Coby White made his season debut Sunday night and nearly lifted the Chicago Bulls to a wild win in Salt Lake City.

White had yet to play this season due to a lingering calf injury, but he was cleared to debut at the Delta Center on Sunday night for the Bulls’ matchup with the Utah Jazz. While he scored a team-high 27 points and eight assists off the bench, it wasn’t enough to carry the Bulls to the win. The Jazz escaped with a 150-147 win in double overtime, thanks to a huge shot from Keyonte George in the final seconds.

That shot came just seconds after White tied it at the free-throw line. George dropped 33 points despite shooting just 3-of-10 from behind the arc in the win for the Jazz (5-8).

White hit a similar shot at the end of the first overtime. After forcing a jump ball, White came off a screen and drove right to the lane to hit a layup to tie the game.

Lauri Markkanen led Utah with 47 points and seven rebounds in the win. Brice Sensabaugh added 16 points off the bench, and Isaiah Collier finished with 16 points and nine assists.

Josh Giddey added 26 points and 13 assists for the Bulls, who have lost five straight games. Nikola Vucevic added 21 points and 13 rebounds, and Matas Buzelis finished with 18 points.

White — who was selected by the team with the No. 7 overall pick in the 2019 NBA Draft — got out to a decent start to his career despite starting just one game as a rookie. He averaged 13.2 points and finished fifth in Rookie of the Year voting. White put up similar numbers over the next three seasons, though his playing time dwindled in 2022-23, when he started just two games.

Coming off his worst season as a pro, White found another level. He averaged 19.1 points, 5.1 assists and 4.5 rebounds during the 2023-24 season. All figures represented career-highs for White at that point in his career. He essentially repeated those numbers last season, averaging 20.4 points, 4.5 assists and 3.7 rebounds, proving his breakout was for real.

Despite his success, the Bulls have had just one winning season since selecting White in the NBA Draft and have made the playoffs only one time. They went 39-43 in each of the past two campaigns.

After getting out to a surprising 5-0 start, the Bulls have gone 1-6 in their last seven games. They will take on the Denver Nuggets next on Monday night. While they have been struggling lately, White’s return should provide them a significant boost as they wrap up their four-game road trip this week.

As Maize n Brew readers know, we do these SB Nation Reacts surveys every week. And the latest results are amongst the most lopsided since we’ve had these polls.

Last week, we asked fans if they think Michigan is right to reject the Big Ten’s potential $2.4 billion equity deal with the University of California pension fund. Here are the results.

96% of fans think Michigan should reject the deal.

Michigan and USC are the only Big Ten universities opposed to the deal, which would give immediate cash to every team in the conference.  The deal would last for 20 years and give the pension fund a 10% stake in Big Ten Enterprises while also receiving a cut of the Big Ten’s annual distribution. In the long run, it seems like something that would take money away from the Big Ten. Why would the pension fund want to make this deal otherwise? There will be a winner and a loser in this deal.

The equity deal is far from guaranteed, even with the Big Ten willing to go through with a deal without Michigan and USC. Per ESPN, the deal is on hold as the pension fund wants USC and Michigan on board to complete the deal.

Michigan Board of Regents member Jordan Acker is taking a firm stance on the matter, believing this deal could be a precursor to Michigan leaving the Big Ten.

“Michigan has a lot of options,” Acker said. “The possibility of independence for football is certainly something that has to be considered. Not today, but at the end of the Grant of Rights [in 2036]. I think it’s something you have to think about,” Acker continued. “Not because we want to leave the Big Ten Conference [but] because the commissioner’s office has made it enormously clear that they’re going [proceed] without us. That would be the end of Michigan, as far as I can see, in the Big Ten Conference.”

The irony of the deal being paused is the fact that the Big Ten is trying to push the deal through expeditiously, even wanting a vote on the matter on Nov. 21. However, it looks like Michigan and USC are the ones whom are in control and will influence whether a deal actually gets done. Michigan and USC are major brands that bring in a lot of revenue to the Big Ten, and without them, the deal is a lot less alluring. The Big Ten’s trying to strong-arm Michigan looks to be a futile exercise — Michigan and USC look to have the upper hand in this arm-wrestling match.

Did Klay Thompson get a Meg tattoo? Explaining how relationship with Megan Thee Stallion led to fake viral post originally appeared on The Sporting News.
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Klay Thompson is not having the season he’d hoped to have with the Dallas Mavericks.

Off the court, though, things seem to be going well. Thompson is boo’d up with music star Megan Thee Stallion.

That has created some added attention on one of the best 3-point shooters in NBA history.

It also has created some silly posts on social media.

MORE: Cooper Flagg joins a list with LeBron and Kobe

Did Klay Thompson get a Meg tattoo?

No, Klay didn’t get a Megan Thee Stallion tattoo.

The rumor began with a fake post from the NBA Centel account:

Klay Thompson got a “Klay & Meg” tattoo 👀 pic.twitter.com/yZtr4PzwkL

— NBACentel (@TheNBACentel) November 18, 2025

That’d be an entertaining look.

We also better keep an eye out. The NBA Centel account has been getting a lot of things right before they actually happen lately.

Maybe soon enough, Thompson will get a tat that looks just like that. But for now, no such thing.

More NBA news: 

• Ace Bailey put up the wildest foul out stats for Jazz
• Cooper Flagg finished with stats never done in NBA history even by LeBron
• The guy Draymond Green argued with courtside was really tall

On Monday afternoon, Buffalo Bills head coach Sean McDermott listed off four players who wouldn’t participate in practice. He also listed another nine who would be limited participants. 

With a Thursday night football game for Week 12, the Bills have just three days to prepare for their game with the Houston Texans. However, having just played their Week 11 game on Sunday afternoon, Monday’s practice was a walkthrough. This means that the participation level of all players is estimated to be what it would be if it had been a full practice.  

If this practice was on Wednesday, the lengthy list would be concerning. However, with a lot of the names below being veterans, a day of rest (or partial rest) is not unexpected or worrisome.  

Those who were not practicing included tight end Dalton Kincaid and defensive tackle Phidarian Mathis – both of whom didn’t practice or play at all in Week 11. Wide receivers Mecole Hardman and Curtis Samuel were also listed as non-participants. Hardman injured his calf on a fumbled punt return. Samuel wasn’t noted with any injury during the game; however, he’s now listed as dealing with both a neck and an elbow injury. 

On the limited practice list were cornerback Christian Benford, linebacker Terrel Bernard, defensive end Joey Bosa, nickel cornerback Taron Johnson, wide receiver Joshua Palmer, and defensive tackle Jordan Phillips – all of whom were on last week’s injury list with varying degrees of participation throughout the week leading up to Sunday’s win over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. However, all of them played in Sunday’s win, so it’s likely that they just need some time to recover.  

Also, listed as limited on Monday were safety Jordan Poyer and defensive tackle DaQuan Jones (both of whom had vet rest days), and linebacker Dorian Williams.  

The real tell will be on Tuesday. While it’s still a day earlier than “usual” for team practice, the Bills will have to get as many players practicing as possible.  

Michigan State basketball head coach Tom Izzo has shown that he still has it, and is putting his recruiting hat on better than he may have every done it.

The Spartans currently hold the No. 1 recruiting class following four massive additions to the program. MSU has landed 5-star center Ethan Taylor, 4-star SG Jasiah Jervis, 4-star PF Julius Avent and 4-star PG Carlos Medlock Jr., making an absolute loaded group entering East Lansing next season.

Prior to Michigan State’s trip to the Champions Classic, Izzo spoke to the media about his recruiting class, that signed their National Letters of Intents last week. Obviously, his excitement is massive and he can’t hide his happiness with the job he did.

Via Spartan Mag on YouTube, see what Izzo had to say about his freshly signed recruiting class:

Contact/Follow us @The SpartansWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Michigan State news, notes and opinion. You can also follow Cory Linsner on X @Cory_Linsner

This article originally appeared on Spartans Wire: Watch Tom Izzo talk about signing the No. 1 ranked recruiting class

We’re coming off of a pretty exciting week of Big Ten men’s basketball that saw some teams cement their status as true national title contenders and others look shaky against inferior competition. The conference as a whole has handled itself pretty well in non-conference play up to this point, it’ll be interesting to see if that trend continues.

Let’s talk about it:

Winners

• Purdue cemented itself as the No. 1 team in the country with an impressive 87-80 road win over Alabama. Trey Kaufman-Renn, absent for the Boilermakers’ first two games, didn’t start slow against the Crimson Tide in his season debut, scoring 19 points, pulling down 15 rebounds and dishing out five assists. This is the team to beat in the Big Ten until truly proven otherwise.
• Brad Underwood and Illinois dispatched Texas Tech 81-77 at home without the services of all-Big Ten candidate center Tomislav Ivisic. Underwood’s balkan makeover has proven potent as the Fighting Illini boast the nation’s third most efficient offense per KenPom’s metrics.
• Nebraska owns the nation’s longest active winning streak at eight victories and counting after emerging victorious in a 105-99 shootout against Oklahoma at the Sanford Pentagon in South Dakota. Pryce Sandfort, the younger brother of former Iowa star Payton Sandfort who transferred to Nebraska after the Hawkeyes’ coaching change, went 4-9 from long range en route to a 28-point performance against the Sooners.

Losers

• Michigan entered this season looking the part of not just a Big Ten contender, but maybe so much as a national championship contender. The Wolverines looked every bit the part in a 121-78 season opening win over Oakland but were shaky against both Wake Forest and TCU. Michigan earned wins in both instances but lost some of its shine in the process. Look for the Wolverines to have a prove-it performance at home against Middle Tennessee State.
• Minnesota has gotten off to a rocky start to the Niko Medved era. The Golden Gophers easily dispatched two sub-300 KenPom teams at home in Gardner Webb and Alcorn State before getting pummeled 83-60 on the road at Missouri. If that wasn’t enough, Minnesota needed overtime to survive an upset bid from Doug Gottlieb’s Green Bay, which is also a sub-300 KenPom team by the way. Rebuilds are tough, but this isn’t the best start.
• Indiana almost learned the hard way what can happen when its 3s aren’t falling. The Hoosiers survived a 69-61 scare against Incarnate Word in the ugliest game of the Darian DeVries era up to this point. Now, should that be huge cause for worry? Probably not, no, the Cardinals played out of their minds on offense in the closing minutes and the Hoosiers still found a way to win. But Indiana still struggled against a poorly rated defense.
• Dishonorable Mention: Marquette has now fallen to both Indiana and Maryland on the season. With Wisconsin and Purdue still on deck, it’s within reason if not likely that the Golden Eagles go 0-4 against the Big Ten in the non-conference. It’s a good program under Shaka Smart, but getting 100-pieced is a tough look.

The biggest news from the Cincinnati Bengals’ loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers is the spitting incident between wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase and defensive back Jalen Ramsey, in which Chase appeared to spit on Ramsey after the two had already had an altercation after the previous play.

So it isn’t surprising that the day after the game that head coach Zac Taylor is getting tons of questions about it. He stopped mid-press conference to go on a bit of a rant in defense of his All-Pro receiver.

“I think Ja’Marr Chase will go down as one of my favorite all-time players and favorite all-time leaders and everything he is about. It’s like we are trying to make something out of this situation. It’s the only thing that’s kind of upset me as I’m sitting in here. For a guy who has done everything we can to build our organization around, he’s been awesome,” Taylor said of Chase.

“Not perfect. I’m not perfect. Trust me, I made plenty of mistakes yesterday. People don’t see on camera. Unfortunately, his was. He’s going to have to own up to that. That will be part of his journey.

“In some ways, he’s a veteran. I think he’s going to play for a long time. So when you look at the overall part of his career, this will be the beginning of his career in a lot of ways. We are going to move past that, and he is a guy we are going to continue to depend on. He’s a guy I will put at the forefront of any leadership group I ever have for the rest of my life.

“When I retire, I will bring Ja’Marr Chase in as a board member of whatever leadership board I create to talk to people I want him to talk to. I hope you understand my position on this because he is a guy who has done everything he possibly could to help us win and do things the right way.”

It isn’t surprising to see Taylor stick up for Chase, but for him to stick his neck out that far tells you why players really like Taylor.

Chase has taken on more of a leadership role this season. It has especially grown with Joe Burrow out for an extended period of time. He has almost weekly press conferences at this point, and you can see him talking with players and coaches on the sideline regularly.

This is probably the last bit holding him back. It has shades of him getting 15-yard penalties against the Kansas City Chiefs last season after they didn’t call a hip-drop tackle. Sometimes his emotions get the best of him, and some people are just emotional. It doesn’t make him a bad guy. It just makes these situations something he needs to watch out for and maybe step back from sooner, before they get to that point.

Chase will likely go down as one of the best to do it. These incidents are going to be things that might nitpick him for, but no one is going to say Randy Moss isn’t one of the best, even if they didn’t appreciate his mooning celebration at Lambeau.

WASHINGTON — When new Washington Nationals manager Blake Butera entered middle school, the Washington Nationals did not yet exist. 

His age, or lack thereof, was a main character at Nationals Park on Monday afternoon as the eighth skipper in franchise history was formally introduced. The stadium’s subterranean press conference room, adorned with red, white and blue roses, was packed to the gills for the occasion. Members of the club’s elusive ownership group, the Lerner family, peppered the front few rows. A large throng of front-office officials, clad in a department store’s worth of obligatory quarter-zips, crammed themselves into the back of the room.

Up on the podium sat just two placards; one for Butera and one for his new boss, Paul Toboni, the team’s recently-hired president of baseball operations.

“As you’ve heard me say many times over the course of the last six weeks, I’m a strong believer that you win with people,” Toboni, 35, offered during his opening statement. “And Blake’s character and ability to connect with everyone across the baseball spectrum is second to none.”

The two men then shook hands before Butera curved a red cap onto his head and pulled a crisp white uniform over his 5-foot-9 frame. He and Toboni, formerly an assistant general manager for the Boston Red Sox, briefly posed for a few pictures before the skipper, still too young to run for president, settled in to introduce himself.

“As we move forward, our identity is going to start with character,” Butera proclaimed. “I believe true leadership is built on real relationships, relationships that create unity, clarity and a shared purpose.”

The job in front of him is daunting.

[Get more Nationals news: Washington team feed]

Since raising the World Series trophy in 2019, the Nationals have slogged to baseball’s second-worst record, better than only the catastrophically discombobulated Colorado Rockies. The trades conducted in the teardown of that core have borne some fruit, most notably the Juan Soto deal that brought young All-Star outfielder James Wood to D.C. 

But in the main, Washington has been a draft-and-development disasterclass, an organization distinctly unskilled at making players better. That half-decade run of ineptitude reached a turning point this past July, when a pair of title-winning stalwarts, GM Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez, were simultaneously fired.

And now, into that void, charge Toboni and Butera, a pair of unwrinkled, clean-shaven 30-somethings. Together, they come armed with fresh perspectives, cathedral expectations of themselves and almost zero big league experience. Butera, in fact, has never spent a day in a Major League dugout.

Drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 35th round of the 2015 MLB Draft after a plucky four years at Boston College, the infielder’s playing career petered out after two minor league seasons. But Butera quickly and successfully made the transition to coaching. In 2018, still just 25 years old, he was named manager of Tampa’s short-season Hudson Valley affiliate. After two strong years there, Tampa pushed him to Low-A Charleston, where he won back-to-back league championships and a Manager of the Year award. That eventually earned him a big new gig as the Rays’ senior director of player development, a role that he served in until his hiring a few weeks ago. Butera was also the bench coach for Team Italy under manager Mike Piazza during the 2023 World Baseball Classic. 

It’s an impressive résumé, but not necessarily one that would have pointed to a big league head job, at least not in such short order. In fact, Butera admitted that he entered this winter not expecting to be a part of the managerial carousel. His biggest concern was much closer to home: Butera’s wife Caroline was set to have the couple’s first child around the last week of October, right as the Nats were trying to finalize the hiring.

To simplify things, Toboni flew down to Raleigh, where the Buteras live, so that Blake could stay close to home just in case Caroline went into labor. It all came together on the same day with Blake receiving the job offer before the birth of their newborn Blair and accepting it later that day after having become a father. It has been a whirlwind, to say the least.

But Butera, ever-youthful, did not appear worn down by the taxing, early days of parenthood. That is, by all accounts, par for the course. Despite being “young for the level” at every turn, the new skipper has thrived. Butera draws rave reviews for a special ability to communicate with players, empowering them to get the most out of their skills. In that sense, his lack of trips around the sun have proved helpful, allowing him to relate better to players close to him in age.

That will remain an important dynamic in D.C., as a young Nats roster attempts to author a pivot back to contention. A whopping 60 percent of the team’s plate appearances last season were taken by players aged 25 or younger. After a brilliant first half, Wood scuffled down the stretch. Consistency from the spindly slugger is key. So is developing the other kids on the roster, players like Dylan Crews, Brady House, CJ Abrams and Daylen Lile, into needle-moving pieces.

The pitching staff presents an even more formidable task. Only the Rockies, in their launching pad of a ballpark in the sky, had a higher ERA last season. Improvement on that front will largely be the responsibility of new pitching coach Simon Mathews, formerly an assistant with the Cincinnati Reds. Mathews, whose hiring was first reported by Yahoo Sports, is even younger than his skipper, having turned 30 just two months ago.

His hiring was yet another data point that Toboni and Co. plan to chart a new path. That dynamic was further reinforced at Butera’s news conference Monday. For better or worse, this era of Nats baseball will not unfurl with a strategy of half-measures. Over the last half decade, the Nationals have been an emblem of regressive, archaic baseball thinking. Unwilling and unable to adapt, the game passed them by, leaving them playing catch-up.

The shift under Toboni will be significant, comprehensive and immediate. Big swings will be taken. Character will be prioritized over experience. They will dream big. It is risky and refreshing. Butera may well be too young, too green for such a big job. He might be great at the gig and the players fall short anyway. Perhaps he’ll manage here for decades and oversee the glory years of D.C. baseball. Time will tell. But on Monday afternoon, he certainly looked the part and said all the right things in the right way. 

For Nats fans, it is, at the very least, a plan to believe in.

WASHINGTON — When new Washington Nationals manager Blake Butera entered middle school, the Washington Nationals did not yet exist. 

His age, or lack thereof, was a main character at Nationals Park on Monday afternoon as the eighth skipper in franchise history was formally introduced. The stadium’s subterranean press conference room, adorned with red, white and blue roses, was packed to the gills for the occasion. Members of the club’s elusive ownership group, the Lerner family, peppered the front few rows. A large throng of front-office officials, clad in a department store’s worth of obligatory quarter-zips, crammed themselves into the back of the room.

Up on the podium sat just two placards; one for Butera and one for his new boss, Paul Toboni, the team’s recently-hired president of baseball operations.

“As you’ve heard me say many times over the course of the last six weeks, I’m a strong believer that you win with people,” Toboni, 35, offered during his opening statement. “And Blake’s character and ability to connect with everyone across the baseball spectrum is second to none.”

The two men then shook hands before Butera curved a red cap onto his head and pulled a crisp white uniform over his 5-foot-9 frame. He and Toboni, formerly an assistant general manager for the Boston Red Sox, briefly posed for a few pictures before the skipper, still too young to run for president, settled in to introduce himself.

“As we move forward, our identity is going to start with character,” Butera proclaimed. “I believe true leadership is built on real relationships, relationships that create unity, clarity and a shared purpose.”

The job in front of him is daunting.

[Get more Nationals news: Washington team feed]

Since raising the World Series trophy in 2019, the Nationals have slogged to baseball’s second-worst record, better than only the catastrophically discombobulated Colorado Rockies. The trades conducted in the teardown of that core have borne some fruit, most notably the Juan Soto deal that brought young All-Star outfielder James Wood to D.C. 

But in the main, Washington has been a draft-and-development disasterclass, an organization distinctly unskilled at making players better. That half-decade run of ineptitude reached a turning point this past July, when a pair of title-winning stalwarts, GM Mike Rizzo and manager Davey Martinez, were simultaneously fired.

And now, into that void, charge Toboni and Butera, a pair of unwrinkled, clean-shaven 30-somethings. Together, they come armed with fresh perspectives, cathedral expectations of themselves and almost zero big league experience. Butera, in fact, has never spent a day in a Major League dugout.

Drafted by the Tampa Bay Rays in the 35th round of the 2015 MLB Draft after a plucky four years at Boston College, the infielder’s playing career petered out after two minor league seasons. But Butera quickly and successfully made the transition to coaching. In 2018, still just 25 years old, he was named manager of Tampa’s short-season Hudson Valley affiliate. After two strong years there, Tampa pushed him to Low-A Charleston, where he won back-to-back league championships and a Manager of the Year award. That eventually earned him a big new gig as the Rays’ senior director of player development, a role that he served in until his hiring a few weeks ago. Butera was also the bench coach for Team Italy under manager Mike Piazza during the 2023 World Baseball Classic. 

It’s an impressive résumé, but not necessarily one that would have pointed to a big league head job, at least not in such short order. In fact, Butera admitted that he entered this winter not expecting to be a part of the managerial carousel. His biggest concern was much closer to home: Butera’s wife Caroline was set to have the couple’s first child around the last week of October, right as the Nats were trying to finalize the hiring.

To simplify things, Toboni flew down to Raleigh, where the Buteras live, so that Blake could stay close to home just in case Caroline went into labor. It all came together on the same day with Blake receiving the job offer before the birth of their newborn Blair and accepting it later that day after having become a father. It has been a whirlwind, to say the least.

But Butera, ever-youthful, did not appear worn down by the taxing, early days of parenthood. That is, by all accounts, par for the course. Despite being “young for the level” at every turn, the new skipper has thrived. Butera draws rave reviews for a special ability to communicate with players, empowering them to get the most out of their skills. In that sense, his lack of trips around the sun have proved helpful, allowing him to relate better to players close to him in age.

That will remain an important dynamic in D.C., as a young Nats roster attempts to author a pivot back to contention. A whopping 60 percent of the team’s plate appearances last season were taken by players aged 25 or younger. After a brilliant first half, Wood scuffled down the stretch. Consistency from the spindly slugger is key. So is developing the other kids on the roster, players like Dylan Crews, Brady House, CJ Abrams and Daylen Lile, into needle-moving pieces.

The pitching staff presents an even more formidable task. Only the Rockies, in their launching pad of a ballpark in the sky, had a higher ERA last season. Improvement on that front will largely be the responsibility of new pitching coach Simon Mathews, formerly an assistant with the Cincinnati Reds. Mathews, whose hiring was first reported by Yahoo Sports, is even younger than his skipper, having turned 30 just two months ago.

His hiring was yet another data point that Toboni and Co. plan to chart a new path. That dynamic was further reinforced at Butera’s news conference Monday. For better or worse, this era of Nats baseball will not unfurl with a strategy of half-measures. Over the last half decade, the Nationals have been an emblem of regressive, archaic baseball thinking. Unwilling and unable to adapt, the game passed them by, leaving them playing catch-up.

The shift under Toboni will be significant, comprehensive and immediate. Big swings will be taken. Character will be prioritized over experience. They will dream big. It is risky and refreshing. Butera may well be too young, too green for such a big job. He might be great at the gig and the players fall short anyway. Perhaps he’ll manage here for decades and oversee the glory years of D.C. baseball. Time will tell. But on Monday afternoon, he certainly looked the part and said all the right things in the right way. 

For Nats fans, it is, at the very least, a plan to believe in.