The Jersey Benchwarmer's Guide to Sports

With the Oklahoma City Thunder winning the NBA Finals Sunday night, the 2024-2025 NBA season has concluded. Now, fans are ready to turn to the offseason and see who their favorite team will pick in Wednesday's NBA Draft.  It’s no secret that this class features an incredible amount of talent that is miles ahead of last year’s class. From Cooper Flagg, to Dylan Harper, there are studs everywhere in this class.  As a Brooklyn Nets fan, I was hoping the Nets would land the first pick, which of course didn’t happen. However, the Nets have the luxury of having four first round picks at their disposal and there’s so many routes they can take.  Realistically, they're not getting Flagg at all. However, there have been murmurs and mumbling that the Nets could trade their pick(s) to move up or down to get a certain player. With so much talent that will be picked in the first round, the Nets should be able to identify key players that will help their squad.  Now, to make this f...

Another weekend has passed. Time to discuss USA’s opening match in the Gold Cup, the NBA Finals returning to Oklahoma City for game five, and the last week of the NHL playoffs.  The USA Demolishes Trinidad & Tobago 5-0 in Opening Gold Cup Match: The USA in men’s soccer has not performed well in recent outings. We don’t need to rehash their past two losses at this point. It’s done and dusted, been analyzed and frankly, been annoying to hear.  Sunday’s opening match in the Gold Cup for the Americans needed to be a triumphed one for them. It needed to be a level of play that would show the rest of the competition how badly the US wanted to win it. Well, a 5-0 massacre vs a relatively easy Trinidad squad was just what they needed. In the simplest terms, the US dominated their opponents in every aspect of the game. They made excellent decisions in the short passes department and flashed brilliant long distance passes. They dominated possession, they looked unbeatable in the att...

It’s Friday and oh my god the NBA Finals and Stanley Cup Finals are on steroids. We also got Gold Cup action starting up and I discussed the future of TNT. Let’s get started.  We Got A Classic Brewing in NBA Finals Land: So, Indiana has a 2-1 lead over Oklahoma City in the NBA Finals. Cheer or be disgusted, it’s up to you but man has it been an awesome Finals so far.  One of my favorite content creators named Kofie said something about these Finals which I feel like everyone can agree on. These Finals going on right now is just one big chess match. A “generational” one perhaps in the words of the creator when he discussed the head coaches for both teams.  Pacers’ head man Rick Carlisle understands the spot he’s in right now because he has experienced it with the Mavericks in 2011. The Heat were the better team on paper with “the Big Three” of Lebron, Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh. But Carlisle and his star player Dirk Nowitzki were able to overcome them and win a championshi...

Hi, I’m back. I got Chili’s this weekend so I’m in a pretty good mood. Let’s talk about the NBA Finals, the Stanley Cup Finals heading to Florida and how my international soccer teams stressed me out, but also brought me joy (at least one of them).  The Thunder Rebound to Even the NBA Finals: The NBA’s best team, the Oklahoma City Thunder, got their revenge vs the Pacers on Sunday night and took game two of the Finals. The result on Thursday was shocking for the Thunder, there’s no doubt about that. So, everyone knew that they would get their get back in front of their home crowd. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander once again proved why he was the MVP this season by dropping 34 points after scoring 38 in game one. But what propelled OKC to their 123-107 victory was their 19-2 run in the second quarter. Time and time again this season, when opposing teams let the Thunder go on runs like this, it’s virtually over.  I will say this as well, OKC’s defense continues to be one of my favorite t...

Good morning or good afternoon, depending on when this gets posted. Lots to discuss today as the NBA and Stanley Cup Finals have both started with a bang and Aaron Rodgers has signed with the Steelers. Let's get started.  Tyrese “He Can’t Keeping Getting Away With It” Haliburton and the Pacers Steal Game One From The Thunder: Game one of the NBA Finals was an instant classic Thursday. For the diehard NBA fans like myself, it was absolute cinema. For the media people and casuals saying that this matchup would be a dud, they must be regretting their takes now.  Look, it is no secret that the Thunder are the better team in this series. However, I want to talk about the winning team, the Pacers. For a majority of this game, they were dominated by OKC. The Thunder’s incredible defense was getting to the Pacers’ heads, especially in the first half. Just looking at the box score, Indiana had a ridiculous 24 total turnovers for the game, which would have resulted in a loss in other ou...