Maybe all he needed was to come home. Smith is from Fayetteville, North Carolina, and is now playing with the Charlotte Hornets, just a mere three hours from his hometown. The Hornets are Smith’s fifth team in six seasons. Last year, he split time between three teams, including the Hornets. So why has the 9th pick in the 2017 Draft bounced so much in so little time?

In William C. Rhoden’s Forty Million Dollar Slaves: The Rise, Fall, and Redemption of the Black Athlete, the Black intellectual speaks deeply and plainly on the “conveyor belt” system which exists, systemically, within professional sports. Smith was a victim of this system, which funneled him from first a five-star recruit to ACC Rookie of the Year with N.C. State to a much-herald lottery pick.

But Smith had the bad luck of playing with two of the most dysfunctional NBA franchises, the Dallas Mavericks and New York Knicks. Those four seasons with those two teams almost destroyed Smith’s career. He has hinted at the elite level of basketball malfeasance that existed in Dallas and any casual observer to see how much ex-Knicks head coach David Fizdale had no fucking idea what he was doing. This comeback makes his current season such an anomaly. Smith has been able to refurbish his image in the worst-run franchise in the league in Micheal Jordan’s Hornets. He is currently averaging 12 PPG, 4 RPG, and 6 APG while shooting 54 percent from three, with a 53 percent effective field goal percentage.

No one is more surprised than Smith, who was prepared to try to make an NFL team if his basketball days appeared over. “I told my previous agent, ‘I’m not going overseas,’” Smith said to the New York Daily News’ Stefan Bondy. “If shit don’t work out, I’m just going to the NFL. And I was dead-ass serious. I put on hella weight. I was gonna try.”

With the legal issues around Miles Bridges and James Bouknight, the bloated contracts of broken players like Gordon Hayward and Terry Rozier, Smith has found his role. Early-season injuries to LaMelo Ball and Rozier opened the door to Smith starting.

When he arrived in Dallas, he joined a franchise on the brink of poverty, well past Dirk Nowitzki’s prime years, but still deeply entrenched in GM Donnie Nelson’s incompetence and then head coach Rick Carlisle’s rigid arrogance. Carlisle famously feuded with former Maverick point guards Jason Kidd, Rajon Rondo, and even Luka Dončić before resigning abruptly in 2021.

Smith was an anomaly in Dallas. He was the franchise’s first top ten pick since Robert “Tractor” Traylor, who was traded on Draft night for Nowitzki. That it took this long for the Mavs to pick this high is a testament to the team’s continued winning around Dirk. But Smith was joining the roster dismantled from its 2011 championship. Then, the team consisted of bums and the 39-year-old Nowitzki. Smith had a great rookie season, 15.2 PPG, 3.8 RPG, 5.2 APG, and a steal per game. He was named to the All-Rookie Team.

His output led to little winning, as the Mavs finished 24-58. But all that losing helped the Mavericks acquire some draft positioning to trade up for the European prospect, Dončić, in a draft day deal with the Atlanta Hawks. According to an ESPN report by Tim MacMahon, Smith and Dončić lived in the same apartment building and played video games together. DSJ immediately took to Dončić, showing the Slovenian around the city, sharing the media day stage, and appearing side-by-side on local billboards.

MacMahon went on to describe the abuse Smith was dealt from Carlise: “Multiple players were shocked during one early-season team meeting when Carlisle accused Smith of being jealous of Dončić, sources said. The players considered it incredibly unfair to Smith, who wasn’t playing well but was making an honest effort to mesh with Dončić on the court. Dončić particularly resented what he perceived as Carlisle’s attempt to pit him against his friend and teammate, team sources said.”

Apparently, the treatment of Smith by Carlisle led to Smith being traded in a large package to the Knicks Kristaps Porzingis. It also led to the erosion of Dončić and Carlisle’s relationship and the coach eventually quitting the Mavs and heading for Indiana.

Once Smith arrived in New York, things only got worse. Under the misdirection of David Fizdale, Smith was buried within a mediocre rotation of poor point-guard play next to Alonzo Trier and Frank Ntilikina, who the Knicks picked one spot over Smith in 2017. In addition, Fizdale used Smith inconsistently, never fully committing to him as the consistent starter. As a result, Smith went from starting 18 out of the 21 games, averaging 14.7 ppg he played in his first season in N.Y., to just three out of the 34 games he played in his second season with the team, averaging 5.5 ppg.

To make matters worse, Smith’s productivity and stats plummeted, thanks to misguided tutelage under assistant coach Keith Smart, who reworked Smith’s shooting form into a broken mess, complete with a gnarly hitch in his release.

As a result, Smith only played in three games in the 2020-2021 season, outplayed by Elfrid Payton, who is no longer in the league. He would be traded early that season to Detroit, where he would finish the season but not be re-signed.

The short stops in Detroit and Portland provided glimpses of what made Smith a lottery pick in 2017. But by then, Smith had been chewed up through two more inept franchises in the NBA: the Knicks and the Mavs. At that time, neither franchise was known to be efficient in developing a player’s confidence or skill. Smith was cursed to play under the grueling expectations of Carlisle that bordered on abuse and the institutional ineptitude of Fizdale and the Knicks.

Smith caught both franchises at historic low points in their respective histories. If only one of them had invested in Smith as a man and a player, he might have been able to live up to his rookie expectations. Instead, he was run afoul as a scapegoat for two franchises’ internal corruption. It’s a testament to Smith’s resiliency that he survived not one but two character assassinations by two teams. It will be up to the Hornets to make room for Smith’s resurrection once Ball and Rozier return to the lineup. Smith not only has earned a second chance, he deserves it. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The start of the World Series always means that whichever ghoul is the commissioner of MLB is going to emerge from the damp and dark dwelling in which he inhabits. That’s the rule for every league of course, so it’s not to single out baseball. A Super Bowl, a Stanley Cup Final, the NBA Finals always signals a “state of the league” address from whoever is “in charge.” None of these guys are actually in charge and just work for even bigger ghouls, but that’s not why you called.

So Rob Manfred was in front of microphones and such this past weekend, and the main takeaway was that the free double that begins every extra-innings game in the regular season is almost certainly here to stay. Manfred claimed that players love it, front offices love it, and fans love it. While he gets blamed for its implementation now two seasons and beyond what was supposed to be its expiration date in 2020, it is important to remember the players sanctioned its use for this past season as well. For once, Manfred isn’t totally to blame for something that cheapens the game.

It’s obvious why front offices like it. It prevents them from having to go into the scramble that would follow a 17-inning game where they would have one or two or even three relievers burned out for days and would have to arrange a minibus to be brought full of additional bullpen help from wherever their Triple-A team was. It makes their job easier.

We know why players like it. It prevents them from having any 12-hour workday, or maybe risking an 0-for-7 night that could send them into a spiral for a week. Or that some reliever would have to throw his week’s worth of allotment of pitches in one night and either have to go on the IL or even worse, have to earn AAA money for a week or two because they can’t be used by the top team for a bit. All of that is understandable.

I guess owners like it because TV execs like it, given that games now fit into a far more predictable time window. Which will only get smaller with the pitch clock next year. Other than that I’m sure owners don’t care in the least.

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Do fans like it? Debatable. I certainly haven’t done any sort of research or poll. I don’t like it, no one I know likes it, and while I’m sure there are fans that do, they probably have an outsized representation by beat writers delighted that they don’t have to miss deadlines that mean less and less in an internet age. There are probably more fans that like it than we all realize, but I would also highly doubt they make anywhere near a majority. Those that hate it are probably just less vocal because they have always known it’s not going anywhere. We knew in 2020 that once it got installed, these things tend to just stick around. Much like we knew 2020’s universal DH was going to be a permanent fixture too, even if it had a year’s delay on it. It’s just how this stuff works. You don’t “experiment” with anything at the MLB level.

Clearly, the biggest problem with the Manfred Man (or “zombie runner” or whatever term you like best) is that it was a solution in search of a problem. Marathon games were just not that big of a deal. In 2019, the last normal year without it, only 37 games went past 12 innings. That’s 1.5 percent of all games. It was barely an anomaly. Slightly over one per team, meaning front offices only had to do that scramble once per season on average.

And that scramble didn’t mean anything. Before roster restrictions, teams already had swollen bullpens that could easily carry out 13 or 14 inning games with maybe one or two guys having to throw more than one inning they’re only conditioned to do. Now that teams are restricted to just eight relievers, perhaps there is a fear of how many would have to be stretched in a marathon game. But again, this is something that comes up once or twice a season for every team. It’s not that big of a deal.

I suppose, if Manfred were looking for any kind of justification that made sense, the continued proliferation of relievers dug out of the ground like the Urukai who throw 101 with movement would mean that Astros-Mariners Game 3 would be more of a regular occurrence. When a team’s 12th or 13th pitchers can just stroll out and causally toss up a zero or two, combined with the deflation of the baseball this season, it probably would signal an increase in these types of games. Without having to carry any reliever that is the “long guy,” and that guy being replaced by another heathen that strikes everyone out, the chances of longer games and burned out relievers is slightly higher, I guess. Except it’s quite a haul from 1.5 percent to a problem worth worrying about. Maybe there’s a bigger effect over a whole season that a team can carry only one-inning nuclear fireballers that keeps runs off the board once the starter is out of the game, but enough to really make 14-inning games common?

And, much like the demented OT rules of hockey, real things are being decided by what is very much a gimmick. The Phillies went 8-6 in extra inning games this season. The Brewers went 8-9. Flip those records around, and we wouldn’t have any iconic shots of the Phillie Phanatic celebrating Rhys Hoskins home runs (I have a Phanatic fascination, I’m sorry). Sure, the Phils won more of their extra inning games and the Brewers didn’t, but we know that these extra-inning games are now nothing more than coin flips. They don’t signify anything.

Acceptance is almost always the easiest path. Your threshold for that is how much you think the strikeout-heavy nature of baseball now will continue. Ks will always be a significant part of baseball. The pitchers are just too good and the science behind them too strong. But enough to cause a major spike in marathon games? Is 2 percent of games going to ridiculous length a problem? 5 percent? 10 percent? The last two numbers are probably unreachable. And those strikeout-heavy ways might start to turn, just a little bit, with the pitch clock and other rules that may be down the pike. It’s already turning a bit thanks to the baseball and hitters realizing they can’t homer as easily (22.4 strikeout rate this season vs. 23.2 last year).

But as we knew in 2020, we know that this decision isn’t based on logic or actual numbers. It’s just based on the vibes MLB and its players have chosen to feel. We know it’s not real because it’s not in the playoffs, much like the 3-on-3 and shootout isn’t in the NHL playoffs. If the Manfred Man were a viable way to end games and decide winners, it would be. Watch MLB follow the NHL’s lead soon and throw out extra-inning results in tiebreakers in the standings. And as we know, if you’re following the NHL on anything, you’re headed to the wrong place.

The Spurs announcement that they had released Josh Primo was the ultimate Friday evening news dump that caught the entire league by surprise. Lottery picks don’t get waived heading into their second season, and definitely not an hour before tipoff for a regular season matchup without forewarning. The 456 days between the Spurs drafting Primo after his freshman season at the University of Alabama and his unceremonious exit was the quickest a first round pick has ever been waived.

The only other lottery picks waived in fewer than two-years were Kendall Marshall and Georgios Papagiannis. Marshall was a 22-year-old bust who was traded to Washington and then waived, while Papagiannis was a mid-second round prospect the Sacramento Kings reached on during their absurd stretch of drafting miscues in the 2010s.

In a peculiar written statement made by Primo on Friday night, the 19-year-old guard acknowledged he’d be stepping away from basketball to deal with “previous trauma”and to focus on his mental health. However, the Spurs aren’t the type of organization to dump a player dealing with a “mental health” crisis, especially with Gregg Popovich in charge. Organizations invested long-term in prospects like San Antonio don’t waive their No. 12 overall pick two weeks into his sophomore campaign. During a season in which the Spurs have been angling for an opportunity to lose their way into the Victor Wembanyama sweepstakes, letting Primo make mistakes in live game action or take time away wouldn’t have been an issue. It was crystal clear this was a P.R. team maneuvering to get ahead of embarrassing or even criminal behavior being publicized.

By Saturday, ESPN’s NBA reporters Ramona Shelbourne and Adrian Wojnarowski’s sleuthing unveiled the allegedly lecherous behavior that led to Primo’s release. Primo is facing accusations that he’d exposed himself to multiple women. The number of incidents involving Primo are unclear at the moment, but one woman, a former Spurs employee, hired attorney Tony Buzbee to pursue a civil case. Buzbee is the same attorney representing a majority of the women suing Deshaun Watson for sexual misconduct.

On Monday afternoon, Primo will likely clear waivers and become a free agent. Any one of the NBA’s 29 other teams may believe they can squeeze the latent potential out of Primo amid the attached scandal by claiming him off waivers or in free agency if he goes unclaimed, but that would be a mistake. Primo should remain unsigned indefinitely.

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The San Antonio Spurs demonstrated how competent of an organization they have been for the past 30 years by taking the inverse path of the Houston Texans’ Watson playbook by swiftly severing their link to Primo rather than trading him or placing him on indefinite leave, à la Boston’s Ime Udoka. The extent of Primo’s allegedly gross behavior is still shrouded in mystery — as is the next stage of his NBA saga.

Primo was just beginning to establish himself as a rotation player on the Spurs roster, but his upside was tantalizing. His secondary ball handling, pinpoint shooting, length and his status as the youngest player drafted in 2021 made him a fascinating prospect for the Spurs, who have a track record of developing raw players into All-Stars. Primo was the next ball of clay in the Kawhi Leonard, Dejounte Murray mold.

In the short-term, Primo’s absence won’t affect San Antonio’s outlook. San Antonio is dead set on a rebuilding year. Primo was still a year or two away from cracking a starting lineup. Reports of Primo repeatedly flashing women depicts a young man who is either maliciously testing how much he could violate women or who possesses a severe lack of self-control. At 19, Primo’s career may eventually continue in some form, but that should wait.

If there’s one thing that should be learned from Watson’s fiasco over the past year and a half, it’s that professional organizations passively enabling behavior by turning a blind eye to it only worsens the situation for the team, player and victims. Primo is a liability to have around an NBA milieu and his focus should be on getting therapy to curb his lewd behavior and owning up to his transgressions before resuming his basketball career.

If the Texans had followed the Spurs playbook by ordering Watson to receive counseling before the NFL mandated it or cutting ties with him much earlier instead of covering up for his lasciviousness by providing him with NDAs when the organization caught a whiff of misconduct, they could have stopped him before he victimized dozens of massage therapists. The Houston Texans doomed themselves, Watson and the women he abused while the Spurs continued to exhibit why they’re a cut above most organizations. Even in a tanking season, they showed the rest of the league how it’s done.

For those of us who remember physically putting a finger into a hole and waiting for the plastic wheel to spin back around to make a phone call, we know that the running back used to be one of the most important positions in football. Many of you out there whose football talent would never be apt for the NFL, or even NFL Europe, know that at whatever level you played, the starting running back on your team was a role of prestige.

The quarterback was always the most glamorous position, but a star running back never lacked activity from Pop Warner to the Big Ten. While the running game is again becoming a key aspect of NFL offenses, most rely on multiple bodies to put together an effective rushing attack. Week 8 was a throwback. The day before Halloween, three running backs anchored their offenses with no need for a co-star.

Derrick Henry wants his throne back

Nashville’s king did not have the return from injury that he desired during the playoffs of 2021. Henry might have rushed for 2,000 yards for a second consecutive season last year had he not gotten hurt. However, through the first three games of the 2022 season, it appeared that one of the most physically gifted players to ever receive a handoff might have his better days behind him.

The Tennessee Titans have won their last four games, and currently sit atop the AFC South. They inserted their rookie first-round draft pick, Malik Willis, into the starting lineup due to a Ryan Tannehill injury, but he didn’t need to turn heads because Henry brought the thunder to start the game. He took off on a 41-yard run on the Titans’ second play from scrimmage.

Henry ended the day with 219 yards on the ground — 6.8 yards per carry — and two touchdowns. If this dominant Derrick Henry, that has been flattening and scorching opponents since 2018, is back at full strength after last season’s foot injury, the 5-2 Titans will present significant problems for the elite of the AFC.

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Tony Pollard appears quite comfortable as the Cowboys’ undisputed RB1

Ezekiel Elliot is no longer the athlete that was the Missouri State Champion in the 110 High Hurdles. While still a productive back who can help any NFL team, he is no longer a gamebreaker.

Pollard has the ability to use his athleticism to keep a defense on its heels. He came into the Cowboys’ Week 8 matchup against the Chicago Bears averaging 5.6 yards per carry. On Sunday, with Zeke (knee) out, Pollard rushed the ball 14 times for 131 yards and three touchdowns, averaging 9.4 yards per carry.

The Bears defense has dealt with its struggles this season, but Pollard didn’t need 20 carries to make his point. This fourth-round pick in 2019 is talented enough to be the No. 1 man on a rushing attack for a team with legitimate Super Bowl goals. As well as Elliott can still gain positive yardage and be of help in pass protection, the star of the Cowboys’ running back room is Pollard.

Christian McCaffrey is ready to take the 49ers to Lombardi Land

The San Francisco 49ers’ best offensive weapon was not able to take the field in Los Angeles on Sunday. Deebo Samuel was ruled out with a hamstring injury. Going into the game the 49ers were a game below .500, and looking far from the Super Bowl favorite many projected them to be in the preseason.

They traded for Christian McCaffrey prior to their Week 7 matchup against the Kansas City Chiefs. It was clear that his potential contribution to the 49ers could be massive, but the reality resulted in them dropping to 3-4.

On Sunday, McCaffrey accounted for three touchdowns in three different ways. The one that he ran in was typical McCaffrey, but the one that he caught is one of the plays of the year. Running backs catch passes better than ever before, but McCaffrey made a full extension play that was Cooper Kupp or Davante Adams like. He also threw a touchdown pass to tie the score at 7-all in the second quarter, making him the first player since LaDainian Tomlinson (2005) to rush, receive and pass for a TD in a single game.

By the end of the game McCaffrey averaged 5.2 yards on 18 carries, tallied eight receptions and also threw that 34-yard touchdown. The 49ers needed a change from last season to win a Super Bowl. McCaffrey might be the last squirt of ligher fluid they need to grill the rest of the NFL.

While there is no guarantee that the Buffalo Bills will win the Super Bowl this season, there is no reason to remove them from their perch as championship favorites.

Josh Allen & Co. were no longer a team on the rise coming into this season. They spent money to bring in Von Miller and guaranteed Stefon Diggs $70 million on a contract extension. This franchise was not going to stand pat after last season’s knee-weakening loss to the Kansas City Chiefs in the Divisional Round, allowing their opponent to get within field-goal range to tie that game in less than 13 seconds.

Quarterback will likely not be a question for the Bills for many years as they have one of the best in the league, and at a bargain. They signed Allen to a contract extension in 2021 for less guaranteed money than what the Arizona Cardinals gave Kyler Murray this past offseason.

Allen is looking better than ever, making spectacular plays both on the ground and in the air. Green Bay Packers future Hall of Famer Aaron Rodgers was no match for him on Sunday night as the Bills won 27-17. Sure, Allen threw two interceptions, but he also ran for 49 yards and averaged 8.7 yards per pass attempt — nearly two full yards better than Rodgers.

It didn’t matter that the Bills didn’t play an ideally clean game, because they established early that they are a better team than the Packers. The Bills defense made it loud and clear by living in the Packers’ backfield all night, making Rodgers’ evening in Western New York miserable.

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The Bills’ win against the Packers put them at 6-1 on the season. They would be staring eye-to-eye with the Eagles at the top of the NFL as one of two undefeated teams if not for that humid nightmare of a loss to the Miami Dolphins in Week 3.

Having fended off both the Chiefs and Baltimore Ravens on the road, the Bills shouldn’t have another tough road game until Week 17 against the Cincinnati Bengals — if you watched the New York Jets yesterday there’s no reason to believe next week will be a challenge at MetLife Stadium. Home-field advantage in the AFC will likely belong to the Bills for the first time since the 1991 season.

What will happen come playoff time? At that point the season comes down to a one-game sample size and the Bills might have to see both the Ravens and Chiefs again come January. Those are the only two teams with quarterbacks in Allen’s stratosphere. That’s two more quarterbacks on his level than Allen would have to face if the Bills were in the NFC.

But that’s why the Bills were so active during the offseason. While other good teams were parting ways with their No. 1 wide receivers — like the Chiefs — the Bills re-upped Diggs. Even with that big contract they were still able to add defensive talent like Miller and Daquan Jones to their front seven. Those additions have kept the Bills near the top of the league on that side of the ball even after losing Micah Hyde for the season, and Tre’Davious White still not ready for game action.

For those hesitant to declare the Bills championship favorites to start the season, feel free to let those four Super Bowl losses and the Music City Miracle cloud your judgment if you like, but these Bills appear to have their sights set on Super Bowl Sunday in Glendale, Ariz., and a February parade in downtown Buffalo.

I’ll be honest, I didn’t realize there were this many galaxy-brained doofuses in the world of sports. But I was naive.

If you’ve ever wondered what pitchers do on their off-days, the Cubs’ Marcus Stroman reveals that at least some of them spend their time going down internet rabbit holes about things like “whoever controls the media controls the world!” and so on.

Stroman, apropos of nothing (but maybe apropos of Kyrie Irving? It’s unclear), took to Twitter this morning to enlighten us all with what sure looks like an antisemitic dog whistle that Stroman is too afraid to fully blow.

Behold:

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He goes on about the media for some time, refusing to say exactly what he means.

While demanding that people pay more attention to “facts” and “evidence,” Stroman refused to provide any, relying instead on a legion of Joe Rogan/Elon Musk fanboys to ride to his rescue.

Some pointed out that Stroman recently liked a Jason Whitlock tweet defending Kyrie Iriving, which said, “Cowards ripping @KyrieIrving for retweeing a documentary that is being promoted on Jeff Bezos’ Amazon platform. A certain demographic’s thoughts are heavily policed while others are free to think what they want.”

And while RTing a guy like Whitlock always puts you on the wrong side of any issue, the more concerning dog whistle here is that “Jews control the media” has long been an antisemitic trope. Stroman’s cryptic tweets, so close in time to Kanye West’s antisemitic meltdown, raised some real questions among fans.

The American Jewish Committee publishes a document on common antisemitic tropes, and says the following:

“False reports that claim Jews control the media, banks, and governments are part of a longstanding conspiracy of secret Jewish power. This antisemitic trope is rooted in the discredited publication, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which was published in Russian tsarist times and accused Jews of trying to control the world … These myths of control portray Jews as secret puppet masters ruling over others and manipulating the world’s economies and governments For centuries, Jews were blamed for leading “blind” world leaders into wars and into debt to enrich themselves and further their own hidden agenda. Antisemitic propaganda continues to spread the idea that rich or influential Jews are behind the scenes furthering their plans of world domination.”

As several people pointed out, it would have been really easy for Stroman to put this controversy to rest. All Stroman had to do with say that he wasn’t talking about the Jewish community and that he decries antisemitism. But at the time of publication, that pronouncement never came, and many of the comments under Stroman’s original post, which I won’t make you suffer through here, make clear that his message came through loud and clear to a certain audience.

This isn’t the first time Stroman has gotten criticism over his social media usage. Back in 2021, Stroman appeared to like a tweet calling a sports writer a slur for Italian Americans.

If Aaron Rodgers taught us anything, it’s that when athletes are “just asking the question”, it’s time to log off and stop listening. And while it’s not clear that Stroman was actually being intentionally antisemitic in his posts, it’s pretty clear that that’s what many of his followers thought he was doing, and many chimed in to agree. So goes another day on Elon Musk’s free-speech social media platform.

It’s been a busy time for the study of what exactly championships mean. Especially in baseball, the discussion of the inherent faults of any playoff system seemingly have been under the microscope, though mostly from teams in whose favor it didn’t work (I Love LA!). In soccer, MLS is considering tinkering with their playoff system, though not so much to be more fair to those who have been better over the long haul so much as to beef up offerings for its new service with Apple TV. Still, it will be sold as a more fair system, giving better teams more games to show their worth.

If there are championships that mean less, which is highly debatable, then there must be championships that mean more. Last night’s Portland Thorns triumph in the NWSL final over the KC Current would be an example.

Just on the field, the Thorns were the class of the league. Yes, they finished second to OL Reign, but by most metrics they were the best team in the league, and it wasn’t all that close (goal difference, xG, xG difference). A 22-game season is still short enough to throw up some weird results here and there that carry more weight than they should. They have the league’s MVP and perhaps the nation’s most exciting young player in Sophia Smith. They have maybe the most dedicated fanbase in the league. Morgan Weaver and Yazmeen Ryan combined with Smith to make a front three that few teams knew how to handle, which kicked Smith into the No. 9 role, which she handled so well it netted her the league’s MVP and the playoff MVP trophies. While Becky Sauerbrunn may be aging out of the national team’s first-choice 11, she’s still more than enough to anchor a lockdown defense in the NWSL.

It was symbolic that the final last night was essentially decided when Smith broke free in just the fourth minute and coolly, if not arrogantly, rounded KC keeper Adrianna Franch to slot home into an open net. It was so effortless and ruthless, which is how Smith has looked for most of the season. The rest of the match was basically Neo swatting away any of Agent Smith’s (no relation) attacks with one hand while checking his watch, as KC didn’t manage a shot on target all night. As this was the first NWSL final in primetime and on network TV, a thorough display of Portland’s excellence was a fine show and exhibition of the top of the league, which is more than enough.

But it wasn’t all. It wasn’t close to all. The story of NWSL’s year, its last two years, can’t just be told on the field. It should be, but it’s the league’s fault that it isn’t. The past two falls have either been shrouded in the first story about Paul Riley and Mana Shim and Sinead Farrelly in The Athletic. This fall was the Yates report. And Portland was the epicenter of both. Portland is where Riley allegedly assaulted, abused, and coerced Shim and Farrelly. (Riley denies the accusations.) It was the Portland ownership and hierarchy that first exhibited the indifference if not mockery of those and many other players’ claims. It was Portland that said nothing as Riley got another job in the league as coach. While the Yates report was no less harsh or shed anything less horrifying about Chicago or Louisville, it still felt like Portland was where everything still gravitated to.

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Which was especially disheartening given the city’s love or soccer and its support for the Thorns. If the sport has a heartbeat in this country, it’s probably in Portland, and certainly the Northwest. The Thorns were the rare team where it felt like the NWSL team got the same support from the fans as the MLS team does.

Certainly something was broken with the release of Meg Linehan’s story last year and the Yates report this one. Fans called for the immediate removal and sale of the team from Merritt Paulson, who has stepped down from active involvement with the team but remains owner of both the Thorns and Timbers. Other execs have left after it was revealed how little they did to protect players or even the active roles they took in hurting more. Fans weren’t sure if they should still show up and give over the money to an organization that couldn’t pass the very first hurdle for any organization, the safety of its employees. What actually were they supporting now?

But of course, sports aren’t your typical business. The bond is between the fans and players, and fans to other fans. If anything, the players needed the fans more now and vice versa. The cowardice, inaction, and indifference of some execs shouldn’t break what is the basis of sports and fandom, nowhere stronger than Portland. That was the call before the playoffs started, and well heeded.

While almost none of the current Thorns players were on the team when Riley was, it can’t have been easy to discover what their bosses had been up to. They must have wondered who they were playing for, and would they be protected in the future if need be. Suddenly, maybe making that darting run into the penalty area didn’t quite matter as much. And yet they got on with it, overcoming the spiky San Diego Wave with a last minute Crystal Dunn thunderbastard to turn a 1-0 deficit into a 2-1 win and then strolled in the final.

The Thorns victory won’t erase history, nor solve the club’s and the league’s problems. Still, it feels a whole lot more than a team just winning two playoff games after being one of the league’s best through the regular season. There is something about this one that accentuates dedication and perseverance, both on the field and in the stands. Hopefully, the Thorns and maybe the league as a whole can look back on it as a mark of when the league and fans decided that it would only stand for what’s best about the league and sport instead of carrying what’s worst. Both of which it did valiantly.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Before I get to the rest of this post, I’m just going to give you what you came here to see because you’re going to scroll down the video regardless of what’s penned before or after it. So, here you go, ya hyenas. Here’s the clip of a group of Michigan State players more or less jumping two lone Wolverines after Sparty got jumped in the Big House, 29-7.

During his postgame news conference, UM coach Jim Harbaugh called it an “assault,” and said AD Warde Manuel is handling the “scuffle” with authorities. My reaction to Harbaugh classifying two of his players trying to take on 17 pissed off Spartans — and failing — as an “assault” is to try not to shrug it off.

This is the same coach who got into a “scuffle” with Jim Schwartz after a San Francisco 49ers-Detroit Lions matchup when the two were NFL skippers more than a decade ago. The current Michigan coach also characterized his quarterback battle decision earlier this year as “biblical,” so there’s a certain amount of hypocrisy and hyperbole at play here.

However, that’s about where my defense of Michigan State ends.

I’d like to remind you that Mel Tucker, the man in charge of MSU football, is two games over .500 for his career (21-19) and received a 10-year, $95 million, fully guaranteed contract during the offseason. I’m not mad about anybody getting a massive payday they didn’t deserve, and even less so for a Black head football coach. And seeing that Michigan State was 11-2 a season ago, and LSU was looming over East Lansing in search of a new head man, this was the only move the university could make to retain Tucker.

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A gift for literally everybody.
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Or, you know, was it really? Over the past six weeks, Tucker’s team has been outscored 206-109, and that’s including a win over Wisconsin. Aside from his standout year in 2021, he’s 10-17. The guy deserted Colorado after one season to go to the Big Ten, and the threat of him leaving for a better job like a mercenary switching sides for double what the current employer is paying was so pervasive that a huge contract might as well have been an ultimatum.

Tucker isn’t the only coach who’s flirtations have forced egregious extensions from athletic directors. Jimbo Fisher was gifted with a hefty bag for the same reason as Tucker. Texas A&M also lost again Saturday, and the Aggies have the same record (3-5) as the Spartans in 2022. Both fanbases are fucking irate over the losing but more so because of the bleak, incurable future that can’t be changed due to funny money buyouts.

Think about it like this: Had either AD at A&M or MSU called the bluffs of their coaches’ agents, Fisher or Tucker would be the problem of Bayou Bengals’ supporters. If at any point you say to yourself, “Am I crazy to spend this much money on a X?” don’t spend that much money on X. If something goes wrong — like, I don’t know, your team stomping out a couple opponents in the tunnel after they themselves got pistol-whipped for hours — it looks even worse because you paid a fuck ton for it.

Astros even World Series, get accused of more cheating

The Astros were able to hold onto a 5-0 lead Saturday, and mostly because starting pitcher Framber Valdez had his curveball on a string, striking out nine and surrendering one run in 6.1 innings. Of course, since this is Houston we’re talking about, the win was not without accusations of cheating.

Philadelphia manager Rob Thomson downplayed Twitter’s investigation, crediting the ’Stros for their 5-2 win, and moving onto Game 3 in Philly on Monday — like the rest of baseball fans should.