Samer

Nobody needs to apologize for making fun of the guy whose job is doing a Frank the Tank impression to entertain people born in 2007: defector.com/pat-mcafee-r...

Five players in the Finals were top-10 on the WNBA steals leaderboard this year! I wrote a bit about what steals have meant in this series and talked to all five about their approach to steals:

wrote a little bit about a documentary I really liked

From 2025: How the Japanese-American basketball leagues built Natalie Nakase defector.com/how-the-japa...

You may have noticed that while the vibes in San Francisco are fucked beyond all belief, Oakland is still good and chill. We dispatched @redford.bsky.social to make sense of it. www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/the-great-vi...

This is about how great tech critics are made and how they’re sometimes unmade, and for a few hundred words it’s also about a guy named Dick Pick.

This was a strange but informative experience for me: defector.com/christine-br...

Is this question headline answered by the end of the article? You be the judge: defector.com/nic-carter-f...

What is Christine Brennan's 10-point plan to Properly Respect Caitlin Clark?

Ed Sheeran delivers pointless statement then cries during latest concert: defector.com/ed-sheeran-d...

Was out of town last week when this ran, but I thought @thefrankiedlc.news did a great job chronicling the premature demise of the Miami Sol: defector.com/the-miami-so...

at the intersection of broader disconcerting trends—everything is phone, everything is gambling, and nobody knows how to be around each other in public—lies the 2026 U.S. Open

I like how Jim Courier sees tennis defector.com/how-tennis-c...

My favorite example in here is the headline for Plaschke’s column, as it implies that the hammer is inexplicably stinky: defector.com/when-all-you...

The most horrifying thing I learned while writing this is that the Chargers hired Adam Gase… this year defector.com/why-your-tea...

Chamique Holdsclaw made headlines, made mistakes, and made history: defector.com/chamique-hol...

The “Ground Zero mosque” strategy makes an even more pathetic return: defector.com/the-ground-z...

If this past week has been Sophie Cunningham trying to get back to basketball, she might not ever catch up to it: defector.com/sophie-cunni...

after seeing lamelo ball's home i knew i had to break it down with sami reiss, a wonderful writer on furniture and design defector.com/lets-unpack-...

we might be throwing out a generational umami opportunity. i will taste the forbidden fish sauce defector.com/abandoned-fi...

“That shit that made Darth Maul I am smoking”

when i transitioned, i never thought i'd play baseball again. now we're in our fourth season of trans girl baseball here in new york, and—even though i say this all the time—it really did change my life! i wrote about tgirl baseball and what it means to us for @defector.com (link below!)

Now 1 for 3 on 2026 predictions: defector.com/underexplain...

Don't let bored football fans tell the story of Caitlin Clark's season: defector.com/dont-let-bor...

Turd makes brief appearance in punch bowl: defector.com/turd-makes-b...

“Man, I love that kid,” Lindsay Whalen said when I asked her about Olivia Miles. Had some fun writing about the Lynx rookie and the exciting state of PG play in the WNBA rn:

a surreal pleasure to cover an NBA Finals that ended in a Knicks win. took a few angles on it: KAT's calm, New Yorkers' anti-calm after the OG tip-in, the print media boom, a trip to San Antonio to witness fan lunacy and a Brunson classic

The insistence on using caps lock even in this situation should be entered into evidence at The Hague

Walking outside in Brooklyn right now feels like someone just took a hot shower in a studio apartment with a neglected litter box

Oklahoma newspaper deletes column comparing Thunder to Israel: defector.com/oklahoma-new...

Wrote something about Jason Collins, and revisited some of the media coverage at the time: defector.com/jason-collin...

Raise your kid to watch movies that are half as old as he is. Start off with old movies and then every year your kid will be watching newer and newer movies. Stack those on top of each other. Soon your kid is watching movies that haven’t been made yet. You have now changed and manipulated time

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i cannot recommend defector, this role, and the people you'll get to work with enough. i miss them already.

Holding myself accountable: On Monday in Defector Slack I referred to Cal Raleigh as “Big Slumper” (a nickname used by many), and he has since homered in three straight games

By all means--continue. www.hamiltonnolan.com/p/go-ahead-a...

They should rename the tournaments to March Mindfulness. Like and share if you agree

Just so I have this right: The guys who built careers off “Argh, the internet is consolidated and we’re too online!” now have ideas on how to make a specific app blast more information at people?

If you don’t stand behind Team USA, feel free to laugh in front of them: defector.com/good-riddanc...

a new WNBA romance novel got me thinking about how romance fandom and WNBA fandom can both feel like expressions of optimism: defector.com/how-can-you-...

interviewed someone about what it's like to live in a building owned by a two-time MVP and also not have heat in the aftermath of a blizzard defector.com/an-interview...

Here’s a dumb little blog about the experience of witnessing Wemby in person: defector.com/victor-wemba...

I wrote about Punch the monkey and who, if anyone, is really to blame for the suffering of primates defector.com/the-mournful...

My interview with Cherien Dabis, on the challenges of writing, filming, and distributing a Palestinian movie: defector.com/all-thats-le...

Brilliant feature by @roughnotes.bsky.social about a forgotten era of women’s basketball, and one particularly fascinating player within it: defector.com/cardte-hicks...

What we loved about Dan McQuade:

If you’ve seen a Defector sticker in the wild, credit Dan. Either he put it there or gave them to us. Dude once sent me video of one he put on a pole in Hawaii. He was so generous, kind, and enthusiastic about everything, even putting up stickers in shitty bar bathrooms. defector.com/dan-mcquade-...