August 4, 2025
The Lakers got some exciting news over the weekend. Luka Doncic has signed a 3-year extension for $165 million. The Lakers have their next face of their franchise locked up. I don’t care about the nonsense you Pelinka haters and Lebron fan boys are spewing. The Lakers have had a good offseason, especially now that they can plan around their next franchise player. It’s amazing how quickly you can get into shape and how good you can look with a few weeks of cutting back on the beers and fried food. If Luka can take his team to the finals being fat and out of shape, imagine how good he is going to be the next 3 years in shape and pushing for a $400 million contract with the Lakers! Nobody leaves the lakers in their prime when they are in the face of the franchise so you’re a fool if you think he was ever leaving. I still think that despite all the talk about the Lakers next star like Giannis or Joker, the Lakers are unlikely to acquire a player as good as Lebron now over the next two years. For that reason, they shouldn’t be conservative in their approach to try and approve their roster now with the right depth pieces, if the opportunity presents itself. Don’t get it twisted: the Lakers have arguably the best big 3 in the NBA, so they should take advantage of it before Lebron retires.
To baseball, where the MLB Trade Deadline came and went last Thursday. You can’t be mad at the Dodgers approach. They added the depth they needed in the bullpen with Brock Stewart, and in the outfield with Alex Call. Ok, I didn’t love that the Dodgers traded Dustin May for a ham sandwich, but they really did it out of respect for him and the fact he’s going to be a free agent. I would have preferred that they keep him and potentially use him out of the bullpen if necessary. I still have a hard time believing that all 6 of these Dodgers pitchers are going to be healthy and effective come postseason time, so I still think there was an opportunity for him anyway to be a starter in October. At the end of the day, if the Dodgers are to successfully defend their title, it’s going to come down to them not hitting like Little Leaguers, which they have been for the last couple of weeks. They took 2 of 3 from Tampa, but the offense has been brutal. Shohei Ohtani is eventually going to stop striking out, but Mookie Betts needs to figure it out. I’m not convinced he’s fully healthy, but either way, he’s way too good of a player to not turn it around at some point.
As for the Angels, there is not an organization in sports that is more foolish than them. Sure the Taylor Ward walk off was nice yesterday, but they are still 5.5 games back in the wild card after losing 2 of 3 to lowly White Sox. They somehow decided it was a good idea to be buyers at the trade deadline. They should have traded Kenley Jansen, Taylor Ward, and others to replenish their farm system. And why didn’t they? So they can sell some tickets in August and September? I would argue fans want to see a young team that is showing some promise. The Angels have one of the worst run differentials in baseball at -67. They aren’t fooling anybody to think they are going to contend for the playoff spot. Plus the Perry Minasian comments to the media were even more ridiculous. He said it’s important that the team plays meaningful games in August and September. You can’t fool anybody, even your players into thinking they are playing meaningful games late in the year. What a complete joke, and every Angel fan should be completely livid with Arte Moreno, as if they weren’t already.
Well now we’re a week into training camp and the Rams are still looking for answers on Matthew Stafford’s back. Stafford is going to miss the joint practice with the Cowboys that is coming up and he’s going to see a back specialist. Ultimately, he needs to just be ready for week 1 of the regular season in September, but when I hear week-to-week, and that he is not practicing, I’m concerned this may be more serious than we think. Matt Stafford is as tough as they come, but back injuries can be very tricky, and can take people down for a while. Here’s to hoping we don’t have much to be concerned about.
We just learned last week that Shannon Sharpe was fired by ESPN. In this case, two things can be true at the same time. First of all, Shannon was a fool to be messing around with a woman who is 20 years old, even if she is trying to extort him. Poor judgement. However, it’s also true that Shannon Sharp is so talented, in the long run, he doesn’t actually need ESPN and is way better off without them. ESPN on the other hand has become a crappy woke network for sports, that is hanging on for dear life to stay relevant in a consumer media era that is transitioning.
Finally, for those of you who have seen Happy Gilmore 2 and are complaining about what it was, what did you expect? Some Oscar Winning production? It was a funny movie for what it was. A typical Adam Sandler movie, and one that was a lot of fun with celebrity cameos. By the end of it, you can always feel good about a movie like that, and just take it for the entertainment value it provides. This is also a perfect example of why they don’t make a lot of great new content anymore in Hollywood. It’s way too easy for a movie to flop when it’s not an established franchise. When you have a name like Happy Gilmore, or even a Jurassic World, Top Gun, Star Wars, and the list goes on, you will get enough people that come to see the movie for name recognition alone. It’s a safe way to be successful in the industry, but unfortunate that it has put a cap on creativity in that space.
