Can somebody please check on LeBron James? Actually, never mind. He’s fine. He’s just enjoying the annual tradition of reminding the basketball world that the calendar doesn’t officially start until he says so.

There is absolutely no basketball reason his decision hasn’t been made yet. If you’re staying, stay. If you’re leaving, leave. If you’re retiring, announce it. Instead, we’ve reached the point where the NBA schedule is apparently sitting on Adam Silver’s desk with a giant sticky note that reads, “Waiting on LeBron.”

And here’s the funny part.

Everyone wants to blame LeBron.

Nope.

This is an NBA problem.

At some point Adam Silver has to simply say, “Here’s the schedule. Figure it out.”

Can you imagine the NFL delaying its entire schedule because Aaron Rodgers hadn’t made up his mind? Roger Goodell would release the schedule, shrug his shoulders, and tell everyone to enjoy Thanksgiving football.

The NBA created this monster. LeBron is simply taking advantage of it.

The Lakers’ Summer League, meanwhile, has quietly become the happiest place in Los Angeles.

No, nobody is planning the championship parade because Cameron Carr hit a couple of threes in Vegas.

But Cameron Carr looks like he belongs.

Adou Thiero looks like he belongs.

More importantly, both look like legitimate NBA rotation players—not just “Hey, let’s see what happens in garbage time.”

That’s significant.

Because every solid young wing the Lakers develop makes them just a little less desperate.

And desperation is expensive.

Which brings us to Jonathan Kuminga.

I still want him.

In fact, I’d absolutely pursue a sign-and-trade.

His athleticism fits perfectly with Luka. His age fits the timeline. His upside is obvious.

But every day his market keeps shrinking.

Suddenly the Lakers have leverage they didn’t have a month ago.

Funny how patience is a virtue…unless your name is LeBron James.

The Dodgers opened the second half exactly the way you’d want.

Two out of three.

On the road.

Against the Yankees.

That’s a successful weekend no matter how you slice it.

Now comes the part where Andrew Friedman earns his paycheck.

Please…

Trade for pitching.

Lots of pitching.

Because I’m apparently supposed to believe that by October we’re going to have Blake Snell healthy…

Tyler Glasnow healthy…

Shohei Ohtani healthy enough to pitch meaningful innings…

AND Will Smith surviving another season catching nearly every important game.

Sure.

While we’re making wishes, I’d also like to win the lottery.

The Dodgers should be making aggressive calls for Tarik Skubal.

Yes, it’ll cost a fortune.

Championships usually do.

They also need another defensive catcher. October baseball becomes a completely different sport when every pitch matters, every runner matters, and every passed ball becomes a season-ending highlight.

This roster is outstanding.

But outstanding teams still patch obvious holes.

Speaking of organizations that enjoy pretending everything is fine…

The Angels.

They currently own the worst record in baseball.

Congratulations.

Mission accomplished.

Now we’re hearing that Arte Moreno has supposedly signed off on trading Reid Detmers and José Soriano.

Really?

Now?

After spending what feels like fifteen consecutive years refusing to acknowledge reality?

I’m suddenly supposed to believe that Molly Jolly and John Mozeliak walked into Arte’s office, delivered one convincing PowerPoint presentation, and he finally said, “You know what? Maybe rebuilding is the right idea.”

Forgive me if I wait until the trades actually happen before I believe this organizational epiphany.

The Angels have teased rebuilds the same way Lucy keeps teasing Charlie Brown with the football.

At some point the fan base deserves to actually see someone kick it.

The World Cup has officially come to an end, and honestly…

I’m going to miss it.

For one glorious month, the entire sports world revolved around one event.

Different countries.

Different cultures.

Different languages.

Everyone watching together.

It was fantastic.

Unless, of course, you happened to be rooting for Argentina.

Because it felt like literally every neutral fan on Earth suddenly became Spain’s biggest supporter.

Argentina has become international sports’ version of the New York Yankees.

You either love them…

…or you’re desperately hoping someone—anyone—beats them.

And then there was halftime.

Madonna.

Coldplay.

Shakira.

Justin Bieber.

Burna Boy.

BTS.

Basically FIFA looked at Coachella and said, “Cute festival. Hold my corruption.”

Say whatever you want about FIFA—and there is certainly plenty to say—but they know how to stage an event.

The World Cup felt massive every single day.

That’s not easy to pull off for an entire month.

Finally…

The Rams.

The whispers continue getting louder that Aaron Donald may actually return.

Let’s be honest.

Nobody expects 2018 Aaron Donald.

Nobody expects Defensive Player of the Year Aaron Donald.

But even if he’s only 60 or 70 percent of the player he once was…

Have fun blocking that.

Quarterbacks already lose sleep preparing for Sean McVay’s offense.

Now imagine having Aaron Donald collapsing the pocket again while Myles Garret continues to dominate the edge.

That’s enough to make offensive coordinators update their résumés.

Sometimes greatness doesn’t have to be fully restored.

Sometimes it just has to show up.

And that’s exactly why the rest of the NFC should probably hope these rumors stay rumors.

July 13, 2026

Well here we are, at the baseball All-Star Break. The Dodgers are at the break with an 11 1/2 game lead in the NL West, and the best record in baseball. I’m going to ignore the fact they were completely embarrassed by the Diamondbacks over the weekend, suffering a 3-game sweep and showing some awful defense, and lackluster offense. They have 6 players on the all-star team. I’m going to chalk this one up to a bunch of guys who were mentally checked out and ready to go to Cancun for a week to vacation with the wives and kids. As for the roster, they have 2.5 weeks to make an important decision. If Tarik Skubal is available, do they trade for him? As I look at the wear and tear on Shohei Ohtani, the questionable health of Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, and the incredible load on the shoulders of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, I think Skubal makes sense if you don’t have to gut your farm system. Since he will likely be a rental, he probably won’t require gutting their farm system either. Plus, keeping Skubal away from an NL rival like the Brewers is important. Justin Wrobleski has been nice, but I much prefer the idea of him and Emmet Sheehan coming out of the bullpen in the playoffs at this point.

As for the Angels, they enter the All-Star break with the worst record in baseball. They also just drafted 20 players in the MLB Draft. I’m sure everyone is wondering will anything change, specifically if they will be more process oriented, rather than rushing their prospects to the big leagues and ultimately seeing them fail. We know very little about these players that were drafted. Ultimately, development is the name of the game, and the Halos have yet to show us they can develop anybody. I think it’s also fair to say that if Reid Detmers or Jose Soriano are still on this team by the end of July, this franchise remains unserious, and firing Perry Minasian was simply just another move for optics. I also think now is the time to try and trade Mike Trout because his value is back up again, and he is an All-Star. They would have to approach him about a trade, but it’s the sensible thing to do.

To the NBA, where the off-season is slowing down but the Lakers are still waiting out a few things. Namely, Jonathan Kuminga to sign with them. Adding Kuminga would be a really nice acquisition for the Lakers, and I don’t see how there is a market for him outside of LA. Nobody is going to pay him over $20 million for him, and he might not even get a starting gig with another team. If the Laker can get him, this suddenly becomes a very interesting team. It’s especially interesting if you’ve seen the Adou Theiro and Cameron Carr play summer league ball. Theiro is an athletic freak who has the potential to be an outstanding POA defender if he puts his mind to it. Carr is quickly showing he can be a nice rotational wing player, which is exactly what the Lake Show needs to elevate them into true contender status. Otherwise, contrary to what the talking heads are saying, this has actually been a pretty good off-season for the Lakers. I still think though the sensible thing for Lebron to do is re-sign with the Lakers, even though it won’t happen. They have a perfect spot for him at the starting 4, plenty of depth around him, and two guys to take the scoring load off his shoulders. The longer this drags on for without him signing in Cleveland, the more it makes me wonder.

As for the Clippers, I told you last week a Kawhi trade didn’t make any sense! Sure enough, the league is putting the trade on hold until they are done with the Aspiration investigation. It’s embarrassing it’s taking this long for Adam Silver to put a deadline on this. Now he’s going to create all kinds of ripple effects on other moves and franchises. To make the only way to fairly punish the Clippers is to fine them heavily, take away a few draft picks, and if you’re really savage, suspend Steve Ballmer for a year. Kawhi is more complicated though. The real punishment for him I believe is making him play on a minimum deal for the season, although they could just suspend him for a year too. He ultimately wants to get paid again, so if his contract is terminated, he loses a year salary, and he has to risk injury on a bad knee to get paid again. At the end of the day, I don’t see a scenario where Kawhi doesn’t end up in Toronto so both sides can move on, but this could get a little messy in between.

The USMNT World Cup run came to an end last week against Belgium. Now we can all stop caring about soccer until 4 years from now. Look it was a nice run that created excitement, but in reality, the US benefitted from playing some weak ass teams, then just got exposed by Belgium. I’m also tired of hearing about the US not having its best athletics play soccer, as opposed to other sports, otherwise we would dominate. That’s a bunch of crap. The USA has 330 million people. Belgium has 11 million people. France has 68 million people, Spain has 50 million people, England has 58 million people, and Argentina has 46 million people. We have plenty of great athletes playing soccer, but we simply don’t develop the skill and talent the way these other countries do. Are we getting better? Ok maybe a little, but so are other countries relative to us so we aren’t closing the gap. It’s also not a problem that just throwing money at can fix. This isn’t college football where a $40 million roster suddenly vaults you into the World Cup Final Four. We just haven’t figured it out yet, and I’m not convinced we are any closer to doing so.

Finally, we are nearly halfway through season 3 of House of The Dragon. I have to say, this show doesn’t quite have the writing of Game of Thrones as much as I want it to. Game of Thrones is all about “the bad guys”, that loyalty gets you killed, and if you don’t resort to underhanded tactics, you will likely not come out on top. It was brilliant, despite its rushed ending. House of the Dragon seems more a story about how a botched line of succession from greed is going to screw up a dynasty, and cause some amazing dragon creatures to go extinct. I’m not saying I’m not going to watch it. I’m still in it, and plan to be until the end. However, it just isn’t capitalizing on reeling the audience in like Game of Thrones so far.

July 6 , 2026

Who says July is the dog days of summers for sports? We have a loaded edition of Monday Morning Coffee! We start with LeBron James leaving the Lakers. I appreciate everything LeBron did for this franchise, and the fact he was here for 8 years. I don’t buy this “he wasn’t a true Laker” narrative some of you are pushing. He is one of the greatest players of all-time, and he resurrected a franchise that was maybe at its lowest point in history. He delivered a championship under very difficult circumstances as well, and did so graciously dedicating it to the late Kobe Bryant. He should have you ultimate gratitude and appreciation. The Lakers are in the superstar business, so you have to accept the fact they are always going to have to cater to those stars and deal with that baggage. It’s the cost of winning. LeBron probably would have won more with the Lakers if he and AD didn’t get injured in 2021, or made the ridiculous Russell Westbrook trade that ruined everything. It still doesn’t take away from what he accomplished, and what was still a successful run with the Lakers. I’m actually sad to see him go because the Lakers should be where a superstar like LeBron finishes his career. However, it’s obvious that the new Laker ownership had the guts to push him out the door in the most tactful way possible. Also, this entire process has revealed that there are a lot of groups of weirdos out there. The LeBron fans that are just fans of him and wherever he goes, not the team. The Kobe fans that are only fans of Kobe, and not really the Lakers. How do you people actually enjoy basketball?

Lost in all this is that the Lakers are suddenly putting together what appears to be a much improved team than the last few years. They finally have young defensive center they can build around in Walker Kessler, and are going to be much deeper, younger, and more athletic. I’m still hoping they can find a way to add some combination of Jonathan Kuminga, or even Peyton Watson, and a back up big man. Any combination of those guys added to this team, and they are suddenly cooking with gas. Pay no attention to the Laker and Rob Pelinka haters that think the Lakers haven’t had a good offseason, because most of those people don’t even recognize the names of the players they added. That doesn’t mean they aren’t effective. I’m not sitting here telling you this is going to work, but what I am telling you is that this is how modern NBA championship teams have been built. Ironically, if LeBron came back for the minimum, this is the exact type of team he should be on if he wants to win another championship. Unfortunately, LeBron is too prideful of an individual to go back to the Lakers and make it work, even though he should. He is likely going to Cleveland, because that’s really the only fitting end for him.

The Clippers sure seemed in a big hurry to trade Kawhi Leonard to the Raptors, with the looming decision on the Aspiration investigation. I suspect that if the league thought they were going to terminate Kawhi’s contract as part of the investigation, they would have not let the Raptors or Clippers complete the trade. Seems like a penalty is more likely to be fines or loss of draft capital. As for the trade itself, the Clippers were wise to move off of him. I still give them credit for going all in on Kawhi and Paul George, even though it didn’t work out. They simply tied their future to a guy with a degenerative knee condition, and paired him with a guy who doesn’t want much accountability in Paul George. Now they are starting from scratch. They have done a pretty good job of moving on from James Harden, Ivica Zubac, and Kawhi and re-couping a lot of their draft capital. Keaton Wagler is also a nice point guard prospect too they drafted at #5. Their best hope is to let their young players develop, and keep their assets and cap flexibility in hopes of landing a disgruntled start down the line. It will be a few years though before the Clips re-enter the championship contending conversation, but that’s something they’ve hardly been a part of throughout history anyway!

Let’s go the ice, where we’ve seen a busy off-season for both the Kings and Ducks. The Kings made a flurry of free agent moves last week. They signed forwards Matt Zuccarello, Erika Haula, and re-signed forwards Corey Perry and Scott Laughton. This team has gotten old, but one thing that has surprised me: their outlook is nearly the same as it was a year ago. The rest of the division, and even the conference, has done much better this off-season, and a few teams in the division like Anaheim, Calgary, and Vancouver are much worse. This is a borderline playoff team again. However, for a team that claims they are “win now” that just doesn’t cut it. It’s not a Stanley Cup contending team. They will need to rebuild sooner than later, so in my mind it would be better to do it now, but that won’t happen with Ken Holland here as GM. However, the best thing they did was give Brandt Clarke a 5-year deal at a reasonable contract, while not extending Drew Doughty. They also didn’t get involved in a crazy bidding for the likes of these restricted free agents, or superstar trades. That’s also because they didn’t have the assets for it. Get ready for more of the same from this Kings team in 2026-2027.

Meanwhile, the Anaheim Ducks have had an absolutely awful off-season, after what appeared to be a very promising future. They traded Olen Zellweger, Mason McTavish, they lost Jacob Trouba and John Carlson in free agency, and now the big blow: losing Leo Carlson to Philadelphia. All they have to show for it is 6 first round picks, which sounds like a lot until you realize it could take you a half decade to rebuild your team from where you are now. Ducks GM Pat Verbeek is under a lot of heat now for not just destroying the Anaheim roster, but for completely destroying the NHL CBA and salary cap structure. The Flyers are going to pay $18 million to a player that is great, but has never had more than 67 points in a season. This man is by far the highest paid player in the NHL. More money than established stars like Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, and more money than emerging stars like Connor Beddard and Macklin Celebrini. Just when I thought the LA Kings had it bad, they can always look up the freeway and see and see an even bigger disaster going on right now.

Just when you thought UCLA Basketball was toast this upcoming season, they appear to be making a big splash. The Bruins are on the verge of landing Nikola Kusturica, a 17 year old phenom from Serbia. He would be paid a whopping $12 million and be with the Bruins for two seasons, before likely jumping to the NBA, where he is projected to be a top 3 pick. Mick Cronin hasn’t exactly been able to recruit much talent this off-season, so this would be a much needed win for his roster. Since the Tournmanet has been expanded to 76 teams, there’s a good chance the Bruins are going to the Tournament again, but whether or not they can do any damage there or in the Big Ten will be dependent on how this roster comes together, and just how big of an impact Kustirca has on this roster. Judging by what they are going to pay him, he must be able to play right away and be elite.

To baseball, where the Dodgers took 3 out of 4 from the Padres over the weekend, and now have a monstrous 14 game lead in the division. There’s not much to not like right now if you’re a fan. If you want to complain about Roki Sasaki go ahead, but the Dodgers can afford to start him and let him develop every six days when they have such a massive division lead, let alone the best record in baseball by a 5 game margin. Also, congrats to Freddie Freeman, Andy Pages, Max Muncy, and Yoshinobu Yamamoto for making the NL All-Star team. Freeman is as consistent as they come and has aged like a fine wine. Andy Pages couldn’t even track down a fly ball less than 2 seasons ago, now he’s one of the best all around center fielders in baseball. Yamamoto is one of the toughest pitchers in baseball and worth every penny of his $325 million deal. And Max Muncy went from a guy who we questioned defensively at 3rd base two seasons ago, to the best 3rd baseman in baseball. Justin Wrobleski and Tanner Scott probably should have been all-stars too, but I get that 6 Dodgers is a lot at that point.

Congratulations to Mike Trout for making the AL All-Star team again. This is about the only good thing going on with the Halos right now. I was a little surprised that Jose Soriano didn’t make the team because he’s been a very good pitcher on a trash team. You probably also thought for a hot second with John Mozeliak in charge, he was going to do the sensible thing and trade some veterans at the deadline. However, the man was non-commital when asked about it, and said he isn’t comfortable revealing their strategy at this point. Look John…..let me enlighten you. Your team has the worst record in baseball right now. The franchise and owner that employs is one of the biggest embarrassments in Southern California. If you are not going to trade veterans for prospects now and can’t convince your boss to let you, you might as well just tell everyone to stop going to the games until the franchise is sold.

Finally, it’s show time for the USMNT tonight against Belgium. A spot in the quarterfinals is on the line tonight. This is going to be a tough match for the US, but I think they can win it. The real story thought is Folarin Balogun, who had his red card reversed, so he will be eligible to play in tonight’s match. I’m astonished that happened, but you know that Donald Trump is going to remind us all how much credit he deserves for the whole thing, and negotiating with FIFA. I remember when I was little and I used to see a character playing POTUS in a movie, and I’d ask my parents if that was the real President. They always told me absolutely not, because the President wouldn’t have time for such nonsense. It turns out that today, the President does have time for this type of nonsense!