NBA Free Agency, luxury tax

NBA Free Agency in full force

- The biggest NBA free agent, former Lakers Center Dwight Howard, made his decision on where to play next season this past weekend. Howard decided to spurn the Lakers and head to the Lone Star state to play for the Houston Rockets. In choosing the Rockets, Howard left almost $30M on the table because the Lakers could offer a longer deal for a little more money. Howard (who is already making friends) believes he made the best choice for him both in terms of fit, and the best chance to win a championship and he will team up with James Harden, who was traded to Houston last off season, giving the Rockets (arguably) two of the 15 or 20 best players in the league.
- Former Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith decided to move to Detroit. This move will make Detroit's frontline of Smith along with young players Andre Drummond (whose stat line of 13 pts, 8 reb are already good for a guy who did not start all year but his 1.6 steals are amazing for someone of his size) and Greg Monroe (17 pts, 10 reb) at the forward and center positions potentially dominant. Smith is a very good player who should be able to help Drummond and Monroe continue to grow.
- Andre Iguodala signed with the Golden State Warriors giving the young offensively potent team much needed defensive help. Al Jefferson, the former Utah Jazz center, signed with the Charlotte Bobcats, immediately becoming the best player in the lowly Bobcats’ history (team owner Michael Jordan not included). Paul Millsap, Jefferson’s teammate in Utah, went to Atlanta and should take over Josh Smith’s spot.


NBA announces luxury tax payers

- The NBA announced on Wednesday the six teams who will have to pay a luxury tax for their payrolls during the past season.  The NBA has a "soft" salary cap meaning that teams can exceed it but will have to pay extra money as a penalty for doing so.  In the past, teams have had to match the amount over the cap that they pay but starting next season, the penalties will be much harsher.
- When a team is over the salary cap, they don't automatically get taxed but if they move significantly over then they have to pay a penalty to the rest of the league.  Half of the total luxury tax payments go to the league and the other half go to the non-tax paying teams.  The 24 non-paying teams profited almost $1.5 million each off their less thrifty competitors.
- This past season the Lakers led the NBA by far, paying a whopping $29.2 million luxury tax bill despite barely being good enough to make the playoffs.  The following teams also paid a tax: Miami Heat ($13.35 million), Brooklyn Nets ($12.88 million), New York Knicks ($9.96 million), Chicago Bulls ($3.93 million) and Boston Celtics ($1.18 million) join the Lakers ($29.26 million) in facing tax bills for their 2012-13 payrolls.  All five of those teams were playoff teams in the East, including four of the top five seeds.

Wimbledon Finals and KD to Wed

Historic Wimbledon Championships

- France’s Marion Bartoli won the 2013 Wimbledon women’s championship in straight sets over Germany’s Sabine Lisicki. Bartoli, who was ranked 15 in the world, pulled off an impressive run, helped greatly by the biggest names in Women’s Tennis (Williams, Sharapova, Azarenka) all lost early in the tournament greatly lightening the load to carry in order to win the tournament. It is Bartoli’s first Grand Slam, and only the second win for France in the Open Era (since 1968).

- The bigger news was that on the Men’s side. For the first time in 77 years, a British player won this uniquely British tournament. Andy Murray, who got very close last year, losing in the finals to Roger Federer captured his second Grand Slam title (along with the 2012 US Open). Murray was also aided by a weaker field, with Federer and Raphael Nadal losing early. He did still have to defeat Novak Djokovic, which he did easily in straight sets during the finals.

- Wimbledon caps of a big year for Murray, in addition to winning that US Open, he also won the gold medal at last year’s Olympics in London. Everybody saw the pressure on Murray to win Wimbledon, Djokovic acknowledged that during his post-match interview, and he was finally able to live up to it.

Durant to wed WNBA player
- Leave it up to possibly the most competitive player in the NBA to stay within the professional basketball player for his marriage. Kevin Durant's fiance, Minnesota Lynx guard Monica Wright, confirmed on Sunday night that the two are in fact engaged.
- Durant, who was selected with the second overall pick in the 2007 draft, just completed his sixth season in the NBA. The 24-year-old forward has already led the NBA in scoring multiple times and led his Oklahoma City Thunder to the NBA Finals in 2012 where they lost to the Miami Heat.
- Wright is in her fourth season in the WNBA. She played her college ball at Virginia and will turn 25 next week.
- There's no word yet on how soon they plan on having incredibly athletic children.

Celtic Surprise Hire and Major Hockey Trade

Celtics Make Surprising Hire

-After trading away Doc Rivers to the LA Clippers, the Boston Celtics needed a new head coach. They went to Indianapolis to hire the head coach of Butler University, 36 year old wunderkind Brad Stevens. Stevens, who has only been a head coach for 6 years, lead the mid-major Butler Bulldogs to back-to-back National Championship game appearances in 2010 and 2011.

- Stevens skyrocketed to stardom when he lead his team to a 2010 Championship game loss to Duke. Butler came out of nowhere, and in the process created two NBA players from a school that had no basketball history to speak of. Stevens quit a job with Ely Lilly at the age of 23 to take a volunteer job with Butler. In 7 years he had worked his way to become Head Coach, and in 6 years worked himself into a position to be hired as the next head coach of one of the most storied programs in Basketball.

- Stevens will take over a team in the middle of a total rebuild process. In addition to Rivers, the Celtics have traded away Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett in this offseason. Steven’s youth (he is the youngest coach in the NBA) should fit in with this team with only one player who is 30 years old. Steven’s 6-year contract should give him enough time to put together a contender, building around superstar point guard Rajon Rondo.

Bruins, Stars make blockbuster deal
- After an amazing postseason that saw the Boston Bruins complete one of the more stunning comebacks in NHL history (in Game 7 of the first round against Toronto), and sweep top seed in the East Pittsburgh en route to the Stanley Cup Finals, the Boston Bruins are shaking things up.
- On Thursday, the sent forward Tyler Seguin, center Rich Peverley and defenseman Ryan Button to the Dallas Stars for forward Loui Eriksson and youngsters Reilly Smith, Matt Fraser and Joe Morrow, both teams announced Thursday.
- The major player in the deal is Eriksson, a 27 year old LW who averaged 30 goals and 40 assists in the past 4 full seasons (not including this past strike-shortened year) and was also an impressive +38 during that span.
- He will likely play RW as the Bruins already have Milan Lucic, among other players, at LW.
- Despite finishing with a .500 record at 22-22, the Stars fired coach Rich Gulutzan during the offseason and may be looking to rebuild.

Bailey, Wimbledon

Bailey Throws 2nd No-Hitter in 10 Months

- After throwing the last no-hitter of last season, Cincinnati’s Homer Bailey threw the first one of this year blanking the bats of the San Francisco Giants. The last pitcher in MLB history to throw two no-hitters without anybody else throwing one  in between was Nolan Ryan, Bailey’s hero.
- Bailey was assisted offensively by Brandon Phillips’ 6th inning 2-run homerun, although a Joey Votto sacrifice fly in the first inning gave Bailey all the offense he needed in the 3-0 win.
- Bailey becomes the second pitcher in two years to no-hit the previous year’s world series champion after Johan Santana did it last year. Bailey is now the 28th pitcher to throw multiple no-hitters.  Ryan has a record 7 no-hitters, this is only Bailey’s second so he has a long way to go if he wants to catch the "Ryan Express."


Final 8 Set at Wimbledon

- The shockers continue at Wimbledon as Serena Williams, expected to breeze to another Grand Slam Title without a hitch, lost to Sabine Lasicki 2-6, 6-1, 4-6.  Lasicki won the first set, but lost 6 in a row in the second and then the first games of the third set before coming up with her second wind and blistering the suddenly human looking Serena for only her 4th loss (out of 74 matches) in 2013.  Williams, who turns 32 in September, said afterwards: "I think that I didn't play the big points good enough. I didn't do what I do best. I think I had a little hesitation, and that explains it."
- On the men's side, Andy Murray faced a 2-0 set deficit (the first two sets he'd lost for this entire tournament) against Fernando Verdasco but stunningly came back to win 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-5.  It was Murray's 7th such comeback, only behind Roger Federer's 8.  It was also his 9th straight win over Verdasco, his only loss coming in their first match when Murray was 17. 
- In the next round, Murray will play Jerzy Janowicz, the first Polish man ever to make the semifinals of a Grand Slam event.

Brazil wins Confed, Puig smashing baseballs (and records)

Brazil Wins Confederations Cup


- Brazil won the 2013 Confederations Cup in their last game (as a National Squad) before next year’s World Cup in their own country. The 3-0 drubbing of Spain, was the first loss in the last 29 games and the largest suffered by Spain since 1985.
- Brazil was powered offensively by Fred (with two goals) and Neymar (pictured above) who added a third. Fred’s first goal was a scant 2 minutes into the game (while he was lying on the ground on his side) and his second in the 47th minute (along with Neymar’s 44th minute goal) gave Brazil more than enough offensive power to take home the title.
- This Spanish team that had not lost a game in almost three full years, will have to do some soul searching before next year’s world cup, a tournament they likely will still enter as favorites. This loss should fuel the team and make them realize they are fallible.


Puig on fire

- If you've never heard of L.A. Dodger outfielder Yaisel Puig, it's ok because he's only been in the major leagues for less than a month.  However, during that time span, he's not only been off to a hot start, he's been historically great. 
- Puig's first game was June 3rd and in that time span he leads all MLB players with 44 hits, the most ever by any Dodger rookie in a month.  The 44 hits is also the second most ever for any rookie in his first 100 at bats.  #1 on that list?  None other than Joe DiMaggio, who hit a mind boggling 48 in 1936.
- The number don't stop there, either.  Puig has seven home runs, 19 runs, a .713 slugging percentage and four stolen bases (half of which came in yesterday's win over Philadelphia).  Even more importantly, the team has been revitalized by Puig's energy, winning 8 of their past 9 to get within four games of first place Arizona as of the end of the month. 
- It's the second straight year a rookie has had such a phenomenal start to a season, with Mike Trout's rookie campaign last year lasting for the entire season.  Will Puig continue to play at this level and if so, for how long?  Only time will tell but in the meantime, the Dodgers will reap the benefits and hope to establish themselves as playoff contenders.