🌦️ Say it ain’t so, Sun!

Good Morning, Boston.

On this day … let’s take a moment to remember those who lost their lives in the Washington, D.C. plane crash last Wednesday, including six individuals associated with of The Skating Club of Boston, as well as Friday’s deadly crash in Philadelphia. Our thoughts are with everyone affected. 

WHAT’S ON TAP TODAY:

Eagles steal a win

Alina Müller can’t stop/won’t stop (scoring)

“We’re on to Chapter 2”

LET’S GET INTO IT…

LEADING OFF

Sunset in Connecticut?

The Connecticut Sun are blowing it up … Our local WNBA team went from a squad that finished one win away from last year’s Finals to a full-blown rebuild in less than a week.

• Alyssa Thomas? Traded to the Phoenix Mercury.

• Last year’s Most Improved Player Dijonai Carrington? Traded to the Dallas Wings.

• Brionna Jones? Signed with Atlanta.

• Ty Harris? Traded from Connecticut to Phoenix — then traded again to Dallas.

• Last season’s leading scorer and unrestricted free agent DeWanna Bonner? Signed with Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever.

On the bright side: they at least brought back 36-year-old All-Star Tina Charles!

… and “Unrivaled” might be why. The inaugural season of the women’s 3v3 league is giving players a taste of the finer things, including a universal $200,000+ salary — almost as much as a WNBA maximum salary — top-notch facilities, and medical treatment. But its unintended side effect is providing an ideal environment for tampering — and helping disgruntled players like Thomas, one of the WNBA’s best, scope out new teams with more suitable set-ups.

The Sun are too late to modernize. Thomas has been critical of the team’s facilities, especially having to share their practice space with Pilates classes and dodgeball teams while other WNBA franchises (including Phoenix) unveil shiny new facilities. While trades in the WNBA — even big ones — are not uncommon, this string of transactions feels like it came with a message from Thomas and other players: until the Sun step up their game, they’ll have trouble attracting (and keeping) top talent.

Meanwhile, the WNBA could be about to boom. The Caitlin Clark supernova and this new league came at the perfect time for players. Their union just opted out of their old CBA, which expires this October, and can reap the benefits of its current popularity boom and a recent $2.2 billion broadcasting deal that might change the sport. Incoming WNBA stars like UConn’s Paige Bueckers and USC’s JuJu Watkins will only shoot the arrow higher. Plus, if the WNBA hits a work stoppage, Unrivaled will explode. Advantage: players.

Could Boston benefit? Though the Mohegan Tribe has been adamantly against a Boston-based WNBA team competing for fans and attention with the Sun, the city feels like it’s ripe for a squad with the PWHL’s Fleet already playing and an NWSL team on the way. Maybe the Celtics’ next owner might agree? If they can guarantee competitive amenities, Boston could become a destination city for players like Thomas, rather than a place they flee. Make it happen.

POLL

🤔 Would you buy season tickets for a Boston WNBA team?

BOSTON SPORTS

Quick hits & headlines

Jayson Tatum’s latest “I’m HIM” moment. Hitting a patented fadeaway to win Friday’s game over New Orleans was sick enough. But staring right into a fan’s camera phone recording with the “stop playing with me” face after the fact? Someone make that a commercial STAT. The aura is over 9000.

Boston College basketball pulls out an UNREAL win. The Eagles erased a 15-point second-half deficit and scored five points in the last seven seconds, including Chas Kelley III’s go-ahead 3-pointer, to snatch Saturday’s ACC contest from Florida State. And you thought watching the football team’s cardiac finishes was stressful…

The fast-breaking Fleet. As if Alina Müller wasn’t having enough of a hot streak … the PWHL First Star of the Week scored an exhilarating shorthanded “jailbreak” goal and secured the game-winning shootout tally to lift the Fleet to victory in front of a sold-out Tsongas Center crowd Friday night. Someone call the fire department. 

Bill Belichick writes the book on “winning.” No, seriously: the GOAT coach announced the upcoming release of his latest work, “The Art of Winning”, later this year. From scouting defensive linemen’s butts to coaching the greatest player of all time, the insights of this man’s 50-year career might become the NFL’s new Bible.

A Super (Bowl) anniversary. The best week for Patriots nostalgia is upon us. Today’s fond Super Bowl memories: 

• Tom Brady’s “goosebumps”-inducing drive and Adam Vinatieri’s clutch kick to win New England’s first title in Super Bowl XXXVI

• The Patriots’ defensive pantsing of Jared Goff and the Rams to earn their sixth ring

Never take greatness for granted, Pats fans.

The Lakers and Mavs just did WHAT?! Los Angeles apparently traded star center Anthony Davis for … Luka Dončić? The trade announcement was so wild that people thought ESPN’s Shams Charania’s X account got hacked. The Lakers still probably wouldn’t beat the Celtics in the NBA Finals with this move, but a LeBron James/Luka vs. Boston NBA Finals would singlehandedly solve the NBA’s ratings conundrum. Absolute cinema.

Noah Lyles sets New Balance Grand Prix on fire. The reigning 100m world and Olympic champion smoked the field in Boston for the fourth straight year and challenged NFL speedster Tyreek Hill to a race in the process. Now that’s a crossover event we need.

LAST CALL

All aboard the Maye-flower

Drake Maye’s Pro Bowl nod means more than Mac Jones’. Not that the NFL’s Pro Bowl means much at this point, sure. …  But unlike Jones, who was a Pro Bowl alternate after starting all season and playing solid football for a team that carried him, Maye got his alternate nod after an incomplete season of franchise-carrying play for an awful team. It might just be vibes, but Maye is operating on another level of respect — just listen to Peyton Manning talk about him. That’s what the kids today call “motion.”

Locked IN

GAME … SET … MEME

Best in the business?

Stop playing with Jayson Tatum’s name. The Celtics might not be their championship selves right now, but they still have one of the baddest men in the game. As long as they have him, they’ll be playing for an NBA Finals shot this summer.

🗞 That’s a wrap. I’ll be firing off that Tatum stare into the group chat for years to come. 

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