SI:AM | We’ve Got a Series

Plus, the Nets-Kyrie Irving contact impasse was entirely predictable.

Good morning, I’m Josh Rosenblat. Don’t count out the two-time defending Stanley Cup champs.

In today’s SI:AM:

⚡ Tampa strikes back

💸 NIL made staying in school a “no-brainer.”

🤔 The predictable Nets-Kyrie situation

You can’t sleep on the Lightning

It would have been easy to count out Tampa Bay. I mean, Colorado’s 7–0 Game 2 win was the most lopsided scoreline in a Stanley Cup Final game in over a decade. (The Bruins beat the Canucks 8–1 in Game 3 of the 2011 Final.)

Just a few minutes into the game, Lightning goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy was forced into an impressive double save. Then, a bit later, an Avalanche goal came off the board after coach Jon Cooper challenged it for offside. Finally, though, Colorado broke through for a 1–0 lead on a power play goal from Gabriel Landeskog.

That made it nine straight goals for the Avs since their OT winner in Game 1.

The Lightning responded by closing the period strong, answering with two goals to take a one-goal lead into the first intermission.

Tampa Bay finally got a foothold in this series in the second period, with the Lightning striking for four goals to put the game out of reach for a 6–2 win.

Contributions came from everywhere. Six different players notched the six goals. Seven players collected assists. The Ondrej Palat, Steven Stamkos and Nikita Kucherov line showed up in a big way last night, helping lead Tampa Bay with three goals and a 16–8 shot advantage. In the first two games of the series, the line managed just an 8–7 shot advantage.

And, along with those offensive stars, Vasilevskiy proved why he’s the second highest paid netminder in the league. He made 37 saves last night.

His counterpart for Colorado, Darcy Kuemper, meanwhile, was pulled after allowing his fifth goal. Pavel Francouz came in. And the appearance of a goalie controversy could give the twice defending Stanley Cup champs a little more of a boost heading into Game 4 tomorrow night.

The best of Sports Illustrated

Kevin Jairaj/USA Today Sports

In today’s Daily Cover story, Michael Rosenberg details the decision of North Carolina big man Armando Bacot to stay in school. The biggest reason: he’ll earn “a cool half mil.”

“Armando, meanwhile, has been selectively aggressive in pursuing NIL deals. He finds companies that interest him, DMs them on social media, forms a relationship, then has [business adviser Daniel] Hennes negotiate a deal. With each, he asks for a clause in his contract that gives him some time with the company’s CEO. He licenses his image to the T-shirt shops on Franklin St., but he also hired a student to design shirts that he could sell himself on his personal website. [His mother] Christie [Lomax] even packages and ships them. ‘My mom, she’s already busy as crap, bless her soul,’ he says, ‘but I got that business mindset. I’d rather just cut the middleman out.’ (Bacot prints his shirts in limited batches, to avoid sitting on inventory and to create the aura of exclusivity. The shirts sell for $40, and $25 of that is profit.)”

Tom Verducci makes the case for 34-year-old Paul Goldschmidt to become the oldest “non-juiced” MVP since 1986. … You could’ve seen the Kyrie Irving situation coming from a mile away, Chris Mannix writes. … Dan Snyder declined to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee, leading Albert Breer to write that he is “completely gutless.” … Jeremy Woo has a new NBA mock draft out. … Rory McIlroy let another major go by this weekend without a win, but Bob Harig writes that you shouldn’t give up on him just yet.

Around the sports world

Potential Kyrie Irving suitors are beginning to be rumored after reports of the guard and the Nets being in disagreement during contract negotiations. … Brooks Koepka is reportedly headed to LIV Golf. … WNBA star Brittney Griner tried to reach her wife via the U.S. embassy in Russia but the scheduled call never happened.

SIQ

Who was the first pick in the NHL draft on this day in 1997?

• Patrick Marleau
• Roberto Luongo
• Joe Thornton
• Olli Jokinen

Check tomorrow’s newsletter for the answer.

Yesterday’s SIQ: Who won the previous U.S. Open at The Country Club in 1988?

Answer: Curtis Strange. Strange and Nick Faldo were tied at 6-under after 72 holes (Strange made a bogey on the 71st hole to drop into a tie with Faldo, who bogied the 70th hole), so they went to an 18-hole Monday playoff.

The playoff was tight until the end of the round. After Strange bogied the 12th, he sat at even par while Faldo was 1-over. But Faldo folded after that. He bogied four of his final six holes to finish with a 4-over 75, while Strange finished with a 71 to win his first major championship.

Strange repeated as U.S. Open champion in 1989 at Oak Hill, but that would be his final PGA Tour win. —Dan Gartland

From the Vault: June 21, 1982

Joe DiMaggio/Sports Illustrated

Boxing produces some of the most beautiful photography of any sport, and SI’s coverage of the highly anticipated Larry Holmes–Gerry Cooney fight is a perfect example.

Holmes and Cooney both entered that 1982 fight undefeated—Holmes, the WBC heavyweight champion, at 39–0 and Cooney at 25–0. After a Cooney injury forced the fight to be delayed several months, the showdown in Las Vegas had boxing fans buzzing with anticipation.

Cooney had been presented as the “Great White Hope” in the build up to the fight against Holmes, who is Black. Holmes felt disrespected that—as the champion, with a better résumé than Cooney, having fought more quality opponents before their matchup—he was forced to split the purse from the fight equally with Cooney, William Nack wrote:

“Holmes was openly contemptuous of Cooney’s rise, saying the challenger got there because he was white, and it made Holmes feel no less the unrecognized champion when he was forced to agree to share equally in the purse, forecast by the promoters to be as much as $10 million for each boxer.”

The fight itself took place in a “packed, 32,000-seat stadium” built in the parking lot of Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas and was a good one. It went 13 rounds before Cooney’s trainer threw in the towel to spare his man from absorbing more punishment.

Nack’s story is primarily a recap of the fight itself, which, 40 years later, isn’t all that enticing. But the photos are absolutely worth seeing. Nack’s 3,300-word article is accompanied by 20 photos, taken by seven different photographers (yes, one of them was really named Joe DiMaggio). They tell a nearly complete story of the fight, with Holmes looking fresh as a daisy in the majority of them, while you can almost see Cooney staggering even in the still images.

Though the build up to their fight was contentious, Cooney and Holmes became friends, as Richard O’Brien wrote in SI’s 2007 “Where Are They Now?” issue. —Dan Gartland

Check out more of SI’s archives and historic images at vault.si.com.

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