Rory Goes Back-To-Back; Doc Out In Milwaukee; New records across NBA

TRENDING FAN CONVERSATIONS FROM THE WEEKEND IN SPORTS

APRIL 10 - 12, 2026

TOP WEEKEND MOMENTS

Ichiro's Statue Bat Goes Limp In Reveal, But the Mariners Played Along — Ichiro’s bronze bat caught the tarp during the unveiling, snapped at the handle, and flopped sadly downwards. There’s a BlueChew or Viagra ad in there somewhere…

Ryan Nembhard Drops 23 Assists, Breaking His Own Coach's Record — In the season finale, undrafted rookie Ryan Nembhard was absolute money on the dish, finishing with 23 assists against Chicago, setting a new Mavericks franchise record. The previous record holder was Jason Kidd, who had 17 in 1995, and was coaching on the bench when Nembhard passed him.

Kon Knueppel Becomes First Rookie To Lead NBA In Threes, Claiming NBA’s Best 3PT Duo With Lamelo — Knueppel finished the season as the NBA’s authority in three point shooting with 273 three-pointers made, barely beating teammate LaMelo Ball, who finished with 272. The two became just the second pair of teammates ever to each crack 270 threes in a season, joining iconic “Splash Bros” Steph Curry and Klay Thompson for the Warriors. Charlotte might have built the most terrifying shooting backcourt in basketball.

TOP STORY

Rory Goes Back-to-Back at The Masters, Becoming the Fourth To Ever Do So, Despite Taking 17 Years To Get His First.

Rory McIlroy entered Masters week as the defending champion with Augusta National membership “rewards” he'd been quietly using all winter, flying to and from to get in practice rounds. Turns out, knowing that course better than anyone on earth matters because now he’s wearing his second green jacket.

McIlroy arrived Sunday having blown the largest 36-hole lead in Masters history, a six-shot advantage that evaporated in a pedestrian third-round 73. He then double-bogeyed the fourth hole Sunday and gave up the outright lead entirely before the turn. At one point, Justin Rose and Cameron Young both held the top spot.

Even Collin Morikawa, fighting a back injury that he described as the toughest round of his life, birdied five straight holes on the back nine to rise from the shadows to finish T-3 and give the leaderboard one final jolt of drama.

At moments on the back nine, it looked like five different golfers could walk out the winner.

But then the momentum pendulum swung. While Rose and Young started to slip, McIlroy hacked a beauty on 12 within seven feet, the closest tee shot to the pin by anyone in the field all day, and drained the birdie. He followed it with another at 13 after a savvy escape from the pine straw to secure back-to-back birdies at Amen Corner, the same stretch that has humbled him and the rest of the field.

Just like that, he was three clear.

But never count out the world #1, Scottie Scheffler, who started the final round 12 back and had no realistic path to the green jacket. So naturally, he went on one of the greatest Sunday charges in recent Masters memory. He posted a bogey-free 65-68 weekend, becoming the first player to complete the final two rounds of the Masters without a single bogey since 1942. He birdied 15, birdied 16, and stood over an 18-footer at 17 to get within one of the lead. The putt had the line to drop in the cup all the way up until skimming over the hole’s edge. A mere millimeter from what would have forced a playoff. He parred 18 and could only wait, watching McIlroy walk the final fairway with a two-shot cushion.

What followed on the 18th was pure McIlroy. He hung his drive way right into the pines, hit an 8-iron from pine straw over trees and into the front bunker, blasted out to 12 feet, and two-putted for bogey to win by one stroke.

He's now the fourth repeat champion in Masters history, joining Nicklaus, Faldo, and Tiger. His sixth major ties him with Nick Faldo for the most by a European in the modern era.

At an event with a “tradition unlike any other”, Rory’s legacy continues to grow to the likes of very few others.

MLB

Three Homers and a Walk-Off, Ohtani Breaks Ichiro's Record, and the Brewers Mistakenly Looked Past The Nationals To Continue Struggles

It was a loaded weekend across baseball, and no surprise, the Dodgers were right in the middle of it.

On Friday night at Dodger Stadium, which was handing out Shohei Ohtani bobbleheads commemorating his three-homer NLCS game from last fall, Max Muncy decided to make it about him instead.

Muncy launched two solo shots in the early goings to set the tone. Then, when Edwin Díaz melted down in the ninth to let the Rangers tie it at seven, the Dodgers' longest-tenured player stepped to the plate against Jakob Latz, a reliever who hadn't surrendered a hit all season, and tanked a walk-off solo shot into the right field seats.

The hat trick also makes Muncy the first player with a three-homer game including a walk-off since 2022, and only the second Dodger to do it since 1959. In the same breath, Shohei Ohtani extended his on-base streak to 44 games with a fifth-inning single, quietly passing Ichiro Suzuki for the longest streak by a Japanese-born player in MLB history.

Meanwhile, José Ramírez made a quieter kind of history in Atlanta on Saturday. He became the first player in Guardians franchise history to homer against all 29 other MLB teams. It's the kind of milestone that sounds simple until you realize it took 13 seasons, relentless consistency, and being an ironman with one of the cleanest bills of health to pull off.

And finally, there’s the Brewers. Milwaukee entered the week 8-2, looking like the class of the NL Central. But they left the weekend 8-7 after dropping two of three to the struggling Red Sox and getting swept at home by the Washington Nationals, who brought one of baseball’s worst ERAs to Milwaukee to face Milwaukee’s lineup that is tops in runs per game. It's the first time Washington swept the Brewers in Milwaukee since 2006, with many thanks to the Brewers’ miraculously poor 2-for-24 with runners in scoring position during the five-game skid.

After making just one error in their first 12 games, the Brew Crew committed six in the last three. The roster depth questions that always linger in Milwaukee are already starting to surface. Christian Yelich exited Sunday with hamstring tightness, the bullpen gave games away, and now the reigning AL champion Blue Jays come to town Tuesday.

NBA

Doc Rivers Is Out in Milwaukee — and Bucks Fans Couldn't Be Less Sad About The News

The news Bucks fans have been waiting for: Doc Rivers is out as head coach of the Milwaukee Bucks after three seasons.

His 97-103 record in Milwaukee helped facilitate a franchise setback, played a role in severing the relationship with Giannis, and removed them from the ranks of the NBA’s finest almost the moment he walked in the door. Add in two first-round playoff exits to the Pacers and the Bucks' first missed postseason since 2016.

A locker room that ESPN sources described as increasingly disconnected from their coach all season, including moments that "rubbed players the wrong way." And even if his alleged "check my resume" comments were taken out of context, Doc might want to check himself first.

After all, there’s fair reason why many fans consider Doc a “fraud” and not worthy of the long leash of franchise tear down he was granted. The resume in question has one championship, in thanks to the original and still greatest “Big 3” to ever do it with Garnett, Allen, and Pierce in Boston. Outside of that? It’s one additional Eastern Conference Championship with the Big 3, an NBA Cup Championship, and an alarming number of severely underwhelming seasons.

Even so, in 2026, Doc was named to the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, mostly thanks to 40 years of NBA service. He was also ranked a top 15 all-time coach, racking up 1,194 wins as a coach in a whopping 27 seasons, despite finishing 45th in career win percentage. Honestly, props to the Big 3 for having coattails long enough to allow Doc to keep getting prominent coaching gigs, and nothing to show for them, for another two decades.

To be fair to Rivers, Giannis Antetokounmpo played only 36 games this season, the lowest total of his career. The Lillard experiment had also already started to sour before Rivers really ever got his footing in Milwaukee, even though he did next to nothing to better it, and the front office started moving all types of weird *cough* Kyle Kuzma *cough*.

The counterpoint is that Milwaukee's net rating with Rivers as coach is -0.8. For a team with a two-time MVP and one of the world’s most dominant players, and for inheriting a top-heavy roster with more talent than most teams, that number tells you everything about the person calling X’s and O’s. The Bucks' .395 win percentage this season under Rivers is their worst since Giannis' rookie year in 2013-14.

Now the offseason starts. Giannis' future in Milwaukee appears to be heading toward an exit, the third coaching search in three years is underway, and the Bucks still have luxury tax money tied up in a retired Damian Lillard for the next several years. It's a complete rebuild that nobody in Milwaukee saw coming, even 100 games ago.

But moving off Doc was both overdue and the necessary first step to remedying the franchise’s downfall.

P.S. - AJ Green setting the Bucks’ single season 3-point record was not on the bingo card, but this cat can absolutely flick!

Nikola Jokić Just Finished the Most Historically Bizarre Season From a Big Man in NBA History

Let's get this straight. Nikola Jokić, a center, finished the 2025-26 regular season leading the NBA in both rebounds per game and assists per game. In the same season. That has never happened in the history of the league. Not by Wilt (led in total rebounds and assists in 1967). Not by Magic. Not by anyone.

Jokić finished averaging 27.8 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 10.9 assists, and he didn't just lead those categories; he lapped the field, with Cade Cunningham finishing second in assists at 9.9 and Karl-Anthony Towns second in rebounds at 11.9.

The wild 12-game winning streak Denver closed the season with locked up the No. 3 seed in the West, and that’s not even the craziest part. Jokić’s last 10-game stretch of the regular season produced 252 points, 145 rebounds, and 127 assists, registering as the best 10-game span out of 1.4 million such spans in NBA history, per Fadeaway World. That number includes every regular season and playoff stretch ever recorded.

The MVP race between Jokić, Victor Wembanyama, and SGA has justified its own write-up in a separate newsletter to come. But regardless of how that ends, what Jokić pulled off this season should be a required study for anyone looking to learn about players who revolutionized basketball in the 2020s. As basketball and its athletes evolve, Jokić’s game, as a center of all positions, has remained a spearhead and rarity in the sports evolution.