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Thursday’s Hot Clicks: Make-A-Wish Kid Fights With Stars’ John Klingberg

Ten-year-old Anderson McDuffie wasn’t going to let John Klingberg push him around.

Dan Gartland

Thursday’s Hot Clicks: Make-A-Wish Kid Fights With Stars’ John Klingberg
Thursday’s Hot Clicks: Make-A-Wish Kid Fights With Stars’ John Klingberg /

“I had to protect myself”

The Stars already knew Anderson McDuffie was a fighter, but not like this.

He’s only 10 years old and has already had two open-heart surgeries, most recently eight months ago. Anderson is also a huge hockey fan and told the Make-A-Wish Foundation that he wanted to play a game against the Stars, his favorite team. The dream came true when the team invited Anderson to its practice facility on Wednesday.

It was a hard-fought victory as Anderson’s team (“the EKGs”) refused to be pushed around by their NHL counterparts. At one point, Anderson decided he had to stand up for his team and scrap with the opposition’s top defenseman, John Klingberg.

Klingberg and McDuffie have very different stories of how the fight began. Anderson says it was Klingberg who came after him and started pushing him around. Klingberg says Anderson was the instigator and that he was just trying to protect himself.

Klingberg’s teammates were quick to give him a hard time, since he’s never been in an NHL fight.

“I think there’s a reason why Klinger doesn’t fight,” Jamie Benn said. “Anderson took it to him there. If I ever saw Klinger fight in a real game, I’m sure that’s how it would go.”

After the pros vs. kids game, the teams mixed it up and the kids got to play with the Stars. All in all, everyone had a blast.

“I think we expected it to be fun,” Tyler Seguin said, “but not as much fun as we had.”

Baker Mayfield pokes fun at himself

Baker Mayfield had a pretty good one-liner while streaming a Fortnite game the other night: “Hopefully I’m running faster than I was in Arkansas right now.”

If you don’t remember, Mayfield was arrested for public intoxication in Fayetteville in 2017 after he tried to run away from some cops and got chased down from behind.

NFL defenses have thus far been proven to be less effective at containing Mayfield than Fayetteville PD.

Spencer Dinwiddie did his Reggie Miller impression

James Harden scored 58 points (giving him 115 over a two-game span) but the Nets still beat the Rockets in overtime thanks to this insane stretch by Spencer Dinwiddie. He knocked down three three-pointers in the final 30 seconds to send the game to overtime, and the Nets went on to win 145–142.

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Dan Gartland
DAN GARTLAND

Dan Gartland is the writer and editor of Sports Illustrated’s flagship daily newsletter, SI:AM, covering everything an educated sports fan needs to know. He joined the SI staff in 2014, having previously been published on Deadspin and Slate. Gartland, a graduate of Fordham University, is a former Sports Jeopardy! champion (Season 1, Episode 5).

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