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🏀🏃 Good morning to everybody, however particularly to …

TEAM USA MEN’S BASKETBALL AND TEAM USA TRACK & FIELD

Deliver on the MVP. Group USA males’s basketball smashed Brazil, 122-87, within the Olympic quarterfinals to arrange a gathering with Nikola Jokic and Serbia in tomorrow’s semifinal motion.

• The US was locked in from tipoff and led by double digits nearly the whole recreation. Alongside the way in which, Kevin Durant (11 factors) handed Lisa Leslie because the all-time main scorer in Group USA basketball Olympic historical past.
• Devin Booker led the group with 18 factors, and Anthony Edwards had 17 off the bench. Total, six gamers reached double digits, and all 12 gamers on the roster scored.
• Group USA shot 15 of 31 (48%) on 3-pointers.
• Maybe the one draw back was LeBron James needing 4 stitches after taking an elbow to the face. He is anticipated to be out there in opposition to Serbia.

The People beat Serbia by 26 each in pool play and in a pre-Olympic showcase recreation. However with an opportunity to attain an enormous upset (and safe a medal), Serbia will definitely be extra locked in and is coming in with loads of momentum. Serbia overcame a 24-point deficit to beat Australia, 95-90, in additional time, with Jokic (24 factors, 14 rebounds, eight assists, 4 steals) completely taking on in additional time and as soon as once more arguing his “world’s finest participant” case, Brad Botkin writes.

On the opposite aspect of the bracket, France upset Canada, which can go house medal-less regardless of having the competitors’s second-best assortment of NBA expertise, and Germany defeated Greece.

Elsewhere on the Paris Video games, three People gained gold Tuesday: Amit Elor (ladies’s wrestling), Gabby Thomas (ladies’s 200m) and Cole Hocker (males’s 1500m). In Thomas, Hocker and Noah Lyles, the U.S. is off to a rip-roaring begin on the observe, Matt Norlander writes. Group USA already has 5 observe golds; no different nation has greater than two.

This is extra from the Olympics:

👍 Honorable mentions

🤕 And never such a superb morning for …

CHRISTIAN MCCAFFREY AND THE SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS

The hits simply carry on coming for the 49ers. With the Brandon Aiyuk sweepstakes ongoing (the Steelers are reportedly again in and the Patriots are reportedly out), Kyle Shanahan revealed Christian McCaffrey has a calf pressure and will not play within the preseason.

One one hand, there is a good probability McCaffrey would not have performed anyway — he hasn’t performed in a preseason recreation since 2019 — and Shanahan believes it’ll solely price his star operating again “a few weeks.”

Then again, McCaffrey is coming off an NFL-high 339 touches, he is 28 years outdated, and calf accidents aren’t all the time essentially the most simple. Simply ask Joe Burrow and the Bengals about final yr.

Including insult to damage, McCaffrey’s backup, Elijah Mitchell, is coping with a hamstring damage, and McCaffrey (maybe inadvertently) referred to Aiyuk as a “former teammate” throughout an interview.

So, to overview, San Francisco’s finest offensive playmaker is damage and its second-best offensive playmaker appears to be on the precipice of being traded. All of this comes weeks earlier than an enormous season for the franchise as a complete.

This is what some notable 49ers, together with Shanahan, mentioned concerning the Aiyuk saga, with Nick Bosa calling it “brutal.”

It is secure to say it wasn’t the most effective day for the reigning NFC champs.

👎 Not so honorable mentions

🏀 Lauri Markkanen anticipated to achieve extension with Jazz, taking him off commerce market

Arguably the biggest remaining domino within the NBA offseason has fallen. Lauri Markkanen agreed to an extension with the Jazz, placing to mattress a number of months’ price of commerce rumors. The deal is anticipated to be for 5 years and greater than $200 million, per studies.

Timing was key right here:

• Markkanen, 27, turned extension-eligible Tuesday, and as soon as he indicators his new deal, he can’t be traded for the next six months.
• The 2024-25 NBA commerce deadline was precisely six months after Tuesday — Feb. 6, 2025 — so Markkanen is off the marketplace for a minimum of this upcoming season.
• Sam Quinn has a full explainer on all of it.

After beginning his profession with the Bulls and spending a yr with the Cavaliers, Markkanen has blossomed in Utah. He gained Most Improved Participant and made his first All-Star Recreation in 2022-23, when he averaged 25.6 factors and eight.6 rebounds whereas capturing over 39% from 3. His 200 3-pointers that season have been most ever by a participant 7 ft tall or taller.

Give his trendy offensive recreation and age, Markannen was the most well liked identify on the rumor mill for some time, with the Warriors seen as a main contender for his companies. Now, Utah can proceed to construct round him, Walker Kessler, a plethora of younger guards and wings and a ton of draft capital for the foreseeable future due to the Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert offers.

Former MLB outfielder, LGBTQ advocate Billy Bean dies at 60

Billy Bean, particular adviser to commissioner Rob Manfred and MLB’s senior vice chairman for range, equality, and inclusion, has died after a battle with acute myeloid leukemia, the league introduced Tuesday. He was 60 years outdated.

• Bean performed in six MLB seasons from 1987-95, spending time with the Tigers, Dodgers and Padres.
• In an interview with the Miami Herald in 1999, Bean turned the second MLB participant ever to return out as homosexual. In 2014, MLB appointed him as its first Ambassador for Inclusion. In that position, he labored with groups to “advance equality for all gamers, coaches, managers, umpires, workers, and stakeholders all through baseball.”
• In a press release, Manfred referred to as Bean “one of many kindest and most revered people I’ve ever recognized,” who “made baseball a greater establishment, each on and off the sphere.”

📺 What we’re watching Wednesday

🥇 We’re watching the Olympics. This is how.
⚾ Twins at Cubs or Astros at Rangers, 2:20 p.m. on MLB Community
🏀 Ladies’s Basketball — Quarterfinal: USA vs. Nigeria, 3:30 p.m. on USA
⚾ Padres at Pirates, 6:40 p.m. on FS1
⚾ Phillies at Dodgers, 10:10 p.m. on MLB Community