Will Bill Belichick make it to Week 1 as North Carolina’s head coach?

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🚨 Headlines

🏀🏒 Playoff scoreboard: The Pacers eliminated the top-seeded Cavaliers; the Thunder came back to beat the Nuggets and take a 3–2 lead; the Stars beat the top-seeded Jets to go up 3-1.

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🏀 Celtics fears realized: Jayson Tatum did indeed rupture his Achilles and has already undergone surgery. It’s a devastating blow for Boston’s future and a star in his prime.

⚾️ Rose reinstated: MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has reinstated Pete Rose, “Shoeless” Joe Jackson and all other deceased players who were banned from the sport, opening the door for Hall of Fame induction.

🏀 Blazers for sale: The estate of the late Trail Blazers owner Paul Allen has announced its intent to sell the team, with all proceeds going toward philanthropic endeavors.

📺 Cutting the cord: ESPN is launching a standalone streaming service called “ESPN” this fall. For $29.99 per month, you can get all their channels without signing up for cable.

🏈 Will Belichick make it to Week 1?

The Bill Belichick-Jordon Hudson saga isn’t slowing down, with some questioning whether the future Hall of Famer will still be North Carolina’s head coach by Week 1.

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Timeline: The relationship between Belichick, 73, and Hudson, 24, began a couple years ago, and his Tar Heels tenure began in December. But the drama only spilled into public view recently, as Hudson’s role in the Hall of Fame coach’s life shifted from curiosity to distraction.

• Feb. 13: Journalist Pablo Torre reported that Hudson had become Belichick’s de facto agent — and that she tried to force her way into two commercial spots.

• Mar. 13: A leaked email showed Belichick asking UNC staff to copy Hudson — listed as COO of “Belichick Productions” — on all correspondence.

• Apr. 15: Hudson allegedly advised UNC on how to announce Steve Belichick’s hiring as their new defensive coordinator in a way that would avoid nepotism claims.

• Apr. 27: The saga took a bizarre turn when Hudson interrupted a CBS interview promoting Belichick’s new book to stop a question about their relationship.

• May 9: Torre reported that Hudson had been banned from team facilities, which UNC denied. Concerning the general situation, Torre said, “Belichick’s family is extraordinarily concerned.”

• May 13: In an appearance on SportsCenter, Belichick said his personal relationship with Hudson is “really off to the side” and “doesn’t have anything to do with UNC football.”

Coming up: UNC is hiring former Bears PR chief Brandon Faber to help manage what has become a certified fiasco, and Belichick is scheduled to sit down with Michael Strahan on “Good Morning America” this Friday.

Looking ahead: On June 1, the payment necessary for Belichick to exit the 10-year, $50 million contract he signed with UNC plummets from $10 million to $1 million. Initially, that reduction was viewed as an easy path for him to return to the NFL. Now, it looks more like Belichick’s exit ramp from an untenable situation — and one the school may welcome him taking.

The last word, via Yahoo Sports’ Jay Busbee:

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North Carolina didn’t hire Belichick for drama; the school hired him for wins. If he can deliver the latter, Tar Heel nation will grit its teeth and put up with the former. But thats still an unknown “if,” and there’s a whole lot of time between now and that first potential win.

⚾️ When a film buff gets into sports broadcasting

If you watch a Mets broadcast on SNY, you’ll notice it borrows techniques and flourishes more commonly found in film. That’s no mistake — it’s John DeMarsico.

Film buff turned sports director: Before DeMarsico joined the Mets’ regional sports network in 2009, he was a film major at NC State. As the Mets’ game director since 2020, he’s been given creative license to draw from that expertise and make broadcasts feel almost cinematic. This week, as his work went viral, he shared a supercut sampling some of the films he’s referenced.

What they’re saying: “Baseball is inherently cinematic, more so than other sports,” DeMarsico told the New York Times in a 2022 feature. “In football and basketball, there’s so much speed. In baseball, there is no clock. The geography of the field is very structured. You’re able to set the scene, and establish the confrontations between batter and pitcher like a duel in a western.”

Behind the scenes: Lest you think directing a sports broadcast is a simple job, SNY shared a behind-the-scenes look at DeMarsico and his crew during a Francisco Lindor walk-off home run last month. Impressive doesn’t even begin to describe what they’re doing on a nightly basis.

🎾 Italy’s rise as a tennis powerhouse

As Italy hosts its lone Masters 1000 event this week in Rome, it’s worth exploring how the nation that long played second fiddle to the likes of France, Australia and the U.S. has built itself into a tennis powerhouse.

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The formula: There’s a general consensus that player development can be boiled down to the three C’s — coaching, competition and courts — and Italy has completely overhauled its system in that respect with great success.

1. Coaching: Italy’s tennis federation used to identify and train a small group of youngsters away from the comforts of home, but they’ve since decentralized that approach. Rather than uprooting players’ lives, the federation provides resources for private coaches nationwide to allow players to train where they live. The result? A much broader development pipeline.

2. Competition: Higher-level events are difficult to qualify for and expensive to travel to, so Italy has made it a point to hold as many second-tier tournaments as possible in order to maximize competitive reps for its players. No country is hosting more ATP Challenger (19) or WTA 125 events (8) this year.

3. Courts: Terra battuta (red clay) is the national surface of Italian tennis, but most of the pro season is played on hard courts. To properly train for the modern game, Italy has increased its number of hard courts four-fold since 2010. Has it worked? Well, world No. 1 Jannik Sinner has won each of the last three hard-court Grand Slams.

The results: Sinner is one of seven Italian men ranked in the top 50 (only the U.S. has more), and No. 5 Jasmine Paolini leads the charge on the women’s side. Together, they helped Italy sweep the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup last year, a rare feat in the sport.

What to watch: Three Italians remain in contention as the Italian Open nears its conclusion, with Paolini in the semifinals and Sinner and No. 8 Lorenzo Musetti both in the quarterfinals.

🏀 NBA mock draft 1.0

Now that the order is set, Yahoo Sports’ Kevin O’Connor took his first stab at projecting how next month’s NBA draft will play out.

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Top 10:

1. Mavericks: Cooper Flagg, F (Duke)

2. Spurs: Dylan Harper, G (Rutgers)

3. 76ers: Ace Bailey, F (Rutgers)

4. Hornets: VJ Edgecombe, G (Baylor)

5. Jazz: Kon Knueppel, G/F (Duke)

6. Wizards: Tre Johnson, G (Texas)

7. Pelicans: Jeremiah Fears, G (Oklahoma)

8. Nets: Derik Queen, C (Maryland)

9. Raptors: Khaman Maluach, C (Duke)

10. Rockets: Kasparas Jakučionis, G (Illinois)

Full mock draft: Picks 11-59

Sidebar: While we’re on the topic of the draft… In 2019, the NBA flattened the lottery odds to discourage tanking. Safe to say it’s worked… maybe too well? The team with the worst record hasn’t won the lottery since, and this is the third straight year that the league’s worst team fell to the fifth pick, with the 2025 Jazz joining the 2023 and 2024 Pistons.

📺 Watchlist: Three seasons on the brink

The Celtics, Warriors and Golden Knights face elimination tonight as Boston hosts New York (7pm ET, TNT), Golden State visits Minnesota (9:30pm, TNT) and Vegas hosts Edmonton (9:30pm, ESPN).

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Injury report: The Celtics and Warriors will be without their best players. Jayson Tatum (Achilles) is out for the year and Steph Curry (hamstring) remains sidelined.

More to watch:

• 🏒 NHL: Panthers (2-2) at Maple Leafs (7pm, ESPN) … History says* tonight’s winner will likely advance.

• 🎾 Tennis: Italian Open (7am, Tennis) … Men’s and women’s quarterfinals.

• 🏒 Hockey Worlds: USA vs. Norway (10:20am, NHL) … Group stage.

• 🏒 PWHL: Toronto (1-2) at Minnesota (7pm, YouTube) … Semifinals, Game 4.

• ⚽️ Coppa Italia: AC Milan vs. Bologna (3pm, CBSSN) … Championship.

*By the numbers: In a seven-game NHL series that’s tied 2-2, the Game 5 winner has gone on to win the series 79.3% of the time.

🍿 Movie trivia

Question: What actor played “Shoeless” Joe Jackson (now eligible for the Hall of Fame) in the 1989 film “Field of Dreams”?

Answer at the bottom.

⚾️ MLB power rankings

We’re roughly a quarter of the way through the 2025 MLB season. How are you feeling about your team? Probably better than I’m feeling about my Orioles!

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Power rankings.

Trivia answer: Ray Liotta

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