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  • February viewing guide: Champions League, Premier League, LaLiga, AFCON and more

    February viewing guide: Champions League, Premier League, LaLiga, AFCON and more

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    • Bill Connelly, ESPN Staff WriterJan 31, 2024, 09:11 AM ET

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        Bill Connelly is a staff writer for ESPN.com.

    Now is when the rubber meets the road. After a January loaded with (often delightful) cup ties, endless transfer rumors (most of which went nowhere), and lots of cold rain, February raises the stakes pretty significantly in Europe.

    The UEFA competitions return — the respective first legs of the Champions League round of 16 come in the middle of the month — and from England (first-place Liverpool at third-place Arsenal) to Germany (second-place Bayern Munich at first-place Bayer Leverkusen) to Spain (first-place Girona at second-place Real Madrid) to Italy (second-place Juventus at first-place Inter), we’ve got a lot of enormous league matches popping up in a short amount of time. And if that’s not enough, the chaotic-as-ever Africa Cup of Nations is reaching the final rounds as well.

    – Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga & more (U.S.)

    It’s a lot, so let’s walk through five(ish) matches to track in each major country/competition.

    UEFA competitions

    The Champions League indeed returns, and the round of 24 for the Europa League and the Europa Conference League get underway on Feb. 15 as well. Obviously, you should pay attention to all eight UCL round-of-16 matches, but some might be more interesting than others.

    Manchester City are the overall tournament favorites and should handle Copenhagen with relative ease, but two secondary favorites — Real Madrid and Bayern — could find things awkward with road tests. RB Leipzig have been all over the map in 2023-24 and need to recover from some dismal recent form but boast plenty of upside; Lazio, meanwhile, have taken 13 points from their past five league matches to rise to within two points of a top-four spot. Bayern haven’t really seen fifth gear in a while either.

    The second set of Champions League matches, on Feb. 20 and 21, features maybe the most fascinating R16 ties — Atletico-Inter and Barca-Napoli — plus, in Porto, another chance for an underdog to make an early home statement. There’s plenty to track here, but you probably didn’t need me to tell you that.

    England

    This coming Sunday comes one of the biggest remaining matches of the Premier League campaign. The computers and oddsmakers consider the EPL title race a two-teamer between Manchester City and Liverpool — Opta’s power ratings give the former a 59% chance at the title, the latter a 37% chance, and the other 18 teams in the league a combined 5% chance. Arsenal’s odds took a major nosedive with the Gunners’ back-to-back December losses to West Ham and Fulham, but they still trail Liverpool by only five points and have time to either insert themselves back into the race or, with matches against Liverpool and City (Mar. 30) remaining, decide who gets to win.

    Liverpool enter February with a shot at lifting four trophies in Jürgen Klopp’s final four months as manager, but the picture could change significantly by March. The Feb. 4 trip to the Emirates Stadium will have a huge impact on the Reds’ EPL title odds, and in four days late in the month they’ll play in the EFL Cup final against Chelsea and in the FA Cup fifth round against Watford or Southampton. They’ll be favored in both matches, but this will be a pretty defining month in the final chapter of the Klopp-Liverpool story.

    – O’Hanlon: Here’s who Liverpool should hire after Klopp (E+)

    And of course, let’s not forget everyone’s new favorite club, Maidstone United. The Stones took down second-division Ipswich Town last weekend to become the first sixth-division club to reach the fifth round since the 1970s, and they’ll face another second-division side, either Wednesday or Coventry, at the end of the month.

    Germany

    The first 10 days of the month are enormous in Deutschland. First, we’ve got the last two quarterfinals of what has been a truly chaotic DFB-Pokal. Two second-division teams – Fortuna Dusseldorf (which defeated St. Pauli via penalties on Tuesday) and either Kaiserslautern or Hertha Berlin (they play Wednesday, live on ESPN+) — are already guaranteed semifinal bids, and the only two top-of-the-first-division teams left in the field, first-place Leverkusen and third-place Stuttgart, play each other next week.

    Meanwhile, third-division Saarbrucken, who have already taken down Bayern Munich and Eintracht Frankfurt, try to keep their miraculous run going against a Gladbach team that is worse than Bayern and Eintracht. Major “magic of the cup” vibes in Germany.

    Just four days after hosting Stuttgart, Bayer Leverkusen will play an even bigger match, and it honestly might be the biggest remaining match of the Bundesliga campaign. Bayern come to town currently trailing the Werkself by just two points, and although the German giants do have to face bogey team Gladbach this coming weekend, it’s fair to say that if Leverkusen want to remain on the front foot in the title race, they need a result in this one pretty badly.

    – Stream the Bundesliga on ESPN+ all season long

    That means they’ll have to play better than they have since the league’s restart — they needed late magic to secure tight wins over Augsburg and RB Leipzig, and they came up empty in the magic department in a 0-0 draw with Gladbach last weekend. They’ve been just scraping by with several key players participating in the Africa Cup of Nations, and although that’s wrapping up, star scorer Victor Boniface is out for a few more weeks with injury. They missed him greatly last weekend.

    Spain

    Granted, Barcelona and Real Madrid are always the primary focuses of attention in Spain, but February belongs to Girona and Atletico Madrid. Including a Feb. 3 match against Real Sociedad, Girona will face three of the top six teams in the LaLiga table this month. They are currently in first, a point ahead of Real Madrid (who have a game in hand), but Opta’s power ratings aren’t yet buying what the Gironistes are selling. They give Real Madrid a 93% chance of taking the title. But if Girona come up big this month, the odds will have no choice but to shift a decent amount toward the underdogs.

    – Stream LaLiga all season long on ESPN+

    Atleti, meanwhile, are in an interesting spot. They have lost to Barcelona, Athletic Club and Girona over the past two months, which has left them in a precarious position, clinging to a top-four position by just two points over Athletic (and tied with a flailing Barca). But a Copa del Rey win over Real Madrid has positioned them as the favorites in that competition — they have lifted that trophy just once since 1996, taking down Real Madrid in extra time in the 2013 final — and while they’re the underdogs in the Champions League round of 16 against Inter, it’s not the least manageable draw imaginable.

    By the end of February, this season could be putting off either precarious or triumphant vibes.

    Italy

    Liverpool vs. Arsenal is huge, but it might not even be the biggest match this coming Sunday. Juventus, unbeaten since September and unburdened by European play, have climbed to within one point of Inter in the Serie A race, even though Inter also haven’t lost in league play since September. The Nerazzurri do have a game in hand, but a loss on Sunday could significantly change the calculus.

    Meanwhile, the race for fourth place is almost equally gripping. Granted, Italy has solid odds of claiming a fifth bid in next year’s Champions League, but it’s still only four for now, and the gap between fourth-place Atalanta and 10th-place Torino is just five points. Lazio and Roma are both rebounding from poor starts; Fiorentina and Bologna still have time to bounce back after a poor January for both; and somehow Napoli, stuck in hangover mode for months, remain only five points outside the top four.

    Look at it this way: Serie A might have more plot twists remaining than any other major European league.

    Elsewhere in Europe

    We’re lacking for gripping title races outside of Europe’s four biggest leagues. PSG lead Nice by six points in France; PSV lead Feyenoord by 12 in the Netherlands; and, although they’ve failed to seal the deal before, Union Saint-Gilloise currently boast an eight-point lead over Anderlecht in Belgium.

    Granted, PSG’s form remains an interesting topic because of how it might translate to Champions League play — a test against fifth-place Lille could be telling ahead of the round of 16 — but the most interesting February match in France might be between seventh-place Marseille and 16th-place Lyon. It’s one of the most heated derbies in Europe (too heated, actually), and it means even more than usual for both teams. Lyon are still struggling to get their head above water in their relegation scrap; after winning three straight in league play, they allowed three goals in losses to Le Havre and to Rennes. Marseille, meanwhile, sit five points outside of the top four after three consecutive league draws.

    PSV play their own always-heated rivalry match this Saturday, visiting the Johan Cruyff Arena to face an Ajax team that finally has its act together. After a dreadful start, they’ve taken 29 points from their past 11 league matches to rise back to fifth in the Eredivisie, just four points behind third-place Twente. PSV’s league lead is safe, but they could hand Ajax a huge setback on Saturday.

    We do have a couple of interesting league races to follow. Sporting CP lead Benfica by just one point in Portugal (and Porto by four), although none of the top three play each other in February. And in Austria, three-time defending champion RB Salzburg lead Sturm Graz by only two points. A loss on Feb. 9 would make things awfully interesting.

    Women’s club soccer

    February doesn’t offer the same Champions League stakes on the women’s side — the group stage wraps up this week, and the quarterfinals don’t start until mid-March — but that’s fine. There’s plenty to track in the domestic races.

    PSG desperately need a win in Lyon to have any hope of a title race in France, as Lyon have won all 13 of their league matches by a combined 51-6 to hold what feels like a commanding lead (even though PSG have dropped only five points). In Germany, Wolfsburg lead Bayern by one point and Eintracht Frankfurt by five at the midway point, while in England, one match past the midway point, Chelsea hold a three-point advantage over Manchester City and Arsenal.

    In Spain, we never get an actual title race — Barcelona have won their 14 league matches by a combined 65-3 — but Real Madrid (33 points), Madrid CFF (31), Levante (31), and Atletico Madrid (30) are in a heated battle for second, at least. That makes Levante vs. Madrid pretty big.

    International soccer

    • Feb. 2-3: AFCON and Asian Cup quarterfinals

    • Feb. 6: Asian Cup semifinals

    • Feb. 7: AFCON semifinals

    • Feb. 10: Asian Cup final

    • Feb. 11: AFCON final

    January’s two out-of-window international tournaments are reaching their closing stages, and they’ve been highly enjoyable if you like mess.

    Heading into the Africa Cup of Nations, the betting favorites were Morocco, Senegal, Ivory Coast, Algeria, Nigeria and Egypt. Of those six, only Morocco and Senegal won their groups. Algeria finished last and failed to advance, and Ivory Coast, the tournament hosts, finished third in their group after a dreadful 4-0 loss to Equatorial Guinea. They fired their coach thereafter and qualified for the round of 16 only when Ghana blew a two-goal lead to Mozambique in stoppage time in their final group stage game. Of course, they then proceeded to beat defending champions Senegal in penalties, making it the seventh straight AFCON that the reigning champs failed to reach even the quarterfinals.

    With Egypt falling to DR Congo in penalties, we’re looking at these quarterfinal pairings, and incredibly, none of these teams reached the quarterfinals in the last AFCON back in 2021:

    What happens next is anyone’s guess.

    It’s been a bit more orderly in Qatar, where the betting favorites all advanced to the knockouts in the Asian Cup. A second-place finish in their group, however, meant South Korea had to face Saudi Arabia in the round of 16; although they prevailed on penalties, they opened the door for some interesting quarterfinal matchups. They’ll face another relative favorite, Australia, in one quarterfinal while underdogs Jordan and Tajikistan meet in another.

    A favorable quarterfinal draw might make Qatar the favorite at this point?

    February’s slate

    Out of pure curiosity, I wanted to lay out the matches above in chronological order, just to get a feel for the month ahead. Twenty of February’s 29 days are accounted for with at least one match, and that doesn’t even include the two Thursdays with Europa and Conference League action. Buckle up.

    Feb. 2: Asian Cup and AFCON quarterfinals

    Feb. 3: PSV Eindhoven at Ajax, Asian Cup and AFCON quarterfinals

    Feb. 4: Liverpool at Arsenal, Atletico Madrid at Real Madrid, Juventus at Inter Milan, Lazio at Atalanta, Marseille at Lyon, Gent at Anderlecht

    Feb. 6: VfB Stuttgart at Bayer Leverkusen (DFB Pokal), Real Sociedad at Mallorca (Copa del Rey), Asian Cup semifinals

    Feb. 7: Borussia Monchengladbach at Saarbrucken (DFB Pokal), Athletic Club at Atletico Madrid (Copa del Rey), AFCON semifinals

    Feb. 9: Freiburg at Borussia Dortmund, Sturm Graz at Salzburg

    Feb. 10: Bayern Munich at Bayer Leverkusen, Girona at Real Madrid, Inter Milan at Roma, PSG (W) at Lyon (W), Asian Cup finals

    Feb. 11: Manchester United at Aston Villa, Napoli at AC Milan, Lille at PSG, Eintracht Frankfurt (W) at Wolfsburg (W), AFCON finals

    Feb. 13: Real Madrid at RB Leipzig (Champions League)

    Feb. 14: Bayern Munich at Lazio (Champions League)

    Feb. 16: Manchester City (W) at Chelsea (W)

    Feb. 17: Manchester United (W) at Arsenal (W)

    Feb. 18: Girona at Athletic Club, Levante (W) at Madrid CFF (W)

    Feb. 20: Atletico Madrid at Inter Milan (Champions League)

    Feb. 21: Arsenal at Porto (Champions League), Barcelona at Napoli (Champions League)

    Feb. 24: Newcastle United at Arsenal, RB Leipzig at Bayern Munich

    Feb. 25: Liverpool vs. Chelsea (EFL Cup final)

    Feb. 27: Mallorca at Real Sociedad (Copa del Rey)

    Feb. 28: Atalanta at Inter Milan, Maidstone United at Sheffield Wednesday/Coventry City (FA Cup)

    Feb. 29: Atletico Madrid at Athletic Club (Copa del Rey)

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    Bill Connelly

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  • (Base) Path of totality: Guardians’ home opener on collision course with solar eclipse in Cleveland

    (Base) Path of totality: Guardians’ home opener on collision course with solar eclipse in Cleveland

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    CLEVELAND — Talk about high drama.

    By the time the first pitch is thrown at the Cleveland Guardians’ home opener on April 8 at Progressive Field, fans will have seen something more unusual than a no-hitter, more rare than a perfect game and astronomically more exciting than an unassisted triple play.

    It will be truly an out of this world moment.

    At 3:13 p.m. EDT, Cleveland will experience a total solar eclipse — a once-in-generations event — for the first time since 1806, 13 years before the birth of Abner Doubleday, the Civil War hero some have credited with inventing baseball.

    The alignment of sun, earth and moon will plunge the city into darkness, and as long as the maddeningly unpredictable Northeast Ohio weather cooperates, people will view a spectacle that lasts just under four minutes but occurs only three times in a 638-year span above the city.

    The next one isn’t until 2444.

    “It’s a really, really, really big deal,” said Jay Ryan, a self-described “astronomy nerd” and eclipse educator. “It’s hard to communicate to people how big of a deal this is. They’ve seen a partial eclipse in the past, and were like, meh. This is breathtaking.”

    Undoubtedly exciting for many, the eclipse does create some logistical concerns for others, especially the Guardians, who are trying to decide an ideal time to start the opener while balancing transportation, parking and other concerns.

    Cleveland will be jam packed.

    Officials are estimating 200,000 visitors will descend upon the city strictly to view the eclipse, with 50,000 expected to attend an event at the Great Lakes Science Center, where NASA is setting up one of three national broadcasting hubs.

    Throw in any college basketball fans still in town from the NCAA Women’s Final Four from April 5-7, on top of the 35,000 coming to see the Guardians game, and downtown Cleveland will be bursting at the seams.

    The Guardians have started their home openers in recent years with a 4:10 p.m. first pitch. This year, though, that falls in the partial-eclipse window when fans may still be distracted by the overhead phenomenon and not focused on seeing All-Star third baseman José Ramírez step into the batter’s box against the Chicago White Sox.

    The team has spent months weighing whether to embrace the eclipse and open the ballpark early to allow fans to watch it together — an opening act on opening day — or wait until it’s over and play a night game.

    The Guardians, who start on an 11-game trip, are expected to announce their decision on the opener in coming days.

    Ryan believes the social element of the eclipse can’t be underestimated. As he excitedly described the moon’s 124-mile shadow gradually fading and then temporarily extinguishing the sun’s brightness, Ryan said the moment before darkness is overwhelming.

    “The color of the sky goes from bluish, grayish to black,” he said. “And then, boom! Totality. You are in nighttime. It’s heart pounding. It’s exciting. People are screaming. I’ll tell you what, to be with a sports crowd, just imagine someone hitting a grand slam. To be down there with a bunch of fans would be great.”

    There could be one problem: Cleveland’s wacky weather.

    “You had to go there,” Ryan said.

    The Guardians have dealt with snow on opening day before. In 2007, their first four games in Cleveland were snowed out from April 6-9, forcing the team to play its “home” opener in Milwaukee.

    Ryan has been closely monitoring the long-term forecast and Cleveland’s weather history. He feels somewhat encouraged that April 8 in 2020 and 2023 there were “blue, crystal-clear skies,” while also noting that wasn’t the case in 2021 and 2022.

    “It’s a coin toss,” he said with a laugh.

    Who knows. Maybe the eclipse could be a sign of something bigger on the way in Cleveland, which hasn’t celebrated a World Series title since 1948.

    “If we get a beautiful day,” Ryan said. “This is going to beat the 1948 World Series.”

    ___

    AP MLB: https://apnews.com/MLB

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  • Rivals.com – Wake Forest wins out for productive pass rusher Cole Funderburk

    Rivals.com – Wake Forest wins out for productive pass rusher Cole Funderburk

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    The early makeup of Wake Forest football’s class of 2025 is rooted in the Sunshine State and Peach State, and its latest addition continues to the trend.

    On Wednesday afternoon, Suwanee (Ga.) North Gwinnett defensive end Cole Funderburk went public with his pledge to Dave Clawson’s program fresh off of another trip to Winston Salen. The Demon Deacons won out for the productive player over double-digit options.

    “They’ve been on me since my freshman year,” he told Rivals. “They have kept everything so consistent and straight up to me. The relationship I have with the staff there is second to none, they’ve all showed so much love for years now and it’s shown.

    “Coach (Will) Smart and Coach (Dave) Cohen are my guys there. There is so much trust because everything they say makes sense, and it’s beneficial to me. That’s why I trust them, even if it’s not what I want to hear, they always have the best words.”

    Funderburk becomes the fourth early pledge for Clawson and company and the third on defense thus far. He has had a strong run at NGHS as a pass rusher, collecting more than 30 sacks since the beginning of 2022.

    Named All-State by multiple outlets, the junior continues to add scholarship offers during the contact period. But the relationships and trips to Wake Forest have long created comfort.

    “Winston Salem is just like my town but a little smaller,” he said. “Really cool people, very nice areas and a great school, just a lot smaller which I can appreciate.”

    On the field, the newest Demon Deacon won’t pivot much from what he has shown on Friday nights once het gets into the ACC.

    “They want me to play there as a 5 tech field end,” Funcerburk said. “I feel as I can go in there and play early and just grind. The way the coaches coach is how I like, just tough coaches and strong.

    “Fans should know there gonna get the best three to five years out of me. And I will make an impact and be the hardest worker they’ve had come through.”

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    John Garcia Jr., National Recruiting Analyst

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  • Luke Littler: How darts sensation ditched football ambitions to make his mark on the oche

    Luke Littler: How darts sensation ditched football ambitions to make his mark on the oche

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    Luke Littler’s decision to ditch his football ambitions for darts on the advice of his father could hardly have worked out better for him.

    As a child, he pictured excelling in sport with a ball at his feet, but it is with a dart in his hand where the Manchester United fan has established himself as a force after a fairytale run to this year’s PDC World Championship final.

    That was followed by Littler claiming his first senior television title at the Bahrain Darts Masters and earning a place in the Premier League, with his exploits catapulting darts back into the public consciousness too. Football’s loss, therefore, has very much been darts’ gain.

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    Can Manchester United’s Harry Maguire or Christian Eriksen beat Littler in the darts challenge?!

    “I didn’t want to do darts as a career, I wanted to play football,” Littler told Sky Sports.

    “I was around nine or 10 when my dad said, ‘stop playing football and focus on the darts’. I agreed with it, and it’s paid off.

    “I’d probably still be playing football now and have no interest in darts, but I’ve got a lot of interest and look where I am now.”

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    Humphries anticipates many future finals with Littler as the two prepare to face each other on the opening night of the Premier League

    Everything Littler has achieved so far is all the more impressive given he only turned 17 on January 21, although even then he did not have much time to celebrate due to his darting commitments.

    But on that occasion the glitz and glamour of PDC televised tournaments was replaced by representing Aintree in the Merseyside Super League, followed by going out for a quiet birthday meal with his family.

    “I actually played Super League,” Littler said. “I had a 32.32 [one-dart] average – that’s a 96.96 [three-dart average] – on my birthday, then me and my family went for a Chinese.

    “It was good to sit with the family and just chill with them and have a nice meal. I think I was spotted by two people, so that’s not too bad.

    “If I went out on a Friday or something it would be hectic.”

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    Littler stunned Nathan Aspinall in the opening leg of the quarter-finals of the Bahrain Darts Masters by hitting a nine-darter

    Much of the hard work for Littler and the other 127 PDC Tour Card holders takes place away from the public eye though, with appearances at the likes of the Winter Gardens and Alexandra Palace only secured thanks to performances behind closed doors in venues such as Wigan and Milton Keynes on the Pro Tour.

    Transferring form shown on the floor to the big stage, with the rowdy audiences and television cameras on players, has proven a leap some struggle with, but Littler believes his relaxed approach has helped him with that transition.

    “Any professional can throw high averages on the floor, so it’s all about taking it onto whatever stage you play on whether it’s Blackpool, Ally Pally – all these big stages,” Littler said.

    “I still say it now, it takes a few legs to go in even though I hit a nine-darter against Nathan [Aspinall] in the first leg [at the Bahrain Darts Masters].

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    Highlights of the 2024 World Darts Championship final between Humphries and Littler

    “I’ve always said that it takes a few legs to find your rhythm and settle and that’s what I did throughout the majority of the tournament.”

    The next big test for Littler comes with a World Championship final rematch against Luke Humphries on the opening night of the Premier League in Cardiff on Thursday – live on Sky Sports.

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    The Love The Darts panel discuss how Littler will take to life in the Premier League

    He is trying not to put too much pressure on himself to avenge the loss to Humphries in that final though, particularly after beating him en route to finishing runner-up to Michael van Gerwen in last weekend’s Dutch Masters, and is fully aware the rest of the competitors in this year’s Premier League will be gunning for him too.

    “They’re all going to come for me, but I’ve seen the line-up and I play Luke on the first night,” Littler said.

    “So, I’ll try to get my revenge on him and move to the semi-finals, but if it’s not to be then we go again for the remaining weeks.”

    Premier League Darts returns to Sky Sports on Thursday February 1 as Cardiff kicks off the 17-week extravaganza all the way through to the Play-Offs on Thursday May 23. Stream darts and more on Sky Sports without a contract through NOW.

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  • The art of the nutmeg

    The art of the nutmeg

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    Follow live coverage of transfer deadline day today

    “Nutmegs, for me, are a beautiful thing to do,” Javier Pastore, the former Argentina international, said.

    “They’re beautiful to watch. In fact, even when I get nutmegged myself I find that beautiful – and that actually happens quite a lot too!”.

    Whether using the inside or outside of the foot, or the sole or the heel, Pastore was an absolute master of slipping the ball between an opponent’s legs, creating the illusion that he was running through people at times.

    “I think it’s a skill that gives you a lot of possibilities as it eliminates an opposition player,” Pastore, who played for Paris Saint-Germain between 2011 and 2018, said. “I find it much easier to do a little nutmeg and run round the player than to try and dribble around him with the ball.”


    (Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images)

    Eliminates is a good word. Humiliates would be another.

    There are more elaborate skills on a football pitch, for sure, but it’s hard to think of any other trick that brings one player so much adulation and strips another of their dignity in quite the same way as a nutmeg.

    When Jude Bellingham nutmegged Conor Coady before scoring in his first England training session, everyone applauded the teenager. Everyone except Coady, obviously. “I thought, ‘I look like a right plant pot here!’,” Coady told the Ben Foster Podcast when discussing the incident.

    Clearly, some nutmegs are more flamboyant than others and, naturally, that brings a whole new level of misery to the player on the receiving end.

    The good news for Gary Cahill was that Raphinha’s quite brilliant 270-degree turn and nutmeg on him at Elland Road in 2021 came at a time when football was being played behind closed doors because of the global pandemic.

    The bad news for Cahill was that the footage went viral the next day.

    The word nutmeg has been part of football’s lexicon for as long as people can remember.

    According to Peter Seddon, author of the book Football Talk – The Language & Folklore Of The World’s Greatest Game, the origin of the term relates to the exportation of actual nutmegs between North America and England in the 1800s.

    “Nutmegs were such a valuable commodity that unscrupulous exporters were known to pull a fast one by mixing a helping of wooden replicas into the sacks being shipped to England,” Seddon wrote.

    “Being nutmegged soon came to imply stupidity on the part of the duped victim and cleverness on the part of the trickster.”

    All of which fits rather nicely.

    Nutmeg.

    Panna.

    Tunel.

    Cano.

    Petit Pont.

    Whatever the language, the message remains the same – essentially, you’re making your opponent look like a fool by putting the ball between their legs, even if that wasn’t even the motivation at the time.

    “I had a bad touch and I got myself into a situation where I had no other alternatives, so it wasn’t planned,” Scott Hiley tells The Athletic.

    “When I got control of the ball again, I didn’t know what to do. I knew I couldn’t just push it and run past him because he was younger and quicker than me. As I was trying to position the ball, I saw his legs were open, so I just had to pull the ball back and put it through.

    “It was me getting myself out of a situation more than me trying to be clever, to be honest.”

    Hiley was a non-League footballer for Exeter City at the time and had just nutmegged Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo live on television in the FA Cup. Nineteen years later, his phone still rings about that incident but his trumpet never blows.

    “I haven’t dined out on it. But it gets brought up a lot because of the YouTube video, and it’s got bigger and bigger over time because of Ronaldo’s profile,” Hiley adds. “I remember after the game, the newspapers wanted a picture of me with the boot, but I didn’t do any interviews about it. I felt that would be disrespectful.”

    At the highest level, the spotlight can be unforgiving for the player who has been embarrassed.

    Ask David Luiz about Luis Suarez nutmegging him prior to scoring both of his goals for Barcelona against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League in 2015 – “I didn’t have a great night,” the Brazilian said with no little understatement – or James Milner about Lionel Messi.

    “It’s very hard to run as fast as you can with your legs closed – as I found out,” Milner said in 2019.

    Milner was talking about a Champions League game four years earlier, when his Manchester City side played Barcelona at the Camp Nou and his attempts to close down Messi by the touchline ended badly. Messi deftly slipped the ball through his legs, Milner ended up scrambling on his hands, the home crowd roared, and Pep Guardiola, who was the Bayern Munich manager at the time and watching from up in the stands, covered his face. All around him, there was laughter.

    “He (Messi) can make you look stupid,” Milner reflected.

    Some players appear to be more susceptible to a nutmeg than others.

    Data gathered by StatsBomb shows that Liverpool’s Trent Alexander-Arnold, together with Aston Villa duo John McGinn and Matty Cash, have the dubious honour of being joint top of the Premier League’s “nutmegged” leaderboard this season.

    As for the Premier League’s nutmeg kings, it’s a four-way tie between Luton’s Chiedozie Ogbene, Eberechi Eze of Crystal Palace and the Arsenal wingers Gabriel Martinelli and Bukayo Saka, all of whom should be approached with feet never more than six inches apart.

    As silly as that last line sounds, Pastore recalled a Napoli defender coming up to him after a match and admitting he was so “scared” of being nutmegged by him that he had spent the entire game trying to keep his legs together. “That’s why I went past him so easily,” Pastore said.

    Probably the most unexpected name on that 2023-24 Premier League table of “nutmeggers” is Everton’s James Garner. The midfielder has a lovely knack of shaping to play a pass down the line, which entices his opponent to step across to attempt to make a block, and then tucking the ball between their legs and escaping. That mixture of disguise and deception opens up the whole pitch for Garner.

    In the first example below, he nutmegs Fulham’s Antonee Robinson and then slips the ball through Harrison Reed’s legs straight afterwards too.

    In the second clip, Garner leaves Villa’s Pau Torres looking like he is teetering on the edge of a cliff at one point.

    Nutmegs can become a game within a game for some players.

    When Tony Mowbray was Sunderland manager, their winger Patrick Roberts kept him updated with his nutmeg tally for the previous three matches. “I think we were at about 10 before the Reading game,” Mowbray said last season.

    A Twitter account, presumably run by someone with a calculator at hand, was dedicated to keeping count of the number of times that Adel Taarabt – a serial nutmegger if ever there was one – put a ball through an opponent’s legs while he was playing for Queens Park Rangers.

    “I’m not trying to take the p**s,” Taarabt said. “It’s a skill, it’s so natural.”

    As for Dele Alli, he gave the impression earlier in his career that he saw it as a personal challenge to nutmeg as many people as possible whenever he left the house.

    Adebayo Akinfenwa, a powerful lower-divisions striker nicknamed The Beast, was one of Dele’s first victims in professional football and spent 10 minutes trying to chase the teenager around the pitch afterwards. “I just wanted to body him,” Akinfenwa said.

    On another occasion, Dele tried to nutmeg Guardiola after the ball ran out of play by the dugout at the Etihad Stadium – he failed but the Manchester City manager saw the funny side.

    Then there was the time when Dele had the confidence and audacity to embarrass Real Madrid’s Luka Modric.

    Dele, for context, was 19 years old at the time and starting his first game for Spurs having moved from third-tier MK Dons, in front of 70,000 people at the Allianz Arena in Munich, in a pre-season tournament.

    “We had a laugh about it in the tunnel afterwards; he (Modric) was very good about it,” Dele said. “He shook my hand and said to me, ‘You little b***er’ – or something like that.

    “I didn’t shout ‘Nuts’ when I did it. I used to do that when I was young and got told off for it.”


    Dele nutmegging Huddersfield’s Collin Quaner during a league match in 2018 (Craig Mercer – CameraSport via Getty Images)

    Shouting “Nuts”, “Megs”, “Keep ’em shut”, or anything else like that, is like a red rag to a bull for someone who has already been made to look silly.

    Within the professional game (different rules may apply at your local five-a-side pitch on a Monday night), those kinds of comments are regarded as disrespectful or, to quote one current Premier League footballer who asked not to be identified for fear of being nutmegged, only made by players “really taking the p**s”.

    Erik Lamela versus Andros Townsend, White Hart Lane, 2016.

    “I thought, ‘Erik, why did you do that?’,” his Tottenham team-mate Danny Rose said a few days later. “I didn’t realise I put my hands on my head until afterwards. It was a brilliant nutmeg. When Andros was here (as a Spurs player), he always used to get nutmegged five or six times in a training session. I was actually thinking throughout the game that he’s done well not to get nutmegged today, and (then) Erik did that.”

    Why Lamela did that is a good question. Although Spurs fans raucously celebrated the Argentinian’s party trick, which prompted Rose to react in the way that he described and Townsend to set off on a walk of shame, not everyone at the club was impressed.

    “I don’t like it when you try to humiliate your opponent,” Mauricio Pochettino, Tottenham’s manager at the time, said. “The supporters enjoy this type of action and that’s a good thing, but it doesn’t create any emotion in me. People tried to nutmeg me when I was playing. But they did it knowing that, afterwards, I would be out to kill them.”

    Lamela’s nutmeg crossed that line between being a fantastic piece of skill – he used the sole of the foot, futsal-style, to dupe Townsend – and showboating. It was brilliant and made people in the crowd laugh and smile – as nutmegs generally do. But it also felt gratuitous – there were only seconds of the game remaining.

    Does any of that matter?

    Diego Simeone once applauded himself, with the ball at his feet still, after nutmegging then Barcelona captain Jose Mari Bakero twice in quick succession.

    Bakero’s blood must have been boiling at the time, in much the same way as Sir Alex Ferguson’s was when a young Paul Gascoigne had the temerity to not just nutmeg Remi Moses in front of the Manchester United dugout but revel in the moment.

    “He went up to Remi after he did it and patted him on the head,” Ferguson said, incredulously. “I was out of that dugout — ‘Get that little f***ing so-and-so’.”

    A new kid on the block nutmegging an established player can quickly light the touchpaper.

    “Behave!,” a by then much more senior Gascoigne said to Steven Gerrard after the Liverpool midfielder tried and failed to nutmeg him shortly after breaking through at Anfield. Gascoigne, Gerrard writes in his autobiography, also called him “a little runt” afterwards (apparently that’s not a typo in the book).

    Where nutmegs are concerned, that chasm in age and experience provides all the ingredients for a potential flashpoint on the training ground too. A nutmeg in a rondo is one thing – most players will see that as fair game – but it’s quite another in a training match, when egos are easily bruised, especially if someone is having a bad day or senses they are being mocked.

    In Matthew Spiro’s book Sacre Bleu: Zidane To Mbappe – A Football Journey, the author tells a story about Vikash Dhorasoo, a gifted playmaker, being ostracised by the France squad after nutmegging 1998 World Cup-winning captain Didier Deschamps when called up for the first time the following year.


    Dhorasoo, second from left, in France training in 2006 (Pascal Pavani/AFP via Getty Images)

    Although Dhorasoo’s own memory of that incident is hazy – “I hope I did it. For me, nutmegs are the essence of football,” he told Spiro – Marcel Desailly, another France player, was quoted in Liberation newspaper at the time confirming that it happened. “Vikash is an… interesting boy,” Desailly said. “As for the nutmeg on Didier, given the quality of Vikash’s performances in training, I would say it was not especially appropriate.”

    An inappropriate nutmeg is an interesting concept and, presumably, captures how Neymar saw things when Weverton Guilherme, a 19-year-old right-back, slipped the ball through his legs with a lovely sole-roll at a Brazil training camp before the Copa America in 2019. Neymar grabbed Weverton by the bib, threw him to the floor and walked away in a huff.

    Neymar, of course, has never nutmegged anyone.

    What is clear is that the simple act of putting a ball through an opponent’s legs means different things to different people and how they react depends, to a large extent, on the circumstances at the time and even the event’s location on the pitch.

    That said, it’s hard to imagine an England manager ever talking about the importance of nutmegs in the way that Lionel Scaloni did after his Argentina side won the World Cup in 2022.

    “If I’m constantly telling young players to play two-touch football, I’m taking away their inventiveness – that’s the best asset,” Scaloni said on football interview show Universo Valdano. “Our football culture is about mischief, taking on players, doing nutmegs and looking for one-twos. You can’t manage players with a joystick.”

    Mischief and nutmegs sounds like a lot of fun, and it’s easy to imagine what it looks like in Argentina too.

    Picture Juan Roman Riquelme famously backheeling the ball through the legs of Mario Yepes in a Copa Libertadores quarter-final in 2000, Lautaro Martinez’s extraordinary pinball skill in 2018, or Lucas Ocampos executing one of the most nonchalant nutmegs you will ever see.

    Not all nutmegs need to be a work of art, though.

    In fact, there is something deeply satisfying about watching one player effortlessly glide away from another by cutting across, and slipping the ball through, their opponent’s stride pattern.

    Expert timing or an element of good luck?

    Either way, Luis Suarez was a master of that manoeuvre and it’s also become a go-to nutmeg for the game’s inverted wingers, who will typically carry the ball with their stronger foot and dart inside using the outside of that same boot.

    In the example below, which is taken from Arsenal’s 4-3 victory at Kenilworth Road in December, Saka takes two Luton players out of the game with that type of nutmeg.

    A popular and alternative nutmeg for inverted wingers is the push-and-run with the instep, which is hugely effective from a stationary position because all the forward momentum is with the attacker, leaving their opponent flat-footed once they are, in football parlance, squared up.

    Both Saka, who is shown against Wolves below, and Martinelli have used that move multiple times this season.

    Yet it was a nutmeg that was performed on an Arsenal player a month ago that caused a much bigger stir – and not just because of what happened on the pitch.

    There was less than a minute of stoppage time remaining when Sergino Dest picked up the ball wide on the right for PSV Eindhoven.

    What followed was Ronaldinho-esque – a nutmeg orchestrated by a lovely piece of footwork that bamboozled a defender, luring him into trying to win a ball that was going in a totally different direction to where he thought and, crucially, opening his legs in the process.

    As Arsenal’s Jakub Kiwior stepped across, Dest nutmegged him, to the delight of the crowd – except that wasn’t the full story.

    In a world increasingly obsessed with reactions, the replay of the responses from those on the PSV bench generated more headlines than the nutmeg itself. Johan Bakayoko’s jaw was close to the floor as he turned around to grab a team-mate in disbelief, while Ismael Saibari looked like he had just witnessed something from another universe.

    Naturally, TikTok had a field day.

    Branded “absolute filth” on the Champions League TikTok account (that was almost certainly not the phrase used at the 1978 World Cup when Scotland’s Archie Gemmill beautifully slipped the ball through Jan Poortvliet’s legs against the Netherlands), United States international Dest’s nutmeg was approaching one million likes at the last count.

    Gemmill is worth referencing here because he said something interesting about that iconic nutmeg, which led to arguably the greatest goal in Scotland’s history — and even features in the 1996 film Trainspotting.

    “You can’t plan it (the nutmeg). It’s just instinct,” Gemmill explained. “I didn’t think about putting it through one player’s legs or going one way or the other; you make your decisions when the opposition players make theirs. So when Jan Poortvliet slid in, I just knocked it past him.”

    That is certainly true in the case of a lot of nutmegs – Milner’s frenzied chasing prior to confronting Messi, for example, or David Luiz stepping out against Suarez. But what Dest did was different because he provoked Kiwior into opening his legs to be nutmegged.

    Now, by the way, is not the time for coaches to ask: “But what happened after Dest’s nutmeg?”.

    The fact that Dest’s near-post cross came to nothing is neither here nor there in the social media age.

    Never mind the end product, nutmegs go down well on social media regardless and it’s easy to see why, bearing in mind we’re talking about a short clip where one person showcases their talent to prank another, makes them look like a buffoon and everyone laughs at their expense.

    From Champions League nights to an unsuspecting member of the public having a ball slipped between their legs while walking through a shopping mall, nowhere is off-limits in an age when everyone has a camera in their hand.

    Before you roll your eyes at the dumbing down of one of football’s oldest tricks, it’s worth remembering that no self-respecting parent has missed the opportunity to nutmeg their child at some point, ideally not long after they start walking, and for reasons that can’t really be explained.

    Leaving aside the more important debate about whether a shot or a pass through someone’s legs qualifies as a true nutmeg (yes, Leeds fans, we haven’t forgotten that eye-of-the-needle through ball that Pablo Hernandez played against Charlton in the 2020 promotion-winning season or, for that matter, the Spaniard’s double nutmeg on Callum O’Dowda on the opening day in the same campaign), some would question whether a nutmeg really counts if the other person isn’t paying attention at the time.

    Not Rio Ferdinand, though.

    “How dare you try and get away with it. Don’t even try to go to any link,” Ferdinand joked on-camera after nutmegging Laura Woods, the TNT Sports presenter, on her Champions League debut programme in September as she walked across the pitch.

    “Laura Woods has been megged,” Ferdinand continued as the broadcaster showed a replay.

    The joke was on Ferdinand the year before, however, when he ran into Jack Downer.

    Aged 25, Downer is a football freestyler, internet sensation and two-time Panna World Champion. In other words, he is the closest thing there is to a professional “nutmegger” and has spent more than a decade practising and perfecting them.

    Downer had tied in knots and nutmegged Neymar (who reacted with laughter on this occasion), Riyad Mahrez and Patrice Evra before he exposed Ferdinand too.

    What a way to earn a living.

    “Panna is essentially like boxing, but football,” Downer explained in an interview with UK newspaper The Daily Mirror. “It’s one-on-one, it originated in Amsterdam, and when you compete it’s a three-minute game. Each player has a small goal in a cage and the most goals in three minutes wins. However, if you nutmeg the opponent, that’s an instant knockout.”

    Mentally, the same applies in the real game too.

    (Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)



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  • Amick: Joel Embiid deserved better, and the NBA’s 65-game rule game is flawed

    Amick: Joel Embiid deserved better, and the NBA’s 65-game rule game is flawed

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    SAN FRANCISCO — Joel Embiid didn’t speak.

    Not with his words, anyway.

    The Philadelphia 76ers big man who had been ridiculed for three days after his latest disappearance, and whose MVP defense is in such early peril because of the league’s 65-game rule that is putting so much pressure on his sensitive situation, didn’t have to say anything after he’d left the Chase Center floor in such pain late Tuesday night due to an apparent knee injury.

    As was the case on Saturday afternoon, when his late scratch against the Denver Nuggets sparked a chorus of criticism about his perceived lack of willingness to take on a fellow great in Nikola Jokić, the awful optics were enough.

    Only this time, in stark contrast to that Mile High City mishap, Embiid had suddenly become a sympathetic figure. And if anyone was scared, as he’d been accused of being in some high-profile media circles, it was the Sixers team (29-17) that now finds itself fifth in the Eastern Conference standings after losing 119-107 to Golden State.

    It spoke volumes that Sixers coach Nick Nurse was inordinately slow to attend his postgame news conference, or that his responses to questions about the left knee injury suffered with 4 minutes, 4 seconds remaining in their fourth straight loss seemed so rehearsed. It’s never a good sign when a team’s top front office executive, in this case, the Sixers’ Daryl Morey, is making the rounds in the back hallways of the visitor’s arena in pursuit of perspective from the team’s medical staff. All of the Sixers parties who matter most were clearly concerned.

    As for Embiid, he opted against speaking to reporters afterward while prioritizing an ice bath that lasted long into the night. And with good reason.

    The MRI results will determine how worried these Sixers need to be as they forge ahead on this title-contending mission. For Embiid’s résumé, he can miss only five more games before being ruled ineligible for the kind of postseason awards that have shaped the legacies of greats for so long. That’s the micro of it all. The Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga fell on Embiid’s left knee late in the game, and his night full of laborious movement mercifully ended with Warriors fans wishing him well on the way out with cheers and even a few mini-standing ovations.

    But the macro, and the thing that should inspire fans and reporters alike to think twice about how we discuss this massive man who is such a basketball treasure when his body allows him to be, is that Embiid is very clearly fighting through the same sort of physical ailments that have dogged him for so much of his 10-year career.

    As one Sixers source indicated late Tuesday night, he has been dealing with soreness in that same left knee all season. And while Nurse indicated that the injury that forced his late exit was somehow different from the one that had been dogging him of late, the Embiid theme remained unchanged: He was battered and bruised before February even arrived, and his ability to be at his best from here on out is suddenly in serious question again.

    Did we all forget that the reigning MVP missed his first two full seasons with foot injuries, or that he has hit the hallowed 65-game mark only twice in the seven seasons in which he has played? There are shades of Yao Ming here, with the talent so transcendent but that nagging sense of physical doom and gloom always waiting around the proverbial corner.

    Embiid has already accomplished far more than the 7-foot-6, 310-pound former Houston Rockets big man was able to in his nine-year career that was cut short by injuries, but the unwelcome parallels are there. Starting with the size.

    You could see it long before he was hurt against the Warriors. Embiid, who missed Philadelphia’s game at Portland on Monday night, looked like a player who pushed himself to play against Golden State because the whole basketball world was screaming in his ear. There are people within the Sixers who are convinced that he played only because of all the scrutiny.

    He was awful by his lofty standards, finishing with 14 points, seven rebounds and two assists while missing 13 of 18 shots and settling for jumpers on all but one attempt. Embiid has always lumbered up and down the floor, but this was a level of tentativeness and instability not often seen from him. And to hear Sixers guard Kelly Oubre discuss Embiid’s ill-fated evening afterward was to be reminded that gravity has never been his friend. While Embiid is listed at 7 feet and 280 pounds, it is widely believed that those measurements fall short of his actual size.

    “(You’ve got people) pressuring him to force being great when he’s 300 pounds (and) 7 foot 5?” Oubre said while exaggerating Embiid’s height. “Like, c’mon bro. … I think this year, people will really understand that his whole career he’s been having to make sure his body’s right. This is like NASCAR, right? If their cars ain’t working, and their mechanics ain’t really able to get the job done before the race, then what can they do? They can’t race.

    “This is our bodies. Our body is our car and we have to treat it with respect. He’s 350 pounds, bro. So you know, I’m praying for him for a speedy recovery, so he can come in and give himself the best chance. But at the end of the day, that’s not important. His body and his career (are) most important.”

    So maybe we all should have dug a little deeper here before destroying him for his absence in Denver. Yours truly included.

    There was the evidence that was largely ignored from the Thursday night game against Indiana when Embiid went down midway through the second quarter and appeared to hurt that same left knee that would be his undoing in Denver. Nonetheless, he played through it against the Pacers and finished with 31 points, seven rebounds and three assists in 31 minutes.

    Fast forward two nights, and it was entirely fair to wonder why Embiid wasn’t on the injury report heading into the Nuggets game (and make no mistake, the league has been investigating that very matter). But the criticism regarding his absence went much further than that.

    Embiid was deemed a coward in some circles, someone who would rather get booed (which he was) than take on Jokić in his building. Never mind that he had just bested Jokić in Philadelphia less than two weeks before.

    Yet, while it’s true that Embiid hasn’t played in Denver since 2019, and that he has now missed six of their eight meetings in the Mile High City while Jokić has played every time, the context matters a great deal here. A quick recap for the sake of fairness to Embiid.

    His first two Denver absences (Dec. 30, 2017, and Jan. 26, 2019) came during a time when rest was an even bigger part of his rehabilitation program. And while they were the most suspect of the six, that Embiid was still in the early days of putting together a sustained NBA run while trying to stay healthy was surely no small factor. Yet the three that preceded Saturday’s absence — with all of them coming after the last Jokić-Embiid showdown on Nov. 8, 2019 — were different enough that they deserve examining.

    • March 30, 2021: Embiid had been out since March 12 with a bone bruise on his left knee, and he wouldn’t return until April 3 (two games later against Minnesota). This one is indisputably legit.
    • Nov. 18, 2021: Embiid missed his sixth straight game after entering the NBA’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols. He was out from Nov. 6-27. Also legit.
    • March 27, 2023: Embiid sits out with a sore right calf. He would play the game before and the game after. This one, it’s safe to say, can be up for debate.

    None of which is to say that the history of Embiid not playing in Denver isn’t strange. But it’s one thing to wonder aloud why the trend has emerged, and quite another to attack the competitive character of a player who is already worthy of being deemed an all-time great. Those hot takes look cold in more ways than one now.

    Ditto for the premature endorsements of the league’s 65-game rule. While fans, owners, television partners and league officials have every right to want to fix the league’s load management dilemma, the early returns here are enough to make you wonder if it might need to be revisited due to unintended consequences. Is it a good thing that the reigning MVP is on the verge of exiting that conversation before we’ve reached the All-Star break?

    “I didn’t sign up for that (65-game rule),” Sixers backup center Paul Reed said of the rule that was agreed on as part of the league’s collective bargaining agreement that was ratified last April and runs through the 2029-30 season. “I don’t remember signing no paperwork, you feel me? I guess the (players’) union OK’d it. They probably didn’t have a choice though, to be honest. Yeah, it’s tough. It adds a lot of pressure to the players. We were just talking about that. A lot of pressure — especially dudes like (Embiid who are) trying to get MVP again.”

    Embiid getting healthy is the only priority that matters now.

    Related reading

    Get The Bounce, a daily NBA Newsletter from Zach Harper and Shams Charania, in your inbox every morning. Sign up here.

    (Photo: Thearon W. Henderson / Getty Images)



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  • The men who practice against Caitlin Clark can’t stop her either

    The men who practice against Caitlin Clark can’t stop her either

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    It’s a little after 11 a.m. on an unnervingly cold December day, and Isaac Prewitt exhales. Hands on hips, cheeks puffed out, the whole deal. His morning had been relatively easy for a while: Play dummy defense against pick-and-rolls; needle his friend about an incoming shipment of Gatorade Fit drinks; run some zone offense. A graduate student, whiling away winter break in a gym, doing a job that’s never work.

    For the last few minutes, though, his job stinks.

    Because his job is Caitlin Clark.

    He wears a blue scout-team pinnie and pursues his pal with the Gatorade hook-up during an Iowa women’s basketball practice, slaloming around bodies trying to bump him off course, doing what he can to prevent a generationally gifted scorer from, well, scoring. At one point, Prewitt challenges a Clark 3-pointer so aggressively that his fingers interlock with Clark’s on her follow-through. She makes it anyway. Prewitt laughs.

    Male practice players have been around women’s basketball for at least a half-century, mimicking the opposition’s schemes and personnel. They’re generally in the gym to help, not to win, often getting nothing except cardio for their effort. But unfair fights are one thing. How about a 6-foot-4 Stanford forward with an impossible wingspan and deceptive speed? A teenage prodigy at USC with a bottomless bag of answers? The Iowa guard who might score more points than any player in college ever has?

    What, in fact, do you do about all that?

    For starters, you keep coming back for more. After that deep breath, Prewitt lines up across from Clark. “Talk to me, talk to me,” he calls out, wary of a screen. It comes. Help defense does not. He lunges at Clark as she hoists another 3-pointer. She cashes it. And Isaac Prewitt throws his hands in the air.

    Iowa coach Lisa Bluder has seen this before, and seen enough. “Let’s let blue get a drink,” she says.

    In 1974, eight years before the NCAA even began to sponsor women’s basketball, Pat Summitt took over as Tennessee’s head coach. She signed up men to compete as practice players immediately. “The most natural thing in the world for me,” Summitt told Sports Illustrated a quarter-century later. Thing is, the Hall of Fame coach didn’t claim the idea as hers. No one seems to know who came up with it, only that it’s been a ubiquitous and useful resource for women’s hoops as far as they can remember.

    “They’re essential to our success,” says Virginia Tech coach Kenny Brooks, a few months removed from a Final Four run in 2023. “We don’t have the budget that when we get rings, they do. But I wish we could. I really do. They’re that important.”

    Enough that, these days, they’re often recruits of a different sort. Scouted not in grassroots showcases but in intramural runs at the campus rec center. Wooed not with letters and photo shoots but via want ads on social media.

    At South Carolina, Denton Rohde went from standard incoming student to guarding future No. 1 pick Aliyah Boston and now 6-7 center Kamilla Cardoso, all thanks to a Facebook post his mom saw. (“We like tall freshmen,” Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley told the 6-6 Rohde at his first workout.) Hasani Spann had Division III offers, opted for an academic full ride to Stanford, got directed to the women’s hoops practice squad by a men’s assistant coach and now chases Hannah Jump around the 3-point arc or tangles with two-time All-American Cameron Brink on the block. Jared Wilson went from pickup games at Southern Cal’s Lyon Recreational Center to trying out for the club team to guarding JuJu Watkins, the nation’s top freshman, whose precocious talent has drawn the likes of Kevin Hart and LeBron James to home games. “I had no idea,” Wilson says, “it would totally consume me.”

    “We always say time doesn’t exist when we’re in there,” says Rohde, who’s now a senior. “School doesn’t matter. Whatever’s stressing you out – drama in your personal life, whether you’re down that month – it just doesn’t matter. You’re focused, you’re practicing, you have the player you’re scouting for, you have plays you have to know. You’re trying to compete in every single drill and you’re playing a team that is quite literally the best team in the country. There’s just no other feeling like it.”

    A fair enough summary of what they get out of it, besides getting cooked.

    Most played at least through high school. (Prewitt, in fact, logged one season at NAIA Dordt University before transferring to Iowa.) They are good enough to be told to hold back, occasionally; after Rohde once scored for the scout team on a Eurostep reverse, South Carolina’s coaches reminded him: Your player is a post. You cannot do that. Some, like a trio at Southern Cal, use it as an entry point to careers in the sport. One of Brooks’ former practice players, Aaron Smith, is now an NBA referee. But regardless of their trajectory relative to the game, reckoning with the end of the competitive line can be a direct hit to the feels. These tours of duty delay the inevitable. “It was great to find a way to still be on the court, pumping my blood,” Spann says. “The girls? Oh, they hate you. They hate if they lose to you. Our primary job is to get them better, but getting them better is not giving them leeway. It’s not letting them do what they want.”

    An itch, scratched daily. “It’s hard for us to check our ego at the door,” says Will McIntire, who shares Caitlin Clark duty at Iowa while aspiring to a coaching career in women’s hoops. “That’s the best part about it. If we’re whupping the girls one day, we’re getting buckets on them, and some days they’re getting buckets on us and we’re chatting back and forth – (the coaches) eat it up. They love to have that competitive energy.”

    The utility for the programs is plain. Everyone gets quality reps against theoretically bigger or stronger or quicker or more explosive bodies without getting hurt. Down-the-roster players don’t waste time learning plays only for scout-team purposes. “That isn’t helping them be better Iowa players,” as Bluder puts it. And over a long season, it mitigates teammate-on-teammate wear-and-tear. “Elizabeth Kitley doesn’t need to practice two to three hours a day, getting every rep,” Brooks says of his All-America center at Virginia Tech. Instead, Brooks can work through a full seven- or eight-player rotation, both to build chemistry and ease up on legs.

    The guys take the beating. The women take breathers. “It’s a huge help,” says Stanford’s Brink, who otherwise would be colliding with 6-3 teammate Kiki Iriafen, the Cardinal’s second-leading scorer. “Kiki and I, things can definitely get heated when we’re going against each other. For me to get a break guarding her, and for her to practice guarding guards, it’s great. They help us expand our games and make us better, for sure.”

    Often, of course, at their own expense.

    “In short, it’s not going too well for me,” says Gavin McDonnell, a Stanford practice player who, pushing 6-5, spends most of the season on a very perilous Brink. “Just kind of a massive nightmare.”

    The job is about what you’d expect. In certain locales – the 2023-24 season features nine players who earned All-America nods last year – it’s perhaps as onerous as it’s ever been.

    Rohde’s initiation at South Carolina came by way of three-time All-American Aliyah Boston – “She was patient, smart and had a counter to anything you could throw at her,” he says – but the days, and the opposition, remain long. The 6-7 Cardoso has filled the space vacated by Boston, shooting 60.3 percent and averaging 21.6 points and 16.3 boards per 40 minutes. Sagging off and giving Cardoso a midrange look is no longer an option for Rohde. Nor is betting that she won’t put the ball on the deck. All while she’s enhanced her capacity to baffle Rohde at the rim, particularly with one move in which Cardoso essentially goes under the hoop and fades away, erasing all angles for a possible block. “I’ve played against people who are in the NBA, like, right now,” Rohde says. “I played against many 6-8, 6-10 Division I players and I’ve never had as many moments with a player where there’s absolutely nothing I could have done to block that.”

    His counterparts on the other side of the country can sympathize. Brink currently produces at a preposterous rate of 31.5 points, 20.4 rebounds and 5.7 blocks per 40 minutes, all of which are career-bests. “You pick your poison with her,” McDonnell says. “It’s so hard to guard her closely and not foul. She’s super-quick, too. … She’ll slip right by you.” McDonnell has the height and reach and frame to challenge Brink with physicality and contest shots – and it’s futile. “She usually just scores,” he says with a laugh.

    These are the known quantities, though. No one’s opening a mystery box daily. What’s coming is clear.

    It’s a little different when you see the comet right before it passes the sun and starts to glow.

    JuJu Watkins arrived at Southern Cal as the nation’s No. 1 recruit last summer, as conspicuous as prospects get. Everyone wanted to see the video highlights cut-and-pasted into real life. On the first day of workouts, Watkins crossed over a practice player so badly that Reagan Griffin Jr., another squad member, thought to himself: Is it really like that? When the women and men scrimmaged in the preseason, and Watkins scored six points on three possessions against a 6-4 former California high school state champion, the answer was clear.

    “Homey is looking at me from the court like, what’s going on?” Griffin Jr. remembers. “At that point, everyone knew who the best player in the gym is.”

    Still, she’s 18. She may be a budding genius with endless counters – “You can’t ever really stop her because her bag is so deep,” says Wilson, who is her primary practice foil – but she’s nevertheless budding. She may be physical – on the first day Yusuf Ali guarded her, the first-year practice player remembers Watkins nearly knocking him over when she engaged her off-hand – but she’s also growing.

    Early on, Ali could fake a stunt when Watkins drove, making her think a kick-out was available, and then jump the passing lane for a steal. It’s why Watkins takes a moment after a recent practice to find the right word to describe her foils. Annoying, she says, isn’t quite it. Very active is what she settles on. “It definitely forces your IQ to really show up in moments where the defense does have somewhat of an advantage, just making sure you’re making the right play every time,” Watkins says. “To get that in practice every day just makes the game that much easier.” Watkins indeed learned with each noon-run-at-the-YMCA trick. And then the fakes stopped working.

    “She’s gotten harder and harder to guard each week,” Ali says. “Each time I’ll try something new, she’ll have a counter for it the next practice.”

    This is what Southern Cal’s practice squad gets in addition to its troubles: fascination. The idea that Watkins is all of this, and yet not what she’ll be. The satisfaction in helping her figure it all out.

    “On a day-to-day basis,” Griffin Jr. says, “you feel like you’re watching greatness.”

    About 1,800 miles east, they can relate.


    Giving Caitlin Clark a good practice look means being physical and cramping her space. But that requires catching her first.  (Kirk Irwin / Getty Images)

     

    It’s fair to wonder why Will McIntire and Isaac Prewitt choose to live in an Iowa City time loop – stand in front of the No. 22 bus, get run over, wake up and do it all over again – beyond the hazard pay they earn after being promoted to team managers.

    Then you hear about one Monday in December.

    It’s McIntire and Caitlin Clark, matched up in a scrimmage period during preparation for a game against Loyola-Chicago. McIntire hits a jumper with the shot-clock expiring. Clark protests vehemently. Insists the player McIntire is supposed to mimic wouldn’t take that shot. McIntire counters that she will, if Clark leaves her that open.

    “And then she comes down and calls me a bitch,” McIntire says, smiling in a Carver-Hawkeye Arena courtside seat. “I’m like, ‘What? Say it again! Say it again!’ She said it again. And I was running back, laughing. Oh, I loved it.”

    The planet didn’t tilt off its axis. Iowa’s coaches didn’t stop practice, aghast. Clark and McIntire ate lunch together after, like nothing happened. A practice player’s job, at Iowa, isn’t guarding Caitlin Clark. The job is dealing with Caitlin Clark. Every day. She will take jump shots and pot shots. She will burn you and serve burns. Everyone in the operation understands the dynamic by now, nobody more than Prewitt and McIntire, who effectively trade days of tying themselves to the track. Everyone understands the best thing they can do for a superstar transcending the sport in real time is give as good as they get. Or try.

    Try to knock Clark off balance, in every way, because every opponent is going to have the same plan. “I love it,” Clark says, leaning against a wall in an arena tunnel and, notably, smiling. “We should talk crap with each other. They should be super competitive. Sometimes I joke with them: ‘Guys, there’s no NBA scouts here today watching you. I’m sorry.’ But that’s how hard they go.”

    What’s become more than a working relationship – Prewitt and McIntire live in the same complex as the players and socialize with them regularly, and McIntire is roommates with sixth-year wing Kate Martin – likely makes it easier to go harder on each other, with no sour feelings. “Off the court,” Clark says, “they’re like our best friends and brothers.” But siblings typically don’t grasp the concept of mercy. So it goes with one of the premier shotmakers in college basketball.

    Iowa opponents get that treatment two or three times a season at most. Prewitt and McIntire volunteer for it daily. “It’s the best job on campus, in terms of every life skill,” McIntire says. “You learn how to handle everything.”

    Ask about basketball-specific tactics they use to make their on-floor life less difficult, and they exchange weary grins. “It’s not easy to guard her,” McIntire deadpans. “She runs around a lot.” Clark presents an endurance test; giving her a good practice look means being physical and cramping her space. But that requires catching her first. “It doesn’t get talked about enough – she’s the fastest player on the court, with the ball, that I’ve seen,” Prewitt says. “She’s the fastest player downhill at any time.”

    Objective No. 1, then, is to not let Clark get involved. “You’re trying to deny and keep the ball out of her hands,” Bluder says, “because you’re stupid if you don’t.” It’s a quixotic quest. Yet inside Iowa’s walls, there’s a method to it: hone Clark’s all-around production that much more – she leads the nation in scoring (32 points per game) and ranks second with 7.6 assists per night – and set the tone for team success. “I want to try to get her to get everyone else involved and see that she has all these other pieces around her,” McIntire says. “I love watching her share the ball, because I know she’s going to get hers anyway.”

    Two days in December confirm this.

    It’s the ramp-up to Loyola-Chicago, the last game before a holiday break. Across a couple practices, Clark hits the 3-pointer with Prewitt’s fingers interlaced with hers. She staggers the defense with a hesitation dribble and drives to the rim for a bucket. She runs McIntire into a screen but doesn’t quite extricate herself from traffic, wobbling a little off-balance … and then she banks in a floater from about 15 feet regardless. Everyone shakes their heads. Bluder drops her hands to her knees, laughing. Clark jogs off the floor to get some hand sanitizer, because she hit the shot with a runny nose, to boot.

    “There’s a lot of ‘F yous’ thrown back at her when she makes those,” McIntire says.

    “It’s a mix of, ‘Damn, that was sick,’” Prewitt says. “And also, gosh, I want to get around that screen better so she can’t get that look.”

    It’s ego subjugation for the greater good. Show up fully invested in stopping a superstar … and only occasionally doing so. “I think they think it’s kind of cool,” Bluder says. Of course, when McIntire misses a fast-break layup against Iowa’s second unit, he draws a roar of pure schadenfreude from the starters on the sideline.

    “Aw,” Clark says as McIntire sprints back. “He’s mad.”

    It’s all in something like fun, underpinned by appreciation. Clark will rewatch games and get a kick out of the guys’ overreaction from the bench to big shots or massive plays. “It’s really cute,” she says. She’s also gifted Iowa’s practice players Bose headphones and Nike shoes and intends to restock Prewitt on his beloved Gatorade Fit drinks, sharing the bounty of an elevated profile with a few good men. “Going against a little bit bigger, stronger, faster guards – for me, personally, that’s the biggest thing,” Clark says. “They give me good looks. Things I’m going to see in the game, and maybe even making it harder than what I’m going to see.”

    A few practice players trickle down the arena ramp and catch her eye. As they pass by, Clark announces that she’s talking trash about them.

    All Iowa’s star gets is a smile in return.

    “I love it,” Clark says again, like she can’t say it enough. “They’re perfect players for us to go against.”

    (Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; photos: Courtesy of USC, South Carolina; Brian Ray / Iowa)



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  • After Jackie Robinson statue is stolen, destroyed, community rallies around a baseball league

    After Jackie Robinson statue is stolen, destroyed, community rallies around a baseball league

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    It was around noon last Thursday when Bob Lutz walked outside of his work and headed home before the start of his daily radio show. He looked across 17th Street in Wichita, Kan., from the offices of League 42, the nonprofit baseball league he founded in 2013. On a rainy, overcast day, he gazed over toward the Jackie Robinson statue the league had erected in 2021. The statue was a symbol of hope and resilience. Lutz, though, could not see the bronze depiction of the man who broke baseball’s color barrier.

    For a moment, Lutz wondered if it was covered by fog. He blinked. Looked again. Doubting himself, he called an assistant out of the building to join him. The woman looked and also could not see the statue.

    Soon they were across the street, where the odd hallucination of a missing statue turned to reality. Jackie Robinson was gone, cut just above his shoetops.

    “The emotions,” Lutz said, “were overwhelming.”

    The story that followed became a national headline. Surveillance video captured individuals entering the Jackie Robinson Pavillion around midnight Thursday, removing the statue valued at $75,000 and placing it in a truck. Wichita police held a news conference and pleaded for its return.

    “I’m frustrated by the actions of those individuals who had the audacity to take the statue of Jackie Robinson from a park where kids and families in our community gather to learn the history of Jackie Robinson, an American icon, and play the game of baseball,” Wichita police Chief Joe Sullivan said during a news conference Friday. “This should upset all of us.”

    Lutz’s worst fears were soon realized. Tuesday morning, Wichita’s Fire Department responded to reports of a trash can fire at Garvey Park. The fire was extinguished. Left in its ashes were pieces of the Robinson statue.

     

    Although it is unclear whether the theft and destruction was racially motivated, the act struck deeply at the hearts of those invested in League 42 and the broader baseball community.

    “I’ve been disappointed since it was stolen,” Lutz said. “It’s incomprehensible that people would do this. But when people do something that dastardly, it can’t be a surprise when they’ve done something equally dastardly. I wasn’t shocked. I’m just sad about the whole thing. It’s too bad that people would desecrate our statue, especially a statue of Jackie Robinson.”

    League 42 started in 2013 as Lutz’s brainchild. A longtime journalist and radio host and a lifelong lover of baseball, he was disheartened as he read stories and saw statistics about the dwindling numbers of young Americans playing baseball. Rising costs and the proliferation of travel ball culture have made the game less accessible than ever.

    “The idea was it bothered me that young kids, especially young kids of color, were being shut out of playing baseball,” Lutz said. “I think every kid should have that opportunity.”

    With the help of local partners, Lutz worked to start an affordable league that charges $30 per family. League 42 provides uniforms and equipment. It caps its enrollment at 600 children, a way of focusing on quality over quantity.

    The league got its namesake in the early days, when Lutz and others were meeting over the subject. A few people threw out names. None of them stuck. Finally, someone in the group pitched the idea of honoring Jackie Robinson. Almost immediately, someone else replied: “Why don’t we call it League 42?”

    “It’s like a lightning bolt had struck,” Lutz said. “It was the obvious name for us.”

    As the league charted its path forward and grew its enrollment, Lutz said it tried to emulate Robinson’s legacy in several ways. The league provides educational programs and has taught the importance of Robinson’s trailblazing spirit in the face of racism, threats of violence and many of humanity’s worst impulses.

    In 2014, the league started with 16 teams and 200 children. By 2020, it had grown to 44 teams. In 2015, League 42 secured a $1.5 million contribution from the city to enhance its facilities and add a third playing field at McAdams Park.

    Eventually, the league sought to erect a statue of Robinson as a symbol of its values and its mission. League 42 consulted with name, image and likeness attorneys and obtained permission from the Robinson family and the Jackie Robinson Foundation. The Wichita community rallied to raise money for the statue and gave the commission to local artist John Parsons. The Robinson statue was erected in 2021.


    The statue’s unveiling in 2021. (Courtesy of League 42)

    Less than three years later, when that statue disappeared, the reaction was visceral.

    “I feel like I have lost a close friend or relative and my anger is raging,” Lutz wrote that day on Facebook. “I honestly don’t know what to do.”

    Lutz, though, was quickly overwhelmed by an outpouring of support. People from Wichita and far beyond reached out. Community members gathered at the Jackie Robinson Pavilion as a sort of vigil. They placed roses and a red hat with the number 42 where the statue once stood. A heart-shaped note on the flowers read: We miss you. They found the mold from the original statue is still viable, and a GoFundMe account raised nearly $50,000 for a new statue in two days.

    Lutz also received words of encouragement from Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Museum in Kansas City, Mo., who had visited League 42 in 2022 and taken a picture with the Robinson statue. “We got your back,” Kendrick told him.

    “They’re doing tremendously valuable work in opening up opportunities for kids of all colors to play this game, which is something that the museum has as part of its mission,” Kendrick said. “We’re here to preserve a precious piece of baseball americana and its past. We also have an important role in helping grow our game.”

    The loss of the statue, Kendrick said, can serve as an unfortunate reminder of the hatred that still persists in society.

    “With progress,” Kendrick said, “comes that tendency to forget.”

    In 2021, locals in Cairo, Ga., discovered a historical marker commemorating the place of Robinson’s birth had been peppered with fire from a shotgun. Authorities observed heightened damage around the words “Negro American” and “baseball’s color barrier.” Major League Baseball responded with a $40,000 gift to the Georgia Historical Society, allowing for a new marker and an endowment fund in Robinson’s name.

    In Wichita, while police continue their search for the perpetrators behind the theft, the community continues to rally behind the group. It has left Lutz emotionally overwhelmed in a different way.

    Observing from afar, Kendrick notes the parallels between League 42 and the man it honors.

    “You can steal the statue, but you cannot steal the spirit of what Jackie represented,” Kendrick said. “I think what you’re seeing from the public at large is a Jackie Robinson-like resolve for good to overcome evil. And so every time that you’re ready to give up on humanity — and we know we can’t give up on humanity — humanity steps up to the plate and reminds us of what we already know: There are more good people than bad people. Always has been, always will be.”

    Since the theft of the statue, Lutz has been providing constant updates on his Facebook page. In a post Tuesday, he vented about the unknowable motives behind those who stole and burned the statue. Why did they do it? Have they felt any remorse? Do they know of Jackie Robinson and why he remains such a poignant symbol of hope?

    “I hope to learn more about the perpetrators in the coming days,” Lutz wrote. “If they were brought into my office at the Leslie Rudd Learning Center, I would not be angry. I would ask them the questions I’ve posed here. And I hope I would listen.”

    (Top photo: Courtesy of League 42)



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  • Anonymous NHL player poll 2024: Who’s the best player? Most overrated? Best goalie? Worst road city?

    Anonymous NHL player poll 2024: Who’s the best player? Most overrated? Best goalie? Worst road city?

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    Connor McDavid, Nathan MacKinnon or Nikita Kucherov: Who’s the NHL’s best player?

    It’s gotta be McDavid, right?

    Not so fast, a surprising number of NHL players say.

    “McDavid’s going to get all the votes, I’m sure,” one player told The Athletic. “But I think MacKinnon’s better right now.”

    The three may well end up in a dead heat for the Hart Trophy this season, as Kucherov heads into the All-Star break leading the league in scoring, with MacKinnon a point behind and the reigning MVP McDavid surging on hockey’s hottest team.

    And then there’s Auston Matthews, headed for a possible 70-goal season. And Sidney Crosby, playing at as high a level as ever.

    “Sid is still doing Sid things,” another player told The Athletic. “There’s a lot of players where I go like, ‘Wow.’”

    It’s always fun to hear NHL players’ astonishment at the game’s top players, and there was plenty of it in The Athletic’s player poll this season. Our NHL staff spent the first half of the season asking nearly 200 players:

    • Who’s the best player?
    • Who’s the best goalie?
    • Who are the most underrated and overrated players?
    • Who’s the player you’d most like to punch?
    • Best and worst refs?
    • Favorite jerseys?
    • Favorite and least favorite road cities?

    We also asked about more nuanced topics like neck guards and gambling. Those results will be coming in stories over the next week.

    For now, let’s jump in on the NHL’s great debates.

    A bit closer than you’d expect? Probably. But for most, it’s still McDavid.

    “There’s just nobody like him,” one player said of the Edmonton Oilers captain. “Nobody does what he does.”

    “I don’t think there’s going to be a discussion about that for many years,” another said.

    “It’s just everything,” another said. “He can do everything.”

    So where does the debate creep in? For many players, the league’s best player in the pre-McDavid era may not be getting his due.

    “If there was one game and everything was on the line? I’m going with Sid every time,” one player said of the Pittsburgh Penguins great.

    “With Crosby … you’re almost concerned about everyone else because he’s going to find everyone else,” another said. “With McDavid, you’re just trying to catch up to him, and that’s the hardest thing to do. But they’re both great.”

    And the MacKinnon-McDavid debate has taken a big step as MacKinnon got his ring and as he plows the Colorado Avalanche toward the playoffs:

    “I’ll go with McDavid still, but MacKinnon’s definitely pushing him,” one player said.

    “McDavid is the answer, but MacKinnon is right there,” another echoed. “Nobody else jumps onto the ice with a burst of speed like him.”

    Among those who picked MacKinnon, competitiveness, explosiveness and winning were the keywords.

    “He just brings all his teammates into the fight every night,” one player said. “To me, the most competitive star. And, obviously, he’s a winner.”

    “He’s just so explosive,” another said. “Whenever he’s on the ice, something is going to happen.”

    “He’s just a horse,” another added. “There’s not much you can do when he’s got the puck.”

    And what of the league’s scoring leader, Kucherov, a two-time champion himself with the Tampa Bay Lightning?

    “So good at so many things,” said one player who voted for him. “The kind of 200-foot player that doesn’t get enough credit.”

    “He just doesn’t get a lot of hype being in Tampa, right?” another added. “He’s a quiet superstar, man. He’s spectacular.”

    Justifications for other picks?

    On Makar, MacKinnon’s defensive counterpart in Colorado: “As a defenseman, he’s on the ice more and has got the ability to control the game a little bit more.”

    On Barkov, the captain of the reigning East champion Florida Panthers: “A true leader on the ice, and you can really look up to him.”

    Some will say Vasilevskiy, who enters the All-Star break with a sub-.900 save percentage, hasn’t been the same after all the long Lightning playoff runs and his subsequent back surgery.

    NHL players, though, still view him as the Mount Rushmore goalie they don’t want to see in the other net.

    “He’s proven it over and over again,” one player said.

    “Just a big-game guy,” another said.

    “I have never seen a guy that big be that athletic and that competitive,” added another.

    Hellebuyck, The Athletic’s prohibitive staff favorite to win the Vezina Trophy this season at the break, was another popular pick.

    “He swallows up everything,” one player said.

    The New York goalie besties, Sorokin (Islanders) and Shesterkin (Rangers), both got a share of support, as well, and might have split the Russian vote.

    One Russian forward, who voted for Sorokin, first made sure that his name was being left off this story. “Don’t tell Shesterkin I said that,” he said.

    Fleury, who this season played his 1,000th game and passed Patrick Roy for No. 2 all-time in wins, might have been the biggest surprise, receiving five votes. The beloved icon might be getting credit more for his career achievements and infectious smile than his play in net for the Minnesota Wild, as one player admitted.

    “I know he’s not the best, but I like him the best,” he said. “He robbed me stacking the pads earlier in the year. He’s been so good for so long. I’m sticking with Flower.”

    Fleury, as The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun reported, could be available on the trade market this year for any GMs sharing that sentiment.

    Perhaps even more interesting, Saros, who LeBrun reported the Nashville Predators might be willing to listen to offers on, got some of the strongest endorsements from his NHL peers.

    “Simply the best goalie in the league right now,” one player said.

    “He’s the most athletic and he reads the play the best,” another said.

    A few other sentiments:

    On last season’s out-of-nowhere Cup champion, the Vegas Golden Knights’ Hill: “The best goalie in the league right now. He won a Cup.”

    On Demko, one of the leaders of the Vancouver Canucks’ successful turnaround this season: “I’ve seen how hard he works.”

    After getting a bit of grassroots support for best player, Barkov ran away with the vote here, coming off a Stanley Cup Final run and perhaps being overshadowed in credit for that run by teammate Matthew Tkachuk.

    “He’s starting to get some credit now,” one player said. “But I think he still deserves more.”

    There was debate as to whether a player of Barkov’s esteem can still be called underrated among some other players, though.

    “(Barkov) is not underrated,” said one player, who voted for Rantanen. “He’s a marked man every night.”

    “Everyone’s been saying Barkov for so long, but (he’s) not underrated,” another player agreed.

    That player voted for Barkov’s teammate, Reinhart, who has 37 goals, second only to Matthews’ 40 in the NHL, and was another popular pick.

    “He’s obviously scoring a lot this year, but he’s always kind of done all those things,” one player said.

    Point, similarly playing alongside superstars in a nontraditional market (Tampa Bay), received the third-most votes.

    “He doesn’t get a lot of attention, but he does everything, man,” one player said.

    “He scored 50-something last year (51), and I don’t remember anyone talking about it,” another said. “He’s so fast, and he’s just the engine of that team.”

    Keeping with the good-player, small-market theme, seven players pointed to the Winnipeg Jets’ Connor, quietly a point-per-game player each of the past two seasons.

    “He’s so good at creating time and space,” one said. “Nobody really talks about him.”

    “He doesn’t get much love,” another added. “He just scores every year.”

    Other picks?

    On Kaprizov, the Minnesota Wild’s star and engine: “He’s a superstar in my opinion, but no one really talks about him in that category of the top guys. He’s a beast.”

    On classic underrated pick Slavin from the Carolina Hurricanes: “It’s kind of getting to the point where everyone’s talking about him and people are kind of noticing, but he’s so good. I’ll say him again, but it’s probably the last year. I still think he doesn’t get as much credit as he should.”

    And on Charlie Coyle, a veteran stepping into big shoes in the Boston Bruins’ lineup and helping lead them to the East’s best record: “He replaced (Patrice) Bergeron really well. He wins faceoffs and does a lot of things for them.”

    He’s the lacrosse-style goal king, was on the cover of EA Sports’ NHL 2023 and is popular with the kids, but can he lead a team to the playoffs?

    NHLers still have some doubts about Zegras.

    “A lot of hype around him, in terms of some of the cool goals and plays that he’s made,” one said. “I feel like that doesn’t translate to an everyday type of (player). He was on the cover of the NHL (game). There was a lot of hype, I’d say.

    “Nothing against the guy. I just think that got hyped a lot instead of the play, consistently, night-in, night-out on the ice.”

    Nurse, the second-leading vote-getter, meanwhile, was singled out more for his contract ($9.25 million average annual value) than for his on-ice value or hype.

    “He’s a hell of a player,” one player said. “I just think he makes the same as Makar, and that’s kind of crazy.”

    Matthew Tkachuk and the Dallas Stars’ Robertson, both coming off 109-point seasons and playing for top teams, register as a bit of a surprise, tying for the third-most votes. The justification? Great players, but not ones who belong in the true top-top tier of NHLers.

    On Tkachuk, one player said, “He got overrated in the playoffs last year. Everyone was talking about him being one of the best players in the world. I don’t see it. He’s a great player, but people talk about him like he’s top 10 in the world.”

    And another on Robertson: “Sometimes you don’t really see him during the game and he finishes with three points. He still produces, but for me, he’s not like MacKinnon. He’s a game-changer, but not like these guys.”

    “I’m sure everybody has said Marchand, right?” one player said. Actually, no! The Panthers’ Cousins seems to have stolen the “most-hated opponent” crown from the Bruins’ captain.

    “Played against him a long time,” one player said of Cousins. “Always hated the guy.”

    “He’s gonna get a lot of answers on this one,” another rightly predicted.

    “I’m buddies with him and I’d still say him,” said a third.

    Not that Marchand doesn’t still get some, um, love here, too.

    “I love the guy, but it’s probably Marchand for sure,” one player said.

    “I mean, Marchand’s always a good (player) you want to punch,” another said.

    Other favorite least-favorites?

    On the Stars’ Marchment: “I think he dives a little bit.”

    On Washington Capitals’ big man Wilson: “He’s not a rat. I respect that. But I’d still like to punch him.”

    And on the Buffalo Sabres’ Skinner: “He’s just annoying to play against.”

    McCauley and Sutherland are icons of the reffing profession, and as is probably expected, they come in as the top two picks here.

    For NHL players, the refs’ approachability and communication are key.

    “He’ll talk to you if you get a penalty,” one player said of McCauley, an NHL ref since 2003. “He’ll tell you what you did wrong. He’s not one of those selfish guys who will try to take over a game. He’s one of the honest guys.”

    “You can talk to him,” another agreed. “He’ll tell you what he saw on a call you didn’t like — reason with you. There’s more of a human element.”

    McCauley’s on-ice flair also got compliments, with one player saying he’s “kinda funny,” another saying “he seems to have fun” and a third saying “I like the theatrics.”

    On Sutherland, an NHL ref since 2000, players made a point of how proactive he’ll be in letting them know where the line is.

    “He might even come up to me and say, ‘Hey, listen, you were borderline there. If you do that again, I might call you,’” one player said. “He’ll kind of give you a warning if it’s something he thinks is a little ticky-tacky.”

    “He communicates the best,” another said. “I remember a few years back, he made a bad call. … We had him the next night, and he waited by our bus, so when (the player) came off the bus, he could tell him he screwed up that call and say he was sorry. Just the best communicator, and guys have a lot of respect for that.”

    Other refs got similar kudos for communication, but the most common answer was summed up by one player who voted for McCauley: “He’s the only ref whose name I know.”

    In the mid-1990s, refs stopped wearing names on their jerseys, and as a result, “I don’t know any of them,” one player said.

    “God, I wish I knew their names,” another added.

    “I don’t know enough of them (to answer),” another said. “I’d know them by face.”

    The Athletic supports referees and didn’t want to give players this space to take individual potshots, so we’ll leave it at the numbers here, beyond pointing to a few interesting results/trends:

    • St Pierre was the top choice despite having a long-term injury and now being out of the league.

    • If McCauley and Sutherland got praised for their communication, the opposite was true for votes on worst ref, where commentary focused mainly on not giving players respect, being arrogant and being closed off to conversation.

    • And, of course, the votes go with the calls. One player who voted for McCauley as the worst ref said it was nothing personal or about communication. It was just that “when I know he’s the ref, I (get called for a penalty) all the time.”

    The Original Six may not have produced a Stanley Cup champion since 2015, but their jerseys still reign supreme, taking all of the top spots here.

    “You’ve got to go Original Six,” one player said.

    “To me, it was always between the Red Wings and the Blackhawks,” said another. “I think Chicago’s got the best.”

    “I like Detroit’s,” another said. “All the Original Sixes are good, but that’s my favorite. It’s such a great logo.”

    And on the New York Rangers, the third-place finisher, one player said: “Their home jersey is just so clean.”

    If players weren’t going for the NHL’s original teams, it seems, they were going for the most recent ones.

    Of the Seattle Kraken (first season 2021-22), one player said, “Those are pretty cool, man. The color scheme is something you’ve never seen before.”

    And the previous expansion team, the Golden Knights (2017-18): “It’s different and unique.”

    The vote focused on teams’ main home and away jerseys, but quite a few players also singled out teams’ alternate jerseys, none more than the Ducks’, which got six shout-outs.

    One of four players who mentioned the Flames’ “Blasty” jerseys said, “I remember Iginla in the horse head.”

    And speaking of recent jerseys, of the Seattle Kraken outdoor jersey, one player said, “I think that was the best jersey we’ve seen” and another simply, “Sick.”

    Then, of course, there’s the Jersey jersey: “I love those. They’re just so funny and clean-looking.”

    Of course. This one had to come down to Sin City and the City That Never Sleeps.

    It’s not just the dining options and nightlife. It’s the arena experience, players said.

    “Just the atmosphere,” one said of Vegas. “As soon as you get out for warmups, it’s a nightclub vibe. Everyone is just buzzing.”

    “The energy in that building is crazy,” another said.

    “The atmosphere is sick, the rink’s sick, the hotels are sick,” another added. “The whole trip to Vegas is unreal.”

    On the other hand, as one player said, “You can never go wrong with New York.”

    “Most places to walk around, most great restaurants you can find,” another said. “And obviously playing in Madison Square Garden is something special every time.”

    “I love MSG,” a third agreed.

    Other contenders?

    On Chicago: “I love the anthem, and I think the city’s great. Good atmosphere. Not as big as New York, so I don’t feel like the walls are closing in on me if I’m there for a few days. I mean, I love New York, but it gets busy in a hurry. Chicago, I think it’s got everything: the arts, the sports, good restaurants. But it’s not as crowded as New York.”

    On Sunrise/Ft. Lauderdale: “I love the weather and beaches.”

    On Nashville: “I’m a big country music guy.”

    On Dallas: “Great weather. Such a nice place to spend a day.”

    And Tampa: “The fans are great” and, “It’s just loud, rowdy.”

    Cold weather and not much to do around the arena …

    It’s not just Winnipeg. That’s the theme with all of the top picks.

    But, yes, Winnipeg more than anywhere else.

    “It’s always so cold,” one player said of Winnipeg. “I don’t have anything against the people or the city.”

    “Cold. Grey. Not much to do,” another said.

    “Nothing to do,” echoed a third.

    The complaints about Ottawa were similar, though many players said it’s the rink location, not the city.

    “I’ve heard the downtown is actually good,” one player said. “But where the rink is … nothing there.”

    “We always stay by the rink, and it’s kind of out in the middle of nowhere,” another said.

    Buffalo? Same deal.

    “It just seems gloomy when you get there,” one player said.

    “There’s not much in Buffalo,” another added.

    Raleigh, N.C., came in fourth, but the issues there had nothing to do with the climate or local activities.

    “Their locker room is awful,” one player said.

    “Bad dressing rooms,” another agreed.

    “Worst dressing room by far,” said a third.

    And what of the Arizona Coyotes and their college arena experiment?

    “That arena is dogs—,” one player said.

    “Should never be in the NHL,” added another.

    “It’s pathetic,” said a third. “It’s not The Show. Can’t take it seriously.”

    Complaints elsewhere were a bit more specific, from the sad fan base in San Jose to the size of the dressing-room stalls in Washington to the “hotel we stay in” in Minneapolis/St. Paul. And of course, on Columbus:

    “The cannon.”

    (Top graphic by John Bradford / The Athletic, with photos from Mike Ehrmann, Jonathan Kozub and Michael Martin / Getty Images)



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  • Messi’s first Barcelona contract, signed on napkin, to be sold at auction

    Messi’s first Barcelona contract, signed on napkin, to be sold at auction

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    The napkin upon which Lionel Messi’s first Barcelona agreement was informally written will be sold at auction.

    Bonhams — a privately owned, London-based international auction house — will run the auction between March 18-27, with a starting price of £300,000 ($381k), on behalf of Argentine player agent Horacio Gaggioli.

    The agreement was reached on December 14, 2000, with Barcelona director Carles Rexach desperate for the club to sign Messi, then aged 13.

    Messi had impressed during his two-week trial with Barcelona in September 2000, but the club was initially reluctant to sign such a young, non-European player.

    Rexach became concerned that the Catalan club would miss out on the signing of Messi, who had returned to his home city of Rosario in Argentina.

    Gaggioli told The Athletic last year that he had informed Rexach in December 2000 that if they could not commit to signing Messi — the teenager would be offered to other clubs, including Real Madrid.

    Rexach invited Gaggioli to dinner in Barcelona to make a final decision over Messi, but there was one problem: Rexach did not have time to draw up or print out a contract but needed the relevant signatures on a document that would later become legally binding.

    His solution was to take a napkin and write down contractual words which would then be signed by the relevant parties, to signal a legal commitment.

    GO DEEPER

    Messi, Rosario and Newell’s: The love between a superstar, his hometown and boyhood club

    The napkin read: “In Barcelona, on December 14, 2000, and in the presence of the gentleman (the agent, Josep Maria) Minguella and Horacio (Gaggioli), Carles Rexach, technical secretary of FCB, commits under his responsibility, despite the opinion of others who are against signing Lionel Messi, as long as the agreed fees are maintained.”

    Rexach signed the napkin along with football agents, Minguella — who had worked on multiple Barca deals in the past, including Diego Maradona — and Gaggioli.

    “This is one of the most thrilling items I have ever handled,” Ian Ehling, head of fine books and manuscripts at Bonhams New York said. “Yes, it’s a paper napkin, but it’s the famous napkin that was at the inception of Lionel Messi’s career.

    “It changed the life of Messi, the future of FC Barcelona, and was instrumental in giving some of the most glorious moments of football to billions of fans around the globe.”

    Messi made his Barcelona debut in 2004 and scored 672 goals for the club in 778 appearances before leaving in 2021 (Lluis Gene/AFP via Getty Images)


    Messi made his Barcelona debut in 2004 and scored 672 goals for the club in 778 appearances before leaving in 2021 (Lluis Gene/AFP via Getty Images)

    Commenting on the event years later, Gaggioli called it a “marvellous moment”.

    “That napkin broke the deadlock,” he added.

    “My lawyers looked at it. The napkin had everything: my name, his name, the date. It’s notarised. It was a legal document.

    “It’ll be a part of me for the rest of my life. The napkin will always be at my side. I live in Andorra and I’ve kept the napkin in a safe inside a bank.”

    On Wednesday, Minguella told Catalunya Radio that the napkin had been in his office for years and that he had offered Barcelona the chance to display it in the club’s museum.

    He claims he did not receive a response from Barcelona and that he will now ask lawyers to discover who is the legal owner of the napkin and how anyone can prove that they legally own it to put it for sale.

    Minguella has insisted he does not wish to profit from the napkin, but that he would prefer to see it in Barcelona’s museum or that if it is sold, for the money to go to the club’s foundation.

    go-deeper

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    Lionel Messi: The evolution of the greatest footballer of all time

    (Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images)



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  • How the PWHL’s youngest player is adjusting to a new league — and a new language

    How the PWHL’s youngest player is adjusting to a new league — and a new language

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    OTTAWA — Nearly 6,000 miles away from her hometown in Hokkaido, Japan, Akane Shiga was being asked about the weather.

    Mike Hirshfeld, general manager of Ottawa’s PWHL team, was sitting with Shiga and coach Carla MacLeod in the team office at TD Place Arena, speaking to the 22-year-old forward and Japanese national team member through her interpreter.

    “She’s looking at me like, ‘What is he talking about?’” Hirshfeld said about the playful preamble to an important bit of news ahead of the PWHL’s final roster deadline.

    Because what Hirshfeld really wanted to know was how Shiga felt about spending the winter in Ottawa, as a member of the newest pro team in Canada’s capital.

    When he told Shiga that she’d made the team, “her face just lit up,” Hirshfeld said.

    “I feel very honored to be given this opportunity,” Shiga told The Athletic through her interpreter, Madoka Suzuki.

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    Six teams, one draft and a lot of Ikea furniture: How the PWHL was made in six months

    The moment was the culmination of a hockey journey that saw Shiga travel across the world for her chance to play professional hockey in North America. Despite her credentials — an Olympian and four-time member of Japan’s World Championship team — she was not selected in the 15-round PWHL Draft in September. Unswayed, Shiga flew to Ottawa alone in November, with no guarantee of a contract, to try out for the team.

    Her skating ability, quick release and hockey IQ impressed Ottawa’s braintrust and earned Shiga a one-year contract.

    Now, she is a historic player in a historic league embarking on a singular path: Shiga is the youngest player in the PWHL and the only Japanese-born player.

    This season Shiga is adjusting to her first year as a professional hockey player, and simultaneously adapting to life in a new country and learning a new language.

    “To know the courage it took for her to fly over here on her own and walk into an environment where she didn’t speak the language and she didn’t know anyone,” MacLeod said. “To know at that moment that she had gambled on herself and she earned her opportunity — that’s what sport is all about.”

    Where Shiga grew up in Hokkaido — the northernmost and second-largest island in Japan — hockey is, at the very least, an option. Some might call it Japan’s hockey hotbed, with most of the national team players coming from the northern region.

    “If you want to play hockey, it’s accessible,” Shiga said through her interpreter. “But it’s not a sport that everyone picks to play like it is in Canada.”

    In Tokyo, on the other hand, where Suzuki — who was hired to serve as Shiga’s interpreter in November and plays hockey at Carleton University in Ottawa — is from, “you’re kind of a weirdo if you’re playing hockey,” he said with a laugh.

    According to the IIHF, there are only 1,281 registered female hockey players in Japan, with a national population of about 124 million. There are more indoor rinks in Canada (2,860) and registered female players in the state of Florida (1,517).


    Shiga is the star of the Japanese women’s national team, and in 2021 she became the first Japanese player to score against Team USA. (Dennis Pajot / Getty Images)

    Shiga, though, found hockey skating on an outdoor rink with her sister, Aoi, when she was six years old and she “never looked back.” When she was 13, in 2014, Shiga watched a Japanese women’s hockey team play at the Olympics for the first time in her life — and for the first time since Japan was the host nation in 1998. “It had a big impact on my career,” she said.

    MacLeod, now Shiga’s coach in Ottawa, was an assistant coach for Japan at the time.

    “I know what ’98 meant to me as a young Canadian kid when I saw those women on TV and I knew that that dream could then be mine,” said MacLeod, who went on to win two Olympic gold medals with Team Canada. “To know that a piece of that moment is within her and helping her to inspire that next group and helping her to achieve her dreams is pretty special.”

    Shiga’s dream was realized only one year later when she made the Japanese under-18 team for the 2015-16 Division 1 world championships. She was one of the youngest players at the tournament and scored two goals and four points to lead Japan to a gold medal, and promotion to the top tier U18 world championships in 2016-17.

    “I didn’t think I was ready to make the jump that soon,” Shiga said. “But I was very excited to get the news.”

    She’s been a member of the Japanese national program ever since, playing on four under-18 teams, four senior world championships and qualifying for the 2022 Olympics. In 2019, Shiga made the switch from defense to forward because her coach, Yuji Iizuka thought she could help provide more offense for the team.

    And he was right.

    In 2021, Shiga was one of the breakout stars of the women’s world championships in Calgary, Alta. She scored the opening goal against Hungary in a critical 4-1 win for Japan to make it to the quarterfinals. She became the first Japanese player ever to score against Team USA — and she did it twice. Then, she scored the game-winning goal against Czechia to secure Japan’s best finish (sixth) at women’s worlds. Her four goals tied for fifth among North American stars like Natalie Spooner and Hilary Knight. It was one more than Canada’s Captain Marie-Philip Poulin had in the tournament.

    “She’s a very important part of the team’s success,” Iizuka told IIHF.com “Our teams have always had trouble scoring, so to find someone who can put the puck in the net is very important.”

    After years of adding to her reputation as one of the most talented players outside North America — including a trip to the 2022 Beijing Olympics — it was only natural that Shiga’s name popped up when the PWHL Ottawa front office decided to prioritize bringing in international talent.

    “Obviously there’s a natural tether for me to the international game, and I’ve been lucky to see how talented these players are around the world. So for us it was an easy decision to say, Let’s bring in some international players and see how they do,” MacLeod said. “If they can make it, great. And if they don’t, at least we know that too. But we didn’t want to leave that uncertainty.”

    According to Shiga, Ottawa was the only team to call when PWHL free agency opened in September.

    At training camp, Shiga quickly impressed.

    “I would say two days in, we knew we had something,” Hirshfeld said. “Her skating is off the charts. So is her hockey IQ. I remember Claude Julien (the former NHL coach) was here one day and he was like, ‘Who is that?’”

    “Her skill with the puck catches everyone’s attention because she can maneuver things in a small space that a lot of people can’t,” MacLeod explained. “The puck comes off her stick faster than you anticipate and with a velocity that you’re not sure where that’s all coming from because she’s such a petite player. And she can do it in a phone booth.”

    There was chatter amongst the Ottawa players ahead of camp about a player from Japan trying out for the team. Some national team players would have been familiar with Shiga’s game from world championships or the Olympics. But others, like defender Zoe Boyd, were being introduced to her for the first time.

    She recalls a moment early into training camp where Shiga danced around in the offensive zone and sent a slapshot zinging past her face, bardown and in.

    “Holy crap, this girl is legit,” Boyd thought at the time. “She’s the real deal.”

    “Surprised isn’t the right word to describe it,” she explained. “We’re just amazed by Akane, her play, and what an amazing person she is — in spite of not being able to fluently speak English.”

    When Madoka Suzuki answered the phone on a Thursday afternoon, he was in the car taking Shiga home from one of their errands.

    “Had to do some banking,” he said. “Applying for credit cards and stuff.”

    Bringing Shiga to Ottawa introduced the issue of the language barrier. The PWHL has 14 players from overseas — hailing from countries such as France, Hungary, and Czechia — but most of those players speak at least some English. Shiga did not, so Ottawa knew they’d need an interpreter to make her feel more comfortable and confident at tryouts.

    The team started with a call to the Japanese Embassy, who provided a list of names, but those interpreters would cost around $300 per hour. “No one can afford that,” Hirshfeld said, laughing.

    The team tried calling the universities in the city and connected with Stacey Colarossi, the coach of Carleton’s women’s hockey team, who referred Hirshfeld to Suzuki, a 24-year-old from Japan and a forward on the men’s hockey team.


    Madoka Suzuki, left, with his sister, Chihiro, and Akane Shiga. Suzuki is employed by the PWHL’s Ottawa team as Shiga’s interpreter, though he has also been helping her adjust to life in Canada. (Photo courtesy of Madoka Suzuki)

    As it turned out, Suzuki’s sister, Chihiro, played on the national team with Shiga last year and had already alerted her brother that Shiga had made the move to Ottawa and might need a friend in town. So, when Hirshfeld made the call with a job offer, Suzuki quickly accepted.

    The day Shiga arrived in Ottawa, Suzuki was at the airport to pick her up and bring her to the team hotel. When the team skates, Suzuki is on the ice translating instructions for drills, or messages from the coaching staff. He attends team meetings and games, too, as his schedule allows. If Suzuki has class — he’s a psychology major at Carleton — or is on the road with his hockey team, he will join meetings or interviews over the phone.

    “He understands the teachings from the coaching side and obviously as he’s translating, is giving her information that’s helping her grow and fit within the team side of things,” MacLeod said. “He’s really invaluable when it comes to Akane and Akane feeling included.”

    “We love having Madoka around,” said defender Jincy Roese (née Dunne). “I feel like he’s just one of the girls — as much part of this team as any one of us.”

    Suzuki’s work with Shiga goes beyond the rink. After Shiga made the Ottawa team, she had to fly to Hungary to play in the 4 Nations tournament for Team Japan. While she was there, Suzuki found a realtor to start looking for apartments for Shiga and got all the paperwork done so that when she returned they could find her a place to live as quickly as possible. He’ll take her to the bank to get an account or credit card set up, or to Ikea to buy furniture, or to get food at a restaurant or grocery store.

    “A lot of the ‘work’ I’m doing is more as a friend than anything,” he said. “She’s made it super easy on me too. She’s very enjoyable to work with.”

    Suzuki moved to Canada from Japan with his mom and sister in 2014, when he was 14 years old. He spoke English and had family with him, but he still remembers the difficult adjustment to a new place and new culture.


    Akane Shiga and Madoka Suzuki, pictured with Suzuki’s former billet family. (Photo courtesy of Madoka Suzuki)

    “I’m glad I could help her out this way, because otherwise it’s quite the journey to get your feet going up here,” he said.

    Shiga has been using the Duolingo app to learn English. Her teammates have been helping her learn, too. Suzuki will sometimes step back and just let Shiga try to talk without needing the translation. If he’s not around, teammates will use Google Translate if Shiga needs help.

    “She’s really quiet right now, but that’s to be expected,” said Roese. “But you see it there, she’ll speak a little more, she’ll get a little more involved in conversation. You can tell she’s starting to follow along more.”

    Roese has learned some Japanese to help break the language barrier where she can. And MacLeod still knows a few words from her time as an assistant coach with Team Japan.

    “I know the word ‘koko’ (which means here in Japanese), or I know the word hurry or no hesitation,” she said. “There’s certainly something small, small nuggets that obviously I was fortunate enough to pick up when I worked with them for two years. Not enough to actually be smart, but enough to maybe help in moments.”

    Shiga’s teammates “love her,” Hirshfeld said. And several have taken her under their wing to make her feel comfortable and included on the team.

    Boyd and her roommate Kristin Della Rovere will drive Shiga home from the rink, or take her to a teammate’s house if there’s a get-together. They’ve gone for bubble tea and have promised to have Shiga over once she’s settled in so she can see Boyd’s cat, Sam.

    Shiga loves cats and has two back home in Japan named Pickle and Churro. “I miss the cats more than anyone,” she said with a laugh.

    “I can’t imagine what it must be like to come to a country where nobody speaks your language,” Boyd said. “So naturally I just wanted to make sure that she understands things — like everybody did.

    “But Akane is hilarious. Even though she can’t speak English very well, she still makes the funniest jokes and gets her point across. It’s been a pleasure to hang out with her and be a teammate with her.”

    On the ice, Shiga is still adjusting to her first professional season. Through six games, Shiga hasn’t registered a point yet, but nobody in Ottawa is looking at the scoresheet.

    “We’re not even worrying about that,” said Hirshfeld. “She’s getting used to the speed and physicality of this league, but I know she’s got the hockey IQ to work through it. She’s a great skater, which I think is a great advantage in this league. We’re very optimistic.”

    Shiga has impressed in games with her skating and hands in tight with the puck. MacLeod says she works hard in practice and has already seen Shiga’s game grow in Ottawa. It seems like only a matter of time before she scores her first PWHL goal.

    “I’ve never seen somebody that can rip the puck like she can,” Roese said. “Just bardown from anywhere.”

    Shiga is also one of the most popular players in Ottawa. “I think she got the second loudest cheer after (Brianne) Jenner,” MacLeod said about the home-opener intros.

    The Ambassador of Japan to Canada attended Ottawa’s home opener. There have been several Shiga signs spotted in the stands, and plenty of fan mail sent to her home — something Shiga says started after she played in the Olympics.

    “She’s 22 years old,” MacLeod said. “Think of all the variables: youngest in the league, playing in a country, in a league that’s not native tongue to her, and she just keeps rising. What an incredible human being.”

    Shiga hopes her sister, a 24-year-old defender playing in Switzerland, can join the league next season. The two were signed to play together with the Buffalo Beauts in the PHF before the league folded last season. More than anything, she hopes more players from Japan can follow in her footsteps.

    “To be able to pave the path for younger players and give them someone to look up to — to say, you can be from Japan and play hockey — is a huge honor,” she said. “And I’m just very excited for what the future holds.”

    (Illustration: John Bradford / The Athletic; Photos: Courtesy of Madoka Suzuki; Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images)



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  • Jerry Jones: ‘No doubt’ could work with Belichick

    Jerry Jones: ‘No doubt’ could work with Belichick

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    Jan 31, 2024, 11:22 AM ET

    It appears Bill Belichick won’t be a head coach in the NFL next season. But if the Dallas Cowboys decide to move on from Mike McCarthy after next season, could Jerry Jones’ team be an option for the future Hall of Fame coach?

    Talking to Yahoo Sports at the Senior Bowl in Mobile, Alabama, the Cowboys owner and general manager said there’s “no doubt” he could work with the former New England Patriots coach, whom he calls a “friend.”

    “I know him personally and I like him,” Jones told Yahoo. “There’s no doubt in my mind we could work together. None.”

    Belichick, who mutually parted ways with the Patriots after 24 seasons and six Super Bowl titles, had only two interviews during this year’s cycle — both with the Atlanta Falcons, who decided to hire Raheem Morris for the job instead.

    Four other head-coaching jobs have been filled with only two current vacancies — with the Washington Commanders and Seattle Seahawks — and neither team has been reported to be linked with Belichick, 71.

    The Cowboys announced earlier this month that McCarthy would return after the team flopped in a 48-32 loss to the Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round. McCarthy is 42-25 with NFC East titles in 2021 and 2023, earning 12 wins in three of his four seasons but is 1-3 in the postseason. He signed a five-year contract with the Cowboys in 2020, so he will be entering the final year of that deal next season.

    Jones praised McCarthy on Tuesday when he met with reporters at the Senior Bowl and said the Cowboys would be “all-in” for the 2024 season.

    “… I thought we made a pretty good move four years ago when we hired Mike McCarthy, and he’s had some great in-season success. Now he’s come up short three times and advanced us in the playoff. But I like that fact that’s he’s hanging around the rim, and I like what the team has done to hang around the rim,” he said. “So, I think, what the answer that I would have is, that I’m aware that we’re hanging around the rim. We’re not getting the ball in but when you hang around the rim — let’s don’t discount hanging around the rim — where we are right now with the players we’ve got, and I’m thinking about it from the whole look.”

    Belichick left New England with 333 career victories (including playoffs), second all time behind Don Shula’s 347. Belichick has expressed his admiration for Jones and the Cowboys organization in the past.

    Jones, 81, on Tuesday told Yahoo that Belichick is “maybe at the top of his profession” but called it “ridiculous” that “one person automatically assures you a Super Bowl.”

    “That’s too high [an] expectation for him. But is he maybe the greatest pro football coach of all time? Could very well be,” he said. “He is a friend and I like him, and I want to make real clear: I wouldn’t have any problem working with him.”

    The Cowboys have won three Super Bowl titles under Jones’ ownership but haven’t advanced to the NFC Championship Game since 1995, the second-longest drought in the conference behind only Washington (1991).

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  • Sources: PGA Tour, U.S. group finalize $3B deal

    Sources: PGA Tour, U.S. group finalize $3B deal

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    • Mark Schlabach, ESPN Senior WriterJan 31, 2024, 07:36 AM ET

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      • Senior college football writer
      • Author of seven books on college football
      • Graduate of the University of Georgia

    The PGA Tour has finalized an agreement with Strategic Sports Group, a consortium of billionaire sports team owners, to infuse up to $3 billion into a new for-profit entity, PGA Tour Enterprises, sources told ESPN on Wednesday.

    PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan was expected to inform PGA Tour, PGA Tour Champions and Korn Ferry Tour members of the deal in a conference call Wednesday morning.

    The conference call, which was scheduled for 9:30 a.m. ET, will be listen-only. The player relations staff told tour members in a memo that there will be several meetings and touch points over the next several weeks to address their questions and provide additional details.

    ESPN reported on Dec. 15 that a deal with Strategic Sports Group was imminent. SSG includes Fenway Sports Group founders Tom Werner and John Henry of the Boston Red Sox, Mark Attanasio (Milwaukee Brewers), Arthur Blank (Atlanta Falcons), Wyc Grousbeck (Boston Celtics), Steve Cohen (New York Mets) and others.

    The deal with SSG consists of an initial investment of $1.5 billion. SSG has consented to an additional investment in PGA Tour Enterprises by Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), pending regulatory review and approval.

    Strategic Sports Group would be a minority investor in PGA Tour Enterprises, and the PGA Tour would remain the majority shareholder.

    Meanwhile, the PGA Tour is continuing its negotiations to finalize an agreement with the PIF and the DP World Tour, which would potentially inject additional billions of dollars into PGA Tour Enterprises, according to sources.

    The PGA Tour, DP World Tour and the PIF signed a framework agreement June 6 to combine their commercial assets, including the LIV Golf League. The agreement had a Dec. 31 deadline, which was extended as the sides continued to hammer out final details. Monahan and PIF governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan reportedly met in Saudi Arabia last week.

    The PGA Tour policy board held meetings ahead of this week’s AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am in California. The PGA Tour’s player advisory council is scheduled to meet via conference call Wednesday morning. Rory McIlroy, who resigned from the PGA Tour policy board in November, told reporters Tuesday that a deal with SSG seemed imminent.

    “I know that they were supposed to vote on it Sunday night, and there was a delay,” McIlroy said Tuesday. “They were supposed to vote on it last night, and there was a delay. I feel like this thing could have been over and done with months ago. I think just for all of our sakes that the sooner that we sort of get out of it and we have a path forward, the better.”

    Part of SSG’s investment will be used to provide golfers with equity in the newly formed corporation, which would have an overall valuation of about $12 billion if the PIF agreement is also finalized. In a memo to members in November, Monahan provided details of the potential equity share for golfers who remained loyal to the tour.

    “Tour management has designed a program that would align the interests of our members with the commercial business of the Tour via direct equity ownership in PGA Tour Enterprises,” Monahan’s memo said.

    “At the point we secure outside investment, this would be a unique offering in professional sports, as no other league grants its players/members direct equity ownership in the league’s business. We recognize — as do all of the prospective minority investors who are in dialogue with us — that the PGA Tour will be stronger with our players more closely aligned with the commercial success of the business.”

    The PGA Tour’s proposed alliance with the PIF and DP World Tour has already drawn the scrutiny of Congress and the U.S. Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division.

    The future of LIV Golf, which has continued to poach PGA Tour players in recent months, including Masters champion Jon Rahm and England’s Tyrrell Hatton, is one of the sticking points in the negotiations with the PIF. The Saudis have been insistent that team golf remain a part of the sport’s future, according to sources.

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    Mark Schlabach

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  • Bud brings back Clydesdales as early Super Bowl ad releases offer up nostalgia, humor, celebrities

    Bud brings back Clydesdales as early Super Bowl ad releases offer up nostalgia, humor, celebrities

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    NEW YORK — Budweiser is bringing back some familiar characters this year in its Super Bowl ad.

    The perennial Super Bowl marketer is bringing back fan-favorite characters the Clydesdales and a Labrador — a nod to the Labradors that starred in earlier commercials during advertising’s biggest night.

    Some advertisers are releasing ads ahead of Super Bowl 58 in the hope of capitalizing on the buzz that builds as the game approaches. They hope to recoup some of the reported $7 million that’s the going rate for a 30-second spot by capturing pre-game attention. It’s a big challenge to stand out among the 50-plus advertisers vying for the eyes of the more than 100 million people expected to tune in to CBS (and Paramount+ and Nickelodeon) on Super Bowl Sunday (Feb. 11).

    Advertisers are mindful that it’s a presidential election year and that a number of conflicts are raging across the globe. So, they’re sticking to comforting themes of nostalgia, humor, and as always, tons of celebrities for the big game.

    In Anheuser-Busch’s nostalgic spot, a snowstorm threatens to derail a delivery of Budweiser to a small-town bar. But a team of Clydesdales and a Labrador retriever team up to help Budweiser make the delivery.

    Experts say the feel-good spot strikes the right chord for Anheuser-Busch, which is trying to win back consumer sentiment following last year’s conservative backlash against Bud Light after the brand sent a commemorative can to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Bud Light also angered supporters of transgender rights who felt it abandoned Mulvaney.

    “It’s paying tribute to its history, in America,” said Ray Taylor, marketing professor at the Villanova School of Business. “And I think for these big brands, if they’ve got these iconic themes like Budweiser with the Clydesdales, that’s just kind of a can’t miss strategy.”

    Anheuser-Busch will also run a Bud Light ad, but that ad hasn’t been revealed yet. The company has also tapped soccer star Lionel Messi for a Michelob Ultra ad.

    Other ads that have been released early focus on silly humor. A Kawasaki ad shows people riding in their Ridge “side by side” off-road vehicles growing mullets because the vehicle is “business in the front and a party in the back.” And a Hellmann’s ad focusing on food waste starring Kate McKinnon features a cat that becomes a celebrity and dates Pete Davidson.

    “The first Super Bowl spots to be released embrace light humor,” said Northwestern University marketing professor Tim Calkins. “This isn’t a surprise; safety is key when advertising on the Super Bowl so most advertisers will stay far away from controversial topics.”

    As always, commercials are stuffed — even overstuffed — with celebrities. A BetMGM ad released early shows Vince Vaughan saying Tom Brady has won too much to use the betting app and should let others have their turn winning, making Brady miffed. Wayne Gretzky also stars in the ad.

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  • Rivals.com – East Coast Rumor Mill: Latest recruiting buzz from the region

    Rivals.com – East Coast Rumor Mill: Latest recruiting buzz from the region

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    Recruiting is heating up across the country with junior days being held and the beginning of the camp and 7-on-7 circuit. Here’s the latest chatter from the East from Rivals national recruiting analyst Adam Friedman.

    Sanders spent this past weekend at Clemson and was a major focus of the coaching staff. He really wanted to get to know new offensive line coach Matt Luke and it went very well. Sanders got all of his questions answered by the new offensive line coach and that relationship is getting much stronger.

    Luke’s track record with developing highly ranked offensive linemen stood out to Sanders. He specifically asked about Luke’s abrupt retirement from Georgia and was impressed by his answers.

    Georgia has been viewed as the team to beat for Sanders but Clemson is a major contender along with Tennessee, Ohio State and a few others.

    MORE: Luke could be the answer to Clemson’s OL recruiting issues

    *****  

    Oregon hosted Delane last weekend and the trip could not have gone better for the Ducks. Delane raved about the program, the defensive scheme, how they use their safeties and the coaching staff. Oregon will get Delane back for an official visit and it’s probably fair to say the Ducks are one of the top two or three contenders for Delane coming off this visit.

    Delane is looking at a commitment sometime in June after his official visits. Ohio State, Virginia Tech, and Texas should also be getting official visits from Delane with Maryland, LSU and Alabama as other possibilities.

    *****  

    Young spent this past Saturday at Clemson and the Tigers continue to trend upward in his recruitment. Dabo Swinney and his staff did a tremendous job of making Young feel like a priority early in the recruiting process and that is paying off. Young sees the opportunity on the roster at the safety position and is excited about the possibility for playing time fairly early in his career.

    Florida State and Alabama are set to host Young this weekend. It will be his first trip to both programs. He is also thinking about trips to Clemson, NC State, North Carolina, Penn State and Tennessee for spring practices.

    *****  

    Sacca was at Penn State earlier this month for a highly anticipated trip that included an extended sit down with new defensive coordinator Tom Allen. Sacca really enjoyed what he heard and expects the defense at Penn State to remain largely the same.

    That’s good news for the Nittany Lions, as they look to continue to gain momentum in the legacy prospect’s recruitment. Ohio State, Notre Dame and Michigan have largely been viewed as the favorites in his recruitment but there’s still time for big changes before he announces a commitment.

    Sacca added an offer from Alabama on Tuesday and is going to visit Tuscaloosa this weekend. Wisconsin should be getting Sacca for a visit in March.

    *****  

    Florida State hosted Wilson over the weekend and he used the opportunity to get a closer look at the program. He spoke to Mike Norvell and Odell Haggins and got a chance to experience the atmosphere in Tallahassee.

    Last week Wilson released a top eight that included Florida State, Oklahoma, Ohio State, Penn State, Texas A&M, Maryland, Florida and Tennessee. Wilson is scheduled to visit Oklahoma on March 9 and Texas A&M on March 23.

    South Carolina offered Wilson on Tuesday and he’ll work to try to visit in the next month or two. He is expected to commit at some point in July.

    *****  

    Miami hosted a number of big-time prospects this past weekend, including Konanbanny. He really connected with Hurricanes secondary coach Jahmile Addae. Konanbanny is from the Ivory Coast and Addae has roots in Ghana so the 2024 four-star felt like Addae understands his story.

    Konanbanny feels like Miami has turned up the heat on him. Penn State, North Carolina, Tennessee and Florida State are also doing well in his recruitment. North Carolina will host Konanbanny this weekend. Look for another short list from him in the next month or two.

    *****  

    This past weekend Briehler was at Oklahoma and the Sooners did a great job with him while he was on campus. He enjoyed experiencing the atmosphere and getting to see everybody. Defensive line coach Todd Bates and Briehler have grown close over the last few months. He said Oklahoma is recruiting him the hardest right now.

    Even though the Sooners are his likely leader, Briehler isn’t about to commit. He wants to take official visits and then end his recruitment in the summer. Rutgers will get Briehler on campus on Wednesday and then he’ll visit Michigan this weekend with teammate Kamar Archie.

    Briehler has very strong relationships at Rutgers and has visited multiple times. This will be his first trip to Michigan and he is excited to sit down with defensive line coach Mike Elston.

    Florida offered Briehler on Tuesday and he seems to think highly of the program. He enjoyed his conversation with assistant coach Mike Peterson.

    *****

    Parks is one of the highest-ranked players in the 2026 class and already has plenty of big-time programs pursuing him. He visited Louisville this past weekend and Ohio State the weekend prior. Parks wasn’t shy about his interest in Ohio State saying, “I grew up and am still an Ohio State fan to this day.” He speaks to offensive line coach Justin Frye and director of high school relations Ed Terwilliger frequently.

    Parks is planning on visiting West Virginia this weekend and is planning trips to Clemson, Tennessee, Louisville and Florida in the spring. A commitment from Parks is about a year away.

    *****

    Archie hasn’t taken many visits but he’ll make the trip to Ann Arbor this weekend. It’s a big opportunity for the Wolverines to solidify their position with one of their top targets on defense. Since Chris Partridge stepped down during the season, Grant Newsome has taken over as Archie’s primary point of contact at Michigan, which makes sense since Newsome is the area recruiter for New Jersey and he has a brother who goes to Archie’s school.

    Florida and USC recently offered Archie, which surprised him since he didn’t have much contact with them ahead of time. He’s looking to visit both schools at some point in the spring or summer. Tennessee, Oklahoma, Michigan, Rutgers, Penn State, Georgia, Clemson and South Carolina are also on that list.

    Archie will use the upcoming dead period to figure out his visit schedule for the spring and summer. He wants to commit prior to his senior season.

    *****

    Smith took trips to Penn State and Maryland earlier this month and each visit went well. He really liked the energy at Penn State and felt comfortable there. The Nittany Lions want Smith to play receiver and he likes the plan they have for him.

    At Maryland, Smith went to a basketball game and spent a lot of time with assistant coach Aazaar Abdul-Rahim. The Terps want Smith to play defensive back, which is also appealing to him. Tennessee and West Virginia should also be considered top contenders for Smith.

    *****

    Davis wasn’t able to make his scheduled visit to Clemson this past weekend but the Tigers are still in a very good spot in his recruitment. Assistant coaches Nick Eason and Chris Rumph continue to build strong relationships with him and he’s fairly close with commits Amare Adams and Isaiah Campbell. The only official visit Davis has set so far is to Clemson on May 31.

    Georgia is right there with Clemson near the top of Davis’ recruitment. The Bulldogs hosted Davis for what he called a “great” visit earlier this month. Georgia is hitting all the right notes with Davis and he’s got a strong relationship with assistant coach Chidera Uzo-Diribe and Jamal Jarrett, his former teammate.

    Look for Davis to visit both programs along with Miami and Ohio State this spring. Hurricanes head coach Mario Cristobal took a helicopter to see Davis earlier this month and Buckeyes defensive line coach Larry Johnson was at his school on Tuesday. Look for Davis to announce his commitment in June.

    *****

    Porter took visits to Florida and Florida State for the first time over the weekend. He enjoyed getting to know multiple coaches at each school and commented on the high energy approach he saw at both stops.

    Michigan has been a top contender for Porter and he still feels just as good about the Wolverines with Sherrone Moore taking over as head coach. Porter spoke to Moore and receiver coach Ron Bellamy recently and they assured him that not much is changing because most of the offensive coaching staff is staying in place.

    Porter doesn’t have any other visits planned right now and is working to release a list of top schools in two or three months. He is planning on committing during the summer.

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    Adam Friedman, National Recruiting Analyst

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  • Kevin De Bruyne’s Man City return: Why it changes the dynamic for Pep Guardiola and can tilt the title race their way

    Kevin De Bruyne’s Man City return: Why it changes the dynamic for Pep Guardiola and can tilt the title race their way

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    Manchester City are odds-on to retain their Premier League title despite being five points behind leaders Liverpool. Injury to Mohamed Salah coupled with the spectacular return of Kevin De Bruyne has swung the race back in their favour.

    It is an illustration of the importance of the individual. In this era of systems and of super coaches, a time when Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp have been able to sustain success even as the personnel has changed, special talents can still make the difference.

    Guardiola’s style of play provides the platform on the pitch. It is the reason why we can all be sure that Manchester City will be towards the top of the table. But the difference between disappointment and glory could come down to one swipe of De Bruyne’s boot.

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    Highlights from the Premier League as Newcastle took on Manchester City

    The celebrated City coach knows this as well as anyone. He talks of how Erling Haaland and De Bruyne do not help his team to play well but they do help his team to win. He has also said the midfielder cannot solve the team’s problems – but he sure can mask them.

    That was evident at Newcastle. City were superb for periods but they still needed help when one goal down with 25 minutes to play. De Bruyne scored the equalising goal following a solo run and his sublime assist for Oscar Bobb settled the result in stoppage time.

    It was a reminder of his technical excellence and the imagination that illuminates his passing but it was also about his personality. De Bruyne has the ability to be decisive but he is also demonstrative enough to want to be. He has the appetite required to seize a game.

    He misplaced more passes during his brief cameo appearance than Phil Foden did across the entire match. In part, that was because he attempted nine crosses, four more than any other player did in the whole game. He took risks with the ball and he had his reward.

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    There are many ways to illustrate just how rare this quality is but try this one. Since making his City debut in 2015, De Bruyne has played 192 through-balls in the Premier League. The only other active player in three figures during that time is Christian Eriksen with 101.

    De Bruyne has surrendered possession of the football on 4,422 occasions in Premier League competition during that period but it is all worth it because of what he creates when attempting the ambitious. He tries the passes few can see and fewer can execute.

    Guardiola has sought to add that unpredictability to his team’s play in other ways, introducing the dribbling skills of Jeremy Doku as well as bringing in more drive from midfield. The bustling Julian Alvarez is a busy presence, although a little less precise.

    But De Bruyne restores balance. The onus is on him again now.

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    Watch the best of Kevin De Bruyne’s 100+ Premier League assists

    The English coaches who voted for Kevin De Bruyne in the FIFA Best awards…

    Gary White, head coach of Chinese Taipei:

    “Kevin De Bruyne has everything that you are looking for in the modern footballer,” White tells Sky Sports. “For me, he is easily the most enjoyable player in the world to watch at the moment. I think he is very underrated, to be honest, as you can see by the votes.

    “He is as close to a football genius as you can get. I am always excited to watch him play. He is like a silent assassin. His vision is just world class. The range of pass, the ability to pick a pass, the detail, the weight, the feel. The way it sits up for players in their path.

    “He disguises his passes so well. Everything he does is very thoughtful. It is elite. You saw against Newcastle what a team is like with and without him. When he comes on, he has an impact. You can see Manchester City are not the same team without De Bruyne.

    “It is like taking Andres Iniesta and Xavi out of the great Barcelona team. Lionel Messi would not be the player he is without those players. You look at how De Bruyne partners with Erling Haaland and how many goals are put on a plate for him and others in the team.

    “He is a joy to watch. He is a player my son looks up to. He is the best.”

    Stephen Constantine, head coach of Pakistan:

    “He is one of those players who you would call a luxury player – but he works his ass off,” Constantine tells Sky Sports.

    “He is always chasing back. You never see Lionel Messi do that unless the guy is within two feet of him. I like his work ethic. He is a player who, if he did not work, people would not say anything because he is so good in everything else he does. But he does that as well.

    “That makes him, for me, the complete player with and without the ball.

    “Some can see the pass and hit it five times out of 10 and when it works it looks brilliant. But he hits it eight or nine times out of 10.

    “For me, all-round, he is the best player in the world.

    “That is why I voted for him.”

    It is no surprise that Jack Grealish has suffered in his absence or that Rodri appeared to up his levels once De Bruyne arrived on the pitch at St James’ Park. That clever pass in between the defensive lines to find the substitute earned Rodri an assist for his efforts.

    Against Arsenal earlier this season, when City were unusually passive, content with a modicum of control, the balance was not quite right. Up against organised opposition, circulating the ball in the hope that the opening would surely come just did not work.

    Kevin De Bruyne loses possession more regularly than any Manchester City player
    Image:
    Kevin De Bruyne loses possession more regularly than any Manchester City player

    Manchester City's Kevin De Bruyne creates a chance more regularly than any of his team-mates
    Image:
    Kevin De Bruyne creates a chance more regularly than any of his Man City team-mates

    Grealish’s ability to retain possession makes more sense when the ball will eventually work its way back towards the playmaker supreme. Put simply, it is more efficient to wait for De Bruyne to try something than allow a lesser player to risk giving the ball away.

    The statistics since the start of last season show that De Bruyne loses possession of the ball more regularly than any other Manchester City player. They also show that De Bruyne creates an opportunity for his team more regularly than any of his team-mates.

    He is perhaps the best player in the world’s best team and he changes the dynamic. It has already won three points at Newcastle. Expect more to come. His long absence opened the door for City’s rivals. The return of Kevin De Bruyne now threatens to close it.

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  • ‘Unfinished business’: Sabally returning to Wings

    ‘Unfinished business’: Sabally returning to Wings

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    • Alexa Philippou, ESPNJan 30, 2024, 08:30 PM ET

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      • Covers women’s college basketball and the WNBA
      • Previously covered UConn and the WNBA Connecticut Sun for the Hartford Courant
      • Stanford graduate and Baltimore native with further experience at the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and Cincinnati Enquirer

    Satou Sabally, one of the WNBA’s brightest young stars, will return to the Dallas Wings after being a restricted free agent, she told ESPN on Tuesday.

    Sabally, who turns 26 in April, won Most Improved Player last season while finishing fifth in MVP voting.

    Sabally told ESPN she kept an open mind throughout the free agency process, but was drawn to the goal of winning a championship in Dallas, where she has played her entire career since the organization drafted her second overall in 2020.

    The franchise won three titles (2003, 2006, 2008) when based in Detroit, but prior to last season, it had not won a playoff series since relocating to Tulsa and then Dallas.

    “Just engaging in those basketball conversations really made us realize that we want to work together and we want to bring a championship to Dallas,” Sabally said. “It could really be termed as unfinished business.”

    Sabally’s one-year deal is fully protected and worth $195,000, a source told ESPN, below the regular max she could have earned ($208,219). But she was willing to take a bit of a discount to allow Dallas to bolster the talent around her.

    Six other WNBA teams reached out to Sabally over the past few weeks, a source said. As a restricted free agent, other organizations could extend an offer sheet to her, and Dallas would have the opportunity to match that offer.

    The interest in the 6-foot-4 forward emerged after she posted career highs across the board (18.6 points, 8.1 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.8 steals per game) in 2023, the product of a mental and physical transformation she had undergone in the previous offseason following a host of injuries that hindered her early years in the league.

    Sabally also compiled 14 double-doubles, fifth best in the league, while her 3-point shooting improved from 23.3% in 2022 to 36.1% in 2023.

    The former Oregon star earned her second All-Star bid in 2023 and was named to the All-WNBA first team for the first time in her career. Under first-year coach Latricia Trammell — and helped by Sabally’s breakout season — the Wings finished in the top four in the regular-season standings at 22-18 and reached the WNBA semifinals after sweeping the Atlanta Dream.

    The Wings lost to the eventual champion Las Vegas Aces in the semis, but have a core of experienced players (mainly Arike Ogunbowale, Natasha Howard and Teaira McCowan) coming back, plus an array of other players from last year they could look to retain.

    Sabally believes the growth Dallas has experienced each year since she joined will translate to the Wings taking an even bigger step in 2024.

    “I think when you’ve already had so many years together as a squad, you’re willing to actually sacrifice more and put more results on the table,” she said. “And I think we’re at that point now.”

    Sabally’s community work in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has also been close to her heart and will remain an integral part of her time with the Wings. Her off-court initiatives include engaging with Café Momentum, a Dallas restaurant that helps reintegrate youth who’ve been through the justice system, as well as Black-owned businesses and women’s shelters.

    After playing in China earlier in the WNBA offseason, Sabally will soon head to Brazil to compete with the German national team as the squad looks to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics. Then her focus turns to preparing for the Wings’ season, which gets underway in May.

    “The most important thing for me next year is really finishing the mission of actually being the greatest team in the league and being a leader, developing as a leader, and really paving the way for the future,” Sabally said. “I think the WNBA is at such an amazing point right now in women’s sports and history, so being one of the faces that can be part of that is such an honor to me. … I’m grateful to be able to come back to a place that I call home. That is also super special and something I’ve worked hard for, so I’m just really excited and happy.”

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    Alexa Philippou

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  • Sources: Idzik to be Panthers OC, won’t call plays

    Sources: Idzik to be Panthers OC, won’t call plays

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    • David Newton, ESPN Staff WriterJan 30, 2024, 01:59 PM ET

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        David Newton is an NFL reporter at ESPN and covers the Carolina Panthers. Newton began covering Carolina in 1995 and came to ESPN in 2006 as a NASCAR reporter before joining NFL Nation in 2013. You can follow Newton on Twitter at @DNewtonespn.

    CHARLOTTE, N.C. — New Carolina Panthers coach Dave Canales is hiring a familiar face as his offensive coordinator, but that person won’t be calling the plays.

    Brad Idzik, who followed Canales from the Seattle Seahawks to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to coach wide receivers last season, will again follow Canales to the Panthers, sources told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler.

    Canales, however, will call plays for the Panthers as he did as the offensive coordinator in Tampa Bay last season, sources told ESPN. Idzik, 32, has never been a playcaller.

    Prior to last season, Idzik spent four seasons with Canales in Seattle as the assistant wide receivers coach.

    Canales, who officially will be introduced as Carolina’s head coach at a news conference Thursday, had a successful 2023 season as a first-time NFL playcaller. He helped Baker Mayfield to career highs in passing yards (4,044), touchdowns (28) and completion percentage (64.3).

    He was given a six-year contract to help turn around the career of Bryce Young, who had a historically bad rookie season in 2023 after being selected with the top pick of the draft.

    Young, who was 2-14 as the starter, had only 11 touchdown passes — tied for the fewest in NFL history for a quarterback with at least 500 attempts. His Total QBR (33.3) ranked 29th out of 30 qualified quarterbacks.

    Canales helped Mayfield go from last in the NFL in Total QBR (26.2) in 2022 with Carolina and the Los Angeles Rams to 18th this past season (54.4).

    Idzik’s specialty has been developing receivers. The Seahawks’ Tyler Lockett had more than 1,000 yards receiving in each of his four seasons with Idzik. From 2019 to 2022, Idzik’s receivers had the second-most receiving touchdowns (92) in the league, the third-most air yards per target (11.6) and the seventh-highest receiving percentage (65.7).

    Idzik has Carolina ties, as he played wide receiver for four years at Wake Forest (2011-14).

    Canales and Idzik inherit a Carolina offense that finished last in the NFL in yards per game (265.3) and tied for last in scoring (13.9 points per game).

    The Panthers still are waiting to see whether Ejiro Evero, still under contract as their defensive coordinator, gets the head-coaching position in Seattle. If he doesn’t, Evero will get strong consideration to remain as Carolina’s defensive coordinator, sources told ESPN.

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    David Newton

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  • Trae Young scores 26 points, Hawks hand Lakers another double-digit defeat, 138-122

    Trae Young scores 26 points, Hawks hand Lakers another double-digit defeat, 138-122

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    ATLANTA — Trae Young and the Atlanta Hawks knew the Los Angeles Lakers would be a bit weary after playing 24 hours earlier in Houston.

    So they came out running and gunning, handing LeBron James and the Lakers their second double-digit loss in as many nights.

    Young scored 26 points, knocking down his first six attempts from 3-point range, and the Hawks raced past Los Angeles 138-122 on Tuesday.

    “We knew they played last night, so we knew we needed to get up and down and run, play in transition and play fast,” Young said. “We knew as the game would go on, they would tire down. That’s what they did.”

    The Hawks seized control by ripping off three straight baskets to start the second half, pushing their lead to 17 points and forcing the Lakers to call a quick timeout.

    It didn’t help. Atlanta stretched the margin to 20 points and the Lakers never got any closer than 10 the rest of the way in a matchup of teams that reportedly have been in talks ahead of next week’s trade deadline.

    The Lakers, playing without Anthony Davis after a 135-119 loss at Houston on Monday, slipped back below .500 at 24-25. Austin Reaves scored 28 points and James added 20 in a lackluster performance before a standing-room-only crowd.

    “We could, on any given night, beat any team in the NBA,” James said. “But, on any given night, we can get our (butt) kicked by any team in the NBA. What’s our record? Under .500? There you go.”

    Dejounte Murray, who had 24 points for the Hawks, knocked down mid-range jumpers on three straight possessions midway through the fourth quarter to turn back any thoughts of a Lakers comeback.

    The Hawks guard has been mentioned as someone who might be moved with his team mired seven games under .500 despite its second straight victory.

    Jalen Johnson chipped in with 19 points for the Hawks, while Bogdan Bogdanovic and Saddiq Bey had 18 apiece. Seven players scored in double figures for Atlanta, which made 16 of 38 from beyond the arc and finished 52% from the field on 101 attempts.

    “We were making shots,” Young said. “Sometimes when you don’t make shots, it allows them to stay in the game, have a rhythm, feel good about themselves. But nights like tonight, when you make shots, they can’t have that feeling.”

    Davis missed his third game of the season, sitting out with what the Lakers listed as left hip and Achilles tendon issues. Jaxson Hayes started in his place and had six points and six rebounds.

    That was a far cry from the production of Davis, who is averaging 24.9 points and 12.1 rebounds per game.

    The Lakers also missed Davis at the defensive end.

    “You’ve got to have more communication through the course of the possession, because you’re gonna have a little slippage,” James said. “When A.D. is out there, he protects us on that third line of defense. When he’s not out there, there has to be constant communication.”

    There also were questions about whether the 39-year-old James would play on consecutive nights. But he went through his pregame routine and was in the starting lineup.

    “When I’m healthy enough to go out there and play, I just try to perform at a high level, help my teammates do great things out there on the floor, try to be productive,” James said. “Win, lose or draw, be satisfied with the way I approach the game.”

    He wasn’t satisfied with the way he shot from the free-throw line, going 4 of 9.

    “I’ve gotta be better,” said James, who had nine rebounds and eight assists.

    Hawks forward De’Andre Hunter played for first time since Dec. 20, coming off the bench to score six points in 16 minutes. He missed 19 games with right knee inflammation.

    Young hopes Hunter’s return signals better days ahead for the underachieving Hawks.

    “Any team can do it one night or two nights in row. We’ve just got be consistent with it,” Young said, “Hopefully we can string together some wins that propel us forward to where we want to go and need to be.”

    UP NEXT

    Lakers: Continue a six-game trip Thursday night at Boston.

    Hawks: Host Phoenix on Friday night.

    ___

    AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba

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  • First three rounds of playoffs set viewership mark

    First three rounds of playoffs set viewership mark

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    Jan 30, 2024, 04:06 PM ET

    LOS ANGELES — The television audiences for the first three rounds of the NFL playoffs are the highest on record going back to 1988.

    According to the league and Nielsen, the first three weekends of the postseason averaged 38.5 million viewers on television and digital platforms, a 9% increase over last year.

    The Kansas City Chiefs‘ 17-10 win over the Baltimore Ravens averaged 55.47 million on CBS, making it the most-watched AFC Championship Game ever. The previous mark was 54.85 million when the Pittsburgh Steelers beat the New York Jets to advance to the Super Bowl in the 2010 season.

    The audience peaked at 64.02 million. It was also CBS’ most-watched non-Super Bowl program since the 1994 Winter Olympics in prime time on Feb. 25, 1994.

    The San Francisco 49ers‘ 34-31 comeback victory over the Detroit Lions on Fox averaged 56.69 million, the most-watched NFC Championship Game since 2012. It is also the fourth most-watched non-Super Bowl telecast in network history.

    It peaked at 58.97 million during the fourth quarter.

    The 56.1 million average for the conference championships is an 11% jump over last year.

    CBS, which has the Super Bowl on Feb. 11, is averaging 45.61 million for its postseason games. It is the network’s highest average since the NFL returned to the network in 1998 and a 12% increase from last year.

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