This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Good morning, Winners! Thanks so much for rocking with The Morning Win today. We appreciate you here.
I don’t even want to waste time with small talk. I know you saw that Anthony Edwards dunk on John Collins last night. And, if you didn’t, what in the world are you doing?!?
Here’s a look for the uninformed:
HOLY CRAP ANT pic.twitter.com/tPxrijxGUB
— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) March 19, 2024
RELATED: Anthony Edwards’ posterization of John Collins in six photos
Yeah, man. Yeah. While his reaction involves a lot of NSFW language, it’s totally correct and appropriate. This dunk was nasty. So nasty. There’s a reason Kyle Anderson’s eyes popped out of his head. This is what it means to be baptized by a basketball.
I’ve seen so many people calling this the Dunk of the Year. And, yeah, that’s appropriate, I guess. There hasn’t been — and will not be — a better dunk than this this season.
But calling this the Dunk of the Year undersells this, man. It feels disrespectful to me. It’s much, much bigger than that. This might be the best dunk I’ve ever seen. It’s definitely the best one I’ve seen in at least a decade, at the very least.
This is the new Blake Griffin on Mozgov. It’s Michael Jordan on Patrick Ewing. Shawn Kemp on Alton Lister.
Yeah, we’ve seen other immaculate poster dunks from other dunkers recently. Ja Morant has quite a few. Zion Williamson’s got some here and there. Ant Man’s got some others out there, too.
But this one here from Ant? This is generational, man. We’re going to remember this one for a long, long time. This is the one that’s going to have kids dunking their friends into trash cans and calling out “ANT MAN” as they do it.
This is one of the best dunks I’ve ever seen. Shoutout to Edwards for giving us this treat. My condolences to John Collins for involuntarily being on the wrong side of history.
Palace intrigue in the MLBPA
There might be some big changes coming to the Major League Baseball Players Association soon.
Players held a zoom call on Monday that ended with an informal vote to oust MLBPA deputy executive director Bruce Meyer with MLBPA — the No. 2 guy in the player’s association, ESPN’s Jeff Passan reports.
Players want to bring in Harry Marino, who is the lawyer who spearheaded the effort to unionize minor league baseball in 2023. He’s a former minor league player himself.
Players have long had complaints about the current union leadership and their ability to get things done. There’s also a belief that super agent Scott Boras has a strong influence on the union through Meyer — a claim he denied back in 2021.
This friction is coming at such a fascinating time when teams spent nearly $3 billion this offseason on player contracts. On the surface, that looks great! Especially following the newly minted CBA.
But when you really dig into it, Shohei Ohtani ($700 million) and Yoshinobu Yamamoto ($325 million) are making over a third of that money with one team. Meanwhile, Passan writes, most teams are still spending less:
“Two historic financial behemoths, the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox, committed less than $50 million to free agents. Eight teams — the Oakland Athletics, Baltimore Orioles, Washington Nationals, Tampa Bay Rays, Minnesota Twins, Miami Marlins, Cleveland Guardians and Colorado Rockies — guaranteed less than $15 million.”
The top of the league is doing great. The middle? Not so much. That’s a problem.
It’s hard to blame the players for wanting change when these are the results. We’ll see if Meyer ends up being the fall guy for it.
Keenan Allen keeps it real
Keenan Allen doesn’t play about his paper. He was asked why he left the Chargers this season after being traded and, essentially, that was his answer. Robert Zeglinski has more here:
“As Allen explained during his introductory Bears press conference, when the Chargers approached him about restructuring his contract, his answer to his former employer wasn’t emotional. The 31-year-old playmaker said he bluntly told them it wasn’t happening because he was coming off one of his best statistical seasons. That’s it.”
I’m not mad at this at all. When you’re performing at your best, you expect to be paid for it. You definitely don’t expect your job to ask you to put that money on layaway. That’s unfair.
Allen is getting what he deserves from the Bears. Is it a worse situation? Maybe. But Zeglinski asks a poignant question in his piece: “Why take a pay cut or move around money you’re owed in writing just to help your employer, especially after you performed well?”
My thoughts, exactly. Get your money, Keenan Allen. Good on you.
Quick hits: Caitlin Clark and the rise of sports betting… The latest NBA MVP ladder … and more
— Ben Fawkes wrote an awesome story on how Caitlin Clark fueled the rise of sports betting in women’s college basketball.
— Here’s Robert Zeglinski’s latest NBA MVP ladder with Luka Doncic having a fantastic season that may wind up forgotten.
— Here are the latest NFL power rankings post-free agency from Christian D’Andrea and Zeglinski.
— Meghan Hall has you covered on injuries you need to know for both the men’s tournament and women’s tournament. Build that bracket.
— Here are some of the court designs for the NCAA tournament. These are kind of bland, honestly.
— And here’s Mitchell Northam with each of the 16 opening sites for the women’s NCAA tournament.
That’s all, folks! Thanks so much for reading today. We appreciate you. Catch us again here tomorrow. Peace!
-Sykes ✌️