Greg Cote: Mahomes vs. SB jinx, Nike’s LeBron tribute, NBA’s wild West top newest Hot Button Top 10

GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (FEBRUARY 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 one-inch mini columns! Welcome to the fourth edition of the new HB10:

1. SUPER BOWL: Oh yeah. there’s a football game today: Somewhere, amid the celebrated commercials costing $7 million per half-minute, the bombast of Rihanna’s halftime show and the revelrous din of the party you are hosting or at, Kansas City and Philadelphia will play a football game tonight. The last nine season MVPs to reach the Super Bow lost the game. Can Patrick Mahomes end the MVP Jinx? Answer: Chiefs 27, Eagles 24.

2. LEBRON JAMES: Does scoring-record video verify rift with Miami?: So LeBron James breaks Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s NBA career scoring record and Nike is ready with a career-retrospective video ad lauding LeBron -- a video you know he screened and approved ... a video with so little of him with the Heat you have to watch it twice to notice a split-second (literally) of him in a White Hot T-shirt. James won two title in Miami and scored 20 percent of his points for the Heat. But the Nike ad reflects a strange relationship with Pat Riley over the way ‘Bron left. Sad.

3. NBA: Durant, Kyrie and the wild, wild West: A feisty 2023 NBA trade deadline sent Kevin Durant packing for Phoenix and Kyrie Irving for Dallas, strengthening the Western Conferen as Brooklyn detonated its superteam experiment. That further separates Celtics/Bucks/76ers as the East’s Big 3. Locally, Miami stayed quiet other than dumping Dewayne Dedmon for the tax flexibility as the “Pat Riley is washed” wing of the fandom arose once again to bemoan his failing (again) to land Durant and anybody else who was good and available.

4. CIVIL RIGHTS: Florida reverses on invasion of privacy in prep sports: You may have heard: Florida has become a bit of a dystopian state under far-right Gov. Ron DeSantis. A state-backed book burning would hardly shock. In that spirit the Florida High School Athletic Association issued a proposal to require female athletes to disclose information about their menstrual history -- for no apparent reason beyond prurient interest. A scathing backlash from parents, students, doctors and others forced the hopefully embarrassed FHSAA to say “oops, sorry” and erase the lame-brained, sexist and gross invasion of privacy. Power to the people!

5. NFL: Brady makes it as official as it can be with Brady: Tom Brady, 45, officially filed his retirement papers with the NFL and NFLPA, ending any speculation that arose about yet another comeback. He’d done it once before, and made doubters suspicious when he announced his Fox broadcasting career would begin in 2024, not ’23. The retirement papers start the clock toward his Class of 2028 Hall of Fame eligibility. I dunno ... think he’ll get in?

6. SOCCER: Hey, Messi. Decide, already!: Paris Saint-Germain wants to extend his contact. Inter Miami and David Beckham want him desperately. Barcelona seeks a reunion. All that Saudi cash is calling, too. Lionel Messi has plenty of options. Could you choose one, please? Soon? Because I tell you all of these Messi-to-Miami rumors, speculation, “reports” that really aren’t and stories that don’t move the needle are becoming, like, really ponderous. Nobody knows anything of any value expect Messi himself, and nobody, alas, can hurry King Leo.

7. COLLEGE BASKETBALL: Hey,Jim Boeheim. Shhh: Sad, fading, desperate Jim Boeheim of Syracuse, frustrated by his program’s decline, accused fellow ACC men’s teams Miami, Pittsburgh and Wake Forest of cheating, saying they “bought” their teams. Dear Jim: 1) In the NIL age, the buys has sort of been legalized; 2) If you have specific allegations that might interest the NCAA, spill ‘em or please shut up. Miami coach Jim Larranaga seemed to troll Boeheim by whipping out a large wad of cash courtside just before a recent tipoff. Before his HurrIcanes crushed Duke, 81-59.

8. NFL: Aaron Rodgers’ freer and freer free spirit: Somewhere, somehow in his late career, Packers-for-now QB Aaron Rodgers, 39, became a “character” in the mystic, Ricky Williams sort of vein. The latest: Searching for light in darkness. Aaron says after the Super Bowl he’ll be on a four-night “darkness retreat” to seek “self-reflection in some isolation.” Rodgers says it will help him divine whether to keep playing and if so for whom. HB10 is not sure whether to shake its or stand and applaud.

9. PICKLEBALL: Uh oh. CBS Sports and ESPN are on board: Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP) stakes it claim as the biggest league in the young sport thanks to new TV deals with CBS Sports and ESPN. Our two issues with pickleball: 1) The gall of it being such a blatant, scaled-down ripoff of tennis, and 2) Pickleball will never not be a spot-on ridiculous name.

10. SOCCER: Reynas invent new low for Ugly Sports Parent: You expect boorish, meddling parents in youth hockey or tennis maybe. But in national-team soccer? When you’re “child” is 20? Gregg Berhalter could out as U.S. national coach because mommy and daddy were upset Gio Reyna wasn’t playing enough and ratted out Berhalter because 31 years earlier he’d struck his girlfriend-now-wife. Embarrassed for Gio.

Other stuff from me this past week: Dolphins’ Zach Thomas finally makes Hall of Fame / Super Bowl pick for Eagles vs. Chiefs / LeBron James breaks NBA scoring record. Super Bowl With a Smirk series: V--The God of Sod is retiring; IV--NFL Honors awards picks; III--The One-Man Club is now one-and-none; II--Rihanna’s reverse play; I--Ads at $233,000 per second. And my latest podcast: