In a discussion about Eagles safety C.J. Gardner-Johnson’s well-known antics, Slay weirdly laughed with Parsons — who, need I remind everyone, plays for the rival Dallas Cowboys — about Gardner-Johnson getting burned by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after talking trash.
It’s a horrible look from someone like Slay. As a teammate, he should have Gardner-Johnson’s back in public at all costs — especially when he’s talking to a rival player like Parsons, who is invested in the Eagles’ downfall:
Micah and Slay react to C.J. Gardner-Johnson giving up TD vs. Bucs after pregame trash talk
Listen, even if you’re an Eagles player bothered by Gardner-Johnson not backing up his usual trash talk, you have to handle that business behind closed doors. You don’t go smiling and laughing about his perceived failures with arguably the best player on Philadelphia’s most hated rival. That’s the absolute last thing you do when your team is already on the verge of a crisis.
Suffice it to say, the Eagles sure do seem like they have a massive dearth of leadership. They really need to grow up before 2024 goes off the wheels.
At this point, after seeing how a “leader” like Slay is happy to throw Gardner-Johnson under the bus, I’m starting to think that’s inevitable.
Draymond Green refused to take this reporter’s condescending bait.
Draymond Green has an extensive reputation for sometimes taking things way too far on a basketball court. As such, it’s very fair to ask whether anyone with the Golden State Warriors is concerned about his availability moving forward if he’s going to keep losing his cool.
The thing is, you have to ask that question in the right, non-disingenuous way without seemingly trying to bait a narrative.
On Monday, during a press conference at Warriors media day, a reporter told Green that people (fans, teammates, etc.) were “worried about him.” Naturally, Green took great exception to this weird framing because it starts to sound like there’s more to worry about in his life than his occasional conduct in the extremely narrow scope of basketball. That’s just not the case.
As Green alludes, he’s a successful, wealthy Black man who will go down as one of the best players in NBA history. Why on Earth would anyone be “worried” about him?
This back-and-forth between Draymond Green and a reporter 😳
Green wasn't a fan of this reporter telling him people are "worried about him" pic.twitter.com/9Qun7pgzfx
Good for Green for refusing to take this silly bait.
Again, it’s one thing to ask him about people being concerned about his NBA availability because he could potentially get suspended and leave the Warriors shorthanded once more. That’s totally fair to ask for someone of Green’s on-court history, and it keeps it within the realm of the game. You also don’t have to get a perfect quote from him in this regard. A no-comment or curt answer is fine.
It’s another to ask this question in one of the most patronizing ways possible, as if Green, the basketball player, is in any way connected to Green, the man. Green rightfully shot this conversation down.
An all-time legend in his own right, LeBron James was asked about his thoughts on Mutombo as the NBA mourned the passing of the larger-than-life giant. In a hilarious story, James recalled a time when Mutombo apparently broke his face trying to block a shot, forcing the then-Cleveland Cavalier to wear a protective mask for a little while.
Oh, and he said it coincidentally happened on James’ birthday. Oof.
James, of course, meant all of this in good fun while reminiscing about Mutombo’s tremendous impact on the global basketball community:
“He fractured my face on my birthday in Cleveland.” 😅🤕
The Chicago Bears may have pieced together their most complete game of the season on Sunday in a 24-18 win over the Los Angeles Rams. But while the 2-2 Bears are starting to show more cohesion, it’s pretty clear that much of their operation is still a work in progress.
One of those critical niches is the developing connection between Caleb Williams and No. 1 receiver D.J. Moore. Through four games, while we see flashes now and then, there have been more than a few instances where it’s apparent that these two must still work on their chemistry. The best example from Sunday was Moore slowing down on a route toward the end zone where he thought he was just supposed to run a clear.
Williams, on the other hand, went through his progressions and put it in a place only his receiver could catch it for what should have been a touchdown.
Unfortunately, Moore slowed down and gave up on the play, and the Bears had to settle for a field goal at the end of the first half:
This conversation clearly paid off with immediate dividends, as Williams delivered an absolute laser throw to Moore in the fourth quarter for the duo’s first-ever touchdown together:
Yes, Williams to Moore is a work in progress for the Bears. But it’s nice to see tiny real-time glimpses like that show they’re coming along in the right way. And when/if they finally have everything down pat, the rest of the NFL better watch out.
But winning a title in the NBA is often about ideal matchups. Every team — and this is without exception — has its fatal flaw, an unavoidable kryptonite. A superstar like Jokic is transcendent, but he and his Nuggets teammates are not unbeatable.
Karl-Anthony Towns was the primary defender on Kevin Durant and Nikola Jokic in back-to-back series, credibly guarding Hall of Famers with vastly different skills while also averaging 19 points on 52/44/83 shooting.
With everyone healthy and at their best, Jokic’s Nuggets two most notable playoff losses have come at the hands of the Los Angeles Lakers during the 2020 Western Conference Finals and to last year’s Timberwolves in the second round.
How both teams primarily beat Denver is no coincidence.
In 2020, the Lakers used a rotation of three bigs featuring Anthony Davis, Dwight Howard, and JaVale McGee to overwhelm Jokic. Jokic is arguably the most skilled center in the league — especially thanks to his all-time floater game. He is a one-man matchup problem who can score at will against sizable NBA defense in isolation or the post as he pleases. However, the Lakers ensured that they always had someone with size and athleticism fronting Jokic while the other forward roamed as a low-man backup in case the initial line of defense was lost.
With an exhausted Jokic still maturing as an All-NBA-caliber player, the Lakers cruised to a five-game series win. Though, Davis had his remarkable individual moments on offense, too:
The two-big lineup is not an unbeatable coverage for Jokic, per se, who has shown he can find a way to the rim and get a quality shot off anyway. But that requires the Serbian star to use a lot more of his energy. This sort of mix wears him down over time. When Jokic is tired and gassed, he’s eventually no longer working tirelessly for quality shots, he’s settling for random 3-pointers, and he’s often even failing to swallow a litany of defensive rebounds his reputation is centered around.
The Nuggets, in effect, are a shell of themselves with Jokic in this state.
The Timberwolves had a near-carbon copy of this equation to defend Jokic. They could use Towns or power forward Naz Reid to front him while four-time Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert roamed, waiting to send over his help defense or to block the shot. To his credit, Jokic still found ways to make an impact against this defensive coverage — his masterful 40-point, 13-assist, seven-rebound effort in Game 5 of the series comes to mind — but again, that takes a lot out of him. And Towns certainly seemed like he challenged Jokic the most of all three defenders.
There’s also a reason the Timberwolves don’t usually prefer putting Gobert on Jokic in single coverage because this is what happens:
By his high standards, after having to metaphorically break his back against Towns, Gobert, and Reid all series, Jokic almost appeared ephemeral in stunning back-to-back losses in Game 6 and 7. It’s because the Timberwolves had the perfect defensive coverage to combat his skill. With all due respect to Julius Randle, he is not nearly the same kind of defender as Towns, let alone as talented.
And if the Timberwolves want to use more of Reid against Jokic while Gobert roams, well, I’ll let the screenshot below from their most recent playoff battle tell the story about how that would likely go:
With Towns out of the picture now, Minnesota got a lot worse against Denver, specifically, as a result.
None of this is to say that the Nuggets’ path through the Western Conference to another NBA championship this season has parted like the Red Sea. The West remains a daunting gauntlet, with juggernaut contenders like the Oklahoma City Thunder, Dallas Mavericks, and yes, even the Timberwolves without Towns, still standing in Denver’s way, among others.
But if you’re Denver, you likely always feel great about your chances in any playoff series the easier Jokic has it. The looser his individual matchups are, the more likely it is the Nuggets will find a way to beat you in a back-and-forth best-of-seven. I would not be shocked to learn that Denver’s front office celebrated this Towns trade just as much as anyone actually involved in the deal. As Denver aims for two titles in three years, this might have been the organization’s biggest move of the offseason, and it didn’t even have to lift a finger.
As it currently stands, no other West championship contender has proven they have the ultimate antidote to trying to beat Jokic. With Towns, the Timberwolves did. But that reality is dead and gone now.
Dikembe Mutombo was a legend larger than life and one of basketball’s greatest ambassadors.
Basketball Hall of Famer, four-time Defensive Player of the Year, and 8-time NBA All-Star Dikembe Mutombo is dead at the age of 58 after a battle with brain cancer. The tragic news about the larger-than-life big man was reported by The Athletic’s Shams Charania, shocking the basketball world with a devastating bombshell on Monday morning.
A native of the Republic of Congo, Mutombo turned in one of the finest careers in NBA history. He was a defensive ace for every team he played for, a prolific shot-blocker who amusingly made light of his highlight plays with an iconic “finger wag” celebration.
The finest team moment of Mutombo’s illustrious career might have been when he led the 1994 Denver Nuggets — the No. 8 seed in those Western Conference playoffs — to a stunning upset of the No. 1 Seattle Supersonics.
Mutombo was an incredible professional basketball player but an even better person. He was seemingly wearing a smile from ear to ear any time anyone saw him in public, bringing sheer, unbridled joy into any room he walked into. More importantly, Mutombo went to great lengths to use his huge platform to help improve living conditions in the Republic of Congo while also later working to improve basketball infrastructure in Africa in general.
Mutombo was a giant of the game in every imaginable way, and his loss is tremendous.
The NBA world mourned Mutombo after his death
One of my favorite Dikembe Mutombo moments was him continuously going back and forth with MJ pic.twitter.com/O3UKasLbMu
Daryl Morey got emotional as he talked about Dikembe Mutombo. He found out about Mutombo's death during the press conference. They had a close relationship, he said, from their time in Houston.
Stephen A. Smith reacts to the breaking news that Dikembe Mutombo has passed away.
"He was one of the best human beings you could ever possibly meet… no matter what you know about him as a basketball player, he was an even better human being." pic.twitter.com/Twf9DEfAU6
RIP to Dikembe Mutombo, who passed away at the age of 58 from brain cancer. In addition to being an NBA legend, Dikembe was one of the most beautiful and generous humans I've ever met. The great ones always leave us too soon.
Fortunately, it seems both sides never harbored much animosity in the first place.
In a video from NFL Network’s Stacey Dales, Jones is seen greeting and saying goodbye to so many Packers employees and fans long after the Vikings beat Green Bay 31-29 on Sunday. It was a beautiful display of camaraderie and appreciation of the impact one person can make on a sports organization.
We frankly don’t see this enough in pro sports of any kind:
Kudos to Jones for being a class act and remembering where he came from. Kudos to all these Packers employees and fans for understanding how much Jones gave them over the years and showing it in an appropriate manner. Even if he plays on the “other side” now.
Josh Rosen did not deserve this unnecessary shade.
The 2024 NFL season has been a resurgent, defining one for most of the quarterbacks picked in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft.
Lamar Jackson is the reigning MVP. Josh Allen might be en route to the first MVP of his career. Sam Darnold is leading a surprisingly dominant Minnesota Vikings team. And Baker Mayfield is at the helm of a solid Tampa Bay Buccaneers squad.
The only person missing in this equation is former Arizona Cardinals signal-caller Josh Rosen, who flamed out of the league and never quite reached his potential. Hey, it happens. The NFL is a tough place to succeed. Not everyone is destined to shine at the highest level of football.
And that’s OK.
The only issue here is that the Sunday Night Football broadcast saw fit to highlight Rosen’s current lack of NFL activity while praising his 2018 peers as they were talking about their Allen-Jackson matchup. It wasn’t really out of bounds, but if he was watching, I’m very sure Rosen didn’t appreciate the unnecessary insult by reality:
Every time we look over at him, the legend of Derrick Henry only grows. In some ways, the superstar Baltimore Ravens running back is almost more of an actual Mack truck, an unstoppable force in the open field whose skills have perfectly translated to Baltimore’s offense alongside reigning MVP Lamar Jackson.
We saw a perfect example of this from the jump as the Ravens squared off with the Buffalo Bills on Sunday Night Football.
On Baltimore’s first offensive play from scrimmage, Henry took a run off right tackle and got a full head of steam en route to a stunning 87-yard touchdown. Because once he gets his momentum going, no one (read: no one ever) is going to bring Henry down.
Henry was so fast on this touchdown run that, according to Next Gen Stats, he reached a top speed of 21.29 miles per hour. Funnily enough, Henry has the most touchdown runs of at least 20 miles per hour since 2018, trailing only Tyreek Hill … a much smaller receiver.
This is your general reminder that Henry is listed as 6-foot-3, 247 pounds, and runs as fast as a vehicle in average American city neighborhood traffic:
Derrick Henry reached 21.29 mph on his 87-yard TD run, tied for the 4th-fastest speed by a ball carrier this season, and Henry's 8th-fastest speed since 2018.
Henry is still so unbelievably good, except now he’s playing for a marquee team. We should call ourselves lucky that we get to witness him play football.
Andy Reid made Rashee Rice’s injury sound like it’s the worst-case scenario.
Already decimated by injuries on offense, the last thing the Kansas City Chiefs could afford is to lose their top weapon for the foreseeable future. After Patrick Mahomes accidentally undercut Rashee Rice’s legs on Sunday, it appears that’s exactly what’s going to happen.
At least, according to Chiefs head coach Andy Reid.
As the Chiefs came out for the second half of their battle with the Los Angeles Chargers in Week 4, Reid had a short but bleak message for CBS’s Tracy Wolfson about the severity of Rice’s apparent knee injury.
This is pretty much the last thing you want to hear if you’re a Chiefs player or fan: