Good morning, I’m Dan Gartland. I think the NFL leaking bits of the schedule before the whole thing drops later this week is exceptionally lame. But we’re tracking all the drips of scheduling info here, if that’s your thing.
In today’s SI:AM:
👑 LeBron’s potential finale
⚾ Verducci on Bobby Cox
🏀 WNBA power rankings
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Waiting for LeBron’s decision
The Lakers’ season is over. LeBron James’s career may be, too.
After Los Angeles lost to the Thunder in Game 4 to finish off a sweep by the defending champions, all eyes turned to the NBA’s greatest active player. Retirement speculation has swirled around LeBron for years, but now, at 41, it might finally be time for him to hang it up.
“I don’t know, it’s still fresh from losing. I don’t know what the future holds for me as it stands right now tonight,” James told reporters. “Like I said last year after we lost to Minnesota, I’ll go back and recalibrate with my family and talk with them, spend some time with them.
“When the time comes, you guys will know whatever I decide to do.”
LeBron could probably keep playing until he’s 50. We saw that he’s still capable of taking over a game, like he did in the Lakers’ first-round win over the Rockets. But is he interested in continuing his career while playing an increasingly smaller role, or would he rather just turn the page to his post-basketball life?
Trouble for Tottenham
One of the biggest clubs in English soccer is on the verge of an unimaginable nightmare.
Tottenham Hotspur remains in danger of being relegated from the Premier League after mustering only a 1–1 draw in a crucial game against Leeds United yesterday. Tottenham went up 1–0 early in the second half on a stunning goal from outside the box by young striker Mathys Tel, but Tel committed a foolish foul less than 20 minutes later that resulted in a penalty being awarded to Leeds. Dominic Calvert-Lewin converted from the spot to tie the game.
As it stands, Tottenham is in 17th place in the 20-team Premier League. The bottom three teams at the end of the season (May 24) are sent down to the second-tier Championship. Wolverhampton and Burnley have already been relegated, and the third team to be sent down will be either Spurs or West Ham United. Tottenham is currently two points ahead of the Hammers in the standings and also holds the goal-differential tiebreaker. Both teams have two games left to play.
Relegation would be a disaster for Tottenham. The London club is usually comfortably near the top of the Premier League table. It hasn’t been relegated since 1977, when it finished dead last in the First Division (the Premier League’s predecessor).
This year’s struggles aren’t totally unexpected, though. Spurs also finished 17th last season, but were 13 points clear of the relegation zone. A second straight disaster of a year has the team in danger of going from playing under the bright lights against Manchester United and Liverpool to welcoming the likes of Preston North End and Charlton Athletic to their billion-dollar stadium.
Call him Big Slumper
What’s wrong with Cal Raleigh?
After setting the world on fire last year with a 60-homer season and a runner-up finish behind Aaron Judge in the MVP race, the Mariners catcher has been downright horrendous to start this season.
Raleigh went 0-for-4 with a strikeout in last night’s win over the Astros, stretching his current hitless streak to 36 at-bats over nine games. He’s batting .157 on the season with 54 strikeouts in 39 games.
Raleigh has always been prone to strikeouts, but the issue this year is that when he does put the bat on the ball, it isn’t the same thunderous contact that made him an MVP candidate last season. His hard-hit rate last season was 49.6%, among the best in the league. This year, it’s down to 28.6%, near the bottom.
Part of what made Raleigh’s 2025 season so much fun was how unexpected it was. Hitting 60 homers in a season is amazing. Doing it as a switch-hitting catcher who began the year with a .740 career OPS is unbelievable. It’s tough for catchers to be consistently productive hitters. The physical toll of being behind the plate and the mental toll of managing a pitching staff are added challenges that players at other positions don’t have to deal with. Perhaps the rigors of the position have caught up with Raleigh.
The best of Sports Illustrated
- The Eagles are the two-time defending division champs, but their rivals are taking big swings in an effort to overtake them. Gilberto Manzano grades each NFC East team’s offseason moves.
- Matt Verderame hands out his AFC East grades, and the Patriots and Dolphins receive the highest marks.
- Giants president of baseball operations Buster Posey has spoken of his “expectation to win.” San Francisco has not done much of that this year, and Stephanie Apstein writes that the team is stuck trying to navigate an aging, expensive roster.
- Tom Verducci detailed several examples of the late Bobby Cox’s leadership style, dove into Cody Bellinger's recent success against breaking pitches and broke down other trends from around Major League Baseball.
- As the WNBA kicked off its 30th season under its biggest spotlight yet, Emma Baccellieri reports that it was clear players were adjusting to how officials have begun calling games tighter this year.
- How do teams stack up after opening weekend? Here's our latest WNBA power rankings.
- A bogey on the last hole on Sunday at the Truist Championship ended a shot at his first title since 2023. Still, it was Rickie Fowler’s best result in three years, Max Schreiber writes, and he looks ready to win again soon—maybe even at this week’s PGA Championship.
The top five…
… things I saw last night:
5. Parker Kelly’s one-timer to give the Avalanche the lead in the third period. Colorado added an empty-netter later and took a 3–1 series lead over the Wild.
4. Blue Jays pitcher Kevin Gausman’s 2,000th career strikeout. He’s just the sixth active player to reach that milestone, joining Yu Darvish, Gerrit Cole, Chris Sale, Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander.
3. A nice diving stop and strong throw by Mariners third baseman Brendan Donovan.
2. Donovan Mitchell’s 39 points in the second half, tying an NBA postseason record.
1. The back-and-forth final five minutes of the Thunder-Lakers game. If that was LeBron’s last game, he went out with a thriller.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as SI:AM | LeBron James May Have Played His Final Game.
