Politics
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President Trump celebrates the passage of the Tax Cuts Act with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, and Vice President Mike Pence. Among the many services George Washington did his country, we can be grateful he chose to be called “President of the United States,” because if then-Vice President John Adams had had his way, we might have to address Donald Trump as “His Elective Majesty.” Sycophancy is part of the job description of a vice president, of course, but Adams surely had nothing on Mike Pence, who at a celebratory Cabinet meeting last month delivered a three-minute homage to His Elective Majesty that, by the Washington Post’s count, paid tribute to Trump’s leadership, abilities and accomplishments, on average, every 12 seconds. Modesty isn’t a trait often ascribed to presidents, or to Trump personally, but watching him lap up this Niagara of praise, I couldn’t help wonder, Doesn’t he see through this BS?
LeBron James is from Cleveland, and as such he is a Cleveland Browns fan. Well, when he’s not cheering for the Dallas Cowboys, that is.
Still, LeBron is an Ohio icon and one of the most powerful voices in sports. Meanwhile, the Browns were the worst team in football this year, going 0-16 in 2017-18.
Fans in Cleveland decided to lean in to the badness of their team by holding a parade honoring the winless season. It was covered at length, and now LeBron has decided to chime in.
Via Twitter and The Athletic:
LeBron James on how he'd feel about the 0-16 parade if he was a Browns player. Final Thoughts from Orlando… https://t.co/ySuBhzfQJ9 pic.twitter.com/Q617FzKS1J — Jason Lloyd (@JasonLloydNBA) January 7, 2018
That LeBron was cool with Browns fans doing the parade is actually pretty hilarious. Athletes tend to get sensitive about this sort of thing, so to see him so casual about the thing is refreshing.
LOS ANGELES – As NBA teams evaluated Lonzo Ball last spring, the discussion inevitably shifted to his grandstanding father. Teams loved Lonzo’s size, his moxie, the court vision that could eventually elevate him among the elite. They believed Lonzo had the tools to be a great player — even though several wondered if LaVar Ball would somehow gum it up.
“What’s happening now,” a rival team executive told Yahoo Sports, “is that every team’s fears about drafting Lonzo are coming true.”
The Lakers are in a tailspin, undermanned, inexperienced losers of nine straight before Sunday’s 132-113 win over Atlanta, and here comes the NBA’s premier carnival barker to pour salt on an open wound. On Sunday, LaVar Ball — in Lithuania with his two younger sons, LiAngelo and LaMelo, who are preparing to make their pro debuts with Vytautas Prienai — told ESPN that head coach Luke Walton had lost the Lakers, that Walton “doesn’t have control of the team” and “nobody wants to play for him.”
Lakers coach Luke Walton isn’t having an easy time with Lonzo Ball on the roster. (AP)
The Lakers thought they muzzled Ball last month, when public criticism of Walton forced a meeting with Ball, team president Magic Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka. Ball declared everyone on the same page then, yet the Lakers recent skid has renewed his attacks, driving a wedge between the second-year coach and L.A.’s young star.
Lonzo downplayed his father’s comments — “He’s a grown man,” Lonzo said. “He’s going to say what he wants. I can’t do [anything] about it.” — while Walton said he believes his job is secure. Indeed, the Lakers are satisfied with the job Walton is doing, a team source told Yahoo Sports, and have no intention of firing him.
“I know they have my back,” Walton said of the Lakers’ front-office personnel. “My concerns are coaching our team and prepping for games and working with what gives us the best chance of winning. I know our front office and organization. They’ll do whatever they have to do on their end of it, but I’m not spending my time trying to figure out what they’re all doing about it. I just know they’ll take care of it.”
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Predictably, the NBA coaching fraternity rushed to Walton’s defense. Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle blasted ESPN’s decision to publish Ball’s comments, calling Walton “a terrific young coach.” Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer told Yahoo Sports he was “totally impressed” by Walton and called LaVar’s criticism “unfortunate in a lot of different ways.” Walton said he heard from several coaches today, all offering support.
Unfortunately for the Lakers, LaVar Ball won’t stop talking. (Getty)
“It’s all the same idea,” Walton said. “It’s our job to, as coaches, to coach our team, to not be concerned with parents, with what other people outside the organization think. A lot of them have shown support as far as they know what it’s like to coach young teams and from what they see in how hard our young group plays. They really like our young team and the way that they compete.”
If there is a certainty to the fallout of LaVar’s outburst, it’s this: He won’t get what he wants. Firing Walton, even after the season, will be seen as the team bowing to LaVar’s public pressure and would only empower him further. Johnson can’t, and perhaps the only way to back his coach is to draw a hard line with the man going after him.
“It’s time for Magic to take the gloves off,” a longtime NBA executive told Yahoo Sports. “I would call [LaVar] in and tell him, ‘No more.’ I would tell him that the next time he disrespects the organization, he will have his family privileges pulled at the arena. I’d also let him know that I was going to tell the media how I feel about his comments, and that we met and he was told no more.”
As the Lakers’ season slips away, Johnson, Pelinka and Walton must find a way to rebuild the culture. The Lakers were never built to win — LaVar’s suggestion that L.A. is “a good team” that would be winning if not for Walton is laughable — rather they are focused on player development. Warm weather and a Southern California lifestyle are enticing to free agents, but none is interested in coming to a team in disarray. Lonzo oozes potential but with Jayson Tatum — taken one pick after Lonzo last June, and carrying none of the baggage — looking like a perennial All-Star in Boston, there has to be some among the Lakers’ brass wondering if Lonzo was really worth it.
Walton says he will sit down with Lonzo, and it’s unlikely L.A.’s mild-mannered coach will let LaVar’s latest round of criticism linger. But midway through Lonzo’s first season, LaVar has shown no interest in toning down his rhetoric. It’s LaVar vs. the Lakers now, and who knows what happens next?
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It took a little longer than expected, and took a couple years off Saints fans’ lives, but New Orleans defeated the Carolina Panthers, 31-26, Sunday in the final wild-card weekend playoff game. New Orleans now advances to face the Minnesota Vikings in the divisional round, and Carolina heads home, but not without a healthy dose of regret.
New Orleans owned most of this game, but Carolina made it interesting in the final seconds, thanks in large part to a curious, and would-have-been-debatable, decision by Saints coach Sean Payton. But although Cam Newton led the Panthers to the shadow of the end zone and what would have been a last-second, go-ahead touchdown, he effectively ended the game flat on his back, the victim of a voracious Saints defense.
The game turned early on a pivotal four-play span. On the 14th play of a 63-yard Carolina drive, Newton rifled a pass into the end zone, into the hands of Kaelin Clay … and right through the hands of Kaelin Clay. A guaranteed seven points vanished, and when kicker Graham Gano missed a chip-shot 25-yard field goal, the Panthers came away with nothing after getting deep into New Orleans territory.
Saints linebacker Jonathan Freeny (55) celebrates his sack of Carolina’s Cam Newton. New Orleans got to him four times in Sunday’s tight NFC wild-card game. (AP)
The Saints then took Carolina’s misery and multiplied it; on the second play after the missed field goal, quarterback Drew Brees found Ted Ginn Jr. streaking down the right sideline for what turned into a brilliant 80-yard touchdown. A potential 14-point swing deflated the Panthers, and Carolina spent the rest of the half trading field goals for touchdowns.
After another pair of dueling field goals, Carolina threatened early in the fourth quarter, with Newton finally locating his favorite target, Greg Olson, for a 14-yard touchdown to draw the Panthers within five points. The Panthers forced a punt on New Orleans’ next possession, and then Cam Newton had the ball in his hands with about 10 minutes remaining and a possible go-ahead score looming before him.
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But then came the next vicious momentum swing. Six-foot-4, 300-pound tackle David Onyemata crushed Newton on a sack, and the hit drove a shard of Newton’s protective visor toward his eye. Newton briefly left the game and cleared a medical-tent examination, but while that was going on, the Saints were once again crafting a masterful drive. Brees found Michael Thomas for a 46-yard gain, and two plays later, Alvin Kamara bulldogged his way into the end zone to put New Orleans ahead 31-19.
Oh, but the game wasn’t done quite yet. Newton returned to the field and needed only three plays to send the Panthers back into the end zone, courtesy of a defense-breaking 56-yard touchdown pass to Christian McCaffrey.
Brees tried to chew up the last of the clock, and he succeeded in devouring Carolina’s timeouts, but the Saints drive stalled at midfield.
And then came the game’s most crucial call. The Saints opted to go for it on fourth down at Carolina’s 47, gambling that Brees could get 2 yards rather than punting the ball deeper into Carolina territory. On a fourth-and-2, Brees threw the ball up, and Carolina’s Mike Adams reeled in the ball for what ended up being a 16-yard loss of field position.
Newton marched the Panthers from his own 31 to New Orleans’ 21, but two separate no-call incompletions on end zone shots, combined with a crucial intentional grounding penalty, left the Panthers facing fourth-and-23 with 11 seconds remaining. Vonn Bell burst through the line and obliterated Newton and the last of Carolina’s chances.
New Orleans will now deploy its multifaceted attack against Minnesota’s vaunted D. Carolina, meanwhile, ends the season with a sense of what could have been.
Drew Brees and the Saints are celebrating. (Getty)
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Jay Busbee is a writer for Yahoo Sports. Contact him at jay.busbee@yahoo.com or find him on Twitter or on Facebook.
