🎰 MLB Players Federally Charged With Gambling

Controversial Game Winning Goal, Mavericks GM Fired, and Marshawn Kneeland's passing.

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Sportie Newsletter
November 12, 2025

🏀 Basketball

NBA presents new All-Star Game format, selection process

The NBA announced its long-awaited plans to overhaul the All-Star Game Tuesday night, laying out how the new "United States once again versus the World" format will go and how the teams will be formed.

The basics -- five starters and seven reserves from each conference, with a combination of fans, media and players voting for the starters and coaches picking the reserves -- remain unchanged. What is different, though, is that there will no longer be any positional requirements.

Mavericks Fire General Manager Nico Harrison

Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison has been fired, it was announced Tuesday.

The decision was made after a Tuesday morning meeting between Harrison and team governor Patrick Dumont, sources told ESPN.

Assistant general managers Michael Finley and Matt Riccardi have been promoted to lead the Mavs' basketball operations department on an interim basis.

"This decision reflects our continued commitment to building a championship-caliber organization, one that delivers for our players, our partners, and most importantly, our fans,"

Harrison has been under fire from Mavericks fans since he stunningly traded Luka Doncic to the Los Angeles Lakers on Feb. 2, months removed from the then-25-year-old five-time first-team All-NBA selection leading the franchise to an NBA Finals appearance.

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🏒 Hockey

Inside The Wild’s Controversial Game Winning Goal

The Nashville Predators disagreed that a "weird" Minnesota Wild overtime goal scored with the net displaced Tuesday night should have counted.

Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov sent a pass across the crease to teammate Marcus Johansson just as Predators goalie Justus Annunen pushed the net off its moorings. Johansson's shot hit the side of the net as the cage continued to slide out of place. He collected the puck and then backhanded it over the goal line and off the end boards with the net dislodged.

The referee signaled a goal at 3:38 of overtime, and it was upheld after an NHL video review. Minnesota won, 3-2, overcoming an emotional letdown when Nashville's Steven Stamkos tied the score with just 0.3 seconds left in regulation.

NHL questions rink readiness, ice quality ahead of Olympics

The 2026 Winter Olympic Games are less than 90 days away in Italy, and there is still work to be done on the ice surfaces that will showcase NHL players suiting up at their first Games in a decade.

The league hasn't allowed its skaters to participate at the Olympics since 2014 in Sochi. Now that they are on the cusp of returning, there are serious questions about the quality of ice both men and women players will be working with in February.

"There's still work ongoing on the rinks and the ice conditions," confirmed NHL commissioner Gary Bettman at the NHL GM meetings on Tuesday. "It's something that we're monitoring closely, and we have absolutely no control over. This is all on the [International Olympic Committee] and the [International Ice Hockey Federation]."

⚾️ Baseball

MLB Pitchers Charged With Taking Bribes

Cleveland Guardians pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz have been indicted on charges they took bribes from sports bettors to throw certain types of pitches, including tossing balls in the dirt instead of strikes, to ensure successful bets.

According to the indictment unsealed Sunday in federal court in Brooklyn, the highly-paid hurlers took several thousand dollars in payoffs to help two unnamed gamblers from their native Dominican Republic win at least $460,000 on in-game prop bets on the speed and outcome of certain pitches.

Major League Baseball said it contacted federal law enforcement when it began investigating unusual betting activity and "has fully cooperated" with authorities. "We are aware of the indictment and today's arrest, and our investigation is ongoing," a league statement said.

MLB, sportsbooks cap bets on individual pitches in response to pitch-rigging scandal

Major League Baseball said its authorized gaming operators will cap bets on individual pitches at $200 and exclude them from parlays, a day after two Cleveland Guardians players were indicted and accused of rigging pitches at the behest of gamblers.

MLB said Monday the limits were agreed to by sportsbook operators representing more than 98% of the U.S. betting market. The league said in a statement that pitch-level bets on outcomes of pitch velocity and of balls and strikes “present heightened integrity risks because they focus on one-off events that can be determined by a single player and can be inconsequential to the outcome of the game.”

“The risk on these pitch-level markets will be significantly mitigated by this new action targeted at the incentive to engage in misconduct,” the league said. “The creation of a strict bet limit on this type of bet, and the ban on parlaying them, reduces the payout for these markets and the ability to circumvent the new limit.”

🏈 Football

Dallas Cowboys' Marshawn Kneeland sent 'concerning' text messages prior to his death

Shortly before Dallas Cowboys defensive end Marshawn Kneeland died by suicide, the player said goodbye to friends and said he couldn’t bear to do any time behind bars, police recordings revealed on Tuesday.

The Cowboys head of security, Cable Johnson, was put through to police in Plano asking for officers in that Dallas suburb to do a welfare check on the 24-year-old.

“He sent out some group texts that are concerning, probably mental health," Johnson told a police dispatcher. “The group text seemed to be saying goodbye and he made some statement about not being able to go to prison or to jail.”

Kneeland was found dead in the early morning hours of Thursday last week with a self-inflicted gunshot wound after evading authorities, crashing a car and fleeing on foot, police said.

If you or someone you know is in crisis, call or text 988, or go to 988lifeline.org, to reach the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

Titans CB L'Jarius Sneed indicted for failure to report a felony

Tennessee Titans cornerback L'Jarius Sneed was indicted Tuesday in Dallas County (Texas) court for failure to report a felony stemming from a December, 2024, incident.

Sneed, 28, is accused of failing to report the commission of a felony during an incident in which he observed "serious bodily injury or death may have resulted, namely aggravated assault," according to Dallas County Clerk records.