Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams spent his first eight NFL seasons in Green Bay with future Hall of Fame quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
Their time together helped net Adams two first-team All-Pro selections. With 2022 being their first season apart, Adams flourished, while Rodgers struggled without his top target and arguably the best receiver in the NFL.
In a recent interview with The Ringer, Adams talked about how this year’s selection means more to him than those of the past.
“It proved that I am me. A quarterback doesn’t make me. … I make me. And I can do it consistently at this level.”
“That’s why this season meant a lot,” he says. “Even if I went and played like dog s— next year, they can’t say it. Because now I’ve already proved it throughout the course of a season, played every game, and put together a résumé that says I do not need …”
“You can erase all the numbers,” Adams continued. “You can just write in: He didn’t need Aaron Rodgers.”
Adams did reiterate that his comments weren’t a shot at Rodgers, who’s now the starting quarterback of the New York Jets. But it was to say he’s always done his thing, but it often was overlooked or took a back seat to Rodgers being a superstar and in Adams’ words, “a hell of a quarterback.”
Adams is tired of the narrative that he was a product of Rodgers and not a guy who put in the work to get to the level he’s at now.
“Now people can’t say that,” Adams said. “That’ll never be the narrative ever again.”
In Adams’ first season without Rodgers he caught 100 passes for over 1,500 yards and 14 touchdowns (most in the NFL).
After catching passes from his college teammate at Fresno State, Derek Carr, and his backup Jarrett Stidham last season, Adams will now play with former San Francisco 49ers signal caller Jimmy Garoppolo.
While Garoppolo may not be as talented a passer as Rodgers or even Carr, he’s a solid replacement and a proven winner who’s not going to do attempt to do any more than he’s capable of. He’s steady.
With a receiver like Adams in the fold, Jimmy G could be looking at career offensive passing numbers. As multi-faceted as Deebo Samuel was in San Francisco, he’s no Adams by any stretch of the imagination.
Expect another big season from Adams in “Sin City,” if he stays, as Adams recently stated he and the team don’t agree on what’s best for the team right now.
Stay tuned, because if Adams wants out, he’ll be coveted by just about every team in the NFL.
NBA legend and four-time NBA champion Shaquille O’Neal is usually pretty blunt. You can see that every week as he co-hosts the “Inside the NBA” with Ernie Johnson, Kenny “The Jet” Smith and Charles Barkley.
Shaq is usually the one who’s really hard on players when they aren’t performing up to snuff, and he’s also quick to call out how much a player is making.
In an era where the athlete is coddled and catered to more than ever, someone like O’Neal, who considers himself an old-school player, wouldn’t do too well as a coach. And let’s just say he knows it, and he recently told Chris Mannix of Sports Illustrated that in a recent interview.
In the interview, Shaq likened his coaching mentality to his former coaches, who were old school, as well as one he didn’t play for but respects a ton.
“I probably wouldn’t be able to coach, I have an old-school mentality — Pat Riley, Phil Jackson and Gregg Popovich — type mentality. I don’t think I would be able to relate to the new generation. I’ve coached my son in AAU, and we won a championship. It was actually very fun, but never again.”
Shaq sounds a lot like Deion Sanders, whom he lobbied for as the Dallas Cowboys head coach after the team’s 2022 playoff loss to the San Francisco 49ers. The only difference is Sanders is coaching in college, but he also stated he’d never coach at the professional level because his mentality is much different than those of today’s pros.
While O’Neal is adamant that he has no desire to coach, the business mogul is very serious about being an owner someday.
O’Neal told Manning this about being an owner.
“No. Nobody has ever called me about coaching, but I’m still looking to be an owner somehow,” O’Neal said. “I’m interested in a certain team in Florida.”
Speaking of the Orlando Magic, the team who drafted him No. 1 overall in 1992, Shaq says he doesn’t know if the franchise is for sale, but he’s definitely interested in owning them in some capacity.
Shaq still resides in Orlando and even sent a message out to the current owners last June.
“This message goes out to the DeVos family: If you’re ready to sell the Orlando Magic, sell it to somebody that’s going to take it to the next level. That’s us,” Shaq said during a 2022 episode of his podcast, “The Big Podcast with Shaq.” “We still run the franchise. And if they want to sell it to us, DeVos family, we are ready to go right now.”
There hasn’t been any announcement of a sale of the Orlando Magic, so as of now they’re not for sale, but O’Neal sounds ready to join the fray if they do become available. And he’s bringing along good friend and former Magic teammate Dennis Scott.
The Georgia Bulldogs football program has been on top of the college football world the past two seasons after winning back-to-back college football national championships. Led by quarterback Stetson Bennett, the Bulldogs became the first team in the CFP era (2014-present) to win consecutive championships, but while the 25-year-old Bennett was leading the team on the field, per reports, he wasn’t doing enough in the classroom to graduate after six years of eligibility.
While all those years weren’t spent in Athens, Bennett still spent the better part of 72 months on a college campus but somehow still hasn’t graduated. That caught the eye of some over the weekend, including former Ohio State quarterback Cardale Jones who led the Buckeyes to the very first CFP championship in place of injured starter and teammate J.T. Barrett.
For Bennett to not have graduated from UGA after that many years but be eligible raises some eyebrows for sure. How he could’ve had the required GPA to play the whole time is a bit odd, but, hey, it’s big-time collegiate athletics, so nothing is really all that surprising as pertains to this among many other things that happen at these major Power Five schools.
In the aftermath of Bennett being tweeted with the caption basically trying to understand how he hasn’t yet graduated, the aforementioned Jones retweeted it with his own caption, stating this ….
“Buddy definitely wasn’t playing school.”
Funny, yes, but also real that someone can play that long, run out of eligibility and not have completed his studies to obtain his college degree.
In fact, Bennett’s story is the complete opposite of Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Jalen Hurts who graduated from both Alabama after his junior year, and then again from Oklahoma this past weekend with his Master’s Degree after turning pro following his senior season.
To hear Jones clown Bennett about graduating is actually kind of contradictory to his statement made upon his arrival to Ohio State himself.
In 2012, Jones a true freshman in Columbus, tweeted this:
“Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain’t come here to to play SCHOOL, classes are POINTLESS.”
Jones came back in 2015 with a couple tweets that were singing a different tune …
“Faith and family, NOTHING is more important than education.”
“It’s only a lesson if you learned from it.”
While, Jones did eventually get his degree from Ohio State in 2017, that’s still five years after he arrived in Columbus. So maybe he shouldn’t be the one clowning Bennett.
Mark Jackson might be getting his shot at redemption as a head coach in the NBA.
Following former Milwaukee Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer’s dismissal, Jackson reportedly is one of the candidates for the vacant coaching spot.
After spending three years serving as the Golden State Warriors’ head coach before their dynasty, and in the ESPN broadcasting booth ever since, Jackson is ready to pick up the clipboard and coach again.
Shams Charania of The Athletic reported on Sunday that the Milwaukee Bucks are interviewing Mark Jackson as one of several candidates for the vacant head coaching spot.
In three years with the Warriors, Jackson only had one losing season with the team. In his first year the only won 23 games, but the turnaround was swift and the Warriors more than doubled their wins, going 47-35 the next season. Jackson had arrived as an elite team-constructor and coach.
The last season Jackson coached the Warriors, they won 51 games but were bounced out of the playoffs in the first round. Three years of improvement but nothing to show for it in the postseason wasn’t good enough for the Golden State higher-ups, and they fired him after that first-round exit.
Similarly, Budenholzer was fired by the Bucks after top-seeded Milwaukee was defeated in the first round by the Miami Heat, who won the series in five games. Milwaukee is pretty much built around Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton when healthy, and they have a formidable team already that underachieved this season.
Jackson wouldn’t have to do as much with a ready-made championship-caliber squad. Some fine-tuning and gain the respect of the locker room.
The Bucks have established themselves as Eastern Conference and NBA juggernauts with arguably the best basketball player in the league, and just two years removed from a championship led by Budenholzer, who ultimately paid the ultimate price for an embarrassing “gentleman’s sweep” after being the favorites to represent the Eastern Conference in the NBA Finals.
Jackson was the architect behind the early development of the “Splash Brothers,” Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, helping them gain confidence in their three-point shots before former marksman Steve Kerr took over and put all the missing pieces together to turn the Warriors into the machine they are now.
Many believe Jackson’s firing from Golden State was unwarranted and unfair, and he should be able to have another coaching job.
He was a candidate for the Sacramento Kings job last year before they went on to hire Mike Brown, who would go on to lead Sacramento to their first playoff appearance in 16 years and nearly edged the defending champion Warriors before losing in seven games.
Brown was also named Coach of the Year for turning the Kings into a heavyweight in a stacked Western Conference, so they can’t be faulted for that hiring.
But Jackson has also interviewed for jobs with teams like the Lakers, and the New York Knicks, a team he formerly starred on.
Hopefully, Jackson can get the Bucks job and pick up where he left off. It would be a shame to see a coach with so much to offer remain off the radar in the coaching world after a short but mainly successful stint with the Warriors.
Ja Morant has his name in headlines again for the wrong reasons, and, yes, a gun is involved. The 23-year-old star point guard showed off another gun on Instagram Live, but this time it was courtesy of his friend’s Instagram account.
It resulted in Morant being suspended by the Grizzlies from all team activities and a pending league investigation.
This latest incident came two months after he was suspended for eight games from the Denver strip club incident, which he showed a gun on his own Instagram Live.
Former NBA player Kwame Brown, ESPN reporter Stephen A. Smith, NFL legend Shannon Sharpe, and plenty of others have come out yet again to criticize the young superstar. Now rapper and Los Angeles area crip gang member Bricc Baby has some advice to give.
Bricc Baby did an interview with Cam Capone News and gave Morant some words that he shouldn’t ignore.
“You throwing those N’s up, that’s gonna cost you anyway. … What you want to do? To pay the Crips for the rest of your life? Because that’s gonna cost you,” Bricc Baby said to Cam Capone News.
He was referring to some of Morant’s on-court antics with his celebrations. Morant is often spotted on the court allegedly throwing up gang signs and dancing after he makes a good basketball play during the course of a game. He has also been criticized for his music choices and quoting lyrics from what seem to be his favorite rapper, NBA Youngboy.
“Let’s be real, because, like … like, start being real with yourself. You a basketball player. OK, you want to step into this field, we can show you a whole lot about this s***,” said Bricc Baby.
He continued, “Matter of fact, set up a meeting for me and Ja Morant, since he want to be a Crip. I bet you he don’t never show up, and it’s on some friendly s***.”
Then, he gave Morant an uplifting message.
“I don’t got no beef with you, Ja. I just, you like the face of like the NBA. You like the new face of the NBA and you with this,” said Bricc Baby. “You claim you were part of the culture, man. Be the positive side of the culture like you’ve been being. You don’t got no felonies, you ain’t grow up f****** s*** up and all that. You might have smoked some weed or whatever the case is, but come pull up on me.”
Morant has put himself in avoidable situations over the past year, and many have assumed that he is doing it because of thug image he is attempting to portray, like Bricc Baby.
Former NFL star wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson discussed on his show “Keyshawn, JWill & Max” the attention Morant has been drawing from other notable Crip gang members in the L.A. area.
“A notable gang member of a certain very powerful gang here in L.A. didn’t like the fact that Ja was doing those things in some of his games, along with portraying himself, to a degree, as some sort of hip-hop street gangster growing up in the hood when he hasn’t,” said Johnson.
He continued, “Those are the sort of things that I worry about, because you’re aligning yourself in a position that you know nothing about at all whatsoever, zero about. That’s where I look at the team and the league and to be able to say, ‘You’ve got to get him the necessary help that he needs, serious help.’”
Morant averaged 26.2 points per game and 8.1 assists per game in 61 games this season. The Grizzlies secured the No. 2 seed but were bounced out of the first round by the Lakers in six games. His $194 million max contract is set to kick in this season. He lost out on $39 million in future earnings after he was not voted onto an All-NBA team this season. He still has endorsement deals with Nike and Powerade, but had a recent ad pulled by the sports drink company.
Hopefully, Morant really learns his lesson this time and stays away from posting guns on the internet.
The Year of Angel Reese continues as she announced on her Twitter page on Sunday that she made Team USA Women’s Basketball. Reese and her LSU teammates have been on an unforgettable ride since winning the 2023 NCAA women’s basketball national championship. She has appeared on various talk shows, podcasts, ESPN appearances, increased popularity on social media, and another appearance in Sports Illustrated 2023 Swimsuit Issue.
Reese has been very outspoken about her journey to the top of the women’s college basketball world. She suffered a foot injury that kept her out the majority of her freshman year at Maryland and worked hard to get back to the court. Her hard work paid off after she transferred to LSU last summer and help guide the Tigers to their first national championship in women’s basketball.
On Sunday, she discussed her long road to being selected for Team USA Women’s Basketball.
Reese said she was cut from the under-16 team, cut because of injury from the under-18 team, and she declined the invite for the under-19 team. Now she feels like her time has come as she secured one of the eight confirmed spots on the 12-player roster.
She captioned the post, “THIS WAS MY YEAR. U23 I MADE IT. GOD DID. NEVER GIVE UP ON THINGS YOU WANT IN LIFE. TIME TO BRING HOME GOLD.”
Team USA will compete in the 2023 FIBA Women’s AmeriCup on July 1-9 in Leon, Mexico. They will be apart of Group A along with Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Venezuela. They will open up pool play against Venezuela on July 1, followed by Argentina on July 2, Brazil on July 4 and Cuba on July 5.
Reese won’t be by herself at camp. She will be joined by her new LSU teammate Aneesah Morrow, who recently transferred to LSU from DePaul. Morrow will be competing for one of the final roster spots. The 6-foot-1 forward from Chicago averaged 25.7 points and 12.2 rebounds per game. It was her second season averaging of at least 20 points and 10 rebounds per game.
Morrow and Texas A&M’s Janiah Barker, Illinois’ Makira Cook, Columbia’s Abbey Hsu, and Oregon’s Chance Gray will be competing for the final four roster spots.
The low-post tandem will get a chance to build some on-court chemistry with each other and give the other programs a little taste for what’s to come next season.
LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers play Game 1 of the Western Conference finals on Tuesday against the Denver Nuggets. Bron is going for his fifth title and 11th trip to the NBA Finals.
Whether he and the Lakers advance or not, it seems as though Bron will control the narrative, as the filmmaker behind the famous “Last Dance” series has been following Bron and the Lakers all season.
Lakers radio play-by-play announcer John Ireland revealed the news on the “Awful Announcing” podcast.
“I hope I’m not talking out of school here, Andy Thompson, the guy who shot ‘The Last Dance,’ Mychal Thompson’s younger brother, who has worked for the NBA for 30 years, has spent a ton of time with us this year,” Ireland said on “Awful Announcing.”
“So if LeBron ever wanted to go down this road, I think Andy is stockpiling that just so he has it and has the opportunity to tell the story.
“If we go on a magical run to the title, Andy, who was the driving force behind The Last Dance, most of the stuff you saw in those 10 episodes was shot by Andy Thompson.
“And Andy’s a smart guy, he’s already working on, potentially, a story about the end of LeBron’s run like he had one for the end of Jordan’s run.”
This shouldn’t come as a surprise if you’ve been following Bron’s career. Everything he does on and off the court is calculated. He is always looking a few moves ahead and playing 3D chess.
The “Last Dance” famously chronicled Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls’ sixth and final championship of the era. It was a ratings mega hit and it further enhanced the legacy of Jordan.
Bron has said numerous times that Jordan is who he is competing with in terms of legacy. He may never get to six titles and he won’t win any more regular season MVPs, but part of legacy is myth building and controlling the narrative. Nobody has done that better than Jordan, until maybe now with Bron.
Having Thompson collect footage can go a number of different ways. If it is Bron’s magical final title season it will be an immensely popular story that will be a mega hit and further his legacy.
If they don’t win the title but advance to the Finals, a lot of the footage can be used when it’s eventually revealed that Bron played the second half of the season and playoffs on a foot that required surgery. Once again, adding to his legend.
This is also the first playoff run of LeBron’s career that he has placed trust in young teammates like Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura, and Lonnie Walker IV. You can see the the snippets now of the sage old veteran with his arm around the young players in practice, with the cutaway to Bron passing to one of them and they hit a big shot.
Part of legend building is mythologizing. We have to create character arcs and different narratives to sell a story. It’s not enough that all the numbers and records say he’s likely the greatest of all-time we also need to tell it through a powerful story.
Whatever the footage gets used for, whether a story specifically about this season or pieces of it for a different story it will further the legend of LeBron James.
A months-long investigation into WNBA star Dearica Hamby’s claims against her former team Las Vegas Aces has finally ended. The WNBA announced on Tuesday that head coach Becky Hammon will be suspended for two games without pay. The announcement comes days before the season starts on Friday.
The Aces were at the top of the WNBA world in September after winning their first WNBA title in franchise history, but now things have turned ugly for the franchise.
Hamby took to her social media in January after she was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks. The sixth overall pick in the 2015 WNBA draft claimed the Aces bullied her after the team signed her to an extension before finding out she was pregnant.
Her Instagram post read in part, “I have had my character and work ethic attacked. I was promised things to entice me to sign my contract extension that were not followed through on. I was accused of signing my extension knowingly pregnant. This is false.
“I was told I was a ‘question mark’ and that it was set that I would ‘get pregnant again’ and there was a concern for my level of commitment to the team. I was told that ‘I didn’t hold up my end of the bargain’ (Because ‘no one expected me to get pregnant in the next two years’). Did the team expect me to promise not to get pregnant in exchange for the contract extension? I was asked if I planned my pregnancy.”
She continued the post by saying that the team questioned her commitment and told her that she “was not taking precautions to not get pregnant.”
Hamby was signed a two-year extension in June before she was traded in January. The players union reportedly pushed for the investigation to be launched to see whether Hamby’s rights were violated under the league’s 2020 labor agreement as well as state and federal laws.
The WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert issued a statement in response to Hammon’s suspension.
“It is critical that we uphold the values of integrity and fairness, which create a level playing field for our teams,” said Engelbert in the WNBA statement. “The Aces failed to adhere to league rules and regulations and have been disciplined accordingly. We are also disheartened by the violation of our Respect in the Workplace policies and remain committed to ensuring that enhanced training is conducted and standards are followed across all WNBA teams.”
The league interviewed 33 people as well as reviewed text messages, emails, and other documents during the investigation.
In addition to Hammon’s suspension, the Aces also rescinded the Aces’ first-round pick in the 2025 draft for violating league rules for impermissible player benefits paid to Hamby in the contract extension.
Hammon’s suspension not only speak volumes to the current state of the WNBA but also about the culture of women’s sports. Hamby might have thought it more likely to see this type of behavior to come from a male coach who wouldn’t understand the stress a woman endures while she is pregnant and still trying to work. Not only was it a female head coach, but Hammon also is a former player. Women have spoken out for years about how getting pregnant affects their careers.
Skylar Diggins-Smith revealed in 2019 that she played the entire 2018 season pregnant without the Dallas Wings’ knowledge.
Candace Parker also revealed how she was set to take over as the new face of the WNBA after the torched was passed down from Lisa Leslie, but it was delayed due to Parker being pregnant with her daughter Lailaa. Former WNBA commissioner Donna Orender told The New York Times in 2009 that Parker’s pregnancy was a “quiet sigh of resignation.”
In 1997, Sheryl Swoopes announced she was pregnant ahead of the WNBA’s inaugural season. Nike and the Houston Comets came together to market her as an athlete-mom hybrid.
An unhinged youth baseball coach stormed the diamond and took an umpire to the ground after arguing a call during an 11-U game in Calera, Alabama, over the weekend. You read that right. A kids baseball coach got into a physical altercation with an umpire over balls and strikes.
A video of the incident was originally posted to Facebook and has since gone viral across social media.
According to the Facebook post, the game took place at a tournament hosted by Grand Slam Baseball Alabama. The coach involved was from the DC Patriots, a team from nearby Tuscaloosa, though nothing was confirmed and there was no mention of the incident by the league or tournament official Facebook accounts.
However there were comments on the original post with the video from people allegedly at the game, assumed to be parents of kids that played.
“It was so crazy! Never seen that in all my years at the ballpark,” said one commenter, who noted that she was a parent of a player at the tourney. “There was a kid on the mound. They did this with children on the field! Absolutely insane.”
One commenter even called for the coach involved in the incident to have his team banned from the next tournament. So an adult who should know better does something wrong and the people punished should be the kids?
Sure. That makes sense. That’s sarcasm if you haven’t picked it up.
As an aside, it’s kind of interesting that the coach seen perpetrating an act of violence against a game official, coaches a team called the DC Patriots …
Another day, another adult in charge of the welfare of children setting a poor example.
Violence over balls and strikes at a kids game. This is where we are as a society. To say we’ve gotten or devolved to this point over time, would be inaccurate. This is who this society and nation has always been.
You believe you’ve been wronged or feel aggrieved over something you believe went unfairly and your recourse is to commit violence. Not have a conversation or begin civil discourse. Literally go and attack the party you believe wronged you. It’s inhumane and criminal.
Adults acting out at children’s athletic events has become all too common. Like much of the violence that happens in our country we’ve become desensitized to it.
There has to be a better mechanism for identifying and selecting the people who are responsible for children in these environments.
The reality is, there is no easy solution. These leagues and tournaments succeed because parents and other adults willingly volunteer their time. There is often little to no pay, so how can you effectively screen who is involved?
Leagues across all sports are no doubt taking note of the violence occurring and likely implementing strict no tolerance policies on violence. Hopefully they are also looking at proactive measures to stop this scourge, instead of waiting for an incident to react.
These days the Chicago White Sox don’t have much to cheer about. The team is currently 14-28 and already 9.5 games behind the AL Central leading Minnesota Twins. In retrospect, there hasn’t been a whole lot to cheer on the South side since the franchise’s 2005 World Series win.
Mired in a rough start to the 2023 season as a team, Tim Anderson has been a tad below standards himself, batting .260 with 25 hits and five RBI in 96 at-bats.
During Sunday’s 4-3 home loss to the defending World Series champion Houston Astros, fans voiced their displeasure as they normally do when things aren’t going well, and Anderson’s effort or lack thereof didn’t seem to help matters. After declining to take second base as the Astros catcher struggled to handle a pitch, a chorus of boos rang down from the home crowd.
Following the play, Anderson was then seen talking to his former teammate Jose Abreu, and the belief is he told him, “I hate this place,” in reference to playing there.
If he did say that, which no one really knows, it wouldn’t be the first time Anderson has let a fanbase know how he felt.
Last season, Anderson flipped the bird to Cleveland fans as the White Sox struggled through an abysmal season despite being favored by many to win it all.
Anderson was suspended for one game for his actions and hasn’t really had any negative interactions with fans since, especially not the fans that support the White Sox.
The fake outrage seemed to be quelled not long after the game, as it was determined that Anderson said a fifth word, and his words were.
“I hate this pitch clock.”
In fact, White Sox beat reporter Chuck Garfien, tweeted that he’d spoken to Anderson in the aftermath of it, and the All-Star shortstop confirmed that’s what he said.
While this will probably now go away, at 14-28, White Sox fans are looking for any opportunity to hang their team, so expect more drama if this talented but underachieving team doesn’t turn things around soon.
As for Anderson, he’s just looking for peace following a tumultuous personal offseason.
The area of sports never has been safe from cancel culture, and as a matter of fact, many argue that sports and athletes are the main victims of cancel culture.
An ESPN reporter, who was fired after a video surfaced of her shooting expletives at another journalist, is now clapping back trying to save what was an illustrious career on a fast upward trajectory.
ESPN baseball reporter Marly Rivera was caught on video arguing with another journalist, Ivón Gaete, ahead of an Angels and Yankees game. Apparently, Rivera had a pre-scheduled interview already set up with MLB superstar Aaron Judge, while Gaete was trying to jump in for an interview with him. Gaete was in town to cover Angels star Shohei Ohtani because she was on assignment for Tokyo Broadcasting.
Reporting is a very competitive business, but there is also etiquette and unwritten rules. When a reporter has a pre-scheduled situation with a subject, it’s not another reporter’s place to hi-jack the interview. If it’s an open forum press conference or an impromptu situation, that’s a bit different.
Now, once this does happen, it can be dicey.
After feeling disrespected when Gaete ignored her, Rivera walked away, but not before she muttered the words “F–king C–t” at the journalist. That whole ordeal was caught on camera and found its way all over the internet and to ESPN.
ESPN fired Rivera for the altercation and the words she used toward Gaete, but this wasn’t the end of it for Rivera.
While all ESPN had to say about Rivera was “She no longer works here,” according to the New York Post, Rivera had more to say via social media when she personally responded to the situation that happened with Gaete.
“There were extenuating circumstances but that in no way is an excuse for my actions. I am a professional with a sterling reputation across baseball and I do believe that I am being singled out by a group of individuals with whom I have a long history of professional disagreements.”
Though she later apologized to Gaete for her actions, Gaete did not accept it.
Furthermore, Rivera felt that there were larger pieces at play in this situation, which led to her firing from ESPN after working there for 13 years.
Gaete is the wife of John Blundell, vice president of Communications for MLB.
According to Rivera, she and Blundell have had some disagreements in the past, which she believes played a huge part in her being abruptly fired from her job even though she was a serious figure in the MLB world.
Even though Rivera has apologized to Gaete and has issued a statement regarding the video of her hurling insults, this will undoubtedly do permanent damage to her career, especially because her outburst was done in total disregard for the children that Judge was signing autographs for. Also, she was a face for an entire ethnicity of reporters and worked closely with the growing legion of Hispanic ballplayers throughout MLB.
She had a very important, prominent and pressure-filled position. The battle to stay on top when you have reached the height of your profession is filled with ups and downs. And sometimes — if you think Rivera was the one that crossed the line — too much entitlement. Her social media posts have come off as genuine, but the damage is done.
ESPN certainly thought so and, in this age, where everything goes viral immediately, she didn’t have a chance to bring perspective to the situation or defend herself. Maybe the relationship between Gaete and her executive husband played a part in it, but a professional line was crossed, and Rivera will have to pay the consequences of losing her coveted spot on ESPN.
However, she isn’t the first, and a talented and connected reporter like Marly should land on her feet. Maybe a little vacation is exactly what she needed to bring some joy back to the job.
It’s baseball season, and the weapon of choice when assaulting the staff of a congressman is the aluminum bat.
Xuan Kha Tran Pham, 49, was arrested after an attack at Rep. Gerry Connolly’s office in Fairfax, Virginia. Connolly told CNN one staff member was hit in the head, while an intern was hit on the side.
“This morning, an individual entered my District Office armed with a baseball bat and asked for me before committing an act of violence against two members of my staff. The individual is in police custody and both members of my team were transferred to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries,” Connolly said in a statement.
“The thought that someone would take advantage of my staff’s accessibility to commit an act of violence is unconscionable and devastating.”
Pham now faces charges of aggravated malicious wounding and malicious wounding. Capitol Police say it is unclear what motivated the attack.
“At this time, it is not clear what the suspect’s motivation may have been,” USCP said in their statement. “Based on what we know right now, investigators do not have any information that the suspect was known to the USCP.”
But according to an interview Pham’s father gave to CNN, Pham suffers from schizophrenia and has been off his medication for several months.
“He is in a really bad condition,” the father said in an interview. “All day and all night, he mumbles … he talks and looks like he talks with someone in his brain, and suddenly, he is shouting angrily.”
According to the National Institute of Mental health schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that affects how a person thinks, feels, and behaves. Symptoms can include: delusions, hallucinations, disorganized speech, trouble with thinking and lack of motivation.
Pham’s father said he has tried to get his son help but hasn’t been successful.
Pham was charged in January 2022 in Fairfax with felony assault on a law enforcement officer, several charges of attempted disarmament of a law enforcement officer’s stun gun, and obstructing justice or resisting arrest.
He also filed a lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency alleging the agency is guilty of “wrongfully imprisoning me in a lower perspective based on physics called the book world since 1975,” and “brutally torturing me with a degenerating disability consistently since 1988 till the present from the fourth dimension.”
It is obvious Pham is dealing with serious mental health issues. Mental health is an extremely loaded issue in this country and is used by bad faith political actors for their own nefarious ends.
The richest country in the world should have systems in place to aid its most vulnerable citizens. Mental health should be treated like other serious health conditions. Access to medications and services should not be difficult, and yet here we are.
Violence has no place in a civilized society and yet it’s everywhere and we don’t seem to be addressing the root causes of violence.
People should feel safe within their place of work. But people who are struggling and hurting also need to be seen, heard and given a chance to feel safe as well.
Connolly, a Democrat, represents Virginia’s 11th District and has served in the House since 2009.
Larsa Pippen, the ex-wife of Chicago Bulls and NBA legend Scottie Pippen, has been making headlines for a lot of the wrong things since she and the six-time NBA champion Pippen called it quits, first with separation, then divorce. Larsa was first seen dating current Los Angeles Lakers guard Malik Beasley, who at the time was married.
But what happened last summer completely trumped her hooking up with Beasley. Pippen took it to another level when she was seen with Marcus Jordan, the son of NBA legend and Scottie’s teammate with the Chicago Bulls Michael Jordan. After first denying that the two were an item at first, Larsa came out and admitted the two were a thing and that she didn’t feel wrong for dating him because she didn’t know Marcus and barely knew Michael.
Jordan and Pippen only played together for nearly a decade, so that excuse doesn’t really add up, but Larsa or Marcus don’t seem too fazed by their actions or the blowback from the public.
During a recent interview with Vlad TV, former NBA player John Salley, who played with and against the Jordan and Pippen duo, gave his opinion on the matter. He also broke down why Larsa seems to want a younger man.
“What happened is they were talking on the after hour show and she [Larsa] was like, yo, my guy Scottie had a high sex drive, and that’s what she was talking about, he had a high sex drive and I was doing everything I could to make him not want to go anywhere else.
“So it’s definitely an exaggeration, but the fact that she was saying for 23 years she was still having sex with Scottie is something, and if she has that kind of sex drive, she needs a younger man. She needs a younger man, and I’m glad she got it.”
Salley is referring to Larsa saying Scottie and her did the do four times a night for 23 years. It is probably a stretch, but it’s not out of the realm of possibilities that it was quite often. No one knows but those two, but Larsa spewing that garnered her even more attention.
When you consider she’s dating the son of Scottie’s most famous teammate and arguably the greatest and most recognizable player to ever touch an NBA floor, that’s odd enough. But to hear Larsa say she’d be open to marrying Marcus is a whole different situation.
On an episode of “The Real Housewives Of Miami,” Larsa even talked about hyphenating her name if she were to marry again.
“I would definitely change my last name for whomever I married, that’s for sure.”
John Salley piggybacked those sentiments in his interview but was adamant that it couldn’t be both the Jordan and Pippen name in her new name.
“It can’t be Larsa Pippen-Jordan,” Salley said.
Only time will tell though.
Bob Stoops just showed the football world that he can still lead a team to a championship. On Saturday, he coached the Arlington Renegades to the 2023 XFL Championship. His Renegades defeated the D.C. Defenders 35-26. The former Oklahoma Sooners head coach got his second championship in his head coaching career. He captured his first title in 2000 while he was head coach of the Sooners.
The Renegades barely sneaked into the XFL playoffs with a 4-6 regular season record. They only won one of their last five games after a 3-2 start and finished second in the South Conference. The Houston Roughnecks were the only team in the South Conference that finished with a winning record.
The Renegades and Roughnecks matched up in the first round of the playoffs. The Renegades lost 25-9 to them in the last week of the regular season but avenged that loss in the first round of the playoffs with a 26-11 win.
The Defenders had the best record (9-1) throughout the regular season, with their only loss coming in a 37-36 shootout against the Orlando Guardians in the regular season. They defeated their division rivals the Seattle Dragons in the semifinals to reach the championship before eventually falling to the Renegades.
Stoops talked about his team’s underdog story after the game.
“The assistant coaches and the players really deserve the credit. They’ve stuck together, they’ve hung together and here towards the end of the year we’ve really hit our stride at the right time,” Stoops said in a postgame interview.
Stoops spent 18 seasons with the Sooners and never had a losing season. He also only had four seasons in which he didn’t win double digit games. He won 190 games and had a win percentage of 79.8, which was the highest before the Lincoln Riley era. His 190 total wins and 121 conference wins are the most in school history.
Stoops is 1-1 in championship games and coached two Heisman winners, Jason White (2003) and Sam Bradford (2008). He stepped down at the end of the 2016 season but was brought back in 2021 to coach the Sooners in a bowl game after Riley left for USC. In 2019, Stoops unretired to coach in the XFL, but the league shut down for the second time in their history during the 2020 season. The XFL returned in 2022 with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as one of the owners and face of the league in its third act.
The Sooners went 6-7 last year to finish with their first losing season since 1998 under new head coach Brent Venables. The former Clemson defensive coordinator helped lead the Tigers to two national championships and also was part of the Sooners staff for the 2000 national title run.
For years, Sooners fans complained about their team’s poor defense, and Venables was brought back to Oklahoma to fix that problem. But 2022 was more of the same as the Sooners’ defense gave up 30 points per game and 461 yards per game last season. Both ranked in the bottom half of all FBS teams, and that unit was the eighth-ranked defense in the Big 12 Conference among 10 total teams.
Venables’ rough start might end his head coaching career earlier than expected, and the Sooners could turn to a familiar face to get their football program back on track like they did in 2021.
Simone Biles and her husband Jonathan Owens made headlines recently for their courthouse wedding. The two also had a private ceremony for family and friends in Mexico in early May. Now the newly married couple announced they are making a move to Green Bay after Owens signed a deal with the Packers on May 12.
Owens has had to grind for everything he has earned in the NFL, but it seems like things are finally paying off for the 27-year-old safety.
Every sports fan knows his gold medal Olympic gymnast wife Biles, but many don’t know much about him. Owens is from St Louis and played his high school football at Christian Brothers College. He went undrafted out of Missouri Western State University in 2018.
While in college, he earned second team all-conference honors for the Division II Mid America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) conference in his senior season. He had four interceptions and 174 total tackles during his three-year college career.
The Arizona Cardinals signed him to a deal as an undrafted free agent, but he didn’t play his rookie season due to an ACL tear he suffered in OTAs and spent the 2018 season on injured reserve. They released the 5-foot-10 safety right before the start of the 2019 season and he signed with the Texans.
Owens has played for the Texans from 2019-22 and had his best season in 2022. He had 111 total tackles, 70 solo tackles, and a sack. He was signed to a two-year deal worth $1.39 million deal on Dec. 9, 2021, after spending majority of his Texans career bouncing back and forth from the practice squad to the active roster.
The six year veteran is projected to compete for the starting strong safety position with the Packers. The details of his new deal were not released.
Biles and Owens both seem to be pretty excited about the move to Green Bay. Owens is somewhat used to the cold weather after growing up in Missouri, but Biles is not. She grew up in Houston area and meet Owens in 2020 while he was playing for the Texans.
She tweeted, “Please send all green bay recommendations!!!!! food, things to do, etc.”
Owens just simply tweeted out a collage of pictures with him and Biles that had the caption, “New Beginnings #Year6.”
The newlyweds will look to make Green Bay home for a while. The Packers are looking to usher in a new era post Aaron Rodgers. The longtime Packers quarterback was traded to the New York Jets this offseason. The team now turns to Jordan Love as their starting quarterback. They also will have a new look in their secondary with them not re-signing veteran safety Adrian Amos.
During a recent trip to India, NBA legend Ray Allen, while discussing numerous things about the NBA, opened up on the current state of the NBA’s center position and what he feels about Denver Nuggets two-time MVP, Nikola Jokic.
NBA legend Ray Allen was known for his shooting prowess during his illustrious 18-year NBA career. Allen, who once held the record for three-pointers made all-time, also won two NBA championships and contributed to many long playoff runs during his stops in Seattle, Milwaukee, Boston and Miami.
The former UConn Huskies sharpshooter has been pretty active in other NBA endeavors since his retirement.
In his remarks, Allen was blunt and straightforward.
With centers reemerging as the focal [point of some teams, despite the game being dominated by wing plkay and three-point shooting, Allen called Denver Nuggets center and two-time NBA MVP Nikola Jokic the best in the league. Despite Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid winning the MVP this season, Allen still believes “The Joker”is top of the food chain.
“I mean, right now, I think Jokic is the best big man in the league. And I say that because he can also pass. He’s just really crafty.”
Allen also mentioned Jokic’s craftiness around the rim.
“He’s crafty around the basket. He can score. He doesn’t overpower you. It’s not like he’s an athlete, but he’s a tough cover. Then he brings your big all the way out and blows right by you. So, I think, skill-wise, he’s just a player to guard.”
In a league that prides itself on its global interaction, the last five MVPs have all been from foreign countries, including Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo who won back-to-back honors in 2019 and 2020. The aforementioned Jokic took the award in 2021 and 2022.
“The Big Cameroonian” finally closed the deal after years of being the runner-up. All are considered big men who play at or near the rim most of the night, which is a rare sight in today’s NBA.
Allen calling Jokic the best at the position isn’t a stretch, even with Embiid winning the MVP. Jokic has been the most consistent and durable big man as well, rarely missing games because of injury and always doing what it takes for his team to win — scoring, passing and creating for others. And while his defense isn’t on par with Embiid or Giannis, his team’s defensive efficiency is one of the best with him on the floor.
Jokic is set to lead the top-seeded Nuggets in the Western Conference Finals against the upstart Los Angeles Lakers beginning Tuesday in the “Mile High City.”
The Memphis Grizzlies have suspended Ja Morant from all team activities after a video showing the All-Star guard holding a gun in a social media video while riding in a car with friends began circulating on social media Saturday night. This is the second time in three months Morant has been seen on social media with a gun.
Not to mention the other alleged incidents over the past year where Morant, violence and/or the threat of violence was present. A big punishment is on the way, and many in the sports world are reacting.
Former NBA #1 draft pick Kwame Brown went on a video rant about Morant’s poor choices involving guns.
“You like to play with guns, huh, boy?” Brown ranted. “… So, instead of you just being at your house buying all the guns you want, playing with all the guns you want off camera, you want to get in trouble for having a gun at a club, give a bullsh*t apology, and then show a gun on Instagram Live. I’ve heard of NBA Youngboy. But you NBA dumb boy. You gotta be the dumbest motherfu*ker in the league.”
ESPN’s Kendrick Perkins, who began calling Morant and the Grizzlies out over a year ago for adopting a thug persona, believes Morant is going to be out of the league if he continues.
Perkins’ colleague Stephen A. Smith hopes Morant can get the help that he needs, as does former NBA player Greg Anthony. Some, like J.R. Smith, are at a loss for words in trying to understand what is going with Morant.
The NBA and commissioner Adam Silver are looking into this matter. The Grizzlies as mentioned have suspended him from all team activities, but it’s the offseason. Other than a potential draft event, what is Morant going to actually miss?
ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski believes a heavy suspension to begin next season will come down on Morant from the league office.
“I think Ja Morant is facing a lengthy, a significant suspension to start next season if indeed that was a firearm in his hand in that video,” said Wojnarowski. “I don’t think Adam Silver is going to take this one lightly.”
For context, in the 2009-10 season then-Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas was suspended for 50 games by then-commissioner David Stern for bringing unloaded guns into the team locker room to settle a dispute with teammate Javaris Crittenton.
Silver has generally been lighter on punishment than Stern, but in this instance he will have to drop the hammer. Morant isn’t giving him any choice.
Aside from the money Morant could lose, the young Grizzlies star is playing with his life in these situations. Guns are no joke, and America leads the world in deaths attributed to gun violence.
As one of the faces of the league, Morant cannot engage in this type of behavior without consequences.
A lengthy suspension with the financial penalties that ensue is a start. Morant should not be a part of the invite list for Team USA when it opens camp this summer for the FIBA World Cup. Taking away basketball, the thing in theory he loves most, might serve as a wakeup call.
At this rate, it’s the only thing he can lose that will spark change. After all, if he continues down the path he’s on he could lose the one thing he could never get back, his life.
The Golden State Warriors bowed out of the 2023 NBA playoffs with a hard-fought six-game loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. In the series the Warriors struggled to get consistent play from anyone other than superstar Steph Curry. One key piece who played a huge role in the team’s 2022 championship run was Jordan Poole, the dynamic combo guard who’s capable of huge scoring nights as a starter or off the bench.
That wasn’t the case this season, as Poole, who had his moments, struggled to consistently make the impact he made in 2021-22. Poole attributes his struggles and subsequent inconsistent play to a change of roles from a scorer to more of a facilitator.
Most believe it stems from the video prior to the season that leaked where teammate and team leader Draymond Green decked Poole with a punch during a disagreement. That moment seemed to fester all season for the up-and-down Warriors, and Friday night in Tinseltown it all came to an end.
Following Friday’s season-ending loss, Poole and his teammates didn’t have much to say. But during his exit interview on Saturday Poole, a hero in the team’s 2022 championship, talked about how he intends to “grow from” his struggles this past season following a change in his role.
Last season Poole’s job was to hunt shots and score at will, while creating for others at times. This season with a healthy Steph Curry and Klay Thompson in the fold, that role changed to more of a distributor and facilitator, and for the most part Poole struggled mightily.
In his exit interview Poole addressed that change and how it affected him.
“Last season I could come in and score, be aggressive with the team we had around,” Poole said. “Being more of a facilitator. Trying to get them easy shots. … Everything won’t be the same. Like I said, you learn from that, grow from that, and apply your skill set.”
As a reward for his stellar play in 2021-22, the Warriors signed the former Michigan standout to a four-year, $128M extension. Part of Poole’s persona and player makeup is the edge and passion he normally plays with, and that just wasn’t there most nights.
“I always play with an edge. Play with a chip on my shoulder. Finding ways to get better, and not necessarily proving people wrong but just knowing what I’m capable of and trying to reach that night in and night out.”
In 2021-22 with both Steph Curry and Klay Thompson out for stretches, Poole started 51 games and played well. He started 43 games this season, playing roughly 30 minutes per night. Poole still averaged 20.4 points per game but saw his efficiency dip to lows of 43 percent from the field, 33 percent from three and 87 percent from the free throw line. Point blank, efficiency wasn’t Poole’s strength this season, and it hurt the Warriors hopes for a repeat.
This is a curcial offseason for Poole and the Warriors, as they have a ton of questions that need to answered going forward.
Green has already proclaimed that the Warriors will be back. The free agent says that the dynasty is not dead, btu who knows if he’s a part of the team’s plans going forward.
But the biggest one may be what to do with Poole as he begins that new massive deal he signed in October.
It’s been an unbelievable ride for Philadelphia Eagles franchise quarterback Jalen Hurts. The former Oklahoma Sooners and Alabama Crimson Tide passer just finished second in NFL MVP voting and led his team to the Super Bowl, coming up just short against the Kansas City Chiefs and reigning MVP Patrick Mahomes. For his special season Hurts signed a lucrative multi-year extension with the Eagles, which at the time made him the highest-paid player in the NFL.
Although the dynamic dual threat has since been overtaken by Baltimore Ravens signal-caller Lamar Jackson, Hurts is still adding accolades to his steadily growing professional and personal résumé.
Over the weekend the 2020 Heisman runner-up graduated from Oklahoma University with a master’s degree in human relations. Not only is Hurts one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL, he is also continuing to add more substance to his off-the-field life.
While at Alabama Hurts earned his bachelor’s degree in communication and information services in just three years in Tuscaloosa. The minute he left Alabama, landing at Oklahoma, he began working on his master’s degree immediately.
Hurts credits his mom, a special education teacher when he was growing up, for setting the example for him to follow as it pertains to higher education.
In an interview with Essence in April, Hurts elaborated a bit on his mom and her influence.
“She went back to school, and she got her master’s to become a counselor. That’s a living testimony for me.”
In April, Hurts made history by signing at the time the biggest contract in league history, five-years, $255 million which is $51 million annually. His $179 million in guaranteed money was only topped by Cleveland Browns signal caller Deshaun Watson who’s contract is five-years, $230 million fully guaranteed.
What made Hurts’ deal unique is it was completed Nicole Lynn, who negotiated the groundbreaking contract, marking the largest deal ever finalized by a female agent.
The deal also solidifies Hurts‘ status in the Eagles organization, and it shows their commitment to building their franchise around Hurts for the foreseeable future.
Hurts is looking to get back to the Super Bowl but finish the job this time around.
The Philadelphia 76ers blew a 3-2 series lead against the Boston Celtics and were embarrassed in an ugly 112-88 Game 7 loss on Sunday. Following the game league MVP Joel Embiid said he needed to be better, but so did his teammates. Was he throwing them under the bus?
“[I need] to find a way to be a better basketball player … add to my game to find a way to be a better player. We have to keep finding ways to be better. … Me and James, we can’t win alone. That’s why basketball is played five-on-five. We need everybody to find ways to be better,” Embiid said.
To be fair Embiid did talk about himself first, as he should. He was terrible in Game 7. Fifteen points, eight rebounds, two blocks and four turnovers on 5 of 18 from the field, including 0-for-4 from three.
Not the type of game one would expect from the MVP. He was locked up by the Celtics’ defense, led by Al Horford and Rob Williams.
But why only mention James Harden, who also had a subpar Game 7?
Tyrese Maxey and P.J. Tucker are why this was a three point game at halftime while Embiid and Harden were contributing nothing.
Winning in the postseason is hard. Teams need to be connected on both ends of the floor. The 76ers were too uneven in that respect and it cost them the series.
Embiid is starting to develop a pattern of poor playoff performances, particularly in the conference semis in crucial games.
He was the MVP this season, and nothing that happened in the playoffs should diminish that.
But he campaigned hard and played well enough to win the award and with that, unfair or not, comes serious expectations.
Basketball is a team game, no doubt. You don’t win championships alone. But the team’s best player needs to lead. That doesn’t necessarily mean scoring the most points. But it means doing everything humanly possible to win the game.
Embiid did not lead in that respect on Sunday.
“We got an unfinished job,” Embiid said. “We haven’t won anything. And I think we got a chance. Obviously, going to seven games and having a chance to close it out at home, which we didn’t do [in the Game 6 loss]. So I still believe we got a chance to win. We got what it takes to win.”
He’s not wrong there. The 76ers do have a lot of what it takes to win, as evinced by being up 3-2 with a chance to close out the series at home in Game 6. But they lack the mental fortitude and maturity to close out a team in big moments.
“I agree 1,000 percent. To go down like that without feeling like you gave full fight. Two disappointing games to win the series,” Tucker told reporters. “It wasn’t enough. Just wasn’t enough. Whether physically tough, mentally tough, emotionally tough — it just wasn’t enough.”
Win or lose a Game 7, a team has to feel like they gave it their all. That a proud veteran like Tucker is saying it wasn’t enough is telling.
In Game 6, the Celtics’ Jayson Tatum was awful for 45 minutes or so. He missed everything. Then he made the three most important shots to win the game. In the interim while struggling he competed, fought and kept himself engaged.
Once the third-quarter run from the Celtics came in Game 7, Embiid was nowhere to be found. Shots not falling? Who cares. Get back on defense, get a steal, block, rebound, do something so the opponent feels you despite shots not falling.
He didn’t do that, and the 76ers were never a serious threat to win Game 7 and advance to the conference finals.
