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Bar Chat

06/17/2024

Bryson DeChambeau Wins The U.S. Open!

Add-on posted early Tuesday a.m.

Boston Grabs Record 18th NBA title....

Game 5 Monday night in Boston was over at the half as backup guard Payton Pritchard pulled up from behind midcourt and swished in a buzzer-beating heave to make it 67-46 at the intermission, and unlike Game 3, the Mavs had no answer in the second half.

Final score...106-88...the Celtics with their record-setting 18th championship, breaking a tie with the Lakers, their chief rival.  It is Boston’s first title since 2008 following Finals losses in 2010 and 2022.  Jaylen Brown was named Finals MVP.

Boston was the best team in the NBA all season, 64-18, seven games ahead of the two next best teams, Denver and Oklahoma City, which were 57-25, and winning the Eastern Conference by 14 games over the No. 2 seed Knicks.  And then Boston went 16-3 in the playoffs.

Congratulations to Coach Joe Mazzulla for melding such a terrific, balanced team, and to Celtics President Brad Stevens for the key offseason acquisitions of Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday.

Boston is a clear early favorite for next season.

U.S. Open...final thoughts...for now....

No doubt, Sunday’s back nine was as memorable as any in recent memory, going back to some of the great Masters tournaments, including Greg Norman’s ultimate choke job which Rory McIlroy will forever now be placed alongside.

In a true battle of heavyweights in the sport, Rory had made 49 consecutive putts inside 5 feet before his two titanic misses, while Bryson DeChambeau was 19 of 22 from 4 to 8 feet – 86.4 percent – when the field made just more than 70 percent from that range.

Rory has now finished in the top 10 at the U.S. Open six consecutive years, the first player to do that since Jack Nicklaus from 1977 to 1982.  He’s the first to have a streak of top-10 finishes that long at this championship and not win in 114 years.  [Jack Hobens – 1905 to 1910.]

And McIlroy has now finished in the top 10 a staggering 21 times in major championships since his last win, the 2014 PGA at Valhalla; by far the most of any player overall, let alone those without a win in that stretch.

--Rory, the media darling because he’s always so accessible, peeled out of Pinehurst six minutes after Bryson’s winning putt, and that will be remembered as well.  Not good form.

--My brother was in town Sunday and we watched the end of the Open together as I raced back and forth from the living room where he was watching to my office to complete the column, and one thing we agreed on...those shouting “U-S-A! U-S-A!” are true assholes.

--Rory has one last chance at redemption this year at the Open Championship, Royal Troon, where he finished T-5 in 2016.  Before that he has a title to defend at the Scottish Open.

--Bryson won $4.3 million; Rory $2.322 million.

--Yes, NBC’s coverage was awful, with a broken-down broadcast truck impacting things like the lack of crowd noise, missing shots, missing graphics...totally embarrassing.  Though I thought Brandel Chamblee and Brad Faxon’s commentary was fine (despite the stupid scorn from social media)...Brandel down the stretch summing up the scene before one of Rory’s two muffed putts and the PGA Tour / LIV dynamic.

“The whole golfing world wants him to make this,” before he didn’t.

Malachy Clerkin / Irish Times

“This one is going to linger. It has to.  In the days and weeks and surely even years to come, Rory McIlroy is going to feel the sting of what happened in those 23 minutes on Sunday night at Pinehurst.  Extending his 10-year purgatory without a major is one thing.  Finding a completely new way to come up short is another. Especially when there’s nobody to blame but himself.

“Missing two putts inside four feet in any round is bad for any golfer. Doing it in the final three holes to lose a U.S. Open by a shot means everything else melts away.  Every other factor in the results becomes irrelevant.

“Bryson’s DeChambeau’s bunker shot for all time?  Couldn’t have mattered less had McIlroy sunk the two putts.  Those curious club-shot selections down the stretch?  A wry footnote at worst, something to laugh about through the puffed cheeks of victory.  Backing off shots in the closing holes?  Understandable nerves, actually quite sweet in a way – as long as the putts go down.

“But they didn’t.

“This wasn’t Harry Diamond’s fault.  McIlroy’s perennially picked-upon caddie got his man to the 70th green of a U.S. Open with a one-shot lead and a 30-inch putt for par.  Nothing a bagman can do in that scenario but presume his boss will see it out.  It wasn’t down to a Cam Smith-style run of birdies from an opponent on a hot streak either – DeChambeau had his worst score of the week and played his last five holes in one over par.

“No, this one is entirely on McIlroy. He choked, plain and simple. He did everything right until he got within sight of the finish line and then he did everything wrong. His putter, which had been such a laser-guided weapon all week and particularly on Sunday, turned into a jelly snake right at the moment of highest tension and sharpest consequence.  This can only have been due to a mental meltdown.

“As the leading golf statto Justin Ray pointed out, McIlroy had faced 496 putts inside three feet all season standing on the 16th green and had made all 496 of them.  He had holed them in every circumstance, from early Thursday mornings to late Sunday evenings and all imaginable scenarios in between.  Of the countless ways for his challenge to fall apart, every analyst of his game would have got a long way down the list before landing on his short putting....

“His brain got scrambled to the extent that he couldn’t complete the simplest, hardest task in golf.  There’s a very good reason they call it choking – swallowing is the most natural thing in the world when you don’t have to think about it. But when something gets stuck, it happens suddenly and without warning your instinct is sheer panic. That’s who McIlroy became, having been the complete opposite all week.

“The psychodrama will play out over the next while, as it must. It will be fascinating to see how he handles it.  He’s down to play the Travelers Championship this week.  Will he turn up?  If he does, will he do a press conference? Will he talk about choking, that great unspeakable bogeyman taboo of golf?

“He should. If nothing else, it would take the sting out of the phrase for everyone.  Choking happens to all golfers at one stage or another, yet none of them ever cop to it.  For a crowd of lads who are typically among the dweebier end of the sporting population, there’s a drearily macho refusal to admit to mental fragility. McIlroy could change all that, if he liked.

“It would be understandable if he didn’t feel that was such a priority this week, obviously. But it might do him some good at the same time.  He has to find a way of moving on from this.

“How he goes about it will keep the rest of us agog for a while yet.”

Mark Cannizzaro / New York Post

“McIlroy has built up a lot of scar tissue in the 10 years since his last major championship. He’s played so well.  Been so close on occasion without reward.

“But he might need surgery to remove this scar tissue. This one will be as difficult to reconcile and recover from as any in his career.”

Dan Wolken / USA TODAY...on the linkage now between Rory and Greg Norman and the latter’s six-shot lead debacle at the 1996 Masters....

“Norman won a couple more tournaments after the 1996 Masters, but he was never the same force within the game after that collapse.  By simple virtue of his physical talent and age, it seems unlikely McIlroy will suffer the same fate. It would be shocking if he didn’t truly contend at several more majors.

“But the only conclusion you can draw from watching McIlroy take a machete to his chances Sunday is that the demons are real. And over the next several years, he will either go down the Norman path and be remembered as a guy who should have won a whole lot more or the Phil Mickelson path and knock off a couple legacy-boosting majors when he wasn’t expected to.

“Mickelson, too, gave away more than his share of chances – especially at the U.S. Open, which he never won. But with the British Open he won at age 43 and the out-of-nowhere PGA Championship he pulled off in 2021, nobody puts Mickelson in the Norman category. With six majors, he is simply the second-best player of his era and one of the best ever.

“But the interesting thing about Mickelson is that he didn’t win his first until he was 33, just slightly younger than McIlroy is now.  McIlroy kind of did it in reverse, collecting the big wins when he was too young to even feel the pressure of time and responsibility to the game.

“And now, when he reaches for that magic and needs it the most, it just doesn’t seem to be there.

“Sunday should have been a day for McIlroy to get on the Mickelson trajectory, end the major drought and move the conversation toward how many he will rack up before it’s all said and done.  Instead, he leaves Pinehurst just like Norman left Augusta 28 years ago with more questions than ever about when – or if – it’ll ever happen again.”

Former Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley said in discussing the final holes: “That element of doubt came in.  (Rory) started backing away, which he never does.  He took a little more time over the putts, which he never does. That’s pressure and he succumbed to it.

“[It’s] a devastating loss for any player, not just Rory.  It’s absolutely devastating.  Rory has faltered coming down the stretch.”

It has been a whirlwind few weeks for McIlroy, who has had his personal life making headlines from news breaking in May about his divorce to rumors that he was romantically involved with a golf reporter (Amanda Balionis, whose own recent marriage was incredibly brief).

And then last week it came out Rory and his wife, Erica Stoll, had called off their divorce.

Rory then issued a statement Monday on X:

“Yesterday was a tough day, probably the toughest I’ve had in my nearly 17 years as a professional golfer.  Firstly, I’d like to congratulate Bryson*.  He is a worthy champion and exactly what professional golf needs right now. I think we can all agree on that,” McIlroy wrote.

“As I reflect on my week, I’ll rue a few things over the course of the tournament, mostly the 2 missed putts on 16 and 18 on the final day. But, as I always try to do, I’ll look at the positives of the week that far outweigh the negatives.

“As I said at the start of the tournament, I feel closer to winning my next major championship than I ever have.  The one word that I would describe my career as is resilient.  I’ve shown my resilience over and over again in the last 17 years and I will again,” McIlroy continued.

“I’m going to take a few weeks away from the game to process everything and build myself back up for my defense of the Genesis Scottish Open and The Open at Royal Troon. See you in Scotland.”

Rory did not address his quick exit and failure to fulfill his media obligations.

Rory is going to be on stage at least six more times this season, including the FedEx Cup playoffs and Olympics.  Indeed, it’s going to be fascinating.

*The Washington Post’s Sally Jenkins blistered DeChambeau.  I’ll have some of that in my next Bar Chat.

MLB

--The Dodgers took 2 of 3 against the Royals this weekend, including 3-0 on Sunday, Shohei Ohtani with two home runs, Tyler Glasnow with seven innings of 3-hit ball, now 7-5, 3.00.

But they lost Mookie Betts for months with a fractured hand after getting hit by a pitch Sunday in the seventh inning.  Manager Dave Roberts did say surgery wouldn’t be needed and it wasn’t season-ending, so let’s assume Betts is back around Labor Day.

Betts, 31, is batting .304 with an .893 OPS, 10 HR, 40 RBIs and 50 runs out of the leadoff spot.

Earlier Sunday, L.A. put Yoshinobu Yamamoto on the 15-day injured list with a rotator-cuff strain, after he exited Saturday’s game early.  He could be out months, but it’s also not season-ending, according to Roberts.

--The Yankees lost Sunday night in Boston, 9-3, after getting drilled 8-4 Saturday, so the vaunted pitching staff leaked some oil, and yet at a sterling 50-24, are nonetheless just 1 ½ ahead of the 47-24 Orioles.

But they received some bad injury news with their No. 1 prospect, Jasson Dominguez, who was likely to be called up to the big club certainly by September, if not much sooner, was placed on the injured list with discomfort to his left side, an oblique injury, and you know how these things can go.  They don’t appear serious, but suddenly you’re out 6-8 weeks.

Dominguez had been tearing it up in the minors after recovering from elbow surgery, .356 batting average, six home runs in 23 games, most of which were at AA and AAA.

And then the Yanks also learned Monday that first baseman Anthony Rizzo will be out for four to six weeks with a fracture to his right arm, suffered when he collided with Red Sox left-hander Brennan Bernardino as he tried to beat out a grounder to the right side in Sunday’s game.

The good news is that Gerrit Cole will start on Wednesday after his last successful rehab start, 70 pitches, 4 1/3, with 10 strikeouts Friday night for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at Rochester.

Going back to Sunday’s game, the Red Sox had a club-record nine stolen bases, four by shortstop David Hamilton.

--Break up the Mets, who extended their winning streak to six Monday at Texas, 14-2, Francisco Lindor 4-for-4, 2 RBIs, 3 runs scored, and Brandon Nimmo, 3-for-4, HR, 4 RBIs.

The Mets, 34-37, are just one game back in the wild card.  As Johnny Mac said, they’ve sucked us fans back in, at least for another few weeks.

--I watched a lot of Paul Skenes Monday night in Pittsburgh, the Pirates beating the Reds 4-1, Skenes now 4-0, 2.29, after throwing six innings of one-run ball, 7 strikeouts.  He’s just fun.  Great for this city.

College World Series

--Sunday night, Tennessee defeated North Carolina, the Tar Heels now facing elimination against conference rival Florida State on Tuesday.

Monday, Florida eliminated N.C. State, 5-4.  Texas A&M beat Kentucky 5-1 in a double elimination game.

Tuesday, Florida State vs. North Carolina, and Kentucky vs. Florida to see who faces Tennessee and Texas A&M on Wednesday, which will then decide the two to play in the finals.

Stuff

--Ryan Blaney broke into the 2024 win column by leading a career-high 201 laps Sunday night at the inaugural Iowa Corn 350 NASCAR Cup Series race in Newton, Iowa.  [I’ve seen this racecourse.  Very cool spot.]

The reigning series champion broke a 17-race winless streak, picking up career win No. 11.

--Ah, the travails of an NFL kicker who isn’t Justin Tucker.

In 2022, Summit’s Michael Badgley wasn’t on an NFL roster to start the season, but as has been his wont the last few years, eventually teams call on him and he played the final 12 games with the Lions, going 20-24 on field goals (33-33 XPs).

Detroit gave him a contract for 2023, but then cut him early in training camp, he tried out with the Redskins, no luck, and then sat on Detroit’s taxi squad before the Lions turned to him again and he went 4-4 on FGs the remainder of the regular season, and then 3-3 in the playoffs, including a 54-yarder that was the difference in the Lions advancing to the NFC Championship game.  He was also 11-11 on extra points.

Detroit then signed him for 2024, but they just gave kicker Jake Bates out of the United Football League a 2-year contract, Bates having kicked a 64-yarder for the Michigan Panthers.

And Detroit has a rookie kicker, James Turner, in the kicking room...three of them.

So, I’m guessing Badgley gets cut, pocketing his guaranteed portion, and will sit back waiting for a call, that will come around mid-season, as it always does.  I hope I bump into him at the local high school field before training camp starts up, as I did last year.  Just to ask him how he deals with all the bullshit.  It’s all about him “not having the leg,” yet he delivers as consistently as anyone from inside 50.  The others can make it from 55, but they miss the key 32-yarder that costs their team a game.

--Country music legend George Strait made history with his concert at Kyle Field in College Station on Saturday night, playing to a record-breaking 110,905 fans.  The show set the U.S. record for a ticketed concert, previously held by The Grateful Dead with its 1997 concert at Raceway Park in New Jersey.

“We got some Aggies out there?  Oh yeah!” Strait said at the concert, per Chron, referencing the Texas A&M University team. “I’m ashamed to say this, but this is my first time to ever be in Kyle Field.  Damn!  Just invite me back!”

The concert also broke the record for the most attended single event at Kyle Field, even beating the Aggies football team.  Strait also broke his own Texas record on June 7, 2014, when he performed for 104,793 at Arlington’s AT&T Stadium.

Next Bar Chat Sunday p.m.

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Posted Sunday p.m. immediately after the U.S. Open finish....

Brief Add-on up top by noon, Tues.

College Baseball Quiz: 1) Name the seven schools to win at least four national titles.  2) Name the last player to be named Most Outstanding Player who then went on to be selected for the Baseball Hall of Fame.  Hint, 1973.  Answers below.

U.S. Open

After the first round....

Patrick Cantlay -5
Rory McIlroy -5
Ludvig Aberg -4
Matthieu “ain’t never gonna do it without the” Pa-von -3...apologies to Steely Dan...
Bryson DeChambeau -3
Tony Finau -2
Tyrell Hatton -2
Akshay Bhatia -2

Cantlay has never won a major, and never finished higher than 14th in the U.S. Open.  Rory, as is well known, hasn’t won a major in 10 years.

Tiger Woods struck the ball well off the tee, hitting 12 of 14 drives, but his iron play sucked and after a solid start, his putting betrayed him and he ended up with a 4-over 74.

After, Tiger, very candidly, said: “I’m physically getting better as the year has gone on,” and he expressed that sentiment coming in.  “I just haven’t been able to play as much because I just don’t want to hurt myself pre (tournament). Then I won’t be able to play in the major championships.  It’s pick your poison, right? Play a lot with the potential of not playing, or not playing and fight being not as sharp.”

After two rounds....

Aberg -5
DeChambeau -4
Thomas Detry -4
Cantlay -4
McIlroy -3
Finau -3
Pavon -3

Among those missing the cut, which was at +5....

Viktor Hovland, Max Homa, Tiger, Rickie Fowler, Will Zalatoris, Dustin Johnson, Jason Day, Justin Rose, Justin Thomas, Sungjae Im and Phil Mickelson.

Scottie Scheffler, out of nowhere, made the cut on the number, +5.  But a strong Saturday would give him an outside shot in the final round...cuz ya never know.

But the story Friday, aside from Aberg’s machine-like consistency, was Francisco Molinari, who started on the back nine, meaning he finished his round at the par-3 ninth.  Molinari needed a hole-in-one to make the cut...and he did just that.  Remarkable.

Jon Rahm never teed it up at all, withdrawing Tuesday due to an infected lesion between his toes that forced his withdrawal from a LIV Golf event in Houston last week.

He arrived at a news conference Tuesday wearing a closed-toe shoe on one foot and a flip-flop on the other to keep the affected area dry.

“If I were to show you, it’s a little hole in between my pinky toe and the next toe,” Rahm said.  “I don’t know how or what happened, but it got infected. The pain was high.”

Don’t show us...sounds rather gross.

Anyway, heading into the weekend, Pinehurst No. 2 was only going to get tougher...and tougher.

As for Rory McIlroy, as you saw this week, he reversed course on his divorce from Erica Stoll, confirming Tuesday that he’s reconciled with his wife of seven years after the pair “resolved our differences.”

“There have been rumors about my personal life recently, which is unfortunate,” McIlroy told the Guardian in a statement.  “Responding to each rumor is a fool’s game.  Over the past weeks, Erica and I have realized that our best future was as a family together.  Thankfully, we have resolved our differences and look forward to a new beginning.”

The couple has one daughter.

Well, it didn’t seem to impact his play any. He’s right there after 36.

And after three rounds, Rory is still there, but took a back seat to a masterful 67 from Bryson DeChambeau, despite a double-bogey on No. 16.

DeChambeau -7...67-69-67
McIlroy -4
Pavon -4
Cantlay -4
Hideki Matsuyama -2
Aberg -2

Scottie Scheffler didn’t have a magical third round, instead shooting a one-over 71, +6 after 54, and his fourth straight round over par going back to last week.  Shocking.

It’s going to be another warm, 90-degree Sunday afternoon for the leader, the course only getting harder, so you’d think.

I’ve resigned myself to DeChambeau potentially winning, and hoping if he does, it helps bring the PGA Tour and LIV together.

So what happened....

After 7 holes, no drama, it’s just a hard course and the leaderboard looked like this....

DeChambeau -6 thru 7
McIlroy -4...7
Cantlay -4...7
Pavon -3...7

It’s all about getting pars and avoiding disaster.

But then we had drama on No. 8 and 9.  McIlroy birdied the 9th to go -5, with DeChambeau in trouble at No. 8, but Bryson with a par save for the ages...at least for now.  Lead down to one.  It could have been even.

And things have heated up...Rory with a terrific birdie putt on No. 10 to go -6.

Cantlay birdies 10 off Rory’s read... -5!

Bryson then hits a brilliant 3rd shot on the par-5 tenth leading to a birdie of his own.

DeChambeau -7 thru 10
McIlroy -6...10
Cantlay -5...10

DeChambeau another great par save at No. 11.

But Rory birdies No. 12 to tie Bryson at -7!

The action picked up royally.

DeChambeau’s poor driving then catches up with him on 12, he bogeys it, -6.

And Rory birdies No. 13 to go to -8, DeChambeau suddenly two back!

Rory with four birdies in five holes at this bitch of a track.

Bryson birdies the 13th to go to -7.  Rory poor drive on par-4 14th, but gets the par.

Rory then airmails and bogeys par-3 15, but DeChambeau 3-putts the same hole to go to -6!

Rory then inexplicably misses an easy par putt on 16!  The two are tied at -6.

@#$%!

Bryson pars 16.  Rory with a short par putt on 17 and sinks it.

McIlroy -6...thru 17
DeChambeau -6...thru 16

Bryson then hits a terrific tee shot on par-3 17th.

Rory puts his drive on 18 in the native area.

Drat!

But Bryson doesn’t birdie 17...Rory, however, is short with his approach on the par-4.

Rory hits a great shot...but it’s 3’ 9”...longer than one he missed. And he chokes!!!!

Unbelievable.  Sixty-nine holes without missing a putt within 5 feet and he misses two in the final three holes.

Bryson makes an unbelievable sand save for par and the victory.

An unreal championship...a choke for the ages...dammit.

DeChambeau -6
McIlroy -5
Cantlay -4
Finau -4
Pavon -3

Meanwhile, Scottie Scheffler finished +8 with another over-par round.  His putting blows suddenly.

NBA Playoffs

--Dallas thought they had a shot heading into Game 3 at home to get back into the series with Boston on Wednesday and had a 51-50 lead.  The key going in was going to be getting Kyrie Irving back on track and he had 20 points at the half, 8 of 14, 4 of 5 from 3.

But then the Celtics stormed out after the intermission and outscored the Mavs 35-19 in the third quarter and were up 21 early in the fourth.

But...Dallas actually cut it to 93-92 with 3:37 left, right after Luka Doncic, aka the Slovenian superstar who plays zero defense and is now finally getting called out on it, fouled out.

Boston then regrouped and won it, 106-99.  Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown had 31 and 30 points, respectively; Irving finished with 35, Doncic 27 but just 1 of 7 from 3.

Brown and Tatum have been solid throughout the playoffs, befitting a terrific duo expected to lead a championship-caliber team to final glory.

Would they then complete the sweep Friday night in Big D?

Nope...the Mavs blew out the Celts 122-84, as Doncic played a complete game, combining with Irving for 50 points despite the two going a combined 1 for 14 from 3.  Tatum and Brown were held to 15 each, both benches receiving considerable time as this game was basically over at the half, 61-35.

Kristaps Porzingis was apparently available, but was held out, so look for him in Game 5, Monday night back in Boston.

--In other hoops news, a potential first-round pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, Terrence Shannon Jr., was found not guilty in his rape trial Thursday.  The former Illinois men’s basketball star faced charges for rape and aggravated sexual battery in a Kansas courtroom, based on allegations made by an 18-year-old woman at a bar near the University of Kansas campus in September.

A jury found him not guilty on both counts after deliberating for 90 minutes on Thursday.

The Illini had suspended him from Dec. 27 through Jan. 19 when the allegations surfaced, Shannon missing six games, and when he returned, he led the team in scoring, ranking second in the Big Ten and third in the NCAA at 23 points per game.  He was first team All-Big Ten and a third-team All-America by the AP.

But with the cloud hanging over Shannon, for good reason it was expected that many NBA teams would shy away come draft time.  Now we’ll see.

It seems the girl, perhaps with help from her friends, made the whole thing up.

--The Lakers interviewed J.J. Redick for their head coaching job this weekend, Redick now the frontrunner after Dan Hurley turned them down.

Hurley, who had been offered six years, $70 million, has signed a new contract (after inking an extension last season), six years, $50 million to stay at UConn.

Hurley will become the third-highest paid coach in the country by yearly salary, trailing only Kansas’ Bill Self and Arkansas’ John Calipari.

--And Charles Barkley announced that next season will be his last on television, as the uncertainty continues over whether TNT will carry any NBA games past the 2024-25 campaign.  Barkley said he will not be leaving the network but will instead retire from TV altogether.

Barkley said on Friday night that other networks have approached him but that he is not interested.  Should he carry through with this plan, it’s a loss for the NBA.  Barkley and Stephen A. Smith are the two who carry their respective networks in terms of pre- and post-game coverage of the sport.  No one watches to see the other folks on their respective broadcasts.

Remembering Jerry West

The basketball legend died at the age of 86 on Wednesday.  West grew up in West Virginia, and starred at West Virginia University.  He then was a 14X NBA All-Star (in his 14 seasons), 12X All-NBA, 5X All-Defensive team, and a 1972 NBA Champ.

West averaged 27.0 points per game, 5.8 rebounds and 6.7 assists. He averaged 29.1 ppg in the playoffs.

As a coach, three seasons with the Lakers, 1976-79, he was 145-101, before he shifted to the front office, where in 18 seasons as GM/CEO, he helped build four NBA championship teams, before moving on to Memphis and an advisory role with both the Golden State warriors and the Los Angeles Clippers, his last stop.

West was widely regarded as one of the league’s greatest players, his late-game heroics for the Lakers earning him the nickname “Mr. Clutch.”

His most famous shot came against the Knicks in Game 3 of the 1970 NBA Finals.  With three seconds remaining and the Lakers trailing by two points, West took an inbounds pass, dribbled three times, then from well behind the half-court line shot a 60-foot rainbow that dropped through the hoop, forcing overtime, in which the Lakers lost.

“The crowd was in a frenzy, everybody was going crazy, and there we were looking up at the scoreboard wondering what happened?  What the hell happened?” the Knicks’ Walt Frazier, who guarded West for most of the game, later told the Los Angeles Times.

Alas, while West helped lead the Lakers to the NBA Finals nine times, L.A. would lose eight times, six of the defeats at the hands of the Bill Russell-led Celtics.  True story.  West became so repelled by the color green that he refused to visit Boston for the rest of his life.

“Those losses scarred me, scars that remain embedded in my soul to this day,” he wrote in “West by West: My Charmed, Tormented Life,” his 2011 memoir co-authored by Jonathan Coleman.  Even that miracle shot against the Knicks was all for naught, the Knicks winning the title that season.

West was an extreme competitor and despite his success as Lakers GM and executive vice president, at one point he landed in the hospital with nervous exhaustion.

He once called his perfectionism “a horrible burden because you’re never really satisfied with anything.”

West revealed in his memoir that he suffered from lifelong depression after growing up in rural West Virginia with a reclusive mother and a father who beat him.  After one violent thrashing, West threatened to kill his father with a shotgun he kept hidden under his bed.

West wrote of his upbringing that it “almost certainly made me into the determined person and sick competitor that I became.  A tormented, defiant figure who carries an angry, emotional chip on his shoulder and has a hole in his heart that nothing can ultimately fulfill.”

West was also haunted by the 1951 death of his older brother in the Korean War.

[He did lead his East Bank High School team to the state championship and earned a basketball scholarship to West Virginia University, where he became a statewide hero in 1959, leading the Mountaineers to the NCAA title game.  But as would become the pattern in his pro career, West Virginia lost by a point to Cal-Berkeley.]

In the 1969 NBA Finals, West became the first – and still only – member of a losing team to win the most valuable player award, averaging 38 points per game but his Lakers, featuring Wilt Chamberlain and Elgin Baylor, still lost to the Celtics.

The defeat left him so depressed he considered quitting the sport and using a stick of dynamite to destroy the green Dodge Charger he received as MVP.

The Lakers finally broke through in 1972, even with Baylor retired and Wilt Chamberlain and West past their prime. The team went 69-13 in the regular season and put together a 33-game winning streak, still a league record.  In the NBA Finals, the Lakers crushed the Knicks in five games, and Jerry West finally had his ring.

West had success in his three seasons as coach, but he harangued his players for lacking his own work ethic and brooded over losses.  Pat Riley, a former Lakers player and coach, recalled West contemplating suicide.

The front office proved a better fit.  He had a tremendous eye for talent and led by point guard Earvin “Magic” Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the team’s entertaining run-and-gun style became known as “Showtime.”  West drafted James Worthy and A.C. Green and traded for key role players such as Mychal Thompson and Byron Scott who helped bring the Lakers three more NBA titles in the 1980s.

Then in the summer of 1996, West pulled off his greatest front-office coup, in his own words engineering trades for high school sensation Kobe Bryant, and Shaquille O’Neal, then the league’s dominant center.

But West couldn’t enjoy the success.  He would stalk arena corridors during the big games or drive down the Ventura Freeway listening to music on his car radio rather than drink in the applause at the Lakers’ numerous championship parades, which he skipped.

West’s health issues forced him to resign from the Lakers, only to shock the basketball world and reemerge with the Grizzlies as the team’s president of basketball operations.

By the time Jerry West retired for good, he had been involved in – as a player, consultant or team executive – 22 NBA Finals, more than fellow icons Red Auerbach or Phil Jackson.  He was elected to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 1980, was voted one of the 50 greatest players in NBA history in 1996 and was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Donald Trump in 2019.

As far as being the inspiration for the NBA’s logo, he was uncomfortable with this and wanted the league to change it.  All that mattered to him was his standing with his peers and when he was an executive, he once said, “The only thing I believe in when dealing with players.  You cannot ever lie to a player.  Never.”

West never dwelled on his triumphs.

“The pain of losing,” he told Sports Illustrated, “is so much stronger than the joy of winning.”

Chick Hearn, the legendary Lakers broadcaster, once said of West: “He took a loss harder than any player I’ve ever known. He would sit by himself and stare into space.  A loss just ripped his guts out.”

Michael Jordan said in a statement on learning of West’s passing: “I am so deeply saddened at the news of Jerry’s passing.  He was truly a friend and mentor – like an older brother to me.  I valued his friendship and knowledge.  I always wished I could have played against him as a competitor, but the more I came to know him, I wish I had been his teammate.”

Bill Russell told The Forum crowd on “Jerry West Night” in 1972: “The greatest honor a man can have is the respect and friendship of his peers.  You have that more than any man I know.  Jerry, you are, in every sense of the word, truly a champion.  If I could have one wish granted, it would be that you would always be happy.”

RIP, Jerry West.

Stanley Cup Playoffs

--The Oilers, attempting to win their first championship since 1990, and Canada’s first since 1993, lost Game 3 in Edmonton on Thursday, 4-3, giving the Panthers a 3-0 lead in the series.

Connor McDavid had yet to score a goal, other stars Leon Draisaitl and Zach Hyman hadn’t scored a point in the three games, and that’s all you needed to know.

Could they then avoid the sweep on Saturday night?

Like the Dallas Mavericks, yes...the Oilers blitzing the Panthers 8-1!  Connor McDavid had a goal and three assists*, and Draisaitl and Hyman had two assists apiece.

*McDavid now has 32 assists in the playoffs, breaking Wayne Gretzky’s record set back in 1988.

Game 5 Tuesday back in flooded South Florida.

MLB

--The Phillies have stumbled a bit lately.  They lost catcher J.T. Realmuto to a knee injury, Realmuto to be out about a month after a meniscectomy Wednesday on his right knee.  Trea Turner has been out since May 3 with a hamstring injury though could return Monday, and Brandon Marsh has been out with the same ailment.

The Phils then took on the Orioles in Baltimore for an intriguing 3-game series, Philadelphia taking the opener Friday night, 5-3 in 11 innings, Ranger Suarez with 6 2/3, one earned, but a no-decision for Philadelphia, as he is 10-1, 1.77 ERA.

Saturday, the Orioles turned the tables, 6-2, with Grayson Rodriguez giving the O’s seven strong to move to 8-2, 3.20.

In Sunday’s rubber game, a terrific matchup...Philadelphia’s Zack Wheeler vs. Baltimore’s Corbin Burnes. Burns with nine straight quality starts coming in.

Burns stretched his streak to ten, six innings, two earned, while Wheeler got shelled, giving up 8 runs in 4 1/3.  Baltimore went on to take the series 8-3, the Orioles 47-24, matching the Phillies, also 47-24.  Burns is now 8-2, 2.14; Wheeler 8-4, ERA up to 2.84.

--The Yankees took the opener in their first series against the Red Sox, Friday night in Boston, 8-1, as Alex Verdugo made his return to Beantown a big one, 3-for-5, a home run, double, 4 RBIs. 

Luis Gil pitched five innings of one-run ball for the win, but 104 pitches due to four walks, as Gil is 9-1, 2.03.  You do finally have talk of cutting him back a bit...potentially moving him to the bullpen, short term, when Gerrit Cole returns (which is imminent), to reduce Gil’s innings load to make sure he is sound for September and beyond.

Saturday night, the Red Sox got to Yankees starter Carlos Rodon (9-3, 3.28) for five runs in five innings on the way to an 8-4 win, the two playing tonight in the ESPN game...like the 2,000th time these two have been seen on Sunday night.

--Break up the Mets!  After beating the Padres 2-1 and 5-1 the first two games of a weekend set at Citi Field, the Metropolitans were 32-37, winners of four straight and just two games back in the wild card (J.D. Martinez on a tear for the Mets, 8 RBIs in the four).  As my grandfather would have said, Gee Willikers!

Sunday, the Mets took an early 7-1 lead, but the bullpen, and shoddy fielding, allowed the Padres to cut it to 7-6 heading to the bottom of the eighth.  Uh oh.

But this is a new Mets team, seemingly, new attitude, and they scored four in the bottom of the inning, 11-6, Pete Alonso with a 5-RBI game, and the Metsies win...33-37...five in a row.

They may not be sellers at the trade deadline after all!

--The Dodgers suffered a potential big blow Saturday night against the Royals at Chavez Ravine.  Yoshinobu Yamamoto left after two innings due to triceps tightness.  He’s likely headed to the IL.

The Dodgers can ill afford to lose their $325 million pitcher for any lengthy time, though Clayton Kershaw’s return could be earlier than expected, like late July.

The Royals won the game, 7-2, as Seth Lugo, with six innings, two runs, improved to 10-2, 2.40.

What a year for pitchers!  Look at all the great seasons of those listed above...and below.

--Saturday, the Cubs’ Shota Imanaga moved to 7-1, 1.89, with seven innings, one run, in Chicago’s 5-1 win over the Cardinals.

--Going back to last Tuesday, Pittsburgh rookie sensation Paul Skenes threw 6 1/3 scoreless innings, striking out eight with no walks as the Pirates beat the Cardinals 2-1 in St. Louis.  He was so impressive, and the St. Louis crowd so appreciative, they gave Skenes a standing ovation when he left the game after 103 pitches with a 2.43 ERA in 33 1/3 innings, but it was a no-decision.

--The Astros are eating the remainder of Jose Abreu’s 3-year, $58.5 million contract, about $30 million, having released him this week.

Abreu, 37, started the season 7-for-71, agreed to go down to the minors to find his swing, and a month later upon his return, he went 7-for-42, so 14-for-113, .124, overall.

This is a guy who last season got off to a slow start, but then-manager Dusty Baker stuck with him and Abreu responded with a strong second half to finish with 18 home runs and 90 RBIs.  He then proceeded to hit 4 homers in the postseason, driving in 13.

But it seems he aged very rapidly, a la Joe Biden the past year.

“We tried everything,” GM Dana Brown told reporters Friday.  “It just didn’t work out.”

Any team signing Abreu would have to pay only the prorated minimum salary of $740,000 with the Astros paying the rest.

Across 11 seasons, the 2020 AL MVP had 263 home runs and 960 RBIs for the White Sox and Astros, the most RBIs in the A.L. over that time.

College World Series

--North Carolina started off the festivities Friday afternoon in Omaha in grand fashion, as the dynamic Vance Honeycutt, who has a flare for the dramatic, ripped a single to left field with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, giving the Tar Heels a 3-2 victory over ACC rival Virginia.

The Tar Heels then played the winner of the Florida State-Tennessee game Sunday night.  The Cavaliers played the loser Sunday afternoon.

And in a second thriller, No. 1 overall Tennessee trailed FSU 11-7 heading into the bottom of the eighth.  The Vols scored once, 11-8, and then won the game with four in the bottom of the ninth, 12-11, as Dylan Dreiling lashed the game-winning single.

For Tennessee, Christian Moore went 5-for-6, while becoming the first player to hit for the cycle at the MCWS since Minnesota’s Jerry Kindall did it against Mississippi in 1956!

[Kindall had a 9-year career in the big leagues as a utility infielder for the Indians, the Cubs, and the Twins.]

Saturday, Kentucky beat North Carolina State, 5-4 in 10 innings, and then in a rain-delayed nightcap, Texas A&M held off Florida 3-2, as Jace LaViolette saved the game with a terrific catch at the wall in right field in the top of the ninth for the Aggies.

Four games, four thrillers.  Boy, fans got their money’s worth. 

Sunday afternoon, in the first elimination game, Florida State took on Virginia, an ACC battle for survival, and the Seminoles move on, 7-3.

North Carolina vs. Tennessee tonight.

Stuff

--In the Euro 2024 football championship, action commenced this week, an exciting event, and in some of the biggies, Spain beat Croatia 3-0, and today, England defeated Serbia 1-0, a major security concern with an incident before the game, and German police on watch for 500 known Serb hooligans and the usual number of traveling miscreants from England.

--New York Jets fans were none too happy to learn that Aaron Rodgers blew off this week’s mandatory minicamp. 

According to coach Robert Saleh, Rodgers let the Jets know about his absence ahead of time.  He had an “event that was important to him,” Saleh told the media.

Rodgers was at the Jets facility the day before mandatory camp for his physical and to take part in photo day obligations.

To state the obvious, it’s just one thing after another with Rodgers.

--Martin Truex Jr. announced Friday he will retire from full-time racing at the end of the season, saying it was time to live by his own schedule after 19 years in NASCAR’s Cup Series.

“I mean, it’s as simple as just not having a crazy schedule where, you know, you’re 40 weekends at a racetrack,” Truex said at Iowa Speedway.  “Everyone in my family, who’s ever gotten married, I’ve missed their wedding.  You know what I mean? ...You don’t have a life.  You’re married to racing, that’s all you do.  Monday until Sunday, that’s all you do.”

This is another big blow for NASCAR and its fans.  Truex has always been popular, 34 wins, including a career-high eight wins in 2017, when he won the series championship.

He does turn 44 on June 29, and hasn’t won a Cup race since last July at New Hampshire, though he has four top five finishes this season, and is fifth in the standings behind leader Kyle Larson.

--Katie Ledecky qualified for her fourth Olympics Saturday in Indianapolis, winning the women’s 400 freestyle at the U.S. Olympic Trials.  She can also qualify in the 200, 800 and 1,500 free.  In Paris, she’ll be favored in the 800 and 1,500, assuming the Chinese women don’t try to steal more medals, a la the East German women (who were essentially men) in the 1970s, which cost the U.S. Women’s team greatly, including my high school classmate Kathy Heddy...but I digress.

[We know the Chinese will try...it’s about how long after is the truth discovered in the post-race drug tests.]

--Erik ten Hag is returning to Manchester United next season, a surprising turn after many assumed the two would part ways after a disappointing year...that was until Man U’s shocking FA Cup win over Manchester City in the final.

--A lot happened in the world of competitive eating since I posted my Add-on early Tuesday morning.

Joey Chestnut, the 16-time winner of the Nathan’s Famous International Hot Dog Eating Contest, was banished from this year’s affair on the Fourth of July, after signing an endorsement deal with Impossible Foods, maker of plant-based fake meats.  Major League Eating, which runs the contest, says its rules prevent participants from making deals with non-Nathan’s hot dog brands.  Thus, he can’t defend his title.

Years ago, a contract dispute with MLE also led to former superstar Takeru Kobayashi’s 2010 banishment from the Nathan’s contest, too.

Chestnut said he was “gutted” by the decision, but what did Joey Jaws expect?

Granted, his absence from the contest will kill ratings this year.  I used to watch every year...but I ain’t watchin’ to see Geoffrey Esper (last year’s runner-up) or Patrick Bertoletti.

Chestnut’s production had fallen consistently the last few years after he set the record of 76 in 2021.  He swallowed just 62 hot dogs and buns in 10 minutes last year.

So, then it was announced that Chestnut and Kobayashi will face off in a hot dog eating contest to determine who is the greatest wiener eater of all time in a showdown that will stream live on Netflix on Sept. 2.

It’s being billed as “Chestnut vs. Kobayashi: Unfinished Beef.” The two haven’t faced off in a hot dog eating contest since 2009 when Chestnut defeated Kobayashi in a sudden-death eat-off.

But I just wrote recently that Kobayashi had said he was retiring from competitive eating for health reasons!  So this is stupid.

Top 3 songs for the week of 6/16/62: #1 “I Can’t Stop Loving You” (Ray Charles) #2 “Stranger On The Shore” (Mr. Acker Bilk)  #3 “It Keeps Right On A-Hurtin’” (Johnny Tillotson)...and...#4 “(The Man Who Shot) Liberty Vallance” (Gene Pitney) #5 “Palisades Park” (Freddy Cannon)  #6 “Lovers Who Wander” (Dion)  #7 “Second Hand Love” (Connie Francis)  #8 “The Stripper” (David Rose)  #9 “Playboy” (The Marvelettes) #10 “The One Who Really Loves You” (Mary Wells...C week...some young lads in Liverpool are beginning to shake things up in the UK, and Germany...)

College Baseball Quiz Answers: 1) Seven to win at least four national titles...USC (12), LSU (7), Texas (6), Arizona State (5), Arizona (4), Miami (4), Cal-State Fullerton (4). 2) Dave Winfield was MOP for the University of Minnesota, 1973.

Brief Add-on up top by noon, Tues.

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