Sports

Meet Dragan Kesich, the nation’s most colorful kicker

Published

3 months ago

September 28, 2024

Meet Dragan Kesich, the nation’s most colorful kicker

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. — About 20 minutes after walking into opening day at the Minnesota State Fair, with microphone in hand, fanny pack around his waist, and baseball cap covering the faded “Monsters, Inc.” character painted on his head, Dragan Kesich wanders past the line for Pronto Pups corn dogs. He says he smells camels. Or cows. Or something.

It’s probably horses. Mostly horses, anyway. The 27,500-square-foot barn is off to the right.

“Ooh, you wanna go see some horses?” Kesich suggests to the small group tailing him. “Let’s see some horses.”

Nearly 2 million people will attend this 12-day spectacle. The country’s most colorful kicker, a 6-foot-4, 240-pound left-footer who thinks he could beat a cheetah in a fight, is one of one. He records an episode of his preseason vlog, “Kamp With Kesich,” in which fairgoers must correctly pronounce the names of three teammates to win a Gophers towel. He rides the Rock Star, discusses Brett Favre with a total stranger, sits in the audience for a taping of P.J. Fleck’s coach’s show, eats a turkey leg, takes pictures with fans, plots a stop at Sweet Martha’s Cookie Jar and tries to win a stuffed animal for the fifth straight year. For two hours, Dragan Kesich happens to the State Fair, and not the other way around.

“He’s the most interesting guy I’ve ever met in my life, I reckon, by a mile,” says Minnesota punter Mark Crawford, who, at age 30, has lived a bit.

There is, unavoidably, a binary side to Kesich’s existence. Make or miss. Black or white. He’ll feel that acutely nine days from this moment. And it’s up to him to be a light, even when things get a little dark.

For now, Kesich loops through the horse barn, marveling at the Clydesdales while also trying to interview one. Upon finding an empty stall, he walks in to explore it. Linebacker Cody Lindenberg, one of his best friends, then spies a nearby stack of bales.

“You’re not feeding me hay, bro,” Kesich declares. “We’re not doing that.”

In moments, the reigning Big Ten kicker of the year gnaws at a handful of hay strands.

Upon leaving the barn, Kesich visits a smoothie stand and orders a palate-cleansing Strawberry Squeeze. He makes one additional request.

“Can I get the Tiki cup?” he asks.

It’s Aug. 29, 2024. Two seconds left against North Carolina. Minnesota trails by two and Dragan Kesich has another chance to win a season opener with a 47-yard field goal. This is how he began his breakout 2023 season, too: same distance, tie game against Nebraska, three seconds on the clock, and the kick split the uprights. Everyone thought he’d make that one. Everyone knew he’d make this one. And the ball leaves Kesich’s foot and hooks wide right.

He walks off the Huntington Bank Stadium field, head hung low. Teammates console him. Fleck declares unwavering belief during a postgame news conference. Still, in the locker room, the glow drains from one of college football’s most vibrant personalities … for a while.

Around 1 a.m., Kesich decides to be in a happy place.

“Let’s go to Taco Bell,” he declares to his roommates.

The tradition started in 2021 with Crawford and linebacker Derik LeCaptain. After every game, whatever time it is, they decompress at a nearby Taco Bell. This night would be no different. Kesich would be gutted, then stuff his gut with a Cheesy Gordita Crunch box. “You can’t ride the emotional roller coaster as a kicker,” he says. “Let’s say I would’ve made that kick. I can’t act any differently, you feel me? I just gotta be who I am.”

It’s how a human kaleidoscope does this job. How he makes his way through missing as many kicks (four) in the first four games of 2024 as he did in all of 2023. There are people in the world trying to be what they’re supposed to be, Fleck muses. Or they try to be different. His kicker does not try. Dragan Kesich is, the Gophers coach says, “100 percent authentic,” no matter what.

Let us count the ways.

The family history. Kesich’s great-grandfather was bound for Belgrade, Serbia, for work when the Croatian army stopped his train. The Serbians were pulled off the train, tied together in pairs and thrown into a pit with water at the bottom. Kesich’s great-grandfather caught hold of something – “My grandpa said a tree branch,” Kesich says – and held on until dark. He then climbed out and was rescued by the Serbian army.

In the mid-1990s, with war seizing the region, his grandparents fled on a seven-day tractor ride from Golubic, a village in the city of Knin, Croatia, to Belgrade. They flew back to America. A bomb fell on their house not long after. Harrowing stuff. But there’s something about having steel in your blood. “It doesn’t feel real,” Kesich says. “I’m like, I don’t know how you guys went through that.”

The soccer punt. By eighth grade, Kesich began to take kicking seriously enough to start getting noticed. There was still the matter of his family’s love for soccer – Kesich says he has a plaque for scoring 100 goals in one season as a youth player, and his brother played at Division II Wisconsin-Parkside – until a fateful coaching change at Oak Creek (Wis.) High. The new boys soccer coach made running two miles in 12 minutes mandatory for training. This prompted Kesich’s early retirement. “And, of course, they didn’t even end up doing it,” he says now. “I was like, well, that was just a tactic to get a guy like me out of there. So it worked.”

The hair. For the sake of change, Kesich decided to bleach his hair in 2022. At practice, Fleck offered a thought: It was a blank canvas. Kesich should paint it.

Kesich commissioned Crawford’s then-girlfriend, an art major, for the work. The first design was flames. Then, a cheetah print. Pokemon Go was big with Minnesota football in early 2023, so Squirtle – “a great Pokemon,” Kesich notes – appeared on his dome. There has been a blue arrow inspired by “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” a playing-card theme and, lastly, the face of Mike Wazowski from “Monsters, Inc.” It’s been a preseason-only ritual, and not accidentally, it’s created some levity for a group in need of it during the grind. “How easy is it to go up and have a conversation with the guy who’s got Mike Wazowski from ‘Monsters, Inc.’ painted in his hair?” LeCaptain says.

(Courtesy of University of Minnesota)

Miscellaneous Dragan tales. To begin with, it’s pronounced Drag-AHN, but people call him “Dragon” anyway. Kesich took a bowling class at Minnesota, decided to buy his own ball and says he’s rolled a high game of 244. He spent the bulk of a Saturday night three years ago attempting to break the record on a Pop-A-Shot machine in the players’ lounge, while LeCaptain cheered him on. (He did set the record.) He loves animated movies and spent a recent off-day rewatching “Ratatouille” and “The Incredibles.” He is an avid sleeper who once asked Crawford to wake him up shortly before a massage appointment. “It was like 9:30 at night,” the punter says. The massage was at 12:55 p.m. the next day.

When Kesich discovered his beloved Milwaukee Bucks were using Minnesota’s basketball facility for a workout, he dropped everything, donned a green Bucks jumpsuit and waited outside for autographs. Only Giannis Antetokounmpo turned him down.

“He’s a kid at heart,” Crawford says, “but it’s a big heart, that’s for sure.”

The Great Animal Fight Debate. One day, as they are wont to do, Kesich and Crawford started a locker room discussion about a dumb topic: Wild animals you could defeat in a fight.

An elephant was a no. So were lions and giraffes and grizzly bears, though Kesich added an asterisk to black bears. “Because black bears eat fruit,” he reasons. Then someone brought up a cheetah. Binary challenge. Him and a carnivore from the wilds of Africa. Do or die.

Guess where Dragan Kesich landed on that.

“If it’s to the death? I think I could,” Kesich says. “There’s the cheetah. I’m right here. Like, my life depends on it. I think I could take it. … Hopefully I’m never in that position. But if I am, I think I can come out victorious.”

He may indeed be, as his buddies put it, delusional. But there’s a reason Dragan Kesich is in the middle of everything for Minnesota and not a sideshow.

Because the stories don’t end there.

Here’s the other thing Kesich once was: a pudgy teenager with a big leg but not enough accuracy to be a reliable Big Ten kicker.

“He looked a little bit more like a high school right guard,” Fleck says of Kesich, the prospect. He weighed in at 270 pounds after arriving at Minnesota. Little of it could be considered good weight. “It was not a good place,” Kesich concedes.

So he started running again. He quit drinking soda. He cut out Twix bars as a bedtime snack, among other processed-sugar temptations. All that and the dedicated conditioning program for Gophers specialists shaved 40 pounds off his frame. Dragan Kesich got serious and quickly worked his way into looking like a college football player.

Performing like one took longer.

As a true freshman in 2020, Kesich only handled kickoffs. What might’ve been an open door for 2021 closed to a crack in the offseason: Minnesota plucked Matthew Trickett, an all-MAC kicker from Kent State, out of the transfer portal. Kesich was happy to let the best man win the job. He was less thrilled when that wasn’t him. “I was like, dang, maybe they don’t believe in me, maybe they don’t trust me here,” he says. Trickett attempted 43 field goals over the next two seasons. Kesich attempted one. Understanding why that happened was precisely what Kesich needed. “I learned so much under him in those two years,” he says of Trickett now. “He got me to where I am.”

Kesich obsessed over consistency in his approach, staying light on his feet, getting his placement right. If he wasn’t spending hours working with his kicking coach, Luke Radke, when home in Wisconsin, he was texting Radke for drills to do behind the curtain at Minnesota. He learned how to manage his temperament. He won the starting job for 2023 and connected on 23 of 27 attempts, without missing an extra point. Everyone remembers the Nebraska winner, but Kesich is prouder of his four makes in an upset win at Iowa. The Big Ten kicker of the year award was a validation – “It’s something you never think would happen,” Kesich says – but it was also trimming. For years, the light was there only if he squinted. He marched toward it anyway and now is the program’s all-time leader in field goals from 50 yards and beyond.

That’s how a kicker works his way into the heart of everything.

“He’s one of the most influential leaders on our team, and it’s not even a question,” LeCaptain says.

Part of it is acting like the life of an everyday party and the magnetism that creates. But the blue water bottle Minnesota players must carry around in training camp as a reminder to hydrate? Kesich carries it all season. If lyrics get a little profane over the locker room speaker system, Kesich shuts off the music, lest it offend someone passing through the building. Should a player challenge him on that, well, he’s a 6-4, 240-pound guy who knows the rules. “You don’t see that,” Lindenberg says. “You don’t really see kickers as involved. He’s holding people accountable. He’s doing all the right things.”

Says Fleck: “He’s different from the normal perception of what a kicker is mentally and emotionally. He is a football player. That’s what makes him so connected to our team.”

With things to straighten out in every sense, and with rival Iowa visiting last weekend, Kesich got to work. Again. He focused on finishing his motion downfield. Keeping his club (left) foot open longer. Keeping his eyes back so his hips didn’t turn as much. He even wondered if anyone would let him bring the Floyd of Rosedale trophy to Taco Bell if Minnesota won.

There would be no reprise of 2023. Again. Kesich didn’t attempt a field goal in a 31-14 loss, much less make four. But here comes Michigan, the defending national champions. Such is the life. Another week, and he has to believe the light is out there somewhere.

“A quarterback, they’ve got, what, 40 throws a game?” Kesich says. “A kicker, you got two on average a game? So when you miss one it’s kind of just like that: All right, boom, whatever, next one. I’d say I’ve always had that.”

Dragan Kesich celebrates with P. J. Fleck after defeating Nebraska in the 2023 season opener. (Bailey Hillesheim / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

At 10:58 a.m., a throng of large humans in matching gold T-shirts and maroon shorts enters the Minnesota State Fair through a gate off Randall Avenue. Without much ado, Dragan Kesich sorts through some papers with his teammates’ names on them, separating the easy ones to pronounce from the hard ones, and collects a few Gophers to stand behind him as he records an intro for this “Kamp With Kesich” featurette.

He tells everyone to enjoy the ride.

And we’re off.

“Last time, I rode the slingshot – you know the one that shoots you into the air?” Kesich says, walking past lampposts affixed with “12 Days of Fun” banners. “I’m never doing that again.”

So there are places past the edge of the map in Dragan’s world, but only because he’s already visited and doesn’t want to go back.

Most everything else, today and every day, is fair game.

Kesich cracks up when he sees offensive linemen trying on samurai hats. (“We gotta get that.”) He notes how convenient Sweet Martha’s, with its literal buckets of chocolate chip cookies, is to the way out. (“We’ll get those later. I gotta savor those.”) He wonders aloud if a kid walking around with a recorder can play “Hot Cross Buns.” He talks Packers and Vikings with a complete stranger who has a very complicated and somewhat unintelligible theory about Brett Favre, locked into the conversation the whole time. He does not cut the first two “Kamp With Kesich” contestants any slack for mispronouncing the third and most difficult name he gives them, though the one who can’t get “Oberhiri Eyafe” correct walks away unaware that he has company.

“Guys, I gotta be honest,” Kesich says, after moving along. “I have no idea how to pronounce Obie’s name.”

After touring the horse barn, he tells a woman who asks for a picture that it’ll cost her 50 bucks, and then bursts out laughing. He hands out a prize to a fairgoer who gets Eyafe as the third name to pronounce – “Give him his towel, baby!” – while also conceding he still has no idea if it was right. After 40 minutes of this, Kesich’s attention turns to the Mighty Midway, and he asks Lindenberg if he wants to go on the Rock Star. Lindenberg says the pendulum-like ride isn’t good enough.

A couple minutes later, the Rock Star line comprises four people: Two kids, and two Big Ten football players.

“You ever been on this ride?” Kesich asks one of the boys in front of him. “Let me tell you, it’s the greatest thing ever. Best thing you’ll ever do in your life.”

Upon descending the ride platform – “That was amazing,” Kesich reports – he calculates there is enough time to win a stuffed animal. He’s 4-for-4 in bringing one back for support staff member Chandler Buning. He cannot leave here without a fifth. Which brings him to a football-throwing game.

One toss. Fit it through a star-shaped hole, get a prize. Make or miss. All or nothing.

First toss is high. Second is, too. Third goes low.

“What am I doing?” Kesich shouts.

His luck does not improve, nor does his mood. So Kesich moves next door to the Cat Rack. Knock over three feline-shaped targets with baseballs, and he can complete his mission with an elephant or frog or purple panda.

All or nothing, again.

He doesn’t win on his first turn, or his second.

“Run it back, run it back,” he says.

He hits two and misses the third.

“DUDE!” Kesich exclaims. “Run it back!”

He misses all three throws. On the next try, he connects on just one. He is both beside himself and out of time, if he wants to catch Fleck’s coaches’ show.

“All right,” Kesich tells the Cat Rack proprietor. “I’ll be back with $100.”

It only takes 70. And it’s a different game, two booths away, with slightly lower stakes: three throws to knock over beer bottles, but the prize increases in size with every successful consecutive try.

Kesich never goes 3-for-3, but he does hit one a bunch of times and two in a row twice. So Buning gets a gray elephant to keep the streak alive. Kesich gives Lindenberg a panda to pass on to his girlfriend. He hands out the smaller prizes to random people at the fair. Mission accomplished.

There is belief, and there is stubbornness, and there is Dragan Kesich, coloring in the overlap.

(Illustration: Meech Robinson / The Athletic; photos courtesy of University of Minnesota)

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Sports

Most interesting NBA awards: An unknown Rookie of the Year? Wide-open Most Improved race?

Published

58 minutes ago

December 25, 2024

Press Room

Most interesting NBA awards: An unknown Rookie of the Year? Wide-open Most Improved race?

All your favorite characters are competing for the same NBA award once again.

Nikola Jokić is the MVP favorite. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander follows him up. Two-time winner Giannis Antetokounmpo is on their tails, as are Jayson Tatum and Luka Dončić. Those five made up First Team All-NBA last season. Now, they make up the quintet atop the 2024-25 MVP race.

Christmas isn’t just Santa’s day. It’s also the marker of when NBA talk reaches the public sphere, which means it’s time to discuss the battles for the league’s most prestigious awards.

For MVP, the fight isn’t so bloody. Jokić is the obvious No. 1 today. He’s three-tenths of an assist away from averaging a triple-double; the advanced metrics (which have always painted him as a higher being) are greater than ever; and the shooting splits are out of a video game. On top of it all, he’s nailing a league-leading 51 percent of his 3-pointers.

If the season ended today, a fourth Jokić MVP would be on the way. Of course, there are still more than four months to go.

It’s difficult to infuse a team’s record into any reasonable candidate’s argument right now. Jokić’s Denver Nuggets provide the perfect example.

Denver is 16-11, fifth in the Western Conference. It is only two back of second place in the loss column. Yet, it’s only two up of ninth place in the loss column.

One bad week, and the Nuggets are in the bottom half of the Play-In Tournament, which would bump Jokić down a slot or two. It’s difficult to dub someone MVP if his team isn’t in the playoffs, even if Jokić somehow breaks mathematics as we know them and starts shooting 107 percent from the field.

Gilgeous-Alexander could become the favorite to win his first MVP in that case. His Oklahoma City Thunder are atop the Western Conference, and he’s the leading reason. Or maybe the Milwaukee Bucks go on a run, which inspires a third trophy for Antetokounmpo. Neither Tatum nor Dončić is out of the race, either.

As of today, my ballot would include those five. Let’s go with:

Nikola Jokić
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Giannis Antetokounmpo
Jayson Tatum
Luka Dončić

But the MVP race is not done — nor are others.

The NBA is littered with interesting awards races so far this season. Here are four more of them:

Who finishes second and third in Defensive Player of the Year?

Just look at how the Philadelphia 76ers ended the first quarter Monday night.

All they wanted to do was get up a shot, any shot, before the buzzer sounded. Their only strategy was to pray. That was not enough.

Kyle Lowry rose for a fadeaway jumper with seemingly no one around him, but the San Antonio Spurs employ one man whose arms appear twice the width of the court. That man swatted Lowry, then trailed Caleb Martin, who recovered the loose ball, and knocked Martin’s shot out of bounds at the buzzer.

We don’t need to call any award race over yet, especially because players must participate in at least 65 games to be eligible for most of them, but there is an obvious leader in Defensive Player of the Year. If Victor Wembanyama is on the court, you don’t score on the Spurs. He has 18 blocks over his past two games alone. He’s pacing to become the first player to average four rejections a game since Dikembe Mutombo in 1995-96 — and keep in mind, it was far easier to block shots then, considering how many more were inside the 3-point arc. The Spurs defense is more than 10 points per 100 possessions better when Wembanyama is on the court.

He is the world’s greatest defender right now. But who could follow him on the ballot?

Could there be an all-French top two? Rudy Gobert, the four-time winner of this award, has still helped the Minnesota Timberwolves to sixth in points allowed per possession, despite holes elsewhere on the roster. Opponents stop attacking the paint whenever Gobert is around. His team allows 8.3 percent fewer shots at the rim when he’s on the court, the largest differential for any player in the NBA, according to Cleaning the Glass. Almost all of those layups turn into midrange jumpers, not 3s.

Could it be Bam Adebayo, who has a similar effect on the Miami Heat’s opponent shot profile? Could Jaren Jackson Jr. contend for a second Defensive Player of the Year? Could Evan Mobley re-enter the conversation he was in a couple of years ago, when he finished second? The Cleveland Cavaliers own the best record in the league, and opponents are shooting 9.3 percentage points worse at the rim when Mobley is on the court, by far the largest differential in the NBA.

Could a perimeter player vault to the spot behind Wembanyama? Defensive Player of the Year is usually reserved for big men, but Dyson Daniels might have something to say about that. Daniels is getting steals on 4.4 percent of his possessions, the highest steal rate for any player since Tony Allen in 2010-11. He has 72 more deflections than De’Aaron Fox, who is second in the league. For reference, that’s the same difference as the one between Fox and 147th place. Daniels isn’t just a gambler. He’s a pest on the ball. Dribblers can’t jolt past him. As long as he keeps performing like this, he’s a lock for All-Defense, but he has two main knocks against him.

First, a perimeter player can’t affect team defense like a big man can. And second (which may just be further proof of the previous point), the Hawks are actually better defensively with Daniels off the court. And that’s not just because Daniels plays many of his minutes alongside the defensively challenged Trae Young. When Daniels is on the court and Young is off, the Hawks defense is a sieve.

If not Daniels, does OG Anunoby, an off-ball maestro who can cut off an entire side of the court, have a case to slide onto the ballot? How about Amen Thompson, who comes off the bench in Houston but still inspires fury among opposing starters like few others? The Rockets may be the NBA’s most-physical team defending the perimeter. No one there is better in that aspect than Thompson.

Ballot, as of today:
1. Victor Wembanyama
2. Dyson Daniels
3. Evan Mobley

What is a most improved player?

Franz Wagner was the obvious choice here, but an oblique injury will likely make him ineligible to win. And because of that, debating who is the most improved will say more about the debaters than it will about the candidates.

Is a vast improvement in shot-making the way to determine the victor? If so, the LA Clippers’ Norman Powell is the current favorite, but it’s still early enough and Powell’s scoring numbers (24.1 points per game and 47 percent 3-point shooting on 8.1 attempts a night) are so through the roof that there must be some regression on the way — though it’s not like Powell is putting up empty numbers. The Clippers are winning more than anyone could have expected, and their offense is more than 10 points per 100 possessions better with Powell on the court, according to Cleaning the Glass.

GO DEEPER

How Norman Powell, with Kobe’s help, is making an NBA All-Star case

Payton Pritchard has a case. He’s nearly doubled his 3-point volume, is sinking a higher percentage than ever, is the planet’s sneakiest offensive rebounder and has gone from cutesie, full-court-shot specialist to Sixth Man of the Year leader.

De’Andre Hunter is another player who’s hitting jumpers like never before, though he’s developed in other ways, too. He’s getting to the line more than ever. Hunter used to avoid contact. Now he finishes through it, a big sticking point for Hawks head coach Quin Snyder.

Yet, there are other types of improvement to deliberate.

Another Hawk, Jalen Johnson, should be on the list. Atlanta has handed more opportunities to Johnson this season, who is a better facilitator than ever. He’s never created his own shot this much and has never set up teammates like this. The Hawks offense is not just the Young show anymore. And Johnson is putting up the counting stats we normally associate with winners of this award: 19.4 points, 10.1 rebounds and 5.6 assists. He might be an All-Star this season.

RJ Barrett’s passing is worth a mention. Barrett has gone from looking for his shot first, second and third to learning how to change speeds in pick-and-rolls. He loves flinging cross-court zingers to shooters while leading the break. He had never posted a double-digit assist game coming into this season. He’s already done it five times in 2024-25. His assist rate right now is twice his career average.

Some other players who could sneak onto the list include Cade Cunningham (who is running an offense better than ever and should be an All-Star), Daniels (because of the defensive leap), Mobley (who is handling the ball more than ever in Cleveland) and Nikola Vučević (whose percentages put prime Dirk Nowitzki to shame and must be bound to come down but for now force his entry onto this list).

Ballot, as of today:
1. Jalen Johnson
2. Norman Powell
3. RJ Barrett

Who lands the final spot on the Rookie of the Year ballot?

As with M.I.P., one player had first place virtually locked up, and then that player (in this case, the 76ers’ Jared McCain) got hurt. Now, the race for Rookie of the Year has all the vibes of the one from 2017, when second-round pick Malcolm Brogdon won.

This season’s Brogdon is the Grizzlies’ Jaylen Wells, a fellow second-rounder who is starting for a top-three team in the West and has been highly efficient in the process. The Pelicans’ Yves Missi is doing his best to make something of a lost season in New Orleans. Tune into the Pels each month and Missi, a ferocious finisher and top-flight athlete, is doing something new a bit better.

GO DEEPER

Hollinger: These players are threatening to make 2024 an upside-down draft

As with M.I.P., your third-place choice might say more about you than it does about the candidates.

The Spurs’ Stephon Castle has started for a winning team and is already a feisty defender, but the shooting isn’t up to snuff yet. The Grizzlies’ Zach Edey has missed some time and isn’t playing loads of minutes but is a scoring machine already. The Hawks’ Zaccharie Risacher cannot make a shot but is one of a few long defenders Atlanta has lining its wings. The Trail Blazers’ Donovan Clingan isn’t playing much but would own the NBA’s second-highest block rate (behind only Wembanyama) if he qualified for the league leaders. The Lakers’ Dalton Knecht isn’t connecting lately but has started occasionally for a winning team and is liable to catch fire at any point.

The candidates are underwhelming. But you have to choose three.

Ballot, as of today:
1. Jaylen Wells
2. Yves Missi
3. Stephon Castle

The Coach of the Year race

There isn’t a coach with a more difficult job this season than the Spurs’ Mitch Johnson, who had to take over a young team that hasn’t finished above .500 in six years after Gregg Popovich suffered a stroke. Yet, as the Spurs await Popovich’s return, they are 15-14. Just about every player is performing at his capabilities.

And yet, it doesn’t matter when it comes to awards.

Toss Johnson’s résumé into the same bin that held Luke Walton’s in 2016, when the Golden State Warriors went 39-4 after Walton took over temporarily for head coach Steve Kerr, who could not patrol the sidelines during that time because of a back injury. Johnson is not officially the head coach of the Spurs and thus is not eligible for Coach of the Year.

But even without him, there are too many qualified candidates to choose from. At least six coaches could justify first-place votes.

Kenny Atkinson took over a team that underwhelmed a season ago and has helped it to the best record in the NBA. The Cavs are 26-4.

GO DEEPER

Inside the low-tech meeting that supercharged Donovan Mitchell and the Cavs

Jamahl Mosley’s Magic have suffered injury after injury. Paolo Banchero, the team’s sole All-Star, has played five games all season. Now, both Wagners (Franz and Moe) are out. Yet, Orlando’s identity is distinct. Battle the Magic and, win or lose, you will leave the arena with a sore back, neck, shoulder, knee — you name it. Most importantly, they’re winning: 19-12, fourth in the East.

Taylor Jenkins has transformed the 20-10 Grizzlies. If you think NBA teams all play the same style nowadays, check out Memphis. Jenkins and assistant Noah LaRoche have implemented an offense based around quirky cutting, stuff few others around the league are running. The Grizzlies use an extended rotation and don’t run their guys for many minutes. No one averages more than 28. It’s working. Memphis is a contender.

After Paul George left in free agency and without Kawhi Leonard even playing a game yet, the Clippers should not be this good, sitting at 17-13 as they await the return of Leonard. They guard like maniacs. Such is the beauty of employing Ty Lue, who has somehow never won this award.

Ime Udoka has the most typical case. The Rockets are the NBA’s surprise team. Their identity could not have adjusted more from its one before Udoka arrived in town. Houston tosses hound after hound at its opponents. It plays as hard as any team in the league. It’s disciplined. No one wants to face the Rockets, who are young, yet are second in the league in points allowed per possession.

Let’s throw reigning Coach of the Year Mark Daigneault into the mix, too. The Thunder are in the process of running away with the West despite a significant injury to rising star Chet Holmgren.

Voters could justify including the Heat’s Erik Spoelstra whenever they want. The New York Knicks’ Tom Thibodeau helped a renovated, offense-first roster to a 19-10 record. Michael Malone is navigating injuries aplenty and the loss of Kentavious Caldwell-Pope out West.

This is unquestionably the most gut-wrenching ballot to fill out right now.

Ballot, as of today:
1. Kenny Atkinson
2. Ime Udoka
3. Jamahl Mosley

(Top photo of Jaylen Wells: Justin Ford / Getty Images)

Sports

Netflix under pressure with Christmas Day NFL slate after Tyson-Paul streaming debacle

Published

2 hours ago

December 25, 2024

Press Room

Netflix under pressure with Christmas Day NFL slate after Tyson-Paul streaming debacle

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The NFL is giving fans a present on Christmas, with two high-profile matchups between AFC contenders with a lot of playoff implications.

The Kansas City Chiefs and Pittsburgh Steelers play at 1 p.m. ET, and the Baltimore Ravens and Houston Texans play at 4:30 p.m. ET, with both games streaming exclusively on Netflix.

After many had streaming issues during the Jake Paul-Mike Tyson fight in November, Netflix is under a lot of pressure to ensure their viewers don’t have any issues watching the games.

Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is introduced prior to a game against the Houston Texans at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. (Denny Medley-Imagn Images)

One Netflix subscriber even filed a lawsuit against Netflix for “breach of contract” because of constant glitches during the fight, per TMZ.

This will be the first time an NFL game has been streamed exclusively on Netflix, and no matter how the viewing experience is for fans on Wednesday, it won’t be the last game they see on the streaming service.

The NFL and Netflix announced in May that they agreed to a three-year deal where the streaming service will broadcast at least one Christmas Day game over the life of the deal.

Brandon Riegg, Netflix’s vice president of nonfiction series and sports, said the company learned from what went wrong in the Tyson-Paul fight.

“The sheer tonnage of people that came to watch was incredible. And for all the testing that the engineering team had done ahead of that, and I think they’re the best in the business, the only way to test something of that magnitude is to have something of that magnitude,” Riegg said.

PATRICK MAHOMES PLAYS THROUGH ANKLE SPRAIN TO LEAD CHIEFS TO VICTORY VS. TEXANS

Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Russell Wilson takes the field against the Cleveland Browns at Acrisure Stadium. (Charles LeClaire-Imagn Images)

“We never want to have technical issues or a disappointing experience for our members. There was a subset of people that were watching that struggled with that and we acknowledge that. The good news is they stress-tested the system to such a degree that there’s a lot of these fixes and improvements that they realized that they could make, and they’re applying all that stuff.”

Netflix’s first test will be a showdown between the Chiefs (14-1) and Steelers (10-5).

The Chiefs have already secured their ninth consecutive AFC West title and are now playing for the No. 1 seed in the AFC, which would grant them the all-important bye week.

If the Chiefs were to win on Wednesday, they would have the No. 1 seed locked up before Week 18, giving head coach Andy Reid a chance to rest his starters during the final week of the regular season.

The Chiefs are coming off a 27-19 win over the Texans on Saturday, where quarterback Patrick Mahomes played well. The star quarterback threw for 260 yards and a touchdown, while rushing for 33 yards and a touchdown despite playing through an ankle sprain.

RAVENS’ LAMAR JACKSON EAGER TO WATCH BEYONCÉ HALFTIME SHOW: ‘SORRY FELLAS’

Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver George Pickens breaks through the Bengals defense for a touchdown reception at Paycor Stadium in Cincinnati on Dec. 1, 2024. (IMAGN)

The Steelers, on the other hand, are coming off a tough 34-17 loss against their arch-rival Ravens on Saturday.

It looked like the Steelers were going to have a chance to come back after safety Minkah Fitzpatrick intercepted Lamar Jackson down 24-17 in the fourth quarter.

However, Ravens’ cornerback Marlon Humphrey thwarted any chance of a Steelers’ comeback with a Pick Six off Russell Wilson on the ensuing drive, putting the Ravens up 31-17 and effectively sealing the win.

The Steelers’ defense had a tough time handling running back Derrick Henry, who ran the ball 24 times for 162 yards in the win for Baltimore.

For the Steelers, their game against the Chiefs is crucial to winning the AFC North. Pittsburgh has already clinched a playoff spot, but their loss on Saturday was a big blow to their chances of winning the division, as the Ravens are also 10-5.

TEXANS COACH REVEALS EXTENT OF TANK DELL’S HORRIFIC INJURY

Baltimore Ravens cornerback Marlon Humphrey returns an interception for a touchdown against the Pittsburgh Steelers at M&T Bank Stadium. (Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images)

Some good news for the Steelers is that wide receiver George Pickens has a “real chance” to play against the Chiefs, coach Mike Tomlin said on Sunday.

Pickens has missed the last three games, and he’s been sorely missed. In the three games without Pickens, the Steelers are averaging just 248.3 yards per game, almost 77 yards less than their season average of 324.9.

As big a blow as the loss was for the Steelers on Saturday, the Ravens win over Pittsburgh was just as big a boost for them.

The Ravens played well on Saturday, outgaining the Steelers 418-315 in terms of yards, with 220 of those yards coming on the ground.

Jackson threw three touchdowns in the win, and will have a chance to make his MVP case with the whole world watching on Wednesday.

The Ravens quarterback is having another fantastic year, as Jackson and Bills’ quarterback Josh Allen are considered the two favorites for the award.

TEXANS ADD PRO BOWL WIDE RECEIVER DIONTAE JOHNSON AFTER DEVASTATING INJURY TO TANK DELL

Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson throws against the Pittsburgh Steelers at M&T Bank Stadium. (Tommy Gilligan-Imagn Images)

A win for the Ravens on Christmas would go a long way in their race against the Steelers for the AFC North crown.

The Ravens (10-5) are taking on the Texans (9-6) in the second part of the NFL’s Christmas doubleheader on Netflix.

They are taking on a Texans team that just lost to the Chiefs. In addition to the loss, the Texans also lost second-year wide receiver Tank Dell for the season after he suffered a gruesome leg injury while catching a touchdown in the loss.

The Texans also lost wide receiver Stefon Diggs for the season after the star receiver tore his ACL, leaving what was once a strong wide receiving corps now thin.

A win over the Ravens on Christmas for the Texans would not only clinch them a playoff spot, but also the AFC South title and a home playoff game.

Houston Texans quarterback C.J. Stroud scrambles against Kansas City Chiefs linebacker Drue Tranquill at GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium. (Jay Biggerstaff-Imagn Images)

The Texans-Ravens matchup will also come with a special halftime performance by Beyoncé.

All four of the teams playing on Wednesday are playing their third game in 11 days.

With so many playoff implications, and a big halftime performance, Netflix will be under a lot of pressure from NFL fans and the “BeyHive” to make sure things go off without a hitch.

Fox News’ Jackson Thompson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Sports

Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan headlines Santa Anita opening day on Thursday

Published

2 hours ago

December 25, 2024

Press Room

Kentucky Derby winner Mystik Dan headlines Santa Anita opening day on Thursday

Santa Anita Park is opening its 90th season Thursday filled with the kind of cautious optimism that is common in most sports. Make no mistake, this is a big — some might say make-or-break — year for the storied Arcadia track that many consider the most beautiful horse racing facility in the United States.

The track is fighting for its future, struggling to get a foothold in a national racing landscape that is supported by supplemental gaming income. But not in California, at least not now.

This opening day has something the track hasn’t had in a while — the reigning Kentucky Derby champion. running . You have to go back to 1997 when Derby winner Silver Charm ran in the Malibu Stakes after winning the first two legs of the Triple Crown before finishing second in the Belmont. The difference? He was based at Santa Anita.

No doubt about it, Mystik Dan, winner of this year’s Derby, is the centerpiece for what is possibly the best day of racing during the almost six-month season. He’ll be going in the seven-furlong Grade 1 Malibu Stakes, one of six graded stakes on the 11-race card.

Getting Mystik Dan and trainer Kenny McPeek to commit to the race was a lot easier then actually getting the horse to Santa Anita.

Among racing’s many problems is that there are no dedicated air shipping companies that make moving horses around the country easy. Racing uses FedEx — yes that FedEx — which suspends horse shipping in early December so it can more easily move holiday packages.

“The logistics were complicated,” McPeek said. “The last and only plane was going out of Florida on Dec. 9 and we are based in New Orleans. We would have had to ship him to Miami and then Miami to L.A. We didn’t want to go that early and we weren’t committed to the race yet.

“I needed to get a gate workout out of him and needed to make sure he was good and in a routine.”

All of that worked out just fine, and Mystik Dan was headed to California with Santa Anita picking up the shipping costs.

Those who travel during the holidays are used to long trips, but only the hardiest would try a 1,900-mile van ride. Yet that’s how it worked out.

Assistant trainer Dermot Magner and Greg Morehead, director of operations for McPeek, took turns doing the driving for the first two days with a stopover at Zia Park in Hobbs, N.M.

“He got a good night’s rest and then vanned the rest of the way the next day,” McPeek said, making sure to thank officials at Zia Park for their hospitality. “He’s a good traveler. It was easy. He had plenty of room to lay down if he wanted. He could eat, we had buckets and tubs [of food] in there. There was plenty of space. It was uneventful.”

Mystik Dan settled into Barn 54 at Santa Anita last Wednesday and on Sunday the colt did a three-furlong speed workout to ready him for the race. Barn 54 also is occupied by trainer Karen Headley. Her father, the late Bruce Headley, and McPeek were longtime friends and Headley’s barn is where McPeek would stable his horses when running in California.

The Malibu Stakes is an odd choice for the Kentucky Derby winner because of the low purse amount of $300,000, the minimum required for a Grade 1 race.

McPeek is looking at the long game.

“It’s the last Grade 1, 3-year-old race of the year,” McPeek said. “I think as a stallion prospect, a lot of people who breed want to see the horse be a fast sprinter. We’re pretty confident he has that kind of talent. He broke his maiden gong 5½ [furlongs] and he’s perfectly capable of sprinting. It takes a very good horse to do this. I think it’s a good opportunity to prove that he can.”

Mystik Dan hasn’t raced since the Belmont Stakes, the third Triple Crown races in five weeks. He won the Derby in a blanket finish by a nose then came back two weeks later to finish second behind Seize the Grey in the Preakness. Mystik Dan then finished eighth in the Belmont.

“He campaigned pretty steady for almost a year,” McPeek said. “Coming out of the Belmont, Brian [Hernandez Jr., jockey] didn’t think he liked Saratoga’s surface. So, we only had the Travers [at Saratoga] and Pennsylvania Derby to point to. So, I thought let’s give him a break and let him fill out. We’ll regroup and point him to later in the year.”

Mystik Dan has had nine timed workouts since returning to the track.

“I fully expect him to win,” McPeek said. “Absolutely he’s ready to run. He’s had a nice series of breezes. He’s been on a steady routine. He hasn’t missed a step. The hardest part of this trip was getting him there.”

Jockey Brian Hernandez Jr. gets a high-five from trainer Kenny McPeek while aboard Mystik Dan in the Kentucky Derby Winner’s Circle.

(Jeff Roberson / Associated Press)

Crazy as it sounds, Mystik Dan is not the most celebrated 3-year-old in McPeek’s barn. He also has Thorpedo Anna, a filly who won six of seven races this year including the Kentucky Oaks and Breeders’ Cup Distaff. She is a lock to win the Eclipse Award for best 3-year-old filly and certainly has the résumé to win horse of the year.

Mystik Dan, if he wins the Malibu, is likely to make the final three for the Eclipse for 3-year-old male, although Fierceness is the favorite.

There is another Eclipse candidate in the McPeek barn and that is the trainer. The favorite for the award is Chad Brown, who has put up impressive numbers. But McPeek did something that hasn’t been done since 1952, winning the Kentucky Oaks for fillies and the Kentucky Derby on consecutive days.

“It would be a pleasant surprise,” McPeek said. “I certainly don’t have Chad Brown’s depth of talent and quality. What I’m most proud of is we don’t have million-dollar yearlings floating around all the time. We’ve been doing it with working-class horses. Thorpedo Anna was 40 grand and Mystik Dan was a homebred that I actually did the mating on.

“I do a lot of picking my own yearlings and I’m really proud we’ve been able to compete at the highest level.”

Bill Finley, a respected columnist for the Thoroughbred Daily News, even made the case for McPeek to win the Eclipse for top trainer. (The Times does not vote in the Eclipse Awards.)

“While he’ll never equal Brown’s numbers, McPeek had a year that was truly special, one that captivated the sport and reminded us there is more to this than raw numbers,” Finley wrote. “McPeek made every right move, many of which were ‘good for the game.’”

In a sport that retires its stars instead of running them, McPeek is very much looking forward to Mystik Dan’s 4-year-old campaign. The first possibility for Mystik Dan, providing everything works out well in the Malibu, is the Pegasus World Cup at Gulfstream, at $3 million the second-richest race in the U.S. behind only the Breeders’ Cup. But that’s chump change, if such a thing can be said of seven-figure purses, compared to the $20-million Saudi Cup and $12-million Dubai World Cup.

“We’re going to consider the Pegasus and the Middle East,” McPeek said. “We’ll let him tell us. He’s not run against older horses yet. We’ll wait and see.”

Mystik Dan’s racing career will end before McPeek’s training career. In fact, McPeek, 62, has a timetable.

“I’ve said all along, I’ll do this until I’m 70 or 72,” he said. “Maybe 10 more years. It’ll be 50 years of training if I do it until I’m 72.”

As for his bucket list before retirement, it’s extensive, with a strong international flavor.

“I’d like to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the Dubai World Cup, the Saudi Cup, the Arc de Triomphe, the English (Epsom) Derby and the English Oaks,” he said with a chuckle.

But if he had to pick one?

“I really do want to win the English Derby. I’ll do that before I retire.”

For now, he’ll be happy with a win Thursday.