8/8 Weekend Quickie

First: Sign up for my new email newsletter!

*Last summer, NBC Sports' "Ted Lasso" campaign was the single-best promo spot of the year in sports. This year's edition is even better:



*Kevin Durant drops out of USA Basketball's World Cup team. As always, it's his prerogative. But for a hoops-obsessive like Durant, it is a fascinating development (almost as fascinating as his reported $300M deal with Under Armour).

*NFL Preseason: Washington RB Lache Seastrunk showed just enough to make him an intriguing late-round fantasy flier. Same with Chiefs TE Travis Kelce. Hard to get too excited. However: Michael Sam's debut tonight is worthy of national news.

*Jon Lester: 3-hit complete game? Yeah, that's why Oakland paid big.

*"Power Five": This was inevitable -- hard to begrudge the Power Five their... um... power. The lower-end D1 schools will go along, because without the Power Five, the lower-end D1 schools might as well shut down football and save the money. It'll be interesting to see what the Power Five do with their newfound... power.

Sign up for the newsletter! It takes about 10 seconds. I'd love to have you be a part of it.

-- D.S.

8/7 Newletter Quickie

So many things have my attention this morning...

*Announcing a new newsletter: For starters, before I promote it on Twitter, I wanted to let you know that I'm launching an email newsletter -- nothing fancy or formal. Just a place to meander, and hopefully a lot more convenient for you than having to come to this site. Sign up is super-simple. Do it here:

http://tinyletter.com/danshanoff

I'll probably start next week -- perhaps a little later in the month. Give it a try. (I certainly will!)

*Love to Cavs: You can go right ahead and pencil in the Cavs as Eastern Conference champs. It remains to be seen how Love will perform in the playoffs, but he'll have plenty of chances now. (BTW: The T'wolves did just about as well as they could -- Wiggins has superstar upside and, in the short-term, will be so fun to watch catching lobs from Ricky Rubio. Anthony Bennett has very solid upside -- and probably will benefit from a new environment. The future 1st-round pick is a bonus. Minnesota is a swingman away from fielding a very competitive starting five.)

*NFL Now: The NFL launched its new quick-hit video app. The free version is good, but they offer quite a bit for the $2/month upcharge -- if you pay it from September through December ($8 total), you'll get Red Zone (with ability to Airplay it to your TV via Apple TV) and real-time in-game highlights, which feels like a bargain.

*Tilt partners with ESPN: I love this deal. When Venmo first launched, the very first thing I thought of was: "Wow, you could build an entire business on top of Venmo just on friends paying each other fantasy league dues." Naturally, ESPN's brilliant product honcho Ryan Spoon made this happen. Mobile payments were already taking over everything -- you probably paid your dues through PayPal already. This kind of deep integration with ESPN and its huge base of fantasy players/leagues is massive.

*Casper Sleep FTW: Last week, I asked if anyone had any experience with Casper Sleep, the start-up trying to disrupt the mattress industry, sort of the way Warby Parker did with glasses. I liked what I had heard about the company, so we ordered the mattress -- frankly, the biggest move was that after 10 years of marriage, we were finally going from a Queen to a King. It came yesterday and we slept on it last night -- really happy with it. And the price point ($950 for a King) is incredible. I have no relationship with the company -- I'm just a fan. If you want to check it out, feel free to use this link, and if you end up buying, you get a discount and I get a referral. Anyway, then I wake up to a news story that the company just raised $13 million. Excited to watch them grow.

OK, so please sign up for the newsletter if you're interested -- I cannot promise you anything except, as always, I'll try to make it worth your time investment.

-- D.S.

8/6 Wednesday Hammon Quickie

*The Spurs adding Becky Hammon as a coach is the best sports story of the summer.

#HotSportsTip: She will eventually become the first woman head coach in the NBA.

*NFL Preseason: MMQB has a great profile on the next great NFL head coach, Seattle defensive coordinator Dan Quinn.

#HotSportsTip: This time next year, he will be head coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

*Adam Dunn pitched last night, which is amazing.

#HotSportsTip: Follow @70MPHFastball on Twitter, the best way to follow those glorious moments of "position players pitching."

*New MLB commish next week?

#HotSportsTip: Hard not to see it being current MLB COO Rob Manfred.

*I love a good bracket. ESPN.com's "Best Individual College Football Season Ever" bracket is amazing.

#HotSportsTip: I'm partial to Tebow '07, of course, but I'll accept Cam Newton '10 and Barry Sanders '88. (Tebow didn't make it out of the first round, after a rough match-up with Herschel Walker '80.)

-- D.S.

8/4 Monday Quickie

*Took my 2-year-old daughter Lucy to her first-ever MLB game on Saturday night, Nats vs. Phillies at Nats Park. A few notes:

(1) We lucked into seats in the first row behind first base; she became the section mascot.

(2) Phillies 1B coach Juan Samuel threw Gabe a foul ball, which was nice (one of the T-shirt spirit folks also threw him a T-shirt -- sitting in the front is absurd.)

(3) Lucy loved the walk-up songs - early on, she perked up when they played a song she recognized ("Problem") for Ryan Howard.

(4) First in a lifetime of games attended in person for her, I hope.

*Paul George: Just awful. I'm in the "could happen anywhere/anytime" camp, although there is something to be said about USA Basketball's negligence in using a basket stanchion two feet closer to the baseline than typical NBA stanchions (at least in the context of elite NBA players using it).

I think the Pacers have a combination of zero chance of contending and a sympathetic, rabid fan base that allows them to follow a strategy of tanking for a high draft pick, who can combine with George and Hibbert in 2016 and beyond to return the Pacers to "East elite" status.

*Football HOF: To the point I was making about Derrick Brooks on Friday, Spencer Hall does it better.

*Looking ahead to next year's HOF: I personally think Kurt Warner should be a lock 1st-ballot Hall member, but the initial read is that he'll have to wait. Fits his narrative, certainly.

*Brett Favre: Did you think the Packers wouldn't retire his No. 4? Even with his exile at the end, it's one of the most iconic, franchise-defining NFL jerseys of the past 20 years.

*Tiger's back: Getting old sucks.

*Andrew Wiggins: He's going to be so much better off in Minnesota, where the fans will love him and Ricky Rubio will be throwing him lobs.

*Mattress mania: Friday, I tweeted out that I was in the market for a new king-size mattress (heading into our 10-year wedding anniversary, time to finally upgrade from a queen) and was intrigued by Casper, a start-up that wants to do for mattresses what Warby Parker did for glasses (Warby is probably my favorite start-up ever). I ended up making a purchase; it arrives this week. Will keep you updated, but the ordering and customer service so far have been fantastic.

-- D.S.

8/1 August Kickoff Quickie

By the end of the month, you'll have your fantasy football team(s), college football season will have kicked off and perhaps some vacation. Not bad...

*MLB Trade Deadline: Love the moves by the Tigers and A's. Win while you can, especially for two teams qualified by (a) a very old owner and (b) a GM who knows the variance of the postseason.

*Clayton Kershaw is so good that he's probably worth MLB splicing off a "Kershaw pass" on MLB.tv/MLB At Bat to let fans pay to watch his starts. I would.

*Most intriguing MLB game of the weekend: Lester's first start for Oakland, on Saturday.

*Pro Football Hall of Fame: The New Class. Derrick Brooks might be the best college football defensive player I have ever seen. Michael Strahan has been as successful in transitioning to post-career life as any NFL player ever. Ray Guy was long overdue. Andre Reed is very interesting -- he's almost a proxy for the log-jam of worthy receivers who are still waiting to get in.

*Bills-Giants kick off NFL friendlies: Worth tuning into just to see how Sammy Watkins does.

Speaking of friendlies, there's USA Basketball scrimmage tonight at 9 on ESPN, if you need a fix.

-- D.S.

7/31 End of July Quickie

A few notes as I catch up from a brief vacation...

*Wow, the "Kevin Durant to DC" meme went from funny thing on #WizardsTwitter to Real Thing. I think he ends up in DC, fwiw -- I'm not sure any athlete (including LeBron) loves his hometown more than Durant does -- but it's a LONG way off. The take to read is Grantland's Andrew Sharp, and also this FAQ from SB Nation's Mike Prada.

*A's trade for Jon Lester: Cespedes feels like a LOT to give up, doesn't it? Gotta love "championship or fail" by the A's. Flags fly forever, y'all.

*I didn't watch "Sharknado 2" last night, but I did follow the hysteria on Twitter and it allowed me to relate an anecdote from my vacation, about the moment when my two boys were in the water and a shark cruised by, between them and the beach. Unnerving, to say the least!

-- D.S.

Sunday 7/27 Hall of Fame Quickie

I informally keep a running list of my favorite players of all-time, by sport.

In baseball, the list is topped by Ryne Sandberg, then Cal Ripken.

No. 3 is Greg Maddux, who goes into the Hall of Fame today.

"Peak Maddux" is the most remarkable pitcher I have watched in my lifetime ("Peak Pedro" is close, but I hate the Red Sox, so.)

Peak Maddux is what I imagine it was like watching Peak Koufax or Peak Walter Johnson. That is the level Maddux is/was at (although he was better, longer than Koufax by a wide margin.)

A huge part of Maddux's appeal was his average size. He wasn't some kind of hulk like Clemens or giant like Randy Johnson.

Maddux was relatable. He dominated with approach. Typically, "guile" is associated with marginal nibblers - crafty average. Maddux was "power guile," which is just about the best combination you could ask for.

He was brilliant. But he also came across as totally cool - he didn't ooze intensity; it felt natural, as if befuddling hitters and pinpoint mastery of the strike zone was you in the backyard.

Among the highest compliments you can pay a player is that thy were the best of their generation. That's Maddux.

There are other power pitchers, obviously. (In wondering whether we'd see a pitcher as good as Maddux again, King Felix - currently still in his peak -comes to mind.)

But no one combined a mortal look with immortal results like Maddux.

- D.S.

7/22 Tuesday Quickie

*"Cheating pays": Does that count institutions like the Big 12 cheating players out of fair value for their service?

*Tim Tebow's comeback: You know how I feel about this -- he deserves a shot on a team, hysteria be damned. The best fit? Honestly? Cleveland, where the hysteria can't get much more nuts.

*The Orioles affirm that they are for real: Adam Jones.

-- D.S.

7/21 Monday Quickie

*Rory McIlroy: The best detail about his win is that 10 years ago, his dad put down a bet that he'd win a (British) Open title within 10 years.

*Jameis Winston: Does a disservice to every college football player who isn't destined to be a Top 5 NFL pick by insisting that the college scholarship is enough.

*Dota 2: Don't overlook e-sports' entry into the mainstream, with the Dota 2 finals being broadcast on ESPN3/WatchESPN at noon today. Huge potential for ESPN.

*NBA Summer League: As a Wizards fan, I couldn't be happier with the outcome. Beating the Spurs in the playoffs (in triple OT), putting two players on the 1st-team all-Summer (Otto Porter and Glen Rice Jr) and having GRJR win Summer League MVP is as good as it gets for a Wiz fan.

*Carmelo Anthony is a VC: When I founded Quickish in 2010, I was obsessed with the idea of having Steve Nash's VC firm (co-led by the fantastic Mike Duda) invest.

(FWIW: Quickish wasn't the right fit for Nash/Duda's investment thesis, one that I admire, but getting to know the firm was a highlight of the Quickish experience.)

*13 years ago today: First date with Mrs. Quickie. Also recognized as the date my Florida fandom began. So: Not insubstantial, on two fronts!

-- D.S.

Friday 7/18 Weekend Quickie

The Slowest Week of the Sports Year is nearly over...

*Love for Wiggins? Yes, for both sides.

*NFL Draft anywhere but NY? Chicago, please.

*Weekend read: The legend of Tom Emanski.

*Must-see: Kershaw on Sunday night at 8 on ESPN.

-- D.S.

Wednesday 7/16 All-Star Hangover Quickie

*The "Pipe-Shot" Scandal/Non-scandal: Did Adam Wainwright groove that pitch to Derek Jeter in Jeter's 1st All-Star at-bat that he smacked for a satisfying double?

The correct answer is: So what if he did?

Let's give the last word to Jeter: "If he grooved it, thank you.  You still have to hit it.  I appreciate if that's what he did, thank you."

*NBA Summer League Playoffs: Did you enter your bracket into the office pool yet?

*ESPYs: Auburn's "Kick-Six" should win everything.

-- D.S.

Tuesday 7/15 All-Star Lull Quickie

*MLB All-Star: I'll tune in for Jeter's lead-off at-bat, but that's about it. Maybe that's enough.

*Home Run Derby: Similarly, I watched Stanton's jaw-dropping first round, then dropped out. (Yoenis Cespedes is clearly great, but I'll take Jose Abreu, People's Champ.)

*Emmanuel Mudiay skipping college: More power to him. He'll be a Top 3 pick next June whether he spends next year at SMU, in Slovakia or training with Tim Grover.

*Jimmy Graham returns to the Saints: The league's most exciting tight end where he should be.

*SEC Media Day, Day 2: It's the annual highlight -- Steve Spurrier at the podium.

*Chandler Parsons was "offended" by the Rockets: For what? Pursuing Carmelo or Chris Bosh as an upgrade to him, no matter how talented he might be? Faux-outrage.

*World Cup hangover: Would it surprise you to know the Brazil coach is out? I'm surprised it took this long.

*NBA Summer League: If there was a re-draft of the entire league and you were starting a franchise today, the Greek Freak would be a Top 20 pick -- maybe Top 10.

*"Men In Blazers" watch: Not only are they starting a new newsletter, but it has a sponsor, which is a unicorn for newsletters. (The most notable one I know with a sponsor is Mike Allen's Playbook.)

*Last night I took the kids to see our local high school hoops team in a summer league tournament, and Gheorge Muresan was hanging out there. He's the best.

-- D.S.

7/14 Post-World Cup Quickie

*Germany is a worthy World Cup champ. That winner by Gotze was superb.

Don't miss this awesome "One Shining Moment"-style kicker from ESPN:




*Looking ahead to 2018: Gedion Zelalem.

*The unexpected hangover from LeBron's decision to return to Cleveland is that he has almost entirely stayed off the radar, with the SI message being his only thing.

*NBA Summer League: The blueprint for Doug McDermott in the NBA was on display last night -- a bevy of 3s, plus 100% shooting on a dozen FTs.

*Still processing that my Wiz picked up Paul Pierce. The rest of the league really seems to like it, and -- more importantly -- it takes "KD to DC in '16" to the mainstream.

*Home Run Derby pick: Yasiel Puig.

-- D.S.

Extra! Extra! LeBron Returning to Cleveland

*This essay from LeBron -- breaking the news, mind you -- was wonderful. "Pitch perfect" comes to mind.

*"I’m not promising a championship." Thank you. It's not a guarantee, but he'll try. To wit...

*"My goal is still to win as many titles as possible, no question. But what’s most important for me is bringing one trophy back to Northeast Ohio."

Think about that for a second, because it's absolutely spot-on: In LeBron's case, the legacy isn't "more rings than Jordan." It's "rings where they haven't been in forever." Good for him.

*Aside from the fact that the Cavs stand in the way of my Wizards winning the East, it is very easy to root for LeBron and root for a fascinating way this challenge plays itself out.

*And if it inspires Kevin Durant to return to his own hometown in two years to try to bring home a championship, all the better.

*Still: 

-- D.S.

7/11 Friday LeBron World Cup Quickie

*I think LeBron SHOULD return to Cleveland (many/most agree), but it sure looks like he's going to go back to Miami. That'll go over well.

*Then Bosh goes back to Miami (spurning Houston) and Carmelo goes back to New York and whydidweevenbother. Regardless, can NBA Free Agency finally start now?

*NBA Summer League: Tonight's Wiggins-vs-Parker match-up to tip off the Vegas summer league is as good of a Friday night sports-TV option in mid-July as you'll get.

*Actually, it gets better: Start with Wiggins-Parker at 8, then fire up your MLB TV package to watch the A's lineup face King Felix at 10-ish, ducking over to ESPNU at 10:45 or so to watch a replay of the end of the Auburn-Alabama game. That's a VERY solid mid-July Friday night of sports.

*Let's get to it: Germany over Argentina on Sunday in the World Cup final. Netherlands over Brazil on Saturday in the 3rd-place game. Wow, has the past month been a lot of fun. See you in '18.

-- D.S.

7/9 Wednesday 7-1 Hangover Quickie

*Germany 7, Brazil 1: There has not been a more fascinating blowout in the history of sports.

*Ian Darke and Steve McManaman were brilliant -- it's a lot harder to keep up sincere disdain during a throttling than keep up sincere enthusiasm during a taut match.

*Netherlands over Argentina in PKs.

*Cavs free up money to make max deal for LeBron: He's gotta go to Cleveland.

*I'm dabbling with a new feature -- it's a guide to what's worth watching in sports today. Check it out.

(No, this isn't a prelude to the newsletter -- that'll be separate... and more like this.)

-- D.S.

7/8 Tuesday World Cup Semi Quickie

*Brazil-Germany (4 ET today) should be phenomenal. Brazil (playing without Neymar) is in "win-or-fail" territory; the Germans aren't too far off.

Put simply: Losing to Brazil in Brazil wouldn't be as bad for Germany as losing to Germany in Brazil would be for Brazil. But Germany should rightfully be considered the favorite.

*NBA Free Agency: Really enjoyed this piece on the NBA's Trade Rumor Era from Grantland's Bryan Curtis. He downplays two things I think about a lot:

(1) The commodification of the actual news scoop itself (which is why the rumor and the post-scoop analysis is so valuable), and (2) the overarching power of Twitter in all this -- Woj, Stein, Broussard, Amick and the rest are all really working for Twitter, not Yahoo or ESPN or USA TODAY Sports.

(Now, the commodification of the scoop means that putting it on Twitter is OK, as long as you have some sort of native context ready to go; everyone else will, off the scoop. But be clear that the news outlet reaping the most benefit here is Twitter -- more power to 'em.)

Otherwise, I'd like to see Chris Bosh take the power back and make the first move here, signing with the Rockets. (Don't know why he wasn't the Rockets' first move anyway.)

That would force LeBron to seriously reconsider any notion of wanting to re-sign with Miami, instead heading to, say, Cleveland. Dwyane Wade is left with Josh McRoberts and Danny Granger.

(The other option, as has been speculated, is that if Chris Bosh leaves Miami for Houston, then Carmelo vaults from "NY or LA?" to joining LeBron in Miami.)

*Missed this yesterday: Love DirecTV's idea of creating a "Fantasy Football Red Zone." I had always considered Red Zone pretty fantasy-football-oriented as it was, but it has a lot of potential.

(It'll be interesting to see if the NFL's cable version of Red Zone Channel -- hosted by the incomparable Scott Hanson and my preferred Red Zone -- ups its fantasy quotient.)

7/7 Monday 4th Hangover Quickie

*The whole "LeBron back to Cleveland" thing is enticing/amusing only because it represents the ideal ending to his free-agency situation.

*It would also trigger the dissolution of the Big Three -- Chris Bosh would realistically relocate to another contender, like Houston.

*Carmelo to LA is just sort of... well, OK. (It's more intriguing than him staying in New York.) A team with Kobe and Carmelo would be fun to watch, at least.

*MLB All-Stars: It's hard to fathom that Chris Sale wasn't picked and must rely on the "Final Vote" (a gimmick I have always loved, btw) -- he'll win the AL slot easily.

Otherwise, it's really hard to begrudge the fans their picks. (The reserves? OK, folks seem to have a quibble or few, but as long as Jose Abreu is on the roster, I'm fine.)

*World Cup: Germany-Brazil-Netherlands-Argentina might represent a dream final foursome, but it would have been more fun had Costa Rica crashed the semifinals. As it stands, no fan base (aside from the champ's) will be more satisfied with how the tournament played out than Costa Rica fans.

*Not much to say about the NBA's Orlando Summer League, except Nerlens Noel's debut was awesome enough for me to go back to lamenting m Wiz passing him up to draft Otto Porter.

*Josh Gordon is your new No. 1-ranked "best athlete to really screw things up." Hope he gets help.

-- D.S.

7/2 Wednesday USMNT Hangover Quickie

*It was fun while it lasted. I think most people are bummed more because the ride is over, not because we actually lost. And that's totally OK. In fact, that was the inevitable feeling.

*Can't say enough about Tim Howard. (And can't lament enough that missed shot by Wondo with just minutes to play in regulation.)

*The big question: What changes? I think our expectations for 2018 change -- we're now in the "quarterfinals or bust" tier, which is not necessarily ideal (see Spain, Italy, England).

*I'm not sure we see a surge in popularity of soccer in the US -- more people caring about MLS, more people caring about Premiership. Maybe more interest in USMNT games like the Gold Cup.

*This wasn't about soccer, per se. This was about socialization. Not in a "social media" sense -- in the sense that this had so many unique conditions that made this work as an "Everyone Cares" event:

(1) Total dominance of the sport -- no other sports on the radar... (2) uber coverage/access from ESPN... (3) it lent itself to social viewing: midday games... (4) soccer is super-easy to comprehend.

*The thing that made it so amazing -- the Togetherness -- is also what makes it unlikely to be either sustainable or something that advances the sport, itself, by a step function in the U.S.

*That doesn't diminish how amazing the past few weeks have been. Soccer snobs ("real" fans) might not like to hear it, but the non-fan Bandwagon is precisely why this was as huge as it was.

*The nation of bandwagoneers are the team to be celebrated, even if they don't pay attention for another four years.

-- D.S.

6/30 Monday Quickie

*I'm a huge fan and avid consumer of email newsletters. For most of this year, I've been thinking around the idea of starting one, largely to replace writing here (I'd republish everything here anyway).

*The reason it's on my mind is because the NYT's David Carr is a similar newsletter fan and wrote about it today. If you aren't familiar, you should give it a read.

*FWIW, here are a few on my list:

Daily
*Jason Hirschhorn's MediaREDEF (media + tech + pop culture)
*Quartz (media, technology, business)
*NiemanLab (media and news)
*Alexis Madrigal's "5 Things" (serendipity)
*SB Nation's "Good Morning, Let's Basketball" (NBA)
*The Wire (news-feature discovery)
*Product Hunt (start-up discovery)
*American Press Institute (media and news)
*StrictlyVC (venture capital deals)
*Dan Primack's Term Sheet (VC news)
*The Skimm (clever news digest)
*Skift (Not even for its news on the travel-industry but as a model for how email newsletters can work.)

The ones I open most frequently/reliably are the ones where I'm not already getting their links on Twitter. For example, I love REDEF and NiemanLab, but some days, I don't need to open them because they are two of the Twitter feeds I pay most close attention to. Madrigal's "5 Things" probably gets my most reliable daily open, because he doesn't necessarily tweet out those links.

Weekly
*Benedict Evans (mobile industry)
*Monday Note (media)
*TheWirecutter and TheSweetHome

Paid
*Joe Sheehan's Baseball Newsletter

(That last one should be interesting to anyone who aspires to turn an email newsletter into a paid-subscriber-based business, as Jason Hirschhorn does.)

*I wish very much that 10 years ago I had focused more on turning the Daily Quickie into a daily newsletter -- to be honest, the technology to do it has been less-than-easy. That includes MailChimp, which I looked into when Quickish launched. TinyLetter feels like the closest thing to frictionless.(It's worth noting that TinyLetter is a product of MailChimp -- a very smart little productization.)

*I know Hirschhorn's basic business model is to develop a couple of high-audience vertical newsletters, then sell subscriptions to get them, but I think his ultimate upside is opening REDEF's platform to let anyone create a paid-subscriber newsletter, then taking a percentage of that revenue.

*I know it'll seem derivative and herd-following, but don't be surprised if I spark up a daily email newsletter in the weeks after the July 4th weekend.

-- D.S.