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.
Goooood morning, folks! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Happy Friday! Can you believe July 4th is next week? What in the world? It was just March. Thanks so much for reading the newsletter today.
From the very beginning, it has always been an inevitability that Bronny James would join his dad, LeBron James, with the Los Angeles Lakers. LeBron has always made it clear this was his intention, even if some strings needed to be pulled to get it done.
Regardless, it’s done now. And LeBron certainly seems happy that it’s finally happened. But, of course, there’s been a backlash to it because there’s a backlash to almost everything LeBron does these days.
Some fans were here for it. Others? They complained about nepotism and LeBron manipulating the Lakers to make this happen. That’s probably what you’re expecting this column today to be about. The whole Adrian Wojnarowski weird nepotism rant of it all, right?
Well, sure. I do have thoughts on that and the state of the Lakers organization as a whole. And maybe one day soon I’ll share those thoughts with you.
But the questions I have today are a bit more, uh, let’s call them granular.
I want to know how this whole arrangement between Bronny and Bron is going to work. Like, what does this look like? In fact, I have five specific questions I need answers to.
- What on Earth does Bronny call LeBron now? I’ve never worked with my dad, but I can’t imagine that if I did work with him, I’d call him “dad” at work. That’s weird. He can’t call him that, right? But … are they on a first-name basis as parent and child? Does Bronny just call him two three? I don’t know, man. Again: This is weird.
- What happens on the road? I’m not saying LeBron is out here acting a fool on the road, but I’m not not saying that either. Bronny is also 19 years old on an NBA team. He’s for sure going to act a fool on the road. Do they avoid each other like the plague then? Who tells Savannah somebody was acting out first?
- What happens when one of them messes up? What if Bronny mistimes a cut or bricks a wide-open 3-pointer off a pass from his dad? Savannah is definitely going to hear about that one.
- Do they room together? There’s no way they room together. They can’t room together, right?!? There’s no way. Bronny, I hate this for you, brother.
- Which teammate does LeBron make passive-aggressive tweets about to get Bronny more playing time? This is happening. It’s definitely happening. My vote is on D’Lo.
This season is going to be so weird for you, Lakers fans. Good luck.
Welp. USMNT is still USMNT
Folks got their hopes up for the U.S. Men’s National soccer team after it played Brazil to a tough draw a few weeks ago. They thought this team might actually be serious for once.
As it turns out, it is still a completely unserious team that we should never have taken seriously in the first place.
The USMNT lost to Panama on Thursday, 2-1, after a late goal in the 88th minute basically ended the match. Now, the USMNT’s path to the quarterfinals of the Copa América is in deep question.
It wasn’t that 88th-minute goal that lost the U.S. the match — it was this silly red card from Tim Weah. He clocks a guy in the back of the head and gets ejected. USMNT essentially played the entire match down a man.
Tim Weah receives a red card after review for this contact 🟥 pic.twitter.com/phw8bSzdKR
— FOX Soccer (@FOXSoccer) June 27, 2024
Weah will also be suspended for the next match against Uruguay, which USMNT will probably need to win to advance to the quarterfinals.
What a shame, man. What a shame.
Is … is Novak Djokovic actually going to play at Wimbledon?!?!?
Novak Djokovic tore his meniscus just a few weeks ago at the French Open. He had surgery on his knee to repair it on June 6. It felt pretty safe to assume he might be down for a minute.
I mean, at 37 years old, recovering from a torn meniscus can’t be the easiest thing in the world, right? I thought we might actually be seeing Djokovic hit the beginning of the end here.
Yet, here we are, just three weeks later, and Djokovic is not only practicing against world No. 1 Janik Sinner but is also giving the thumbs-up to be included in the Wimbledon draw.
He’s playing, folks. Novak Djokovic has somehow made it to Wimbledon.
Depending on the draw, he’ll likely have a match on Monday or Tuesday. As the No. 2 ranked ATP player in the world, Djokovic can’t see Sinner until the final. But he could still match up against reigning champ Carlos Alcaraz a bit sooner, who is currently ranked No. 3.
That doesn’t even really matter, though. Djokovic feeling well enough to play in this tournament is quite the achievement alone.
Hopefully, he holds up.
Photo Friday: Lord Stanley in all its glory
I just love pictures with the Stanley Cup. Here’s Aleksander Barkov celebrating with it as fireworks explode in the background. What a pic.
Quick hits: Jewell Loyd is TOUGH … NBA Draft grades … and more
— Jewell Loyd dropped 34 points on the Fever with one eye closed. Yes, that happened. Meg Hall has more.
— Charles Curtis has draft grades for every team in the NBA
— Caitlin Clark made a little WNBA history through 19 games. Here’s Charles again with more.
— Meet Macklin Celebrini, the No. 1 prospect in the NHL Draft. Cory has more here.
— Here are 8 NHL vets with sons currently in the draft. Wow, we’re old. Blake Schuster has more.
— Prince Grimes asks if Bronny James will play for the South Bay Lakers. He probably should.
That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading. Have a fantastic weekend. Peace.
-Sykes ✌️