Nick Nurse: Kawhi Leonard Was Raptors’ ‘Funniest’ Player During Title Run

Toronto Raptors head coach Nick Nurse is here to vouch for Kawhi Leonard as a fun guy.

Appearing on The Lowe Post podcast with Zach Lowe on Tuesday, Nurse labeled Leonard as “the funniest guy” (h/t Vivek Jacob of Yahoo Canada Sports):

“I think this thing about him not saying things and being so quiet is almost played out. He was unbelievable yesterday at the parade [with his] speech, absolutely stole the show. He does that constantly. He’s the funniest guy in the film room because he waits and delivers the knockout punch line. cheap nike nfl jerseys from china

“He’s coachable, he talks to me a lot during the games about the games, in the huddles, in the film room—he talks a lot, we’ve probably misread him a bit in that way.”
At the Raptors’ first-ever championship parade Monday, Leonard mocked cheap nike jerseys nfl  his own laugh that went viral at Toronto’s media day ahead of the season: cheap official nike nfl jerseys
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Perhaps Nurse’s best evidence was this story: As the 51-year-old first-year head coach was trying to convey a teaching moment to Toronto following a Game 5 win over the Milwaukee Bucks in the Eastern Conference Finals by comparing his current team’s situation to his former D-League team, Leonard interrupted. nfl cheap nike jerseys

“In the D-League?” the two-time NBA Finals MVP said. “I’m done listening to this story.”cheap wholesale nike nfl jerseys

Leonard’s historic performance throughout the 2019 postseason solidified him as one of the league’s biggest stars. Anytime he does talk from now on, everybody will be listening.

Which of baseball’s most unbreakable records might actually get broken in 2019?

In the years since Barry Bonds retired, records have been mostly replaced in baseball by fun facts. A record is something you chase. People know what it is in advance. A fun fact can be just as impressive, but it is bespoke and discovered only after it happens. Mike Trout has the most WAR in history through age 26. Jamie Moyer had more wins after his 31st birthday than Pedro Martinez had in his career. Mark Grace once hit .825 when he went the opposite way,nfl jerseys for cheap authentic  the highest ever. Fun facts, but not records.

There will be some fantastic fun facts this baseball season, a few dozen from Trout alone, but try to find a real record that might be broken. Records, since Bonds retired, hardly ever get broken. Other than Aaron Judge breaking the rookie home run record in 2017,nfl jersey supply  and the Yankees breaking the all-time team home run record last year — both fairly fringy as records go — can you think of any record in the 2010s that (A) you were aware of before 2010 and (B) has been broken since? Not really! i

The main reason is records get set in extreme environments, and baseball mostly isn’t as extreme as it was in the 1960s (when pitching was out of hand) or the 1930s (when offense was) or the 1880s (when there were only eight pitchers and they each threw 600 innings)cheapest nfl jerseys . Instead of records, we have to settle for seeing the greatest baseball players in the history of the world, putting up non-record statistics. Alas.wholesale authentic nfl jerseys

But what if a fan from the future came back in time and told us a record was set this year? What if she said it was one of the big ones, even? Let’s say, one of the 20 most significant records that can be set entirely within the course of a single season?buy nfl jerseys Which record do you figure it would be?official nfl jerseys

What follow are The Big 20, the 20 records I estimate are the biggest deal, ordered by how likely they are to be broken this year. We’re ignoring the purely anachronistic records, the ones that are of such an ancient style of play there is no opportunity for a player to break them. We’re treating only batting records set since 1901, and only pitching records set since 1920, as official records. And we’re not debating the composition of The Big 20 itself, because it exists only for the framing of this article. What is nfl nike jerseys  up for debate is the question at hand. We’re starting with the least likely.

Grading Every NFL Team’s Free-Agency Performance

Peak free agency for the NFL’s 99th offseason is over, and more than 200 players signed contracts with a combined value of $2.4 billion in the last nine days.

More moves are coming, and they’ll matter, authentic nike nfl jersey but those transactions will be part of a second wave that doesn’t shape rosters as much as those in the early stages of free agency.

With that in mind, it’s time to issue report cards on the free-agency performance of every NFL team with the following grade scale:fd1c5c1a36050df564b4f9877d47a566_crop_exact

A+: It was pretty much perfect.cheap nike authentic nfl jerseys

A: The good drastically outweighed the bad.

B: The good slightly outweighed the bad.

C: The bad slightly outweighed the good.

D: The bad drastically outweighed the good.authentic nike nfl jerseys wholesale

F: Anything that could go wrong did go wrong.new nike authentic nfl jerseys

Here’s how the class fared.

What they needed to do

Still rebuilding after a roster overhaul and a three-win season, the Arizona Cardinals had one job: Add as much support as possible for young quarterback Josh Rosen authentic nike nfl jerseys china (or Kyler Murray, if they go that route). Arizona can afford to build up its defense through the draft, but the offense needs experience and proven talent. The offensive line was a bloody mess last season.

What they did right

The Cardinals acquired solid and reasonably priced offensive tackle Marcus Gilbert in a trade with the Pittsburgh Steelers, and they added depth at guard by signing veteran J.R. Sweezy.

Where they went wrong nfl authentic jerseys nike

They focused far too much on defense. The contract they gave linebacker Jordan Hicks isn’t bad, but that $8.5 million average annual salary could have gone to a stronger guard like Rodger Saffold or Billy Turner. Why spend even a dime on 36-year-old Terrell Suggs? And they’re inexplicably giving cornerback Robert Alford $7.5 million authentic nike nfl jerseys for sale a year on the wrong side of 30. New pass-catchers Charles Clay and Kevin White aren’t likely to do much to help Rosen or Murray either. It’s unclear what general manager Steve Keim is thinking.authentic nike nfl jerseys stitched

What they should do now

The rub with using a first-round pick on Murray is you’d better get a first-rounder back for Rosen. If not, you’re setting Murray up to fail immediately. The Cardinals have to use a first-round pick on a receiver, tight end or offensive lineman who can make an impact right off the bat.

North Dakota State Bison

Record: 18-15, 9-7 in Summit

How They Got Here: The door swung wide-open in the Summit League when Mike Daum and South Dakota State lost to Western Illinois in the first game of the conference tournament. The Bison seized that opportunity, wrapping up the automatic bid with a 73-63 victory nfl youth jersey over No. 2 seed Omaha in the championship game.

Reason to Believe: This Bison are not afraid to let it rip from beyond the arc. They’ve attempted 861 threes on the season—28th in the nation—and hit at a respectable 36.6 percent clip. Their rotation goes nine deep, which should help them keep fresh against a more athletic opponent. On top of all that, they’re as battle-tested as any small school in the nation, with games against NET top 50 teams in Gonzaga, Iowa State and New Mexico State on their non-conference schedule.nfl replica jerseys cheap

Reason to Worry: The experience gained in those high-profile games is nice, but it also bears mentioning that they lost all three by a combined 81 points. A home victory against sub-150 UC Santa Barbara is their best win, and they have a total of nine Quad 3 and Quad 4 losses.replica nfl jerseys

March Madness Ceiling: The Bison pulled off an upset of No. nfl replica jerseys 5 Oklahoma in the 2014 tournament. This year’s group isn’t nearly as talented as that No. 12 seed was, though. A steep uphill battle awaits.

Report: LeBron James Wouldn’t Have Worn Cast If Hand Injury Didn’t Leak

LeBron James reportedly wouldn’t have worn a soft cast on his right hand after Game 4 of the NBA Finals if news of the injury hadn’t leaked out before he was slated to speak with reporters.

According to USA Today’s Sam Amick, it’s “unclear if James or his associates would have shared the news at a later time, but there were no plans to pull the curtain back that night.”

However,nfl jerseys china cheap  James pivoted and confirmed the news by sporting the cast postgame.

Amick first reported after Game 4 that James suffered a deep bone contusion when he punched a whiteboard in the team’s locker room following Game 1.

“I had emotions on [how] where to buy nfl jerseys the game was taken away from us; I had emotions of [how] you just don’t get an opportunity like this on the road versus Golden State to be able to get a Game 1,” James said, according to Amick.

According to Brian Windhorst and Dave McMenamin, James underwent two MRIs, which were “kept quiet to prevent Warriors from knowing” about the injury.

Despite being banged up, James averaged 34.0 points, 10.0 assists and 8.5 rebounds while shooting 52.7 percent from the field in the Finals. womens nfl jerseys cheap

Detroit Lions: Defensive Versatility

While he was defensive coordinator of the New England Patriots, Matt Patricia was known for using a number of defensive looks to confuse opponents.

The more things change, chinese nfl jerseys nike the more they stay the same. As Dave Birkett reported for the Detroit Free Press, the Lions featured a lot of both odd- and even-man fronts on the practice field in OTAs.

Edge-rusher Ziggy Ansah, who is easily the Lions’ most effective sack artist, watched most of OTAs from the sidelines. But Patricia singled out the 29-year-old as a player who is buying whole-heartedly into the new scheme.

“Ziggy’s actually probably one of the first guys I met when I got here,” Patricia said. “So he’s been great, really hard working, kind of just dialed in, focused. He can be quiet at times, which is fine, but to be honest with you, he’s really into everything right now. He’s really trying to learn at a high pace. Very professional, very much so trying to perfect his craft and what he does and learn to do some of the things that we’re doing that may be a little bit different. But he’s been great.”

That’s most assuredly a good thing, as Patricia will be counting on Ansah to collapse the pocket from both a defensive end and outside linebacker spot at times in 2018.

The Green Bay Packers aren’t a team with a ton of battles for starting spots this summer. Running back is an exception, with Ty Montgomery, Jamaal Williams and Aaron Jones all fighting to earn the biggest slice of the backfield pie.chinese nfl nike jerseys

As Brian Jones reported for 247 Sports, Packers running backs coach Ben Sirmans indicated he’s been very impressed with what he’s seen from Jones so far in OTAs.nfl clothing

“He came back a little bit bigger and he’s still moving around pretty good with the added size,” Sirmans said. “I think as he continues to get as I call it his ‘grown-man weight,’ that we’ll see some of that progress happen with him getting stronger. I think he saw also for himself what he could benefit from, particularly with his lower body. He could benefit from playing stronger and not just from an injury standpoint avoiding those things, but also it will help him break more tackles and do those things.”cheap chinese authentic nfl jerseys

On a per-carry basis, Jones was the most effective back of the trio in 2017. Before injuring his knee last November, Jones topped 100 rushing yards in each of his first two NFL starts. His 5.5 yards per carry in 2017 was third in the NFL among tailbacks with 80 or more carries.chinese made nfl jerseys

If Jones can add weight and strength without sacrificing speed, he could be in for an even more productive second season.

Scared NFL Makes Epic Mistake with Anthem Policy

The NFL has gotten things wrong before, but in the recent history of this league, it has gotten fewer things more horribly, disgracefully, stupidly, terribly wrong than what it decided to do Wednesday in trying to half-heartedly stop players from protesting during the national anthem.

In a statement released by the league, team owners decided that starting this season, players can stay in the locker room during the anthem. If players take a knee to protest, say, unarmed black and brown people being unjustly shot by law enforcement, cheap nike nfl jerseys wholesale commissioner Roger Goodell can potentially fine both teams and players.

Essentially, the league is trying to shove the protests out of sight by putting them in the locker room. And by fining players who want to publicly protest, it is also trying to make this a financial decision for players.

“We want people to be respectful of the national anthem,” Goodell said in a press conference. “We want people to stand—that’s all personnel—and make sure they treat this moment in a respectful fashion. That’s something we think we owe. [But] we were also very sensitive to give players choices.”

But as protesters like Colin Kaepernick (who, along with Eric Reid, started the protests) have said, they are not protesting the anthem or the military; they are using the anthem to bring attention to racial injustice and the issue of police abuse of black and brown citizens.cheap nfl nike jersey

Now, because of the NFL’s ineptitude, the anthem controversy will be around a long time, and it will be messy, and ugly, and divisive. The union and the league will likely go to war, and swaths of America will fight over it.

Within hours of the league’s announcement, the NFLPA had fired back:cheap nfl jerseys china nike

Why is the NFL handling this so poorly, crafting a policy based on fear, not practicality? The answer remains clear, according to a variety of league sources: an intense fear of President Donald Trump.

This is a fact. This is the truth. This is the core basis for the NFL’s decision. This has been told to me before, and it was reiterated by several people Wednesday.

“Our league,” one team official said, “is f–king terrified of Trump. We’re scared of him.”nike nfl jerseys cheap china

What does the NFL fear? It fears boycotts of games. It fears people not watching its product on television. It fears people not buying its products.

Houston Texans: Offensive Line

You may have noticed something of a theme in the first half of this piece: For more than a few NFL teams, the trenches are the biggest area of need with the offseason winding down. It’s a position group that’s as important as it is difficult to remedy.

At the very top of the list of NFL teams hard-up up front is the Houston Texans, who allowed 54 sacks in 2017.

Only the Indianapolis Colts allowed more.

The Texans whiffed on the big-name free agents on the offensive line, and with no first- or second-round pick in the draft, the best the Texans could do in that regard was Martinas Rankin, a tweener prospect whose best fit may well be as a “swing” reserve.cheap nike nfl jerseys wholesale

Houston will be putting a lot of confidence in a Day 3 pick (second-year pro Julie’n Davenport), an underachieving free-agent add (Seantrel Henderson, who came over from Buffalo) and a menagerie of replacement-level talents to protect Deshaun Watson this season.

Good thing the kid’s mobile.

He’s going to need those wheels.cheap nfl nike jersey

Prior to the NFL draft, there was essentially a tie for the Indianapolis Colts’ biggest problem area in 2018.

Both the offensive and defensive lines needed work—quite a lot of it.

The former got a big boost on April 26 with the selection of Notre Dame guard Quenton Nelson, whom some pundits considered the top overall prospect in this year’s class.

The defensive line, on the other hand, didn’t get a ton of assistance. The Colts added some help in the form of second-round pick Tyquan Lewis, but the former Ohio State star was a rotational player with the Buckeyes who will probably need time to get his sea legs in the NFL.cheap nfl jerseys china nike

That leaves Jabaal Sheard and Denico Autry as the front-runners to start on Indy’s new four-man front. Sheard’s the more proven of the two. Twice he’s notched at least eight sacks in a season, but he’s never hit double digits. Autry had five sacks for the Oakland Raiders a year ago, but that’s the high-water mark of his career.nike nfl jerseys cheap china

If you can’t pressure the quarterback in today’s NFL, you’re going to get carved up.

Right now, it doesn’t look like a Colts team that was last in the AFC in sacks last year is going to make a leap forward in that regard.

Herschel Walker Says He Understands Why NFL Teams Won’t Sign Colin Kaepernick

Former Dallas Cowboys running back Herschel Walker told TMZ Sports he understands why teams won’t hire free-agent quarterback Colin Kaepernick based on his choice to protest social injustice and racial inequality during the national anthem.genuine nfl jerseys

“I read where they asked him if he would still kneel if they hired him, and he said he wasn’t sure or he may, and that tells you right there that he doesn’t want to work,” Walker said. “My point is: I think what he was doing was great. I think what he stood for was great. Black lives matter.

“Right now I think he’s got to remember that you have teams saying, ‘If you do what we ask you to do, you may have a job.’ But he don’t wanna do it. … I own a chicken company. If the guy that I hire don’t want to do what I ask him to do, why do I hire him? And I think that’s the problem right there, you know.”jersey cheap nfl

Kaepernick, who filed a collusion grievance against the NFL and its 32 teams, has been a free agent since he opted out of his contract with the San Francisco 49ers in March 2017.

The 30-year-old reportedly drew interest from the Seattle Seahawks last month, but ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported the team decided to nix a meeting with him after he “declined to stop kneeling during the national anthem next season.”authentic nfl jerseys sale

While Kaepernick has continued to train for a return to the gridiron, he’s also been an activist during his time away from the game. In January, he completed a $1 million pledge to help organizations in oppressed communities.

Kaepernick also donated 100 percent of the proceeds from his 2016 jersey sales to charity.authentic nfl jerseys for sale

Tennessee Titans: Sign S Eric Reid

This may all be academic at this point.

ESPN’s Dan Graziano reported Eric Reid filed a collusion where to buy official nfl jerseys case against the NFL on Wednesday, so the safety may have made himself unwelcome in the NFL. Certainly Reid is unhappy that he’s gone unsigned this long after playing a linebacker/safety role for the San Francisco 49ers last season, and doing so effectively, but this action could push him further from a contract.

But if NFL teams are still interested in his services, Reid proved in 2017 that he could play the nickel and dime linebacker role Malcolm Jenkins played for the Eagles last season, and to nearly the same degree of effectiveness.order cheap nfl jerseys

The Tennessee Titans have paired strong safety Johnathan Cyprien with free safety Kevin Byard. While Byard is one of the best in the game at his job, Reid would be a nice upgrade in intermediate run-stopping and coverage.

The only question is whether he’ll get a chance.nike nfl jersey china