ESPN Daily ESPN

Jimmy Butler’s been underestimated for most of his basketball life. Every step of the way, Butler has been forced to prove he belonged. But now, as the six-time NBA All Star Butler leads the Heat against the Nuggets in Game 3 of the NBA Finals tonight, it’s easy to miss how it all started. So today Ryan Hockensmith takes us back to Butler’s college days to pinpoint the moment when Jimmy Butler became Jimmy Buckets.
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June is one of the busiest months on the sports calendar. The NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Final, and the Major League Baseball season are all going full tilt. But as you know, the NFL never sleeps. OTA’s are winding down. Training camp is on the horizon. And one of the best receivers in the league is now a free agent after the Arizona Cardinals released DeAndre Hopkins. So with everything going on, Bill Barnwell catches Jeremy Schaap up on everything to know about the league that has no offseason.
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When you think about dynasties in the 21st century, you might think of the New England Patriots, or Los Angeles Lakers, or the UConn women’s basketball team. But there’s another dynasty that you might be overlooking… one that just might be more dominant than all of them: the Oklahoma Sooners softball team. They’ve won 96% of their games since 2020, including a historic winning streak of 50 games (and counting). The Sooners have also won five national championships since 2013, and are three victories away from completing a three-peat in college softball for the first time in 23 years. So today, Hallie Grossman breaks down what makes this team so dominant, and explains how they got there.
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Today is Lou Gehrig Day across Major League Baseball, a day to honor the New York Yankees legend when he left the game in 1939 after he was diagnosed with ALS. And today, there’s someone else in baseball who is fighting the exact same fight Gehrig fought over 80 years ago: Sarah Langs. Sarah is a baseball researcher and analyst, and has worked for ESPN and MLB. She’s one of sports media’s brightest young voices, and Buster Olney joins us today to share her story…and how she remains unphased after life threw her a devastating curveball.

For more information on Sarah’s “Fist Bumps for ALS” campaign, click here.
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The NBA Finals begin tonight, with the Denver Nuggets on the league’s biggest stage for the first time ever. They are led by Nikola Jokic, the two-time MVP who has built a case to be called the greatest player in the world. So today, with his team hosting the Miami Heat in game one, Ramona Shelburne explains how the always humble Jokic evolved from a pudgy, soda-chugging teenager in Serbia to the playmaking center that’s changing the game as we know it.
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After an NHL season where we thought we’d see some of the blue bloods of hockey finally return to championship glory, the Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights had other plans. The Golden Knights are back in the Stanley Cup Final for their second appearance in only six years of existence, while the Panthers snuck into the playoffs as the eighth seed and upset both the Bruins and Maple Leafs on their way to their first Stanley Cup Final appearance since 1996. It’s a testament to how much the NHL has grown over the years…and today, Emily Kaplan gives us a preview of the Stanley Cup Final, and tells us what to expect as both teams close in on their pursuit of history.
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