📰🏟️ New KD burner scandal

Good afternoon. The top-five sports stories of the day are at your fingertips. Let’s get right to it.

—Kyle

1) Team USA men’s hockey narrowly advances to semifinals

With Team USA’s tournament life on the line, defenseman Quinn Hughes scored the game-winning goal in overtime against Sweden yesterday to seal a 2-1 victory.

• The Americans (4-0) advance to a semifinal round matchup against Slovakia tomorrow (2:10 pm CT), with the winner earning a berth in Sunday’s finals (7:10 am CT).
• Canada, which also narrowly survived an OT thriller last round, faces Finland on the other side of the bracket.
• On the women’s side, Team USA looks to continue its Olympic domination in the gold medal match against Canada this afternoon.

Are we witnessing Miracle on Ice 2?

2) Seahawks begin sale process following Super Bowl

Seattle’s NFL team was officially put up for sale 10 days after winning Super Bowl LX over the Patriots.

• The Seahawks are owned by the estate of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who initially bought the franchise in 1997 for $194M, and later died in 2018. 
• Allen’s will stipulates that all proceeds from the sale of his sports holdings—which also include the Portland Trail Blazers—be directed to his charitable foundation.
• Today, the Seahawks are worth an estimated $6.7B+. A sale at that price would mark the second-most expensive sports team purchase in history behind the LA Lakers ($10B).

Who’s on the shortlist to buy the Seahawks?

3) Top NBA prospect’s absence sparks concern at Kansas

Star Kansas freshman Darryn Peterson, a consensus top-3 pick in the upcoming NBA Draft, scored 23 points against Oklahoma St. in just 18 minutes last night before leaving the game with a cramping issue.

• It’s not the first such instance. In addition to missing 11 games with various injuries, Peterson has repeatedly been shut down at halftime in other contests that he’s started.
• After last night’s game, Jayhawk coach Bill Self said he “didn't anticipate” Peterson’s latest absence, and called his injury situation “concerning” heading into March Madness.

Why Peterson's latest exit borders on indefensible

4) Kevin Durant downplays burner account accusations

Durant, the 37-year-old Rockets superstar and arguably the most online major athlete in pro sports, on Wednesday called his latest online scandal “Twitter nonsense” and said it wasn’t a distraction for his team.

• KD’s comments came days after screenshots emerged of a “burner” account, allegedly tied to Durant, that harshly criticizes his current and former teammates in private group messages.
• KD previously admitted to using a burner on Twitter/X in 2017, when he apparently forgot to switch off his main account before posting.

What to know about latest KD controversy

5) 49ers expected to break NFL travel record next season

San Francisco will “host” a regular-season NFL game in Mexico City this fall, in addition to a previously announced trip to Melbourne, Australia, the league announced.

• With this new trip, the 49ers are now projected to travel ~38,000 round-trip miles for their eight road games and “home” game in Mexico, a new NFL record.
• Analysts say San Fran’s travel schedule will become a lot more common as the NFL continues to expand its global slate towards a goal of 16 international games/year.

Inside the Niners’ crazy travel plans

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