ESPN Daily ESPN

10 years ago this week, TMZ published bombshell recordings of Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s private conversation with his mistress, V. Stiviano. Sterling’s racist and sexist dialogue captured the world’s attention, and less than a week later, new commissioner Adam Silver had banned him from the NBA for life, forcing a sale of the Clippers.

Today ESPN senior NBA writer, Ramona Shelburne, who covered the story and hosted the 30 for 30 podcast, The Sterling Affairs: Takes us back through the events of the scandal, explains how it was a seminal moment in the NBA, and ahead of the release of the FX mini-series Clipped, and tells us what it was like transitioning from a reporter to a producer.
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As the playoffs are about to start, all eyes are on the NBA. Instead of the focus being on the court, the attention is all on former Raptor’s reserve Jontay Porter. Porter was caught manipulating his time and performance on the court that tilted multiple prop bets in a specific direction and, shockingly, resulted in one bettor taking home a $1 million payday. It was later found that Porter had also placed bets himself, breaking the leagues sports betting bylaws. 

So today, Brian Windhorst joins the show to break down the dangers of Jontay Porter’s story, where this saga heads next, and gives a NBA Playoff preview along the way. 
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Since the 2023 CFB season came to a close, USC’s Caleb Williams has been penciled in as the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the 2024 NFL Draft. The team holding that pick is the Chicago Bears, who are well known for their inability to draft and develop quarterbacks to their potential. 

A couple of times throughout history, top prospects have used their leverage to force their ways out of unfavorable landing spots. The stories of John Elway, Bo Jackson, and most recently Eli Manning all come to mind. 

Even though Caleb Williams does not look to be joining their ranks, there is still a conversation to be had about how these “can’t miss’ players can and have used their standing to buck the system and how NIL adds new leverage to that dynamic. 

So today, Liz Merril tells us the story of those players who manipulated their landing spots, and why you never know what will happen until “the pick is in”. 
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So ESPN MLB expert Jeff Passan updates us on: the latest happenings in the Shohei Ohtani sports betting case, discusses how now isn’t the time for the league and the player’s association to go to battle over who is responsible for the slew of elbow injuries costing pitchers their season, and explains how players approach trying to be on the field for a full 162 games.
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Technically, the NHL regular season does not finish until Thursday, with a few teams still fighting for the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference. But the true contenders to raise Lord Stanley’s Cup have already become pretty clear.

So with the playoffs officially starting this weekend, we find ourselves filled with pressing questions. Is Canada finally poised to end its three decade title drought? Can Connor McDavid get over the hump? Are the New York Rangers for real? Our NHL expert Emily Kaplan tells us what to watch for and why this year’s race looks as wide open and unpredictable as ever.
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When a six-foot tall, 265-pound bronze statue of Jackie Robinson went missing from McAdams Park in Wichita, Kansas, it felt like a hate crime. An ugly echo of America’s unjust past and a crime leveled not just at the man who broke Major League’s color barrier in 1947 but also at an urban community within the city.

But as Bob Lutz, the founder of League 42, a youth organization geared towards exposing the city’s black and brown youth to baseball and more, learned, Jackie Robinson was more of an accidental victim than a target.

So ESPN’s Anthony Olivieri, who spent weeks trying to understand what happened, joins the show to tell us how the people of Wichita reacted to the theft and how in the aftermath, the community could be made whole.
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