Aaron Connolly

The Ireland and Brighton striker Aaron Connolly had a dispute with his Love Island girlfriend Lucinda Strafford over the weekend. According to The Sun, ...

Deng ended up playing 57 games for the Lakers. They paid him just over $64 million (he agreed to give back $7.5 million as part of his buyout). Yes, Deng ended up making just over $1 million per game he played with the team. While the Lakers dumped Mozgov’s contract to the Nets in the D’Angelo Russell trade, they went a different direction with Deng. The Lakers waived Deng using the stretch provision (aka the “Gilbert Arenas Rule”). They ended up paying Deng for his first three seasons on the team, and then they spread the remainder of his contract out over future seasons. The New York Knicks endured a very difficult 2021-22 season, and had some in the organization reportedly had their way, it would have involved a change of coaches. Of the four major professional North American sports leagues, the NHL is the only one where the last team standing doesn’t usually refer to itself as “World Champion.” In the NFL and NBA, winners often use that title, and in baseball, “World” is literally part of the name of the championship series. Kevin Durant and the Brooklyn Nets may be playing their best basketball of the season, and it couldn't come at a better time. “We want him to feel no pressure, want him to know that the organization has his best interests in mind,” Connelly said (Twitter link via Mike Singer of The Denver Post). “… He’s done a great job in rehab, he looks really, really good.” Lakers forward LeBron James underwent an MRI on his left ankle in Los Angeles this weekend and didn’t make the trip to Denver for the team’s regular-season finale, Frank Vogel told reporters on Sunday (Twitter link via Dave McMenamin of ESPN). Presumably, the Lakers will be able to share more information on the results of that MRI at Monday’s exit interviews with the media. You look at the fact that for a time they were missing five of their D-men that they started the year with in their top six. One source who believes Allen will miss Tuesday’s game thinks it’s “50-50” that he’d return on Friday, according to Fedor. Here are a few more injury updates from around the NBA: Mavericks star Luka Doncic will undergo an MRI on his strained left calf on Monday to determine the severity of the injury and a potential recovery timeline, tweets veteran NBA reporter Marc Stein. Appearing on 104.3 The Fan in Denver, Nuggets president of basketball operations Tim Connelly said it’s “100%” up to Jamal Murray if he returns from his ACL injury this season. With the Vegas Golden Knights catching fire and winning six of their last seven, just two points separate the clubs, and Vegas has a game in hand. That new deal for Strasburg calls for him to receive three equal payments of $26,666,667 each July from 2027-29 — the contract itself ends in 2026 — plus a final installment of $3,999,974 on Dec. 31, 2029. Lerner emphasized that the process is “exploratory” in nature and added that there’s no “set timetable or expectation of a specific outcome.” The Lerner family purchased the Nationals, formerly the Expos, from Major League Baseball for a sum of $450M back in 2006 after the former Montreal franchise was folded and moved to Washington, D.C. Forbes recently estimated that the franchise is worth $2 billion — a four percent increase from last year and the 12th-most of any MLB franchise. Of more concern to potential buyers than money that perhaps ought to be earmarked for extending a franchise cornerstone is the money that’s still owed to a host of players who no longer even play for the Nationals. The Lerner family has habitually included deferred money in deals for their free-agent signings as a means of tamping down present-day value.