The NBA Finals court logo fiasco proves bullying works sometimes

Ok. Before we continue, let me say this: 99 percent of the time, I am not here for bullying. Bullying is bad. You shouldn't do it. You shouldn't allow your kids to do it if you have kids. And, if you know someone being bullied, you should do whatever is necessary to help them out of that situation.

But let's be real, folks. There's that ONE PERCENT of the time when bullying is not only good, but also necessary. I'm sorry! Maybe that's a little crass, but I'm just being honest. Sometimes, some people need to be bullied out of the bad decisions that they're making.

That was Adam Silver and the NBA last week.

The NBA decided it didn't need to plaster an NBA Finals logo on the court for the biggest series of the season. The league hasn't actually had a logo on the court for the finals for most of the last decade at this point. Silver told reporters that the league removed the logos because there was a "sense" from teams that the decals made the court slippery, presenting a danger to the players.

Yeah, sure. Whatever. All I know is that the court looked extremely bland in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. That's not a good look. Especially when the NBA Cup courts go above and beyond to let you know that some random regular-season game in November matters.

But that's OK, though! Again, sometimes, bullying works. In this case, it seems to have put a little bit of a battery in the NBA's back to improve its presentation for the biggest games of its season.

The league added digital logos to the court for Game 2 between the Thunder and Pacers. As our Andrew Joseph notes, it honestly didn't look great. But at least it was something.

One might argue that this is probably a bit worse than doing nothing at all. This certainly makes the presentation feel a bit cheaper. But, hey. At least you know it's the NBA Finals, right?

Plus, if the league does this here, then maybe they'll step it up again for Game 3? Maybe we can get some actual decals instead of digital ones? If we keep this up, by next year's NBA Finals we may have the big Larry O'Brien trophy on the court like we used to back in the day.

Being serious for a second, it's a shame that fans had to bully the league into doing this. NBA fans complain about a lot and, usually, the complaints really aren't that important. But with this one, fans were spot on. The NBA should be making its biggest stage feel as grand as possible. It's a huge mistake not to.

Lessons learned for next season, I hope.

An instant classic

If you didn't get to catch Carlos Alcaraz vs. Jannik Sinner in the Roland Garros championship match on Sunday, please find your way to the nearest television and watch every single minute of it on replay. It was five hours and 29 minutes of pure bliss for the audience. For those two? I'm sure it was grueling.

This was a comeback win for the ages for Alcaraz. The man saved a record three championship points to stay alive in this match and ultimately win it. Here's our Robert Zeglinski on the details.

"After losing the first two sets to Sinner, Alcaraz was basically against the ropes. But in a match that slowly (very slowly, but in a good way) became one of the longest in men's tennis history, Alcaraz never let up. He never threw in the towel. Not only did Alcaraz come back from two sets down to tie the match up before he and Sinner engaged in a fifth-set battle of wills, but he also saved three separate championship points to stay alive."

This is one of those matches that you remember where you were when you watched it. Just seeing this scorebug here doesn't even feel real.

It's still early in his career, but it looks like Alcaraz is putting together a run for the ages and he's only 22 years old. There's still a lot of tennis left to be played and more matches between these two to look forward to. Can't wait.

Speaking of the French Open...

I was today years old when I found out that the winners don't actually go home with the trophies they hold on the podium. Big shoutout to Coco Gauff, who gave us the skinny on this via TikTok.

That trophy is honestly adorable, which is not necessarily what I think anyone should be aiming for when making a trophy. But here we are. That thing looks like a paperweight!

Quick hits: Looks from the Tony Awards ... Robert Lewandowski vs. Poland ... and more

— Here are 21 looks from the Tony Awards from our Caroline Darney.

— What a strange saga this is between Robert Lewandowski and Poland. Robert Zeglinski has the details.

— Lisa Salters was missing for Game 2 of the NBA Finals. Here's Andrew Joseph on her absence.

— Jannik Sinner's loss at the French Open was such a bad beat. Prince Grimes has details.

— Staying in the game for another three innings after being hit with a throw like this is beyond me.

— Jared Verse challenging Aaron Donald to a workout went exactly how you'd think it'd go.

That's a wrap, folks. Thanks for reading.

-Sykes ✌️

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