Crypto.com, which holds a 20-year, $700 million Los Angeles arena naming rights deal signed in 2021, is suspending its institutional exchange service for U.S. customers on June 21. The company cited the “current market landscape” in its decision, which comes the same week as cryptocurrency firms Binance and Coinbase were sued by the Securities and Exchange Commission on allegations that they violated securities laws.

“We recently made a business decision to suspend the institutional offering of the Crypto.com Exchange in the U.S. as of 11:59 pm EDT June 21, 2023 due to limited demand from institutions in the U.S. in the current market landscape. Impacted institutional users were given advance notice to support a smooth transition,” Crypto.com said in a statement to Blockworks.

Institutional investors are typically large accredited customers and companies. U.S. customers will still be able to use Crypto.com’s retail app which has more than 80 million users worldwide.

The first announced team in TGL, the startup golf league co-founded by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy, will be based in Los Angeles and include tennis legends Serena Williams and Venus Williams as owners alongside Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian.

Los Angeles Golf Club (LAGC) will compete in the TGL’s inaugural season starting in January 2024. Ohanian and his wife, Serena Williams, also own Angel City FC, the NWSL club that plays home games at BMO Stadium in Los Angeles. LAGC is the first of six teams to form the TGL, part of Woods’ and MclIroy’s TMRW Sports endeavor backed by numerous star athletes, major sports executives, and music artists.

The PGA Tour is notably partnering with TMRW Sports to launch TGL, which forms its first team just days after the shocking merger between the PGA Tour and Saudi Arabia’s LIV Golf. Each team in the TGL will consist of three PGA Tour golfers, with Woods and McIlroy being confirmed to play.

Every football fan looks forward to Tuesday nights from mid-August to early September — that's when HBO's "Hard Knocks" goes behind the scenes at an NFL training camp.

Throughout the entire offseason, the biggest story has easily been Aaron Rodgers' trade to the New York Jets, so who wouldn't want to see what their camp looks like?

The Jets, however, want no part of being featured on the program.

It’s hard to tell whether the Oakland Athletics are a bigger farce on or off the field.

On the field, the A’s are on pace to lose 127 games. No major league team in the entirety of the 20th century lost so many games in a single season.

Off the field, the A’s soon could go 0 for 4 in potential host cities, striking out in the pursuit of a new ballpark in Oakland, Fremont, San Jose and maybe now in Las Vegas.

The question is not where A’s owner John Fisher and team president Dave Kaval might look next. The question is why Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred would trust them to wrap up the Vegas deal, let alone let them look for another stadium deal, when Fisher and Kaval have proven they cannot get a deal done.

The PGA Tour is starting to formulate a plan to “reward” golfers who remained loyal to the league over LIV Golf.

PGA Tour policy board member Jimmy Dunne told ESPN on Friday that golfers who opted to stay with the Tour over LIV Golf will receive equity in the new golf league. How that works specifically has yet to be determined.

The move comes just days after Tour commissioner Jay Monahan’s surprise announcement about a merger of sorts between the Tour, the DP World Tour and LIV Golf.

Belligerent ’til the end, Greg Norman fights on. The LIV Golf chief executive has declared that the breakaway league is “not going anywhere” but will instead flourish because of the merger of the Saudi sovereign wealth fund with the PGA Tour and DP World Tour.

Norman was not involved in the peace negotiations between Yasir Al-Rumayyan, the Public Investment Fund governor and chairperson of LIV, and three members of the PGA Tour board, including commissioner Jay Monahan.

Indeed, it is believed the Australian was not privy to the talks at all and only discovered the bombshell news a few minutes before the announcement was released. And after both Rory McIlroy and Tiger Woods declared that a settlement could only be reached if Norman was out of the picture, it is difficult to envisage the two-time major winner holding any sort of dominant role in the new set-up.

Legislators in one of America’s largest and fastest-growing states have approved a bill to introduce sports wagering, providing yet another fertile market territory for gaming operators.

The North Carolina General Assembly passed legislation authorizing sports and horse-race wagering following prior approval by the state Senate — and reversing a defeat to anti-gambling advocates nearly a year ago.

The bill now moves to Gov. Roy Cooper, who repeatedly has expressed support for the measure. If signed into law, the bill would allow betting as soon as January.

Anchor Neil Everett is leaving ESPN, Front Office Sports has confirmed.

The famous “SportsCenter” anchor confirmed he’s the latest on-air talent to leave during the Walt Disney Co.-mandated downsizing of ESPN’s on-air TV/radio talent.

The 61-year-old Everett has been one of ESPN’s most popular anchors for 23 years.

The Portland native will seek to increase his role with the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers. He also has several side projects in the works.

“Bartender…last call,” Everett said in a statement to Front Office Sports.

He added: “ESPN changed my life, but now it’s time for me to change my life. Time to write a new chapter.”

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver joined the Dan Patrick Show on Thursday morning and presented a different angle to how the league could handle Ja Morant's latest incident.

A lot of conversation has been focused on how many games Morant should be suspended, but Silver seems to believe that there is a better way to address the issues. The commissioner is suggesting a program to help Morant going forward.

The Memphis Grizzlies star was suspended eight games for conduct detrimental to the league after a previous incident in which he brandished a gun on March 4 in a Denver-area nightclub. Silver believed at the time that an eight-game suspension was severe.

USC and UCLA won’t be able to ease their way into the Big Ten.

The football schedules for their debut 2024 season, announced by the conference Thursday, include a heavy sprinkling of traditional powers.

USC will face Michigan, Penn State and Wisconsin at a time when it presumably will no longer have Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Caleb Williams, gone to try his luck in the NFL.

UCLA gets Michigan and Ohio State during a season in which it will also play at Louisiana State, ending all jokes about the ease of the Bruins’ recent schedules that included Football Championship Subdivision opponents.

Wednesday marked a flurry of cancelled and postponed athletic events on the East Coast as wildfires in Canada triggered air quality alerts.

That trend continued when the Washington Nationals postponed their matchup with the Arizona Diamondbacks on Thursday.

The game, initially set for 1:05 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, won't take place until June 22.

This comes as Washington D.C. area residents experience worse air quality than yesterday. Levels on Thursday triggered a "Code Purple" designation in some areas. Those are the most dangerous air conditions, marking a 201 to 300 air quality index. Surrounding areas are also seeing Code Red (unhealthy) and Code Maroon (hazardous) levels toward Baltimore.

The Big 12 conference will soon have a presence in Mexico, and it could include a college football bowl game.

The Big 12 announced Thursday morning that it has established "Big 12 Mexico" with confirmed men's and women's basketball games, as well as exhibitions in baseball and women's soccer, being held in Mexico. On top of that, the conference says it will "explore establishing a bowl game" that would be held in Monterrey beginning in 2026.

The Big 12's first events in Mexico will feature matchups between Kansas and Houston in both men's and women's basketball. Those meetings are scheduled for December 2024 at Arena CDMX in Mexico City. From there, women's soccer and baseball teams will compete in exhibitions against local clubs.

On the football side, Sports Illustrated reported last month that Estadio BBVA is the potential host stadium in Monterrey. The stadium, which is is home to C.F. Monterrey in La Liga MX, holds 53,000 fans and is already set to be a World Cup site in 2026.

On the heels of yet another player sports betting investigation, the NFL appears to have found its version of McGruff the Crime Dog or Smokey Bear: None other than legendary and recently-retired quarterback Tom Brady.

Brady reportedly starred in a recorded educational video for the league where he explains the NFL's gambling policy, according to 9News' Mike Klis. This video is reportedly being shown at the team’s rookie minicamps and training camps and sounds like one of the three ways the NFL notifies its players of what is and isn't allowed. The basic tenets of the policy are simply: Don't bet on anything NFL-related and don't place bets at team facilities.

One can only imagine something similar to the iconic Rachael Leigh commercial from the 1990s where she smashes an egg with a frying pan to symbolize what happens to a human body on heroin.

The 2023 season is still months away, but six players have already been suspended in the past year. Two others, including Indianapolis Colts cornerback Isaiah Rodgers and an unnamed member of the Detroit Lions, could be as well. Four of those five players were also members of the Lions while the other, defensive end Shaka Toney, plays for the Washington Commanders.

Oklahoma softball is one win away from completing one of the greatest seasons in NCAA history.

The Sooners extended their NCAA record win streak to 52 games with a 5-0 victory over Florida State in Game 1 of the best-of-three Women's College World Series championship series, putting them one win away from a third straight NCAA title.

Only UCLA (1988-90) has accomplished a three-peat since the NCAA held its first softball tournament in 1982. Oklahoma will go for the clinch in Game 2 on Thursday in Oklahoma City (8 p.m. ET, ESPN).

Florida State managed to keep the Oklahoma run-scoring machine in check, for a while.

All-ACC starter Mack Leonard began the game, which had its start interrupted by multiple weather delays, by holding the Sooners scoreless for three innings, but the dam broke in the fourth, an inning in which OU is now outscoring opponents 76-3.

If peace has indeed broken out in big-time golf then someone should tell Rory McIlroy, the world No 3 who says he feels like “a sacrificial lamb” because of the extraordinary climbdown.

The day after the PGA Tour and DP World Tour dropped the bombshell that they had merged with the Saudi sovereign wealth fund, McIlroy produced an explosive press conference in which he declared “I still hate LIV”.

The Northern Irishman has highlighted in this last year of bitterness that he is prepared to jump in with his spikes where colleagues would not dare tiptoe and so it proved again, despite all the “hypocritical” assurances from the overlords that “this deal will unite the game”.

The world No 3’s incendiary remarks summed up the reaction in the Tour’s locker room that saw a player meeting on Tuesday night descend into a slanging match, with one lesser-ranked golfer telling McIlroy to ‘f*** off’. Tensions were high and McIlroy only raised the mercury still higher.

The ongoing decline of the crypto market has left more commercial wreckage in sports — as an affiliate of the NFL Players Association scrambles to recoup nearly $42 million.

The union’s annual report recently filed with the U.S. Department of Labor detailed $41.8 million in accounts receivable through OneTeam Partners — a joint venture involving the NFLPA, several other pro athlete unions and the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, among others — saying there remains “uncertainty” surrounding collection of the money.

According to The Athletic, the unpaid funds look to be connected to sharply declining activity surrounding non-fungible tokens (NFTs), particularly those produced by Dapper Labs and DraftKings, both of whom have already sought to renegotiate licensing deals with the NFLPA.

The unpaid funds represent roughly a fifth of the union’s annual commercial activity.

Many individual crypto currencies have lost most of their value following a bull run in 2021. FTX’s collapse was the most notable, leading to an arena name change in Miami and multiple lawsuits.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver has acknowledged that as far as coaching salaries are concerned, it’s open season.

Speaking before Game 1 of the NBA Finals Thursday in Denver, Silver said Monty Williams’ six-year, $78.5 million contract with the Detroit Pistons reflected the league’s market reality: Coaches’ compensation isn’t collectively bargained and governed like it is for players.

Williams’ deal — signed this week after the 2022 Coach of the Year was fired by Phoenix last month — is the largest ever for an NBA coach and reportedly could reach $100 million with options and incentives included.

The pact immediately amplified concerns that smaller-market clubs could lose out in future bidding wars for top coaching talent.

“We’re able to negotiate collectively with the players because they choose to negotiate as a union,” Silver said. “The coaches haven’t made that election … teams compete individually, and it’s where the marketplace takes us.”

BATON ROUGE — LSU is ending its controversial, seven-figure agreement allowing Caesars Entertainment to advertise sports betting across its main campus, according to officials at LSU and a sports marketing company involved in the deal.

The agreement, struck in 2021, was supposed to last several more years, said Lauren Capone of Playfly Sports, a marketing company that helped arrange the deal.

Capone said that talk of ending the deal began when a bill was filed in the Louisiana Legislature in March that would prohibit colleges and universities in the state from creating advertising agreements with gaming entities. The bill, by Sen. Gary Smith of Norco, passed the House on Tuesday.

Another factor was that the American Gaming Association, an industry group, updated its responsible marketing code in March to prohibit gaming companies from having partnerships with universities to promote sports betting.

Since then, several schools, including Michigan State and the University of Maryland, have said they would end similar advertising agreements with gaming companies.

The PGA Tour, DP World Tour, and LIV Golf are merging their operations into a single commercial entity, according to a press release from the PGA Tour.

The newly formed entity — whose name is to be determined — will be collectively owned and for-profit. It will contain more focus on team golf and growing the game globally.

The merger also features “a mutually agreed end to all pending litigation between the participating parties.”

“After two years of disruption and distraction, this is a historic day for the game we all know and love,” said PGA TOUR Commissioner Jay Monahan. “This transformational partnership recognizes the immeasurable strength of the PGA TOUR’s history, legacy, and pro-competitive model and combines with it the DP World Tour and LIV – including the team golf concept – to create an organization that will benefit golf’s players, commercial and charitable partners, and fans.”

“Today is a very exciting day for this special game and the people it touches around the world,” PIF Governor Yasir Al-Rumayyan said. “We are proud to partner with the PGA TOUR to leverage PIF’s unparalleled success and track record of unlocking value and bringing innovation and global best practices to business and sectors worldwide.”

Michael Block is safely in next year's PGA Championship.

Sadly for the fan favorite, he came up just short of the upcoming U.S. Open.

Block shot 135 over 36 holes at a U.S. Open qualifier at Toronto's Lambton Golf & Country Club on Monday. The score was good enough to finish 5-under par. But it was two shots off the pace needed to secure a spot at this month's U.S. Open at the Los Angeles Country Club.

The top three scores from the 27-man field secured a spot in the U.S. Open. Those spots go to Florida's Ryan Gerard (129), Sweden's Vincent Norrman (132) and Ohio's Ryan Armour (133).

Block's 18-year-old son Dylan also attempted to qualify, but finished well off the pace at a separate qualifier closer to their Southern California home at the Hillcrest Country Club in Los Angeles. Block initially planned to play at Hillcrest alongside his son, but opted to play in Toronto after receiving a sponsor's exemption into the RBC Canadian Open that starts Thursday.

Monday's were the final of 13 U.S. Open qualifying tournaments. Ten of them were held Monday in various locations across the U.S. in addition to the Toronto qualifier. There will be no more chances to make the field for the tournament that tees off on June 15.

The Miami Heat’s postseason run has been remarkable thus far.

While we’re only two games into the NBA Finals, the Heat have now gone further than any other No. 8 seed in NBA history.

The Heat picked up their 13th win this postseason Sunday night with a 111-108 win over the Denver Nuggets. That win at Ball Arena tied the Finals 1-1 ahead of Game 3 in Miami on Wednesday night.

Watching last week’s Diamond Sports bankruptcy hearing, I was struck by the personal animus Major League Baseball and the RSN owner/operator have toward each other.

After nearly four hours of testimony between MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred and Diamond Sports CEO David Preschlack, it is apparent the two sides don’t trust each other — so much so that it’s impossible to see how they will be able to bridge their divide.

An MLB lawyer accused the RSN group of looking to “blackmail” MLB at the start of the hearing last Wednesday, an extraordinary accusation leveled against a business partner.

Five months after the on-field collapse of Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, the NFL is expanding its efforts to prevent cardiac arrest fatalities among athletes.

The league has increased membership of the The Smart Heart Sports Coalition — the group it formed in March to advocate for widespread adoption of policies to prevent sudden cardiac arrest among athletes — to 26 organizations. Major properties joining the coalition include the NWSL, WNBA, WTA, and USTA.

The NBA, NHL, MLB, and MLS have been coalition members with the NFL from the outset as the group works with lawmakers in pursuit of policy improvements, particularly those geared toward high school athletes.

Churchill Downs is suspending race operations at the famed racetrack for nearly a month, marking the most dramatic response yet to an ongoing crisis in which 12 horses have died there in the last two months.

Live racing from June 7 until at least July 3 – representing the remainder of the Churchill Downs Spring Meet – will be moved to Ellis Park Racing & Gaming in Henderson, Ky., another Churchill Downs Inc.-owned facility.

Scheduled races on Saturday and Sunday were still held at Churchill Downs. But the four-week suspension arrives as track officials and equine experts continue their search for the cause of the deaths.

Jon Gruden’s appearance at New Orleans Saints practices a couple weeks could factor into future legal arguments in his lawsuit against the NFL.

In the latest filing by the NFL as part of its appeal related to Gruden’s lawsuit against the league, those emails allow NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell to declare the exchanges to trigger the “conduct detrimental” language laid out in the NFL Constitution and Bylaws.

And, in turn, the NFL argued that the case should be compelled to arbitration in the reply brief filed in Nevada State Supreme Court on Tuesday.

For Warner Bros. Discover Sports, the gravity set in when the most famous trophy in North American sports entered the room.

At the beginning of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the tournament’s namesake award was escorted into TNT’s Atlanta studios. The “NHL on TNT” staffers took selfies and admired the 3-foot, 37-pound masterpiece of silver and nickel alloy.

But once the stars in their eyes dimmed a bit, WBD Sports brass confronted the colossal significance of the next couple months.

The Big 12 is open to further expansion.

As the conference’s spring meetings wrapped up in West Virginia on Friday, first-year commissioner Brett Yormark met with reporters via video conference and was clear that the Big 12 has interest in adding additional members to the league.

“We have a plan,” Yormark said. “We have an appetite to be a national conference in our makeup from coast to coast. We love our current composition, love the four new schools that are coming in the next month. However, if the opportunity presents itself to create value, we will pursue it. It is a focus of ours.”

The Washington Nationals haven't received any financial relief from Stephen Strasburg's contract despite the injury issues that have prevented him from pitching in a game since June 9, 2022.

Per Jesse Dougherty of the Washington Post, the Nationals didn't take out any disability insurance on Strasburg's seven-year, $245 million contract signed in December 2019 because the "premiums would have been extremely high" even if the club and a company "could have agreed on a policy given Strasburg's age and extensive injury history."

Dougherty, citing sources, reported there is "increasing doubt" within the Nationals' organization about whether Strasburg will ever be able to pitch again.

DENVER — Even the Lakers and Celtics would have a hard time being overshadowed by what’s coming to Ja Morant.

NBA commissioner Adam Silver tried his best to lawyer his way through the wording, but it was clear the verdict on Morant will be harsh and perhaps groundbreaking. Silver knew it would dominate the news cycle for more than a day and that these NBA Finals, or any other for that matter, didn’t deserve to be upstaged by such a black mark.

Morant appeared to have another gun on an Instagram Live video weeks ago, leading to his suspension from the Memphis Grizzlies. It’s hard to say what Morant is actually being suspended from participating in at this time, but we do know what he’s suspended for: playing in your employer’s face.

The Chicago Bears said Friday they are thinking about abandoning their current plan to build a new stadium in nearby Arlington Heights and are considering looking at other locations.

This comes despite the team already buying the Arlington Heights land for $197.2 million.

The Bears are citing a property assessment they said is too high, so the area is "no longer our singular focus."

The ongoing decline of the crypto market has left more commercial wreckage in sports — as an affiliate of the NFL Players Association scrambles to recoup nearly $42 million.

The union’s annual report recently filed with the U.S. Department of Labor detailed $41.8 million in accounts receivable through OneTeam Partners — a joint venture involving the NFLPA, several other pro athlete unions and the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team, among others — saying there remains “uncertainty” surrounding collection of the money.

According to The Athletic, the unpaid funds look to be connected to sharply declining activity surrounding non-fungible tokens (NFTs), particularly those produced by Dapper Labs and DraftKings, both of whom have already sought to renegotiate licensing deals with the NFLPA.

Gervonta Davis is reportedly headed to jail, less than a month after appearing to avoid jail following a guilty plea in his hit-and-run case.

Baltimore sheriff's deputies took the lightweight boxing star into custody following a court hearing Thursday, in which Judge Althea Handy ordered Davis to spend the remainder of his three-month house arrest sentence in jail, according to the Baltimore Banner.

The exact reason behind the hearing remains unclear, but Davis' attorney described it as "impromptu" to the Banner. There is currently nothing official about the hearing on online court records.

A California man filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles Angels and former outfielder Juan Lagares this week after Lagares allegedly hurled a ball into the stands at a game last summer that hit the man in the face and left him blind.

David Mermelstein filed the lawsuit in Orange County Superior Court on Tuesday, according to the OCRegister. Mermelstein, 55, said he was struck in the face at Angel Stadium last June, and that the ball crushed his left eyeball and left him blind in that eye.

Mermelstein was at the Angels’ game against the Kansas City Royals on June 22, 2022, with some friends. After Lagares caught the third out to end the sixth inning of the game, Mermelstein said he looked down to eat some peanuts. Lagares, the lawsuit reads, then turned and “randomly hurled the ball into the stands at high velocity.”

It looks like Travis Kelce knows exactly what his plans are when he hangs up the football cleats.

The Kansas City Chiefs superstar has reportedly signed with CAA (Creative Artists Agency) for off-field representation.

Kelce dominates on the gridiron but has been a superstar off the field since winning Super Bowl LVII, the second of his career.

Erica Herman, the ex-girlfriend of Tiger Woods, has reportedly asked a court to reconsider its ruling that their legal battle must be resolved through private arbitration.

A Florida judge ruled last month Herman must abide by the nondisclosure agreement she purportedly signed and resolve her lawsuits privately.

An attorney for Herman filed the reconsideration request on Wednesday, according to USA Today.

Less than two weeks after wannabe Washington Commanders owner Brian Davis sued Bank of America for $500 billion, Davis has dropped the litigation.

The former Duke men’s basketball player’s attorney Jeffery Martin’s notice of voluntary dismissal was accepted by U.S. District Court Judge Deborah L. Boardman on Thursday.

There are no indications in court records that there was any type of settlement.

The move comes in the aftermath of a Friday hearing where Ava E. Lias-Booker, one of Bank of America’s attorneys, questioned the authenticity of the claims at the center of the case.

“The documents we have in our possession raise considerable concerns about their genuineness,” Lias-Booker said.

During the hearing Boardman also questioned whether Davis met the requirements needed to secure a temporary restraining order requested by Martin on Davis’ behalf.

A pair of former Major League Baseball senior executives are returning this summer to big-league ballparks – but with pickleball.

Mike Dee, who previously held senior-level business roles with the San Diego Padres and Boston Red Sox, and former MLB Advanced Media president and chief executive Bob Bowman are bringing their Pickeball4America to three MLB stadiums in July and August.

The newly formed entity, operating with the consumer-facing brand Pickle4, will stage its Ballpark Series at Fenway Park in Boston on July 13-16, San Francisco’s Oracle Park on July 20-23, and Denver’s Coors Field on August 3-6.

Rather than competing directly against other professional leagues in the fast-growing sport, Pickleball4America has developed a hybrid format for its events combining both amateur and professional play, tapping heavily into the recreational element that still represents pickleball’s foundation. The Ballpark Series will include multiple ways for amateur players to participate.

NEW YORK — There have been other expensive teams in baseball history. There are even other expensive teams this year. But two teams in particular have come to represent a philosophical no-holds-barred approach to baseball. The way that Steve Cohen spends on the New York Mets and Peter Seidler spends on the San Diego Padres seems to indicate that the two billionaires abide by the financial approach of “you can’t take it with you” with respect to their fortunes.

That’s in part because Seidler literally told The San Diego Union-Tribune: “I kind of like spending money … You can’t take it with you.”

The implications are perhaps not as profound, but the same could be said about manager replay challenges. There’s no downside to “spending” the one allotted to each team per game — especially since you get to keep it if you’re correct and the call is overturned — and there’s certainly no value in leaving them unused.

The benefit of challenges, of course, is strictly situational. But along with brains, brawn and dollar bills, they are one small bullet that every baseball team has at its disposal. So why are these two teams — who are ostensibly throwing everything they have at winning — so often leaving that bullet in the chamber?

The Detroit Pistons have come to terms on an agreement with Monty Williams to become their next head coach, league sources told Yahoo Sports.

The pact is sizable, with the Pistons coming to the table with a guaranteed $78.5 million, six-year contract, plus two additional team option years that could take it to $100 million, sources said. Pistons owner Tom Gores, as he was in the case of Dwane Casey in 2018, was heavily involved in the courtship of Williams after he hit the coaching market weeks ago.

The Pistons were in discussions with Milwaukee Bucks assistant coach Charles Lee and Overtime Elite’s Kevin Ollie, and Lee had taken the pole position of the two. The Pistons initially made overtures to Williams, but Williams seemed unsure about coaching this season and looked to take the year off.

The relationship between Pistons general manager Troy Weaver and Williams goes back to Williams’ time in Oklahoma City, and Gores kept in contact with Williams over the past few days, as Williams began to reconsider coaching next season.

Skip Bayless is reportedly going to need a new partner.

Pro Football Hall of Famer-turned-talking head Shannon Sharpe has reached a contract buyout agreement with Fox Sports to end his seven-year run alongside Bayless on Fox Sports 1's "Skip and Shannon: Undisputed," according to the New York Post's Ryan Glasspiegel.

Sharpe's final show is reportedly expected to be after the NBA Finals end in June. He will also reportedly be taking his "Club Shay Shay" podcast with him from Fox Sports.

The development ends what had been a successful partnership for Fox Sports since it poached Bayless from ESPN's "First Take' in 2016 and paired him with Sharpe, previously an NFL commentator for CBS. After years of Bayless verbally sparring with Stephen A. Smith on the highly successful ESPN2 show, Sharpe provided a different voice to counter Bayless in Fox's own morning debate show.

Late Friday night, an AFC general manager was offering his thoughts on potential landing spots for newly released wideout DeAndre Hopkins when he asked a question that could ultimately reshape the Arizona Cardinals.

“What do you think they do with [Kyler] Murray?”

On its face, it would seem like an odd question to ask about a 25-year-old quarterback who just signed a five-year, $230.5 million extension one season ago. Even with Murray suffering a season-ending ACL tear in December, the logical path for a quarterback with his talent would seem typical: get Murray healthy; get him back on the field; get back to the plan that made him the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft. The only complication to that logic is that plans can change quickly in this league — especially when the general manager who selected Murray (Steve Keim) and the head coach plucked specifically to develop the quarterback (Kliff Kingsbury) are both gone. Now you can add Murray’s No. 1 wideout to that mix, with Hopkins getting his release on Friday.

When it comes to Murray’s most powerful advocates in Arizona’s building, the herd has thinned considerably. Hence, a general manager in the AFC wondering if Murray might be the next big divorce in Arizona.

Bettors who took the Miami Heat to win the Eastern Conference probably felt like they actually played a seven-game series by the time the Heat won that bet.

It took a long time and a lot of ups and downs for the Heat to finally cash the series tickets. Imagine having a six-figure win riding on the outcome.

Before the Eastern Conference finals started, a large bet came in on the Heat at BetMGM. It was a $25,000 bet at 4-to-1 odds.

Here's the roller coaster for that $25,000 bettor and everyone else who backed the Heat in the series:

The Heat won the first two games in Boston, both as big underdogs. In Game 2 they had a big rally at the end, fueled by Jimmy Butler after Celtics forward Grant Williams riled him up. Even after that start, the Heat were no lock to win the series. The Celtics were favored in Game 3. But the +400 tickets were aging very well.

•The Heat won Game 3 and everyone heard the stat repeatedly: NBA teams up 3-0 in a series were 150-0 in those series, including the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference finals. You won't have too many 4-to-1 bets that have a 150-for-150 history.

Sloane Stephens is headed to the second round of the French Open after beating No. 16 Karolína Plíšková in an upset victory on Monday (6-0, 6-4). She spoke bluntly in response to a question about racism after the win.

"Yes, it's obviously been a problem my entire career," she said. "It has never stopped. If anything, it's only gotten worse."

A reporter mentioned a software meant to protect athletes from hate speech on social media. Stephens, 30, said she's heard of it and hasn't used it.

From the the 2017 US Open champion and 2018 French Open finalist's perspective, it's to be expected.

"It's something I have had to deal with," she said, "and something I will continue to deal with, I'm sure. That's that."

While she's confident the issue will continue, she expressed concern about how things have changed.

British No 1 Cameron Norrie has opened up about his ill-tempered meeting with Novak Djokovic in Rome a fortnight ago, describing the Serbian’s late arrival on court as something “I’ve never seen from any player.”

At their fourth-round meeting in Rome on May 16, Djokovic opted for extra time on the physio’s bench after tweaking something in practice, and thus arrived more than 10 minutes after the scheduled 11am start.

To frustrate Norrie further, Djokovic never apologised for the delay. Telegraph Sport understands that Djokovic received a fine for his tardiness, and that Norrie was furious at the time about what he perceived as a lack of respect.

This fed into an edgy encounter which saw Norrie strike Djokovic on the back of the ankle with a full-blooded overhead smash. After the match – which Norrie lost by a 6-3, 6-4 scoreline – Djokovic complained about his opponent’s behaviour, saying: “He’s allowed to take a medical timeout.”

Just a few months after he revealed his cancer diagnosis, Liam Hendriks returned to the mound on Monday night in Chicago.

The White Sox closer made his season debut in their 6-4 loss to the Los Angeles Angels in what was an incredible, emotional scene at Guaranteed Rate Field.

Hendriks, who announced in January that he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, took the mound in the eighth inning to a massive standing ovation.

Hendriks then threw a strike on his very first pitch. That ball was instantly taken out of the rotation for him.

Hendriks pitched just one inning. He allowed two runs on three hits and a walk.

The milk is on Josef Newgarden.

The Team Penske driver sped past Marcus Ericsson on the final lap of the Indianapolis 500 to win the race for the first time in his career.

After a third red flag, Ericsson lined up and got off to a big lead as he took the white flag. But Newgarden was on his tail and made a shrewd move to pass Ericsson and held him off the rest of the way. It was his best finish since he took third in 2016.

Major League Baseball is poised to vote on the relocation of the Oakland A’s to Las Vegas as soon as mid-June, said league commissioner Rob Manfred.

If such a vote happens at owners’ meetings slated for June 13-15 in New York, it would certify the league’s first franchise move since the Montreal Expos became the Washington Nationals in 2005.

Manfred, however, cautioned much still needs to be done before a vote happens.

It took about half a year for Liam Hendriks to go from battling a serious form of cancer to returning to the Chicago White Sox.

The White Sox announced Sunday that Hendriks will be activated Monday after spending the first two months of the season on the injured list battling stage 4 non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Hendriks, who first announced his diagnosis in early January, confirmed the news himself with an Instagram post showing the big date.

Longtime NBA referee Eric Lewis allegedly used a burner account to defend himself against strangers on the internet. Now he'll reportedly have to defend himself against the NBA.

The league has opened an investigation into Lewis over the alleged burner account, which has since been deleted, according to NBA reporter Marc Stein and ESPN.

The account in question went by the name "Blair Cuttliff" and the handle "@CuttliffBlair." Fans started to notice the account's proclivity for defending Lewis and other NBA officials on Thursday, with one account compiling a video showing a sample of the tweets.

Jimmy Garoppolo's fresh start with the Las Vegas Raiders isn't going as planned.

The former 49ers quarterback reportedly faces an uncertain future in the Silver and Black stemming from the foot injury he suffered in Week 13 of the 2022 NFL season, which could keep him from seeing any sort of Raiders paycheck.

Pro Football Talk's Mike Florio reported late Saturday night he had obtained a copy of Garoppolo's contract with Las Vegas -- which the signal-caller signed in March shortly after his introductory Raiders press conference was delayed.