The Week That Was (June 16-20, 2025)

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

Jun 21, 2025

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!1), and if there are running sections you’d like to see on a regular basis.

What I did this week

Here are the things I wrote or podcasted about during the previous week, sorted in descending order by quality, popularity and/or current relevance.

🏀 The Pacers Are 1 Win from the Greatest Upset in (Recent) Finals History - Now that the Pacers have pushed the 2025 NBA Finals to a shocking Game 7, Indy isjust one win away from pulling off the biggest (Elo-rated) Finals upset of the modern era, continuing the league’s run of chaos and parity.
🏒 The Florida Panthers Are a Dynasty That Rose From a Sweep and Would the Florida Panthers Be a Dynasty If They Win the Cup? - After decades of irrelevance, the Florida Panthers have become an NHL dynasty with back-to-back Stanley Cups, three straight Finals trips and a high total in what I call “Dynasty Points”. I traced their rise back to a humiliating 2022 playoff sweep — a failure that forced Florida to evolve into a tougher, more complete team, offering a blueprint for how to turn regular-season success into sustained postseason dominance.
⚾ Baseball Bytes: Ohtani in Full - This week’s baseball column highlights Shohei Ohtani’s long-awaited return to the mound — reigniting the debate over whether his two-way brilliance is sustainable or worth the risk. Plus, Rafael Devers' shocking trade to the Giants adds chaos to a wild NL West race, and Arkansas’ Gage Wood delivers a College World Series performance for the ages.
⚾ History says one of these five teams should win the World Series - In my debut story for The Athletic,2 I analyzed 25+ years of stats through June to reverse-engineer what makes a World Series champion. While the postseason is famously unpredictable, some clear trends emerge in eventual champs by midseason — and only five teams check all the traditional boxes so far in 2025.
⚾ Which MLB pitchers are throwing the right -- or wrong -- pitches? - Using concepts from Game Theory, my ESPN column analyzed how MLB pitchers are optimizing their pitch selections by comparing the effectiveness of each pitch to how often it's actually used. Which starters and relievers are striking the right balance within their arsenals — and which ones aren’t fully aligning their pitches’ usage and effectiveness, potentially leaving outs on the table?
🏁 Which international destinations should NASCAR visit next? - In the wake of NASCAR’s successful return to international competition with the Mexico City race, I speculated about which global tracks the Cup Series should visit next. From the elevation changes of Interlagos in Brazil to the banked turns of Zandvoort and the glamorous beachfront chaos of Surfers Paradise in Australia, my list includes six primary candidates — one from each continent (except Antarctica… for now).
- 🏁🎧 The Podracing World Tour -
  Tyler
  and I kicked off this week's Podracing with a breakdown of Shane Van Gisbergen’s road-course clinic in Mexico City — and why his playoff spot is legit, even if he's 30th in points. Then we go continent-hopping through my story on potential international NASCAR destinations, from Autódromo José Carlos Pace to Zandvoort. Plus, one-and-done and betting picks for Pocono's tricky triangle, a Tyler fave track where there's no SVG wave for me to ride to victory this time.
🏀 The Probability That Could Haunt Indiana - The Pacers were one quarter away from seizing a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals — and with it, an 86 percent “coin-flip” title probability (assuming equal teams) — before a crushing Game 4 collapse shifted control back to the Thunder. I quantified just how big that missed chance was, speculating whether this would become another painful chapter in the franchise’s near-miss history.

Some interesting things I read/watched this week

A collection of articles (with a heavy focus on my fellow Substackers), videos and other media that I enjoyed and/or found thought-provoking over the past week. I don’t always 100% agree with what’s linked here… but that’s also sort of the point.