Rumors

The Warriors' head honcho even went as far as to compare her with the greatest shooter of all time, via Stephanie Rule of MSNBC. “I think it's kind of a right of passage for young players, whether it's the WNBA or the NBA. The other players are going to test you. Actually, Caitlin reminds me a lot of Steph Curry. A lot of people may not remember this, but in Steph's first couple of years, he was not a superstar. He was not who he is now. He had to get stronger, he had to understand people were coming after him. That's what is happening with Caitlin right now,” Steve Kerr said.

Clutch Points

Nets Daily: Former UN ambassador Bill Richardson, who helped engineer today's prisoner swap between US and Russia, tells MSNBC that he's been involved in trying to free WNBA's Brittney Griner. It's gotta be low-key, he said. He calls Griner "a very high profile and important person."

Twitter

A change in the New York City Mayor’s office could pave the way for Kyrie Irving to return to the Brooklyn Nets in 2022. Mayor-elect Eric Adams plans to “revisit” the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate rules once he takes office, according to the New York Post. “We need to revisit how we are going to address the vaccine mandates. Now, I stated I did not want to Monday-morning-quarterback the mayor [Bill de Blasio]. This is his time to be the man, he has to make the decisions,” Adams said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” per the Post.

Newark Star-Ledger

Mayor-elect Eric Adams vowed to “revisit” the COVID-19 vaccine mandate for municipal workers when he takes office and reach a “resolution” on the matter, as he took an election victory lap Wednesday morning. During a series of media appearances the day after he handily beat Republican opponent Curtis Sliwa, the Democrat also repeatedly promised he wouldn’t step on Mayor Bill de Blasio’s toes regarding the controversial jab order. “We need to revisit how we are going to address the vaccine mandates. Now, I stated I did not want to Monday-morning-quarterback the mayor. This is his time to be the man, he has to make the decisions,” Adams said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”

New York Post

NBA star Stephen Curry and his Unanimous Media production label have signed a sweeping, first-of-its-kind talent deal with Comcast NBCUniversal. The multi-year template agreement is billed as the media giant’s first-ever “global talent partnership.” It counts a dizzying amount of first-look development opportunities across the company, including: Universal Studio Group for scripted and unscripted TV projects; DreamWorks Animation for kids and family content; creative and on-camera contributions at NBC Sports; opportunities at NBC News Studios, MSNBC and CNBC; Universal Parks and Resorts; and Comcast’s Xfinity brand.

Variety.com

However, people flocking to cable news might be the biggest reason based on these numbers via AP. • Fox News averaged of 4.42 million last week–up 63%. • MSNBC averaged 2.75 million last week–up 38% • CNN averaged 2.59 million last week–up 172%. The takeaway is simple: Without an election year in 2021 and with (hopefully) the pandemic becoming a thing of the past, most sports will enjoy a viewership increase in 2021.

Sports Illustrated

Jonathan Feigen: Rockets owner Tilman Feritta on MSNBC said situation with players was "a pause" not a boycott.

Twitter

MSNBC: President Trump on coronavirus testing: “I said to my people, slow the testing down, please." Jordan Clarkson: idk what smoke they got in the white house? but this the dumbest s--- i heard.

Twitter

Johnson elaborated on having the opportunity to provide some assistance during these trying times in an appearance on MSNBC: “These are incredible businesses, small businesses, that have been the pillar of our community that also employ a lot of black and brown people in our community. So what we did, we came together in partnership, MBE Capital, Equitrust and I, and we wanted to make sure that minority-owned businesses got small business loans through the PPP program. “I will write a $100 million check, and Rafael (Martinez) and his company will deploy that money and make sure they vet the small business in our community. This is really a powerful two companies coming together, to make sure these women-owned business, these minority-owned businesses, can still survive and thrive during this time.”

Lakers Nation

In a 45-minute interview with Stephanie Ruhle, an anchor on MSNBC, Silver discussed a number of topics bound to inspire a few emails, including gambling, social media use by players, the role of analytics in decision-making and his hope that the N.B.A. will become the first major men’s professional sports league to have a female head coach. “We are very focused on a woman being a head coach in our league,” Silver said, naming Becky Hammon, currently an assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs, Sue Bird and Kristi Toliver as potential candidates. “I am very confident it is going to happen at some point.”

New York Times

Here's Spurs coach Gregg Popovich on how he tells the players to handle media scrutiny: "I give the same speech before playoffs every year. I say, ‘It's playoff time. Try to keep as many guests out of your house as you can. Don't read the newspaper. Don't look at the TV.' Because all that is is opinions, talk, and talking heads like looking at CNN, MSNBC, Fox, about all the stuff that's going on with Russia and all that stuff. It's senseless. It just doesn't matter as far as sports are concerned. The Russia stuff is a little more important. Sports, and people's opinions don't affect what we do on the court. So my suggestion to them is to pay attention to as little media as possible, and your life will be a lot happier. Like if you said something nice to me, I don't want to come in the next day, and say, ‘Hey, thanks, that was kind of nice.' If you said something mean, I don't want to come in and be angry and say, ‘Yeah, what do you want?' I don't care what you said. It's better if I don't read it. I don't care. I don't see it. I tell them to take their kids, put tents in the backyard, and let them stay in the backyard. Keep everybody away from them that's worried about basketball."

ESPN

Will James and company still have an appetite to use their platform to engage in controversial policy discussion or will their interest in such things fade the way MSNBC’s interest in black political commentators fades with each day we get closer to Obama’s farewell? It’s a different sort of gut check of sorts. One that sports agent Bill Duffy of BDA Sports Management isn’t too optimistic players will pass.

The Undefeated

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Wow... MSNBC says I'm "a voice of reason" ! msnbc.com/msnbc/kareem-a…

Twitter

Jason Collins talked basketball with NBA fan --and MSNBC host-- Ronan Farrow Wednesday and when at the end of the interview he was asked if he was planning a return to the NBA, he was again non-committal, but also got a bit emotional when talking about the reception he received when he joined the Nets. "I haven't decided yet. After everything went down over the last year, I kind of need a mental break right now. I'm going around doing a lot of speaking opportunities, speaking up for civil rights issues, LGBT issues. I'm enjoying my summer. I'm a huge fan of tennis. I'm going to Wimbledon next week to check that out.

NetsDaily