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Good morning from San Francisco, where the hills are far too steep. Inside:
- 🏀 More trade madness
- 👋 Hello from Radio Row
- 🎂 Connections: Sports Edition turns 500
Trades, Trades, Trades: AD, Kuminga highlight another dramatic day
At this point, you have to wonder if the NBA is engineering trade bedlam this week to steal focus from the NFL ahead of the Super Bowl, or even the IOC as the Olympics kick off. I’m mostly joking.
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After a busy Tuesday, yesterday was even juicier, with still a full day to go before today’s 3 p.m. ET deadline. Quick catch-up, with last night’s late move first:
- Just before the evening ended, the Warriors agreed to trade Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield to Atlanta for Kristaps Porziņģis, sources confirmed to The Athletic last night. It ends a terse saga between Golden State and Kuminga, who requested a trade two weeks ago. It also might take the Warriors out of the Giannis Antetokounmpo sweepstakes. Read our deep dive here.
- Anthony Davis is now a Washington Wizard after the day’s biggest deal. He joins Trae Young to complete an overhaul of the Wizards’ present and to prepare for the future. It’s an interesting idea. More importantly, his departure from Dallas means he only played 29 games for the Mavericks. Dallas traded Luka Dončić for 29 games of Anthony Davis. I will never fully accept that this happened. The Mavericks have officially lost both AD trades.
- The Thunder are at it once again after trading for young 76ers guard Jared McCain, who was arguably last season’s best rookie before getting hurt. He’s been a disappointment this season, but it just feels fishy that Oklahoma City is acquiring a young, talented guard nowhere near his prime. Hmmm. It does help with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander out until after the All-Star break, too.
- Elsewhere, the Clippers traded Chris Paul to Toronto after his two-month exile. Coby White is a Charlotte Hornet, and Lonzo Ball is a free agent after the Jazz acquired then waived him.
I mean, is there anyone else? Antetokounmpo continues to hedge while hinting at a trade in the future. See our trade board for more names that could move today.
Let’s keep moving:
On the Scene
It was a beautifully chaotic day at Radio Row yesterday, which is where the above picture was taken of myself and Scoop City’s Jacob Robinson. We have some video content coming to you later this week on the history of Radio Row.
Random people I’ve seen there: Terrell Davis, Derrick Henry, Donovan McNabb, Shawne Merriman, Chad Ochocinco and Bryce Young. We also saw Tedy Bruschi out to lunch.
We’ll have more tomorrow.
News to Know
A strange opening day
On the first day of Olympic action, we saw turbulence. On the slopes, Canadian snowboarder Mark McMorris was removed on a stretcher after crashing during big air training. In curling, the lights went out just five minutes into the first set of mixed doubles matchups. Multiple throws were in motion while this happened. It was a whole thing.
Panarin dealt
The Rangers traded star winger Artemi Panarin to the Kings yesterday in exchange for a third-round pick and a prospect, ending a mostly sparkling run for Panarin in New York. He leaves as one of the more accomplished players in franchise history, but with little playoff success to show for it. Still, he is the Rangers’ greatest free-agent signing ever. Read more on his legacy.
More news:
- The Tigers agreed to a three-year, $115 million deal with pitcher Framber Valdez. It’s easy to wonder if a Tarik Skubal breakup is near.
The NCAA denied Ole Miss’ appeal for a sixth year of eligibility for quarterback Trinidad Chambliss. His next move: court.
- Sources told The Athletic that Lakers forward Jaxson Hayes will be suspended for a game after shoving the Wizards mascot. Sure.
- Frank Reich is the new offensive coordinator for the Jets, ending a weird coaching offseason for New York. More details here.
- Islanders forward Bo Horvat was shocked on the ice Tuesday after encountering something … new: a bird.
- Gavin McKenna, one of the top prospects in the 2026 NHL Draft class, was charged with felony assault in State College, Pa. Read our full story.
Milestones: Happy 500th, Connections: Sports Edition
Our packed week here continues with a momentous Connections: Sports Edition board today. I checked in with the game’s editor (and longtime Pulse friend) Mark Cooper to … mark the occasion.
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I’ll get right to my main question: How the f— do you keep coming up with these boards?
💬 I ask myself that question all the time. Short answer: Between a notebook I keep for Connections ideas and the notes app on my phone, I’m always jotting down words and playing a word-association game to find fun ways to match them up. I look for double meanings, words within words, how you can manipulate words by adding/subtracting/changing a letter, how I can take four words that should fit together and build four separate categories around them.
Sometimes a single category sits in my notebook for weeks until I figure out how to use it, and other times it’s more of a eureka moment.
{“endpoint”:”https://api-prd-nyt.theathletic.com/graphql”}
What’s the clue that has made people the angriest so far?
💬 Hard to choose just one! Homophones of NFL QBs (Knicks, May, Hertz, Borough) sparked some responses. I did an all-movie-themed board for Oscars night last year that proved to be extremely difficult and remains the hardest one we’ve ever done.
Mark also told me to look out for Olympics boards throughout the Games and a Super Bowl edition this Sunday. Fun.
Watch Guide
📺 Olympics: Curling
4:05 a.m. ET on Peacock/USA
Again, consider that hilarious time as a starting point. We have a full morning of Olympic action featuring curling, hockey and snowboarding. See the full list here.
📺 NBA: Bulls at Raptors
7:30 p.m. ET on Prime Video
These two are suddenly more interesting after this week’s trades. This game also opens a good doubleheader, too, with Warriors-Suns following the same network.
📺 NCAAW: No. 17 Duke at No. 6 Louisville
7 p.m. ET on ESPN
Another good basketball game if you’d prefer top-20 women’s college hoops. It feels like everyone is chasing UConn right now, but Sabreena Merchant’s latest top 25 has plenty of great insight about the state of everyone else.
Get tickets to games like this here.
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Pulse Picks
The moment Phillies reliever Orion Kerkering fumbled a playoff series, he knew the gaffe would follow him for the rest of his life. His journey in the immediate aftermath shocked me. It’s hard not to root for this guy.
There are still plenty of MLB free agents to be had. We made a full team of them.
Eileen Gu is one of the highest-paid female athletes on the planet after raking in $23 million last year. The kicker: Just $100,000 comes from her own sport. See the breakdown here.
I loved Jason Lloyd’s breakdown of the decision that is dividing the NFL right now: Whether to go for it or take the points in the red zone. Read it here.
John Hollinger has a nice story on Louisville’s Mikel Brown Jr., an “old-school tape head” who might become a top-10 NBA Draft pick.
Super Bowl prop bets are ubiquitous now. But how do sportsbooks even come up with them?
Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: The Fanatics jersey mess.
Most-read on the website yesterday: NBA trade deadline live blog, again.
📫 That’s all for now! Say hello at thepulse@theathletic.com, and check out our other newsletters.