By Chris Branch, Torrey Hart and more
Jul 21, 2024
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Good morning! Donât underestimate any opponents today.
Concerns: Not Team USAâs best day
Weâre sure the discourse around Saturdayâs two USA Basketball showings will be totally normal. Onward we go!
First: The menâs teamsurvived a very surprising scarefrom ⊠South Sudan? A LeBron James layup with 8 seconds left wasthe difference between a 1-point win and one of the most shocking losses in the teamâs history.
- South Sudan, the worldâs youngest country, is making its Olympic debut and has zero current NBA players. Reminder: The Americans are four-time defending Olympic champions.
- Coach Steve Kerr took responsibility for allowing Team USA to let its guard downafter a travel day and against an opponent who â on paper â was such a massive underdog.
Tomorrow, the USA menâs team will close out exhibition play against a more daunting opponent: Germany, which won the FIBA World Cup last summer.
Later,the womenâs team wasnât able to salvage a W, falling 117-109 to Team WNBA in the leagueâs All-Star Game.
This game more than lived up tothe potential we discussed Fridayâ a breath of fresh air, frankly, in the current all-star game landscape.
- Game MVP Arike Ogunbowale went off for Team WNBA in the second half, when she scored all of her 34 points (a WNBA ASG record). Angel Reese of course had a double-double, and Caitlin Clark dished out 10 assists.
- Breanna Stewart and Aâja Wilson, two-time WNBA MVPs, combined for 53 points for Team USA, but Team WNBAâs second-half run exposed some defensive weaknesses. The Olympic team also faces Germany on Tuesday for its firstrealexhibition (whatever that means).
The best part of this game, though? That players cared.They were fouling out there! Team USA looked genuinely mad in the postgame huddle. You love to see it.
Also of note: On Friday, Allisha Gray became the first player towin both the skills challenge and 3-point contestin the same night,walking away with more than $110,000 in prize moneyâ not far off her full-season salary of $185,000.
News to Know
Crowded leaderboard at The Open
Bill Horschelleads the Open Championshipafter three rounds at four under, just like we all expected. He was +15000 to win it before play started, per BetMGM. Itâs the 37-year-oldâs first career 54-hole lead or co-lead in a major championship.He has one top-five finisheverin a major. Of note: Each of the previous four winners at Royal Troon were first-time major champions. But six players sit one shot back, and world No. 1 Scottie Scheffler is just two shots back of the lead. No matter how it ends for Horschel, we can at least appreciatethis. How many shots would it have taken you to get out?
Billy Horschel with a brilliant shot from the bunker on the 14th.
He has that to save par and remain tied for the lead. pic.twitter.com/sCxqCO12Ig
â The Open (@TheOpen) July 20, 2024
Tour de Pulse
Barring disaster in a time trial, Tadej PogaÄar will ride into Nice (not Paris!) this morning having reclaimed his Tour de France title after leading the three-week race since Stage 4. Hewonfivestages. Though two-time defending champion Jonas Vingegaard will likely settle for second, it feels like a major win considering Vingegaard spent 12 days in the hospital after a terrible crash just a couple months ago. His teammate, Matteo Jorgenson, entered the final stage as the top-ranked American (eighth place).
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More news
Evan Mobley and theCavsagreed to a five-year, $224 million maximum rookie contract extension, making him the second key player Cleveland locked up with a maximum extension this month after Donovan Mitchell.
No. 8 beef!Lamar Jacksonis challengingTroy Aikmanâsattempt to trademark âEIGHTâ for use on apparel and bags.
USMNT midfielder Tyler Adamswillmiss the start of the 2024-25 seasonfor Bournemouth after undergoing back surgery.
Second-half All-Star candidates
Some stats to melt your brain: Francisco Lindor has been the second-most valuable shortstop in MLB since the 2019 season ended, had two top-10 MVP finishes and ⊠hasnât made an All-Star team in that timeframe. For his career, he has a slugging percentage30 points higher in the second half!
Those come via Eno Sarris,whose latest piece asks: Which players who werenât All-Stars in the first half could surge in the second?Here are his picks for a starting lineup of potential late bloomers:
- Catcher: Tyler Stephenson, Reds
- First baseman: Matt Olson, Braves
- Second baseman: Christopher Morel, Cubs
- Third baseman: Matt Chapman, Giants
- Shortstop: Francisco Lindor, Mets
- Outfielder: Taylor Ward, Angels
- Outfielder: Michael Conforto, Giants
- Outfielder: JesĂșs SĂĄnchez, Marlins
- Designated hitter: Andrew Vaughn, White Sox
Read Enoâs full storyfor the rational.
Also, as weâre getting back into the baseball mindset this weekend, itâs worth reiterating thatmost teams are in playoff contention.Thus, Jim Bowden has an intriguing look atwhich front offices are under the most (and least) pressureas the trade deadline approaches.Should your team be sweating it?
What Weâre Watching: 7 things I learned from âSimone Biles Risingâ
The Pulse is welcoming inHannahVanbiber, an editor atThe Athletic, for the occasional pop culture review. Take it away:
Unless you live under a rock, you probably know at least the rough outline of Simone Bilesâ career. But you probably donât know it from the womanherself. In âSimone Biles Risingâ on Netflix, we get to hang out with the delightful, honest, funny, vulnerable human being she has remained through it all.
Whatâs it like to be Simone? Well, says this documentary, why donât we ask her? Hereâs just a sliver of what I learned:
- Even Simone gets nervous.âMost of the time, Iâm just trying not to die,â she says of her gravity-defying flips.
- Her experience in foster care fueled her to beat the odds. Biles and her sister Adria were adopted by her biological motherâs father and his wife, Ronald and Nellie Biles. I loved learning how Nellie braids Simoneâs hair for every competition.
- She recognizesher experience with the twistiesas a trauma responserelated to surviving sexual assault by Larry Nassar and the toxic culture of âmoney and medals first.â Simone is now grateful (!) for âthat vaultâ in Tokyo, saying it launched a global conversation and helped other people get the help they need.
- Former gymnasts like Dominique Dawes and Betty Okino discuss past gymnastics culture as âborderline abuse.âDawes says:âThey thought, âThat is what it takes to build an Olympic champion.â ⊠And I will say, âThatâs how you rip down a human being.ââ
- Simone stripped her gymnastics to the basics after Tokyo, starting with a simple flip on a trampoline.Her teammate Joscelyn Roberson describes the twisties: âImagine youâre getting on a roller coaster, and then you close your eyes, and then they change the roller coaster, and then you go.â
- Simoneâs husband, NFL player Jonathan Owens, credits her with inspiring him to seek support for his mental health. I also loved his account of his astonishment the first time he met her, seeing that tiny frame hop out of an enormous Range Rover.
- Sheâs had five (5!) skills named after her,and only one (1!) has been successfully completed by another gymnast at a meet.
đ©ââïž The verdict:For a documentary that deals with deep darkness, itâs surprisingly uplifting and joyful, just like Simone herself, who has âand still I riseâ tattooed on her collarbone. I give it37 medals!
đ Looking to Paris, wheresheâs again expected to dominate:In the words of her coach CĂ©cile Canqueteau-Landi: âLet her be. And enjoy it, because we wonât see another Simone Biles any time soon.â
The first two episodes of âSimone Biles Risingâ are on Netflix now. Two more will be released this fall, chronicling her run at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Watch This Game
Golf: The Open Championship
7 a.m. ET on NBC
Weâre not saying you should watch this early, but donât let the day get away from you. This thing will be over by 2 p.m. ET.
MLB: Red Sox at Dodgers
7:10 p.m. ET on ESPN
Boston had a great end to the first half.Can they actually contend?Tough start here in L.A.
Get tickets to games like these here.
Pulse Picks
Want to get nerdy? John Hollinger dives intothe best cap-nerd moves of theNBA offseason, including LeBronâs paycut.
Cameron Teague Robinson helps the millennials withthe best strategies, tips and tricksto win inCollege Football 25. A decade of rust is real.
What was the best team inNHLhistorywithout a single Hall of Fame player? This is the offseason content we need.
I loved this: Tyler Kepnerpicked up a treasure trove of trinketson Main Street inCooperstownfor $100.
Salvador Perezis the leader of aRoyalsrevolution this year, but as Ken Rosenthal and Rustin Dodd report, he almost left last year, having agreed to go to theRangersat the deadline.Both sides are glad it didnât happen.
Most-clicked in the newsletter Friday: Max Olsonâs fun story on what he learned fromrunning 25 simulations of the 2024 seasonin EA Sportsâ College Football 25.
Most-read on the website yesterday: David Aldridgeâstribute to âInside the NBA.âWorth your time today!
Top podcast inThe Athleticnetwork: Thesecond episode of Scoop City, where Dianna Russini reviewed what went wrong with the Eagles last season and how theyâll fix it. Cowboys EVP Stephen Jones joined the show to discuss all the contract uncertainty in Dallas.
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(Photo: Mark J. Rebilas / USA Today)