Is there such a thing as a slow sports week?
This time of the year is known as a down time in sports. Outside of the Major League Baseball All-Star game and Wimbledon, there is often little to talk about. Afterall, baseball teams take nearly a week-long break between games, pro football camps haven’t started yet, and people tend to exhale for a few short days before gearing up for the rest of the summer.
However, this past week proved to be anything but slow. Since the time my blog came out last Friday, there were two HUGE transactions in the National Basketball Association, the U.S. won the Women’s World Cup soccer championship, there have been a lot of story lines out of Wimbledon, a current NFL player put on a football clinic in Aberdeen, and a pair of former Presentation College coaches were hired by another school in the same conference. That sure doesn’t seem like a slow week to me.
Some of those things came with a bit of advance notice. For instance, it was well promoted that former Britton-Hecla and SDSU standout, and current Philadelphia Eagle Dallas Goedert was putting on a football clinic. And it was well known that the U.S. women were the favorites to win the World Cup. And regardless of how things shake out at Wimbledon, there are always things to talk about there.
Still, I did not see a few other things coming, like Mike Dahl becoming the new baseball coach and Eric Nelson becoming the new women’s basketball coach at Dickinson State. I was also stunned by a few block-buster moves in professional basketball.
The NBA continues to steal headlines with all of its free agent signings and trade deals. The most recent movements caught everyone, including the experts, by surprise. While basketball enthusiasts waited for NBA Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard to decide his fate, nobody expected the announcement to come in the middle of the night last weekend and nobody had him landing with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Of course, part of that deal set off another blockbuster deal that came down last night. Leonard demanded that the Clippers trade for Paul George, leaving Oklahoma City with just one superstar on its roster. That player, Russell Westbrook, was traded to Houston for Chris Paul in a deal that again seemed to come on spur of the moment notice.
Personally, I love all of the “off-season” stuff as along as all the best players don’t all land on the same team. I expect many more off the field transactions coming in the weeks ahead as the MLB trade deadline is the last day of July. The Minnesota Twins are expected to be among the movers and the shakers in that.
As was proven in the past week alone, things tend to move fast during the slow time of the year. I can only imagine what might transpire once things return to break-neck speed. I, for one, can’t wait for what lies ahead.