The Jacobin Sports Show

In which we welcome our favorite sportswriter and ask her: how historically shocking would a Pacers' title rank? After some Finals talk, it's NY, NY the rest of the way -- why we weren't sure the Knicks would fire Tom Thibodeau & why it's encouraging they did. Is Ranger goalie Igor Shesterkin *that* good? Is Ranger GM Chris Drury *that* bad? Also: the new Mets, what one thing we'd change re: sports owners if we could, and more!

The Ringer's Howard Beck talks whether Cleveland should make a move or stay the course, if KD or Giannis are more likely to be traded, whether teams can still plan for 3-5 year runs under the current CBA, if Tyrese Haliburton a bully or a killer & more

A flu-hit Matthew reveals the true villain of the Luka trade, why All-Star Games can never be what they're supposed to be, how the Yankees beard policy is just another beard and more. Then it's a conversation with soccer coach Mike Idland about sharing live sports with your kids and what a coach gets up to during their alleged "off-season."

Seth Rosenthal (The Secret Base) and Matthew talk about the ways working in sports media has changed over the years, how it hasn't, some of the behind-the-scenes truths of that world and what it's like caring about sports as all the world crashes and burns. We also talk about the greatness of this year's Knicks!

In this episode, how Sacramento's firing of Mike Brown pretty much bounces off him while reflecting poorly on owner Vivek Ranadive; how Minnesota put Julius Randle in position not only to fail, but to be scapegoated; why James McAllister was right to slur Spurs fans; why Aaron Rodgers isn't merely a bad QB; and the intersection of chess, pantaloons and sex toys.

Women's college gymnastics coach Diana Gallagher joins the show to talk about the marvel and the madness that was infamous Olympic coach Béla Károlyi. Plus when is your favorite team signing an icon still problematic , how are college football coaches pissing away millions of dollars in salary, why might Paige Bueckers want anything but to be the 1st pick of next year's WNBA draft, and more!

Myles Ehrlich (Winsidr) joins the pod to talk about the Liberty's WNBA championship (17:00) & what issues the W players may prioritize after opting out of their CBA with the league. Then in part 2 of our GOAT series, how were Kobe Bryant & Mozart's genius distinct from MJ/LeBron/Bach/Beethoven? (1:36:00)

The Ringer's Howard Beck on the KAT/Julius Randle trade, is the new CBA is more restrictive for players than its priors, whether the Bulls or Pistons are sadder, more NBA questions & what instrument he used to play. And in part 1 of a new series, we explore some of the similarities between Michael Jordan & J.S. Bach.

The WNBA owners & players are at a critical point in the league's evolution; how can the workers make sure their demands for dignity are enshrined and ensured? Plus: a 34-year playing career nears its end, Yankees talk with Joe Flynn & Dominick Duthel on growing up a Black baseball player during the time Black players are rarer and rarer.

Japanese baseballers push for more rights. The National Women's Soccer League implements the most humane CBA in all of sports. Caitlin Clark is the most impactful rookie since?? And Chelsea, Chelsea, Chelsea . . .

From Imane Khelif's joyful light to Simone Biles' endless exceptionality to Manizha Talash's selfless sacrifice, there are Olympic stories worth celebrating . . . and castigating. Also, Dearica Hamby's calls out the WNBA as unjust -- will its media do the same? Finally, a few days after a gay baseball icon dies, bigotry in Boston.

This episode features all things Kings hoops with Sacramento icon Jrue. How do fans there feel after two turnaround regular seasons without playoff success? What key offseason issues does the team face? How is it that the "small-town" Kings and the big-city Knicks are such perfect spiritual cousins? This was a fun one!

Man City's four-peat and the Knicks in a Game 7 lead to questions about the WNBA's direction. Then Alford Corriette (HerHoopStats) breaks down half the league plus questions about charter flights, the in-season tournament and if the W would welcome a young star pushing for early draft eligibility.

One of sportswriting's brightest minds & clearest communicators, Caitlin Cooper talks transitioning from covering sports for a corporation to starting her own supporter-based site & the challenges and rewards that brings. Then we talk Knicks/Pacers playoffs -- what happens when a team that struggles with switches meets one that hates switching? Which player in the series is like a pebble in your shoe? What philosophy did Tyrese Haliburton wear a T-shirt celebrating that Tom Thibodeau would angrily rip off any of his players? That and more!

How are the Mat Ishbia Suns like the Jonestown cult? Why doesn't Reggie Bush's retro-Heisman matter? Also: NBA playoff talk, Candace Parker leaves the WNBA, Jurgen Klopp nears the end at Liverpool and somber numbers regarding death and boxing.

Matthew on when losing is like fish sauce, the NBA's 3-body problem and how the Atlanta Hawks are Swedenborg's Hell. Kris Pursiainen talks today's sports media landscape as well as NBA play-in/playoff topics.

In this very special episode, part 1 discusses LSU/Iowa's Elite 8 blockbuster, the Minnesota T'Wolves fussin' billionaires, the EPL's 3-horse home stretch and the tsunami of sports gambling red flags. In part 2 Matthew interviews a very special guest and announces the show's new name.

The 99th episode centers on the impacts #99 has had on Matthew over the years.

Chris Herring talks Usher, a little NBA and Jim Harbaugh at Michigan. Sometimes titles are throwaways, but this episode's really did cover it all.

In this episode we visit four stories that highlight the age-old truth that $$$ isn't everything: why Malcolm Brogdon may rightfully refuse to be traded to a better team; how the NBAPA appears to have failed Joel Embiid and the rest of its members; Tony Snell gaining sympathies before losing them; and Michael Jordan making on octogenarian widow cry.

The Oakland A's are pure evil. Trevor Bauer thinks casual sex was the problem. Reminders that sometimes Draymond and Kyrie are a story's objects and not its subjects. Crina Mustafa touches on the impact of Canada's RJ Barrett returning home before diving into the structural WTFery of professional tennis today.

Quis ipsos custodes Draymond? How does Shohei Ohtani's record-setting contract reveal MLB stars are being short-changed financially? How could a QB as accurate as Patrick Mahomes be so off the mark with a failed apology? Then Noa Dalzell joins to talk Jayson Tatum, Kristaps Porzingis, Joe Mazzulla and all things Celtics, plus we explore how, why and where the NBA must show the fans it cares more about bodily autonomy than Ws & Ls.

Today's show centers on reminders of the sports world of the past (Florida State victimized by college football's corruption), the present (the NBA's In-Season Tournament & load-management hypocrisy shows the league couldn't care less about harming bodies) and the future (Juan Soto to the Yankees & Ed Cooley's righteous reaction after a tough Georgetown loss both offer reasons to hope the future is bright).

In which big news about the potential futures of the podcast arrives, and then it's on to stories from the world of sports (and one that isn't) that remind us some traditions are worth keeping in our lives, while others should be discarded as soon as possible with extreme prejudice.

A shout-out to a new marathon record-holder, who came out ahead in the Dame Lillard/Jrue Holiday arms race and an extended talk with Lyndsey D'Arcangelo about the WNBA. What to make of the Aces & Liberty, after Game 1 and moving forward? What's the status of the league's newly announced expansion -- the Bay Area is confirmed, but what about Portland? We also talk about Dearica Hamby's lawsuit against the Aces & the WNBA.

After Matthew spends the first minute of the episode unknowingly on mute, a colorful & comprehensive discussion of the WGA's recent strike success with longtime Law & Order: SVU/Law & Order: Criminal Intent showrunner and Tony Award-winning playwright Warren Leight. As a longtime writer/director/producer and one of the WGA's leading union members, Leight gives an insider's view both into the workers' conditions that led to the labor action & how the union not only achieved victory for its members, but is part of a growing solidarity across all kinds of different unions. We talked about why that happened, the unique role of social media in this strike and the union's insistence on an agreement regarding artificial intelligence. We also talk about Warren's life with & love for the Knicks and Mets.

From James Harden to Luis Rubiales to Mason Greenwood to Kylian Mbappé to Leo Messi, a series of stories whose headlines sometimes obscure something far greater in the dark depths below

We often define "seasons" in sports pretty neatly & tidily: they start in the preseason & generally end after the last game. But just like land is never as precise as the maps that seek to capture it, the end of seasons can be blurry. We hear from 3 different POVs regarding this transition: Howard Beck on how NBA media's rhythms have changed, Gigi Speer on a college athlete's end of days, and Brenda Prinzing on following a team 365 days a year even while the league they play in keeps finding ways to push you away.

Consider the carbon output tens of millions of fans produce driving to games to watch teams who take dozens of flights per season on jets that are environmentally a nightmare. The fans whose love & passion allow pro sports to thrive through all kinds of economic downturns repeatedly pay higher prices for lesser access. Most people in sports media are paid poverty wages, if they're paid at all. The allocation of wealth within the leagues themselves is criminal. The Mardy Fish/Steph Curry incident is just another hint at the coming gambling iceberg. Should pro sports even exist?

Like an episodic dream, today's topics flow in and out of one another: * The NY Times using The Athletic as an end-run about its sportswriters' union * Victor Wembanyama + Britney Spears = ? * When too much NBA is too much NBA * The WNBA lets down its players re: travel -- again * WNBA players use worker power to start a new offseason league * Barca, Barca, Barca

With MLB ripping the As out of Oakland, Rob Manfred's chronic dickishness, the scapegoating of Pride Night and overhauling the rules of the game to solve a problem that doesn't exist, Matthew says goodbye to first sporting industry he loved

This pod has it all: Elizabeth Adetiba (Salon) on the oppression of & discussions around Caster Semenya & other intersex athletes from the Global South, plus the tragedy of the death of Tori Bowie; Man City's triumph & the anxiety it produces for some; hooray for the Denver Nuggets; the WNBA fails Brittany Griner for the second time; and there are no winners in the PGA/LIV merger, only -- truly -- losers.

Jonah Birch returns to the pod for a special reunion episode, recorded right after the Celtics won on the road to force a Game 7 back in Boston -- during the Philadelphia series, not Miami. We wanted to give you Jonah at his most optimistic, during his golden hour. M & J talk basketball and a bit of this and that in their first show together since Henry Kissinger died. Wait. He's still alive? Man, fuck that guy.

Acclaimed writer Frankie de la Cretaz joins the show to talk about intersections of gender, sexuality and sports. Why is Lia Thomas posed by some as a threat to women's swimming while Katie Ledecky isn't? What elements specific to swimming make it such fertile ground for transphobia? How is the Biden Administration trying to have its cake & eat it while doing nothing to protect young trans athletes? What part is the NFL not saying out loud as it invests millions of dollars in women's flag football while women's tackle football remains undersupported and unregulated? Can women's sports grow in a meaningfully positive way if we measure their progress by capitalist benchmarks? Tune in & find out.

Katie Heindl hops on to talk hoops, namely: James Harden & whether he has anything to prove; the FedExForum back door hitting Dillon Brooks' ass on the way out; why even Knicks fans can love Jimmy Butler; how the Big 3 Nets were the Fyre Festival; why sports fans may hold different standards toward their heroes' crimes than fans of other entertainers; how the growth of women's basketball is -- and isn't -- like shoulder pads; and when it's appropriate to lowercase a certain word.

Former D1 goalkeeper & current D1 coach Christina Sarokon joins the pod to talk about what it's like growing up as an elite athlete: how soccer came into her life, when she first knew she had a special talent, the challenges with transitioning from sports-as-fun to sports-as-your-whole-life, the challenges transitioning from being the best player on every team you've ever played for to one of many talented players in college, what led her to pursue coaching & what's different about the game today than when she played. Plus Matthew gushes (just a bit) about Man City beating Arsenal and the latest on the NBA playoffs!

Gaming law & sports betting attorney Daniel Wallach joins the pod as we discuss how: * Dominion could've/should've held out for a bigger settlement with Fox * the corrupt stankness of Daniel Snyder has infested the process of selling the Washington Commanders * a gambling scandal halfway around the world could foreshadow a come-to-Jesus future for American sports leagues & gambling * the "world's most famous arena" grows poorer as its bottom line grows richer Plus an overview of the NBA playoffs to date. If you've ever hated the moment an interesting conversation takes a turn for the worse after someone says "I'm not a lawyer, but," this is the show for you. With an actual lawyer. Who knows of what he speaks!

Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic joins to discuss details of the new NBA/NBAPA CBA, including but not limited to: players being eligible to invest in NBA & WNBA teams -- but not directly; the new medical requirement of prospective employees (potential draftees) at the combine; and the new In-Season Tournament. We also talk about Steph Curry's newest deal with Under Armour, whether the NBA might punish the Dallas Mavericks for tanking the last two games and what Mike's looking forward to once the playoffs start.

In this episode: how a fan cursing out Bradley Beal after losing a bet is the canary in the coal mine for the dark side of sports gambling; why this may be the Golden Age of women's sports, and not in a good way; how Mets owner Steve Cohen is like the new vampires in Blade 2; a good deed by a sports owner!; and celebrating a W for labor at Temple University.

On a cold and cloudy winter's day, Brian Menéndez (Baseball Prospectus) stops by to talk baseball, the game that foreshadows summer and warmth. Which World Baseball Classic players have caught his eye? Do our personal politics influence how we root in international competition? Who's the best team? (hint: it rhymes with Lapan) What MLB rule changes do we like, not like and just plain not get? Is Trevor Bauer signing with Yokohama in the Japanese league a sign that MLB's anti-sexual assault policy is working? Or isn't? Or does it not say anything about it, either way? Plus what is something totally legal and ethically righteous Steve Cohen could do that would drive the other owners out of their minds? Listen and learn!

Soccer coach and essayist Mike Idland joins the show as our focus turns to winter sports: Gary Lineker telling the truth, what a Man City fan is to make of the Premier League threatening to nullify a history, thoughts on the Stanley Cup favorite in general and the New York Rangers in particular & the NFL playing the villain rather than paying Lamar Jackson what he deserves.

In which we struggle with several unanswered/unanswerable questions: what does the future hold for sports fans, digital streaming and cord cutting in light of MSG+'s new flawed model? What the hell are Alabama's Nate Oats and Brandon Miller doing in the wake of a young woman's murder? What makes Damian Lillard a hero for our age? Is billionaires exploiting millionaires a bad thing? All that, a tear for Tom Brady and more.

When LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar this winter as the NBA's all-time leading scorer, will James also become the league's final all-time leading scorer? Are the Denver Nuggets & Philadelphia 76ers good enough outside their MVP-level centers to win a title? What theological truths can one tease out from the resurrection of the Sacramento Kings? How long can Luka Dončić abide Dallas making mistake after mistake around him? All this & more with Ian Levy, FanSided creative editorial direction and NBA aficionado.

The last time Lyndsey appeared on our pod, she obliterated the record books as far as listeners. This time we talk WNBA teams and free agency. How does the New York Liberty trading for Jonquel Jones increase the chances of Breanna Stewart leaving Seattle for NY? Is there something funky going on in the Dallas organization that keeps leading players to want out? Where do the defending champion Las Vegas Aces stand as the league shifts and re-forms itself? We also talk about this week's NFL playoff games. The Cowboys won their first playoff game in 30 years, so naturally their bandwagon isn't speeding up or taking on more weight at all. Can Dallas beat San Francisco? Do the Giants have an edge having lost their prior two games vs. Philadelphia, or is it always better to be the better team? Can we envision Jacksonville upsetting KC? What about Buffalo vs. Cincinnati? And what about the last time those teams met, when Damar Hamlin nearly died on the field from a collision-induced heart attack. Nothing has changed since then. Why? What does that tell us about ourselves? All that & more.

How does Carlos Correa signing in Minnesota bring schadenfreude to Atlanta fans toward the New York Mets? Is the Damar Hamlin story the biggest drop ever from a this-changes-things event to . . . nothing's changed? Plus Dana White reminds us some animals are more equal than others, does Trevor Bauer deserve a different punishment than if he were a blue-collar nobody, how the latest Messi/Ronaldo argument misses the meaningful truth to emerge from their rivalry, and a quick rundown of all the teams for sale around the world at a time when owners insist owning a sports franchise is a money pit.

We look at every remaining World Cup matchup to determine who we should root for from an ethical perspective (Jonah's knowledge of history really shines through here). Then we shift to LeBron James' odd formality in wondering why reporters didn't construct a platform for him to speak on the recent Jerry Jones story. The show closes with some NBA talk, including Jonah scoffing at the Philadelphia 76ers for their most recent 40-year run.

Matthew does a solo dive into how FIFA's defense of the Qatar World Cup resembles 1930s Argentinian defenses of Hitler & Mussolini, why the biggest threat to MLB's cabal of owners is the richester one of them all, the reason rooting for the Knicks is like supporting socialism, the NHL's sadly predictable behavior in the Mitchell Miller scandal and the Brittany Griner injustice going from bad to worse.

Are socialists less selfish playing basketball than others? Which early NBA surprise teams are most likely to continue surprising? Why are Matthew & Jonah rooting for different sides in the World Series? Plus sympathy for Tom & Gisele and a challenge to Ye.

The wonderful New Yorker writer Louisa Thomas joins the show as we consider the significance of the interest & lack of more in Aaron Judge's home run chase, bask in the sunny decency of the majestic Roger Federer, consider the legacy of Venus Williams in light of Serena's career, and sympathy for the devil, i.e. Tom Brady.

Howard Beck (Sports Illustrated; The Crossover pod) joins us as we consider the evolving Ime Udoka story, how Robert Sarver's conclusion in Phoenix could have impacted Boston's with Udoka, why would the Cs issue such a strict punishment but not fire him, morality clauses for owners, how the Brooklyn Nets are a footnote unto a footnote unto a footnote, and which will New York City see first: a good Knicks point guard or a good mayor?

The NBA slaps Suns' owner Robert Sarver on the wrist after decades of racist/sexist/bullying behavior. Hockey Canada somehow finds a way to embarrass itself even beyond paying hush money to victims of rape. And listener emails wanna know what we make of the Toronto Raptors organization plus how much money can someone have before inevitably becoming a rich asshole.