Morning Buzz

Rory McIlroy “ended his long wait for a Masters title” on Sunday, draining a birdie putt on the opening hole of a sudden-death playoff to beat Justin Rose and claim the career Grand Slam after “a nerve-wracking final round.” When the winning putt dropped, McIlroy “raised his arms toward the clear sky and let his putter fall behind him as he dropped to his knees overcome with emotion” (REUTERS, 4/13). McIlroy became just the sixth member of golf’s most exclusive Grand Slam club -- joining the legends of Gene Sarazen, Ben Hogan, Gary Player, Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods -- and the first European player to achieve the Grand Slam. The path to get there was a “roller-coaster all the way to the finish on a Sunday like no other” (IRISH TIMES, 4/14).

McIlroy “pushed the parameters of nerve-jangling entertainment” as he “finally, dramatically, and sometimes painfully, crossed the threshold into the pantheon of greats” (London TIMES, 4/14). What “could have been a coronation for McIlroy along the back nine turned into a heart-racing, lead-changing, jaw-dropping finish at golf’s greatest theater that ended with McIlroy sobbing with joy and disbelief” (AP, 4/13). It was “a monumental moment and a monumental Masters,” a “long-awaited victory for the game’s most popular player.” This Masters “shouldered its way among the most dramatic and soul-touching of them all” (GLOBAL GOLF POST, 4/14).

This “was sport at its most monumental.” The “adoration” greeting McIlroy on his walk back to the clubhouse “was sincere.” Even Augusta National Golf Club Chairman Fred Ridley “acknowledged it was perhaps the finest Masters Sunday of all” (London TELEGRAPH, 4/14). McIlroy is “arguably the most popular champion here since Tiger Woods in his prime” (AUGUSTA CHRONICLE, 4/13).

More on McIlroy’s win:

• Rory McIlroy wins the Masters and career Grand Slam in most McIlroy of ways - dramatically
• Eamon Lynch: After almost 4,000 days, Rory McIlroy’s Grand Slam dream is deferred no longer

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Nike released a “sharp advertisement” shortly after Rory McIlroy's first Masters win on Sunday. The video “opens with a pimento cheese sandwich,” then “panned to a dry cleaner, where a load of hanging jackets spun around before a Masters jacket appeared.” The ad then stated, “This was always waiting for you,” as McIlroy’s green jacket had “waiting for pickup” written on it as a worker grabbed it from the hanger (GOLFWEEK, 4/13). Nike “usually has great advertisements when some of their biggest stars win the biggest prizes in sports, so it’s no surprise that they had something queued up for such a monumental moment” (NEWSWEEK, 4/13).

No one is expecting her to be Caitlin Clark 2.0, but “The Paige Bueckers Effect” begins in Dallas starting Monday.

The Wings will select UConn’s Bueckers with the first overall pick of this evening’s WNBA Draft, now an annual primetime ticketed event staged this season at The Shed in Manhattan. Clark’s Fever have been the talk of the league for a year, but the Wings have smartly elevated their brand over the past three months in anticipation of landing the next best thing.

Bueckers, who just won an NCAA title a week ago, will join a franchise that recently signed a jersey patch deal with the all-in-one money app Albert, closed a local over-the-air TV deal that contains its first rights fee payment, will move into a renovated Dallas Memorial Auditorium in 2026 and will have a plush practice facility waiting for them. Even before all of that, the Wings were valued last August at a league-high $208M after two businessmen bought a half-percent of the team for $1.04M apiece.

Add in the Luka Doncic trade, which has decimated the sentiment around the neighboring Mavericks, and the Wings and Bueckers have a rare opportunity to grow the team’s entertainment value in the Metroplex this summer. The question now is how they handle the good fortune.

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Projected No. 1 WNBA draft pick Paige Bueckers is “signing a three-year deal” with the 3-on-3 league Unrivaled, according to sources. Bueckers’ first-year salary for the 10-week Unrivaled season “will exceed what she would make in four years of her WNBA rookie contract,” sources said. If Bueckers is the top pick in the draft, she is set to earn $78,831 in her first year, according to the WNBA’s CBA. Bueckers “brings another star name to a league that has prided itself in tapping into the top WNBA talent.” Her multiyear deal is “part of the league’s effort to build a sustainable offseason playing opportunity for WNBA players” (ESPN, 4/13).

Unrivaled paid record salaries, an average of around $220,000 per player, and provided player equity, which the WNBA doesn’t provide. (The WNBA’s average salary was around $120,000 in 2024). In 2024, Bueckers became the first NCAA athlete to receive ownership equity in a league. With the deal, she was “expected to join an Unrivaled team after her first WNBA season” (THE ATHLETIC, 4/13). Unrivaled “has no salary cap or predetermined salary scale -- and plenty of money to spend.” In its inaugural season, which wrapped in March, Unrivaled “brought in over” $27M in revenue -- “more than double what investors had projected” (N.Y. POST, 4/13).

About 20,000 people “crowded the streets of downtown Hartford” for Sunday’s victory parade and rally to celebrate the UConn women’s basketball team winning the program’s 12th national title. The Huskies “boarded a double-decker bus at the capitol building” and made their way “through Bushnell Park on Trinity St. before turning right and climbing up on Trumbull St. to end in front of XL Center.” The parade procession also “included representatives from the UConn Fire Department, the Hartford Police Department Color Guard, Travelers, Two Roads Brewing, Mohegan Sun, Hartford Athletic, Hartford Healthcare and UConn’s cheerleaders and pep band.” Coach Geno Auriemma, the Husky coaching staff and the players “watched the parade from the upper deck of the bus and tossed out candy, mini foam basketballs and T-Shirts to the crowd below.” Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont and Lt. Gov. Susan Bysiewicz “gave opening remarks to kick off the pep rally outside the Huskies’ Hartford arena before Auriemma, Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers “addressed the crowd” (NEW HAVEN REGISTER, 4/13).

Auriemma noted that the team has yet to be invited to the White House, but “if or when an invitation comes,” indications are the school “will accept.” The NCAA-champion Florida men’s basketball team “will visit the White House,” coach Todd Golden said Saturday at an on-campus ceremony (NEW HAVEN REGISTER, 4/13).

Levy will become the new food and beverage operator at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Disney World beginning this summer. Levy chefs are creating new menus for the 220-acre complex while the company will bring a new dining concept and freshly prepared grab-and-go offerings to the flagship ESPN Wide World of Sports Grill. The campus’ food and beverage service was previously handled in-house.

ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex is a top destination for youth and amateur sports competitions, like the Youth Flag Football World Championships. The complex has hosted major sports events over the years, including the Special Olympics USA Games, the NFL Pro Bowl Week activities, the Invictus Games and the Department of Defense Warrior Games, as well as marquee competitions across multiple professional sports, and the NBA’s pandemic-hit 2020 season.

ESPN Chair Jimmy Pitaro talks with SBJ’s Austin Karp and Mollie Cahillane about the direct-to-consumer service launching this fall. He also discusses the company’s past and future relationship with MLB, celebrating NCAA women’s basketball and the return of the Super Bowl to ABC/ESPN airwaves.

LIV Golf has hired longtime sports communications executive Lara Toscani Weems as its new SVP/Media Relations, effective last week. Toscani Weems has been the SVP/Global Communications for Elevate for the last three years and before that was a longtime VP/Corporate Communications for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.

Toscani Weems joins LIV and her former boss at HBSE, Scott O’Neil, who took on LIV’s CEO role earlier this year. Toscani Weems will report to Ilana Finley, LIV’s chief communications officer who was hired by the league in September after a long tenure at Nike.

The position is a newly created role with LIV. Toscani Weems will be based in N.Y.

The city of St. Louis “was awarded the United Football League championship game” during an on-field announcement by league co-owner Dany Garcia during halftime of a game between the St. Louis Battlehawks and the D.C. Defenders Sunday. The contest will be held at 7pm ET on June 14, and for the second year in a row, the championship will be played at The Dome at America’s Center (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 4/13). The Battlehawks “led the UFL in attendance in the 2024 season,” averaging 34,365 fans for its home games at The Dome at America’s Center. The UFL’s 2024 championship game at the Dome had attendance of 27,396 (ST. LOUIS BUSINESS JOURNAL, 4/13).

A crowd of “several hundred people” gathered at Target Field before Sunday’s game between the Twins and Tigers to watch the unveiling of Baseball HOFer Joe Mauer’s 8-foot-tall statue. The pose, which Mauer said he “helped select,” is of the St. Paul native “coming out of his crouch behind the plate.” The statue was created by sculptor Bill Mack, who also created the other statues on the plaza, of Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, Harmon Killebrew, Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek, Tom Kelly and former owners Carl and Eloise Pohlad (MINNESOTA STAR TRIBUNE, 4/13). Mauer “was joined by numerous former teammates” and managers, including Paul Molitor, Glen Perkins, Corey Koskie and Justin Morneau. Kelly “read the text of a plaque that accompanies the statue” (St. Paul PIONEER PRESS, 4/13).

In this week’s SBJ:

• Torpedo bats are all the rage in Major League Baseball. Joe Lemire explores how bat manufacturers are handling the surge in interest, while Rob Schaefer looks at times when advancements proved so good they were banned from use.
• The NFL Draft has grown into one of the biggest events on the sport’s calendar, and this year it’s coming to the smallest market in the league: Green Bay. Ben Fischer explains why the size of the town won’t matter, and how the team and the city are lending a small town feeling to this year’s edition.
• It’s not often that a non-wrestler takes a role in talent relations at WWE, but that’s far from the most unusual part of Chris Legentil’s professional journey. David Bourne explains why colleagues say “the sky is the limit” for the former pizzeria manager.
• Our In-Depth this week, by Bret McCormick and David Broughton, tackles sustainability efforts in sports, including the role the current political environment is playing, as well as reusable cups may be coming to an arena or stadium near you.

“They used some of their $65 million settlement to stockpile bitcoin & in 2014 they founded their own cryptocurrency exchange.”