Fate. Luck.

  In a week’s time there can be a ton of sports news or there can be very little. It is only in season for baseball and sports like tennis and golf. 

And the latter two are more defined by their “majors.” The ones which are not sponsored by a corporate entity and are called The US Open or Wimbledon, for example. 

Yet hockey and basketball made themselves newsworthy this week. Hockey because the NHL Draft happened for another year and this is the time of trades and free agency for the NBA. 

Not to be left out was football. Of course it was to single out four players for gambling and for their respective teams to jettison them off of their rosters for their morally reprehensible actions. While the teams line coffers with gambling money from the fans. 

In basketball, it was James Harden trying to force the Sixers to trade him to another contender where he could mess up the chemistry while being paid an exorbitant amount for his services. While female players like Brittney Griner toil for much less money, fly commercial and are accosted by crazies. 

Or maybe it was free agent-to-be Draymond Green acting foolish on the made-for-TV golf “match” between the Kansas City Chiefs’ all-everything QB Patrick Mahomes and his all-everything TE Travis Kelce versus Green’s Warriors teammates Klay Thompson and Steph Curry. I recognized Green’s presence as an omen that he would re-sign with Golden State. Sure enough, he did, for the princely amount of $100 million over four years. 

Basketball free agency has become the NBA’s version of baseball’s hot stove season, arriving in the colder months when baseball is not played. It allows the experts like Brian Windhorst of ESPN to have a show for an hour Friday evening, pre-empting the 5:00-6:00 “Happy Hour” lineup of Around the Horn and Pardon The Interruption.

Between June’s NBA Draft and free agency, the teams will fill out for the 2023-24 season. Players will be happy where they are, like Harrison Barnes, who re-upped with Sacramento. Or there will be others leaving Harden, looking for that elusive championship in a new home. Then again, he might stay, just to madden the normally manic Philly fans. 

I guess this sates the fans who flock to watch these self-serving programs—after all, ESPN does air MLB, NFL and NBA games. Me—I don’t watch and I read things occasionally. The big stars will make news if they do land an outrageous contract in a different place. 

It really does not affect me if Damien Lillard is going to leave Portland for Miami or another venue, or he stays in “The Rose City.” When the games are televised, then it will matter to me. 

Speaking of ESPN, the sports network apparently is hemorrhaging money. So much so that 20 very well-known and well-compensated on-air talents were let go on Friday. I am particularly sad that Hall of Fame QB Steve Young was let go, along with another veteran, Suzy Kolber. 

Yet the biggest surprise was the jettisoning of Jeff Van Gundy. The former Knicks and Rockets head coach, an encyclopedia of information and never unopinionated, no matter how outlandish his thoughts might be, was the perfect foil for stellar play-by-play man Mike Breen and Mark Jackson, his former Knicks guard and once a coach off Steph Curry at Golden State. I am pretty sure that he will end up somewhere soon. 

I have seen players come and go. So, too, with announcers and analysts. Not everyone has a gig like Vin Scully did with the Dodgers—and he was easily replaced. 

We all thought Marv Albert would announce forever. Kevin Harlan is ensconced in Marv’s seat at TNT and Breen became the preeminent man both at MSG and on ABC with the NBA Finals. They will someday be replaced. 

In this instance, ESPN felt compelled to get rid of big contracts. The replacements will come from within or maybe a fired catch like Doc Rivers might snag a gig. They will become popular, because the games themselves are the driving force. 

These drafts are so heavily promoted or free agency so inspected and speculated because it justifies the money in advertising revenue that is so sorely needed to cover the cost of buying the rights to the programming. It is all a vicious circle. 

Connor Bedard was drafted first in the NHL Draft by the Chicago Blackhawks. Bedard has been anointed as a savior in the Windy City—much like Patrick Kane, who led Chicago to three Stanley Cups, or Sidney Crosby in Pittsburgh, where Sid the Kid brought three Cups to The Steel City and gracefully succeeded Mario Lemieux as the on ice hero (He actually lived with Lemieux and his family for a number of years at the beginning of his career).

Those names, along with icons Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier, are among the greats in the sport. That is some comparison for Bedard, and has generated much expectation for the youngster. 

As great as Kane and Crosby were and might continue to be (although Kane was traded late last season to the New York Rangers and is a free agent who is awaiting hip surgery), they were surrounded by great talent. So was Edmonton with Gretzky and Messier on the same team and a bevy of Hockey Hall of Fame players on the roster. 

Bedard does not start with that kind of team in Chicago. Crosby continues to chase the dream of another Stanley Cup at age 35, where injuries have worn him down, making his goal very elusive. 

There are only very few who have incredible success. Gretzky is the G.O.A.T. in hockey. Tom Brady, Michael Jordan and Bill Russell have won the most NBA titles. You have to look at the New York Yankees of the late 1950’s and early 1960’s to find Yogi Berra, who won 10 with the Bombers. Derek Jeter is of more recent vintage, and he won 5. It isn’t easy to win consistently—look at LeBron James and Steph Curry with four each—that’s a lot of championships in this day and age. 

For Bedard to live up to live up to the great expectations of his team’s fans is outrageous. I wish him well—except when he plays the New Jersey Devils and that team won its three Cups with goaltending from the greatest goalie ever—Martin Brodeur and two hallowed defensemen in Scott Stevens and Scott Niedermayer. 

Finally, I want to acknowledge the perfect game hurled by Domingo German on Wednesday. He sat down the Oakland A’s on 99 pitches, which included nine strikeouts. The Yankees right hander, suspended this season for too much rosin on his hands, had only one hard hit ball against him. 

German joins Don Larsen, David Wells and David Cone as the only Yankees pitchers to have thrown a perfect game. German’s gem broke a tie between New York and the Chicago White Sox, who have three perfect games. 

No matter how badly German pitches for the rest of the season—he was in a slump before facing the A’s—he will always be a darling for the fickle Yankees fans. And I am one of them who stayed up (with my wife) to watch the game to its conclusion after midnight here in New Jersey. 

With the player and personalities I have mentioned, no matter how hard they worked to get attain success, there are two four letter words which stand out for everyone who tries to become the best in some capacity. Fate. Luck. 

You’ve got to have those in your corner.