2026-03-24 22:08:54
This week on Nothing But Respect, we invited back returning champion Maitreyi Anantharaman to talk about the biggest basketball news of the week: the looming return of the Golden State Valkyries.
With the new CBA, the WNBA and its labor base avoided missing any games. They will have to fit an entire offseason's worth of business into a five-week window—business that includes not only a regular draft and training camps, but two expansion drafts and the free agency of almost every single veteran player in the league. There's a lot to get into! We also talked a lot about the media coverage of the negotiations, and a little bit about the Detroit Pistons, with whom Maitreyi is coping in incredible ways.
2026-03-24 20:59:48
The new baseball season starts tomorrow, and yes, that tall gaunt figure in the black floor length robe with a sickle where its backpack is supposed to be is standing right next to Aaron Judge, its head tilted meaningfully toward the flagpole in right center. It's all part of the new American tableau that starts with "Here's something you might like" and concludes "but don't get used to it."
Yes, this is a pre-lockout year, or pre-strike year if you are more inclined to sympathize with the idealized version of Scrooge McDuck, and that pressure will sit on the chests of every one of the 2,430 scheduled games this year. It feels surprising that Major League Baseball hasn't already done a deal with Fanatics for commemorative 2027 uniform patches that read "10TH WORK STOPPAGE." If you're that eager for another labor fight, why not take advantage of jersey completists and market it as vigorously as everything else?
The Yankees play the Giants in San Francisco Wednesday evening in a game that marks the beginning of MLB's brand new deal with Netflix. As a metaphor for the accessibility problems to come next year, it works perfectly, and not just because it is available only on Netflix, America's most trusted name in bumfights with production issues. That this game is siloed is not a condemnation of Netflix necessarily, but it does make for a tasty juxtaposition that the same people who finally quit the Duke and Duchess of Kent as content providers, the better to pivot to filming Pete Davidson free-associating in his garage, have signed up Barry Bonds to be in the booth Wednesday night. Even for hidebound voters who have contorted their brains to keep Bonds out of the Hall of Fame, this is a fun chance for the streamer to take. It will also irritate the sport's management, and since they're already there temperamentally, hey, let's party down.
2026-03-24 03:58:48
In what could be filed under a statistically unlikely outcome, Carlos Alcaraz suffered his second loss in three matches. The world No. 1 was upset Sunday in the third round of the Miami Open by Sebastian Korda, who once looked to be one of the top prospects of the current American generation. In that 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victory, Korda served for the match in the second set and flinched, making three untimely errors, but in the deciding set the world No. 36 managed to complete arguably the toughest task in men's tennis.
Along the way to his win, Korda flexed the muscle that made him such an appealing talent in the first place: his ability to stand on top of the baseline and take every ball on the rise, with clean contact on both wings. He's a gifted ball-striker, and once you add in some superb spot serving, that's a difficult opponent to beat. This wasn't the erratic Carlitos that sporadically rears its head in moments of burnout; Alcaraz played a focused match and fought back from the cusp of defeat. The 25-year-old Korda simply played the best match of his career.
2026-03-24 03:45:29
When Connor McDavid speaks, Edmonton listens, because, well, who else is there? The man wasn't nicknamed McJesus for his knowledge of canonical law.
Thus, when he was asked after the latest Oilers' sack-fouling, a 5-2 home loss to Tampa Bay on Saturday, the two-time Stanley Cup finalist and no-time Stanley Cup champion went for subtle condemnation of his division. Depending on whose interpretation you choose to embrace, he also may have quietly groined his own team and its coach. We hesitate to be more definitive because even the ultra-polite Canadian soul gets very snippy in public when the local hockey team is disappointing the customers.
But McDavid used the entire wretched Pacific Division as cover for his own team's current run of walking, and it is a very stylish way of saying, "We stink, too."
2026-03-24 02:42:08
The beauty and tragedy of taking part in a great crowd pop is that you had to be there. The TV sound mixers will not do it justice, nor will that guy who filmed the whole thing on his busted iPhone. The YouTube video you’ll pull up years later, trying to remember the moment, will only underwhelm you in relation to the real thing. (You don't understand: I swear this Tim Hardaway Jr. three prompted the loudest reaction in the history of professional sports. I SWEAR!)
So here's the highest praise I can bestow on a highlight: The game-winning shot that sent fourth-seeded Minnesota to the Sweet 16 on Sunday caused such pandemonium that even the sound-mixed, through-a-screen YouTube version of it absolutely rules. Look at the cameras shake!
2026-03-24 02:04:05
The second government shutdown of the year, this one affecting only the Department of Homeland Security, went into effect on Feb. 14. While Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are still being funded by last year's One Big Beautiful Bill, and FEMA and the Coast Guard have funds to pay employees for several months, the Transportation Security Administration is shit out of luck.
Last week, TSA agents missed their first full paychecks. Some employees are still at work, with the promise of back pay when the shutdown ends. But others can't or won't forego paychecks. Hundreds have quit the agency over the last month, and others are just not coming in—more than half of TSA agents at one Houston airport called out sick this weekend, and more than a third in Atlanta.
