The Week That Was (May 19-23, 2025)

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

May 24, 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.

🏀 NBA Horoscope Predictions for Every Conference Finals Team - Somehow, my ESPN editors let me write a zodiac-themed breakdown of each remaining playoff team, interpreting their championship odds through the astrological profiles of their stars — from Jalen Brunson’s ♍️Virgo focus to ♌️Leo Anthony Edwards’ fire-sign energy.
🏀 The NBA's Era of Parity Goes Even Deeper Than You Think - A historic stretch of 7 straight unique NBA champions actually might undersell an even wilder trend: 10 different Finals teams in 6 years, with zero repeats — a first in league history — signaling a true golden age of parity.
🏀 Nobody Has the Knicks’ Number Like the Pacers - Big Apple Basketball’s longtime playoff nemesis is back, with Indiana having eliminated the Knicks in 5 of their past 6 meetings — a torment second only to Michael Jordan’s Bulls. (And a stunning Game 1 did nothing to change that trend.)
🏀 It’s Thunder or Bust Now - With basically all other top seeds eliminated, the Thunder stand alone as the dominant favorite — but in a postseason defined by chaos, even OKC's title path is far from certain.
⚾ Baseball Bytes: Cardinal Rules - St. Louis is winning again by embracing its homegrown player-development roots, while a nostalgic Futures Game matchup reunites Chipper Jones and Marquis Grissom, and Aaron Judge joins Mike Trout in hitting Judgeian — and notably non-Judgeian — HRs.
🏒 This Might Be the NHL’s Most Competitive Final Four Ever - Hockey’s 2025 conference finalists are so evenly matched that this could be the most balanced NHL Final Four in modern history — with all four teams near-equal in Elo, betting odds and Stanley Cup probability.
🏁 Breaking down Kyle Larson’s quest to cover 1,100 miles in one day, Part II - Larson gears up for another shot at completing the Indy 500 and Coke 600 on the same day, chasing a rare 1,100-mile feat that's only been successfully pulled off once — by Tony Stewart in 2001 — with history, weather and travel logistics all standing in his way.
- 🏁🎧 Double Trouble - This week on Podracing,
  Tyler
  and I discussed Christopher Bell’s All-Star W at North Wilkesboro, where Joey Logano led the most laps again but couldn’t win back-to-back All-Star Races. Then it was on to Kyle Larson’s Indy 500/Coke 600 “Double Duty” bid, as we dug into my piece on the history of drivers trying to conquer both races in a single day, and what makes Larson’s attempt so compelling. Finally, we made our picks -- both betting and one-and-done -- for Charlotte.

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.