Weekend winners
Golden State fans. Kevin Durant picked the Warriors. You may have heard something about it.
Dustin Johnson. Dude won again at the World Golf Championships, making it two in a row after his breakthrough victory at the U.S. Open last month. With two majors in the next four weeks, Johnson has to be right there as the favorite with anyone in the world.
MLB at Fort Bragg. That was beyond cool, seeing the Braves and the Marlins play at the military facility that is the home of more than 50,000 active duty personnel on this July 4th weekend. Good times. (Who cares if the Braves lost; 'Merica won that one.)
Roger Federer. Another straight-set Wimbledon win for the seven-time champ. Plus, with no Novak Djokovic in his way, Mr. Federer looks pretty stout right now.
Joey "Jaws" Chesnutt. He ate 70 hot dogs in what has been described as the meat-and-bread water boarding session known as the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating competition. He won the most famous eating contest in the world. You could also make an argument he lost the weekend, too.
Jason Day, from Australia, tees off on the third hole during the final round of the Bridgestone Invitational golf tournament at Firestone Country Club, Sunday, July 3, 2016, in Akron, Ohio. (AP Photo/Tony Dejak) Weekend losers
Chattanooga sports fans. Gary Haskew, the man known as Dr. Basketball, on SportTalk on WGOW 102.3, died Monday. He was 74. He will be missed by so many of us. Here's TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer's excellent commentary on Doc. R.I.P., kind sir.
OKC fans. Man, other than Frank Caliendo reading Durant's good-bye letter as Mrogan Freeman, there's little to smile about these days for the Thunder. Now, add to the real common sense that the next play for the team may be to deal Russell Westbrook before he becomes an unrestricted free agent next summer. Man, that was a team that in late May was the Vegas favorite to win it all when they led the Warriors 3-1 in the Western Conference Finals. If they deal Westbrook, they will be the Western version of the 76ers.
UGA running back depth. Nick Chubb is in the process of rehabbing his surgically repaired knee. His back-up, Sony Michel, who topped 1,100 yards last season after Chubb got hurt, reportedly broke his arm over the weekend in an ATV accident. He is expected to make a full recovery, but there's no timetable given.
NBA competitive balance. Vegas has the over/under win total for the Warriors at 70. And the title odds are at 2-to-3, which means Golden State is favored against the field. You'd win $2 on a $3 bet.
Jason Day. Day led most of the weekend before imploding late Sunday at Firestone. He was 2-under for the day and 8-under for the tournament when he stepped to the 15th tee box. He played the last four holes 4 over, including a disastrous double-bogey 7 on the par-5 16th..
FILE - In a Wednesday, June 1, 2016 file photo, Oklahoma City's Kevin Durant (35) speaks during a news conference at the team's practice facility in Oklahoma City. Durant announced Monday, July 4, 2016 that he is joining All-Stars Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson with the Golden State Warriors. Durant made the decision public on The Players’ Tribune Monday morning. He can’t officially sign until July 7. (Nate Billings/The Oklahoman via AP, File) LOCAL STATIONS OUT (KFOR, KOCO, KWTV, KOKH, KAUT OUT); LOCAL WEBSITES OUT; LOCAL PRINT OUT (EDMOND SUN OUT, OKLAHOMA GAZETTE OUT) TABLOIDS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT /The Oklahoman via AP) LOCAL STATIONS OUT (KFOR, KOCO, KWTV, KOKH, KAUT OUT); LOCAL WEBSITES OUT; LOCAL PRINT OUT (EDMOND SUN OUT, OKLAHOMA GAZETTE OUT) TABLOIDS OUT; MANDATORY CREDIT Durant relocates
We have to chime in on this one because there is so many levels to this thing.
Kevin Durant going from Oklahoma City to Golden State is so interesting on a lot of levels.
First, on the floor, Durant gives the Warriors so much.
Imagine the lineup of Steph Curry at the 1, Klay Thomspon at the 2, Durant at the 3 and Draymond Green at the 4 with a traditional center in the mix. That's staggering and almost unguardable.
Now move Andre Iguodala into the 3 and move Durant to the 4 and Green to center, and that's the best small-ball lineup ever in a game that is trending more and more to small ball to begin with. The Warriors are a team with unbelievable options offensively and flexibility defensively. In the stretch the floor, 3-point heavy NBA, the only way that small-ball lineup could be better is if LeBron was in the mix somewhere.
Wow.
Now for the questions that come with this move.
Like we asked above, this will destroy the Thunder as we know it, and it must be asked how quickly do they deal Westbrook? OKC simply can't afford to let him walk next summer and get nothing in return.
Question 2, who takes the last shot for the Warriors in a tied game this time next spring in the playoffs? Man, that's going to be fun to watch.
Question 3, how quickly does this thing come together? Remember the early transition with the Heat when LeBron and Bosh went to South Beach and all the "What's wrong with the Heat?" and "This can't work" headlines?
Question 4, if the Warriors don't win it all next year, could Durant's legacy ever recover that? Talk about pressure and expectations.
Question 5, how much heat will Durant get for this move? Yes, it was handled much better than Lebron's disastrous "Decision" but Durant has been pretty vocal about loyalty, especially in talking about James' past free agent decisions. We'll see.
Finally, is this good for the NBA? There's not that much the league could do about restricting players from making their own decisions where they will go in free agency - it's called 'free' agency for a reason, because they certainly aren't coming without a hefty price tag.
And in a lot of ways the fans of these players and the media who cover them who collectively measure all merits on greatness starting with the number of championship rings are not blameless here, either. But this AAU-ization of the NBA has to be frightening for a lot of franchises.
Sure, Golden State was an after thought in this league before Steph became Steph a couple of years ago, but how many teams have a legit chance to win it all next year, three?
And while the league has returned to the stratosphere of popularity it knew in the MJ heyday, the NBA did it by marketing its stars. Those stars now control everything, including the future of almost every franchise.
Who knows how this will turn out, but here's saying it's going to be fun to watch.
This and that
- Sad to see Iceland leave the Euro Kickball tournament. Love a good underdog story.
- This was ridiculous. Man, the screaming debate is so tired in sports coverage.
- Speaking of ridiculous. Here's an NBA free agent tracker from the folks at USA Today. We live in a time that NBA teams are paying Trevor Booker, a 28-year-old reserve power forward who averaged less than six points a game last year, $18 million for two years.
- We were prepared to put Zack Hample in weekend losers category until he finished strong. Hample is a renowned ballhawk who somehow got into the game at Fort Bragg, which was supposed to be for military personnel and their families. He got a lot of social media heat - #ThingsBetterThanHample was trending for a lot of Sunday night - for being at the game, but he posted on Twitter that he caught 11 balls, and gave 10 of them away. He also said he was donating $1,100 to AMVets.org.
Today's question
We'll go off the board here today.
Edie Falco turns 53. She's been quite excellent in a wide array of acting vehicles, but for a lot of us she'll forever be Carmela Soprano, the wife/antagonist of Tony Soprano on the HBO classic.
Who's on the Rushmore of females in our gangster shows/movies?
Go, and remember the mailbag. And Dr. B's family in your thoughts.