Sonia Citron outshines Paige Bueckers as the Mystics clip the Wings in OT
As Brittney Sykes began the Washington Mystics' final offensive possession, she tossed the ball inside to a rolling Shakira Austin, who immediately pivoted to her left and kicked it out to a wide-open Citron.
The WNBA's No. 3 draft pick went up without hesitation and with perfect form, letting her right wrist hang well after her release. The ball didn't even graze the rim as it ripped through the net and Citron threw up three fingers with just 12.9 seconds left in overtime.
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New York Times
25 minutes ago
- New York Times
What are the 10 best sports movies of the 21st century? (Plus: MoneyCall wants yours!)
Welcome back to MoneyCall, The Athletic's weekly sports business cheat sheet. (Want to receive MoneyCall in your email every Wednesday? Easy sign-up here.) Name-dropped today: Brad Pitt, Michele Kang, George Costanza, Joey Chestnut, Jason Kirk, Caitlin Clark, Ndamukong Suh, Red Panda, Bobby Bonilla and more. Let's go: The Top 10 Sports Movies of the 21st Century (and does 'F1: The Movie' reach the 21st century sports movie pantheon?) 'F1: The Movie' is a smash hit. Advertisement It had the biggest opening weekend (~$146M) of any movie in Brad Pitt's entire career, and it *just* missed knocking out 'Creed III' as the highest-grossing U.S. opening weekend for any sports movie ever. Why? As with TV's 'Drive to Survive,' F1 makes for the kind of glitzy visuals and hyper-aggressive soundscapes that prove popular in the summer, with a mega-marketing push from Apple. (Even the cars' tires are co-stars.) Two questions: 1) Will we see copycats, like we did with 'Drive to Survive?' If anything, 'F1' is a bit derivative of modern sports movies. Meanwhile, like DTS, F1's unique elements are hard to replicate with other sports. Given that opening-weekend showing, it shouldn't surprise you to hear that a sequel is in development. 2) Is it one of the best sports movies of the 21st century? Our two F1 reporters wouldn't go that far (and neither will I), but that question nicely coincides with The New York Times' buzzy 'Best Movies of the 21st Century' list. I picked mine just for sports movies, not listed in any particular order (and only features, not documentaries): (My hottest take of all: 2014's 'Whiplash' is really a sports movie — J.K. Simmons' Terence Fletcher is the scariest coach in movie history — and if you watch it that way, it takes the film to a new level.) Let's have some mid-summer fun: Pick your own 10 favorite sports movies of the 21st century here, then drop any unlisted personal favorites (or gripes about my list above) in the comments section below. WNBA to reach 18 teams in 2030. Plus: NCAA needs geography lessons Big talkers from the sports business industry: WNBA expansion mania: Adding Cleveland in 2028. Detroit in 2029. Philadelphia in 2030. That's on top of Golden State launching this season and Toronto and Portland launching next season. It's a lot. Here's the stat of the week: $50M: What Golden State and Toronto paid in expansion fees in 2023 and 2024, respectively. Advertisement $75M: What Portland paid in 2024. $250M: What the three ownership groups announced on Monday paid. That's 3X the fee from just a year ago! By the time those three new teams take the court, their team valuations could easily have doubled. The Valkyries, for example, were just valued at $500M by Sportico. (Related: How much of that jump from $75M to $250M can be attributed to the Caitlin Clark Effect? Anecdotally, I would say a lot. But don't take my speculative word for it: Get an amazing just-published deep-dive here from my colleagues Ben Pickman and Sabreena Merchant on Clark's billion-dollar value to the league.) MLB, ESPN renew talks: ESPN was never going to keep paying MLB $550M for its rights package, but after the initial tensions cooled off, both sides clearly see the value of talking through a path forward — MLB needs the additional national exposure, ESPN needs … the local game rights for its new streaming service? Club World Cup x weather: Zoom out — the bigger issue with the heat (and myriad storm delays) is what this foreshadows for the World Cup next summer, across the U.S., Mexico and Canada. Pac-12 adds Texas State: The conference needed an eighth football team to remain FBS-eligible, and even the ninth-best major college football team in Texas is still giving your inaccurately named league a footprint in TEXAS. NHL, union sign new CBA: Expanding the regular season to 84 games got the headlines, but the end of the delightful (if possibly overhyped) emergency backup goalie ('EBUG') system is the quirky detail I'm lamenting. Other current obsessions: Michele Kang taking over managing Lyon (and signing Lily Johannes to the women's side!) … Randy Moss returning to ESPN … Al Hilal toppling Man City at the Club World Cup … Cadillac's F1 startup … NBA Draft fashion reviews … the George Costanza bobblehead bubble … Joey Chestnut back at the Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest on July 4th … get well soon, Red Panda … How does an NFL legend think about business opportunties? The Athletic's newest podcast 'No Free Lunch,' hosted by football legend Ndamukong Suh, launched yesterday (check it out here). I had a few Qs for my new teammate Suh that he was nice enough to answer: What makes for a good podcast? It's about real, honest conversations — no filters, just raw truth and transparency. We want our guests' stories to be relatable to everyone, showing the human side of success and struggle. And most importantly, every episode should give you something valuable to learn for your own life. Advertisement What is a recent/current sports business storyline you find fascinating? The dynamic around the NFL's management council and player compensation is fascinating. Whether you call it collusion or strategic business, it's a prime example of maximizing profit by minimizing costs. Every business aims to widen that spread, and NFL owners are no different. Ultimately, though, the responsibility falls to the NFL Players Association. It's on them to be a strong, unified union and negotiate for better terms. At the end of the day, it's a business. Watch the first episode here: Data Point: 1,293,526 That's the number of WNBA All-Star votes Caitlin Clark got, the most any player has ever received (breaking her own record, set a year ago). AND YET! Clark was only the ninth-highest vote-getter *just among guards* from WNBA players themselves, highlighting the not-concerning-at-all disconnect between Clark's frenzied fan following and her complicated status with her peers. Ratings Watch: 534,000 That's the number of fans who tuned in for the NHL Draft on Friday night, up 6 percent from last year's Friday night draft, per SBJ's ratings guru Austin Karp. Brands of the Week Adidas, American Eagle, Battle Sports, Chipotle, DSW, Electronic Arts, Lululemon and Red Bull. As my colleague Jason Kirk noted in his must-read Until Saturday college football newsletter: 'Just some of the companies in the Ohio State WR Jeremiah Smith business.' Bobby Bonilla Day tribute: $112,600,000 That's what the Milwaukee Bucks will pay Damian Lillard over the next five years not to play for the team, the largest the largest 'waive-and-stretch' deal in NBA history (and ironically announced ON Bobby Bonilla Day). Can you beat Dan in Connections: Sports Edition? Today: Puzzle #282 Dan's time: 0:29 (Today's puzzle includes my favorite game of all time.) Great business-adjacent reads for your downtime or commute: In a perfect postscript to last week's MoneyCall lead item about Cooper Flagg and New Balance, don't miss this behind-the-scenes reporting on how that deal went down. Two more: (1) The most fascinating case study in the business of college sports right now is … Sacramento State. (Free idea for the Pac-12: Charge Sac St. $10M a year to be in the league.) (2) Another smart column from my colleague Asli Pelit from her 'Down to Business' series on women's soccer, globally: Players as media companies. Back next Wednesday! Celebrate July 4th by texting this link to friends or colleagues asking for their 21st century sports movie recs. And, as always, give a (free!) try to MoneyCall and all The Athletic's other newsletters.
Yahoo
36 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Guardians at Cubs Prediction: Odds, expert picks, starting pitchers, betting trends and stats for July 2
Its Wednesday, July 2 and the Guardians (40-43) are in Chicago to take on the Cubs (50-35). Tanner Bibee is slated to take the mound for Cleveland against Shota Imanaga for Chicago. The Cubs took the opener in the series by the score of 5-2 last night. Carson Kelly went 2-2 and drove in three runs to pace the offense and Matthew Boyd allowed five hits and two runs over seven innings to earn his eighth win of the season. Advertisement Lets dive into tonight's matchup and find a sweat or two. We've got all the info and analysis you need to know ahead of the game, including the latest info on the how to catch tipoff, odds, recent team performance, player stats, and of course, our predictions, picks & best bets for the game from our modeling tools and staff of experts. Follow Rotoworld Player News for the latest fantasy and betting player news and analysis all season long. Game details & how to watch Guardians at Cubs Date: Wednesday, July 2, 2025 Time: 8:05PM EST Site: Wrigley Field City: Chicago, IL Network/Streaming: CLEG, MARQ, MLBN Never miss a second of the action and stay up-to-date with all the latest team stats and player news. Check out our day-by-day MLB schedule page, along with detailed matchup pages that update live in-game with every out. Odds for the Guardians at the Cubs The latest odds as of Wednesday: Advertisement Moneyline: Guardians (+134), Cubs (-159) Spread: Cubs -1.5 Total: 9.0 runs Probable starting pitchers for Guardians at Cubs Pitching matchup for July 2, 2025: Tanner Bibee vs. Shota Imanaga Guardians: Tanner Bibee (4-8, 3.90 ERA) Last outing: 6/26 vs. Toronto - 6IP, 2ER, 3H, 0BB, 7Ks Cubs: Shota Imanaga (4-2, 2.54 ERA) Last outing: 6/26 at St. Louis - 5IP, 0ER, 1H, 1BB, 3Ks Rotoworld still has you covered with all the latest MLB player news for all 30 teams. Check out the feed page right here on NBC Sports for headlines, injuries and transactions where you can filter by league, team, positions and news type! Top betting trends & insights to know ahead of Guardians at Cubs The Cubs have won 4 of their last 5 home games against teams with losing records The Guardians' last 3 against the Cubs have stayed under the Total The Guardians have failed to cover the Run Line in 8 of their last 10 games Pete Crow-Armstrong snapped an 0-11 streak with a couple of hits last night If you're looking for more key trends and stats around the spread, moneyline and total for every single game on the schedule today, check out our MLB Top Trends tool on NBC Sports! Expert picks & predictions for tonight's game between the Guardians and the Cubs Rotoworld Best Bet Please bet responsibly. If you or someone you know has a gambling problem, call the National Gambling Helpline at 1-800-522-4700. Advertisement Our model calculates projections around each moneyline, spread and over/under bet for every game on the MLB calendar based on data points like past performance, player matchups, ballpark information and weather forecasts. Once the model is finished running, we put its projection next to the latest betting lines for the game to arrive at a relative confidence level for each wager. Here are the best bets our model is projecting for Wednesday's game between the Guardians and the Cubs: Moneyline: NBC Sports Bet is recommending a play on the Chicago Cubs on the Moneyline. Spread: NBC Sports Bet is leaning towards a play ATS on the Cleveland Guardians at +1.5. Total: NBC Sports Bet is leaning towards a play on the under on the Game Total of 9.0. Want even more MLB best bets and predictions from our expert staff & tools? Check out the Expert MLB Predictions page from NBC Advertisement Follow our experts on socials to keep up with all the latest content from the staff:
Yahoo
43 minutes ago
- Yahoo
K'Andre Miller is eager for his new start after trade from New York Rangers to Carolina Hurricanes
K'Andre Miller kept his phone off and avoided social media in recent weeks with his future uncertain after five seasons with the New York Rangers. Now, he's eager to jump into the Carolina Hurricanes' aggressive system. Advertisement The Hurricanes acquired the 25-year-old former first-round pick to bolster their blue line and gave him a long-term contract Tuesday, the first official day of free agency. He joins a team that has made seven straight playoff trips and is coming off a third trip to the Eastern Conference final in that span. Carolina has a headlining defenseman in Jaccob Slavin, but is retooling that group with veterans Brent Burns and Dmitry Orlov unlikely to return. The tweaks trading away defenseman Scott Morrow — a rising prospect pressed into playoff duty due to injuries — and draft picks to New York to land Miller. 'They have such a fast team,' Miller said Wednesday in a Zoom call with reporters. 'They get up and down the ice in a fast motion and they do everything as a team. It's a fun group to watch and they've had a lot of success recently. So I'm excited to join that style of game, and they have a great team over there.' The Hurricanes project the 6-foot-5, 210-pound Miller as a strong fit with his size and skating ability. They're counting on him to bolster a system that relies on an aggressive forecheck to pressure opponents, get control of the puck and keep it to maintain pressure in the offensive zone. Advertisement The Hurricanes are betting Miller is still on the rise, handing him an eight-year contract paying an average annual value of $7.5 million through the 2032-33 season. There were certainly flashes of it with the Rangers as a regular Metropolitan Division foe for the Hurricanes. The No. 22 overall pick in 2018 by the Rangers has played at least 74 regular-season games for four straight seasons, including posting 17 goals and 56 assists for 73 points over the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons. But his play fell off last season as he went from looking like a Rangers building block to expendable, coming amid New York's overall crash from Presidents' Trophy winner in 2024 to six points out of a wild-card playoff spot this year. Afterward, Miller tried to tune out 'all the speculation and kind of noise and uncertainty with New York." That meant focusing instead on getting stronger and getting mentally prepared for what's next. Advertisement And now, that's a new start. 'I think there was a lot of noise throughout the season,' Miller said. 'So I think it was definitely in the back of my head that something could happen, might happen. I loved my time in New York and it was great, but I'm excited for what's to come in Carolina.' ___ AP NHL:
