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Greetings, Brew Crew Ball community. The Brewers bounced back nicely this week, as they maintained (and even slightly outplayed) the Cubs this week to stay atop the NL Central with just over a month to go.
Feel free to use this thread to chat about (almost) anything you want: video games, food, movies, non-baseball sports, the Brewers, you name it. As long as it’s appropriate and is allowed by our moderators, it’s fair game here.
You know the drill.
This is now an open thread:
The Phillies are about to face an Arch-enemy. Not in the sense of their most loathed foe, but in the sense that their opponent plays under an arch.
On to the links.
Phillies news
Helping first responders is personal for Kyle Schwarber.
Bryson Stott has shined bright in the new-look Phillies infield. ($)
MLB news
Seattle is calling up LHP Kade Anderson, the #1 pitching prospect in the sport, for his MLB debut.
The stolen base was resurrected by a few timely rules changes. Is it dying again? ($)
The Brewers earned a 22-0 triumph over Seattle a few days back. But there have been bigger blowouts.
An oddity began last November when the Cardinals chose to carry an almost unheard of five catchers on the 40-man roster. At the time, Pedro Pages, Ivan Herrera, Jimmy Crooks, Yahel Pozo and Leo Bernal occupied those spots. While five was pretty unusual, some explanation could be found due to the uncertainty of Ivan Herrera, who would undergo off-season elbow surgery and was mired in a deep throwing slump. Still, 12.5% of the roster being dedicated to catching seemed to create pinch points in other areas. How would this resolve? Many advocated for clearing up this apparent roster logjam.
As spring turned to summer, concerns about Herrera’s health dissipated, but the view on his throwing remained a tempest. In spite of the varied opinions, it had become apparent that the Cardinals see Herrera as a legit option at C (to the chagrin of many who looked at the CS rate), catching him regularly on the short end of a 60:40 rotation. Further evolution has led to an additional split, where Jimmy Crooks has taken the primary catching duties with Pedro Pages on the shortest end of a now three catcher rotation. Herrera’s slice is largely unchanged, although he isn’t bolted to the same two pitchers anymore. Meanwhile, Pozo was DFA’ed when roster needs elsewhere became acute, and picked up by Baltimore (who now, interestingly, carry 3 catchers). Perhaps the Cardinals have discovered the new market inefficiency.
Yet even four catchers on the 40-man seems an unusual allocation, particular over a longer period of time. Even more pressing, another one young catcher (if you haven’t heard) by the name of Rainel Rodriguez has played well enough at A+ and then AA that his name enters almost any catching conversation, even though his name does not yet appear on the 40-man roster. He is quite precocious. This isn’t article about Rainel, but if it was, I would be regaling you with statistical accomplishments he has achieved already that compare quite favorably to some of the league’s top hitters over the last generation.
All this leads many pundits and fans to comment that this situation needs resolution. Many expected Pages to be moved at the trade deadline. To think a bit asynchronously, does 4 catchers on the 40-man roster really require resolution? Granted it is unconventional, but does it really require some management intervention? If so, when?
Complicating any future plan is the difficulty in evaluating each of the individual players and more so, figuring out who might be the best fit on a roster that in and of itself is undergoing more churn. For instance, it seems the club preferred Pages defense, but his offense really doesn’t fit well on this weak-hitting roster. If the club had more good hitters, he would be a better fit.
Some look at Crooks as a better blend of offense and possibly even superior defense, but in his second go at MLB really has done little to impress. Some underlying metrics do support the notion of his blend, but how long might it take to emerge?
Bernal, unseen in the MLB, is a mystery, with widely varying views of both his offense and defense. Some evaluators believe Crooks far superior defensively, others with the opposite point of view. Which is it? And how do they tell? As we’ve seen, catching at the MLB level is different than Memphis or elsewhere in the minor league circuit.
Ivan Herrera’s offensive chops are now well established. He is clearly the best hitter of the current group, although Rainel seems destined to challenge that. Ivan’s offense is prolific enough that Oli works very hard to get his bat in the line-up each and every day. His offense is enough that some might argue he is an everyday bat if not an everyday catcher, and this leads to some advocating for a position change.
Rainel seems a bit of a mystery defensively, but it is becoming very clear that his bat has the chance to be very special. Special enough that the arguments around Herrera are extended to RainRod even more emphatically. Many will say a bat like that needs to be in the line-up every day and not subjected to the rigors of MLB catching. I have no good argument for that point of view. Unless he is Pudge Rodriguez or Yadi Molina defensively, they say, catching is not where his greatest value is to be found.
How does all this unfold? Straight up, I don’t know. But based on conversations I’ve had and actions I’ve observed, I’m developing a framework for how it could unfold.
Many people expected Pages to be moved at the deadline and, absent that, to be moved this winter. Possible, but I’m not so sure on the timing. Some believe that this off-season, the Cardinals need to choose a path and that RainRod is going to be the ultimate victor in this positional competition. The goal for them becomes to “sell high” and get prospect returns from some of the others. Again, I’m not so sure. Let’s be clear, I’d suspect if the right deal came along, they’d probably take it. But I’m beginning to suspect that is not their primary plan going forward.
Let’s unpack this individually first, then treat these guys as a group to try and formulate that framework.
Pages will not be eligible for arbitration until the end of the 2027 season. That is an important consideration, in the sense that there really isn’t pressure to move him. He is major league minimum salary for 2027 and there is no alternative that would be cheaper. But, but…wouldn’t they rather have a pitcher using that 40-man spot?
I’m going to publish an update that looks at 40-man issues that might be appearing this fall. You will get the details next week, but it turns out there really isn’t a significant 40-man roster pressure, pitchers or otherwise. The Cardinals have lots of pitchers in the pipeline, but only a few need 40-man protection. They are in zero danger of losing a needed pitcher even if the keep all 4 catchers on the 40-man roster. Unconventional? Certainly. Possible. Yes. Achievable. Definitely. It turns out management has finessed the 40-man roster, as a whole, quite nicely. Read the article next week, in the meantime trust me that the 40-man roster can handle 4 catchers for another year or so. On to the individuals:
Crooks is a runway guy. He has enough scouting data and underlying metric to forecast the potential for better offense and better defense than Pages. So, he gets runway. That runway will run into next year, almost certainly.
Bernal is also a runway guy. He profiles different than Crooks in how he gets there, but he also projects to be better offensively and defensively than Pages (and perhaps Crooks). He will get his shot, in St. Louis, unless someone blows Bloom and Company away with a trade offer.
Herrera is an established top-flight hitter. They’ve played him EVERY day. If that doesn’t speak volumes, I don’t know what will. I don’t know if they view him as cemented in at C, but there is no data to suggest he will be moving on to another team or another position. Moving him to another team would be problematic in that it would leave them with the need to acquire another top-flight hitter when they are short of that talent already. Again, the right offer might dislodge him, but that seems the less likely path.
That leaves RainRod. As each day passes, the confidence that his bat will be special grows. He keeps doing things that only Hall of Fame caliber players have done before him. I’m not projecting HOF status for him (it’s a wee bit soon), but his trajectory is unmistakable. I would think of him as untouchable, so a trade seems unlikely. Given his trajectory, a position switch seems unlikely too. Remarkably, he is too close to MLB already and learning a new position would require they slow down his ascension. That seems counter-productive. He is getting time at 1B, which I find notable if I think some about Alec Burleson’s primary weakness as a hitter (LHP platoon splits).
So, how does all this work?
Let’s introduce the idea I think of as Three-into-Four. Hear me out.
The three is this equation are the catchers: Today, the three are Pages, Crooks, Herrera. By this time next year, good chance the three are Crooks, Herrera and Bernal. Much beyond that horizon comes another name. Rodriguez. That is the three part of 3into4.
To understand the Four, let’s go conventional. Most teams carry 2-3 catchers on their 40-man and carry two catchers on their active roster, right? The Cardinals (today) are clearly not “most teams”. Conventionally, each team has a DH (either a dedicated one or a rotation through), a primary C, and backup C and a primary first baseman. That is the Four I write of.
Now, let’s move off conventional and look at the Cardinals rather unconventional situation, and picture this scenario. They have some challenges:
How can these be made to work to advantage? Let’s look at next season for starters, and leave RainRod out of the discussion on the assumption that his ETA is really more like 2028. I’m not writing that in stone, but positing that to understand the strawman I think the Cardinals have built around this situation.
Start with the idea that out of 3 catchers, on any given day, one can catch and one can DH, so they can always play 2 of them. Remember that Crooks is a LH batter, Herrera a RH batter and Bernal a switch hitter. Flexibility exists here. The biggest obstacle here isn’t carrying 4 catchers. It is ridding themselves of the notion that DH is a position to rotation various players through. In this strawman, DH will be a spot to rotate a solid hitting catcher into to keep their bat in the line-up while protecting them physically from the rigors of catching.
It looks like this:
When there is an LHP on the mound, in addition to one catching and one DHing, the last one can play first base (likely Bernal, who is working there at AAA). This approach would serve to alleviate the LHP platoon split presented when Alec Burleson plays 1B or DH with an LHP on the mound. This approach requires that Bernal’s bat be MLB ready. When?
When there is an RHP on the mound, Crooks or Bernal catches (depending on matchup and who caught yesterday) and Herrera DHs, with Burleson manning first.
This approach actually results in a 40-30-30 catching ration (with Herrera now on the long side of the platoon, although not catching any more than this year). The allocation of most of the DH spots to catchers on days they aren’t catching ends up with each guy getting into around 120 games, which tends to be on the high side for a catcher. It preserves their body, though, and results in end of the season flexibility to go with a hot hand.
At some point in time, RainRod will be ready and, bluntly, when he is, he dislodges one of the three. It is not only hard to predict exactly when this may happen, but also who he dislodges. Who is dependent on performance we have yet to see as well as any MiLB action RainRod encounters at other positions. Maybe a catcher. Maybe a first baseman. Maybe a third baseman. Hard to say. But until the day RainRod arrives, it strikes me that the current catching carousel can continue without pressure to make a move. This will allow the team to let development and competition settle out who goes and who stays in due time, not under any pressure to “get something done”.
Where does Pages fit in all this? I think he has a spot until they are ready to bring Bernal up, and then, not. Will that be out of 2027 spring training? Who knows? But I can begin to see how they have a plan to let all this organically work itself out without feeling pressure to make a move and try to pick the winner of this derby too early.
For those of you who think the Cardinals need to clear this up this coming off-season, don’t expect it to occur that fast unless a mind-blowing offer accompanies it.
The Detroit Tigers have been in a bit of a slump of late, having lost five of their last six, which includes a sweep at home at the hands of the Chicago White Sox and dropping two of three on the road to the Pittsburgh Pirates. Just when they were one game from reaching the .500 mark, things once again came unraveled for the Olde English D.
The Motor City Kitties now move on to the second leg of their current road trip with three games against the Kansas Royals — who have won five straight and six of the last seven — at Kauffman Stadium this weekend. Still well within striking distance of a wildcard spot in a weak American League playoff race, AJ Hinch’s squad could really use a strong showing against the division’s bottom dwellers.
First up on the mound for the Tigers is left-hander Framber Valdez, who has had two straight rough outings after posting a pair of quality starts to open up August. Over the 32-year-old’s last 11 1/3 innings, he has put up a 6.35 ERA and 5.47 FIP, allowing 11 hits (one home run) and nine walks while striking out eight, hitting a batter and throwing a wild pitch.
Valdez has faced Kansas City twice this season — both in Detroit — with varying results. On April 14, he tossed seven frames of one-run ball on four hits and two walks with a strikeout for a no-decision in a 2-1 team win; on July 26, he served up three runs (two earned) on four hits (0ne home run) and three walks with four strikeouts over five frames, also failing to figure in the decision in an eventual 5-4 loss.
For the Royals, fellow southpaw Noah Cameron will take the mound in the series opener coming off the best start of his two-year career. The 27-year-old tossed a complete-game shutout against the Los Angeles Angels, allowing just a single hit and walk while striking out eight in a 3-0 home win.
Cameron has taken on the Tigers twice this season, and like Valdez, produced much different results between the two. On May 10 in Kansas City, he allowed three runs on four hits and three walks while striking out four over four frames for a no-decision in a 6-3 team loss; on July 24 in Detroit, he threw seven innings of scoreless ball on two hits and three walks while striking out eight also for a no-decision in an eventual 2-1 loss.
Take a look at how the two match up on Friday night below.
Time (ET): 8:10 p.m.
Place: Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, Missouri
SB Nation Site:Royals Review
Media: Detroit SportsNet, MLB.TV, Tigers Radio Network
Game 128: RHP Troy Melton (7-1, 1.71 ERA) vs. LHP Noah Cameron (7-8, 4.16 ERA)
| Player | G | IP | K% | BB% | GB% | FIP | fWAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Melton | 14 | 84.1 | 22.2 | 7.6 | 42.7 | 3.55 | 1.6 |
| Cameron | 24 | 138.1 | 21.7 | 7.4 | 38.5 | 3.58 | 2.6 |
MELTON
CAMERON
Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders:W, 2-0 (7) vs. Charlotte Knights
2B Anthony Volpe 1-3, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 R, fielding error — fourth blast in 20 games with Scranton
DH Cody Bellinger 1-3
RF Jasson Domínguez 0-3
C Mitch Garver 0-2, 1 BB, 2 K
LF Marco Luciano 0-3, 1 K
LF Duke Ellis 0-0
3B Max Schuemann 1-2
SS Oswaldo Cabrera 0-1, 1 R, 1 BB
1B Tyler Hardman 0-2, 1 K
CF Kenedy Corona 1-2, 1 2B
Adam Kloffenstein 6 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 3 BB, 8 K (win)
Hayden Merda 1 IP, 0 R, 1 K (save)
Double-A Somerset Patriots: Postponed due to rain, doubleheader scheduled for today
High-A Hudson Valley Renegades: Postponed due to rain, doubleheader scheduled for today
Low-A Tampa Tarpons:L, 8-12 vs. Daytona Tortugas
SS Dax Kilby 1-4, 1 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SB, throwing error
DH Paul Gutierrez-Contreras II 1-4, 1 RBI, 1 R
C Bear Harrison 0-3, 2 BB
1B Luke Pettitte 1-5, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 2 K — two-run double in the ninth made it interesting
LF Luis Puello 2-5, 1 2B, 1 R, 2 K
RF Diego Castellanos 0-4, 1 R, 1 BB, 1 K, throwing error
2B Blake Cyr 0-4, 1 K
CF Brando Mayea 2-3, 1 HR, 1 RBI, 3 R, 1 BB
3B Luis Escudero 2-2, 1 2B, 2 RBI, 2 R, 1 BB, fielding error
Edinzo Marquez 3.2 IP, 7 R, 4 ER, 6 H, 1 BB, 2 K, 1 HR (loss)
Josh Tiedemann 0.1 IP, 3 R, 3 H, 2 BB — came in to help put out a fire in the fourth and added to it
Danny Flatt 2.1 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 H, 3 BB, 1 K
Rafael Arias 2.2 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 K
Florida Complex League Yankees: Season over
Dominican Summer League Yankees:L, 1-7 at DSL Reds (Pool Play Day 1)
CF Isaias Castillo 1-4, 1 2B, 2 K
LF Luis Cruz 1-3, 1 BB
SS Stiven Marinez 0-4
3B Juan Torres 0-4, 1 K
C Juan Martinez 0-4, 1 K
RF Alfiery Matos 1-4, 1 3B, 1 R, 1 K, assist
2B Stalen Ramirez 1-4, 1 RBI, throwing error
DH Kendry Diaz 0-2, 1 K
PH-DH Manuel Aguilar 0-2, 1 K
1B Jose Peralta 2-4, 1 K
Jhosneyker Colina 4 IP, 3 R, 2 ER, 5 H, 2 BB, 4 K (loss)
Luis Rodriguez 2 IP, 3 R, 3 H, 1 K
Emanuel Vargas 2 IP, 1 R, 2 H
Dominican Summer League Bombers: Season over
Free of charge for the discerning reader.
Happy birthday to Karl “Tuffy” Rhodes, and a mighty host of others.
Today in baseball history, in 1931 – Babe Ruth becomes the first major leaguer to hit 600 career home runs as the Yankees defeat the Browns, 11-7, and other stories as well.
Today in baseball history:
Today in Cubs history:
Cubs Birthdays:Tim Collins, Jesse Chavez, Jason Marquis, Ismael Valdez, Karl Rhodes*, Jim Bullinger, Vern Fear, Whitey Platt, Jim Mosolf, Frank Isbell.
Today in history:
*pictured.
Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across the NBA. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in Cavs fans and fans across the country. Sign up here to participate in the weekly emailed surveys.
Fans haven’t lost faith in the Cleveland Cavaliers. Nearly 90% of Fear the Sword voters said they believe the Cavs will pass their 47.5-win total prediction on FanDuel.
And that was before the Peyton Watson trade was finalized.
This is a roaring seal of approval for Cleveland. The fans aren’t feeling discouraged by whiffing on LeBron James or the widespread improvements made to the Eastern Conference this summer. The Cavs are still operating with a fanbase full of hope.
Passing the 47-win mark won’t be easy. The East has gotten stronger and new lottery reforms mean the teams at the bottom of the conference have fewer incentives to tank games. The schedule won’t get much easier in the dog days of the season as every team will have something to play for.
That puts the Cavs in a tight position. They’ve won more than 47 games in each of the past three seasons. But they’ve never had to face an Eastern Conference that was this loaded.
Still, there’s plenty of reason to think Cleveland will win 48+ games that aren’t rooted in homerism.
For starters, the Cavs have some of the best continuity in the conference. Their star trio of Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and Jarrett Allen has been together for years. James Harden, who arrived last year, has fit right in. That type of chemistry matters, especially in the regular season.
Then there’s the trade for Watson, which gives the Cavaliers a dose of athleticism and three-point shooting on the wing.
Previously, we polled fans on which trade target they would prefer. Jonathan Kuminga or Peyton Watson. A whopping 85% of fans voted in favor of Watson. It seems they got their wish.
Watson should help push the Cavs to more wins in the regular season despite all of the factors working against Cleveland.
In fact, FanDuel has already increased the Cavs win total to 48.5. A small difference, but worth noting nonetheless.
One of Los Angeles’ celebrated professional sports franchises was owned by one local family for more than 45 years. Catering to Hollywood royalty and leaning into its “Showtime” charm, the Lakers became synonymous with the star-studded city. Two quick transactions later, the team now belongs to a New York-based venture capital titan who made his billions in technology and software.
Joshua Kushner, founder of venture capital firm Thrive Capital, and former Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger agreed to buy a majority stake in the Lakers last week. The Buss family’s grip on the NBA’s glamor franchise loosened in 2025 when they relinquished their majority share to Mark Walter. His businesses are under federal investigation for undisclosed insurance loans and Walter flipped the team after just 14 months.
In 1979, Jerry Buss bought the Lakers, the Forum and the Los Angeles Kings for $67.5 million. Now the Lakers alone are worth $12.5 billion.
“It used to be, ‘Hey, I’m in this for the love of the game,’” said Ross Williams, a private-equity attorney and partner at law firm Reed Smith. “Like I measure the success of my investment based on whether we win championships. … And now it’s becoming apparent that these are really, really good financial investments.”
The booming business of sports has attracted a flood of private-equity investment, and even the most notable franchises require the influx of cash to keep up in the arms race.
As of May, more than 74 North American professional teams had some level of private-equity involvement, according to the CFA Institute, an organization providing finance education to investment professionals. Private-equity-backed consolidators have been responsible for 61% of all mergers and acquisition transactions in the sports industry since 2019, according to Oaklins, a global M&A and financial advisory company.
“The real attraction of professional sports is it seems somewhat recession-proof,” said James Adams, director of CFA program curriculum and an adjunct professor at New York University. “It has had a very successful run, a high rate of growth, it’s not as subject to the fluctuations of the business cycle as maybe other things are.”
For private equity — in which investors buy into companies that aren’t available on the public market — sports offers safe harbor. Media deals provide predictable revenue over several years. The NBA’s current deal that stretches to the 2035-36 season is worth $6.9 billion per year. Additional revenue streams with merchandise, sponsorships and ticket sales pile on. Owning an arena, which the Lakers do not, opens the floodgates for concerts and events that add to the revenue.
“Sports is one of those rare instances where you can invest in something cool that also makes money,” Williams said.
Read more:The Dodgers are Mark Walter's crown jewel. Can he hold on to it amid federal probe?
The appeal of owning a sports team is growing.
The NBA averaged at least 22 million fans during each of the last three seasons, according to Sports Business Journal. Last season’s nationally televised games drew 170 million viewers, the most in 24 years and an 86% increase from the previous year. The NBA Finals between the New York Knicks and San Antonio Spurs were the most-watched Finals since 1998. And the outlook for future profits is strong, if fans’ appetites are any gauge.
The trend is prevalent across many sports. WNBA viewership is at an all-time high. Fox and Telemundo dominated the summer with their FIFA World Cup broadcasts. Of the top 100 TV broadcasts in 2025, 96 were sports, according to Neilsen data, including 48 NFL games and seven World Series games (between the Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays).
Investors are clamoring to find the next venture that will hit it big with consumers. Live sports already have a dedicated market and more stability than other ventures constantly affected by technical developments.
“You read a lot about AI and there are a lot of companies that their fundamental existence is being questioned because of AI and what it can do,” Williams said. “We don’t want to watch robots play basketball.”
The NBA adopted its first private-equity ownership framework in 2021. Individual firms can own up to 20% of an NBA team, according to Sports Business Journal, and 30% of a single team can be owned by private-equity firms. Such firms were limited to five teams in 2021, but the number grew to eight in 2025.
Read more:Inside the Buss family's long, painful history of sibling rivalries running the Lakers
Private equity even infiltrated the most exclusive ownership club in 2024 when the NFL was the last major U.S. league to open its doors. The league allowed preapproved firms to own up to 10% of a single team, up to six teams total with each stake being at least 3%.
The permanence of sports franchises were behind the formation of Kushner’s Thrive Eternal venture, a permanent holding company launched under Thrive Capital in April. Although venture-capital firms generally focus on turning profits from the most early stage companies, Thrive Eternal is “concentrated in a small number of assets that we can own and steward over many decades,” the company’s website says.
“These are assets with qualities that cannot be replicated by technology,” the homepage reads. “Iconic franchises and cultural institutions rooted in tradition, identity, and shared experience.”
How Kushner and Iger plan to finance the purchase of the Lakers has yet to be determined. Kushner, already a minority owner in the Miami Heat, must first divest from that team before the Lakers sale can be finalized, and the transaction must be approved by the NBA board of governors.
Read more:Jeanie Buss contests family sale of Lakers ownership stake to Bob Iger, Joshua Kushner
The board of governors announced last year that Jeanie Buss would remain in charge of the Lakers’ decisions after the Buss family’s sale to Walter. The family’s future is in limbo as Jeanie Buss contests her five siblings’ plans to sell their remaining stake of the team. The family feud over their remaining 17.8% stake is not expected to influence the sale from Walter to Iger and Kushner, a source familiar with the situation but not authorized to speak publicly told The Times, although it could affect who would represent the team on the board of governors going forward.
While analyzing the sale transaction, the board could look at where the money is coming from, Williams said: how much money from Kushner and Iger personally, how they are moving assets to provide the billions of dollars, and how much potential private-equity money from Thrive.
Thrive Enternal’s first entry into sports was purchasing a noncontrolling stake in the San Francisco Giants. Four months later, it is set to add the Lakers.
Private-equity firms can have a sliver of a team, but are not to have a controlling voice. Their influence trickles down to fans in other ways. Deep-pocketed new owners can help build stadiums or upgrade existing venues to maximize revenue from luxury suites. Ownership decisions also can lead to signing or retaining star players as teams hope to contend for championships. The influx of cash into sports has helped women’s sports take off with unprecedented investment and growth.
But just as a team’s valuation goes up, so has the price tags for fans. Just getting in the door to Dodger Stadium can cost a family of four nearly $250. In one season under Walter, season-ticket price increases rankled Lakers fans. A second row of courtside seats during the Lakers postseason changed what used to be an exclusive feel to a game.
Yet at each game, the seats were full.
“Passionate sports fans are not as price sensitive,” said Arianna Uhalde, an associate professor of clinical marketing at USC’s Marshall School of Business. “I think not as sensitive to some of these decisions that are getting made by ownership. It doesn’t mean that fans are not going to get upset, but they love their teams. They’re likely to still show up in good times and in bad.”
The business of sports has been great for owners, but isn’t guaranteed to last. A change in state or federal administrations and policies could affect tax laws that are advantageous for team ownership, said Mark Conrad, a director of the sports business concentration and professor of law and ethics at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business. Labor issues such as the one threatening Major League Baseball could put a freeze on valuations. A recession or another global pandemic could tank the economy. Even the NBA Finals ratings during the COVID-19 pandemic were at an all-time low, averaging just 7.45 million viewers for the Lakers’ six-game, bubble series win over the Miami Heat.
Fans have steadily marched back ever since.
“They’re going to pay for it,” Conrad said. “They can. They do. … And if that’s the case, the lords of the sport are going to be mighty happy.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Yes, it’s that point in the offseason where there isn’t much to talk about, but NBA 2K always comes through at the right moment. NBA 2K27 is set to release on Sept. 4 (Aug. 26 early access), and for the entire month leading up to the date, the company always gives tidbits of either new game modes, fresh face scans, and player ratings.
One of the first things that they decided to release this year was attribute ratings, and several Atlanta Hawks players were part of the list. Here are some of the attributes where those players rank top 10 in the game.
In all honesty, this should come as no surprise, as Jalen Johnson is hard to stop when he has a head full of steam. Adding to that, he’s caught a couple of poster dunks throughout the past few years that some people won’t forget, and it’s obvious that NBA 2K didn’t need to be reminded.
Johnson’s driving dunk is rated at a 96 overall, and he’s just behind Anthony Edwards for the No. 1 spot. This is the perfect spot to put Johnson, and he’ll show at times during this upcoming season why he’s rated so high when it comes to throwing the ball down. It might even motivate him to participate in the dunk contest.
Having a rookie in this category is huge, especially when looking around the league and thinking about all the other fast players. Most of the players on this list are point guards, and Flemings fits right in with them after realizing how fast he actually is. One of the things that was mentioned about Flemings coming out of the draft was his speed, and he’s said that he models his game after guards like Derrick Rose and Tyrese Maxey.
Maxey has already found himself on this list at No. 2, and Rose has always been known as one of the more athletic guards to play the game. Flemings’ speed with ball is a 90 overall, and he’ll be blowing past a lot of defenders in real life and on the game.
This is another rating that shouldn’t be a surprise, but it could almost feel disrespectful in a sense. Dyson Daniels has proved over the past two seasons that he’s one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, so much that he could be rated higher than fourth on the list.
Ausar Thompson, Derrick White and OG Anunoby are all ranked above him, and it’s well deserved. Daniels’ perimeter defense is a 94 overall in the game, and he’ll continue to be a pest on the floor. It is a little surprising that Lu Dort didn’t make the top 10 in this category, but his former teammate, Cason Wallace, cracked the list.
Daniels may need to be ranked top 10 in all defensive categories, and it is also not a surprise that he’s high on this list. At the same time, he could have a high rating in this category, considering the fact that he averaged the most steals per game last season, which was also tied with Ausar Thompson. Some of the players on the top list in this rating weren’t even top 10 in steals per game last season.
Daniels led the league in steals per game two seasons ago, and he basically followed it up again by doing the same thing. He’s rated a 98 in steals along with Wallace, Thompson and Matisse Thybulle, but it wouldn’t have been a stretch to give him the 99.
This is a fair rating, considering that Flemings was actually drafted with the No. 8 pick. All of the other players above him are rated where they were picked in the draft as well, so it looks like everyone may have gotten a fair rating when it comes to rookies.
Flemings is a 74 overall in NBA 2K, and it will be interesting to see if he can bring that rating higher during the season. It will all depend on what he does with the opportunity when he gets in the game, and how much he actually plays throughout the season.
Every year, The Athletic puts out an article about how much confidence fans have in each NHL front office. Unsurprisingly, the Montreal Canadiens have fared well in those rankings. Last year, Kent Hughes and co. were fifth, but this year, they moved into second place. The article grades each team in six areas: roster building, cap management, draft and development, trading, free agency, and vision.
The Habs grades given by the public are generally better than those given by the Canadiens’ fan base; they’ve always been a demanding bunch, and it’s never been as clear as in this exercise. While the public deservedly gave the Canadiens an A+ for cap management, Montreal fans gave them an A. It’s hard to imagine what Hughes could have done better in that respect. He’s got his young core locked up to lengthy and team-friendly deals that have positioned the Canadiens extremely well to add quality pieces around that core.
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So far, four and a half years into his appointment, Hughes has shown that he’s the kind of man who makes a plan and sticks to it. Rather than pouncing on big-name free agents with big contracts (when some were available), he has decided to trust his team’s internal growth, and so far, it has worked; there’s no denying that. Montreal has made the playoffs in the last two years, and they even made the Eastern Conference final this past season, but drafting and developing can only go so far.
It’s impossible to use all of the prospects one’s organization drafts. Eventually, the pipeline gets too crowded because of the contract limit. If you want to have a balanced team, you can’t just keep adding the same kind of players and hope that they will bring you to the promised land (see the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Edmonton Oilers, for instance). At one stage, all that unexploited potential in the pipeline has to be turned into immediate help if you want to get over that hump.
It’s like Dom Luszczyszyn says in his article about the confidence rankings when he discusses the Florida Panthers:
The one downside of trading every pick? Getting a tough grade for drafting and developing. No worries – the Panthers have figured out that when the window is wide-open, talent now is better than talent tomorrow.- Luszczyszyn on the Panthers' front office's strategy
The Canadiens' draft last year made it clear they were trying to get bigger and grittier. However, prospects need time to develop, and by the time this class comes to maturity and is ready to make an impact, Nick Suzuki’s contract will be nearly done. Furthermore, chemistry takes time; kids don’t tend to perform all that well in their first few years as professionals (though there are exceptions like Lane Hutson or Demidov).
To get over the last few hurdles, the Canadiens will likely need to get some immediate help while sacrificing some of their futures, but that’s easier said than done. When other GMs see how well a team is doing, they’re in no hurry to give them the last few pieces they need to become Stanley Cup champions, and eventually, the GM who has a near-complete puzzle ends up having to bite the bullet and accept that they cannot put too high a value on their assets, making them untradeable.
The other GMs are seeing Hughes coming from miles out now; they know the Canadiens have built a strong foundation, and they will force the Habs to pay dearly for those needle-moving pieces. There comes a time when a GM has to be ready to overpay, and knowing when that time has come isn't always easy. When the finish line is within reach, you have to dig deep to improve your roster.
Hughes won’t be dealing every pick; he’s made it quite clear that he wants to build a perennial contender, but he’ll have to be ready to sacrifice some of them. Such is the reality of a team whose contention window is open. Is the Canadiens’ contention window open? It certainly feels like it is, given that they were one of the last four teams playing hockey this Spring. However, their evisceration by the Carolina Hurricanes shows a few pieces are still missing from their puzzle, and logic dictates those elusive pieces can’t all come from the draft.
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Updates from around the grounds
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Headbanded Randell to Stokes. A healthy crowd watch from the white bucket seats in the permanent-temporary stand. Stokes leaves one that slides across his stumps.
An edge from Stokes…skews through the slips.
Continue reading...A reminder of Flyers' key dates leading up to 2026-27 season opener originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
With September around the corner, so is Flyers hockey.
Let’s look at the key dates.
The Flyers open rookie training camp Friday, Sept. 11, before kicking off their series against the Rangers’ prospects at PPL Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania. The rookie games are Saturday, Sept. 12 (7:05 p.m. ET), and Sunday, Sept. 13 (5:05 p.m. ET).
The club opens main training camp Thursday, Sept. 17, and starts its preseason slate Monday, Sept. 21.
After four exhibitions games, the Flyers host the Penguins in their regular-season opener Wednesday, Sept. 30. With the shortened preseason and the NHL extending its schedule to 84 games for every team, this will be the earliest the Flyers have ever started a regular season.
The Flyers are trying to reach the playoffs in consecutive seasons for the first time since the 2010-11 and 2011-12 campaigns.
Offseason reading
• Vansaghi aiming for more offense, says experience with Martone was ‘unbelievable’
• Pucks and books have Ruohonen developing as a Flyers prospect at Harvard
• Flyers agree to terms on deal with final restricted free agent of offseason
• Flyers believe Michigan-bound Nesbitt could develop into a ‘handful’ for opponents
• Flyers return most of defense, but two youngsters are pushing
• A taste of pro hockey adds to ‘high expectations’ for Flyers’ prospect
• ‘He mauled me’ — Flyers feel and see Sokolovskii’s huge presence
• A look at why Flyers prospect Berglund will play on loan in Sweden
• Grebenkin has new contract as Flyers near the end of their offseason work
• Flyers have ‘lots of faith’ in Luchanko, who could benefit from a few things
• With Vladar the key, Flyers formed new goalie picture in two summers
• Barkey, Bump have plenty of motivation after playoff run with Flyers
• ‘You don’t see that very often’ — Martone’s rise could serve as Flyers’ splash
• Briere’s bold offer sheet for Carlsson leads to Celebrini payday
• Flyers didn’t make huge addition, but Drysdale sees ‘great lineup’
• How Zegras accepted challenge from Flyers, ‘took charge’ with new contract
• Coming off career highs, Drysdale agrees to new 4-year contract with Flyers
• Early date with Ducks, Black Friday home game and more on Flyers’ 2026-27 schedule
• Flyers make Zegras highest-paid player on their roster with new contract
• Flyers host rival to open 2026-27 regular season in September (!)
• Acciari has seen Flyers fans up close, says ‘choosing Philly was an easy decision’
• No Carlsson for Flyers as Ducks match huge offer sheet
• No Giroux reunion as former Flyers captain returns to Senators
• There’s a telling aspect of Flyers’ stunning offer sheet to Carlsson
• Briere makes a bang as Flyers try to snatch Carlsson with offer sheet
• Flyers add former Penguins forward to their bottom-six picture
• Flyers, Foerster agree to terms on big contract extension
• Vladar earns long-term contract after becoming massive answer for Flyers
• Flyers keep veteran depth winger on 1-year deal
• Flyers extend qualifying offers to 4 RFAs, part ways with 6
• Flyers trade back, grab 6-foot-7 defenseman in first round of NHL draft 2026
• Flyers draft a defenseman whose dad has a Flyers-themed jeep
• Flyers draft a goalie for first time since 2023, use second-round pick on Psohlavec
• Flyers go with a second goalie on Day 2 of NHL draft 2026
• Flyers hope to hit on another fifth-rounder from Minnesota high school level
• Flyers close out NHL draft 2026 with seventh-round defenseman
• Flyers trade Hathaway, acquire picks day before NHL draft
• Flyers release shortened preseason schedule for expanded 2026-27 season
• Flyers acquire backup goalie, send Ersson, Andrae to Leafs
• Flyers bring back depth center coming off consecutive 20-goal seasons in AHL
• Flyers elect to not sign 2022 seventh-rounder, lose prospect’s rights
• Flyers sign Russian winger to his entry-level contract
• Konecny has two important things he’ll remember from Flyers’ playoff exit
• No slowing down for Martone, who is just getting started with Flyers
• ‘I was getting more and more mad’ — Vladar has plenty of fuel for offseason
• Can Flyers capitalize on being ‘more of a destination’ in offseason?
• After playoff run, Flyers release injury list with 10 players on it
• Tocchet on Michkov just a few days into offseason: ‘Like a vengeance tour’
• Michkov shows some frustration — and that’s not the end of the world
• Tippett missed second round of playoffs because of internal bleeding
• A ‘taste of it’ could go long way for Flyers’ long-term goal
Australia is in Mackay for the second Test against Bangladesh beginning on Saturday with a significant amount on the line after a dispiriting nine-wicket loss to the Tigers in Darwin prompted selectors to sharpen their axe.
Robert Morris wants to be a viral basketball program in 2026-27.
The small suburban Pittsburgh college has had success on its own merits in recent years after a transition from the Northeast Conference to the Horizon League in 2020-21. The Colonials reached the NCAA tournament as a No. 15 seed in 2024-25 and won over 20 games last year while just missing out on a return to the Big Dance.
Now they’re working with local creator Cullen Honohan on a first-of-its-kind jersey patch partnership in which the primary exchange isn’t money, but exposure. Both to fans and potential recruits.
Honohan, who lives in the city’s Strip District, has built a huge audience for his All Hail Cullen portfolio of basketball-focused social media accounts. He has over one million followers on TikTok and is nearing half a million on Instagram. Add about 370,000 subscribers on YouTube, and his reach is impressive.
Robert Morris, meanwhile, has struggled to draw fans despite putting a solid product on the floor. The Colonials averaged just 1,411 spectators across 17 home games at the UPMC Events Center, which opened in 2019 and was built to accommodate up 4,000.
Honohan wants to show that he can change that dynamic and build a greater following both locally and nationally. He plans to develop a video series following the team throughout its upcoming season. In exchange, his logo will appear on the team’s jerseys for each game.
“We want this to be the best basketball spectacle in the city,” Honohan said in a recent interview with USA Today.
Easier said than done. Pittsburgh is a notoriously difficult basketball market. There hasn’t been a viable professional franchise in town in decades. And even Pitt, which made the NCAA tournament 13 times in the 15-year period from 2001-02 to 2015-16, has had trouble filling its building since its move to the ACC a little over a decade ago.
That hasn’t stopped Honohan from setting down roots in the city. While he frequently travels out of state to interview top prospects and major college players for his social accounts, the Winter Park, Fla., native has embedded himself with the small but passionate grassroots hoops community through AAU programs.
He’s also developed a YouTube series focused on Luca Federico, a player at Chartiers Valley High School, south of the city. Federico was previously unranked by college recruiting services, but has since snagged multiple major college offers, a three-star rating at 247 Sport and tens of thousands of social media followers.
That work caught the eye of coach Andy Toole and Stephen Morrison, RMU’s associate athletic director for marketing and fan experience. It was the program that made the initial overture to work with Honohan, and the plan announced this week has flowed from subsequent meetings between the two sides.
It’s an innovative move that Toole told USA Today he might not have considered for his program a decade ago. Many coaches might view such outside attention as invasive and distracting for players. But Toole feels it’s important for programs to stand out in the age of name, image and likeness (NIL) deals reshaping the sport.
“There’s been radical change to college sports in general over the last four to five years,” Toole said. “How can we continue to adapt to the new landscape? I think content creators are part of that. It, I think, can help our players continue to become more attractive, and build a bigger brand and have a better experience.”
The reaction he’s received from players – past, present and possibly future – has been positive. Friends, likewise, have texted to let him know that their children have seen Honohan’s video announcing the partnership and asked questions about the school that is named for one of America’s Founding Fathers and a signatory to both the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.
Toole hopes Honohan’s large following of high school players will be asking questions, too.
While the headline-grabbing tactic of putting a YouTube creator’s logo on a jersey is unique, the underlying value proposition RMU hopes to make is a fairly old school one that emphasizes things beyond the dollars and cents involved in playing basketball there.
“I think, at the end of the day, still being able to create relationships, show positive impacts, have positive outcomes, help people develop and grow, I still think are valuable,” Toole said. “I think you still have to be able to show those kind of things to people. And this is a way to kind of show that, right?
“Show some of the interaction between players and coaches. Show the experience that our players have in a way that they might not have been able to see before. And I think that can attract some of the right people, not only to our program, but then also to our university as a whole.”
Honohan plans to put those angles – and not himself – front and center. He expects his role to be more like a host than the focus of the videos. The tone will be less like a Mr. Beast stunt video and more like HBO’s “Hard Knocks,” he said. Neither side wants it to be a gimmick.
Maybe some will still see it that way. Honohan lamented that the distinction between “influencer” and “creator” tends to get blurred in the social media economy.
He’s nevertheless excited to have the buy-in of the program to do things at RMU this fall that aren’t happening quite like this anywhere else. The partnership may also include activations with nearby brands and appearances by some prominent local celebrities to get people out to games.
“Everybody there is just so incredibly open to doing the most creative idea,” Honohan said. “I think that’s what you need to do right now, especially as a mid major in college basketball, to be able to get in front of the most people and get in front of the right eyes when it comes to recruiting, sponsorship and everything along the line.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Robert Morris debuts first-of-its-kind jersey patch partnership with YouTuber
NBA history spans 80 seasons, and as CelticsBlog readers well know, the Boston Celtics have won a league-high 18 championships. This month, we are recapping each of those title years.
Bird vs. Magic – Showtime vs. well, a team that wasn’t cool enough to have a nickname for its style of play. Boston vs. LA. Old vs. New. Gold and purple vs. green and white.
It was the 80s and the Lakers were the 80s in basketball form.
They played in the “Fabulous Forum” on a court that was trimmed in gold. Their head coach, Pat Riley, was a fashion plate as well as a competent strategist who had delivered a championship in his first year on the bench.
They had a player who more than lived up to his ‘Magic’ nickname. They had celebrities sitting courtside. They came from a city where it never rained and where winter was more theoretical than real. This was the city where dreams became reality, or at least as real as movies could make them. It was a city that was known, around the world, by just two letters: L.A.
Their star, with his infectious grin, had already made good in the NCAAs, defeating Larry Bird in the Final Four, and he’d won a pair of championships in the NBA as well.
At literally the other end of the country were the Celtics.
If the Lakers were the 80s personified, then the Celtics were the foundation and the first few floors of NBA history. They were run by Red Auerbach, who had been a fixture in the league from its inception. He had won fourteen championships by this point in time—nine as a coach and five as a general manager. They wore uniforms that were barely distinguishable from the ones that the team was wearing when Red was hired to coach them more than thirty years earlier. Their arena was a relic—a cramped relic painted mostly yellow, without air conditioning, with seats that were jammed together and placed behind columns and every one of them had been occupied for every single game the Celtics played for the past three seasons.
The Celtics played on a parquet court that had been trod by the league’s legends going back to the first year after World War II. It was a scarred and uneven surface that matched the tough and gritty character of the arena built around it.
The Celtics played in Boston—a crowded city where the past was present everywhere, where landmarks from the beginning of the nation were part of the fabric of everyday life, a city somehow nicknamed ‘Beantown.’ It had everything that L.A. lacked—history, tradition, cultural institutions—and it was hopelessly, helplessly uncool.
The 1984 Finals were a culture clash as well as a basketball contest.
Boston was coached by K.C. Jones. Jones, who had played for Red Auerbach in the 1950s and 1960s, had been on the bench as an assistant with the Lakers when Pat Riley played for them in the early 1970s, and had already coached a team into the Finals—the Washington Bullets (now Wizards) in 1975.
Jones was on the bench because the Celtics had more or less quit on Bill Fitch the year before. “I admit it,” M.L. Carr would tell Jackie MacMullin in her tale of Magic and Bird, When the Game was Ours, “Our goal in 1983 wasn’t to win a championship. It was to get rid of Fitch.”
While it’s unlikely, in hindsight, that the Celtics could have stopped the ‘fo-fo-fo’ Sixers, the way the Celtics gave up on the season incensed Larry Bird, who realized that once a year was gone it wasn’t coming back: “We could have won in ’83, but we didn’t because of all the [expletive] with Bill Fitch. Then we could have won it in ’85, but we didn’t because of more [expletive]. There are two years, right there, where we were young and together and healthy, and we didn’t capitalize on it. Looking back, it just kills you.”
The Celtics, who had made a poor showing in both the regular season and the playoffs the year before, had a new point guard to go along with a new coach.
As good as Nate “Tiny” Archibald had been, there was a problem with him implied by his nickname. “Tiny” was barely more than six feet tall, and he had struggled mightily to contain Andrew Toney, the “Boston Strangler,” and off in the distance was Magic Johnson, a 6’-9” point guard whose size allowed him to play the position in a manner that has never really been seen before or since.
Red had traded for Quinn Buckner in 1982, but he realized that an even more capable player was needed.
Enter Dennis Johnson.
Dennis Johnson was yet another Auerbach heist. He had been labeled a ‘cancer’ by Phoenix Suns coach John MacLeod.
Desperate to rid themselves of him, and thinking that they were getting a real steal from Auerbach because they were actually going to get a serviceable big in Rick Robey in exchange for a player they really didn’t want, three-time Executive of the Year Jerry Colangelo let himself get fleeced by the master.
Rick Robey was good, but DJ’s years with Boston put him in the Hall of Fame.
Red didn’t see a malcontent, he saw a guy driven to win on a team that wasn’t. DJ had scrapped his way up from playing junior college ball and working a factory job into a Finals MVP award. He was an excellent two-way player who could defend as well as he could dunk in his early years in the league. He had bounced back from an atrocious showing in the 1978 Finals to being the linchpin of the Sonics’ 1979 title winning team.
And he had the size and the mentality to body up against Magic.
The Regular Season
The Celtics started off relatively slowly. On November 22, they were just 9-5 and coming off a four game losing streak, but they proceeded to rip off a 29-4 record over the next 33 games. They finished the season with a 62-20 record identical to that of their previous championship winning season in 1981. This was easily the best record in the NBA—the next closest team was Los Angeles, who were 8 games behind the Celtics.
The Celtics weren’t exactly a grit and grind team, no team was in the go-go 80s, but they played the game with more deliberation than most, finishing the season with a below average pace of 99.7 possessions per game, good for just 15th in a 23 team league. Nonetheless, their net rating was 6.5 points to the good per 100 possessions, which was the best in the league. As with so many of Red’s teams, Boston’s defense was the real story. The Celtics could score as well as anybody, but they were very good at keeping their opponents from scoring.
Larry Bird finally cracked through and won the MVP award. He led the team in scoring and assists and dang near led the team in rebounds as well. His free throw percentage, 88.8%, was the best in the league. After him, five more Celtics averaged double figures, with Kevin McHale winning the league’s inaugural Sixth Man of the Year award behind 18.4 points per game and a team-high 55.7% field goal percentage.
Bird’s MVP award broke a near stranglehold on the honor that had been held by centers. Since the award’s inception, it had only gone to three players who played other positions: Bob Cousy, Oscar Robertson and Julius Erving. Since then, it has only been awarded to centers on seven occasions.
This was the first of three consecutive MVP awards for Larry Legend—a feat that only he, Bill Russell, and Wilt Chamberlain can claim.
Eastern Playoffs
The NBA expanded the playoffs for the 1983/84 season. Now the first round was a best-of-five affair and there were no byes granted to the top teams in the league.
Thus Boston would need to win three playoff series just to get to the Finals.
Their first opponent was the Washington Bullets. The Bullets had the worst record of any playoff team at 35-47. In reality, letting a team with a record this poor into the playoffs wasn’t exactly unexpected. The NBA was a 23 team league with a 16 team playoff. Three teams with losing records made the playoffs in 1984 and a fourth, Phoenix, sat at .500 on the nose with a 41-41 record.
Regardless of record, the Bullets put up quite a fight. After a relatively easy eight point win in game one, the Celtics won two games by three points and lost a game by three as well.
Bird averaged 22.8 points, 7.5 rebounds, 7.8 assists and two steals per game for the series, but he was arguably outplayed by Jeff Ruland, the Bullets’ center, who torched the Celtics for 24 points per game to go with 12.8 rebounds and 7.8 assists. Ruland had made the All-Star team that year and was having his best season. Ruland’s career, like Bill Walton’s would be derailed by chronic and nearly debilitating foot problems, but for a while, he was a genuine star for the Bullets—and a tough, tough player. Also making himself a pest during the series was fourth year player Rick Mahorn. Mahorn would make himself more of a pest for the Celtics as the 1980s wore on.
Mahorn and Ruland were known as the “Beef Brothers” for their rather physical style of play—at least that’s what Bullets fans called them. Longtime Celtics radio announcer Johnny Most had different nicknames for them: McFilthy and McNasty. CelticsBlog contributor Mike Dynon, who’s been following the team since the 1960s, said that they were “Pistons lite, before the Bad Boys,” adding, “Ruland and Mahorn would hit people and then look at them in a ‘what are you going to do about it’ way.”
The Celtics’ series against the Bullets was a physical contest. It was a series that Dan Shaughnessy said was filled with “meanness, malice, and good old fashioned mud-slinging and name calling.”
In the closeout game, the Celtics were sitting on a 16 point lead in the third quarter when Parish picked up his fourth and fifth fouls in less than a minute. This keyed a 9-0 Bullets run. Parish, who was doing his best to contain Ruland, and who had looked rather pedestrian during the series, fouled out with just over two and a half minutes to go and the Celtics up by ten. The Bullets put in a solid effort to come back, scoring six points in a row, but two free throws by DJ gave the Celtics the margin they needed, 92-86, with less than a minute on the clock. A flurry of intentional fouls inflated the final score to 99-96.
When the buzzer sounded, the Celtics were the winners, but the series wasn’t over—at least not for Gerald Henderson and his Bullets counterpart, Frank Johnson. The two got into a fight that saw them wrestling around on the floor as the rest of the Celtics and Bullets mostly tried to separate them. Mostly they were trying to separate them, “I had no idea what was going on out there,” Ruland said after the game, “I was just sorry I couldn’t get one punch in just for the fun of it.” Cedric Maxwell alleged that Frank—or someone on the Bullets—bit Gerald, “I want to know how Gerald Henderson could have a human bite on him.”
No one was suspended and no one was fined. Times have changed.
The Bullets were a rough and tumble team and they gave as good as they got for four games against the Celtics.
In the next round, the Celtics faced the New York Knicks.
The Knickerbockers were at the tail end of a brief bout of competence. They had finished above .500 three times in four years, a feat that they hadn’t accomplished since their championship winning seasons over a decade earlier. The team would tank their way into Patrick Ewing the following season, but for 1983/84, they were a tough matchup for Boston.
The series was pure chalk, with the home team winning every game. The Celtics probably should have put the Knicks away before it came down to a winner-take-all contest at Boston. They won their games by an average margin of 17.75 points, but Madison Square Garden seemed to have some store of Kryptonite on hand, as the Celtics lost those contests by a combined 15 points.
The series was a bizarre affair, considering that a seven game contest usually means a number of close games along the way. Instead, five of the seven games were won wire-to-wire, and there were only four lead changes during 336 minutes of cumulative play.
The star for the Knicks was Bernard King, whose Hall-of-Fame career probably could have been even more spectacular if not for a gruesome injury incurred while trying to block a dunk in a meaningless game against the Kansas City Kings in 1985. King broke his femur and wrecked his knee and was never quite the same. For the series, King’s stat line was 29.1/4.9/3.3 in points, rebounds and assists.
Larry Bird, on the other hand, was transcendent. He averaged 30.4 points per game, just edging out King’s 29.1 average; Bird also netted 10.6 rebounds per game which, again, topped both teams. He led both teams in steals at 2.7 per game, and his 50 assists for the series were the most of any player as well. He led all players in field goal percentage at 58.5%, and singlehandedly ensured that the Celtics would live to fight another day.
This was Larry at his peak.
In game seven, Bird recorded a triple double with 39 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists and a perfect 12-12 performance from the free throw line.
Defeating the Knicks set the table for an Eastern Conference Finals that proved anticlimactic.
The Celtics were up against the Bucks, who had soundly trounced them the year before—of course, this was also the year that the Celtics were in open rebellion against Bill Fitch, so the Bucks might have brought the wrong ideas into the contest. The Celtics, on the other hand, were determined to make sure they buried the past.
The series was over in five games.
Once again, Bird led all players—on both teams—in points, rebounds, assists and (almost) steals. On that last stat, he was tied with the Bucks’ Sidney Moncrief, a fellow Hall-of-Famer.
Boston’s average margin of victory across four wins was 13.5; none of the contests were particularly close, including the Bucks’ sole win in game four.
This set up the showdown that everyone had been waiting five years for.
The Finals
The Lakers had already won—and lost—against the Sixers, and the Celtics had taken a championship from the Rockets the year that the Lakers quit on Paul Westhead, but Bird and Magic had not, as yet, squared off for all the marbles.
L.A. was coached by Pat Riley, in his third year, and had the league’s second best record at 54-28. They had six future Hall-of-Famers on their roster, although two of them, James Worthy and Jamaal Wilkes, were at the beginning and end of their respective careers.
Game One
Game one went to the Lakers in frustratingly undramatic fashion. They simply came into the Garden, took control of the game as though they were playing a junior league squad, and forced the Celtics to play ball the way they wanted to play it. Los Angeles had a 12 point lead after the first quarter and never really looked back. Kareem, who had almost beat the Celtics all by himself ten years earlier, picked up as though no time had passed at all and rattled off 32 points on 12 of 17 shooting from the field and 8 of 9 shooting from the line. The Lakers’ second year player, James Worthy, scored 20 points, and the team shot 51.8% from the field.
Game Two
Game two went to Boston in a contest that featured extra basketball for everyone. Boston came out hot and won the first quarter 36-26, but the Lakers clawed their way back. Their deficit after three quarters was just three points, and they made that up and then some in the fourth period. They had a two point lead when McHale was fouled and sent to the line. With a chance to tie, he missed both free throws and the home team looked like they were headed into a 2-0 hole. There were 20 seconds left on the clock. The Lakers called a timeout. Magic inbounded the ball to James Worthy.
And then James Worthy passed the ball to Gerald Henderson. Henderson sprinted down the court and laid in a game-tying basket with thirteen seconds to go.
The Celtics locked down every single Laker during the subsequent possession.
Los Angeles held the ball for the rest of regulation.
They never got a shot off.
In overtime, things once again looked bad for the Celtics. The Lakers had a three point lead when Kareem’s normally flawless sky hook went off the mark. Bird (who else?) corralled the rebound and sent an outlet pass down the court to Gerald Henderson who made a traditional three point play count for another tie.
With the Celtics down 121-120 and fourteen seconds on the clock, Scott Wedman buried a 13 foot jumper for the lead. At the other end of the court, Parish stole the ball from Bob McAdoo and the Celtics hung on to win.
Game Three
The series shifted from Boston to L.A., from a city steeped in tradition to a city that, despite being over 250 years old, is somehow always new.
The Lakers were in their element here. This was their home and they were comfortable.
After a close first quarter, the Lakers proceeded to curb stomp the Celtics. They ran Boston out of the Forum behind seven double-digit scorers, including five of their six future Hall-of-Famers and Kurt Rambis, who went a perfect seven for seven from the field.
The Lakers had a 2-1 lead on the Celtics, but to be honest, it really felt like a 3-0 lead. The Celtics had barely squeaked out a victory in game two, and it looked like the future of the league belonged, exclusively, to Los Angeles. Sure the Celtics were good and Bird was extraordinary, but, well, it seemed that they just didn’t have ‘it,’ whatever ‘it’ was.
Game Four
There are games and then there are games.
Boston found themselves in a ten point hole at halftime of game four and looked like they were completely out of it. If the Lakers held onto their lead, they would be sitting on a 3-1 advantage, with three opportunities to close out a team that owed its sole victory primarily to a Gerald Henderson steal.
But there’s something to be said for the tenacity the Celtics showed in that game two win, because they brought it out again in game four. In fact, tenacity is what defined the Celtics in this series.
For starters, Boston finally managed to slow the game down in the third quarter—in dramatic fashion.
After six quarters of letting the Lakers play the game the way they wanted it played, after six quarters that they had lost by a combined 43 points, something snapped.
K.C. Jones told the team “No more layups.”
And Kevin McHale took the instruction about as literally as anyone could take it.
About halfway through the third quarter Kurt Rambis broke free off a Boston miss, with the Lakers holding onto a six point lead, 76-70.
He had just left his feet on the way to the basket when Kevin McHale took him out.
McHale grimaced and awkwardly extended his left arm catching Rambis in the neck and shoulder. Kurt’s momentum sent him flying onto his back somewhere near the baseline.
By the time Rambis hit the court it wasn’t just the tenor of the game that had changed. The whole series changed. The Lakers, who had cruised to two easy victories, would lose three of the next four contests.
McHale stayed in the game. In fact, he wasn’t even called for a technical, despite a brawl nearly erupting in the aftermath of the foul.
The Celtics won the balance of the third quarter by four points, and headed into the fourth quarter down two. They weren’t going to cruise to a comeback victory, and cruising to a comeback just wasn’t their style. The Celtics were going to take every point they scored from the Lakers by force and by desire.
The Celtics were going to win game four because they wanted to win the game more than the Lakers did, and it was as simple as that.
The Lakers were trying to protect a five point lead off a pair of Magic free throws with less than a minute to go when the Celtics, who never led during regulation, closed the gap. They reduced the lead to two on a traditional three-point play that came after Parish caught his own offensive rebound and put it back in the midst of a rugby scrum under the basket. The Lakers did their best to dribble out the clock but ultimately settled for a Michael Cooper two from deep that bounced off the rim and into the hands of Parish, but not before Kareem shoved Bird. It was the sixth foul on the Lakers center, and it sent the league’s best free throw shooter to the line. The first free throw hit nothing but net. The second one rattled around a bit and then dropped through. The game was tied.
On the Lakers’ subsequent possession, Jones put Parish on Worthy, a move that paid off when Magic, being hounded practically off the court by DJ made what should have been a routine pass down the sideline to Worthy. Parish stuck an arm into the passing lane, deflected the pass and then wrapped it up with four seconds on the clock. A long three by Bird and a putback by McHale both caromed off the back of the rim and the game headed to overtime.
DJ scored Boston’s first four points in the extra period—but the Celtics were struggling to contain second year player James Worthy, already well on the way to earning his “Big Game James” nickname. Worthy scored nine of the Lakers’ twelve points in the overtime session. When he made a hoop and the harm count late in the overtime period, he gave the Lakers their last lead of the game at 123-121. Bird proceeded to tie the game up with 1:19 to go. Magic had a chance to put the Lakers up two, off a foul by DJ, but missed both free throws. Bird came out of the Boston timeout that followed and gave the Celtics the lead on a turnaround jumper. With ten seconds to go, Worthy was fouled by McHale, and after he missed his first free throw, Cedric Maxwell walked across the lane in front of James with his hands to his throat signifying ‘choke.’
When the dust settled, the Celtics had beaten the Lakers 129-125, but more than that, they had seized control of the series.
Game Five
The Celtics ran away with game five. The Lakers played the Celtics close in the stifling heat of Boston Garden for the first two quarters, but couldn’t keep up with Boston as the game wore on. The Lakers were outscored 33-24 in the third quarter and 33-26 in the fourth; the final score was 121-103 Boston. The Celtics finally shot the ball better than L.A., hitting at 51.9% compared to a 42.9% clip from the Lakers. Worthy was the only Laker to crack 20 points. On the other end of the court, Larry Bird led all scorers with 34 points and bested both teams with 17 rebounds as well.
The Celtics, who had been left for dead after game three were in the driver’s seat with a 3-2 series lead.
Game Six
The Lakers salvaged game six off a furious fourth quarter comeback. The Celtics had played their brand of basketball for, basically, eight and a half straight quarters, going back to the midpoint of the third quarter of game four, but they let up on the Lakers in the fourth quarter of game six. Los Angeles came into the quarter down four and proceeded to outscore Boston 36-21, for an eleven point victory, 119-108. Kareem put in 30 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists, against 28 points, 14 rebounds and 8 assists from Bird.
Some Lakers fans might have seized onto this aberration as proof that, perhaps, the tide had shifted back in favor of the purple and gold.
If so, game seven would prove to be a colossal disappointment for them.
Game Seven
The Lakers and Celtics were knotted at 30 all after one, but the Celtics had a six point lead by halftime, and after the third quarter the Lakers were down thirteen. The Celtics held on to win the game—and the title—by a final margin of 111-102.
Los Angeles fouled the Celtics 32 times—in a 48 minute game—and sent the Celtics to the line 51 times, where the Celtics shot a lights-out 84%. Both DJ and Bird were perfect from the line.
In fact, the Celtics outscored the Lakers by 25 points from the charity stripe. This more than made up for another bad shooting performance from the Celtics, who really only had one game during the series where they shot at a rate that even approached their regular season levels.
Was there a conspiracy afoot? Hardly. The game was called with a tight whistle—Gerald Henderson picked up three fouls in the first four minutes of the game.
Boston adjusted. L.A. did not.
Larry Bird won a well-earned Finals MVP to go with his regular season title.
For the series, the Legend led all players in points, rebounds and steals. Magic, to no one’s surprise, led both teams in assists.
In the 1984 Finals, Larry was on the court with nine other future Hall-of-Famers, and he out-performed every one of them.
Turning Point
There really were two turning points in this series. The first was Gerald Henderson’s steal and layup that forced overtime in game two. Without it, the Lakers probably cruise to an easy championship victory, or, at best, the Celtics do no better than make things interesting for a game or two.
But Henderson’s steal didn’t really stop L.A., as they clobbered Boston in the next game.
The second turning point came when McHale rather emphatically kept Rambis from grabbing an easy two. From that point on, Boston took over the series.
In the thirteen and a half quarters that followed the Rambis clothesline, LA had one where they looked like the team that was on the verge of a 3-1 lead at halftime of game four. It was all Boston the rest of the way.
Boston had taken the first round of this new rivalry with Los Angeles. The Lakers, however, would be back. Bad health and bad luck would rob this rivalry of much of the sizzle this series promised, but for 1984, at least, Boston had carried the day.
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