The Women’s Bracket Is Chaos, Let Celebs Be Your Guide

…walk into a bar. Dick’s Sporting Goods called in the big dogs for its latest sneaker campaign, riffing off Speed’s obsession to face-off with every GOAT athlete at their sport.

Bronny James sat down with The Athletic for a wholesome interview about his growing confidence in basketball and life in general, getting reps in the G League, and what it’s like to play for the same NBA team as his Dad. 

You probably saw this, but the Boston Celtics are officially the most valuable North American sports team of all time, coming in at a cool $6.1 billion. Naturally, Shams was on hand with the scoop.

Frances Tiafoe gave his thoughts on the Ben Shelton x Trinity Rodman hard launch this week and revealed he played a key role in bringing the all-star pairing together. But Trinity thinks he’s giving himself too much credit.

Summer’s round the corner, and Armani is going big on padel, teaming up with one of Europe’s biggest padel court builders and releasing bespoke apparel, sneakers, and rackets to cash in on everyone’s new favorite activity. Our sister newsletter, SportsVerse, has the details.

In a role reversal not seen since Freaky Friday, Women’s March Madness lands today, loaded with the mononymic superstars everyone is talking about. Paige and Flau’jae. Hannah and Hailey. Juju and Kiki.  A tournament so stacked, there aren’t one, but two top-seeded USCs. It’s going to be chaos! Sorry, fellas.

The hot takes are flying, the long-form profiles are plentiful, and it seems as if everyone can agree on one thing… which is nothing. There’s no consensus favorite and the pool is so wide-open Harvard has become a fashionable Cinderella. It’s women’s basketball bizarro world, everyone.

Filling out your bracket last minute like Travis and Jason Kelce? We don’t blame you. How could we possibly pick UCONN over USC, we mean USC over UCONN, or maybe they can both win? We’re working on it. 

But if you need help, we’ll leave these right here…

LSU comes into this year’s tourney a certified underdog, but with Kim Mulkey, Flau’Jae Johnson, and the Tiger mentality, they still might make HERstory. 

Don’t take our word for it — bettors like LSU's odds. On the court and off the court we can always count on them to make some news like, Kim Mulkey buying every student a ticket for the first two rounds. Or Flau’jae wiping out $5M of debt for Louisiana families. You read that right… Five. Million. 

LSU didn’t become NIL University without their players having some fun. So we’ll count on Flau’jae, Anesha Morrow, and Mikaylah Williams, Kim Mulkey’s courtside looks, and LSU swag to keep our attention on LSU during the tournament.

It was only a matter of time before the global phenomenon that is soccer worked its way onto everybody’s feet. For decades, sneaker culture has been driven by iconic retro basketball styles like Jordans or Dunks. But recently, brands have turned to the beautiful game for inspiration.

The Samba which has made the comeback of all comebacks helped Adidas save its brand when the German footwear giant brought it back from its archive with a modern twist. Hyping demand through collaborations with Gucci and Wales Bonner, it quickly became a hit, thanks to high-profile fashion girlies like Bella Hadid and Hailey Bieber, before becoming everyone’s go-to casual shoe of 2024.

The Swoosh is going all in on soccer-inspired lifestyle footwear, recently sending fans into meltdown when it relaunched its Total 90 III indoor soccer sneaker, a Y2K cult classic that became an unlikely fashion hit in Europe, worn on the pitch by legends like Thierry Henry, Ronaldinho, Arjen Robben, and countless others. Later this year, Nike will release the long-awaited Air Max Tiempo, a casual shoe inspired by the brand’s iconic old-school Tiempo cleats, repped by cult heroes like Eric Cantona and Romario.

Now, everyone’s getting in on the act with remakes of their classic soccer silhouettes. There's Puma Kings (with a fire Kid Super collab), Reebok’s Hammer sneaker, and if you really want to splash the cash, Louis Vuitton and Pharrell Williams revealed a pair of soccer-inspired sneakers of their own at Paris Fashion Week last month, repping the fictional team LV Lovers United. Take our money!