A long, uninspiring and somehow exhausting Warriors offseason still has six-plus weeks to go. While the countdown to training camp continues, it’s starting to feel more like a sprint instead of a marathon with Thursday’s 2026-27 NBA regular-season schedule release.
There are reasons and arguments to highlight a handful of Warriors games. These are the five most interesting, ranked by date.
Oct. 23: Warriors vs. Grizzlies
Not the first game of the year, but the second.
A lot of hype will be centered around the season opener in Los Angeles, and rightly so. It’s Warriors vs. Lakers. It’s Steph Curry vs. Luka Dončić. It’s The Bay vs. LA.
Even with LeBron James gone, Warriors-Lakers still has plenty of fanfare to tune in. My eyes, though, are jumping ahead one game to the Warriors’ home opener against the Memphis Grizzlies.
Dub Nation already will have a taste of this team, and the takes will be flying everywhere, including for rookie Yaxel Lendeborg. He’s why the first home game of the season should be so intriguing. Lendeborg is the one major difference to this roster. Will he be starting from Day 1? How big of a role will coach Steve Kerr give the Warriors’ top pick, who happens to fill a major need with Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody injured?
Fans want hope, and Lendeborg is who can bring it. They also want rivalries, like the Grizzlies once pretended to be with the Warriors. Lendeborg hasn’t shied from circling Cameron Boozer and the Grizzlies on his calendar, and a growing rivalry can be best for both teams after what happened in NBA summer league.
Boozer and the Grizzlies got the best of Lendeborg and the Warriors the first time they played each other in Las Vegas, just like Duke did to Michigan in the one game they faced off in college. But, it was Lendeborg and the Warriors who got the last laugh in the championship game. In just the second game of the regular season, these two get to keep their feud brewing for the best.
Nov. 13: Warriors at Spurs
No matter the path Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy can see in his head, contending for a championship isn’t in the cards this season. It is for the San Antonio Spurs. Now, and possibly for many years to come.
Every team needs to measure itself against the best. In the Eastern Conference, that means playing the reigning champion New York Knicks. In the Western Conference, that means playing the reigning conference champion Spurs. Just like last season, the Warriors get to do so in the 13th game of the campaign.
And just like last season, we all hope it’s the same kind of spectacular show. Curry scored 44 points on the Spurs a year ago on Nov. 12. Draymond Green dusted off his Defensive Player of the Year trophy and went to battle with Victor Wembanyama. So much has changed since then.
Curry won’t have Butler to rely on scoring 28 points in a game where he also had six rebounds, eight assists, three steals and no turnovers. Dylan Harper was injured for the Spurs, and Carter Bryant was given a DNP-CD (Did Not Play, Coach’s Decision). Harper might already be the Spurs’ second-best player, and Bryant is one of their up-and-comers after averaging 8.5 minutes per game in the players.
The Warriors are behind the pack, and they aren’t exactly chasing the Spurs. These are still the kinds of challenges Curry, Green and Co. get up for in an NBA Cup game on the second contest of a five-game road trip.
Jan. 17: Warriors at Heat
By this point, the Warriors already will have played the new-look Miami Heat once at home. The two teams first play each other in the Warriors’ ninth game of the season as their fourth opponent during a six-game homestand. Their second game against each other will be much more interesting.
Don’t get me wrong, the first Warriors game against a Heat team that has Giannis Antetokounmpo will have our attention. Antetokounmpo is the big fish the Warriors had been trying to reel in for years without any bait on their hook. He’s a different kind of must-see than Curry, but you always want to see when they’re on the same court.
Here’s why the second Warriors-Heat game will be a different kind of watch than the first: The second is on a Sunday night as the second game of a three-game road trip that starts in Atlanta on a Friday night and ends in Orlando on a Tuesday night. Ahh yes, the boring ol’ Saturday off in Miami.
The good news is, this is January in Miami and not March. The bad news is, it’s Miami and it’s a Saturday. The Warriors will have just hit the halfway point of the season and will be less than a month from the trade deadline, too. What looks like a random Sunday in January is now a date to remember.
Will Jimmy Butler be back? Likely not, but this is basically one year to the date of his torn ACL against his former team, the same team he was playing when he sustained the injury.
Feb. 13: Warriors at Knicks
The lights remain on for the Steph Show, and any chance to catch Curry at Madison Square Garden is theatre for everyone to enjoy. Whether it was his 54-point game there in 2013 or breaking the all-time 3-point record there in 2021, Curry always comes to play in Manhattan. His one game there this season is with New York back as the mecca of basketball.
It comes at quite the time, too. The Warriors’ one and only game against the Knicks in New York this season is their final contest of a six-game road trip, and, more importantly, their first after the Feb. 11 NBA trade deadline. The team you’ll see in the Warriors’ season opener against the Lakers could look vastly different than the roster they field against the Knicks a few months later.
The Warriors had an extremely quiet trade deadline in Dunleavy’s first year as GM, sending Cory Joseph to the Indiana Pacers for a second-round draft pick. He landed a disgruntled star by adding Butler at the 2025 trade deadline, and last season swapped Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield for Kristaps Porziņģis. Dunleavy already is hinting at setting up for another move at this season’s deadline.
Butler will be more than a year removed from his surgery. If Butler does return at the deadline, a pseudo addition can’t be the Warriors’ only move. It just depends on who they are and what direction they’re trending going into the deadline.
A date with the champs at MSG will be as intriguing as ever this season.
March 24: Warriors vs. 76ers
After putting all their eggs in the LeBron basket, the NBA is making the Warriors wait and wait and wait to finally play him and Bob Myers’ new super team. Four games later, the Warriors play James and the 76ers in Philadelphia.
Will Warriors fans give him louder boos than usual? Or will there be cheers in the chance this is his last game at Chase Center?
Probably a little bit of both, per usual. What should happen is appreciation. For James, for Curry and for what two of the best to ever do it have given us.
Going a full season without a single Steph vs. LeBron game was cruel punishment for fans everywhere. The biggest hope is both are healthy this late into the season. Curry wasn’t last season, still dealing with runner’s knee. James the night before fell one rebound shy of a triple-double.
The Warriors were a lowly 34-38 last season on March 24. The buzz will be turned down if their record looks like that again. Steph vs. LeBron is cinema, and both their teams being competitive with winning records only calls for more popcorn to savor every last second.
Golden State will appear in 28 national TV games, a drop from 34 last season, which kept them in the top tier. Top-tier status has become customary, as the Warriors last season were one of four teams – along with the Los Angeles Lakers, the New York Knicks and the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder – scheduled for 34 appearances on national TV.
Both teams at Tier 2 last season, the Houston Rockets and Minnesota Timberwolves, were scheduled for 28 games.
The Warriors will play on Christmas Day for the 14th consecutive season, but rather than a coveted midday or late-afternoon slot, they will close the five-game schedule with a 7:30 tipoff against the Denver Nuggets at Chase Center.
Though the Warriors still speak confidently about contending, the league’s schedule is an open acknowledgment of their slippage. They are an aging team that has missed the playoffs in four of the last seven seasons and two of the last three.
Meanwhile, other teams have been climbing. Tier 1 for national TV games will include teams like the San Antonio Spurs and Philadelphia 76ers, as well as the Thunder and defending champion Knicks.
The global fascination with Curry is the primary reasoning for the NBA consistently giving Golden State maximum national TV exposure, as he remains the league’s No. 1 TV attraction. He missed 39 games last season and will turn 39 years old next season. It’s reasonable to believe the absence of the team’s No. 2 attraction, Jimmy Butler III, expected to be sidelined for at least the first half of next season also influenced the scheduling.
For context, the Warriors were scheduled for 36 national TV appearances in 2024-25 and 41 in 2023-24.
The NBA and its rightsholders have the flexibility to add or subtract during the season. When the Warriors opened the 2019-20 season by losing Curry in the first week and crawling to a 4-18 start, the league pulled two of their games initially slated for national TV.
The 2026-27 schedule is the NBA’s most evident step toward replacing the Warriors as an elite national attraction.
The Columbus Blue Jackets have 49 days until opening night at Nationwide Arena. Today we look at the history of jersey #49. There weren`t many who used the number, but at least one had a pretty good career.
Let's take a look.
Dan Fritsche - 2004-08 - The Ohio-born native was picked in the 2003 NHL Draft in the 2nd round.
Fritsche turned pro and became a full-time NHLer in 2005. He played 206 games for the CBJ over four years. He scored 29 goals and totaled 63 points.
In July of 2008, the young speedster was traded to the New York Rangers along with Nikolai Zherdev for Fedor Tyutin and Christian Bäckman. It's safe to say the CBJ won this trade, as Tyutin would go on to become one of the best defensemen to ever play for the Blue Jackets.
On January 29, 2009, Fritsche was traded by the Rangers to the Minnesota Wild. The following season, Fritsche returned to the CBJ organization and would play for the Syracuse Crunch.
In 2010, he left for Europe, where he would play until his retirement in 2016.
TJ Tynan - 2017 - The Blue Jackets drafted Tynan in the 3rd round of the 2011 NHL Draft.
Tynan would only end up playing 3 games for the Jackets during his time with Columbus. Instead, he would spend most of his time playing for the Springfield Falcons and Cleveland Monsters. He played in 76 games for the Monsters during their Calder Cup-winning season of 2015-16 and had 46 points. Tynan has 642 points in 693 career AHL games, including a 98-point season with the Ontario Reign in 2021-22.
He has only played in 25 NHL games and signed with the Colorado Eagles of the AHL for the 25-26 season. Tynan is currently 37th on the all-time AHL list for career points.
He will play for the Springfield Falcons of the AHL in 26-27.
Ryan MacInnis - 2020-21 - MacInnis was drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in the 2nd round of the 2014 NHL Draft.
The son of Hockey Hall of Fame defenseman Al MacInnis had big shoes to fill, which is nearly impossible to do. He was traded to Columbus by Arizona for Jacob Graves and a conditional pick in the 2019 NHL Draft on July 18, 2018.
MacInnis played in 26 games as a Blue Jacket and had a single point. The majority of his time was spent playing for the Cleveland Monsters, where he had two productive years.
He left North America to play in Germany following the 2022 season. He signed with Kölner Haie in 2025, where he remains playing today.
Who was your favorite player to wear #49.
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Sacramento will begin its season on the road against the Los Angeles Clippers on Oct. 21 at the Intuit Dome before its home opener against the Portland Trail Blazers two days later at Golden 1 Center.
Other highlights from the Kings’ schedule include the first matchup against former star guard De’Aaron Fox and the Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs on October 27 at Frost Bank Center and the first game against LeBron James and the Philadelphia 76ers on Dec. 29 at Golden 1 Center.
Sacramento currently is slated for two nationally televised games on Jan. 12 against the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center and Jan. 25 against the Denver Nuggets at Ball Arena.
The Kings, fittingly, will close out their 2026-27 regular season on the road against the same Clippers team they tipped off their season against.
Several superstars left cities where they won championships, while other notable players got a change of scenery this summer.
With those moves will come some highly anticipated homecoming games. Those players will return to their old stomping grounds as a visitor, with many expecting a warm welcome from their former fans.
Here’s a look at some of the must-watch homecoming games for the upcoming NBA season.
LeBron James: 76ers vs. Lakers, Dec. 25
The NBA’s all-time leading scorer spent eight years in Los Angeles, marking his longest continuous stint with a team. Now 41 years old, LeBron James made his “last decision” to leave LA and go to Philadelphia in his pursuit of a fifth NBA championship.
James and the Sixers will head to Crypto.com Arena on Christmas Day to battle Luka Doncic and the Lakers.
Giannis Antetokounmpo: Heat vs. Bucks, Jan. 28
After 13 seasons, two MVPs and a 2021 championship in Milwaukee, Giannis Antetokounmpo is taking his talents to South Beach after a blockbuster trade between the Bucks and Heat.
Antetokounmpo will return to Milwaukee as a visitor for the time on Jan. 28 (and again on March 12). Conversely, Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware and Kasparas Jakučionis will make their Miami homecoming on Nov. 18.
Jaylen Brown: 76ers vs. Celtics, Jan. 21
The Boston Celtics dealt 2024 NBA Finals MVP Jaylen Brown to the rival Sixers in an offseason stunner, bringing back Paul George, two first-round picks and two second-round picks.
Brown spent 10 seasons in Boston, and he will make several trips back in 2026-27. The Sixers will visit the Celtics on Jan. 21 and March 7, along with a preseason game on Oct. 10.
On the other side, George and the Celtics will head to Philadelphia for matchups on Nov. 10 and Feb. 7, as well as a preseason contest on Oct. 16.
LaMelo Ball: Timberwolves vs. Hornets, Feb. 15
LaMelo Ball was also on the move this summer, as the Charlotte Hornets traded the former No. 3 draft pick to the Minnesota Timberwolves. He had spent his first six NBA seasons in Charlotte after entering the league at just 19 years old.
The Ja Morant era in Memphis came to an unceremonious close in June when he was shipped to the Portland Trail Blazers for Jerami Grant and Kris Murray.
The former NBA Rookie of the Year, who spent his first seven professional seasons with the Grizzlies, will return to Memphis on Feb. 6 and again two days later on Feb. 8.
Kawhi Leonard: Raptors vs. Clippers, Nov. 2
There are two potential homecoming options for Kawhi Leonard.
The two-time Finals MVP is in limbo as the NBA keeps the Los Angeles Clippers and Toronto Raptors’ trade on hold amid an investigation into whether he received a multi-million endorsement deal with sustainability services company Aspiration in an alleged effort to circumvent league salary cap rules.
Should the trade go through, Leonard would visit the Clippers as a member of the Raptors on Nov. 2. If for any reason the trade is not permitted and Leonard stays in LA, he would visit his former home of Toronto with the Clippers on Jan. 1.
PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA - APRIL 11: Ville Koivunen #41 of the Pittsburgh Penguins skates with the puck as Jakob Chychrun #6 of the Washington Capitals defends in the first period during the game at PPG PAINTS Arena on April 11, 2026 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin Berl/Getty Images) | Getty Images
The Top 25 countdown continues with the most newsworthy young player in the organization of the moment, the man with an eight year contract Ville Koivunen.
Ville Koivunen’s career has contained some contradictory moments so far.
He was a fairly high draft pick of Carolina indicating they liked him…Only to be traded out of the organization before getting going to show they didn’t find him that big in their future.
End up a first full season in North America looking good with seven points in eight games in the NHL…Only to regress back to the AHL after not playing well enough in the NHL the next year.
Getting an eight year contract with a massive cap hit following such an uneven year for an unestablished player might be the biggest contradiction of all. Nothing in Koivunen’s past performance justified a $32 million dollar commitment, but the Penguins gave him one anyways in hopes that his future would be worth it.
Whether or not he lives up to the hype and expectation placed upon him will be one of the more fascinating areas for the Penguins in the upcoming training camp and beyond. Officially, Koivunen will still have to earn his spot on the NHL roster, per Kyle Dubas. Koivunen got a big time NHL contract, yet he still isn’t assured an NHL spot. Another contradiction.
After all these stops and starts, the future for Koivunen appears wide open. Which is an odd thing to say for a player with an eight year contract, though it applies since the Pens have an off ramp built into that contract that might not really make it a long commitment. As almost always with Koivunen’s career, how things appear right now isn’t always how it will remain.
Which, by that logic, could be time for another reversal in a positive direction. There’s some evidence to support an increase in performance for Koivunen, despite the lack of production in 2025-26.
It is worth noting that despite uninspiring production, Koivunen’s xG and shot metrics were stellar last season. PIT just could not score when he was out there.
With his talent there’s reason to believe the production will come. And then you have a solid player locked up cheap. https://t.co/pE8HhNMbuw
The big x-factor is what is happening right now for Koivunen’s off-season training. It’s another crucial summer for him to make gains physically in order to level him up to where he can be more effective in the NHL, an area that was lacking last year. It goes without saying based on the contract that the Pens have been impressed enough by the willingness to put in the work and show improvement to literally buy into his future.
“Over the course of the [2025-26] season, Ville showed excellent commitment in Wilkes-Barre to doing extra work, and he has doubled down on that this summer,” Dubas said last week. “He did not return to his home in Oulu, instead working to set up a new training program in Helsinki. He then informed us that he would be returning to Pittsburgh in mid-August to join the growing number of players we have training here in the summer. His actions gave us assurance, and our staff will continue to push him on and off the ice.”
According to Dubas, neither the team nor player were satisfied with the missed opportunity from last year that saw Koivunen break camp on the first line with Sidney Crosby, only to slide back down to the AHL for a good chunk of the season (“I think he would be the first to say he didn’t make the most of (his opportunity)” is how Dubas put it.)
Despite that disappointment, Dubas made what he called a “bet” on Koivunen with the eight-year contract. That’s usually not how it goes in the NHL, max term contracts are reserved for sure things, not an experiment. Yet here we are.
To pull back the curtain, Pensburgh had Koivunen ranked for 12th in this year’s Top 25 Under 25 before the contract. After consideration, we elected not to change or improve his placement on our list just because he was given a contract that indicates he will be an important player in the future – or at least be given every opportunity to live up to turning the bet into a winner. It’s difficult to place a player whose semi-realistic potential range of options for less than two months from now swing from being in a fairly significant spot in the Pens NHL lineup down to getting waived and being out of the organization completely. A scenario in the middle (being mostly an NHL scratch for Pittsburgh, going unclaimed on waivers and assigned to AHL Wilkes-Barre) are perhaps even more likely than the extreme options to best/worst case outcomes.
For now and until proven otherwise, Koivunen is what he is as a limited player that can look soft, slow and ineffective at the NHL level, despite starting to get paid like something different. The Penguins have more than plenty of candidates as wingers for their roster and Koivunen may or may not even figure into the NHL team at the start of the season. The good news is he offers some versatility, playing 12 games as a left wing last season and 61 total games at right wing, split between his NHL and AHL time. Like most everything else, this is a player looking to find a fit and where he can make an impact.
His young career has already been fraught with ups, downs mixed with with starts, stops and more reversals than a game of Uno. The near future might not be any less tumultuous, as unpredictable as an unestablished player getting a max length contract out of the blue.
Such is the career of Ville Koivunen. Who can say whether the next twist will be a step forward, in place or backwards, but he certainly is a player the team has put a spotlight on due to the bet they decided to make and seeing whether or not the player will live up to his end of it.
MIAMI, FL - OCTOBER 08: Kel'el Ware #7, Kasparas Jakucionis #25 and Jaime Jaquez Jr. #11 of the Miami Heat after the game against the San Antonio Spurs on October 8, 2025 at Kaseya Center in Miami, Florida. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by Issac Baldizon/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
The four players the Bucks acquired from the Miami Heat in the Giannis trade—Tyler Herro, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Kel’el Ware, and Kasparas Jakucionis—may already be a step ahead in knowing Taylor Jenkins’ offence when training camp hits.
Allow me to explain.
Noah’s mark
Before the 2024-25 season, a relatively unknown assistant named Noah LaRoche was hired by Jenkins as the Memphis Grizzlies’ Head of Player Development. The Grizzlies had finished dead last in offensive efficiency the season prior (granted, there were also a heap of injuries to key players that impacted that). Injuries aside, though, Memphis clearly wanted to try something new. LaRoche—even though he was not some high-ranking assistant at the time—was entrusted with installing an offence that would deliver that change.
And boy, did he think outside the box.
You see, the offence that LaRoche installed wasn’t just some run-of-the-mill playbook that he nicked from another system. No, this offence not only stood out from the rest of the NBA but also from the greater basketball world because, well, it wasn’t even really an “offence” in the traditional sense; it was more of a system that championed speed, spacing, driving, and basketball IQ. There were no play-calls. To use a classic Budenholzer-ism, it was basically “structured randomness” that also happened to deprioritise screens—both on and off-ball.
To see what I mean, watch this video:
Fascinating, right? So why the zag? It’s a combination of things. Firstly, there’s the most basic idea of just catching teams off guard by doing something different than what they’ve seen for years and years. But mostly, this is a personnel-based thing: if majority of a team’s key players have below-average shooting ability but above-average IQ, driving ability, craft, and ball skills, then an offence that prioritises the latter will probably be better suited to that team.
The 2024 Grizzlies fitted this mould. Sure, they had Desmond Bane, who is a great shooter, but overall, this was not some team of snipers. What they had in spades was players with these aforementioned traits, such as Ja Morant, Brandon Clarke, Jaren Jackson Jr., Jake LaRavia, Jaylen Wells, and Marcus Smart. Well, it worked a treat. Memphis finished the next season with the sixth-best offence in the NBA.
Basketball groupthink
It’s fascinating to take a step back and think more conceptually about basketball every once in a while. Why bring four bodies into an action if you can get to the rim one-on-one? Is a pick-and-roll really the only way to draw two to the ball and generate an open shot, or could you achieve the same thing from a drive and kick? As basketball consumers, we sometimes get so used to viewing and understanding basketball through a certain lens that we forget to think outside the box.
From a mental standpoint, this is a system that caters to heady, instinctual players who can recognise patterns and cues. Someone driving baseline means another must cut from the 45; someone cutting one pass away means the ballhandler might have an opportunity to drive right behind them; someone attacking to the middle means the big must empty and get to the opposite short corner. When you really boil it down, it’s a system with a few basic principles:
Play fast
Always keep the court spread
Don’t hold onto the ball; make quick decisions and commit to them
Don’t fall asleep off the ball; you will get caught out
Cut with the view that you may not get the ball, but it could create an opportunity for a teammate
Aim for layups and three pointers on most possessions
Cool, but what’s this got to do with Miami?
With that out of the way, let’s talk about how the Miami Heat came to implement this offence. Obviously, Taylor Jenkins was dismissed by the Grizzlies with nine games remaining in the 2024-25 season (even though the team made the playoffs!)—Noah LaRoche was a casualty alongside him. This also happened coincide with the Heat getting utterly destroyed by the Cavaliers in the 2024-25 playoffs, losing in a sweep by a combined margin of 122 points.
“I hope that players became better from it, but damn, it was humbling,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said after the worst loss in his 17 seasons. “This series was humbling.”
“Really no excuses for it,” Tyler Herro said. “It’s embarrassing.”
Miami came out of that series knowing their offence had gone completely stale and that something had to change, so they hired—you guessed it—Noah LaRoche and had him implement that same read-and-react offence. Once again, it got results. BasketNews’ Vukasin Nedeljkovic did a great breakdown of how the their offence shifted last season:
Miami ran approximately 12 to 15 pick-and-rolls per 100 possessions, accounting for only 5% of its total play types.
Historically, no team has relied less on the pick-and-roll as a primary action.
Even when factoring in both ball handlers and roll men, the action accounts for only seven percent of their offense–a stark contrast to a league where it remains the dominant half-court engine.
Instead, Miami’s offensive profile is built around entirely different sources of production.
Spot-up situations account for roughly 34% of their offense, transition nearly 25%, and isolation around 9%, while cuts, offensive rebounds, and putbacks fill in the margins.
Traditional structured elements like post-ups, off-screen actions, and the pick-and-roll serve only as complementary tools rather than foundational actions.
The Heat started the season 14-7. They went from 27th to first in pace, from 24th to first in field goal attempts, and from 21st to 12th in offensive rating. Now, their defence declined as a result—ninth to 14th—but on balance, you take those results any day of the week.
Ironically, Miami last season just happened to have players very similar to what the Grizzlies had in 2024. Bam Adebayo, Jaime Jaquez Jr., Davion Mitchell, Pelle Larsson, Dru Smith, Andrew Wiggins… these guys all fit that style of play.
I should note that opponents did start to “figure the Heat out” in the second half of the season. They lost 10 of their final 15 games and then fell to the Hornets in the Play-In Tournament (though we should note that Miami sustained some injuries in that game too). It remains to be seen if this type of offence would consistently survive in a playoff setting, when the game becomes inherently slower—the Thunder swept the Grizzlies in the 2024 playoffs, but firstly, it’s the Thunder; secondly, Ja Morant got injured halfway through the series; and lastly, Games 3 and 4 were very close—but it’s an interesting way to attack the regular season.
Anyway, Milwaukee traded for four guys who played last season under the same system that Taylor Jenkins led in Memphis during his final year there. Moreover, the Bucks happen to have a fair few holdovers who can play this sort of basketball as well. Maybe we see a LaRoche-inspired offence in Milwaukee this season?
Speaking of the Heat recruits, vote on this week’s Reacts poll:
Don Nelson of the Boston Celtics pictured in 1974. (Photo by UPI/Bettmann Archive/Getty Images) | Getty Images
In the mid 1980s, farmers throughout the U.S. were being squeezed between high interest rates on operating loans and low prices for commodities; lacking a sufficient government safety net, over 300,000 farmers defaulted on loans during this decade and even more farmers found themselves struggling to break even.
Clarence Willcome was one such farmer. He owned a dairy farm near Birnhamwood, a small town between Wausau and Green Bay in northern Wisconsin. The 59-year-old father of thirteen was a two-time heart attack survivor with a pacemaker and a pile of debt.
In April 1986, he wrote a letter to a guy who grew up on a farm asking him for advice.
By the time Don Nelson got around to replying to the letter, his Bucks had been swept by the Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. The team, widely acknowledged as one of the best in NBA history, was on its way to a championship. Nelson would spend his summer doing something that was, perhaps, more significant than winning a title.
After losing game four against the Celtics, Nelson told reporters, “I am not feeling very good right now, yet I’m not losing my home or going bankrupt and having to start over with my life.”
He pledged his share of the Milwaukee Bucks’ playoff bonus to Clarence Willcome, and convinced Herb Kohl, then the owner of the Bucks, as well as Milwaukee-based Miller Brewing, to kick in and help as well.
But this was just the beginning.
Having put on a few pounds since his playing days, Nelson went on a diet and invited donations for each pound he lost.
He also took off on a 250-mile jaunt through Wisconsin in August of that year, driving a tractor as part of a campaign to raise funds and awareness to assist farmers.
It was a colossal give-back from a guy who definitely knew hardship growing up.
Don Nelson was born on May 15, 1940, in Muskegon, Michigan. When he was two years old, his parents moved to Grant, Michigan, where his father tried his hand operating a maple syrup farm. Two years later, the family packed up and relocated again, this time to his grandparents’ farm outside Sherrard, Illinois.
His first experience playing basketball came there. As happened on farm after farm in the Midwest in that era, Nelson learned to play on dirt, shooting at a makeshift hoop nailed to an outbuilding. In his case, it was a spokeless bicycle rim attached to a chicken coop.
Nelson started school in a one-room schoolhouse with seven other students, three of them being his sisters, and all taught by an 18-year-old girl fresh out of high school. It was a school that Nelson occasionally attended barefoot.
Don had a rocky relationship with his father, who constantly lectured him, but his mother doted on him; in her eyes, according to Sharon, “the sun rose and set on Don.” “He’s got his mother’s heart,” his oldest daughter would later remark, “very tender and affectionate.”
Just before Don started seventh grade, his grandparents lost their farm.
The family relocated to Rock Island, Illinois, and Nelson began playing competitive basketball, “I went out for my seventh-grade team and got hooked on basketball.”
The Nelsons lived in town, and Don used to stop at various locations on the walk to school in the morning and shoot hoops. His afternoons were spent at the YMCA doing the same.
He grew to a suitable height for the game, topping out at 6’-6” and playing center for the Rock Island Islanders.
Nelson jumped to the varsity squad as a sophomore, and was a starter by the time his junior year rolled around. He made First Team All-State as a senior. During Nelson’s two years as a starter, the Islanders racked up a 47-7 record, while Nelson put up incredibly gaudy numbers given that he was playing a 32-minute game without a shot clock. As a senior he averaged better than 21 points per game and set a school scoring record. There were opponents and occasions in his senior year where he was triple-teamed in an effort to slow him down.
Despite those numbers, Nelson was not a hot recruit. The only real interest in his services came from the University of Iowa, and his father thought that he would be better served working as a watch repairman, a thought that amused Don’s first wife, Sharon: “Can’t you see Big Don sitting there with those little glasses, fixing watches?”
Bucky O’Connor was the coach at the University of Iowa, and he’d been recruiting Don. Bucky had an eye for talent, and was fresh off coaching the Hawkeyes to a pair of Final Four appearances (1955, 1956). Nelson signed a letter of intent to play for the team. Then, O’Connor was killed tragically in a car accident in April of 1958.
Bucky’s replacement was Milton “Scharm” Schuerman, who had graduated from Rock Island in 1952, and who had just traded his basketball jersey for the clipboard of an assistant coach the previous fall. The death of O’Connor made him head coach of a Big Ten squad when he was just 24 years old.
As a sophomore (freshmen were ineligible to play college basketball in those days), Nelson averaged a double-double, toting up 15.8 points and an even ten rebounds per game. In his junior and senior years, he averaged 23.8 points per game. His rebounds per game jumped every year, going from ten as a sophomore to 10.6 as a junior and then 11.9 as a senior. He left the program as the school’s all-time scoring leader.
Once again, Nelson’s numbers didn’t attract that much interest from the next level of basketball. He had planned on becoming an assistant coach with Iowa, but the Chicago Zephyrs had expressed an interest in him, and as Nelson later recalled, “I figured I could always fall back on coaching if a playing career didn’t work out.”
He was picked in the third round of the 1962 draft by the Chicago Zephyrs. He spent a year in Chicago, where he averaged a respectable 17 minutes as a rookie, but the team didn’t see much of a future in either him or Chicago.
They decamped for Baltimore and became the Bullets (now the Washington Wizards) and Nelson was picked up by the Los Angeles Lakers.
Nelson spent a year and a half playing for Fred Schaus’ squad, but again, the team didn’t see a lot of value in what Nelson brought to the table either, and he found himself unemployed once more when 1965 rolled around.
Don was 25, hadn’t finished his degree requirements at the University of Iowa, and his future seemed to be particularly dim. The only work he’d done apart from basketball up to that point was manual labor.
By then, Nelson was a family man—he and wife Sharon had welcomed their first daughter, Julie, into the world in 1961, followed, in rapid succession, by a son, Donnie in 1962, and another daughter, Chris in 1963. A fourth child, Katie, joined the family in 1967.
In 1965, the Lakers had just lost to the Celtics in the Finals, and a player who was apparently not good enough to suit up for the losing team had caught the eye of the winning team’s coach.
While Red had a well-deserved reputation for being astute at both drafting and trading, his ability to recognize talent wherever he found it included picking up guys off waivers, and none of these castoffs turned out better than Nelson.
With Havlicek working his way towards a starting role, the team would soon be in need of a good sixth man, and Nelson was Red’s target to slot into the role that he had pioneered with Frank Ramsey and expanded with Hondo.
Red offered Don a one-year, $11,000 contract, which was $4,000 less than his rookie deal; Don swallowed his pride, took the deal, and spent the next eleven seasons wearing green and white. It wasn’t a bad career for a guy who retained a modest view of his on-court abilities: “I had to work all the time, do everything extra I could,” Nelson would recall, adding, “I was just average.”
BOSTON, MA – 1966: Don Nelson #19 of the Boston Celtics goes to the basket against the Los Angeles Lakers circa 1966 at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1966 NBAE (Photo by Dick Raphael/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
The Celtics faced off against Nellie’s former team in the Finals three times in the next four years.
Boston prevailed all three times.
Down three games to two in the 1969 Finals, Nelson scored 41 points across two must-win games, nearly double his season average. His final two points came with a minute and a half to go in the fourth quarter of Game 7. The Celtics were clinging to a 103-102 lead when Nelson’s shot bounced up off the back of the rim passing high above the backboard before dropping cleanly through the net, narrowly beating the shot clock and stopping an 8-0 Los Angeles run. “I shot it so poorly that it hit the back of the rim and it went way up in the air, and it came down and went straight through the basket,” Nelson would later recall. “I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.”
In the early years of the 1970s, the Celtics had to rebuild their squad—among the major contributors to the 1960s dynasty, only Nelson and Havlicek carried the torch on into the 1970s.
However, Auerbach’s shrewd drafting and trading brought the Celtics back into contention by 1973, when they lost a closely contested Eastern Conference Finals to the eventual champion Knicks. The following year, the Celtics would win it all. Coached by Tommy Heinsohn, the Celtics faced the Milwaukee Bucks in the Finals, and Nelson played a key role in defending Kareem, despite about an eight inch height differential between the two players. Heinsohn’s strategy of double- and triple-teaming Kareem in the decisive game didn’t do much to slow down the Bucks’ center, but it did lighten the load on Dave Cowens enough that he was able to outscore Kareem 28-26, as the Celtics secured their twelfth championship overall and their first of the post-Russell era.
Don played two more seasons with Boston, going out a champion with the 1976 squad that defeated the Phoenix Suns in six games.
After retiring, Nelson had a family meeting in Moline, Illinois at a Maid-Rite restaurant—a small Midwestern chain specializing in loose meat sandwiches and fried chicken. His son Donnie recalled that his father presented the family with three options. He could sell cars, become a referee, or take a job as Larry Costello’s assistant with the Milwaukee Bucks.
According to Donnie, the vote came down 5-0 in favor of the assistant coaching gig.
Although he had spent just a year playing for Auerbach, he called that year “a master class.”
“I learned everything that I knew about coaching from Red,” Don would say years later. “I basically adopted what he imparted.”
In addition to his year as a player under Red, Nelson cultivated a close friendship with the coach, taking advantage of every opportunity he had to soak up Auerbach’s knowledge of the game—and his ability to handle players.
BOSTON – 1981: Head coach Don Nelson of the Milwaukee Bucks reacts during a game against the Boston Celtics played in 1981 at the Boston Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1981 NBAE (Photo by Dick Raphael/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
Eighteen games into his first season as an assistant coach, Larry Costello was fired and he was promoted to the head coach assignment.
Don would coach the Bucks from 1976 to 1988, becoming the franchise’s winningest coach, securing eight consecutive playoff appearances, seven straight Central Division titles, and six consecutive 50 game winning seasons. Despite these regular season accomplishments, Nelson’s teams failed to achieve the highest level of success in the playoffs, although a fair bit of that can be attributed to the overall strength of the Eastern Conference. On four occasions the Bucks were eliminated by the eventual league champs. Only once was Nelson able to defeat his mentor’s team, and that was when the Celtics were in nearly open revolt against their own coach, Bill Fitch.
Nonetheless, Nelson cut a unique and memorable figure as a head coach.
At a time when the informal dress code for coaches was a bit more strict than it is these days, Nelson waged a small campaign of protest by wearing tennis shoes—sometimes held together with tape—and ties that looked like fish.
When the Bucks felt it was time to move on from Nelson, he quickly found a spot in California, coaching the Golden State Warriors.
Nelson brought a run-and-gun style of offense to the Bay Area, with his “Run TMC” squad of Tim Hardaway, Mitch Richmond, and Chris Mullin bringing a measure of success to a franchise that had been mired in the Western Conference doldrums for the past decade. Before Nellie arrived, the Warriors had finished above .500 exactly once in ten years; Don bested .500 in year one, and recorded a pair of 50-win seasons while dealing with an injury-prone team. More than that, though, he brought excitement back to the fans. “The fast-paced play was so fun to watch, and there were so many entertaining headlines between games, that I don’t have memories of a single defeat,” wrote San Francisco Chronicle columnist Peter Hartlaub in a tribute to the coach.
In 1991, the San Antonio Spurs lost to the Golden State Warriors in the first round of the playoffs. Just over halfway through the following season, the Spurs fired head coach Larry Brown, and at the end of the season, his coaching staff was also dismissed.
But, in the same way that Auerbach had seen something in Nelson that the Lakers overlooked, Don saw something in one of Brown’s assistants that Spurs GM Bob Bass had missed.
Oakland, CA October 20 – Assistant coach Gregg Popovich, Paul Pressey, and Don Nelson. (Nick Lammers / Daily Review Staff Archives) (Photo by MediaNews Group/Bay Area News via Getty Images) | MediaNews Group via Getty Images
He leaped at the chance to bring Gregg Popovich onto his staff.
The two would become lifelong friends, even if Nelson did, on one memorable occasion, prank the seemingly unprankable Popovich.
Popovich had a great deal of admiration for Hank Egan, his coach at the Air Force Academy, and when Nelson discovered that Egan was an amateur painter, he contacted him and offered to buy one of his paintings.
On finding out that the painting was an intended gift for Pop, his former coach pointedly refused to accept any money for it and sent it to Nelson.
When Nellie got the painting and had it framed, he took it to a Bay Area art gallery and had them put it on display with an inflated price tag.
Nelson proceeded to take his staff to the gallery, and lured Pop over to the painting.
“He says, ‘That’s my Coach! That’s him!’” Don recalled, “So I said, ‘Is that really, Pop? I’d like to buy it for you.’ We take it up to the cashier and he says, ‘It’s $25,000.’ I said, ‘Wrap it up and give it to Pop.’”
“We get the picture wrapped up and we’re walking out. He starts crying. He’s literally bawling like a baby.”
Don takes everyone out to dinner afterwards and reveals the prank; Pop’s only response was, “God damn it, Nellie; you got me!”
Later on, when Nelson was spending a year out of coaching and the Spurs had landed the number one pick in the draft, Don found out that Popovich was considering an offer to trade the pick that would become Tim Duncan. His response to this rumor was an overt threat. “If Pop trades him, I’ll go down there and take a shotgun to his house!”
Nelson was later hired to coach the Mavs in 1997, spending eight years on the bench there, including three 50-win seasons and a single 60-win season. While there, he picked Dirk Nowitzki and acquired Steve Nash in the 1998 draft; both would go on to win MVP awards, and Dirk would be instrumental in securing a championship for Dallas in 2011.
DALLAS – JUNE 29: Dirk Nowitzki #41, head coach Don Nelson and Steve Nash #13 pose for a photo as they are introduced to the Dallas Mavericks during a press conference on June 29, 1998 at Reunion Arena in Dallas, Texas. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this Photograph, user is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 1998 NBAE (Photo by Carolyn Herter/NBAE via Getty Images) | NBAE via Getty Images
A final stint with the Warriors didn’t go particularly well on the bench; for the first time Nelson’s team failed to crack 50 wins during his tenure, but he did prove influential on the Warriors’ future when he went to a 2009 NIT matchup between Davidson and St. Mary’s on Monday, March 23, in Moraga, California, in the hills east of San Francisco Bay. Davidson lost 68-80, but Nelson was struck by the play of their point guard, “I just thought he was a star,” he remarked of Steph Curry. “I never dreamed we were going to be able to get him.”
On draft night, he made himself heard, urging rookie GM Larry Riley to take a risk and select Curry with the 7th overall pick in the draft.
During his final year as a head coach, in 2010, Nelson secured the NBA record for most wins, hitting 1,333 and bumping Lenny Wilkens out of the top spot in the 78th game of the season, a contest at Minnesota. Don went on to retire with 1,335 wins—a record that would eventually be broken by his friend and protégé, Gregg Popovich, in March of 2022.
As a coach in an era dominated by centers, Nelson frequently built winning teams by going small and exploiting mismatches by running the court, something he learned from Auerbach, “Red used to play the smalls against the bigs in practice to get everyone fired up. When we played full court games, the bigs never won. They were ineffective because they couldn’t handle the basketball, and that gave the smalls an advantage.”
“All I did was use a small lineup with a team that didn’t have very good big men, and I was very successful with it.”
Nellie downplayed his own contributions to the game, “Over time I added a few of my own wrinkles.”
One of those wrinkles, and one which has been incredibly influential, is the ‘point forward.’
By inverting the typical ballhandling duties, Nelson’s teams created the mismatches he loved by pulling defenders into parts of the court and assignments that they were decidedly uncomfortable with. Today, when Jayson Tatum brings the ball up court after a basket, he’s filling a role that Don Nelson practically invented.
Naturally, in a 31-year coaching career, there were a couple what-ifs. After the Celtics lost to the Bucks in the 1983 playoffs, with the team in need of a new coach, Red approached Nellie and offered him the top spot in Boston. Don turned down his friend, “I felt a loyalty to the Milwaukee Bucks because they had been so good to me,” Nelson said. In reflection, he added, “maybe I should have been more willing to make that break and pursue the Celtics job.”
Eleven years later, Gregg Popovich was hired as the Spurs’ general manager. He wasn’t particularly pleased with the team’s current head coach, Bob Hill, so he reached out to Don and offered him the coaching assignment. Nelson was more than willing to accept the job, as he was having difficulties coaching Chris Webber, and he was well aware that in the NBA coaches are often far more expendable than talented players are. However, the Warriors refused to negotiate a deal with Nelson and the Spurs that would’ve gotten him the San Antonio gig.
There were perks as well.
Nelson’s son Donnie grew to be 6’-4” and was a pretty good basketball player himself. After attending Wheaton College, near the family home in Milwaukee, Donnie was hired by the San Francisco Warriors as an assistant coach. The following year, the Warriors hired his dad as their head coach, and the two would work together throughout Nellie’s tenures at Golden State and later in Dallas. Their years together on the bench helped make up for time lost during Don’s playing career when he was frequently gone on road trips, and when the demands of coaching left him little time for his family. These years also helped repair a relationship that was damaged when Don left the family and divorced his first wife, Sharon in 1982. “It gave me an opportunity to get to know him at a different level and really gain a ton of respect for him away from the household,” Donnie told the Dallas Morning News, reflecting on his father’s “passion, integrity, and honesty.”
After retiring from the game, Don moved to Maui, “I know how far I’ve come from being a hog farmer. I’ve come a long, long way from being some country kid. I got in the fast lane, and I’ve stayed there a long time,” he once said.
And yet, as it turned out, in some ways, Nelson didn’t come that far after all.
As a child, Nelson had a pet pig, Butchie, that the family butchered while he was at school one day—a lesson, no doubt, in the sometimes harsh nature of life on a farm.
But Nelson retained an affection for pigs that carried over into adulthood. While he was on his first stint at Golden State he ran afoul of Alameda city regulations when it was found that he was keeping a potbellied pig as a pet.
He also returned to farming as a retiree—although he ended up raising a crop that might not have been approved of by his parents or grandparents.
Nelson’s second career, after basketball, was growing medicinal marijuana in Hawaii.
Actually, Don’s hobby farm of 22 acres grows flowers and coffee as well as pot, but pot is undoubtedly what grabs the headlines—especially since Nellie admitted to smoking the stuff. He also hybridized two strains of cannabis, producing a variant dubbed “Nellie Kush.” He even went so far as to build a guesthouse on his property out of ‘hempcrete,’ a concrete which uses embedded hemp fibers for reinforcement.
Nellie claimed that he didn’t smoke pot as a coach or player, but at least one account out there suggests that he was not unwilling to engage in a celebratory puff or two.
Nelson had his number retired by the Celtics in 1978, and was elected to the Basketball Hall of Fame as a coach in 2012. He was named the NBA’s Coach of the Year three times (1982/83, 1984/85, and 1991/92). In fact, no one has won the award more than Nellie, although Pat Riley and Gregg Popovich have also won the award three times.
“I spent 50 years in the NBA,” Don once remarked, “Can you imagine doing something that you love the most in the entire world and doing it for your entire life?”
Nelson moved from Maui back to Dallas earlier this year. He passed away on August 9, 2026.
Reflecting on his career as a coach, Nellie once told Michael D. McClellan, “I have no complaints with the way things worked out,” adding, “If you write my epitaph, I would be very happy if you just said that Don Nelson was a good guy and a pretty good coach.”
The New York Yankees are -138 favorites to break out the brooms when they host the Seattle Mariners in Game 3 of their three-game series at Yankee Stadium.
Max Fried has dominated this current collection of Seattle bats, and my Mariners vs. Yankees predictions and MLB picks expect the southpaw's strong play to lead to a comfortable New York victory on Thursday, Aug 13.
Who will win Mariners vs Yankees today: Yankees -1.5 (+152)
I’m laying the run line with the New York Yankees because this is a better pitching matchup than the numbers suggest.
Max Fried has been outstanding, and the Seattle Mariners offense has been awful outside of Tuesday’s outburst.
Logan Gilbert can miss bats, but he’s allowed at least three earned runs in each of his last three road starts, and that puts pressure on a Seattle bullpen that owns a 6.94 ERA over the last two weeks. He's also been homer-prone, allowing 19 long balls in 139 1/3 innings, which won't help him at Yankee Stadium.
I’m not chasing yesterday’s 10-5 score, either. I trust Fried to control this game and New York to create separation late.
I’d play -1.5 to +135.
COVERS INTEL:Seattle has a .566 OPS against Fried in 77 at-bats. Tuesday’s five runs don’t change how badly this lineup matches up against the Yankees lefty.
Mariners vs Yankees Over/Under pick: Under 7.5 (-102)
I’m playing the Under because I don’t think Tuesday’s 10-5 game changes what this matchup is about.
Seattle has posted a 75 wRC+ over the last two weeks, and the Yankees have been almost as bad at 79.
Fried gives me the strongest starting-pitching edge in the game, and Seattle’s .566 OPS against him tells me this lineup has struggled to square him up.
Gilbert has been better overall than his recent road results suggest, and I’m willing to trust his 3.42 ERA and 0.99 WHIP to keep a struggling Yankees offense from doing big damage.
I’d play Under 7.5 to -120.
Mariners vs Yankees home run prediction: Ben Rice (+310)
Ben Rice is my favorite home-run look today. He’s up to 32 home runs and has been one of the better power bats in baseball, averaging 92 mph off the bat with a 15.6% barrel rate.
Gilbert throws his four-seam fastball nearly 40% of the time, and Rice is hitting .290 with a .662 slugging percentage against fastballs this season.
That’s the matchup I want. I’d play Rice to +300.
Phil Naessens' 2026 Transparency Record
ML/RL bets: 11-13, +0.20 units
Over/Under bets: 11-11, -1.55 units
Mariners vs Yankees weather
It will be a humid day in the Bronx, with 10 mph winds blowing out to right-center field today.
Mariners vs Yankees odds
Moneyline: Mariners +133 | Yankees -138
Run line: Mariners +1.5 (-163) | Yankees -1.5 (+156)
Over/Under: Over 7.5 (-100) | Under 7.5 (-104)
Mariners vs Yankees trend
The Under is 8-0 in the Yankees' last eight games when their opponent allowed five runs or more in their previous game. Find more MLB betting trends for Mariners vs. Yankees.
How to watch Mariners vs Yankees and game info
Location
Yankee Stadium, Bronx, NY
Date
Thursday, August 13, 2026
First pitch
1:35 p.m. ET
TV
Mariners.TV, YES
Mariners starting pitcher
Logan Gilbert (8-7, 3.42 ERA)
Yankees starting pitcher
Max Fried (4-3, 2.88 ERA)
Mariners vs Yankees latest injuries
Odds are correct at the time of publishing and are subject to change. Not intended for use in MA. Affiliate Disclosure: Our team of experts has thoroughly researched and handpicked each product that appears on our website. We may receive compensation if you sign up through our links.
The former England full-back is back in the Championship after 12 years away, hoping to lead Wolves out of it
When the question inevitably comes, Kieran Trippier is happy to set the record straight. Fresh from training, head to toe in Wolves kit – vest, shorts and club-branded sliders – he walks into a suite at their Compton Park base, conversation soon shifting to an episode that rocked supporters and stopped outsiders in their tracks: three days after signing, the manager Trippier cited as a significant driver behind his decision to drop into the second tier, Rob Edwards, had been sacked. All the while, a deal for his replacement, César Peixoto, was being accelerated.
“I’m not going to sit here and lie, I wasn’t expecting it,” Trippier says. “But it’s the club’s decision. I had good chats with Rob, of course, but I’m here to play for Wolves. There are many surprises in football and that certainly was a surprise, I’m not going to deny that. But I just cracked on, I was with my kids on holiday, training in Mallorca and just looking forward to day one in pre-season.”
With the first Field of Dreams game in five years, what better time to debate the best baseball movies of all time? Here's just one seamhead's list (let the angry comments begin):
Best baseball movies of all time
Bull Durham (1988) - "We need a live rooster ... was it a live rooster? We need a live rooster to take the curse off Jose's glove."
Field of Dreams (1989) - I love it because it's sappy. Sorry ... not sorry.
A League of Their Own (1992) - Tom Hanks deserved best actor consideration.
The Sandlot (1993) - "You're killing me, Smalls!", Wendy Peffercorn, Squints. What's not to love?
Major League (1989) - Bob Uecker deserved best supporting actor consideration.
Moneyball (2011) - Every time I run across it on TV, I'm stopping to watch it.
Long Gone (1987) - The best baseball movie you've never heard of. Came out on HBO. Must watch if you can find it.
Pride of the Yankees (1942) - A classic that still holds up well.
Eight Men Out (1988) - I get it, yes, there are inaccuracies but still a good watch.
The Natural (1984) - A lot of people hate it. I'm not one of them.
Honorable mention in no particular order:
Bang the Drum Slowly (1973)
The Bad News Bears (1976)
The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings (1976)
Despite a promising start to his pro career with the Philadelphia Flyers, a formerly undrafted defenseman has changed hands and moved to the KHL in hopes of turning a rough few years around.
Although he made the NHL roster out of training camp and stuck for a few months, the Flyers cut ties with the once-promising Egor Zamula, trading him to the Pittsburgh Penguins for forward Phil Tomasino on Dec. 31.
Zamula, 26, never played for the Penguins organization, though, and subsequently signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets as a free agent on Jan. 6 after his contract was terminated, reuniting with former Flyers teammate Ivan Provorov.
Now, though, after having his KHL rights traded a few months back, the 6-foot-4 defenseman is looking to get his career back on track with Russian powerhouse CSKA Moskva, where he'll play alongside former Flyers teammate Denis Gurianov, former NHLers Klim Kostin, Nikita Okhotiuk, and Nikita Nesterov, and prospects like Prokhor Poltapov and Dmitri Gamzin.
"I've never played in the KHL, so both the guys and the coaching staff are giving me advice and going over all the details with me. I'm improving with every practice, feeling better both physically and mentally. There's a lot of new stuff; some things I haven't done in a while, and some I didn't even know about," Zamula was quoted as saying of his move to CSKA by Championat.
"I played with Nikita Okhotyuk at the Traktor academy, and I also know Nikita Nesterov and Denis Zernov. In America, I played with Denis Gurianov, and I also know Klim Kostin. When I transferred here, I already knew half the team, so it was easier for me to integrate."
In a difficult last NHL season split between the Flyers and Blue Jackets, Zamula appeared in 30 games, recording three assists.
Zamula played in 168 NHL games for the Flyers, scoring eight goals, 33 assists, and 41 points with a -12 rating overall, carving out a solid temporary niche for himself as a once-undrafted prospect starting his professional career.
Now, the Chelyabinsk native will return home and play in Russia for the first time since 2016-17.
Dodgers owner Mark Walter in 2019 (Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)
In 2012, on the day after Mark Walter and his partners bought the Dodgers, I sat next to Walter in a conference room. To the sports fan, Walter was virtually anonymous: a super rich guy who had made his money running investment and insurance companies.
Walter’s purchase valued the Dodgers and its related assets at a then-record $2.15 billion. That value stunned the sports world. Mark Cuban had bowed out of the bidding, believing the Dodgers were not worth even $1 billion.
I asked Walter why he believed it made business sense to pay three times as much as any major league team had sold for.
“I think you have a few moments in life where you have the opportunity to own an asset and really be a custodian of something that should be multigenerational and iconic,” he said then. “I understand it’s a lot of money. But it’s not as if you can go buy another one tomorrow. … We hope we never, ever are going to sell it.”
That was essentially the point someone who travels within the inner circles of pro sports made to me Wednesday morning, as news broke that Walter had sold the Lakers to Bob Iger, the former Disney chief, and Joshua Kushner.
The Steinbrenner family has owned the New York Yankees for 53 years. Jerry Jones has owned the Dallas Cowboys for 37 years. The Buss family owned the Lakers for 46 years.
These trophy assets are few and far between. Walter had sold the Lakers after less than one year of ownership ratified by the NBA board of governors — and not through a comprehensive bidding process, but to an inquiring caller during the weekend?
“This has more red flags than a May Day parade,” an industry insider said, speaking on condition of anonymity so as not to jeopardize his professional relationships.
The deal, which valued the Lakers at $12.5 billion, was motivated by the spiraling price for an NBA expansion team in Las Vegas, according to ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. After all, if Iger and Kushner might have to pay $10 billion for a startup team, why not call and see if Walter might accept a bit more for one of the marquee franchises in American sports?
Was this a blind call or was Walter looking to sell?
“It was suggested to us that maybe Mark Walter would be interested in selling his stake in the Lakers,” Iger told the California Post.
What did Dodgers president Stan Kasten have to say about that?
“I never knew that. He never said that to me,” Kasten said. “I think he was surprised by it. That’s what he has expressed to me. Mark had no plan to do this. This just came up, and he thought about it and said yes.”
Why might Walter have been interested in selling?
Mark Walter acknowledges a fan before a game against the Cubs in Chicago this month. (Melissa Tamez / Associated Press)
Only he can say for sure, but his companies are under federal investigation for failing to disclose and properly account for billions of dollars of loans among related entities. Bloomberg reported Wednesday that Walter’s holding company is trying to raise money that could help pay off or at least pay down those loans, and the Financial Times reported that company assets could be sold or restructured.
No charges have been filed, and investigations can conclude without charges. No allegations of wrongdoing have been made against Walter.
Is there a baseball angle to this?
Among the investment firms Walter’s holding company approached about “deals to raise cash,” according to Bloomberg: the asset management firm owned by New York Mets owner Steve Cohen.
Cohen’s firm passed, according to the Financial Times.
When Walter and his partners bought the Dodgers, the runners-up: the bid team of Cohen and Times owner Patrick Soon-Shiong.
Does Kasten believe the Lakers sale is related to the federal investigation?
“No, that never came up. And Mark and I discussed it,” Kasten said. “So, no, we don’t have any reason to think that. I certainly have no reason to think that.”
What does Walter’s sale of the Lakers mean for the Dodgers?
“It means nothing for the Dodgers,” someone who speaks regularly with Walter said, speaking on condition of anonymity. “He owned them long before the Lakers and will own them long after.”
If Walter should later sell the Dodgers, what might have the greatest impact on the team?
Shohei Ohtani has an out clause in his contract if Mark Walter sells the team. (Eric Thayer / Los Angeles Times)
Shohei Ohtani’s 10-year, $700-million contract with the Dodgers includes an unusual escape clause: If Walter is no longer the controlling owner, or if Andrew Friedman is no longer running the Dodgers’ baseball operations department, Ohtani can opt out of the contract.
Would he?
Way too soon to tell. If major league owners get their way in collective bargaining, the proposed salary cap would mean Ohtani at $70 million could eat up just about one-third of any team’s payroll. And, in his third year with the Dodgers, he has yet to complete a full season as a pitcher, and a left knee in which manager Dave Roberts says Ohtani suffers from “wear and tear” could make him less of a two-way player as the contract winds down.
On the other hand, playing salary might be less of an issue for him than for any other player in baseball. Ohtani is making more than his annual salary — an estimated $125 million this year — from sponsorships and endorsements, and he famously deferred $68 million of each year’s salary so the Dodgers could spend more freely on players that could help him and the team win. After six losing years with the Angels and two World Series championships in two years with the Dodgers, a losing team might not entice Ohtani, no matter how much room it might have under a proposed cap.
Iger used to run Disney. How did Disney’s experience owning the Angels and Mighty Ducks go?
Disney chairman Michael Eisner, left, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, NHL chairman Bruce McNall and Mighty Ducks chairman Jack Lindquist blow duck calls announcing the name of the team in 1993. (Doug Pizac / Associated Press)
Disney dressed the Angels in uniforms derided by one player as “pinstripe pajamas,” put cheerleaders on the dugout roof, and installed a loud “countdown to first pitch.” This all seemed awful at the time but, given the plagues of in-game hosts and teams sporting jerseys in colors far beyond home white and road gray, perhaps Disney was just ahead of its time. And, for the first few years of the franchise, Mighty Ducks gear was some of the hottest merchandise in American sports.
Ultimately, Disney wanted the Angels and Mighty Ducks to launch an “ESPN West” regional sports channel. When that channel collapsed, Disney no longer needed the teams and eventually sold them. The Angels were such a minimal part of Disney’s portfolio that then-chief executive Michael Eisner showed up in the clubhouse and the players had no idea who he was.
Who owned the Angels when they won their one and only World Series championship?
Angels players waive to fans during the World Series title parade in Anaheim in 2002. (Jean-Marc Bouju / Associated Press)
One more try: Why did Walter really sell the Lakers?
“I think it was opportunistic and he found something that made sense to him,” Kasten said. “Mark’s a very sensible guy. But that’s really the only way I can explain it.
“You’ll have to talk to Mark about a more in-depth explanation and good luck.”
Times staff writer Maddie Lee contributed to this report.
SAN ANTONIO - MAY 19: Nick Van Exel #31 of the Dallas Mavericks watches Game one of the Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs during the 2003 NBA Playoffs at SBC Center on May 19, 2003 in San Antonio, Texas. The Mavericks won 113-110. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and/or using this Photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images) | Getty Images
February 21st, 2002 found the Dallas Mavericks swinging a trade deadline deal with the Denver Nuggets. In the move, the Mavericks shipped off Juwan Howard, Tim Hardaway (Sr.), Donnell Harvey, a first round draft pick in 2002 and cash. That netted Dallas Raef LaFrentz, Avery Johnson, Tariq Abdul-Wahad and Nick Van Exel. The centerpiece of the deal at the time was actually Raef LaFrentz, a 25-year-old 6’11” center who was the well-established starter for the Nuggets at the five.
To that point, Dallas had two true centers on their roster – Shawn Bradley and Evan Eschmeyer – neither of whom were three-point threats. Head coach Don Nelson loved unconventional lineups (that would look much more like the league norm years later) with a stretch big who was a legitimate deep threat. LaFrentz fit the bill and upon his arrival, he slotted in as the go-to starter (starting 25 of 27 games for the remainder of the regular season). The outbound Juwan Howard played some minutes at center for the Mavericks, but didn’t bring the size or shooting range they were after, so the deal was generally a win/win for both sides in that respect. Little did anyone know at the time, but the trade brought in future head coach Avery Johnson, and the player who would meaningfully change the identity of the Mavericks as he shifted to a sixth man role – Nick Van Exel.
Who was Van Exel before the trade?
As much as the trade was framed about LaFrentz, Van Exel was certainly no slouch. Spending his first five seasons with the Los Angeles Lakers where he earned a single All-Star selection, Van Exel was a staple in the starting lineup throughout his career to that point. Up until his final season in LA, he started every game he played except one, which came in his rookie season. He then started all but two games he played during his time with the Nuggets. The season he was traded to Dallas, he was averaging 21.4 points and 8.1 assists per game across 45 contests with Denver.
Of course, everyone knew the trade meant Van Exel would be shifting roles from a sure-fire starter, to a backup behind Steve Nash. That may have been part of why he wasn’t the featured name of the transaction, but coming off the bench proved to be a role he thrived in. So much so, in fact, that he averaged more points per game as sixth man than LaFrentz did as the starter!
Uncrowning the Kings
In Van Exel’s first Postseason with the Mavericks, he was part of the 3-0 first-round sweep of the Minnesota Timberwolves. That series has since become a talking point about the careers of Dirk Nowitzki and Kevin Garnett, with some deeming it to be the tie-breaker as to why Nowitzki is the better power forward of the two. In the next round, Dallas got walloped by the Sacramento Kings, 4-1.
That Kings team was relatively stacked with players such as Mike Bibby, Peja Stojakovic, Chris Webber, Vlade Divac and others. Dallas meanwhile had Steve Nash, Michael Finley, Dirk Nowitzki and LaFrentz leading the way as something of a well-matched mirror for the Kings. The similarities between the teams and the frequency of high intensity regular season games between them supercharged a rivalry that was only added to by the Kings’ young hotshot owners from the Maloof family, who were perfect rivals for Mavericks’ then-owner Mark Cuban.
The following season, the Mavericks met the Kings in the Playoffs in the second round once again. Following a game seven win over the Portland Trailblazers in the first round, Dallas dropped game one of the second round series against the Kings, at home. That loss prompted Van Exel to ask Nelson if he could speak to the team. With permission granted, Van Exel told Nash, Finley and Nowitzki that they needed to stop deferring to the Kings and stop believing them to be a better team. Van Exel backed up his words with stellar play of his own. In game two, the Mavericks ran the Kings out of the gym after dropping 83 first-half points on them. Van Exel scored 36 points in that one, then hung 40 points in game three’s double-overtime victory back in Sacramento. For the series, he connected on over 50% of his total field goals and just north of 45% from downtown.
Van Exel’s legacy with the Mavs
Van Exel’s stay in Dallas was relatively short, clocking in at a season-and-a-half overall. He was largely electric in his time with the Mavs, and certainly brought a much-needed grit and attitude to the team. His only full season in Dallas was the first time the franchise won 60 games. His motivational speech in the Playoffs against the Kings was the only series win Dallas had against Sacramento across three-straight seasons in which the two teams met in the postseason. Van Exel then returned to the fold as the head coach of the Mavericks G League team, the Legends, for the 2015-2016 season.
Van Exel’s unconventional free-throw shooting from about two feet behind the line, his post-up game (yes, the 6’1” point guard had a nice back-to-the-basket game) and his quirky spinning hook/push shot were all memorable. His unwillingness to back down and his ability to turn it on when needed should be unforgettable, despite a relatively short tenure in Dallas.
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