Greg Cote’s Hot Button Top 10: Tragedy on parade, Messi’s all-or-bust demand, Caitlin, NBA & more
GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (FEBRUARY 18): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED THIS WEEK: Our Sunday Hot Button Top 10 (back after a week off) had been blog-only but when our blog 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 big, weird, damnable, funny or otherwise worth needling as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Welcome to the 48th edition of your Sunday sports-potpourri notes column, the new HB10:
Personal note: Thanks to Le Batard, Vegas and fans for a great few days!: Didn’t have a new HB10 last Sunday because I was busy in Las Vegas as a part of the Le Batard Show’s Viva Mas Vegas fan event, singing live on stage two days straight along with Jeremy Tache and Yeti Blanc in our band, the Hee Haw 3. What a fun time and thanks to all!
1. GUNS: K.C. parade shooting yet another clarion call: America must do better: Condolences to the family of Lisa Lopez-Galvan, who died, and to the 22 others wounded by gunfire at the Chiefs’ Super Bowl celebration. All of our right to not be innocent victims in a mass shooting is as important as others’ right to own an assault weapon. Our obsession with guns is a national embarrassment and plague. Be better, America.
2. INTER MIAMI: It’s MLS championship-or-bust as Messi Year 2 kicks off: The preseason was arduous -- seven matches in five countries across 28 days -- and a letdown with but one victory amid three draws and three losses. Now Inter Miami must shake that off and flex as Lionel Messi Year 2 kicks off with the MLS opener at home this Wednesday vs. Real Salt Lake. Messi and fellow aging stars Luis Suarez, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba must raise the MLS Cup and nothing less.
3. HEAT: Bam! Adebayo Miami’s first All-Star Game starter since Wade in ‘16: Albeit as an East replacement for injured Joel Embiid, Heat’s Bam Adebayo on Sunday night will become Miami’s first ASG starter since Dwyane Wade eight years ago as the NBA celebrates itself at the break in Indy. He is the seventh player to be an All-Star starter in a Heat uniform. Shaquille O’Neal, Alonzo Mourning, Wade and LeBron James were elected starters. Chris Bosh, Anthony Mason and now Adebayo were named as replacement starters. Bam-led Miami hits the break on a 6-2 run and on playoff pace.
4. PANTHERS: The quiet king of South Florida sports skates on: The Dolphins were really exciting this season. Inter Miami has Messi. But the best pro team in town right now is the Florida Panthers -- coming off a Stanley Cup Final appearance and currently tied for the best record in the NHL. Cats were tied for thr most standings points (74), led in goals differential (plus-43) and had won eight of past nine entering Saturday’s game in Tampa, with Sam Reinhart unexpectedly second in the league in goals. A franchise-first Panthers championship is beyond plausible.
5. COLLEGE BASKETBALL: All hail the Queen of Iowa, Caitlin Clark!: She broke the women’s NCAA career scoring record with a 3-point basket from the midcourt logo in a school-record 49-point game. At 22 Clark is all but sure to be the overall No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft. And she is a one-woman economic force personifying the new era of major earning power by erstwhile amateurs. Iowa sells out home and away, her Caitlin’s Crunch Time cereal flies off shelves, and she has lucrative sponsor deals with Nike, Gatorade, State Farm and more. Fun to watch, great to see.
6. NBA: At the All-Star break, an ode to the continuing wonder of LeBron: That the Golden State Warriors explored a pre-deadline trade for LeBron James to pair him with Steph Curry is the latest testimony how great (and coveted) James still is at age 39. There is not a single team in the NBA (including Miami) that would not benefit from his hardly diminished all-round game including a 24.8 scoring average and almost 40 percent on 3’s. Appreciate him in Sunday night’s ASG from Indy. A generational, freak-of-nature talent we’ll miss soon enough.
7. NASCAR: Daytona opens new season as sport seeks its renaissance: Formula One is bigger than ever globally and growing in the U.S., fueled by the hugely popular “Drive to Survive” documentary. Now NASCAR is fighting back. The new season opening with Sunday’s Daytona 500 coincides with the release of the new Netflix show, “Full Speed,” about NASCAR’s ‘23 playoffs. Highlighted is hoops legend Michael Jordan’s involvement as a team owner since 2021. Last year both Team 23XI drivers, Bubba Wallace and Tyler Reddick, made the playoffs. NASCAR also boasts a new $7.7 billion media-rights package its expands to fresh new cities like Chicago, where last year’s debut race was NASCAR’s most-watched broadcast since 2017.
8. GOLF: His magic endures, and Tiger Woods is still his sport’s biggest star: Tiger is 48 now and has not won a major since the 2019 Masters, his first Grand Slam win since 2008. The Genesis Invitational in L.A. last week was his first PGA Tour event in almost a year as injuries continue to hound -- and he withdrew in the second round after becoming ill with the flu. Yet, on memories and fumes, Woods remains the biggest star in golf, a sport beset by strife and the challenge of interloping LIV Golf and its Saudi money. It may speak ill of the sport that Tiger is still king. But it speaks louder to his epochal influence, and how much we cannot bear to let him go.
9. HURRICANES: Miami men running out of chances to avoid ignominious fall: The Canes unexpectedly reached the men’s Final Four for the first time last spring. Some called it a fluke. Were they right? UM after an 11-2 start is 15-10 (6-8 ACC) and not among the 68 teams in ESPN’s latest NCAA Tournament Bracketology. They entered Saturday’s game at Boston College with dwindling chances to impress selectors and sneak in. It likely will take some combo of wins Wednesday vs. No. 9 Duke, February 26 at 7-North Carolina or in the ACC tourney starting March 12. (The UM women, Elite Eight last year, presently are projected for March Madness as a 9-seed.)
10. COLLEGE BASEBALL: The latest proof nothing does real-life feelgood like sports: East Carolina sophomore Parker Boyd, 20, drew a walk in the team’s season opener to make history as the first athlete to play in an NCAA Division I baseball game with a prosthetic leg. A boating accident in July 2022 damaged both legs, causing one to be partially amputated -- his long recovery requiring 22 surgeries. Next time you think your own climb is too high, too tough, think of this kid.
Other most recent stuff from me: What if Patrick Mahomes had been shot? K.C. tragedy latest reminder of America’s gun epidemic // Season of drama, heartache a test of Heat Culture and Spoelstra’s best coaching job // Mahomes joins G.O.A.T. Club with Chiefs’ Super Bowl win -- and he’s only just begun // Sorry Hong Kong, but Inter Miami smart to rest Messi on too-long preseason tour // History repeats: Belichick ending badly? Halas, Landry and Shula all did, too // Thieves stole Jackie Robinson statue and left it burning. What happened next is faith-restoring // R.I.P. Jim Martz: A tribute to the man who gifted me my career // Previous HB10 // And my latest podcast:
