Chris Branch

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Chris Branch |Torrey Hart

📣 | This is The Athletic's daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! No time to waste today. Let's get moving: First, some overnight news: The Kings and general manager Monte McNair agreed to part ways less than an hour after Sacramento's 120-106 Play-In loss to the Mavericks at home, a disappointing end to a disastrous season.

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Chris Branch

📣 | This is The Athletic's daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! Don't drop a trophy today. As expected, Paige Bueckers went No. 1 in last night's WNBA Draft to the Dallas Wings. The bona fide superstar in this class, Bueckers has been destined for this since this time last year, if not longer. She earned the honor just over a week after winning a national title. But this year's draft was also a harbinger of a new women's hoops era.

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Chris Branch

📣 | This is The Athletic's daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! Try vulnerability today. Emotions: Cheers for tears, Masters editionFor the second time in five days, we saw a superhero weep. Last week, it was Luka Dončić, lip quivering, shedding tears as he returned to Dallas as a Laker. Yesterday, it was Rory McIlroy collapsing onto the 18th green after a playoff at Augusta National, finally a Masters champion .

1 week ago | nytimes.com | Chris Branch

📣 | This is The Athletic's daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! Watch out for basketball grenades. I could start this morning with the headlines from Augusta, which are plenty worthy of conversation. Justin Rose is leading early at a major. Scottie Scheffler is lurking and looking inevitable . Jon Rahm is imploding, again . But we have plenty of time to talk about the big dogs.

2 weeks ago | nytimes.com | Chris Branch

📣 | This is The Athletic's daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox. Good morning! Still thinking about Declan Rice's free kicks from Tuesday. Yes, It's Still Real: The grim spectacle of Luka's returnLast night in Dallas, the game mattered. The Lakers entered as the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, but one game out from falling into the Play-In. Very important stuff. But the moment was bigger. So much bigger.