Yahoo Sports AM: The NBA’s “missing stars” problem

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🚨 Headlines

⚾️ All-MLB Awards: The 2024 All-MLB teams were revealed Thursday, honoring the best and second-best players at their positions regardless of league.

🏒 1,000 points: Connor McDavid became the fourth-fastest player in NHL history to reach 1,000 career points (659 games), trailing only Wayne Gretzky (424), Mario Lemieux (513) and Mike Bossy (656).

🎿 Vonn unretires: Four-time World Champion Lindsey Vonn is coming out of retirement to rejoin the U.S. Ski Team and intends to race again at age 40.

⚾️ Soto meetings: Juan Soto, MLB’s top free agent, will meet with four teams this week: the Yankees, Mets, Blue Jays and Red Sox.

🥅 Fastest to 300: Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy became the 40th NHL goaltender to win 300 games, reaching the milestone in 490 games, the fewest in league history.

🏀 The NBA’s “missing stars” problem

The opening weeks of the NBA season have been besieged by absent stars. Joel Embiid. Kevin Durant. Ja Morant. Steph Curry. Jaylen Brown. Tyrese Maxey. Kawhi Leonard. Paolo Banchero. Chet Holmgren. The list goes on.

Just how bad is it? Using the NBA’s official definition of a “star” — those who were All-Stars or All-NBA performers in the previous three seasons — there are 49 star players this season. 24 of them have already missed at least one game.

1. Kawhi Leonard, LAC (12 games)

2. Khris Middleton, MIL (12)

3. Dejounte Murray, NO (11)

4. Joel Embiid, PHI (10)

5. Paolo Banchero, ORL (8)

6. Scottie Barnes, TOR (8)

7. Paul George, PHI (6)

8. Zion Williamson, NO (6)

9. Ja Morant, MEM (4)

10. Tyrese Maxey, PHI (4)

11. Jaylen Brown, BOS (4)

12. Kevin Durant, PHX (3)

13. Stephen Curry, GSW (3)

14. Lauri Markkanen, UTA (3)

15. Zach LaVine, CHI (3)

16. Jimmy Butler, MIA (2)

17. Damian Lillard, MIL (2)

18. Andrew Wiggins, GSW (2)

19. Jaren Jackson Jr, MEM (2)

20. Giannis Antetokounmpo, MIL (1)

21. Anthony Davis, LAL (1)

22. Trae Young, ATL (1)

23. Fred VanVleet, HOU (1)

24. Kyrie Irving, DAL (1)

The big picture: Star players are on pace to miss over 1,000 games this season, which would be a roughly 24% increase from 2023-24. The hope is that this is just an early-season blip, but there’s reason to believe that the dark cloud hovering over the league is here to stay, writes Yahoo Sports’ Tom Haberstroh.

Read the full story.

📸 Photo gallery

Philadelphia — Saquon Barkley (198 total yards, 2 TD) and the Eagles beat the Commanders, 26-18, to improve to 8-2 and take a 1.5-game lead atop the NFC East.

Kingston, Jamaica — Ricardo Pepi scored his sixth goal in four starts to lead the USMNT to a 1-0 win over Jamaica in the first leg of their CONCACAF Nations League quarterfinal.

Turin, Italy — Taylor Fritz (above) and Jannik Sinner are into the semifinals at the ATP Finals. They’ll learn their opponents today with Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev, Casper Ruud and Andrey Rublev still able to qualify.

🏈 What’s left for Aaron Rodgers’ legacy?

The Jets’ season is effectively over after Sunday’s ugly 31-6 loss to the Cardinals dropped them to 3-7. So what’s left for Aaron Rodgers’ legacy?

From Yahoo Sports’ Charles Robinson:

This all feels a little like Brett Favre’s underwhelming single-season foray as the Jets’ starting QB in 2008… except this season is exponentially worse and going off a cliff far more quickly.

This is a failed season, with an objectively bad team that was all leveraged against a soon-to-be 41-year-old QB who has sunken into the mediocre middle at his position. Once we recognize that, it opens the door to the legacy question that will hang over Rodgers for the remainder of this lost season: What’s left?

It’s an important question, given that this failure is threatening to form an impression that will be lasting. Maybe not in the disturbing neighborhood of Joe Namath fizzling out with the Rams or Johnny Unitas dropping the curtain with the Chargers. But also not anywhere near the respectably remembered 29 games that Joe Montana spent in a Chiefs uniform.

If anything, Rodgers’ end is shaping up like Donovan McNabb going out with a wheeze with Washington and Minnesota.

Two avenues appear to be in play right now:

1. Rodgers plays out the 2024 season, salvaging whatever he can down the stretch, then returns in 2025 for one last attempt at putting a respectable bookend on his career.

2. This is it. We’re watching Rodgers’ last year with the Jets — either by virtue of him choosing retirement, or by ownership deciding to make sweeping changes.

Bottom line: It’s stunning to grapple with this kind of framing for Rodgers, but that’s where we are. You could see it during his postgame news conference on Sunday, another one of the editions where he came off as a quiet and defeated passenger, trapped on a journey that no longer has a map.

⚾️ Major league teams, minor league digs

Two MLB teams will play in minor league ballparks next season.

The Rays will play at Steinbrenner Field, home of the Tampa Tarpons (Yankees Single-A affiliate) and spring training home of the Yankees, due to hurricane damage sustained by Tropicana Field.

The Athletics — who have officially dropped “Oakland” from their name — will play at Sutter Health Park, home of the Sacramento River Cats (Giants Triple-A affiliate), until a planned stadium in Las Vegas is ready.

📆 Nov. 15, 1960: Baylor creates the 70-point club

64 years ago today, Lakers forward Elgin Baylor scored 71 points in a win over the Knicks, becoming the first player in NBA history with a 70-point game.

The 70-point club: Baylor was the first of 10 players to score 70 points in a game. Wilt Chamberlain, naturally, is the only guy to do it more than once.

• Chamberlain (6x): 100 points (March 1962); 78 (December 1961); 73 (January 1962); 73 (November 1962); 72 (November 1962); 70 (March 1963)

• Kobe Bryant: 81 (January 2006)

• David Thompson: 73 (April 1978)

• Luka Dončić: 73 (January 2024)

• Baylor: 71 (November 1960)

• David Robinson: 71 (April 1994)

• Donovan Mitchell: 71 (January 2023)

• Damian Lillard: 71 (February 2023)

• Devin Booker: 70 (March 2017)

• Joel Embiid: 70 (January 2024)

A Hall of Fame career: Baylor’s 70-point outburst came in just his third season, when he’d already won ROY and All-Star MVP. He’d go on to finish his career with the fifth-highest scoring average ever (27.4 ppg) and 10th-highest rebounding average (13.5).

The only thing missing? Incredibly, Baylor never won a championship despite playing in seven NBA Finals across his 14-year career. He and the Lakers lost six times to the Celtics and once to the Knicks.

📺 Watchlist: Saturday night lights

No. 12 Georgia hosts No. 7 Tennessee on Saturday (7:30pm ET, ABC) in one of the biggest regular-season games left on the college football schedule.

What’s at stake: The Vols (8-1) are effectively into the playoff with a win. The Bulldogs (7-2), who haven’t lost three games since 2018, are almost certainly out with a loss.

More to watch:

• 🏈 NFL Sunday: Ravens at Steelers (1pm, CBS); Chiefs at Bills (4:25pm, CBS); Bengals at Chargers (8:20pm, NBC) … Week 11.

• ⚽️ NWSL Playoffs: Washington vs. Gotham (Sat. 12pm, CBS); Orlando vs. Kansas City (Sun. 3pm, ABC) … Semifinals.

• 🏀 NBA: Lakers at Spurs (Fri. 7:30pm, ESPN); Grizzlies at Warriors (Fri. 10pm, ESPN)

• 🏒 NHL: Oilers at Maple Leafs (Sat. 7pm, NHL); Capitals at Golden Knights (Sun. 8pm, NHL)

• 🏀 NCAAM: No. 2 Alabama at No. 13 Purdue (Fri. 7pm, Peacock)

• 🏀 NCAAW: No. 2 UConn at No. 14 UNC (Fri. 6pm, ESPN); No. 13 NC State at TCU (Sun. 3pm, ESPN)

• 👊 UFC 309: Jon Jones vs. Stipe Miocic (Sat. 10pm, ESPN+ PPV) … At Madison Square Garden.

• 🥊 Boxing: Mike Tyson vs. Jake Paul (Fri. 8pm, Netflix) … The latest live event on the world’s biggest streaming service.

• 🏈 Grey Cup: Argonauts at Blue Bombers* (Sun. 6pm, CBSSN) … The 111th CFL championship game.

• 🎾 Tennis: ATP Finals (Fri-Sun, Tennis) … Championship is on Sunday.

• ⛳️ LPGA: The Annika (Fri-Sun, Golf) … The season’s penultimate event.

• ⛳️ European Tour: Championship (Fri-Sun, Golf) … The season-ending tournament in Dubai.

*Tale of the tape: No two teams have made more Grey Cup appearances than the Blue Bombers (28) or Argonauts (24), but while the Argonauts have a record 18 wins (18-6), the Blue Bombers have a record 16 losses (12-16).

🏈 FBS trivia

Top-ranked Oregon is one of four remaining undefeated FBS teams.

Question: Can you name the other three?

Answer at the bottom.

🏈 The SEC could be headed for chaos

The SEC could finish in an eight-way tie for first place if the following things happen:

1. All teams win the games they are favored to win, except:

2. Missouri beats South Carolina this Saturday.

3. Auburn upsets Texas A&M or … either Kentucky or Arkansas upsets Texas and …

4. Whatever team was upset wins the Texas-Texas A&M game.

Maximum chaos: Each team would hold a 6-2 conference record and complex tiebreakers would be needed to figure out the SEC title game matchup in Atlanta, notes Yahoo Sports’ Dan Wetzel. Long odds? Sure. Impossible? Not even close.

Trivia answer: No. 5 Indiana, No. 6 BYU, No. 24 Army

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