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In a four-part series, the Generation Y podcast unravels the story of Khaleef Browder, a
young boy falsely accused of stealing a backpack and held at Riker's Island for three years
without trial.
This is a story about a young life caught in the middle of the justice system.
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The Sixers win a thriller in overtime to even their series against the Celtics.
The Cardinals snap an eight-game losing streak and try to get a tough season back on track.
And Bronnie James makes the long-awaited announcement about where he'll play basketball
next season.
From Wondery, I'm John Gonzalez.
And I'm Tiff Oshinsky, it's Monday, May 8th, and this is Starting Five.
Five sports stories to start your day.
We begin today's episode with the NBA playoffs, where the Sixers won a dramatic game for in
Philly on Sunday in overtime, 116, 115, to even their second round series with the Celtics
at two games apiece.
What a nail-biter, Tiff.
The Sixers obviously had to have this game, but they nearly gave it away because, of course,
they did.
Philly was up by nine going into the fourth quarter, but the Celtics came roaring back
and forced overtime.
And then late in overtime, Joe L.M. Bead had the ball for the Sixers and drove into the
paint.
And then the new league MVP kicked it out to James Harden in the corner for this game
winning three.
Look, and now Tatum gets a switch on Unbeat.
And Bead bullies his way inside, out to Harden for the three, got it!
Watch Jalen Brown come off that strong side corner and Bead makes the right play.
The challenge, not good enough.
James.
A massive game for Harden who had a game high 42 points, along with nine assists and four
steals.
That's the version they needed.
And Bead added a double-double, 34 points and 13 rebounds, despite Tiff being regularly
double-teamed every time he touched the ball, including on that final Sixers possession
overtime, which basically left Harden all alone in the corner for that game winner.
Then after the game, Jalen Brown took the blame on behalf of the Celtics defense.
Brown has had a terrific series for the Celtics.
He had 23 points on Sunday, but I think he's being a little hard on himself there.
It's sort of a pick-your-poison moment there, right?
Either you don't double-teamed the MVP when he's right under the basket and being guarded
by the smaller Jason Tatum.
Well, everybody is smaller than MB.
You get the idea.
That's a bad option, Tiff.
Or you do double-teamed the MVP when he's right under the basket, but you leave Harden
open, which also turned out to be a bad option.
But that's the only kind of options the Celtics had in that spot.
And they still almost pulled out the win, Tiff.
This series has been an absolute slug fest so far.
I'm exhausted and all I've done is watch it.
I'm not sure if I'll be recovered fully in time, but Game 5 will be in Boston on Tuesday
night.
Definitely keep you on your toes.
One more NBA playoff note.
The Suns beat the Nuggets in Phoenix on Sunday, 129-124.
Despite Nico Yokich posting a monster double-double of 53 points and 11 assists.
Yokich joins Wilte Chamberlain as just the second center in NBA history to put up 50
in a playoff game.
Yokich also got into it with Suns owner Matt Ischbia and pushed him at one point, something
the NBA will no doubt take a look at.
Meanwhile, Devin Booker and Kevin Durant combined for 72 points to help the Suns even that series
at 2-2.
Game 5 is set for Tuesday night in Denver.
All right, let's go to the Stanley Cup playoffs with their season on the line down to the Carolina
Hurricanes.
The New Jersey Devils got a much needed win.
8-4 at home on Sunday behind some big performances from their stars and a pair of brothers, Tiff.
This game was the definition of a team win for the Devils John.
Both Timo Meyer, the team's big trade acquisition and Captain Nico Heesher finally scored their
first postseason goals for New Jersey.
But it was the Hughes brothers, Jack and Luke, who really stole the show.
The elder Hughes Jack was the Devils most potent player.
The 21-year-old center scored two big goals.
Here he is scoring his second goal of the night in the third period by sneaking this one
pass Kane's goalie, Piotr Koczakov.
That put the Devils up 7-2 and was part of a four-point night for the elder Hughes.
Meanwhile, Jack's younger brother, 19-year-old defenseman Luke Hughes, who was the fourth
overall pick in the 2021 NHL draft, made his postseason debut in an absolute must-win
game and picked up two assists.
Amazing stuff, John.
The series is now 2-1, Kane's with Game 4, scheduled for Tuesday night at 7pm Eastern
in Jersey.
Devils are not done yet.
And in the other Eastern Conference semi-final matchup, the Panthers won an overtime game
in Florida to take a commanding 3-0 lead in their series against the poor Toronto Maple
Leafs.
Turning to baseball, the Cardinals' 8-game losing streak is finally over after they beat the
Tigers 12-6 in St. Louis on Sunday, John.
Mercifully, that snaps the longest losing streak for the cards in 16 years to St. Louis
got a monster effort from Paul Goldschmidt.
The reigning National League MVP had four hits on Sunday, three of which were home runs,
and he launched all of them on two strike counts.
Here's the last of the three to put the cards up by six runs in the eighth inning and give
Goldschmidt the homer hat trick.
Oh, launched out to left.
Goodbye!
Three home runs for Paul Goldschmidt.
Alright, so the win not only snapped the cards losing streak, it also snapped the Tigers 5-game
win streak, so that was a pretty good day for St. Louis in a season that hasn't had a
lot of good days, Tiff.
It's been a weird year for the Cardinals so far, even after Sunday's win, which was their
first victory at home since mid-April, they're just 11-24 this season.
Hard to believe because the cards are pretty much always good, right?
I mean, they won 93 games a year ago, and they reached the postseason for the fourth
straight time, and then this year has been not so good.
St. Louis has a minus-19 run differential, plus their pitching staff has really struggled
since long-time catcher Yaddaier Molina retired last year, and pitching coach Mike
Maddox left for Texas.
They've been unable to hold on to Leeds, which is a big reason why they're in the NL
Central basement.
But maybe Sunday's come back win after giving up another lead, by the way.
We'll snap them out of it because it's just hard to imagine the cards being bad all season.
If there's any good news here for the Cardinals, it's that they're not completely buried in
the NL Central because the Pirates who lead that division have lost seven in a row, including
Sunday's 10-1 dropping by the Blue Jays in Pittsburgh.
That division is ugly right now.
All right, let's head to Tampa, Florida, where the NCAA Women's Beach volleyball championships
wrapped up on Sunday with the USC Trojans making some history to some volleyball stories for
once.
John, my bread and butter are going to go.
You're excited.
Can you say three Pete?
The Trojans won their third consecutive beach volleyball title over number one ranked UCLA,
making them the first USC women's team in any sport to win three straight titles.
But it didn't come easy after the Trojans took a two-zero set lead over their cross-down
rivals USC struggled to win the third and clinching match, leading the schools to a two-two tie
and a winner take all fifth match.
But in that final match, USC seniors twins Audrey and Nicole Norse, staved off UCLA's
Haley Holgren and Riley Powers in three sets to take home the trophy once again.
It will be Audrey Norse serving for a national championship.
Powers looking to extend it, three peeling into history, the women of Troy.
This is the Trojans fifth championship in seven years, but it wasn't always meant to
be with many thinking the team was set for a rebuild the season after adding a bunch of
new players.
And according to head coach Dane Blanton, it took time for them to come together and
ultimately take home another title.
So we brought in 10 new players this year.
Everyone said it was going to be a rebuilding year, but they didn't think that.
They wanted to go and they know now what it means to put on that Trojans jersey.
And these girls came together, played as a team the whole year.
And I can't believe it.
USC and UCLA have dominated the women's college beach volleyball circuit.
The two schools have won every championship since the inaugural tournament in 2016.
We'll see if USC can keep dominating after the Norse twins graduate later this month.
Congratulations to the Trojans.
It seems like pretty much everything is working out for USC lately, Tiff, which brings us to
our final story.
Oh, yes, we wrap up today's episode with some highly anticipated news you might have missed
during a busy sports weekend.
Bronnie James, son of LeBron James, finally announced where he'll be playing basketball
next year.
And drum roll, please.
He is taking his talents to USC John.
Yeah, he's going to be a Trojan Tiff.
Bronnie is a 6-3 combo guard who is the 19th ranked player in ESPN's top 100 for the class
of 2023, but before we get to the basketball part, here's his proud dad after the Lakers
win on Saturday, talking about sending his kid off to college and what it means for the
entire James family.
I wanted the best days of my life.
For me personally, it's even more special to me because it's the first time someone out
of my family to go to college.
And today was a proud day.
I couldn't lose today.
No matter the matter, the matter, the outcome of this game, I couldn't lose today personally.
Alright, so over the weekend, LeBron said it's still his dream to one day play on an NBA
team with Bronnie.
Now if Bronnie was one and done at USC and left in 2024, LeBron would turn 40 during
his son's rookie season, which might sound a little old by NBA standards, but they don't
call him the king for nothing to have to be fine.
But that timeline feels a little optimistic on Bronnie's end.
He's joining a pretty talented USC squad that has the potential to be in the top 25 next
season.
The Trojans will have Isaiah Collier in the back court.
He's one of the top incoming prospects in the nation.
They also have Boogie Ellis, who was first team all packed 12 and Kobe Johnson, who started
29 games for them as a wing last season.
So unless Bronnie just like really wows them, he might not even start for USC in his freshman
season, which is totally fine.
It just might slow down the LeBron and Bronnie team up in the pros.
But hey, the dad can dream.
Never say never, John, father's wishes the strongest wish.
That's right.
Right fingers crossed on that.
All right.
Well, that's it for us today from Wondery.
I'm Tifosianski and I'm John Gonzalez.
Thanks for listening.
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