The Week That Was (Feb. 26-Mar. 1, 2024)

A roundup of what I wrote, read, watched, etc. over the past week.

Mar 02, 2024

In this space on Saturdays, I do a weekly round-up of sorts: Sifting through what I wrote that you might have missed during the week, what I’ve been reading and watching myself, and some other fun things that have been going on. Let me know what you think about the format in the comments (or email me!), and if there are running sections you’d like to see on a regular basis.

What I did this week

Stealing a bit from Will Leitch’s newsletter format, here are the things I wrote or podcasted about during the previous week, sorted in descending order by quality, popularity and/or current relevance.

🏀 Why regular-season chaos could lead to a wild March Madness ($) - In my debut returning to ESPN as a freelancer (🎉!), I dug into the unusually poor performance of ranked men’s teams this college basketball season — and what their struggles could mean in March Madness.
🏀 The MOST IMPORTANT THINGS — For All 30 NBA Teams [Part 2] - As part of
Royce Webb
’s compilation of takes about the most important things — short-term and long-term — for each NBA team, I wrote about the state of the LA Clippers.
🏀 Who Is the NBA’s Most Underrated Player (And Is It Herb Jones)? - Using All-Star voting as a proxy for how popular and/or well-known a player is, I looked at the most valuable guys flying under the radar at different levels of fan non-support.
🏀 How Good Will Caitlin Clark Be In the WNBA Right Away? - Caitlin Clark finally announced this week that she would be leaving Iowa for the WNBA Draft — and the Indiana Fever, who hold the No. 1 pick. How productive do WNBA No. 1 picks tend to be in their rookie seasons (and beyond)?
🏒 The 10 Best Canadian NHL Teams of the Stanley Cup Drought Era - Longtime readers will know I am obsessed with Canadian teams having gone more than 30 years without winning the biggest prize in Canada’s national pastime. But which of those many teams who came up short were the best?
⚾️ Does Cody Bellinger’s Return Save the Cubs’ 2024 Potential? - Chicago might have secretly been a very good team undone by bad luck — and a horrible September collapse — last year. But now that CF Cody Bellinger has re-signed with the team (aka Scott Boras’ master plan didn’t work out), are the Cubs projected to be better this season?
⛳ Anthony Kim Is Back. How Good Could He Have Been? - One of the most fascinating stories in golf right now is the news that former phenom Anthony Kim — two-time winner and hero of the Ryder Cup in 2008 — is playing competitive rounds again after 12 mysterious years away. Based on his peak performance as a young star, I looked at how similar players ended up panning out in their careers.
🏁 Kyle Busch Buschwhacks Again! - Across all national series, NASCAR’s Kyle Busch is the winningest driver in the sport’s history — but after adding another trophy last week in the Truck Series, 72.9% of Busch’s Ws have come in lower-tier series that are supposed to be for developing younger drivers.