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Welcome to the latest episode of Hot Takedown, FiveThirtyEight’s sports podcast. On this week’s show (June 28, 2016), we discuss legendary women’s basketball coach Pat Summitt, who died Tuesday. Kate Fagan describes what she meant to generations of young women desperate to play the sport. Then, The Wall Street Journal’s Chris Herring joins us to chat about the trade of Derrick Rose to the New York Knicks, and we wonder why the Knicks never seem to acquire quality talent. Finally, Chris sticks around to talk about this year’s NBA free agents and whether the Golden State Warriors would be set up for an 82-0 season if they got Kevin Durant. Plus, a significant digit on Buddy Ryan, the NFL defensive coordinator who helped lead the New York Jets and the Chicago Bears to Super Bowl titles. He died Tuesday at the age of 85.
Links to what we discuss are here:
- Kate Fagan tells us what Pat Summitt meant to her and generations of women basketball players.
- Neil Paine dives into the numbers that show Summitt built the best women’s college basketball program of all time.
- Gary Smith’s 1998 profile of Summitt in Sports Illustrated looks at her through the eyes of a 16-year-old college basketball prospect.
- In 2012, Dave Zirin asked in The Nation: Are we brave enough to say goodbye to Pat Summitt?
- Chris Herring wonders how Derrick Rose will fit in with the Knicks.
- Chris also writes that the Knicks are setting their sights on Kevin Durant now that Rose is on board.
- But Matt Borcas at The Ringer thinks Durant will never go to the Knicks.
- Neil Paine thinks a Durant-led Thunder will be a better team without Serge Ibaka.
- The Washington Post’s Neil Greenberg agrees.
- Significant Digit: 72. That’s the number of sacks Buddy Ryan’s 1984 Bears put up — the most in a single NFL season.
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