This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.
Good morning, Winners! Thanks for reading TMW today. We appreciate your time.
You know who isn’t a winner? Drake. That’s who.
I don’t know if it’s possible that anyone thought he somehow “won” the beef with Kendrick Lamar, though I’d contend that beef isn’t something you win or lose. It’s just something you do.
READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Drake’s beef with Kendrick Lamar
But if there’s any doubt about who the bully is here in this tête-à-tête, yesterday should’ve erased it.
News broke that Drake is threatening to sue Universal Music Group and Spotify for allegedly artificially boosting streams on Kendrick Lamar’s bouncy-yet-visceral takedown track, “Not Like Us.”
Drake claims that UMG conspired with “paid and currently unknown parties” to use bots to “inflate the spread” of “Not Like Us” and paid influencers to boost the song on social media. The court documents also claim Universal used bots to spike the streaming numbers on Kendrick Lamar’s song directly and decreased the licensing fee on the song to allow the song to be recommended on streaming platforms more.
I’m sure this all sounds ridiculous, but it’s not unfathomable. Record labels and streaming companies have conspired to do this for years. It’s an extremely damaging practice, particularly for independent artists and record labels without major backing. It’s not great. But it wouldn’t be shocking if that actually happened to some degree here.
But it’s not the message that I’m mad at. It’s the messenger.
Record labels boosting streams wasn’t a problem before the allegedly boosted song became Drake’s problem. We’re talking about a guy who’d previously held onto the single-day streaming record with “God’s Plan” for six years before “Not Like Us” booted that joint into the stratosphere. Drake is also a guy who owns streaming record after streaming record and constantly brags about how he’s got more hits than the Beatles.
That was definitely all done organically, right? Riiiiiight. *wink wink*
It further cements the massive L the Canadian rapper took this summer. This is quite literally the equivalent of someone bringing their basketball to the park to play 1-on-1 and getting cooked so badly that, not only did they take their ball home, but they also called the police for some reason to report that their ankles had been stolen.
It’s corny. It doesn’t make any sense. “Not Like Us” is a great song regardless of streaming numbers. Those streams didn’t fill up the Forum in LA this summer and aren’t why people love that song so much. It’s legitimately a great song! No lawsuit is changing that.
THE POP OUT SHOW: See the best moments from Kendrick Lamar’s Drake-hating festival this summer
Let this be a lesson to us all, folks. You reap what you sow. Don’t beg for the smoke if you’re not ready for it. And, if you get the smoke and it’s too much, please don’t contact your lawyers.
That’s wack.
Dan Hurley brings about his own downfall
UConn’s Men’s hoops team lost its first game of the season on Monday to an unranked Memphis team that it probably had no business losing to in the Maui Invitational.
The Huskies’ comeback effort fell short, in part because of the team’s head coach.
One thing about Dan Hurley? That man is always angry. And he never hesitates to let everyone know it — especially the officials. But, on Monday in the waning moments of the overtime period, the refs had had enough.
With the game tied at 92-92, Hurley got a technical foul with 40 seconds left to go in the game. He absolutely lost it because of an over-the-back foul call. Memphis’ P.J. Carter hit both free throws and the Tigers never looked back.
You’ve got to take the good with the bad with Hurley. This is a guy who won back-to-back championships for the Huskies. He’s impressive.
But, man, when it gets bad its seems to get really bad. Can you imagine this guy coaching LeBron James? Sheesh.
HURLEY GON’ HURLEY: He completely blew this one for UConn
John remains the top Harbaugh
In the battle of the brothers Harbaugh, John remains the top dog after grabbing yet another win over his brother with the Ravens 30-23 win over the Chargers.
To be fair to Jim, they’ve only coached against each other three times in their collective 20 years of NFL coaching experience (of which John has 15).
THE HARBOWL: Here’s everything on the Harbaugh’s coaching record against one another and their history together
Can we just take a second to appreciate how great these dudes are? They’ve both coached in the Super Bowl, obviously against one another. John has a Lombardi trophy. Jim has a National Championship with Michigan. The Harbaughs are football royalty. It’s nice to see them match up like this.
There’s a chance they’ll match up again this winter in the playoffs. I’m hoping for it.
The more Harbowls, the better.
Quick hits: The NFL playoff picture … Power Rankings … and more
— Here’s Charles Curtis with a look at the NFL’s playoff picture heading into Week 13.
— Here are Christian D’Andrea and Robert Zeglinski with updated NFL Power Rankings, including a surprise rise from the Denver Broncos.
— Tyler Nettuno has winners and losers from the college football weekend. The SEC is down horrendous right now.
— Bryan Kalbrosky makes the case that Ty Jerome is the most underrated player in the NBA today.
— No idea how Urban Meyer didn’t know who Mike Vrabel was but this is also a very Urban Meyer thing to do.
— Here’s Meg Hall on why Jim and John Harbaugh’s parents missed the Harbowl.
That’s a wrap, folks. Happy Tuesday! Peace.
-Sykes ✌️
