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Hernández: Dodgers, Angels shooting for it all this season

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Three days earlier than his crew opens its season, Dodgers supervisor Dave Roberts was provided an opportunity to stroll again his assure of a championship.

He declined.

“Shouldn’t that be my take?” Roberts mentioned.

On the bench on the alternative facet of the sphere, Angels counterpart Joe Maddon was requested an open-ended query about his crew’s expectations.

He reached for the sky.

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“Successful all of it,” Maddon mentioned. “Successful a World Sequence.”

Because the Dodgers and Angels method opening day, the main target was on their gamers, and rightfully so.

However the Dodgers are about greater than Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, simply because the Angels are about greater than Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout.

The groups are additionally in regards to the males who lead them.

The Dodgers are daring, like Roberts. The Angels aren’t afraid to voice what their most devoted followers are wishing for them, like Maddon.

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Talking earlier than the Freeway Sequence finale on Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, Roberts displayed the identical fearlessness he used as a job participant on the Boston Crimson Sox to execute essentially the most well-known steal in baseball historical past.

Roberts, who agreed to a three-year extension final month, didn’t simply refuse to retract the championship assure he made just lately on “The Dan Patrick Present.”

He doubled down on his prediction.

“For me to place it on the market and consider that that is what’s going to occur, I feel it’s very highly effective,” Roberts mentioned.

He didn’t make the assure to attract consideration to himself. He did so to take care of the tradition of accountability he has created.

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“It raises the bar for myself and everybody that’s part of the Dodgers,” Roberts mentioned. “I feel that, in life or in something, while you give your self an out, there’s a straightforward exit. I feel that for me, figuring out this crew, this group, I really feel for me to place myself on the market, put our crew on the market and say, ‘I can assure we’re going to be the final crew standing,’ I don’t need to stroll it again. I consider in these guys.”

Dodgers’ Mookie Betts will get on base with a single within the third inning towards the Angels throughout a spring coaching recreation at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Instances)

Making the declaration was the straightforward half.

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“The toughest half to do is now, each single day, get higher, and win sufficient baseball video games to place ourselves in that place, to perform our aim,” Roberts mentioned. “However there’s no strolling issues again.”

The Dodgers are as soon as once more World Sequence favorites. They’ve reached the postseason in every of their earlier six seasons underneath Roberts. They’ve made the playoffs in every of the final 9 years.

How can the Dodgers make this outdated story new?

Roberts is asking on them to alter how they view themselves, in essence to find their internal Dave Roberts.

Pointing to how they have been eradicated within the Nationwide League Championship Sequence by the Atlanta Braves after ending second to the San Francisco Giants within the NL West, Roberts mentioned, “We’re not the Nationwide League champions. We’re not the Nationwide League West champions. We’re not defending World Sequence champions. So, for us to suppose that we’re at all times on it, I’d argue that we higher flip the narrative and the script and higher begin being hungry.”

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About an hour later, on the opposite facet of the diamond, Maddon dreamed about what the Angels may very well be.

He dreamed like he did when he managed the Chicago Cubs in 2016 to their first World Sequence championship in 108 years.

“Your expectation, your aim, is to get to the playoffs,” Maddon mentioned. “When you’ve gotten there, you need to play the final recreation of the yr and win it. To method any season with out that mindset, then why even do it?”

Angels' Shohei Ohtani thought he was getting a walk but struck out instead against the Dodgers.

Angels’ Shohei Ohtani thought he was getting a stroll however struck out as an alternative within the first inning towards the Dodgers throughout a spring coaching recreation at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Instances)

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Maddon, who’s within the last yr of his three-year contract, was instructed of how Roberts repeated his assure and was requested if he needed to do the identical.

“I’m not that … I don’t know if the phrase’s daring,” Maddon mentioned with a chuckle.

The Angels gained 77 video games final yr with Trout taking part in 36 video games and Anthony Rendon 58. Of MLB’s 30 groups, 12 might be a part of an expanded postseason subject this yr. If Ohtani, Trout and Rendon are wholesome, why couldn’t the Angels be one in every of them and attain the playoffs for the primary time in eight years?

“I do consider we’re going to make the playoffs,” Maddon mentioned. “I’ll say that. And after that, our aim is to win all of it.”

There was full of life chatter within the Angels’ clubhouse, which Maddon seen as a optimistic growth.

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“Our guys come and play the sport correctly,” he mentioned. “There’s no purpose we are able to’t proceed that. And all of it begins inside.”

Maddon credited second-year GM Perry Minasian for contributing to the improved work setting.

“There’s a really blunt honesty about what’s occurring, from the highest to under,” Maddon mentioned. “The gamers like it. They know precisely what’s occurring with every one in every of them. There’s no grey areas in any way. With that, I feel all people can go on the market with a transparent thoughts and simply do their jobs.”

Maddon continued, “There’s lots of people that don’t just like the phrase tradition. You don’t prefer it since you don’t perceive it. Proper now, the tradition’s flipping.”

If this sounds hokey, properly, it’s as a result of it’s. However Maddon has modified the tradition of organizations earlier than, when he reworked the Tampa Bay Rays into perennial contenders and the Cubs into champions. He’s making an attempt to do the identical with the Angels, to show them into the type of crew about which ensures are made.

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Kenny Smith says Charles Barkley 'never' told him he was retiring, questions why he didn't thank cohosts

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Kenny Smith says Charles Barkley 'never' told him he was retiring, questions why he didn't thank cohosts

Charles Barkley’s retirement announcement came as a surprise to everybody, apparently, including his own cohosts on TNT.

The Hall of Famer made the revelation on NBA TV following Game 4 of the NBA Finals, saying that the 2024-25 season would be his last.

However, the announcement was unprovoked, Kenny Smith said.

Charles Barkley, right, and Kenny Smith look on before the game between the New Orleans Pelicans and Los Angeles Lakers as part of the 2023 NBA In-Season Tournament on Dec. 7, 2023 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. (Mike Kirschbaum/NBAE via Getty Images)

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“He never called me. He never told me,’” Smith told the New York Post. “He still hasn’t called me and told me, ‘Kenny, I’m retiring.’”

Barkley said that regardless of whether TNT is able to continue broadcasting games beyond next season, he intends to “pass on the baton.” 

“There’s been a lot of noise around our network the last few months. And I just want to say, I’ve talked to all the other networks, but I ain’t going nowhere other than TNT. But I have made the decision myself, no matter what happens, next year is going to be my last year on television,” Barkley said.

Charles Barkley smiles at The Match

Charles Barkley looks on during Capital One’s The Match IX at The Park West Palm on Feb. 26, 2024 in West Palm Beach, Florida. (Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images for The Match)

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“And I just want to say thank you to my NBA family, you guys have been great to me,” he continued.  “My heart is full with joy and gratitude, but I’m going to pass the baton at the end of next year. I hope the NBA stays with TNT, but for me personally, I wanted you guys to hear it from me personally, because I’m not doing anymore interviews.”

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Throughout the announcement, Barkley did not thank his partners in Smith, Ernie Johnson or Shquille O’Neal, which Smith seems to have taken issue with. 

“I was just surprised he didn’t thank me, Ernie [Johnson] and Shaq. You’re going to retire and not thank us?” he said.

TNT is on the verge of losing out on the NBA after nearly four decades of coverage, and Barkley’s criticism of TNT’s big wigs has been loud.

Charles Barkley in 2022

NBA Hall of Fame Charles Barkley, left, speaks with “Entertainment Tonight” host Kevin Frazier on the practice green before the start of the second practice round at the ACC Golf Championship presented by American Century Investments on July 7, 2022 at Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course in Stateline, Nevada. (David Calvert/Getty Images for American Century Investments)

The current deals with ABC-ESPN and Turner Sports expire after next season, and the NBA has been talking with NBC, ESPN and Amazon, among other networks and platforms, about what will come next.

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Fox News’ Paulina Dedaj and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Rob Dillingham: From Ye's Donda Academy debacle to a probable NBA lottery pick

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Rob Dillingham: From Ye's Donda Academy debacle to a probable NBA lottery pick

The names leap from the hardwood: Willie Naulls, Gail Goodrich, Marques Johnson, Paul Pierce, Baron Davis, Tyson Chandler, James Harden, Kawhi Leonard, Paul Pierce, DeMar DeRozan, Jrue Holiday.

That’s a fair sample of the greatest basketball players to come from Southland high schools.

Rob Dillingham could join them, with a prominent asterisk. The exceptionally quick guard from Kentucky is expected to be a lottery pick in the NBA draft Wednesday.

Yet even the most rabid followers of high school hoops could be excused for not recognizing Dillingham’s connection to the greater Los Angeles area. He’s not a local in the traditional sense, such as Jared McCain — the Times Player of the Year in 2023 with Corona Centennial High. McCain, who spent one year at Duke, is expected to be taken in the middle of the first round.

But Dillingham?

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He was the marquee player at the Donda Academy, the short-lived basketball mill and K-12 private Christian school owned and operated by rapper Ye — formerly Kanye West. Donda, named after Ye’s mother, opened in the fall of 2021 in Simi Valley, then moved to an industrial park in Chatsworth before closing early in 2023.

Donda parents, faculty and staff were required to sign a nondisclosure agreement and refrain from publicly discussing the school’s practices and any other details that were not public.

“People choose to bring their kids to Donda Academy for a sense of privacy,” Malik Yusef, a producer and longtime collaborator of Ye’s, told Rolling Stone in September 2022. “A sense of care, a sense of concern, a sense of love, an environment of health, and an environment of wealth, an environment of learning, and putting God as a focus.”

Ye torpedoed the star-studded Donda Doves basketball team, however, and then the entire academy by making repeated antisemitic rants, the final straw a podcast interview with MIT research scientist Lex Fridman in which he made reckless and ridiculously false statements about the Holocaust, abortion and Jewish people.

His hate speech already had cost him deals with talent agency CAA, fashion label Balenciaga and sportswear giant Adidas. The podcast interview prompted several prominent national basketball showcases and tournaments to drop the Doves, who in short order had their entire season schedule gutted.

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The team disbanded and Dillingham, who already had committed to enroll at Kentucky in the fall of 2023, never played in front of an L.A. crowd in a traditional high school gym and never studied in a traditional high school classroom.

Rather than transfer to another high school, he opted to relocate to Atlanta and play for Overtime Elite, a quasi-professional operation for 16- to 20-year-olds that, according to the New York Times, “provides health and disability insurance and sets aside $100,000 in college scholarship money for each player if they decide not to pursue professional basketball afterwards.”

The decision proved worthwhile for Dillingham’s development. Overtime Elite held as many as three practices a day in a facility that included practice courts, a weight room, training room and space for classes. When he left, he was prepared for the rigors of Division I basketball.

Dillingham maintained the silence he learned at Donda and did not consent to interviews at Overtime Elite. However, teammate Kanaan Carlyle, now a star at Stanford who has known Dillingham since fifth grade, told the Lexington Herald-Leader in 2022, “I’ve seen Rob grow, from little Rob with a big afro to now he’s getting ready to go to Kentucky. It’s been amazing to see him grow over time.”

At Kentucky, Dillingham began talking to reporters and established that he is upbeat and confident without coming off as brash. During one postgame interview, he and coach John Calipari traded opinions about each other.

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The season had gotten off to a rocky start, with Dillingham not playing much in exhibitions held in Canada. By midseason he was showing improvement and by season’s end he was selected Southeastern Conference sixth man of the year while averaging 15.6 points.

“Since Canada until now, our relationship grew so much,” Dillingham said of Calipari. “He shows me he has confidence in me. He still lets me rock, but at the same time he wants me to probe and make smarter decisions.

“I’m just thankful for him. He helps me while he lets me be me.”

Calipari, sitting next to Dillingham, spoke next: “You are coaching a kid who can create space and get a basket when he wants to. Do you clip his wings? You can’t. You got to let him go.

“But, I give him two [mistakes] in a half. The third one,” Calipari said, turning to Dillingham, “you are coming out.”

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Dillingham always was considered a one-and-done player, destined for the NBA as soon as possible. He is one of four Kentucky players expected to be drafted, joining Reed Sheppard, Justin Edwards and Antonio Reeves.

Times basketball writer Dan Woike’s mock draft has Dillingham going to the Utah Jazz with the 10th pick, saying, “The Jazz have time, ammunition with future draft picks and needs in their backcourt. Dillingham is an explosive offensive player with quick hands on defense. He’s small, but lightning fast.”

Other mock drafts have him going as high as No. 8 to the San Antonio Spurs. He is undersized, measuring 6-foot-1 without shoes, and weighing 164 pounds at the NBA combine. Dillingham didn’t allow the disaster at Donda to derail his dreams, and soon he can prove he belongs alongside the best.

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Knicks reunite Mikal Bridges with Villanova teammates in blockbuster trade with Nets: reports

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Knicks reunite Mikal Bridges with Villanova teammates in blockbuster trade with Nets: reports

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There’s just something the New York Knicks love about those Villanova products in the NBA. 

The Knicks have reportedly struck a trade with the Brooklyn Nets to bring Mikal Bridges, a former teammate of Knicks stars, Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo during their time at Villanova, to Madison Square Garden in a blockbuster deal. 

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In this first trade between both teams since 1983, the Knicks will send veteran forward Bogdan Bogdanovic, four unprotected first-round picks, one protected first-round pick via the Milwaukee Bucks, an unprotected pick swap and a second-round pick in exchange for Bridges, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.

Jalen Brunson #11 and Josh Hart #3 of the New York Knicks talk to Mikal Bridges #1 of the Brooklyn Nets after the game on March 23, 2024 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York.  (Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)

The Knicks saw exactly what former college teammates could do on the floor together in the NBA last season, as Brunson, DiVincenzo and Hart all had stellar campaigns during the team’s playoff run. 

Now, Bridges reunites with teammates he won multiple NCAA national titles with during his college days. 

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Bridges’ reaction was likely that of all Knicks fans, as he posted on social media. 

“This is crazy lol,” Bridges simply posted on X. 

Bridges, the 10th overall pick of the 2018 NBA Draft who was traded by the Philadelphia 76ers to the Phoenix Suns on draft night, has developed into a star with the Nets since he was dealt before the deadline in the 2022-23 campaign. 

He jumped from 17.2 points per game to 26.1 over 27 contests that season as a Net, and last year’s production was solid as well. 

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Mikal Bridges gets rebound

Mikal Bridges #25 of the Villanova Wildcats grabs a rebound in front of teammates Donte DiVincenzo #10 and Jalen Brunson #1 against the Providence Friars at the Wells Fargo Center on January 23, 2018, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Mitchell Leff/Getty Images)

Bridges averaged 19.6 points per game with 4.5 rebounds, 3.6 assists and 1.0 steals, while shooting 43.6% from the field over all 82 regular-season games. 

The Philly native, who was a 2021-22 All-Defensive team honoree, figures to slot right into the starting lineup alongside his Villanova brothers, including the All-Star Brunson who exploded for an All-NBA nod after averaging a career-high 28.7 points per contest. 

The news of Bridges’ addition comes as OG Anunoby, the Knicks’ traded-for wing last season, reportedly opted out of his contract and decided to test free agency. 

Bridges, at 6-foot-6, has the ability to guard just about any player on the floor, and head coach Tom Thibodeau loves players with that extra hustle, which he provides every night. 

New York is clearly a win-now team after going 50-32 last season to earn the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference. But they’ve lost in the conference semifinals in back-to-back seasons, so adding another playmaker who can thrive on both ends of the floor was paramount for their squad this offseason. 

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Mikal Bridges runs on court

Mikal Bridges #1 of the Brooklyn Nets celebrates after making a shot in the third quarter against the Indiana Pacers at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on April 01, 2024, in Indianapolis, Indiana.  (Dylan Buell/Getty Images)

That box is checked with the addition of Bridges, who shouldn’t have any trouble getting acclimated with his new team.

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