Former NFL scout Bucky Brooks identifies his “hype bunnies,” breakout candidates for 2023 based on the buzz surrounding them this offseason.



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Why can’t the RBC Canadian Open have nice things?

Last year, the PGA Tour’s only Canadian stop went up against the first-ever LIV Golf event. This year, it finds itself overshadowed by LIV once again.

On the eve of the Canadian tournament, the PGA and European Tours announced an agreement to unify with the year-old LIV circuit, which is backed by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF). The deal effectively merges the three tours into a collective partnership, with the PGA Tour controlling the board that handles the actual golf, and the Fund bringing the capital as the sole investor in the new entity — a distinction that includes “first refusal on any capital that may be invested in the new entity.”

In short, the Saudis now own the highest level of men’s professional golf.

The agreement ends all pending litigation between the parties and represents a seemingly abrupt about-face on the part of the PGA after more than a year of animosity between the two parties.

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It was at the 2022 RBC Canadian Open that PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan told reporters why he felt players shouldn’t join LIV and take the exorbitant money being offered by the PIF: “I think you would have to be living under a rock to not know that there are significant implications,” he said, referring to Saudi Arabia’s record of human rights abuses. “And as it relates to the families of 9/11 [victims] — I have two families that are close to me, they lost loved ones. And so, my heart goes out to them. And I would ask any player that has left [the Tour to play for LIV Golf], any player that would ever consider leaving: Have you ever had to apologize for being a member of the PGA Tour?”

What changed from June 2022 to June 2023? As Don Ohlmeyer, a former NBC TV executive, famously said, “The answer to all your questions is money.”

Two years of a bitter rivalry and one year of a failed proof of concept got us here.

LIV stole players but couldn’t steal market share. Nobody watched, nobody cared. Their last live TV event drew less than 5,000 viewers. If a country with a long-established record of human rights abuses launches a massively expensive sportswashing campaign and nobody is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

The only time LIV got press, it was bad. The effort to launder the country’s reputation by distracting from it with fun and fantastic golf didn’t succeed because the fan conversion rate was minuscule. Now, the PIF will invest in something almost guaranteed to be profitable because it has no competition. So, even if it doesn’t improve their reputation, at least it will be cash positive and not a loss leader. 

On the other side, the PGA continually failed to hold a hard line. LIV players were allowed to play in majors and performed well in them. The Tour was held hostage by the players who remained and capitulated, again and again, to keep them with concessions like higher purses, guaranteed minimum pay and travel stipends that weren’t sustainable and offered no guarantees against players leaving in the future.

On a path to mutually assured destruction, both sides seem to have decided to stop this game of chicken and just make some money together.

It’s a particularly brazen — and craven — move by the Tour, especially considering that Monahan himself made the connection between doing business with Saudi Arabia and funding terrorism. After LIV golfers sued the Tour for being a monopoly, the PGA countersued for breach of contract. In the countersuit, the commissioner argued, “LIV is using the players and the game of golf to sportswash the recent history of Saudi atrocities.”

Monahan also got support from the family members of people killed on 9/11, who publicly took the PGA Tour’s side and protested at LIV Golf events. 

In the wake of this week’s merger announcement, those families put out a statement expressing their feelings of betrayal.

“PGA Commissioner Jay Monahan co-opted the 9/11 community last year in the [PGA Tour’s] unequivocal agreement that the Saudi LIV project was nothing more than sportswashing of Saudi Arabia’s reputation,” said 9/11 Families United chair Terry Strada, whose husband, Tom, was killed in the World Trade Center’s North Tower. “But now, the PGA and Monahan appear to have become just more paid Saudi shills, taking billions of dollars to cleanse the Saudi reputation so that Americans and the world will forget how the Kingdom spent their billions of dollars before 9/11 to fund terrorism, spread their vitriolic hatred of Americans, and finance al Qaeda and the murder of our loved ones. Make no mistake — we will never forget.”

Those families, along with the PGA’s players, broadcasters and stakeholders, were unaware of the merger until it was announced. The threat of the story leaking outweighed even a hint of transparency.

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Monahan met with players at the RBC Canadian Open, a meeting that was reportedly, and understandably, tense.

“I would describe the meeting as intense, certainly heated,” the commissioner said later. “Obviously it’s been a very dynamic and complex couple of years. And for players, I’m not surprised: This is an awful lot to ask them to digest. And this is a change for us in the direction we’re going down. As I’m trying to explain, and I will continue to explain as we go forward: This ultimately is a decision that’s in the best interests of all of the members of the PGA Tour. Puts us in a position of control. Allows us to partner with the [Public Investment Fund] in a productive and constructive way.”

Last month, the PGA Tour was so opposed to any link with Saudi Arabia, it barred the Byron Nelson tournament from adding Raytheon Technologies as a title sponsor because the defence contractor provides advanced missile systems to the Kingdom.

“I recognize that people are going to call me a hypocrite,” Monahan continued this week. “Anytime I’ve said it with the information that I had at the moment, and I said it based on someone that’s trying to compete for the PGA Tour and our players. And so I accept those criticisms, but circumstances do change.” 

What hasn’t changed is the Saudi government’s naked effort to buy legitimacy through sports. They cracked the PGA’s resolve in two years and the Kingdom’s campaign is not limited to golf. There is a Saudi-backed bid for Manchester United, and the NBA has changed its governance so wealth funds like the PIF can now invest in its teams.

This continues a troubling trend of foreign regimes buying silence via sports. You’re not going to be able to find an NBA player or exec who can talk about the horrifying treatment of Uyghurs in China or the protests in Hong Kong because of the NBA’s business interests in the country. Just ask Daryl Morey.

Now, you’re also not going to find a pro golfer that can criticize the treatment of women in Saudi Arabia.

What happened this week could very well be the beginning of a trend, rather than an anomaly. If the PIF can buy the PGA, why couldn’t it do the same with the ATP, WTA, or UFC?

This is a deal that will reshape the business of golf — and possibly also its soul.

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Everyone is looking to see what James Harden of the Philadelphia 76ers does next.

Even though his team did better than it has in years, there are a bunch of rumors of Harden leaving the Sixers, presumably to return to the Houston Rockets.

But what can he bring to the Rockets?

According to one Eastern Conference executive, Harden isn’t the player he once was.

“His status as a max, alpha player in this league, it’s over. He can’t produce wins,” this anonymous executive said, according to Steve Bulpett, via NBACentral.

“His status as a max, alpha player in this league, it’s over. He can’t produce wins.”

– Eastern conference executive on James Harden

(Via @SteveBHoop ) pic.twitter.com/u6D1pXHw6a

— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) June 9, 2023

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This is an accusation leveled at Harden often: his prime days are behind him.

He was showing flashes of brilliance again throughout the latest season.

He had a stunning game against the Boston Celtics, scoring 42 points in Game 4 just days after dropping 45 on them in Game 1 without Joel Embiid.

But then were nights when he only scored 12 or 13 points, or even worse.

For years now, people have said that Harden no longer has the stamina and mental drive to make it all the way through the playoffs.

This has led to people saying that his days of leading a team are over.

Still, most reports say that the 76ers want Harden to remain on the team.

But those same reports also state that he is torn between Philadelphia and Houston.

No matter where he plays, people will be watching closely to see what sort of Harden they get.

Will he return to his former glory or continue to deliver mixed results?

The post Eastern Conference Executive Makes A Strong Statement About James Harden appeared first on The Cold Wire.

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