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The Weekend in Sports: A Familiar Game 7, KD is back in Texas and the CWS Final

by: RT Young06/23/25
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Erich Schlegel-USA TODAY Sports

I remember the feeling walking out of The Rose Bowl in January 2010. It wasn’t lament or heartbreak or devastation. Those are the emotions I felt leaving the Sugar Bowl and Jerry World the last two seasons. Back then, it was more like confusion. But it was deeper than that. I still feel it today.

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Colt McCoy is taken out of his final Texas game because of an early shoulder injury? So, this championship game my friends and I have hyped ourselves up for and built an entire trip to the West Coast around, is it just going to end like that? I know all Longhorn fans of a similar version of events when it comes to that night. 

It felt like the game was never actually played. 

As if what we saw against Alabama wasn’t the real thing.

It was like there was some record skip or CD scratch which held the game we were meant to see in a cruel liminal space. Now, it dangles above all our heads forever. Fans have a lifetime of wishing things had been different. Somehow, I still feel like they could be. Because the game I was supposed to see never happened.

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I write all that because watching Tyrese Haliburton pound the court and exit Game 7 of the NBA Finals after just seven minutes felt familiar.

I know most people have no idea how Indiana Pacers fans are feeling today, but Longhorn fans do.

With Haliburton lost to an achilles injury, TJ McConnell and his team still put on a performance which would have made “good job, good effort” kid extremely proud. But the Oklahoma City Thunder were too much for a Pacers team operating without their floor general.

The Thunder are champions and the rumbling of the Earth you feel is the sound of droves of disillusioned Sooner fans hustling to their local K-Mart to snag some Finals gear. Football school? Not anymore. Softball school? I’ve got news for you. Basketball state? For now…

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After 18 years, Kevin Durant is back in Texas.

The Houston Rockets took the Phoenix Suns to the cleaners in a trade which had them give up none of their young core. Besides perennial ball stopper Jalen Green. The Rockets shipped out Dillon Brooks, the number 10 pick in Wednesday’s draft and a box of loose second round picks to the Suns as well. They free up minutes for young players like Reed Sheppard and Cam Whitmore, while getting a certified bucket getter in KD who will instantly elevate Houston’s title aspirations to greater heights. 

How are we feeling Rockets and KD fans? 

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In Omaha, LSU stole another national championship against Coastal Carolina.

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The umpire made Game 2 about him when he ejected the CCU manager and first base coach in the first inning for something that wouldn’t even get a second grader sent out in the hallway. It was a despicably quick trigger by the Ump and he can probably kiss being a big time college referee goodbye. But, it’s the Tigers 8th championship. It comes in a year where they were rebuilding on the fly. I sure hope Texas and Jim Schlossnagle are ready to steal a few in the coming years.

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