Month: January 2023

The Baltimore Ravens were more than a touchdown underdog on Sunday night on the road against the Bengals, in large part due to the absence of Lamar Jackson. In his place was Tyler Huntley, who for more than three quarters played a spectacular game and had the Ravens tied going to the fourth quarter with the football.

After orchestrating a gorgeous drive, including a long run to get them down inside the 5, the Ravens tried a QB sneak to finish it off from the 1. Huntley tried to pull off what Trevor Lawrence did in Jacksonville’s comeback over the Chargers, reaching over the line for the goal line and a touchdown. Unfortunately, Huntley is not 6’6 like Lawrence and his effort to go over the top got stoned by the Bengals, with Logan Wilson punching the ball out where it bounced right into the hands of Sam Hubbard, and the big fella rumbled 98 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.

Mark Andrews made quite an effort to try and prevent Hubbard from getting all the way to the end zone, but just couldn’t get there. Cris Collinsworth made the point on the broadcast that if Huntley is going to go over the top, the Ravens can’t all be pushing from behind leaving no one there for that scenario — it’s possible going up and over wasn’t planned and was just a decision Huntley made.

In a game where Cincinnati’s offense found itself stuck in the mud for the second and third quarters, the defense came up with the play of the game and Hubbard stamps his name in the NFL record books with the longest fumble return in NFL Playoffs history (among other records).

The first episode of HBO’s The Last of Us adaptation kickstarted a different kind of zombie apocalypse, setting the stage for an epic and terrifying cross-country adventure and leaving fans with plenty of questions to mull over before next week’s installment airs.

“When You’re Lost In the Darkness” introduced fans to Pedro Pascal’s Joel, a hardened smuggler living in a Boston Quarantine Zone (known as the QZ) in the year 2023. Joel – and really all of mankind – has been put through the wringer thanks to a fungal pandemic that threw the world into chaos 20 years earlier. The infected – humans whose minds and bodies have been hijacked by a strain of fungi from the Cordyceps genus — roam the country unchecked while the living herd themselves into city pockets run by dictator-like governments.

And while the main conflict is between humanity and serial killing fungi, there’s another war brewing between those in power – known as FEDRA – and those willing to stand against them. Here’s everything we know about The Fireflies.

Who Are The Fireflies?

When the Cordyceps Brain Infection, or CBI, first breaks out, the government declares martial law to restore a sense of order and protect the uninfected. This sounds like a reasonable plan of action until we witness soldiers carrying out orders to kill innocent civilians at the end of the show’s first episode. It appears that, whatever this new world order is, it’s harsh and unforgiving and more than a bit tyrannical. The military runs the QZs unchecked while the uninfected work odd jobs for ration cards and live in squalor.

It’s unclear at the moment how the Fireflies first formed, but they seem to be a band of rebels that have been working for decades to put an organization known as FEDRA in check. They have their own network of spies and militia that extend beyond the Boston QZ (and likely all the way to the West Coast) and they’re run by a woman named Marlene (Merle Dandridge), dubbed by Tess (Anna Torv) as the “Che Guevara” of the Boston QZ.

What Do They Want?

One obvious demand of the rebel group is for the military to have less might and for citizens to have more say in how the QZ is run. We know that penalties for breaking laws are fairly unjust after witnessing a hanging in the town square in episode one. That kind of unchecked power has made life untenable in the QZ so, naturally, the Fireflies want people to rise up and form a true democracy in which everyone has a say in how things are run.

But more freedom is just a part of the group’s overall plan.

After Marlene discovers Ellie’s (Bella Ramsey) immunity to CBI, the Fireflies focus on their main mission, which is to find a cure for the fungal pandemic. In the games, it’s been something the group has been working on for years with no progress. In the show, we’re not sure how long Marlene and company have been waiting for a break like Ellie, but she quickly becomes priority number one which is why they’re so eager to smuggle her out of Boston.

Whether the group can actually be trusted is still up in the air – although Joel would probably say no.

It’s clear the Fireflies want to create a better world, despite this fungal apocalypse reducing everyone to their baser instincts, but Marlene seems gung-ho to sacrifice any and everything to hold onto Ellie and the hope for a cure. When someone with power has that kind of tunnel vision, it’s rarely a good thing.

The Last of Us airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that a great zombie apocalypse show must be in want of a military dictatorship to serve as its main villain. (We’re pretty sure Jane Austen wrote that about HBO’s The Last of Us.)

In the first episode of the Neil Druckmann-penned video game adaptation, a fungal pandemic turns most of the world’s population into undead spore generators capable of decomposing human flesh, hijacking our brains, and spreading at a dizzying pace. In other words, zombies. The fungus turns people into zombies.

But, as terrifying and nauseating as that visual is, the Infected aren’t the only enemy the show’s main characters – Joel, Ellie, Marlene, Tess, etc. – are facing. In fact, when we pick up some 20 years after the initial outbreak in episode one’s “When You’re Lost In the Darkness,” these fungi avatars are low on the threat level watchlist. With most of the living residing in Quarantine Zones run by the firm and ominous hand of a shadowy government, it’s the United States military – or, what’s left of it – that might be the real big bad of this season.

Here’s what we know about FEDRA on HBO’s The Last of Us.

What Does FEDRA Stand For?

FEDRA stands for the Federal Disaster Response Agency and yes, the similarities that can be drawn between it and another, real-life government disaster organization are completely intentional. Though the agency is more of a background villain in the games – an excuse for rebel alliances to forge and cause problems for main characters – they feature a bit more heavily in the first episode of HBO’s show.

When Did FEDRA Form?

The timelines between the video game and the TV series are a bit skewed so it’s hard to tell when the FEDRA of HBO’s The Last Of Us formed. We do know that when the outbreak wreaked havoc in Texas in 2003, forcing Joel and company to flee their home, the Army was responsible for rounding up the Infected and disposing of them. In the show’s first episode, the military blocked off roads and cordoned zones and even killed innocent civilians in an effort to curb the fungi’s spread.

By 2023, when we check in with Joel at the Boston QZ after a 20-year time jump, FEDRA has established a stronghold, replacing elected officials with military leaders that run other quarantine sights and use violent force to ensure the uninfected stay in line.

What Does FEDRA Want?

When FEDRA formed soon after the outbreak, the agency likely wanted what we’d all want when faced with a parasitic fungus that could invade our brains and use our bodies like a beat-up Chevy – they wanted order, a safe space for the living, and a way to beat back the infected hordes. But, as they rose to power, their obsession with keeping it might have influenced some of their more questionable and downright barbaric practices.

Without spoiling too much, it’s clear from how FEDRA runs the Boston QZ that they’ve devolved into a full dictatorship with the military enforcing punishments that range from unlawful detention centers to public executions. While most citizens work for ration cards and try to scrape out some kind of existence, soldiers can be seen dealing on the Black Market and wielding their authority unchecked.

If FEDRA is looking for a cure for the Cordyceps Brain Infection, the Fireflies and citizens of the QZ aren’t aware of it. In all likelihood, considering FEDRA takes orphans like Ellie and trains them to be soldiers from a young age, the group is probably content to keep to the new status quo, ruling a defeated remainder of mankind rather than waging any real war against the virus.

The Last of Us airs Sundays on HBO at 9 p.m. ET.

[This post contains spoilers for The Last of Us]

The trailer for HBO’s The Last of Us was set to “Take on Me” by a-ha. That song will eventually factor into the TV show’s plot, as it did in the video games, but it was another 1980s classic that had major implications on tonight’s series premiere.

After Joel (played by Pedro Pascal) gets tasked with smuggling Ellie (Bella Ramsey) out of a quarantine zone, they take refuge in an apartment, where she discovers author Fred Bronson’s book, The Billboard Book of Number One Hits. It’s an essential read for any pop culture fanatic, but in the universe of The Last of Us, it’s important for a different reason. Inside the book is a sheet of paper with a code scribbled on it below the initials “B/F,” standing for Bill and Frank: a 1960s song means “Nothing In,” a 1970s song equals “New Stock,” and a 1980s song, well, a 1980s song has a red “X” on the note.

“So, who is Bill and Frank?” Ellie asks when Joel returns to the apartment. He doesn’t respond, but she figures out the significance of an 1980s song by claiming that Wham!’s “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go” played while he was napping. “Shit,” Joel mutters. It was a trick. “Gotcha,” Ellie says while cracking a smile. “’80s means trouble.”

The next time a song comes on the radio, no one’s in the apartment; Joel, Ellie, and Tess (Anna Torv) are on the other side of the quarantine zone wall. That song, which plays over the credits of the episode, is “Never Let Me Down Again” by Depeche Mode, which came out in… 1987. Uh oh. There’s trouble coming. That’s bad news for Joel and Ellie but good news for us. We get to enjoy some Depeche Mode!

The first episode of HBO’s The Last of Us introduced us to a new kind of zombie apocalypse and the people trying their best to survive in it. Like its video game counterpart, the Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann-created series focuses more on its characters than its creatures – though those fungi-infected bodies are terrifying in their own right. One such character is Ellie, a teenager living in the Boston Quarantine Zone (or QZ) and played by Game of Thrones standout Bella Ramsey.

Ellie’s important enough that the Fireflies — the rebel group opposing the military dictatorship currently running things in the QZ – are willing to sacrifice their whole militia to smuggle her to safety. But who is she and why does she matter so much?

Here’s everything we know about Ramsey’s character on The Last of Us.

Who Is Ellie Williams?

The show only introduces Ramsey’s smart-mouthed teenager as Ellie, but thanks to the game, we know her last name is Williams. She’s an orphan, having grown up in the QZ which means she doesn’t know much about the world before the Cordyceps outbreak. Like in the game, Ellie has spent her life being trained to be a soldier for FEDRA – the government organization responsible for keeping QZ citizens in line. Apparently, that’s the fate of most orphans in this post-apocalyptic world. But we know that Ellie has some kind of connection with the Fireflies leader, Marlene after the group holds her hostage on Marlene’s orders.

What is Ellie’s Relationship To The Fireflies?

In episode one’s “When You’re Lost In the Darkness,” Marlene tells Ellie she not only knew her birth mother but promised to keep her safe. That’s why she dropped her on FEDRA’s doorstep as a baby and it’s why she made sure her soldiers didn’t shoot her when they discovered she’d been “bitten” by an Infected. We don’t know much about Ellie’s mom at the moment, but it’s likely she knew Marlene and her plan of rebellion since the early days of the pandemic.

Marlene also mentions the name “Riley” to Ellie, implying they share another tie in the character that is played by Euphoria’s Storm Reid – though, she hasn’t made an appearance as of yet. It sounds like Riley was a close friend of Ellie’s and possibly a member of the Fireflies, which is another reason Marlene had Ellie on her radar.

Why Is Ellie Important?

Members of the Fireflies begin to ask questions when Marlene decides to abandon the Boston QZ for good to smuggle Ellie out of the city. She’s not only risking the lives of all of the soldiers under her command for a teenager, but she’s also throwing away 20 years of hard work resisting FEDRA’s rule. Why? Because Ellie might hold the answer to creating a cure for the Cordyceps Brain Infection, or CBI outbreak.

Though we don’t witness it, we soon learn that Ellie has been infected thanks to a mostly healed bite shown on her arm. When we meet her, she’s being tested to make sure she isn’t showing any of the normal symptoms associated with the Infected. Those signs should’ve presented in a matter of days, but it sounds like Ellie has had the bite for weeks at this point, which means she’s immune to the fungus. According to Marlene, the Fireflies have an outpost out West where doctors might be able to reverse engineer a cure – or at least a preventative measure like a vaccine – using Ellie’s immunity. Naturally, being the potential savior of mankind makes Ellie a valuable asset, which is why Marlene sacrifices much of her group, eventually turning to Joel (Pedro Pascal) and Tess (Anna Torv) to get Ellie out of the city.

Whether the trio will make it to their destination alive, and whether Ellie’s immunity can actually be replicated is still anyone’s guess.

The Last of Us airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.

Each week, we’ll recap the biggest moments of HBO’s The Last of Us before placing bets on the odds of survival for our favorite characters – like the sick, twisted, soulless monsters we are.

The end of the world has been imagined so many times, in so many different ways on TV that the word “apocalypse” feels more like an aesthetic than an existential threat. We’ve seen zombies and killer robots, extraterrestrials with hypersensitive hearing, and Lovecraftian entities that drive people to madness, and yet, we’ve never seen something quite like HBO’s The Last of Us. It’s a show that makes the apocalypse feel both terrifying and viscerally possible again.

Most of that is thanks to the storytelling from Neil Druckmann and Chernobyl showrunner Craig Mazin. And maybe a small part of that is because, for a while now, genre fans have longed to experience that feeling of dread and excitement at the prospect of a show that not only understands the appeal of these kinds of stories but wants to push the boundaries of them. It’s what Robert Kirkman was able to do with the first season of The Walking Dead, and if we linger on that comparison a bit too long, it’s only because Mazin and Druckmann’s entry elicits the same kind of awe and expectation of that AMC pilot. Watching the first episode of The Last of Us feels like watching the first episode of the next great television show. This is how pop culture phenomenons are born, how epic adventures get started.

With a lesson on the reproduction methods of potentially-killer fungi.

On a 60s-era ABC talk show.

Before The Outbreak

How do you prep fans for fungal Armageddon? If you’re The Last Of Us, it’s with a fun little game of “guess the extinction event” that feels a bit too close to our current reality for comfort. Viral pandemics are still the girl boss of world killers, but if the planet got a bit warmer, if fungi had to evolve, what then?

The answer comes slowly and then all at once as we jump from the 60s to the early aughts where Joel (Pedro Pascal), his daughter Sarah (Nico Parker), and his brother Tommy (Gabriel Luna) live in a small Texas neighborhood. Pascal’s proven to have a knack for playing the wearied and weathered single-dad type. And here, well, he’s the physical embodiment of a Reba McEntire song. He spends his birthday working a double shift while his daughter buses into town to fix his bum watch with cash she stole from his top drawer – an “it’s the thought that counts” kind of gift that puts their relationship into perspective. Sarah takes care of Joel just as much if not more than he looks after her, a dynamic that feels foreshadowing in a way.

But it’s the way Mazin weaves in the mundane with the extraordinarily creepy that disturbs the peacefulness of this buildup just enough to put your neck hairs on guard. Sirens and SWAT tanks flying down city streets, twitchy shop owners hustling customers out early, an elderly woman eerily spasming just out of focus, a family dog behaving strangely. Those odd, explainable occurrences eventually add up when Sarah wakes alone in her house to the sound of explosions and TV announcers warning residents to stay indoors. Joel has gone to spring Tommy from the local lock-up, leaving her to check in on their neighbors. It’s here we get the first glimpse of the monster that will soon end our existence, a strain of fungus that – just like the TV doctor warned so many years ago – has inhabited the brain of a catatonic grandma and bent her body to its will. It’s unsettling, terrifying, and a bit nauseating to witness fungal tendrils slithering from the old woman’s mouth before latching onto another human victim. In fact, it makes one miss the good ol days when zombies just used teeth to munch on human flesh.

Everything moves quickly after Sarah escapes the crime scene. Joel and Tommy rescue her, they get the hell out of dodge, they try to make sense of this new threat – Is it terrorists? Are they already infected? – while houses burn and planes fall from the sky and the sick flood the streets looking for their next meal. They’re eventually separated as Joel carries an injured Sarah to safety only to face off against a soldier charged by the Army with clearing the town of anyone exhibiting symptoms — which Sarah is not — but a bum ankle is enough to cause to let bullets fly. Damn HBO for making Pedro Pascal cry in the first episode of this show and damn us for hoping Sarah and Joel might make it out of this mess unharmed. Now she’s dead and Joel, well, we imagine he needs therapy but isn’t getting it.

In The QZ

Another time jump drops us off in the year 2023, in a place known as QZ (or Quarantine Zone). Protected by steel walls and barbed fences, guarded by armed militia, this seems to be one of the few safe spaces for the uninfected to muddle out a meager existence. Joel is more weathered, hardened, like mud that sets in the sun for too long, and he’s forced to take day jobs working in sewers and tossing the bodies of dead infected into the city’s burn pit for ration cards. He’s also got a side hustle, smuggling pills and other black market valuables in and out of the QZ – apparently, a dangerous job since we get a glimpse of a hanging in the town square for the benefit of anyone thinking of leaving this rundown hellhole.

While Joel swigs whiskey and knocks back opiates like he’s the star of some sad country song we meet Tess (Anna Torv), another smuggler and Joel’s kind-of girlfriend. (Do labels really matter post-apocalypse?) They’re in search of a car battery so they can drive West and find Tommy, Joel’s brother who’s gone missing on a run, but they’ve bartered with the wrong guy. So have the Fireflies – a rebel group fighting for democracy and freedom against Fedra, the government in charge of the QZ at the moment. The Fireflies need to smuggle a young girl named Ellie (Bella Ramsey) out of the QZ. Why? Because she was infected weeks ago and has yet to show symptoms, meaning she just might hold the cure for mankind’s survival. She’s a pain in the rebel’s ass at the moment – all quick-witted comebacks and brash no-fucks-given attitude and you can practically taste the angst and aggravation in the air when Joel encounters her. It’s all so delicious.

Their meet-cute happens after the Fireflies are double-crossed and gunned down, leaving Joel and Tess to reluctantly agree to the job of smuggling Ellie to safety. Apparently, they’re capable of the sorts of things both Bella Ramsey and the rest of us are naturally curious about but their escape doesn’t go as smoothly as they’d hoped.

Smuggling Human Cargo

Before the group gets out of dodge they take a rest break at Tess and Joel’s flat where the show gives us some quiet moments between Pascal and Ramsey that set up the tense push-and-pull between the two characters going forward. Ellie is smart and scrappy, an orphan handed over to Fedra to train as a soldier who has too much sass and not enough self-preservation instincts to guarantee she’ll make it on her own. Joel, weary of watching another young girl under his care die, is distant and visibly bothered by every move she makes, something that seems to delight the young girl and gives the episode a few precious moments of comedic relief. When the group eventually makes it out of the QZ after Joel brutally beats an officer to death and Ellie’s secret immunity comes to light, whatever tentative truce was declared is buried under Joel’s fear and suspicion of who this girl is, and Ellie’s mistrust of this grown man’s intentions.

We have a feeling this road trip isn’t going to be of the buddy comedy variety.

Survival Odds

Ellie (10 to 1 odds)
Our numbers are essentially meaningless but the message is pretty clear: Ellie’s not going anywhere. She’s been infected twice now and lived to tell the tale without letting a murderous fungus invade her mind. Is she reckless, cocky, and too rebellious to survive this harsh world by herself? Sure, but that just means someone else is going to die in her place.

Joel (9 to 2 odds)
You don’t hire the internet’s reigning zaddy and kill him off early in the season. (This show might be the next Game of Thrones, but it’s not actually Game of Thrones.) The hair and makeup department worked too hard to give us that salt-and-pepper mop to throw in the towel now, plus Joel seems adept at surviving, even if he doesn’t want to. Will he risk his neck for Ellie in the future? Likely, but at the moment he’d be just as happy to throw her to the proverbial wolves (can animals be infected?) than lose a wink of sleep over her wellbeing.

Tess (7 to 5 odds)
Tess feels like the more rational, level-headed member of this motley band of musketeers so, naturally, her clock is ticking the loudest. She readily takes Ellie under her wing and is constantly pulling Joel back from the metaphorical cliff. She’s pragmatic. She’s tough. She’s the kind of character you don’t let yourself care about on a show like this. Nice try, HBO.

The Last of Us airs Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.

Francis Ngannou is no longer UFC heavyweight champion, and Jon Jones will fight Ciryl Gane for the vacant belt, the UFC announced.

The news comes after months of tense negotiations between UFC President Dana White and Ngannou. White acknowledged the organization could not come to terms on a new deal, so he’ll be released from his contract, the UFC will waive its opportunity to match his next contract, and they’ll move on to Jones-Gane.

Ngannou has previously spoken about the UFC’s contracts, the restrictions in those deals, and the want to be “free” from the UFC following his UFC 270 win over Gane in January last year:

The statement from Ngannou in his interview with Ariel Helwani contradicts White’s comments on the champion’s exit, who acknowledged that the UFC offered him the a deal that would make him the highest-paid heavyweight ever, but then sharing his opinion that Ngannou doesn’t want to take a risk and wants to fight lesser opponents and make more money.

Ngannou immediately becomes combat sports’ most coveted free agent. On the open market, a boxing tilt with any of the big heavyweights makes a great deal of sense, but he could also choose to head somewhere like the PFL and take advantage of the promotion’s newly-formed Super Fight division, where fighters will earn at least 50 percent of the pay-per-view revenue, with bouts distributed by ESPN and the streaming service DAZN.

With a national holiday coming up tomorrow, the WNBA slid in some Sunday evening drama, as former league MVP Jonquel Jones is on the move.

While the trade has not yet been made official by the league, numerous reporters have corroborated and expanded on initial reporting, including that Jones specifically asked out of Connecticut. Calling this a seismic shift in the WNBA would be a drastic understatement. Jones earned an All-WNBA 2nd Team nod for her play this past season with the Sun, a year earmarked by a trip to the WNBA Finals.

While Jones’ stats took a dip this past season, it’s not an indictment of play, rather due to the nature of fellow All-WNBA performer Alyssa Thomas returning to the fold. As shown during the Finals, when putting forth her peak performance, there are few players who rival her talent and ability. As reported by Howard Megdal of The Next Hoops, the current construction of the trade is as follows (with room for change as it’s not finalized).

Let’s dive into this from each team’s perspective.

Connecticut Sun

By and large, it is impossible to recoup value when a franchise stalwart asks out; an organization is not going to get equal value back for a former MVP who is still and MVP-caliber talent.

Connecticut’s rebuilt staff and organization has preached the need to be more versatile, to put a greater emphasis on shooting and spacing, focused on revamping their offense. As has been made clear in every press conference from the Sun’s president, GM, and new head coach, the expectations are to be back in the playoffs, and deep into he playoffs.

Rebecca Allen is a career 36.9% 3-point shooter who can hit capably off movement on high volume, something the Sun frankly haven’t had the past few seasons on the wing. However, Allen was hurt during the FIBA World Cup in September, suffering a rib injury and partial lung collapse. It was announced in October that Allen would be out for two months by her overseas team, Valencia Basket Club, and she has yet to suite up for Valencia this season.

Ty Harris adds another dynamic backcourt threat, capable of playing on and off the ball with size at the guard position as well. Particularly with Jasmine Thomas out most of last season, Connecticut’s guard depth was inconsistent. As Thomas works her way back into the fold, Harris could provide some invaluable minutes in the backcourt alongside Natisha Hiedeman, who broke out as a starter herself last season.
The sixth overall pick in the coming draft is interesting, but for how this current draft is shaping up and considering the value return for Jones, this is underwhelming. It’ll be worth waiting to see what if any future draft compensation finds its way to Connecticut via this trade.
Recent 6th overall picks

• Lexie Hull (2022)
• Michaela Onyenwere (2021)
• Mikiah Herbert-Harrigan (2020)
• Napheesa Collier (2019)
• Azura Stevens (2018)
• Shatori Walker-Kimbrough (2017)
• Jonquel Jones (2016)

Nothing is set in stone, and each draft is different; a star is not guaranteed at any pick, let alone the sixth. Connecticut has typically drafted well, but this is a different front office set-up, as former head coach Curt Miller was also general manager.

If the Sun keep this pick, it marks a noteworthy first opportunity to make a selection in Darius Taylor’s tenure. Brionna Jones, reigning All-Star and Sixth Player of the Year is a pending free agent, but the team will reportedly use its core designation on Jones.

Connecticut coring Jones, essentially a franchise tag that allows for exclusive negotiating rights, insures that the organization still keeps one of their All-Stars in the frontcourt. Without moving one of their max level players, it would’ve been virtually impossible for the Sun to potentially re-sign Brionna Jones.

New York Liberty

For the New York Liberty, this is an absolute home run. Jonquel Jones is without question the best player that franchise guard Sabrina Ionescu has played with in her young career. Ionescu thrives as a ball-screen operator with her pull-up threat and rhythmic downhill pace and touch. Adding Jones’ overwhelming ability as a roll threat, pop threat, and her gravity overall gives the Liberty an incredibly dynamic two-player duo to build around.

I’m very excited to see how Jones looks in Sandy Brondello’s system, which often utilizes high post playmaking, a great deal of dribble hand-offs, and prioritizes an outside in approach to open up driving lanes and maximize spacing. Jones has been candid about marketability and visibility; there is perhaps no more marketable and visible market than New York City when the basketball reaches its highest heights.

Without question, this vaults the Liberty into the upper echelon of the W. With two of the top players in the league, the foundation is strong, and there’s room for the surrounding cast to continue to build throughout the off-season. After making a leap into the stratosphere of competitiveness this past season and earning a trip to the first round of the playoffs, the Liberty undoubtedly have larger aspirations in 2023.

While Jones is the headliner, don’t sleep on the addition of Kayla Thornton! Thornton just had the best season of her pro career for Dallas, with her second half of the season offensive outbreak proving vital to the Wings’ surge into the playoffs. She’s a stout on-ball defender who can toggle across multiple positions and brings a solid offensive skillset as a strong driver, aggressive rebounder, and occasional three-point threat. For a team that often lacked a true ball-stopper on the defensive side of the ball last season, Thornton is a significant get.

Dallas Wings

Dallas’ involvement in this trade is incredibly interesting. Given recent reporting from Khristina Williams of Girls Talk Sports TV that Allisha Gray is expected to be traded from the Wings, it was surprising to find out that she was not involved in the trade. The Wings appear to be incredibly active in reshaping their future, hiring a new coach in the offseason and now getting aggressive in the trade market.

Natasha Howard was an All-Star for the Liberty this past season. A dynamic roll threat, face-up scorer, and rangy defender in the frontcourt, the former DPOY and multiple time All-Defense member brings a lot to like for Dallas. While we don’t yet know what newly hired head coach Latricia Trammell’s system will look like, she has long been known as a lover of defense. Howard adds versatility and a strong interior presence for a team that toggled through multiple defensive schemes, never quite settling in due to their wide range of personnel.

The biggest question: How does this work with the current frontcourt?

Satou Sabally was dealing with nagging injury much of this past season, but she’s one of the more exciting young players in the game and should be viewed as a vital part of Dallas’ longterm plans. She primarily plays the four and spent some time at the five this past year as well. While she has the skill and athleticism to play the three for stretches, the inconsistency of her three-point shot has led to her often not being guarded as a threat from deep this past season. It’s worth noting that Sabally has shot 41.2% from deep during Turkish League and Euroleague play since the 2020-2021 season (77 total games), but 25% from deep on similar volume during her W career per InStat Scouting. If her shot bounces back in the W, this is a different story.

Teaira McCowan was arguably Dallas’ MVP down the stretch of last season, stepping into the starting lineup over the final 13 games and averaging 16.2 points and 10 rebounds per games as the Wings went 8-5. Sabally and star guard Arike Ogunbowale both missed chunks of the end of the season due to injury. McCowan is a restricted free agent this offseason and solely a center. The trio could certainly play together, but it’s the kind of theoretical fit that makes me want to see that lineup immediately, because I have so man questions in every facet.

What does the collective passing look like? Satou is a phenomenal passer while Howard and McCowan are both prone to turnovers. That’s putting a lot of decision-making on Dallas’ guards. Again, not inherently a bad thing, but I’m very curious to see it play out.

Crystal Dangerfield is a heady ball-handler and playmaker who can get into the lane. She brings potential as a rotation guard for the Wings who could also see some turnover in their backcourt if they decide to keep her in Dallas. Marina Mabrey is a restricted free agent. The aforementioned Gray is unlikely to remain in Texas. Ty Harris is in Connecticut. There’s a great deal to parse through here for each team, but Dallas has the feel of a team that’s just starting their engine.

This is an absolutely massive deal, and a huge swing to tip off what will likely be a busy close to winter in basketball. As the remainder of the trade, the offseason, and free agency unfurl, there figure to be more big moves on the horizon that will shake up the power structure o fthe league.

Alabama basketball player Darius Miles was one of two men arrested and charged with capital murder on Sunday after a shooting that was reported to police at 1:45 a.m. local time.

Per AL.com, the shooting happened as the result of an argument outside a bar district, with the victim being shot and killed in a car, while the driver, who was unharmed, returned fire.

Both Miles, of D.C., and 20-year-old Michael Lynn Davis, of Maryland, are charged in the killing of as Jamea Jonae Harris, 23, of Birmingham. The shooting happened on the Strip. About 1:45 a.m. Sunday, Tuscaloosa police and University of Alabama police were dispatched to the Walk of Champions at Bryant Denny Stadium on a shooting. A vehicle had stopped there upon sighting a University of Alabama Police vehicle. Harris was dead inside the vehicle, said Tuscaloosa Violent Crimes Capt. Jack Kennedy. The driver, who has not been identified, told police their vehicle had been struck by gunfire. The driver said he had returned fire in self-defense and may have struck a suspect.

“It appears at this time that the shooting was the result of a minor argument that occurred between the victims and suspects after they encountered each other along the strip,’’ Kennedy said.

Miles had been on the bench on Saturday afternoon for the Tide’s 106-66 win over LSU after having been ruled out for the rest of the season with an ankle injury. The university released a statement after Miles’ arrest became public, announcing Miles was no longer a part of the team and had been removed from campus.

“The University of Alabama’s utmost priority is the safety and well-being of the campus community. We are grieved by the incident that occurred near campus last night and extend our deepest condolences to the victim’s family and friends.We are grateful for the quick and thorough response of law enforcement and emergency response teams, and we will continue to fully support the ongoing investigation. We were made aware of the recent charge against student-athlete Darius Miles; he has been removed from campus and is no longer a member of the Alabama men’s basketball team.”

George Santos has only been a sworn-in member of Congress for just over a week, but he’s already the most famous member of this year’s freshman batch. That’s not because he’s worked on any legislation. It’s because every day there’s one, two, sometimes three new leftfield revelations about how he misled or outright lied to voters to get his new gig. Some of the revelations are big, some are small. This latest one is sort of in between the two poles.

On Friday, video made its way to social media that captured Santos in 2019. He spoke at a “Walk Away LGBT” event, in which conservatives try to coax queer people to leave the Democratic party, which goes out of their way to protect their rights, and join the one that calls them things like “groomers.” Thing is, Santos didn’t use his real name. Instead he told the crowd his name as “Anthony Devolder.”

As per The New York Times, at the time Santos was using a different surname professionally. He’d tell people and employers his name was George Devolder. But at Republican events he ditched the “George” part, too. There he’d go by Anthony, where he’d do things like ask a trans YouTube star if they “can help educate other trans people from not having to follow the narrative that the media and the Democrats put forward,” as he did at the 2019 event now making the rounds.

Using an alias to persuade LGBTQIA+ people to vote against their interests is but one of an ever-escalating pile of misleading statements, embellishments, and fibs Santos told in the lead-up to his successful 2022 congressional run. He’s bent the truth about his work history, his heritage, even his mother’s death. On one of his first days on Capitol Hill, he was even caught repeatedly missing his name being called out for a vote. Maybe if they’d called for “Anthony Devolder,” he would have responded.

(Via NYT)