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 so much for tapping in with the Morning Win today. We appreciate you for taking the time here.
For the bulk of his career, Novak Djokovic has been superman on the court. He’s played through nagging injury after nagging injury. There was a time we thought his wrist would sideline him. Nope. Maybe that sore elbow? Nuh-uh. How about an abdominal injury? It’s fine.
He’s always been able to power through and come out on the other side victorious. That’s why how he got to where he is today. That’s why he’s arguably the greatest tennis player of all time.
Seeing him go down with a torn meniscus on Tuesday at Roland-Garros was a shock to the system.
He injured his right knee during his French Open match with Francisco Cerundolo. He played through the pain and won, but it’s unclear if any further damage was done. ESPN reports he will reportedly undergo surgery on Wednesday.
This makes the all-time Grand Slam leader’s future murky in both the long term and the short term.
Djokovic will miss Wimbledon, which begins July 1. There’s hope he’ll make it back for the Olympics, which is a big deal for him but he’ll be less than two months removed from a knee surgery at 37-years-old. We’ll see.
That’s exactly why his long-term outlook is questionable, too. He’s 37 years old! He’s still incredible, but it already felt like he lost a step this season when he lost to Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open earlier this year. He’ll lose his No. 1 ranking to Sinner, who now has a good chance at winning the French Open with Djokovic sidelined.
It’s hard to forecast how this will go for Djokovic. But it’s around this age when all the greats begin to struggle. We’ve seen how it’s gone for Rafael Nadal with injuries. Roger Federer was marred by injuries late in his career, too. Tennis is a grueling game. It takes a lot and it’s hard to do for such a long time.
Djokovic has been tough. He’s also been really lucky. At some point, that luck was probably going to run out.
I hate to say it, but there’s a good chance we’ve reached that point here.
JJ Redick plays it coy
All signs seem to point to JJ Redick becoming the Lakers head coach after he finishes calling the NBA Finals with ESPN this year. The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports that LA is “zeroing in” on Redick as the guy.
Redick, though, is not giving any hints. He appeared on the Gojo and Golic show and said his focus is on the NBA Finals. That’s it and that’s all.
"My focus is on the NBA Finals. In terms of Shams, that will be addressed once the season is over. I'll just say that." @jj_redick addresses the elephant in the room — the rumors of the Lakers' interest in him as their new Head Coach pic.twitter.com/6OwYnG5iHQ
— GoJo and Golic (@GoJoandGolic) June 5, 2024
“My day-to-day right now is consumed with calling games, the 19 different podcasts I feel like I have, my obligation to all of our partners. So, my focus is on the NBA Finals. In terms of Shams [Charania], that will be addressed once the season is over. So, I’ll just say that.”
That’s a great answer from JJ. On one hand, yeah, it definitely sounds like a guy who is headed for LA after this season is over. On the other? There’s plausible deniability there! We’ll just have to wait and see.
But let’s not kid ourselves here. This is happening. The two names that came up the most in the Lakers coaching search have been Redick and Ty Lue. One of those dudes just signed an extension with the Clippers. The other is still offering up boilerplate answers to speculative coaching questions. The math isn’t that hard to do here.
Best of luck in LA, JJ. You’re going to need it.
The worst ejection ever
Looks like the WNBA Officials decided to take Angel Reese’s “bad guy” comments to heart.
The Chicago Sky rookie got two back-to-back technical fouls and an ejection for … seemingly nothing? Reese appeared to tell the official that a call was BS initially, which she got an initial tech for. But then she immediately got another one for simply waving the official off.
Yes, really.
Angel Reese has been ejected from the Sky-Liberty game after a double tech 👀pic.twitter.com/feiuzxxKeO
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) June 5, 2024
Even the Liberty were surprised by this. It made no sense. Here’s a good take from our Cory Woodroof:
“While it’s possible she also said something to anger the ref after the first call, this is still an absurd way for Reese to be thrown out of the game … especially after, y’know, that whole hard foul situation went down over the weekend between Sky guard Chennedy Carter and Indiana Fever rookie guard Caitlin Clark.”
Be better, refs. Please. I’m begging you.
Quick hits: Please stop talking, Pat McAfee … An awesome Mariners rally video … and more
— Pat McAfee has to know when to fold ’em. Stop talking about Caitlin Clark, please. Cory has more here.
— Andrew Joseph has more on this amazing rally video from the Mariners that looked like a Microsoft Word doc.
— Jontay Porter amassed so much debt to his co-conspirators in his NBA betting scheme. This is insane. Prince Grimes has more.
— Happy birthday, Kate Martin! Sorry you missed the bus. Meg Hall has more.
— Speaking of Meg, here she is with all the cool WNBA storylines you missed while everyone lost their minds.
— Here are the five most hateful moments between Kyrie Irving and the Boston Celtics.
That’s a wrap, folks! Thanks so much for reading. I appreciate you! Have a fantastic Wednesday. We out. Peace.
-Sykes ✌️
