Latest news with #LosAngelesLaker
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Luka Dončić, LeBron James send well wishes to Kyrie Irving after ACL tear: 'You will come back stronger mi hermano'
Kyrie Irving suffered a torn ACL Monday night in a devastating blow to his career and a further-spiraling Dallas Mavericks franchise. Two of his most prominent former teammates reached out with support, including his former Mavericks running mate Luka Dončić, who was his teammate as recently as early February. Dončić, who is now a Los Angeles Laker following one of the most scrutinized trades in sports history, applauded Irving on Instagram in the immediate aftermath of his injury, in which Irving remained in the game against the Kings to shoot free throws before being helped off the court. At that point, the nature of Irving's injury wasn't clear — only that it looked significant. Irving's former Cleveland Cavaliers teammate, LeBron James — who's now the other half of the Lakers' superstar tandem next to Dončić — also reached out on social media. "Prayers sent up to Ky," James wrote. Prayers sent up to Ky 🧙🏾🤞🏾!!! 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 — LeBron James (@KingJames) March 4, 2025 Then came the bad news Tuesday morning. Irving's injury was, indeed, serious. Irving has a torn ACL in his left knee that will end his season and alter the nine-time All-Star's career at 32 years old. Dončić again reached out with a message to Irving on social media. "You will come back stronger mi hermano!" Dončić wrote alongside an image of himself and Irving from their playing days together. It was a poignant message and image from Dončić to his friend and former teammate — and a painful reminder to Mavericks fans of just how bad things have become in the last four weeks.
New York Times
25-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
What to watch in the NBA this week: Celtics-Cavs, Doncic vs. Dallas, new-look Warriors
The first weekend back from the All-Star intermission was a generally good hang. Luka Dončić had his first signature showing as a Los Angeles Laker. Tyrese Haliburton went Harlem Globetrotter on Saturday night. OKC and Minny put on a show in primetime, and the Detroit Pistons played meaningful basketball games. We can dig it. Advertisement This week's schedule is loaded, with a half-dozen national TV looks and some sneaky bangers on League Pass. We broke down some matchups below in a format befitting Oscars week. In the words of Bill Murray in the original Space Jam (1996): 'Here's how I see it!' Tuesday, 10 p.m. ET, TNT Best Supporting Hooper: Max Christie. He was understandably overshadowed amid the most stunning superstar swap in league history, but the third-year wing is really coming on strong at Dallas' reconstruction site. Christie started 25 times with the Lakers, serving as a respectable 3-and-D plug-and-play option. But he's leveling up with the Mavs, averaging over 15 points in 32 minutes across his first eight games. He's up to the 97th percentile in points per shot attempt on Cleaning the Glass and has soared beyond his career assist rate. Christie is still 21 years old, and the good vibes are bountiful. 'When you talk about defense and me being tasked with the point of attack or the best perimeter player, if I set the tone on the guy to start, it just trickles down into everybody else,' he told The Athletic's Jovan Buha in a December Q&A. Best Original Game Plan: JJ Redick. LA's noogie of the Denver Nuggets was wholly impressive. The hosts at Mile High lost by 23 points and snapped their nine-game winning streak. The otherwise-otherworldly Nikola Jokić was held to his worst game of the season. JJ Redick flashed some inspired coaching here, sticking 6-foot-8 Rui Hachimura on the mountainous three-time MVP. Hachimura was a gravelly irritant, checking Jokić all around the half-court and denying ball entry in the post. Redick admitted that he couldn't sleep in anticipation of this game plan. He nailed it Saturday night. Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET, FDSN, NBCS, League Pass Advertisement Best Source Material: 'The Town' (2010). For real, the Joe Mazzulla program is working. If the team's lead strategist wants to watch Ben Affleck rob Fenway Park multiple times a week, well, how can we non-Ball Knowers possibly protest? Neither loud nor surprising, the defending champs are still having an excellent season thus far. Everyone appears to have bought into the title defense; egos are fully sublimated. That December mini-lull has been casually brushed aside, and Kristaps Porziņģis has been reintegrated. Boston starts the week third in net rating and top-five on both offense and defense. Best Director: J.B. Bickerstaff. Detroit has averaged 18.8 wins per season in the past half-decade. Wipe the screen off and collect yourself if necessary. It's really been that bad. Maybe the cure for societal loneliness is rooting for the competent, super-endearing Pistons, who are winners of seven straight. Since the New Year: an 18-8 record, seventh in plus-minus and net rating. Bickerstaff is getting so much out of his veteran journeymen (Malik Beasley, Tim Hardaway Jr.) and has shepherded the ascents of the youth (Cade Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Ausar Thompson). The Pistons are now on pace for their first finish above .500 since 2015-16. Wednesday, 7 p.m. ET, ESPN Best Documentary Feature: Whatever this 2024-25 Sixers season is. Perhaps Philly is giving us one huge exercise in horror-noir. It's increasingly sad and uncomfortable for a group with championship aspirations just a few months prior. Joel Embiid is clearly not healthy. The 76ers lost at home to the Bulls by 32 points Monday night. Best Returning Hooper: Mitchell Robinson. Fair or not, the hopes of a sudden clampdown in New York will be pinned to the seven-footer returning from ankle surgery. The Knicks' offense is Finals-worthy; the defense is absolutely not, as evidenced by last weekend's blowout losses to Cleveland and Boston. Tom Thibodeau's team has the league's worst defensive rating this month. Robinson is expected to join the rotation this week, a much-needed mood booster from a sobering few days on the floor. This iteration is certainly fun but far from elite, incongruent with a front office that gave up five first-round picks to compete at the highest plateau. From The Athletic's James Edwards III: 'The weekend reaffirmed what was already out there: the Knicks aren't there yet. The issues start defensively, where the Knicks have continuously been up-and-down all season. New York's pick-and-roll coverage, poor communication in transition and inability to guard across the board puts them behind the league's best. And for a New York offense that has been upper-tier all season, it looks mortal against these championship contenders because they are capable of doing things the Knicks haven't been able to.' Advertisement Wednesday, 9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN Best Adapted Screenplay: Brian Wright. This was never going to be the Spurs' year. It's Victor Wembanyama's age-21 season, and the Western Conference is loaded with win-now competitors. The organization has taken a few wrenching health scares, such as Wemby's blood clots and Gregg Popovich's stroke. Yet time will not render this season fully lost because De'Aaron Fox has been installed as the long-term table-setter in silver and black. San Antonio has had a top-five assist rate and turnover ratio since the Fox move. The eight-year veteran is only 27 years old and has ample time to acclimate to his new digs. GM Brian Wright did his thing here. Best Supporting Hooper: Amen Thompson. The rangy second-year is unassumingly fifth in defensive win shares this season. He's ahead of stalwarts like Rudy Gobert, Evan Mobley, Jaren Jackson Jr. and Dyson Daniels. Thompson has been playing with elasticity and fearlessness on the other end, putting up around 16 points, 10 rebounds and five assists since becoming a starter. He may only be a 'supporting' hooper for so long: NASTY AMEN THOMPSON CROSS & POSTER 😤 — Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) February 4, 2025 Thursday, 7 p.m. ET, FDSN, NBC Sports Bay Area, League Pass Best Music: 'Only Wanna Be with You,' Hootie and the Blowfish (1994). Let Jimmy Butler sing to his heart's content. The arrival in Golden State has clearly galvanized Stephen Curry and Draymond Green. 'This team all year has been kind of like, 'Man, we're right there, but can't quite get over the hump.' But there's a reason that you feel like you're right there but can't quite get over,' Green told The Athletic's Marcus Thompson II and Sam Amick. 'And the reason I think we all thought we couldn't quite get over was because there was a missing piece. That piece isn't missing anymore. That piece is him.' The Warriors look renewed, but there's still much ground to make up if they hope to avoid the play-in. Thursday, 8 p.m. ET, TNT Best Lead Actor: Nikola Jokić. The singular Serbian talent is somehow having the best stretch of his NBA career. He hits this week ranking: Jokić is the league's Daniel Day-Lewis: He's won the top individual hardware three times, seems almost bored by his prodigiousness and will absolutely drink your milkshake. Best Editing: Doc Rivers. Milwaukee staved off disaster warnings with an inspired (if cosmetic) run for the NBA Cup. The All-Star break relieved them of an uninspired 4-7 stretch. Basketball Reference has them with the lightest strength of schedule to date. The random sequencing of this season has somewhat obscured a wildly underwhelming campaign. Advertisement Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN Best Picture: The East-leading Cleveland Cavaliers. With the best offense in the sport, the best record in the conference and the best attendance at the gates, this Cavs season has been a feel-good story in the province of Steven Spielberg or Nora Ephron. The core is intact and under contract for the next three seasons. From The Athletic's Jason Lloyd: 'The Cavs' previous championship era, believe it or not, more closely resembles the model the league was trying to extinguish of hastily assembling stars in one market. LeBron James returned, the Cavs got lucky in the lottery, swung a big trade for Kevin Love and poof! A four-hour parade on a 100-degree day. As a reference point, the Cavs would've been considered a second-apron team under these current rules during James' final three years in Cleveland. These Cavs have grown together much more organically. They will reach repeat offender status on the luxury tax scale, regardless of the aprons, for the first time after the 2028-29 season.' Best Production Design: The Boston '3-party.' There's been a whirring carousel of complaints and grievances around modern basketball's 3-point reliance. No matter the validity of it all, these Celtics have the numbers to justify their style. The reigning champs are No. 1 in 3s made and attempted … and that has them winning games (third-best record in the league) without sacrificing integrity (fifth in defensive rating and defensive rebounding rate). Boston is ignoring the noise and sticking to its beliefs. Friday, 8 p.m. ET, FDSN, MSG, League Pass Best Cinematography: 'Friday Night Knicks.' We don't know if New York harbors a title contender just yet, but we definitely know it has a championship-level presentation. The Knicks are a League Pass delight for many reasons — Mike Breen's eternal elegance, Walt 'Clyde' Frazier's velvet wardrobe and linguistic innovation, and Madison Square Garden's overall historic aura. But regional Knicks games are particularly sublime on this day of all days, thanks to Robert Randolph and the Family Band's 'Friday Night Knicks' jam. Christen your weekend appropriately: Best New Hooper: Jaylen Wells. The 39th pick in last spring's draft is leading his rookie class in win shares and starts for the West's second-winningest team. Only Jaren Jackson Jr. has played more minutes for the 37-20 Grizzlies this season. Wells is averaging 14 points in his last four games and drilled four 3s in Cleveland on Sunday. Advertisement Friday, 10 p.m. ET, ESPN Best International Feature: Ivica Zubac's career year. The old-school Bosnian big man has charmingly muscled his way to the best NBA run of his nine-year career. It's always fun to see a veteran player commit to steady improvement, especially in less-glamorous departments like post passing, paint defense and boxing out. Zubac is averaging over 15 points and 12 rebounds, anchoring a Clippers defense that's fourth in scoring against. Best Casting: Rob Pelinka. Yeah, landing a 25-year-old Luka Dončić to play the 'Lakers' next generational global superstar' role was a good move. (Photo by Ronald Martinez / Getty Images)
New York Times
06-02-2025
- Sport
- New York Times
Is there a soccer equivalent of the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade?
Before we begin, I would appreciate your blanket sympathy. It is difficult enough to be a football journalist during the final days of a transfer window, covering a club with a large, passionate and demanding global fanbase and a recent track record of being extremely active in the market (even if they don't end up doing much business) without your mind being inexorably drawn elsewhere. If it emerges soon that Chelsea struck a deal to sign a 17-year-old wonderkid from Peru on transfer deadline day I can only apologise for not finding out about it sooner, because as an avid NBA fan I have been relentlessly and hopelessly distracted by the Luka Doncic-Anthony Davis trade. To recap for those who know and to recount for those who don't: on Saturday night in the US and in the early hours of Sunday morning in the UK, two of the world's best basketball players were traded for each other (along with several other players and a draft pick) in what has been widely described as the most shocking transaction in the history of the NBA. Doncic is now a Los Angeles Laker, Davis is a Dallas Maverick, and it happened without either man having the faintest idea that it was even being discussed. Advertisement In the 12 years I have been paying close attention, trades have served as the punctuation marks in the NBA calendar. The bigger ones are headline-grabbing and occasionally even league-altering, but there has been nothing remotely like this. Stars of the calibre of Davis, a 31-year-old champion and generational defensive talent, almost never get traded without their input. Superstars like Doncic, a 25-year-old playmaking phenomenon who led the Mavericks to the NBA Finals last June, almost never get traded at all. The quest to put this singular mega-event into some kind of broader context has sent many far more knowledgeable basketball observers than me scrambling. Perhaps because of my professional background, one of my first instincts is best summed up by the meme reply you often see on X, formerly Twitter: 'Explain in football terms.' Comparisons between the NBA and European football are perilous for all sorts of reasons, not least the radically different ways that each functions on a sporting and business level. Quantifying the value of individual star talent is one thing in an 11-versus-11 game and quite another in teams of five. Football's top players and their agents have only relatively recently begun to exercise the kind of leverage over clubs that the biggest names in the NBA have regularly flexed on franchises for the past 15 years, yet footballers in general have a level of control over their career movement that their peers in basketball's top league could only dream of enjoying. All the above is worth bearing in mind, but none of it prevents a fun attempt to understand the Doncic-Davis earthquake through the prism of football, and perhaps it will even be illuminating (you can be the judge of that). OK, so here goes… GO DEEPER LeBron James talks Luka Dončić-Anthony Davis trade: 'I ain't never seen this one' In 20 years there will be a documentary made about the Doncic-Davis trade, and we can only hope it will be as good as Netflix's The Figo Affair: The Transfer that Changed Football. The Machiavellian machinations deployed by Florentino Perez in 2000 — using the promise of signing Luis Figo (pictured top) away from arch-rivals Barcelona to win the Real Madrid presidential election while simultaneously ensnaring the Portugal international and his representatives in a contractual agreement they could not escape — are on par with Lakers general manager Rob Pelinka deftly complying with his Mavericks counterpart Nico Harrison's desire to keep Doncic's trade availability a secret from potential rival bidders. GO DEEPER Inside the top-secret negotiations that made Luka Dončić a Laker There was even something in the first post-trade picture of Doncic, wearing a thin smile beneath exhausted eyes sitting next to a triumphant Pelinka, that evoked memories of the faintly haunted look Figo wore while holding up a Madrid shirt alongside Perez. Madrid are also by far the closest thing in football to the Lakers in terms of glamour, stature and self-regard, but this is where the similarities end. Advertisement Figo was already at the peak of his powers in 2000, two years older than Doncic and a few months shy of winning the Ballon d'Or. It was also ultimately a transfer rather than a trade; despite being backed into a corner by Perez and his representatives, Figo publicly owned the decision to join Madrid and leave Barcelona, who had to console themselves with a world-record transfer fee and a burning sense of fury. That decision made Figo an eternal hate figure at Camp Nou, a place where he was once every bit as revered as Doncic was in Dallas. Being traded away gives Doncic plausible deniability that he would ever have considered leaving of his own volition, sparing him the acrimony that typically follows such painful sporting divorces. He is free to embrace life as a Laker. Put it this way: no Mavericks fan is going to throw a pig's head at Doncic when he returns to American Airlines Center with the Lakers in April. Harrison, on the other hand… Harrison is being roundly panned in the basketball world not just for being willing to trade Doncic, but for how little he got beyond Davis from the Lakers in return. The modern NBA trend is for the team acquiring the transcendent superstar to trade their future for the present, giving up all the draft picks and bright young players they have in return for a meaningful shot at winning a title in the short term. The trade-offs in conventional football transfers are rarely so stark, and the relatively short list of high-profile player swap deals in football this century yields potential comparisons of wildly varying quality. Arsenal and Manchester United's ill-fated cashless trade of Alexis Sanchez and Henrikh Mkhitaryan in 2018, for example, offers no lesson beyond the fact that the Lakers missed a trick by not unveiling Doncic playing the piano. Advertisement Barcelona's stunning acquisition of Deco from Porto for just €15million (then £34.1m, $18.75m) and Ricardo Quaresma in the summer of 2004 is closer to the ballpark, but the value imbalance is too extreme: Deco, a year on from winning the Champions League, was arguably the best No 10 in Europe at the time while Quaresma had already disappointed at Barcelona in a fitting prelude to a disappointing career for a tantalising talent. Davis, a 10-time NBA All-Star, deserves better. The modern football swap deal with the most parallels is the acrimonious agreement that took Ashley Cole from Arsenal to rivals Chelsea on summer transfer deadline day in 2006, in return for William Gallas and £5m in cash. Gallas was an excellent, highly versatile defender at Chelsea who distinguished himself under Jose Mourinho at left-back, while publicly pining to play centre-back (something that will resonate with anyone familiar with Davis, who has established himself as a brilliant center while repeatedly insisting he is actually a power forward). He was also more than three years older than Cole who, like Doncic, was regarded as a generational talent at his position. Chelsea gave up a very good player to get a better, younger one for a relatively small additional cost, though £5m was a bigger number in the mid-2000s transfer market than it is in 2025. Cole, an eager participant in the protracted, messy process, was immediately cast as the kind of villain Doncic will never be in Dallas. Leaving the value dynamics aside, neither Cole nor Gallas ever enjoyed the relative status within European football that Doncic and Davis command in the NBA. It would be a struggle to find any reasonable basketball fan who would rank either outside their top 10 to 15 players in the sport, across all positions (and Doncic would likely be a unanimous top-five pick). For real-world football examples, then, we must look higher. No player swap deal has ever been more star-studded than the trade which took Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Inter Milan to Champions League winners Barcelona in the summer of 2009 in exchange for Samuel Eto'o, and around £40m. In terms of value it's a contrasting case of giving up too much, rather than too little, for a superstar. Eto'o and Ibrahimovic were pretty much equals: two of the greatest No 9s of their generation who went on to finish fifth and seventh respectively in the 2009 Ballon d'Or voting. There was no reasonable cause for Barcelona to throw in such a large fee on top. But just as Doncic, by all accounts, was deemed to have become a bad cultural fit with the Harrison-led Mavericks, the strong-willed Eto'o made himself expendable at Barcelona by butting heads with coach Pep Guardiola. The folly of swapping him out for Ibrahimovic, football's most brash individualist outside of Cristiano Ronaldo, was exposed in less than a year. Davis, a much more laid-back character, should have a longer shelf life in Dallas. Advertisement All of the above comparisons capture elements of the Doncic-Davis megatrade, but none quite do justice to it in totality. It is the confluence of factors that makes this particular story so compelling: the lack of warning, the stature of the headline names involved, the perceived imbalance of the trade terms, the emotional scale of what Doncic meant to the Mavericks and the seismic importance of the Lakers managing to land their successor to LeBron James. A truly fitting football equivalent can only be found in the realm of the hypothetical. It might be Barcelona shipping out a 20-year-old Lionel Messi in the summer of 2008 — when he was on the cusp of first scaling Ballon d'Or-winning heights under Guardiola — for, let's say Sergio Ramos. Doncic is by no means destined to be basketball's GOAT, but he is already well on the way to compiling the individual resume of an all-time great. Or it might be Manchester United selling Cristiano Ronaldo to Madrid in 2007 rather than 2009, just before his supreme individual talent began to drive Champions League-winning team success, and getting back Fabio Cannavaro. Not insignificant compensation, but no meaningful consolation for a historic mistake. By all means, make your own attempts to explain what happened in the NBA last weekend in football terms in the comments. I'm going to ask around about that Peruvian teenager. GO DEEPER Luka Dončić trade resulted in fake funerals and blunt fan responses: 'It's soulless'
NBC Sports
04-02-2025
- Sport
- NBC Sports
Luka Doncic was as surprised as the rest of us he was traded, talks future with LeBron, Lakers
EL SEGUNDO — Luka Doncic owned it: He was staring at his phone in disbelief, as shocked he had been traded as the rest of us. 'I was almost asleep, so when I got a call, I had to check it was, [if] it was April 1,' Doncic joked at Tuesday's introductory press conference. 'I didn't really believe it at first. It was a big shock. It was hard moments for me. It [Dallas] was home. So it was really hard moments for me, especially the first day.' Now he is a Los Angeles Laker with a chip on his shoulder playing next to LeBron James — the rest of the league is on notice. 'Win the championship. You don't come here for nothing else but championships,' Doncic said, sitting on the Lakers practice court under replicas of the 17 championship banners that hang in Arena. 'I have everything left to prove so and the goal is to win the championship.' When Will Doncic play? It sounds as if Doncic could be on the court by this weekend. He has been out since Christmas with a calf strain but, even before the trade, was reportedly near a return, something Laker GM Rob Pelinka confirmed. 'We have five-on-five scheduled [Wednesday] for Luka, and we're going to take it one day at a time, just to make sure that the calf injury is in a good and safe place. So I would truly say at this point he's if all those days go well, and Luca feels good and confident he'll be in a game soon.' A shorthanded Lakers team without Doncic or Anthony Davis will face the Clippers Tuesday night at the Intuit Dome. Doncic on his conditioning Doncic shot down the on-its-face ridiculous spin out of Dallas that he might have turned down a $345 million supermax extension from the team — 'absolutely not' was how he phrased it. Doncic said he didn't understand why he was traded, but on a day he was low key (as he often is in interviews), the one time you saw a little of the fire in his eyes was discussing Dallas' spin after the trade that his conditioning and supermax contract where what drove the trade. 'That's their decision, so I have no comment on that. They made the decision. I don't know why, but that's the decision, so I can do nothing about it… 'I thought I was going to spend my whole career there, because I think loyalty is a big word for me, and I was trying to stay by that,' Doncic said. 'But this, for me, is your fresh start. I get to play in L.A., the fans are amazing, and I got the ocean here... I'm really excited to be here and getting to play for the Lakers, not everybody can say that. And many, many legends pass [through] here, many, many championships. So that's my goal.' As for Doncic's conditioning, his Mavericks-now-Lakers teammate Markieff Morris (also part of the trade) put it best. 'If you can go out on an NBA court and get 35/15/10 like it's nothing, then I don't know what in shape is,' Morris said. Doncic also addressed concerns about his defense. 'I think this year I really stepped it up, honestly, and it's just being more active, more vocal,' Doncic said. 'I think I did a step ahead this year, but I need to do more steps ahead, so that's what I'm planning.' Doncic and the Lakers brand Doncic's appreciation of the Lakers brand starts with Kobe Bryant. "He was talking Slovenian. So I was like, 'Who's talking my language?' I saw Kobe and was really surprised." - Luka Doncic #MambaMondays ' I remember the exact moment that I happened,' Doncic said. 'It always stayed, you know, in my mind, it was an amazing moment just for Kobe to know my name was amazing for me. And, you know, I just wish Kobe and Gigi were here to see this moment.' Doncic and LeBron have had a mutual admiration society, which started to become more personal after the trade. "[LeBron] called me right away,' Doncic said. 'He was in New York, so he called me right away, and we didn't talk much because he said, 'I understand what you're feeling.' But that was really nice of him, just to call me right away and welcome it to L.A… 'Just like the dream come true,' Doncic added about playing with LeBron. 'I always look up to him. There's so many things I can learn from him. And I'm just excited just to learn everything, I get to play with him. So it's an amazing feeling… 'I think we both make our teammates better. I think our IQ is very high, so I think that's going to help everybody.' What Doncic could mean for the Lakers on the court is more banners in the coming years, but it could be bigger off the court. 'We have a 25 year old global superstar that's going to get on the stage of the most popular and influential basketball brand on the globe,' Pelinka said. 'And I think when those two powerful forces come together, it brings basketball joy to the world, because that's how Luca plays. He plays with joy.' How the trade came together Pelinka confirmed that it all started with a coffee in Dallas between old friends — Pelinka was Kobe's agent while Harrison was his Nike agent. 'So this all started with the coffee in Dallas, where Nico [Harrison, Dallas GM] approached us with the concept, and because there was a partnership and a history of traveling the world between Nico and myself working around Kobe Bryant,' Pelinka said. 'There was a fabric of trust in the discussions…. 'When the concept was initially introduced to us, it was, 'Hey, the only way we can even have these discussions was if it's between owner and GMs,' and there was a commitment to that. And if we broke that commitment by talking to anyone else, this day would never happen… I called Jeannie after the coffee in Dallas and brought her in immediately, as I do with everything, her and I have a really strong working relationship… 'There were so many complicated things we had: The Mavericks are hard capped at the first apron, the Lakers are up against the second apron. There's trade kickers. There's going to be a third team that's going to have [to come in]. So my gears were turning about the deal the same way his basketball mind is processing a play.' Doncic's mind will be processing those plays now in a #77 jersey in purple and gold.
