Sports Illustrated

Shohei Ohtani’s first season with the Los Angeles Dodgers is officially underway, as the NL powerhouse is opening up the season Wednesday against the San Diego Padres in Seoul, South Korea. 

Ohtani, who signed a $700 million deal with the Dodgers in the offseason, grounded into a fielder's choice in his first at-bat with his new team.

[ Buy now! Shohei Ohtani on Sports Illustrated’s April 2024 cover ]

Then in the third inning he got his first hit of the year when he roped a single into right field off Yu Darvish.

Ohtani’s wife, Mamiko Tanaka, is at the game and she loved seeing her husband get his first hit as a member of the Dodgers: 

Shohei Ohtani picks up his first hit as a Dodger and his wife loves it pic.twitter.com/cYNzGc7M3D

— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) March 20, 2024

It should be a fun season for Ohtani and the Dodgers. 

If you know only one player’s name among those participating in March Madness this week – on the men’s or women’s side – it’s probably Caitlin Clark.

Not only has Clark bolstered her legacy as one of the greatest players in the history of college basketball, she has brought an incredible amount of attention to women’s basketball -- and that attention has been most evident in the betting community.

According to DraftKings, the amount wagered on women’s sports has close to quadrupled over the last three years. I’d guess this year will be the biggest yet, with a lot of attention on the University of Iowa superstar.

Lily Smith/USA TODAY Network

So far in the 2023-24 season, Clark has:

• Broken the Big Ten all-time scoring record
• Become the Big Ten's all-time leader in assists
• Become the career leading scorer in the Big Ten tournament
• Become the all-time leader in points among major women's college basketball players
• Set the NCAA single-season record for three-pointers
• Become the all-time NCAA Division I men's and women's scoring leader
• Achieved most three-pointers in a single season by any male or female Division I player
• Become the first Division I women's player to score at least 1,000 points in two different seasons

Not surprisingly, she was named the unanimous Big Ten Player of the Year.

So, what record will she break next? Or is she done breaking records for the season? Besides betting on Iowa to win the women’s NCAA Tournament (+550), you can bet on some fun Caitlin Clark futures at DraftKings. Here’s an example.

When Will Caitlin Clark Record Her 538th Career Three-Pointer?

Clark has 520 career three-pointers – former Oklahoma guard Taylor Robertson holds the NCAA women’s record with 537. Can Clark get there? Here are the odds DraftKing is offering to bet when (or if) she’ll break the record during the tournament:

Elite Eight Game +200
Caitlin Clark Does Not Get to 538 +220
Sweet 16 Game +330
Final Four Game +550
Championship Game +1400
Second-Round Game +5000

Some stats to consider:

She currently has 520 three-pointers in her career. 173 of those have come across 33 games played this season – that’s 5.2 per game. She has completed 38.1% of her three-point attempts.

At that pace, she could get the record near the end of the Sweet 16 game or early in the Elite Eight game. However, keep in mind that Clark will probably not play as much in the early rounds. The Hawkeyes should be heavy favorites in the first two rounds, so they may want to rest Clark if they jump out to big early leads.

I like a good payout, so I’ll back Clark to break the record in the Final Four.

Remember, March Madness is exactly that, so whatever you bet, sit back and enjoy the madness! 

Related: Women's NCAA Tournament 2024: Schedule, Bracket, How to Watch, Game Times, Odds

If you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call the National Council for Problem Gambling 1-800-522-4700. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and its partners may receive compensation for links to products and services on this website.

The Virginia men’s basketball team suffered one of the most embarrassing losses in NCAA tournament history Tuesday night, as the Cavaliers scored just 14 first-half points in their 67–42 loss to Colorado State in their First Four matchup. 

Things were so bad for Virginia that it went almost 14 minutes of game time and nearly an hour of real time without scoring a single basket. That rightfully led to fans crushing the NCAA for putting the Cavaliers in the tournament.  

• [ March Madness 2024: News & Analysis | Schedule | Bracket ]

The game was shown on TruTV and fans couldn’t stop laughing when the broadcast roasted Virginia with a savage graphic about their inability to score points in a timely fashion: 

graphic department went for the throat 😂 pic.twitter.com/cPrV2wuE3s

— SB Nation (@SBNation) March 20, 2024

Ouch. 

Fans loved it: 

I laughed so hard when this graphic popped up. https://t.co/iZgmFx9O1y

— Woke Cavalry Platoon Leader (@FinishTheRep) March 20, 2024

Egregious 😂😂😂 https://t.co/QUcreyloVW

— Surrounded by Pisces 👧🏽🩷🎂👦🏽💙🎂🟦 (@trcterp) March 20, 2024

Lmfao https://t.co/VekEpenuk2

— Myles (@MylesRinSF) March 20, 2024

Virginia fans after their first FG in an hour pic.twitter.com/i0oNvsgK0D

— Skyler (KFR) (@SacFilmRoom) March 20, 2024

Virginia scoring a bucket for the first time in almost an HOUR pic.twitter.com/FrqhSbkgy7

— Tommy Gahan (@tommysgahan) March 20, 2024

That’s INSANE https://t.co/4yUTYylt7l

— Jordan Teller (@jbteller) March 20, 2024

https://t.co/ZB3JJV3qEc pic.twitter.com/BO1j7c5AKm

— Cordell Woodland (@CordellWoodland) March 20, 2024

https://t.co/Z0MXGLzQvV pic.twitter.com/jpyhk238zP

— Terrence (@Terrence_Holman) March 20, 2024

Sheesh… https://t.co/e9WAgnYxJJ pic.twitter.com/QMm4BLwSGk

— Strictly 4 My X’ers (@Lizzs_Lockeroom) March 20, 2024

Ever since Jason Kelce did both the obvious and the unthinkable, retiring after 13 glorious, successful-beyond-reasonable-expectations, beer-soaked NFL seasons, his legend has only grown. Legend, in this case, isn’t overstated. Kelce became a one-person category, the rare center who was famous and relatable and yet never acted like a celebrity. He sang. He chugged. He pancake-blocked. And, through all that and much more, he fashioned one of the most fascinating legacies in sports.

To that end, having amassed tons of Kelce reporting over the years, it seemed prudent to look back—at the man; never a myth, forever a legend. This is Jason Kelce, in all his distinct glory.

Jason Kelce announced his retirement in early March.

Nathan Ray Seebeck/USA TODAY Sports

Consider the best centers in NFL history. A Jim Otto. A Chuck Bednarik. A Mel Hein or a Dwight Stephenson. A Mike Webster, Dermontti Dawsonor Randy Cross. There’s a Ringo in that group (Otto, Green Bay Packers), a four-time Super Bowl champion (Webster) and more than a dozen Hall of Famers. But how many of the best-ever centers also commanded entire locker rooms, even above superstars who made more money and endorsed more products and couldn’t chug a beer to save their lives? None. Not in the way that Kelce did.

Kelce was the wheel around which every other spoke in the Philadelphia Eagles locker room rotated. This sentiment became so obvious that when a young quarterback was navigating the treacherous route from doubted prospect to locker room linchpin, he decided the best way to elevate both his leadership style and impact was to study the center everyone else looked toward. So Jalen Hurts decided to (1) befriend Kelce, (2) learn from him, while studying him up close and (3) apply those lessons in a leadership handoff of sorts.

The Eagles don’t reach Super Bowl LVII if Kelce doesn’t aid in Hurts’s development. Not even the on-field variety, although Kelce certainly helped there, too. Kelce, Hurts told Sports Illustrated in 2023, is “a special guy, a special leader. He’s one of the best players I’ve ever played with—at any position. Maybe the best leader. Smart. Football intelligence. Fundamentals. Knows how to maneuver and play.”

The funny part is, when the Eagles drafted Hurts in 2020, the quarterback “didn’t know anything about [Kelce].” But after only a few seasons together, Hurts said that Kelce supported and endorsed him “before anybody else did.”

That’s Kelce’s legacy: stamping imprints, on a franchise, its locker rooms, teammates and much more.

Late in his career, Kelce appeared to recognize Hurts’s intentions. There was only one thing the center wasn’t protective of, and that was his own status within the Eagles locker room. Without saying much of anything, according to Averion Hurts Sr., the quarterback’s father, Kelce “passed the torch to him.”

That gesture meant more than might be obvious. Many superstars in Kelce’s position would have never considered stepping even slightly back (still leading, just in a slightly different way).

That’s Kelce’s legacy, too, from being in college at Cincinnati to sticking in the NFL against expectations: adaptability, finding ways that most believe don’t exist.

The Eagles’ offensive linemen like to say they’re students at Stoutland University. That’s a complimentary nod to their position coach, the longtime and respected O-line guru, Jeff Stoutland. Consider Kelce his best-ever student. His influence was pivotal in Kelce’s career longevity and something even rarer—the center’s ability to play his best, most impactful football, after being in the league for around a decade.

That’s also Kelce’s legacy: never stopped learning or improving.

Other, more well-known performers took notice. This, from DJ Jazzy Jeff of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and music fame, shows the reach that a center who wasn’t supposed to stick in the NFL eventually garnered.

“I’ve always been a major fan of Jason Kelce. (He) embodies Philadelphia. Through and through, he’s been here. I was so excited to meet him and even more excited that he was a fan of mine. That’s what it’s really about.”

That’s more legacy: the nearly unheard of ability to rank among the most relatable superstars in sports and still draw the attention of the famous, who respect his craft, bearing and approach.

Before the LVII loss, team owner Jeffrey Lurie considered Kelce’s impact the week before that championship game. The 72-year-old nearly leapt from his chair to describe how deep it was, how much it meant to the Eagles franchise beyond any team in any one season. Lurie laid out Kelce’s vast influence under one umbrella, that of a cornerstone. That’s maybe the most important part of Kelce’s legacy.

“There can be none better,” Lurie said. “Yeah, I mean, none.”

Lurie mentioned the injuries Kelce played through, the pain he endured, the sacrifices he made. His career never unfolded in a way that might be described as smooth. But Kelce, Lurie noted, was undersized, which meant he learned how to adjust his movements and angles in ways, the owner says, that “revolutionized his position.”

As he finished that sentence, Lurie needed to head out to the Eagles temporary practice field. He asked me to come back after, because he had more about Kelce specially to share.

“At the same time,” Lurie said upon resuming, “no better teammate has ever played for the Philadelphia Eagles, nor represented the city better than Jason Kelce. I mean, Jesus, we can all learn from him.”

Asked if Kelce might retire after that Super Bowl, especially if Philadelphia triumphed, Lurie waved away the question. He didn’t want to entertain the possibility, even.

Kelce altered every room he entered. In the best ways, mostly. That applied to arenas, where cameras inevitably pointed his way whether he was wearing a shirt or not, often while he dumped a beer down his throat in a matter of seconds. That applied to his foray into podcasting with his younger brother, Travis, and their show’s steep and sudden climb up the listening charts. That even applied to the Kansas City Chiefs’ dynasty.

Kelce’s second Super Bowl win came against the Eagles in 2023.

Mark J. Rebilas/USA TODAY Sports

In early 2020, back when Kansas City had gone half a century without a championship, Jason visited Travis at the Chiefs hotel. Older brother took younger brother to the patio out back, their father, Ed Kelce, told my colleague, Conor Orr, before the game. Ed said Jason must have been wondering why Philadelphia wasn’t in that game; he must have been bummed. But he still gave Travis critical advice: “Don’t overthink it. You know what you do well.”

The Chiefs won that week, setting the latest NFL dynasty in motion.

That’s Jason’s legacy: change, whether to rooms, teams, seasons or arenas.

Also: the man can sing. Eliza Hardy Jones, the Philadelphia native and singer in the band The War on Drugs, told my former colleague Mitch Goldich, about her time as a vocal coach with the offensive line for their wildly popular albums of Christmas songs.

Kelce told Hardy Jones that he, Lane Johnson and Jordan Mailata (who has beautiful pipes and once competed in a television show-singing competition) liked to sing—sing!—together in the locker room. One random afternoon, Kelce just spit out, “I wish we could make a Christmas album.”

So they did, with an assist from Connor Barwin. Hardy Jones loved the silliness baked into the concept but never considered the album to be a joke. Nor did Kelce, or any of his linemates. In fact, he went so far as to recruit star players such as Hurts to make cameos, in order to ensure it would be as successful as possible. She found Kelce to be … confident in his voice … sure in his singing style … a little wild overall … and very much himself. He had great pitch. He took direction. He even struck her as vulnerable.

“Jason Kelce is a Philadelphia legend,” Hardy Jones told Goldich. “He is beloved by all. He’s the guy who’s gonna bring people together. But seeing him in real life doing those things, you could just feel it. You could feel how powerful his personality was. And how so much of his personality is led by warmth and love and joy, and it definitely made football way more fun for me this season.”

She added: “It’s really true. You can feel the difference with a team, or with a band, when everybody is in sync and is operating from a place of love and compassion.”

That’s Kelce’s impact, too: connective tissue, in human form.

Let’s not forget. The dude could play. That means baritone saxophone—in his high school jazz band. And that means football, NFL football, to the tune of seven Pro Bowls, six first-team All Pro nods and, in all likelihood, a spot in the Hall of Fame.

Kelce was also available. In all but one of his 13 seasons, he played at least 89% of his team’s offensive snaps. In four seasons, he played every offensive snap. Hence why GM Howie Roseman made convincing Kelce to return part of his plan for each recent NFL offseason.

More legacy: Hall of Fame talent that Kelce, along with everyone who helped him, created.

After the LVII loss, Hurts’s brother, Averion Jr., said he planned to “hope and pray Kelce can come back another year, just because of the connection those guys have.”

Legacy: in demand, for everything above.

It’s fair to say that Kelce changed league history, not just at his position but with the success of Philadelphia’s infamous “Tush Push” play. Forget, for now, all the hand-wringing over whether the play is legal, whether it’s sporting or whether it’s going to be allowed next season. Part of the reason that play ranks as the most successful quarterback sneak, ever, in the NFL, is because Kelce powered the whole thing.

Kelce has been selected as a first-team All-Pro in each of the last three seasons.

Joe Camporeale/USA TODAY Sports

As we wrote in a Tush Push story this past season: The Tush Push has become automatic in one place and, so far, in only one place. “We took a QB sneak, already a high-success-rate play, and we made it damn near unbeatable,” one staffer says, in summation. “It’s simplistic. But it’s innovative—because there’s a lot of technique to it.”

That starts with Kelce. The Tush Push isn’t the same without him.

Legacy on top of legacy: in this case, innovation.

This exercise could go on for days, with enough anecdotes to fill a book. But it’s far more Kelce-like to end with a word beer chug of sorts. In a copycat league, where most centers are lucky if they’re anonymous, he wasn’t just an outlier. He was a category unto himself. And, as far as legacies go, that’s the most distinct and multifaceted one in recent memory. His impact, in all facets, will be missed.

Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton has been one of the NBA’s fastest-rising stars through the 2023-24 NBA season, and much of last year as well. The newfound attention certainly has driven league-wide interest in the 24-year-old.

On Tuesday, Haliburton spoke about that, and specifically his decision to speak to a sports psychologist. During the comments, he highlighted the fact that sports betting has become a consistent topic on his social media threads, and also how he’s viewed in the eyes of many fans.

“To half the world, I’m just helping them make money on DraftKings or whatever. I’m a prop,” Haliburton said, per The Athletic’s James Boyd.

“I think all that stuff, it can be funny sometimes when someone is like ‘I lost a thousand dollars now.’ I don’t give a f---.”

I also asked #Pacers star Tyrese Haliburton specifically about speaking to a sports psychologist, and he noted in his response how sports betting has consumed a lot of his social media.

“To half the world, I’m just helping them make money on DraftKings or whatever. I’m a prop.“ pic.twitter.com/6f2a0vEuiK

— James Boyd (@RomeovilleKid) March 20, 2024

Haliburton has been exceptional in his fourth NBA season and third with Indiana, averaging 20.4 points and 11.3 assists per game while shooting 47.6 percent from the field. He’s made back-to-back NBA All-Star games and leads the league in assists through the Pacers’ first 69 games of the 2023-24 season.

One basketball fan went viral Tuesday night for wearing a T-shirt that poked fun at two, well, not-so aesthetically pleasing college sports programs. The photo went viral during a First Four matchup between Virginia and Colorado State at UD Arena.

“Virginia basketball is like Iowa football,” the fan’s T-shirt read.

🫡 pic.twitter.com/09M3jlGxgE

— Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz (@LeBatardShow) March 20, 2024

Translation: They can’t score.

Virginia lived up to its offense’s poor reputation Tuesday night, scoring just 14 points in an ugly first half and losing 67–42 to the fellow No. 10 seed Rams.

The Cavaliers ranked 354th out of 363 NCAA Division I men’s basketball teams in scoring this season, averaging 63.6 points per game.

[ March Madness 2024: News & Analysis | Schedule | Bracket ]

In 2023, the Hawkeyes ranked 129th out of 130 teams by scoring 15.4 points per contest. Iowa offensive coordinator Brian Ferentz was dismissed from his role after the team failed to average 25 points per game.

Virginia now has lost in the opening round of the NCAA tournament in four of its last five appearances—and all to double-digit seeds. The only year the Cavaliers advanced past the first round, they won the national championship in 2019.

A bomb threat in South Korea that threatened Shohei Ohtani and MLB’s season-opening game Wednesday between the Los Angeles Dodgers and San Diego Padres at the Gocheok Sky Dome turned out to be a hoax.

The threat, which emerged via email, warned of plans to detonate a bomb around the game and injure superstar Shohei Ohtani and others.

Police in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, identified the perpetrator as an individual with a history of false claims, per The Los Angeles Times.

“The safety and security of our fans and everyone in the ballparks where we play are always our first priority,” MLB said in a statement. “MLB Security works closely with local officials to ensure a safe environment for all those who attend our games. 

“MLB, along with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency and other local officials, will continue to monitor the situation closely and take any appropriate steps throughout the event.”

The Dodgers–Padres game, scheduled to begin 6 a.m. ET Wednesday morning, will be played as planned. The two teams will play two games Wednesday and Thursday before returning for the end of spring training.

The Virginia Cavaliers had a first half to forget Tuesday night.

No. 10 seed Virginia entered halftime trailing fellow No. 10 seed Colorado State 27–14 in their NCAA tournament First Four matchup at UD Arena.

The Cavaliers scored 14 points in 20 minutes of action. They didn’t score a single point over the final 9:20 of the first half, and didn’t find the scoreboard again until 3:20 into the second half.

Virginia shot 17.2% (5-of-29) from the floor and 22.2% from three-point range (2-of-9) in the first half. Colorado State was efficient, shooting 50% from the field (12-of-24) and 42.9% from deep (3-of-7). 

Virginia and Colorado State combined for 41 points in the first half. For context, the lowest-scoring game in March Madness history (since the shot clock was implemented in 1986) is 75 total points, set in 1999 when Missouri State beat Wisconsin 43–32.

[ March Madness 2024: News & Analysis | Schedule | Bracket ]

Wisconsin’s coach at the time was Dick Bennett, the father of current Virginia coach Tony Bennett.

The Cavaliers’ terrible start to their March Madness game led to plenty of jokes from the college hoops world who wished the NCAA tournament selection committee made a different choice:

Why would anyone want to see Indiana State (28-6, No. 1 in the nation in effective FG percentage, averaging 84.4 ppg) in the NCAA Tournament when you can be treated to this viewing experience instead?

— Pat Forde (@ByPatForde) March 20, 2024

They really picked this Virginia team over the Big East teams

— Josh Hart (@joshhart) March 20, 2024

Virginia Men’s Basketball 2024 pic.twitter.com/myz57n6f0Z

— Coach Colin al-Gaib (@CDaves434) March 20, 2024

Virginia when they cross the 15-point threshold in a half pic.twitter.com/eRPtQIvKjY

— The College Basketball Stories Podcast (@theCBBstories) March 20, 2024

Don’t let the fact that Virginia plays a distressing, unenjoyable style of basketball distract you from the fact that they are also not good enough to be in the NCAA Tournament

— Rodger Sherman (@rodger) March 20, 2024

Literally everyone on this app right now watching Virginia in the 2024 NCAA Tournament pic.twitter.com/x4IfH262qv

— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 20, 2024

In the final 9:20 of the first half, Virginia scored as many points in Dayton as Oklahoma, Seton Hall, Indiana State and Pittsburgh did tonight.

— John Fanta (@John_Fanta) March 20, 2024

The winner of the Virginia–Colorado State clash advances to the Round of 64 to battle 

New Orleans Pelicans forward Zion Williamson’s elite athleticism was on full display Tuesday night against the Brooklyn Nets.

The 23-year-old, amid the most durable season of his NBA career, left fans at Barclays Center in awe after throwing down a two-handed dunk off Naji Marshall’s no-look overhead pass.

The announcers joined Pelicans players, their fans in attendance, and virtually all of social media by going wild over Williamson’s emphatic finish.

ZION GOT UP FOR THE ALLEY OOP 😱🤯

WOW. pic.twitter.com/4Awzb5Ckts

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 20, 2024

Williamson’s head was close to rim level on the stunning two-handed finish, and Marshall deserves his fair share of praise for perfectly placing the no-look pass.

The Pelicans picked up a crucial 104–91 victory over the Nets to move to 42–26. They’re jockeying for position in a tough Western Conference, sitting a half-game back of the Los Angeles Clippers for the No. 4 seed.

Williamson led the way in scoring for the Pelicans with 28 points on 11-of-16 shooting while adding seven rebounds, four assists and one steal.

That looked like Spartanburg and Duke Zion right there. 🔥🔥👏🏾

— Kakarot (@ShadBoogie) March 20, 2024

lookin like lebron in his miami days

— idontpaytaxes.eth (@ibreatheNFTs) March 20, 2024

Prime Zion might be back

— iMoto (@imoto36) March 20, 2024

Him seeing all those Stephen A takes : pic.twitter.com/rT20lc27Ru

— The Secret Recipe ⛽️ (@AMPARADOXXX) March 20, 2024

The Cinderella story of the No. 16-seeded Wagner Seahawks lives on.

Wagner, which has had just seven healthy players available for much of the season, trotted out the same seven-man rotation Tuesday and defeated fellow No. 16 seed Howard 71–68 at UD Arena in its First Four matchup to advance to the Round of 64.

The Seahawks have had 12 different players on the floor this season, but that’s been cut down to just seven for the final third of the schedule. This stretch includes their improbable run to the NEC championship as the conference’s No. 6 seed.

Four of the five Wagner starters scored in double figures against the Bison on Tuesday night, as Melvin Council Jr. led the way with 21 points. Tyje Kelton and Seck Zongo were the only players available to come off the bench and chipped in seven and two points, respectively. 

[ March Madness 2024: News & Analysis | Schedule | Bracket ]

Howard had a chance to tie the game in the closing seconds but missed three attempts from beyond the arc before the final buzzer sounded.

WHAT A FINISH!@Wagner_MBB SURVIVES and secures its first #MarchMadness win in school history 😱 pic.twitter.com/X1sYRJdU21

— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) March 20, 2024

March Madness is upon us.

Tuesday marked Wagner’s second NCAA tournament appearance in program history and the first appearance since it lost 87–61 to No. 2 seed Pittsburgh in 2003. The Seahawks will face No. 1 seed North Carolina in the Round of 64 on Thursday at Spectrum Center.

One of the best players in men’s college basketball is out for the NCAA tournament.

Kansas Jayhawks wing Kevin McCullar Jr., one of two high-major players in the country who averaged better than 18 points, six rebounds and four assists per game this season, is out for the Big Dance, coach Bill Self announced Tuesday evening. McCullar had been nursing a nagging knee injury that caused him to miss the Jayhawks’ Big 12 conference tournament loss against the Cincinnati Bearcats and has had him in and out of the lineup since late January.

[ March Madness 2024: News & Analysis | Schedule | Bracket ]

“Kevin [McCullar] says his knee pain has not subsided any and it’s too bad for him to be able to contribute,” Self said. “We’re shutting him down for the tournament.”

McCullar posted a statement to social media shortly after the news was announced.

pic.twitter.com/BN8wYbGkYW

— Kevin McCullar Jr. (@Kevin_McCullar) March 20, 2024

It’s a massive blow to a Kansas team that enters the Big Dance on a low, losers of four of five. That included consecutive 20-plus-point defeats at the hands of the Houston Cougars and Cincinnati, the first time under Self KU has lost two straight games by such a margin. The Jayhawks also didn’t have All-American center Hunter Dickinson in the Cincinnati loss, though Self did confirm Dickinson is on track to play Thursday night against the Samford Bulldogs.

Related: Midwest Region Breakdown: Can Purdue Finally Break Through?

McCullar’s impact on the Jayhawks is substantial, and magnified by Kansas’s lack of depth. The Jayhawks rank No. 318 out of 362 teams in bench minutes, and upping minutes for freshman Elmarko Jackson or grad transfer Nick Timberlake has tended to be a bad sign for Kansas. Per Hoop Explorer, Kansas has been 17 points per 100 possessions worse against top-100 teams with McCullar out of the game, with the Jayhawks’ ball security and offensive efficiency particularly slipping. Dickinson also has struggled in games without McCullar out there creating space, shooting just 43% from the field in games McCullar hasn’t played, according to CJ Moore of The Athletic.

McCullar will miss the NCAA tournament, a blow to Kansas’s chances at the national championship.

Annie Rice/Avalanche-Journal/USA TODAY Network

Kansas will miss McCullar’s experience and ability to handle the ball in its first-round date with Samford. The Bulldogs, coached by Bucky McMillan, play one of the most aggressive defensive styles of any team in the field, pressing full-court for essentially the entire game and ranking in the top 20 nationally in forcing turnovers. Against that type of defense, having a player like McCullar who can operate comfortably as a secondary ballhandler is essential, and forcing freshmen like Jackson, Johnny Furphy and even Jamari McDowell to face the pressure Samford will bring is a scary sight. Self hasn’t had a team lose in the first round of the Big Dance since 2006, but an early exit is very much on the table without McCullar.

Related: Ranking the Men’s NCAA Tournament Field 1–68

If nothing else, his absence would seemingly rule out a deep run by the Jayhawks in a season they entered with such high expectations. Kansas was the preseason No. 1 team in the AP Top 25 poll and beat the Kentucky Wildcats, Tennessee Volunteers and tournament overall No. 1 seed UConn Huskies in the season’s first month before fading down the stretch. Even if the Jayhawks can get by Samford, neither the Gonzaga Bulldogs nor McNeese State Cowboys would be an easy game. From there, a potential date with the Purdue Boilermakers looms in the Sweet 16. Assuming Kansas doesn’t win the national championship, KU will end the season with 11 losses, the most by the program since the 1988–89 season and the most by Self since 1997–98 when he was the coach at Oral Roberts. 

After St. John’s missed out on the NCAA tournament, coach Rick Pitino didn’t hesitate to voice his displeasure with the selection committee and the weight it places on analytics.

Pitino questioned what more the Red Storm could’ve done to get in the tournament given their difficult strength of schedule, and also expressed dismay that Seton Hall, who won 13 games in the Big East, was not included among the field of 68.

On Tuesday, Pitino offered a suggestion that he believes would help enhance the quality of the selection committee. The 71-year-old took to social media to propose that a trio of legendary college basketball coaches join the ranks of the selection committee in order to offer a fresh perspective.

Those coaches were none other than former Syracuse coach Jim Boeheim, former Duke boss Mike Krzyzewski and ex-UNC coach Roy Williams. 

Have a great suggestion for Dan Gavitt, who is absolutely the best. I know three guys who are watching games all year n would be a great addition. They won't just look at certain metrics. Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams n Coach K. They need to be part of selection Sunday!!!

— Rick Pitino (@RealPitino) March 19, 2024

“I know three guys who are watching games all year n would be a great addition. Jim Boeheim, Roy Williams n Coach K,” wrote Pitino, offering his advice to the NCAA’s senior vice president of basketball Dan Gavitt. “They need to be part of selection Sunday!” 

[ March Madness 2024: News & Analysis | Schedule | Bracket ]

Shortly after the Red Storm learned its fate on Selection Sunday, Pitino expressed his dismay with the NET rankings system, labeling it “fraudulent” and saying that St. John’s “did things the right way” but was still overlooked by the committee. 

The Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team will have to operate without star guard Kevin McCullar Jr. in the upcoming NCAA tournament.

Jayhawks coach Bill Self told reporters Tuesday that McCullars will miss the entire tournament due to a knee injury.

“He’s out,” Self said, via The Kansas City Star. “We’re shutting him down for the tournament. If we are fortunate enough to win two games, we’d have done it without him. You know, he hasn’t practiced in six weeks, basically. He hasn’t done more damage to his knee. 

“He tried to [play] and said he just couldn’t go.”

[ March Madness 2024: News & Analysis | Schedule | Bracket ]

McCullar was Kansas’ leading scorer this season, averaging 18.3 points per game on 45.5% shooting from the field and 33.3% shooting from three-point range.

McCullar hasn’t played since the Jayhawks’ 76–46 loss to Houston in the regular-season finale. He didn’t score a point in 15 minutes that night before exiting the game with knee pain.

Kansas co-star Hunter Dickinson also missed the Big 12 tournament last week due to a shoulder injury, but it appears he will try to suit up for the NCAA tournament. Self said Dickinson has looked “great” at practice.

Kansas, the No. 4 seed in the Midwest Region, is set to battle 13th-seeded Samford in the first round on Thursday night at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City.

One New York Jets fan went to bizarre lengths in order to help the team secure the signing of free agent wide receiver Mike Williams.

Social media user “@NYJ_Matt” served up a classic taste of New Jersey to the visiting wide receiver, ordering him a Taylor Ham, egg and cheese sandwich directly to the Jets’ facility at One Jets Drive, having the meal delivered via DoorDash.

On Tuesday, Williams agreed to a one-year deal with the Jets worth up to $15 million, prompting the team to acknowledge the sandwich delivery via social media. New York posted a photo of the sandwich bag after it arrived at the facility, confirming the food had reached its destination.

got it https://t.co/KG0cBPuZNE pic.twitter.com/ZS4FEHC2sF

— New York Jets (@nyjets) March 19, 2024

The fan was providing updates for his followers on social media throughout the delivery, informing them of when the sandwich reached the doors, and even helping the delivery driver navigate their way through the facility.

The DoorDash order instructions told the driver to, “please hand it to the person at the door and say this is for Mike Williams and let him know catching passes from Aaron Rodgers is more fun than catching from Bryce Young.”

"This what got the deal signed right here." - @darealmike_dub 😂

🫡 @NYJ_Matt pic.twitter.com/k8WnqzHviP

— New York Jets (@nyjets) March 19, 2024

After the sandwich reached Williams, the wide receiver unpacked it and took a bite before asking where the restaurant was located.

“It’s good. It’s good. This what got the deal signed right here,” Williams joked after agreeing to join the Jets. 

Part 1: The Gloves

Pure joy. The peal of wedding bells. The spring sonata of a songbird. And this. Elementary schoolchildren at play.

Shohei Ohtani is listening to and watching them smile and shriek in the delight that only the innocence and wonder of youth allow. The world will teach them anxiety, duplicity and cynicism. Not now. Not here. This is the music of joy.

“It had a special feeling to it!” gushes one boy in Japanese. “It had a signature on it! I was happy to touch it!”

Ohtani is watching a three-minute video on a phone. He is seated in the bedroom of a suite on the 47th floor of a midtown New York City hotel, the spires of St. Patrick’s Cathedral below and the Hudson River due west. He is wearing a moto-style black leather jacket over a white silk T-shirt and a pair of dark indigo jeans. He is listed at 6' 4" and 210 pounds and projects even more size up close. But like an Italian sports car, even at rest his angularity and aura connotate agility and speed. The power is all under the hood.

Buy now! Shohei Ohtani on April 2024 cover

Clay Patrick McBride/Sports Illustrated

View the 9 images of this gallery on the original article

[ Buy now! Shohei Ohtani on Sports Illustrated’s April 2024 cover ]

With him are his two most trusted friends. To his left sits Ippei Mizuhara, his training associate, ride-or-die buddy and translator. Behind him, curled comfortably on the bed, is his dog, Dekopin, also known as Decoy, a Kooikerhondje who, befitting his status as the pet of the most prolific two-way baseball player who has ever lived, is bilingual. Of course he is.

“I have not seen this before,” Ohtani says as the clip plays. He is smiling as he watches. In December, Ohtani donated 60,000 baseball gloves to the nearly 20,000 elementary schools in Japan. Two right-handed gloves and one left-handed glove for every school. Though most of the gloves arrived while schools were on Christmas break, word of Ohtani’s donation caused the school playgrounds to fill. Boxes are ripped open, and gloves held aloft like the Golden Fleece. Some city officials put the gloves in glass cases like museum pieces, drawing swift rebukes from the populace that understood Ohtani’s intention.

“I heard that new gloves were coming, so I got up early,” another boy says in Japanese. A school staff member adds, “I was really looking forward to seeing the gloves. It’s not a workday today, but I just had to come.”

The boys and girls play catch. Playing catch is the most beautiful game within the most beautiful game. A way to connect. A shared experience. An eternal exercise in what it means to give and take. “I think it will be a very good memory,” says one school administrator, “so I would like to say thank you very much.”

One group of boys and girls gather to shout a message to Ohtani: “Yay! It’s the best Christmas present! Yay! Merry Christmas!”

The video ends. Ohtani lifts his head. He is smiling, just like one of those children. “Honestly, this isn’t the end,” he says. “I want to keep doing this, so I’m glad it’s just the beginning.”

The donation was Ohtani’s idea. He had recently renewed his endorsement deal with New Balance, part of a suite of sponsorships that will earn him $50 million a year off the field. Then, on Dec. 11, as a free agent he signed the richest and most unique contract in sports history. The Dodgers will pay him $700 million—at his request to ease the financial burden on the club, he’ll receive it at a rate of just $2 million annually for the next 10 years and $68 million for 10 years after that, with no deferred interest.

The gloves are his way of sharing his success. They also are one of the totems that help explain why Ohtani is a modern unicorn, one of the most popular athletes on the planet even without trying to be. This will be one of his rare allowances of self-reflection: Ohtani on Ohtani. The donated gloves are a good place to start.

“The idea came from signing with New Balance and with the Dodgers,” Ohtani says. “Basically, it’s money coming from the fans. So, I wanted to give back in return. It’s not just about the current situation. It’s about the future. About baseball. Well, I think it’s normal to turn it around to some extent.

“So, they will be playing baseball in some type of way. The basic of baseball is playing catch with the glove to start with. So, I came up with the idea. When I thought about it, I thought it might not make immediate impact, but I think by continuing to do stuff like this down the road it can help out in a big way.”

Ohtani thinks about his first glove. He was 5 or 6 years old. It was a hand-me-down from his older brother, Ryuta. The glove was a well-worn, dark brown hunk of leather. Two years later, in second grade, Shohei joined his first team in an organized league, one that played with a rubber ball. To mark the occasion, his father, Toru, an outfielder on a corporate-sponsored amateur team, bought Shohei the first glove of his own: a two-tone Spalding beauty in red and black. Only after the purchase did Shohei discover the league did not allow multicolored gloves. He grabbed a black Sharpie and made his first baseball glove league compliant.

Toru served as one of Ohtani’s coaches from those elementary school days through junior high, including as the manager of his teams from ages 9 through 12. “I was in a tougher spot because I was the coach’s son,” Ohtani says. “I didn’t want to be getting playing time just because of that. I had to actually prove that I was good enough. So, that was like a challenge during those times.”

Part 2: The Notebook

One day when Ohtani was 9 or 10, Toru bought a small, college-ruled notebook. After games or practices, Toru would write messages to his son about his performance. Maybe it was to compliment him on the command of his pitches that day. Maybe it was to point out that he had chased a few pitches out of the strike zone. Maybe it was to remind him to value every detail of practice, right down to a simple warmup throw. He would then hand the notebook to his son.

Maybe a day or two later, Shohei would hand the notebook back to his father after writing down his own observations and assessments. Shohei was keen on writing down his goals—the championships he wanted to win, where he wanted to be as a player by next week, by high school, by age 30, etc.

A few days later, it was again Toru’s turn to write. And then back to Shohei. And so on and so on ... a game of literary catch that went on for about four years. Father and son filled three notebooks. Toru often repeated three messages to Shohei: Always be loud and clear with communication on the field, always hustle and always be very purposeful about playing catch, honing accuracy and technique rather than treating it as a boilerplate warmup routine. The overall theme was one of unwavering intentionality, be it in a game or practice. Writing down the words to one another gave the lessons an enhanced value to young Shohei. They acquired a permanence in his mind.

Today Ohtani is one of the most famous, beloved and richest athletes in the world. When he announced his decision to sign with the Dodgers Dec. 9 on Instagram, he had 6.2 million followers; he’s now up to 7.1 million. Fans in Tokyo and in the northeastern prefecture of Iwate, where Ohani grew up, lined up to buy special editions of newspapers. (The man sells newspapers!) Others swarmed to his high school and jostled one another to get pictures of a monument to him that shows his ... handprint. Others rushed to Japan Post Co. to drop 7,260 yen (about $48) to snap up the Shohei Ohtani Premium Stamp Set, which features five stamps and 44 postcards—one for each of his American League–leading home runs last year. The apparel company Fanatics said more Ohtani Dodgers jerseys were sold in the first 48 hours of release than any jersey in their history, eclipsing sales of soccer stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi. Seventy million people watched Ohtani’s introductory news conference at Dodger Stadium on Dec. 14. Seventy million—a larger audience than any World Series game in history.

Ohtani is one of the most popular athletes on the planet. 

Chris Coduto/Getty Images

In 2022, citizens of Japan picked him as the country’s favorite person or topic of the year, outpolling a wildly popular Japanese manga and anime series and the World Cup. A poll last summer found that 22.3% of people aged 12 to 21 chose Ohtani as their favorite athlete. No one else drew more than 3.1%. “We’re already seeing the response and level of interest we’re getting from fans and sponsors is far greater than we even expected,” says Dodgers executive vice president and chief marketing officer Lon Rosen.

Rosen traveled to Japan in January to meet with companies eager to become a Dodgers sponsor. He was blown away by how many CEOs had veritable shrines to Ohtani in their boardrooms and offices. And yet ... the wonder of Ohtani is not found in the enormous wake of interest and money he generates. It is found in those small children showing up at school when there is no school just to slip their hand into a baseball glove donated by Ohtani.

The last year has brought him simultaneously to new heights of popularity and humility. He clinched the World Baseball Classic championship for Japan by striking out then-Angels teammate Mike Trout (above)—after volunteering to warm up in the bullpen between his at-bats as a DH, while most top American-born pitchers opted out of the tournament. He won the AL home run title and the Most Valuable Player Award, unanimously. He offered to defer 97% of his record contract without interest, gifted a Porsche to the wife of Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly in appreciation of his giving Ohtani uniform number 17, and in conjunction with the Dodgers donated more than $1 million to relief efforts in western Japan after it was struck by a New Year’s Day earthquake. This is a superstar who is so fastidious and proper he routinely stoops to pick up gum wrappers to keep the dugout floor clean.

“I’ve been around some of the biggest athletes in my 40 years or so in sports,” Rosen says. “Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson, Mike Tyson, Pele. I have never seen anyone like Shohei, especially his popularity in Japan. He is revered not just because he is a sports figure. Like M.J. and Magic, he has that special something that people see he is authentic.

“He’s got that special quality to be so enormously talented and still everyone feels like, ‘He’s just like me.’ There are no airs of cockiness or superiority. They see him for what he is: a very thoughtful, humble person.”

Part 3: The Dog

Seven years younger than his older brother, Ohtani as a child wanted to be a big brother himself. So one day when he was in first grade he asked his parents, Toru and Kayoko, for a dog. They got him a Golden Retriever. They named him Ace. His love of dogs would play a role in Ohtani becoming the two-way player he is today.

As a high school senior in 2012, Ohtani told teams in Nippon Pro Baseball not to draft him. He was going to sign with a major league organization. The Dodgers, who had scouted him since he was a freshman, were considered the front-runners, with the Red Sox and Rangers also in pursuit. Dodgers assistant GM Logan White at the time compared him to Clayton Kershaw, saying Ohtani could be pitching in the big leagues within two years. He called him “an interesting prospect as a hitter.”

On Oct. 25, 2012, the Nippon Ham Fighters drafted Ohtani. He said there was zero chance he would sign. A week later, staff members from the Fighters visited the Ohtani home. Upon arriving they first gave attention and love to Ace. Kayoko noticed. People who love dogs, she thought, are good people.

Fighters manager Hideki Kuriyama met Ohtani twice to convince him to establish his bona fides as a two-way player in Japan before joining the majors, where teams were more likely to commit him to specialization as a pitcher or hitter. At the first meeting, Kuriyama wore purple underpants to honor Ohtani’s high school colors. At the second one, the meeting that clinched the signing, he wore beige underpants to honor Ace.

Ohtani signed and lived in the Fighters’ team dorm, a requisite for first-year players that he opted for even as he became a star. Ace remained at the family home. One day when Ohtani was on the road with the Fighters, Ace died. Ohtani had been without a dog ever since.

Ohtani has undergone two Tommy John surgeries.

Yuki Taguchi/WBCI/MLB Photos/Getty Images

Last season Ohtani, who had Tommy John surgery in 2018, reinjured his throwing elbow on Aug. 23. He decided to finish the season with the Angels as a DH only, but on Sept. 3 he strained an oblique muscle, an injury that would sideline him for the rest of the season. There was no need to postpone the elbow procedure. On Sept. 20, Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who performed the original Tommy John surgery, also handled this procedure, which differed from the first.

In a statement ElAttrache said he repaired “the issue at hand” while reinforcing “the healthy ligament in place while adding viable tissue for the longevity of the elbow.” Two sources familiar with the procedure indicated ElAttrache built an internal sleeve or “brace” around the repaired area for long-term stability. Ohtani expects to return to pitching in 2025.

Around the time of the surgery, Ohtani met a dog breeder who loves baseball. Ohtani knew the procedure would keep him at home and inactive for months as he rehabbed. “I felt like it was the perfect timing [to get a dog],” Ohtani says. “I had to be home and not do anything, so I felt like it was perfect timing.”

The Kooikerhondje breed dates to the 1500s in the Netherlands. Taking their cue from similar behavior they saw from foxes, hunters bred the dogs to cavort on wetlands to attract waterfowl, whereupon they would lure the birds into a trapping or cage system. The English word “decoy” derives from the Dutch word for “the cage,” de kooi. In modern times, the Kooiker has gained a reputation as a faithful, easygoing companion dog, as Ohtani attests.

“There’s a dog park right in front of my house,” Ohtani says. “I would take him there twice a day. Once during the day and once at night. Then in the meantime, I’d come back and I would do my rehab stuff, like in an armchair. Then we would match up our time to eat together.

“We were kind of just chill. That was like our daily routine, until I signed with the Dodgers. I started going to Dodger Stadium after that.”

The companionship eased the monotony of rehab. “Going for a walk after the surgery was a change of mood,” Ohtani says. “It was refreshing and a lot of fun. I feel like [the rehab] is shorter than the last time.

“I can’t live freely outside, so it’s nice to be able to stay inside the house. I mean, I’ve been living by myself for a long time. I didn’t really have anybody. So having someone that’s always with me and shows me love all the time, it’s been really great. Like now I’m sleeping with him.”

The dog made his national television debut on Nov. 16, when Ohtani made an appearance on MLB Network upon winning his second MVP. Producers were told not to ask the dog’s name. Rumors circulated that the dog’s name might be a clue to the team that would sign him as a free agent.

When Ohtani made a recruiting visit to Dodger Stadium on Dec. 1, the Dodgers pulled out all the stops. They gave him a tour of the facilities and bragged about their minor league system. Then president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman pulled out his phone.

Ohtani loves his dog Dekopin, a Dutch Kooikerhondje.

Clay Patrick McBride/Sports Illustrated

A week or so earlier, Friedman was sitting with Rosen and general manager Brandon Gomes. They remembered that in 2017, when Ohtani was a free agent after leaving the Fighters, the team asked Lakers great Kobe Bryant to film a recruiting video. The Dodgers planned to show it to Ohtani at their second meeting. But they never got that second meeting. The National League had no designated hitter at the time, a position that better facilitated Ohtani’s two-way plans. He signed quickly with the Angels.

“I’ve still got it on my phone!” Friedman told Rosen and Gomes. “How great would it be if we showed it to him this go-round?”

Bryant died in 2020 in a helicopter crash. Friedman showed Ohtani the Bryant video that had been in his phone for six years. “You could tell he was touched,” Friedman says. “It was perfect, with Kobe being the ultimate competitor. Because in our minds, Shohei exhibited the same behavior in the WBC with his intense level of compete, especially the final.”

The Dodgers had one more surprise. They waited until the end of their three-hour meeting, then handed Ohtani a gift box. He opened it and immediately burst out laughing and smiling. It was filled with Dodger-themed dog chew toys. It might have been the biggest hit of the day.

“It was our secret weapon,” Friedman says.

Two weeks later, at the introductory press conference in front of more than 300 photographers and journalists, it took 10 questions for the big one to come up: “What is the name of your dog?”

Ohtani revealed the dog’s name is Dekopin, a Japanese name for flicking someone’s forehead with a finger in a schoolyard prank. He also allowed an English version of the name that is true to the breed’s heritage: Decoy.

Ohtani hadn’t planned on bringing Dekopin with him in January for the two-day trip to New York, where he accepted the MVP at an annual awards dinner. Mizuhara’s wife takes care of Dekopin when Ohtani is away. But as he was leaving Southern California, Ohtani could not bear to leave the dog behind. He changed his mind. In New York, while wearing a festive red-plaid sweater, the dog demonstrated how he responds to commands in both English and Japanese.

“He’s very well-behaved,” Ohtani says. “He had like, um, potty issues in the beginning. Of course, it’s natural. But the first time he succeeded was the day I signed with the Dodgers. It was a big day!”

Part 4: The Deferral

Late in the day on Dec. 7, Friedman’s phone rang. It was Nez Balelo, Ohtani’s agent. It was the first time Balelo presented the idea of Ohtani deferring nearly all of a $700 million contract without interest. One word, Friedman says, immediately popped into his head. Deal!

That kind of deferral was so stunning, so unheard of, that the idea of presenting such a proposal to a player seemed preposterous to Friedman. He would have never asked for such a thing, but now here it was in his hands.

“After I had time to process it, I understood it was so consistent with everything Nez and Shohei had said along the way,” Friedman says. “Often times, you hear words in negotiations and the actions don’t match it. In this case the actions exactly matched their words.”

Friedman and Balelo, who still had other teams interested, agreed to talk again the next morning in more detail. After he hung up, Friedman dialed Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten.

“Holy f---,” Friedman said.

“Is that a ‘Holy f---’ good or a ‘Holy f---’ bad?” Kasten asked.

“Good. Very good.”

The deferral idea had percolated in Ohtani’s mind for weeks. Ohtani had never come close to signing an extension with the Angels before the 2023 season. Owner Arte Moreno was worried about how high the money would get. He had signed Trout to a 12-year, $426.5 million extension that began in 2019, the richest contract in baseball, and had given a seven-year, $245 million free agent contract to Anthony Rendon, the richest average annual value ever for a third baseman when it began in 2020. Combined, they missed 52% of L.A.’s games from 2020 to ’22. Moreno figured a contract for Ohtani would “start with a 4,” according to a source familiar with the team’s planning. The Angels and Balelo agreed to play the season out and address the future then.

The Angels opted to not trade Ohtani last summer, which led to a free agent bidding war after the 2023 season.

Winslow Townson/Getty Images

At the trade deadline last July, the Angels were 56–51 and three games out of a wild-card spot with 55 games to play. The team had not reached the postseason in nine years. Moreno wasn’t about to forfeit this chance. He kept Ohtani off the trade market, while knowing he was unlikely to retain Ohtani in a free agent bidding war.

The Angels immediately began to sink. They lost seven in a row, igniting a 17–38 freefall. Ohtani injured his elbow and then his oblique. After more breakdowns by Trout and Rendon (they missed 61% of possible games last season), Moreno told Balelo early in free agency he was out on Ohtani, the source said.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers made an important early connection with Balelo on Ohtani’s value. The agent had a player unlike anyone in free agent history—not just because he was an elite two-way player but also because as an international icon Ohtani generated huge residual value to a franchise. Two Angels sources estimated Ohtani generated between $20 million and $25 million in annual revenue for the franchise. But the Angels also were a team that never finished fewer than 10 games within first place with Ohtani. He had never seen a true pennant race or the postseason as a major leaguer.

Balelo knew Ohtani’s value would soar after the WBC championship, after another MVP season and with the right competitive team—especially as franchises were just establishing the value of sponsorship uniform patches, which seven teams unveiled in 2023. Balelo armed himself with data to support an approximation of that value. Some teams questioned its accuracy. The Dodgers got it. Balelo never had to sway them on what Ohtani could generate.

The Yankees sold their uniform patch this year (along with other advertising agreements that come with it, such as stadium signage) for a reported annual value of $25 million. The Dodgers, according to two sources familiar with such talks, were seeking a more lucrative deal because of Ohtani. The sleeve of his jersey became one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in baseball, especially given the unprecedented level of social media and online impressions. Guggenheim Baseball Management, the consortium that owns the Dodgers, grabbed the space itself. Terms were not announced.

Once Ohtani told Balelo about the deferral idea, the agent went to work to devise the best structure for his client. He dug into the Basic Agreement and found the only stipulation about deferring salary is that a player must earn at least the minimum salary, which is $740,000 this year. Balelo also found that the largest chunk of money previously deferred was 50% of the $210 million contract Max Scherzer signed with the Nationals in 2015.

Balelo came up with a structure that impressed the Dodgers and, since Ohtani has so much current endorsement money, also positioned his client well for savings when his deferrals kick in from 2034 to ’43. For instance, if Ohtani is not living in California then, he could avoid the 13.3% state tax and 1.1% payroll tax for State Disability Insurance. Under that scenario, Ohtani would save $98 million in state tax, according to the California Center for Jobs and the Economy.

In January the state controller, Maria M. Cohen, responded by asking Congress to “take immediate and decisive action” against unlimited deferrals by establishing “reasonable caps.” Two years ago, Ohtani’s uniqueness caused MLB to rewrite its rules; the Ohtani Rule was created to allow a pitcher removed from the mound to remain in the game as the DH. Now California wanted an Ohtani Rule for its tax code.

Balelo and Friedman resumed their conversation on the morning of Dec. 8. “When I got off the call,” says Friedman, “I felt pretty confident. And about 60 minutes later, I started hearing about reports that he had agreed to terms with Toronto, and he was in the air on a flight there. I wasn’t sure what to think. The level of detail in some of the reports made me think it was genuine.”

Helping lead Team Japan to a WBC championship victory over Team USA was a pivotal moment in Ohtani's career. 

Rob Tringali/WBCI/MLB Photos/Getty Images

A plane was identified leaving John Wayne Airport in Orange County for Toronto. It quickly became the most tracked plane in the world.

Friedman dialed Balelo. No answer.

At that moment Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was playing golf at Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club with Brian Bumgarner, the actor from The Office. Roberts’s phone was blowing up with texts from his son and friends telling him it looked like Ohtani was signing with the Blue Jays. “Probably the worst round I ever played,” Roberts says. “I couldn’t get locked in. I wasn’t feeling good about it.”

Friedman stewed. It seemed longer, but it was only 10 minutes later that the agent called him back.

“Sorry, I was on another call,” Balelo said.

“What about these reports that he’s on his way to Toronto?” Friedman asked.

“Those reports aren’t true. He’s home. He’s sleeping now. I’m going to see him later when he’s working out.”

The false reports continued. Meanwhile, Balelo kept in touch with other teams. Friedman says Balelo told him he was taking the deferral plan to other clubs. Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi later said his team made an offer “very comparable if not identical” to the final deal, both in “structure and compensation.”

Balelo circled back to Moreno and the Angels one last time. He caught Moreno on the phone while the owner was sitting down for lunch in Phoenix. Moreno still wasn’t interested. The proposal of huge deferrals changed nothing for him. He remained out on Ohtani.

Ohtani made his decision that night. He told Balelo he wanted to play for the Dodgers. They drafted an announcement to be posted on Instagram the next day. About five minutes before the post, Balelo called Friedman with the news.

Something the Dodgers had told Ohtani during his recruiting visit had made a powerful impression on him. Friedman and principal owner Mark Walter emphasized the franchise was not satisfied with having won one title in their 12-year run of playoff appearances. They promised him they would continue to field competitive teams throughout the life of the contract.

“Of course, I’ve always imagined myself in the postseason,” Ohtani says. “I couldn’t play last year [if the Angels made it] but I’ve always had that image.

“Before the WBC, I hadn’t really been playing in those win-or-go-home games. It’s been a while since I played in that. So, playing those types of games in the WBC was really, really fun and refreshing and made me more hungry to play those types of games, which is equivalent to the playoffs and in the World Series.”

Part 5: Genius

Albert Einstein learned to play the violin as a child. What often had seemed like drudgery exploded into passion at age 13 once he heard the sonatas of Mozart. “The music of Mozart,” Einstein later said, “is of such purity and beauty that one feels he merely found it—that it has always existed as part of the inner beauty of the universe waiting to be discovered.”

Change “the music of Mozart” to “the play of Ohtani” and Einstein’s observation on genius rings just as true. Ohtani has not created something new. He has not introduced a new pitch or a new batting style. He has found the inner beauty of the game that had been waiting to be discovered in the majors since 1919, when Babe Ruth ended his two seasons of two-way duty.

Ohtani hits. He pitches. Science and music. Purity. Harmony. Genius.

When he was 12 years old, Ohtani wrote in his notebook that he wanted to play in Japan’s equivalent of the Little League World Series. For good measure, he also wrote his goal on the back of his cap. He achieved it. He is asked whether his 12-year-old self imagined that at 29 he would be the world’s greatest two-way player.

“I imagined my 29-year-old self would be a professional baseball player,” he says. “But I never imagined I would do both [two-way duty] from the beginning. I didn’t have the option at the time. Like, no one really did it. So that was not in my mind.”

To watch Ohtani train is to understand whence his genius derives: from those childhood notebooks. Here he is truly his father’s son. The lessons of diligence, of valuing the smallest components of work—each rep, each swing, each throw—all resound here.

Ohtani is a physical marvel. Last season he hit the ball harder than anybody in the AL (94.4 mph average exit velocity, minimum 2,000 pitches) and hit the longest home run in all of baseball (493 feet). In 701 career games, Ohtani has hit 171 homers and stolen 86 bases. Nobody else in the history of the game began a career at those thresholds—and he did so while also striking out the eighth-most batters in any pitcher’s first 86 games. He has freakish shoulder flexibility and so much power in his legs that his vertical jump and power off a force plate measuring device were as high as the Dodgers have recorded since they adopted the technology.

Combine those physical tools with the intentionality he developed with his father, and you get genius. Recovering from his elbow surgery, Ohtani began hitting again in January. Ohtani treated each practice swing like a game swing. Each time he carefully settled his feet in the proper spots, windmilled the bat gently in front of him, placed the bat on his back shoulder while loosening his grip as if playing the flute, then lifted the bat high and straight in that familiar posture. Only then was he ready to whack a baseball flipped by a coach.

“That really stood out,” Friedman says. “I’ve seen guys go through their return-to-play progression and they go in and mindlessly take swings any given day. His patience and purposeful nature extend to that work and how he would take 15 to 20 seconds between swings and go through his pre-pitch routine every swing.”

Swing by swing, weight by weight, sprint by sprint, Ohtani challenges himself as if still writing to Toru in the notebook. “Yes, if I had to pick I would say I am the goal-setter type,” Ohtani says. “Especially when it comes to lifting. You have to have a plan. You just can’t be doing anything you want. It’s not going to work out. Set a good goal and the plan to get there.”

As a child, Ohtani enjoyed swimming and badminton, which his mother played. The son of one of his mother’s teammates played baseball and invited Shohei, then in second grade, to join the team. He was drawn to the game anyway because his brother and father both played. A natural righthander, Shohei asked Toru if he should bat left-handed or right-handed. “And he told me, ‘Hey, stand up and let me see your stance,’ ” Ohtani says. “And my stance was left-handed, so ... ”

So began the love affair between Ohtani and baseball. It has been said that baseball is a game of failure, with the best hitters making seven outs every 10 at-bats. But the other side of that coin is that it is a game that rewards diligence. Its greatest rewards come from slow-growth investments, not instant gratification. Having to methodically earn your way is what gripped Ohtani.

Asked what gives him the most joy about baseball, Ohtani does not choose home runs or strikeouts. He chooses the process it requires. “It’s also about setting goals,” he says. “My first goal was to play in the national tournament. And I was actually able to play there. It was a joy that led from the result of my practice. I don’t think it had to be baseball, but for me, it just happened to be baseball. I love setting goals and achieving them.”

This season, media buzzwords such as “pressure” and “expectations” will hang around Ohtani and the Dodgers like a swarm of gnats on a steamy summer night. Those are stock narratives. Ohtani is the antithesis of a stock player. “What I’ve noticed most about him,” Roberts says, “is his ability to manage the noise around him and stay focused in the moment. That’s the intentionality of his work. Everything he does is thought through. Every day is calculated. There is also a humility and softness to him.”

Softness? It is the rare time the word is offered in high praise of an athlete.

“That comes from his upbringing and his culture,” says Roberts, whose mother, Eiko, was born in Okinawa, Japan. “There is a certain respect of how you do things and how you treat people, as well as an inner confidence.”

There is another word that better captures Ohtani. In Japan, to be an expert craftsman is to be revered as a shokunin. The term loosely translates in English to “artisan,” such as a skilled potter, poet or painter. An artisan Ohtani certainly is. But shokunin carries a much deeper meaning beyond a mastery of individual skills.

For instance, soon after Ohtani deferred $680 million, the Dodgers poured a combined $461 million into free agent pitchers Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow. Ohtani not only helped make it possible, he also helped recruit both. To the shokunin, the greater good matters.

A shokunin like Ohtani is more than an artisan. A shokunin venerates natural material and tools, respects and honors the time required by proper diligence and always produces work in the context of social responsibility. The shokunin truly succeeds not on individual merits, but for the betterment of the community. 

Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards might have thrown down the best dunk of the 2023–24 NBA season on Monday night.

Midway through the third quarter of the Wolves’ 114–103 win over the Utah Jazz at Delta Center, Edwards caught a pass from teammate Nickeil Alexander-Walker just inside the three-point line. Without hesitation, Edwards leapt into midair and threw down a thunderous dunk over Jazz forward John Collins.

It was incredible.

“Ain’t no way, bruh,” veteran guard Mike Conley said when watching a replay of the dunk in the Timberwolves’ locker room. “Dunk of the decade.” 

DUNK OF THE DECADE. pic.twitter.com/RdvBjjuRdn

— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) March 19, 2024

“As I threw it, he just took off,” Alexander-Walker said. “Like he didn’t dribble.”

Edwards appeared pretty impressed with himself after watching back the dunk for the first time, too.

Edwards scored 32 points and tallied eight assists and seven rebounds in Minnesota’s win Monday. He also added a dunk that certainly will have a prime spot in his career highlight reel.

Cincinnati Bengals teammates kicker Evan McPherson and linebacker Logan Wilson became girl dads on the same day: last Friday, March 15.

To make the moment even more special, their daughters were born in the same hospital. What are the chances of that?

McPherson and his wife Gracie alongside Wilson and his wife Morgan took a picture in the hospital holding their new daughters, the “birthday twins” as they called them. The McPhersons named their daughter Merritt Hayes, while the Wilsons named their daughter Kambry James.

In a post by the NFL, pictures can be seen of both McPherson and Wilson sporting “girl dad” shirts and a hat.

View the original article to see embedded media.

Many of their Bengals teammates commented on their individual posts congratulating each couple for welcoming a new daughter.

The two Bengals players have been teammates since 2021 after McPherson joined the team. No matter where they go in their NFL careers from here on out, they will always share this special bond and a special anniversary. 

Fresh off a second consecutive Super Bowl victory, Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid will be taking his talents to the baseball diamond in late March.

Reid will be toeing the rubber for the Kansas City Royals on Opening Day, as the legendary coach has been invited to throw out the ceremonial first pitch for the team ahead of its season opening clash against the Minnesota Twins, the team announced on Tuesday.

The Royals’ 2024 season officially begins March 28, and Reid will get the festivities going at Kauffman Stadium by throwing out the first pitch. 

We’re excited to have three-time Super Bowl Champion Head Coach Andy Reid out to throw our first pitch on Opening Day! pic.twitter.com/hpC0CJtxnV

— Kansas City Royals (@Royals) March 19, 2024

The ball game is scheduled to get underway at 3:10 p.m. CT, and the first 30,000 fans to arrive will be recipients of a Bobby Witt Jr. bobblehead as part of the team’s Opening Day promotion.

Kansas City is coming off just a 56-win season, so they’ll be hoping to get off to a strong start against the Twins with Reid in attendance. 

The Royals haven’t been to the postseason since their World Series-winning run in 2015, having experienced quite an opposite past several seasons compared to Reid and the Chiefs.

Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz (20) may have beaten Italy’s Jannik Sinner (22), the latest iteration of a swelling and textured rivalry that now stands at 4–4. But the fiercest battle to play out last week in Indian Wells, Calif., did so in boardrooms and conference rooms.

Andrea Gaudenzi, chairman of the ATP, announced that he had officially secured a $1 billion commitment from Saudi Arabia to bankroll a streamlined tennis ecosystem. The hitch: a 1000-level event would be added to the calendar, to be staged in The Kingdom.

And on the other side of the net … a proposal for a Premier Tour—put forth by the four majors, presenting an uncharacteristically united front—outlining a new professional tennis model offering:

• The four majors.
• Ten other events: 96-player draws; men and women; equal prize money; all held outdoors.
• A team event.
• Year-end finals for both men and women held at the same site.
• Guaranteed off weeks before and after majors and a minimum two-month offseason.
• A PGA-style tour, open to the top 100 or so players; with a developmental tour open to players ranked roughly 101–300.

The BNP Paribas Open served as the backdrop for talks of a new tennis ecosystem.

Jayne Kamin-Oncea/USA TODAY Sports

For a sport that, historically, has done change the way the royal family does transparency, this was a jarring disruption in the truest sense. For starters, it would mean the end of the WTA and ATP tours as they have existed for decades; and the death or demotion of more than 100 tournaments that currently dot the calendar, from Dallas to Doha.

Credit/blame for the Premier Tour generally goes to Australian Open chieftain Craig Tiley, who was moved to act dramatically, threatened as he was by a Saudi event in January that would squelch Aussie Open run-up momentum. Likely because Tiley, a born deal-maker, can polarize within the sport, it is now Lew Sherr, the USTA’s chief executive officer and executive director, who has become the front-facing figure for the Premier Tour.

Sherr spoke with Sports Illustrated this week about the Premier Tour, what it is and isn’t and what problems it addresses.

The following has been lightly edited for brevity and clarity.

Jon Wertheim: Let’s start broad and then get to specific questions. What are you presenting?

Lew Sherr: So it all starts from a proposition that tennis is an attractive sport, but that it underperforms commercially, which is creating challenges to support athletes and for the sustainability of tournaments. I don't think that's news to anybody in the industry.

We'll go back to 2021. The [seven tennis stakeholders] commissioned Boston Consulting Group to understand what the issues were in the sport and what the opportunities might be. And all of that research—which included 5,000 tennis fans around the world surveyed—pointed to the fact that tennis, while broadly popular, had 70% of tennis fans only engaging with the sport through the four majors.

So you're the fourth most popular sport in the world, but 70% of those fans are only watching the four events during the year. And the feedback also indicated that events during the season lack consequence. Fans have a hard time following the narrative. We dilute our own product. We compete with our own product. You might have six events in a given week. Fans struggle to know where they should be watching. Why is Sinner playing in Rotterdam and Alcaraz is somewhere in South America? The solution that came back from all of that fan research? The best way to present the sport to fans was in a format where the best players are playing in a prescribed sort of elite season. At the same time, you're accounting for player health, rest, peaks in performance.

JW: That takes care of fans and players. What about tournaments?

LS: From a tournament perspective, there are just too many tournaments that are not viable. And because they're diluted, they're competing with one another. So we try to address the structural impediments in the system and bring forward a more expansive, a more holistic solution that would tackle all of that. … Ten tournaments [out of roughly 140] drive 80% of all of the economics. Four of them are the Grand Slams plus six others. So it's unbelievably concentrated. I don't think I'm telling you anything that you haven't reported, that you didn't know. So what we set out to do, the slams together, unified to say, if we can lean in and try to address the structural issues that the sport is facing, maybe there's a new opportunity.

JW: If tennis’s value today is X, what are you anticipating the valuation to be if all goes to plan?

LS: We estimate—and the consultants—that number is roughly a billion dollars in annual economic lift. Now that doesn't happen overnight. You've got to build to that and there are contracts and cycles. But it is substantial. We're talking about a successful sport that still has huge, huge economic potential.

JW: The biggest objections to me would seem to be, 1) the other guys have a bag with a billion dollars in it. You have consultants’ projections. 2) Everyone thinks the sport is under-monetized. Everyone thinks it’s confusing and the calendar is too crowded. But there are dozens and dozens of 500- and 250-level events that don’t seem to fit in.

LS: Our view is that billion is redistributed below to make sure players are earning sustainable for success. It’s a reimagination. We’ve gotta separate ourselves from what exists today. The analogy with what the ATP sort of developed with the Saudis, I guess is a bit of an apples and oranges. These are not, these are not mutually exclusive opportunities.

JW: What are you telling that guy that’s dumped a lot of money into his 500-level event?

LS: We are prioritizing creating sort of sustainability at the lower levels of our sport, we think there is an enormous amount of growth. Part of our proposition: there is revenue that has to be redistributed to other events. And we think there is an opportunity to create a much more viable proposition. There are 10 events that are driving 80% of the revenue in our sport. That’s not sustainable. We need to get to a sustainable model.

JW: I’m hearing four majors and 10 events that will be 96 draws; men and women; all outdoors; and the 10th is likely a grass event pre-Wimbledon. Accurate?

LS: Yeah, our vision for the calendar reflects four Grand Slams. We think 10 is the appropriate number of Premier Tour events. I can’t overstate the importance of all combined, all equal prize day one for the sport operating entity combined. And truly creating a gender-neutral sport is absolutely paramount for us and a critical sort of piece of this thing. We also think there is an opportunity for an international team event that would fit within this calendar; and then a year-end combined event.

JW: I’ve heard two weeks of protection pre and post the four majors.

LS: There’s absolutely one week. The other piece: we’re prescribing specific play-down weeks. So we know that competition matters. And if you’re a lower-ranked player, you may not be getting enough match play. If you lose early in a model like this, there may not be enough matches for you to be at your peak performance, so we’ve identified a series of weeks over the course of the year where you could drop down to get more match play, drop into what we think would be sort of the highest level of contender tour events.

JW: Your [model] is avoiding the sportswashing issue in a way that your competing offer is not. Would you take money from Saudi Arabia if they decided to reallocate with you?

LS: What I will tell you is we’ve had a conversation with an external stakeholder about investment in this. We want to get this format right. We don’t doubt that there will be a number of people lining up to potentially want to invest in this. We’re not sure that we need external investment. We might be able to do this with some sanctioned sales. So it may not require equity. But what we also know is it’s an incredibly attractive sport. And you’re seeing increased investment in sport. And we’re good.

We want to focus on delivering the product in the right way to create something that's sustainable. That's right for fans, that’s consistent with what we set out to do at the outset. I won't exclude or include anything at this stage. But right now we, we've not been pursuing external investment.

JW: What do you see as the biggest challenge to this getting done?

LS: This is a massive reimagination of the way the sport is presented and change is hard. And we want to get it right and we’re taking our time and we’re working with stakeholders to make sure that we’re thinking through all of these questions that you’re asking and others are asking, because that stuff is important. Ultimately it’s going to require change from within and that’s really hard, right?

JW: The tours, as we know them, have outstanding media rights contracts. They have venue contracts. They have vendors. They have pension plans. They’ve got liability policies. What happens if there is no ATP and WTA as we know it? And can you do it all by Jan. 1, 2026?

LS: I think putting a date on this is really hard. If that needs to happen [Jan. 1, 2026] would be achievable. My guess is you will see a transition period, but we’re up to conversations we’ve had with, with players, the conversations we’ve had with tournament owners.

Look, everybody gets it, right? I think you probably would agree. This is a better presentation of the sport. However, the how you get there is where the complexity lies, right? And, and how long does that take? And what has to happen to get there and making sure that we don't compromise to the point that you lose the integrity of the vision in order to get there.

So it’s a process and, and we are committed. We’re working as quickly as we can work, but we’re not willing to sacrifice getting it right. We’re not trying to take some shortcuts or band-aids to get to something that ultimately is not going to serve us well in the long term. 

Clemson has long been content to sit just outside the ring and watch Florida State very publicly and very loudly fight the same fight it was also ready to wage. It doesn’t mean the schools had dissimilar goals, but it does mean they had dissimilar tacts.

You couldn’t watch a Clemson board of trustees meeting on YouTube like you could FSU’s to see Seminoles administrators both inside and outside of athletics talk openly about the need to leave the ACC over a year ago. But after watching and waiting, the Tigers have finally joined the Noles in suing the ACC on a parallel legal track. It turns the heat up on a league that was already in hot water.

Clemson filed a lawsuit against the ACC on Tuesday over exit fees and media rights.

Winslow Townson/USA TODAY Sports

The main points of Clemson’s legal argument are: the penalty fee the ACC would impose upon it if it left the league (potentially $500 million or more) is unenforceable and Clemson could leave the league and still control the media rights for its games. The fact they signed a document granting the ACC control of those rights through at least 2027 is where the term “Grant of Rights” comes from. ESPN has the option to extend its television deal and the grant of rights through ’36 but must do so by February ’25. It’s unclear if the grant of rights extends through ’36 no matter what happens to the TV deal. In a statement, Clemson maintains that it has not left the conference at the current moment, but said it has “no choice but to move forward with this lawsuit.”

The ACC, obviously, is committed to holding them to the agreement:

pic.twitter.com/2czOHMIsrX

— The ACC (@theACC) March 19, 2024

And why shouldn’t the ACC stand its ground? It behooves the league to drag this whole thing to hell and back through the legal system both with Clemson and Florida State.

Beyond the legal theatrics, there’s a leverage angle at play here. Clemson and FSU were joined by Miami, North Carolina, NC State, Virginia and Virginia Tech in looking at the grant of rights last spring. It stands to reason that five of those schools that have yet to sue the league could file their own legal actions in the near future. It ratchets up how precarious one of college sports’ two middle-class leagues feels. The end goal from the schools’ side likely looks like a forced settlement where the ACC gives the schools a number to leave, and the schools can then find a way to meet it through bonds or private equity or a Girl Scout bake sale. But right now, the schools can only estimate the worst case, which FSU’s lawsuit does. Noles brass came up with the number $572 million unless they won in court to get it whittled down.

But if the league gives the schools a number, they’d probably bounce tomorrow. The ACC can try to just jam this up in court for as long as possible at which case who knows what form college sports will even take. That scenario, however, is one that does not sit terribly well with the Noles or Tigers, but the agreement is one both schools voluntarily signed years ago. These lawsuits are the legal equivalent of saying the deal we signed was fine then but stinks now and we want out. And if Florida State has made any headway in its angling to leave the league, then it would benefit Clemson not to stay on the sideline anymore. Now the question is if any other ACC schools are going to start to get antsy.