. Subscribe to his work at <a href="https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.hamiltonnolan.com/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1687350200913000&amp;usg=AOvVaw0naFbUVOe-5ZgtPDtIM3gz">HamiltonNolan.com</a>.

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Hamilton Nolan

Welterweight contender Jaron Ennis trains during a media workout for his upcoming fight against Custio Clayton at Churchill Boxing Club on May 11, 2022 in Santa Monica, California.

Jermell Charlo Media Workout

The Fights

Philly Has A Hero Named Boots

bh def prof pic

Billy Haisley

Players of Spain celebrate on the bench as Lamine Yamal of Spain celebrates scoring his team's first goal during the UEFA EURO 2024 Semi-Final match between Spain and France at Munich Football Arena on July 09, 2024 in Munich, Germany.

Spain v France: Semi-Final – UEFA EURO 2024

Soccer

The Legend Of Lamine Yamal Has Its First Chapter

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Albert Burneko

George Clooney, as Michael Clayton, talks into a cell phone while walking down a city street at night.

michael-clayton

This Is So Stupid

There Are Three Essential Lawyer Movies

skalaf-photo

Samer Kalaf

Klay Thompson #11, Andrew Wiggins #22, Jonathan Kuminga #00, and Stephen Curry #30 of the Golden State Warriors look on from the bench during the game against the Sacramento Kings during the 2024 Play-In Tournament

klay-thompson-warriors-bench

An Attempt To Draw This Overstuffed Sentence About Klay Thompson Leaving The Warriors

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David Roth

Gravel road

Arts And Culture

The City Lives In The Earth Room

heatherchen_baby

Heather Wei-Xi Chen

Kenny Moll rips through an impromptu finish line to mark the end of his seventh marathon. Michael-Luca is running to his right, with a crowd of runners behind them. There are trees in the background, and the area is both shaded and sunny.

7marathons-heatherchen-11

The Great Outdoors

If You Run Seven Marathons In Seven Days In Central Park, Does It Make A Difference?

Angel Reese #5 of the Chicago Sky grabs the rebound during he first half of a WNBA game against the Connecticut Sun

angel-reese-sky-sun

WNBA

Angel Reese Has Genius In Her Fingertips

Dave McKenna

Maryland State Police troopers bowing their heads on stage during a graduation ceremony in 2019.

Lt. Governor Boyd K. Rutherford will speak at the graduation ceremony for the Maryland State Police 149th Trooper Candidate Class in Reisterstown, MD.

Policing

How Qualified Immunity Protects Cops Who Kill

The United States Women's National team celebrate their victory during the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.

1996 Olympics: USA Basketball Women’s National Team

Basketball Isn’t A Popularity Contest, Except When It Is

Michael is a writer who has worked with The Atlantic, The New Yorker, WIRED, Vox, The New York Times, and other publications. His first book, The Other Olympians, which uncovers the stories of several European athletes who transitioned gender in the 1930s, is now available for purchase.

Michael Waters

Helen Stephens running in the 1936 Olympics

Olympische Spiele 1936 in Berlin – 2. Vorlauf 100-m Damen, Zieleinlauf

Olympics

Olympian Helen Stephens Suffered Through An Anti-Queer Panic That Still Reverberates

baby owen

Owen Lewis

2022 French Open – Day Nine

Tennis

Suffering Pigeons All Over At Roland-Garros

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Ray Ratto

PHOENIX, AZ - MARCH 7: Jontay Porter #34 of the Toronto Raptors arrives to the arena before the game against the Phoenix Suns on March 7, 2024 at Footprint Center in Phoenix, Arizona. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2024 NBAE (Photo by Kate Frese/NBAE via Getty Images)

Toronto Raptors v Phoenix Suns

How The Fix Gets In

Investigations Editor. You can reach her at diana@defector.com or, if you prefer protonmail, dfmoskovitz@protonmail.com. If security is a concern, download the Signal app and send her a text at 929-251-8187.

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Diana Moskovitz

A photo of the baseball field and the scoreboard at Meji Jingu Baseball Stadium stadium in Tokyo. The night sky is a dark blue and, despite the rain, the outfield seats still hold a good number of fans. There's also a runner on second base.

Japan Baseball Photo

The Key To Having Fun At A Baseball Game Is Flying To The Other Side Of The World

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Giri Nathan

Rafael Nadal is playing against Alexander Zverev in the first round of the men's singles at the Roland Garros French Open tennis tournament in Paris, France, on May 27, 2024.

rafael-nadal-zverev-french-open

There Are No Tidy Endings In Rafael Nadal’s Clay Temple

B.D. McClay is an essayist and critic.

B.D. McClay

11 February 2020, Berlin: Bottles of the brand "Coca Cola" are lined up in the cinema Zoo Palast.

Cinema Zoo Palace

Mods Asleep

I Will Never Abandon My Special Little Drink

Erik Baker is a historian and an associate editor at The Drift.

Erik Baker

Professor Richard Dawkins next to a bus displaying an atheist message in Kensington Gardens, London.

richard-dawkins-atheism

The Ghosts Of New Atheism Still Haunt Us

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Charles P. Pierce is a writer at Esquire and the author of four books, most recently Idiot America, and has been a working journalist since 1976. He lives near Boston with his wife but no longer his three children.
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Charles P. Pierce

Portland Trail Blazers' Bill Walton, who received many accolades for his performance on the court, is depicted here. Walton would later go on to pursue a career off the court as a sports broadcaster and an actor in feature films.

Portrait of Bill Walton

Bill Walton Let His Joy Flourish

Caitlin Clark #22 of the Indiana Fever looks on during the game against the New York Liberty on May 16, 2024 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana.

caitlin-clark-fever-liberty-home-opener

On The Caitlin Clark Beat, Everyone’s Plotting

Nick Zarzycki is a Toronto-based writer whose work has appeared in the Washington Post, Deadspin and Toronto Life.

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Nick Zarzycki

A wizard dressed in a suit looks upon a fortress on a hill as lightning bolts and dollar bills dot the sky

Games

The Creator Of ‘Magic: The Gathering’ Knows Exactly Where It All Went Wrong

An ancient grave with a skeleton with both masculine and feminine signifiers.

ancientgraves

Science

Can We Exhume Gender From The Long-Dead?

Puja Changoiwala is an award-winning journalist and author based in Mumbai. <a href="https://www.pujachangoiwala.com/">This</a> is her website.

Puja Changoiwala

An image of the frontline in the Russia/Ukraine war, with an image of Mohammed Sufiyan, who was lured into that conflict by an Indian YouTube influencer.

GettyImages-2110557254(1)

Politics

How A YouTuber Duped Indians Into The Russia-Ukraine War

<div>Nate Jackson is a former NFL tight end and author of <a href="https://bookshop.org/p/books/slow-getting-up-a-story-of-nfl-survival-from-the-bottom-of-the-pile-nate-jackson/6430451?gclid=Cj0KCQjwpc-oBhCGARIsAH6ote9JzWMngZDpSjF2eoL1_JlyPm2QhDfkNgOzqvaB4n9ic0qqUNQ4iCwaAsasEALw_wcB">Slow Getting Up</a>. He lives in Denver.</div>
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