Quoting diligent media reporter Steve Berman at The Athletic:

After three San Francisco Giants pitchers appeared in Friday’s game with Bible verses written on their Pride Night caps, Major League Baseball issued a warning that similar behavior will not be tolerated.

“The writing on the cap violates our rules, and consistent with normal practice, we have warned the players about future violations,” Pat Courtney, MLB’s chief communications officer, told The Athletic in a statement that Outsports first reported.

As I’ve written about, this non-alignment issue on Pride is a recent problem for baseball. This specific situation is a mess, and you can see how, even if the mess was easily avoidable, it was also inevitable. Having started a 2021 tradition of Pride-themed jerseys, it would be unimaginable for the San Francisco Giants to stop the practice, even in the face of indications that many MLB players dislike getting dressed up as Pride mascots.

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Twelve years ago, I stumbled into a bit of accidental controversy. Perhaps that part isn’t a surprise but the source of the backlash might be: An article crediting Tim Duncan. The TrueHoop piece titled, “Tim Duncan willing to pay the price for titles,” established the logic of Timmy taking a pay cut in order to help his Spurs win another championship. Deadspin responded with a scathing article (can’t find it) because my framing was somehow violative of the pro-union, anti-owner ideology over there. I just saw what happened as labor making a choice, though: Tim Duncan gets to pay for what Tim Duncan wants and Timmy wants a title.

The question on my mind is whether such an act should be considered part of a player’s overall value. In real sports terms within a salary capped league, it certainly is. We just don’t, understandably, debate player rankings with this aspect incorporated.

With that, and specifically underpaid Jalen Brunson now in mind, this message comes from of the aptly named Unlikely Shortcuts Substack.

Relatively new sub and I’ve been loving your NBA coverage. Was building this when you dropped “The Knicks Are Breaking My Understanding of Basketball” and found the narrative really matched up.

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Dunc’d On Founder and co-host of my new favorite YouTube channel Nate Duncan, everybody.

• How huge is this Finals?

• Wembanyama temp check: Nate loves Wemby, but how does the public feel?

• Does Wembanyama’s unprecedented physical advantage make him more compelling—or less entertaining—to watch?

• Is Wembanyama actually a dirty player, or is he simply dealing with the challenges of being 7-foot-5?

• Should playoff basketball be officiated differently than regular-season basketball?

• Does today’s NBA Finals atmosphere compare to the league’s peak popularity during the 2016 Warriors–Cavs era?

• Does James Dolan care what anyone thinks?

• Why does Steve Kerr have a growing coaching tree?

• Did OG Anunoby’s chase-down block deserve more appreciation than De’Aaron Fox’s mistake deserved blame?

• Why does Nate view skiing as a more legitimate passion than golf?

• Effects of parents actually spending more time with their children than previous generations.

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Through the magic of sports, we have the following actual headline in Alabama media:

The real star of Alabama’s World Cup match? Freddy from Germany and his 1 a.m. Buc-ee’s dinner

My most requested topic this week is not this classic NBA Finals. Instead it’s this sudden genre of “Awe-struck Europeans traveling through the USA heartland.”

Apparently due to the World Cup, an event that arguably means less to Americans than the aforementioned Finals or even your standard NFL Playoff game, we’ve been invaded by gawking Euros. These visitors see our land through a different lens, excitedly consuming flyover state bounties we often take for granted. This is like if a thousand Alexis Tocquevilles applied their observations to Bass Pro Shops.

Is this now viral commentary authentic? Flattering? Condescending? Is “Freddy from Germany” even real? Maybe no, but in a way, yes.

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We’re podcasting per the launch of the World Cup-tracking Probability Cup, but of course, just had to talk about Wednesday night’s NBA Finals classic. The BIG question on my mind: Should predictors/gamblers price in the NBA’s massive incentive to make this great series continue? Topics!

• Knicks–Spurs Finals comeback analysis and whether San Antonio collapsed or New York surged.

• How teams should manage volatility differently when protecting large leads versus playing from behind.

• Debate over NBA referee incentives, league interests, and the possibility of series-extension bias.

• SportsPredict’s World Cup Probability Cup and using prediction contests to identify analytical talent.

• Whether modern hiring should adopt a “Moneyball” approach by measuring forecasting skill instead of relying on traditional credentials.

• Is the big money in studying idiot sports predictors or geniuses?

Again, join our Probability Cup contest and perhaps win an iPad Pro ($1,000 value) or $200 Ticketmaster gift card. Accept the challenge and learn more at sportspredict.com/probabilitycup.

Myles Brown said, “That was a top 5 game of my life,” and I’d agree with that sentiment, which is funny because it was mostly a horrible watch. The controversial two quick fouls on Karl-Anthony Towns helped set up a situation where the Spurs coasted for a couple hours. More specifically, they spent over 60 percent of the game at above 90 percent win probability. And yet.

If this had been the Orlando Magic’s 29-point NBA Finals comeback, it’s a memorable moment, but not quite this. The Knicks are like what the 2016 Chicago Cubs were, even if the franchise has titles in the living memory of what looks like most MSG courtside celebrities.

Those old timers reminded me of how my father is a Knicks fan and that I loved the team as a kid. There was always something faintly tragic about the 1990s NYK experience because Patrick Ewing a) Tried so hard and b) Was so balky in the big moments. After the couple decades of failure that followed the 90s, a team that was often savaged in that era came to retroactively represent a glory days pinnacle. It’s disorienting to interface with a Knicks present that can finally exceed that Knicks past.

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Fox in the Doghouse

I’m not the biggest fan of De’Aaron Fox’s game and believe he doesn’t quite fit into San Antonio’s future. That said…

I don’t know if it constitutes an act of collective transference from a protected superstar but the insta-infamous Fox layup botch is getting overblown. Wembanyama and Fox were both horrible in the second half, but Fox’s screwup happened later and looms larger in the postgame conversation than, say, Wemby’s two missed free throws. It seems a bit much because Fox’s mistake isn’t Bill Buckner failing at the routine or JR Smith brainfarting on the score. I’d argue the block is roughly as great a defensive play as it is a poor offensive choice. Obviously, Fox shouldn’t have tried a shot in that situation (Up 1, 12 seconds left), but I see what happened as at least understandable.

Fox attempted the layup because he, one of the league’s fastest players, figured there was enough space past OG Anunoby. That would be the correct calculus in that exact situation against 95 percent of league defenders. When a fast point guard steals the ball with that sort of pick-6 motion, it’s usually easy money. When Fox bats the ball towards the Spurs basket, Anunoby, New York’s last line of defense, has momentum going in the opposite direction. That should kill the Knicks right there but since Anunoby is an incredible athlete, he seamlessly flips his hips like a cornerback to rescue the possession with a chase down block.

It’s a spectacular play and I have some sympathy for why Fox, in a moment of surprise chaos, had instincts that failed him. An open layup, if it was open, isn’t a demonstrably worse choice than wasting two seconds so a career 74.7 percent foul shooter can try two free throws. Like everyone, I think Fox should have taken the foul, but he’s nearly a coin flip to miss a free throw in that situation. The big issue was that (OG surprise!) the layup wasn’t wide open.

This sequence has been discussed almost like it’s an NFL scenario where the Spurs could have taken a knee and walked off the court had Fox simply stopped. I keep seeing reactions insisting that Fox should have “dribbled the ball out” to waste time. I’m not sure what these people were watching. There was no “dribble the ball out” option for the same reason the block happened: OG was suddenly on him, because Anunoby is a shocking physical force out there. If Fox had enough space to “dribble the ball out” and burn a meaningful amount of clock, then that’s a totally different situation where an easy layup is actually a fine idea.

Loved Jalen Brunson’s missed shot

Some said that OG Anunoby’s historic tap-in came after a bad Jalen Brunson shot. I loved that attempt by Brunson, even if it was a double-teamed 31-footer. It surprised the Spurs, including Wemby, who had been dragged out of rebounding position. With 4.6 seconds left, down 1, you’re holding a hand grenade. Teams too often get precious in this situation versus hoisting try up there with enough time for a possible follow. Perfect is so often the enemy of good. This wasn’t “bad process, great result.” It was “good process, great result.”

There Are No Vibes, Only Vibes

There was a lot of talk about “ruined vibes” when the series came back to New York and I think that represents a projection of feelings onto players whose focus is elsewhere. I don’t think this stuff explained why Karl-Anthony Towns picked up two early fouls anymore than it could have explained why the Knicks stormed back from down 29-points. The actual Knicks are concentrating on their jobs versus whether Donald Trump is in a suite or if Dolan is annoying in a radio interview or if idiots are roughing up visiting Spurs fans in Midtown. “Vibes” matter in the sense that, the palpable emotion of that Madison Square Garden crowd makes for great television.

Speaking of that aspect, one element of Finals coverage was negativity about the get-in price at Madison Square Garden. It was a historically expensive ticket for obvious reasons. There’s no solution for that, even if there are many complaints. The Game 4 “bedlam at the Garden” reminded me of an old Bill Simmons point, though, with my paraphrasing here: The Knicks crowd will always be good because there’s so much money in New York that fandom can’t be priced out.

I think you saw this on Wednesday night. Yes, there were neutral celebrities and status seekers in attendance, but so many of the elites present happen to actually deeply care about the team. Ultra rich people can, and often do, express feelings about the New York Knicks similar to what you’d see from Sidetalk degenerates. Maybe we can add “goes psychotic about the Knicks” to Adam Carolla’s “rich man, poor man” (appropriate cameo from Jerry Seinfeld here).

Elite overdrive was supposed to be part of the bad juju afflicting Knicks nation, but again, none of it apparently mattered in the end. I get it, we’re narrative-building machines and we prefer when sports offer us mystical causations.

It seems I’m getting deep into my past for this post, because I’m reminded of how, back in high school, Sunday Chargers games at my friend Eric’s house were ridiculous. Eric’s dad, an obsessive optimizer and highly intelligent man, demanded we watch the action on DVR delay. He would yell, “GOOOOO!!!” whenever LaDainian Tomlinson broke free on a run. Obviously LT had already gone, doing whatever he did 30 minutes prior. When the Chargers started losing, our buddy Blake, now a highly rational finance worker, would either switch chairs or blankets. Whatever superstitions we employed didn’t work in the aggregate because the Chargers moved away.

None of us three high school friends are quite Knicks fans now, but we all share some affection for the team because our Jewish fathers hail from New York. Somehow this was a fairly common biographical detail in our San Diego suburb. But I digress.

Amin Elhassan Will Never Let Me Forget

HoS guest and comedy snob Amin will never let it go that I found the Inside Amy Schumer show funny way back when. As the Knicks were making their comeback, Amin texted to remind me about my “unforgivable” take and pointed out that the MSG crowd loudly booed Schumer. That booing scenario at least, horrible as it might have been to experience for her, is funny.

Jose Alvarado

It’s pretty random that short Puerto Rican role players have had a massive impact on two huge NBA Finals. There have been about 20 NBA players from the territory in league history.

KAT’s tip

What a play by Karl-Anthony Towns to save the game with a deflection. But observe how refs didn’t notice the tip and start the clock accordingly. Imagine the post-buzzer mess if Stephon Castle had made a shot in time, but only because of this oversight.

My Favorite Knicks Reaction Video

This isn’t the rowdiest Game 4 reaction video, but I love this blurry clip out of JFK Terminal 8 when OG Anunoby batted in the tip. The open space just gives you a great sense of how all this felt in the moment.

I can’t believe there have only been 4 games of this Finals. It feels like it started years ago. What a series.

I’m not saying this is our version of “Progrum Feud.” I’m not saying it, in part because you can only win money by participating. And with that…

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I’d certainly like to win an iPad Pro. I’m hardly a soccer expert though, so I’m making my picks with the counsel of childhood friend Blake. See if you can outperform me/Blake this summer!

A mid-week update for all of you narration-listeners out there.

• 0:11 — Trump at the NBA Finals

• 7:12 — Thoughts on Refs

• 15:12 — New Sports Media Rule: The Lower-Brow Audience Is More Valuable

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Pat McAfee is the source of a lot of sports media envy. That won’t change with Pat set to make over $60 million per year in his next ESPN deal, as Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reports. McAfee’s windfall is fine by me, as I could never do what this guy does any more than I could replace 1990s Jim Carrey in a movie.

Other people in the industry find that level of power to be a bit of a mystery, though. Pat is obviously a charismatic star, but McAfee’s TV ratings are modest, and while 3 million YouTube subscribers is a lot, the clips generated often land in the five-figure view range.

It all tracks, though. On HoS pod, our guy Ryan Glasspiegel broke down exactly why Pat is getting such an unprecedented sum. Obviously, the guy is versatile enough to play a role on a variety of ESPN properties, including and especially “College GameDay.” But that’s not all. Glass added an observation that has implications beyond McAfee and happens to be, in my opinion, a truism that’s awkward for current sports media stars to discuss. Apologies to Ryan if I’m twisting his words here, but my interpretation of what he said is this:

You have more value in sports media if your audience is less sophisticated.

Here’s what he specifically meant and why it makes sense.

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Wow, do Ryan and I have much to discuss with all this Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals buzz. Topics! Include!

• Why the NBA Finals suddenly feel like a major cultural event again

• Glass man gives a tepid defense of New York’s most hated man (James Dolan)

• The controversy surrounding Trump’s appearance at the Finals

• Conflicting explanations for moving a Knicks watch party

• Whether sports media applies political standards consistently (No!)

• Adam Silver’s balancing act between politics and sports

• Why NBA players are less vocal about politics than before

• Victor Wembanyama’s growing dirty-player reputation

• How officiating and league priorities can shape playoff series

• Glasspiegel explains, with precision, why Pat McAfee got a $60 million payday

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As said:

Not great when the storyline of an NBA Finals game is the officiating.

I agree but am also not sure how we avoid that conversation in the NBA, for reasons I’ll get into. But first, here’s the storyline, brought to you by upset Knicks coach Mike Brown following a close Game 3 loss that was either caused by a) the Spurs taking Victor Wembanyama off Karl-Anthony Towns b) Donald Trump or c) Marc Davis’ ref crew:

I never thought I’d be in the NBA Finals and see a team get 24 free throw attempts in the second half to another team’s eight.

Josh Dubow of the AP did some research on Brown’s claim:

It was the first Finals game in play by play era when one team had 24+ free throws in 2nd half and the other had 8 or fewer. (There were 9 other games with a free throw discrepancy of 16+ in 2nd half in that span including 16-0 for Nuggets vs Heat in Game 1 2023)

So the question is whether this statistical anomaly reflected a discrepancy in game play between the two sides, or just unequal refereeing. Obviously, it’s flawed to work off an assumption that all teams foul equally in every game.

My highly subjective officiating take on Game 3 of the Finals:

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So perhaps I was wrong last week:

I tracked some of the anticipated controversy surrounding Donald Trump’s planned attendance, but ultimately concluded, as I believe Adam Silver has, that the polarizing president’s visit isn’t all that explosive an element. Why? Because the event is more than big enough to hold Trump and a whole lot else.

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Someone asked me for a viewership guess on these NBA Finals and I said, “15 million for Game 1.” Then I paused and wondered if I’m way too low here. With the New York Knicks involved and Wemby drawing the attention of casual fans, this series has real juice. I tracked some of the anticipated controversy surrounding Donald Trump’s planned attendance, but ultimately concluded, as I believe Adam Silver has, that the polarizing president’s visit isn’t all that explosive an element.

Why? Because the event is more than big enough to hold Trump and a whole lot else. This NBA Finals feels like a mainstream Super Bowl-ish American water cooler topic, where luminaries from all walks show up. Thunder-Pacers, much as I enjoyed that series, did not feel like a big deal.

What I’m wondering: Did Adam Silver, after all our (especially my?) griping, earn the moment the NBA is having? Or is this Knicks-Spurs Finals just a fortunate occurrence? I’d actually argue Silver should get some credit for what happened here. His actions led to what we’re watching.

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Here’s a take. We talk so much about this new NBA parity between teams that we’ve lost sight of a perhaps even more pronounced NBA trend: Parity between players.

In that vein, I appreciate how Sam Quinn of CBS Sports will often post interesting NBA ideas. After Game 1 of the Finals, he said the following:

I think in almost any sport, the gap between star-level players and median-level players tends to shrink over time. It’s certainly happening in the NBA. I think stars are better than they’ve ever been, but role players have improved more than stars have throughout NBA history.

I don’t think many people would disagree with this, yet it takes a while for the implications of what we observe to be absorbed. NBA conversation is nearly wholly dominated by discussion of superstars. A team victory is seen more as validation of a main character than it is a collective accomplishment.

And yet, this way of watching the NBA is hard to reconcile with the following New York Knicks fact:

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Credit to user Justin Villalon, who’s led the HOS NBA Playoffs lobby for the last two rounds, crowning him the sole winner of the jersey prizes so far. For the grand finale of the NBA playoffs, we are offering two more Authentic NBA Jerseys of the winner’s choice customized with their names. One jersey will go to the top predictor of the Finals, and the other will go to the top predictor of series outcomes.

Congrats again to Justin Villalon for his victories!

To end the NBA Playoffs, the top predictor of the Finals and the top predictor of Series outcomes will each win an authentic NBA jersey of their choice, fully customized with their name.

Make sure to place your predictions on both the Finals and Series slates of markets for a chance to win.

Stop guessing and start scoring. Don’t miss your chance to win your custom jersey. Join the lobby and build your record for free.

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Delighted to be joined by , publisher of Fieldhouse Files and man of the hour. I asked him Scott the Indiana Fever are acting so strangely towards him and media writ large. Scott was fair and measured on this pod, as per usual, which makes what the Fever did especially inexplicable. Topics!

• Agness explains why the Fever revoked his credential over Caitlin Clark injury reporting.

• I argue that the Fever’s messaging around Clark has been confusing and inconsistent.

• Discussion of whether something deeper is going on behind the scenes in Indiana.

• Agness recounts his long-running access issues with the Pacers/Fever organization.

• The two examine how poor PR decisions have amplified controversy.

• Agness defends Clark as professional, mature, and media-savvy.

• Discussion over whether Clark and coach Stephanie White are actually at odds.

• How Clark’s arrival has transformed WNBA attention, ratings, and scrutiny.

• Agness dismisses many online conspiracy theories surrounding the Fever.

• Sophie Cunningham’s growing influence, personality, and popularity get a spotlight.

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While the NBA is riding a high with this hotly anticipated Spurs-Knicks Finals, the WNBA’s Caitlin Clark situation is, again, channeling murky negativity. Something is off out there in Indiana and the Fever would apparently rather we not find out what. The franchise’s anxiety has appeared to manifest in its strange treatment of Scott Agness, publisher of the Indiana basketball-based Fieldhouse Files newsletter. He went public about the issues on his Substack, surprising many of us who’ve naively assumed that the Fever appreciate that his consistent, professional coverage exists.

Agness, one of the few well-known media members dedicated to professional Indiana basketball, had his credentials revoked by the Fever. There’s no guarantee that a WNBA team receives coverage on the level Agness provides, even one as obsessed over as Clark’s Fever. So why is this team, in a league that’s conveyed a sense it’s lacked the publicity it deserves, actively trying to reduce its media footprint? After poking around on this story, I’m struck by the Fever operation’s overall lack of professionalism and situational awareness.

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I apologize if Rich Paul and Max Kellerman have a good podcast if you listen to its entirety. My experience of their pod is exclusively through clips that go negatively viral because they sound like crazy people. It’s not that Paul and Kellerman come off as randomly crazy, though. The clips spread more specifically because they read like a hyperbolic satire of LeBron James propaganda.

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Following an era’s backlash to “shut up and dribble,” I’m interested in this gray area of which athletes have standing to get into political controversies. DART VS. CARTER has revived a lot of debates about who gets to say what.

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Here’s my narration of two articles, including some thoughts on Spurs/Thunder Game 7. Enjoy!

• 02:35 — Hip-Hop NFL Aesthetics, Red-State Instincts

• 09:50 — Why Becky Hammon’s Jalen Brunson Take Was Always Wrong

(There is also a 00:00–02:35 cold open discussing the conclusion of the Spurs–Thunder series and reflections on the Game 7 result.)

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