The Morning Column: September 10, 2021
DeAndre Jordan returns to L.A. with the hopes of getting back to the playoffs and being on a championship team for the first time in his career.
☀️ Good morning on a beautiful Friday and welcome to The Morning Column. Please subscribe if you haven’t done so already. It will be delivered to your inbox every weekday morning. To avoid the email ending up in your spam, social or promotion folder, please add arashmarkazi@substack.com to your contacts. You can also email me there as well.
OK, let’s get to it!
1. 🏀 DeAndre Jordan returns to L.A.
DeAndre Jordan is back in Los Angeles after signing a one-year deal with the Lakers on Thursday.
Jordan spent the first 10 years of his career with the Clippers and was one of the cornerstones of the “Lob City” Clippers along with Chris Paul and Blake Griffin. That team went to the playoffs six straight seasons but never advanced past the second round. Jordan now returns to L.A. with the hopes of getting back to the playoffs and being on a championship team for the first time in his career.
“I think the opportunity is the same and I do think the way that I approach the game is the same but obviously you know as you get older, you start to see different things,” Jordan said. “Obviously with the Clippers teams we had some bad luck, on the [Brooklyn Nets] last year we had a little bad luck with injuries and some small things like that but you know you'd never want to take it for granted. I'm excited to be able to be here in and jell with these guys and build chemistry and it's going to be a process but I think we're all ready and excited for it.”
Two years ago, Jordan signed a four-year, $40 million contract to join the Nets along with Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving. Durant and Irving actually took less for Jordan to come with them to Brooklyn but he played in less than 60 games in each of the past two seasons with the Nets.
“We're definitely not friends anymore,” Jordan said when asked about Durant and Irving before laughing. “No, I'm just joking. We're friends before basketball after basketball and I think ultimately, we all just want to be happy. Being able to compete is something that is very important to me and they understand that and we're brothers beyond basketball so, you know, us being teammates or not isn't going to reflect or affect our relationship.”
Since Durant, Irving and Jordan signed with the Nets two years ago, Brooklyn also added Jams Harden and Blake Griffin and has seemingly matched the Lakers star for star as both teams enter next season as favorites to face each other in the NBA Finals.
“I'm just excited to be a part of a team that's chasing the championship,” Jordan said. “Just to be able to be with a team like this with guys that you respect and guys that you've competed against in the past, going into my 14th season, has been great in saying, 'I wonder what it would be like to play with this guy.’ And you always think about that, whether you tell people or not. And now be able to have the opportunity is going to be great.”
2. 🏈 ‘Greg The Leg’ struggles in Dallas
No kicker has as many nicknames as Greg Zuerlein. During his first eight seasons with the Rams, he was called “The Leg,” “Greg The Leg” and “Legatron.” Zuerlein, however, hasn’t been the same since leaving the Rams in 2019 and joining the Dallas Cowboys. In last night’s season opener against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Zuerlein missed a 31-yard field goal attempt and also missed an extra point. Despite making a 48-yard field goal to give the Cowboys the lead with less than two minutes left in the game, those missed points were the difference in the game as Tampa Bay beat Dallas, 31-29.
“If I do my job, we win that game,” Zuerlein said. “So I feel bad for the guys in there that played their ass off and I didn't hold up my end of the deal.”
Needless to say, those two shorts misses on that stage didn’t go unnoticed on Twitter.
3. 🥊 Trump wants to fight Biden
Donald Trump’s transition from President of the United States to Triller boxing commentator began Thursday when Trump called in during the press conference for Saturday’s boxing match between Evander Holyfield and Vitor Belfort at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, Florida. Trump will be ringside providing commentary for the fight along with his son, Donald Trump Jr., and the former president was asked during the press conference who he would want to step into the ring with (because, of course, he would be asked that question).
“I think probably my easiest fight would be Joe Biden because I think he’d go down very, very quickly,” Trump said. “He once said, ‘I’d like to take him behind the barn.’ He’d be in trouble if he ever did. I think Biden would go down within the first few seconds.”
4. 📸 Photo of the Day
The photo of the day is from L.E. Baskow at the Las Vegas Review-Journal, who took this great picture of a Raiders eye patch being installed on the Great Sphinx of Giza replica outside of the Luxor.
5. 💵 Odds and Ends Powered by Bovada
Here are some odds on Bovada if you’re thinking about placing a wager today:
6. 📆 Sept. 10, 1973: Ali defeats Norton at Forum
On this day 48 years ago, Muhammed Ali defeated Ken Norton by split decision and regained his NABF heavyweight championship after Norton had defeated Ali six month earlier by split decision at the San Diego Sports Arena. Norton broke Ali’s jaw in the first fight, which led to the rematch being billed as, “Ali’s Revenge!!”
7. 🎂 Happy Birthday Dan O’Toole
Happy birthday to Dan O’Toole. The former TSN and FS1 host is turning 46 years old today. Dan and Jay Onrait made up the popular “Jay and Dan” duo, which cohosted TSN’s SportsCentre and were also on Fox Sports 1 from 2013 to 2017. Here are some Jay and Dan’s best moments.
8. 🎟 Ticket Time Powered by StubHub
Here are the “get in” prices for tickets if you’re thinking about going to a game today:
⚾️ San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Dodgers – $16
9. 📺 On The Air
⚾️ 5 p.m. – Los Angeles Angels at Houston Astros – Bally Sports West
⚾️ 7 p.m. – San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Dodgers – SportsNet LA
10. 📻 The Arash Markazi Show
On Thursday’s show, we talked about the Clippers breaking ground on their new $1 billion arena next week in Inglewood.
Listen to The Arash Markazi Show on The Mightier 1090 Monday-Friday from 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., following The Rich Eisen Show. The Mightier 1090 has the second strongest radio signal in North America and can be heard from “Baja to the Canadian Rockies.” You can also listen to the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher.
And please click below to subscribe to The Morning Column at Substack. Please also consider supporting my colleagues at Substack (and former colleagues at ESPN and SI): Marc Stein, Henry Abbott, Chad Ford and Ethan Sherwood Strauss on the NBA, Molly Knight and Joe Posnanski on MLB, Ariel Helwani on MMA, Dan Rafael on boxing, Grant Wahl and Leander Schaerlaeckens on soccer, Chris Peters on the NHL and Peter Bodo on tennis.
That’s it for today. Talk to you Monday!