This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Good morning, Winners! Welcome back to TMW. Thanks so much for reading this morning. We appreciate you.
LeBron James made two types of history on Monday night.
On one hand, he’s officially played the most minutes in NBA history. After playing 30 minutes against the 76ers, James has 66,319 regular season minutes played surpassing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s 66,297. That’s pretty cool.
On the other hand, he suffered the worst loss of his career after the Lakers lost to the 76ers by a whopping 44 points. Joel Embiid had a 30-point triple-double. Tyrese Maxey had 31 points and 8 assists himself. It wasn’t good.
After the game, LeBron sounded ready to fire up the trade machine.
He was asked what the Lakers needed to change to make sure the team didn’t lose like that again. His response: “A lot.” He continued, “We just have to play better.”
James was also asked about how the team should react to a loss like this. He told reporters he can “only speak for himself” and “I don’t like it.”
Interesting choice of words pic.twitter.com/xM4b5unFor
— kingtisemedia (@kingtisemedia) November 28, 2023
Passive-aggressive LeBron is back like he never left, folks. It’s been a while.
This isn’t uncommon. James does this all the time. Remember his “How long will you be taken for granted?” post on Instagram last year? Or how about the “Maybe it’s me” tweet? This is Bron’s bag, folks.
It’s understandable for James to be upset here. After all, he made some pretty cool history again. Surely, he’d wanted to win the game. At the very least he didn’t want it to be one of his worst ever. So it’s no surprise that he sounds like this afterward.
I wouldn’t make too much of this. At least not yet. This is just James keeping everybody on their toes — it’s not a huge deal. The Lakers have this one (extremely) bad loss this season. It happens. They’ll move on from it. Nobody has to be traded.
Not yet, anyway.
Predicting the CFP rankings
We’re set to get the penultimate ranking for the College Football Playoff on Tuesday night at 7 p.m. after a wild weekend of rivalries across the NCAA.
Ohio State’s loss to Michigan is sure to shake things up. The Buckeyes will almost certainly fall out of the top four. But it’s hard to know who will replace them with so many good options available.
Don’t worry — I tried to guess, anyway. Here’s what my top six would look like if I were on the CFP committee:
- No. 1: Georgia: Having Georgia here is easy. The Bulldogs are undefeated and haven’t really been challenged at all this season.
- No. 2: Michigan: Michigan’s win over Ohio State had me considering them at No. 1, but the Wolverines just haven’t felt as dominant as Georgia. A win over Iowa might put Michigan there.
- No. 3: Washington: Washington has been in a number of shootouts this season but has always just found a way to win behind Michael Penix Jr. The Huskies deserve credit for that.
- No. 4: Oregon: This is going to be controversial, but outside of the lone loss to Washington this season it’s been a perfect run for the Ducks. One of these two teams won’t be here after Friday’s Pac-12 championship game.
- No. 5: Florida State: I wanted to put undefeated FSU in the top four, but it’s hard knowing the team won’t get Jordan Travis back. Yes, that matters.
- No. 6: Texas: Texas is here because Texas beat Alabama earlier this season. It controls its own destiny and has a legitimate shot to move into the top four.
None of this is set in stone, obviously. Conference championship weekend is going to be huge. Can’t wait.
The Pop-Tart Bowl mascot will be edible
No, I’m not kidding. There’s going to be a giant pop tart that will “turn into a game-winning snack” in the Pop Tart bowl.
Very important news: The @PopTartsBowl will have the first-ever edible mascot.
Per the bowl, when the final whistle blows, the winning team will celebrate by taking a bite of the giant pastry mascot. pic.twitter.com/obie6w1qrM
— Nicole Auerbach (@NicoleAuerbach) November 27, 2023
Charles Curtis is asking all of the important questions.
“OK, so we here at For The Win have many questions that need answering, such as:
1. Edible mascot? Really?
2. What parts of the mascot will be edible? Are we talking one corner here or like, most of the body?
3. When you say “transform,” what exactly does THAT mean?
4. Related: Will there be a human inside the costume when the transformation has taken place?
5. Most important question: Which flavor are we talking about here?”
It better be strawberry-flavored.
Quick hits: The Steelers are a sleeping giant … A big football weekend … and more
— Robert Zeglinski and Christian D’Andrea just dropped their latest football power rankings and they had positive words about the Steelers! The Steelers, y’all!
— Prince Grimes goes through all of the incredible action on the betting calendar this weekend. It’s going to be so fun.
— Every player on the ice getting penalized for this big brawl between the Panthers and Senators was WILD. Cory Woodruff has more.
— Julian Strawther described trying to stop a Victor Wembanyama dunk like it was a near-death experience. I can only imagine. Robert has more.
— Tyler Nettuno has College Football’s biggest winners and losers cooked up for you. Ryan Day, man. Smh.
— NBA fans need to chill on Russell Westbrook. Prince Grimes has more.
