djdunson Page 2 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Caitlin Clark and Patrick Mahomes have caused us to lose perspective
We are simultaneously living in an age where the best to ever play are on their way out and the best who ever lived are authoring their geneses. Recency bias is running rampant in the early stages of 2020. This month, we’ve simultaneously witnessed the crowning of Patrick Mahomes and Caitlin Clark a...

Bellyaching over missed Chiefs holding calls is peak NFL Karen-ism
The annual post-Super Bowl commiserating over uncalled penalties on the NFL’s biggest stage is a sign that the seasons are changing. In the days after the Super Bowl, that sweet Internet copium is a sign that the NBA’s All-Star Weekend must be right around the corner. Finally, we’ll have a major eve...

The 49ers are devouring themselves and Kyle Shanahan is leading the feast
There are two ways for a head coach to navigate a crushing Super Bowl loss: Take accountability for what went wrong, galvanize the unit and return with vengeance, or engage in friendly fire and burn the walls down. The San Francisco 49ers have opted for finger-pointing and scapegoating each other. I...

Draymond Green tried to play matchmaker with LeBron and Steph, and who could blame him?
Closed mouths don’t get fed, and Draymond Green took that philosophy to heart. This time around, Green took it upon himself to take the type of clumsy desperation heave he usually takes in games and wedges between the rim and backboard....

The ghost of Golden State is starting to make some noise
Steph Curry’s high-arcing game-winner to sink the Phoenix Suns on Saturday night only strengthened his runaway case as The Association’s Most Clutch Player of the Year. An ensuing win over Utah on Monday positioned the Warriors back above the .500 mantle for the first time since Dec. 23. ...

Patrick Mahomes has made Kansas City the NFL’s pop culture hub
The league’s preeminent dynasties of the past 60 years have typically been stationed in major metropolitan areas consisting of Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, Miami, Boston, as well as the six states that represent New England. Pittsburgh’s run in the 1970’s was the rare exception. ...

Hat-trick Mahomes is the horror-movie monster the 49ers could not escape
Patrick Mahomes’ third Super Bowl came to fruition in conditions most competitors would crumple in. Hat-trick Mahomes earned the nickname with his third championship before 30 came at the tail end of his worst statistical season since he was a freshman at Texas Tech. ...

So what <i>were</i> Roger Goodell and Taylor Swift talking about during SB pregame?
Just when you think we are almost out of the conspiratorial business, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell sucks us back in. To large swaths of Americans stuck in the NFL’s orbit, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift are the NFL’s Mr. and Mrs. Smith, merely existing as a partnership to do to the NFL’s bidding in...

Tyrese Maxey is learning that life as Trae Young is harder than it looks
Life as Tyrese Maxey has been an auspicious existence. He entered an ideal scenario as an ancillary piece in Philadelphia behind Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, and James Harden. He’s been able to grow into his role as the second option, and this season has become Robin to Joel Embiid’s Batman. ...

Patrick Mahomes is making a run at Tom Brady's legacy of excellence
Tom Brady and Patrick Mahomes are the alpha and omega of NFL supremacy at the NFL’s most important position. With every passing season, Mahomes creeps closer and closer to Brady’s legacy of excellence. There’s only so much Mahomes can do in one Super Bowl though. ...

The 2024 NBA trade deadline is DOA
Please for the love of God stop reading this. The 2024 deadline has absolutely no pulse. Do not confuse the volume of trades made with value. I repeat. Do not confuse the volume of trades made with value. This is the Al Capone’s vault of trade deadlines. Instead of Woj Bombs, Adrian Wojnarowski is d...

A lack of relationships curbed the NFL’s enthusiasm for Bill Belichick
Bill Belichick’s offseason job search ended in pitiful fashion last week. For unknown reasons, a bevy of general managers vying to keep their jobs in a highly competitive industry opted to hitch their wagons to young, unproven coaches they’ve had prior relationships with rather than an eight-time Su...

The Knicks and Ryan Arcidiacono are the cure to the NBA’s scoring surge
Somehow, the New York Knicks are MacGyvering their way to the top of the East in a super soldier league in a manner we haven’t seen since the ‘04 Pistons. OG Anunoby’s arrival has fortified Tom Thibodeau’s defense into the NBA’s Fort Knox, and once Mitchell Robinson returns, the paint in Madison Squ...

Sorry, Knicks fans. LeBron James is just not that into you
LeBron James sure does love stringing Knicks fans along. It wouldn’t be a pre-agency year for the all-time scoring champ if he weren’t using the Knicks as leverage. In 2010, the Knicks thought they had him. Donnie Walsh had Mike D’Antoni installed as head coach, the cap room to Carmelo Anthony, the ...

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s MVP heist is nearly complete
Joel Embiid’s departure from the MVP race while he undergoes minor surgery to repair a displaced flap in his meniscus has created a vacancy. His coronation has now become a vastly different two-man heat. With due respect to Luka Doncic’s gaudy numbers, he’ll be a long shot as long as the Dallas Mave...

Your guide to hate-watching Super Bowl 58’s Chiefs-49ers rerun
The best 2024 could give us for Super Bowl LVIII is a rerun. The Kansas City Chiefs marching into a showdown against a defensive juggernaut helmed by a lowly-regarded quarterback is another reminder that time is a flat circle. We even got a Shanahan-McCaffrey revival 25 years after Ed McCaffrey and ...

Ben Simmons is the hero the NBA Players Association didn’t know it needed
Ben Simmons shows up to work, posts up on the bench in vibrant fits, shades, and quietly monitors the Nets from afar. The Nets’ well-compensated point forward has one of the best desk jobs in the NBA. Simmons being back on the shelf to rest another affliction once made him a maligned figure, but he ...

The case for — and against — Joel Embiid for MVP
Joel Embiid, the world’s best regular-season player, is closing in on his second consecutive MVP if he remains upright. When active, Embiid is a force of nature, bending defenses to his whim and simultaneously wielding an unduly influence over Philadelphia’s defense....

It’s getting harder to classify Brock Purdy
Does anyone even know what type of quarterback Brock Purdy is? Is he the new Joe Flacco? Is he Big Ben redux? Tom Brady 2.0? He’s part-Kirk Cousins, but activates Russell Wilson when he scrambles out of the pocket. All these guys reached Super Bowls by their second season and they maintained those l...

Patrick Mahomes the game manager was good enough
In years past Patrick Mahomes had to be Quarterback Jordan. En route to his second Super Bowl, he became the first throwzini to lead the league in passing yards and win a Super Bowl in the same season. Last year, he had to will Kansas City through the postseason by scrambling on a high ankle sprain....