The Sport Superlatives - Issue No. 21

May 24, 2024

🏆 The Superlatives 🏆

The City That Could Have Had It All: New York City

The New York Knicks fell short in the last round of the NBA Playoffs, meaning NYC missed an opportunity to have NBA & NHL championship wins in 2024. Jalen Brunson tried his best to deliver the city its first NBA championship since 1973, but it wasn’t in the cards. Maybe next year. The NY Rangers are still attempting to bring glory (and a championship) to their city as their run for the Stanley Cup continues. 

The City Coming for it All: Dallas

While Knicks fans are crying in the corner, Dallas sports enthusiasts are excited to try to secure the double bag: NBA and NHL Championship wins this season. The NBA’s Dallas Mavericks and NHL’s Dallas Stars are both in the Conference Finals. Let's see if both teams can put on for their city. Let's face it, it's not like the Cowboys will.

⚾ Drop and Give Me 50: Regarding the 50-game start, the Philadelphia Phillies are leading the MLB. After an 11-4 win against 2023 World Series champs, the Texas Rangers, on Wednesday, May 22nd, the team secured a 36-14 record. This is the best 50-game start since the 2001 Miami Mariners. The LA Dodgers trail them as the leaders of the National League West with a 33-19 record, and the Brewers lead the National League Central with a 28-21 record.

🏒 Three Americans and a Canadian Walk into a Bar: Welcome to the 2024 NHL playoff semifinals, AKA the Conference Finals!  A quick reminder of where things stand:

• In the battle for the West, we have the Dallas Stars and the Edmonton Oilers

  • The Dallas Stars won their spot over the Colorado Avalanche by taking Game 6 into double OT. They were getting a little jealous of the OT excitement over on the PWHL side, and who could blame them?

  • The Oilers are the only remaining Canadian team left in this year’s race, and they played their hearts out to get here by taking the Vancouver Canucks all the way to Game 7 and sealing the deal.

  • Edmonton took Game 1, 3-2 in 2OT. Looks like the start of a long series, so settle in! Watch Game 2 on Saturday, May 25 at 8 PM ET.

• Fighting it out for the East are the Florida Panthers and the New York Rangers

  • The Florida Panthers took out the Boston Bruins last week in Game 6 with the winning goal coming from Gustav Forsling with 1:33 left in the game. As a reward, Gustav now claims the spot for the first defenseman in Panthers history to score a series-winning goal. Nice.

  • The New York Rangers credit their Game 6 win over the Carolina Hurricanes to a hat trick from Chris Kreider, all of which were scored in the third period.

  • The Panthers took Game 1 on Wednesday 3-0, so you can be sure the Rangers are looking to even it up in Game 2 tonight at 8 PM ET.

🏒 The Ties That Bind: The PWHL Finals between Minnesota and Boston is tied at a game apiece. Boston took Game 1 and Minnesota surged back in Game 2, dealing Boston their first playoff loss with a 3-0 shutout, and two of those goals were from Sophie Jaques. Now check this; Sophie is already in the history books as part of the first trade in the PWHL when she was traded to Minnesota…from Boston. It’s not NOT a revenge tour. Game 3 is tonight, Friday, May 24, at 7 PM ET. 

Still free, still on the PWHL YouTube channel!

🏀 So Close They Can Taste It: The Conference Finals are underway, and it’s time to see who really has what it takes to make it to the coveted NBA Finals. 

• Eastern Conference - Celtics vs. Pacers

  • The Celtics are up 2-0 vs the Pacers and that’s rare air for them considering how they normally like to lose Game 2. After a close Game 1 that came down to a Jaylen Brown three, went into OT, and had Celtics fans monitoring their blood pressures, Game 2 was a breeze. 

  • The series will head to no-mans-land, aka Indiana, for the next two games. We’ll see if the Pacers can even up the series and protect home court...or maybe they’ll just wave their white flags and submit to defeat. Who knows?

  • One thing’s for certain: they better get a win in before the Celtics’ big man, Kristaps Porzingis, returns…they don’t want them problems. Watch game 3 of the series Saturday, May 25 at 8:30 PM.

• Western Conference - Timberwolves vs. Mavericks

  • The Mavericks are up 1-0 in this series against the Timberwolves. And while the Wolves might be the higher seed, the first game showed us that experience matters. The Mavs dynamic duo Batman and Robin, aka Kyrie and Luka, combined for a whopping 63 points. Kyrie was in the ring laying haymakers initially, and then he tagged in his homie Luka in the second half to finish them off.

  • All Ant Edwards could say about his team’s losing effort was, “We were just a little tired, probably”. Well, them wolf cubs better pep up. Maybe they should’ve rested after winning Game 7 instead of working out for the ‘gram. Yikes! Well, we’ll see if the Timberwolves can have a great awakening in Game 2 tonight, Friday, May 24, at 8:30 PM.

🎾 Everybody Get Ya Rol’ On: That’s right, Roland Garros, aka the French Open, begins this weekend. And this year’s tournament may be tennis legend Rafael Nadal’s last French Open…ever. Seeing as how he’s won this Grand Slam a record 14 times, it’ll be bittersweet to watch him try one last time. Well, mostly bitter because the odds are he won’t win...and they really screwed him over with the draw. He’ll play #4 ranked Zverev in the first round! I mean, do they want views and attendance, or nah? 

Either way, watch and maybe find some new faves to cheer for beginning Sunday, May 26th.

🎾 Exes and Holds: Brace yourselves for some WNBA drama as we dive into the world of dating your opponents. But this time, we're letting our favorite Instagram girly @ItsMelMitch take the lead and spill the tea on just how messy it can get.

itsmelmitch

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⛳ Spill the Tee: Brace yourselves, the saga of Scottie Scheffler and his run-in with Louisville Police is far from over. For those who didn’t know, Scheffler found himself in hot water with the police, accused of speeding past police blockades and dragging an officer in tow on his way to make his tee time for the PGA Championships last Friday morning. 

The officer involved, conveniently, didn’t have his bodycam on. Now, it’s emerging (because, you know, cameras are everywhere) that it was less dragging and more of the officer chasing down Scottie’s car….oh and also less of a speed and more of a slow crawl. Many are fuming at the way the cops acted, and the officer in question has been ‘disciplined' for the whole memory lapse regarding the bodycam thing. We can't help but wonder, where was all this police distrust and outrage when we needed it from golf fans a few summers ago?

Your sports term of the week is: split decision.

IRL Example: This happened earlier this week, when Oleksandr Usyk shocked us all and defeated Tyson Fury to become the undisputed heavyweight Champion.

This week we were so impressed by a few lewks that we had a hard time choosing! Here are a few we thought stood out:

1) Sir Lewis Hamilton said don't step on his new blue shoes when he decided to step out and grace us with his latest fashion statement:

And while his are custom Dior, if you like the color, check these out from Nike:

2) Dwight Powell's floral leather jacket paired with a casual Gucci pant made our little hearts bloom with joy.

Like the embroidered leather? Try this funky jacket from NastyGal and complete the look with these Max Mara pants from Nordstrom.

3) And last, but certainly not least, we love an all-denim look that actually works! Tbh, not everyone can pull it off, but our girl Sabrina Ionescu def got it right!

Get the look with this oversized number from Zara and some Old Navy baggy jeans to match.

We can’t wait to see great looks from our favs as we slip into warmer weather and even hotter fashion.

Do you love sports? Want to find a way to fit more sports into your week? We’ve got you. From keeping up with your work colleagues to impressing hot dates, our newsletter aims to keep you in the know regardless of your fandom level or the reason. That’s your business, sis!

Share The Sport Superlatives with hardcore sports fans or anyone who just likes to keep a little sports knowledge on hand. See you next week!