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Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
How are MLB teams faring compared to their preseason projections?
Yahoo Sports AM is our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it every weekday morning. 🏀🏒 New York, Dallas on the brink: Tyrese Haliburton (triple-double) and the Pacers beat the Knicks, 130-121, and the Oilers cruised to a 4-1 win over the Stars as Indiana and Edmonton took commanding 3-1 leads in the conference finals. 🏈 Cover athletes: Sophomore wideouts Ryan Williams (Alabama) and Jeremiah Smith (Ohio State) are featured on the cover of "EA Sports College Football 26," which releases on July 10. ⚽️ Soccer moves: 17-year-old wunderkind Lamine Yamal has signed a six-year extension with Barcelona; Cristiano Ronaldo appears set to leave Al Nassr. "This chapter is over," he wrote. "The story? Still being written. Grateful to all." ⛳️ No more starting strokes: The PGA Tour is eliminating starting strokes from the FedEx Cup Championship starting this fall, meaning all 30 golfers will start from the same score rather than the leader starting at 10-under down to 30th place starting at even par. 🇷🇺 Still banned: The IOC confirmed that Russia will be banned from the 2026 Winter Olympics, though individual Russian athletes may still compete under a neutral flag. One-third of the way through the MLB season, how have all 30 teams fared compared to their preseason projections? Overperformers: The first-place Tigers are projected to win nine more games now (92) than they were before the season began (83), the largest positive differential in the majors, per FanGraphs.* The Yankees (+8), Phillies (+6), Giants (+6) and Cubs (+6), all either division leaders or contenders, round out the top five. Nine other teams are in the black, led by the Mets (+5), Guardians (+5) and Cardinals (+5). Underperformers: The 9-46 Rockies are trending an MLB-worst 12 wins below their preseason projection as they threaten to break the record for most losses in a season. The surprisingly punchless Orioles (-10) and perennially sub-.500 Pirates (-8) are the only other teams more than five games worse than their projection. 13 other teams are in the red, "led" by the Red Sox (-5), Rangers (-5) and Braves (-5), though it should be said that Atlanta is still projected to win 88 games and make the playoffs. *Current win projections based on team records before play began on Tuesday, May 27. Preseason projections are from March 17, the day before the Tokyo Series began. All projected win totals are rounded to the nearest whole number. One of Britain's zaniest traditions took place on Monday in Gloucestershire, England, where dozens of fearless competitors participated in the annual Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling. The event features multiple races in which people chase a seven-pound wheel of Double Gloucester cheese down a steep, 200-yard hill. Injuries are so common (not hard to see why) that the officially sanctioned event stopped in 2008 before local volunteers picked it back up in 2010. The race's origins are unclear, but it has results dating back to 1948 and written records from 1826. Consensus is that it began long before then, though, with some believing it was about claiming grazing rights and others believing it was a fertility ritual. Germany's Tom Kopke, a popular YouTuber, won the first men's race (of seven total races) for the second consecutive year. "All the people at the top said they were going to steal my title, but this is mine," he said. "I risked my life for this. It's my cheese. Back-to-back." 🎥 Watch: Highlights (YouTube) The NBA's Final Four is proof that talent can come from anywhere in the draft. By the numbers: The average draft pick of the 20 starters in the conference finals is 19th, with nearly as many players selected in the second round or undrafted (four) as in the top 10 (six). Team by team: Timberwolves: Anthony Edwards (No. 1 in 2020), Mike Conley (No. 4 in 2007), Julius Randle (No. 7 in 2014), Rudy Gobert (No. 27 in 2013), Jaden McDaniels (No. 28 in 2020) Thunder: Chet Holmgren (No. 2 in 2022), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (No. 11 in 2018), Jalen Williams (No. 12 in 2022), Isaiah Hartenstein (No. 43 in 2017), Lu Dort (undrafted in 2019) Knicks: Karl-Anthony Towns (No. 1 in 2015), Mikal Bridges (No. 10 in 2018), OG Anunoby (No. 23 in 2017), Josh Hart (No. 30 in 2017), Jalen Brunson (No. 33 in 2018) Pacers: Myles Turner (No. 11 in 2015), Tyrese Haliburton (No. 12 in 2020), Aaron Nesmith (No. 14 in 2020), Pascal Siakam (No. 27 in 2016), Andrew Nembhard (No. 31 in 2022) By the numbers: The top-seeded Thunder, who've spent years stockpiling draft capital, ironically have the lowest average pick among their starters, at 26th (counting Dort as pick No. 61). The Knicks and Pacers are tied at 19th, and the Timberwolves have the highest, at 13th. Roster construction: New York didn't draft any of its starters, acquiring four via trade and one via free agency. Indiana, Oklahoma City and Minnesota each drafted two of their starters, with a majority of the rest coming via trade. 10 years after the U.S. rocked global soccer with its corruption takedown, some wonder if soccer's governing body every really cleaned itself up. From Yahoo Sports' Henry Bushnell: The "war room" inside the FBI field office at 26 Federal Plaza in New York filled on the evening of May 26, 2015, with nervous excitement. Attorneys and investigators waded through security, then up to the 23rd floor, to oversee a transatlantic takedown that would shake international soccer. Plainclothes police would pound on hotel doors in Zurich, and arrest prominent FIFA officials; and before long, an unprecedented U.S. probe of "rampant, systemic, deep-rooted" bribery plaguing the beautiful game would burst into public view. So, after months of painstaking work, dozens of sleep-deprived prosecutors and special agents gathered for their seminal moment. And as they waited, with a 161-page indictment under seal, some pondered the magnitude of what they were about to unleash. "This," one remembers thinking, "is gonna change the history of global soccer." But what, they wondered, would the full impact ultimately be? 10 years later, some are disappointed or bothered by the complicated answer. "FIFA," the non-profit FairSquare wrote in a recent report, "didn't fix the structural flaws that ultimately led the U.S. authorities to intervene in the first place." Their case quickly erupted into the biggest corruption scandal in modern sports history. It eventually led to 31 guilty pleas and multiple trial convictions. It recovered hundreds of millions of dollars. It triggered a reckoning at FIFA, the global soccer governing body at the center of the storm, and led to a raft of promised reforms. But a decade later — according to interviews and conversations with dozens of current and former soccer officials, governance experts and attorneys, including some who investigated or prosecuted the U.S. Department of Justice case — some of those promises seem empty. Reforms have been rolled back. "It's all window dressing," says Joseph Weiler, a former member of FIFA's governance committee. Keep reading. OKC is a win away from reaching the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012 behind the youthful Big Three of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren. They're averaging a combined 71 points per game in this series, including 95 in Monday's Game 4 victory. Florida is one win away from reaching the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight year, which would continue a remarkable run from the Sunshine State after the Lightning made the previous three Finals (2020-22). No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz (7:25am), No. 5 Iga Świątek (9:05am) and No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka (10:20am) headline the start of the second round. Plus: ⚽️ MLS: 13 games (7:30-10:30pm, Apple) … Columbus vs. Nashville (8pm) is on FS1. 🏀 WNBA: Fever at Mystics (7:30pm, NBA) … Caitlin Clark (quad) is out multiple weeks. 🚴 Cycling: Giro d'Italia (6:50am, Max) … Stage 17 of 21. ⛳️ NCAA Men's Golf: Championship (6pm, Golf) … Oklahoma State vs. Virginia. Today's full slate. Tyrese Haliburton's incredible Game 4 performance (32 points, 12 rebounds, 15 assists, 4 steals, 0 turnovers) was his 11th career game with 15+ assists and 0 turnovers. Question: Who are the only two players in NBA history with more such games? Hint: One is still active. Answer at the bottom. The Monaco Grand Prix was rather boring (one legal overtake in 78 laps!). But the photos? Spectacular. Trivia answer: John Stockton (15 games) and Chris Paul (13) We hope you enjoyed this edition of Yahoo Sports AM, our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
How are MLB teams faring compared to their preseason projections?
Yahoo Sports AM is our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it every weekday morning. 🏀🏒 New York, Dallas on the brink: Tyrese Haliburton (triple-double) and the Pacers beat the Knicks, 130-121, and the Oilers cruised to a 4-1 win over the Stars as Indiana and Edmonton took commanding 3-1 leads in the conference finals. 🏈 Cover athletes: Sophomore wideouts Ryan Williams (Alabama) and Jeremiah Smith (Ohio State) are featured on the cover of "EA Sports College Football 26," which releases on July 10. ⚽️ Soccer moves: 17-year-old wunderkind Lamine Yamal has signed a six-year extension with Barcelona; Cristiano Ronaldo appears set to leave Al Nassr. "This chapter is over," he wrote. "The story? Still being written. Grateful to all." ⛳️ No more starting strokes: The PGA Tour is eliminating starting strokes from the FedEx Cup Championship starting this fall, meaning all 30 golfers will start from the same score rather than the leader starting at 10-under down to 30th place starting at even par. 🇷🇺 Still banned: The IOC confirmed that Russia will be banned from the 2026 Winter Olympics, though individual Russian athletes may still compete under a neutral flag. One-third of the way through the MLB season, how have all 30 teams fared compared to their preseason projections? Overperformers: The first-place Tigers are projected to win nine more games now (92) than they were before the season began (83), the largest positive differential in the majors, per FanGraphs.* The Yankees (+8), Phillies (+6), Giants (+6) and Cubs (+6), all either division leaders or contenders, round out the top five. Nine other teams are in the black, led by the Mets (+5), Guardians (+5) and Cardinals (+5). Underperformers: The 9-46 Rockies are trending an MLB-worst 12 wins below their preseason projection as they threaten to break the record for most losses in a season. The surprisingly punchless Orioles (-10) and perennially sub-.500 Pirates (-8) are the only other teams more than five games worse than their projection. 13 other teams are in the red, "led" by the Red Sox (-5), Rangers (-5) and Braves (-5), though it should be said that Atlanta is still projected to win 88 games and make the playoffs. *Current win projections based on team records before play began on Tuesday, May 27. Preseason projections are from March 17, the day before the Tokyo Series began. All projected win totals are rounded to the nearest whole number. One of Britain's zaniest traditions took place on Monday in Gloucestershire, England, where dozens of fearless competitors participated in the annual Cooper's Hill Cheese Rolling. The event features multiple races in which people chase a seven-pound wheel of Double Gloucester cheese down a steep, 200-yard hill. Injuries are so common (not hard to see why) that the officially sanctioned event stopped in 2008 before local volunteers picked it back up in 2010. The race's origins are unclear, but it has results dating back to 1948 and written records from 1826. Consensus is that it began long before then, though, with some believing it was about claiming grazing rights and others believing it was a fertility ritual. Germany's Tom Kopke, a popular YouTuber, won the first men's race (of seven total races) for the second consecutive year. "All the people at the top said they were going to steal my title, but this is mine," he said. "I risked my life for this. It's my cheese. Back-to-back." 🎥 Watch: Highlights (YouTube) The NBA's Final Four is proof that talent can come from anywhere in the draft. By the numbers: The average draft pick of the 20 starters in the conference finals is 19th, with nearly as many players selected in the second round or undrafted (four) as in the top 10 (six). Team by team: Timberwolves: Anthony Edwards (No. 1 in 2020), Mike Conley (No. 4 in 2007), Julius Randle (No. 7 in 2014), Rudy Gobert (No. 27 in 2013), Jaden McDaniels (No. 28 in 2020) Thunder: Chet Holmgren (No. 2 in 2022), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (No. 11 in 2018), Jalen Williams (No. 12 in 2022), Isaiah Hartenstein (No. 43 in 2017), Lu Dort (undrafted in 2019) Knicks: Karl-Anthony Towns (No. 1 in 2015), Mikal Bridges (No. 10 in 2018), OG Anunoby (No. 23 in 2017), Josh Hart (No. 30 in 2017), Jalen Brunson (No. 33 in 2018) Pacers: Myles Turner (No. 11 in 2015), Tyrese Haliburton (No. 12 in 2020), Aaron Nesmith (No. 14 in 2020), Pascal Siakam (No. 27 in 2016), Andrew Nembhard (No. 31 in 2022) By the numbers: The top-seeded Thunder, who've spent years stockpiling draft capital, ironically have the lowest average pick among their starters, at 26th (counting Dort as pick No. 61). The Knicks and Pacers are tied at 19th, and the Timberwolves have the highest, at 13th. Roster construction: New York didn't draft any of its starters, acquiring four via trade and one via free agency. Indiana, Oklahoma City and Minnesota each drafted two of their starters, with a majority of the rest coming via trade. 10 years after the U.S. rocked global soccer with its corruption takedown, some wonder if soccer's governing body every really cleaned itself up. From Yahoo Sports' Henry Bushnell: The "war room" inside the FBI field office at 26 Federal Plaza in New York filled on the evening of May 26, 2015, with nervous excitement. Attorneys and investigators waded through security, then up to the 23rd floor, to oversee a transatlantic takedown that would shake international soccer. Plainclothes police would pound on hotel doors in Zurich, and arrest prominent FIFA officials; and before long, an unprecedented U.S. probe of "rampant, systemic, deep-rooted" bribery plaguing the beautiful game would burst into public view. So, after months of painstaking work, dozens of sleep-deprived prosecutors and special agents gathered for their seminal moment. And as they waited, with a 161-page indictment under seal, some pondered the magnitude of what they were about to unleash. "This," one remembers thinking, "is gonna change the history of global soccer." But what, they wondered, would the full impact ultimately be? 10 years later, some are disappointed or bothered by the complicated answer. "FIFA," the non-profit FairSquare wrote in a recent report, "didn't fix the structural flaws that ultimately led the U.S. authorities to intervene in the first place." Their case quickly erupted into the biggest corruption scandal in modern sports history. It eventually led to 31 guilty pleas and multiple trial convictions. It recovered hundreds of millions of dollars. It triggered a reckoning at FIFA, the global soccer governing body at the center of the storm, and led to a raft of promised reforms. But a decade later — according to interviews and conversations with dozens of current and former soccer officials, governance experts and attorneys, including some who investigated or prosecuted the U.S. Department of Justice case — some of those promises seem empty. Reforms have been rolled back. "It's all window dressing," says Joseph Weiler, a former member of FIFA's governance committee. Keep reading. OKC is a win away from reaching the NBA Finals for the first time since 2012 behind the youthful Big Three of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren. They're averaging a combined 71 points per game in this series, including 95 in Monday's Game 4 victory. Florida is one win away from reaching the Stanley Cup Final for the third straight year, which would continue a remarkable run from the Sunshine State after the Lightning made the previous three Finals (2020-22). No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz (7:25am), No. 5 Iga Świątek (9:05am) and No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka (10:20am) headline the start of the second round. Plus: ⚽️ MLS: 13 games (7:30-10:30pm, Apple) … Columbus vs. Nashville (8pm) is on FS1. 🏀 WNBA: Fever at Mystics (7:30pm, NBA) … Caitlin Clark (quad) is out multiple weeks. 🚴 Cycling: Giro d'Italia (6:50am, Max) … Stage 17 of 21. ⛳️ NCAA Men's Golf: Championship (6pm, Golf) … Oklahoma State vs. Virginia. Today's full slate. Tyrese Haliburton's incredible Game 4 performance (32 points, 12 rebounds, 15 assists, 4 steals, 0 turnovers) was his 11th career game with 15+ assists and 0 turnovers. Question: Who are the only two players in NBA history with more such games? Hint: One is still active. Answer at the bottom. The Monaco Grand Prix was rather boring (one legal overtake in 78 laps!). But the photos? Spectacular. Trivia answer: John Stockton (15 games) and Chris Paul (13) We hope you enjoyed this edition of Yahoo Sports AM, our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Step aside, millennials: Gen Z is taking over the NBA playoffs
Yahoo Sports AM is our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it every weekday morning. 🏀🏒 Conference Finals: SGA (40 points) and the Thunder beat the Timberwolves, 128-126, to go up 3-1; the Hurricanes blanked the Panthers, 3-0, to avoid elimination and end a 15-game conference finals losing streak. 🥎 Last eight standing: No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Florida, No. 6 Texas, No. 7 Tennessee, No. 9 UCLA, No. 12 Texas Tech, No. 16 Oregon and Ole Miss are headed to the Women's College World Series. 🏁 Racing roundup: Alex Palou won the Indy 500 for his fifth win in the season's first six races; Lando Norris (McLaren) won the Monaco GP; Ross Chastain won the Coca-Cola 600 despite starting in last. ⚾️ Selection Sunday: A record 13 SEC teams made the NCAA Baseball Tournament, with Vanderbilt earning the No. 1 overall seed in the 64-team field. 🥍 Lax champs: Cornell won its fourth men's title (and first since 1977); UNC won its fourth women's title; the Buffalo Bandits completed the three-peat in the NLL (indoor). The NBA playoffs used to be the domain of older, savvy vets deep into their thirties, but the league has gotten younger, and the best teams seem to be aging in that direction more rapidly. Is contending for a title increasingly becoming a young man's game? From Yahoo Sports' Tom Haberstroh: When LeBron James made his NBA debut in 2003, Anthony Edwards was merely a toddler, taking his first steps on Earth. When Kobe Bryant threw the iconic 'oop to Shaquille O'Neal in the 2000 Western Conference finals, Tyrese Haliburton was just a few months old. Jalen Brunson is young enough to ask his father, Rick, what it was like to play against Cleveland LeBron. Oh, and when Michael Jordan hit the clinching shot over Utah in the 1998 NBA Finals? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wasn't even born. Feeling old yet? Millennials certainly do. By the numbers: With the Thunder leading the way, the average age of the four conference finalists stands at 26.5 years old. That's the lowest on record and guarantees that the NBA will crown its first Gen Z champion this year. This continues a surprising trend that has seen the NBA get younger and younger in its final stages of the season. A Gen Z champion was only a matter of time, but if late 1990s roster trends held firm, we'd be about 2-3 years away from reaching that point. With these four teams, we're way ahead of schedule. While it's true the league, in general, has gotten younger across the decades, the final four used to be far older than the also-rans. Nowadays, the age gap is narrowing to the point where, especially this season, there doesn't seem to be much of one at all. Keep reading. 🏴 Liverpool, England — Nearly 50 Liverpool fans were injured Monday after a 53-year-old British man drove a car into a crowd during the club's Premier League championship parade, according to police. 🇫🇷 Paris — Rafael Nadal was honored Sunday at Roland Garros, where the "King of Clay" won a record 14 French Opens and will now forever have his footprint immortalized on center court. 🇺🇸 St. Paul, Minnesota — The Minnesota Frost have repeated as PWHL champions, clinching their second straight Walter Cup on Monday with an overtime winner against the Ottawa Charge. 🇵🇹 Lisbon — The only English club to win the Women's Champions League is now the only one to do so twice, as Arsenal beat defending champion Barcelona, 1-0, on Saturday for their first title since 2007. 92 years later, the Americans are once again world hockey champions. Victory in Stockholm: The U.S. beat Switzerland, 1-0 (OT), on Sunday thanks to a golden goal from Sabres center Tage Thompson, giving USA Hockey its first on-ice trophy in this tournament since 1933. What they're saying: "We knew there was something special in this room, but the biggest thing was having Johnny Gaudreau in our room, too," Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman said of the late NHL star who is the Americans' all-time points leader at worlds. "This gold goes to him and the legacy that he's paved for all USA hockey players." A long time coming: The 1933 title came back when only amateurs were allowed to compete. The Massachusetts Rangers (representing the U.S.) beat the Toronto National Sea Fleas (representing Canada) in the tournament's seventh edition, and first not won by Canada. The Americans tasted success in the ensuing decades, including Olympic gold in 1960 (technically a world title) and 1980, plus World Cup gold in 1996. But they mostly struggled at standalone world championships. Canada (28 golds), Russia/Soviet Union (27), Czechia (13) and Sweden (11) have won 79 of the 88 worlds; this was the first year the U.S. reached the title game in the tournament's modern era (since 1992). Between the lines: Team USA showed off its depth in Stockholm, boasting a young but talented roster that shared just two players with the team that took home silver in the 4 Nations Face-Off (Swayman and Blue Jackets' defenseman Zach Werenski). Looking ahead: Next year's Winter Olympics will feature NHL players for the first time since 2014. And unlike worlds, the 2026 Games are during an NHL break, meaning all top players will be available. Can the Americans run it back in a true best-on-best tournament? We'll find out in eight months. Shohei Ohtani faced live batters this weekend for the first time since 2023 as he works his way back from reconstructive elbow surgery. From Yahoo Sports' Jake Mintz: At 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Shohei Ohtani climbed a big league hill for the first time in 614 days. Officially, it was just a live batting practice session, a low-stakes environment for a recovering pitcher to ease back into competition. But because it was Ohtani, the session morphed into a can't-miss event. As the three-time MVP readied to throw, a gaggle of his teammates assembled together behind a protective net set up near home plate. Dozens more Dodger players, coaches and team employees watched from the dirt track in foul territory down the third-base line. Across the diamond, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza and a handful of his players followed along from the home dugout. Media members, television cameras and photographers dotted the otherwise empty stands, jostling for the best possible view of the show. Only with Ohtani does the mundane feel so momentous. Scouting report: Ohtani threw 22 pitches across five at-bats and called upon his entire arsenal: fastball, sinker, cutter, sweeper, splitter. The velocity clocked in at 94-95 mph, although it reached as high as 97, according to pitching coach Mark Prior. "The stuff is there," Prior ensured. Meanwhile, on offense… Hours after his live BP session, Ohtani swapped his glove for a bat and cranked the second pitch of the evening 411 feet for his 18th home run. The next day, he cranked the first pitch of the night 378 feet for his MLB-leading 19th. New York gave Indiana a taste of its own medicine on Sunday with a 20-point comeback win behind a fourth-quarter explosion from Karl-Anthony Towns. Can the Knicks tie up the series tonight before heading back home? Edmonton has been on a roll since dropping Game 1, winning Games 2 and 3 by a combined score of 9-1, including Sunday's 6-1 thrashing. No. 2 Coco Gauff (7:10am), No. 3 Jessica Pegula (7:50am) and No. 6 Novak Djokovic (8:20am) headline the final day of the first round at Roland Garros. Plus: ⚾️ MLB: Braves at Phillies (6:45pm, TBS) … Ronald Acuña Jr. has homered twice in three games since returning from a torn ACL. ⛳️ NCAA Men's Golf: Team Match Play (Golf) … Quarterfinals (1pm) followed by semifinals (6pm). Today's full slate. All-NBA Selections: SGA, Jokić, Giannis, Tatum, Mitchell (First) | Edwards, James, Curry, Brunson, Mobley (Second) | Towns, Harden, Cunningham, Haliburton, Jalen Williams (Third). LeBron James earned his 21st All-NBA selection this season, six more than any other player in NBA history. Question: Which three players are tied for second, at 15 selections each? Hint: One guard, two bigs. Answer at the bottom. When Muhammad Ali knocked down Sonny Liston on May 25, 1965, photographer Neil Leifer captured what many consider to be the greatest sports photo ever taken. What he's saying: "What happened that night was I got very lucky, and I didn't miss," Leifer, now 82, told the New York Times on the 60th anniversary of his iconic shot, taken 1 minute and 44 seconds into the infamous title bout held in a tiny youth-center hockey rink. Fight: "Ali vs. Liston II" Location: Lewiston, Maine Equipment: Rolleiflex camera Behind the lens: Two distinct features of this photo are the (1) clean frame and (2) hazy background. Here's Leifer on both: Clean frame: "There was no commercialism. The mat was plain off-white canvas. There was nothing on the trunks. Nothing on the gloves. The background would be different today, with all sorts of crap: commercials for light beer, a hotel." Hazy background: "In those days, the crowd was going to be 90% men, and a lot of them were smoking cigarettes or cigars. The strobe lights filter through the smoke and you get a little bit of a blue haze, as opposed to a jet black, and it made the picture look a little more dramatic." 🎥 Watch: Full fight (YouTube) Trivia answer: Kobe Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tim Duncan We hope you enjoyed this edition of Yahoo Sports AM, our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Step aside, millennials: Gen Z is taking over the NBA playoffs
Yahoo Sports AM is our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it every weekday morning. 🏀🏒 Conference Finals: SGA (40 points) and the Thunder beat the Timberwolves, 128-126, to go up 3-1; the Hurricanes blanked the Panthers, 3-0, to avoid elimination and end a 15-game conference finals losing streak. 🥎 Last eight standing: No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Florida, No. 6 Texas, No. 7 Tennessee, No. 9 UCLA, No. 12 Texas Tech, No. 16 Oregon and Ole Miss are headed to the Women's College World Series. 🏁 Racing roundup: Alex Palou won the Indy 500 for his fifth win in the season's first six races; Lando Norris (McLaren) won the Monaco GP; Ross Chastain won the Coca-Cola 600 despite starting in last. ⚾️ Selection Sunday: A record 13 SEC teams made the NCAA Baseball Tournament, with Vanderbilt earning the No. 1 overall seed in the 64-team field. 🥍 Lax champs: Cornell won its fourth men's title (and first since 1977); UNC won its fourth women's title; the Buffalo Bandits completed the three-peat in the NLL (indoor). The NBA playoffs used to be the domain of older, savvy vets deep into their thirties, but the league has gotten younger, and the best teams seem to be aging in that direction more rapidly. Is contending for a title increasingly becoming a young man's game? From Yahoo Sports' Tom Haberstroh: When LeBron James made his NBA debut in 2003, Anthony Edwards was merely a toddler, taking his first steps on Earth. When Kobe Bryant threw the iconic 'oop to Shaquille O'Neal in the 2000 Western Conference finals, Tyrese Haliburton was just a few months old. Jalen Brunson is young enough to ask his father, Rick, what it was like to play against Cleveland LeBron. Oh, and when Michael Jordan hit the clinching shot over Utah in the 1998 NBA Finals? Shai Gilgeous-Alexander wasn't even born. Feeling old yet? Millennials certainly do. By the numbers: With the Thunder leading the way, the average age of the four conference finalists stands at 26.5 years old. That's the lowest on record and guarantees that the NBA will crown its first Gen Z champion this year. This continues a surprising trend that has seen the NBA get younger and younger in its final stages of the season. A Gen Z champion was only a matter of time, but if late 1990s roster trends held firm, we'd be about 2-3 years away from reaching that point. With these four teams, we're way ahead of schedule. While it's true the league, in general, has gotten younger across the decades, the final four used to be far older than the also-rans. Nowadays, the age gap is narrowing to the point where, especially this season, there doesn't seem to be much of one at all. Keep reading. 🏴 Liverpool, England — Nearly 50 Liverpool fans were injured Monday after a 53-year-old British man drove a car into a crowd during the club's Premier League championship parade, according to police. 🇫🇷 Paris — Rafael Nadal was honored Sunday at Roland Garros, where the "King of Clay" won a record 14 French Opens and will now forever have his footprint immortalized on center court. 🇺🇸 St. Paul, Minnesota — The Minnesota Frost have repeated as PWHL champions, clinching their second straight Walter Cup on Monday with an overtime winner against the Ottawa Charge. 🇵🇹 Lisbon — The only English club to win the Women's Champions League is now the only one to do so twice, as Arsenal beat defending champion Barcelona, 1-0, on Saturday for their first title since 2007. 92 years later, the Americans are once again world hockey champions. Victory in Stockholm: The U.S. beat Switzerland, 1-0 (OT), on Sunday thanks to a golden goal from Sabres center Tage Thompson, giving USA Hockey its first on-ice trophy in this tournament since 1933. What they're saying: "We knew there was something special in this room, but the biggest thing was having Johnny Gaudreau in our room, too," Bruins goalie Jeremy Swayman said of the late NHL star who is the Americans' all-time points leader at worlds. "This gold goes to him and the legacy that he's paved for all USA hockey players." A long time coming: The 1933 title came back when only amateurs were allowed to compete. The Massachusetts Rangers (representing the U.S.) beat the Toronto National Sea Fleas (representing Canada) in the tournament's seventh edition, and first not won by Canada. The Americans tasted success in the ensuing decades, including Olympic gold in 1960 (technically a world title) and 1980, plus World Cup gold in 1996. But they mostly struggled at standalone world championships. Canada (28 golds), Russia/Soviet Union (27), Czechia (13) and Sweden (11) have won 79 of the 88 worlds; this was the first year the U.S. reached the title game in the tournament's modern era (since 1992). Between the lines: Team USA showed off its depth in Stockholm, boasting a young but talented roster that shared just two players with the team that took home silver in the 4 Nations Face-Off (Swayman and Blue Jackets' defenseman Zach Werenski). Looking ahead: Next year's Winter Olympics will feature NHL players for the first time since 2014. And unlike worlds, the 2026 Games are during an NHL break, meaning all top players will be available. Can the Americans run it back in a true best-on-best tournament? We'll find out in eight months. Shohei Ohtani faced live batters this weekend for the first time since 2023 as he works his way back from reconstructive elbow surgery. From Yahoo Sports' Jake Mintz: At 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, Shohei Ohtani climbed a big league hill for the first time in 614 days. Officially, it was just a live batting practice session, a low-stakes environment for a recovering pitcher to ease back into competition. But because it was Ohtani, the session morphed into a can't-miss event. As the three-time MVP readied to throw, a gaggle of his teammates assembled together behind a protective net set up near home plate. Dozens more Dodger players, coaches and team employees watched from the dirt track in foul territory down the third-base line. Across the diamond, Mets manager Carlos Mendoza and a handful of his players followed along from the home dugout. Media members, television cameras and photographers dotted the otherwise empty stands, jostling for the best possible view of the show. Only with Ohtani does the mundane feel so momentous. Scouting report: Ohtani threw 22 pitches across five at-bats and called upon his entire arsenal: fastball, sinker, cutter, sweeper, splitter. The velocity clocked in at 94-95 mph, although it reached as high as 97, according to pitching coach Mark Prior. "The stuff is there," Prior ensured. Meanwhile, on offense… Hours after his live BP session, Ohtani swapped his glove for a bat and cranked the second pitch of the evening 411 feet for his 18th home run. The next day, he cranked the first pitch of the night 378 feet for his MLB-leading 19th. New York gave Indiana a taste of its own medicine on Sunday with a 20-point comeback win behind a fourth-quarter explosion from Karl-Anthony Towns. Can the Knicks tie up the series tonight before heading back home? Edmonton has been on a roll since dropping Game 1, winning Games 2 and 3 by a combined score of 9-1, including Sunday's 6-1 thrashing. No. 2 Coco Gauff (7:10am), No. 3 Jessica Pegula (7:50am) and No. 6 Novak Djokovic (8:20am) headline the final day of the first round at Roland Garros. Plus: ⚾️ MLB: Braves at Phillies (6:45pm, TBS) … Ronald Acuña Jr. has homered twice in three games since returning from a torn ACL. ⛳️ NCAA Men's Golf: Team Match Play (Golf) … Quarterfinals (1pm) followed by semifinals (6pm). Today's full slate. All-NBA Selections: SGA, Jokić, Giannis, Tatum, Mitchell (First) | Edwards, James, Curry, Brunson, Mobley (Second) | Towns, Harden, Cunningham, Haliburton, Jalen Williams (Third). LeBron James earned his 21st All-NBA selection this season, six more than any other player in NBA history. Question: Which three players are tied for second, at 15 selections each? Hint: One guard, two bigs. Answer at the bottom. When Muhammad Ali knocked down Sonny Liston on May 25, 1965, photographer Neil Leifer captured what many consider to be the greatest sports photo ever taken. What he's saying: "What happened that night was I got very lucky, and I didn't miss," Leifer, now 82, told the New York Times on the 60th anniversary of his iconic shot, taken 1 minute and 44 seconds into the infamous title bout held in a tiny youth-center hockey rink. Fight: "Ali vs. Liston II" Location: Lewiston, Maine Equipment: Rolleiflex camera Behind the lens: Two distinct features of this photo are the (1) clean frame and (2) hazy background. Here's Leifer on both: Clean frame: "There was no commercialism. The mat was plain off-white canvas. There was nothing on the trunks. Nothing on the gloves. The background would be different today, with all sorts of crap: commercials for light beer, a hotel." Hazy background: "In those days, the crowd was going to be 90% men, and a lot of them were smoking cigarettes or cigars. The strobe lights filter through the smoke and you get a little bit of a blue haze, as opposed to a jet black, and it made the picture look a little more dramatic." 🎥 Watch: Full fight (YouTube) Trivia answer: Kobe Bryant, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Tim Duncan We hope you enjoyed this edition of Yahoo Sports AM, our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
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14-05-2025
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Yahoo Sports AM: The Travis Hunter debate
Yahoo Sports AM is our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it every weekday morning. 🏀 Heat, Mavs stay alive: Night 2 of the NBA Play-In Tournament saw the Heat end the Bulls' season and the Mavericks eliminate the Kings. Miami will play Atlanta tomorrow for the East's No. 8 seed, while Dallas will play Memphis for the West's No. 8 seed. 🏒 Canadiens clinch: On December 1, Montreal sat 31st (out of 32 teams) in the NHL standings. On Wednesday, they punched the final ticket to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. The 16-team bracket is now set entering the final day of the regular season. 🏈 Commanders coming home? D.C. is nearing a deal to bring the Commanders back to the nation's capital. The plan is to build a new venue at the RFK Stadium site, which is where the team played from 1961-1996 before moving to Maryland. ⚾️ Benches clear in Pittsburgh: Nationals pitcher Jorge López was ejected from Wednesday's game against the Pirates after a pitch near Andrew McCutchen's head led to both benches briefly clearing. The home team got the last laugh, winning 6-1. 🏈 UCLA lands top transfer: QB Nico Iamaleava is reportedly set to transfer to UCLA after parting ways with Tennessee over an alleged compensation dispute. The former five-star recruit led the Volunteers to the CFP last season. With the NFL draft a week away, Travis Hunter's future as a two-way player remains one of the most intriguing storylines. What he's saying: The 2024 Heisman Trophy winner has made it abundantly clear that he wants to continue playing both wide receiver and cornerback in the NFL — to the point where he said he'd rather quit football than be forced to play only one side of the ball. What others are saying: The Browns (No. 2 pick) have said they view Hunter primarily as a receiver, while the Giants (No. 3) and Patriots (No. 4) sound more amenable to using him as a true two-way player. Others believe his future lies as a shutdown corner, much like his college coach, Deion Sanders, who dabbled as a receiver in the NFL but mostly lined up on defense. Ravens head coach John Harbaugh doesn't doubt Hunter's physical ability to play two positions, but he's skeptical that it can be done full-time due to the mental load required in the NFL, where schemes are more complicated and coaches obsess over details. "To say that you're going to be completely immersed in everything that there is to know on offense and defense … I don't know if there's enough hours in the day for a player to be able to do that," said Harbaugh. To which Hunter replied: "It's not as complicated as people may think it is or may make it seem. I've been doing it for a long time, so it is super easy for me, super simple," he told Yahoo Sports on the heels of a historic college season that saw him play 713 offensive snaps and 748 defensive snaps en route to being named the nation's best wide receiver and defender. How rare are two-way players? The NFL's last true 60-minute man was Chuck Bednarik, who retired in 1962. A handful of others have tried since then, but only two — Roy Green in the 1980s and Sanders in the 1990s — had stints playing regularly on both sides. Will Hunter be given the opportunity to join that exclusive group? We'll find out soon enough. Draft Guide: Mock Draft | Big Board | Headlines Golf's pace of play issue has been brewing for a while. This week in South Carolina, the PGA Tour will try to address the problem by giving pros access to technology typically reserved for weekend warriors like you and me. Embracing technology: PGA Tour players will be permitted to use distance-measuring devices (aka. rangefinders) during the next six tournaments, beginning with this week's RBC Heritage. If the trial period is deemed a success, full-time implementation could follow. What they're saying: Defending champion Scottie Scheffler doesn't expect rangefinders to make a big difference this week, and if the PGA Championship — which has allowed them since 2021 — is any indication, the devices will be used sparingly. That said, there are certain situations where they could come in handy, notes Golf Channel's Rex Hoggard: Players and caddies anticipate using DMDs when dealing with shots that are well wide of playing corridors and it's difficult to find a reference point to use a yardage book, as well as a way to confirm yardages on approach shots and tee shots on par 3s. "I envision Tom [Hoge] standing in the fairway shooting [with a DMD] and I'll be getting the numbers like we always do," said James Edmondson, Hoge's longtime caddie. "I'll use it when we're off-line, but we're still going to use the fronts and the backs and the carries [yardages] in the book. If you don't do that, I think you'd get your sequence off." One important rule: Players may only use the rangefinder's distance functionality, and must disable all advanced features like course mapping, slope calculation and wind measurement. Long live the art of throwing a blade of grass to check the breeze! 🏀 0 returning players All 14 players from Baylor's 2024-25 men's basketball roster are now gone. Four graduated, one is turning pro and nine hit the transfer portal. If this can happen to a top-tier program that won a national championship four years ago, it can happen to anyone. The new normal. ⚾️ 500 strikeouts Braves flamethrower Spencer Strider returned to the mound on Wednesday after a one-year hiatus (elbow surgery) and recorded his 500th career strikeout in his 334th career inning, making him the fastest starting pitcher ever to reach that milestone. 🏀 -190 favorite Don't call it an upset if Golden State takes down Houston in the first round of the NBA playoffs. Despite being the No. 7 seed, the Warriors are favored (-190 at BetMGM) to beat the No. 2 seed Rockets, who were the better regular-season team but lack playoff experience. 💯 6 sports figures Serena Williams, Jalen Hurts, Simone Biles, Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart (Unrivaled co-founders), and Léon Marchand (French swimmer) made the 2025 TIME100, the magazine's annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. 🏀 55 opened, 54 closed There were 55 head coaching vacancies in D-I men's basketball this cycle. With Florida A&M hiring Charlie Ward (yes, that Charlie Ward), 54 of those jobs have now been filled. The only position currently available: UC Riverside. Real Madrid won last year's Champions League, then signed Kylian Mbappé. The assumption was that, together, they'd win it again. Instead, they struggled all tournament and crashed out after a 5-1 aggregate loss to Arsenal. The lesson: Soccer is not a superstar-driven sport. From Yahoo Sports' Henry Bushnell: Kylian Mbappé and Vinicius Jr. crept off the field after a sour second leg, or simply stood there, dumbfounded, because on paper, their team was more super than ever before; but in practice, soccer is the ultimate team game. Madrid had Mbappé and Vini and Jude Bellingham, Luka Modrić and Federico Valverde and Rodrygo; but there were no synchronized movements, no innovative ideas, and no penetration of a resolute Arsenal defense. Meanwhile, the club Mbappé left, PSG, has built one of the most entertaining teams in Europe in his absence, with 11 ego-less players pressing in unison and flying around fields in France. Unlike Madrid, they're headed to the Champions League semifinals, where they'll meet Arsenal — another well-built, albeit wounded, team without a megastar. They advanced (along with Barcelona and Inter Milan) because soccer is not a superstar-driven sport. It's about balance and coordinated ball progression. It's about attacking patterns and cleverly unlocked space. It's about defenders and midfielders and forwards shifting together, and reading one another's movements, as if on a string. It's about all sorts of things that Real Madrid, in constructing its superteam, seemingly ignored. And so, they fell, out of the Champions League. They have fallen out of first place in La Liga. They have failed to meet sky-high expectations in Year 1 of the Mbappé era, because they are less than the sum of their parts — whereas Arsenal and PSG (and Inter Milan) are more. The Final Four: The Champions League semifinals kick off on April 29, with first-leg matches in England (Arsenal vs. PSG) and Spain (Barcelona vs. Inter Milan). The second legs will be played on May 6 in Italy and May 7 in France, and the final is set for May 31 in Munich. The NCAA women's gymnastics championships begin today in Fort Worth, Texas, where eight teams are in contention for the national title. Field and format: Oklahoma, Florida, Missouri and Alabama are in the first semifinal (4:30pm ET, ESPN2), while LSU, Utah, UCLA and Michigan State are in the second (9pm, ESPN2). The top two teams from each advance to Saturday's team final. More to watch: 🏒 NHL: Capitals at Penguins (7pm, ESPN); Flames at Kings (9:30pm, ESPN) … Regular-season finale; all playoff spots and matchups are already set. ⚾️ MLB: Royals at Tigers (6:40pm, FS1); Yankees at Rays (7:05pm, Prime) … New York (11-7) and Detroit (10-8) are both in first place. ⛳️ PGA: RBC Heritage (8am, ESPN+; 2pm, Golf) … Scottie Scheffler looks to defend his title* at Harbour Town Golf Links in Hilton Head. ⛳️ LPGA: LA Championship (6pm, Golf) … Seven of the world's top 10 golfers tee it up at El Caballero Country Club. *Fourth time's the charm? This is already Scheffler's fourth title defense of the year following his historic 2024 season. He failed to repeat as champion in his first three attempts (Arnold Palmer Invitational, Players Championship, Masters), but perhaps this is the week he breaks through and earns his first victory of 2025. Five Canadian teams are headed to the Stanley Cup Playoffs, tied for the highest total in the past 30 years alongside 2017, 2015, 2004 and 1996. Question: Which five teams Canadian are playoff-bound? Hint: I gave one away in today's "Headlines" section. That's all you get! Answer at the bottom. If you listen to one thing today, make it the newest episode of the No Laying Up podcast, which will transport you to Augusta National in a way you won't soon forget. The gist: The No Laying Up crew roamed the hallowed grounds last week armed with mics, capturing the sounds of the tournament and pulling together a narrative podcast in real time. It's a brilliant idea, executed to near perfection. Trivia answer: Jets, Maple Leafs, Oilers, Senators, Canadiens We hope you enjoyed this edition of Yahoo Sports AM, our daily newsletter that keeps you up to date on all things sports. Sign up here to get it delivered to your inbox every weekday morning.
