The #1 pick went to the Washington Wizards, which is well-deserved for the team that had the worst record in the league at 17-65. It was actually the first time under the current lottery format that the league’s worst team got the first pick. The Wizards tanked especially hard this year, trading for Trae Young and Anthony Davis and playing them for five combined games before shutting them down for various injuries and ailments.

The second and third picks went to the Jazz and Grizzlies, respectively — the two teams that played in the tankiest tankfest in tank history.

It’s almost as if the NBA rigged this draft lottery to prove it needs to re-do the draft lottery … what other explanation could there be for the teams with the best odds getting the best picks ………. it’s a plan so devious you’d never expect it ……………..

In case you’d like to audit the actual event, the NBA uploaded the actual ping pong ball distribution on YouTube.

But the biggest news of the lottery was Indiana losing a big bet. Knowing that they would be bad this year, the Pacers negotiated top-four protection for the first-round pick they sent to the Clippers as part of their trade for Ivica Zubac. They had a 52.11 percent chance of holding onto the pick … but the lottery balls didn’t pop their way and dropped out of the top four, meaning they lose the pick to the Clippers. It’s legitimately a huge blow for the Pacers. While most of the other teams at the top of the lottery are in years-long rebuilds, the Pacers decided to bottom out for one year after Tyrese Halliburton’s injury in hopes of adding an elite young talent. Now, 2025-26 has essentially become a wasted season. They won’t have a pick this high for years to come as long as Halliburton remains healthy.

Pacers general manager, Kevin Pritchard, sent a morose Tweet after the drop: “Surprised it came up 5th after this year,” Pritchard wrote. “I thought we were due some luck.” I think Pritchard made a solid gamble: a 50-50 bet that he could get his team a center and essentially pay pennies on the dollar by keeping a great draft pick … but when you say you’re “surprised” by something that had a 47 percent chance of happening, then maybe you are not a very statistically sound gambler!

The biggest bummer has to be the New Orleans Pelicans, who appear to have traded away the #5 and #8 picks in this year’s draft for the #13 pick in last year’s draft, which they used on Deriq Queen. Who is fine, but probably not as good as two top-10 picks combined.

Personally, the funniest lottery fall is the Brooklyn Nets. Almost 15 years ago, the Nets were so careless about trading away future draft picks and the effect it might have on their franchise that they made a deal that still impacts the league today, sending the the picks that became Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown to the Celtics in exchange for late-career Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce. For about a decade, the Nets were pretty much always bad and never had their own pick, often finishing near the bottom of the league with no benefits to their failure.

So in 2024, they made a wonky trade that allowed them to pay a premium to get their own picks back, finally allowing them to tank in earnest. (The Pacers actually made a similar trade to regain the pick they eventually traded for Zubac.) Those picks must be so happy to be reunited with their original team. Who says you can’t go home!

But the Nets still can’t catch a break. Last year, they fell to #8, despite a 75.56 chance of drafting higher. This year, they had the best odds in the league … and fell to #6, despite a 66.93 percent chance of drafting higher.

If this whole thing seems stupid, I agree … keep an eye out for a video on the Sports! YouTube channel about some people who have actually figured out The Correct Way To Solve Tanking And Drafts.

The ball got absolutely crushed this year. Only 13 players have ever hit 31 or more home runs in a year, and three of them did it this season: Grant with 38, Wells with 36, and Grant’s UCLA teammate Jordan Woolery, who has 33.

Grant, Woolery, and their UCLA teammates absolutely demolished the single-season team home run record. The all-time single-season record was 161, and the Bruins have 181 heading into the NCAA Tournament.

Woolery, by the way, is batting .515 on the season. Grant is only hitting .475.

What makes these slugging records particularly impressive is that the entire NCAA Tournament is still to come. Espinoza’s 37 home runs came in 72 games. UCLA has only played 55 so far.

Grant, by the way, also played a bit part for the national champion UCLA women’s basketball team, appearing in 13 games before committing to softball full-time in February.

Grant would be the first Division I athlete to win championships in two sports in the same year since Maryland’s Megan Kelly Walter won field hockey and lacrosse titles in 1999. Per the NCAA, the last person to do it before Walter was NFL Hall of Famer Anthony Munoz in 1978, when he also pitched for the USC Trojans’ baseball team.

The determining factor in the home run race could be team success. Whichever team plays the longest will have the most chances to hit home runs. A national champion squad will play at least 10 games over the course of the NCAA Tournament and Women’s College World Series.

In 2024, Karli Spaid hit 36 home runs, one away from tying Espinoza’s record … but she played for Miami (Ohio), which had no chance in the postseason. The RedHawks were eliminated from the tournament in just three games.

Advantage Oklahoma in that regard. The Sooners are are one of the favorites to make the WCWS and play for a championship, which would give Wells plenty of chances to overtake Grant.

Grant will have a tougher road. The Bruins got crushed in the Big Ten championship game in which she broke the record. They lost 7-2 to Nebraska. They did, however, earn the 8-seed in the NCAA Tournament, which starts Friday. That puts them on the right side of a critical juncture: eight teams get to host super regionals and eight teams make the WCWS.

Regardless of who finishes with the record this year, keep an eye on Wells to break it in the future. While Grant and Woolery are seniors (both were selected in the first round of the AUSL draft), Wells is a freshman. Her freak athleticism got a writeup in the Wall Street Journal. The career home record is 122, set by Oklahoma’s Jocelyn Alo. If Wells keeps hitting like this, she might demolish that record.

Entrekin finished an hour and 20 minutes ahead of the men’s winner, Kilian Korth, and five-and-a-half hours ahead of the women’s runner-up.

Entrekin is the first woman to win the Cocodona race outright — a rare feat in ultramarathons, but not unprecedented. Runner’s World gave a brief overview of other women who have pulled it off.

Entrekin averaged 5.3 mph, which doesn’t sound that fast … but of course, she did it FOR FIFTY SEVEN HOURS on a course with 40,000 FEET OF ELEVATION.

One way Entrekin finished so quickly? She simply kept going. The official race website reveals that Entrekin only stopped for four hours and 40 minutes during her 57-hour race, meaning she was running more than 90 percent of the time, the most of any of the major contenders.

(Some racers are tracked as running 100 percent of the time, but I think that’s a glitch. If not, I’m terrified of those people.)

Entrekin may not have stopped to sleep, but she did stop to pet various dogs that she saw along the route. Here’s a clip of her petting a very excited doodle mix before jetting off and saying, “Sorry! Priorities!”

(She also gave a post-race breakdown saying, “I got to pet a lot of dogs, so that was pretty cool.”)

Entrekin said she ate ramen, rice, broth, and mashed potatoes during the race. “Basically, if it’s beige, I’m all over it.”

I was trying to track down the details on Jeff Garmire, one of the runners who was logged as literally never stopping during the race, but in an Instagram post he said that he did sleep for a few minutes. I also saw this video he posted of himself taking a quick hoops break during the run. Honestly, really nice handles!

That through-the-legs-behind-the-back combo would have a lot of defenders looking like they were in the middle of their own 250-mile ultramarathon!

Entrekin says she got 19 minutes of sleep over the course of three days at various aid stations. That’s nuts. I don’t know how you keep performing at a high level on that little sleep. (And anybody who was here during the Olympics knows I sometimes work on very little sleep!)

Perhaps even more nuts: After finishing the race, she took rested just seven hours before heading back to the race to cheer her fellow runners. I’d be out for days! (Also kind of a flex to finish so far ahead of the field that you can sleep and then watch them finish.)

🏎️ Pistons – ⚔️Cavaliers (DET leads 2-1) After a brutal first two games of the series, James Harden did not turn the ball over a million times in Game 3, and the Cavs took the must-win at home. Coincidence? (Game 4: May 11, 8 p.m. ET; Game 5: May 13, TBD)

⛈️ Thunder – 🎥 Lakers (OKC leads 3-0) – Ajay Mitchell, a second-round pick out of UC-Santa Barbara, might just be the second-best player on this Thunder roster this postseason. Mitchell is averaging 17 points and a 5-to-1 assist/turnover ratio, commanding the point guard role and destroying the Lakers’ bench lineup. THE THUNDER CAN’T KEEP GETTING AWAY WITH THIS! (Game 4: May 11, 10:30 p.m. ET; Game 5 (if necessary): TBD)

🤠 Spurs – 🌲Timberwolves (Series Tied 2-2) – Victor Wembanyama hit Naz Reid with a flying elbow, leading to Wemby’s ejection in the second quarter of Game 4. Anthony Edwards took over from there (36 points on 13-22 shooting), and all of a sudden, we have a series. (Game 5: May 12, 8 p.m. ET)

❄️Avalanche – 🏞️Wild (COL leads 2-1) – The Wild benched goalie Jesper Wallstedt following their brutal 9-6 loss in Game 1, but returned to the young Swede and got a 35-save showcase in their 5-1 Game 3 victory to keep the series within reach. Despite his efforts, there have still been 28 goals combined in only three games this series. (Game 4: May 11, 8 p.m. ET; Game 5: May 13, 8 p.m. ET)

🎰 Golden Knights – 🦆Ducks (Series Tied 2-2) – Anaheim won 4-3 in Game 4 thanks in no small part to two power-play goals after going 0-for-11 in the first three games of the series. Simply put, if they score with the man advantage, the Ducks will win the series. (Or if Ducks starting goalie Lukas Dostal gets just, like, 10% better.) (Game 5: May 12, 9:30 p.m. ET)

🤺 Sabres – 🇨🇦Canadiens (BUF leads 2-1) – Montreal has won the last two games by four goals apiece, and their 50-goal scorer in Cole Caufield only has two goals this postseason. The rest of the team is going; if Caufield joins them… (Game 4: May 12, 7 p.m. ET)