Diamondbacks fan removed from win over Giants after controversial interference review
An Arizona Diamondbacks fan was escorted out of Chase Field on Monday night after he interfered with what was nearly a home run for Christian Koss.
The San Francisco Giants infielder hit a deep fly ball to center in the eighth inning that went all the way to the wall and appeared to be on track to give him a solo home run. That would have tied the game up at the time, too. But as Diamondbacks outfielder Tim Tawa jumped up to try and make the catch at the wall, a man in a red Diamondbacks shirt reached out and actually made the grab above Tawa with his own glove. The fan seemed to lose his balance while making the grab, too, but he caught himself in time before flipping over the wall and falling down onto the field.
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Initially, it was ruled an out due to fan interference. But the Giants challenged the play, and it was later determined that there was no fan interference as Tawa wasn't actually in a position to make the catch. The fan didn't appear to make contact with Tawa, either, which helped back that argument up. But that led to Koss receiving a double instead of a home run, as the ball wasn't quite on track to cross the outfield wall. That kept the tying run off the board.
After everything, the fan in question was then escorted out of the stadium. Both Rafael Devers and Heliot Ramos then struck out after Koss, which ended the inning and kept the Diamondbacks out in front.
Arizona then added another run in the bottom of the inning after Eugenio Suárez hit a solo home run. That put them up by two and sealed the 4-2 win.
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That snapped a four-game losing skid from the Diamondbacks, who were just swept by the Miami Marlins before Monday night's series-opener with the Giants. They now sit at 42-42 on the year. The Giants, at 45-40, have also lost three straight and six of their last seven.
While the fan's interaction undoubtedly altered the game in the moment, the ball was short of the wall anyways, the Giants still had work to do to actually tie the game up, and they missed an opportunity to hit the game-tying run in even after the incident.
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New York Times
14 minutes ago
- New York Times
Knicks walking a second-apron tightrope
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Associated Press
18 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Davis Thompson makes late birdie to break out of a logjam and lead John Deere
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New York Times
24 minutes ago
- New York Times
Why Lakers think they can bring out Ayton's best
Houston is parting ways with one of its young assets. Meanwhile, the market for the Warriors' restricted free agent is beginning to take shape. Jacob Kupferman / Getty Images Steph Chambers / Getty Images For Deandre Ayton, who turns 27 at the end of July, the opportunity to re-establish himself couldn't be more clear. While his contract with the Lakers has a second-year player option, no one involved wants him to exercise it — the hope being that he far outplays that $8 million valuation and commands way more next summer. Team sources believe the Lakers have the right coaching staff to make that happen. In JJ Redick, they have a deadly serious head coach who also understands how to relate to players. Assistant Scott Brooks worked with Ayton in Portland two years ago, and Nate McMillan has either played or coached with or against virtually every personality type the NBA's ever concocted. And if not, the Lakers have maintained their flexibility for next summer and beyond. The Lakers weren't going to do better this summer than Deandre Ayton, not with what was on the market, not with the little they had to offer. If you polled 29 other general managers about whether they'd rather trade a first-round pick for Nic Claxton or if they'd rather pay Ayton $8 million, we can be pretty confident in the answer. And if there was hesitation, it wouldn't be because of the stuff on the court. It would be concerns about the culture, the fit, the commitment, the understanding about the required sacrifices that need to be made in order to win at the highest level. Read more of my column on the Ayton signing here. GO FURTHER Deandre Ayton fits with LeBron, Luka and the Lakers on the court. Will that be enough? Michael Reaves / Getty Images While things are slow ... I don't think the Knicks' tax apron situation has received enough attention. By adding Guershon Yaubsele via the taxpayer midlevel exception, the Knicks will trigger the second apron. It is going to take some serious limbo to stay beneath it. After agreeing to a minimum deal with Jordan Clarkson, New York has two open roster spots left. At the moment, they cannot sign a veteran to either one. The only players they could fit into those spots are ones they drafted — 2024 second-round Kevin McCullar (for $2,048,914) into one spot, and either 2025 second-rounder Mohamed Diawara, 2023 second-rounder James Nnaji or 2021 second-rounder Rokas Jokubaitis (for $1,272,870) into the other. Any other combination of salaries signed this summer would put the Knicks over the second apron. There are two possibilities to get around this. The most likely one is that Yabusele takes slightly less than the full nontaxpayer midlevel exception. If he takes just $36,641 below that number, the Knicks can put a veteran into McCullar's spot and fill the other with any of the second-rounders besides McCullar. 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When he was with the Warriors, he would categorize pens in his locker by their colors. Just to mess with him, other coaches would switch them around, removing a red pen from its intuitive group and place it among the blues. Brown would notice quickly and restore order. Brown is a copious note taker. At any given moment around the team, he could be holding a massive folder that contains all his scribbles. 'It's like his basketball bible,' Fraser said. The coach will notice an interesting tidbit another team has added or think of a play and jot it down without hesitation. Later, just to make Marie Kondo jealous, he will go back and reillustrate his diagram, making sure to create a color-coded version. He expects the same attention to detail from those around him, from the players to the coaches to the rest of the franchise. Read the rest of my feature on the likely new Knicks head coach. GO FURTHER Who might the Knicks get in Mike Brown? Two-time Coach of the Year is still evolving Mike Lawrie / Getty Images We gave up another first-rounder pick to avoid the luxury tax! The fourth one of the Nikola Jokić era! Yay? I get some of the enthusiasm about Denver's secondary moves to fill out the bench. Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Jonas Valančiūnas are all massive upgrades on the flotsam that passed for a second unit a year ago. But they traded an extremely valuable asset — a 2032 unprotected first-round pick — in a swap of forwards that turned Michael Porter Jr. into Cam Johnson. You can nitpick small differences in their games, but this was a deal whose sole driving inspiration was avoiding paying the luxury tax again. That's a sad way to operate while the best player who will ever wear a Nuggets uniform is still in his prime. If you don't think this is bad, just consider: What else could the Nuggets have done with that 2032 pick if they had actually been looking at deals to make the team better, rather than just ones that let them tread water while avoiding spending money? Here's the thing, though: Jokić is so good that this team is a legitimate contender; the Nuggets gave the Thunder all they could handle in the second round in May and have some reinforcements this time around. It's just sad to think of how much opportunity has been squandered by the Nuggets constantly using draft picks to dump money. The one time they used future picks to actually build their team, they landed Aaron Gordon. GO FURTHER Winners (Hawks), losers (July) and more from NBA free agency's first days Caw-caw! Under new GM Onsi Saleh, the Hawks had a fantastic draft week, acquiring Kristaps Porziņģis in a deal to be finalized soon and then burning the New Orleans Pelicans by getting an unprotected first-round pick in 2026 that could land one of the top picks in a loaded draft. They followed it up with stellar work in the free-agent market. Atlanta used its $25 million trade exception from the Dejounte Murray trade to land Nickeil Alexander-Walker from Minnesota at a price just above the non-taxpayer midlevel exception, essentially squeezing out all their competition, and then added Luke Kennard on a one-year deal. Those two additions fortify what was an extremely shaky shooting and ballhandling situation in the non-Trae Young minutes, and in Alexander-Walker, the Hawks added a second lockdown backcourt defender to go with stopper Dyson Daniels. The Hawks also seem likely to get some small bit of compensation for letting Clint Capela go to Houston in a sign-and-trade. Now, for the fun part: Could Atlanta do more? Capela's outbound salary is enough to offset Alexander-Walker's, which means the Hawks could keep that $25 million trade exception alive for something else. They would have to work quickly since it expires on July 6, the first day deals can be ratified in the new cap year, and they would have to send out some salary to stay below the first-apron threshold (where they're hard-capped due to signing Kennard with the nontaxpayer MLE), but it's something to ponder. In the event things stay less spicy, the Hawks still have back-end work to do on the roster with their $5.1 million biannual exception and veteran's minimums; the Hawks are an estimated $7.4 million below the tax line with at least two open roster spots to fill and could use another small forward and a stretch four. Read on for more free agency winners and losers. GO FURTHER Winners (Hawks), losers (July) and more from NBA free agency's first days Jerome Miron / Imagn Jared Dudley, a Dallas Mavericks assistant for the last four years, is headed to Denver to become the Nuggets' lead assistant coach, a league source confirmed. His departure means Jason Kidd's coaching staff in Dallas will look radically different next season. All three of Kidd's top assistants from last season have left in the past five months. In March, Alex Jensen accepted a job as the head men's coach at the University of Utah. In June, Sean Sweeney became the San Antonio Spurs' associated head coach. Now, Dudley leaves Dallas for a promotion. Additionally, God Shammgod is taking a job on Jamahl Mosley's staff with the Orlando Magic. Shammgod began working for the Mavericks in 2016 and has a close relationship with Kyrie Irving. So far, the Mavericks have hired two former head coaches as replacements in Jay Triano and Frank Vogel. Vogel was the head coach of the Lakers' championship-winning team in 2020; Kidd worked under him in L.A. as an assistant. Remember when NBA free agency was an event, something that dragged on for days as players took meetings, teams prepared dog-and-pony shows for prospective free agents and entire front-office staffs huddled up in cramped hotel rooms in The Hamptons? It was only nine years ago that Kevin Durant put the entire league on hold while he figured out his next destination. It was only eight years ago that Gordon Hayward did the same. (I swear to you this really happened.) And it wasn't just the stars who got this treatment; take it from somebody who flew cross-country to make a sales pitch to Solomon Hill. Welcome to the speed chess version of the same game. We're a few days into free agency, and aside from the annual drawn-out saga of restricted free agents, we're basically done. Read on to understand why and to see my early winners and losers. GO FURTHER Winners (Hawks), losers (July) and more from NBA free agency's first days Brad Penner / Imagn After we finished digesting the news of the three terrible Achilles tears of the playoffs, another question emerged: Which teams would rise to fill the void in the battered, miserable Eastern Conference? Going chronologically, injuries to Damian Lillard, Jayson Tatum and Tyrese Haliburton put the immediate fates of the last two conference champions and the team with the conference's best player in doubt. Without those stars, it would be difficult for their teams to compete in 2025-26 and stay financially responsible at the same time. We've seen all three teams grapple with that in June and early July. The offseason is not over, and neither is free agency — the likes of Josh Giddey and Jonathan Kuminga are still out there as restricted free agents, and trades could still develop. In the wake of most of the major action, it seems wise to reassess the status of the conference. Let's get to this before a trade goes down and shakes all of this up. Read on to see how I classified the current state of the East. GO FURTHER Knicks, Magic or Cavs: Which teams are prepared to jump up in the Eastern Conference? There's nothing near the finish line on the Jonathan Kuminga front as the third night of free agency wrapped up, per league sources. There are conversations ongoing with Warriors and several teams on periphery. The Warriors are also waiting on Al Horford's decision. Former No. 1 overall picks from the lottery era to play for the Los Angeles Lakers: Shaquille O'Neal Joe Smith Kwame Brown LeBron James Dwight Howard Andrew Bogut Anthony Davis Deandre Ayton None of them were drafted by the Lakers. Mark J. Rebilas / Imagn Deandre Ayton was a surprise addition to this year's free agency class, negotiating a contract buyout with the Trail Blazers on Sunday night and surrendering a reported $10 million of a $34 million deal. Ayton and Luka Dončić are both represented Bill Duffy, the longtime agent who heads WME Basketball. Dončić, according to league sources, is excited about the opportunity to play with Ayton. The Lakers, according to team and league sources, showed serious interest in veteran center Brook Lopez, who agreed to a two-year deal with the LA Clippers on Monday. He was pegged by many around the NBA as the logical player for the Lakers this free agency cycle. Lopez, 37, is still one of the NBA's best inside-outside centers but doesn't play the kind of pick-and-roll, lob-threat style that Dončić has had the most success with in his career. GO FURTHER Deandre Ayton, Lakers agree to two-year deal: Sources To add more detail to Kelly Iko's report below about an "expansive sign-and-trade" involving Houston: League sources tell The Athletic that the Rockets and Suns are working on expanding the Kevin Durant trade into a deal that would involve a league-record seven teams. Other teams involved in negotiations at the moment include the Atlanta Hawks, Brooklyn Nets, Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves, league sources say. No trade is imminent, and details are being ironed out as of Wednesday night. In a would-be seven-team trade, there is an unprecedented amount of detail. Unfortunately, while a seven-team trade would make for a thrilling topic at a cocktail party, there haven't been many unexpected developments in these negotiations. At least in the iterations of the deal discussed so far, most of the recognizable names are from trades that have already been agreed to and reported but not yet finalized. The Hawks would be sending Clint Capela to the Rockets in what would become a sign-and-trade, league sources say. Durant would go to Houston. The previously reported return for him, including Dillon Brooks and Jalen Green, would go to Phoenix. Only five players who were in the NBA last season are being discussed in the current iteration of the trade, as of now: Durant, Brooks, Green, Clint Capela and Daeqwon Plowden, league sources say. The rest of the players being discussed are all from already-agreed-upon draft-night trades that are yet to be finalized and can't be until July 6. For now, the largest trade in NBA history is the six-teamer that sent Klay Thompson to the Dallas Mavericks last summer. Before that, it was the five-teamer in 2021, when the Lakers sent Russell Westbrook to the Washington Wizards. GO FURTHER Why the Rockets changed course, fast-tracked their timeline to land Kevin Durant Dennis Schröder will be joining the Kings as part of a sign-and-trade with the Pistons, a team source tells our Sam Amick, and that improves the flexibility for both teams. The Kings willl take Schröder into their existing $16.8 million trade exception for Kevin Huerter and thus maintain their entire $14.1 million nontaxpayer midlevel exception for other moves; Sacramento is currently $14.7 million below the first apron, where the Kings would be hard-capped as a result of the sign-and-trade. The Pistons, meanwhile, will either generate a $14.1 million trade exception for Schröder or can take back up to $23 million in a simultaneous trade that would almost certainly involve a third team (or more). As a result of this trade, the Pistons would operate as an over-the-cap team, with Paul Reed taking the team's biannual exception and Caris LeVert taking Detroit's nontaxpayer midlevel exception. Detroit still has $25 million in room below the tax line with three open roster spots, although one may be designated for rookie second-round pick Chaz Lanier. The Pistons are already taking on a bunch of salary in another trade, sending Simone Fontecchio out in a sign-and-trade for Duncan Robinson; it appears that Detroit will start Robinson's salary at the maximum allowable $16,865,384 (twice Fontecchio's salary plus $250,000), and then decline his salary by 5 percent each of the following two years on his three-year, $48 million deal. It also remains possible that Detroit unites these two sign-and-trades into one big, ugly sign-and-trade, although right now it doesn't seem to generate any additional advantages versus keeping the two separate. To further what Eric Nehm and I discussed in our story earlier today: The Bucks, after waiving Chris Livingston, can accommodate a four-year, $107 million contract for Myles Turner, provided Vasilije Micić gives back at least $5.4 million of his $8.1 million salary in a buyout with Milwaukee. If Turner's deal ends up being a sign-and-trade, however, Micić would only need to give back $5.15 million. After an active offseason, the Atlanta Hawks' championship odds have jumped from +25000 to +2500 on BetMGM. Trae Young remains the cornerstone, but the supporting cast looks deeper and much more talented with those three additions. Atlanta's regular starting five figures to be Trae Young, Kristaps Porziņģis, Most Improved Player Dyson Daniels, last year's No. 1 pick Zaccharie Risacher and Jalen Johnson, who was averaging 18.9 points, 10 rebounds and five assists before missing the second half of last season due to injury. Add Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Luke Kennard to a bench unit in a depleted Eastern Conference, and it's easy to see why Atlanta surged up the odds. GO FURTHER 2026 NBA title odds: How the contenders rank after free agency and trade frenzy The Milwaukee Bucks have waived Chris Livingston. The Bucks selected Livingston, 21, with the final pick of the 2023 NBA Draft, but he never found his footing in the NBA. Livingston appeared in 42 games across the last two seasons with the Bucks and played just 196 minutes. He was on a non-guaranteed contract for the 2025-26 season with a guarantee date of July 15. I'm hearing that the Rockets, who are acquiring Dorian Finney-Smith and Clint Capela in free agency, will be expanding one of those into an expansive sign-and-trade that involves multiple teams. Houston can officially finalize those moves beginning July 6. Page 2
