The Basement View

  The Brooklyn Net front office is at it again! They just cannot learn from their mistakes. According to reports, Brooklyn’s “A-Plan” this offseason is to pursue Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo. In a hypothetical deal with the Bucks, Brooklyn would need to use a combination of picks collected from the Mikal Bridges, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant trades to entice Milwaukee to trade away the face of the franchise. But there’s also a great deal of the cap gymnastics that would accompany the picks to get a deal done. Cam Johnson almost certainly would be the center piece salary wise in an Antetokounmpo trade, but that’s where the Nets big salary ends, unless Nic Claxton is also included. If not Claxton, a potential sign-and-trade with D’Angelo Russell could get the job done. If Russell is the addition to Johnson in the trade instead of Claxton, another current Net would also have to be including to match the salaries. Got all that? Good. Brooklyn will have the most amoun...

  For the first time in the Bronx in the new 2025 season, last night felt like a big game. Following the Yankee bullpen implosion the night before, both teams sent their Opening Day starters to the mound, and the two lineups were hot going into the contest, it felt like an extremely early test. And the Yankees barely failed that test. Last night was the full Carlos Rodon experience. Around baseball there are certain marks set by pitchers that have nicknames. Like a complete game where the pitcher throws under 100 pitches is called a “Maddux” after Greg Maddux. Nathan Eovaldi just did that earlier in the week against the Cincinnati Reds. Or a deGrom, named after Jacob deGrom, where a pitcher throws seven plus innings allows two or fewer runs and their team still loses the game. Hunter Greene had that happen to him the day after Eovaldi threw his “Maddux.” Well last night in the Bronx was a “Rodon.” A game where a pitcher throws six or more innings, gives up four plus runs, including...

  Aaron Boone gave Yankee fans their own special April Fool’s Day prank. It came in the form of his bullpen usage against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Look, I get it, the reason why the Yankee bullpen fell a part in the 8 th inning was because Tim Hill simply didn’t have it last night. That’s the reason why Mark Leiter Jr had to be a fireman against Arizona. And the reason why Tim Hill was ushered into action in the 8 th inning was because closer Devin Williams was placed on the paternity list yesterday afternoon and the Yankee bullpen was in such dire straits, they had to sign familiar face Adam Ottavino to fill out the 26-man roster. However, it is a questionable decision on Boone’s part as to why Luke Weaver wasn’t the second guy out of the pen after Hill or even the man to take care of the 8 th inning from the start. Going into the top of the 8 th Arizona was sending up their eight, nine, and one in their order. However, the Diamondbacks had an ace in the hole on the bench, Ra...

Three games in and the Yankees have slugged their way to three wins. Over the first series against the Milwaukee Brewers the Bombers have scored 36 runs which is the most since 1901. They have also hit 15 home runs along the way. Usually at this time of year the pitchers are ahead of the hitters. Not in the Bronx. Aaron Judge remains superhuman, hitting already his fourth home run of the season, and the Brewers waived the white flag and walked the Yankee captain the next three times he stepped into the batter’s box. Jazz Chisholm and his new “torpedo” bat clobbered two more home runs. Paul Goldschmidt led off for the second straight game and had four more hits. While the offense in the Boogie Down cannot be stopped so far, the starters toeing the slab have had a little bit of an issue to start the year. Carlos Rodon had a solid outing on Opening Day but only went five and a third. Both Max Fried and Marcus Stroman didn’t get out the 5 th inning in their first starts. The bullpen has p...

  20/16/5 is a stat line that Karl Anthony-Towns, Jalen Brunson, or Josh Hart could give the Knicks on any given night. It is not supposed to be the three columns of a baseball line score, but it was yesterday afternoon. The Yankees scored 20 runs, did so by producing 16 hits, and yes, fumbled the ball around Yankee Stadium attune to five errors. Even with the five errors, as you might have guessed, if you score 20 runs in a baseball game, you more often than not win, that contest, which the Bronx Bombers did. And the moniker “Bronx Bombers” could not be more spot on than what the Yankee offense did to Milwaukee pitching. It started with New York becoming the first team in Major League history to lead off the game with three swings and three home runs. Back-to-back-to-back by Paul Goldschmidt, Cody Bellinger, and the captain Aaron Judge. The Yanks went back out onto the field in the top of the second with a four-run cushion thanks to Austin Wells’ second home run in as many games. ...

No Juan Soto, no problem for the New York Yankees on Opening Day 2025. The offense provided enough pop, Carlos Rodon missed enough bats, and Devin Williams scared the sold-out crowd in the Bronx but nailed down his first Yankee save. Along the way, Austin Wells became the first catcher in Major League Baseball history to hit a lead-off home run on Opening Day, Aaron Judge knocked home two key 7 th inning insurance runs, and Anthony Volpe’s home run swing stayed true since last October. For one day all is right with the world at East 161 st Street. Even with the departure of Soto to Queens, there is optimism among this ballclub to realize the dream of raising banner number 28. However, something did feel off. Maybe it was that Gerrit Cole didn’t toe the slab as the ace of a staff should on Opening Day. Or it was the fact that Cody Bellinger and Paul Goldschmidt are Yankees, and this isn’t an MLB The Show franchise save. Or the fact that players can have beards now, and this isn’t som...

  2025 is an immensely important year for the New York Yankees. A season after they made the World Series for the first time in 15 years, the expectation now is for the Yankees to take that next step and win it all. The most important Bomber to help realize the dream of Mission 28 is Jazz Chisholm. The 27-year-old second baseman is the key because he could be the table setter to Aaron Judge while also needing to be the protection for the Yankee captain. It is undetermined where Chisholm will bat in New York’s order in the upcoming season, but with the injury to Giancarlo Stanton, the need for protection behind Judge to provide power to the Yankee lineup is the number one priority as the ball club moves along in Spring Training. Chisholm in his limited 46-game audition to the Yankee universe was a favorable one. In 191 at-bats the then third baseman batted .276 with seven doubles, 11 home runs, 23 RBIs, and 18 stolen bases. He was the Yankee offense in a time in late Augus when the ...

  Basketball in New York will forever be linked in Brooklyn and Madison Square Garden. The Nets will never catch the Knicks in terms of fanfare, ratings, or relevance—but because New York is a basketball city they will always be on the top of mind within the center of the universe. Part of this relationship within the city between both squads right now is the Mikal Bridges trade, but even that isn’t the biggest difference with where the Knicks and Nets are at right now. Wednesday night was a snapshot of the directions each team is headed. The Knicks almost choked away a 19-point lead at home against the struggling Philadelphia 76’ers. They were saved by the heroics of Jalen Brunson yet again. In Brooklyn at the same time, the Nets crumbled against one of the best teams in the NBA despite scoring 76 points in the first half, out shooting Oklahoma City from the three-point line, having more rebounds and assists than the Thunder, and going into the locker room at halftime up 18 points...

  The New York Yankees have started camp for the 2025 season. Not everyone is down in Tampa, that will be February 17 th , but the stories have already started to flood out. Marcus Stroman “showed up late” to camp, even though he technically didn’t, but what the veteran right-hander has done is stir the pot by declaring he won’t pitch in the bullpen and that he is strictly a starting pitcher. However, right now going into the start of Spring Training Stroman is the odd man out of the 5-Man rotation. That doesn’t mean Marcus Stroman won’t start games. The Yankees will likely not go into the start of the 2025 Regular Season fully healthy. That could open a window for Stroman to slide into the rotation. The Yankees have nine games in 11 days to start the season and then 13 games in 14 days following that. With the way the Bombers have managed their starting rotation at the start of each of the last three seasons’, Stroman will find a start or two at some point to help ease the early s...

  Philadelphia beat the odds. They did what many (including myself) thought was impossible. The Eagles made the two-time reigning champions looks pedestrian. Philadelphia handed the Kansas City Chiefs just their third loss since Christmas Day 2023. Think about that for a minute. The Eagles won Super Bowl LIX with Saquon Barkley not being that much of a factor on the ground (22 carries for 57 yards which averages out to 2.28 yards per carry) but was more impactful receiving with six catches for 40 yards, including a joggling 22-yard catch that set up a field goal that pretty much put the game on ice at 27-0 Philadelphia. But Barkley never got into the endzone. Barkley wasn’t the walking highlight reel he has been all season long. And yet Philadelphia still won by 18 points. Jalen Hurts was excellent. Throwing for 221 yards, two passing touchdowns, 72 yards rushing on 11 carries, and a patented “Brotherly Shove” touchdown for the opening score of the game. Hurts was the offense for t...

  The New York Jets have themselves a new Head Football Coach. Aaron Glenn trades the Defensive Coordinator job in Detroit for the head seat with his old team, the New York Jets. The Jets will have to give up compensatory third round picks in the next two drafts to ink Glenn to a fresh five-year deal, but if the former Jet Defensive Back is who every Jet fan hopes he will be, the draft compensation will be well worth it. One thing that is particularly odd about the Glenn hire is not that this is his first Head Coaching gig following the Jets doing the same with Robert Saleh and Todd Bowles. Nor is it that Glenn is a defensive minded coach, that seems to be the only qualification at times to be able to have the Jets Head Coaching headset. It’s the fact that Woody Johnson, Christopher Johnson, and the 33 rd Team hired Glenn before hiring a General Manager. There are rumors that Washington’s Assistant General Manager, Lance Newmark, will be hired to fill the GM vacancy, but as of now...

  The Washington Football Team is doing it the right way with Josh Harris as the owner. He has hit every check point along the way without skipping a beat. The hard part, mostly, is over. Drafting Jayden Daniels helps a lot, but usually new owners tear down the existing structure of the organization and put in their own version immediately. Harris didn’t do this. He and his ownership group waited for the first year to complete and got to work at the start of the second year. Washington went out and got the right General Manager and Head Coach for this version of the organization. They got the right veteran players to instill a new culture in a place that was in desperate need of it. Yes, drafting Jayden Daniels helps expedite the entire process given his talent and his ability to be a leader as a rookie. However, that’s only the first part of completely reworking an organization. The next step is the success part. Getting the right people in place and setting them up for success is...