ESPN Daily ESPN

It’s difficult to identify a true contemporary to Jerry West. 

He’s the man who spent 14 consecutive years as an All Star for the Los Angeles Lakers. The guy who helped engineer and sustain not one, but two dynasties with the team. A figure whose silhouette literally loomed above the league as the NBA’s logo.

So when the news broke last week of his death, at the age of 86, it marked the passing of a giant.

Today, Jeremy Schaap memorializes the great Laker. He explains West’s West Virginia origins, explores his life and legacy with the Lakers and across the NBA, and tells us how, in spite of all of his great accomplishments, the harshest critic of Jerry West was always Jerry West.
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Yankees vs. Red Sox. It’s one of the fiercest rivalries in all of sports and includes names like: Derek Jeter, Pedro Martinez, David Ortiz, Bucky Dent, and of course Babe Ruth.

But these days Major League Baseball has become so obsessed with data, that it feels like the human element can fall by the wayside.

So, ahead of their three game weekend series, culminating with a matchup on Sunday Night Baseball, Jeff Passan joins the show to explain just what this rivalry is like in 2024.

And to tell us why things have been uncharacteristically quiet these days in Fenway Park.
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The first month of the WNBA season has been full of compelling on-court storylines. The Connecticut Sun look ready to contend for a title. The defending champion Las Vegas Aces have struggled to find their footing with veteran Chelsea Gray injured. 
But all of that is getting crowded out by one big distraction –– a debate over whether or not the league is being fair to its megastar rookie, Cailtin Clark. Chennedy Carter’s hard foul on Clark last week is the match that lit the flame, but the firestorm had been brewing long before that. 
So today, Elle Duncan, host of ESPN’s women’s basketball coverage, is here to help understand how we got here, unpack what’s really going on in this conversation, and gauge if and when we can get back to actual basketball. 
Check out ‘The Elle Duncan Show’ on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. 
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Two games into the NBA Finals, and it looks like nothing can keep the Boston Celtics away from lifting an 18th championship banner to the rafters. They’ve been able to limit the Dallas attack to just Luka Doncic, and everything seems to be going their way.

ESPN NBA reporter Tim Bontemps has been at both games of the series, and he joins the show to explain just how Boston is keeping the Dallas attack in check. And explore if a shift in venue to the Lone Star state will be enough to give the Mavs a fighting chance.
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For Americans who’ve never watched a cricket match before, now may be the best time to start. Because for the first time ever, Team USA has drawn global attention, after shocking the world in an upset over Pakistan last Thursday. And that feat looks all the more improbable when you learn who exactly is on this roster. 

So today, ESPN’s own Aishwarya Kumar explains how they pulled it off, and why this Men’s T20 World Cup tournament looks like a watershed moment for American cricket. 

You can stream Team USA’s Wednesday and Friday matches against India and Ireland at 10:30 AM Eastern Time.
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With all of the energy surrounding women’s basketball these days, it can be easy to lose sight of the fact that the interest in women’s sports is growing beyond just the hardwood.

We’ve seen a professional women’s hockey league return to the ice this season, stars continue to shine on the tennis courts and the track. And interest in the Women’s College World Series has steadily increased year over year leading to an average of two million fans tuning in to the most watched title series ever.

So today, Jake Trotter, who covers college sports at ESPN, introduces us to Maya Brady, a prolific shortstop at UCLA, who just completed a decorated college career on the softball field.

And Jake tells us why Maya’s rise is about more than just her shared family lineage with her uncle, one Tom Brady.
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