Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic joins to discuss details of the new NBA/NBAPA CBA, including but not limited to: players being eligible to invest in NBA & WNBA teams -- but not directly; the new medical requirement of prospective employees (potential draftees) at the combine; and the new In-Season Tournament. We also talk about Steph Curry's newest deal with Under Armour, whether the NBA might punish the Dallas Mavericks for tanking the last two games and what Mike's looking forward to once the playoffs start.

In this episode: how a fan cursing out Bradley Beal after losing a bet is the canary in the coal mine for the dark side of sports gambling; why this may be the Golden Age of women's sports, and not in a good way; how Mets owner Steve Cohen is like the new vampires in Blade 2; a good deed by a sports owner!; and celebrating a W for labor at Temple University.

On a cold and cloudy winter's day, Brian Menéndez (Baseball Prospectus) stops by to talk baseball, the game that foreshadows summer and warmth. Which World Baseball Classic players have caught his eye? Do our personal politics influence how we root in international competition? Who's the best team? (hint: it rhymes with Lapan) What MLB rule changes do we like, not like and just plain not get? Is Trevor Bauer signing with Yokohama in the Japanese league a sign that MLB's anti-sexual assault policy is working? Or isn't? Or does it not say anything about it, either way? Plus what is something totally legal and ethically righteous Steve Cohen could do that would drive the other owners out of their minds? Listen and learn!

Soccer coach and essayist Mike Idland joins the show as our focus turns to winter sports: Gary Lineker telling the truth, what a Man City fan is to make of the Premier League threatening to nullify a history, thoughts on the Stanley Cup favorite in general and the New York Rangers in particular & the NFL playing the villain rather than paying Lamar Jackson what he deserves.  

In which we struggle with several unanswered/unanswerable questions: what does the future hold for sports fans, digital streaming and cord cutting in light of MSG+'s new flawed model? What the hell are Alabama's Nate Oats and Brandon Miller doing in the wake of a young woman's murder? What makes Damian Lillard a hero for our age? Is billionaires exploiting millionaires a bad thing? All that, a tear for Tom Brady and more. 

When LeBron James passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar this winter as the NBA's all-time leading scorer, will James also become the league's final all-time leading scorer? Are the Denver Nuggets & Philadelphia 76ers good enough outside their MVP-level centers to win a title? What theological truths can one tease out from the resurrection of the Sacramento Kings? How long can Luka Dončić abide Dallas making mistake after mistake around him? All this & more with Ian Levy, FanSided creative editorial direction and NBA aficionado. 

The last time Lyndsey appeared on our pod, she obliterated the record books as far as listeners. This time we talk WNBA teams and free agency. How does the New York Liberty trading for Jonquel Jones increase the chances of Breanna Stewart leaving Seattle for NY? Is there something funky going on in the Dallas organization that keeps leading players to want out? Where do the defending champion Las Vegas Aces stand as the league shifts and re-forms itself? We also talk about this week's NFL playoff games. The Cowboys won their first playoff game in 30 years, so naturally their bandwagon isn't speeding up or taking on more weight at all. Can Dallas beat San Francisco? Do the Giants have an edge having lost their prior two games vs. Philadelphia, or is it always better to be the better team? Can we envision Jacksonville upsetting KC? What about Buffalo vs. Cincinnati? And what about the last time those teams met, when Damar Hamlin nearly died on the field from a collision-induced heart attack. Nothing has changed since then. Why? What does that tell us about ourselves? All that & more.  

How does Carlos Correa signing in Minnesota bring schadenfreude to Atlanta fans toward the New York Mets? Is the Damar Hamlin story the biggest drop ever from a this-changes-things event to . . . nothing's changed? Plus Dana White reminds us some animals are more equal than others, does Trevor Bauer deserve a different punishment than if he were a blue-collar nobody, how the latest Messi/Ronaldo argument misses the meaningful truth to emerge from their rivalry, and a quick rundown of all the teams for sale around the world at a time when owners insist owning a sports franchise is a money pit. 

We look at every remaining World Cup matchup to determine who we should root for from an ethical perspective (Jonah's knowledge of history really shines through here). Then we shift to LeBron James' odd formality in wondering why reporters didn't construct a platform for him to speak on the recent Jerry Jones story. The show closes with some NBA talk, including Jonah scoffing at the Philadelphia 76ers for their most recent 40-year run.

Matthew does a solo dive into how FIFA's defense of the Qatar World Cup resembles 1930s Argentinian defenses of Hitler & Mussolini, why the biggest threat to MLB's cabal of owners is the richester one of them all, the reason rooting for the Knicks is like supporting socialism, the NHL's sadly predictable behavior in the Mitchell Miller scandal and the Brittany Griner injustice going from bad to worse.