Sports
'Feel like myself.’ How embattled Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler is salvaging his season
Three weeks ago, Mark Prior decided it was time to rip the Band-Aid off.
After watching Walker Buehler tinker, toil and tumble through 10 troubling starts in his return from a second career Tommy John surgery this season, the Dodgers pitching coach had a simple message for the right-hander ahead of a bullpen session in St. Louis last month.
Buehler had toyed around with his mechanics long enough.
If he was going to salvage his 2024 campaign, it was time to get back to the most fundamental of basics.
Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler throws pitch against the Orioles at Dodger Stadium on Aug. 28.
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
“It was a little bit like, ‘Hey man, we need to lock something down,’ ” Prior recalled this week. “It was very direct: ‘We need to get better at your delivery. You need to be able to get better at throwing strike one and getting ahead.’ So that was the main focus. That’s the only thing we cared about.”
During an up and (mostly) down start to 2024, Buehler lacked any such consistency.
His fastballs were fired like a shotgun, possessing plenty of velocity but little repeatable command. His breaking pitches would be pulled off the plate, or spiked in the dirt, or left hanging over the middle — without Buehler usually knowing until the ball was already out of his hand.
To call it frustrating for the 30-year-old, former two-time All-Star would be an understatement.
To say it confounded Buehler would undersell the toll it took on his usually unflappable psyche.
“There’d be times that I would [command the ball] three or four in a row and be fine or whatever,” Buehler said. “And then games — whole games — where I couldn’t do it at all.”
Indeed, it wasn’t just that Buehler lacked his best stuff after almost two years away from the mound, while recovering from his second career Tommy John surgery in August 2022.
Instead, he rarely had any reliable stuff to count on at all; grinding through most early-season starts simply hoping batters would get themselves out before they punished mistakes he left over the plate.
“It’s like in golf, when you create a two-way miss, if you hook and a ball and then slice a ball, hook a ball and then slice a ball,” the Dodgers pitcher said this week. “If your baseline swing is not the same, it makes it really, really hard. Same thing with throwing a baseball.”
As his struggles deepened, culminating in a four-run, 3 ⅓-inning start against the Milwaukee Brewers on Aug. 14 that raised his season ERA over 6.00, Buehler started to wonder if he’d ever find a fix.
Dodgers’ Walker Buehler sits in the dugout after the first inning of a game against the Seattle Mariners on Aug. 20 at Dodger Stadium.
(Jayne Kamin-Oncea / Associated Press)
The list of successful two-time Tommy John pitchers, after all, is short.
And even though his stuff wasn’t totally diminished — his fastball still averaged 95 mph and the characteristics of his secondary weapons still encouraged Dodgers coaches — his performance had drastically waned.
“It’s always tough, man,” Buehler said. “There’s not that many people to look at and be like, ‘Hey, [after] the second Tommy John, it should be fine.’ You just don’t know. You don’t know if it’ll ever be the same or feel the same.”
But that’s the thing about pitching.
Sometimes, it can feel like every movement is wrong, like no variation of the delivery is right.
And then, in the span of even just one bullpen session, something will click.
Three weeks ago, that’s what happened for Buehler in St. Louis.
“It’s just crazy,” Buehler said, “how little things can click and make such a big difference.”
If Buehler has looked like a different pitcher since then, giving up four earned runs while striking out 10 batters in his last two starts, it’s because he’s felt like it on the mound.
For the first time in years, he said, he has been able to pick up his left foot, fling his right arm toward the plate and throw the ball more or less where he wants to.
It began during an Aug. 28 outing against the Baltimore Orioles, when he pumped three first-pitch strikes in what was only his second 1-2-3 first inning of the season; the start of an encouraging 4 2/3 inning, two-earned-run outing. It continued against the Angels on Tuesday, when he had more strikeouts (six) than hits allowed (five) for the first time since May and only the third time all year.
Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler greets teammates before a game against the Angels in Anaheim on Wednesday.
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
After both starts, Buehler claimed to “feel like myself” again — capable of working counts, attacking hitters and genuinely giving the Dodgers a chance to win.
Given the club’s uncertain pitching plans ahead of October, it has also turned the former Game 1 starter back into a possible postseason option, making him a candidate for a potential playoff rotation if he can continue his return to form over the season’s final three weeks.
“I think right now, Walker’s in compete mode,” manager Dave Roberts said after Buehler’s performance in Anaheim. “At some point, you’ve got to put mechanics aside and you’ve got to go out there and compete and make pitches. His last start, and tonight, I thought he did that.”
When asked about Buehler’s recent improvements this week, both the pitcher and his Dodgers pitching coaches pointed to his between-starts bullpen session in St. Louis last month.
Up to that point, Buehler had admittedly been “tinkering” too much with his mechanics, reverting to his old perfectionist habits at a time he needed to simplify his approach.
“It’s just crazy how little things can click and make such a big difference.”
— Dodgers pitcher Walker Buehler
“He’s just a tinkerer,” Prior said. “Whether it’s pitches, grips, how he’s gonna approach a start and attack hitters. He’s always been that guy.”
During Buehler’s prime years, when he went 39-13 with a 2.82 ERA from 2018 to 2021 as the ace of the Dodgers starting staff, tinkering was one of his biggest strengths, making him an ever-evolving, unpredictable presence for opposing lineups.
“You never want to take away a guy’s creativity,” Prior said, “because usually that’s how guys get to where they are.”
But this year, Buehler’s constant adjustments became too much.
Early in the season, he was searching for old “feels” in his delivery, unsuccessfully attempting to mimic his pre-Tommy John mechanics.
“There was still some stuff that he was seeing and feeling that wasn’t necessarily there,” assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness said.
“It did probably hamper him getting back to some sort of concrete foundation,” Prior added.
When Buehler went on the injured list in June with a hip injury, he spent nearly a month at the Cressey Sports Performance training center near Palm Beach, Fla., going to the private pitching lab in search of a midseason solution.
“I probably didn’t help myself [with] the way that I think about pitching in terms of all the tinkering and stuff,” Buehler said after his start against the Orioles. “It probably made this process longer.”
That’s why, after Buehler issued a season-high four walks against the Brewers a month ago, he and Dodgers coaches set a simple goal for his bullpen session in St. Louis the following week.
“We didn’t care about other things like velocity, movements or anything [else],” Prior said. “It was like, just command the baseball, and master your delivery to get there.”
Suddenly, Buehler made a breakthrough.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts and a medical staff member check on pitcher Walker Buehler during a game in June at Dodgers Stadium.
(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)
For much of this year, Buehler now realizes he was getting “stuck back” in his delivery. Instead of transferring his weight toward the plate and driving down the mound with conviction, he subconsciously held back on throws to protect his surgically repaired elbow.
“When you rehab, you’re very conscious of how your elbow feels and how this feels and how that feels,” he said. “I was really stuck back, because you don’t want to leave your elbow to hang out to dry, basically.”
But with a new mindset came renewed execution.
During his St. Louis bullpen, Buehler turned his brain off, and thought only about lifting his leg and finishing each pitch.
Suddenly, he was not only commanding his fastball, but throwing it with more consistent crispness and life, McGuiness said. Same thing with his curveball, which featured “that second ‘umph,’ that second bite to it,” as McGuiness put it, a tell-tale sign of Buehler’s mechanics getting synced up.
While his next start on Aug. 20 against the Seattle Mariners didn’t show it — he gave up three runs and got just one strikeout in four innings — Buehler had finally turned a corner.
“This one feels a little more in line with what he’s talking about,” McGuiness said, “kind of taking that next step forward.”
Buehler deadpanned that where he used to bemoan dozens of throws in his early-season starts, he is now only “upset about three or four.”
“I’m throwing a lot truer of a throw,” Buehler said. “I feel like I generally have a better idea of what the ball is going to do.”
Don’t confuse this with Buehler (who remains 1-4 with a bloated 5.67 ERA overall this year) being back at his peak.
He still hasn’t completed six innings in a start since May. He still made a couple of mistakes against a last-place Angels team Tuesday, twice taken deep on pitches he left up in the zone.
However, he finally has a “baseline” delivery. It has led to more consistent first-pitch strikes, putting him ahead in counts. It has enabled him to attack with secondary stuff, especially a curveball he is using at a career-high rate. Most of all, it has allowed him to feel “like I could go and compete” once again, he said, re-stoking the competitive fire that once made Buehler one of baseball’s best big-game pitchers.
“It’s been better,” Prior said. “You’re starting to see some awkward swings. Guys are getting caught in-between speeds. He’s able to get in better counts and with more leverage.”
That might be enough for a Dodgers team looking for whatever production it can get from a banged-up starting staff. Right now, Jack Flaherty and Gavin Stone look like the only locks for the team’s postseason rotation. Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow and Clayton Kershaw could be options, but have to successfully return from injuries first.
That means, in all likelihood, the Dodgers will need at least one more arm to count on come the playoffs.
For much of this year, it didn’t look like Buehler would be in the equation.
But now, he has gotten back to basics, showing long-awaited flashes of the pitcher he used to be.
“When he has his confidence and he’s doing his thing, he’s one of the best in the game,” McGuiness said. “So we’re pumped for him moving forward.”
Sports
Does a rough second half matter in October? Some World Series hopefuls might want to look away
Who doesn’t love a good what-if question, so let’s ask this one:
What if this baseball season had started in the middle of July instead of the last week of March? Have you thought much about how differently we’d be viewing nearly every contender in the sport?
Of course you haven’t. But that’s what we’re here for. So take a look at the second-half records of all the teams that would make the postseason if the tournament started today, with the Braves and Mets both included since they’re tied for the final NL wild-card spot. First, let’s look at …
The Good
Padres: 30-13
Diamondbacks: 30-14
Dodgers: 28-15
Brewers: 26-17
Mets: 27-18
Astros: 25-19
Royals: 24-20
We can talk about those teams some other time. But now let’s hone in on the rest of this group. See what jumps out at you as you peruse …
The Not So Good
Twins: 22-23
Guardians: 22-23
Phillies: 22-22
Orioles: 23-22
Yankees: 22-20
Braves: 23-22
You know which two teams jumped out at me? The Phillies and Guardians. Aren’t they the ultimate reminder that a baseball season can feel as long and winding as the Appalachian Trail?
For more than three months this season, the Phillies and Guardians owned the two best records in the sport. Then baseball happened.
On July 1, they were both on 100-win paces. Now, as that standings chart illustrates so vividly, they’ve spent the past two months playing more like an 80-win team than a 100-win team. Funny how that happens. The question is, what does it mean for their win-the-World-Series aspirations?
They’re not the first teams in history to discover how long a baseball season really is. But that isn’t the story here.
The story is: A rough second half, for teams like this, often means more than you’d probably guess it means. I’ve done the math so you don’t have to.
The wild-card era is 30 seasons old now. You’d think the wild-card safety net would have given many teams the rope to slog through a .500-ish second half — or worse — and still be ready to rock in October. But if that’s what you’d think, think again. Check out what’s actually happened, just in the theoretically more forgiving wild-card era (1995-present).
Losing second-half records, still made it to the World Series
2023 Diamondbacks: 32-39
2006 Cardinals: 35-39
2006 Tigers: 36-38
Worst second-half records, won the World Series
2006 Cardinals: 35-39
1996 Yankees: 40-37
2014 Giants: 35-31
(Source: Baseball Reference / Stathead)
Adam Wainwright celebrates after the Cardinals defeated the Tigers in Game 5 to win the 2006 World Series. (David E. Klutho / Sports Illustrated via Getty Images)
Yes, you read that right. In the wild-card era, only one team has survived a losing record after the All-Star break and still won the World Series. …
And only three teams have played .500 or worse and even lived to play in a World Series — where two of them (the 2006 Cardinals and Tigers) actually matched up with each other. …
But even if we raise the bar slightly, every World Series winner in these last three decades has been at least five games over .500 in the second half — except for the three teams above.
So what does that tell us about baseball? Let’s ask the manager of the club that had the worst second half of any of the teams on those lists — Torey Lovullo of the 2023 Diamondbacks.
“It’s an emotional roller coaster,” Lovullo told me and Doug Glanville on the latest episode of The Windup’s Starkville podcast. “This game is crazy. And it will wear you down.”
So how does any team spin through that roller coaster and survive with enough equilibrium to hit the reset button in October?
“We talk about consistency,” Lovullo said. “We just want to have guys that understand where they’re at and not get too high or not get too low. But eventually, we’re going to find our way. It’s the madness of a baseball season, and it does happen. And if you let it spiral, it will take you into a place that’s very dark. But if you believe that you’re going to find a way out of it, (you can).”
More on the Diamondbacks momentarily. But first, let’s look more closely at the Phillies and Guardians — and how worried they should be about their own second-half issues.
The Phillies
The Phillies were riding high when they swept the Dodgers in July. Then things went sideways. (Bill Streicher / USA Today)
THEIR GREATEST HITS — On July 9-10-11, the Phillies bulldozed Shohei Ohtani’s Dodgers in a three-game series in Philadelphia. So 93 games into their season, the Phillies were 61-32. They were on a 106-win pace. They were 6 1/2 games up on L.A. in the race for the National League’s No. 1 seed. They had the best pitching staff in the league and the deepest offense in the league. What could possibly go wrong? Ha.
HOW WRONG COULD IT GO? So naturally, over the Phillies’ next 35 games, they went 13-22. Only one team had a worse record over that six-week stretch. And it was — who else? — the White Sox. Just three teams had a worse ERA in that span. And the Phillies’ once-rampaging offense scored nearly 80 fewer runs in that stretch than Torey Lovullo’s Diamondbacks. So …
HOW’D THAT HAPPEN? There was one thing Dave Dombrowski knew: Whatever the heck was going on with his team, those 35 games were not telling him this group wasn’t talented enough.
“We had eight All-Stars, right?” the Phillies’ president of baseball operations said. “So that tells you you’re a very talented team. So you don’t go from a team that has a lot of talent to not having any talent.”
But Dombrowski did see several things that concerned him. One was the pitching — starting with a banged-up rotation whose issues wound up overtaxing the Phillies’ previously dominant bullpen.
Phillies pitching meltdown
| March 28 – July 11 | July 12 – Aug. 23 | |
|---|---|---|
|
Starters’ ERA |
3.17 |
4.58 |
|
Bullpen ERA |
3.32 |
5.89 |
|
Overall ERA |
3.22 |
5.10 |
But Dombrowski also was puzzled by the shocking decline of the offense after a consistently relentless first half. Next thing he knew, that same lineup spent a month re-enacting NLCS Games 6 and 7 against the Diamondbacks.
Phillies lineup meltdown
| March 28 – July 11 | July 12 – Aug. 23 |
|---|---|
|
.260/.331/.424/.755 |
.245/.309/.401/.710 |
|
3rd/3rd/4th/4th in MLB |
18th/19th/22nd/22nd in MLB |
Most of all, though, Dombrowski wondered if maybe they’d all gotten too comfortable after such a dominant first half. The Phillies had such a big lead by the middle of June, they seemed to start prioritizing what they could do to keep their core healthy for October. So Dombrowski admits he has asked himself if that possibly sent the wrong message.
“I don’t know,” he said. “Maybe we set the tempo somewhere. Maybe we started looking at the long term rather than the short term. But I’m not sure about that.”
He just knew there was time to fix what felt broken. And over the last couple of weeks, the Phillies seem to have done that, roaring through a 9-2 streak against the Royals, Astros, Braves, Blue Jays and Marlins. So what changed? We’ll get back to that momentarily. But first …
The Guardians
After a win over the White Sox on July 4, the high-flying Guardians were one of the worst teams in the AL over the next 48 games. (David Richard / USA Today)
THEIR GREATEST HITS — On the Fourth of July, the Guardians dusted off the White Sox to raise their record to 54-31. They led the AL Central by six games (after once leading by as many as nine in late June). They had the best record in the American League, the fewest runs allowed in the league and 80 more runs scored than they had at the same stage last season. So they were all set for a run at 100 wins, right? Oops.
HOW WRONG COULD IT GO? The marathon is always longer than it seems. Over the next 48 games, the Guardians went 21-27. Only two teams in the AL — the Angels and White Sox — had worse records in that stretch. The Guardians’ starting pitching imploded (10-24, 4.87 ERA). And going by their 83 wRC+, only two lineups in baseball were less productive.
By the end of play on Aug. 27, after a third straight loss at home to Kansas City, the Guardians’ nine-game pad had, shockingly, disappeared. The Royals had tied them in the standings. And a beautiful Cleveland baseball summer didn’t seem so balmy anymore. So …
HOW’D THAT HAPPEN? Was it really as bleak as all those messy factoids above made it seem? Not in the eyes of the Guardians’ unflappable president of baseball ops, Chris Antonetti.
“We had a really tough stretch of games after the All-Star break,” Antonetti said, “with seven of our nine opponents in playoff position at the time we played them.
“Last I looked,” he went on, “I think we have the second-most wins in the AL against teams with better than a .500 record. So we’ve held our own there.”
But does that record alone tell the full story of the Guardians? I’m not so sure it does.
Early in the season, balls were sailing over the fence. Steven Kwan seemed like he might make a charge at .400. And this looked like a completely different offense than the group that finished 27th in MLB in runs scored last year — and dead last in homers.
But what did the next seven weeks look like, after the White Sox left town on July 4? Not quite so picturesque!
Guardians lineup meltdown
| March 28 – July 4 | July 5 – Aug. 27 |
|---|---|
|
.245/.318/.410/.728 |
.220/.289/.360/.648 |
|
13th/11th/9th/12th in MLB |
27th/29th/28th/28th in MLB |
But also, there were …
Steven Kwan’s splits
| First half | Second half |
|---|---|
|
.352/.407/.513/.920* |
.194/.277/.286/.563** |
(*11th-best in MLB; **9th-lowest in MLB)
Like the Phillies, the Guardians seem to have rebounded in the last week or so. They’ve won five of their last seven. They’ve stretched their lead in the Central back to four games. And they averaged nearly seven runs per game in the five wins. So when Antonetti looks at these last two months, he sees just the normal “ebbs and flows to the regular season.”
He sees a rotation that looks much improved after the addition of Alex Cobb and Matthew Boyd. He sees an offense whose downturn stemmed mostly from matchups with a bunch of excellent staffs. So here was his big-picture read:
“Maybe I’m not thinking about it deeply enough,” he said. “But I’m not sure there’s too much I’d make of it. There’s not a lot of predictability to which teams win and advance once the postseason starts.”
Then he asked: “Didn’t Texas and Arizona (the two World Series teams in 2023) struggle in August last year before surging in September?”
Excellent question! The Rangers lost 16 of 20 in August and September, but then won 17 of their next 21 games. And the Diamondbacks rocked through a wilder ride to the World Series than any team ever.
On July 1, they were 16 games over .500 (50-34). But then … repeat after me … baseball happened. The Diamondbacks won only seven of their next 32, propelling them from 16 games over .500 to two games under, with 46 left to play. Whereupon they boomeranged again, going 27-15 before getting swept in their final series of the season in Houston.
It added up to a sub-.500 second half — but with a season-saving rebound in September. And if that feels like a blueprint for all the teams on our Not So Good list, it’s because it is.
For every one of those teams, September offers the opportunity to rediscover their first-half mojo. And the Diamondbacks leaned into that opportunity, then used the memory of that rebound again this season to fuel their torrid recovery from a 25-32 start.
“I think our guys have a very high baseball IQ … and this innate belief,” Lovullo said. “We used to hope we were going to win games. We were so concerned about what’s happening across the field, in the other dugout. (But now) we believe in so much of what’s going on in our space that we know we’re going to find a way to get something done every single night.”
“If you let it spiral, it will take you into a place that’s very dark. But if you believe that you’re going to find a way out of it, (you can),” said Torey Lovullo, who guided the 2023 D-Backs to an unlikely World Series appearance. (Joe Camporeale / USA Today)
So what have we learned from these rides on the baseball roller coaster? It’s as basic as a 3-and-2 fastball:
Wake me up before September ends
If all of this feels familiar to Dave Dombrowski, it’s because he has seen this movie before. Heck, he lived this movie — with the 2006 Tigers.
“It’s funny. I was talking to Jim Leyland (the manager of that Tigers team) about 2006 just recently,” Dombrowski said. “And we agreed that one of the common denominators was: You must have had a really good first half … to qualify for the postseason and still be below .500 in the second half. So basically, it usually means the talent is there. And for some reason, you’ve fallen off. So why?”
Why? Dombrowski believes there’s no more important question for any team to contemplate. When a team begins to slide, there is almost always more than one reason. But the danger sign he’s always on the lookout for is when a team with a big lead takes its foot off the accelerator.
“Sometimes,” he said, “some people will become somewhat, I don’t know if this is the right word, but content. They’ll lose a little bit of that extra fire. And even though that’s not good, what you need to do is rekindle that fire — to find it again in order to be successful in the postseason.”
That’s exactly what happened to that 2006 Tigers team, he believes. So “the key to getting back on track,” he said, “is the ‘why’ — and how do you fix it?”
In 2006, Leyland delivered a message to his troops that September: Let’s get focused. And over the past couple of weeks, Dombrowski said, his manager in Philly, Rob Thomson, has empowered the leaders in his clubhouse to sing that same tune.
“It’s something they’ve talked about,” Dombrowski said, “something they’ve worked on. And I think they’ve already gotten that message across. I think we’ve played much better (recently). And we really needed to get that back in gear.”
Is the baseball marathon a series of ebbs and flows? It always is. And sometimes those ebbs and flows even strike in September. But as October nears, Dombrowski has long understood, the best teams know it’s the ability to play with focus and energy every day that often separates the champs from everyone else.
So in baseball, September isn’t foliage time. It’s focus time.
“It’s just one of those things,” he said, “where you just need to kind of get it back. When you win a lot of games early, you put yourself in a position where you can withstand that little lull.
“But you’re not going to win a championship,” Dombrowski said, “if you continue to have that lull going into the postseason.”
(Top photo of Phillies outfielder Brandon Marsh: Matt Krohn / Getty Images)
Sports
Steph Curry says 'women's right to choose' is top issue for supporting Harris, despite past neutral stance
After NBA superstar Stephen Curry announced his endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris at the Democratic National Convention last month, he elaborated on why he’s backing her this election cycle in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.
Curry pointed to “a woman’s right to choose” at the top of his list of issues going into the presidential election this fall.
“Endorsing Kamala is important for me and for my family,” he said. “I just know from, especially women’s rights, and thinking about what’s at stake with this election, and understanding, like, we need to be in a position where women have the right to choose what’s right for them, and that’s at the top of my list for me. I have amazing women in my life who’ve been a huge inspiration to me.”
It marks a strong change in stance from where he was just two years ago. In a 2022 Rolling Stone interview, Curry said he didn’t consider himself pro-life or pro-choice, nor did he feel the need to speak out against the Supreme Court’s landmark reversal of Roe v. Wade earlier that year.
Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry presents Vice President Kamala Harris with a jersey in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 17, 2023. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
The other only point Curry mentioned when asked what issues made him want to support Harris was that he knows the current VP from past interactions.
The two have been seen speaking and laughing together in footage from when the vice president met with the U.S. men’s basketball team before it competed at the Olympics in Paris and when the Golden State Warriors visited the White House after winning the 2022 NBA Finals.
“Knowing Kamala and having been around her, I understand she’s qualified for this job,” Curry said. “It’s an easy choice for me.”
Curry has a history of supporting Democrats and even following orders from key figures in the party.
He previously endorsed Joe Biden in 2020 and Hillary Clinton in 2016. Curry has also said former President Obama ordered him to walk back statements in the past.
Former President Obama speaks alongside Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry during the MBK Rising! My Brother’s Keeper Alliance Summit in Oakland, California, on Feb. 19, 2019. (Josh Edelson/AFP via Getty Images)
After making comments in which the point guard suggested the 1969 moon landing was a hoax on the Vince Carter-hosted “Winging It” podcast in December 2018, Curry told Rolling Stone in September 2022 that he received a stern email from Obama telling him to publicly walk back the comments.
Two days after making the comments, Curry later told ESPN his comments were a joke. He later accepted an invitation to partner with NASA.
WARRIORS’ STEVE KERR MAKES BOLD PREDICTION AT DNC, WANTS TO TELL DONALD TRUMP ‘NIGHT, NIGHT’ LIKE STEPH CURRY
Curry has even spoken at the Democratic National Convention before this year. During the 2020 convention, which was all-virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Curry and his wife Ayesha spoke in a pre-recorded message. The couple’s two children, Ryan and Riley, also made an appearance in the video. However, the couple did not acknowledge that Biden even had an opponent in the video.
Also in the video, Ayesha listed the fact that the couple had children as one of the biggest reasons they were endorsing Biden that year. She also highlighted racial inequality and social injustice as the other major issues for the couple. Curry’s children also said they would be “happy” about the fact that Biden had chosen a woman as his VP candidate that year in Harris.
Curry told Rolling Stone in 2022 that the couple weren’t sure about the issue of abortion when they made their first DNC appearance.
“We weren’t sure, more so from a faith perspective, especially around abortion,” Curry said. “When you endorse a president, you have a lot of noise comin’ at you: ‘Daughter killer! Baby killer!’… That’s the fine line of knowing the beast of politics, where, especially when we’re talking about presidential elections, being active is more important than the understanding that, with every candidate, there’s not a full, down-the-ballot agreement on everything that they do.”
Curry previously spoke about his Christian upbringing in a personal essay to the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. Curry says his parents, Dell and Sonya Curry, raised him to believe in God and even gave credit to God for his basketball talents. He revealed that his mother was the head mistress at a Christian Montessori school when he was in first grade.
Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors celebrates with his mother, Sonya Curry, after defeating the Portland Trail Blazers in game four of the NBA Western Conference Finals at Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, on May 20, 2019. (Jonathan Ferrey/Getty Images)
Sonya Curry once said that she considered an abortion while pregnant with Stephen, and even got as far as going to the Planned Parenthood clinic, in her memoir, “Fierce Love.” Curry was the couple’s first child. She also opened up about it in an appearance on the “Your Mom” podcast in 2022.
“For me to be able to share that story for people to know, one, so many people are struggling with it, and it’s OK. It’s OK that you are struggling with it. Two, the decision that I made to keep him at that point is also counter with the decision that I made to not carry through with the previous pregnancy,” she said.
“But, my favorite scripture says that all things get worked together for the good, and those called according to His purposes and praise Jesus. It all worked out. There’s Stephen, and look what he’s doing, and it’s just amazing to me.”
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Sports
A Lions-Chiefs Super Bowl? Mahomes reclaiming MVP? The Athletic staff’s NFL predictions for 2024
The 2024 season is here. The Baltimore Ravens and Kansas City Chiefs get things started tonight, followed by a Friday night matchup between the Green Bay Packers and Philadelphia Eagles.
With no time to waste, let’s look at The Athletic’s NFL staff picks for MVP, Super Bowl champion and more.
Forty-two staff members responded (some opting not to answer everything, so there aren’t always 42 responses). Here’s what they think.
Patrick Mahomes has already won the award twice — in 2018 and 2022 — so why not a third time while the Kansas City Chiefs try to three-peat? Our staff overwhelmingly picked the soon-to-be 29-year-old quarterback to do just that.
While quarterbacks dominated our MVP voting, they took a back seat in this category. Tyreek Hill finished fourth in the AP Offensive Player of the Year voting two seasons ago and was runner-up last season when he led the league with 1,799 receiving yards, 13 TDs and a career-best 112.4 receiving yards per game. Our staff thinks he’ll continue his dominance catching passes from Tua Tagovailoa in Mike McDaniel’s offense in Miami.
In his three NFL seasons, Micah Parsons has finished second, second and third in Defensive Player of the Year voting. His sack totals have inched up every year — 13 to 13 1/2 to 14 — and signs point to the former Penn State star linebacker breaking through in 2024. Myles Garrett won it last season after a 14-sack campaign that followed five consecutive double-digit sack seasons. Entering the season, it looks like a Parsons-Garrett battle and we’ll get to see them on the same field Sunday when the Cowboys visit the Browns.
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Six quarterbacks were selected within the first 12 picks of the 2024 NFL Draft and three are among the five rookies receiving votes from our staff in this category. No. 1 pick Caleb Williams received 31 of 42 total votes. Expectations are high for the Bears’ quarterback, to say the least.
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As long as Mahomes is in Kansas City, this feels like the safest choice. The Chiefs won the past two Super Bowls, three of the past five and have played in four of the last five. Mahomes was named MVP in each of the Chiefs’ Super Bowl victories. The Bengals and Texans both received four votes. Cincinnati lost the 2021 Super Bowl to the Los Angeles Rams and the Texans have not reached a conference title game since joining the league in 2002.
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The Lions made the playoffs last season for the first time since 2016 and reached the NFC Championship Game — they lost 34-31 to the 49ers — for the first time since 1991. Can Dan Campbell get Detroit to its first Super Bowl in franchise history? The Packers and 49ers won’t make it easy, according to our staff.
Surprise … it’s the Chiefs. OK, that’s not really a surprise. But that’s what happens when you win back-to-back Super Bowls and have Mahomes, Travis Kelce and Chris Jones on your side. The 49ers finished with the second-most votes, fitting after they lost to the Chiefs in overtime in last season’s Super Bowl.
Kansas City occupied the three top vote-getting matchups and received votes against six different opponents. But our staff likes the Chiefs-Lions showdown most, followed by Chiefs-Packers and a Chiefs-49ers rematch. The top non-Chiefs Super Bowls? Texans vs. Eagles and Bengals vs. Lions.
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What they said
“Mike McCarthy. McCarthy has proven he can win in the regular season with three straight 12-5 seasons. But that regular-season success hasn’t translated to the playoffs. If that doesn’t change, the coach of the Cowboys will.” — Dan Duggan, Giants writer
“Nick Sirianni. When you fire and replace both of your coordinators, the pressure is now on you. It’s win or be fired yourself.” — Adam Jahns, Bears writer
“Robert Saleh. He’s entering his fourth year in New York with an 18-33 record. Saleh’s personality and perch in the league’s most high-profile city give him more cache than his results have earned. With Aaron Rodgers back from injury, Saleh and the Jets are out of excuses. If this team doesn’t make a run, there will be major changes in New York.” — Josh Kendall, Falcons writer
“Sean McDermott. He only gets so many shots with Josh Allen to prove he can get the Bills back to the Super Bowl.” — Paul Dehner Jr., Bengals writer
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“Mike McCarthy: He’s got 36 regular-season wins to one playoff win over the last three seasons and is on an expiring contract with Bill Belichick as a coaching free agent. That’s a lot of pressure.” — Jeff Howe, NFL writer
“Robert Saleh. If he can’t win this season with that defense and a healthy Aaron Rodgers, he may not be long for his job.” — Adam Hirshfield, NFL editor
“Nick Sirianni. Was last season’s second-half collapse a fluke or a sign of a bigger problem? The Eagles are talented, but a slow start will turn up the volume and heat on the man in charge.” — Doug Haller, Cardinals writer
“Dave Canales. He’s the least proven head coach in the league in terms of overall track record, which means he has the most to prove. There are other coaches facing greater pressure this season, but they are much more seasoned/proven.” — Mike Sando, NFL writer
“Dennis Allen. The Saints are on the short list of middling teams that could bottom out this year as some of their top talent is getting older and a bit worse. They have issues at quarterback and may struggle on both the offensive and defensive lines. Things seem a bit stale in New Orleans, and Allen needs to prove that isn’t the case.” — Joe Buscaglia, Bills writer
What they said
“Arizona. Last year you saw the culture set, now the talent level has risen for a full season with Kyler Murray.” — Dehner
“The Falcons are in a really good place. The mood around the building with Raheem Morris is through the roof, and Kirk Cousins and OC Zac Robinson should really help the skill players shine. They’re also in a very winnable division.” — Howe
“Tennessee Titans, because after an aggressive offseason following another double-digit loss season, they will force their way into contention in the AFC South and have a shot at the playoffs.” — Mike Jones, NFL writer
“Denver Broncos. I’m a believer that the Sean Payton-Bo Nix pairing will work well. I don’t love the skill-position pieces around Nix, but it’s the first time since Payton coached Drew Brees that I can see him having full confidence in a quarterback. I could envision a second-place finish in the AFC West and a possible wild-card berth.” — Larry Holder, NFL writer
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“The Chargers — they have the talent to turn things around and they have a head coach who knows how to win.” — Dan Pompei, NFL writer
“Cardinals. I’m reaching deep for this one because anyone can say the Bears. But the Cardinals could be a sneaky team for the biggest turnaround even if they’ll still be far from a serious contender. They were more competitive than the typical 4-13 team in Jonathan Gannon’s first season as head coach. They also were 1-8 without Kyler Murray and 3-5 after he returned to the lineup. A healthy Murray combined with Marvin Harrison Jr. could turn things around fast for the Cardinals.” — Duggan
“Seattle Seahawks. Geno Smith should have a nice rebound of a season and the Seahawks defense should be much improved with more youth under new head coach Mike Macdonald. The Seahawks also have a very favorable schedule, which should allow them to make a run to make the playoffs.” — Nate Taylor, Chiefs writer
“Falcons. Atlanta gets a new coach with a strong defensive pedigree and leadership skills in Raheem Morris, and a proven quarterback in Kirk Cousins to pair with ascending playmakers Bijan Robinson and Drake London. It also helps that the Falcons play in the NFC South.” — Joe Person, Panthers writer
“Washington. The Commanders only won four games last year. I think they could double that win total and maybe compete for the NFC East title if things go poorly for the Eagles and Cowboys. Dan Quinn ends up improving the defense and Jayden Daniels shows they have a franchise QB.” — Jon Machota, Cowboys writer
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos: Todd Rosenberg, Cooper Neill, Kara Durrette / Getty Images)
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