Latest / The Sports Hangover Daily / Knicks Rain Record 25 Threes to Sweep Sixers Out | May 11, 2026
Transcript
- Welcome to The Sports Hangover Daily, I'm Michael Benatar. Today on the show: Aaron Rodgers is still playing hard to get in Pittsburgh and the Steelers are just letting it happen, the NFL schedule release is dropping this week with some wild wrinkles, the Knicks put a historic beatdown on Philly to complete the sweep, and Wembanyama got tossed from a playoff game and didn't even know why. Let's get into it. So here we are. It's May eleventh, and Aaron Rodgers — forty-two years old, four-time MVP, ten-time Pro Bowler — is just hanging out in Pittsburgh like a guy who showed up to the party but won't come inside. He's in town. His reps are talking to Mike McCarthy and Omar Khan. But as of Saturday afternoon, the Steelers hadn't even met with him directly. They're negotiating through intermediaries like this is a hostage situation. The UFA tender guarantees him roughly fifteen million. He made thirteen point six five last year. Word is the new deal lands somewhere around twenty million. And Rodgers threw for over thirty-three hundred yards last season. Twenty-four touchdowns, seven picks, ten and six record. He earned the conversation. But the Steelers wanted this done before the draft. That didn't happen. Now they're hoping to wrap it up before OTAs start on May eighteenth. And if it doesn't get done? Their options are Will Howard or rookie Drew Allar. That's it. That's the cupboard. Which is exactly why Rodgers has leverage even at forty-two. He knows Pittsburgh doesn't have a Plan B, and he's milking it. I think the deal gets done. But this whole dance is a reminder that Rodgers has never made anything simple in his entire career. The man negotiates a football contract the way most people negotiate a divorce. Sticking with the NFL — the full schedule drops Wednesday night on NFL Network and ESPN2. But we already know some of the highlights. The season opens on a Wednesday, September ninth, with somebody at the Seahawks. That's the second time in seventy-five years the NFL has opened on a Wednesday. Thursday night is the Rams and Niners in Australia. Nine international games total, which is a record. And the league is killing Monday night doubleheaders, which — thank you. Those were always a mess. The Seahawks are gonna be everywhere this year as defending champs. The Patriots too, since they were the team Seattle beat in February. Expect those two to show up a bunch in the marquee windows. A couple more NFL notes. Breece Hall got paid in New York — three years, forty-five point seven five million. No more franchise tag drama. George Pickens officially signed his franchise tag in Dallas. And Minnesota's gonna have a real quarterback battle this summer between J.J. McCarthy and Kyler Murray. That camp is going to be fascinating. McCarthy's the future, but Murray's the experienced arm. I wouldn't sleep on that one getting messy. Over in the NBA — the Knicks completed the sweep of Philly, one forty-four to one fourteen, and it wasn't even that close. New York tied the NBA playoff record with twenty-five threes. They hit eleven in the first quarter alone — that's a record. Then they broke the record for most threes in a half with eighteen before halftime. It was eighty-one to fifty-seven at the break. Miles McBride started for the injured OG Anunoby and went seven of nine from deep for twenty-five points. Brunson had twenty-two. Karl-Anthony Towns had seventeen and ten assists in twenty minutes. Twenty minutes! The Knicks' average margin of victory through two rounds is nineteen point four points per game. That's the largest since the playoffs went to sixteen teams in 1984. Philly's season ends with another injury-riddled whimper. Embiid had twenty-four, Maxey had seventeen, and none of it mattered. In the West, the Wolves evened their series with San Antonio at two games apiece, one fourteen to one oh nine. And the story here is Victor Wembanyama getting ejected in the second quarter for throwing an elbow at Naz Reid's jaw. Flagrant two. And the part that's almost endearing — Wemby apparently had to ask Harrison Barnes what a Flagrant two even meant. Then he high-fived his whole bench and walked to the tunnel. The kid's seven foot five and still learning what gets you tossed. Anthony Edwards took over after that. Thirty-six points, sixteen of them in the fourth quarter. He was thirteen of twenty-two from the field. Fox and rookie Dylan Harper each had twenty-four for San Antonio, but losing Wemby early was just too much to overcome. Quick hockey check — Montreal took Game three over Buffalo, six to two. Alex Newhook scored twice for the second straight game. He's the first Canadien with back-to-back multigoal playoff games since Mark Recchi in ninety-seven. Habs lead that series two to one. And down in Anaheim, the Ducks evened things up with Vegas at two games apiece, four to three. Mitch Marner had three more assists to give him sixteen points this postseason. The man is on another planet right now. But Anaheim's power play finally woke up after going oh for eleven, and that was the difference. Here's the Hangover Take. The Wizards won the draft lottery last night, and they're gonna take AJ Dybantsa out of BYU with the first pick. And I think every other rebuilding team should be genuinely sick about it. Washington went seventeen and sixty-five. They've been terrible. And the basketball gods just handed them a franchise cornerstone. The last time the Wizards picked first was 2010 when they took John Wall. That didn't exactly work out long term. But Dybantsa is a different animal, and honestly, the scary part isn't Washington getting him. It's the rest of the top five. Utah at two, Memphis at three, Chicago at four — the Bulls had a THREE percent chance of landing a top-four pick. Memphis had nine percent. Those teams just jumped the line, and somebody who was supposed to be drafting a star is now picking sixth or seventh wondering what happened. The lottery is the cruelest night in sports. One ping-pong ball bounce and your rebuild jumps ahead three years. Or it doesn't, and you're stuck in the middle. That's your hangover. Go hydrate. I'll see you tomorrow.