Greg Cote: Collusion against Lamar Jackson?, WBC, Selection Sunday & more in new Hot Button Top 10

GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (MARCH 12): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US LATELY: Our every-Sunday Hot Button Top 10 feature had been blog-only but with our blog recently retired it moved, re-imagined, to online-only. HB10 means what’s on our minds, locally and nationally, but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that’s major, offbeat, damnable, funny or worth needling as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Or think of it as 10 lil’ mini columns! Welcome to the eighth edition of the new HB10:

1. NFL: Are teams colluding against Lamar Jackson?: So you tell me a hot market gobbled up mediocre Derek Carr, and suitors led by the Jets ate are keen on old Aaron Rodgers, and rumors persist about ancient Tom Brady unretiring yet again ... yet nobody wants available 26-year-old former MVP Lamar Jackson? He isn’t worth two first-round draft picks? Or the same fully-guaranteed deal given serial creep Deshaun Watson? Betting odds list eight teams at under +1000 led by Detroit at +300; the Dolphins are tied for seventh at +900. ESPN listed possibilities by “best fit” and had Atlanta first and Miami seventh. But somebody has to step forward and break the peculiar but apparent public logjam of disinterest. If you didn’t know better, you’d suspect a collusion to drive Jackson off his insistence on a fully guaranteed deal..

2. MLB: Dream of grand scale for WBC gaining traction: The World Baseball Classic now underway, with Miami as a hub host-city, looks to be the strongest it has ever been as the sport envisions growing the event into a baseball version of soccer’s World Cup. Lofty goal, but the field is up from 16 to 20 nations, with powerhouses like the Dominican Republic, Japan and the U.S. attracting stars like Shoehei Ohtani, Juan Soto and Mike Trout. The U.S. won the last iteration in 2017 and the ‘23 American roster features 20 all-stars and five MVP trophies.

3. COLLEGE BASKETBALL: You ready, bracketheads?: Conference championship week funnels into Selection Sunday today as 68 men’s and 68 women’s teams become Chosen Ones for the NCAA Tournament -- March Madness. A flurry of coast to coast office pools and filled-out brackets will ensue. South Carolina is a clear womern’s favorite but the men’s field is more bunched, with Houston out front. The women’s selection show is buried after the men’s big reveal on the same night. The women’s game deserves its own night and stage.

4. NBA: Was Gasol really at number-retired level, Lakers?: I’ll say it. Pau Gasol was a part of helping win two Lakers championships but his seven seasons in L.A. were light for the retired-number statrus the stried fran chise berstqwoeerd this week. Never first-team All-NBA, not included on the 75th anniversary team. He’ll make the Basketball Hall of Fame (the easiest of all Hall tickets) and had a nice career (six-time all-star) .... but number retired? Nope.

5. ANNOYING RELATIVES: Jackson Mahomes keeps being Jackson Mahomes: The 22-year-old “internet personality” and deadbeat kid brother of Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes is embarrassing the family again. Now, the attention-needing Mahomes is being investigated for allegedly shoving a waiter and forcibly kissing the female owner of an Overland Park, Kansas, restaurant. Patrick, you’re rich. Can you please buy Jackson a one-way ticket to someplace far, far away with no internet, no phone service and no way out? Thanking you in advance.

6. RIHANNA: What? There isn’t real s--- going on for you to worry about!?: There have been 103 complaints registered with the FCC (so far) over Rihanna’s Super Bowl halftime show one month ago, most of the gripes over the supposed sexual nature of her performance or her red outfit suggesting an homage to Satan. I trust the FCC will be sending back 103 replies thanking viewers for their hysterical complaint and advising them to worry instead about global warming, mass shootings or other stuff that, you know ... matters.

7. MEDIA: Irvin wins big ruling in Marriott lawsuit: Michael Irvin’s $100 million lawsuit over what he calls a false accusation has moved from state court in Texas to federal court. A female hotel employee in Phoenix prior to the recent Super Bowl accused Irvin of an inappropriate encounter in the lobby, leading NFL Network to immediately bounce Irvin from its SB coverage, though Irvin says he and the woman only “exchanged pleasantries” in a 45-second encounter. Suit says several witnesses will back Irvin (two have stepped forward) and a judge ruled Marriott must surrender its surveillance video and other requested materials, such as internal reports.

8. NBA: Jokic poised for rare MVP three-peat: ESPN’s latest straw poll (a.k.a. “spoiling the surprise”) suggests Denver’s Nikola Jokic is headed for a third straight NBA MVP award. Only Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain and Bill Russel have done that, last by Bird in 1984-86. Don’t much care if you win again, Nik, but we do thank your native country, Serbia, for daring to speak out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine despite being a longtime Putin ally.

9. GYMNASTICS: Most popular college gymnast? Dumb I mean Dunne deal: LSU gymnast Olivia (LIvvy) Dunne, 20, isn’t that good, frankly. Not a team leader or a big winner on the mat. But the school has needed extra security at matches because she’s an Internet superstar. Dunne has 3.1 million Instagram followers and even more on Tik Tok bathing in her overt, selfie-loving sexuality -- most of her fans desperate young men spackling holes in their lives with unrequited fantasy.

10. RIDICULOUS SPORTS: Our nominee, and accepting no debate: Sports historians will look back and determine that the most dumbfounding popular sport of the past century clearly was Monster Jam, where comically large trucks with outlandishly big tires race and jounce cartoonishly around hilly dirt tracks before a rapt audience of people who find rodeo too complicated. Sorry, Grave Digger, but why does this “sport” still even exist?

Other stuff from me this past week: Redemption is Jim Larranaga’s as Canes enter ACC tourney No. 1 / Time for U.S. to end ban and punishment of Novak Djokovic / And my latest podcast: