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Good morning! After last night, Bo Nix might actually start in Denver.
Scripts: Wait, who’s winning WNBA ROY?
I know the phrase gets overused. They couldn’t write a better script! Ha ha! But in this scenario, the WNBA really couldn’t have done better on a Hollywood set.
In a year of massive interest growth, two of the biggest factors — Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese — keep spinning intrigue, whether they meet each other on the court or not. Nothing embodied it more than their performances yesterday:
Clark recorded 23 points, nine assists and five rebounds in Indiana’s 92-75 win over Seattle, which gave Clark the record for most assists by a rookie in a single season. She already owns the record for most assists in a WNBA game by anyone, and is within striking distance of breaking the overall WNBA single-season assists mark in her rookie year (12 games left). Whew.
Later in the evening, Reese put up 19 points and 20 rebounds in Chicago’s 86-68 loss to the Mercury. She is the fastest player in WNBA history to record 20 double-doubles. She needs two more to set the WNBA rookie record.
Two ROY trophies would be nice, but Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman expect Clark to win it, as explained in their breakdown of the WNBA’s post-Olympics leg. And all those fans introduced to the league by Clark and Reese? They’re getting to see A’ja Wilson steamroll toward a third MVP trophy, as Sabreena and Ben also detail. Again, nice script.
News to Know
Flag football beef? Flag football will make its Olympic debut in 2028, and if commercials and public comments are to be believed, NFL players will be participating. U.S. flag football quarterback Darrell “Housh” Doucette says the assumption is “disrespectful,” however, and hopes that the flag football players who helped “grow the game” are given a chance to play. How about a mix? Flag football is significantly different. We have four years to figure it out.
Raiders name Minshew starter Gardner Minshew will begin the season as the Raiders’ starting quarterback, coach Antonio Pierce said yesterday, winning what was a close battle with Aidan O’Connell for the top job. Neither has played particularly well in the preseason, but Pierce believes the well-traveled 28-year-old’s experience — along with his “infectious” personality — gave him the upper hand. See his full comments here.
Hammon denies Hamby accusations Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon once again denied former player Dearica Hamby’s workplace discrimination claim, saying simply: “It just didn’t happen.” Hamby, who now plays for the Los Angeles Sparks, filed a lawsuit last week alleging that Hammon and the Aces treated her unlawfully after Hamby announced her pregnancy. See our full report here.
More news
Refreshers: The complex layers of Michael Oher’s story
Roy Rochlin / Getty Images
Michael Oher, a former NFL offensive lineman, a Super Bowl champion and the subject of the acclaimed (and since controversial) movie “The Blind Side,” spoke for the first time yesterday about a lawsuit he has filed against the family he lived with during his high school years.
Oher’s comments appeared in a New York Times profile. And I think it’s worth a refresh on a saga that’s high-profile, complicated and upsetting. Layers here:
If you saw “The Blind Side” or read Michael Lewis’ book with the same title, you know Oher’s story as this: a young, talented Black teenager with nowhere to go — and a lot to learn — is adopted by a rich, white family in Tennessee and becomes a star football player. The film was nominated for Best Picture, and Sandra Bullock won best actress for portraying Leigh Anne Tuohy, Oher’s “adoptive” mother. Emphasis on quotation marks there.
Oher tells a slightly different story these days. He feels “duped” by the Tuohy family, he told the Times, and alleges in the suit that the Tuohys have exploited his name, image and likeness to enrich themselves by repeatedly saying they adopted Oher. Instead of adopting him, they’d actually enlisted him in a conservatorship that was dissolved last year.
Lewis’ depiction of Oher is at the heart of this. In both the book and movie, Oher comes off as almost intellectually disabled, which appears to be far from the truth. Oher says it hurt his draft stock. “The NFL people were wondering if I could read a playbook,” Oher says in the piece. Last year, Jim Trotter wrote a great column on the entire saga that’s worth a read again today.
The Tuohys claim Oher is trying to extort them in this suit. Oher, now 38, says he wants his fair share of money generated from the story about him. Everything in between is messy.
If the suit goes to trial, it won’t be until next year at the earliest.
(Top photo: Christine Tannous / IndyStar / USA TODAY NETWORK)
