• The Jimmy Butler saga continues. At last count, the Miami Heat and the L.A Clippers were vying for Jimmy Butler’s services. What’s complicating Butler’s trade is that Gorgui Dieng must be part of the deal.
Q. Will the Minnesota Timberwolves deal Jimmy Butler before the start of the NBA season?
• Kyrie Irving is the man! First, Jimmy Butler, now it’s Anthony Davis that says he wants to play with Kyrie Irving in Boston. According to league sources, Davis will probably end up with the Celtics or the Los Angeles Lakers.
Q. Let’s dream a bit, can you imagine a Boston team with Kyrie Irving, Jimmy Butler, and Anthony Davis? If not Boston, where would you rather see Anthony Davis?
• Billed as one of the most significant fights in UFC history. Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor had their very anticipated showdown and Khabib won.
Q. What was not expected was the fight’s aftermath. Should the fight organizers have been more prepared for a potential melee?
• LeBron James was considering joining the Toronto Raptors before he finalized his move to the Los Angeles Lakers this summer. According to Joe Vardon of The Athletic, it seems both sides were interested in reaching an agreement.
• The family of NFL Hall of Fame linebacker Junior Seau has settled their wrongful death lawsuit against the NFL. Seau died from suicide at the age of 43; his death followed a long battle with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, or CTE, a degenerative brain disease linked to repeated hits to the head.
• Drew Brees passes Peyton Manning as NFL's all-time passing leader: New Orleans Saint quarterback Drew Brees broke Peyton Manning's record of 71,940 career passing yards with a 62-yard touchdown pass to rookie receiver Tre’Quan Smith in the second quarter of a game against Washington. New Orleans defeated Washington 43-19, ouch!!!
• Former Louisville men’s basketball head coach, Rick Pitino, has been promoting his new book, entitled Pitino: My Story. He says he never wants to coach basketball again.
Q. Do you believe Pitino?
• Houston Rockets guard Chris Paul has taken offense to the criticisms of fellow teammate, Carmelo Anthony, calling the criticism of Melo disrespectful.
Q. Do you think Chris Paul is right that the media may have gone too far with their assessment of Carmelo Anthony?
What’s The 411’s Photo of the Week is a photo of Saquon Barkley making a touchdown during the New York Giants game against the New Orleans Saints at MetLife Stadium.
• We have a preseason look at the Brooklyn Nets and the New York Knicks.
• New York Yankees Update: The Yankees made it into the ALDS and will play the Boston Red Sox in Game 4 tonight.
• Discord has visited upon the NY Giants.
Q. Are the New York Giants on the brink of falling apart?
Summer vacation is officially over, and Khloe Kardashian was headed back to Cleveland to be with baby True’s father, Cleveland Cavaliers forward Tristan Thompson and decided to stay in Los Angeles.
KEISHA: So we're going to move from the hard courts of the NBA and we're going to go to the Gridiron of the NFL and we are going to talk about one of our favorite teams and one of our favorite players at least mine, and that's Odell Beckham Jr.
New York Giants wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr., told Kimberly A. Martin of Yahoo Sports that he feels like he can help out much more in the passing game to steer the Giants in the right direction.
Mike, do you think that Odell Beckham is being utilized enough or is it the team's 1 - 2 to start that is causing Beckham to search for answers?
MIKE: Well, the first game he was certainly utilized enough in the game against Jacksonville, no question about it against the toughest defense in the NFL, right now, that certainly he played a very good game and I thought that they gave him enough opportunities throughout that game. And then, of course, Game 2, I didn't think that they gave him, they looked at him enough in that loss where they lost that second game of the season. But, I felt like in Week 3, the offense was really clicking on all cylinders. And, I think a lot of that had to do with the offensive line. If the offensive line is playing well, there's no question that Eli Manning is going to get more and more opportunities to get Odell Beckham, Jr. the ball. The guy is a game changer. There's no question about that and they need him, you know, they certainly need him but Keisha what I'll finish with is it's going to be a tricky road for the next month of the Giants, you know, they face the New Orleans Saints and then they go and they have to play the Carolina Panthers they back that up on a short week against the Philadelphia Eagles and then play the Atlanta Falcons. Now, these are four teams that wound up making the playoffs last season, 3 out of the last four years, I think three of those four teams with the exception of New Orleans has won the NFC.
KEISHA: I think the Saints were out last year right there.
MIKE: Yeah, exactly. They lost to Minnesota (Vikings). I think in that crazy last-second miracle game. But I think for the Giants this is going to be a tough road ahead and it's going to be a tough test for Pat Shurmur and Odell Beckham, but I think that the biggest question mark they have is the offensive line at that offensive line, which really started to come around and that win against Houston if it's starting to play a lot better than Odell Beckham certainly will be happy.
KEISHA: Yeah, definitely. I agree with you. I think that his, Odell's frustrations or his sentiment was based on that Dallas (Cowboys) game Week 2 where he only had four receptions in 51 yards. And I think you know the Giants offense has struggled scoring for the past couple of seasons. I mean the last time they scored 30 points in the game was January 3rd, 2016.
That's a lot of football to happen and you can't score 30 points when you have an Odell Beckham Jr., when you have a Sterling Shepherd. At one point, they had Brandon Marshall, but he was gone within like the first couple of games of the season but when you have an Evan Engram when there's talent that you know, it's one of the best receiving corps in an NFL in if you can't score 30 points, there's an issue. The offensive line really rebounded and played well on the third game against the Houston Texans and there was a shift in the line where Ereck Flowers was sidelined. He was benched and that was a sigh of relief and probably jubilation for most of us who just really are shaking our heads as to why Ereck Flowers has been allowed to start this long. But, the offensive line is key. And you know, I think Odell was probably, maybe if you read between the lines he was talking to Eli because Eli has overthrown him or short-thrown him or haven't seen him wide open.
So it's going to be imperative for Eli to be able to notice and fairly quickly because even with the better play from the offensive line, he's not going to have tons of time to just sit and scan for like 30 seconds, 10 seconds or whatever. So, you know Eli's got to make sure that he sees the field see it quickly and get and delivers the ball to him. And with Odell, it doesn't have to be a pinpoint precise pass just throw it somewhere in his area, he's gonna get it with those big hands he's got. And, then also, you know, it's going to be up to the offensive coordinator Mike Shula to make sure that he is running an offense that's going to get Odell involved. I mean and it doesn't necessarily I don't think you have to force feed it to him. I think because you have Sterling Shepard and you have Evan Engram who presents enough of a threat that you can pass the ball, so you're not forced feeding and showing your hand all the time.
So, you know, if the game against the Houston Texans was any indication that how the season's going to go, Odell is going to be happy, Giants' fans are going to be happy. We're gonna win some games, maybe make a push for the playoffs and all will be right in New York City.