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The Rundown: Weekend Preview Edition

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Finally, it’s Friday! We’re not going to send you off into the weekend without a few teachable moments including spell checking your tattoos, avoiding drugs and what happens on Twitter doesn’t stay on Twitter. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

 Point taken,

The Last Night’s Game Team

MLB (Major League Baseball)

  • Hugs not drugs. Florida Marlins’ second baseman Dee Gordon has been suspended for 80 games. Gordon tested positive for Performance Enhancing Drugs or PEDs. Coincidence that his hitting coach, Barry Bonds, has a stellar career tarnished for allegedly dabbling in PEDs? 

NBA (NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION)

  • Logoed for a lifetime. The Sacramento Kings unveiled their new logo. To take it a step further, they paid for fans to get the new logo tattooed on their body and encouraged them to share photos using #NewEraOfProud. I bet their mamas were proud.  
  • Spell check please. Tattoos are the name of the game today. America’s favorite couple Iggy Azalea and Nick Young are back in news. Azalea reportedly stopped her fiancée Young from getting a misspelled tattoo on his back. He almost ended up with the ferocious “BORN REBLE” instead of “BORN REBEL.” Young is the Lakers’ player who was secretly filmed by his teammate talking about his deviant behavior.
  • Moving on. The Atlanta Hawks beat the Boston Celtics to claim a spot in the next round of the playoffs. They will face the Cleveland Cavaliers in the semifinals. Semifinal games start on Monday May 2nd.  

NFL (National Football League)

  • The first pick of the 2016 NFL Draft is...The first pick of the draft was the quarterback from Cal (University of California, Berkeley) Jared Goff to the Los Angeles Rams. For the full analysis of the first round picks, click here. Tonight the draft continues at 7 pm (EST) on ESPN and NFL Network. 
  • Meanwhile in Vegas. While everyone was talking about the draft, Oakland Raiders were eyeing a move to sin city. The Raiders’ owner has pledged $500 million towards a new stadium and stated “Let’s turn the silver state into the silver and black (Raider's colors) state.”

NHL (National Hockey League)

  • Victorious. Washington Capitals beat Pittsburgh Penguins in sudden death overtime 4-3, taking 1-0 series lead in round two of the playoffs.  

Soccer

  • What are the odds? On Sunday, an improbable event could take place in the English Premier League (England’s professional soccer league). Underdog Leicester City could win the Premier League with a victory over the powerhouse Manchester United. To show you how unexpected this feat is, the odds for Leicester City to win the league before the season started were 5000-1. The odds for Elvis being alive are also at 5000-1.  The game will air on Sunday at 9 am (EST) on NBCSN.  

Overtime

  • UFC fighter Ronda Rousey and tennis superstar Serena Williams have signed on with Lifetime Network. Rousey has signed on for three movies with the intention of developing and producing flicks focused on female empowerment. Williams is set to produce a film inspired by the annual dance-off competition she hosts with her tennis star sister Venus.

Sideline stat

  • 10 minutes before the draft, the Twitter account of top prospect Laremy Tunsil showed a video of someone (maybe Tunsil)? smoking an illegal substance while wearing a gas mask. Tunsil’s agent says his account was hacked. Regardless Tunsil has a history of bad behavior that already made some teams wary. The top pick slid all the way down to the 13th pick. According to Sportrac.com, the third pick (Tunsil’s consensus ranking) in the 2016 draft is set to earn $25.8 million. Dropping down to 13th may have cost him more than $10 million.  

Coaches’ corner

  • What is sudden death overtime in hockey? If the game is tied at the end of regulation it goes into sudden death overtime which is three-on-three play for five sudden-death minutes. (During regulation time, there are six players on the ice for each team). The first team to score wins. If a goal isn't scored, the game moves to a three-round shootout.

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The Rundown: Weekend Preview Edition

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There is never a dull moment in sports. Whether it's getting fired for inappropriate tweets or being named one of Time Magazine's Most Influential People; we cover it all here in five mins or less.

In an unusual Earth Day scenario, the Weekend Preview Edition wasn't written to the normal background noise of a game but to the jams of Prince. That means today's inspired write up is totally bad*ss.

Driving the little red (clean fuel powered) corvette into the sunset,

The Last Night's Game Team

MLB (Major League Baseball)

  • Shutout. ESPN fired analyst and former MLB pitcher, Curt Schilling for a controversial post on social media. Schilling clearly didn’t agree with North Carolina's "bathroom law." This wasn't Schilling's first social media outburst that landed him in hot water. ESPN said "enough already. We're an inclusive company." We're pulling the pitcher. 

  • No no. Cy Young award winner Jake Arrieta threw his second no-hitter of his career last night. The Cubs' pitcher led his team to a 16-0 victory over the Cincinnati Reds. The Cubs also celebrated their veteran catcher David Ross, affectionately known as "Grandpa Rossy," who caught his first no-hitter. (The catcher is the key player to call all of the pitches and command the game from behind home plate).

NASCAR (National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing)

  • Keep it to yourself. Driver Tony Stewart is expected to return to the track this weekend after missing eight weeks for a broken back sustained in an ATV accident. The buzz of his return has been marred by the fact that NASCAR fined him for comments he made surrounding race safety. NASCAR officials have stopped enforcing a rule that requires a tire on the race car to have all five lug nuts (bolts that anchor the tire to the body of the car) secured, just three or four are sufficient. While that creates faster pit times for drivers, it also makes for a potential hazard as Stewart stated. Apparently NASCAR didn't like him pointing that out. Fine. 

NBA (National Basketball Association)

  • Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry did not play in game three (still that ankle injury) and Houston Rockets took advantage. James Harden led his team to a victory over the Warriors in game three. The series is now 2-1 in favor of the Warriors with game four on Sunday. 

  • Lucky you. There are playoff games all weekend. Here's the full scheudle.

NHL (National Hockey League)

  • It's about time. Chicago Blackhawks beat St. Louis Blues in double overtime on Thursday night. The Blackhawks avoided elimination with a goal by star player Patrick Kane. This was Kane's first goal of the playoffs. Better late than never.  

  • The couch is calling. There are more playoff this weekend. For the entire playoff scheudle, click here.  

WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment)

  • Ninth wonder of the world. 90s wrestling star and arguably one of the most famous female wrestlers, Chyna, was found dead yesterday in her California apartment. She was found by a friend who came to check on her after not hearing from her for days. Chyna (real name Joan Marie Laurer) was 46.   

Overtime

  • Yesterday the music and sports world lost a legend in Prince. How is Prince tied to sports you ask? You mean besides his love for his hometown Minnesota Vikings or the fact that all Minnesota Twins' rookies have to sing "Little Red Corvette" for the entire clubhouse? In 2015, Billboard Magazine ranked his 2007 Super Bowl halftime performance as the greatest in the history of the Super Bowl. In a torrential downpour he played iconic songs such as "Proud Mary" and "Along the Watchtower" in tandem with his hits including "Let's go Crazy" and "Purple Rain." This is a great clip from a Super Bowl producer's perspective of an epic and legendary artist as he conquered the world's biggest stage. Rock on and rest in peace.

Sideline stat

Coaches’ corner

  • King of the long ball, steroid user, whatever you call him he's now known as coach. Former San Francisco Giants' slugger Barry Bonds returns to San Francisco this weekend, although this time he's wearing his number 25 on a Miami Marlins jersey. Bonds will be making his first appearance at AT&T Park as the hitting coach for the Marlins. This is Bonds' first season back in the major leagues since retiring as a player in 2007.

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The Rundown: Weekend Preview Edition

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There’s never a dull moment in the world of sports. There is so much to report between Kobe’s retirement, Warriors historic win, UConn women setting records and in the world of real life experiences, bullying.  

Showing bullies who’s boss, today in 1947 Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball when he became the first African–American Major League Baseball player.

Now that’s record breaking,

The Last Night’s Game Team

PS - Pass us on. We're cool with that.

MLB (Major League Baseball)

  • Making a statement. Bryce Harper hit his 100th home run at the ripe old age of 23. He is the eighth youngest player in history to reach this career milestone. As if that wasn’t enough, he actually broke the scoreboard with his 100th home run.

NBA (National Basketball Association)

  • Fitting farewell. Kobe showed fans what they’ll be missing when he retires. In front of a crowd full of celebrities and Kobe fanatics, his final game was filled with tributes that also saw Kobe score 60 points (that’s a lot, especially for a guy who’s retiring). The Lakers only won 17 games this season (season consists of 82 games), therefore they will not be going to the playoffs.
  • Winning Warriors. On Wednesday Golden State Warriors beat Memphis Grizzlies to become the first team ever to reach 73 wins in an NBA season. Kudos Warriors. Now let’s see if Steph Curry and his team can win in the playoffs. 
  • Playoff excitement. NBA playoffs start this weekend. Don’t get too excited as it’s a long playoff system – the NBA Finals don’t start until June. Yep June.
  • The playoff system is long because teams play a series of games and there are a lot of teams involved. The first round is a best-of-seven games series. More than half of the NBA teams make it to the playoffs with 16 of the 30 teams making it into the first round. For complete playoff coverage, including a schedule for this weekend's games, click here. 

NFL (National Football League)

  • Football frenzy. The 2016 regular season schedule was released this morning. Find it here.

WNBA (Women's National Basketball Association) 

  • Still breaking records. The WNBA draft took place yesterday and it continued to be a record setting year for the women's national champions, UConn. The UConn women set yet another record for being the first team ever to have three of their players selected to start the WNBA draft.

Overtime

  • According to his former trainer, Boston Red Sox third baseman Pablo Sandoval has an eating problem and some are saying he’s too heavy to be bringing home $19 million a year. Sandoval lost his job at third base to Travis Shaw and has since been placed on the DL (disabled list) for a shoulder injury.  Cue Ben Stiller in Heavyweights. 

Sideline Stat

  • The Lakers sold a record breaking amount of merchandise on Wednesday for Kobe’s last game. Fans spent a record $1.2 million on jerseys, foam fingers and other memorabilia at the Staples Center. According to ESPN, that’s an average of $63 spent per fan in attendance. The previous single event merchandise record was set by Led Zeppelin who sold $1 million in goods during their reunion tour stop at the O2 arena in London in 2007.

 Coaches’ Corner

 

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