5-at-10: Weekend winners (thanks for the show UT baseball) and losers, NBA play-in plans

FILE - Tennessee Athletics photo / Tennessee pitcher Blade Tidwell
FILE - Tennessee Athletics photo / Tennessee pitcher Blade Tidwell

Weekend winners

Olivia Bryant. Kobe's widow was powerful and emotional, a rare combination, in making her late husband's acceptance speech at the weekend Hall of Fame festivities. Strong stuff.

Michael Caan. Yes, he's a professional golfer on a outskirts Tour - he's on the Vancouver Tour, which would have to be something similar to low A minor league baseball - but dude carded a 59 over the weekend and that's special no matter what. And it's even more special because a) he rolled in a 50-foot bomb of a putt on 18 and b) dude knows how to celebrate.

Horse racing. Yes, I know all things involved with the Preakness over the weekend made me feel like I needed a shower every time Bob Baffert was shown on the NBC broadcast. Still, NBC did an excellent job of covering the event, and more importantly, Baffert's tainted talent Medina Spirit got beat in the second-leg of the Triple Crown, so we are not facing a Barry Bonds' 2001 run for 73 homers at the Belmont.

Steph Curry. In a weekend filled with NBA stuff, and we'll get to some of that in a moment, Curry clinched the scoring title and put himself in position for MVP consideration with a sharp-shooting weekend that would have made Martin Riggs from Lethal Weapon proud. ("When I was 19, I did a guy in Laos from 1,000 yards out with a rifle shot in high wind. Maybe eight or even 10 guys in the world could have made that shot. It's the only thing I was ever good at.") He finished with 46 Sunday as the Warriors clinched the 8 seed in the West and finished the year with 31.8 points per while shooting 42.1 from deep. Side question: Did you realize that Steph is a 12-year vet? Yeah, me neither.

UT baseball. Yes, I know Arkansas won Sunday and took two of three, but Arkansas is the No. 1 team in the country for a reason. And while I am like Everett McGill's religious status - relatively unaffiliated - when it comes to most college baseball, I unabashedly offer this: Saturday's UT comeback baseball win that was punctuated by Max Ferguson's walk-off three-run blast to right field before a full checker-boarded crowd at a sold-out Lindsey Nelson Stadium was Amazing. It reminded everyone watching what fans mean to the environment and the emotion we've missed from sports since the pandemic. Simply put, it was the best sports moment since college football 2019 and may have been the most sports-related goose-bumps I've had since Tiger on Sunday in Augusta more than 25 months ago. Great times.

Weekend losers

Basketball Hall of Fame. Yes, the weekend was dominated by clips of Tim Duncan, Kevin Garnett and Kobe in a true Hall of Fame-worthy class. But the announcement of the next class shows why this shrine is truly the hall of very good rather than the hall of fame. Ben Wallace? Rick Adelman? Gang, when Paul Pierce is one of your headliners, a one-time champ who did not even average 20 points per game in his career, then wow. Yeah, side item of interest, the collection of players in next year's class have as many combined MVPs as Fat Vader, Spy, Intern Scott, Bicycle Bob and the rest of you knuckleheades. (Well, unless of course Dirk Nowitzki is reading again, then we have one more than they do.)

Whomever came up with the NFL formula for paying out settlements to former players with head injuries. Wow, this story in the TFP over the weekend was eye-popping. Truly. That the NFL started with an algorithm to score dementia levels that assumed Black players start with lower cognitive skills is ridiculous. I know this was first discovered a few years ago, but wow, what a crock. Like almost every thing in the extreme levels of BID-ness, I believe the color being coveted here is green, because the NFL knows that more than 70 percent of the current NFL is Black and the majority of 20,000 retirees are Black and the lower the threshold, the lower the payouts. And I truly believe that. But I also truly believe that the optics of this - especially in this period in history - are rotten and understandably open a roadway of rants about racism.

The jackwagons who tricked Austin Peay defensive back Juantarius Bryant. The former Governors standout, like all college football players regardless of level, was praying for any chance to prove he could help any NFL team. So when he got a message that the Falcons wanted him to come to their rookie mini-camp tryout, he was jacked. It turned out to be a hoax. That said, Bryant has handled this entire ordeal with the utmost amount of class and grace, even saying that he did not want the person at fault to be publicly shamed or ridiculed.

Braves bullpen. Yeah, this is not their first nor will it be their last appearance on the list. And even though the Braves took 2-fo-3 in Milwaukee, the gas house gang that is the bullpen is dreadful. This weekend, and remember this is the Braves winning, the bullpen pitched 9.2 innings, allowed eight hits, walked eight and allowed seven earned runs. (That said, as we try to be eternal optimists, entering Sunday, the Braves were 19-20, the exact same record they had at this point in 2019, when they won 97 games. And maybe more importantly, Freddie Freeman is starting to swing the bat like Freddie Freeman rather than Freddie Flintstone. Yabba-dabba-do.)

My golf viewing this weekend. I was fully prepared to watch the Jordan Spieth run to the front and check in with Stephan Jaeger's PGA Tour-card clinching win on the Korn Ferry. Neither materialized and some dude named K.H. Lee, who is from Asia, but could easily be the signature of the fellow signing off on your house refi and insanely low rates over the next 15 years, walked away with the Byron Nelson and Greyson Sigg, who certainly has the name to be a Baylor School classmate of Jaeger's, eased to a one-shot Korn Ferry victory. (Side note: Sigg, who like a growing number of PGA players went to Georgia, is from Augusta and went to Richmond Academy, which will assuredly not be confused with an inner-city school any time in the immediate future.)

Let the real season begin

The NBA ended the regular season on Sunday, and there were several talking points.

First, as folks want to discuss the play-in tournament - and the looming match-ups that have extended the season for four NBA teams (two in each conference) - it must also be mentioned that there was some world-class tanking going on this weekend. Especially Sunday night as Dallas layed down against hapless Minnesota, the Clippers gave away a game to OKC, and Denver did not try against Portland, all in an attempt to improve playoff positioning and avoid seeing the Lakers until the conference finals.

Hey, I get the logic and it makes sound sense because when the Lakers are healthy, they are still the favorite in my mind, especially if Andre Drummond becomes comfortable with James and AD.

But the tanking was a terrible look. Cue Chuck - "TURRRRRR-ible." In fact, the Thunder beat the Clippers 117-112 in a game that the Clippers wanted to lose for seeding and the Thunder wanted to lose for lottery purposes. How else do you explain the following dudes getting at least 25 minutes in an NBA game: Scrubb (seriously), Oturu, Ferrell, Pokusevski, Hoard, Brown (first name Moses), and Brown (first name Charles)?

But that's water under the bridge. Now comes a playoff season that could be interesting, and could even be fun.

It also could be decided in some instances by which state has opened more because of the vaccine. In fact, want an early primer on who's opening: The Knicks and Hawks series should be fun, as they go to 30% and 45% capacity as of Wednesday. But the big edge will be in Utah, where the Jazz will allow 13,000 in for playoff games. (Side question: The OKC Thunder have not allowed fans all season, but as bad as they have been, do we really know if they had sold tickets, would they have sold tickets? Hmmmmmmmm.)

As for the play-in tournament, well, here's what you need to know:

The Eastern Conference first round of the play-in is Tuesday. It will have the 10th-seeded Hornets at the 9th-seeded Pacers and the loser is eliminated. It also will have the 8th-seeded (and scorching hot) Wizards at the 7th-seeded Celtics, and the winner advances as the 7th seed in the bracket.

The Hornets-Pacers winner plays the Wizards-Celtics loser for the 8th and final seed. Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy.

The Western Conference play-in starts Wednesday with the same format just plug the Spurs as the 10 seed, the Grizzlies as the 9 seed, the Warriors as the 8 and the defending champion Lakers as the 7.

The actual 16-team draw starts Saturday, and there will be time to break it down, accordingly, but you have to believe that the Lakers, who will either be done before the weekend or the 7 or the 8 seed - and still are listed behind only the Nets as the favorites to win it all in the eyes of Vegas - are the looming name in the hat this week.

Could be fun.

(And, knowing what the Lakers mean to a league already hurting in terms of eyeballs and viewers, anyone wanna make a side wager about which team shoots more free throws Wednesday night, Warriors or Lakers?)

This and that

- We had a request for more sports picks. Well, here goes, and until football season, we're going to keep up with this not by record but by units. Because so many baseball wagers - and golf wagers, which are way, Way, WAY more fun that I expected, as is online fantasy golf for whatever that's worth - are made with odds rather than point spreads. The best way I know to do this is make it the first thing in the This and That each day. Deal? Deal. We'll start with Arizona on the money line over L.A. at +173 for one unit, which we will make each unit a dollar. Giddy-up.

- Speaking of the NBA, did you see the stat that Trae Young is the second-youngest NBA player to reach 1,800 assists? The youngest remained LeBron James, who was 22 years and 20 days old when he hit the plateau. Young was 22-239 when he passed the mark.

- A coalition representing various countries, including Hong Kong, is calling for a full boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing. Hmmmmmmmmm, let's see how the USOC and the IOC, both of which get a large chunk of their revenue from the TV rights of the Games (which is another reason the upcoming summer games are progressing with a 'Dang the torpedoes' level of inertia) react. As well as the athletes and the sponsors, like Nike.

- So Silver Spoons star Rick(y) Schroder went toe-to-toe with some Costco supervisor named Jason about whether he had to wear a mask over the weekend and posted it online? Hey, Newt - Schroder's role in arguably the best Western ever filmed in Lonesome Done and also in one of the worst sequels ever made in Return to Lonesome Dove - relax. Yes, Costco proper said Friday they are relaxing the mandate, but it's still up and active in California. Gang, we're almost there. Yes, I'm sick to death of wearing the dang things too. And if there are not signs, I don't wear it. But if there, I do. And again, Newt, you really need to shame Jason in your directorial debut?

- Latest example of the Democrats pushing us toward a more communal-like and social-esque society under the cover of COVID relief is right here. As it looks like we finally may be moving out of the pandemic, we're about to kick in direct monthly payments to parents of 88% of the children of this country. It will be $300 a month for kids under 6 and $250 for each kid 6-17. Per month. And President Biden wants to extend it through 2025, which will cost America - and those kids down the road when the bills come due - trillions upon trillions of dollars. And outside estimates that it could essentially halve child poverty, which is a worthy and nobler goal, are simply theories, and far from practice. Because that money is going to the head of the household in poverty, and you can not regulate nor legislate against folks making poor choices with their money, just like you can't regulate or legislate greed out of the top part of corporate America by adjusting the pay scales.

Today's questions

You know the drill. Weekend winners and losers, discuss.

As for Multiple Choice Monday, who should be the favorite for this week's PGA Championship, the season's second major?

As for today, May 17, let's review.

Bob Saget and Bill Paxton celebrate birthdays today.

On this day in 1973, the Senate began the Watergate hearings.

First televised baseball game was broadcast on NBC on this day in 1939 as Princeton edged Columbia, 2-1. Spy, was the weather nice that day?

Wow, the first Kentucky Derby was run on this day all the way back in 1875.

Dennis Hopper was born on this day in 1936. Let's "Identify" Hopper's Rushmore.

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