The day when the star is more than the galaxy
Kawhi has been transcendental. Giannis is generational and potentially game-changing. The debacles and meltdowns in Boston and Philly are noteworthy. As is the growing divide between the West and the Warriors, even without KD, who may change addresses in a month anyway.
There have been storylines, but other than the Warriors-Rockets, there have been few storybook-levels of intrigue or drama.
Yes, the Raptors' 120-102 win last night evened the Eastern Conference Finals at 2, which elevates the intrigue and the pressure and the spotlight. (Hopefully.)
But if the playoffs fall in the arena and no one is watching, did they really happen? Sunday's Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals was down 8 percent in ratings from Game 3 in the East the last two years and down 10 and 12 percent in viewers compared to the last two years.
This came after Game 2 of Bucks-Raptors on Friday drew a 2.8 rating and 4.34 million viewers, numbers that made it the lowest-rated and least-watched conference final game since 2007.
Those numbers - while not as drastic as last Friday - have become the expectation for every non-Warriors game or series.
Dips between 8 and 15 percent year-to-year, and despite the Warriors already booking their spot in the Finals, do we really expect the Bucks or the Raptors to generate the eyeballs LeBron did a year ago?
It's part of the NBA culture in a lot of ways, and it masks a flaw in the thinking of "Market our stars even more than the game or the teams."
Giannis and Kawhi are super-duper-stars and every Lakers front office person would fall all over themselves and praise Magic if they could trade LeBron for either.
But neither Giannis nor Kawhi brings the charisma/controversy needed to be a LeBron-like draw.
And that is shown by the viewership, or lack thereof.
Key to the present, future
I am still pro-Braves, in terms of this roster and the long-term future.
I am still pro-hopeful that the Braves will address a bullpen that desperately needs an anchor at the back end. Craig Kimbrel to the red courtesy phone, Mr. Craig Kimbrel to the red courtesy phone, please.
(Side note: No, this is not reactionary about last night when closer Luke Jackson turned a 3-1 lead into a 4-3 loss at San Francisco. Jackson has been very good for a long stretch. Still, it was Jackson's fourth blown save in 10 chances, and if Kimbrel comes home, and Jackson goes into the seventh or eighth, how does that not make everyone better? Do the right thing, Braves, for the love of everything holy.)
And then news comes of the Braves' inability to sign a strong-armed, first-round pick from last year's draft.
Here's the story of Carter Stewart, a right-hander with a mid-90s heater and a plus-plus breaking ball. Stewart was the No. 8 overall by the Braves pick out of high school last summer. (That kind of skill set would be, you know, ideal for a back-end-of-the-bullpen guy, don't cha think?)
The Braves low-balled him - What?!?!?! The cheap-bleep Braves low-balling someone?!?!?! Say it ain't so. - and he was prepared to re-enter next month's baseball draft.
Well, Carter Stewart may have been any name from any draft - MLB first-round draft picks have lower percentages than scratch-off tickets - but now he may be akin to Curt Flood in terms of player empowerment.
Flood opened the floodgates on free agency back in the 1970s.
Stewart has signed a six-year, $7 million deal with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in the Japanese Pacific League.
The cash is interesting, and the length of the deal is telling. He will be a free agent when he hits 25, the age that players can truly demand monster deals.
And if this works for Stewart - as in six years in Japan and then open-market negotiations with all 30 MLB teams rather than the rank-and-file draft - well, it will certainly not be the last time.
QB situational situations
It's a conversation we enjoy.
Which quarterback situation is best? And this is different than which quarterback is best, because this encompasses all elements of the most important position in sports.
USA Today ranked every team in the NFL's QB situations heading into OTAs.
These rankings clearly took into account last season, this season and beyond and apparently heavily weighted the length of rookie deals for a few of these.
No. 1 on that list was Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs. Baker Mayfield and the Browns were 2, followed by the Texans, the Colts and the Panthers.
The Colts and Panthers have players on big contracts and with their 20s in the rear view - Cam just turned 30 11 days ago and Andrew Luck will be 30 in September - the other three have dudes still on rookie contracts.
I thought it was very interesting that the Falcons were 6th, the Patriots were 9, and Green Bay was 11th.
I am puzzled by how low Aaron Rodgers is on this list, but again, it's not my list. (Rams were 7, Seahawks 8 and Eagles 10.)
That said, considering the contracts and the ages, if you feel comfortable that no one in the top five would trade their guy for any other starter in the league - with contract details and age a big part of that - I feel certain that the Falcons would help Matt Ryan pack his bags if the Packers called with a Ryan-for-Rodgers offer.
For Pete Rozelle's sake, the Dolphins are 12th. Yes, the Dolphins.
Marcus Mariota and the Titans were 28th, ahead of only Oakland, the New York Giants, Jacksonville and Denver.
Hey, I have been as doubtful as anyone about whether Mariota is the long-term franchise dude.
But he's 11 spots behind Jameis Winston, who also is in his fifth year of his rookie deal and faces a put-up or pack-up season in Tampa Bay.
Heck, the Bengals and Andy Dalton's big deal come in at 23rd on the lost.
Thoughts?
This and that
- Former Baylor School and Vanderbilt star golfer Luke List pulled up a chair on Press Row on Tuesday. Here's TFP all-around ace David Paschall's recap on our chat.
- You do not have to look very hard to find people who were less than pleased with the finale of "Game of Thrones." Here's Aaron Rodgers' hatred of the last installment. He is truly ticked about Bran the Broken being the last king sitting.
- Speaking of GoT, well, it broke every HBO ratings number ever.
- OK, we can all acknowledge that college hoops recruiting is, shall we say, in need of a shower. Tis that dirty. Well, here's wondering how Washington got its second top-7 recruit in the 2019 class and how the Pac-12 has lured four of the top-9 prospects in the recruiting cycle? Hmmmmmmmm.
- Tom Brady has never had a strawberry and James Holzhauer's most recent win - his 23rd in a row that brought his "Jeopardy!" winnings to $1.78 million - allowed to stay strawberry free.
Today's question
Which way Wednesday starts this way:
Which QB situation is best?
Novak Djokovic is 32 today. Which men's player will win the most tennis majors this year?
T. Boone Pickens is 91 today. Which college booster is the best college booster out there? Because T. Boone's devotion and gifts to Oklahoma State make him a strong contender.
As for the other things on this day, May 22, in 1992, Johnny Carson made his final appearance as host of "The Tonight Show."
On this day tonight, live performances of "All in the Family" and "The Jeffersons" will be on ABC. No, I do not think they will come close to the ground-breaking nature and brilliance of either of the CBS originals from the 1970s.
But if I started with "All in the Family" and "The Tonight Show," what are the modern-era (since 1970) transcendental programs that deserve a spot on the Rushmore?
Go and remember the mailbag.