The Pulse: USA Basketball's no good, very bad day (2024)

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 … hasn’t 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 weren’t 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: Jesús Sánchez, Marlins
• Designated hitter: Andrew Vaughn, White Sox

Read Eno’s full storyfor the rational.

Also, as we’re getting back into the baseball mindset this weekend, it’s 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?

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 Biles’ career. But you probably don’t know it from the womanherself. In “Simone Biles Rising” on Netflix, we get to hang out with the delightful, honest, funny, vulnerable human being she has remained through it all.

What’s it like to be Simone? Well, says this documentary, why don’t we ask her? Here’s just a sliver of what I learned:

1. Even Simone gets nervous.“Most of the time, I’m just trying not to die,” she says of her gravity-defying flips.
2. Her experience in foster care fueled her to beat the odds. Biles and her sister Adria were adopted by her biological mother’s father and his wife, Ronald and Nellie Biles. I loved learning how Nellie braids Simone’s hair for every competition.
3. She recognizesher experience with the twistiesas a trauma responserelated to surviving sexual assault by Larry Nassar and the toxic culture of “money and medals first.” Simone is now grateful (!) for “that vault” in Tokyo, saying it launched a global conversation and helped other people get the help they need.
4. Former gymnasts like Dominique Dawes and Betty Okino discuss past gymnastics culture as “borderline abuse.”Dawes says:“They thought, ‘That is what it takes to build an Olympic champion.’ … And I will say, ‘That’s how you rip down a human being.”’
5. Simone stripped her gymnastics to the basics after Tokyo, starting with a simple flip on a trampoline.Her teammate Joscelyn Roberson describes the twisties: “Imagine you’re getting on a roller coaster, and then you close your eyes, and then they change the roller coaster, and then you go.”
6. Simone’s 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.
7. She’s had five (5!) skills named after her,and only one (1!) has been successfully completed by another gymnast at a meet.

👩‍⚖️ The verdict:For a documentary that deals with deep darkness, it’s surprisingly uplifting and joyful, just like Simone herself, who has “and still I rise” tattooed on her collarbone. I give it37 medals!

👀 Looking to Paris, whereshe’s again expected to dominate:In the words of her coach Cécile Canqueteau-Landi: “Let her be. And enjoy it, because we won’t see another Simone Biles any time soon.”

The first two episodes of “Simone Biles Rising” are on Netflix now. Two more will be released this fall, chronicling her run at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

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