The Knicks will play their next five games at home, but all will be against formidable Western Conference opponents beginning with Saturday’s matchup against the surging Kings.
In the days following Ryan Day walking off the field in Columbus following Ohio State's loss to Michigan to end the regular season, his family’s safety was the main priority after they received death threats from a lunatic fringe of Buckeye fans.
There was obviously a monster fallout in Columbus after the loss, with fans calling for Ryan Day to be fired after Ohio State lost its fourth straight game to the Wolverines. But what some folks have not heard is how everything spiraled out of control from a safety standpoint for Ryan Day and his family.
Speaking with the Columbus Dispatch, Nina Day, the wife of Ryan Day, spoke about the terrible events that came in the aftermath of the Michigan loss. The situation behind the scenes for the family had turned, in a dangerous manner.
"The time between the Michigan game and the Tennessee game was as low and dark as you could possibly imagine. Extremely negative. Unprecedented hate," Nina Day explained.
When Ryan Day was eight years old, his father died by suicide. So, when fans somehow got hold of Nina Day's cell phone number in the days following the Michigan loss, unfathomable messages started to pour in at a constant rate, before Nina decided it was best to just disconnect her phone.
"They told me multiple times to have Ryan follow in his father's footsteps and kill himself," Nina noted to the Dispatch.
On the outside, Ryan Day continued to push forward, holding his weekly press conference, while waiting to see who his team would play in the first round of the college football playoff. But inside the family, things were starting to get out of control when it came to their safety.
According to Nina Day, their 16-year-old son, RJ, started to receive death threats on social media, while the family’s address was also posted, leading to Ryan Day hiring armed security guards to protect his family at their house. There was also a thought from Nina that she should take her kids and leave Columbus during this time, not knowing what the next month could bring.
"I think he, at times, second-guessed his decision to get into this and be in the spotlight that we're in. He felt responsible and just felt bad that he had put us in this position. He promised us he'd get us out of it," Nina Day mentioned about the conversations with her husband.
There are fans across all sports that take things way too seriously, and this is another instance of something that could not be controlled. There was no reason that the Day family needed to fear for their lives over a football game, I don’t care how much you’re paid, or what your job title is.
This is obviously the ugly part of sports, and it's not as if this is the first time we've heard of coaches having to deal with these types of situations, and it won’t be the last.
"He fought like hell and got us out of a very dark place that we were in five weeks ago because of his resilience, because I don’t think anybody really thought this was going to end the way it did," Nina Day mentioned. "Everybody thought the season ended in November.
"All he kept telling me was ‘I want to bring you guys peace. I just want to bring you guys peace.’ And he knew that for us to feel any type of peace, he had to win it all."
All of this over a football game. A family fearing for their lives, needing armed security to guard their house, just to get a peaceful night of sleep and feel safe.
While Nina Day mentioned that you cannot label an entire fan base as the ‘lunatic fringe’, there are certainly a number of people who should be held accountable for their actions towards the Day family.
As I watched Ryan Day celebrate with his family on the field Monday night, hugging each member of the family, there was certainly more to the story than just a head coach who was dealing with outside noise.
The two Knicks named to the starting lineup of the All-Star Game next month have their eyes on also joining Walt Frazier and Earl Monroe in a far more historical classification.
Dressing the statue in opposing teams' gear has become a tradition in recent years ahead of big Eagles playoff games. Each time its happened, the Eagles have come away with wins.
In 2022, the statue was dressed in New York Giants gear ahead of their matchup against the Eagles in the divisional round. The Eagles won that game 38-7. The following week, the statue was dressed in San Francisco 49ers gear before Niners arrived in Philadelphia for the NFC championship game. The Eagles won that game, 31-7.
When the Eagles won their first Super Bowl in the 2017 season, the statue was also dressed in opposing teams' gear.
Ahead of that season's NFC championship game between the Eagles and the Minnesota Vikings, the statue was draped in a Vikings jersey, and the Eagles won 38-7. Before the Super Bowl, someone placed a New England Patriots jersey on the statue, and the Eagles beat the Patriots 41-33 to claim their first Super Bowl title.
The vandalism became so frequent that Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce pleaded with his own fan base not to do dress the statue in any Chiefs gear ahead of the 2023 Super Bowl. The Chiefs won that game 38-35.
"Chiefs, do not touch the f---ing Rocky memorial!" Kelce said during a February 2023 episode of his podcast, "New Heights."
"Do not do that and definitely don't put an No. 87 on it!"
Former Eagles center Jason Kelce, who played against Travis and the Chiefs in that game, theorized the culprit was an Eagles fan.
"I'm gonna be honest. I think somebody from Philadelphia is doing this now," Jason Kelce said.
"I don't think this is an opposing team thing at this point. There's no way opposing teams continue to do this. I'm convinced there is a Philadelphia fan who is putting these shirts on the Rocky statue just to get everyone fired up, and it's working tremendously.
"So, keep doing it. I guarantee it. There's no way. Because it's happened every single game. The Giants did it. The 49ers did it. There will probably be a Chiefs jersey on it this week."
Now, Washington is up, and will look to break the trend.
It will be the first time the rivals have met in a conference championship game and marks a high point for a rivalry that has been dormant in recent decades due to Washington's inability to win in the playoffs since the 1990s.
The 2024 season was the first since 2005 that Washington won a playoff game, and the first since 1991 that the franchise reached the conference championship.
Topps says the 11-year-old from the Los Angeles area who scored a one-of-a-kind baseball card featuring Paul Skenes declined a deal that included 30 years' worth of season tickets behind home plate at PNC Park.
American boxer Devin Haney took aim at Sylvester Stallone over the actor's recent commentary on the current state of boxing.
Stallone, a three-time Academy Award nominee, received critical acclaim for his portrayal of renowned Philadelphia boxer Rocky Balboa in the iconic film franchise.
A video recently surfaced on social media showing Stallone holding the gloves he wore in the mid 1970s during the filming of the original sports drama movie. At one point during the video, Stallone suggested the gloves were identical to what professional boxers used in the '70s.
"They don't even allow these today because they're so dangerous. But that's what they used when I did the film. They're barely six-ounces, they're Reyes and they're literally lethal. I still have them because it's a time when things people were tougher. I'm sorry, they were. Life is just getting a little easier and easier and easier... I cherish hard work, even though I hate it."
Haney disagreed with Stallone's assertion and shared his rebuttal via X, formerly known as Twitter.
"Dude don't know a left hook from a fish hook, and got the nerve to speak on times being easier in boxing like he wasn't just an actor... Buddy them Rocky movies weren't real," Haney wrote.
Last April's upset defeat to Ryan Garcia marked Haney's most recent appearance in a professional bout.
Haney, who is also known as "The Dream" eventually pursued legal recourse against Garcia after learning Garcia failed multiple drug tests ahead of the bout.
Officials later overturned Garcia's victory and ruled the fight a no-contest.
LIV Golfer Bryson DeChambeau has a grand plan for the $125 million he's receiving from his Saudi Arabian bosses.
The controversial 31-year-old golf star said during an interview on "The Joe Pomp Show" he bought 200 acres of land in his hometown of Modesto, California, and plans to expand the town by 30%.
"We are doing a mega project," DeChambeau said. "It’s been in the works for a couple of years now, and we’re at the place where we are getting permits to build. People know about it now.
"We have acquired massive amounts of land in my hometown, and it’s a three-phase process to build a whole community and increase the size of where I grew up by 30%"
DeChambeau says his intention is to create a prominent golf presence in the community, adding the timeline for completing this project is just over a year.
"It’s a full-scale plan, fully thought out. It’s not only to bring golfers to the game but also to bring people to the central valley. You build a community around a multisport complex center," he said.
"It’s going to take 12-15 months to get the permits approved for the full scope. It’s over 200 acres of land what we have right now. It’s going to be a multisports complex center — driving range, golf course, residential community center, the whole thing."
DeChambeau was paid a reported $125 million to join LIV Golf in June 2022. He says his latest project is only possible because of the massive salary from the Saudi-funded organization.
"A lot of the reason why I have been able to do this is because of LIV. They gave me the economic viability to do these things and the platform to be able to do it, growing on YouTube," he said.
DeChambeau was one of many American golfers to incite widespread backlash from fans for choosing to compete in the Saudi-backed league when it launched due to humanitarian concerns with Saudi Arabia and its relations with the west.
Brooks Koepka, Phil Mickelson, Dustin Johnson, Patrick Reed and Jon Rahm were other prominent PGA stars who chose to accept the massive LIV paychecks during the league's aggressive pursuit of the sport's biggest names.
DeChambeau is also a close friend of President Donald Trump's and invited Trump to play with him in a video on his YouTube channel.
"There’s always risk associated to that. But, from my perspective, it was focused on entertainment," DeChambeau told Fox News Digital in August at Maridoe Golf Club, site of the LIV Golf Team Championship.
"We can talk about politics. That’s a whole different conversation, something that I was not trying to do on my YouTube channel. It was solely on providing great entertainment."
DeChambeau joined Trump, Elon Musk and Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to watch the SpaceX rocket launch in November.
