— In 2010, Michael Jordan paid $210M to become majority owner of Charlotte’s NBA team; he sold his interest in the Hornets this week, for right around $3B, that is billion, with a B.
In Jordan’s 13 years running the Hornets, they only made the playoffs three times and never won a playoff series, but the NBA’s popularity has grown a ton since 2010, so the price tag for franchises has gone through he roof.
Charlotte has the #2 pick in next week’s NBA Draft; they have a big decision to make:
draft Scoot Henderson
draft Brandon Miller
draft Amen Thompson
trade the pick, for player(s)/pick(s)
Jordan will still own a small part of the Hornets, but now he has a LOT more money.
— Speaking of billions, Showtime’s excellent series Billions starts its 7th and final season on August 11. This is an excellent series, about a hedge fund trader/prosecutor who hate each other and try very hard to make each other’s lives miserable.
Am very curious to see how the end of the series plays out.
— NBA suspended Memphis G Ja Morant for 25 games as a result of his second incident involving holding a gun in a social media video— he had been suspended for eight games after the first incident.
Morant was scheduled to make $33.5M this coming season:
25 games is 30.49% of 82 games
30.49% of $33.5M is roughly $10,213,413
This suspension is a really expensive one.
— Reds 2, Astros 1
According to Elias Sports Bureau, Andrew Abbott is first MLB pitcher in last 120 years to begin his career with three scoreless starts of 5+ innings- he’s tossed 17.2 scoreless IP.
Reds have won six in row, 9 of last 11 games; they’re 36-36 now.
— Giants 7, Dodgers 5 (11)
LA rookie Emmet Sheehan threw six no-hit IP in his MLB debut
Despite that, Giants rallied to take a 5-4 lead in 8th inning.
Austin Slater went 3-3 for the Giants, and he didn’t start.
— Marlins 6, Nationals 5
Luis Arraez went 5-5, scored twice, had 3 RBI; he’s hitting .390.
Marlins are 39-31, and Sandy Alcantara is having a cruddy season. Go figure.
— Brewers 5, Pirates 4— Milwaukee leap frogs the Pirates, take over first place in NL Central.
— Boston 15, New York 5— Justin Turner hit two home runs, knocked in six runs, all in first three innings.
— Angels 3, Royals 0— Patrick Sandoval tossed seven shutout innings.
— Rays 6, Padres 2— San Diego and its $246,962,517 payroll now has a 33-36 record.
— Arizona 5, Cleveland 1— Zac Gallen is 7-0, 1.17 in eight home starts.
— Sounds like San Diego State/SMU are getting ready to bolt their leagues to join the Pac-12, where they’ll replace USC/UCLA.
— This is the sixth year in a row the SEC has had 3+ teams in the College World Series.
— Movie of the Day: Fast Break (1979)— Gabe Kaplan plays a guy who runs a New York City deli, a guy who really likes college basketball- he wants to coach. He is offered the coaching job at a small Nevada college; two of the recruits he brings with him are played by Bernard King and Michael Warren, two good players in real life. Another one of his players is a female in disguise.
In order to get his full-time contract, Kaplan’s team has to beat Nevada State, the best team in the region. First he has to get them on his schedule; he does that when Bernard King beats Bo Winnegar, Nevada State’s coach, in a game of 8-ball at a party.
It is a movie, so of course Cadwallader (Kaplan’s team) beats Nevada State and all ends well.
Trivia; One of Nevada State’s assistant coaches in the movie was played by Jim Harrick, who 16 years later would lead UCLA to a national title in real life. In 1979, though, Harrick had just landed the Pepperdine job, his first head coaching job, after being an assistant at UCLA.
— Atlanta’s Ronald Acuña is the first player in MLB history to have 15+ HR and 30+ stolen bases in his team’s first 70 games of a season.
