Digby

In fairness I guess to Chicago, are there any public transit systems in America that haven't fallen off a cliff since COVID? Also are there any NFL markets where people DO regularly take the train in? I guess MetLife has those NJ Transit trains from Penn. I've always got the sense though that the NFL in-person clientele is even more car-dependent than the other Big Three pro leagues.

Westown MKE? 414 FC? I legitimately do not understand the appeal of these bizarre abstract options that lower-league soccer drools over.

Since the CF rebrand, and even with the emergency re-rebrand, they've been very insistent about silver (not white!) as the trim color. I guess it at least separates their look from San Jose a little bit. But it mostly just reads as the common annoying try-hard effort to give yourself a trademark "thing".

The only saving grace is that at least the Nuggets' City jersey just looks like an alternate universe Nuggets brand, albeit a dull one. Some of these wacky, totally off-brand City jerseys could've ended up in the finals and that would've been even worse... though we may never recover from the Cavs' title t-shirts.

My biggest issue with it (sponsor aside) is that the color scheme looks more like Liverpool than United to me. In my brain Liverpool away kits are green and gray and yellow, United away kits are black and blue. They can share white.

Why do we need logos in the scorebug? That's not useful information. Syncing it to the wacky uniform colors of today is much more helpful so I'm glad they're religious about that now. Otherwise, get the thing out of the way.

I think that's true when it's like a navy blue vs. bright red ... like if it was the Nuggets' core away jerseys vs. the Hawks or something. I really love both of the slightly unusual shades that were on display in game 1 but they don't work against each other, the darker shade of red Miami uses is too close in value and saturation to the mid-blue of the Mile High.

There is too much visual clutter in the modern NBA. I think this year's ESPN scorebug is good and I'm fine with it being boring for the finals. Let the focus be on the gameplay.

They’d also just be paying the one coach instead of four. Typical rudderless English club. Shame it didn’t workout for the USMNT to have 2/3 of the midfield as club teammates.

Please tell me the gothic B is a placeholder. After the other California teams did fantastically in the design department, would be a step back to look like an off brand replacement of an East Coast baseball team. EDIT - actually I realized it’s giving Boston Globe.

Dark green away kits feel more Liverpool than United for me. A white away kit for Barca feels even more weird.

You could argue that Oakland is a poorly managed city but I don’t think a refusal to play ball with even more poorly run sports teams really counts in that argument.

I'm old enough to remember when the knock on the NBA playoffs was that they were boring and predictable because the sample size was too great for underdogs to overcome. Okay then. I'm not really sure what the Celtics can do here. Best course of action is probably just run-it-back and hope that the title luck randomizer lands on this group eventually if you keep them together long enough, but that might be what happened last year and that's all they got. Mazzulla presumably saved his job with at least digging out of the 0-3 hole, and obviously he did something right during the early regular season. But I hope/expect the Celtics to do one of those deals where you hire a big name as "associate head coach" and give him a big salary. It's pretty clear that the rookie head coach and his assistants (a crew full of moneyball stat nerds, not a recognizable name among them) needed more help, and feels like things starting to go south once Damon Stoudamire left his lead assistant post. Regardless of the impossible position that Udoka's sex pestery put them in, seems like the front office just wanted a fairy tale to happen with the wonderkid head coach rather than a more appropriate fix for a title-contender. (I also despise how short Mazzulla gets in TV interviews. You are not Pop, your terseness does not come across as bad-ass, you just seem like an :censored:. There is a difference between coachspeak and simply being rude.) OTOH, this is now similar results under three different head coaches, so idk. Tatum's game has gotten better but his consistency isn't where it needs to be if he wants to win a ring and not just a shoe deal. The Brown situation has no easy fix -- it's too late in his current contract to trade him for a proper return now. With an extension, making him the highest paid player in the league (even if only briefly) seems patently absurd but it seems like they have no other choice. If he continues racking up more Dribbles Off His Foot than Assists after his first supermax year I guess they can trade him then. Not sure what path there is to improve the roster depth beyond what is is now. They already have a Sixth Man of the Year (and it was a shame he was clearly hurt all series). White is a great complementary piece but at this point is he who he is. Horford too but his age is showing.

Thousands of Americans suddenly remembering when Horvath was briefly a USMNT legend.

Does anyone say, like, “hey I have an extra ticket to the Pigeons game tomorrow if you want it” or something similar?

WELL.

Just ridiculous. The “:censored: around and find out” all-stars.

“whispers of relocation could reportedly hit” is Brian Windhorst language. Not worth putting many brain cells toward.

Plot twist! If Boston keeps paying attention on both ends like the end of that game — and also if the scriptwriters keep bringing Jeter and A-Rod into the building for the juju — we may have a series. Heat came out of half like they hit the champagne early… silly.

“Humbly, one of the best basketball players in the world” but only for like one out of every ten games or so.

Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf

When was the last time the Celtics fired a coach? Not counting dismissals due to HR violations/legal peril. Even Rick Pitino resigned if memory serves.

Tatum may turn out to be Devin Booker, only even less consistent and also having a kid to hide behind. Very cool!

Adding the letter "A" doesn't solve any problems.

Most humiliating night of Celtics fandom of my life. Trade them all. I'd rather tank.