Black Knight

It doesn't matter that he's a hired gun. The Lakers under the Busses simply don't treat their franchise superstars that way. LBJ brought them out of the doldrums of the post-Kobe period and makes them a shit-ton of money and will continue to make them a shit-ton of money until the day he leaves, most likely by retiring. The Lakers treating their franchise superstars the way they do is a large part of why they're a premier destination for superstars, and Doncic's contract expires in 2026. The Lakers obviously want to convince him to stay and be the face of the franchise for the next ten years, and LBJ assuring Doncic he can trust the Lakers to treat him like a king (which will be big for Doncic considering the way Dallas not only traded him without warning but has spent the last few days trashing him) will be critical in that effort.

Ideally it would cost them their owner, but that's not how things work, sadly for Browns fans. Look at the Commanders. With consistently snake-bit teams, it starts at the top with the owner. The Myles Garrett situation is really a win-win if looked at unsentimentally. Watson flaming out means Garrett doesn't really fit the Browns' timeline anymore. They can trade him for multiple quality picks to use to build a new team around a new QB, and Garrett can go somewhere he might be able to get a Super Bowl ring before he hangs up his cleats. Win-win. Well, except that the Haslams will still own the Browns.

LeBron says he was kept in the dark. Given that the Lakers hired his podcast buddy to be head coach and drafted his entirely-unready and mediocre son just so LBJ could play with him, that seems highly unlikely. LBJ just doesn't want to have any fallout from trading AD splash back on him. He does not. Here's a hilarious montage of his "defense" in last year's NBA Finals.

@atomic, I took at least half of that as sarcasm. I mean, Draymond Green a teddy bear? Or classy? 🤣

What's funniest is that Butler wants to go to the Suns, and they want him, but they have to trade Beal to make it happen, and Beal has a no-trade clause. And he's probably not going to approve a trade to any of the (few) teams willing to take him.

I like the Carroll hire for the Raiders. He knows how to build a culture and organization. He should be able to get good coordinators, so there'll be someone he can groom to take over after him, plus someone who can develop a young QB. I don't see Davis firing him; he listens to Brady and Brady understands the importance of building a functional organization and attracting top coaching talent. The Raiders finally have a legitimate name as a HC and if they want to be able to get the same for Carroll's successor, they have to treat Carroll right. As for the Cowboys, yeah, Aikman was right that this isn't a coveted job. Jones hired someone who didn't draw any HC interest from other teams, when good OCs usually can get a couple of calls at least. Reading about Dan Snyder being so angry that the Commanders are doing well makes me happy. I'm definitely rooting for whichever NFC team makes it to the Super Bowl this year. And I have good friends who love the Bills, so I wouldn't be unhappy if they ended up winning the Super Bowl either. Here's hoping the Chiefs' run ends tomorrow!

Correct, as she wanted the chance to actually rest, and of course, she's the rare WNBA player who doesn't need the additional income, so she has the ability to take the time off.

Eh, with Sasaki it wasn't money, as he could've gotten the same or more from Toronto. It's the first-class organization combined with the west coast location. The west coast is always going to be more attractive to Japanese athletes, and at that point there's no question the Dodgers are better run than the Padres, Giants, Mariners, and A's. If baseball were a bigger deal in Europe, then east coast teams would be benefiting from that proximity. The Sasaki coverage of the last few months was mostly a waste of time and was just a way for media to fill their baseball section during the offseason, but I did learn from it that Sasaki lost his father, grandparents and home in the Fukushima tsunami, and credits baseball as giving him a way to cope after that tragedy. I wish him all the best.

I want the Eagles to win it all so I can see what Quinta Brunson does with it in an Abbott Elementary episode.

Troy Aikman says it's not a coveted HC job. I think he's right. In today's NFL, up-and-coming coordinators are often the most desired by teams, but after years of this, the coordinators of today have seen what happens to the coordinators of yesteryear who went into iffy situations and didn't do well. It can take a while, if ever, to get another HC opportunity - even if there are built-in excuses. And one built-in excuse is not like another built-in excuse. For instance, I think another owner would be okay with "the QB I inherited was a bust," but if you say "the last owner I worked for sucked," they're thinking that if you fail at your next job, you'll say the same thing about them. (One reason why it's advised at job interviews in general not to trash wherever/whoever you've left/are leaving, even if you did leave/are leaving because they sucked.) Younger coaches have increasingly learned that it's better to stay a coordinator until a really good opportunity comes along, instead of leaving the first time a team offers a HC gig. NFL coaches don't get endorsement deals the way star athletes do, so ratings aren't as much a factor. Also, Jerry Jones doesn't want anyone competing with him for attention, so coaches who are interested in having a high public profile need not apply. Ben Johnson is the hottest coaching prospect this season. Zero chance he goes to Dallas.

I'm certain she didn't fatally shoot him, because it gives a purpose to her subplot with the organ harvesting. He'll be marked as an organ donor, but she'll be waiting on the other end and will kill the other guards in order to save him. And then their escape will link them up with Gi-Hun and any other survivors trying to get out. Her existence as a character as well as the organ harvesting subplot would otherwise be entirely pointless. I wonder how Front Man would have played things out if Gi-Hun had taken him instead of his best friend. Since he was separated from Gi-Hun, it was easy for him to carry out the sabotage and then dress himself back in his Front Man outfit without ever tipping off Gi-Hun. Trickier to manage shutting down the rebellion without revealing himself if he'd been tag-teaming along with Gi-Hun. We're getting the remaining episodes this year, and they're done and in the can, so I don't mind the cliffhanger. I assume NF isn't going to hold onto S3 for that long - this is really one season dropping in two parts, and when NF has done that before (You for instance) it's not that long before the second part drops.

Strahan was unblocked because Favre called a play where the protections weren't right for what the defense was doing. That's the issue more than his laying down, which as you said was going to happen anyway. I always thought Favre did that because he expected that he was going to get sacked at some point in the game and he wanted it said that he "gave" it to Strahan. And he got what he wanted. A typical unclassy move on his part, but Favre has always been a dude with no class, and ultimately no ethics.

The Broadway version, being a stage show, can do certain things faster than a movie can, because audiences will make allowances for the limitations of the stage. More specifically to Wicked, though, generally Broadway shows get to have an intermission. It's really hard to imagine how a sole movie can go straight from Defying Gravity to Act II. Like many, I've always considered Act II to be weaker than Act I. But getting to have a full movie for Act II may well boost it to Act I levels. I was highly skeptical going in to this movie, having the same complaint as many about why a stage show needed to be made into two movies. But now I absolutely get it, and I disagree with the poster upthread who said the adapters started with the intention of making it two movies and worked backwards from that. The Wicked movie is better than Act I of the stage musical, and now I'm giving the creative team my trust that Act II will justify having its own film, because they've earned that trust with the glory that is the first film.

Ohtani injured his shoulder in the second game and dealt with it the rest of the WS, and had surgery on it a few days after the series ended. I'm not sure why the Dodgers even put him out there again at all, but it was hilarious that he got walked when he couldn't really swing a bat and had to hold his arm in place while moving around the bases so he wouldn't mess his shoulder up further. In any case, that's why the commentators talked about Judge and not Ohtani, because Judge wasn't injured.

The Raiders can't even tank properly. If they somehow squeeze out another win with the new OC, I'm going to be really mad. I'm not a big fan of tanking, but the Raiders are certainly not Super Bowl-bound this year. If they had run up fewer pointless wins last year, they could've gotten a franchise QB. The Saints play the Raiders this season, so Derek Carr could also become the first NFL QB to lose to all 32 teams. I do feel bad in that he's not a guy who's done anything to deserve that kind of ignominy. He's never been in trouble off the field, he doesn't act like a jackass on or off the field, and while he's not a great QB he's also not horrific either. But as far as that last point goes, I guess that's a large part of it - the horrific QBs wash out before they can play all these teams.