Weather And Sports Notes

We are very lucky this morning. Last night’s storms all passed just to the south of us. There were radar-indicated tornadoes about 30 minutes south of downtown Indianapolis.[1] A large tornado blew through the area where we used to own a lake house. C and I kept getting texts to shelter in place from IU as three different tornadoes passed Bloomington.

This after the local news spent the entire day stressing that massive storms would likely go through the Indy area. L’s summer league games were all cancelled. We’re not sure if this was because so many kids drive themselves to games and the worst was supposed to hit right when games were going on, or because roughly 1000 people would be in a glorified warehouse when high winds ripped through the region. I’m pretty sure they couldn’t have crowded all of us into the restrooms if the sirens began sounding.

Luckily in our part of town there were only some minor gusts, not the 90 MPH winds that people in Iowa and Illinois experienced. We had some downpours, but more steady rains. Our loudest storms of the night came after the main line had already passed. Basically, good, old fashioned, summer thunderstorms.

Meanwhile we are watching coverage on the morning news of whole lines of trees ripped apart in a state forest north of Bloomington.

On to some sports takes.

World Cup

Week one of the World Cup is complete. It has been mostly fantastic! Which is a bit of a surprise. Between expanding the field to 48 teams, to the standard FIFA corruption getting cranked up a few more notches, to the main host nation not exactly being a beacon for freedom and inclusiveness at the moment, the tournament began with bad vibes.

As tends to happen in sports, though, the excellence of the games has wiped that away for the moment. At least when the games are being played.

Lots of goals. Some epic individual performances: Harry Kane. Kylian Mbappe. Erling Haaland. Lionel Messi!!! Several teams that are only present because of the field expansion holding their own against some of the best teams in the world. Most days you can flip on a game and be highly entertained for a couple hours.

Oh, and the US won in convincing fashion in their first game, which was a bit of a surprise. Also a surprise was Australia winning their first game fairly easily over Türkiye. That sets up a fascinating game tomorrow night in Seattle. A US win would mean they clinch a second round spot before their final game of the group phase for the first time in program history. Crazy!

The tournament has not been without controversy. Coming in there was worry about holding a soccer tournament that is geared more for European TV times than our own during North American summer. FIFA’s response: inserting hydration breaks in the midst of each half. Which makes sense from a safety standpoint. When it is actually hot. But many of the games so far have been played under fairly moderate temps. But FIFA decided to insert these breaks into every game, no matter the temperature. And, most curiously, even if the games are being played in domed, temperature controlled stadiums.

I guess I get that FIFA wants every game to be played under the same conditions. But so far this seems dumb.

Made dumber by the predictable insertion of ads by Fox in these breaks. And FIFA and Fox not coordinating so often play has already been restarted when the ad breaks end.

European fans have taken to derisive whistling and booing when the hydration breaks begin, which I love. But as we get deeper into the tournament and temperatures rise, the breaks might not seem as silly.

If you haven’t seen Zlatan Ibrahimovic putting Alexi Lalas in a body bag a couple days ago, I suggest checking it out. Thierry Henry’s facial reaction is tremendous.

Just watch Thierry Henry once Lalas is done

— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) 2026-06-16T21:20:03.274Z

Finally, I did not lock in picks before the tournament began. I’m not sure you should overreact to one week of games, but the Spanish look suspect while the French and English look awesome, and Argentina might have enough juice for a title defense if Messi can stay upright?

The key to the tournament is that France and Spain are on the same side of the bracket, assuming they both win their groups. I feel like France might be a little stronger at the moment, but Spain has owned them the past couple years. Regardless, England would not meet either of them until and unless they reach the final.[2] I have a hard time believing that this is finally the year England gets it done. My daughter is spending time in France this summer. She watched PSG win the Champions League, and the French win their opener vs Senegal in restaurants. So I’m going to go way out on a limb and picking the French.

The wildest World Cup trivia bit, which pops up every four years, is that only eight countries have ever won the event: Italy, Germany, France, Spain, England, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. Hell, even most of the second place teams come from that group of eight. You would think that over time those odds would spread out. I don’t think this is the year Croatia or Belgium or Portugal or Holland cracks the code and enters the most exclusive club in sports.

NBA Finals

Dammit, those MFing New York Knicks did it. And I’m not happy about it.

Which on many levels is odd.

Sure, there’s the whole New York sports thing, which I almost always root against. There’s the whole East Coast Sports Bias thing, which is very real, at least in the sense that a NYC team will always get 1000 times more attention than if the same exact team played in almost any other market.[3] There’s the Villanova thing. There’s all the baggage from the last two years, when the Pacers and Knicks played physical, emotional playoff series.

I’m just bitter enough of a sports fan where all that outweighs the many reasons to admire this Knicks team.[4]

When you look at them, these Knicks really resemble the Pacers teams that beat them the last two years. They both have a near-superstar that anchors the team. But neither Tyrese Haliburton nor Jalen Brunson are super-duper stars like LeBron or Kobe or MJ, players with physical gifts that place them on a pedestal above all their rivals. But beyond those primary players, each team was carefully built over several years, though smart drafting and inspired trading to a point where the sum of their parts far exceeded their individual values.

Both teams played their asses off at all times, on both ends of the court.

Both teams treated double-digit deficits as mere annoyances that would be erased through greater focus and effort, not excuses to clear the bench and save the starters for the next game.

Brunson is one of the most remarkable players in the NBA. He should not he as effective as he is, nor have the impact that he does. The shots he hits are completely amazing, and he seems to get better as the game goes on when he should be wearing out. He (and Karl-Anthony Towns) seem like two of the most genuinely good dudes in the NBA. At least off the court. Rival players seem to love them. They give terrific interviews and seem like their heads are screwed on correctly. Hell, Brunson (and Josh Hart) sang the praises of Kansas and how hard it was for them to pick Villanova over KU after visiting Lawrence as high schoolers.

All that said, fuck them guys. Especially Brunson. Fuck his “Oh no, I’ve been fouled and my leg might be broken!” act, followed by looking completely normal and drilling a big shot two seconds later. Fuck his pushing off and elbows to the chest. Fuck his cheap shots when he buzzes defenders off-the-ball in the back court, trying to trip them from behind then sprawling on the ground like he was the one who got fouled. Fuck his dad, who should have been ejected from at least two games in the Finals for his horseshit act.

Fuck all of that.

The Spurs got the Finals at least one year early. Wemby needs to get stronger, develop more stamina, and come up with a go-to shot he can rely on when everything else breaks down. Dylan Harper is everything KU fans wanted Darryn Peterson to be, and is about to become a superstar. De’Aaron Fox was nicked up enough that it affected his game. The entire team showed their youth in coming out blazing hot to begin each game, only to be operating on fumes in the last 12 minutes. Coach Mitch Johnson was not ready for the big lights of the Finals. They need more experience, probably a more significant defensive player on the bench who can spell Wemby, and to figure out what to do with Fox’s contract going forward if Harper is going to be the better player.

They are going to be a force, as long as Wemby can stay healthy.

Shame they weren’t ready this year.

I know most of the sports world is celebrating the Knicks title, at least from a narrative standpoint. Even I can admit the scenes from New York Saturday night were remarkable. I just can’t get on board. Hopefully the revitalized Pacers, or healthier Celtics, or maturing Pistons or Magic can keep the Knicks from even making it out of the East next year and turn this into a one-year thing that bitter folks like me can label a fluke.

Also the healthy Pacers would have beaten the Knicks. Fight me.

Fever

It’s been a strange couple of weeks for the Indiana Fever. They finally seem to have figured out who they are, and have won five of their last six games. Their defense is still, often, atrocious. But their offense is so damn good that once it locks in, the deficiencies on the other end sometimes don’t matter.

What’s been strangest is Caitlin Clark’s season. I think it’s safe to say that something is up with her.

She’s averaging a career high 20.4 points per game. She’s grabbing over five rebounds a night. Her 8.5 assists per contest leads the league. She’s only missed one game. Seems pretty good, right?

If only you could sum up her game with just her stats.

Watching her play is a different story. She doesn’t play with any joy. She is endlessly complaining about calls and non-calls. She’s constantly getting into tussles with opponents. Even when she hits a couple shots, she seems more interested in yelling at who was guarding her or saying something defiant to the ref than celebrating the moment. And don’t get me started on her awful defense, which is the primary reason the Fever as a whole are bad on that end as her teammates are repeatedly trying to recover for her lapses.

There have been the multiple blowups with her coaches. And while not her fault (hopefully), the Fever revoking the credential for a local writer who has been covering the team since well before the Caitlin era because of something factual he wrote about her just adds to the oddness.

She’s always had an edge to her. In college she woofed at opposing fans and lobbied for calls. She’s taken all that to another level, though. Combine that with the lack of fun in her game and it all comes across an angry and bitter rather than just an intense competitor.

I understand why she is frustrated. The referees let defenses pummel her for two years, to the point where she missed over half of last season. She’s had more protection this year, but still gets beat up nightly. That can’t be fun.

Worse, she tried to play the Tom Brady/Derek Jeter/Cal Ripken Jr. card of never saying anything controversial so she could be beloved by everyone. That did not work in the WNBA, perhaps the most politically outspoken of all professional sports leagues. Everyone, it seemed, wanted her to speak up for their cause. And when she didn’t they assumed she opposed them. Which meant she pissed everyone off without actually doing anything.

On top of that comes the natural bitterness and envy that arises when a new player comes into the league and is immediately more popular than women who have been playing for years. Who immediately gets more commercial deals than the rest of the league combined. As her rising tide has helped pull all the other boats up with her, I think this has lessened somewhat. But there is no doubt there are some veterans who still aren’t ready to accept her as one of them because of the relative ease she had coming in, being anointed as the league savior from day one.

In summary, she has a lot of shit on her shoulders.

Frankly, I do not enjoy watching her right now. For every behind-the-back pass in traffic that turns into a layup for a teammate, there is the throwing of her arms and yelling at the nearest ref for a call she did not get as the other nine players run the opposite way. There are the dirty looks and scowls. The general bad attitude.

I don’t know what the solution is, but I hope she finds a way to relax, ground herself a bit, let the stress slide off her back, and learn to enjoy playing basketball again.