Hang Up and Listen: The San Antonio Is Beautiful Edition
Slate’s sports podcast on the Spurs’ NBA Finals win, the opening of the World Cup, and O’Bannon v. NCAA.
Listen to Hang Up and Listen with Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca by clicking the arrow on the audio player below:
Become a fan of Hang Up and Listen on Facebook here:
This episode is brought to you by Harry’s, purveyor of high-quality shaving products. Go to Harrys.com and use the promo code HANGUP to save $5 off your first purchase.
In this week’s episode of Slate’s sports podcast Hang Up and Listen, Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca discuss the San Antonio Spurs’ beautiful domination of the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals and whether the Spurs’ model is replicable. They also look back at a goal-filled first weekend of the World Cup and discuss attempts to connect countries’ style of play to national myths. Finally, they talk with USA Today’s Steve Berkowitz about the first week of O’Bannon v. NCAA, including each party’s arguments, the potential fallout, and how it fits into the larger picture of NCAA reform.
Here are links to some of the articles and other items mentioned on the show:
- The San Antonio Spurs shot 53 percent over the course of the NBA Finals to defeat the Miami Heat in five games.
- Kawhi Leonard was named Finals MVP.
- Watch a video compilation of the Spurs making lots and lots of passes.
- The New Republic explored Gregg Popovich’s relationship with the media, and Deadspin collected Popovich’s best terse responses.
- On ESPN.com, Kevin Arnovitz discussed the Spurs’ work environment and how hard it is to create.
- Tim Duncan plays Dungeons & Dragons and has a tattoo of Merlin on his chest.
- There were 37 goals in the first 11 games of the World Cup.
- On Sports on Earth, Aaron Gordon wonders whether Jürgen Klinsmann is making the U.S. Men’s National Team more or less “American.”
- Watch Lionel Messi make two defenders collide while scoring a goal.
- The Netherlands’ Robin van Persie scored an amazing goal against Spain, and the Internet loved it.
- Learn about the Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient.
- In the New York Times, Sam Borden wrote about American players’ failure to flop.
- Read Steve Berkowitz’s coverage of the O’Bannon trial for USA Today, including his preview of the trial’s second week.
- In Sports Illustrated, Michael McCann broke down the potential impact on the O’Bannon trial of the NCAA’s settlement with Sam Keller.
- Before the trial, sports law expert Marc Edelman predicted that the NCAA would lose.
- Judge Claudia Wilken ruled that the O’Bannon plaintiffs cannot introduce as evidence the National Labor Relations Board decision that allowed Northwestern football players to vote on union formation.
- The NCAA and the five biggest conferences are discussing a new governance structure.
- On Slate, Andy Schwarz took on the myths that prevent college athletes from being paid.
Hang Up and Listen’s weekly Heine Allemagnes:
Mike’s Allemagne: Looking into the correlation between corruption and soccer success.
Stefan’s Allemagne: Questioning what, exactly, Dent McSkimming was doing in Brazil during the 1950 World Cup.
Josh’s Allemagne: How lawyers are keeping softball players safe from Lady Viruses.
On this week’s Slate Plus bonus segment, Stefan Fatsis, Josh Levin, and Mike Pesca talk about reporting on events that nobody else covered. Slate Plus members get an ad free version of this podcast with bonus segments. Visit slate.com/hangupplus and try it free for two weeks.
Podcast production and edit by Mike Vuolo. Links compiled by Chris Laskowski.
You can email us at hangup@slate.com.