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NBA Draft: From No.1 pick to the Hall of Fame
Tonight is the 2023 NBA Draft, which is taking place at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. Some years the No. 1 pick is up for debate. This year, it’s almost certain that the San Antonio Spurs, winners of the Draft Lottery, will take French prospect Victor Wembanyama first....

The Charlotte Hornets are where the 2023 NBA Draft begins
Many of the franchise-altering garden of forking path moments in NBA history began with contentious debates over the No.1 pick. In the rare situation where a phenom takes the reins, the second pick becomes the 2023 NBA Draft’s initial pivot point. A month ago, the Charlotte Hornets were left crestfa...

The Rockets are the NBA’s most ambitious offseason franchise
After the Denver Nuggets championship parade, it will be the Rockets time to shine. The Houston Rockets’ ‘Light the fuse” mantra has encapsulated their offseason machinations since Jalen Green’s bold IG Live set the tone for the summer by vowing to reach the postseason in 2024. That’s easier said th...

Kyler Murray’s career is trending in the wrong direction
Kyler Murray was considered one of the most promising young NFL quarterbacks not too long ago, and now he’s viewed in a much less favorable light around the league. After a messy contract dispute with the Arizona Cardinals, Murray got his money, and now some think they may have overpaid the former R...

Believe in fun, believe in the Diamondbacks
There was always hope that a young, funky team would finally not just get the best of the Dodgers, but signal the end of the now decade long run of the Dodgers running roughshod over the NL West. Yes, the Giants got them once, in a season where the Dodgers still won 106 games. And we know what happe...

Carmelo Anthony and the top retired NBA players never to win a ring
With Carmelo Anthony’s retirement announcement this week, we thought it’d be fun to look at some of the greatest retired NBA players to never win a ring. It’s a discussion that’s often had, and now Anthony is officially a club member. Besides never winning the ultimate prize, one other thing each of...

The final Brick for Vic stock report: NBA Draft Lottery edition
Stand on your head for one night because this is when everything gets flipped upside down so the NBA bottom feeders can plant the flag on a summit. Tuesday’s NBA Draft lottery is an especially important inflection point in NBA history. There won’t be any wavering over who will be the top pick in nex...

For the Sixers, it’s never sunny in Philadelphia: 'The Process,' 10 years on
On a Tuesday afternoon in May of 2013, the Philadelphia 76ers officially entrusted their organization’s rebuild with a Stanford-educated egghead who had a bold vision for the future....

Craig Kimbrel joins 7 other relievers with 400 saves
Phillies reliever Craig Kimbrel is the second MLB closer this season — and eighth all-time — to reach the 400-save mark. He closed out Philadelphia’s 6-4 win over the Atlanta Braves....

Biggest NFL Draft Day Trades of All TIme
The NFL Draft has finally arrived, and each year, we can always expect the unexpected once it rolls around. Most years, we see trades of all kinds, some of which have changed teams for the better, and others for the worse. We never know when it will happen, but each year brings many surprises that c...

Can the Arizona Diamondbacks come from the clouds?
When baseball writers get done complaining about how late their games are on, most of baseball’s attention this season will be on the San Diego Padres and the Los Angeles Dodgers. The Padres kneecapping the Dodgers in last year’s divisional round gave this tango some stakes instead of the Padres jus...

Jalen Williams is becoming the jewel of this NBA rookie class
For much of the past year, Jalen Williams has been an underground jewel for NBA mole people. He won’t be discussed on First Take because he came from a mid-major and got jammed into one of the NBA’s smallest media markets. ...

Young people make mistakes, but Ja Morant had better learn quickly from his latest one
I’m not here to psychoanalyze Ja Morant, ask if he has any gang affiliations, or question the influence that his parents are playing in his life. I will say, however, that if Morant was trying to emulate mid-2000s Michael Vick by having an illicit business on the side we probably would have heard ab...

Ben Simmons is going to be out of the league very soon
This isn’t the first time Ben Simmons has had his “own” team as so many fans wondered what a roster built around his skill set would look like. It is the first instance that he’s been the, umm, marque name of an NBA franchise, but he was the No. 1 guy at LSU, and forfeited the opportunity to be the ...

I get picking a young star, but Jazz Chisholm only played in 60 games last year
Earning the distinction of cover athlete for your sport’s premier video game franchise is a unique honor. You didn’t necessarily win any awards, championships, or playoff games, but you played well enough for people to consider you the most marketable face they could put on the cover of their produc...

Everything we know about the Carlos Correa situation
Just one month ago, two-time All-Star Carlos Correa was a San Francisco Giant. After a few medical examinations from Giants’ staff, the team couldn’t bring themselves to give Correa the 13-year, $350 million contract they’d agreed upon. Instantly, Correa was snatched up by the New York Mets, who off...

The 5 best landing spots for Jacob deGrom
Oft-injured, but damn near unhittable when healthy, former New York Mets ace Jacob deGrom was bound to draw numerous suitors once free agency started, and while the rumors haven’t been circulating at quite the speed we expected, deGrom’s market has heated up recently, but the heat hasn’t come from t...

NBA Players As <i>Black Panther: Wakanda Forever</i> Characters
Warning: Spoilers ahead...

Mike Trout finishing outside the top 5 in AL MVP voting is a travesty
Mike Trout missed 43 games this season, most of which were due to injury. Whether it was a rare back condition or rib cage inflammation, the three-time MVP was forced to miss a considerable amount of time in 2022. Still, despite missing all that time, Trout was undoubtedly a top-five player in the A...

Is it time MLB hands out just one MVP and one Cy Young?
It may be time to finally eliminate the charades known as the American and National League. Just tell it to the Judge — Aaron Judge....