June is one of the busiest months on the sports calendar. The NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Final, and the Major League Baseball season are all going full tilt. But as you know, the NFL never sleeps. OTA’s are winding down. Training camp is on the horizon. And one of the best receivers in the league is now a free agent after the Arizona Cardinals released DeAndre Hopkins. So with everything going on, Bill Barnwell catches Jeremy Schaap up on everything to know about the league that has no offseason.

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When you think about dynasties in the 21st century, you might think of the New England Patriots, or Los Angeles Lakers, or the UConn women’s basketball team. But there’s another dynasty that you might be overlooking… one that just might be more dominant than all of them: the Oklahoma Sooners softball team. They’ve won 96% of their games since 2020, including a historic winning streak of 50 games (and counting). The Sooners have also won five national championships since 2013, and are three victories away from completing a three-peat in college softball for the first time in 23 years. So today, Hallie Grossman breaks down what makes this team so dominant, and explains how they got there.

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Today is Lou Gehrig Day across Major League Baseball, a day to honor the New York Yankees legend when he left the game in 1939 after he was diagnosed with ALS. And today, there’s someone else in baseball who is fighting the exact same fight Gehrig fought over 80 years ago: Sarah Langs. Sarah is a baseball researcher and analyst, and has worked for ESPN and MLB. She’s one of sports media’s brightest young voices, and Buster Olney joins us today to share her story…and how she remains unphased after life threw her a devastating curveball.

For more information on Sarah’s “Fist Bumps for ALS” campaign, click here.

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The NBA Finals begin tonight, with the Denver Nuggets on the league’s biggest stage for the first time ever. They are led by Nikola Jokic, the two-time MVP who has built a case to be called the greatest player in the world. So today, with his team hosting the Miami Heat in game one, Ramona Shelburne explains how the always humble Jokic evolved from a pudgy, soda-chugging teenager in Serbia to the playmaking center that’s changing the game as we know it.

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After an NHL season where we thought we’d see some of the blue bloods of hockey finally return to championship glory, the Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights had other plans. The Golden Knights are back in the Stanley Cup Final for their second appearance in only six years of existence, while the Panthers snuck into the playoffs as the eighth seed and upset both the Bruins and Maple Leafs on their way to their first Stanley Cup Final appearance since 1996. It’s a testament to how much the NHL has grown over the years…and today, Emily Kaplan gives us a preview of the Stanley Cup Final, and tells us what to expect as both teams close in on their pursuit of history.

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It was 30 years ago that a nearly impossible, yet unforgettable shot was made at the Chicago Stadium. On that evening, a 23-year old office supplies salesman named Don Calhoun participated in the million dollar shot contest, in which he had to make a ¾ court shot to win one million dollars. With less than a 1% chance, Don’s shot sailed right into the net, and the entire arena, including Michael Jordan, went crazy. But, shortly after this incredible scene, rumors began to circulate that Don might not receive the prize money, because of some contest fineprint. Ryan Hockensmith tells guest host Emily Kaplan the story of how an unimaginable shot ultimately needed an assist from Air Jordan himself….and how that gesture forever changed the lives of one Chicago man and his family.

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There may be no more thankless job than referee. At best, your existence is completely invisible. No one notices when you do a terrific job. At worst, you become enemy #1 for fans or coaches or in lower levels, angry parents. Combine that with low pay and high pressure, and it's no wonder why officiating is undergoing a crisis at the moment. Not enough people are willing to do the job…a job without which, the games quite literally can not go on. But, today, on Memorial Day, we revisit the story of a solution. And it’ll make you think differently about what this job actually is. And the people who really would love to do it.

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If you’re a baseball fan, odds are you’ve probably been upset at the umpires calling your favorite team’s game on more than one occasion. That fraction of an inch between a ball and a strike is a skill that almost nobody can do at the level of a Major League umpire, and even they get it wrong sometimes. But now, those calls can be handled by the Automatic Ball-Strike System, or to put it more simply… robot umps. But as the league begins to embrace automation, we find ourselves asking: is this all really worth it? Jeff Passan has seen ABS in action in the minor leagues this season, and he explains why this shift is about more than just balls and strikes…and if human error in baseball might not be the bug we think it is after all.

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LeBron James won’t be the only show on the Hollywood hardwood this fall, assuming of course that he doesn’t retire. Because his son, Bronny James, and his seven-plus million social media followers, will be suiting up just down the road from the Lakers home court, for the USC Trojans.

So today, Myron Medcalf tracks Bronny’s journey from high school at Sierra Canyon, through a unique recruiting window. And he explains why USC is perfectly positioned to welcome in the Bronny James experience.

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In the nearly 150-year history of professional sports in America, very few teams – if any – have used the threat of relocation quite like the Athletics. The baseball club began in 1901 in Philadelphia before moving to Kansas City in 1955, and eventually settled in its present home of Oakland in 1968. But, as Slate writer Stefan Fatsis recently noted, throughout its lifetime, the A’s franchise has planned – or threatened – to move an additional 19 times. So today, as the team explores yet another possible move, this time to Las Vegas, Tim Keown documents the latest chapter in the A’s nomadic history...and how the fans in Oakland are responding.

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