📰🏟️ Going full Busch

Plus: NBA gambling investigation…

Peter Nowak, Kyle Nowak

01 Jul 2025 — 7 min read

Good morning. Over the next few minutes, prepare to learn about why activist investors are pushing for a sale of the New York Knicks, the fastest pitch Shohei Ohtani has thrown in his MLB career, and much more.

Let’s roll.

—Peter & Kyle

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🗺️ AROUND THE HORN

Three big things

🕵️ The feds are looking into NBA player Malik Beasley. The 28-year-old sharpshooter, who averaged 16.3 pts/game last season while making the second-most three-pointers in the league, is currently the subject of a federal investigation into allegations of gambling on NBA games and prop bets, according to ESPN's Shams Charania. The investigation is reportedly focused on unusually heavy betting interest on Beasley's statistics beginning around Jan. 2024, when he was playing for the Bucks. Beasley joins Jontay Porter (banned for life) and Terry Rozier (unresolved) on the list of NBA players who have been investigated over suspicious gambling activity in the last 18 months. And if he ends up being innocent, the news comes at the worst possible time: Beasley, a free-agent, was on the verge of signing a three-year, $42M deal with the Pistons, but talks have now been paused.

💰 Knick-el for your thoughts? Boyar Value Group, an activist investor with a stake in MSG Sports, the publicly traded company that owns both the New York Knicks and Rangers, recently sent MSG Sports CEO and chairman James Dolan, a letter urging him to spin off the NBA team or sell it outright. The catalyst: last week’s $10B sale of the LA Lakers—who Boyar claims is basically the West Coast version of the Knicks, since “[b]oth don’t own [their] arena, both are marquee assets with rich histories in major media markets.” Another point made by Boyar-Vee (let ‘em cook): Forbes estimates the Knicks’ value at $7.5B and the Rangers’ value at $3.5B, but MSG Sports trades at an enterprise value of ~$6.1B. However, Dolan, who controls the company, has no obligation to follow any suggestions made by Boyar, a captive shareholder, whose only hope is to sway the public and elicit pressure. Moving forward, analysts say similar owner-shareholder battles could become more commonplace, as private equity increasingly turns its focus to sports.

🏀 The WNBA is adding more team-shaped marbles to its pile. In an announcement yesterday refreshingly free of hats laid out on a table, the WNBA revealed three new expansion teams, choosing Cleveland (begins play 2028), Detroit (2029), and Philadelphia (2030) as their new homes out of a list of 10+ cities that included St. Louis, Kansas City, Austin, Nashville, Miami, Denver, Charlotte, and Houston. All three teams are linked to their respective city’s NBA ownership groups, who each paid a $250M expansion fee, or ~5x as much as Golden State dished out for the Valkyries a few years ago. It also brings the WNBA to a record 18 franchises; the league has announced six new expansion cities since 2023, after not having previously expanded since 2008.

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📸 Snapped

Pics from the weekend

*Images: Ng Han Guan/AP | X/@DailyBeijing*

⚽ Athletes are safe from the AI jobs revolution—for now. On Saturday, China hosted a first-of-its-kind soccer tournament played entirely by autonomous AI-powered robots. The child-sized bots from startup Booster Robotics were distributed to four Chinese universities, who each developed their own algorithms for player formations, passing strategies, and other variables. The ensuing 3v3 tournament featured a significant share of bloopers, with frequent robot pileups, slo-mo collisions, and a few players taken out on stretchers. The event was touted by organizers as a preview for next month's World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing.

*Images: Poker.org | Miguel Cortes/PokerGO*

🃏 Ruxin from The League isn’t the only one smelling collusion. The World Series of Poker also announced an investigation into potential collusion in its Millionaire Maker event last week, which Jesse Yaginuma won by overcoming a massive 9-to-1 chip deficit in heads-up play against fellow poker pro James Carroll. Yaginuma’s unlikely comeback drew accusations of collusion from commentators and fans alike, due to the suspicious manner in which the chips exchanged hands combined with Yaginuma earning an additional $1M from a third party contest for placing first (which Carroll wasn’t eligible for). Both players’ prize money is being withheld until the investigation concludes.

🎾 The 138th edition of Wimbledon kicked off yesterday. On the men’s side, it’s shaping up as the battle of two titans: world #1 Jannik Sinner and #2 Carlos Alcaraz, the latter of whom narrowly survived his first-round match yesterday. On the women’s side, American Coco Gauff will attempt to win a second consecutive Grand Slam following her French Open title earlier this month. Wimbledon features a record $73M prize pool this year—up 7% from 2024 and 100% from a decade ago—split equally between the men’s and women’s brackets.

📰 NEWS

What else is happening

Angel Reese released a “mebounds” merch collection, with proceeds going toward cyber-bullying prevention. She also filed a trademark to use the term “Reesebounds.”
The NHL and NHLPA agreed to a new collective-bargaining agreement that runs until 2030. It'll extend the regular season to 84 games (from 82), and shorten the cap on player contract length, among other things.
The US Men's National Team beat Costa Rica in a penalty shootout to advance to the Gold Cup semis.
LA Lakers star LeBron James is exercising his $52.6M player option for the 2025-2026 season, his record-setting 23rd. See other moves from around the NBA as free agency gets into full swing.
PSG topped the Lionel Messi-led Inter Miami 4-0 in the FIFA Club World Cup, which has turned in surprisingly solid debut ratings.
F1: The Movie zoomed to a better-than-expected opening weekend, a big win for Apple, who many speculate could snap up the racing circuit’s US media rights starting in 2026.
EA Sports announced the return of its college basketball videogame.

👀 MUST-SEE TV

Top plays

⚾ White Sox’ Chase Meidroth hits slide cancel to avoid tag at 2B

⚽ Victor Wembanyama shows off his soccer chops

🖐️ Nolan Arenado makes barehand play to win the game

🏀 Wings’ Paige Bueckers hits spin move into pull-up J

⚾ Shohei Ohtani throws fastest pitch of MLB career (101.7 MPH)

+Bonus: Rabbit throws first pitch at minor-league game

🔢 BY THE NUMBERS

20

The age of South African golfer Aldrich Potgieter, who this weekend became the seventh golfer in the past four decades to win a PGA Tour event before turning 21, joining a list that includes Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, and Jordan Spieth.

4

The number of intentional walks granted to Nationals OF James Woods by the Angels on Sunday, making him the first MLB player to be walked intentionally four times in a game since Barry Bonds in 2004.

$30M–$35M

How much the highest-paying programs in college football will shell out for their rosters in 2025-26, the Wall Street Journal reports. It marks a significant bump from last season, when Ohio State’s ~$20M payroll led the nation.

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🤔 TRIVIA

Going full Busch

In a matchup against the St. Louis Cardinals last week, Cubs 1B Michael Busch became the first player with the last name “Busch” to hit a homer at Busch Stadium, which has borne that name since 1953.

There is just one other active MLB stadium at which a player with the same last name as the park where the game is being played has hit a home run, according to MLB.com. Which one is it?

🌐 WEB GEMS