- IHSA Boys Track and Field State Finals are today at Eastern Illinois University. Local athletes who advanced out of prelime are:
Central’s Jake Thompson in the shot put
Bishop McNamara's Malachi Lee in the long jump, Cale Hamilton in the shot put, and Brock Clott in the discus
Wilmington’s Hunter Kaitschuck in the 110 hurdles
Beecher’s Wences Baumgartner in the high jump
Bradley-Bourbonnais's LyZale Edmon in the 200 meters, the 4x100 relay team of Jamir Burt, Edmon, Brandon Sumrall and Kyron Birk, and the 4x100 relay team of Seth Teague, LyZale Edmon, Kyren Edmon and Sumrall.
Manteno’s Briggs Cann in the 400 meters.
- IHSA history occurred on May 15 when Lake Forest Academy hosted Westmont in baseball. The contest was officiated by Abby Boyd & Brenda Mendoza, in what is believed to be the first varsity baseball game in IHSA history to feature two female umpires.
-The NBA's board of governors voted to change the league's draft lottery format beginning with the 2027 NBA draft. The new format expands the lottery from 14 to 16 teams, including the 8-seed in each conference's playoff picture, and adds anti-tanking measures where the bottom three teams are dealt lesser chances for the No. 1 pick while flattening odds for teams that do not qualify for the playoffs or the play-in tournament. It is intended to disincentivize teams from tanking and losing games on purpose to accumulate the best possible lottery odds for the draft's top pick.
The league and commissioner Adam Silver will also wield expanded disciplinary authority to address tanking, including the ability to reduce teams' lottery odds, modify teams' draft positions and impose significant fines on offending teams as part of the new lottery format.
(Andy’s Opinion: This may be the most bizarre anti-tanking format someone could dream up and almost seems like a power grab for Silver with all the extra authority he is now granted. I feel bad for any team who is not trying to tank and are legitimately struggling. They will now get punished if they end up in the top 3. As the old saying goes, “it only takes one to ruin it for all”.
Honestly, I have never been a big fan of any draft lottery format and believe the order should just go by record like the NFL. I don’t know if there is a surefire way to stop tanking but at least if you go the overall record model, you might get memorable moments like former Houston Texans Lovie Smith going for two at the end of a meaningless game to win which cost Houston the #1 overall pick in 2023 draft as they would end up with a slightly better record than the Bears because of the victory.
If you want to keep a lottery, incentives instead of punishment is a better way to go in my eye by offering things like money bonuses or extra draft picks for winning a certain amount of games). Read more about the new format by clicking here.
- The first three game times and broadcast designations for the Illinois football team's 2026 schedule have been set. The Fighting Illini's season opener against UAB has been moved to Thursday, Sept. 3, with kickoff from Gies Memorial Stadium slated for 8 p.m.
In Week 2, Illinois hosts defending ACC Champion Duke on Saturday, Sept. 12 at 2:30 p.m.
The following week, the Orange and Blue welcome Southern Illinois to Champaign on Saturday, Sept. 19. Kickoff vs. the Salukis is set for 1 p.m.
- 4x Stanley Cup-winning NHL player Claude Lemieux died by suicide this week. Lemieux, 60, was found at the family furniture business by his adult son around 3 AM after they became concerned that he hadn't returned home. He was found in a rear warehouse.
- Initial MLB CBA offer includes hard cap of $245.3M and payroll floor of $171.2M, the first such proposal since 1994 strike
- Cubs become second team in MLB history this week to have two 10-game winning streaks and one 10-game losing streak in same season. The other was the 2017 Dodgers who went on to the World Series where they fell to the Astros.
- Daniel Jones is throwing at Colts OTAs less than six months after he tore his Achilles.
