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Good morning! Refuse that intentional walk today.
While You Were Sleeping: Playoff hockey, man
We can quibble with quantitative analyses and details later. But watching Game 1 of both the Stanley Cup Final and the Women’s College World Series championship last night left me with the best eye test result you can hope for in these situations: It feels like the two best teams are playing each other at the end.
Truly a wonderful thing. No flukes. Best-on-best, and last night’s winners were decided on singular moments:
We must start with a scintillating hockey game in Edmonton, where the Oilers — losers of last year’s Stanley Cup Final against this same Panthers team — took a 1-0 series lead with a 4-3 overtime win. Florida was up 3-1 early in the second in this one, too. Here’s the game winner from Leon Draisaitl with just 31 seconds left in the overtime period:
Avoid a 3-0 deficit this year? ✅
On the diamond, we saw an intentional walk gone awry win the game for Texas. It was wild. Texas Tech, fueled by star pitcher NiJaree Canady, had a 1-0 lead in the sixth inning when the Red Raiders decided to give Reese Atwood a free bag with two runners on base.
The problem was that Atwood refused the offer:
That was essentially the game. Longhorns up 1-0 in the series. Let’s keep moving:
Hi, My Name Is: An overnight French superstar
Just a few weeks ago, Loïs Boisson was mostly known for a deodorant incident.
Boisson, the 22-year-old French tennis revelation, began this year’s French Open ranked No. 361 in the world. She had been aching for this opportunity to play in front of French fans, one year after a brutal injury forced her to forgo a wild-card spot in the tournament.
This morning, Boisson is a phenomenon. The last remaining French player in the tournament, facing world No. 2 Coco Gauff for a spot in the final. A quick introduction:
- In April, Boisson faced British tennis player Harriet Dart at the Rouen Open, and a hot mic caught Dart asking the umpire to tell Boisson to wear deodorant because “she smells really bad.” Boisson, who won the match in straight sets, shrugged it off. Dart apologized … and has not won a match since.
- After missing last year’s Open, Boisson has shown the aptitude real tennis nerds have known about for a couple of years now. She breezed through the lower levels of tennis last year and is considered one of the sport’s best young talents. Five wins at Roland Garros have proven it.
- Her fourth-round win over world No. 3 Jessica Pegula is her pièce de résistance thus far. With a forceful French crowd frothing behind her, Boisson overcame dropping the first set 6-3 and won the next two, 6-4, 6-4. She rode that wave through her quarterfinal match against Mirra Andreeva, and as Matthew Futterman wrote from the court, Boisson is already a French hero.
Victory is a great cologne, and Boisson is much more than the victim of some petty routine. Today’s match against Gauff is a must-watch.
More on that later, but I recommend listening to “The Tennis Podcast” on Boisson before she takes the court. Catch that here.
News to Know
Former IU players file sexual assault suit
More than a dozen former Indiana men’s basketball players have accused former team physician Dr. Bradford Bomba of sexual assault during his decades of work at the school. Two former Hoosiers, Haris Mujezinovic and Charlie Miller, filed suit in October against the university and head trainer Tim Garl, alleging both had knowledge of Bomba’s actions and the school “acted with deliberate indifference” toward his behavior. Two other players joined the suit in April, and yesterday an attorney told The Athletic at least 10 more players plan to come forward. Bomba died in May, and some players have said legendary Hoosiers coach Bob Knight was aware of Bomba’s alleged impropriety. More details in our full report.
Manfred regrets ESPN opt-out
The messy breakup between MLB and ESPN has moved past the anger stage and into nostalgia, as commissioner Rob Manfred said yesterday he regrets the move. Sources told The Athletic’s Evan Drellich and Andrew Marchand that the league is in negotiations with multiple networks over the rights ESPN once had, and the packages are nowhere near the value of ESPN’s offering. Manfred hopes to have a rights deal finalized soon. See his full comments.
More news
- C.J. Gardner-Johnson disputed the notion that the Eagles traded him for salary cap reasons. Hm.
- FIFA slashed ticket prices for the upcoming Club World Cup. 👀
- Manchester United has made its first bid for Brentford’s Bryan Mbeumo. See the details.
- The Suns will hire Cavaliers assistant Jordan Ott as their next head coach. Read our scouting report
- Pacers coach Rick Carlisle thought the news of Tom Thibodeau’s firing was “fake AI.” Me too, man.
- Sure enough, women’s hockey legend Hilary Knight signed with the PWHL’s new Seattle franchise after going unprotected from expansion.
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What to Watch
📺 French Open: Women’s Semifinals
9 a.m. ET on TNT/Max
If you’re able, throw this on this morning. First up is top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka against Iga Świątek for a spot in the final. Boisson-Coco Gauff follows. Both should be great.
📺 WCWS: Texas vs. Texas Tech, Game 2
8 p.m. ET on ESPN
Texas can win its first title here. Easy call to watch.
📺 NBA: Pacers at Thunder
8:30 p.m. ET on ABC
Finally, after nearly a week of waiting, the finals are here. We’ve talked about it plenty. I expect this game to be fast — Indiana’s pace-driven offense against Oklahoma City’s swarming defense that gorges on fast-break points. As Zach Harper said yesterday, the basketball itself will be good.
Get tickets to games like these here.
Pulse Picks
For all of the angles in this NBA Finals, I think it comes down to one guy: Tyrese Haliburton. Shakeia Taylor has a great story today on the league’s new premier antagonist, a player who loves his haters.
Former Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin was against “shrink dudes.” Then he worked with one.
Max Muncy is mashing for the Dodgers again. His redemption arc is nearly complete.
Fun story: Jeff Hoffman doesn’t play for the Phillies anymore, but he’ll always have a piece of Philly. No, literally.
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our story on the Steelers writing a letter to fans angry about players showing up to a Donald Trump rally. Read it here.
Most-read on the website yesterday: Andrew Marchand’s column on how ESPN messed up its announcer trio for the NBA Finals.
Ticketing links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.
(Top photo: Walter Tychnowicz / Imagn Images)
