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Epic upsets, stellar QBs, and the most notable sports moments of the first half of 2023

May 28, 2023
Epic upsets, stellar QBs, and the most notable sports moments of the first half of 2023
Image for article titled Epic upsets, stellar QBs, and the most notable sports moments of the first half of 2023

Take a deep breath before I reveal a stunning fact, it’s almost June. Some of you were just pulling out the trusty snow blower and now it’s swimsuit season — I hope your diet went better than mine.

With the sports calendar nearly halfway over, there has been a full year’s worth of activity. Take a look back at some of the most notable sports moments from the first half of the year.

Image for article titled Epic upsets, stellar QBs, and the most notable sports moments of the first half of 2023

Kirby Smart is sitting on top of the college football mountain in a way that no team has outside of Tuscaloosa. Well, at least since those two years with that team from Los Angeles that the NCAA has declared never happened. The Dawgs won their second-consecutive championship, and did so in dominating fashion.

Georgia lost 15 players to the NFL Draft in April 2022 and did not miss a beat. The Dawgs almost threw up that game in Missouri, but even with that loss, they would have gone to the SEC Championship Game. The rest of the schedule was a wash until New Year’s Eve. Ohio State put on its best performance of the season at Georgia’s second home in Atlanta, but hooked that 50-yard field goal right as the ball dropped in Times Square.

In the National Championship Game Georgia got back to kicking ass with a literal historic 65-7 shellacking of TCU in the title game.

Image for article titled Epic upsets, stellar QBs, and the most notable sports moments of the first half of 2023

An MVP candidate during the regular season, but outside of Philadelphia respect was grudgingly granted to him as a star. During the playoffs the Eagles plowed through its opposition using their dominance at the line of scrimmage — and the San Francisco 49ers not having a quarterback physically able to throw a football in the NFC Championship Game.

In the Super Bowl, Hurts went toe-to-toe against arguably the greatest player in the history of the NFL and stuck with him play-for-play. This player — pulled at halftime of a National Championship Game for a true freshman — put the exclamation point on a spectacular season.

Jalen Hurts was one of the two best players in the NFL last season.

Image for article titled Epic upsets, stellar QBs, and the most notable sports moments of the first half of 2023

The best player in the NFL. The MVP. While the Kansas City Chiefs were not doubted in the way that Travis Kelce wants the world to believe, there were certainly questions about Patrick Mahomes. Some defensive coordinator really wanted to get something off of his chest when he said that Mahomes played streetball, but also wasn’t chesty enough to put his name on it.

At one time the ABA was considered too playground, but modern NBA players have games much more reminiscent of Julius Erving and George Gervin than John Havlicek and Lou Hudson. The same way that Joe Burrow is far more like Patrick Mahomes than Peyton Manning.

Mahomes took it all last season. The MVP, the championship, and all of the grit points for playing two-and-a-half postseason games with that brutal high-ankle sprain. He is a player of the likes the NFL has never seen and deserves to be respected as such.

Image for article titled Epic upsets, stellar QBs, and the most notable sports moments of the first half of 2023

It was a seismic event when 16-seed UMBC defeated 1-seeded Virginia in the 2018 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship. The moment that sports fans didn’t think would ever happen, but still waited for with bated breath. That loss was so embarrassing that it served as the ultimate redemption narrative for Virginia’s 2019 championship.

The unthinkable happened again when Purdue lost to Fairleigh Dickinson in the first round. With the transient nature of men’s college basketball, we have come to expect upsets, but this is still only the second time that a 16-seed has advanced. Upsets may be common, but not this one.

Image for article titled Epic upsets, stellar QBs, and the most notable sports moments of the first half of 2023

College basketball with actual star power. The National Championship Game was not as competitive throughout as the semifinal matchup between LSU and South Carolina. It was still able to give the sports-viewing public what is uncommon in the modern men’s game, true star collegiate basketball personalities in Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. That is why this matchup was the highest-rated women’s college basketball game of all time.

Both stars fit hand-in-glove with their programs, and it was obvious the moment that the starters for Reese’s Tigers and Clark’s Hawkeyes were introduced. Clark fired away from behind the arc as best as she could to keep them in the game, but LSU was too much.

There was even a national dog whistle conversation about sportsmanship that followed. Reese and Clark brought the culture wars back to college basketball matchups. For those who pine for the 1980s and 1990s version of college basketball, the women have it for you.

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Joe DiMaggio’s hitting streak might be the only record left that is considered unbreakable. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar played for 20 seasons and scored 38,325 points in his career. Who would even have the longevity to approach that mark?

Enter LeBron James. His constant greatness from Year 1 to Year 20 allowed him to break the NBA record that no one ever expected to fall. There will always be a debate over who is better between Michael Jordan and LeBron. That record won’t bump Lebron to No. 1 in the minds of most Jordan fans, but it is an undeniable win over His Airness.

Image for article titled Epic upsets, stellar QBs, and the most notable sports moments of the first half of 2023

From the Western Conference Finals to trading two starters and a first-round pick for Kyrie Irving and getting fined for tanking after missing the postseason entirely.

Watching the Mavericks struggle with last season’s team — sans Jalen Brunson — was one thing. However, a team unable to string together wins with both Irving and Luka Dončić was downright hilarious. Mark Cuban bet the farm on an unpredictable, undersized scoring guard who might not even re-sign with the Mavericks this offseason. Also, with the Mavericks’ depth weakened, their defense was atrocious. They struggled to stay in front of their own reflection.

The Mavericks got lucky last season when the top-seeded Phoenix Suns imploded during their second-round matchup. This season it was the Mavericks who put the spotlight on themselves with the Irving trade and melted.

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The alleged incidents at first were head-scratching — the fight, the mall, the mysterious laser. All curious, but nothing that could fully be substantiated. Then Morant decided to provide evidence beyond reasonable doubt of him being a knucklehead on camera when he flashed a gun not once, but twice on Instagram.

That’s when his safety first started to become a concern, because if anyone is going to suffer the tragic consequences that can come with brandishing a firearm, probability and systemic racism says that it will most likely be a man of Morant’s age and ethnicity.

Now with a wellness check being called for Morant after his cryptic “Bye” social media post, safety is really the only concern for this young man at this point

Image for article titled Epic upsets, stellar QBs, and the most notable sports moments of the first half of 2023

In an NBA Playoffs lacking dominant teams, there is one playing 5,280 feet higher than everyone else. That sweep of the Lakers was hard fought, but also a moment when the Nuggets stuck their flag in the ground as the class of the NBA.

When healthy, their starting lineup has been as good as any in the NBA. On a true national stage against the NBA’s most recognizable franchise and face, the Nuggets put on a show. They dominated, they stumbled, they struggled, and through four games forced sports fans all over the world to acknowledge them as a special team.

Image for article titled Epic upsets, stellar QBs, and the most notable sports moments of the first half of 2023

That damn hockey. No. 8 seeds advancing is far more common in the NHL than MLB and most certainly the NBA. Still, the Panthers didn’t qualify for the playoffs until the final moments of the regular season.

They then launched the President’s Cup curse at the Boston Bruins like the stinger from Mortal Kombat’s Scorpion. Next up was Canada, and this squad out of South Florida melted the Toronto Maple Leafs.

Back to the states they came to play the Carolina Hurricanes. It took five combined overtimes, for the Panthers to take a 2-0 series. They won again at home 1-0 in Game 3, and the rink in Sunrise, Fla. was rocking on Wednesday night.

The game was another barnburner with the Hurricanes appearing to send the game into overtime by scoring with less than three minutes remaining in regulation. Then came the shot heard ‘round Broward County. The Panthers took the lead on a goal from Matthew Tkachuk with 4.3 seconds remaining in the game.

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NIL is paying players scraps while the Power 5 just pulled in over $3 billion in revenue

May 23, 2023
NIL is paying players scraps while the Power 5 just pulled in over $3 billion in revenue
Image for article titled NIL is paying players scraps while the Power 5 just pulled in over $3 billion in revenue

At a time in which some (fans, coaches, athletic directors, media members, school presidents, and politicians) are upset with the way that NIL has changed college sports, it’s rather hypocritical how that same crowd often falls silent when USA Today Sports releases their annual findings — and discovered that Power Five conferences combined to make $3.3 billion in revenue for the fiscal year of 2022.

Teenagers keep making adults wealthy.

According to the report, in 2017, 2018, and 2019, the combined revenues for the Big Ten, Big 12, SEC, ACC, and Pac-12 increased by an annual average of about 8.4 percent. And if that would have been maintained — if not for a global pandemic — in 2020, 2021, and 2022, the projected numbers for fiscal 2022 would have been more than $3.7 billion.

Here’s a look at the numbers by conference:

  • Big Ten: $845.6 million — payout, $58.8 million (except Nebraska, Maryland & Rutgers for being newer members)
  • SEC: $802 million — payout, around $49.9 million
  • ACC: $617 million — payout, $37.9 million to $41.3 million
  • Pac-12: $580.9 million — payout, $37 million
  • Big 12: $480.6 million — payout, $42 million to $44.9 million

For comparison’s sake, here were the revenues for the Power Five in fiscal 2019:

  • Big 12: $439 million — payouts ranged between $38 million and $42 million
  • ACC: $455.4 million — payouts ranged between $27.6 million to $34 million
  • SEC: $721 million — payouts were near $45.3 million
  • Big Ten: $781.5 million — payouts of $55.6 were made to the 12 longest-standing members of the 14-team conference
  • PAC-12: $530.4 million — payouts were $32.2 million

In case you forgot, COVID-19 really messed up the money. For instance, the NCAA and its member schools lost $800 million due to the cancellation of the 2020 tournament. In 2021, when the tournament returned, the NCAA made more than $1.15 billion in revenue, topping the $1.12 billion it made in 2019. And I still haven’t mentioned that last August, the Big Ten completed a seven-year, $7 billion media rights agreement with Fox, CBS, and NBC that will start on July 1.

All this money is flying around, but yet, some people are mad that the athletes are barely getting any of it.

“(Texas) A&M bought every player on their team. Made a deal for name, image, and likeness” Alabama head coach Nick Saban falsely claimed last May. As usual, Saban didn’t mention a word about how he had no issues with players making money for the conference as the SEC brought in $777.8 million during the fiscal year of 2020-2021, which was $120.1 million more than the conference made in 2019-2020.

Remember this, and how much money is being brought in by these athletes, when folks get mad when the next time a player wants to renegotiate their NIL deal like Isaiah Wong allegedly did, or are still upset that Jaden Rashada once had a proposed NIL deal that resembled a coach’s contract before he even went to prom. The money is out here, and the adults want to keep it all to themselves.

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The 2023 WNBA season tips off today and here are the juiciest stories to follow

May 19, 2023
The 2023 WNBA season tips off today and here are the juiciest stories to follow
Brittney Griner is back, the NY Liberty are loaded, and there are plenty of rookies to keep an eye on

Superteams, and new-look squads. Scandal-riven defending champs. A former political prisoner returns. Rule changes, a pressing need for league expansion, and more. The 2023 WNBA season is here, and these are some of the most riveting storylines to follow all season long.

Will one of the superteams take the crown?

The New York Liberty reloaded in the offseason, adding three-time WNBA champion Breanna Stewart, former league MVP Jonquel Jones, and 2021 title-winner Courtney Vandersloot to a starting lineup featuring Betnijah Laney, the league’s Most Improved Player in 2020, and triple-double threat Sabrina Ionescu, the 2020 No.1 overall pick. Jones has won titles overseas, but was stopped twice in the WNBA Finals with the Connecticut Sun since 2019. Jones is hungry. Ionescu, whose career got off to a slow start because of injury, seeks to legitimize the lore which surrounds her. Stacked with talented players, who all have skin in the game, the Liberty has its best chance in years to finish business.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, was not the credo of the 2022 WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces this offseason. The Aces parted ways with forward Dearica Hamby: two-time Sixth Woman of the Year and a fan favorite since the “Hamby Heave.” Hamby was shipped to the Los Angeles Sparks while pregnant, prompting allegations of discrimination and an investigation by the league resulting in punishment for the Aces and head coach Becky Hammon, who denies wrongdoing. Can the Aces tune out the noise stemming from these scandals and run it back? With Hamby’s salary off the books, the Aces were able to sign Candace Parker, a two-time title-winner, with different teams. With Parker, luck is on the Aces’ side. But in a league in which every bench player could be a starter on their own team, there are no guarantees.

Mark your calendar: The Liberty face the Aces for the first time on June 29, at 10 p.m. EST, in Las Vegas. The game streams nationally on Amazon Prime Video.

Retooled teams on our radar

In 2022, the Atlanta Dream under first-year head coach Tanisha Wright and franchise centerpiece Rhyne Howard, the reigning Rookie of the Year, sparkled. Adding recent NCAA champions Laeticia Amihere (South Carolina, 2022), a 6-foot-4 forward, and Haley Jones (Stanford, 2021), a 6-foot-1 guard/forward, gives the Dream defense, depth, and size. This team will be fun to watch and now has the tools to make an earnest postseason run. The Dream start their season on the road, and play their home opener on Tuesday, May 30, at 7 p.m. ET. The game streams live on Twitter.

The Washington Mystics, meanwhile, start their 2023 campaign with something the team has lacked in recent seasons — a healthy Elena Della Donne. Under new head coach Eric Thibault, the Mystics return the core of its 2019 title-winning squad (Ariel Atkins, Natasha Cloud, Myisha Hines-Allen, Tianna Hawkins, Kristi Toliver, and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, plus LaToya Sanders, who is now the associated head coach). Washington added young veterans Amanda Zahui B at center, and Brittney Sykes at guard. With Shakira Austin (the third overall pick in the 2022 draft) entering her second season, look for the Mystics to be a serious Eastern Conference threat. The Mystics tip off their 2023 campaign tonight, May 19, in a home opener against the Liberty. Tipoff is at 7 p.m. ET on NBA TV.

The league is wasting no time in showcasing the skills of double-double threat Aliyah Boston, the 2023 No. 1 overall pick out of South Carolina. Her Indiana Fever host the new-look Connecticut Sun at 7 p.m. ET. Watch the game on WNBA League Pass or locally on Bally Sports Indiana and NESN.

From hostage to hardwood: What Brittney Griner’s return means for the Mercury

Image for article titled The 2023 WNBA season tips off today and here are the juiciest stories to follow

Skylar Diggins-Smith, Shey Peddy, Sophie Cunningham, and Brianna Turner kept the Mercury’s emotional 2022 season alive: battling on the hardwood while campaigning for the freedom of the team’s biggest star, Griner, who spent most of the season wrongfully detained in Russian prisons. On the sidelines, there was public discord between Diggins-Smith and Diana Taurasi, who also took issue with head coach Vanessa Nygaard’s reaction to her All-Star nod in a year when Taurasi was not honored. In February, the franchise re-signed Taurasi to a multiyear deal and declared her “the face of the franchise.” 

Diggins-Smith, currently on maternity leave, is the face of Puma’s “Desert Sky” campaign. Her status with the team, however, is unclear. What is certain, though, is that Taurasi turns 41 in June and should not be promoted as the face of the franchise. She missed significant playing time in recent years because of various injuries. In 2022, her defensive effort at times amounted to throwing her arms in the air rather than running back to help her team. She even gave Sylvia Fowles the retirement gift of a low blow.

Peddy, who sustained a ruptured Achilles in the 2022 playoffs, helped power the Mercury to the final playoff spot (a date for her return in 2023 has not yet been set); she was in cahoots with the ultra-competitive Cunningham, who battled an elbow injury for much of the season, and Diggins-Smith, who grounded the Mercury in hoops IQ and experience. These are the players, plus Turner and Griner, if she wants to be one of them, who should be promoted as the team’s stars, for the sake of cementing the franchise’s future. Griner can do a lot for the Mercury, but only the Phoenix front office can stitch together its many frayed parts and snip away the threads which are no longer useful.

Mark your calendar: Phoenix plays its home opener against the Chicago Sky on Saturday, May 21, at 4 p.m. EST. Expect tear-jerking coverage of Griner’s return, and then a tense battle between Cunningham and Kahleah Copper.

Oh, Canada! Yo, expansion?

On Saturday, May 13, the Minnesota Lynx and Chicago Sky competed in the first-ever WNBA game played in Canada. Inside a packed Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, the Sky defeated the Lynx, 82-74, in a game that whetted the appetites of fans seeking league expansion. Outside of Canada native Laeticia Amihere (South Carolina), the 2021 NCAA Women’s Tournament winner picked eighth overall by the Atlanta Dream, few athletes of this year’s draft class survived final roster cuts.

Aliyah Boston, the No. 1 overall pick and 2021 NCAA title-winner with Amihere, is stuck with the Indiana Fever; Diamond Miller (Maryland), the No. 2 overall pick, is on the Minnesota Lynx’s opening-day roster; and No. 3 pick Maddy Siegrist (Villanova), will debut with the Dallas Wings. Of the remaining first-rounders from the 2023 draft, Lou Lopez-Senechal (Dallas Wings/Connecticut), Haley Jones (Atlanta Dream/Stanford), Grace Berger (Fever/Indiana), Jordan Horston (Storm/Tennessee), and Zia Cooke (Sparks/South Carolina) remain. Just four of 12 second-round picks survived the roster-cut deadline. Only two third-round picks in the 2023 WNBA draft will suit up for the season’s opening day.

Is the league always so cruel?

The exacting nature of final roster cuts this year felt brutal. Players are pieces; moving them is just business. But there will be no future for the league if younger players are denied the chance to make names for themselves. NCAA title-winner Alexis Morris, who was drafted by the Sun, and waived, suggests that WNBA teams could remedy this by cutting veterans instead of rookies.

Image for article titled The 2023 WNBA season tips off today and here are the juiciest stories to follow

She has a point. When Seimone Augustus retired in 2021 after a four-title career with the Minnesota Lynx, she cited among her reasons for calling it quits the need to make way for younger players. With each draft class, the list of elite, but disenfranchised women’s basketball players grows longer.

The WNBA expanded too quickly in the league’s early years. Most of those expansion teams — plus a handful of the original eight squads — no longer exist. But Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has demonstrably grown the league, year over year; the WNBA, through the players’ booming endorsements, is gaining a stronger foothold in the mainstream. When new fans do show up, they deserve to see the best on-court product, which seems increasingly hampered by salary cap issues, higher player minimum salaries, and an insufficient number of teams.

From 2023 draft picks to seasoned veterans, here is a very incomplete list of players who need and deserve a WNBA roster spot: Brea Beal, Kalani Brown, Tina Charles, Alaina Coates, Monika Czinano, Kaela Davis, Rennia Davis, Chelsea Dungee, T’ea Cooper, Elisa Cunane, Emily Engstler, Destanni Henderson, Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, Stella Johnson, N’dea Jones, Lauren Manis, Imani McGee-Stafford, Odyssey Sims, Unique Thompson, Chrystin Williams, Gabby Williams, and Ty Young.

Look for an expansion announcement: The league typically drops big news during big events, such as All-Star Weekend, the Commissioner’s Cup, and playoffs.

Unruly behavior

The WNBA for the first time has implemented a Coach’s Challenge beginning with the 2023 season. Referees invariably make mistakes, and the ability for coaches to challenge bad calls will hopefully alleviate player and fan frustrations. Also new this season are modifications to rules regarding the review of out-of-bounds calls, transition take fouls, procedures for resuming play, and conduct of players on the bench. Dallas Wings star Arike Ogunbowale has gotten away with throwing things on the sideline. It is a potentially dangerous practice that the stricter rule hopes to curtail.

Dig in: Details of new and modified rules can be found HERE.

How to watch the games

At least for the first month of the season, the WNBA will be competing for viewership against NBA Conference Finals and Finals games. Even with the men airing nationally, WNBA games have edged into the mainstream broadcast space. During opening weekend, May 19-21, fans and would-be fans can catch WNBA games on ESPN, ESPN2, NBA TV, ABC, and Twitter. Beginning in the season’s second week, national broadcasting will include CBS, CBS Sports, ION, and Amazon Prime Video. All games stream on WNBA League Pass (with regional blackouts).

Bookmark this: The 2023 WNBA schedule.

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Ron DeSantis’ new law is racist — Black college athletes, NCAA need to boycott Florida

May 18, 2023
Ron DeSantis’ new law is racist — Black college athletes, NCAA need to boycott Florida
Why was this man elected to office?

Never go anywhere you aren’t invited. This week, Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis did his best to uninvite anyone that isn’t white to the state’s colleges and universities. It’s time educators of color, Black athletes, and the NCAA boycott baby Trump.

“If you look at the way this has actually been implemented across the country, DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination,” DeSantis said at a news conference earlier in the week. “And that has no place in our public institutions. This bill says the whole experiment with DEI is coming to an end in the state of Florida.”

The state will no longer spend money on DEI initiatives at its public institutes of higher learning. In case you didn’t know, DEI programs help predominantly white institutions (PWIs) increase diversity amongst their faculty and student body. Race, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status all fall under the DEI umbrella. Florida is joining 19 other racist states where politicians have aimed at similar programs. The only saving grace is that the new law doesn’t affect schools spending money on DEI programs if they’re federally mandated.

Time to boycott DeSantis

And since DeSantis has drawn a line in the sand it’s time for a boycott — given his record.

In January, DeSantis threw a fit when the NHL — a league where 83.6 percent white of its employees are white — was going to hold a job conference in the state that was described on LinkedIn as being exclusive to female, black, Asian, Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino, LGBTQ, disabled individuals, and veterans. And in 2021, he signed a law that requires students and faculty of public Florida universities to be surveyed about their political beliefs.

“It used to be thought that a university campus was a place where you’d be exposed to a lot of different ideas,” DeSantis said at the time, according to the Naples Daily News. “Unfortunately, now the norm is really these are more intellectually repressive environments.”

Precedent already set

In September, Florida A&M and Jackson State University will meet in the Orange Blossom Classic again in Miami at Hard Rock Stadium. It should be the last time the two HBCUs play there. In the coming years, the College Football Playoff will host multiple games in Florida, as the state will also be a destination for the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournament. New NCAA President Charlie Baker needs to take the games out of Florida until the law is repealed, given that a precedent was set when games were moved because of North Carolina’s “Bathroom Bill.”

Florida is known for two things — oranges and football. Black people make up a large population of the players that play in-state or get recruited from it, and people of color are the ones usually making up the majority of the workforce who are employed on orange fields.

To be clear, Ron DeSantis wants to be entertained by and enjoy the talents of Black people and minorities of color, but he doesn’t want children in the state of Florida to learn their history, or want them educated through the school’s public university system.

This is what modern-day racism looks like in a country that “promised” it would do better in a post-George Floyd world. What’s done is done. So pay attention to how things play out from here. Because if it’s business as usual when it comes to the NCAA and Black athletes and students continuing to attend Florida’s public colleges and universities, then it means they’re guilty parties in their own oppression. 

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You’ll no longer have to play as Florida State QB No. 5.

May 17, 2023
You’ll no longer have to play as Florida State QB No. 5.
Say goodbye to generic rosters

It’ll be around 11 years since the last licensed college football video game was released nationwide when EA Sports’ revival version of the franchise hits stores next summer. The last season without the College Football Playoff was chronicled in the game. The pandemic was several years off and name, image, and likeness becoming legal nationwide was even further away. Now, with NIL almost two years in full swing, EA Sports confirmed to ESPN on Wednesday that it contracted OneTeam Partners to “facilitate collegiate athletes’ names and likenesses” for the game. All eligible FBS players will have the chance to opt-in and have their likeness in the game. It’s unclear what “eligible” means from EA, so if you’re just on the scout team, your chances of appearing in a video game might be shot.

EA Sports confirmed compensation for those who opt into the video game, but the exact payment structure hasn’t been determined. For the rare player that doesn’t opt-in, a generic avatar and player would be in that athlete’s place. It likely wouldn’t be the same model used in the last NCAA video game with such performers as Florida State QB No. 5. Every fan with a brain knew it was Jameis Winston. The cover athlete nor any details of the game have been released, but the tradition of having a player who just made the jump to the NFL grace the cover will likely continue. Imagine having a current college athlete on the cover of a video game he’s in under the NCAA’s watch. It would be a beautiful disaster. So welcome to the next NCAA cover-man: Caleb Williams, who is as sure a bet to be the No. 1 overall selection in next year’s NFL Draft as anyone.

To have the best product possible, a face scan is possible for players, EA Sports told ESPN. There is no chance every player in the FBS gets one though since there are more than 100 players on every FBS college football roster and 133 member schools. How the game will handle real-time updates in the sport, such as the transfer portal, are unclear as well. Someone inside Electronic Arts has to know the game would be incomplete without its presence in the game. Same with recruiting becoming a spectacle, NIL and the eventual-expanded CFP.

Notre Dame won’t appear in the game?

As an avid player of the last edition, updating graphics and some mechanics are needed. Outside of that, for a video game from a decade ago, NCAA Football 14 holds up incredibly well. No college basketball video game held up for more than a couple years, with the last edition having an Oklahoma-donned Blake Griffin on the cover for its November 2009 release. A new edition featuring Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Bronny James is needed more than ever now. Per EA, more than 120 FBS schools have committed to being in the game, including representatives of all 10 FBS conferences. The biggest holdout appears to be Notre Dame, with a school representative telling ESPN it’d been in touch with EA, but the Fighting Irish’s participation in the game wasn’t confirmed. And EA damn sure knows a college football video game wouldn’t be complete without the annoyance of South Bend, Indiana. Regardless of the gold helmets making it into the game, Wednesday was a huge win for college football fans. Now we have to wait a little over 12 months to get our hands on the product. 

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In the battle of COVID vs. sports, evil vs. entertainment, sports won

May 5, 2023
In the battle of COVID vs. sports, evil vs. entertainment, sports won
Remember the bubble?

Now that COVID is officially over, and everyone can throw their masks in the trash, (Is that how this works?), it feels like a good time to declare that sports beat COVID. If you’re wondering who was keeping score, I was, and sports handily outlasted the virus — that killed very few, if any, athletes, and certainly no active figures of note — to the tune of 276-35. It was a bludgeoning.

The only real loss was the men’s and women’s NCAA tournaments in 2020, because MLB, the NBA, NFL, NHL, and EPL never let science or contact tracing dictate whether it was “safe” to carry out a 17- or 72-game schedule (not including playoffs).

Where’s George W.’s “Mission Accomplished” banner? Let’s get Roger Goodell, Gary Bettman, Rob Manfred, and Adam Silver on a Helicarrier ASAP and unfurl that baby — without reservation this time.

::Nasally, condescending Anthony Fauci voice:: “You can’t hold an NBA Playoffs in a bubble!”

The NBA had the bubble

Hold my fucking beer. Not only did the Association turn Disney World into a QZ a la The Last of Us, they created ideal conditions for a fragile Los Angeles Lakers team to get, and stay, healthy enough to cruise to a title.

Yes, I know that there were rumors of an outbreak in the Phoenix Suns locker room during the Finals the next season, but they were just that: Well-reported stories after the fact. Even the players benefitted as random games missed due to health and safety measures conditioned fans to a new era of load management — a new normal, if you will.

Look at all the special sports moments during the pandemic that got fans, with very few reasons to exist other than their beloved teams, through hard and lonely times. Society needed a hero to break the endless cycle of masturbation and video games, and sports leagues were real-life Avengers.

The NFL carried on

The NFL played every game, and nobody died. (Coincidentally, someone almost dying on the field is the only way the NFL will cancel a game.) Sure, a wide receiver suited up at QB for the Broncos, but Denver sucked anyway. Tom Brady got another championship, and so did Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers, Liverpool, and Giannis Antetokuonmpo.

Big-time players and big-time franchises winning titles generate big-time revenue, and that’s a W for sports, and the people who obsess over them. It’s also further evidence that, despite being around for a nanosecond of this planet’s existence, sports matter and are vital to the fabric of the human experience.

Athletes pioneer the pandemic

As is America’s way, the sports industry pummeled COVID protocols into the ground, led by staunch coronavirus and vaccine critics like Kyrie Irving, Aaron Rodgers, and John Stockton. Irving navigated his way around needles like perimeter defenders, and was able to come out unvaxxed and vindicated by New York City’s mandates. He didn’t miss a home playoff game — this isn’t Canada after all — and the only clean bill of physical (and spiritual) health he needed was from his shaman.

It was a combination of crystals, Pat McAfee, and Ivermectin that got Rodgers through isolation, and he was able to win back-to-back MVPs in the process. Postseason showings, a messy divorce with the Packers, and public approval be damned, No. 12 is now living his best life on the streets of Manhattan as a new member of the New York Jets, free to cough and laugh on as many New Yorkers as he pleases.

Meanwhile, up in the Pacific Northwest, Stockton was conducting valuable research on the effects of the vaccine, and in the process exposed the risks of being vaccinated and educated. He galaxy-brained his way to the career assist record, and clearly retirement only sharpened that wit. He dropped dimes on epidemiologists in a groundbreaking (and I’m assuming now-removed) docuseries “Vaccines Revealed” on YouTube, and gave validity to all the other unofficial experts digging into the data that Joe Biden won’t share or acknowledge.

Did you know that the vaccine was causing instant death syndrome in college and high school-aged athletes across the country? John Stockton did, and it had nothing to do with the skyrocketing mental health crisis foisted upon young people because they just wanted to have a normal prom, college experience, or life.

A will to carry on at any cost

No one needs physical interaction with other humans unless the money they generate from doing so sustains billion-dollar industries that opted not to pay minor leaguers or stadium workers during the pandemic, or student-athletes ever.

Scott Frost and Nebraska football know how much the Cornhuskers mean to the state, the university’s bottom line, and the coach’s salary, so they sued for the right to go 3-5. As far as win percentages are concerned, that was his second-best year at his alma mater, and it’s a season, and team, no one in the Heartland will soon forget.

Outside of bars in rural Iowa, one could argue that no industry was more fearless and careless when it came to COVID than sports. Let’s get a bunch of sweaty people together to grind, bleed, and pant on each other, and then send them to hotels to spread COVID to their floozies in each of the nine cities on the 10-game road trip.

(And if you think that Danuel House was the only player who snuck women into places they weren’t supposed to be, you probably think Santa Claus could go to every home on earth, mask-free, and not catch COVID.)

Society could collapse in on itself, with Sofi Stadium at the bottom of the Pacific, and the NFL would still find a way to play the Super Bowl. So COVID and the rest of the haters can go suck a brick because everything is a competition, and sports, like the Big Baller Brand, has never lost.

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The expanded CFP schedule is going to test a lot of livers, waistbands, and relationships

May 4, 2023
The expanded CFP schedule is going to test a lot of livers, waistbands, and relationships
Can Georgia repeat? We won’t know until JANUARY 20

Anyone who’s ever been to Las Vegas will tell you two nights is the perfect length for a trip, and proceed with caution after the 48-hour mark, or you’ll risk going full James Harden and slapping your buddy outside the club. Three days on the strip is excessive even for the most degenerate of addicts, and at some point, the partying stops being fun because the slots, casino lights, and alcohol beat you into submission to the point that you tap out voluntarily. We’ll see how the expanded College Football Playoff feels after its inaugural run-through in 2024-25, but I’m getting strong too-many-days in Vegas vibes.

The dates were released, and the first round is set for the Friday and Saturday before Christmas (Dec. 19 and 20). The quarterfinals are the New Year’s Eve and Day games — a Tuesday and Wednesday. The semis are Jan. 9 and 10, a Thursday, and Friday, before the title game caps the season Jan. 20, which is a Monday, and also Martin Luther King Day.

The semifinals are being played on a Thursday and Friday presumably because the NCAA doesn’t want to compete with NFL Wild Card Weekend. That means the second weekend in January will be a five-day stretch of do-or-die contests because remember the NFL postseason expanded to Monday night.

Yes, the game will matter, so fans will watch, and outlets will cover them as such, yet has Thursday Night Football’s lukewarm reception taught us nothing? I’ll be interested to see at what point the novelty wears off because I have a sneaking suspicion that the casual viewer will be less likely to sit through blowouts (and those CFP games will feature blowouts).

Will viewership taper off, or will sports fans treat the first round like they do 76ers-Nets playoff games on NBA TV? Maybe it will be a month-long ratings behemoth — with network partners and fans alike — right in the middle of the holidays, at the tail end of bowl season, and up against the start of NFL playoffs.

I hope you’re dedicated to those resolutions because they’re going to get tested with wings, beers, and games three to five times a week for the first month of 2025.

A disregard for moderation

I’m sure that amount of football, drinking, and Christmas cookies sounds great to people in their 20s, yet that’s a sizable ask for people with family obligations, or just a girlfriend who wants to watch literally anything else. One college football columnist called the smorgasbord a “never-before-experienced football-viewing nirvana,” and something tells me Dan Wetzel has never done 72 hours in SIn City.

Here’s another parallel: You know when 15 of your shows are all running simultaneously, and it’s more TV than you can watch on a night-to-night basis? The typical response is to commit to your favorites, and then binge all the secondary programming when you get around to it.

Well, that’s not really possible for live sports unless you record them and have the conviction to avoid checking social media or ESPN until you can watch, and I think lopsided CFP games will be first up on the chopping block.

I’m also interested to see how well fans travel to all these neutral sites. The first round will be played on campus, so that’s good. However, the rest of the slate likely requires a plane ride and accommodations on top of game tickets. Do the morons over at the NCAA league office not know that a lot of vacation budgets and days are already allocated for the holidays? That amount of travel isn’t realistic financially, or even relaxing for the people who can afford it. Wetzel at least acknowledged that his football euphoria really only applies to those watching on from home.

Complain about NIL deals and the transfer portal fomenting a Wild West culture in collegiate sports all you want, but stop acting like players, and programs are the only ones doing the looting. It’s a free-for-all, and every faction of the system — including the NCAA and Big Conference — is taking whatever they can carry.

Fans are stuck with a bloated product, and an untenable schedule that’s only redeemable quality is its quantity. I don’t know how many more ways and analogies I can present to communicate that less is more, so in the spirit of knowing when to call it, I’ll do just that.

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These 9 NBA veterans are crucial to their team’s playoff success

April 29, 2023
These 9 NBA veterans are crucial to their team’s playoff success
Kevin Love is still a contributor

Older generations have always had critiques of where the game is going. Each generation, old heads critique how soft and easy the game has become. You can track this through podcasts, interviews, and any episode of the NBA on TNT with Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal. While revisionist history and recency bias can be debated ad nauseam, one of the few points retired players consistently make and agree upon is the necessity of vets.

The essence of this argument has merit, as the NBA is experiencing the highest level of talent than ever before. As a result, players are phasing out of the NBA at an earlier age than ever before. Moreover, as the talent level of the NBA rises, the age of players playing at a star level has gotten younger than ever. But in the year’s playoffs, a group of veterans across both Conferences have been crucial to their team’s success in the first round. We’ve pinpointed these veterans that are helping their teams advance with their leadership and on-court contributions.

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Of those on this list, no player has impacted at as high a level for as long as Horford has with the Celtics. Upon his return to Boston for his second stint, he immediately helped propel them to a Finals run. At 36, the five-time All-Star is still one of the top centers in the league. His averages this season are 9.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.0 assists, and 1.0 blocks per game while shooting 47.6 percent from the floor and 71.4 percent from the charity stripe. He’s maintained this level by evolving along with the game, hitting a late career-high 45 percent from three.

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The Hawks have hunted Horford in their first-round matchup by trying to get Horford switched onto Trey Young. The Celtics countered by playing Horford in drop coverage, trying to cut off the driving lane. Horford’s age is catching up to him, but he’s been critical in the Celts capturing a 3-1 lead on the Hawks. In Game Four, he went scoreless, taking and missing two threes, but stuffed the stat sheet with 11 rebounds, five assists, and two steals in 34 minutes.

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It’s hard to figure out why the hell the Cleveland Cavaliers bought out Kevin Love, the most important holdover from the LeBron James-led championship team. Love was the most dependable shooter off their bench and now brings his championship experience and stretch shooting to the Miami Heat. At 34, he’s been streaky this postseason but was pivotal in the Heat snatching Game One with an 18-point, eight-rebound effort in the Heat’s shocking 130-117 upset victory, snatching home-court advantage from the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks.

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In addition, he has helped the Heat on the perimeter, where they were one of the worst three-point shooting teams in the NBA, as he nailed 4-of-7 from downtown in Game One. For Love’s career, he’s been a reliable marksman in the regular season (37 percent) and playoffs (40.4 percent). He’s only scored a combined 16 points through Games Two through Four, but he can go off from three at any moment, forcing the Bucks to stay on him as a small-ball center.

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Since Gordon was traded from the Orlando Magic, who drafted him fourth in 2014, to the Denver Nuggets, he has been underwhelming in his role as the starting power forward. In the deal, Denver gave up former starting guard Gary Harris, R.J. Hampton, and Denver’s protected 2025 first-round pick. First Round picks, protected or not, are high currency in today’s landscape. Gordon never reached the career highs he set while in Orlando when he was the best player on a young Magic squad. But this postseason, against the length and height of the Minnesota Timberwolves, his athleticism and perimeter shooting have been crucial this series.

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Through four games, he’s been a +6.5 while averaging career post-season highs in FG percentage (.514), three-point percentage (.444), two-point percentage (.536), effective field goal percentage (.568), and free throw percentage (.917). With teammate Nicola Jokic playing at a monster level, the double and triple teams he commands have allowed Gordan to thrive in single coverage. But he’s also developed into a staunch defensive ace. He provided lockdown defense on Karl-Anthony Towns. Through four games, Towns is being held to 16.3 PPG, on a 43 percent from the field, and 28 percent from three. He’s also committing 3.8 turnovers per game. For a three-time All-Star, those are disappointing numbers and a huge reason the TWolves are down big in this series. The Nuggets have Gordon to thank for Towns’ limited impact.

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Schröder went from the butt of the NBA when he turned down an $80M extension with the Lakers back in 2021 to a key member of the Lakers’ retooled roster. Schröder is part of the Lakers point guard duo between him and D’Angelo Russell. Schröder is the better playmaker, penetrator, and defender, with a penchant for making huge shots. This was most apparent in the Lakers’ pivotal overtime win in Game Four, where he poured in 12 points on 60 percent shooting, two steals, and hitting all six of his free throws. He was especially clutch in the Lakers’ second Play-In game to secure the seventh seed.

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He scored 21 points and secured the win with two clutch free throws with 8.4 seconds left. He also hit the tie-breaking 3-pointer with 1.4 seconds to play in regulation. It was the perfect example of what makes the Schröder/Russell duo so dangerous. Russell was awful in that Play-In game, which allowed Schröder his turn at manning the point and coming up clutch. Their complementary skill sets will continue to power the Lakers as they upset the second-seeded Grizzlies and make a deep postseason run.

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Last year at the 2022 trade deadline, the Celtics picked up White. It went under the radar at the time, but he has become the third-best player on the team this postseason. In the first round of this year’s playoffs, White is averaging 19.4 points, 3.8 assists, and four rebounds in four games, outshining his 2022 playoff numbers. Defensively, he has been the Celtics’ best option to guard the Hawks’ point of attack. But it’s that White’s been elite on both sides of the ball that has made him a fan favorite of Boston fans. It’s also why they were furious at rookie head coach Joe Mazzulla for closing with Marcus Smart over White in Game Five.

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His shooting has been outstanding, averaging 52 percent from beyond the 3-point line and an overall 58 field goal percentage. After scoring 22 points in Game 1, he dropped 26 on 11-for-16 shooting in Game Two, along with seven rebounds, two assists, and three blocked shots. White has given the Celtics a third option when Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown are having inefficient shooting nights, like when Tatum went 1-10 from three. He provides the team with valuable scoring and defensive capabilities, and could be a key player for the Celtics in their playoff run.

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Hart is the definition of a “dawg.” He was the second-best acquisition of the deadline after Kevin Durant. He has solidified the Knicks’ “Mobb Deep,” adding three-and-d ability to the bench unit of Obi Toppin, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Immanuel Quickley. Hart provides vocal leadership, balancing out Julius Randle and Jalen Brunson’s lead-by-example approach. Against the Cleveland Cavaliers, Hart has been a knockdown three-point shooter hitting a team-high 56 percent from three and 60 percent from the field. His 13.5 PPG off the bench leads the Knicks reserves, but furthermore, he has been the X-factor the Cavs can’t match.

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He has been reunited with his Villanova teammate, Jalen Brunson, with whom he won an NCAA championship. The duo has elite chemistry on the court, often engaging in a two-man game where the two small guards screen for each other, throwing defenses off kilter and allowing for open threes and driving lanes to the basket. His elite rebounding at the two-guard spot has, at times, outpowered the Cavs’ big men Jarrett Allen and Evan Mobley.

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In Game Four, he outrebounded Allen and tied Mobley with seven. But it’s his penchant for big-time plays, securing loose balls, nabbing key offensive boards, and hitting clutch threes that have secured close wins for the Knicks. Before his arrival, the Knicks were one of the worst teams in the league at closing games. That immediately changed when Hart joined the team, as securing wins is one of the many things a “dawg” brings to a team.

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It feels like Tucker had been a dawg his whole career. Especially the second half where he turned into one of the best three-and-d, small-ball fours in the game with the Houston Rockets, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, and now Philadelphia 76ers. At this point as a 38-year-old journeyman, he’s a hired enforcer. This postseason he’s been the vocal leader for the 76ers. It’s been documented how savage he’s gotten during practices, ripping his team when they’re too soft. Even though he’s gone 3-of-15 in his favorite corner spot, his championship resume makes him a threat to erupt if left open. He doesn’t need to just hit shots to be effective.

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In the Sixers’ first-round sweep of the Brooklyn Nets, Tucker tallied a combined 27 rebounds, 10 assists, and seven steals over four games. What doesn’t show up in a box score is the toughness, leadership, and vocal presence Tucker brings to keep his team’s sights on winning their third championship, and first in 40 years. They will need everything Tucker has left to give as they are likely to matchup against the Boston Celtics, where his matchup with Horford, a fellow veteran dawg on this list, will be key.

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Since the playoffs began, there has been a fierce debate among experts and local residents about Coach Monty Williams’ decision to make Torrey Craig a starter, particularly after Josh Okogie held the position for the last 26 games to complete the revamped starting lineup. Craig was the starter before the Suns acquired Kevin Durant at the deadline. Despite this criticism, Craig has been playing exceptionally well. Over the first four postseason games against the Los Angeles Clippers, the six-year NBA veteran has averaged 12.4 points per game.

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This is the highest he has ever achieved in a playoff series while setting a new career high with 22 points in Game One. He followed that up with 17 points in Game Two, while hitting key shots down the stretch to close the game. Then in Game Three, he hit a massive three with less than two minutes left to secure the win. Furthermore, he was the primary defender of Kawhi Leonard. The starting five of Chris Paul, Devin Booker, Durant, Craig, and DeAndre Ayton has played together for 94 minutes this postseason, the most of any other lineup. They have an offensive rating of 125.6 and a defensive rating of 104.1, equating to a 21.6 net rating overall, the best of any starting five among playoff teams.

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Barnes has been a key player in the Sacramento Kings’ success this season, with a scoring average of 15 points per game. Barnes’ presence on the team is an argument for the importance of veterans on a roster. Since arriving in Sacramento in 2019, he has been one of the most underrated players in the league and has helped build winning habits that are finally paying off this year. In the early days of Sacramneto’s chaos, Barnes rotated through four coaches in just four seasons, showing how dysfunctional the Kings have been until now.

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However, under a winning GM in Monte McNair, the likely Coach of the Year in Mike Brown, and alongside more talented teammates in De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis, Barnes has been a key contributor toward the Kings breaking their 16-year playoff drought. He might have missed a crucial three-pointer in Game Four, but he’s been steady as hell for the first four games. Against his old team, The Golden State Warriors, he’s averaging 13 ppg, 4.3 rpg, and 1.5 steals. Coach of the Year Mike Brown has called Barnes “irreplaceable” twice this season, lamenting the leadership and steadiness he brings to a team trying to reverse their poverty label.

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The NBA’s new CBA nearly carved out a loophole which would have made the draft a choice

April 20, 2023
The NBA’s new CBA nearly carved out a loophole which would have made the draft a choice
Josh Minott drives to the rim during last year’s NBA Draft Combine in one of the only photos to make the event look cool.

The annual NBA Draft Combine, hosted in Chicago, is a footnote on the offseason calendar ranking somewhere between the preseason and the Rookie-Sophomore Game in the hierarchy of trivial offseason events. The Association’s one-stop pre-draft shop for teams to screen prospects medically, conduct interviews, obtain exact anthropometric measurements, put prospects through biomechanical tests, and create an extra week of off-season buzz is a stealth operation in contrast to the meaty coverage the NFL’s combine receives because the top prospects never attend. In 2022, none of the top five picks in last year’s draft participated in the combine, which illustrated its inconsequential existence.

However, a jointly composed NBA-National Basketball Player’s Association memo obtained by ESPN figures to change that by making the Draft Combine mandatory for all invited prospects after the league’s new collective bargaining agreement is ratified before the 2023-24 league year. To discourage healthy prospects from skipping the combine entirely, the memo stipulates that eligible prospects who refuse to participate will be ruled ineligible for that year’s draft.

The meretricious debates over outdated speed, strength, and agility tests will never be as integral to player evaluations as the NFL Draft. Instead, the NBA combine agreement sprung from the league’s interest in eliminating the practice of rising prospects discouraging teams from drafting them by refusing to share their medical histories with undesirable organizations.

But the NBPA missed out on a real opportunity to enact groundbreaking change while keeping the draft intact. This memo could have been a specially carved-out loophole for top prospects to skip the annual employment draft and make their own decisions as undrafted free agents. Unfortunately, the memo also includes a segment explicitly prohibiting prospects who skip the draft combine from even being roster-eligible until the following league year. According to the memo, players without waivers due to health, or emergencies who skip the draft will be blocked until the “first subsequent draft for which the player attends and fully participates.”

Accidental genius… almost

The NBPA nearly stumbled upon a blueprint for a future where the draft is a choice and tanking is even less incentivized. A draft dodging prospect could have exploited a draft choice system by opting out of not just the combine, but excluding themselves from being selected in the draft and instead negotiating a short-term contract with their franchise of choice. It would be disadvantageous by depriving said rookies of the lucrative four-year guaranteed contracts and opulent rookie extensions that are currently enshrined in the CBA, but prosperous rookies would be eligible for a potential max extension much sooner than their drafted peers.

Think of it as the Austin Reaves vs. Cade Cunningham pathways. The No. 1 pick in the 2021 Draft is two years away from signing a rookie extension analogous to Ja Morant’s $200 million extension. Currently, Cunningham just completed the second year of his four-year $45 million extension. A risk-averse prospect would be inclined to take the guaranteed millions instead of becoming a lowly compensated undrafted free agent.

On the other hand, Reaves, who went undrafted in 2021, could receive offers as high as $100 million over four years from suitors in restricted free agency this summer.

The ancillary major changes instituted in the CBA also created an opportunity for draft-eligible high schoolers or college players who signed with professional leagues like the G League, NBL, or Overtime Elite and were thrust into the draft whether they wanted to be there or not. In the past Ignite one-and-done players such as Jalen Green, LaMelo Ball, and Dyson Daniels were drafted early so this didn’t affect them. Unfortunately, this created complications for teenage prospects whose draft stock plunged but were unable to stick around for a second season, and slipped through the cracks undrafted.

In 2021, five-star prospect Daishen Nix was forced into the draft after one season with the Ignite and met that fate. Under the new CBA, Nix could have kept his name out of the draft for at least another season. By patching up this loophole, the league anticipates it will make their invisible developmental program more appealing than the NIL-NCAA route where players are able to retain their draft eligibility for multiple seasons.

Both amendments benefit the league office by propping up the NBA’s G League Ignite program and their annual Draft Combine, but the NBPA got squeezed. They’d be much better off digging in their heels and spending the next few years between CBA negotiations creating an Andy Dufresne-sized hole for players willing to take the risk and burrow out of the draft.


Follow DJ Dunson on Twitter: @cerebralsportex

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How Duke Men’s Basketball Program Became an Eternal Brotherhood Over the Years 

March 14, 2023
How Duke Men’s Basketball Program Became an Eternal Brotherhood Over the Years 


How Duke Men’s Basketball Became an Eternal Brotherhood | SLAM

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