Traina Thoughts: United Airlines controversy; Ken Griffey Jr. anniversary; LeBron on Russ

Traina Thoughts: United Airlines controversy; LeBron James pays respect to Russell Westbroook; more
Traina Thoughts: United Airlines controversy; Ken Griffey Jr.  anniversary; LeBron on Russ
Traina Thoughts: United Airlines controversy; Ken Griffey Jr. anniversary; LeBron on Russ /

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1. The big story of the day, of course, is a United Airlines passenger getting dragged off a flight–literally–because it was overbooked and the crew had to “reaccomodate” the doctor who ended up with a bloody face. 

Browns offensive lineman Joe Thomas came through with a solid take on the incident.

Other notable tweets about the United Airlines controversy:

2. Twenty-eight years ago today, Ken Griffey Jr., hit his first career home run.

Shortly thereafter, while we were young and naive, a bunch of us spent our savings on:

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Sadly, the 1989 Upper Deck Griffey card is basically worth bubkis now, but as Beckett.com says, “The 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. transcends baseball cards. It’s a legitimate piece of pop culture history and easily Griffey’s most recognizable card.”

3. Respect from The King. Here’s LeBron James waxing poetic about Russell Westbrook and his historic season.

4. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers are reportedly going to be the team that is featured on this season’s edition of “Hard Knocks” Hopefully Jameis Winston is on his best behavior.

5. Fresh off their antics at WrestleMania 33, Rob Gronkowski and WWE superstar Mojo Rawley teamed up this weekend to do Vegas. It went about how you’d expect

6. Nobody hates their fans quite like the Yankees (except for maybe the NFL). When they built the new (and charmless Yankee Stadium), the organization decided put a moat in the building so the highfalutin, phony fans who sit in the lower deck, but don’t care about the team at all, didn’t have to associate with the regular peons who attend the game–and the front office has no problem admitting this. And now for the 2017 season, it will cost fans $40 to park at the Stadium. If any of you out there pay more for parking at your favorite team's ballpark, please shoot me a tweet.

7. SI’s Richard Deitsch has new details on CBS replacing Phil Simms with Tony Romo on its No. 1 broadcast team.

8. The WWE seems to have a growing controversy on its hands. Smackdown analyst JBL, a.k.a. John Bradshaw Layfield, has been accused for years of being a locker room bully. Things seem to be coming to a head now because of two things. One, former ring announcer Justin Roberts detailed some of JBL's ridiculous antics in his new autobiography. Two, Smackdown ring announcer Mauro Ranallo has recently missed a string of broadcasts after suffering through some issues related to his mental illness. It's been reported that JBL's bullying caused Ranallo's setback. JBL strongly denied Roberts' claims, but Roberts isn't backing down. Meanwhile, Ranallo's future with the WWE is in doubt, but fans want Layfield gone instead.

9. Talk about jumping the gun. This Lakers fan seems convinced Lonzo Ball is destined for his team.

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10. YOUR DAILY ROCK. I’ve decided to start a new daily feature in Traina Thoughts. Every single day, one item in the column will be about Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson. We won’t rest until we get an interview with the Great One, so this will either help me land him as a guest or make me seem like a stalker. Either way, you guys will at least enjoy getting a piece of the People’s Champion each today. For today’s entry, we give you this vintage promo in which The Rock imitates several WWE superstars including Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle, The Undertaker and more.

Get the link to a new Traina's Thoughts each day by following on Twitter and/or liking on Facebook


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Jimmy Traina
JIMMY TRAINA

Jimmy Traina is a staff writer and podcast host for Sports Illustrated. A 20-year veteran in the industry, he’s been covering the sports media landscape for seven years and writes a daily column, Traina Thoughts. Traina has hosted the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast since 2018, a show known for interviews with some of the most important and powerful people in sports media. He also was the creator and writer of SI’s Hot Clicks feature from 2007 to '13.