by Julian Spivey The obvious choice for Sports Hero this week is the NCAA Men’s College Basketball back-to-back champion University of Connecticut Huskies coached by Dan Hurley and the NCAA Women’s College Basketball champion University of South Carolina Gamecocks, which Dawn Staley coached to a perfect season. But I wanted to get a little bit more specific with the honor this week and that is why I’ve chosen Staley herself at this week’s Sports Hero. When it comes to both playing basketball and coaching basketball nobody has done a better job at it in women’s basketball than Staley. Staley had a hall-of-fame career as a player, both in college and the WNBA. At the University of Virginia, she was a two-time Naismith College Player of the Year (1991 & 1992). She helped lead the U.S. Women’s National Team to a gold medal at the 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics on a team that included Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Rebecca Lobo. She was drafted into the WNBA by Charlotte Sting in 1999 (after playing in the American Basketball League from 1996-1998). She would be a WNBA All-Star from 2001-2006 and was a member of both the 10th and 15th anniversary WNBA Teams. She also won two more Olympic gold medals with Team USA in 2000 and 2004. The wildest thing about Staley’s career is her coaching career began in 2000 at Temple University, despite the fact she would still play another half-decade-plus in the WNBA. Staley would coach the Temple Owls from 2000-2008, leading the team to six NCAA tournament appearances in her eight seasons with the team (while being a WNBA All-Star for much of that term). In 2008, Staley was hired by the University of South Carolina, for which she has had a 440-106 record and won three NCAA championships. She’s already clinched a spot one day in the hall of fame as a coach. You could even make the argument she’s already one of the five greatest women’s basketball coaches of all time. Not only has Staley been a dominant force for women’s basketball both on the court and on the sideline she also just seems to say everything right, even when faced with tough questions. For instance, in the last week, she praised Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark for her impact on the women’s game, especially when it comes to television ratings and interest, while also perfectly answering a tough, ambush question from an Outkick the Coverage “reporter” on transgender women in women’s sports to which she adequately answered: “I’m of the opinion that if you’re a woman you should play. If you consider yourself a woman and you want to play sports, or vice versa, you should be able to play. That’s my opinion.” So, while in the middle of trying to coach her team to a perfect season, she was also willing to answer the tough questions, unlike many others in her same position. Staley is a shining example of what a leader should look like. Major League Baseball is going through an epidemic of arm issues right now with its pitchers. Within 48 hours last week three of the game’s most exciting young pitchers Spencer Strider (Atlanta Braves), Shane Bieber (Cleveland Guardians) and Eury Perez (Miami Marlins) went down with elbow issues. Bieber and Perez are going to miss the remainder of the season, which at the time of their injuries was barely a week old, to undergo Tommy John Surgery. Strider is getting a second opinion but it seems highly likely he's headed toward TJ Surgery, as well. Other pitchers right now either lost to the season or for large portions of it due to elbow issues include the game’s biggest name Shohei Ohtani (Los Angeles Dodgers), who’s thankfully still able to bat as the team’s designated hitter, former Cy Young winners Gerrit Cole (New York Yankees), Sandy Alcantara (Miami Marlins), Jacob deGrom (Texas Rangers) and Robbie Ray (San Francisco Giants). The problem with all of the arm injuries in the game is that it’s hard to pinpoint one major issue for them, though many possibilities abound. One issue that the Major League Baseball Players Association has thrown out is the creation of the pitch clock, which helped cut nearly 30 minutes off the average game time during the 2023 season and was tinkered with again before this season. Now, I’m no scientist and less time between pitches could be part of the problem, but seriously MLBPA it’s certainly not the biggest issue here. So for taking the opportunity to continue your war with baseball over a change to the game that has done wonders for the television product, you’re my sports zero of the week. The issue with more and more arm injuries to pitchers goes further back than just last year when the game implemented the pitch clock. The biggest issues seem to be with pitchers throwing harder and harder these days and trying to focus more on spin rate. Another issue is likely how the game has changed and baseball has become an almost year-round game for promising young players hoping to capture college scholarships or make a career out of baseball. The rash of injuries to pitchers in baseball is the biggest issue facing the game right now and for the MLBPA to suggest such a minor possibility for the reasoning isn’t taking the subject seriously enough.
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by Julian Spivey Women’s basketball has been killing it the last few years when it comes to the talent on the court – both at the collegiate and professional level – and that makes women’s basketball as a whole my sports hero of the week. It all culminated Monday night during an Elite Eight matchup between the University of Iowa and Louisiana State University (LSU), a rematch of last year’s National Championship game in which LSU won. Iowa’s Caitlin Clark and LSU’s Angel Reese are two of the biggest names and best players in the country and both played terrific games, though Reese was hampered after a hot start by an ankle injury that occurred in the second quarter of the game. Clark led all scorers during the game with 21 points, while adding 12 assists to go with it. Reese scored 17 for LSU, though before she injured her ankle was also on pace for 40 points, but more impressively managed to rip down 20 rebounds, 10 of which were on the offensive side. Iowa got the better part of LSU this time around with the 94-87 win and go on to the Final Four this Friday (April 5) to take on the University of Connecticut. That game will air on ESPN at 8 p.m. (CST) The Iowa/LSU rematch set a women’s NCAA basketball record as the most-watched game of all time with 12.3 million viewers, including a peak of 16 million viewers. Not only is that a record for women’s college basketball but it makes it one of the most-watched non-NFL sporting events of the last year. More people watched Iowa/LSU than any of the most recent World Series or NBA Finals games. Not only are the collegiate women drawing in viewers in droves but the WNBA has seen a consistent rise in TV ratings since 2020 making college basketball one of the few sports to have gained followers since the pandemic. Last season the WNBA had its most-watched season in more than 20 years and its combined viewership between ABC, CBS, ESPN and ESPN2 rose by more than 20% from the previous season. Women’s basketball is seeing a boom like it never has before and that’s terrific for all fans but it’s beautiful for the young girls watching the game and dreaming of one day being on the big stage like Clark and Reese. Following LSU’s loss to Iowa on Monday night (April 1), Tigers star forward Angel Reese gave an emotional press conference in which through tears she spoke of how she’s been attacked “so many times” over the past year. Reese said: “I’ve been through so much. I’ve seen so much. I’ve been attacked so many times. Death threats. I’ve been sexualized. I’ve been threatened. I’ve been so many things and I’ve stood strong every single time. I just try to stand strong for my teammates because I don’t want them to see me down and not be there for them … I’m still a human.” It was a very human moment from Reese, whose celebrations (some might say taunting) on the court have drawn the ire of many college basketball fans (and many sports followers who don’t follow the game but just enjoy being haters). I’m always going to feel sympathetic toward an athlete who’s receiving death threats simply for the way they play a game, especially when that athlete is merely a 21-year-old college student. But I was dismayed by seeing how many commenters online (I know, you probably shouldn’t expect the best of the world to show up in online comment sections and social media) ripped into Reese for showing this type of human emotion. Some of these commenters seemingly believe she’s brought all of the vitriol, which again includes death threats, upon herself. What happened to folks having a little decency and sympathy for others? I can understand some people not enjoying the celebratory actions from Reese – but the fact is that when white athletes, including Clark, have done similar things they aren’t viewed in quite the negative way that when someone of Reese’s appearance does them. Reese declared for the WNBA Draft on Wednesday (April 3) and I wish her success in the professional ranks – there’s no reason to believe she won’t go into the pros and dominate like she did at LSU. I also hope that Reese can put some of the negative aspects of sports fandom behind her because it can be a callous world. I wish that weren’t the case but it doesn’t seem likely to change for the better anytime soon. I just hope Reese remains who she is. Don’t let the bastards get you down. by Julian Spivey Carlos Sainz had one of the most exciting stories in quite a while in the world of Formula 1 racing on Sunday, March 24, when he won the Australian Grand Prix from Melbourne just over two weeks after he was forced to mix the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix after having to undergo emergency surgery to remove his appendix. There were no guarantees after having his appendix removed that he’d be ready in time for the Australian Grand Prix. Fellow F1 competitor Alex Albon had his appendix removed during the 2022 season and came back to race three weeks later but two weeks might be pushing it a bit. Sainz worked hard to get back behind the wheel of his Ferrari via time in hyperbaric chambers and with an Indiba machine. Sainz told ESPN that even with nine days to go before the Australian Grand Prix he was struggling to lift himself out of his bed. But there he was on Sunday at the Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit starting second on the grid behind two-time reigning F1 champion Max Verstappen, who had won the first two races of the 2024 season and the final seven races of the 2023 season. Verstappen had won all but three races in 2023 and two of the three he didn’t win were won by his Red Bull Racing teammate Sergio Perez. Sainz is the only non-Red Bull driver to win an F1 race since 2022 – having won the Singapore Grand Prix last September. While Sainz winning in Australia just two weeks after having his appendix removed is a fascinating story and makes him the sports hero of the week it would be fudging the story a bit not to admit it also took some luck in doing so with Verstappen’s engine expiring early in the race. F1 races are certainly a bit more wide-open when the unbeatable driver/team is behind the wall. We’re going to stick within the world of motorsports for our sports zero this week with the IndyCar Series as a whole. IndyCar tried something new this year – I guess we have to give them a hand for trying – with the $1 million challenge exhibition race at the Thermal Club, a private club where the millionaire and probably more likely billionaire car enthusiasts of the country and world get to experience fast speeds in their expensive toys, in Riverside County, Calif. From the start, IndyCar going to a rich person’s paradise for a non-points paying race, was an annoyance to me, like the sport was trying to be a bit more hoity-toity like Formula 1 (despite always putting on a better and more competitive racing product). Then the event itself on Sunday, March 24, turned out to be very F1-esque in that it wasn’t competitive at all. Chip Ganassi Racing driver Alex Palou, who has won two of the last three IndyCar titles, dominated the event that saw little passing outside of Andretti Autosport’s Colton Herta, who used a differing tire strategy in the second half of the 20-lap event. The race was billed as an “All-Star Race” of sorts, despite coming after only one race of the 2024 season having been run and turned into a complete dud that had myself and many others who watched from home feeling we had wasted two hours of our weekend. As I mentioned, I didn’t like the idea of this event from the beginning. IndyCar should bill itself as the more exciting, more reasonably priced and more accessible version of open-wheel racing in the world. They shouldn’t be catering to the one-percenters of the world or emulating F1 in any way. But despite my feelings going in I would’ve changed my mind at least partially had it been a banger of a race, which it was not. It was a failure on all levels for IndyCar. What IndyCar should be focused on is adding another points-paying race to the schedule, as well as trying to even up the number of ovals, road courses and street courses. The $1 million challenge at Thermal Club showed that the priorities of the series are a bit out of whack at the moment. This Week's Sports Hero & Zero: Oakland Sharp-Shooter, People Not Letting a Major Story Play Out3/22/2024 by Julian Spivey Every March Madness is going to feature multiple heroes in both the NCAA men’s and women’s college basketball tournaments. Some will be heroes for one day, others throughout the entire tourney. Hell, there have already been multiple heroes of the men’s tournament after day one of the round of 64 on Thursday, March 21. There was the entire Dayton Flyers squad who came back from a 17-point deficit with just 7:39 remaining in the game on Thursday to beat 10-seeded Nevada. There was the entire 11-seed Duquesne Dukes team, which upset Brigham Young University to win its first NCAA tournament game in 55 years. There was Oregon Ducks senior guard Jermaine Couisnard, who dropped 40 points on his former team South Carolina, whom he spent four years with before transferring after the team fired coach Frank Martin last season. Couisnard’s Oregon record-setting performance helped the Ducks upset the 6-seed Gamecocks. But the No. 1 hero of day one of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament has to be Oakland Golden Grizzlies guard Jack Gohlke, whose 10 three-pointers helped sink the 3-seed Kentucky Wildcats for the biggest upset of day one. Gohlke’s 10 three-pointers are second in NCAA men’s tournament history to only Loyola-Marymount’s Jeff Fryer’s 11 in a win against Michigan in 1990. The great thing about Gohlke’s Cinderella moment is that five years ago he was merely a redshirt freshman at a Division II school, Hillsdale College. After graduating from Hillsdale College with eligibility remaining he entered the transfer portal and only one Division I team took a chance on him – Oakland University. Now he’s sent the Golden Grizzlies to their first Round of 32 appearance in school history. The biggest story in the world of sports right now is seemingly what’s going on with Los Angeles Dodgers superstar and two-time MVP Shohei Ohtani and his longtime interpreter, who was abruptly fired on Wednesday, March 20 following the Dodgers Opening Day game against the San Diego Padres in Seoul, South Korea. There’s a whole lot we still need to learn about this situation but what we know thus far is that Ohtani’s interpreter Ippei Mizuhara was fired and Ohtani was “a victim of a massive theft,” according to an Ohtani spokesperson when reporters began asking about why $4.5 million in wire transfers had been sent from Ohtani’s bank account to a bookmaking operation. This theft allegation, according to ESPN, came after the spokesman and Mizuhara had both told ESPN that Ohtani had transferred the funds to cover the gambling debts of his friend and longtime interpreter. Mizuhara subsequently told ESPN he hadn’t been truthful about Ohtani’s knowledge about his gambling, debts or efforts to repay him. The confusion may have been a case of being lost in translation as it was literally the translator Ohtani’s handlers were solely relying on for explanation, according to ESPN. On Thursday, March 21, representatives (though names have not been given) of Ohtani contacted law enforcement authorities (the agency wasn’t given) and asked for an investigation into the theft. The only statement from Major League Baseball is that the league is monitoring the situation and Ohtani is not currently facing discipline. Baseball players are allowed to place legal bets on other sports that are not baseball (or softball). But they are not allowed to use illegal bookmakers. I would give my sports zero of the week to Mizuhara. But we don’t know enough about this story for that. Authorities and MLB need time to investigate the situation and reporters need time to search out the truth and report it. One should expect this to take more than the immediacy with which some baseball fans seem to expect. As I write this it has been less than 48 hours since the story broke. Sometimes it takes a while for an entire story to come forth. Within hours people were already accusing Ohtani of improprieties and calling Mizuhara a “patsy.” And that’s exactly why my sports zero of the week is all of those Twitter/X and other social media posters who’ve been in a rush to accuse Ohtani of being the next Pete Rose. Not only are so many in the social media world rushing to conclusion on the Ohtani/Mizuhara situation but so many seem to be gleeful about it as if the sport’s biggest superstar getting into gambling trouble wouldn’t be the absolute worst possibility for baseball. Give this story time to completely come to light before we overreact and start accusing athletes of the kind of thing that could get one banned from the sport for life. by Julian Spivey In last week’s Sports Hero & Zero piece, I gave my sports zero of the week dishonor to the moose that interrupted and ultimately gave its life at the Iditarod dog sled race held annually in Alaska. The moose’s life came to an end at the hands of dog-sledder Dallas Seavey after it became entangled with his dogs and he was forced to kill it and gut it per rules. Since last week’s post, it emerged that the Iditarod punished Seavey for inadequately gutting the moose. He received a two-hour penalty. On Tuesday, March 12, Seavey, won his record sixth Iditarod despite the interruption by the moose, the time spent forced to gut it by rule, being penalized for inadequately doing so, and one of his dogs, Faloo, being critically injured (Faloo underwent two successful surgeries and is expected to recover) in the moose incident. It’s wild to me that Seavey, 37, could overcome all of that adversity (my wife makes fun of athletes for overusing that term but in this situation, I think it’s appropriate) and still win the 1,000-mile event from Anchorage to Nome, Alaska. Seavey’s winning time was nine days, two hours, and 16 minutes. His sixth win surpassed Rick Swenson’s record of five Iditarod victories between 1977 and 1991. Seavey previously won the event in 2012, becoming the youngest to ever do so at 25, as well as in 2014, 2016 and 2021. Winning the Iditarod is special on its own but the way Seavey did so this time certainly earned him a spot as this week’s sports hero. I won’t say you never want to see fighting in sports. Some sports are built on fighting. In others, it’s become an acceptable practice – like in hockey. But you don’t want to see it happen in collegiate sports so it was unfortunate to see players on the South Carolina and LSU women’s basketball squads go at it during the SEC Championship game on Sunday, March 10. The fight began when South Carolina forward Kamila Cardoso shoved LSU player Flau’jae Johnson to the floor late in the fourth quarter. Six players would be ejected from the game following the tussle – Cardoso for instigating it and three other players on South Carolina’s squad and two on LSU’s squad for leaving the bench area. The ugliest part of the incident was when a spectator, Johnson’s brother, jumped over the scorer’s table to get involved before being escorted away by police. Now, it would be extremely easy to give the sports zero of the week dishonor to both Cardoso or Johnson’s brother, but it’s how LSU coach Kim Mulkey, one of the most despicable people in sports at large, handled the aftermath of the incident in her postgame press conference that has earned her the sports zero of the week. South Carolina coach Dawn Staley did in her press conference what all coaches should do under the circumstances. She apologized. Mulkey took the opposite route. During her press conference, Mulkey almost sounded like she was going to say something right beginning with, “It’s ugly, it’s not good, no one wants to be a part of that,” before taking a U-turn and saying: “ But I’ll tell you this, I wish [Cardoso] would’ve pushed Angel Reese [LSU’s 6-3 star forward]. If you’re 6-8, don’t push somebody that little. That was uncalled for in my opinion. Let those two girls who were jawing, let them go at it.” No ma’am. Nobody should be “going at it” on a basketball court, especially at the collegiate level. You’re supposed to be a leader of young women, though you do have an absolute shit record of doing so, you’re not supposed to be a boxing promoter. It’s just another example of dumb stuff coming out of Mulkey’s mouth. by Julian Spivey Who else could be the sports hero of the week besides University of Iowa women’s basketball superstar Caitlin Clark? Not only is Clark the sports hero of the week but she’s arguably the biggest story in every sport at the moment. On Sunday, March 3, Clark surpassed college basketball legend Pete Maravich for the most points scored in NCAA Division I history by a male or female player when she surpassed “Pistol Pete” and his 3,667 points on senior day at Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City. Just a few weeks ago, Clark surpassed University of Connecticut legend and current WNBA star Kelsey Plum for the most points scored in women’s Division I basketball history. Next year Clark will join Plum in the WNBA having announced her intention to declare for the draft and could likely be the No. 1 overall pick by the Indiana Fever. I know there are some key differences between Clark and Maravich’s paths to the all-time leading scorer in college basketball history with Clark playing in more games and Maravich having played before the creation of the three-point line in college basketball. Still, I’m already tired of folks acting like Clark’s feat isn’t incredible. We shouldn’t fault athletes for the eras they play in. Clark has done wonders for women’s basketball. Sunday’s game in which she passed Maravich on the all-time list was the most-watched regular season women’s college basketball game since 1999. Here’s hoping Clark can do for the WNBA what she’s done for college basketball. Well, Moose you done fucked up. And now you’re dead. I don’t mean to make light of the death of one of the North’s most majestic creatures and the injury to a sled dog in the Iditarod sled dog race in Alaska but the news of five-time Iditarod champion Dallas Seavey having to shoot and kill a moose before having to stop his competition to gut the moose due to race rules made me realize this has to be one of the wackiest rules of any sporting event on the face of the earth. The incident took place about 100 miles from the race’s start in Willow, Alaska.
Iditarod race officials announced on Monday, March 4, that Seavey was forced to shoot and kill a moose to protect himself and his dogs when said moose became entangled with the racer and his dogs during the race – this is something that has happened multiple times over the years at the event. So, much so that what to do upon the killing of a moose is covered in the event’s rules. Rule 34 addresses the potential killing of “edible big game animals,” including moose, caribou and buffalo, in the course of the race. The rule states: “Following teams must help gut the animal when possible. No teams may pass until the animal has been gutted and the musher killing the animal has proceeded.” Race marshal Warren Pelfrey said in a statement on Monday, “We are making sure that every attempt is made to utilize and salvage the moose meat.” Seavey was able to continue with the event following the gutting of the moose, however, one of his dogs, Faloo, was injured in the moose encounter and had to be flown to Anchorage where he was reported to be in critical condition on Tuesday, March 5, after undergoing surgery. For not only losing his life but also severely injuring a dog, causing a delay in Seavey’s trek and exposing me to the wackiest sporting event rule I’ll probably ever hear of this random dead Alaskan moose is my sports zero of the week. by Julian Spivey I never would’ve thought in 100 years I’d be giving my sports hero of the week honor to the owner of a NASCAR track but after seeing the instant classic that was the Ambetter Health 400 from the Atlanta Motor Speedway NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday, February 25 here I am. Marcus Smith is the CEO, president and director of Speedway Motorsports Inc., which owns 11 racing facilities across the United States, nine of which currently field NASCAR Cup Series points-paying races and another that for the second year in a row will feature the sport’s All-Star race this season. Atlanta Motor Speedway, which opened in 1960, is one of the sport’s oldest tracks but after years of the racing becoming less and less exciting due to wear and tear and needing a repave, Smith’s company took the – at the time controversially – plan of turning the 1.5 mile into a superspeedway drafting track a la Daytona and Talladega Superspeedway, despite being a mile shorter than either of those tracks. Many thought the idea of turning a smaller track into such a track would ruin the racing and lead to crash fests. It turns out what happened was Atlanta Motor Speedway becoming one of the most unique tracks in NASCAR and putting forth racing that’s less of a crash fest than Daytona and Talladega can often become and putting a bit more into the driver’s hands, while also making it easier for competitive, close and exciting racing. The first signs of this came last year, especially in the track’s fall race, with a fantastic race that was shortened by rain, which had many believing the intensity of not knowing exactly when the race might be halted and end early led to the exciting racing. But the Ambetter Health 400 on Sunday proves it’s the track and the competitors making for such exciting racing. And racing doesn’t get much more exciting than how this race finished up with a three-wide, photo finish at the start-finish line leading to the third closest, by timing, finish in NASCAR history and arguably one of the sport’s greatest ending of all time that saw Daniel Suarez just edge out Ryan Blaney and Kyle Busch. There are some questions as to how long Atlanta Motor Speedway can provide this type of excitement as the surface ages but for right now Smith and SMI took a track that was at best like many on the circuit and at worst a snoozer and turned it into the track many fans are most anticipating. My sports zero for the week has been one of the biggest stories in the sports world over the start of 2024 actually – court rushers in college basketball (and also field rushers in college football). It’s time to put an end to this dangerous practice and after a couple of high-profile incidents in college basketball already in 2024 there’s never been a bigger outcry than now to do something about it. The only question is how the NCAA goes about doing that. In January, University of Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark, who recently broke the record for most points scored in a women’s college basketball career, was knocked down by a spectator rushing the court following Ohio State’s upset of Iowa. Luckily, Clark escaped the incident without serious injury and didn’t miss any time. Then on Saturday, February 24, after Wake Forest defeated the eighth-ranked Duke Blue Devils, Duke’s seven-foot star Kyle Filipowski found himself on the court and hobbled after being run into by a spectator rushing onto the court. Following the game, Filipowski could be seen with an ice bag wrapped around his right kneecap. Filipowski received a sprained knee from the incident and it’s currently unknown if he’ll miss any playing time. When players are becoming caught up in these court storming incidents it’s something that must come to an end. It’s not only dangerous for the athletes, coaches, officials, etc., but the spectators themselves. Not only are injuries possible, but one could easily foresee a scenario where someone gets knocked to the ground and trampled to death beneath a hoard of rushing feet. But remember my question of how the NCAA can handle court and field rushing? There is a penalty for doing so, but it’s doled out by the conferences themselves and not the NCAA at large and not all conferences choose to do so. The Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), which Wake Forest University competes in, doesn’t currently have a penalty for court rushing. The Southeastern Conference (SEC) currently fines schools $100,000 for the first offense of court rushing, $250,000 for the second and $500,000 for the third and each subsequent offense. It seems to be the harshest penalty of the ones I found for court or field rushing but some universities don’t care about paying the fines. This is why the NCAA should take control of the issue. Fines do nothing to deter fans from court rushing so the penalties have to be more severe. I think games that end in court or field rushing should immediately be forfeited by the home team. If teams start taking Ls to the win-loss column I think it would put an end to the court-rushing process pretty quickly. Athletes are already getting injured due to this dangerous practice. The NCAA needs to step in before somebody dies because of it. by Julian Spivey William Byron, who arguably had the best 2023 season of any NASCAR Cup Series driver with his series-high six wins, began the 2024 Cup Series season on Monday, February 19 winning the sport’s biggest race, the Daytona 500. Byron’s first career Cup Series win came at the track in 2020 in the fall race but he’s never had any success in the “Great American Race” before Monday. In fact, in six previous Daytona 500 starts Byron had never finished the race. Byron came up as something of an unusual prodigy in NASCAR learning how to drive more at first on a simulator in his home than at the race track, as most drivers do. He tore up the Craftsman Truck Series in 2016 at age 18 winning seven races, nearly one-third of that series’ schedule. The next year in the Xfinity Series at 19 he would win four races and finish in the top 10 in 22 of 33 races. He was then moved up to the Cup Series, maybe a bit too quickly in the eyes of some, for the 2018 season at age 20. Byron struggled in his first two Cup seasons failing to win a race and recording just 17 top 10s over 72 races in Hendrick Motorsports equipment, so the best the sport has to offer. That first win came in 2020. He would win another race in 2021 at Homestead-Miami Speedway and then in 2022 finally had his first multiple-win season with wins at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway. His 2023 season, where he led the sport with six wins, felt like it came out of nowhere. But at age 25 maybe he finally had gotten comfortable with the equipment and his talent level reached that of his competitors. Now, in the first race of the 2024 Cup Series season, Byron has won the biggest race of them all and has become the first driver to clinch a spot in the 2024 NASCAR Playoff field. His six wins from 2023 would be pretty hard to top, but at the moment there’s no better driver in the NASCAR Cup Series than William Byron. This past weekend, February 17-18, seems like the one where NBA fans have finally become fed up with the NBA All-Star Weekend. The All-Star festivities on Saturday night in Indianapolis got off to a great start with a fun three-point contest, an event that seems unbreakable, with Milwaukee Bucks All-Star guard Damian Lillard defending his 2023 title in a tight-fought battle against Karl Anthony-Towns (Minnesota Timberwolves), Trae Young (Atlanta Hawks) and Tyrese Haliburton (Indiana Pacers). Then came the new event many NBA and WNBA fans alike were looking forward to – the three-point shootout between all-time NBA three-point leader Stephen Curry (Golden State Warriors) and Sabrina Ionescu (New York Liberty), who scored a record 37 points in the 2023 WNBA three-point contest (Curry held the NBA record at 31). In a fun competition (except for TNT’s Kenny Smith’s commentary that drew the ire of many, especially female fans) Curry defeated Ionescu 29-26. Hopefully, the NBA star vs. WNBA star aspect of NBA All-Star Saturday Night continues into future years. What earned NBA All-Star weekend the “Sports Zero” of the week was everything that came next. For the second year in a row the NBA Slam Dunk Contest was won by a player who isn’t even technically in the NBA but in the league’s minor leagues known as the NBA G League. Max McClung, on the Orlando Magic’s minor league team, defeated three actual NBA players for the second year in a row. McClung now has almost as many Slam Dunk Contest trophies (2) as NBA games played in his career (4). Many have long bashed the Slam Dunk Contest for a lack of quality, excitement and array of dunks – which is understandable but also somewhat unfair as there are only so many kinds of dunks that can be done after 40-plus years of dunk contests. My biggest issue has been a lack of star power in the event, which was alleviated a bit this year with Boston Celtics All-Star Jaylen Brown taking part in the event and then absolutely embarrassing himself with a lackluster performance that reminded us why most All-Stars stay far away from the event. I don’t want to see the NBA Slam Dunk Contest eliminated but I’m also not sure there’s any way to fix it. The more concerning aspect of NBA All-Star weekend for many fans was the effort-free All-Star game itself on Sunday night (February 18). The league went back to the traditional Eastern Conference vs. Western Conference format this season after many years of having a superstar from each conference draft teams consisting of all of the game’s All-Stars. The league also went back to the traditional four quarters instead of having a certain number to hit after three quarters. But it was clear from the start that there was no real effort to play defense by either squad, which has become more and more the case over the years, and many of the players just took the opportunity to see who could hit the most three-pointers and from how far they could. It was kind of like watching a shootaround with the occasional fancy pass or dunk thrown in. The word “pride” was thrown around a lot by fans on social media perturbed by the effort given during the game, as in “these players need to take more pride in their effort.” But times have changed and you don’t have the kind of athletes out on the court anymore who truly despise each other and don’t want to lose to them, even in an exhibition game. How does one enforce something that isn’t truly mandatory? The NBA All-Stars play an 82-game season where they try to give their all and then those who make the postseason spend another two months trying to win a title. They just want to have fun on All-Star weekend (if they even want to be there at all). They don’t want to worry about potential injury by playing at full speed. So, they turn it into a Harlem Globetrotters performance. I don’t think there’s any way to fix that way of thinking. It’s just come to a point where we fans have to determine if the game is worth watching or if we’d rather do anything else on a random Sunday night in February every year. On Sunday, I held in as long as I could, but by the fourth quarter, I was ready for anything else. by Julian Spivey The 2024 NASCAR season begins this weekend and at the moment there are so many talented drivers in the Cup Series that it feels like the majority of the field could win any given week. That makes trying to predict the 16-driver NASCAR Playoffs field pretty hard but we’ll find out in September how many I got right. 16. Brad Keselowski Veteran Brad Keselowski enters his third season as co-owner of Roush Fenway Keselowski (RFK) Racing and has yet to win a race with his team, which has to be a disappointment for him even if he did point his way into the playoffs last year. Keselowski’s 98-race winless streak is the second longest of any active Cup driver who has won a race (only Justin Haley’s 105-race streak is longer). I feel like Keselowski will finally get that RFK win this season but even if he doesn’t will likely point his way in again. 15. Kyle Busch It might sound ridiculous because Kyle Busch won three races in 2023 but I briefly considered leaving him off the list because I do not trust Richard Childress Racing. The team pretty much disappeared on Busch last season when it mattered most in the playoffs but ultimately I couldn’t predict against him. He’s just too talented. 14. Chris Buescher For about the stretch of a month late last summer, Chris Buescher was the hottest driver in NASCAR. He won three races in the span of five (including three straight ovals) but then he kind of faded a bit in the postseason – he wasn’t bad but he just wasn’t close enough to the front to capitalize and win. I certainly don’t think you could predict Buescher to win three races again – but there’s no reason to believe he won’t break through at least once to clinch a playoff spot. 13. Alex Bowman Alex Bowman won seven races between 2019 and 2023, including a career-high four races in 2022. When you drive for Hendrick Motorsports you’re expected to win races but last year Bowman hurt himself in an extracurricular dirt track race that forced him to miss three races. When he returned he just never looked right. I assume he’ll be back to his normal self this season, which should mean at least one win. 12. Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. had the best season of his NASCAR Cup Series career in 2023 making the playoffs for the first time despite failing to win a race. Wallace seems to be gaining more and more confidence with age and the next box he needs to tick off is winning multiple races in a season and I think that’s coming in 2024. 11. Ty Gibbs Some might say that Ty Gibbs had a disappointing rookie Cup Series season coming off an Xfinity Series championship the year before, but I don’t see it that way. It’s hard to win a race in the Cup Series, especially for a rookie, and even though he didn’t find Victory Lane in his rookie season he almost pointed his way into the playoffs being the first driver to miss the cut. With Joe Gibbs Racing equipment and his talent level, I’d be shocked if Gibbs didn’t win a race in 2024 and he might win multiple ones. 10. Joey Logano Joey Logano only won one race in 2023, which is quite shocking for a driver of his caliber, and that came on the newly pack-racing style of Atlanta Motor Speedway in the fifth race of the year. So, he enters 2024 with a 30-plus race winless streak that I know he’s going to be raring to snap. I just don’t know what to expect from Logano in 2024. I would assume multiple race wins – but even if it’s more of the same from last season he still finds a way into the playoff field. 9. Ross Chastain Ross Chastain had an interesting 2023 season. He won the same number of races as he did the previous year (two) but his overall numbers were down with five fewer top-5s and seven fewer top-10s. It seemed like he let some of the talk of him being too aggressive get into his head and interfered with his mojo a bit. I think we’re going to see a return to form for Chastain, in which he doesn’t give a damn what others think … or at least I hope we are for excitement's sake. 8. Tyler Reddick Tyler Reddick seems like a no-brainer for the playoffs after his last two seasons: 2022 with Richard Childress Racing and last year in his first season at 23XI Racing. The 27-year-old have combined for five race wins over the last two seasons. The question now for Reddick is can he move forward and jump from a winning driver to one of the elite drivers in the sport? I’m not sure he’s there yet but expect him to win at least a couple of races again, especially with as talented as he is on road courses. 7. Christopher Bell Christopher Bell has made the Championship Four the last two seasons so having him at only No. 7 on this list could be seen as a bit disrespectful. However, I feel like Bell is going to need to take one more step before I can buy him as a title threat and that is to win more often. He won six races over the last three seasons, but no more than three in any given season. Typically, the champion has to win more than that. 6. Chase Elliott Chase Elliott was, without a doubt, the biggest disappointment in NASCAR last season. The sport’s most popular driver missed seven races – six due to an injury sustained in an extracurricular activity and one due to suspension for intentionally wrecking a competitor in a race – in 2023, but he didn’t quite look right following his return from said injury. At times it feels like Elliott would rather be doing anything but racing his No. 9 Rick Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, but I see no reason why he shouldn’t get back to his winning ways that saw him win 18 times from 2018-2022 in 2024. NASCAR needs him to return to winning form, for sure. 5. Martin Truex Jr. I don’t understand what happened to Martin Truex Jr. in the NASCAR Playoffs in 2023. He won the regular season point standings, which gave him a big bonus for the playoffs. He won three races during the regular season. Then he just fell off a cliff in the playoffs looking like the kind of driver that deserved to be nowhere near the chase for the championship. I assume Truex will get back to his winning ways in 2024 but you never know. Sometimes when a driver hits a certain age, Truex is 43, they just seem to lose “it” and never return. If that could happen to maybe the sport's all-time greatest driver Jimmie Johnson it could certainly be the case for Truex. 4. Ryan Blaney Ryan Blaney surprised many by winning the NASCAR Cup Series championship in 2023 taking full advantage of the playoff system by clinching his way into the championship race by winning the penultimate race of the year at Martinsville and then finishing the highest of the four contenders at the season finale at Phoenix to win the title. Some within the sport’s media didn’t think he was a championship-caliber driver. Despite winning three races and the title in 2023 some still don’t seem to be giving him the credit he’s due. I’ve seen the phrase “worst champion” thrown about multiple times on social media when describing Blaney. I think 2024 will be the year Blaney proves he wasn’t some fluke champion. 3. William Byron William Byron led all of NASCAR’s Cup Series in wins in 2023 with six, which was more than his first five seasons in the series combined. It was truly the breakout year for William Byron, who would go on to finish third in the championship. You don’t just luck your way into six wins, 15 top-5s, 21 top-10s and an average finish of 11th. I’m not going to predict Byron will once again lead the sport in wins but I don’t see much falloff coming his way. 2. Denny Hamlin Denny Hamlin is the greatest bridesmaid in the history of NASCAR. He may not have as many runner-up finishes as Hall of Famer Mark Martin (he only has one) but he’s been the most successful driver in the history of the sport to not win a championship. The last two seasons have seen Hamlin as the first man out of the championship four at Phoenix. Hamlin is good for multiple wins a season. I’ve got him once again as the bridesmaid. 1. Kyle Larson Kyle Larson seems like the year-in-year-out title favorite right now in NASCAR’s Cup Series. The 2021 champion has won at least three races in every season he’s been with Hendrick Motorsports and has appeared in the Championship Four in two of his three years with the team. Larson was the runner-up to Ryan Blaney in 2023, despite having better numbers overall during the season, which included four wins and 15 top-5s. I do believe there may be a stretch during this season where Larson might be off as he’s focused on his debut run in the Indianapolis 500 but that’ll wear off well before playoff time and he’ll be the driver to beat. by Julian Spivey The Word on Pop Culture’s sports hero for the week truly could be the entire Kansas City Chiefs roster and staff for winning Super Bowl LVIII over the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday, February 11 but I want the honor to be a bit more limiting than that – so who better to give it to than the man who led the Chiefs offense down the field in overtime searching for and reaching that game-winning touchdown. Patrick Mahomes won his third career Super Bowl M.V.P. honor on Sunday night and he’s only 28 years old. Mahomes’s accolades and dominance over the first six years of his career (not counting the 2017 rookie year, in which he only played in one game), including three Super Bowl titles and two league M.V.P. awards among other things have sealed the deal as far as him having the greatest start to a career in NFL history. In the minds of some, he’s already one of the three greatest quarterbacks in league history along with Tom Brady and Joe Montana. I’m not sure he should be placed above five-time NFL M.V.P. Peyton Manning just yet but he’s already won more Super Bowls than Manning did, so I can understand why some are already doing so. At times early in Super Bowl LVIII, Mahomes and the Chiefs didn’t look all that impressive – much like they had at many times throughout the regular season – but at the end of the day Mahomes had 333 passing yards, two touchdown passes, was 34-for-46 passing and ran for a team-high 66 yards. It seems that when the game is on the line – and in fact, more so when the Chiefs are behind on the biggest stage – Mahomes becomes the Football Superman that he is. In all three Super Bowl wins Mahomes has led the Chiefs from second-half deficits to win the game. Often in today’s sports world the more dominant and awesome an athlete is the more the majority of fans seem to dislike them – which seems to be a new world phenomenon, as I don’t remember this same feeling of athletes like Michael Jordan in the past – but I hope most football fans will take a moment to appreciate the greatness they’re witnessing out of Mahomes and get used to it because there are no signs of it ending soon. Charley Hoffman won the PGA Tour’s Waste Management Phoenix Open at TPC Scottsdale in Scottsdale, Ariz. over the last weekend in a playoff finish over Nick Taylor but the biggest story to come out of that tournament was the behavior of the spectators, who turned the event into a drunken party that included 54 arrests for things like intoxication and fights. Those in charge of the tournament have vowed to change the fan experience for the event in 2025 but honestly, the tournament and the PGA Tour have done so much to build up the party aspect of this tournament and venue that I can’t help but put much of the blame on them. Of course, spectators shouldn’t be having drunken brawls, falling out of the stands, doing “sand angels” in the bunkers, etc. but when you market something as a party atmosphere you shouldn’t be surprised when the types of things you’d occasionally see at parties happen at your event. I’m not sure what the tournament can and will do to try to get rid of this behavior without harming itself. I imagine some sort of alcohol limitation but that also will cost the tournament money. But again, like with my sports hero of the week, I’d like to pinpoint a sports zero of the down to one person, and that person this week is PGA Tour veteran and multiple-time major tournament winner Zach Johnson. There were a handful of PGA golfers who seemed irritated with the behavior of the spectators over the weekend, including Billy Horschel and Jordan Spieth, but Johnson seemed to be the most outspoken. The 47-year-old golfer could be heard admonishing the crowd at one point saying: “I’m just sick of it. Just shut up!.” After the event, Johnson would tell the media: “This tournament has been inappropriate and crossed the line since I’ve been on tour, and this is my 21st year.” My advice to Johnson would simply be, “Don’t come back.” This tournament can and will exist without Zach Johnson. I’ve been a golf fan for more than 25 years but one thing that I’ve always found laughable, in particular, is how golfers react to any noise whatsoever while they’re “in the zone” – this was what Horschel had an incident with fans about too. In every other major sport in the world, the athletes compete at the top level with incredibly loud venues. Are you telling me these guys can’t focus and hit a motionless golf ball with a bit of noise while you have baseball players at any and every level hitting a moving target with all hell breaking loose around them? I don’t feel sorry for these guys. Yes, the spectators at the Phoenix Open have gotten worse over the last few years. Just two years ago there were zero arrests made at the tournament. But I can’t help but think that reactions like the kind had by Johnson over the weekend aren’t making their sport look worse. |
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