Jalen Brunson vs. Tyrese Haliburton, two players already famous for being slighted, is a matchup ready for prime time that’s currently in prime time. And naturally for the two of them, it still might be getting overlooked.
The unfolding drama in this New York Knicks–Indiana Pacers second-round series, which resumes with Sunday’s Game 4 and the Knicks ahead 2-1, has many shiny objects, including history, competing for attention.
There have been three high-intensity fourth quarters in which the winning team has made a comeback; a stream of injuries; nightly officiating complaints; and the playoff heroics of role players such as Josh Hart, Donte DiVincenzo and Andrew Nembhard that have turned these games into immediate classics.
Of course, Brunson and Haliburton also have had their fingerprints all over the series. But what they’re actually doing, engaging in an All-Star boxing match, has been getting lost in the rest of the noise. And it could be a preamble for a multiyear Eastern Conference battle: two lead guards on rising teams with a history longer than each of them has been alive.
“I don’t think it’s as much about me versus him as much as it is our teams versus each other,” Haliburton said after the Pacers pulled out a 111-106 victory in Game 3’s final minute on Friday. “He’s doing what he has to do for his team to win games, and I got to do that, as well, to give my team the best chance to win. So, it’s less about matchup and who’s scoring or who’s doing what. That’s for [fans] to talk about. We’re just trying to win games.”
Despite dealing with a right foot injury that has forced him to come off the floor in both Games 2 and 3, Brunson is averaging 32.7 points and 5.7 assists on 50% shooting.
The foot injury disrupted Brunson’s historic four-game run of 40-pointers in Game 2. But in Game 3, even with his mobility limited, Brunson made a clutch 3-pointer with 40 seconds left that tied the score.
Haliburton, for his part, came into the series battling back spasms and had an absent Game 1, scoring just six points. Playing in the postseason for the first time, he vowed to bounce back — and has. In Game 2, he scored 34 points with 9 assists, 6 rebounds and 3 steals. In Game 3, he put up 35 points with 7 assists and 2 steals.
Haliburton got banged up twice Friday night, colliding on a drive to the basket with Knicks guard Miles McBride and slamming his tailbone on the court. Then on a transition drive in the fourth quarter, Haliburton rolled his right ankle. He was limping around after the contest, needing both railings to descend the two steps off the postgame lectern and moving gingerly in the locker room as though he had indeed been in a boxing match.
“Overall, my body right now is hurting but, I mean, they got guys hurting too,” Haliburton said. “So, we got to understand everybody’s hurting right now.”
It’s not a prototypical head-to-head rivalry. Brunson and Haliburton typically don’t guard each other. They play different styles: Brunson is more methodical and comfortable in dribble-heavy isolation, while Haliburton is a fleet-footed passing specialist who prefers to play at speed. Haliburton smiles throughout the game. Brunson might smile in July. Haliburton is loquacious in media settings. Brunson is low-key, carefully answering without much fanfare.
“I have all the respect in the world for him and the way he plays the game,” Brunson said of Haliburton, right on brand. “He goes out there and plays the right way and does what he needs to do.”
Pacers coach Rick Carlisle, who coached Brunson for two seasons with the Dallas Mavericks, said of the matchup, “It’s pretty clear that doubters are something they both welcome. And when people doubt them, they dig in harder.”
But there’s also something else to the Brunson-Haliburton story that sits below the surface.
In April, Team USA announced its roster for the Paris Olympics. The spots were highly coveted and one of the reasons Haliburton and Brunson invested their summers with Team USA at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2023. Brunson even rescheduled his wedding at nearly the last minute to join the team.
But it was Haliburton — not Brunson — who got the Paris invitation. It stunned Knicks fans, among others, as Brunson had an explosive season that saw him finish fifth in Most Valuable Player voting, higher than any player on the Team USA roster.
“I’m just focused on the playoffs,” Brunson said flatly when the team was announced. “I didn’t even look at the list.”
USA basketball showed interest in Brunson early on — both in 2015, when he was selected to represent the country at the under-17 World Cup in an event he ended up dominating, and in the 2023 World Cup cycle.
Last year, national team coach Steve Kerr not only made Brunson a top selection for the senior FIBA World Cup roster but basically handed over the keys to him as the team leader and starting point guard before there was a single practice.
Kerr and his partners, USA Basketball managing director Grant Hill and national team director Sean Ford, had their reasons for not extending Brunson the invitation in April. They explained them to Brunson when they called with their decision before the teams were announced. And they weren’t unreasonable.
Brunson played fine but didn’t excel at the World Cup, the thinking went, averaging 11 points and four assists on 50% shooting. But Kerr ended up playing Haliburton, who came off the bench, more often at the end of games.
The international game seems to favor Haliburton’s style more than Brunson’s. Haliburton is three inches taller too, a trait Team USA prioritizes in international competition. It also is possible Brunson could be added to the roster this summer, as several players on the team are managing injuries.
The two have become friends since landing on Team USA last year, with Haliburton, who played at Iowa State, joking that while competing on the national squad with former Villanova teammates Brunson, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges, he was a “substitute Donte” — referring to DiVincenzo, the Villanova product who wasn’t on the team. When Haliburton and the Pacers clinched the playoffs last month, the first call he received was congratulations from Brunson.
So, the national team aspect of their rivalry will probably stay out of the spotlight, even if it won’t be forgotten, especially by Brunson.
But this entire arc, Haliburton vs. Brunson, could just be getting started.
“I think we would both probably tell you that we have familiarity with each other by now,” Haliburton said. “We know what we can do.”
SEATTLE — Julio Rodríguez and Mitch Garver both hit two-run home runs, Luis Castillo allowed two runs over six strong innings, and the Seattle Mariners beat the Oakland Athletics 8-4 on Sunday.
Seattle rebounded to take two of three games from the A’s after the Mariners lost their first series in nearly a month earlier this week in Minnesota. And they did it thanks to the long ball.
“Our offense showed up today. Put good pressure on them early, got some big hits, home runs,” Seattle manager Scott Servais said. “I think I mentioned it last night, I really liked where Julio was headed. His timing looks so much better and we saw it today.”
Rodríguez’s homer was just his second of the season and his first at T-Mobile Park in Seattle’s 22nd home game. Rodríguez hit a 2-2 pitch from Oakland starter Alex Wood out to straightaway center field in the second inning for a two-run shot that gave Seattle a 5-0 lead. The homer had an exit velocity of 109 mph and traveled an estimated 409 feet.
“You’ve got to stay patient and let the results come and I feel like today was the day and I’m really happy about that, that I was able to help the team win,” Rodríguez said.
Rodríguez nearly homered in his next at-bat in the fifth inning, doubling off the top of the wall, but jogged home when Garver hit his fifth of the season to give Seattle a 7-1 lead. Garver also had a two-out RBI single in the first inning.
Seby Zavala added his first home run of the season for the Mariners, a solo shot in the sixth.
Following a sluggish start to the season, Castillo (4-5) has now gone six straight starts allowing two earned runs or fewer each time. Castillo needed 100 pitches to get through six innings, but closed his outing with strikeouts of Shea Langeliers and J.D. Davis with runners on base.
Castillo allowed seven hits and struck out eight. Max Schuemann and Abraham Toro both hit solo home runs to account for the scoring off Castillo.
“The beginning of the season, sometimes it’s a little cold. I didn’t let that get to me. I stayed focused and I knew better times were going to come,” Castillo said via an interpreter. “I just worked on what I could.”
Brent Rooker hit his 10th homer of the season in the eighth inning off reliever Cody Bolton. It was a two-run shot.
Wood (1-3) wasn’t sharp, lasted just two innings and wasn’t helped by Schuemann’s error to open the second inning that led to four unearned runs for Seattle. Wood allowed four hits but was charged with just one earned run allowed.
After a six-game win streak, the A’s have now dropped six of the past eight games.
“These guys battled back. Every time we scored, they ended up scoring. As much as we’ve been able to lock it down in games that we’ve trailed in — and we actually have come back in a few of them — today we just weren’t able to do that in the bullpen,” A’s manager Mark Kotsay said.
UP NEXT
Athletics: RHP Ross Stripling (1-6, 5.14) will open a three-game series at Houston on Monday. Stripling gave up 10 hits and 11 runs — but only five earned runs — over 1 2/3 innings in his previous start against Texas.
Mariners: RHP George Kirby (3-3, 4.15) will start the opener of a three-game series with Kansas City on Monday. Kirby gave up four runs over five innings in his previous start against Minnesota.
Announcing a top four on Mother’s Day is extra special for Chuck McDonald because the four-star cornerback from Santa Ana (Calif.) Mater Dei lost his mother in November.McDonald’s mother suffered a…
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The Super Sunday panel discuss whether Manchester United’s Amad Diallo was fouled by Arsenal’s Thomas Partey after the winger went down following a risky challenge from the Ghanaian.
Jake Michaels is a Melbourne-based sports writer who covers everything from Aussie Rules to Formula One, basketball to boxing. He has been with ESPN for 10 years and works as a Senior Writer, covering sport in Australia and around the world.
Mike Coppinger
May 12, 2024, 02:31 AM ET
Vasiliy Lomachenko delivered a vintage performance on Sunday in Perth, Australia, to become a champion once again, proving he’s still one of the sport’s elite.
Lomachenko (18-3, 12 KOs) has undoubtedly been one of the world’s finest boxers since June 2014, when he became a champion in just his third pro fight. From that dominant performance against Gary Russell Jr. to Sunday’s 11th-round TKO victory over George Kambosos Jr. to capture the vacant IBF lightweight title, Lomachenko remains otherworldly.
This stoppage win over Kambosos — Lomachenko’s first since June 2021 — was a reminder of the Ukrainian’s greatness at age 36. This is Kambosos’ third loss, but his previous two defeats came via decision against Devin Haney. And Kambosos owns a win over Teofimo Lopez, ESPN’s 2021 Upset of the Year.
Lomachenko became the first fighter to finish the Australian and did so in fashion. He broke down Kambosos with a string of sharp lefts, bloodying the right eye. Lomachneko finally floored him with a left hand to the body, followed by a flurry that forced the corner to toss the towel in.
“He’s a legend of the sport,” Kambosos said. ” … He’s one of the best fighters in history.”
That’s not hyperbole, of course. The two-time Olympic gold medalist is a future Hall of Famer, and coming off the disappointment of his disputed decision loss to Haney one year ago, Lomachenko is building momentum once more.
He could find his next opponent in one week’s time. On Saturday, Emanuel Navarrete meets Denys Berinchyk for the vacant WBO lightweight title in San Diego.
Navarrete is a sizable favorite to become a four-division champion, and Top Rank is looking to match the Mexican with Lomachenko later this year. It’s a fascinating clash of styles. Navarrete is a whirlwind at 5-foot-7 with a 72-inch reach.
Lomachenko proved Sunday he still possesses the reflexes to fire through openings when they present themselves. He can still elicit memories of No Mas-Chenko, the man who made opponent after opponent quit on the stool during his time as the pound-for-pound king. And with a title back around his waist, he seems primed for one final run at the top of the sport.
— Coppinger
Kambosos’ career now hangs by a thread; what now for him?
Kambosos was fully aware of the monumental stakes at play when he stepped into the ring to fight pound-for-pound superstar Lomachenko.
He knew victory would cement his legacy as an Australian boxing icon, a world champion that would have produced not one, but two of the most stunning boilovers of the era, against a pair of generational fighters. Kambosos argued ad nauseam such achievement would be enough to see him secure a place in the International Boxing Hall of Fame, an honour only bestowed on five of his countrymen. Victory would have also opened the door to further championship fights at 135 pounds.
But Kambosos also knew that a loss to Lomachenko would signal the end of the road for his international boxing career. And on Sunday afternoon, after being humiliated on home soil for 11 rounds, Kambosos cut a dejected figure as he left the ring, knowing his career now hangs by a thread.
For Kambosos, Sunday’s loss to Lomachenko will see him plummet down the lightweight pecking order, now sitting dangerously on the precipice of irrelevance, not just in the division but the boxing world. It’s unlikely Kambosos will fight for another world title, but he has no regrets about taking the fight.
“I tried my best. I had the best preparation. I gave everything in training camp and unfortunately it wasn’t enough today, but it is what it’s. I stepped to the best. I fought the best. You take a loss,” Kambosos told ESPN. “He a true champion. He’s a legend of this sport and I give him utmost respect. I never disrespected him. I always gave him the respect and we knew what we were coming up against.”
Kambosos’ win over Lopez will never be taken from him, but Sunday’s latest loss — his third in four fights — proved that winter night at Madison Square Garden was an anomaly of the highest order.
The Australian hasn’t looked close to a world champion-caliber fighter since then. Not only has he been outboxed in each of his past four fights, but he’s also been unable to problem-solve in the ring and show any signs of shifting momentum when things aren’t working in his favor.
Kambosos’ promoter Lou DiBella spoke earlier in the week about the possibility of his man stepping up to junior welterweight for a rematch against Lopez. The one caveat was that he had to show that he remains a world-class fighter. His performance against Lomachenko did nothing of the sort. Kambosos was outclassed from the first bell until Lomachenko landed a flurry of punches to force his corner to wave the white flag.
The 2024 NFL draft brought record-breaking trends, including six quarterbacks picked in Round 1 for the first time since 1983 and eight offensive tackles taken in Round 1, which ties 2008 for the most ever. Now that more than a week has passed since the draft concluded, our NFL experts have had time to assess the class.
We asked our analysts and insiders to answer some of the draft’s biggest questions, diving deep into their favorite picks and the biggest head-scratching selections — some of which didn’t involve quarterback Michael Penix Jr. going to the Atlanta Falcons in the top 10. We also asked them to make their Rookie of the Year picks, fantasy sleepers and bold predictions for the class. Our experts dive in on the top takeaways:
Give us a bold prediction for a rookie in the 2024 class.
Stephania Bell, fantasy football analyst: Cardinals wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. will pass his father‘s mark of 1,102 receptions (fifth in NFL history) by the end of his career. The talent level is obvious, and Harrison is immediately going to become quarterback Kyler Murray‘s favorite target. Even if he pairs up with a different quarterback as his career progresses, Harrison will be sought out early and often.
Matt Bowen, NFL analyst: Bills wide receiver Keon Coleman will lead all rookies in touchdown receptions this season. With quarterback Josh Allen‘s aggressive throwing mentality, Coleman will get opportunities on vertical concepts and inside the red zone. Coleman has the frame (6-foot-3, 213 pounds), plus the playmaking ball skills to cash in here.
Liz Loza, fantasy and sports betting analyst: Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers will lead all rookies in yards per reception this season. A highly productive and consistent downfield target at LSU, Nabers figures to emerge as the Giants’ most leaned-on pass-catcher. He might have an inefficient season due to the issues within the offense and under center, but Naber’s projected volume in tandem with his vertical stretchability figures a 1,000-plus receiving-yard effort.
Matt Miller, NFL draft analyst:Caleb Williams will become the NFC’s best quarterback. Williams’ unique collection of talents — from arm strength and field vision to mobility and creative movements — make him one of the most exciting quarterback prospects I’ve ever studied. I won’t put him on par with Mahomes, Allen or Joe Burrow as a pro player, but he has the tools to dominate the NFC for the next decade.
Eric Moody, fantasy and sports betting analyst: Commanders tight end Ben Sinnott will outperform fellow rookie Las Vegas Raiders tight end Brock Bowers. Sinnott boasts an impressive college résumé, having accumulated 1,138 receiving yards and 10 touchdowns at Kansas State, making him one of the most productive tight ends in the program’s history. He’ll be joining forces with 33-year-old Zach Ertz, whose career may be winding down. Meanwhile, Bowers will be battling for targets against 22-year-old Michael Mayer, who was drafted 35th overall in 2023.
Jason Reid, senior Andscape writer: Wide receiver Xavier Worthy will provide the big-play threat missing from the Chiefs’ offense since Tyreek Hill was traded to the Dolphins. Coach Andy Reid and superstar quarterback Mahomes will have a blast getting the ball to Worthy in space.
Jordan Reid, NFL draft analyst: Jets offensive tackle Olu Fashanu will start at some point during the first quarter of the season and keep the job from that point on. Even though the Jets brought inTyron Smith this offseason, he has struggled to stay healthy. That trend continues and Fashanu takes over, which will just be the beginning of his Pro Bowl-level rookie season.
Aaron Schatz, NFL writer: Eagles linebacker Jalyx Hunt will eventually make a Pro Bowl for the Eagles. There’s a ton of raw talent there, and Hunt is in a good place to develop that talent.
Mike Tannenbaum, NFL front office insider: Worthy will have 10 touchdowns this season. With the help of Worthy’s impending stellar season, the AFC Championship Game will be in Kansas City again as Mahomes gets his best target since Hill’s departure.
Seth Walder, sports analytics writer: Packers offensive tackle Jordan Morgan will rank in the top 10 in pass block win rate in a season and reach the Pro Bowl at some point in his rookie contract. Morgan ranked in the top 10 in pass protection last year and top 20 the year prior, per Pro Football Focus. And the Packers almost always seem to get the most from their offensive linemen to the point where I think it may not be a coincidence.
Field Yates, NFL analyst: Chargers wide receiver Ladd McConkey will lead all rookies in receptions. McConkey landed in such a great spot given the thin receiver depth chart for the Chargers. He has a chance to start right away in an offense with an excellent quarterback in Justin Herbert and his elite route running will lead to plenty of targets.
Which midround pick will have fantasy value in 2024?
Bell:Blake Corum, RB, Los Angeles Rams. Every year coach Sean McVay suggests he’ll offload his primary running back, but that has yet to happen. Still, the selection of Corum in this draft — someone McVay says reminds him of Kyren Williams — hints that this is the year things change. Corum could see action even with a healthy Williams, but a healthy Williams is far from guaranteed, as he has missed double-digit games across his first two years in the league.
Bowen:Malachi Corley, WR, New York Jets. Corley, a slot target for quarterback Aaron Rodgers, has the catch-and-run ability to produce numbers as a rookie. He’s physical and elusive with the ball in his hands, and the Jets can also scheme for him on manufactured touches — screens, fly sweeps and more. Corley is worth a late-round pick in PPR (point per reception) formats.
Mike Clay, fantasy football analyst:Jaylen Wright, RB, Miami Dolphins. Last season, the Dolphins’ running back room easily paced the league in scrimmage yards (2,847), TDs (34) and fantasy points (580). Most of that damage was done by Raheem Mostert (now 32 with a substantial history of missed games) and De’Von Achane (undersized at 5-foot-8, 188 pounds and missed five games as a rookie). Enter the speedy Wright, who has a path to a massive role in an extremely fantasy-friendly environment.
Loza: Corum. Corley and Trey Benson are the obvious picks, but Corum figures to steal touches away from Williams. Corum led Michigan’s run-centric offense to the national championship, shimmying his way past defenders and through holes on the regular. He’s proved that he can handle a large volume of touches and could shine were Williams to be sidelined.
Miller:Trey Benson, RB, Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals have veteran running back James Conner, but Benson’s power and what he brings in the receiving game should get him on the field early and often. He had 20 receptions for 227 yards in 2023.
Moody: Corum. Despite Williams’ 2023 season, when he averaged 21.7 touches and 21.2 fantasy points per game, Corum is poised to have a role in the Rams’ backfield in 2024. Corum should play a significant role to reduce Williams’ workload.
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0:49
The highlights from newest Dolphin Jaylen Wright
Check out the highlights from the Dolphins’ newest running back, Jaylen Wright.
Jason Reid: Troy Franklin, WR, Denver Broncos. After an impressive season at Oregon (81 receptions, 1,383 yards, 17.1 yards per catch and 14 TDs), Franklin was touted as a potential first-round pick. Although he wound up dropping to the fourth round (102nd pick), he has the size and speed to be an immediate difference-maker in the Broncos’ passing game.
Jordan Reid: Wright. The Dolphins were aggressive in trading up to get Wright, which tells me that they have a distinct plan for him. With a limited number of carries while at Tennessee (368 rushes in three seasons), he enters his pro career with minimal wear and tear on his body. Wright is likely to be a focal point in coach Mike McDaniel’s explosive offense.
Schatz: Kimani Vidal, RB, Los Angeles Chargers. The answer to this question is usually “a running back where the starter ahead of him gets hurt.” Vidal is a very talented back, and ex-Ravens J.K. Dobbins and Gus Edwards seem as likely as anyone else to struggle with injuries (or, in Dobbins’ case, coming back from an Achilles injury).
Tannenbaum:Jonathon Brooks, RB, Carolina Panthers. A priority of new general manager Dan Morgan has been to enhance and improve the surrounding cast of quarterback Bryce Young. I think Brooks has a chance to take a big load off of Young and have a tremendous working year. He likely would’ve been picked earlier than his second-round selection had he not suffered a torn ACL in November.
Walder:Tyrone Tracy Jr., RB, New York Giants. I’m looking for a path to playing time here, and I think Tracy has a nice one. Firstly, he’s competing only with Devin Singletary, Eric Gray and Gary Brightwell, so the bar to becoming the team’s best runner is fairly low. Plus, Tracy has receiving skills — he played wide receiver in his first four collegiate seasons — that can get him on the field, too.
Yates: Benson. Fantasy value does not mean that the player is guaranteed to have a major role starting in Week 1, but I think Benson will make a mark this season in the Cardinals’ backfield. On top of being an explosive runner with very good tackle-forcing ability, he is a useful pass-catcher, too, having averaged more than 11.4 yards per catch in 2023.
Who is your early pick for Defensive Rookie of the Year?
Bell:Jared Verse, DE, Los Angeles Rams. Verse comes ready-made to slot right into the Rams’ front seven. He is talented and powerful, and the Rams’ defense needed an edge rusher who could make an immediate impact. Verse recorded a team-leading 18 sacks and 83 pressures in the past two seasons at Florida State.
Bowen:Byron Murphy II, DT, Seattle Seahawks. Murphy can create backfield chaos as a run-defender, with the interior pass rush traits to impact the pocket. Under Mike Macdonald, who coached a similar player in defensive tackle Justin Madubuike in Baltimore last season, Murphy can be a disruptive force for the Seahawks.
Clay:Terrion Arnold, CB, Detroit Lions. Detroit already has a terrific offense in place, but the defense is on the ascent. That includes a new-look secondary led by first-round pick Arnold and veteran standout Carlton Davis III. Expect this duo to lock down the perimeter this season. Arnold, who had five interceptions at Alabama last season, will be well positioned for a very productive rookie campaign.
Miller:Quinyon Mitchell, CB, Philadelphia Eagles. Realistically, either cornerback picked in the top 40 by the Eagles (Mitchell or Cooper DeJean) would be a good selection, but Mitchell’s speed and ball skills make him the favorite. Philly can get after the quarterback, creating good opportunities for Mitchell to grab interceptions on errant passes.
Moody: Verse. He showcased his talent during his final collegiate season at Florida State, accumulating 41 tackles, nine sacks, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and two pass breakups. There was a gap to fill on the Rams’ defensive line, and Verse was drafted precisely for that purpose. Verse, who is known for his play strength and speed off the edge, is well positioned to step into this role.
Jason Reid:Laiatu Latu, DE, Indianapolis Colts. He is elite in both technique and talent. Latu is equally efficient against the run and at pursuing the passer. The Colts are getting a relentless player who totaled 34 tackles for losses and 23.5 sacks in the past two seasons for UCLA.
Jordan Reid:Dallas Turner, LB, Minnesota Vikings. Playing in Brian Flores’ defense, Turner is a perfect match, as he will likely be used at multiple spots. His first-step burst and continued expansion of his array of pass-rush moves set him up for early success. Expect Turner to be moved around quite a bit and receive many opportunities to make plays in multiple ways.
Schatz: Verse. Four of the past five DPOY awards have gone to edge rushers, and Verse seems likely to get the most playing time of the top three edge rushers from this year’s draft.
Tannenbaum: Turner. Turner will have a lot of pass-rushing opportunities, which I believe he will take advantage of. I thought he should have gone as high as No. 8 to Atlanta because he has the double-digit sack total ability.
Walder: Latu. He was selected as the first defensive player, despite his medical concerns, so I like him even more as the defender to bet on here. Last season, he led the FBS in pressure rate at edge (22%) and in sacks created (17) — which credits the player who first earns pressure on a play that eventually becomes a sack.
Yates: Verse. The Rams needed serious front-seven reinforcements and used the 19th overall pick on the ready-made Verse, whose in-line power and 6-foot-4 length should lead to sack production right out of the gate. Verse is almost 24 years old and is a more refined prospect than many of the other players taken around him in the first round.
Who is your early pick for Offensive Rookie of the Year?
Bell:Caleb Williams, QB, Chicago Bears. Given that I picked the Bears as the rookie class to make the biggest impact in 2024, it stands to reason that the leader of that class will lead the charge and garner the OROY honors. His supporting cast extends well beyond fellow rookie receiver Rome Odunze; veteran pass-catchers such as receivers Keenan Allen and DJ Moore will help showcase Williams’ talent.
Bowen: Williams. Williams is set up in Chicago with proven pass-catchers and explosive play targets. He has the undeniable talent to create as a playmaker outside of the structure, and new offensive coordinatorShane Waldron can keep him on schedule from the pocket with defined reads and play-action throws. I expect Williams to produce high-level numbers — for a playoff team — in his first pro season.
Clay:Marvin Harrison Jr., WR, Arizona Cardinals. The first non-QB selected in April’s draft, Harrison will immediately step in as a featured target in Arizona’s Kyler Murray-led offense. We’ve seen elite performances from rookie wideouts in recent years (three top-10 fantasy campaigns over the past five seasons), and Harrison has the talent and opportunity to follow in the footsteps of recent award winners at the wide receiver position in Ja’Marr Chase and Garrett Wilson.
Fowler:Jayden Daniels, QB, Washington Commanders. This will be a close race with Williams and possibly a receiver such as Harrison, but Daniels is set up for success. Washington has a chance to be sneaky good. Daniels has adequate skill players around him in Terry McLaurin, Jahan Dotson, Zach Ertz, Brian Robinson Jr. and Austin Ekeler. Some evaluators considered Daniels the most pro-ready quarterback on Day 1. Kliff Kingsbury’s system is good for passing yards, and Daniels will accumulate rushing yards to bolster his case.
Loza: Harrison. He was arguably the most polished player — regardless of position — in this year’s draft. He put up 1,211 receiving yards and 14 touchdowns in his final season at Ohio State. His landing spot is prime for production, and he figures to make an immediate impact.
Miller:Xavier Worthy, WR, Kansas City Chiefs. Having Worthy, the fastest player ever tested at the combine, paired with reigning Super Bowl champion quarterback Patrick Mahomes makes Worthy the front-runner for Offensive Rookie of the Year in my book.
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Did the Bills ‘hand’ the Chiefs Xavier Worthy?
Dan Orlovsky and Dan Graziano disagree with Mike Greenberg about whether the Bills made a mistake by letting the Chiefs draft WR Xavier Worthy.
Moody: Williams. I agree with many of my colleagues here in choosing Williams. A quarterback has won the award in three of the past five seasons. Williams is well positioned for success with Moore and offseason additions Allen and Odunze.
Jason Reid: Williams. The Bears have set up the first overall pick to succeed. With the ninth overall selection, they added the gifted Odunze to a receiving corps that already included veterans in Moore and Allen, and solid tight end Cole Kmet. Productive running back D’Andre Swift also will help the rookie passer thrive.
Jordan Reid: Harrison. Is there a prospect that landed in a better spot? Harrison was WR1 in Arizona as soon as he heard his name called on draft night. Murray is likely going to develop chemistry early on with him, and Harrison will provide him with a true go-to target.
Schatz: Harrison. He’s in the clear best quarterback situation with Murray of the top receivers chosen in this year’s draft and will be Arizona’s No. 1 option.
Tannenbaum: Williams. I believe he has the ability, leadership and poise to guide the Bears to a material improvement in offense and wins. He is going to have to demonstrate rare mental toughness and resilience, as everything he does will be magnified in a city that has been searching for a franchise quarterback.
Walder: Williams. I’m tempted to pick one of the wideouts, but we’ve seen in the past how big an advantage quarterbacks have in this award — Justin Herbert winning the 2020-21 award over Justin Jefferson comes to mind — so I think Williams is the best bet here, especially because he already has a strong supporting cast.
Yates: Harrison. The most pro-ready prospect in the class landed in a perfect spot to play a massive role right away. The Murray-to-Harrison connection should be terrific the second the two are on the field together.
Which rookie class will make the biggest impact this season?
Bell:Chicago Bears. The drafting of Caleb Williams alone is going to make its mark starting in Week 1. The Bears complemented the Williams pick with Rome Odunze, and the two already have chemistry, making their joint transition to the pro level that much easier. The rookies were set up for success with the team’s structuring of the rest of the offense this offseason, and the defense should ensure they stay on the field plenty.
Bowen:Pittsburgh Steelers. The Steelers drafted two tone-setting starters on the offensive line with left tackle Troy Fautanu and center Zach Frazier in the first and second rounds, respectively, while fourth-round guard Mason McCormick adds depth up front. Wide receiver Roman Wilson brings toughness and big-play juice from the slot, plus linebacker Payton Wilson has three-down traits.
Clay:Washington Commanders. Washington selected franchise quarterback and Week 1 starter Jayden Daniels with the second overall pick and then proceeded to select five players on Day 2. Those selections included defensive tackle Jer’Zhan Newton and corner Mike Sainristil, who figure to immediately join the defensive rotation, as well as potential Week 1 offensive starters in tight end Ben Sinnott, versatile offensive lineman Brandon Coleman and slot wide receiver Luke McCaffrey.
Fowler: Philadelphia Eagles. There’s no way around it: Philly had a great draft. Cornerbacks Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean signified tremendous value at picks No. 22 and 40, respectively, and will contribute right away. Edge rusher Jalyx Hunt has a big fan in coordinator Vic Fangio. There is big upside. And don’t be surprised when sixth-round receiver Johnny Wilson, a standout at FSU, contributes early.
Miller:Los Angeles Rams. Life after Aaron Donald begins with the 2024 draft class. The Rams selected Jared Verse, Braden Fiske and Tyler Davis to reload upfront. If you’re looking for a year-one impact, Fiske and Verse will be counted on to provide the team’s pass rush and set the culture standard with its former leader now in retirement.
Moody:Arizona Cardinals. The Cardinals made significant moves in this draft. They secured two standout players, wide receiver Marvin Harrison Jr. and defensive tackle Darius Robinson, who are expected to have an immediate impact. Additionally, the Cardinals addressed their needs in other positions by acquiring cornerbacks Max Melton and Elijah Jones. With these additions, Arizona’s 2024 draft class is poised to make a difference right away.
Jason Reid:Kansas City Chiefs. It’s stunning that the Chiefs maneuvered into the position to pick WR Xavier Worthy at No. 28. They moved up to get a player who was clocked at 4.21 seconds in the 40-yard dash — the fastest time ever — and he’s the guy quarterback Patrick Mahomes wanted most. Also, don’t be surprised if massive offensive lineman Kingsley Suamataia, the 63rd overall pick, is the Chiefs’ Week 1 starter at left tackle.
play
1:20
Can Xavier Worthy fill Tyreek Hill’s shoes on the Chiefs?
Louis Riddick and Jeff Darlington discuss the Chiefs’ expectations for Xavier Worthy and whether he can make an impact like Tyreek Hill did.
Jordan Reid: Steelers. Their first four picks all have pathways to seeing significant snaps early on. Fautanu and Frazier are much-needed plug-and-play starters along the offensive line. Roman Wilson and Payton Wilson are also two prospects who could be key contributors at some point, as both have pro-ready games immediately.
Schatz:Los Angeles Chargers. Joe Alt will be a force as the starting right tackle. Junior Colson will likely wear the green dot as a starting inside linebacker and will lead the team in tackles. Ladd McConkey will be featured as the slot receiver, and either Brenden Rice and/or Cornelius Johnson will get serious playing time despite waiting until the seventh round to be selected.
Tannenbaum: Bears. Pairing the 2022 Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Williams up with Odunze, last season’s FBS receiving yards leader, will make Chicago’s offense immediately better, assuming its offensive line can hold up.
Walder: Bears. The obvious answer is also the right one in this case: Chicago walked away from the draft with an elite QB prospect who has a great chance to be an instant upgrade over Justin Fields, along with a top wide receiver in Odunze. A previously mediocre offense suddenly looks dangerous.
Yates: Cardinals. I defined the theme of Arizona’s trade as just checking boxes: The team filled need after need after need with good players. Harrison, Robinson and either Melton or Jones should start, while Trey Benson, Tip Reiman, Isaiah Adams and Dadrion Taylor-Demerson could all have meaningful roles. I was extremely impressed by the haul.
Who was your favorite pick in the entire draft?
Bell: Cornerback Quinyon Mitchell to the Philadelphia Eagles at No. 22. When a team fills a need with a standout prospect without breaking the bank to do it, it’s a winner. Mitchell is fast and agile and allowed no touchdowns in over 400 coverage snaps last season. He rose on many draft boards in recent months … and yet, the Eagles were able to surprise the competition by snagging him here.
Bowen: Cornerback Mike Sainristil to the Washington Commanders at No. 50. A nickel corner with a playmaking mentality, Sainristil was one of my favorite defensive backs to study. He led Michigan’s defense last season with six interceptions and seven pass breakups. Look for him to play a disruptive role as a rookie in Dan Quinn’s defensive system.
Clay: Wide receiver Ladd McConkey to the Los Angeles Chargers at No. 34. The Chargers moved on from Keenan Allen, Mike Williams, Austin Ekeler and Gerald Everett during the offseason, a foursome responsible for 55% of the team’s targets over the past two seasons. Enter McConkey, who is an excellent fit as a potential Allen replacement in the short-to-intermediate area for quarterback Justin Herbert. Even in a run-heavy offense, McConkey, who came out of Georgia, has a path to massive volume right out of the gate.
Fowler: Wide receiver Malik Nabers to the New York Giants at No. 6. For all the hand-wringing about the Giants’ quarterback outlook, the truth is New York quarterbacks haven’t had a true top-10 receiver since Odell Beckham Jr. Nabers might have the highest ceiling of any offensive player in the draft. Several teams in the top 15 coveted him. Give quarterback Daniel Jones a chance with a guy of this caliber, and see what happens.
Miller: Wide receiver Rome Odunze to the Chicago Bears at No. 9. Let’s give the Bears credit for not overthinking and simply drafting great players. With a rookie quarterback added in Caleb Williams, selecting a go-to receiver for him to learn and grow with was brilliant. It also helps that the two trained together, building chemistry in the pre-draft process. Odunze was my No. 3 overall prospect, which means Chicago drafted two of my top three players in this class.
Moody: Offensive lineman Graham Barton to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at No. 26. As an ex-offensive lineman, it was a pleasure breaking down Barton’s film. He’s consistent and showcases maximum effort on every play without mental errors. Barton can play center, guard or tackle as a rookie, and I believe he’ll have a superior career to some of the names drafted ahead of him.
Jason Reid: Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. to the Atlanta Falcons at No. 8. I understand everything about the Falcons’ commitment to quarterback Kirk Cousins, the salary cap implications and the potential for strife within the locker room. But if the Falcons are right about Penix, none of that will matter in the long run. If a team believes it has identified a potential transformational player at the most important position in sports, well, it has to go get him. It’s that simple.
Jordan Reid: Edge rusher Dallas Turner to the Minnesota Vikings at No. 17. Minnesota hasn’t drafted an edge rusher in the first two rounds since 2005 (Erasmus James). The team needed to replenish its talent off of the edge after losing Danielle Hunter in free agency. While the team signed Jonathan Greenard and Andrew Van Ginkel during free agency, Turner provides a high upside as a pass-rusher in Brian Flores’ defense. Turner led Alabama with 10 sacks and 45 pressures last season.
Schatz: Wide receiver Adonai Mitchell to the Indianapolis Colts at No. 52. Analytics suggest there is no such thing as a “draft steal” because prospects drop from consensus for good reasons. That being said, Mitchell might have dropped due to off-field concerns, and Colts GM Chris Ballard spoke out against that. This was the No. 5 wide receiver in Playmaker Score but the No. 11 receiver off the board.
play
1:26
Fantasy projections for the 2024 rookie NFL pass catchers
Check out Mike Clay’s fantasy projections for Marvin Harrison Jr., Malik Nabers, Rome Odunze, Brock Bowers and Brian Thomas Jr.
Tannenbaum: Odunze. He has a legitimate chance to be the best receiver from this draft. Under the motto of “win for today and develop for tomorrow,” the Bears have Allen on a one-year deal, and Odunze has Terrell Owens‘ type of ability. Odunze had 1,640 receiving yards and 13 scores in 2023. This is ideal for Chicago.
Walder: Defensive end Laiatu Latu to the Colts at No. 15. Because of medical concerns and the run on offense, the Colts managed to take the edge rusher who led FBS football in pressure rate in each of the past two seasons — yes, ahead of Will Anderson Jr. and Tyree Wilson in 2022 — at No. 15. The Colts might have landed a great one at a premium position in the middle of the first round.
Yates: Odunze. The wideout falling to No. 9 was not a complete surprise, given the anticipated run on quarterbacks early, but it was also not a sure thing. The sixth-highest-rated player on my board could have been the first receiver taken in so many prior drafts, but the presence of Marvin Harrison Jr. and Nabers (the third- and fourth-rated players on my board) made him the third off the board in this class. But don’t be mistaken — Odunze will be an instant impact contributor as one the most polished prospects in the class.
Who was the biggest head-scratching pick of the draft?
Bell: Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. to the Atlanta Falcons at No. 8. It is hard to justify spending this first-round draft capital when the Falcons had declared their nine-figure love for Kirk Cousins weeks earlier. The team did fulfill defensive needs — its most glaring hole entering the draft — in later rounds, but will the strategy of having two QBs capable of starting create less tension in the locker room … or more?
Bowen: Penix. The Falcons built depth behind Cousins with this selection and set up their QB room for the future. However, I saw this as an opportunity for the Falcons to add an impactful defensive player to new coach Raheem Morris’ system, with outside linebacker Dallas Turner and defensive tackle Byron Murphy II still on the board at the time of Atlanta’s pick.
Fowler: Wide receiver Ricky Pearsall to the San Francisco 49ers at No. 31. I’m not about to doubt coach Kyle Shanahan’s eye for offensive skill players, and I love Pearsall as a player. But his place as WR6 in this draft was unexpected. Most teams I spoke to pegged him as a Day 2 pick. Considering the 49ers still have Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk on the roster, bolstering the offensive or defensive line seemed like a sensible play.
Loza: Tight end Brock Bowers to the Las Vegas Raiders at No. 13. I was stupefied by the Raiders’ selection of Bowers, and it’s not because of his talent level. He’s a potential generational talent with a do-it-all skill set who was expected to come off the board before the first half of the first round. However, Las Vegas spent an early second-round pick on Michael Mayer just a year ago and entered the draft with holes all along the offensive line. In the end, I suppose, the value Bowers presented was too great to pass on.
Moody: Quarterback Bo Nix to the Denver Broncos at No. 12. While he posted prolific numbers at Oregon during his final collegiate season, it’s worth noting that nearly 67% of his passes came within 9 yards of the line of scrimmage. Nix’s selection appears to reflect desperation on the part of a Sean Payton-led Broncos team in need of a quarterback upgrade. I felt like Denver could have traded down and still landed Nix.
Jason Reid: Offensive tackle Tyler Guyton to the Dallas Cowboys at No. 29. Look, I get that the Cowboys had a major need along their offensive line. And the fact that they moved to rebuild it in this draft makes sense. That established, Guyton, while possessing impressive physical tools, is a developmental player. There’s no sugarcoating that.
Jordan Reid: Defensive tackle Ruke Orhorhoro to the Falcons at No. 35. With Jer’Zhan Newton still on the board, it made more sense to take him there. Newton possesses more upside as a rusher and is an ideal interior defender who pairs perfectly with Grady Jarrett. Orhorhoro is unquestionably the better run-defender, but Newton’s combination of explosiveness and disruption would’ve made him the better pick.
Schatz: Penix. Look, I understand the importance of the quarterback position, leading to six quarterbacks chosen in this year’s top 12. You can talk me into the idea that Penix is a better prospect than J.J. McCarthy despite McCarthy doing better in my QBASE projections. But if all goes well, Penix is not going to take a snap in the NFL regular season until he’s 26 years old. The Penix pick isn’t that head-scratching; it’s the Penix pick in conjunction with the Cousins contract.
Walder: Defensive tackle Braden Fiske to the Los Angeles Rams at No. 39. This has little to do with the player and more to do with the circumstances of the pick. The Rams paid an obscene price to move up from No. 52, sacrificing a fifth-round pick and future second-rounder in the process — the most expensive Day 2 overpay in at least the past six drafts and a larger investment than their first-round pick (Jared Verse at No. 19), according to our draft pick valuations. And all this for a player who was at the beginning of his selection range, according to the Draft Day Predictor (in other words, this was a borderline reach).
Yates: Penix. I had a top-of-the-second-round grade on Penix, but quarterbacks always fly off the board earlier than the overall ranks indicate. This is about Atlanta investing in a player who will turn 24 on Wednesday at a position in which only one player will play after paying Cousins $100 million guaranteed in March. One of the great advantages of a quarterback on a rookie contract is the modest cost of his contract, which affords you the ability to spend elsewhere across the roster. The Falcons are not realizing that advantage with Cousins under contract and making $90 million over the first two seasons of Penix’s deal.
DENVER — Elias Díaz had two hits including a tiebreaking single in a six-run seventh inning, Ryan McMahon tied a career high with four hits, and Colorado won its first series of the season with an 8-3 victory over the Texas Rangers on Saturday night.
The Rockies, who had lost 11 of their first 12 series and split the other, won their third straight game for the first time this season.
Jacob Stallings had a two-run single and Charlie Blackmon had a two-run double in the seventh, when the Rockies scored all six runs with two outs. Blackmon had his 599th career extra-base hit, tying Larry Walker for second in franchise history.
“A lot of two-out RBIs, momentum-shifters,” Blackmon said. “We capitalized on their guys not executing really well and made the most of it and did a great job offensively.
“Guys feel good about themselves right now. It seems like we’ve done a little bit of everything recently. Played defense really well, pitched good, bullpen great and finally got some hitting. We’ll try to keep it going.”
Leody Taveras had two hits including a 389-foot homer off Jake Bird to give the Rangers a 3-2 lead in the top of the seventh just as a light rain began.
“I’ve seen it so many times here,” Texas manager Bruce Bochy said. “It just gets contagious with hits, a few walks, balls falling in.”
Tyler Kinley (2-0) got out of a two-out, two-on situation by striking out Adolis García on a slider to end the seventh.
David Robertson (2-1) did not retire any of the four batters he faced after entering with a 3-2 lead and a runner on second base with two outs in the seventh.
Jordan Beck singled to open the seventh off Jose Leclerc and was sacrificed to second before Robertson entered. McMahon singled to tie the game, took second on a wild pitch and scored Díaz’s go-ahead single. Robertson hit Sean Bouchard and walked Brenton Doyle before Cole Winn entered and gave up hits to Stallings and Blackmon.
“Really just lost all control,” said Robertson, who entered with an 0.87 ERA. “Couldn’t find the strike zone. The last time this happened to me was in 2017 in the playoffs. Gave up four runs and didn’t get an out. It’s a frustrating night for me. Have to be better than that if we are going to win a ball game.”
Texas starter Andrew Heaney gave up eight hits and struck out a season-high eight in five innings.
Heaney has not issued a walk in his last 28 innings, since the first inning of an 8-3 loss to Atlanta on April 19. He has given up four runs over 18 innings his last three starts without receiving a decision.
Colorado starter Ryan Feltner gave up two hits in four scoreless innings before the Rangers scored twice in the fifth for a 2-1 lead. He struck out García with two on and two out to end the inning.
Hunter Goodman hit a 444-foot homer leading off the third inning for the Rockies.
Colorado manager Bud Black was ejected by home plate umpire Chad Fairchild following a play in which Rockies’ leadoff man Ezeqiuel Tovar was called out for over-sliding second on a stolen base attempt to end the fifth inning. Black argued after umpires ruled that the Rockies did not begin a potential appeal in time.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Rangers: RHP Max Scherzer (thumb) has not begun throwing again but is “coming along with the rehab,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “Improvement is starting to happen.” … OF Evan Carter (low back tightness) was a late scratch from the starting lineup. “For this to flare up at this point in the season, there is a little concern,” Bochy said. Carter missed much of the 2021 minor league season with a stress fracture in his back.
Rockies: OF Nolan Jones (back) and 1B/OF Kris Bryant (back) are scheduled to begin rehab assignments at Triple-A Albuquerque on Tuesday. Bryant, who has not played since April 13, took batting practice and did running drills before the game and could join the team on Monday.. … LHP Kyle Freehand (elbow) played catch for a third straight day Saturday, gradually increasing his intensity. He is a week to 10 days from throwing off a mound, manager Bud Black said.
UP NEXT
Rangers: RHP Jose Ureña (1-2, 3.86 ERA) will make his second start of the season after giving up one earned run in five innings in a victory at Oakland on Tuesday.
Rockies: TBA LHP Ty Blach (0-1, 3.46 ERA) will make his second start of the season.
It doesn’t take long in conversation with Tom Cartledge, the Nottingham Forest chairman, to realise that the dispute threatening the future of the City Ground has accelerated the possibilities of a stadium move.
“The club continue to be frustrated,” Cartledge tells The Athletic in relation to Forest’s standoff with Nottingham City Council, which owns the land where the team play. “Neither the leader of the council, the CEO nor any of the commissioners appointed by central government have reached out to the club.
“Nobody is knocking on the door. Nobody is trying to start the relationship again and say, ‘How do we find a way?’. And in the meantime, other councils and landowners are providing opportunities that we have to consider.”
It is three months since Cartledge spoke to The Athletic about his “masterplan” to upgrade the City Ground into a 40,000-capacity stadium with two new stands bankrolled by the club’s Greek owner, Evangelos Marinakis.
Cartledge showed off the designs. He talked about wanting to create something special and long-lasting at the riverside setting that has been the club’s home for 125 years.
Yet he also accompanied it with a stark warning that the whole project might have to be reconsidered if Forest could not agree terms over a new lease with the council — and that, in a nutshell, is exactly what has happened. Nothing is moving, attitudes have hardened and, as it stands, the entire negotiation is going nowhere fast.
What does all this mean for a stadium regarded as one of the gems of English football?
Well, for starters, the impasse has led to a rethink from Marinakis when it comes to the “corner boxes” of executive suites that were meant to go either side of the Trent End before the end of the season. Work started in February to prepare the ground, including bringing down one of the floodlights and replacing it in a new position.
An artist’s impression of the proposed new ‘corner boxes’ at the City Ground (Nottingham Forest and Benoy)
That, however, has been put on hold. The development would cost up to £7million ($8.7m) and Forest, according to Cartledge, want more clarity from the council “before we spend significant money on capital projects”.
On a wider level, however, Forest’s ongoing dispute with their landlord has left the club contemplating what could, in theory, be one of the most seismic and important decisions in their history.
When Cartledge uses the word “opportunities” he is talking about possible sites where Forest can explore a Plan B — putting up a 50,000-capacity stadium in another part of the city. One area that has been discussed is Toton, six miles south west of the city centre.
The Athletic has been to see the relevant site, earmarked originally for the now-abandoned HS2 railway project. It is land owned by Nottinghamshire County Council. In the coming weeks and months, we can expect more and more discussion about the pros and cons of staying at the City Ground or building something new elsewhere.
“That (Toton) is one of several potential spots,” says Cartledge. “It’s not as easy as to say, ‘Here’s a piece of land, go and build a stadium’. There are highways, transport and connectivity issues. But it’s fair to say we are progressing due diligence on different sites.”
Through the estate, past the Toton Fish Bar, a hairdresser’s called Flicks and some typical Nottingham suburbia, you will eventually come to a mini-roundabout on Epsom Road where you can hear the hum of industry from the railway sidings on the other side of the trees.
The River Erewash is nearby, running along the county border between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. There is a Tesco supermarket on the other side of Stapleford Lane, a tram stop and a garden centre, Bardills, that has its own history with the city’s major football club.
In 1898, when Forest moved to the City Ground, the nurseryman and landscape gardener William Bardill was on their committee. Bardill was put in charge of the playing surface and is credited in the club’s official history book for creating a pitch “that was soon recognised as one of the best, even the finest, in the country”.
Today, Bardills looks out on the stretch of dual-carriageway that is named after Brian Clough, Forest’s two-time European Cup-winning manager, and leads all the way from Nottingham to Derby.
And, yes, it feels strange — very strange, indeed — to look down at Toton Sidings from the grassy embankment off Banks Road and try to imagine what it would be like with a gleaming new stadium dominating the skyline and a different set of match-day routines.
“All mist rolling in from the Erewash…”
OK, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. For now, it is only an idea. That idea is in its embryonic stages and, before anything, Forest are acutely aware they need to undertake a long period of consultation with fans, understanding the sensitivities and why many supporters might find it unsettling.
These are always emotive subjects. Some fans might be receptive to a move, others will hate the idea.
Toton sidings, one possible stadium site being considered by Forest (Rui Vieira/PA Images via Getty Images)
Cartledge, in particular, is aware of local feeling, given that he grew up in Nottinghamshire and has been going to matches at the City Ground since the early 1980s. It is all he has ever known and if you want to know why the former manager, Steve Cooper, used to say it “oozed football soul”, there is a 4,000-word love letter here courtesy of one of its biggest admirers.
Critically, though, the issues with the council come at a time when Forest — deducted four points this season for breaking the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules — feel the only realistic way to challenge the elite teams is to generate more revenue.
Uppermost in Forest’s mind is finding a way to do this on non-matchdays — something that has been missing from their ground for many years — and accommodating the thousands of fans who cannot get tickets. Forest reckon they could have sold 50,000 for some games since their return to the top division.
Against that backdrop, Forest’s decision-makers are open about the fact they have to consider every option and, to quote Cartledge, there is “a discussion to be had about, ‘Yes, the City Ground is our home, but just imagine if we did something amazing.’”
On top of that, the club have been re-evaluating everything since negotiations fell through recently over a multi-million-pound deal to buy land off the eastbound A52 for a new training ground.
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Unreported until now, the deal is off because of what Cartledge describes as “a financial disparity between what we believe the land is worth and what the land-owners are asking”. And that is disappointing when Forest’s hierarchy had drawn up some exciting plans and fully expected it to go through in February. The club readily admit their training ground is not big enough.
So what next? Forest, it transpires, have already started looking elsewhere. The relevant people are wondering whether they should think more ambitiously and take their lead from Manchester City, the reigning Premier League champions.
“Because of the noise being created out of the disruption of whether we stay or go, we are getting quite a lot of interesting things put our way,” Cartledge explains.
“The terms on that (training ground) project are prohibiting us, but other things have come forward that have given us time to think. Where do we want to be? Where are those campuses where we can try to put all of this together in the way Manchester City have done?”
City are the only club in the Premier League who have a stadium and training ground on the same complex — and this is one of the ideas Forest think is worth exploring at a time when Marinakis has set aside a huge pot of money for development.
“Mr Marinakis is incredibly ambitious,” says Cartledge. “If we did something with those two things together — the training ground and the stadium — you do that only once. When it comes to these big decisions, he takes an enormous amount of pride and responsibility in getting it right.”
Another area of interest to Forest recently can be located on the other side of Meadow Lane, Notts County’s stadium, on a large expanse of industrial land where there is an incinerator plant and a waste-collection unit.
It is on the other side of the Nottingham Canal from the Hooters bar, a short walk from the city’s railway station.
One option for Forest is to leave the City Ground (foreground) for an area of industrial land (circled), next door to Notts County (David Goddard/Getty Images)
That idea has not progressed, however, because the land is permitted only for industrial use. The city council has indicated there is no scope for that to change. That, in turn, explains why Forest have been looking at the suburbs. At least four sites have been discussed, Toton in particular.
Those talks will continue even if Forest, 17th in the Premier League table, drop into the relegation places — but there have to be some awkward questions, too, about how the dispute with the council was ever allowed to reach this stage.
In 2019, Forest announced, via a blaze of publicity, that they had been granted a new 250-year lease. Nicholas Randall, then the chairman, said he was “delighted” to secure the future of the club’s home ground. Yet, for reasons unexplained, Randall did not follow that up by telling the club’s supporters the agreement was never, in fact, completed.
In reality, Forest have continued operating by the terms of their old lease, which has 33 years to run and, before starting a major redevelopment at huge expense, the club need the securities and insurance of a much longer agreement.
“The rent, if you add it up for the next 33 years, comes to about £9.5million,” says Cartledge, who replaced Randall as chairman in August. “The proposed rent the council wants us to pay over 250 years is more than £250m.
“So if we are talking openly about the Football Association’s desire for financial stability and the future of clubs to be secure, it is simply wrong for us to sign up and put this club in a position where we have to pay £250million in rent to stay here.”
Supporters of a certain generation might recall this is not the first time that relations between the club and landlord have been fractious because of their lease agreement.
In 1991, the council proposed Forest’s annual rent went up from £750, as agreed in 1963, to £150,000. In the end, the two sides compromised at £22,000. Clough threatened to quit if the council got its way with a proposal for Forest and Notts to share a ‘super stadium’ on the old Wilford power station.
This time, however, the issue is complicated by the Labour-run council issuing a Section 114 notice in November to declare itself, in effect, bankrupt, meaning the government has sent in commissioners to take control.
The council says it has “a statutory duty to ensure best value for taxpayers”. Forest, however, say it is exorbitant that the current rent is £250,000 and the council allegedly wants almost four times that amount.
Cartledge says he has not had a response to “a very strong letter” he has written to the council to argue that the proposed terms are unreasonable.
Evangelos Marinakis has grand plans for Forest (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)
Four local MPs — three Labour and one Conservative — have tried to apply pressure on Forest’s behalf but they have found out, Cartledge says, that “the council’s predicament is very challenging and it’s hard for politicians to become involved now the commissioners are running it”.
David Mellen, the council’s recently departed leader, has said Forest cannot expect “mates’ rates”. However, the club’s frustrations stem, in part, from the absence of any real dialogue to find a compromise.
“We had dialogues with some of the junior officers, but nobody senior came forward,” says Cartledge. “That’s important context for the fans to understand. We are not just sitting here in a black hole waiting and hoping. We are trying to be proactive.”
The Athletic contacted Nottingham City Council for comment.
One of the reasons Cartledge was appointed by Forest is that he is the chief executive of Handley House Group, the parent company for four international businesses specialising in design and architecture. One of those is the Nottinghamshire-based Benoy, which has designed the plans for a new-look City Ground and would also be prominently involved in any stadium move.
In the meantime, word has got back to Forest’s hierarchy that the Jockey Club, owners of Nottingham racecourse, had a lease dispute of its own with the council and it lasted seven years. So how long do the club wait when Marinakis is impatient, as well as ambitious, and many fans feel frustrated that not a brick has gone down since the initial stadium development was announced five years ago?
All that can really be said for certain is that safe-standing areas will be installed at the City Ground over the summer and the roof will be solar-panelled as part of a new agreement with E.ON to be the club’s sustainability partner.
“Across all of our projects – new ground, existing ground, training ground; whatever we pursue – the owner is absolutely adamant the club should start to look to a future whereby we have no carbon footprint,” says Cartledge.
“Regardless of whether we are staying or going, the owner feels it is important for the goodness and wellbeing of the world. He won’t let the council delays stop us from doing what is right.
“We will work together on solar panelling and other energy-saving initiatives. And, critically, if the progress on other sites and discussions about where we want to go mean it is right to move, E.ON will form part of the team, looking at how a new stadium could be built off-grid and carbon-neutral.”
Weeks before Opening Day this season, Major League Baseball sent a memo to all 30 clubs highlighting a rise in catcher’s interference. The instances of catchers being struck by the bats of opposing hitters were rising rapidly. Catcher’s interference was called 94 times in 2023, nearly 20 more times than in 2022.
What was causing the dramatic uptick? Catchers kept moving closer to the plate. In the era of pitch framing, teams deduced that the closer a catcher is to receiving a pitch, the better chance he has to “steal” a strike.
It worked well enough that catchers kept shifting closer to the batter’s box. The memo this spring essentially warned teams to cut it out and move catchers farther behind the plate to minimize risk.
Catcher’s interference calls continue to skyrocket at a historic pace. The average catcher’s interference total from 2010 to 2018 was 31. This year, it’s been called 33 times — less than two months in.
MLB’s concerns were already growing. There are more than double the interferences in 2024 compared to the 2022 season at the same point (15). The league is on pace for a record 148 catchers interferences this season. The push to frame the lower strike has inadvertently put the safety of catchers in jeopardy.
“The risk is high,” Cardinals manager Oli Marmol said earlier in the week. “We just experienced it.”
Contreras was struck flush by the swing of New York Mets’ designated hitter J.D. Martinez. The catcher underwent surgery on Wednesday and will miss a minimum of six to eight weeks. Contreras was one of baseball’s worst framers last year on borderline pitches below the zone. The Cardinals, a defense-oriented club, worked extensively with Contreras to improve in that regard.
Over his first year in St. Louis, the Cardinals overhauled Contreras’ approach, including his set-up behind the plate (Contreras ditched the traditional crouch behind the plate in favor of the one-knee down method). They also did indeed move Contreras closer to the plate.
The Cardinals are hardly the only team in baseball to deploy this method, but they were the first to pay the price for it this season.
“The more catchers are evaluated on framing, the closer they’re getting to the hitter in order to get to that low pitch,” Marmol said. “You’re seeing more catchers do that based on being able to get the low pitch, but you’re also seeing more catcher’s interference and backswings getting guys based on them being closer. Sometimes the catcher unknowingly could get closer and closer from hitter to hitter without noticing.”
That seems to have been the case for Contreras, who was caught by the swing of Martinez, who has a naturally deep swing and sets up as close to the back of the batter’s box as possible. Replays showed the head of Martinez’s bat hitting Contreras’ left arm square. It also showed just how far Contreras had reached in his attempt to frame the pitch.
Willson Contreras will leave this game after taking a J.D. Martinez swing to his left arm. pic.twitter.com/mJfiqOBf4t
— Bally Sports Midwest (@BallySportsMW) May 8, 2024
“There’s always a risk being a catcher,” Contreras said after the injury. “Could have been something different. It could’ve been off my knee, it could be a concussion. That risk is always going to be there. I’m not blaming any part of my game because this happened tonight.”
Perhaps that’s the problem. No position player in baseball takes a more constant beating than the catcher. And as teams across the board covet the low-strike call, catchers take the brunt of the consequences.
“We used to always talk about catcher interference being long strings on your glove or ticking your glove,” Detroit Tigers manager A.J. Hinch, who caught seven seasons in the big leagues said. “Then it turned into the glove in its entirety. (Contreras) is one of the first I’ve seen on a limb.”
“That is risky,” Hinch added. “The closer we get to the plate the more strikes we can grab at the bottom rail. Catchers are getting evaluated. They’re getting paid on how well they can control the bottom rail. That’s led to more and more catcher interferences throughout the game. … We do want our guys close enough to be impactful with the low strike but not walking into harm’s way. It’s a tough balance when the incentive to do it is real and the risk is extreme.”
Some teams stress the low strike more than others. Philadelphia Phillies manager Rob Thomson was a catcher in the Tigers organization for four seasons. He was taught that as the bat comes through the zone, the glove should follow.
“You’re going to catch more foul tips,” Thomson said. “You’re closer to the plate, you’re closer to the strike zone. It’s a better presentation for the umpire.”
Still, Thomson prefers his catchers keep some distance from the plate.
‘”We keep our eye on guys that do that and remind the catcher, ‘You got to back up a little bit,’” he said.
The happy medium for some teams seems to be self-monitoring. The Minnesota Twins, for example, monitor their catcher every pitch. It’s one of the primary in-game responsibilities of first-base and catching coach Hank Conger.
“A good, tight setup generally speaking is better than worse, something you prefer. But it’s obviously to avoid not just catcher interference, but injuries, too,” manager Rocco Baldelli said. “I think there’s a few reasons why (being closer) is helpful, but there are other times that we’re yelling at them to back the hell up to also be helpful, you know?”
The Atlanta Braves have two coaches assigned to catching duties. Sal Fasano is the catching coach. He’s assisted by Eddie Pérez, who spent nine of his 11 big-league seasons catching for the Braves. Pérez certainly understands the strategy behind being close to the plate but thinks the responsibility to inform the catcher he’s too close falls on those watching the game from the dugout.
“It’s always a good idea to be closer to the hitter,” Pérez said. “It’s thought that if you’re closer to the hitter, you’re going to get more calls.”
“Sal always reminds them to go back, you don’t want to get hurt,” Pérez added. “From (the dugout) you see better. When you’re catching you don’t know how far you are from the hitter, and every hitter has a different setup, so you have to adjust. … As a catcher, they’ve got to tell you from the side how close you are to the hitter.”
But the accidental blows behind the plate can sometimes be a two-way street. Catchers are frequently clipped by hitters’ swings regardless of where they’re positioned. With the average bat speed registering roughly 75 mph, some argue the responsibility lies on the batter to ensure not just their physical body remains within the parameters of the batter’s box, but their swing as well.
“The thing I don’t necessarily agree with is it can be the way people are swinging, too,” Chicago Cubs manager Craig Counsell said. “It can be the way catchers are setting up, yes. But it also can be kind of the way some people are swinging. And it’s dangerous.”
With the league on notice and MLB clearly aware of the risks, what can be done to cut down catcher’s interference — and the inherent injury risk? Cardinals’ starting pitcher Miles Mikolas suggested a physical line behind the plate that catchers cannot cross, a box of their own in a way. Could the automated ball-strike system (which theoretically eliminates the value of framing) be the answer? Possibly, but it’s an imperfect system in the minor leagues and is far from being a big-league product.
“I don’t know what they could possibly do other than reward the hitter with more bases, put him on second base,” Hinch said. “There are things you could probably do to make it super impactful to the game, but I don’t know if anything can be more impactful than losing one of your best players for six to eight weeks, 10 weeks, whatever it’s gonna be.”
The Cardinals now know how severe that impact can be. The bigger question looms: Does baseball?
— The Athletic‘s Matt Gelb, Cody Stavenhagen, Aaron Gleeman, Patrick Mooney, David O’Brien and Eno Sarris contributed to this story.
(Photo of Contreras being helped off the field: Jeff Roberson / Associated Press)
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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from the Premier League clash between Nottingham Forest and Chelsea.
For Chelsea, there have been too many “back to square ones”. A 4-1 loss to Liverpool followed three straight league wins. Last month, they backed up a 6-0 win over Everton with a 5-0 loss to Arsenal.
The Blues looked set for another setback when Callum Hudson-Odoi put Nottingham Forest 2-1 up. The player they sold for £5m was overshadowing the likes of Raheem Sterling and Mykahilo Mudryk, who were deemed “what a waste of money” by the home fans as Forest took the lead.
But as Mauricio Pochettino said after the game: “The last few months, the team is showing this capacity to be strong in our mind and be more mature.”
The manner which Chelsea struck back was a strong response to the narratives they have faced all season.
Sterling and Nicolas Jackson can turn up when needed. Reece James can deliver despite his injuries. Moises Caicedo – who had an assist and played a stunning pass for James to set up Jackson’s winner – looks somewhat like a £115m player.
Chelsea have now lost one league game in three months – and that 5-0 loss to Arsenal looks now looks like a blip. If Pochettino had 20 more games this season, who knows where they would be? In fact, with a European slot one step nearer, who knows where they’re going? Sam Blitz
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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from Manchester City’s win against Fulham in the Premier League.
For a long time it looked as though Fulham would be fine without Aleksandr Mitrovic. Both Marco Silva and owner Shahid Khan have pointed to how impressive another mid-table season has been given the unwanted loss of their talisman last summer.
For a long time, it looked like the Cottagers would even outscore last season, following a run of nine games without drawing a blank to the start of April.
But now alarm bells have started to ring.
Rodrigo Muniz netted four times in March to earn the Premier League player of the month award, but since his goals have dried up, so have Fulham’s.
Four in their last six have seen them pick up just five points in that time. The season is not ending on a sour note as such, but there is certainly one of caution.
It took almost an hour to register even a shot against Manchester City, and it ended up being their only one. That can perhaps be forgiven against one of the world’s best teams.
But it followed a similarly dour 0-0 at Fulham a week ago.
Muniz still looks a rough diamond who could yet produce another purple patch or more next season. But Fulham need more.
Replacing a striker of Mitrovic’s standing is not easy – and if they do want to push on towards Europe next season, as Silva has suggested, it’s a problem they need to solve this summer. Ron Walker
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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from the Premier League clash between Tottenham and Burnley.
There was a lot of pressure on Tottenham heading into Saturday’s game against Burnley. After four successive – and bruising – Premier League defeats, a win and good performance were needed.
And they had both. While Burnley matched Spurs in the first half – not surprising given their own Premier League status was on the line – the hosts accelerated ahead with their superior quality.
Ange Postecoglu would have wanted the winning goal to come sooner than the 82nd minute, but Spurs’ undisputed player of the season Micky Van de Ven once again dug them out of a hole.
“Credit to the players,” the Spurs boss told Sky Sports. “We’ve had four defeats and it’s bound to add some stress and anxiety into the performance. Burley had to go for it… The pleasing thing for me is the lads worked their way through it and got the result.”
The stats show that they were back to the kind of form we are used to as well. Tottenham have won 25 points from losing positions in the Premier League this season – only Liverpool (28) have recovered more – and have scored in 33 of their 36 games, the most in the league.
Tuesday 14th May 7:00pm
Kick off 8:00pm
It is just the performance they needed ahead of a huge showdown with title-chasing Manchester City on Tuesday evening, live on Sky Sports – a game that has implications across north London.
Without wanting to state the obvious, Man City will offer a sterner test that Burnley, but a confidence-boosting win can do wonders. Whether it will be enough to shake up the Premier League title race remains to be seen. Charlotte Marsh
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Vincent Kompany reacts to his side’s 2-1 defeat at Tottenham – a result which confirmed their relegation to the Championship.
While Burnley’s season has ended in a return to the Championship, they certainly didn’t go down without a fight.
The Clarets gave as good as they got on Saturday. Knowing it was a win or out, they really did play with the shackles off as Vincent Kompany mentioned in his pre-match press conference.
In fact, at the end of an even first half, the stats were almost level. Burnley had half as many shots (4), but three of those were on target – the same as Tottenham. The visitors had the greater xG too.
And they hardly disgraced themselves after the break either – Spurs’ quality simply shone through. A special mention for goalkeeper Aro Muric too for a string of fine saves.
But Burnley needed a lot to swing their way to keep them from a drop that had seemed inevitable for some time. However, the team have to be given credit for not only their good performance against Tottenham, but in a number of games over the last two months.
They gave themselves a fighting chance – the most you can ask for in their situation – and Kompany spoke of excitement not only in his team, but also the future.
“Day one is tomorrow and that’s about where the opportunity is to get back to the Premier League as soon as we can,” he told Sky Sports.
Burnley and Kompany know what awaits them in the Championship – and more importantly, how to win it. Any success next season is being built as we speak. Charlotte Marsh
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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from the Premier League clash between Newcastle and Brighton.
Newcastle supporters have received good value for their season tickets at St James’ Park, celebrating at least one goal in all 19 of their home league games for the first time in the Premier League era.
Their side had previously scored in 18 of their 19 home games in the 1995/96, 1996/97 and 2002/03 campaigns and 20 out of 21 in 1994/95, but have finally set a new record this term.
Alexander Isak, Anthony Gordon and Callum Wilson have been their main source of enjoyment in a testing season that has seen Eddie Howe’s side riddled with injuries and playing in the Champions League.
Their Premier League away record ranks at 15th which has also been their undoing. With two games to play at Manchester United and Brentford, Newcastle must now earn crucial points on the road to qualify for Europe once more. David Richardson
Julio Enciso reminded Brighton of what they’ve missed and why Roberto De Zerbi should build the team around him next season.
The 20-year-old Paraquayan was sidelined for 32 matches in all competitions due to a knee injury with his appearance at Newcastle just his fourth start in the Premier League this campaign.
De Zerbi has eased Enciso back into action since his return in February and he is yet to complete a match but now his sharpness has begun to return.
Enciso flourished at St James’ Park playing behind striker Danny Welbeck and was at the heart of Brighton’s best moments with his energy and creativity.
He lacked composure in the final third with three of his five efforts flying off target while there was a bizarre dive which saw him booked which showed he is still rough around the edges although another Brighton diamond that can shine under De Zerbi. David Richardson
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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from Everton’s win against Sheffield United in the Premier League.
Where would Everton be if Dominic Calvert-Lewin had been this fit and firing all season?
He has looked a different animal since his late penalty grabbed Everton a late point at Newcastle. Amazing what a goal can do, although the way Sean Dyche has managed Calvert-Lewin’s workload has to be commended too. He scored the winner in the 1-0 win over Burnley, which was the start of this amazing run of five straight home wins to nil.
Since then, Everton and Calvert-Lewin have been rampant, seeing off Nottingham Forest, Liverpool, Brentford and Sheffield United without conceding a goal. Outside Arsenal and Manchester City, no team are in better form.
Calvert-Lewin’s pace, power and physicality was too much for the powderpuff Blades, whose frustrations at having to deal with him boiled over just before the break when Jack Robinson inexplicably pushed the striker to the floor in an aggressive manner. In this mood, the Everton man is borderline unplayable. With a potential fire-sale in the summer happening at the club, Calvert-Lewin won’t be short of suitors if Everton need to cash-in. Lewis Jones
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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights of Brentford’s win over Bournemouth in the Premier League
In a battle between two strikers competing to make England’s Euro 2024 squad, it was Ivan Toney’s team that came out on top but Dominic Solanke who staked a better claim to earn a seat on the plane to Germany.
Despite ending up on the losing side at the Vitality Stadium, Solanke netted his 19th Premier League goal of the season in front of Three Lions coach Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink and on another day would have scored a hat-trick had two controversial first-half decisions gone his way.
The 26-year-old has already scored more goals than any other Bournemouth player in a Premier League campaign and until recently was in the hunt for the Golden Boot. Toney, on the other hand, has now gone 11 top-flight matches without scoring – his longest drought since playing for Northampton 10 years ago.
Image: Dominic Solanke scored his 19th Premier League goal of the season during Bournemouth’s loss to Brentford
Toney and Ollie Watkins were given chances to shine in Harry Kane’s absence during England’s friendlies against Brazil and Belgium in March – games designed to let Gareth Southgate experiment with those on the fringes of making his final squad for this summer’s tournament.
But Solanke, whose one cap for his country came back in 2017, was overlooked and it’s difficult to understand why. He has evolved into a complete striker and deserves another taste of international football.
There is no doubt Toney has wonderful qualities but as he readjusts following a lengthy period on the sidelines, Solanke continues to knock on Southgate’s door. He is making it impossible for the England boss not to pick him. Dan Sansom
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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from West Ham’s win against Luton in the Premier League.
Rob Edwards cut a dejected figure at full time with tears rolling down the Luton Town manager’s cheeks as he and his players applauded their fans after a 3-1 loss at West Ham sent them straight back down to the Championship.
However, Edwards was more upbeat in his post-match press conference, rightly pointing out how his side – who nobody gave a chance of staying up – have been able to compete with most Premier League teams this season.
“It has fuelled the fire to come back,” said a defiant Edwards, before adding: “We will now be in a stronger place to attack the Championship and will be one of the stronger teams in the Championship.”
Edwards is right as his team have already showed they can compete at this level – “Some of our players have looked like Premier League players,” he rightly observed – and boosted by the parachute payments coming their way, it would be a surprise were the Hatters not to make an immediate top-flight return 12 months from now. Richard Morgan
Image: Michael Olise’s heatmap since Oliver Glasner took over at Crystal Palace
After scoring twice in Crystal Palace’s 4-0 win over Manchester United on Monday evening, Michael Olise was the star of the show once more in his team’s deserved 3-1 victory over Wolves at Molineux. He was a delight to watch in winning the game for his side.
Olise scored the first goal of the game with what has become a trademark strike and set up the last. In between, he was constantly trying to create. It helps that Oliver Glasner appears to have found a style of play that brings out the best in the wide forward.
“I think everybody knows that he is a good player,” Glasner told reporters in the press conference afterwards. “I also think we found a very good position for him. He also benefits from other players. Daniel Munoz, how often he runs, gives him the space.”
This was the second game in five in which Olise has scored and assisted, drifting in from that right flank. With the energetic Munoz ever willing and with options ahead and inside, it feels like Olise has taken the next step forward as a player since Glasner took over.
The supporters at Molineux agreed – and not just those in Palace shirts. “He’s just too good for you,” sang the away end. The home fans responded in agreement with the same chant, before adding: “You’ll never see him again.” The Palace fans will hope they are wrong. Adam Bate
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FREE TO WATCH: Highlights from the Premier League clash between Wolves and Crystal Palace.
Looking back now and it appears that Wolves’ season ran out of momentum with that FA Cup quarter-final defeat to Coventry. It is one win in 10 since then, their 3-1 home defeat to Crystal Palace confirming that Gary O’Neil side are limping towards the line.
Perspective is needed and there was plenty of it at Molineux – the players warmly cheered as the end-of-season awards played out on the pitch despite defeat. There is an awareness that this could have been a fraught campaign rather than an enjoyable one.
The concern for O’Neil is that he was without only two players – Pedro Neto and Craig Dawson. The former is likely attract interest from other clubs in the summer and the other is 34. Wolves need to strengthen but any funds will have to be generated by sales.
It is a challenge that many other Premier League clubs will face this summer – how to improve without investing. O’Neil’s impressive work has earned him time to coax that improvement out of his players on the training ground but it will not be easy.
A starting point will be figuring out how to cause more problems for the opposition than themselves when passing out from the back. Wolves have lost it in their own defensive third 242 times this season – more than any other team. Lots to work on in pre-season. Adam Bate
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“I wanted to be a little bit different from anyone else,” Ben Shelton said recently in Madrid.
He was actually talking about his decision last year to sign a major deal with the small-but-growing Swiss shoe and apparel manufacturer On, rather than pursuing a certain American behemoth with a famous swoosh. (More on that in a bit.) The Floridian was in the early days of a three-month sojourn in Europe that will last as long as he does at Wimbledon, which ends in mid-July.
But Shelton, who is 21, could have been talking about anything to do with his budding tennis career, which has been the opposite of cookie-cutter.
Football (the American kind), in addition to tennis, until middle school? Different.
Regular high school rather than a tennis academy? Different.
Zero junior Grand Slam appearances? Different.
Major doses of collegiate exuberance: the “Yeah!” after big and small shots, the since-retired, hang-up-the-phone exclamation point on his wins? Different.
And now that the clay swing is here, Shelton is once more cutting against the grain, moving on to Rome and the Italian Open as he treats a third-round loss in Spain last week as just another step in tackling something that has beguiled most American men for a good long while.
That would be that red clay.
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He can blast his serve at 150mph (241kph) and rocket forehands like few others, cutting points short at a breath or stealing momentum in a rally.
At first glance, that gives him the sort of stereotypical, big American game that won’t easily translate to the dirt. Other notable Yanks with those qualities have basically held their noses and endured these months of attritional-style tennis, counting the days until the grass and hard courts of summer.
Well, that’s not how Shelton rolls.
He spent the two weeks leading up to his departure for Spain at a hardcore clay-court boot camp. “I worked on the things that I needed to: on the court, off the court, strength, fitness, moving,” he said. “I just really honed in.”
Rather than enduring the soft stuff, Shelton is embracing it. This is something other American men have traditionally avoided, including his own father and coach, Bryan, a touring pro in the 1980s and 1990s. He often swerved red clay other than the French Open, and the odd other tournament, for most of his career.
“I realized too late that my game was pretty well-suited to it,” he said after a practice session with his son last week. “I had this big kick-serve. I could push guys back. It opened up the court.” He shook his head, still annoyed with his younger self, 30 years on.
His kid isn’t letting such assumptions take root. He’s taking a different approach.
Late last year, Shelton asked Gabriel Echevarria, a veteran trainer, to join his team full-time as a strength and conditioning coach. It was another off-beat but logical move for someone who is as strong as a lumberjack and can run like a deer but remains prone to being wrong-footed or taken off-balance.
Shelton wants to move on the dirt like the best of them (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
Echevarria, who spent the past dozen years working for the U.S. Tennis Association and Tennis Australia, is Argentinian. He has a reputation for possessing a special knowledge of what it takes to attain proper movement and balance in tennis — especially on clay, the most common tennis surface in Argentina.
The ideal candidate to lead a crash course.
The most common mistake for clay-court newbies, Echevarria said, is sliding after the shot, which wastes time, rather than sliding into the shot. Certain shots require fewer steps, or smaller ones, or an extra step.
“If we learn the skill, then we can develop the skill, but the first thing is to learn the proper way,” Echevarria explains. “Once you learn the proper way, the model pattern, then we can develop that skill.”
Shelton perceives Echevarria as a kind of clay whisperer, who has helped him to understand its idiosyncrasies. “The clay court is just a little bit different than the hard court,” Shelton says. “You can’t do the same things.”
So, before each day of training, not in Monte Carlo or Barcelona where tournaments were happening but back home in Florida, Echevarria and Shelton’s father would talk about what movement to focus on. Sometimes, it was learning how to run diagonally, which happens often on clay because of all the drop shots and slices. Other times, it was how to recover and shift from one shot to the next.
Then, Shelton would head onto the court to try out what he had just learned for two or three hours. After a break and some lunch, afternoons consisted of more time on the court if Bryan felt it was necessary, and/or up to 90 minutes in the gym. It was gruelling, and exposed Shelton to the need to attune himself to what he found under his feet.
“Every clay court is just a little bit different,” he says.
Shelton’s serve allows him to dominate, even on the slower surface (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
“The bounces are unpredictable, so you can’t always rely on short-hopping a ball — taking a ball early. You can get too close to the bounce or set your feet too early and the bounce can be unpredictable and go in a direction that you don’t think it’s gonna go,” he explains.
This is particularly true in Madrid, where the altitude (2,000ft/650m above sea level) adds speed to the flight of the ball, creating the kind of conditions that left Daniil Medvedev gesturing at his coaching team with impotent rage, frustrated by being in the right place at the wrong time, or maybe the other way around. Rome, softer, slower, at sea level, carries its own quirks.
Shelton? He isn’t bothered. He’s thoughtful, and he’s here for it.
“You have a little bit more time to play because, in most places, the clay is a little bit slower than hard courts, but actually here in Madrid, it’s really fast,” he said.
“But for the most part, the game slows down a bit. So you have more time, which I really like. But at the same time, you gotta learn how to use that time and learn how to defend against guys who also have more time.”
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These are the words of someone determined not to repeat their father’s sins, someone who wants to be a little different than what a lot of the world might expect of a player with his unique brand of raw power and athleticism.
It was not so different from the choice he made a little more than a year ago to roll the dice a bit in that deal with On.
He had attended college at the University of Florida, a quintessential Nike school. So many of the biggest figures in American tennis and American sports have become synonymous with the swoosh over the years: John McEnroe, Andre Agassi, Michael Jordan Tiger Woods, LeBron James, and on and on.
“I didn’t want to be one of 50 Nike guys,” Shelton says. “Obviously it was also a big draw with On having probably the biggest icon in the history of tennis — you know, other than, like, Serena (Williams).” Shelton is referencing Roger Federer, who acquired a significant stake in On five years ago, with the company building and launching a debut tennis apparel collection on the back of his involvement, along with that of Shelton and the women’s world No 1 Iga Swiatek.
Here was Shelton, a dude, a male tennis star no less, kind of, sort of, putting Federer a slot behind Serena Williams in the sport’s pecking order, or at least putting them on the same plane. That doesn’t happen too often.
Shelton on his way to the title in Houston this year (Aaron M. Sprecher/Getty Images)
On an unseasonably chilly Saturday evening in Madrid two weeks ago, Shelton took the court for his opening match against Tomas Machac of the Czech Republic.
Machac, who is 23, has been tearing through some of the best players in the world this season. He plays a silky, deceptively powerful, all-court game and, like most central European players, largely grew up on clay.
He may be ranked 35 spots below Shelton, who is now world No. 14, but he is the sort of player who has proven to be a nightmare for Americans on clay practically forever.
Shelton promptly tore through Machac, 6-0, 6-2.
He used his power to push the Czech far behind the baseline, then moved forward himself, sending volleys and drop shots into the open court. He took advantage of that little extra time clay gives — “I love time on the ball,” he says — and jumped all over Machac’s second serve, taking it early, claiming the momentum.
Two days later, Shelton was a point away from a likely cruise to a straight-set win over Alexander Bublik of Kazakhstan. He struggled to handle a couple of Bublik’s notoriously relentless drop shots, scrambling uncomfortably, and that allowed Bublik the crack of light he needed to climb back into the match. The Kazakh would win in three sets, 3-6, 7-6(2), 6-4.
This was the live version of the clay tutorial Shelton is seeking from Echevarria. Regardless of the defeat, it was a 180-degree turnaround from when he landed in Europe a year ago for his first red-clay season. “Last year, I just had no idea what to expect,” he said.
That’s not his fault. There just isn’t a lot of red clay in America, where players largely learn the game on hard courts.
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Growing up in Florida, Shelton played some on green clay, which is harder to move on and produces far less predictable bounces than the red variety. Sloane Stephens, another Floridian and the 2018 French Open runner-up, calls red clay “the real stuff”. Still, Shelton barely hit a ball on clay after he turned 16 and his focus shifted to college tennis, which is a hard-court affair.
His match today, Friday May 10, in Rome against Pavel Kotov will be just his 16th professional contest on clay, and that includes four wins in the U.S. Clay Court Championships in Houston early last month. He won that tournament and, while any ATP Tour title is nothing to sneeze at, Shelton knew he remained well short of being ready to contend at Roland Garros. So, the boot camp. The learning. The discomfort, the embrace of something not quite what he expected. Being, in a word, different.
Some good tennis players become great by becoming a higher quality version of the player they were when they first broke into the tour. Others go from good to great by opening their mind to new skills.
What’s Shelton?
“He’s like a sponge,” Echevarria says.
Shelton’s slingshot serve is a trademark of his game (On)
Shelton emerged from that boot camp believing he could thrive on clay, maybe not today or tomorrow, but eventually.
Clay forces him to become the kind of player he wants to be — a threat on every surface not simply because his serve is a game-altering cruise missile, but because he can move the ball around the court with spin and height over the net, and come into the net and volley into an open court and grind when the moment requires it.
“Americans haven’t had the best success in the clay-court season or at Roland Garros, but it’d be really cool to change that narrative,” he says.
He also doesn’t think he has a choice. Clay season lasts two months. It’s not the four-week sprint grass season is. There are simply too many rankings points up for grabs on clay courts for someone with designs on reaching the top of the game to concede anything.
Americans aren’t generally known for their patience. They like stuff now — immediate gratification. Focusing on process over results doesn’t always come naturally. But once more, Shelton is a little different in that area, with some nudging from Echevarria and his father.
He is approaching this clay swing as he did the boot camp, as an opportunity to learn, to collect information, to analyze how he has improved, to see if he can execute all those step patterns and all that sliding on the most famous crushed red brick in the world.
If winning happens, great. If not? Fine. Just like clay calls for, Team Shelton is playing a long game.
“We don’t get frustrated,” Echevarria says. “We don’t worry about it because we know that, guess what? The French Open is going to be played on clay next year. It’s going to be played on clay for 100 years.”
(Top photos: L-R: On; Centre: ATP Tour; design: Dan Goldfarb)
Brady Henderson is a reporter for NFL Nation at ESPN. Henderson covers the Seattle Seahawks. He joined ESPN in 2017 covering the team for Seattle Sports 710-AM. You can follow him via Twitter @BradyHenderson.
RENTON, Wash. — During their 14 years together with the Seattle Seahawks, John Schneider and Pete Carroll stayed in their respective lanes when it came to handling draft-day questions from reporters. The general manager would usually take the ones about a player’s traits or college tape, while anything related to the role they envisioned for him would be the head coach’s to answer.
Schneider and new coach Mike Macdonald mostly followed that MO during their first draft together, with one exception. It came when Schneider was asked about Tyrice Knight, the inside linebacker from UTEP whom Seattle drafted in the fourth round.
“That’s a good one for Mike,” he said. “Mike’s more the linebacker guru.”
Schneider didn’t just defer to Macdonald on the question because of his background coaching linebackers, which he did for the Baltimore Ravens for three seasons before becoming Michigan’s defensive coordinator in 2021. It was also because, to some degree, Schneider had deferred to Macdonald on the pick itself.
Knight had become a favorite of Macdonald and his defensive staff after the team brought the prospect to the Virginia Mason Athletic Center on a pre-draft team visit. The coaches preferred Knight over a cluster of other inside linebackers the Seahawks figured would be available early on Day 3. He was projected by some to last until later in the day — ESPN’s Jordan Reid and Matt Miller both had him going in Round 6 in their seven-round mock drafts — but Schneider took him at No. 118 overall, fearing that the Seahawks might miss out on a player that their coaching staff loved.
“The first thing that pops out on the tape is he sees the game quickly, so key and diagnose,” Macdonald said. “Instincts, I guess, is a good way to put it, but like moving where the ball is going kind of before everybody else maybe is a good way to describe it. He stays square.
“I think he brings some thump at the point of attack and then when we brought him in, we got to meet him and we just really liked the person and the competitor. His demeanor is soft-spoken right now, but I think he’s a very clear communicator and then just a guy throughout the process we started to really like.”
Knight joins an inside linebacker corps that will look completely different from last season, though the Seahawks have kept the door open for a reunion with Jamal Adams with the thought that he’d play that position as opposed to safety.
Seattle lost Jordyn Brooks in free agency and let Bobby Wagner walk — the team’s top two tacklers in 2023 — before replacing them with Jerome Baker ($7 million base value) and Tyrel Dodson ($4.26 million), each on one-year deals. The backups consisted of young players who have mainly played special teams, meaning there was a need for both depth and another long-term starting option.
Knight, who’s just under 6-foot-1 and weighs 233 pounds, ran a 4.63-second 40-yard dash at the combine, a solid but unspectacular time that ranked eighth-fastest among linebackers. Macdonald’s scheme asks a lot of its Mike (middle) and Will (weakside) ‘backers, and he believes Knight has the head to handle those responsibilities even if he doesn’t have off-the-charts measurables.
“I do think he can improve his hand usage, but I just think he sees the game and it’s slow for him,” Macdonald said. “We’re going to ask our guys to man the middle of the defense, and I think he can do that eventually.”
After transferring from Independence Community College, Knight racked up 386 tackles during his four years as a starter at UTEP. That was fourth most in FBS in that span. Last season, his 24 run stops (a tackle at or behind the line of scrimmage on a designed rush) were tied for fourth most in FBS. He recorded 2 interceptions, 17 passes defensed and 8.5 sacks (including 4.5 last year) in 45 games for the Miners.
“Linebackers are paid to make tackles,” Macdonald said. “He makes a lot of tackles, so that’s a good thing.”
The Seahawks’ plan all offseason has been to use Dodson at Mike and Baker at Will, though both can play either position and Macdonald’s scheme gives them the flexibility to switch spots depending on the defensive call. Macdonald said Knight will likely learn Will first.
Seahawks sources have emphasized that if the team brings Adams back, it will be to play weakside linebacker in a part-time role. Given their tight financial situation (OverTheCap.com lists them with around $1.5 million in cap space after restructuring cornerback Mike Jackson‘s contract) and the fact that Adams is coming off three straight injury-plagued seasons and has zero sacks since 2020, it would likely be for something close to the league minimum.
The Seahawks told Adams when they released him in March that the move was purely cap-related and that they’d be open to bringing him back later in the offseason if he was willing to play linebacker. He might also need to be willing to play special teams.
A reunion isn’t considered likely, but it’s a possibility the Seahawks planned on discussing internally after the draft.
For now, though, Knight is the newest member of that new-look group.
“He hasn’t done all the things that we’re going to ask him to do schematically, but nobody ever does,” Macdonald said. “So you’re looking at how he moves and how he thinks and try to project it the best you can.”
Josh Weinfuss is a staff writer who covers the Arizona Cardinals and the NFL at ESPN. Josh has covered the Cardinals since 2012, joining ESPN in 2013. He is a member of the Pro Football Writers of America and a graduate of Indiana University. You can follow him via Twitter @joshweinfuss.
Why? Harrison Jr., son of Hall of Fame wide receiver Marvin Harrison, has not signed the NFLPA group licensing agreement (GLA), which allows partnering companies such as Nike and EA Sports to use a player’s name, image and likeness. For most players, signing the GLA is a formality, typically inked at the NFL combine.
The GLA not only allows the NFLPA to market its players, but it also helps every player who signs to earn additional income.
What exactly is the GLA? Here’s a breakdown of the agreement that has impacted the early days of Harrison’s NFL career.
What is the group licensing agreement and why hasn’t Harrison signed?
It’s an agreement between a player and the NFLPA for the players association to have exclusive rights to market a player’s name, image, likeness, signature and voice. It’s how players end up in Madden and have jerseys and memorabilia sold by retailers. The NFLPA developed the GLA in 1972 to protect the marketing rights of its players as a group and ensure players receive a share of the revenue generated.
If a company wants to use six or more players in a promotion, it has to have a GLA with the NFLPA. If a company has a GLA with the NFLPA, it must pay each of those players a cut of the revenue. There are exceptions. There can be exclusive promotions with six or more players in which those players get a larger cut.
High-profile players can earn upward of six figures based on how much they generate for products and companies linked to the GLA.
Last year, the baseline for players’ royalty payments was about $30,000, but the expectation is that will increase every season. According to the Department of Labor, there were 2,125 active players in 2023.
The NFLPA has agreements with 85 different companies, including 2K, Electronic Arts, 500 LEVEL, Hallmark, Fathead, Beast Mode, Rock ‘Em socks, Under Armour, Homage, Party City, Fanatics, Strideline and The Original Retro Brand, among others.
A source told ESPN Harrison is trying to use not signing the GLA as leverage to renegotiate his Fanatics deal for more money.
What agreements does Harrison have in place?
Harrison has three known deals: A shoe and apparel deal with New Balance, an endorsement deal with Head and Shoulders and a memorabilia deal with Fanatics, which a source told ESPN Harrison signed before his final year at Ohio State and is worth at least $1 million.
Harrison is also selling memorabilia on his website, The Official Harrison Collection. A Harrison Ohio State jersey costs $80, but no Cardinals merchandise is being sold on the site.
During his introductory news conference in Arizona, Harrison was asked if he has a timeline to sign the GLA and hire an agent.
“I’ll continue to talk to my team and we’ll do what’s best for me moving forward,” Harrison said. “We’ll just take it one day at a time. I just got drafted so I’m trying to enjoy the moment and be happy while I can at the moment.”
How does the NCAA NIL factor into all this?
Directly, not much, if at all. The GLA is essentially NIL for professionals. However, indirectly, collegiate NIL is part of the reason why Harrison is trying to renegotiate his deal with Fanatics. Having NIL in place and legalized gave Fanatics the ability to discuss an agreement with Harrison while he was still in college, and eventually have him sign a post-college deal, which sources told ESPN happened before his last season at Ohio State.
If Harrison had signed a similar deal before NIL, it would’ve been a violation of NCAA rules. However, it would have been more likely that Harrison signed any type of deal after declaring for the NFL draft, which, after the season he had in 2023, would’ve likely been valued higher and brought him more money.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl kept Edmonton even with Vancouver and Evan Bouchard capped the Oilers’ big win over the Canucks.
McDavid and Draisaitl each had a goal and three assists, and Bouchard scored 5:38 into overtime as Edmonton beat Vancouver 4-3 on Friday night to even their second-round playoff series at one game apiece.
“When they put on a show like the did tonight it’s hard to stop them,” the Oilers’ Mattias Ekholm said.
Ekholm also scored and Stuart Skinner finished with 16 saves for Edmonton.
Draisaitl was listed as a game-time decision earlier in the day due to an undisclosed injury after he appeared to be in pain late in Edmonton’s 5-4 loss Wednesday. He played and had a big game when the Oilers needed it.
“He’s a great player,” McDavid said. “He’s an amazing player, one of the best players in the world, the best player in the world on a lot of nights. And tonight was one of those nights.”
Nikita Zadorov had a goal and an assist, and Elias Pettersson and Brock Boeser also scored for the Canucks. Arturs Silovs made 27 saves.
“We’re not going to get too high or too low,” Canucks defenseman Quinn Hughes said. “For the most part we played a pretty solid game and now we just look forward to Edmonton.”
Game 3 in the best-of-seven series is Sunday in Edmonton.
In the extra period, Bouchard got the game-winner with a shot from near the boards that skittered in past Silovs.
“There was lots of resilience,” McDavid said. “I thought we were a little unlucky to be down in the third but we stuck with it, we hung in there all night. It feels good to come into their building and earn a win.”
McDavid used his speed to tie the score 3-3 at 5:27 of the third. The elite center picked up a contested puck in the neutral zone, sprinted down the ice ahead of a pair of Canucks defensemen, and sent a shot flying under Silovs’ blocker for his second postseason goal.
Edmonton continued to press for the winner late, hemming Vancouver into its own end for extended stretches and outshooting the home side 15-2 across the third period, but had to settle for overtime.
“Too many guys were flipping pucks when we didn’t have to,” Vancouver coach Rick Tocchet said about his team’s play in the third period. ”I guess that’s playoff experience. You have the puck, you have someone on your back, skate with it, keep your heart rate down. I feel as soon as somebody got it, they flipped it. Everybody. There were plays to be made but we never gave then anything to defend.“
Edmonton and Vancouver both went 1-for-3 on the power play.
The Canucks opened the scoring on an early power play. With Ryan Nugent-Hopkins in the box for tripping, J.T Miller wound up and looked like he was about to launch a big shot from the faceoff circle. Instead, he sliced a pass across the slot to Pettersson, who fired a quick snap shot past an out-of-position Skinner 4:16 into the game for his first of the playoffs.
Edmonton’s potent power play got to work before the first intermission after Tyler Myers was called for hooking. Stationed at the goal line, McDavid sent a pass in the slot to Draisaitl, who fired it in to tie the score at 1-1 with his sixth goal of the playoffs at 10:56.
Silovs kept the Oilers from taking a lead into the locker room with some last-second heroics at the end of the opening period. Ekholm fired a slap shot from distance and the rookie goalie got a glove on it. He couldn’t contain the puck, however, and Hyman was there to scoop up the rebound. Silovs then dove across the net to stop the sniper from the side of the net.
The ice opened up early in the second after Edmonton’s Derek Ryan was sent to the box for interference and Vancouver’s Nils Hoglander was called for slashing, setting up two minutes of 4-on-4 hockey.
Fifty-three seconds into the period, Carson Soucy fired a shot on net from inside the blue line and Boeser tipped it in past Skinner from the middle of the slot. His fifth goal of the playoffs put the Canucks up 2-1.
The lead lasted 23 seconds.
With both sides still down a man, Draisaitl sent a pass to Ekholm from the blue line and the veteran defenseman sent a shot sailing past Silovs from the high hash marks, knotting the score at 2-2 with his second of the postseason.
Zadorov put the home side up once again with 1:43 left in the second. The bruising defenseman picked up a puck from Miller in the neutral zone, streaked down the ice and unleashed a wrist shot that soared up and under the cross bar to make it 3-2. It was Zadorov’s fourth of the playoffs.
___
AP NHL playoffs: https://apnews.com/hub/stanley-cup and https://apnews.com/hub/nhl
Paul Gutierrez joined NFL Nation in 2013 and serves as its Las Vegas Raiders reporter. He has a multi-platform role – writing on ESPN.com, television appearances on NFL Live and SportsCenter, and podcast and radio appearances. Before coming to ESPN, Gutierrez spent three years at CSN Bay Area as a multi-platform reporter, covering the Raiders and Oakland Athletics as well as anchoring the SportsNet Central cable news show. Gutierrez votes for the Baseball Hall of Fame and is also a member of the Professional Football Writers of America and currently serves as the PFWA’s Las Vegas chapter president. He is also a member of the California Chicano News Media Association and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists. Gutierrez has authored three books: Tommy Davis’ Tales from the Dodgers Dugout, 100 Things Raiders Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die and If These Walls Could Talk: Stories from the Raiders Sideline, Locker Room and Press Box with Lincoln Kennedy. You can follow Paul on Twitter @PGutierrezESPN
“Aidan’s earned the right to go out there and earn the first snap,” Raiders coach Antonio Pierce said Friday. “What he’s done this offseason — changing his body, his work ethic, being here every day, blocking out the outside noise. He’s not worried about anything. I’m excited.
“Then you bring Gardner in here … talk about personality. … It’s great. It’s great for our building. It’s great for our quarterback room. And if you got competition in the quarterback room, what does every other room look at?”
The Raiders had been heavily linked to Daniels, as Pierce brought him to Arizona State when he was the Sun Devils’ recruiting coordinator. But the Washington Commanders were set on the Heisman Trophy winner who had transferred to LSU and selected Daniels with the No. 2 overall pick.
By the time the Raiders were on the clock at No. 13, six quarterbacks had been drafted. Las Vegas went with the best player available on its board and took three-time All-America tight end Brock Bowers out of Georgia.
Raiders general manager Tom Telesco said after the draft that no trade opportunity to move up arose in the first round and that they had no interest in drafting a quarterback after Day 1.
Instead, O’Connell and Minshew have been steady presences at the Raiders’ facility throughout the offseason workout program. The Raiders also have two other quarterbacks on the roster in Anthony Brown Jr. and undrafted rookie Carter Bradley, who signed out of South Alabama after the draft.
“What I see is guys getting out there early,” Pierce said. “Aidan is already kind of taking the bull by the horn and he’s leading the way, and Minshew’s right there doing it as well. Two guys that played against each other last year, they went neck to neck. But I’m really excited to see what happens. I think it’s going to be a process. We’re going to stick to the process.”
O’Connell was the final pick of the fourth round in 2023, at No. 135 overall. He replaced a concussed Jimmy Garoppolo in a Week 4 loss at the Los Angeles Chargers and then again — this time for good — after Pierce was elevated to interim coach in the wake of the Halloween night firings of coach Josh McDaniels and general manager Dave Ziegler.
O’Connell went 5-5 in 10 starts as a rookie and threw eight touchdown passes without an interception in the Raiders’ final four games. He completed 62.1% of his passes for 2,218 yards with 12 touchdowns and seven interceptions in 11 games, finishing with an 83.9 passer rating and a QBR of 40.5. Mobility and pocket awareness were issues on occasion, as he was sacked 24 times.
Minshew, meanwhile, is on his fourth team in five years. He went 7-6 for the Indianapolis Colts last season, including a New Year’s Eve win over O’Connell and the Raiders, and had 3,305 passing yards with 15 touchdowns and nine interceptions.
“Aidan has a certain thing mentally where he blocks out outside noise. He doesn’t worry about it,” Pierce said. “I’m sure he reads, like we all do, but when he comes to work, he’s focused, he’s prepared, he studies, he puts the time in. There’s been conversations that we’ve had that I’ve seen him grow in this short period of time in the offseason. I’m really excited to see Aidan as we go through OTAs, minicamp and training camp.”
The top stories and transfer rumours from Saturday’s newspapers…
THE ATHLETIC
The futures of Ajax players such as Jordan Henderson and Steven Bergwijn have been cast into doubt as the club count the cost of missing out on Champions League qualification for the second consecutive season.
777 Partners’ eight-month attempt to buy Everton appears to be effectively over after the Miami-based investment firm called in restructuring experts in attempt to save the crisis-hit business.
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Sky Sports News’ Kaveh Sohekol has the latest news on the ongoing talks between Everton majority shareholder Farhad Moshiri and representatives of 777 Partners regarding the sale of the club
Wolverhampton Wanderers head coach Gary O’Neil says he is still to meet with chairman Jeff Shi to discuss his plans for the summer transfer window but does not expect owners Fosun to inject fresh money for players.
Marco Silva is interested in appointing Casa Pia manager Goncalo Santos as his new assistant coach, but no decision has been taken yet.
THE SUN
Everton are on the brink of administration and a fresh nine-point deduction as The Toffees face fire-sale of their top stars.
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Everton manager Sean Dyche discusses the club’s potential takeover by 777 Partners
THE GUARDIAN
The owner of a leading Dutch football club has funded it with loans from Roman Abramovich, leaked documents suggest, fuelling questions about the continued influence the Russian oligarch, under sanctions from the EU and UK, still has on football.
DAILY MAIL
Manchester City have grown the grass at their training ground in anticipation of a ‘high and dry’ surface at Fulham this weekend.
DAILY MIRROR
Arne Slot is set to move into Jurgen Klopp’s £4million house when he takes over as Liverpool manager.
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After 100 games in charge could Arne Slot looks to swap Feyenoord for Liverpool. Sky Sports reporter Gary Cotterill has been in the Netherlands discovering what makes him tick
Germany have been dealt a major blow ahead of Euro 2024 with attacking duo Serge Gnabry and Timo Werner set to miss the home tournament through injury.
DAILY RECORD
Rangers have banked a seven figure fee after Malik Tillman left Bayern Munich for PSV permanently.
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Drive north out of London for a couple of hours, head east just past the city of Leicester, bump along some of England’s finest country roads as they wind between gloriously green fields, and you eventually reach the small village of Ashby Folville, population: 174.
At the centre of it sits The Carington Arms: “Probably the prettiest pub in Leicestershire,” according to its website.
Set in lusciously green open space next to the village cricket field and presenting a charming exterior combining whitewashed stone walls with glossy black beams, from a distance, this is a village pub perfectly positioned to take full advantage of the beautiful English countryside.
But up close, a sad and disturbing reality is revealed.
On the bright February morning when The Athletic visits, the front door is locked, the lights are off and the car park is deserted. There are no deliveries of food or drink being made and no staff to be seen.
One of the window panes by the entrance is smashed.
The Carington Arms is a pretty pub (Sarah Shephard/The Athletic)
The only signs of life are an open window upstairs and a blackboard near the door that reads: OPEN THURS – SUN, ALL DAY.
Only, it isn’t. The Carington Arms hasn’t been open since Christmas, when it was operating under a temporary event notice having been forced to close its doors at the end of October last year.
Instead of being the beating heart of a community, The Carington Arms is at the centre of a bitter legal dispute. On one side, the pub’s owner, the Ashby Folville Land Trust (AFLT), led by Alex Stroud, a descendent of the Smith-Carington family who once owned the whole village, which claims it is owed thousands in unpaid rent and now has a court order allowing it to repossess the pub and recover the money.
On the other, the landlord, Lorne Sam, a former American footballer who claims he has been discriminated against because “I’m different. And the difference is that I’m American and I’m Black”.
In the middle of it all is the pub, and the community for whom it plays a central role. From the cricket team to the skittles team and the Quorn fox hunt, The Carington Arms has been a place to meet, drink and be merry for as long as the locals can remember. But the dispute between Sam and the trust has seen them drift away.
When Sam was able to reopen the pub for three weeks over Christmas, the first week was slow but brought in enough money for him to pay some of the staff. The next week was a little bit quieter. “By the third week,” he says, “we had nobody, which was interesting. I don’t think it’s the people, but the way England’s rural life is set up. You have an organisation that controls everything and they’re (local people) terrified of them because they own everything. If your family rents a farm from them, you don’t want to p*ss them off and so they’re not going to risk their family’s livelihood.”
He reads out messages from villagers he had considered friends, who, when asked if they would write him a witness statement, said they would not put themselves “in a position of exclusion from the community”.
Instead, exclusion is exactly what Sam has experienced.
Now he wonders whether there is any way back.
To understand how it all came to this, we have to go back to October 10, 2022, when once aspiring Denver Broncos and then Green Bay Packers wide receiver Sam took a flight from Atlanta, Georgia, to London Gatwick Airport.
Accompanied by his friend — and chef — Charles, the pair collected their bags and headed for the train station, bound for the market town of Melton Mowbray, in Leicestershire. From there, they took a taxi along those aforementioned country roads and arrived, tired but excited, outside The Carington Arms — the pub Sam, 39, had signed an agreement to run.
“I’d done my research on what a rural village was, so I knew there wasn’t diversity,” says Sam, who has come down from his living quarters above the pub, switched on the lights and unlocked the front door to allow us in.
“I wasn’t so much concerned with it because I understand that people are people. And it doesn’t matter if you’re white, Black, Asian, whoever; if you haven’t been exposed to a group of people, you’re going to have your pre-determined idea of what they are.
Sam at the bar of his empty pub (Sarah Shephard/The Athletic)
“In my opinion, it’s each one of our responsibilities to present something different and give a person a real interaction to start basing their opinions off.”
We sit at one of the tables by the bar, from where a quick glance around reveals a once warm and welcoming place that is desperately in need of some love. Small piles of dirt have been swept up and left dotted around the floor and the glasses hanging above the bar are caked in dust. That pane of glass in one of the large windows looking out to the beautiful surrounds was broken mistakenly, says Sam, by a member of staff opening a window with too much force.
Sam’s dispute is with the trust (AFLT) which owns most of the village – including the pub — and in particular with one of the trust’s controllers, Stroud, a property consultant who lives in a large farmhouse next to the pub with his wife, Lucy, and their children.
Sam has spent the past few months preparing for a court hearing, challenging the eviction order and money judgment of around £25,000 the trust secured against him. With no funds incoming from the pub, he has been compiling and submitting the evidence himself, without any legal support.
When the hearing took place on Wednesday, April 24, Sam’s application was unsuccessful, meaning that, technically, he could now be evicted from The Carington Arms. AFLT told The Athletic it will now proceed to recover possession of the pub and consider its options in relation to enforcement of the money judgment. Sam plans to appeal.
Sam claims he has been treated differently from previous landlords of the pub – a conclusion he reached after months of being told he owed rent to cover shortfalls left by the husband and wife team from whom he bought the business, when he contends they were never chased for the rent arrears. There has also been a threat of eviction from his home above the pub due to unpaid rent.
The reason for that, he feels, is because he is American, because he is different.
The trust, however, says it didn’t know the previous owners had been underpaying the rent, as that was handled by agents who hadn’t made it aware, and there was a change in trusteeship going through at the time which complicated matters.
When The Athletic approached Stroud for comment on Sam’s allegations that he has been treated differently based on his nationality and race, his solicitor responded, labelling it — and other allegations made by Sam, including that Stroud deliberately destroyed the business in the hope it will lead to Sam’s departure — “entirely false”.
They added that after Sam took over the tenant company that occupied the pub, the AFLT worked with him “for approximately eight months to reduce the rent arrears owed by his company… The tenant company then decided to stop paying the rent, as well as the agreed monthly contribution to the arrears, leaving the trust with no choice but to commence the current action”.
“That’s absurd,” says Sam, in response to the solicitor’s claim. He accepts he has not been paying the rent since last July, but says there was an agreement in principle back then for the lease to be signed over to a new company (set up by Sam) and that there was a payment arrangement built into that agreement. Before that agreement, he says he had paid out £18,750 in rent in 2023 for the six months up to July. In the two years before that (2021 and 2022), the previous tenants had paid a yearly total of £16,000 in rent.
Sam also says that while the dispute has been ongoing, he has offered to pay six months’ rent in return for being able to reopen the pub, but that an agreement was never reached.
Rumour and counter-rumour ran rife in a village as small as Ashby Folville, where the pub is joined only by the church (a Grade I-listed building dating to 1220), cricket club and village hall as places of note.
Since his arrival, Sam has greased the wheels of that rumour mill no end. There have been whispers about him being a drug dealer, being in the country illegally and making threats.
When such gossip got back around to him, Sam was shocked.
“There are hate groups in every country,” he says. “People in this community are still terrified of stereotypes. And I don’t blame them because I understand if you don’t leave your community, you don’t know any better.”
Towards the end of October 2023, the pub was forced to close after Catherine Kersey, the designated premises supervisor (DPS) — someone who has day-to-day responsibility for the running of the business and is responsible for authorising the alcohol sales — resigned.
To appoint a replacement, who Sam proposed would be his pub manager, James Sheraton, Sam needed Stroud and the AFLT to apply for the process, but by that point court proceedings were underway, so the trust says it could not help without prejudicing its attempts to forfeit the lease.
Without a DPS in place, The Carington Arms was unable to sell alcohol legally and Sam was left with no option other than to close the doors.
Sam’s next move was to post a message on The Carington Arms’ Facebook page in November explaining why he had been forced to close. He included screenshots of email exchanges between himself, Stroud, various other members of the AFLT and the estate agent from the land-management company.
It is one of those emails, sent by Sam to Stroud in August, that he believes was a catalyst for everything that followed.
In it, Sam outlined the ways he had been treated differently from the previous directors of the business, including having paid the AFLT “almost three times as much in my first six months as (previous owner) Catherine Kersey had paid over her last six months. This however has not stopped the repeated mentioning the threat (sic) of losing the lease, constantly letting me know trustees are not happy, and ultimately causing me to constantly operate under the fear of potentially losing my very business. I have allowed this treatment up until this point but I am done.
“It is absolutely clear the company has been treated differently since my taking over, so I have listed the only things that have changed. The first difference is that I am American, and the second is that I am Black.”
Lorne Sam poses for his Denver Broncos headshot in 2008 (Getty Images)
Stroud’s response was unequivocal denial. “Any suggestions of you being treated differently is incredulous beyond words,” he wrote. “Any suggestions of you being treated differently because of the colour of your skin or nationality is deeply offensive, massively upsetting and ludicrous. We have friends of all different races and from all over the world.”
The following month (November 2023), the case was first heard in court, when a pathway to trial was set.
Sam’s journey from top-flight American football player to landlord of an English village pub can be traced to 2009, when his NFL dream turned sour.
“I was still young. I was a year and a half in (to his NFL career, having previously played American football at university level in Texas), trying to fight for roster spots. I’d already had three foot surgeries, one ankle surgery, torn intercostal muscles in my ribs, stress fracture in my vertebra and two third-degree shoulder separations. All by my early twenties.
“Then add the damage to my body to the concussions I’d had — there were times in university when I don’t even remember most of the game, but I would have phenomenal stats. So yes, it’s fun, yes, you get to be in the spotlight, but then you see these guys with massive emotional issues taking their own lives later on, being in abusive relationships; they lose everything that they are.
“So I decided to walk away. Which was difficult because I didn’t make the money I was hoping to make.”
A friend was playing American football for a team in Austria and told Sam about a website where you could upload your CV for teams in Europe to potentially sign you. Best of all, the friend said it wasn’t hard on the body. Sam listed himself as available and within hours had multiple offers. He started in Italy before moving to England in 2010 to play for the Coventry Jets in the British American Football Association National Leagues (BAFANL).
It was there he connected with Guy Kersey, a businessman who was chairman of another BAFANL team, the Leicester Falcons. The pair stayed in touch after Sam returned to the U.S., where he was forging a new career in hospitality and consulting, working as a sales rep for wholesale restaurant food distributor Sysco. When Kersey got in touch to ask Sam if he could help find him some kitchen staff for pubs he owned in the UK, it was the start of a conversation that eventually led to Kersey asking if Sam would be interested in buying them instead.
He initially offered Sam two pubs in the Midlands area, the Dew Drop and The Queen’s Head. But he also owned another in the region, The Carington Arms.
“I knew something was off because why are you keeping one pub and getting rid of the others? Well, it was because this was their honey hole. This was the one that made all the money. So I told him, ‘The deal is, I’ll take those two if I get this one’.”
Now Sam says he’s “lost essentially everything, on paper”, estimating the figure at around £110,000 ($138,700). He’s had to sell the company van to cover costs and when we met he was on the verge of selling one of three commercial ovens in the pub’s kitchen.
“They’ve completely destroyed the business,” he says of Stroud and the AFLT. “Now it doesn’t matter if I stay or not, I have nothing to stay for. So they destroy the pub’s reputation, they destroy my name, the village flees away from me. It makes it so emotionally difficult to be here.
“But I’m bred a little bit different. Somebody has to do it, because that type of behaviour is just… for lack of better words it’s unacceptable. It’s inhumane.”
A few days before our meeting, Sam has a conversation with his older sister, who lives in his hometown of Atlanta, during which she pleads with him, “Just, please, be safe.”
“I’ve had threats,” he explains. As an incomer in dispute with his landlord, sections of the local community have taken against him: “There was a KKK meme that was going around about me, being spread through people’s Snapchat. I’ve been called n***** through messages and the person thought it was funny.
“I grew up in the (American) south, where the KKK isn’t anything to joke about. So when a KKK meme goes around, it makes you wonder.”
Sam notified Leicestershire Police about the messages and had the screenshots, but he was told there was not enough evidence for them to pursue a charge of malicious communication. When contacted by The Athletic, a Leicestershire Police spokesperson said: “Police received a report of harassment in November 2023 in relation to alleged racist comments made. Following a number of inquiries, which include numerous attempts to speak to the complainant, we have been unable to progress the complaint and it will be held on record should further evidence come to light.”
More than 20 years and 4,000 miles separate Sam from his school days in Georgia, but those messages have the power to erase those divides. They take him back to the day he went outside during the lunch break to find someone had spray-painted the word “n*****” across the side of his middle school building.
“I’ve grown up experiencing race issues, but this is by far the worst because it was so covert.”
Before the fallout with Stroud, Sam felt he had become part of the community and forged relationships that have since been broken.
Members of the Quorn Hunt (one of the oldest fox hunts operating anywhere in England) would head to the pub after meets. The local Young Farmers Club were visitors two or three times a week. Sam sponsored them and on the day we meet, he is wearing a jumper they had made for him, bearing his name and an embroidered image of the pub on the front.
When he first took over the pub, Sam was approached by members of the community who had limited (or even no) experience of meeting Black people and was more than happy to answer their questions: “What am I allowed to say? What terms are derogatory?”. One member of the Young Farmers Club told him it was normal to hear the N-word used among his family.
“It was nice watching these different things take place, and being invited to go hang out with them and have drinks in Melton (Mowbray) or having them make me a jumper. Watching a community evolve was special,” he says.
“There are going to be rough patches. There are going to be misspoken words. There’s going to be some offence found in something. But you have to really examine people’s hearts, where they’re coming from and why they said it.”
It was the locals who told Sam that, during the Second World War, the United States’ armed forces had a base in the grounds of Ashby Folville Manor. At that time, such camps were segregated.
“I guarantee you those Black military men never would have thought a Black guy would have one of these pubs years down the road. You have to smile at how things happen by accident and what it can do to benefit the community.”
Sam is preparing for his legal case to be heard (Sarah Shephard/The Athletic)
On the day we visit, not many within that community want to talk. Some say they never frequented the pub much anyway, others that it’s a matter for “him and the owner” to sort out among themselves. “Most people just want to walk away from the situation now,” says one woman at a pub in Gaddesby, a village just down the road, where many former Carington Arms drinkers have now become regulars.
In Twyford, a five-minute drive in the opposite direction, a member of staff in the village pub is more vocal. He asks not to be named but says that on the whole, people in Twyford, Ashby Folville and Gaddesby are “with Alex, not with Lorne”.
Why?
“Lorne has done it the wrong way. He should have talked to Alex a bit more thoroughly on all this, not putting it all on social media and showing to the world that he’s meant to be a bad person, which he’s not.
“It’s not a good thing to kind of put on someone that they’re… I wouldn’t say a racist but that they treat… even though he weren’t being discriminated.”
Asked whether he feels there is any way back for Sam at The Carington Arms, the man looks doubtful.
“I think that it’s been burnt bridges now, sadly.”
Sam says it is not in his nature to walk away, though: “My parents didn’t raise me that way.
“Do I love the people out here? Absolutely. Do I think all the people out here are racist? Absolutely not. I’ve met some phenomenal people, and that’s been twisted to make it look like I think all rural people are racist. But I don’t have time or effort to stroke egos to get them to come back to me when they jumped ship so fast. I don’t blame them, but I also don’t want someone 10 years down the road to have to still go through this.
“If one time a community could see someone like me succeed, it empowers the women, it empowers the minorities, it empowers the lowest-level worker. And that for me is enough.
“Even if I don’t win the whole thing, even if I lose the lease but I win on the aspect of exposing behaviour, for me that gives enough. Then eventually, somewhere down the road, this no longer is a rough spot for someone to pass. This just turns into another beautiful place in England where anybody is welcome. Because you sit out here and it’s hard to find anything as beautiful countryside like this. But there are no minorities (in the area). They just don’t belong. And it shouldn’t be that way. We’re all the same. We bleed the same. We breathe the same. We just look a little different. So that is why.”
Our conversation over, we head back out into the winter sunshine, just as the village postman pulls up in his red Royal Mail van.
“Is it open?” he asks hopefully, peering inside as he pops some envelopes through the crack in the door.
Chris Herring, ESPN Senior WriterMay 10, 2024, 08:00 AM ET
In the two decades that passed between coach Jeff Van Gundy’s resignation in 2001 and the end of the 2020-2021 NBA season, no franchise spent more money, lost more games or won fewer playoff series than the lowly New York Knicks.
But now, the team is in the postseason for the third time in four years and the tide has finally shifted, with the organization winning a first-round series for just the fifth time in 25 years. This shift is about more than playoff success, though. Look closely: The past six years have slowly signaled a new era of Knicks basketball. Intentional or not, it has been one defined by steady progress; smart player and organizational development; identity; and culture — after decades of wild free agent spending and misses; coaching changes; and negative headlines — all potentially leading to a period of sustained winning for the first time since the turn of the century.
Here are the eight touchpoint moves and moments that have fueled the Knicks’ resurrection.
Jan. 30, 2019: The Knicks trade franchise cornerstone Kristaps Porzingis
It raised eyebrows when a team in the midst of a 17-win campaign moved on from its best young player, but that’s exactly what the Knicks did in trading their 23-year-old star.
The 7-foot-3 center, easily the most talented homegrown player the Knicks had rostered since Patrick Ewing, had torn an ACL the previous season and was due a massive raise of $31.6 million per year that offseason. As such, the organization dealt him to the Dallas Mavericks for a pair of first-round picks and Dennis Smith Jr., and unloaded a pair of players on bloated contracts, Courtney Lee and Tim Hardaway Jr., who were making $12 million and nearly $18 million per year, respectively. The move, made by then-general manager Scott Perry, allowed the Knicks to have up to $71 million in cap space that summer.
Porzingis could win a title as the third star in Boston this season. And Smith didn’t pan out for New York. Still, it was a positive reset for the Knicks, who not only cleared their books of bad deals but added some assets moving forward — unimaginable priorities for the organization for much of the prior two decades.
Success can come in many forms. This form … was luck. Many Knicks fans hoped that when the club traded Porzingis, it was because the team had intel that Durant, and possibly Irving, too, were coming to New York.
They did — to Brooklyn. Durant and Irving famously joined the up-and-coming Nets, and Durant jabbed at his New York counterpart, saying, “The cool thing right now is not the Knicks.”
The Knicks, largely panned in free agency that summer after whiffing on Durant, pivoted to land forward Julius Randle — a player who’d never been an All-Star but who had loads of upside.
In his five seasons with New York, Randle has averaged 23 points, 10 rebounds and nearly 5 assists, and has been named to the All-NBA team twice — incredible production and value for a player earning just under $30 million per season.
March 2, 2020: The Knicks hire former player agent Leon Rose as team president, and Rose eventually hires Tom Thibodeau as coach
Owner Jim Dolan took a different approach in hiring Rose to take over the Knicks’ basketball operations — a former player agent who’d never run an NBA team. Then, as Rose’s first acquisition of note, he hired the defense-minded Thibodeau, immediately giving the Knicks an identity.
Coming into that first year, New York’s developing roster was pegged at a 22.5 over/under total but shocked the league with 41 victories and a playoff berth, the Knicks’ first since 2013. Thibodeau earned Coach of the Year honors in his first season at the helm.
May 2020: Rose revamps the front office and expands the organization’s player-development staff
The two elements that contributed most to the Knicks’ yearslong malaise were poor salary cap management and seemingly nonexistent player development. If and when young players showed promise, they often were shuttled out of town as soon to bring in the next big name. Consider this: The Knicks went a whopping 23 years — from 1999 with Charlie Ward to 2022 with RJ Barrett — without extending one of their first-round draft picks on a multiyear contract.
That carousel has slowed down considerably in recent years since the team overhauled its front office during the 2020 offseason.
Brock Aller, who’d developed a reputation for his salary-cap wizardry with the Cleveland Cavaliers, was brought in as the team’s vice president of strategy. Meanwhile, Walt Perrin, who served as the vice president of player personnel for 19 years with the Utah Jazz, and Frank Zanin, who came over from the Oklahoma City Thunder, where he’d served as the assistant GM of pro personnel, took over the Knicks’ college and pro scouting, respectively.
Later in summer 2020, the club brought in a pair of assistants in Kenny Payne (who’d worked alongside then-Kentucky coach John Calipari for years in helping develop a number of prospects) and Johnnie Bryant (who’d worked in player development under Quin Snyder in Utah) in hopes of generating more tangible growth from New York’s youngsters.
Barrett, Mitchell Robinson, Obi Toppin, Immanuel Quickley, Quentin Grimes and Miles McBride were all drafted between 2018 and 2022, and each of them were — or, in Robinson’s and McBride’s cases, are — meaningful contributors in New York’s slim rotation. “They’re easily top five in that department lately,” said one Western Conference executive of the Knicks’ recent player development.
“You create an identity of who you are and who you want to be, and then you sign to it, trade to it, draft to it and develop it,” one member of New York’s personnel group said, in explaining the club’s approach.
“You need all those parts for it to work, and the developmental part was huge for us.”
Less than two years ago, there was ample criticism and debate about whether the Knicks had overpaid Brunson by signing him to a four-year, $104 million free agent deal.
Now, with Brunson on the cusp of superstardom, his contract is perhaps the best bargain in the league. In becoming the first player in NBA history with four consecutive games of 40 points and five assists in the playoffs, the 27-year-old Brunson has surpassed everyone’s wildest expectations. And the southpaw has forced everyone, including some within the organization, to rethink what might be possible for the Knicks in the near future — even with Randle out, and even without the Knicks using their collection of draft assets as part of a trade for another star.
Sept. 1, 2022: The Knicks fall short in trading for Donovan Mitchell
No, the Knicks haven’t cashed in their future picks for a top-15 star. But they considered it shortly after acquiring Brunson.
They tried, and failed, to get Mitchell from Utah, reportedly offering two unprotected first-round picks along with players such as Barrett and Quickley, among other offers. But Rose and the Knicks’ front office held firm and declined to meet Utah’s asking price — reportedly three firsts, plus Barrett and Grimes — prompting the Jazz to make a deal with the Cavaliers instead.
As subtle as it might seem, doing so, and losing out on a max-level star, signaled massive organizational growth. For years, the Knicks caved and gave up too much in high-level decisions like these.
There was the deal in 2011, in which New York sent its first-round draft pick (which later became Jamal Murray) and a third of its budding roster to Denver in exchange for Nuggets superstar Carmelo Anthony, who could have joined the Knicks as a free agent the following offseason. And then, in July 2013, the Knicks famously made a deal with Toronto, giving up a first-round pick (which eventually was used to trade for Kawhi Leonard), two second-round picks and Steve Novak, who’d led the NBA in 3-point percentage the year before. In return, New York got former No. 1 overall pick Andrea Bargnani, an injury-prone player whose 3-point shot had regressed so badly that the Raptors were reportedly considering waiving him that summer if they couldn’t find a taker.
This time, with Mitchell, the Knicks drew a line in the sand and had the discipline not to cross it.
April 26, 2023: New York eliminates Mitchell and the Cavaliers in five games in the opening round of the playoffs
Perhaps the best validation of the Knicks’ choice to pass on Mitchell was their first-round domination of the Cavs last season.
Despite Cleveland having home-court advantage in the series, New York bullied the Cavs — particularly on the offensive glass — highlighting the traits that have long been hallmarks of Thibodeau teams. The series victory marked the Knicks’ first in 10 years, dating back to the Anthony era.
December 30, 2023: The Knicks trade for defensive standout OG Anunoby
Go back to last season’s trade deadline, and you’ll see the scuttlebutt: A couple of teams, at least, were willing to hand the Raptors three first-round picks to land Anunoby.
Yet again, the Knicks were atypically patient, and they were able to snag him this season without surrendering a single pick. Instead, they developed their young prospects — in this case Quickley and Barrett — to land the star stopper. The acquisition moved the needle immediately for the Knicks. Their defense improved when he was on the court, from 115 points surrendered per 100 possessions without him (19th in the NBA) to just 100.9 points allowed per 100 with him (best in the NBA). But so did the Knicks’ offense, as a result of the spacing and versatility the free-agent-to-be has brought to New York. Anunoby registered as a positive plus/minus in all 23 of his regular-season appearances with the Knicks, and had by far the NBA’s best per-game plus/minus once the calendar flipped to 2024. Including the playoffs, New York has gone 26-5 with him in the lineup so far.
