The Beat of Sports

At a recent Board of Governors meeting NBA Commissioner Adam Silver talked about some changes for the league including giving coaches the ability to challenge calls on the court, no word on if that means they will have red flags to throw on the court. Then Silver talked about the rise of trade demands and if there is anything that can be done to prevent this player empowerment era.

After winning the Women's World Cup how can women's soccer capitalize on this? The USWNT begins their campaign for equal pay, and the NWSL works to secure future sponsorship and television packages. Daniel Roberts from Yahoo Finance joins the show to talk about what happens next. Then he and Marc discuss the fallout for Nike from the Betsy Ross shoes.

Dozens of players filed a complaint in the US District Court in Los Angeles alleging that the US Soccer Federation practices gender-based pay-discrimination in their national team programs. The complaint also alleges that US Soccer denies the players "equal playing, training and travel conditions and promotes the women's games less compared with the men's soccer team." The players and US Soccer agreed to sit down for mediation after the World Cup. If mediation rules in their favor, the players could see improvements quicker than they would if they pursue the lawsuit to its completion.

Justin Verlander came out and said he believes that MLB is juicing the baseballs with the goal of increasing the number of home runs to help drum up more interest in the sport. He says that the players should have been asked about this decision. Marc thinks that when it comes to a league trying to help grow a fanbase and interest in the sport, they have every right to do whatever they think is best.

The next big NBA domino to fall will be what happens with Russell Westbrook. Marc has contended that the Magic should entertain making a trade offer for the All-Star player. He brings up that some teams will never be attractive to marquee free agents, the Knicks have had the most cap space and no team has signed with them now that might be because of a dysfunctional ownership group. But if they Magic in 2 years are still trying to develop young stars then they'll be fighting for an 8th seed.

Early Saturday night Kawhi Leonard made the move to join the Clippers AND he is bringing Paul George with him. Marc points out that no NBA Insider knew what was happening, and it is comical that everyone follows them as if they knew what was going on.

The Women's World Cup is behind us and the US Women's National Team is heading back with the trophy, so what happens now for the sport? The U.S. squad has filed lawsuits over equal pay, while the NWSL has recently announced a new television deal and sponsorship with Budweiser.

After Paul George demanded a trade out of Oklahoma City and joined Kawhi Leonard in Los Angeles all of the NBA talk has been that the Thunder need to trade Russell Westbrook. Marc tweeted this weekend that the Magic should talk with OKC about a trade if only for the reason to help get their name involved in the dialogue and if you can land a star you become more relevant nationally.

When it 6pm on Sunday evening and NBA Free Agency began the Orlando Magic quickly retained Nikola Vucevic and Terrance to keep the band back together after making the playoffs for the first time in years. Mike O'Donnell joins the show to talk about how these moves show the team will not be taking a step back and will look to add more talent during the season to win more games.

The United States Women's National Team has defeated England in the semifinals of the 2019 FIFA Women's World Cup with a 2-1 lead. World Cup Champion and UCF Women's Soccer coach Tiffany Roberts Sahaydek joins the show to talk about the victory and looks ahead to the final and who the US might face.