Jimmy Butler had Joel Embiid thinking, 10 UCF football players opt out, and more sports news
Butler put on a show in his Game 1 performance against the Milwaukee Bucks, and former teammate Embiid was tuning in.
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Miami Heat star Jimmy Butler is the ex who got away.
As the former Sixer dropped a playoff career-high 40 points last night on the Bucks, it appeared that Joel Embiid was reminiscing. Last season it was Embiid and Butler playing critical roles in an Eastern Conference semifinal series between the Sixers and Raptors.
Now, Embiid is living an ex’s worse nightmare by watching his former teammate do bigger and better things without him. And while Butler was putting on a show, Embiid tweeted a cryptic message.
You can’t tell if this message was implying “IF the Sixers had kept Butler last offseason,” but the timing suggests so. The game hadn’t ended yet, but Butler was toasting the Milwaukee Bucks’ top-ranked defense possession after possession.
Butler scored 40 points on 13-for-20 shooting. And if you still believe maybe Embiid was talking about something else, his next tweet showed that he was tuned in.
If Butler had stayed, the Sixers would have been better equipped to handle the loss of a player of Ben Simmons’ caliber. Maybe that’s what Embiid was thinking.
It’s another case of would’ve, could’ve, should’ve during the Sixers’ quest toward a title. From Butler’s perspective there’s no second guessing. He’s so locked in right now that he’s not even allowing family to visit him in the bubble, despite the NBA’s recent change to allow players to do so.
Butler wants a championship, and he has Miami going in the right direction after Game 1. Beating the Bucks four times is a tall task, but the Heat have matched up with Milwaukee better than any other NBA team this season.
Ten UCF players opt out of college football season
A mass exodus may be under way in college football. LSU had two players opt out in the last two days, and now Central Florida will have an even larger group not playing.
Ten players from UCF are opting out of the 2020 football season.
The Knights have gone 35-4 in the last three seasons, including a win against Auburn during their 13-0 2017 season. Losing 10 players is a major hit to any roster, but from a football perspective this will hurt the team’s depth more than anything. Tay Gowan is the only projected starter listed among the 10, but several of the players are important contributors, including former starting quarterback Darriel Mack Jr.
Vandersloot record-breaking assist comes on a shot from her wife
Records can be broken in many ways, but not too often does one get shattered the way Chicago Sky guard Courtney Vandersloot did on Monday night.
Vandersloot set the WNBA record with 18 assists against the Indiana Fever. What made the moment more special was the record-breaking 17th assist was a pass to Allie Quigley, Vandersloot’s wife.
“It puts a little cherry on top. I know she was happy for me,” Vandersloot said of Quigley. “She wanted to do that for me.”
Vandersloot is in her own league as a passer. She’s averaging 9.3 assists. The next closest player averages 5.6.
The record broke Ticha Penicheiro’s mark of 16, recorded in 1998 and 2002. Vandersloot has had 15 assists twice, but this was the time she finally got over the hump, and in doing so, she added two more assists for a little cushion.
It took 18 years for someone to break Penicheiro’s record. With the way Vandersloot is passing the ball in comparison with the rest of the league, the chances are looking good for Vandersloot’s record to stand a long time.