A mix of betting favorites and surprises won the Heisman Trophy in the new EA Sports College Football 26 video game.
Three Confusing NHL Off-Season Choices – And Why They Can Turn Out Well
Not every trade, signing, hiring or firing an NHL team makes will be a no-brainer in the public’s eyes.
Just about every NHL team has made at least a couple of moves – free-agent signings, trades, staff changes or all of the above during the off-season. Some of those moves have us scratching our heads – and then trying to envision how they will ultimately look like great decisions.
Here are three confusing off-season decisions and why they can turn out well. (For transparency, we had the Toronto Maple Leafs keeping Ryan Reaves on the list before they traded him to the San Jose Sharks Thursday night.)
Seattle Kraken Firing Dan Bylsma
Why It’s Confusing: You give Bylsma one year – one year, for a Stanley Cup-winning coach – before cashing in his chips on him?
Granted, he didn’t steer the Kraken into a playoff position. Seattle finished seventh in the relatively weak Pacific Division. That said, we don’t know of a coach who could’ve succeeded with the Kraken’s subpar lineup. Bylsma’s resume should’ve given him at least another year on the job, but that didn’t happen.
Why It Can Turn Out Well: Maybe dismissing Bylsma was the right move, especially considering Jason Botterill has moved in as Seattle’s GM. Every GM usually sticks with his coach, so Botterill choosing Lane Lambert over Bylsma could spark the Kraken. They need to be better defensively, which was Lambert’s specialty as associate coach of the Maple Leafs. In other words, he could be exactly the coach Seattle needs right now.
The Minnesota Wild’s Contractual Saga With Rossi
Why It’s Confusing:The Wild’s buyout costs for former stars Zach Parise and Ryan Suter are a combined $1,666,666 now instead of nearly $15 million. You’d think Minnesota GM Bill Guerin would happily throw money at center Marco Rossi, who scored 24 goals and 60 points in his second full NHL season.
The Wild have nearly $10.2 million in cap space to play with, so it should be easy for Guerin to re-sign Rossi, even if he isn’t completely enthralled with his game. Judging by Rossi’s usage in the playoffs – averaging 11:08 of ice time – Wild coach John Hynes isn’t crazy about Rossi’s game, either. He still got three points in six post-season games, though.
Why It Can Turn Out Well: By waiting this long into the off-season, Guerin is essentially telling Rossi and his representative, “Find me a team that will pay you big money, and I’ll think about matching the deal.” The truth is, if Rossi can’t find greener pastures, he’ll have to eventually accept what the Wild are offering him. At that point, Minnesota’s payroll flexibility situation will be better for it. So daring Rossi to sign an offer sheet is the savvy move by Guerin.
Christian Dvorak’s New Contract With Flyers
Why It’s Confusing: Seemingly out of nowhere, the Flyers swooped in and signed Dvorak to a one-year, $5.4 million contract. We understand that the market for centers is thin, but what teams out there were offering the 29-year-old Dvorak – who hasn’t scored more than 12 goals and 33 points in a season since 2019-20 – a big-bucks, short-term deal?
And why was that team the Flyers? The newly acquired Trevor Zegras can play center, and they also have Sean Couturier and Noah Cates as options down the middle.
Why It Can Turn Out Well: Dvorak has had trouble staying healthy in his nine-year NHL career, but when healthy, he’s able to be a contributor on an up-and-coming team like Philadelphia.
At his healthiest, he’s a 15-goal, 35-point player, and it could be that the Flyers need some veteran know-how to push them into a fight for a wild-card playoff berth, or at the very least, make life easier for their younger players.
Dvorak also doesn’t have any no-trade or no-move protection, so if he does play well and Philly is out of the playoff picture, they can deal Dvorak on retained salary for younger players or draft picks.
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Canadiens: Zach Bolduc Speaks To The Media
On Thursday, Zach Bolduc was taking part in a celebrity golf tournament in Levis, and he had some time to speak to the media. Unsurprisingly, the youngster has been very busy since being traded to the Montreal Canadiens.
He explained that the day following the trade, he went to the CN Sports Complex in Brossard and met with Kent Hughes, Jeff Gorton, and Martin St-Louis. While they didn’t have any in-depth conversations, the Habs’ brass did ask him to work on his faceoff skills since they might need him to take some draws.
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The last time he played at center, he was 16 or 17 years old, and he was playing in the QMJHL with the Rimouski Oceanic. he didn’t do it in the later stage of his junior career with the Quebec Remparts. Still, he is receptive to the idea and reached out to Marc Bureau to work on his faceoff skills; he didn’t wait for the Canadiens to organize that for him. He intends to practice a few more times with Bureau until the end of the Summer. It's important to add that Bolduc he's ready to play wherever he's asked to play, on any line at any position, he just wants to help the Tricolore win.
This is an interesting development. It’s a well-known fact that the Candiens would like to bolster their center line, but both the trade and the free agent market were relatively thin in that respect, and they’ve been unable to address that need so far. Of course, Kirby Dach is still pencilled in as the second-line pivot, but given past results, having a contingency plan would make sense.
Alex Newhook had also played center in the past, and it wasn’t a success either. Last season, he spent the last quarter of the season skating down the middle, and in 21 games, he could only muster five points; that’s hardly the kind of output you want to see from a top-six pivot. With 26 points on the season, there’s room for improvement, and asking Newhook to carry the extra responsibilities centers have isn’t a good idea.
As for why he chose to keep number 76, he explained that there are already 22-23 active players who have numbers, on top of the retired numbers, so it was just the easiest way to go, even though he knows people will talk about P.K. Subban. As for why he originally got the number in St.Louis, it was just the one that was given to him in camp, and he just got used to it and kept it.
Thank you, St. Louis 💙
— Zachary Bolduc (@zack_bolduc) July 6, 2025
To the Blues organization, my teammates, coaches, and the fans - thanks for everything. You believed in me and gave me the chance to grow, on and off the ice. I’ll always be grateful for my time in STL and for the friends and memories I made along the way. pic.twitter.com/Tdja9mixXo
While he dreamt of playing for the Canadiens when he was young, he enjoyed his time in St. Louis, but going to Brossard to meet with the Habs’ brass made him realize that it was happening. He adds that even though the Blues drafted him, he still kept on following the Habs from afar, and he’s excited to join such a young and talented team.
Bolduc wasn’t the only hockey player attending the tournament; Philadelphia Flyers alumnus and former Quebec Remparts assistant coach Simon Gagne was asked about his former player.
Gagne appears to be a big Bolduc fan, saying that he believes the youngster could score 30 goals per season for the Habs. However, he adds that he would have to be deployed appropriately to reach that goal, with top-six minutes and power play time, even perhaps first power play minutes. Given the fact that the first man-advantage unit is already somewhat crowded in Montreal, it would be surprising to see Bolduc get a spot on it, but never say never.
Gagne was also asked if he would have been happy to be traded to Montreal when he was 22, and he didn’t rush to say he would have been. Instead, he said that he wondered if Bolduc was when he heard about the trade because he was in a perfect place in St. Louis with top-six minutes and power-play time. He then added that he had at least been traded to a team that was in a bright spot, coming off a rebuild with a talented young roster. He finally added that at 22, he had a lot of experience, and he might have been able to handle a trade to Montreal, but he was happy that he got to stay in Philadelphia, and things went so well that there was no point in changing things.
He also added that Bolduc had the right personality to be able to cope with Montreal, that he was the kind of guy who is accessible to the public and will never turn down an autograph or event request. Furthermore, if he doesn’t score during a few games, Bolduc has more to his game than just goals, and the fact that he brings physicality will mean he’ll get less criticism if he goes through a dry spell.
As for Bolduc himself, he’s not worried about the pressure of the Montreal market, calling it a privilege. There’s pressure because the fans care so much about the game and their team that it’s a privilege to play in that kind of environment.
Photo credit: Brett Holmes-Imagn Images
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Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh: All-Star closer Andrés Muñoz tipping pitches against Yankees
NEW YORK — Seattle Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh thinks All-Star closer Andrés Muñoz was tipping pitches when he squandered a two-run lead in the ninth inning Thursday night against the New York Yankees.
Muñoz was handed his sixth blown save in 27 opportunities this season after starter Bryan Woo held the Yankees hitless into the eighth.
With the Mariners holding a 5-3 lead, Muñoz entered in the ninth. He allowed a leadoff single to Trent Grisham and a one-out single to Cody Bellinger before Ben Rice came back from an 0-2 count to draw a walk that loaded the bases with two outs.
Standing at second base while Austin Wells batted, Bellinger waved his arms when Muñoz threw his slider. Wells took a changeup perhaps just below the strike zone for ball three, and on the next pitch he lined a full-count fastball into right field for a two-run single that tied it.
“He was tipping every time (with a runner) on second base,” Raleigh said of Muñoz. “Obviously, they weren’t making it very discreet, but it is part of the game. We have to know about that better going into series, and that made it really hard there at the end.
“You try to do the most you can without trying to distract him from what is happening at the plate. So that’s something that’ll we’ll have to figure out the next couple of days, for sure.”
Seattle manager Dan Wilson, however, said he didn’t think Muñoz was giving away pitch selection.
“I don’t think that’s the case,” Wilson said. “Just, I think we got ourselves into some tough counts and they took advantage of it.”
Wells was the sixth hitter in the inning and by that point Muñoz had thrown 23 pitches.
“I had five great at-bats before me to let me get up there and those guys kind of gave me a lot of confidence to trust I was going to get a pitch to hit,” Wells said.
New York capped its improbable comeback from a 5-0 deficit when Anthony Volpe scored the winning run in the 10th with an acrobatic slide on Aaron Judge’s shallow sacrifice fly.
“We couldn’t get much going against Woo, but this team has a lot of fight,” Judge said. “I’m glad Volpe’s fast.”
Helped by Giancarlo Stanton’s first career pinch-hit homer off Matt Brash in the eighth, the Yankees became the first team to win after being no-hit and trailing by five runs through seven innings since the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Montreal Expos on June 24, 1977.
“It was a lot of fun,” Wells said.
Athletics’ Brent Rooker, Yankees’ Jazz Chisholm Jr. join Home Run Derby lineup
WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Brent Rooker doesn’t plan to change his approach at the plate for the Home Run Derby.
“I mean, look, just about every swing I’ve ever taken in my life I’ve been trying to hit a home run,” the Athletics slugger said. “It’s not like I have to change too much in that regard, but I did get out here early yesterday and got a feel for a 3-minute round to kind of feel the timing of it.”
Rooker and New York Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. were added Thursday to the list of derby participants, completing the eight-player field. The event will take place Monday night in Atlanta ahead of Tuesday night’s All-Star Game.
Rooker will become the first Athletics player in the Home Run Derby since Matt Olson in 2021.
“I think it’s going to be fun,” Rooker said. “I’m looking forward to it. As a kid growing up, that was one of the highlights of the summer was watching the Home Run Derby and seeing the guys participate.”
The 30-year-old Rooker entered Thursday with a .270 batting average, 19 homers and 50 RBIs, putting him on pace for a third straight season of at least 30 homers. He went deep 30 times in 2023 and had 39 homers in 2024.
His 58 homers since the start of the 2024 season rank him third among American League players.
Joe Caruso, Rooker’s longtime youth coach, will pitch to him. A’s manager Mark Kotsay joked with Rooker that he should have asked him, but Rooker said he “respected my manager’s four-day break.”
“You get the opportunity to go compete and show your skillset,” Kotsay said. “We have all watched Rook hit homers, 39 of them last year, so I think it’s deserving that they selected him. It’ll be fun to have something entertaining to watch on Monday night.”
The only A’s players to win the derby were Mark McGwire in 1992 and Yoenis Céspedes in 2013 and 2014.
Chisholm, a 27-year-old two-time All-Star, is making his first appearance in the derby and will become the seventh different Yankees player to participate. Five have won the event; Aaron Judge was the most recent in 2017.
Acquired from the Miami Marlins last July, Chisholm began the day batting .250 with 17 homers and 43 RBIs in 62 games this season. The left-handed hitter homered twice Wednesday night against Seattle and had seven home runs in his last 12 games. He had 10 homers since returning from an oblique injury on June 3.
Chisholm was asked Wednesday night if he would like to participate in the derby.
“I mean, if they call me and ask me, I probably would be interested in doing it,” he said.
The other scheduled participants are Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña Jr., Minnesota’s Byron Buxton, Tampa Bay’s Junior Caminero, Pittsburgh’s Oneil Cruz, Seattle’s Cal Raleigh and Washington’s James Wood.
How Hugo Gonzalez is already impressing Celtics ahead of Summer League debut
How Hugo Gonzalez is already impressing Celtics ahead of Summer League debut originally appeared on NBC Sports Boston
It’s been a whirlwind past two weeks for Hugo Gonzalez. But the Boston Celtics’ first-round pick appears to be taking everything in stride.
Gonzalez spent the last three seasons with the Spanish club team Real Madrid, which plays deep into June in the EuroLeague and didn’t finish its 2024-25 campaign until June 25. In fact, the 19-year-old guard had a game on the same night the Celtics selected him with the No. 28 pick in the 2025 NBA Draft and didn’t arrive in Boston until July 1.
Given the quick turnaround, it was unclear whether Gonzalez would join the Celtics’ Summer League squad in Las Vegas less than two weeks after arriving stateside. But not only is the young guard on the Summer League roster, he could see a significant amount of time.
“A lot. I hope he plays a lot,” Celtics assistant and Summer League head coach Matt Reynolds told reporters Thursday of Gonzalez, via CLNS Media.
Gonzalez has a steep learning curve compared to his Summer League teammates; whereas players like Baylor Scheierman and Jordan Walsh are familiar with the Celtics’ system, Gonzalez has had to learn a whole new playbook and new team principles in just two weeks. According to Reynolds, however, the rookie is a quick learner.
“He’s been awesome,” Reynolds said of Gonzalez. “Our staff is very pleased with him, especially having just arrived in the country. We’re throwing our whole playbook at him and all these things that some of our returning players just have a leg up on him with. So, he’s diligent with film, both in the skill side and in the concepts and action side.”
Gonzalez — who’s the youngest player on Boston’s roster — inevitably will make some mistakes in Vegas as he catches up to speed. But Reynolds and the Celtics will live with those mistakes as long as his effort level doesn’t waver.
“The motor that he plays with is something you can’t teach,” Reynolds recently told Celtics team reporter Marc D’Amico. “He plays very hard. … His effort is going to make up for any delay (in learning the playbook).”
Gonzalez’s Celtics teammates already have raved about his hustle, with Walsh calling the rookie a “defensive menace” who “plays really hard … dives on the floor … and attacks the rim with force.” It sounds like Gonzalez is putting similar effort off the court to dive into the Celtics’ playbook and get caught up to speed as quickly as possible.
Gonzalez and the Summer C’s will debut Friday afternoon against the Memphis Grizzlies at the Cox Pavilion in Las Vegas, with tip-off set for 4 p.m. ET on NBC Sports Boston.
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Book excerpt: How Buster Posey foresaw Giants' record-breaking 2021 MLB season
Book excerpt: How Buster Posey foresaw Giants' record-breaking 2021 MLB season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
- Editor’s Note: Alex Pavlovic’s new book “The Franchise: San Francisco Giants: A Curated History of the Orange and Black,” landed on bookshelves Tuesday, July 8. The following is an excerpt regarding the team’s pursuit of Bryce Harper during the 2018-19 offseason. You can purchase the book HERE.
In the spring of 2020, the Giants opened the doors of their new $50 million spring training headquarters. The stunning 40,000 square foot building has a multi-floor weight room, a clubhouse with 10 TVs and mood lighting, and an event space that doubles as an indoor infield on rainy mornings.
There is a float tank for recovery and the booth that Mike Murphy used to eat at every night at Don & Charlie’s. On the third floor, two decks overlook the playing fields and offer stunning views of Camelback Mountain. A lounge is set up with ping-pong tables and leather couches for team meetings.
It was in that room that Buster Posey reset expectations for the 2021 Giants.
It had been five years since the organization’s last postseason appearance and the Giants finished with a losing record during the shortened 2020 season, which Posey opted out of. With their catcher back to lead a rebuilt starting staff, the Giants were internally optimistic about being in the thick of the Wild Card race.
There was no talk of winning the NL West, which had been taken eight consecutive times by the Dodgers. The new staff took a measured approach as camp kicked off, but Posey, as was so often said when he made a perfect throw down to second base, wasn’t having it.
As the entire team met in the lounge on the first day of camp, Posey had a sense that expectations needed to change. He stood up and talked about the importance of going game by game, series by series, and he talked passionately about how the lineup should focus on becoming the toughest set of nine outs possible. Then he turned to the big picture.
Posey knew that each season gets broken up into sections and overlooked teams often waited to see how they were faring later in the summer before taking a serious run at a division crown. But he felt the group in front of him had the talent to be pretty good, and he thought it was important to get in front of that from day one.
“The bar is not to sneak into a Wild Card spot, the bar for us with the Giants is to go out and win the division. There’s freedom in that, I think. It’s like, ‘All right, here’s the standard,’ and it’s a high bar but I think it also leads to confidence,” Posey said later. “Guys are like, well, shoot, the manager and these players believe we can do this, instead of just thinking we’re going to try to sneak in. I think it kind of rallied the guys early. The first day of camp, it was like, ‘All right, we’ve got to set the bar high.’ ”
The short speech struck the right chord, although there were still plenty who viewed the climb as impossibly steep.
“I’d say probably half the people in the room would admit to taking that with a grain of salt, like, ‘Yeah, but the Dodgers …’ ” said backup catcher Curt Casali.
But Posey had reminded them that it was a challenge worth tackling.
“That was important for us. At that point, nobody had given us a chance for a few years — nobody ever picked us to be first in that division,” Brandon Belt said. “But to hear it out loud from a leader of the team, it gives everybody else a bunch of confidence and gets their head in the right space. He got me in the right frame of mind. We had a few veterans speak up. I think that meeting in spring training was the turning point for us that year.”
It was a message that was particularly powerful coming from a player, but Posey might not have fully grasped how important it was to shift the tone. He had not been in the clubhouse a summer earlier when players started having long conversations about how seemingly everything about the Giants was changing.
The new front office and staff embraced openers, platoons and cutting-edge training and recovery methods. The lingo changed, with manager Gabe Kapler talking of putting his arms in buckets. There were “bulk innings pitchers” but also “sprinters.” The Giants irritated fans by announcing their starting pitchers at the last possible moment and opposing managers rolled their eyes at how late the lineup card would be sent over.
At times it seemed the staff was trying to challenge every tradition and method the game of baseball had, and not always for the better. Early in the 2020 season, a few veterans called a team meeting after a game to make sure that, for the players, at least, the priority was always on winning games.
The next spring, that was made clear from the start. An unlikely goal had been set, and seven months later, when Posey caught a 97 mph fastball to end the regular season, he raised both arms and looked to the sky. It took everything they had, but the Giants had won the NL West, and done so in historic fashion.
They set a franchise record with 107 wins, edging the Dodgers by one game in the first divisional race in which both teams won at least 105 games. It was the closest race in MLB history, with the Giants becoming the first to win 107 games but clinch their division on the final day, and the Dodgers setting a record for wins by a second-place team. After 162 games, the Giants made good on a message that Posey teased publicly shortly after he spoke to teammates.
“As much as I think the sports world loves to try to predict everything, there’s still some parts of it that can’t be predicted,” Posey told reporters at the start of camp.
His team ended up becoming the greatest outlier in franchise history. In MLB history, that type of win total is generally preceded by years of postseason performances or tanking to stockpile top picks. But the Giants went 29-31 in 2020 and then came back the next year and spent 125 days with the best record in baseball. They got contributions from every corner of the roster, winning endlessly at the margins, something that president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi preached when ownership hired him in 2018.
If ever there was a time for the Giants to take a full step back and tear it down to the studs, that winter of 2018 had seemed to be it. The Giants had lost 98 games a season earlier and then doubled down with expensive trades, but they seemed allergic to the word “rebuild.”
Larry Baer interviewed 10 candidates to lead the baseball operations department, but Zaidi always was a frontrunner. He built a glowing reputation in Oakland and then Los Angeles, and his vision aligned with what the Giants’ board had always embraced. He had no interest in tearing things down.
“Our ownership group has always been constructed in a way that we want to try to win every year and also develop. That’s probably the hardest thing in sports to do,” Baer said. “Some teams have done that — the [New England] Patriots, the [San Antonio] Spurs, the [New York] Yankees to some extent — and our ownership group is aspirational about trying to do that. Farhan matched those aspirations. That’s really what it came down to.“
Perhaps the Giants should have taken a step back. That might have put them in a better position over the long haul, but with key veterans like Posey and the Brandons still in the lineup, that was never really an option. Over the previous four seasons, the Giants won just 45 percent of their games, with GM Bobby Evans getting dismissed. Over the following three seasons, they went 240-246, a run of mediocrity that cost Zaidi and Kapler their jobs.
But in the middle of it all is a remarkable 162-game season. For six months, just about everything went right.
Warriors' key to competing in ‘brutal' Western Conference, per Jay Bilas
Warriors' key to competing in ‘brutal' Western Conference, per Jay Bilas originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
- Programming note: The American Century Championship will air Friday, July 11, from 1-3 p.m. PT on Peacock, and again from 5-7 p.m. PT on GOLF Channel. Saturday, July 12 and Sunday, July 13, the tournament will air locally on NBC Bay Area (KNTV) from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. PT.
The Western Conference won’t get any easier during the 2025-25 NBA season, but Jay Bilas shared one crucial key for the Warriors to stay afloat with the best in the West.
The ESPN analyst spoke to NBC Sports Bay Area’s Monte Poole at the American Century Championship in South Lake Tahoe and shared how Golden State’s path to another championship comes down to one thing.
“Stay healthy and put yourself in a good position going into the playoffs,” Bilas told Poole. “It’s crazy, one or two games throughout the year can determine whether you’re fourth or eighth. Heck, last year, the last three games of the year, Denver was either going to be fourth or in the Play-In. It was that close. Every game you play, and I know there are 82 of them and you’re not going to be your best all the time, but every game matters in the Western Conference. It’s brutal.
“But because everybody’s so close, that means if you get in the playoffs, you have a chance. especially if you’re healthy. And that’s what doomed Golden State this last year, [Steph] Curry had that injury. It didn’t matter if it was Curry, [Jimmy] Butler or [Draymond] Green, you get one of those guys hurt and you’re not going to win. It’s unfortunate, but you got to keep your guys healthy.”
Seems simple enough, right?
Not always.
Injuries, of course, are unpredictable. The 2023-24 NBA champion Boston Celtics had an early playoff exit when their superstar, Jayson Tatum, went down with a torn Achilles.
The Indiana Pacers’ triumphant season came to a gutwrenching ending when Tyrese Haliburton suffered an Achilles injury and will miss the entire 2025-26 season to recover.
Golden State only can control what it can control, and the Warriors will have to take it day by day to survive another battle in the West.
Deion Sanders wants to add Byron Leftwich, Mike Zimmer to Colorado coaching staff
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Sports quiz of the week: Wimbledon, Euro 2025, PSG v Chelsea and the Open
Have you been following the big stories in football, tennis, cricket, golf, boxing, rugby and motor sport?
Continue reading...Kings rookie Nique Clifford hilariously reveals fitting first word as baby
Kings rookie Nique Clifford hilariously reveals fitting first word as baby originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
Mama? Dada? Baba?
The list of common first words goes on. But how about “ball” as a baby’s first word?
During an interview with NBC Sports California’s Morgan Ragan on “Kings Central,” Nique Clifford, the No. 24 overall selection in the 2025 NBA Draft, hilariously revealed what his first words were.
And, yes, there couldn’t have been a more fitting first word for the 23-year-old rookie guard/forward.
“I started playing when I was three years old,” Clifford shared with Ragan. “My parents put the ball in my hands when I was a baby. My first word was ball, so I was kind of meant to do this, I feel like.”
Sacramento traded up into the first round of the 2025 NBA Draft for the No. 24 pick from the Oklahoma City Thunder, acquiring the rights to Colorado State’s Clifford in exchange for a protected 2027 first-round pick.
The 6-foot-5, 202-pound Clifford, a fifth-year senior, led the Rams to a first-round upset of Memphis in the NCAA Tournament. He averaged 18.9 points, 9.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists, 1.2 steals and 0.6 steals in 35.4 minutes per game last season at Colorado State.
As with many other players in the league, Clifford was obsessed with the sport for as long as he can remember.
“I was just a happy-go-lucky kid that would play outside all day, play at the park with my friends,” Clifford added.
“I was always playing basketball or some type of sport. I played a lot of sports growing up, but basketball was always my favorite.”
There’s no doubt that Clifford always was meant to play professional basketball.
NBA Summer League Day 1: Ryan Nembhard steals spotlight from Bronny James, Cooper Flagg
LAS VEGAS —With two courts and eight games of action every day, there is a lot to see at the 2025 NBA Summer League in Las Vegas. Here are some of the highlights we saw on Day 1.
Star of Bronny/Flagg showdown: Ryan Nembhard
The Thomas & Mack was overflowing with fans there to see Bronny James and Cooper Flagg — and that duo had their moments.
A lot of fans left the Thomas & Mack Center, saying, "Who is Ryan Nembhard? Is he related to that guy from the Pacers?"
Yes, Ryan is the younger brother of Indiana's Andrew Nembhard. Ryan played two years at Creighton, then had an impressive two seasons at Gonzaga, but went undrafted in June. There were a couple of reasons for that. One, he's listed at 5'11", and standing next to him, that might be generous. Second, he was seen as a reluctant scorer and not a great shooter.
Not so sure about that last part — Nembhard scored a game-high 21 points on 8-of-14 shooting in the Mavericks' win over the Lakers on Thursday night.
"That's what he does. He can do both [pass and score]," Mavericks coach Josh Broghamer said. "I think, especially in college, he was a facilitator, he ran that whole offense, but he can go get it, too. So that was really good for him."
The Mavericks saw the potential in Nembhard and snapped him up with a two-way contract just after the draft. It's just one Summer League game, but that seems like a smart bet right now. —Kurt Helin
Stacked Nets/Timberwolves highlights
Day one of Summer League in Las Vegas started out with a matchup between the Pelicans and the Timberwolves, which was a matchup of two stacked teams by Summer League standards.
New Orleans had recent first-round picks like Jeremiah Fears (Pick 7, 2025), Derik Queen (Pick 13, 2025) and Yves Missi (Pick 21, 2024), while Minnesota had Rob Dillingham (Pick 8, 2024), Terrence Shannon Jr. (Pick 27, 2024) and Joan Beringer (Pick 17, 2025).
There were plenty of bright spots for both teams, but nobody shone brighter than Beringer, who finished with 11 points, eight rebounds, two steals and six blocks. Minnesota has Rudy Gobert under contract for two more seasons, with a player option on a third year. It's only one Summer League, so we shouldn't overreact, but the idea is that Beringer will develop into an effective player in the same mold as Gobert. An athletic, rim-running center that has the potential to be a special defensive player.
NO FLY ZONE
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) July 10, 2025
French rookie Joan Beringer with back-to-back blocks in Summer League for the Wolves pic.twitter.com/9Z9yLy7RXN
Dillingham had a ton of flashy moves and got wherever he wanted on the court. The shots just didn't always go in. The same can be said for Fears. Both guards had fun plays, poor field goal percentages and exactly seven turnovers. Missi had his shot blocked by Beringer a couple of times but otherwise looked really strong and certainly may not need to play many more games in Summer League.
that Fears x Missi pick & roll whewwwww pic.twitter.com/IgyoBvBkU0
— New Orleans Pelicans (@PelicansNBA) July 10, 2025
The only somewhat concerning aspect of the game for the Pelicans was Queen, and it wasn't that it was all bad. He had some excellent passes and a few nice buckets. He even hit a pull-up three late in the game. His ability to space the floor could allow him to thrive next to Zion Williamson on the offensive end. However, he really struggled to defend down low, and he turned the ball over seven times. The turnovers shouldn't continue to be an issue, but his inability to defend effectively is something that will need to be improved if a frontcourt pairing of Queen and Zion is ever going to work. Otherwise, they just traded their unprotected 2026 first-round pick to add a backup. —Noah Rubin
In other news:
• Lakers' Dalton Knecht's leg cramp leads to spectacular miss. This seemed like the most Summer League of plays from the Lakers' Dalton Knecht.
However, after that fall, Knecht stayed on the ground for a minute, rubbing his calf, with what he later said was a cramp that hit at just the wrong time.
"Yeah, both my legs cramped, and, you know, f****** airballed the layup," Knecht said, "So, it's whatever."
After a rough first half (and before the cramps), Knecht had a strong second half with a couple of pull-up jumpers that helped the Lakers lead by as many as 10 at one point.
"Just found my rhythm," Knecht said. "You know, it's been a while since I've played, you know, just finding my rhythm on the court, and, you know, just finding my spots. All my shots were right there, and just, you know, just started falling."
Knecht finished with 15 points on 6-of-16 shooting. —Helin
• Game winner of the day goes to Jamaree Bouyea. The Bucks and Nuggets played the game of the day. It came down to the end when Denver's E.J. Liddell had a tip-dunk to put Denver up one with five seconds left, but that was just enough time for Bucks two-way player Jamaree Bouyea to do this:
BOUYEA. BOOYAH.
— Milwaukee Bucks (@Bucks) July 11, 2025
JAMAREE CALLED GAME! pic.twitter.com/lw80zpSHBz
• Ajay Mitchell looks too good for Summer League. Ajay Mitchell played one game in Las Vegas. That may be all we see of him in Sin City.
Mitchell came out in his first game in Las Vegas and looked like one of those players who is just a cut above this level as a floor general and player, dropping 20 points, with a couple of 3-pointers in the mix.
The steal + the AND-1 = Tough pic.twitter.com/CeMW0cpAdB
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) July 10, 2025
He similarly impressed in three games at the Salt Lake City Summer League, where he averaged 19.7 points, 6.3 assists and 3.7 rebounds a game. After missing a chunk of time last season, he's just happy to get back on the court.
"Obviously, I have that experience from last year, so I knew kind of what Summer League was," Mitchell said. "And I think it's always great to be able to compare year to year, the areas I improved, the areas I can still work on. It's a great experience for me."
There certainly are areas he can work on, Mitchell got a little loose with the ball and had six turnovers.
Still, the Thunder know what they have, which is why they locked up Mitchell this summer with a three-year, $8.7 million contract, rewarding the UC Santa Barbara Gaucho for a promising rookie season and the role he could step into with this team. —Helin
• Classic Summer League: The Thunder's Erik Reynolds controls the rock off the jump ball... then scores in the Nets basket. Summer League Baby!!!
lmfao Erik Reynolds scores on the wrong basket, with Jordi on the broadcast! Holy summer league
— Lucas Kaplan (@LucasKaplan_) July 10, 2025
"We gotta say thanks" pic.twitter.com/2VA0KK3amE
(Officially, this did not count, it's a violation of what is unofficially nicknamed the "Ricky Davis Rule.") —Helin
• Good debut for Nets' Nolan Traore. Four of Brooklyn's rookies took to the court for their first Summer League action on Thursday, and it was a mixed bag. Egor Demin showed flashes, while this was not Danny Wolf's night.
The best of them was French point guard Nolan Traore, who looked like a guy who has played against men before (he played professionally in France last year) and was comfortable, finishing with 13 points on 3-of-5 shooting and getting to the line six times. It was a promising start.
"I think his speed translates very well," Nets coach Steve Hetzel said. "We definitely put him in some actions where he could throw it and get it back and try to attack the rim. I thought he handled himself well with the physicality." —Helin
• Heaves. One interesting statistical note for Summer League — end-of-quarter desperation half-court (or longer) heaves are not going to count as a shot.
As tested during the 2024–25 NBA G League season and in effect for all 2025 NBA summer leagues, an unsuccessful end-of-period 'heave' will be recorded as a team—not individual—missed field goal attempt when all of the following criteria are met:
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) July 5, 2025
The missed field goal attempt… pic.twitter.com/D2P9fFTUxC
This is overdue (and some statistical models already account for this). Watch any NBA game and you'll see players hold on to the ball just an extra half-second so their heave is after the buzzer doesn't count against their 3-point shooting stats. Now, let it fly, it's not going to matter.
Cal Raleigh says Yankees picked up on Andres Muñoz tipping pitches in critical ninth inning of comeback win
The Yankees made an improbable comeback on Thursday night against the Mariners.
After Mariners starter Bryan Woo took a no-hitter into the eighth inning, the Yankees erased a five-run deficit in the final two innings before walking off Seattle, 6-5, in the 10th.
The turning point came in the ninth with the Yankees down 5-3 and going up against All-Star closer Andrés Muñoz. Trent Grisham and Cody Bellinger singled to pass the baton to Ben Rice with two outs. With Grisham on second base, it was clear from the broadcast that the Yankees outfielder had a tip on Muñoz's pitches, specifically the slider.
Grisham could be seen making a circular wave motion before Muñoz threw a slider, and didn't wave when a fastball was coming. And a Yankees source told The Athletic's Chris Kirschner and Brendan Kuty that they had indeed picked up on Muñoz's slider.
Rice fell behind 0-2 but took four straight balls -- two from sliders -- to load the bases. With Bellinger on second base, the former NL MVP did the same motion to give Austin Wells a heads-up on Muñoz. What eventually followed was Wells hitting a 3-2 fastball for a two-run single to tie the game.
An example of the Yankees catching Andres Munóz tipping. Watch Cody Bellinger at second base at the bottom of the frame. A Yankees source said the club had a tip on Munóz, and Cal Raleigh said it was obvious.
— Brendan Kuty 🧟♂️ (@BrendanKutyNJ) July 11, 2025
Story w/ @ChrisKirschner
READ: https://t.co/RNs2A90bhfpic.twitter.com/xgYQFH8WZO
With the score tied in the bottom of the 10th, the Yankees loaded the bases with one out and Aaron Judge delivered a walk-off sac fly -- with the assist of Anthony Volpe's slide -- to complete the comeback and sweep the three-game series from the Mariners.
“He was tipping it every time at second base,” Raleigh said via The Athletic after the game. “Obviously, they weren’t making it very discreet, I guess is the word. It’s part of the game. It’s our job. We should have known about that going into the series. That made it really hard there at the end.”
As Raleigh said, there's nothing illegal about the practice, but he put the onus on himself and the team for not figuring out Muñoz's tip sooner.
The 2025 MLB home run leader said he figured out Muñoz was tipping his pitches when he saw Grisham and Bellinger motioning to the batter, and tried to let his closer know, but admitted he didn't want to distract him. He said that the team will need to figure out how to combat that moving forward.
Entering Thursday's game, although Muñoz had five blown saves, his ERA was a minuscule 1.06, which included 8.1 consecutive scoreless innings over nine appearances. That's why he was named to his second career All-Star game this year.
The Yankees and Mariners won't meet again in the regular season, so if New York sees Muñoz again, it'll be in the postseason. Perhaps then, the Mariners would have figured out a way to hide Muñoz's slider...or the Yankees would be more discreet than they were on Thursday.