The summer is usually the slow part of the sports year, but ESPN turned up the temperature with a comparison post on its Instagram account and immediately drew ridicule.

ESPN compared Los Angeles Lakers rookie Bronny James’ height and weight to that of second-year big man Victor Wembanyama of the San Antonio Spurs Saturday.

“Bronny and Wemby are listed at the same weight despite Wemby being over a foot taller,” the post said.

James is listed at 6-foot-2 and 210 pounds. Wembanyama is listed at 7-foot-4 and 210 pounds. There didn’t seem to be any other point to the post aside from trying to draw comments. If that’s the case, it was successful.

NBA fans pointed out the major difference between the two. Wembanyama is a generational talent coming off a season in which he won the Rooke of the Year Award. James is the son of LeBron James, and he will have to work hard to remain a permanent player on an NBA roster.

“You can’t tell me there isn’t an agenda with the media. Like bruh we get it,” one Instagram comment said.

“Please don’t put them in the same sentence. NOT in any way, shape, form, or fashion,” an NBA fan said.

Victor Wembanyama of France in action during a game against Turkey July 3, 2024, in Rouen, France. (Christian Liewig/Corbis/Getty Images)

BRONNY JAMES HAS HIS BEST PERFORMANCE YET, SCORING 12 POINTS AGAINST THE HAWKS

“One is an NBA talent and one is not,” another agreed.

New England Patriots defensive back Jabrill Peppers thought James could have been a legit NFL defensive back if he had gone the football route.

There’s no doubt James has struggled at the start of his Summer League season, but there have been bright spots in spurts.

He had 12 points against the Atlanta Hawks Thursday, his best performance so far.

“No change really, just trying to keep my confidence,” James said of his performance, via UPI. “I’m just going out there and playing my game.

Victor Wembanyama and Bronny James. (Getty Images/AP)

“I feel like I know the right way to play, so that if I go out there and play my game, results like that will come.”

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For many, tennis and the Olympics are an odd combination, and never more so than for the Paris Games in 2024.

A little more than a month after the best tennis players in the world left the red clay of Roland Garros, they are headed right back onto it at a time of year when they are supposed to be getting started on the hard court swing through North America.

A dozen years ago, in the halcyon days of the London Olympics, players basically just moved across town, from Wimbledon to the Olympic Village, then commuted to the All England Club, where the most important tournament had just concluded, for another one. Easy-peasy. Ever since, not so much.

In 2016, the big question ahead of the Rio Games was who wanted to schlep to South America and risk getting Zika, the mosquito-born virus that was on a low-key rage through Brazil. In 2021, dealing with COVID restrictions and testing, and playing in empty stadiums in a climate that felt like the surface of the sun was part of the bargain in Tokyo.

This year, it’s the oddball transition from the slowest surface in tennis (clay) to one of the fastest ones (the grass of Wimbledon) then back to the slow clay, then over to North America’s hard courts for a compressed U.S. Open tune-up run.

This is heaven for a player like Iga Swiatek, the world No. 1 and a clay-court savant. She’s probably one of the rare athletes heading to Paris in any sport who can basically drive in and pick up her gold medal. She just doesn’t lose at Roland Garros, where she has won the French Open four of the past five years.

For almost everyone else, it’s complicated.

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Three top Americans, Ben Shelton, Frances Tiafoe and Sebastian Korda, have all passed. Too much time on the road. Too much hard-court prep work to do ahead of the U.S. Open, which is the most important Grand Slam of the year for many Americans.

Tiafoe, the child of immigrants from Sierra Leone whose love for his country and representing it is deep, said it was a tough call, but not so much because of the tennis tournament, or the chance to win a medal. He’s a basketball nut and thinks this is the only time LeBron James and Stephen Curry will play together in an Olympics.

“That’s going to be iconic,” said Tiafoe, who is confident he will still be good enough to make the team when the Summer Games take place in Los Angeles in four years’ time.

Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus, the two-time defending Australian Open champion, and Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, a three-time Grand Slam finalist, have also taken a pass, citing concerns about injuries.

GO DEEPER

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“I’m really curious how players will play the Olympics and the hard-court season,” said Jabeur, who has been struggling with a knee injury all year, which she could exacerbate by changing surfaces so dramatically. “Honestly, it’s going to be very tough.”

Everyone who passes, though, opens up an opportunity for someone who wouldn’t miss it for the world. Chris Eubanks was sixth on the list of U.S. players eligible to fill one of four U.S. spots in singles. When he got the call-up, he relished the chance to play in a team event but also to soak up the spirit of the Games.

Clay is his worst surface.

“I’ll figure it out,” he said.

The opening ceremony takes place the night before the start of the tennis tournament. He might have to play the next morning.

Japan’s Naomi Osaka lighting the Olympic torch at the 2020 Tokyo Games. (Jamie Squire / Getty Images)

“Don’t care,” he said. “Not missing that.”

Christian Coleman, the American sprinter, was in Eubanks’ fifth-grade class. They’ve been buddies ever since. Now, they will be Olympians together. Coleman was selected for the U.S. relay squad.

“How cool is that?” he said.

Last week, the International Tennis Federation, which runs the Olympic tournament, bragged that 22 of the top 30 women and men had committed to participating. So has Rafael Nadal, who is going to play doubles with Carlos Alcaraz in what should be one of the showcase events of the Games.

Assuming his knee holds up, Novak Djokovic, who underwent meniscus surgery on June 5 but managed to reach the Wimbledon final, will be there, too. Despite winning 24 Grand Slam titles, Djokovic has never won an Olympic gold medal in four tries. It’s the most surprising hole in his resume. He was the man about the Games in Tokyo, doing splits with gymnasts in the Olympic Village gym, getting loud and rowdy with other Serbian athletes as they watched events together, and posing for selfies with just about anyone.

Novak Djokovic did win an Olympic bronze medal in Beijing in 2008. (Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)

That’s the glass nearly three-quarters full, or is it more than a quarter empty?

Nearly four decades after its return to the Olympic program following a 64-year respite, tennis remains in a bit of an oddball spot at the Games. It features some of the biggest stars in the sport, but a gold medal isn’t looked at with the same luster as a Grand Slam title, unless you are someone like Alexander Zverev or Belinda Bencic, gold medalists who have not won Grand Slam singles titles.

Dave Haggerty, the president of the ITF, said the sport’s reentry into the Olympics has been one of the keys to its growth since 1988. Participation has more than doubled to roughly 100 million players. There are now 213 countries with tennis federations compared with 104 in 1988. Of those, 157 compete in the national team event for men, the Davis Cup, and 138 compete in the women’s Billie Jean King Cup, compared with 51 and fewer than 40 in 1988.

“It’s not a traditional tennis audience,” Haggerty said. “It’s an opportunity for us to get a different audience.”

Just as they did when they draped Wimbledon in pink in 2012, organizers plan to dress up Roland Garros so it doesn’t simply look like a smaller version of the French Open.

They will have to cover up the Rolex signs since Omega is the Olympic sponsor. There is also no electronic line calling, no prize money, and probably more importantly, no rankings points. With no chance to earn rankings points, Denis Shapovalov, the Canadian star trying to work his way back from an injury and desperate to get his ranking back to where he can be seeded for big tournaments, said he had little choice but to skip the Games.

Venus and Serena Williams have won eight Olympic gold medals — and 30 Grand Slam singles titles — between them. (Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)

Haggerty said the purity of competing for a medal and nothing else provides its own quadrennial allure. Easy for him to say — he’s not giving up as much as two weeks’ salary to participate. There is also the draw of the spectacle of the Olympic Games and the break it provides from the hamster wheel of the regular tour. Plenty of players would spend a week competing on gravel if it came with an opportunity to march — or in this case, ride a ferry down the Seine — in the opening ceremony and spend a week living and/or socializing among 10,000 of the best athletes in the world at their chosen pursuits in the Olympic Village.

“Me and Emma already have our plan for trading pins and getting all around the village,” said Danielle Collins, who will team up with Emma Navarro on the American team. “Total bucket list item for me.”

Coco Gauff wants to win a medal but also meet Simone Biles, the greatest gymnast ever, and Sha’Carri Richardson, the gold medal favorite in the 100 meters, and wants to hook up once more with two other American runners, Gabby Thomas and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.

It turns out Daniil Medvedev is an Olympics guy, too. “Very easy decision,” he said, claiming he loved the atmosphere in Tokyo, which because of all the COVID restrictions, was probably the worst Summer Olympics atmosphere ever. Given that, Medvedev, a Russian who will compete as a neutral athlete because of his country’s invasion of Ukraine, is going to have himself a time in Paris.

“I know if I’m thinking strictly about my personal career, it’s better to go to Canada, prepare for hard courts,” Medvedev said last week. “When I’m 40, if I can say I played in Tokyo Olympics, Paris Olympics, Los Angeles Olympics, I had a lot of fun in my life, my career, I’m going to be happy.”

Alcaraz, who turned 21 in May, is practically frothing at the mouth to play in his first Olympic Games. He said he is going to “give 100 percent for my country,” and then figure out what his pre-U.S. Open schedule will look like.

“I have to think about it,” he said.

He will have plenty of fellow players to consult.

(Top illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photo: Abbie Parr / Getty Images)

The Lionel Messi effect is real. 

On Friday, the Chicago Fire announced in a statement that they would have a fan-first credit guarantee for their August 31 game against Inter Miami should the star not be able to play due to injury.

“For tickets purchased between now until August 31, should Messi be unavailable for the match at Soldier Field, the Fire’s Fan-First Credit Guarantee will offer all single-match buyers $250 off two or more new 2025 Chicago Fire Season Ticket Memberships or $100 off two or more single match tickets for the 2025 home match versus Inter Miami.”

“Those who have already purchased tickets for August 31 – including single-match and Season Ticket Members – will have the opportunity to claim two complimentary tickets to the Fire’s 2024 Fan Appreciation Night, presented by Zayed Law, for the October 19 match versus Nashville SC, should Messi not be available for the match versus Inter Miami.”

The eight-time Ballon d’Or winner left the Copa América final in the 66th minute after suffering a non-contact injury to his ankle.

LIONEL MESSI OUT INDEFINITELY AFTER SUFFERING LIGAMENT INJURY IN COPA AMÉRICA FINAL

Lionel Messi #10 of Inter Miami looks on during the first half of a game against Toronto FC at Chase Stadium on July 17, 2024, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

Inter Miami released a statement on Tuesday regarding the health of their captain.

“After a medical evaluation, it has been determined that Leo Messi has suffered a ligament injury in his right ankle. The captain’s availability will be determined by periodic assessments and the progress of his recovery.”

Inter Miami head coach Gerrado “Tata” Martino said in a press conference on Tuesday that Messi was likely to miss “at least” two games. 

Argentina forward Lionel Messi (10) reacts after hurting ankle on a play against Colombia in their Copa América 2024 Final soccer match. (Matias J. Ocner/Miami Herald/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

In their first game without Messi, Inter Miami defeated Toronto 3-1 on Wednesday. 

The Fire are traveling to Florida to take on Inter Miami on Saturday, who will be without Messi for the second game in a row. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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