Photo by Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE via Getty Images
Free throw shooting has never been better on the NBA’s biggest stage, and that’s not the only thing to know from our latest notes from around the league.
Editor’s Note: This column originally appeared on Marc Stein’s Substack and is syndicated with permission by SB Nation. To subscribe to Marc’s Substack, sign up here:
1.
It’s always nice when the suffering can end (well, for one team)
It’s October 28, 1995. We’re at Atlanta Fulton County Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia.
Braves reliever Mark Wohlers has retired Cleveland’s first two batters of the ninth inning in a brutally tense 1-0 game. If he can get past Cleveland’s Carlos Baerga, the Braves will hoist their first championship after three World Series appearances in five years, and 29 (often long) seasons in Atlanta.
In the nine seasons of recorded such history, no player has hit the ball harder than the way Aaron Judge is crushing it this year. By a lot. His average exit velocity of 97.2 mph blows away the previous high of 96.1 mph by Giancarlo Stanton in 2015.
That statistical nugget is just one small piece in a mountain of evidence that proves Judge’s historic 2022 season was not some anomalous career year, but the likely booster phase to a career surge. Hard as it might be to believe, but in the year after hitting 62 home runs Judge in many ways is even better.
1. If you’ve been on the internet today, surely you have seen CBS Miami reporter Samantha Rivera stiff-arm the daylights out of an unruly fan in her camera shot during a live hit from the Stanley Cup Final in Las Vegas on Monday night.
Talking about Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final, stiff-arming a fan trying to get on camera and getting into the highlights.
Quite the display of multitasking by Samantha Rivera of CBS Miami pic.twitter.
Two Browns players were robbed at gunpoint early Monday morning by six masked men, according to a police report.
Christophe Galtier has been sacked by Paris Saint-Germain after winning the Ligue 1 title, sources have told ESPN.
STERLING, Va — Phil Mickelson gives the thumbs up after putting out on the 18th green during day two of the LIV Golf Invitational – DC at Trump National Golf Club on May 27, 2023. | Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images
The six-time major winner was one of the original players to break away from the PGA and support LIV Golf and now gets the last laugh.
When Tuesday’s news dropped of the PGA Tour merging with LIV Golf, nobody had a bigger thrill on Twitter than six-time major winner Phil Mickelson.
Fantasy baseball analyst Andy Behrens pops open a brand-new six-pack of numbers to know for Week 10.
A Kansas City native is another candidate to become the new co-host with Skip Bayless on “Undisputed.
Aryna Sabalenka and Karolina Muchova will face off in the semifinals.
