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Good morning! I’m thinking about Chonkers this morning. Coming up:
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Ronald Cortes / Getty Images
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We had multiple playoff games again in both the NBA and NHL last night. They can be divided into two sections: interesting games and interesting results. Follow me here, starting with results:
- NBA: Spurs 133, Timberwolves 95. Boring game, as San Antonio was up 20 in the second quarter. Interesting result, which ties this series at 1-1. If this was the Spurs shaking off some rookie rust, look out.
- NHL: Ducks 3, Golden Knights 1. A methodical win from Anaheim, with one goal in the second and two in the third, the last an empty-netter. The Ducks were in control for most of this one, nearly opposite their Game 1 loss. This series is also knotted at 1-1.
Now, for the games:
- NBA: Knicks 108, 76ers 102. Philadelphia didn’t have Joel Embiid healthy for this one and nearly pulled off the win anyway. Jalen Brunson’s 26 points helped the Knicks push through to a 2-0 lead. The walls are already closing in for the Sixers.
- NHL: Sabres 4, Canadiens 2. Remember when Buffalo sputtered out of the gate at home in Round 1? Last night, a raucous crowd spurred a flying Sabres team to a 4-2 win and a 1-0 lead in this matchup. This is going to be a great series.
Money beckons us forth:
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David Purdy / Getty Images
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Will the buyouts ever change?
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There is a simple rule that most jobs in this country follow: If you perform poorly — at least relative to the expectations — you get reprimanded. If it continues, you get fired. Poor performance leads to termination. Pretty simple.
In college sports, and most of all football, that is not the case. Not even close.
That’s the topic of a great story yesterday from Matt Baker and Austin Meek about the current state of coaching contracts, which are … unwieldy, at best. If a top college football coach is bad at a job that he makes tens of millions for doing, he’ll be fired, sure, but he’ll also still make tens of millions of dollars, albeit fewer, via a buyout.
Before we go any further, an important distinction from the story:
- Massive coaching buyouts are standard contract clauses at the highest level. You get a big job, you get a big buyout attached, even if you fail horrendously. We’ve been over that before, but in recent months, it’s caused more schools to get bold in firing coaches “for cause” — meaning: not directly because of losing — via other avenues. It’s all quite interesting.
This brought me back to a simple question my LSU group chat asks all the time: Why? We know the actual reason — contracts, agents, etc. — but shouldn’t there just be a world where a coach gets fired for the cause of being bad at his job?
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Jonathan Bachman / Getty Images
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I asked Matt if he could envision the reality:
💬 Sure, but we need a few ingredients. First, we need an athletic director who's willing to die on this hill, even if it means missing out on the top candidate(s). We also need a coach set on his dream job — I'm willing to walk away with a $0 buyout to coach at School X — and, preferably, a program with enough clout to justify that mindset. Ohio State or Texas could tell candidates to accept these terms or stay at [insert lesser program here], and somebody would say yes. But administrators are risk-averse. If they lose out on a coach because of this stand and that coach wins bigger somewhere else ... well, you can imagine what the message boards and boosters will do. They'll be looking at the AD's contract language and how to fire that guy for cause.
Sadly, his logic tracks. Until then, my friends and I will be sending Michael Scott clips to each other if Lane Kiffin (who got an endorsement from his predecessor yesterday) loses early.
Let’s move on:
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Ted Turner, the media mogul and former owner of the Atlanta Braves, died yesterday at 87 years old, his family announced. There have been few people with as large an impact on the business of sports. Turner founded CNN and later TBS and TNT. He also owned the NBA’s Hawks and NHL’s Thrashers at different points. Tyler Kepner wrote a beautiful obituary you should read today.
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ESPN nears ‘ATH’ replacement plan
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A year after “Around the Horn” left the airwaves, ESPN has a new plan for its afternoon programming, sources told The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand. “SportsCenter” will remain in the old “ATH” slot at 5 p.m. ET, while personality Peter Schrager will be tapped for a new 2 p.m. ET show. Read Andrew’s full report.
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📺 NBA: Conference semifinals
7 p.m. ET on Prime Video
Cavaliers-Pistons leads off tonight, and I suspect this will be the closer of our two games. Lakers-Thunder follows at 9:30 p.m., and L.A. needs Austin Reaves to be better to have any chance in this series.
Shakeia Taylor will be chatting live on our site for the early game.
📺 NHL: Hurricanes at Flyers
8 p.m. ET on TNT and HBO Max
This feels like the last real chance for Philly, down 2-0 to the team oddsmakers consider the second favorite to win the Stanley Cup. That’s enough for me to tune in.
📺 MLB: Cardinals at Padres
10 p.m. ET on ESPN
Two of MLB’s better teams in the early going face off in a lovely nightcap. Throw it on after playoff action is over.
Get tickets to games like these here.
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Courtesy of Washington Commanders
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The Washington Commanders are back in D.C., the culmination of a years-long saga filled with strife, late nights and all levels of government. This is the inside story.
Compiling a winning streak in tennis is really, really hard. Just ask Jannik Sinner.
Mavericks fans still ache after Luka Dončić’s departure. Masai Ujiri may be the perfect antidote, as Eric Koreen writes.
It was indeed a big day for Paris Saint-Germain. An extremely cool addendum: the club’s Champions League posters, designed by French art students.
Are you curious about the “loose bodies” in Tarik Skubal’s elbow? Cody Stavenhagen has answers. And shoutout to reader Cora C., a high school student, who assuaged our concerns via email this week, telling us that Skubal will probably be OK.
In the era of “fanflation,” is an NWSL club the best value in sports? Asli Pelit says yes.
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: MLB’s new aces.
Most-read on the website yesterday: The latest installment of our NBA anonymous player poll. Juicy.
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