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! Welcome back to the Morning Win! Thanks so much for reading today. We appreciate you giving us a bit of your time today.
USA Basketball was down bad nearly a calendar year ago. They were coming fresh off a bronze medal loss to Canada in the FIBA World Cup, which is completely unfamiliar territory for Team USA — even for the C Team.
What made matters worse was who they lost to. It wasn’t just the fact that it was Canada — although, yes, that stung quite a bit. It felt way worse knowing that it wasn’t Shai Gilgeious-Alexander who cooked them. It wasn’t even Jamal Murray. Nope. Dillon Brooks set a scoring record against Team USA with 39 points in the Bronze Medal game. Dillon freaking Brooks, y’all. The most villainous basketball villain we have today.
Deep down, I feel like that, more than anything else, inspired Steph Curry, LeBron James and company to commit to the 2024 Olympic cycle. It wasn’t just that there was no bronze medal — it was that Brooks blocked the U.S. from snagging one. And we simply couldn’t have that happen again.
Brooks was still talking trash even before Wednesday’s exhibition game between Team USA and Canada. He saw all those stars across the way and said they were nothing.
“I take it as another game, but me being who I am, I like to make a statement,” Brooks told reporters ahead of the game. “So I’ll be ready to play. Team Canada will be ready to play, and we’re going to go balls to the wall and watch the film after and see if we got better.”
A statement was made, alright. Team USA won 86-72.
Even after a slow start, with Canada leading after the first quarter, the result never quite felt in doubt. Team USA obviously needed a bit of tuning, but once things started clicking? Boy, were they clicking.
Steph Curry started draining threes. Anthony Davis and Jrue Holiday were locking up and scoring on the other end. Anthony Edwards was a blur. It was all a bit too much for Canada to contain.
The statement here was clear: This was not last year’s USA squad. This wasn’t even a good performance — Joel Embiid fouled out. LeBron James didn’t have his best stuff. Kevin Durant wasn’t even there! Yet, still. It didn’t feel like Team Canada had a shot the longer the game went on.
The rest of the world has to deal with this now, too. Thank you, Dillon Brooks, for setting things straight with USA Basketball. We owe you one.
Gregg Berhalter is out
The U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team just made the change everyone seemed to be asking for.
After a subpar showing at Copa América, the USMNT has officially fired Gregg Berhalter. The timing couldn’t be better for the U.S. — the news leaked just as England advanced to the Euro Cup Finals, Robert Zeglinski writes.
“The news is hardly surprising for anyone who followed the United States’ dispiriting era under Berhalter, especially during a flat Copa America loss where he was content not to lose. Once Tim Howard started lobbying for Jürgen Klopp, the writing was on the wall. So, of course the US will ideally be looking for a better manager.
The catch is that Berhalter’s firing leaked at the same time that actual international power England was celebrating a berth in the 2024 Euro Final. Why, it’s almost as if the Americans were hoping the soccer world would focus on England’s joy instead of making fun of them for firing a failed manager.”
This had to happen. The results simply weren’t there during Berhalter’s tenure. He failed in the World Cup. He failed in Copa. He wasted years off the careers of USMNT’s golden generation (if we’re still calling them that).
The turnaround in finding a replacement will need to be quick with the World Cup just a couple of years away. The new manager will need to come in and completely revamp the program without a full cycle to do so. Many have called for Jürgen Klopp. We’ll see.
The bottom line: The USMNT has moved on from Berhalter. They should be better for it.
This ain’t it
Speaking of Copa, things unfortunately got out of hand on Wednesday night after Colombia’s win over Uruguay in the semifinals.
Several Uruguayan players got into an altercation with Colombian fans after the match. The players were trying to get to their families, who were reportedly being antagonized by Colombian fans. Gimenez told The Athletic players had to “rush” into the stands to help their loved ones.
“Colombian fans in a certain section descended on all our families,” he said. “They won’t let us speak on the microphone. This is a disaster, our families were in danger. We had to rush into the stands to remove our loved ones with tiny newborn babies.”
A number of Uruguayan players, including Darwin Núñez, appeared to clash with Colombian fans after the semi-final of Copa America.
🎥 @the_bonnfire pic.twitter.com/v6yKiCrgph
— The Athletic (@TheAthletic) July 11, 2024
The whole scene is pretty scary. Security had to break things up before players and their families finally managed to get out.
This is never how things should go. And it definitely puts a sour taste in your mouth before what should be a pretty epic Copa América final between Colombia and Argentina.
This is awful. This should never happen. Hopefully, precautions are taken so it doesn’t happen again.
SEE MORE: Every photo angle of the altercation between fans and Uruguay players
Quick hits: Caitlin Clark makes history … Derrick White joins history … and more
— Caitlin Clark put up a stat line basketball has never seen before against the Mystics in a loss. Here’s Cory Woodroof with more.
—Derrick White is Kawhi Leonard’s replacement for Team USA. Bryan Kalbrosky has more on why that makes sense.
— The Pac-12 commissioner made a joke about the conference’s current fate at a media event and it was so … sobering. Charles Curtis has more.
— Sha’Carri Richardson broke down her “I’m not back, I’m better” quote for everyone. Here’s Meg Hall with more on that.
— Speaking of the Olympics, Angel Reese has aspirations for 2028 and hopes Caitlin Clark will be there, too.
— Chris Paul admitted he chose playing time over ring chasing. Prince Grimes explains why that’s refreshing to hear.
That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading today. We appreciate you. Tap in tomorrow for more. Peace.
-Sykes ✌️