Patrick Redford

Oakland

Writer at Defector

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Articles

What World Does Bitcoin Want To Build For Itself?

3 days ago | defector.com | Patrick Redford

LAS VEGAS — "We often talk about baseball games as a metric for where we are, and we're literally in the first inning," one of the Winklevoss twins gloats. "And this game's going to overtime."It's the first day of Bitcoin 2025, industry day here at the largest cryptocurrency conference in the world. This Winklevoss is sharing the stage with the other one, plus Donald Trump's newly appointed crypto and AI czar David Sacks.
Magnus Carlsen Melts Down, Pounds Table After Inexplicable Blunder

4 days ago | defector.com | Patrick Redford

Spend enough time watching the best chess players in the world play, and even a chess amateur will pick up on something: Space is at such a premium in their games that any seemingly innocent, sensible move—sliding the A-pawn to the third rank to prevent the dark-square bishop from forcing check, burning a tempo to line your rook up with the opposing queen even though four pieces separate them—can be punished several moves down the line.
João Fonseca Loves The Pressure

1 week ago | defector.com | Patrick Redford

Late in the second set of his matchup with French doubles specialist Pierre-Hugues Herbert, 18-year-old Brazilian player João Fonseca scored a point to even the tenth game of the set at 30–all. "Scored" is the most active verb I can use there, as the exchange only ended when Herbert dumped an unthreatening rally ball into the net. Yet Fonseca erupted into a celebration, conducting the crowd into a froth, asking for more energy, more pressure.
Isaac Del Toro Meets The Moment

1 week ago | defector.com | Patrick Redford

When the nervous peloton began their long, slow ascent up out of the Adda River valley to Bormio to finish Stage 17 of the Giro d'Italia, I thought Isaac Del Toro was cooked.
Two Of Basketball's Brightest Young Stars Will Compete For More Than A Trip To The Finals

2 weeks ago | defector.com | Patrick Redford

With the NBA conference finals matchups set, the most interesting narrative question of these playoffs has been answered. Would the veteran-laden squads who'd done it before triumph again, or would the new generation put their elders out to pasture? The second round was a clear referendum in favor of the zoomer uprising, with the last three champions—the Boston Celtics, Denver Nuggets, and Golden State Warriors—getting eliminated.
For A Limited Time

3 weeks ago | defector.com | Patrick Redford

The Minnesota Timberwolves closed out the Golden State Warriors with ease on Wednesday night, winning Game 5 in the same smothering fashion they'd won the previous three games. The box score doesn't tell the story, nor do the highlights, save for one little easter egg. Late in the second quarter, Julius Randle nailed a three from the top of the key to give his team the double-digit lead they would hold onto until the game was well in hand.
Nikola Jokic Is Outnumbered

3 weeks ago | defector.com | Patrick Redford

After his Oklahoma City Thunder finished up a spectacular Game 5 win against the Denver Nuggets, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander fielded a question about the game's best player: Nikola Jokic. The reigning MVP put together a near-perfect game against the presumptive MVP's team, with 44 points on 25 shots, 15 rebounds, and five assists that could have been thrice as many if any single one of his teammates could have hit one single shot after halftime. "It's a team sport," Gilgeous-Alexander said.
Jamal Murray Was Arrogant And Generous Enough To Craft Another Classic

1 month ago | defector.com | Patrick Redford

As any broadcast crew will point out the second he starts cooking, Jamal Murray owns a strange and wondrous NBA distinction: No player increases their scoring average more between the regular season and playoffs than Murray does.
Buddy Hield To The Rescue

1 month ago | defector.com | Patrick Redford

One reason the NBA Playoffs are great is that the postseason's competitive structure and tactical complexity make something like the Buddy Hield Game not only possible, but necessary. The Golden State Warriors won a thriller in San Francisco on Monday night to take a 3–1 lead in their first-round series against the offensively inept and defensively murderous Houston Rockets, and they did so despite a straight-up bad game from Steph Curry.
The Milwaukee Bucks Are Dead

1 month ago | defector.com | Patrick Redford

The Milwaukee Bucks got smoked by the Indiana Pacers in Game 4 on their home court, in a loss that felt less like ending a chapter and more like slamming a book shut, incinerating it, and purging the memory of ever having read it.