Author: Michael

The NBA might be bracing for some financial troubles.
NBA officials instructed league office staff to cut spending and limit hiring due to “economic headwinds” for the rest of the year, according to a memo from executives Kyle Cavanaugh and David Haber obtained by the New York Times.
The memo claims the NBA is “facing a very different economic reality than just one year ago. We are seeing significant challenges to achieving our revenue budget with additional downside risk still in front of us.

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Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I think every NBA fan is happy we’ll get to see LeBron James in the playoffs again.
In today’s SI:AM:
😅 The Lakers’ hard-fought victory
🏀 The tales of an NBA ball boy
📺 The Big Ten’s new commissioner
If you’re reading this on SI.com, you can sign up to get this free newsletter in your inbox each weekday at SI.com/newsletters.

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Twins closer Jhoan Durán unleashed a pitch Tuesday night that seemed utterly impossible to hit. And it comes with a very cool name: splinker. 
The 25-year-old right-hander struck out White Sox first baseman Andrew Vaughn on Tuesday night with one of those pitches, which hit 101 mph on the radar gun and left everyone watching in awe.
MLB.com had some details earlier this month on the pitch: 
The name is a portmanteau of “splitter” and “sinker,” and that’s really the essence of the pitch.

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Draft’s coming, and your questions this week have veered in that direction. So let’s dive into a mailbag full of them …
From Jon Weeks Burner (@joshstanleyekc): Would the Texans take Stroud at No. 2 if Young is gone?
Jon, this is an excellent question—and one that could shape the rest of the top 10. I also think it’s a conversation that the Texans themselves are having now, and one they haven’t come to a final decision on yet. And you might say …
But the Texans have to take one now!
Do they? Let’s look at the history of the guys in charge.

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The pace of play during the final round of the Masters was painfully slow and many, including Brooks Koepka, pointed the finger at Patrick Cantlay. The American, who finished in a tie for 14th, has since responded to the critics calling him out for his slow play on Sunday.
Koepka, who was paired with eventual Masters champ Jon Rahm, did not hold back with his comments after the final round.
“The group in front of us was brutally slow. Jon went to the bathroom like seven times during the round, and we were still waiting,” Koepka told the media.

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Following the Heat’s 116–105 loss in the play-in tournament to the Hawks on Tuesday night, Miami star Jimmy Butler challenged his team to be better on Friday as it looks to stave off elimination.
“We have to stay confident,” Butler said in the postgame media availability, per ESPN’s Nick Friedell. “We have to know we are capable of winning, if we start out the right way and rebound obviously. But it’s just, I don’t know, shots don’t go in, we foul—that’s never the recipe for success with us.

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A tearful Lionel Messi left Barcelona in 2021 due to the club’s financial difficulties, headlining soccer’s most shocking transfer news ever. Since then, Messi has played two seasons for Paris Saint-Germain but his time in French soccer might be coming to end as a return to Spain looks more plausible than ever before.
For a possible Lionel Messi return to Barcelona he must take a significant pay cut from his current $32.5 million PSG salary.

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Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images
The Hawks outlast the Heat and the Lakers survive in OT as the 2023 postseason begins.
Hawks grab East’s 7th seed with 116-105 win over Heat
Last season, the Miami Heat took the Atlanta Hawks to task in the first round of the playoffs, handling business in just five games. Trae Young and company — under new leadership in their postseason-tested head coach Quin Snyder — were hell-bent on ensuring that the same disappointing result did not come in this year’s play-in tournament.

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Shohei Ohtani took the mound Tuesday night for the third time this season and once again showed everyone why he’s the coolest player in Major League Baseball. 
Ohtani had another laughably impressive night for the Angels, as he gave up just one hit and struck out six in seven innings and improved to 2–0 on the season with a 2–0 victory over the Nationals. He also had a hit in four at-bats.

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