Patrick Redford
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staff writer 💅 @defectormedia 💅 Only If You Get Caught w/ @radiotopia ⛓️💥 co-host Nothing But Respect podcast 🏀🆗🆒
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Articles by Patrick Redford
Michael Porter Jr. Again Stands Athwart History, Saying “Damn, That’s Crazy”
2 hours ago Ukrainian soccer giant Shakhtar Donetsk has been unable to play in its hometown since the Russian incursion into Ukraine in 2014. Since then, the team has bounced around playing its home matches in the eastern part of the country and, when it plays European fixtures, in other countries. Now, the …
The World’s Only WNBA Finals Preview, With Maitreyi Anantharaman And Maya Goldberg-Safir
This week on Nothing But Respect, Harry and I had on our two favorite WNBA writers to talk about the Golden State Valkyries' forthcoming WNBA championship. Both Maitreyi Anantharaman, whom you all know from her work here, and Mata Goldberg-Safir, whom you also know from her work here and should know from her work at Rough Notes, know ball and will be covering the series between the Valks and the Atlanta Dream.
Michael Porter Jr. Again Stands Athwart History, Saying “Damn, That’s Crazy”
It is late August, the waning days of a long summer. Though the oppressive heat still imposes itself on you, the days are shortening noticeably, the faint whisper of a chill in the air perceptible in the stiller moments of deep night. Soon there will be red leaves, sweaters onto shoulders, and NBA basketball. You both anticipate and fear the turnover of the seasons, though it feels abstract—that is, until your phone lights up.
What The Steve Ballmer Scandal Says About Sports Media
The NBA season is one week away, and there's one game I can't stop thinking about. On Nov. 2, Kawhi Leonard's Toronto Raptors will travel to Los Angeles to play the Clippers, his former team and the subject of the NBA's harshest-ever punishment over the cap shenanigans they did to sign him back in 2019. The spectacle of Leonard, back in L.A. in a Raptors uniform, will be so weird, and I'm curious to see how the basketball media will cover it.
What The Steve Ballmer Scandal Says About Sports Media
Finance 1 hour ago How much MSFT stock does Microsoft founder Bill Gates actually own? TheStreet - Laura Rodini • 1h Bill Gates has spent decades giving away his Microsoft fortune; we examine how much MSFT stock he still owns in 2026. Follow ticker Everybody knows … Media 1 day ago Can a ‘weirdo version of a newsroom’ thrive?
Brazil’s Presidential Election Is One Piece Of A Larger, More Depressing Story
If one wanted to understand the alarming state of international politics in the Western Hemisphere through a single story, it'd be hard to beat Jose Antonio Kast visiting CECOT this past January. Kast spent nearly 20 years at the extreme right fringe of Chilean politics, mostly crusading against women's rights. His father was a Nazi, and not in any sort of metaphorical sense; he served as an Oberleutnant in the Wehrmacht in World War II.
Knicks And Nets Give Me High Fives, With Hell Gate
This week's episode of Nothing But Respect was special on several fronts; Harry and I got to record in person for the first time in roughly a year, and we did so with our good friends, Julianne Escobedo Shepherd and Max Rivlin-Nadler, of Hell Gate. Topics discussed include: how Eric Adams needs to go on Curious Mike, James Dolan's loathing of the city of New York and its talismanic basketball team, Max's proposal to save the Nets, and so much more.
The Valkyries Are Fighting Firepower With Frenzy
Before Sunday's semifinal Game 1 in Ballhalla, the Valkyries threw a little ceremony to honor Janelle Salaün for winning Sixth Player of the Year. Salaün's unanimous approval by voters is one indication of her team's tremendous depth; another, stronger one is that the Valkyries overwhelmed the Aces, 71-60, thanks primarily to their bench and even as Salaün missed both of her shots, scored two points, and played six anonymous minutes. What makes the Valkyries special?
Arike Ogunbowale Knows It’s All About Buckets
The WNBA playoffs are not about intricate offensive sets, squeezing efficiency from your ninth and 10th players, or winning the game on the margins—at least not as much as they are about Real Hoops. Arike Ogunbowale taught the Golden State Valkyries that painful lesson Wednesday night, gouging their would-be smothering defense for a WNBA playoff-record 45 points and forcing her Dallas Wings through to a deciding Game 3 in the process.
The great vibes divergence
Sep 30, 2026 • Dreamfarce, west bay, vibes week, AI, tech This week we’re publishing a handful of stories about the bad vibes in the tech industry. Sorry! San Francisco is in the midst of a tech boom.
Why The Book Thief Risked It All To Scam The Publishing World
For nearly six years, I have been fascinated by the case of the Spine Collector. The publishing world came to the collective realization a few years before the pandemic that a thief was aggressively trying to steal unpublished books from everyone who had access to them for their jobs.
Team USA Won Brandon McNulty A World Championship With A Tactical Masterclass
Inside the hundred-meter mark, after 273.3 kilometers of racing, Brandon McNulty looked back one last time to see the chasing pack behind him sprinting it out for silver. He banged on his handlebars, put his hands to his head, and pumped his fist, not seeming quite sure how he should celebrate his country's first World Championship road race victory in 33 years and the biggest win of his career.
Government By Influencer, With Eamon Whalen
Social Justice 1 hour ago Unlikely Allies foreignpolicy.com - Susanna Maize • 1h Season 10 | Episode 3 How do we work with men and boys to change harmful ideas about gender and power?
States Roll Over And Show Bellies To Paramount, Will Allow Warner Bros. Merger
On July 13, California state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced that he would lead a 12-state coalition in mounting a supposedly bold legal challenge to the proposed Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery mega-merger.
Cavan Sullivan And The USMNT’s Future Are Here
On Thursday morning, USMNT manager Mauricio Pochettino announced his roster for a forthcoming quartet of games. The first thing that leaps out is that Christian Pulisic's name is nowhere to be found. The story is that the U.S.'s best player will stay in Italy as he heals up from a pair of injuries sustained in his team's embarrassing loss to Belgium in the World Cup, though Pulisic isn't so injured that he couldn't help his team come back and salvage a draw against Lazio last weekend.
Cavan Sullivan And The USMNT’s Future Are Here
“Scariest Photo I’ve Seen Of Her Yet”: New Ariana Grande Snaps Spur Worry As People Note Concerning Detail Ariana Grande is on a break from the spotlight, but she’s getting no break from being scrutinized for her looks. New photos, shared by her recently …
Zoomer Cultural Exchange Hour, With ‘State Of The League’
This week on the show, Harry and I hung out with the hosts of the State of the League podcast for an hour of classic offseason nonsense. We talked about Paul Schrader getting really into AI, which aging stars should be allowed to do steroids, and Brice Sensabaugh. Oh, you're not familiar with Brice Sensabaugh, the fourth-year shooting guard for the Utah Jazz? Well, you're about to be, as I am confident no other NBA podcast has dedicated this much of its runtime to talking about Brice Sensabaugh.
We’re Still Living In The World Sam Bankman-Fried Made
The year is 2022. Movies are finally back, Bad Bunny is taking over the world, and everyone is trying to become a member of the Bored Ape Yacht Club. The immediate post-pandemic years were strange ones along many axes, most notably the economy. In the short, six-year window following 2020, a schlubby South Bay denizen named Sam Bankman-Fried became the world's youngest self-made billionaire, watched his empire crumble, and got sent to federal prison, where he currently resides.
The Defector Tennis Desk Takes Stock Of The U.S. Open
The 2026 U.S. Open is done, with Elena Rybakina and Alexander Zverev hoisting the trophies. The Defector tennis corps got together to talk about their impressions of the tournament, their feelings on players who didn't win either Final, and the hair situations of the ATP Nos. 3 and 7. Enjoy! Patrick: Lorenzo Sonego, I'm pouring vinegar on you, goat. Two points and all this could have been different.
See The Algorithm’s Dark Gleam In The Hunter Biden-Andrew Callaghan Crypto Scam Email Whoopsie
In a time when the algorithmically determined social internet serves primarily to trick people into becoming hosts to various parasites or simply drive them mad, it might be perversely comforting to imagine that the people on the other side of the screen are knowing, cynical actors, free from the brain-shredding effects of life online. Noxious as it is, some sort of harmony or human logic would at least be familiar and capable of being understood.
Honey Deuce McBride, With Giri Nathan
This week on Nothing But Respect, we welcomed back million-time guest Giri Nathan to talk primarily about his experience covering the U.S. Open. How bad is the phone situation? How does the memetic object of the Honey Deuce explain the current predicament? What's been the match of the tournament? We also touched on the biggest NBA news story of the past week, as well as the fallout from the NBA's hammer-style punishment of the Clippers.
How NFL Teams Avoid The Great Big Middle
The NFL is built on parity. The middle exudes a tremendous gravitational force, with the schedule, the draft, and the salary cap all conspiring to pull every team toward 9-8 or 8-9 records year after year. While the larger-order churn of the league hews to that pattern, a number of teams have found ways to consistently defy the schematic, either by consistently posting winning records or failing to take advantage of the considerable structural help built into the way the NFL is organized. But why?
‘Only If You Get Caught’ Returns Next Week
The time has once again come to break the rules: Only If You Get Caught is back for Season 2. If you listened to the first season, welcome back; if you didn't, you have six days to do so before the show returns on Sept. 15. You can listen to the trailer here. OIYGC is a narrative podcast about breaking the rules, hosted by me, produced by Alex Sujong Laughlin, and created in partnership with our friends at Radiotopia.
Perfect Spiritual Fit Between NBA Player And NBA City Achieved
Sometimes the chaotic, unforgiving universe briefly and ecstatically snaps itself into harmony, like when the Fibonacci sequence shows up in a head of Romanesco broccoli, or a small rock balances atop a bigger rock, or when a certain permanently adrift Australian basketball player brings his destiny into sudden coherence. By which I mean: Ben Simmons is a Sacramento King.
How Do We Make Sense Of ESPN Duffing Its Big Clippers Scoop?
As the dust settles following the NBA's obliteration of the Clippers over the Kawhi Leonard–Aspiration scandal, one of the more interesting vectors of fallout is on the media side. After all, the scandal kicked off following a series of reports from podcaster Pablo Torre, who is mentioned in the first line of the official investigation's report, and was later stage-managed for the public several times over by ESPN, Torre's former employer.
NBA Crushes Clippers After Kawhi Leonard Investigation
The NBA has concluded its investigation of the Los Angeles Clippers and Kawhi Leonard, and the punishments are major. The league announced Wednesday that the independent probe, conducted by the law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, uncovered "a pattern of misconduct and multiple significant rules violations by the Clippers organization, a prior offender of the salary cap circumvention rules," and as such the team will have to forfeit five first-round picks.
NBA Crushes Clippers After Kawhi Leonard Investigation
This Ketel Marte thing keeps getting stranger, at least linguistically. Marte made his return to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday, during their …
Interminable U.S. Open Night Sessions Are Bad For Everyone Except Me
Two hours after Tuesday night lapsed into Wednesday morning in the Eastern time zone, Alexander Zverev served out his grueling U.S. Open first-round matchup against Lorenzo Sonego. The final match of the night was a real thriller, with the top seed and the feisty Italian challenger letting each other have it for nearly five hours, on and on until Sonego stopped being able to hit a backhand with any zip and, at the exact right moment to avoid a catastrophic upset, Zverev remembered how to serve.
Canada Vs. America, With Jake Bittle
This week on Nothing But Respect, we mostly talked about dumb stuff with a smart guy. The guy in question was Jake Bittle, staff writer for Grist and the author of The Great Displacement: Climate Change And The Next American Migration, while the dumb stuff was Jake's amazing spree of Twitter fights back when that was something worth doing, and also Drake. Jake is a Raptors fan, and Harry knows a ridiculous amount of ball on all things rap, so it was a long time coming.
Kalshi Lawsuit Pits States Against Trump Family’s Corruption Machine
On Friday, the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a 3-0 ruling against Kalshi, a ruling that in theory gives states the power to regulate the "prediction market" platform. However strong that sounds, one can't fairly characterize the decision as authoritative.
Who Needs Life On Mars When It Has Glacial Spiders?
Is there life on Mars? That's the wrong question. Every time scientists from NASA, the European Space Agency, or any other terrestrial organization bring news back from Mars of fresh discoveries in the hunt to find evidence of life on the fourth planet, I find myself mildly annoyed that the general populace's focus is trained exclusively on the quest to find the tiniest microresidue of exobiota.
Defector Music Club Gets Back Together For Taylor Swift’s ‘Red’
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This is Defector Music Club, where a number of our writers get together to dish about an album. In honor of Reds Week, we're discussing Taylor Swift's 2012 pop-rock hit Red. Patrick Redford: I can’t be the only one whose strongest and first thought about Red is that there’s a sound at the end of the first synth swell in “I Knew You Were Trouble” that sounds just like the jail-cell door slamming closed in Akon’s “Locked Up,” right? Lauren Theisen: I primarily remember the screaming goat remix.
By Lauren Theisen, Patrick Redford Verified, Rachelle Hampton Verified, Alex Laughlin Verified, Ray Ratto Verified
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Defector
Verified
I’m On That Good Kushner Alcohol, With Harrison Faigen
This week on Nothing But Respect, we spent the entire episode talking through the last 13 years of Los Angeles Lakers ownership drama. Our guest Harrison Faigen is a longtime Lakers media guy, and he joined us for a lengthy discussion on Mark Walter, Joshua Kushner, and Johnny, Jimmy, Jeanie, Janie, Joey, and Jesse Buss. It's crazy they're all named that. The tie-in to Reds Week is that my name is Patrick Redford. You can find Nothing But Respect in Apple Podcasts or whatever podcast app you use.
I’m On That Good Kushner Alcohol, With Harrison Faigen
Why a pair of SF Giants prospects might be blocked from joining club in 2026 It could be logistics Bo Davidson and Scott Bandura are both making a strong case to join the SF Giants before the end of this year. However, as …
Vuelta a España Haunted By Red-Haired Viral Video Prankster
The Vuelta a España, long the runt sibling among cycling's Grand Tours, promised to be bigger and better than usual this year, thanks primarily to the participation of Tadej Pogacar. The protests that stymied last year's race had successfully de-Israelized the peloton, and the 2026 edition had the glitz of a Monaco start, the showcase of the best rider in the world going for the win, and an interesting, adversarial course.
Tadej Pogacar Returns To The Scene Of His Arrival
Before Tadej Pogacar became a hypertuned killer on a bike, before he won any of his record-tying five Tours de France, before he was able to push the boundaries of the volume and variety of races that any single rider could win, he first had to break through. He did so seven years ago at the 2019 Vuelta a España, wherein he won three stages and finished third overall despite coming to Spain to learn how to race and to support Fabio Aru.
They Put A Data Center In Rack City, With Ock Sportello
This week's episode of Nothing But Respect was a really fun one. We set out to make a Broke Jumper Tip Line–focused episode, but only got to the BJTL about 50 minutes in because we had too much other good stuff to talk about with frequent guest Ock Sportello.
They Put A Data Center In Rack City, With Ock Sportello
9 hours ago Arctic Dispatch | Trimble Gilbert YouTube • 9h Right now, the Trump Administration is pushing hard to drill for oil and gas in places that were previously off-limits. One of those places is the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and in June, the administration took another step forward in the process of opening this enormous protected area for drilling.
ESPN Reports Steve Ballmer Cleared By NBA’s Kawhi Leonard Investigation, NBA Says Otherwise
According to a report from ESPN, the NBA hasn't found any evidence that Los Angeles Clippers owner Steve Ballmer arranged to pay Kawhi Leonard in excess of salary-cap rules via the fraudulent green-banking company Aspiration. Just under a year ago, after a series of reports from podcaster Pablo Torre, the NBA hired the prestigious law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to investigate the alleged scheme.
Russell Westbrook Was Singular
When the Seattle SuperSonics drafted Russell Westbrook fourth overall in 2008, around six weeks before they officially became the Oklahoma City Thunder, the league had no idea what to do with such an athletic and violent point guard.
Lakers Owner Mark Walter Suddenly Sells Team Amid Federal Investigation
Out of nowhere, and after only a few short days of negotiation, Joshua Kushner and Bob Iger have agreed to buy the Los Angeles Lakers from Mark Walter for a reported record price of $12.5 billion. Every part of that sentence is wild, especially given the recent financial maneuverings of Walter and Kushner. Let's start with Walter, who bought the Lakers in June 2025 for $10 billion.
Trans Rights And Lesbian Lefts, With Maya Goldberg-Safir
Podcasts Melissa Tamez/Getty Images Melissa Tamez/Getty Images This week on Nothing But Respect, we welcomed back Maya Goldberg-Safir, one of my favorite WNBA writers and thinkers. Maya runs Rough Notes and has written a handful of amazing Defector stories, and I consider her to be the best person covering the history of women's basketball.
Trans Rights And Lesbian Lefts, With Maya Goldberg-Safir
Civil Rights 21 hours ago ICE's plan to give officers electric shock gloves draws outrage and fears of misuse Associated Press - By RYAN J. FOLEY • 21h Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s plan to give officers gloves that deliver painful electric shocks faced criticism Wednesday from Democratic elected officials and civil rights advocates, who called it unnecessary and cruel.
Charli XCX Made A Beautiful Monument To Impermanence
SAN FRANCISCO — Charli XCX had a cold. You could only tell after five songs and one costume change, when the backup dancers and full backing band briefly disappeared so she could perform "Track 10," the furthest she reached into her back catalogue. Alone, she sounded a little shredded, and would occasionally let the backing track sing for her.
The Tour de France Femmes Was A Contentious, Hypercompetitive Classic
When Demi Vollering crossed the line in Nice on Sunday, she didn't just win her second Tour de France Femmes title. She provided a worthy finale for the best edition of the race yet. The fifth running of the Tour was spectacular from start to finish. There were interesting winners throughout the race, an amazing general classification battle that came down to the final climb, and fresh, dramatic storylines almost every day.
Defector Also Investigating How Our Super Powerful AI Tool Broke Contain
As many of you know, Defector Research Labs is hard at work creating what we are sure will be the most powerful AI coding tool on the market.
‘Nothing But Respect’ Is Back From Summer Break
Podcasts Malcolm Griffiths/Getty Images Malcolm Griffiths/Getty Images Now that I am back from France, so too is Nothing But Respect back from its brief summer break. This week on the show, Harry and I caught up and chatted about the Tour de France and the way I covered the race for Defector; Harry's experimental forays into vertical video; and the ongoing Kyle Kuzma Massive Thinks situation.
David Ellison’s Bid To Control Warner Bros. Hits The Rocks
Until a month ago, everything was going great for David Ellison and his plan to control American cultural production. He'd successfully made Paramount an outer arm of the Trump Administration, with all the lucrative sinecures and harrowing moral and journalistic compromises that come with such an arrangement. Ellison's smooth ascent to power took a little bump when he lost the initial bidding war for Warner Bros.
Some More Stuff I Saw At The Tour de France
David Pintens/Getty Images VARIOUS CITIES AND TOWNS, France — The Tour de France is over. I hope you enjoyed my 16 dispatches from France, on topics such as the race's impossible future, how cycling solved sleep, the unforgiving life of a photographer, France's vibrant unc ecosystem, and the chaotic frenzy of Alpe d'Huez. It was a privilege to be able to cover all three weeks of the race, and we couldn't do it without your support, so thank you.
How Tadej Pogacar Got The Joy Back
PARIS — Every story has a beginning and an end, but the best stories have worthwhile middles. Narrative stakes are established are established and then resolved. It's what happens in between that makes a story. This is where the greatest cyclist of all time currently finds himself. Pogacar rode to his fifth Tour victory with an astonishing sense of joy. The ennui that plagued his fourth Tour win has dissolved. His greatest rival is well behind him. The yellow jersey that weighed him down now buoys him.
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