Hello readers, welcome to the latest issue of O For 4. Thank you if you are a repeat reader. This week’s edition is going to have a little bit of everything unlike the last two editions, which were mostly focused on one sport. The summer is moving along and the world of sports is as busy as ever. Let’s get to this week’s topics, and as always, please leave your comments at the end.
1. NBA Free Agency: Who won and who lost?
Even though a champion has been crowned and even though the draft has transpired, the NBA is still staying at the top of the headlines with the opening of free agency. It was not the biggest and most star-studded free agent class we have ever seen, but, as always, there are winners and losers.
I am going to start with the latter. Fresh after seeing their greatest historical rival, the Boston Celtics, break the tie for most championships, the Los Angeles Lakers decided to tie themselves to an anchor that isn’t long enough to reach the bottom. In other words, the Lakers are about to get pulled down. The “reports” in the days leading up to free agency was that Lebron James was going to take less money in order to help his team out. The caveat was that there would have to be an available move for the Lakers to make with the money they were going to save from James’ favorable deal. Now, I don’t know if James ever really meant that or if the Lakers ever truly tried to find a free agent to bring in, but it did not seem to take very long after free agency opened for the announcement of a two-year max deal to hit the press. This meant that there would be no free agents of significance joining the Lakers for 2024-25.
Add to Lebron’s signing the other big news from Lakerland, the drafting of Bronny James, and the Lakers, and specifically their general manager, Rob Pelinka, have made it clear that they are more concerned with making Lebron the main attraction, letting him play with his son and pile onto his records, rather than trying to field a competitor. Drafting Bronny was perhaps the biggest case of nepotism in the history of nepotism. There were three picks left after the Lakers selected him near the end of the second round. No one else was going to take him; he would have been available as a free agent. L.A. could have drafted another player who would have been better for their team. Bronny scored five points a game for a bad USC team last year so it is not like he is some massive draft heist, and then there is the case of him having a pretty serious medical condition.
Outwardly, I expect every one of Lebron’s teammates to be excited for him getting to play with his son, something that has never been done in the NBA before. Inwardly, I would hope that every one of them has at least some feeling of being disappointed. Management has sent a signal that they are not trying to construct a good team. This is a team that will be worse than it was a year ago, when they had to go through the play-in game before being dismissed by the Denver Nuggets in five games. If this is how they want to be for the end of Lebron’s career, then be my guest. I guess it will be like Kobe’s ending, on the outside of the playoffs looking in.
In more positive reporting, there were a couple of teams in the Eastern Conference that made moves in an attempt to put them over the top. The Philadelphia 76ers, who also were a play-in team last year, signed Paul George away from the other L.A. team. And the New York Knicks made a trade for Mikal Bridges, making him the fourth former Villanova teammate on the roster. It is quite the feat of roster building, not just getting four college teammates, but four who won a championship together.
Last year, the Knicks ended up with a big asterisk next to their finish. By the time they were eliminated in game seven of the second round, they had five players, including three regular-season starters, out with injuries. They should have made it to the Eastern Finals, at least, if that had not been the case. I wrote previously how the Celtics ended up with a very easy path through the East on the way to the title this year due to all the injuries of their opponents, and in this case a would-be opponent. Hopefully, next year is a healthier year for everyone.
Avoiding the injury bug, my Eastern Conference power rankings for next year are:
3. Orlando/Cleveland (tie)
2. Boston
1. New York
Yes, I am moving the Knicks to the top line. And as far as Philly, I do not think the Paul George signing is going to move them as high as they hope. They have two stars in Maxey and Embiid, but I think George is a fading player at this point in his career. On the other hand, the Knicks’ main players all seem like they are in their primes concurrently. The wait at Madison Square Gardens may be coming to an end. Not only do I think they will be tops in the East, I predict they are going to win it all.
2. Euro ‘24 And Copa America: Two tournaments are better than one, unless they are not.
We soccer fans have been truly blessed these past three weeks with not one, but two international tournaments going on. On June 14, the 2024 version of the European Championships kicked off; this is a tournament that some aficionados will tell you is actually tougher than the World Cup. Six days later, the Copa America got underway, combining teams from two federations, Conmebol and Concacaf, to give us a tournament to determine supremacy of the New World. With the semifinals now set for both tournaments, we see very little in the way of surprises, with one exception. Over in Europe, the last four are England, Spain, France, and Netherlands. Three of those have raised the World Cup before (all but Netherlands), three of them (all but England) have won the Euro, and all of them have been to the last match of both tournaments. All four are ranked in the top eight of FIFA’s rankings. There would be no shockers at this point.
And on this side of the Atlantic, the semifinalists are Argentina, Columbia, Uruguay, and… Canada. There is your one surprise. That is three top-14 teams… and #48. It was the most minor of upsets having Uruguay take Brazil out in the quarters, and it would have made more sense had the USA advanced this far instead of Canada, but they were a massive disappointment (which I am not going to discuss).
But here is what I do wish to write about. I have a complaint. There is, perhaps, nothing I despise more in sports than a soccer game being decided by penalty kicks. And just this holiday weekend, I have had to endure five quarterfinal games going this route, with a sixth going into extra time. It has been awful for me.
Here is my issue with this method. There is never a time in a soccer match where a player is going to have the ball stopped twelve yards away from the goal and have an opportunity to take a free run at it, while the goalie is forced to remain on the goal line with no ability to come out and cut down the angle. Simply put, it is not a naturally occurring play, unlike hockey using penalty shots, which at least resemble breakaways, something which does happen from time to time. FIFA needs to revise the rules and come up with a better way of determining a winner when there is still a tie at the end of extra time (and, by the way, what is up with Copa America not having extra time and going straight to PKs after 90 minutes?).
Good news for you all, I have a suggestion for how to fix it. Assuming we don’t get “golden goal” with the game going on until someone ends it, then the next best thing is getting rid of penalty kicks and replacing them with corner kicks. Confused? Don’t think that is better? Allow me to explain. It will not be a standard corner kick with full squads. The team on offense will have one player who takes the corner plus two additional players who have to be inside the penalty area (18 yards out), or maybe even below the penalty dot (12 yards). The defensive team will have the goalie and one other defender. The person taking the corner has to put the ball in the air; the defenders need to knock it down to the ground to end the attempt. The offensive team needs to put it in the net. It can hit the ground off a kick or header before going into the net so long as it is not one of the defensive players who knocked it down. And another offensive player cannot strike it after it hits the ground.
This plan at least resembles a play we see often in soccer games, unlike the penalty kick, which only occurs as a result of a foul within the 18-yard box. It would be a much better way for a game to end.
I know I am not the only one who is not a fan of PKs. If one of you fellow PK haters happens to know someone at FIFA, will you please send them my idea?
3. Tennis: Were the “Big 3” bad for the game?
Today is Middle Sunday at the All England Club for the biggest tennis tournament on the calendar. The quarterfinal round is beginning to take shape, and we are seeing some typical results. On the men’s side, the seeded players are making their way through, with the top five still in as well as 13 total seeded players (out of 32) making it at least to the final 16. The women’s draw, on the other hand, is seeing its usual allotment of upsets, including #1 Iga Swiatek falling in the third round on Saturday. Among the final 16, there are only three top-10 players remaining, 8 top-20, and ten seeded players.
This is precisely what I like about the women’s game more than the men, the unpredictability and new names constantly coming up. Certainly, we are, finally, at the changing of a guard in men’s tennis, though Novak Djokovic is still a force. Roger Federer is retired and Rafael Nadal has probably played his last major. So far this year, Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz have won the two majors, marking the first time since 2016 that there have been two consecutive majors where none of the Big 3 (Federer, Nadal, Djokovic) has claimed the trophy. If Novak does not win this Wimbledon, it will be the first time since right before Federer’s first slam at Wimbledon 2003 that there were three straight majors without one of them winning.
The new elite, namely Alcaraz, Sinner, and Daniil Medvedev (and Alexander Zverev if he can finally win a slam) are ready to carry the torch. But are they collectively or are any one of them singularly worth getting excited about? I want to pose the theory that the dominance of the Big 3 was bad for the future of tennis. How am I supposed to get enthused about seeing Alcaraz winning his third Grand Slam when the names he is looking to replace won 20, 22, and 24? Sure, I can recognize his talent compared to his contemporaries (and to a version of Djokovic who is 16 years his senior), but it seems like an exercise in futility to begin extrapolating his career path and comparing him to the GOATs of his sport.
The Big 3 are so far ahead of everyone else ever (the prior record belonged to Pete Sampras, who won 14 Slams), that until someone reaches at least the teens, there is no sense even putting them in the conversation. Now, thanks to Roger, Rafa, and Djoker, being in consideration for tennis’ Mt. Rushmore also requires longevity at the top, so it could take someone a decade of domination to begin to sniff the Big 3.
Maybe those three greats who ruled the courts for a full twenty years truly were so far ahead of these new guys that it does not matter and we can just keep them on their pedestal. It is like in the NFL, where the notion of anyone ever coming close to Tom Brady’s seven Lombardi Trophies seems like science fiction (though I would be happy to see Patrick Mahomes get there eventually). They say records are meant to be broken, but the career Grand Slam mark just seems so far out of reach that that conversation may just need to be put to bed. And that is too bad.
4. On a serious note…
I will admit I was struggling to come up with the fourth topic for this week’s blog. I was scrolling through all the different websites I frequent looking for a story I wanted to give an opinion on. Unfortunately, I came across an article on ESPN sharing some sad news, this one from the world of cycling. Another race, the Tour of Austria is currently going on at the same time as the Tour de France. A rider from Norway and a part of Team Coop-Repsol, Andre Drege, died as a result of injuries sustained in a downhill crash on Saturday. He was 25 years old. Condolences to his family, teammates, and friends.
This news made me reflect for a moment and I want to give a nod of appreciation to all the professional (and even collegiate) athletes out there. These men and women literally put their bodies on the line fulfilling their passions. But they also are putting their bodies on the line for our entertainment. Certainly, a death in sport is rare, but not rare enough. We’ve seen it in basketball (Hank Gathers), football (Chuck Hughes), hockey (Bill Masterson), and pro wrestling (Owen Hart). We’ve heard about plenty of racehorses having to be euthanized due to race injuries. And each summer, there are reports of marathon entrants dying during a race from exhaustion. And on top of the rare death, there are plenty of injuries sustained of varying degrees, most famously and most severely the cases of CTE occurring in football players.
So I will just finish this week’s essays with some advice to everyone, myself included, to always give these athletes their due respect. Even if it is a player on a team you enjoy cheering against, keep in mind the sacrifices they have made mastering their craft and the dedication they have shown to their sport. They are all incredible individuals, often the envy of us mere armchair quarterbacks, and are deserving of our admiration and appreciation.
RIP Andre Drege.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s essays. I am going to be heading out of town this coming week so the next issue of O For 4 won’t be for a couple of weeks. See you guys soon.
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