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Hello! Beyond The Arc with Brandon Silvers is still on hiatus as I recover from March Madness and prepare for the WNBA season. But don’t worry, I’ll be back soon! In the meantime, if you miss me and are in the Charleston area, come see me emcee “The Light Show” this Friday, May 1st, at Hobcaw Brewing Company in Mt. Pleasant! From 7-9 pm, you’re going to get ‘90s hip-hop and R&B, performances from some of the best local poets in the area, and, of course, me on the mic! Get your tickets ASAP! Now, to the sports!

We must talk about what living in Atlanta for three years has done to Hawks coach Quin Snyder. For much of his coaching career, Snyder’s aesthetic was that of a tortured concert pianist. I mean, look at him. Tell me that’s not a man who, in order to keep the lights on, has played thousands of hours of Mozart’s concertos when all he really wants to do is be the next Elton John.

But look at him now. This is a man who is running a high-end art gallery with his wife, where you are welcome to bring your cats. It’s wild what the Botanical Garden and lemon pepper wings will do to a person. Oh, and leaving Utah. Despite the change in appearance, one thing has stayed the same: Snyder can coach. The future is certainly bright for this team, but their backs are against the wall in this series. Can they get a W in the A to push the Knicks to a game 7?

Is Nikola Jokic’s legacy on the line?!? Well, no. However, the conversations around his performance in this series are a great opportunity to talk about what I think is the biggest issue with current NBA discourse: how conversations around a player’s greatness seem to ignore their defensive performance.

Jokic’s offensive brilliance is undeniable. He’s won three MVP awards as a result. However, it’s generally only when he’s not quite himself on that end of the court that we hear these conversations about his struggles defensively, even though he’s almost always below average as a defender. Even worse, a lot of his defensive issues are compounded by a lack of effort. He’s not alone in this, either. I could just as easily write this about Luka Doncic, even though conversations surrounding his lack of defensive effort have been a bit louder. I guess my main question is why? Why doesn’t this matter more in conversations about these guys? Why does it feel like it matters less than it used to? Am I just an old man yelling at clouds? Will Jokic be good enough on offense in this one to ignore his lack of defense?

The penultimate regular season game before it’s conference tournament time! The Sooners are batting over .400 as a team. That’s pretty good. And by “pretty good,” I mean “leads the nation.” They are tied for 2nd with the most titles in NCAA history (8), and look poised to break that tie. If they win it all this year, it would be their 5th championship in 6 seasons.

The race for the Premier League title is coming down to the wire as Arsenal is trying to hold off Manchester City. I just found out that Arsenal’s nickname is “The Gunners,” complete with mascot, Gunnersaurus Rex, whose job had to be saved post-COVID. Here’s a nice article in case you’re interested in reading the full story. Arsenal supporters refer to themselves as “The Gooners.” You’re going to have to look that one up yourself. Just make sure you’re not on a work computer.

If you like to watch Lionel Messi score goals, this is the game for you. Orlando City has surrendered the most goals in the MLS this season, and Messi is, well, Messi. His 7 goals in 9 appearances have helped Inter Miami climb to 2nd place in the Eastern Conference. Oddly enough, they have yet to win a match at home. To make it even weirder, this is the club’s first year in their new stadium, which is called “Nu Stadium.”

Back-to-back weeks with Portland on ESPN2! This time, they’re taking on the Stars, who need to get on track in a hurry. A win against a club at the top of the table could certainly do that. You’ll recognize USWNT legends Mal Swanson and Alyssa Naeher!

Each team’s final preseason game. Then, they face off again to open the regular season. The Sun have gone all in on the youth movement, with just 3 players on the training camp roster with more than 5 seasons of experience. They’re selling commemorative tickets for their final season before relocating to Houston, which is funny because they could just not move, right?

The Liberty are expected to once again be title contenders under new head coach Chris DeMarco. If 6’11” center Han Xu plays the way she did in their first preseason game, they might not need a coach at all. Xu, who last played in the W in 2023, dropped 20 points on the Fever. She scored 12 points total for New York during that 2023 season.

The Wings have done a poor job at handling the questions regarding Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd’s relationship. They’ve had a whole offseason to prepare, yet shut down a reporter who asked about it during Azzi’s opening press conference. Did they not think that using this year’s #1 pick to select the girlfriend of last year’s #1 pick would generate interest in their decision-making process, as well as how it would affect the overall team dynamic? It’s an unprecedented situation. No response would put an end to the questions forever, but if they had let Azzi answer the way Paige did here, it would have extinguished some of that interest. Hopefully, what they do on the court becomes the focus soon.

Did I mention that the Premier League title race is coming down to the wire? Manchester City’s turn to try and walk down Arsenal. Manchester City is often referred to as “Man City,” which is also an accurate description of a group of gooners.

This is the Jordan Walker the Cardinals were expecting when they drafted him in the 1st round out of Decatur High School in 2020. After a respectable first year in the bigs in 2023, the 6’6” rightfielder has struggled mightily at the plate the last two seasons. However, he’s looked much improved to start this season, and leads the team in hits, homers, batting average, and OPS. Digging a little deeper into the Statcast picture, the bat speed has always been there, but he’s barreling it up twice as often as he typically does. Tap in to see for yourself!

Break out your trash cans, Astros fans! This should be a scheduled Shohei start. He’s clearly chasing his first Cy Young Award this year, and certainly looks the part. Also, in an effort to make sure they’re getting the best of Shohei at the plate and on the mound, Dave Roberts has started keeping him out of the lineup on days when he’s pitching. This means more at-bats for backup C Dalton Rushing, who has somehow turned into prime Mike Piazza. Rushing and the man he backs up, Will Smith, both played college baseball at Louisville. So maybe start drafting Louisville catchers, other teams.

From Shohei Ohtani to Yoshinobu Yamamoto to Munetaka Murakami, Japanese players are some of the biggest names in Major League Baseball. These players are known commodities by the time they decide to come play professionally in the United States, so much so that teams break the bank bidding for their services. Could you imagine if instead of signing multimillion-dollar contracts, they operated as a sort of baseball exchange student?

That’s exactly what the very first Japanese MLB player, Masanori Murakami, did. In 1964, he was one of three players sent to the San Francisco Giants’ single-A affiliate in Fresno by his professional team in Japan. He was supposed to return in June, but his team never recalled him, so he just stayed with the Giants. Murakami was called up to the big leagues later that season and performed so well that San Francisco refused to send him back when his Japanese team finally wanted him to return. It nearly got international incident bad, until it was decided that Murakami would spend one more season with San Francisco, then return to Japan.

As a result of this, a working agreement was reached between the two countries’ baseball leagues that essentially protected each league’s rights to its players. The next Japanese player would not come over until Hideo Nomo in 1995, thanks to a little loophole action. And that move opened the floodgates to what we have today. Major League Baseball is much better as a result of these Japanese players, so a special happy birthday to the man who paved the (very long) way!

As always, thank you for reading! Make sure you’re subscribed so you get this in your inbox first thing Thursday mornings! Also, share with your friends! See you next week!