Pick One, Keegan
Keegan Bradley & the Ryder Cup, plus three NBA Thoughts.
Hello! Welcome back to Statless.
My favorite four weeks in the sports calendar are from the second week of March to the second week of April. Those four weeks start with the NCAA tournament, the NBA gains steam towards the playoffs and it concludes with a national championship and the Masters.
I’d guess I’m not alone in that among those who love college hoops and golf. But I”m sure the four-ish weeks that house college football’s national championship and the Super Bowl are popular, as are any four weeks in the NFL schedule or perhaps the time where the World Series and football overlap.
But June is pretty sneaky! There’s a lot going on. It’s sports heaven for basketball and hockey diehards (however big that group of people is), and you’ve also got the College World Series going on. Not to mention the NBA Draft approaching, some great tennis and baseball in full swing.
What’s your favorite four-week stretch in sports? Let me know in the comments!
Now, onto today’s newsletter featuring thoughts on Keegan Bradley and the Ryder Cup, Tyrese Haliburton and more.
It’s one or the other.
Almost one year ago to the day, Keegan Bradley was named the U.S. Ryder Cup captain for 2025 at Bethpage.
The move was many things: A plea to change the perception of the U.S. after a disastrous run in Rome in 2023. A bit weird — at no point did they speak to Bradley about the possibility until they called to offer him the job. And probably a dash of “sorry, we f***ed up not getting you on the team for Rome, would you like to be the captain instead?”.
If nothing else, it was different. A different move that, for the most part, got a “sure, why not?” reaction at the time.
When Bradley got the job, he made it clear he wanted to make the 2025 team as a player while also stating he wouldn’t use one of his six captain’s picks on himself (12 players on a team, six auto qualifiers, six captain selections). If he was on the team it would be through his own merit. Not the merit of his power as the leader of the squad.
Well, here we are on June 24. Bradley is the most recent winner on the PGA Tour after last week’s victory at the Travelers. He’s up to seventh in the qualifying rankings and DataGolf says he’s the fifth best American on the planet right now.
In other words, if the captain were anyone else, he’d basically be a lock for Bethpage in September regardless of auto qualification or selection.
We can go into why he should be on the team as a player (I believe he should). Not just because of his current form but his passion and love for this event. I think that’s overplayed sometimes in sport, but is a very real factor in this scenario.
The bottom line is this: he should have to pick. You get to be the captain. Or you get to be a player. You don’t get to do both.
There have been zero playing captains since 1963. Why? Because being the captain of one of these teams is a full time job for the 18 months between receiving the honor and arriving on site for the 3-day competition.
It requires the attention that Bradley is just not able to give it right now. Whether he believes it or not. He’s played 15 times already this season and is in the field this week for the Rocket Classic for one reason and one reason only: because he’s trying to make his own Ryder Cup team.
Let’s pause for a moment: I’m not blaming Bradley for this. Of course he wants to play for the team! Why wouldn’t he? But the moment he received this position he made it clear he was going to try his best to make this team.
It objectively fails the out loud test to have a playing captain, in my opinion. And it’s not just about the three days of doing both (which seem impossible on their own). But it’s the scouting trips you can’t take because you’re playing on Tour that week. The meetings you can’t give your full attention to because you need to go to the range or play in a 9-hole pro-am.
Naming Bradley captain at the time was totally fine. But with a win under his belt and a spot on the 12-man roster staring him in the face, it’s time to pass the responsibilities off to someone else.
Pick one. Even Bradley, if you really got him to open up, would admit that the best thing for the U.S. is to have a player dedicated to playing or a captain dedicated to captaining. Not a guy with one foot in both camps.
Ironically, the whole point of this was to try and solve the dysfunction on the U.S. side of the equation. Luke Donald and Team Europe seem miles ahead of the U.S. at every turn. Spending the next eight weeks deciding if there’s a playing captain or not is bad news for an American team that’s got the weaker team on paper.
They really, really, really need to not lose on home soil. The Ryder Cup is a home team paradise and taking a loss at Bethpage would not be pretty.
3 Thoughts on the NBA’s Latest
We often joke in the golf media world about how this thing never stops. Rory wins the Masters? Let’s head to Harbour Town immediately! J.J. Spaun in western Pennsylvania? We’ll see you in 48 hours in Cromwell, Connecticut!
All leagues want to be 12-month sports. The NBA is pretty much there. The Finals are over. Trades are happening. The NBA Draft is in 48 hours. Let’s talk about some things!
I’m gutted for Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers
Tyrese Haliburton and the Indiana Pacers delivered one of the more spectacular runs the NBA has ever seen. They just kept doin’ the damn thing over and over. All the way to Game 7 of the Finals.
Who knows if the Pacers pull off a winner-take-all upset in Oklahoma City if Haliburton doesn’t go down. But I do know this, that wasn’t the way it should’ve happened. The Pacers, NBA fans, that series all deserved for the conclusion of the playoffs to be more grandiose than a blowout win.
Somehow, Indiana went from “a nice team with a really good player” to “is this the best positioned team in the east?” to “are they going to beat the Thunder?!” to “what happens next” all in the same postseason.
I hope they get back to that spot. Haliburton deserves it as the center piece of that team and that city. The franchise deserves it. Those fans deserve it. Cheers to the ‘Cers and the Circle City. What a run.
P.S. Check out Haliburton’s message post surgery if you haven’t seen it yet.
I believe the season ended with the right champion
Don’t get me wrong, I would’ve been ecstatic if the Pacers completed the upset. However, this is the right champion for who the Thunder were all season.
Great teams should have to win a title to claim their spot among the most dominant teams the sport has seen. No doubt. But this version of the Thunder being lost to history eventually because they didn’t win the title would’ve been a shame. From SGA’s historic individual season (scoring champion, MVP and Finals MVP is rarified air), to the Thunder defense and the beginning to end success, a banner in the rafters is fitting.
It also becomes a bit of a north star for the rest of the NBA. Oklahoma City is the bench mark. The thing to chase. The mountain to get over. The whole league knows who the best is and the possibility that the best haven’t yet hit their final form. In my opinion, that’s a way more fun concept to discuss than “what happen to the Thunder and can they get over the hump” for the next 12 months.
If KD can be happy, it’s in Houston
When discussing the Philadelphia 76ers chances of success, Joel Embiid’s health is the first sentence out of your mouth. When discussing the success of a Kevin Durant-led basketball team, his happiness should be the first thing uttered.
I don’t know if Durant will ever experience prolonged happiness with one team ever again. There’s a reasonable argument he never has before, despite handpicking every place he’s gone since OKC. But if it’s going to happen, it’ll happen in Houston.
He is clearly the alpha on that roster now. In Phoenix there was Devin Booker and Bradley Beal - mostly Booker, but still. It was certainly marketed as a big three. In Brooklyn, Kyrie Irving was part of the equation as well as James Harden.
I think Durant gets to a point where he once again realizes that he just wants to be the guy. That’s fine, lots of stars want that, but he’s re-learning the same lesson over and over.
No one on the Houston roster is anywhere near his stratosphere. It’s a perfect combination of guys good enough to be a real threat in the west while also featuring no one rivaling Durant as the main on-ball creator. Especially in the last four minutes of the game.
If nothing else, I’m intrigued. And the deal for Houston as a franchise was a good one. We’ll see how it goes.
That’s all I’ve got! Looking forward to the NBA Draft this week and what’s to come in July. Remember those four weeks I led with? Well, July is pretty high on my list. Wimbledon, the Tour de France (yes, really) and the Open Championship all in the same month is pretty good stuff. Although I’m convinced I’m the only person standing in the middle of the cycling-tennis-golf Venn diagram.
Thanks as always for reading. I’ll see you next time.