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🎤 QUICK START ✍️

🫏 For someone who says he’s not running for President, Stephen A. Smith sure spends a lot of time still talking about how successful he would be running for President.

🏈 A number of networks are reportedly bidding for NFL Draft rights, but after their successful Christmas Day broadcasts it appears Netflix won’t be one of them.

🏀 March Madness windows are setting record viewership for CBS and WBD through the first week of the NCAA Tournament.

🚨LEADING OFF 🚨

Who is sports’ biggest villain?

UConn may have been eliminated from the NCAA Tournament on Sunday, ending their dreams of a national championship threepeat. But Huskies head coach Dan Hurley stole the headlines again for all the wrong reasons.

Yet another rant about officiating was caught after UConn’s loss to Florida from Hurley in the tunnels. And while that’s led to a firestorm of its own thanks to other folks in the program, what isn’t up for debate is Dan Hurley once again being caught unleashing his villainry to the sports world.

But is he now the biggest villain in sports?

Survey says… yes.

Villainry needs two things - being truly unlikeable to the masses, and having enough success and relevance to keep you in the headlines. Hurley fills both in spades. And a look at other contenders for the crown of wickedness finds others lacking.

In the NFL, the Chiefs dynasty has never quite gotten the hate of the Patriots because of a lack of true scandal and the fact that global pop icon Taylor Swift is now along for the ride. There were all those officiating controversies and fortunate results that broke their way throughout the 2024 season, but it always seemed like the Chiefs would get found out eventually instead of hoodwinking another Super Bowl. And that happened when they played the Eagles and then some. The biggest villain might just be Aaron Rodgers for his deep dive into conspiracy land, but his on-field play has drawn more schadenfreude recently than anything else.

The same goes for the NBA. The Decision was decades ago and in spite of how people talk about him, LeBron James hasn’t been a villain after leaving Miami and winning a championship in Cleveland. The next generation of NBA stars are just trying to climb the ladder of notoriety and become known, let alone being villains. Of course, Draymond Green sits at the top of that race in the NBA, but again his play on the floor has always seen him as more of a sideshow than central figure.

Where else could we look? The big stars in college football are the coaches and with Nick Saban gone, nobody has stepped up to claim that mantle of dominance. Of course, if Kirby Smart keeps seeing players arrested at Georgia, maybe there will be some more national scrutiny that comes his way at some point. Angel Reese has her fair share of detractors and is always game to rub her success in the face of haters, but she also has plenty of fans. The Dodgers may spend a lot of money, but who wants to root against Shohei Ohtani? Golfers who took the cash and split for LIV are a total afterthought and former villain Bryson DeChambeau has now become a man of the people.

Truth be told, none of these hold a candle right now to Dan Hurley, especially after his latest temper tantrum. He’s in a class of his own when it comes to modern day sports villains.

📣 SOCIAL EXPERIMENT 🌟

ESPN’s Seth Greenberg thinks the tunnels in the arena should be off limits to media members because it’s “sacred space.” Our literal government war plans aren’t even that secure!

Is it the job of Marc J. Spears to protect Doc Rivers from his own quotes? It apparently is according to Shannon Sharpe.

Dave Portnoy had some thoughts about being spoofed on Family Guy. And true to form, he wanted to do the voiceover himself.

🔦 IN THE SPOTLIGHT ☀️

Did MLB miss an opportunity by not placing Opening Day on a quiet Tuesday in the sports calendar without any opposition from the NCAA Tournament? Our Drew Lerner says it would have been a perfect fit.

🏄 CHANNEL SURFING 🌊 

⚾ It’s just a couple days until the regular season does get underway for Major League Baseball and the Cleveland Guardians still don’t have a TV deal. [Cleveland.com]

🏀 The devastating injury to USC star JuJu Watkins has brought more light to the issue of why female athletes suffer so many ACL injuries. [Sportico]

🏎️ Incredibly, the F1 Chinese Grand Prix in the middle of the night beat IndyCar racing on Fox in the middle of the afternoon. [Adam Stern]

📺 WHAT TO WATCH 📺 

Pat McAfee is teasing an hour long interview with LeBron James that will air on Wednesday at the top of his program. McAfee has a unique ability to get athletes to open up (for better and worse), which is just one of the reasons why he’s become a sports media superstar. Expect this sitdown to generate plenty of headlines.

🔥THE CLOSER🔥

Euro Step

A stunning report emerged from Sportico on Tuesday about the NBA considering the launch of its own European league. Sports leagues have seemingly been all about international expansion in recent years with pretty much all the major American entities playing regular season games overseas. But the launch of a brand new league across the pond hasn’t been seen since the days of NFL Europe.

However, this move by the NBA seems to be much more aggressive in nature. If anything, it seems to be a proactive move to any potential global competitor as hinted by LeBron James’ business associate Maverick Carter.

The NBA is incredibly popular overseas, but this is an especially bold move given EuroLeague basketball is already well established and very popular on the continent. Just last July, EuroLeague trumpeted that they were achieving record growth in pretty much all business areas. Are European basketball fans with teams and brands they have followed for years really all that interested in what would amount to another developmental league for the NBA? Atmospheres like this aren’t just going to be created out of thin air because Adam Silver wants to outflank some other European billionaires or the Saudi PIF.

If EuroLeague teams are involved (as could be the case), maybe it’ll be a different story. But put the shoe on the other foot - how would American sports fans feel about the Premier League or La Liga bringing their own soccer league to the USA to compete with, collaborate with, or replace Major League Soccer? It would bring all sorts of intrigue, drama, and controversy to attempt to radically overhaul the American sporting fabric.

Can an NBA Europe succeed? Would it be a legitimate platform to the NBA itself? Or is it step one in Adam Silver trying to launch a global league in the hopes of someday holding a true world championship that Noah Lyles would approve of?