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When Brazilian winger Denilson made his world record £21.5million move from Sao Paulo to Real Betis shortly before his 21st birthday in 1998, he was heralded as the Selecao’s next superstar.

And while Denilson would go on to win 61 Brazilian caps and make more than 500 career appearances, he never quite reached his potential, with FourFourTwo ranking him at No.1 in a 2015 rundown of disappointing club record signings.

But a 17-year professional career that took in six major tournaments is not bad going for a player who learned his trade on the streets, as he recalls to FourFourTwo.

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Denilson on his journey from the streets to the Selecao

Denilson in action for Brazil (Image credit: Getty)

“What truly fascinated me as a child was the street football, those endless two-versus-two battles, with the goals marked out by a pair of flip-flops,” Denilson tells us.

“Being left-footed, I’d constantly beg to borrow someone else’s left boot. My parents couldn’t afford to keep buying me new pairs, and since I played non-stop, my boots wore out quickly. Sometimes I’d end up playing with one bare right foot and someone else’s boot on my left.

Denilson won 61 caps for Brazil (Image credit: Getty Images)

“Beyond the street kickabouts, I grew up in the varzea – the gritty, uneven dirt pitches of Sao Paulo’s amateur football scene. It’s where I learned two priceless lessons. The first was losing any fear.

“The varzea toughened me up – I was always playing against older, stronger lads and got intimidated a lot in the beginning. Over time, I became braver.

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“Dribbling was my natural weapon, and the more they tried to scare me off, the more I wanted to beat them with the ball at my feet. I got kicked, shoved into walls and fences, was fouled constantly, but kept going.

“Out there, I grew a thick skin, so when you finally get to step into a professional derby under pressure, you’ve already lived that battle countless times. At only 10 years old, I’d already learned not to be intimidated.”

Denilson celebrates with Cafu after scoring for Brazil against Peru in the semi-finals of the 1997 Copa America. (Image credit: Getty Images)

“The second gift that the varzea gave me was ball control. On those rough, bumpy pitches, you needed to have sharp coordination and lightning-quick reactions just to keep a move going.

“You couldn’t trust the ground, so you had to improvise constantly. That chaos helped to sharpen me technically.”

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  Brian WindhorstOct 16, 2025, 07:00 AM ET

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  • ESPN.com NBA writer since 2010
  • Covered Cleveland Cavs for seven years
  • Author of two books

ABU DHABI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — It’s a few minutes before tipoff in the first NBA game of any sort in the 2025-26 season and the basketball court inside Etihad Arena is overflowing with training camp-sized rosters of Knicks and 76ers players and officials.

On the sideline, Patrick Ewing is shaking hands with a man from Beirut who is wearing a vintage No. 33 Knicks jersey. Derrick Rose, who was flown in for the event, is posing for photos with a group of Filipino fans.

Steve Harvey and Patrick Schwarzenegger, among other invited celebrities, are being escorted to courtside seats.

Throughout the crowd, many Emirati men are wearing kanduras, traditional ankle-length white robes, but they are vastly outnumbered by ex-pats from dozens of other countries, including a teenager from Riyadh a few rows behind the 76ers bench, wearing an Anthony Edwards Team USA jersey and a pair of the newest version of Edwards’ Adidas signature shoes, which technically hadn’t even been released yet.

But perhaps the most interesting interaction taking place is between two Americans.

Next to the team benches are two of the most powerful men in the NBA, Knicks owner James Dolan and commissioner Adam Silver, laughing and chatting, warmly embracing the evening together despite years of frosty relations.

Standing between Dolan and Silver is the man who brought them together: His Excellency Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, who has spent the past decade developing relationships and directing growing investment dollars to bring top stakeholders in the sport to Abu Dhabi.

That Silver and Dolan are aligned on their partnerships with Al Mubarak is one of the signs that the future of global basketball is being brokered now amid the giant cranes and rising cities in the Middle East.

Despite their differences at home, Dolan and Silver are united in knowing this is a vitally important relationship to nurture.

International basketball is on the cusp of a new, richer and expansive era that is aiming to deliver more of the sport to underserved fans and — perhaps more importantly — capture vast sovereign wealth fund capital that is seeking a place to invest in the sport.

Some legacy leagues are in danger of being left behind. Some new leagues are trying to rise up. The NBA is focused on defending and strengthening its position as the biggest dog.

And, despite the scrutiny it might create, that means deepening relations with Abu Dhabi and its wealthy neighbors.

“WHEN I CLOSE my eyes, I can see an NBA game being played in front of 22,500 people at the Sphere,” Al Mubarak says as he leans back in a chair in a glittering building on the expansive NYU Abu Dhabi campus.

He’s not talking about Las Vegas.

“We will have the world’s greatest technology where we can immerse the fans in the experience and they can feel the game on a new level.”

Al Mubarak, or “the chairman” as he is often referred to by colleagues in his various cultural and leadership positions in Abu Dhabi, has engineered partnerships with the likes of Pope Francis, renowned architect Frank Gehry and UFC CEO Dana White. But he loves American sports and is an active NBA fan.

“I have some mixed feelings on the [Luka] Doncic trade,” Al Mubarak says, referencing his favorite team, the Lakers. “I am a believer in the importance of the traditional big man and Anthony Davis was such a part of the [2020] championship. But I know that Luka is motivated and he is one of the most talented players in the game.”

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Over the summer, the Department of Culture and Tourism (DCT) Abu Dhabi, of which Al Mubarak is the chairman, finalized a massive deal with Dolan’s Sphere Entertainment to construct and operate a new venue in the UAE, with rights to build more in the Middle East and North Africa over the next 10 years.

The original Sphere, which opened in Las Vegas in 2023, cost Dolan’s company $2.3 billion to construct and has since lost more than $1 billion, according to its public financial disclosures. Dolan declined to comment for this story.

Dolan turned to Abu Dhabi, where he found willing partners, both in the Sphere and in the Knicks, after a six-year effort to build a second Sphere in London failed in 2024 amid a tangle of red tape and political pushback.

Last season Abu Dhabi’s tourism arm, Experience Abu Dhabi, became the Knicks jersey-patch sponsor in a multiyear lucrative deal, but that was an appetizer to the Sphere partnership that came later.

More NBA-linked deals are in the works in Abu Dhabi.

This fall, the NBA is expected to finalize a long-term extension of its relationship with the DCT that will guarantee annual preseason games in Abu Dhabi and establish a new NBA Global Academy at NYU’s Abu Dhabi campus, where top prospects from around the world will be sent to live, get an education and develop their games. The deal is expected to last well into the next decade, sources told ESPN.

It is also a precursor to another large and potentially pivotal deal.

The NBA is in discussions with Al Mubarak and other leaders about investing in NBA Europe, which has emerged as a league priority over the past year.

In what could prove to be a signature move of Silver’s tenure, the NBA is investigating launching a new NBA-branded European league as early as 2027, with a mix of existing teams recruited away from other leagues and expansion.

Abu Dhabi is considering the possible launch of a team in Manchester, where they have owned and turned Manchester City Football Club into a global leader in soccer with world-class infrastructure.

“It is a possibility,” Al Mubarak said of investing in an expansion team in NBA Europe. “The NBA is the world’s best basketball league and we have a deep commitment and track record of success in the [Manchester] community.”

The NBA is seeding the ground ahead of the potential investment in Manchester. Last summer, the league conducted its first-ever Basketball Without Borders event in the United Kingdom by bringing top teen boys and girls to Manchester. In the 2026-27 season, the league is exploring bringing NBA teams to play at least one game in Manchester, sources told ESPN.

Silver and deputy commissioner Mark Tatum traveled to London and Paris over the summer for meetings about placing teams in both cities. They also met with leadership from Real Madrid about recruiting the legacy team to the NBA Europe league.

In August, NBA Hall of Famer Tony Parker, who owns ASVEL, a team based near Lyon, France, indicated his interest in jumping to the new league by telling reporters: “NBA Europe league for me is just a matter of time. They are coming, and it’s going to happen.”

In recent weeks, leadership in legacy European teams Alba Berlin in Germany and Galatasaray, a large multisport conglomerate in Istanbul, have confirmed publicly their interest in NBA Europe.

But having Abu Dhabi invest, be it in Manchester or elsewhere, is a huge boost for the concept. And with a potential expansion fee in the hundreds of millions to join the league, it could set an important standard for other investors as the new league establishes its footing.

“They are the lead investors in Manchester City. And they’ve had tremendous success there. They’ve demonstrated they are innovators in sport. They’ve demonstrated that they’re in it for the long term, that they’re not just financial investors, that they’re active participants,” Silver said as he stood with Tatum and George Aivazoglou, the NBA’s head of Europe and the Middle East, all of whom came to Abu Dhabi to continue discussions about the future.

“So they are dream investors.”

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Such foreign investment — across many industries — has sometimes drawn criticism. The NBA is far from alone among high-profile American companies with ties to Abu Dhabi, including Microsoft, Lockheed Martin, Warner Bros., the Cleveland Clinic and ESPN parent company Disney, which earlier this year announced a partnership with Abu Dhabi for a theme park not far from where the new Sphere will be constructed. The NBA, for its part, has previously faced concern about partnerships with countries and leaders whose values don’t necessarily align with those publicly supported by the league itself.

In launching its Basketball Africa League in 2021, the NBA came under congressional scrutiny for partnering with Rwandan dictator Paul Kagame. Earlier this year, the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo called for the NBA and other international sports leagues and teams to sever ties with Rwanda and questioned whether the NBA’s “commitment to social justice and respect for human rights” aligns with its business ties to Rwanda.

Last year, as the NBA’s ties with Abu Dhabi deepened, Human Rights Watch issued a warning, saying, in part: “The NBA should be aware that the U.A.E. hosts high profile sporting, entertainment, and cultural events to promote a public image of openness and tolerance at odds with the government’s rampant systemic human rights violations.” These include what HRW calls unequal rights for women.

The NBA has responded to these claims in the past by saying the league follows “the lead of the U.S. government as to where it’s appropriate to engage in business around the world,” as deputy commissioner Tatum said in a letter to U.S. senators last year. Through the building of courts and investments in new programs, the NBA has fostered growth in basketball in Rwanda, including for many women.

The NBA also has championed the Middle East partnerships’ effect on basketball participation in the region, citing studies that show a 400% increase in participation in the UAE and 50% in the Middle East over the past five years among boys and girls. Formula 1, the European Tour and WTA Tour also have long-standing relationships with and hold major events in Abu Dhabi.

“I think that what we share with the leaders [in Abu Dhabi] is this belief in the power of sport, and that as we look around the world, very few things that create commonality, empathy, understanding in the way sport does,” Silver told ESPN.

“For example, I think many people outside the region might be surprised to see that there are an equal number of girls and boys in the youth programs here. And that there are universal values that are being taught in terms of respect, discipline, hard work, teamwork, understanding — all fundamental values that we share. And at a time when so much divides us, it’s nice to be focused on things that bring us together.”

Basketball is on the cusp of a new, richer, expansive era. And, despite the scrutiny it might create, that means deepening relations with Abu Dhabi and its wealthy neighbors. EPA/ALI HAIDER

TWO NIGHTS BEFORE the NBA opened its season in Abu Dhabi, a seminal event took place 75 miles down the E11 highway, in the sprawling metropolis of Dubai.

There, two-year-old Dubai Basketball hosted its first-ever EuroLeague game against Serbian basketball power KK Partizan at the modern Coca-Cola Arena.

The EuroLeague, the most competitive league in the world outside the NBA, is facing an uncertain future with NBA Europe looming and threatening its markets.

In response, the EuroLeague took the extraordinary step of giving the brand-new Dubai team a five-year wild-card berth into the league. The deal, according to reports in Europe, includes covering the traveling expenses of European teams that will fly up to seven hours for the away games.

Bringing major Western sporting events to the UAE is a goal of all this investment.

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After 15 years as title sponsor of the EuroLeague, Turkish Airlines was replaced this season by Abu Dhabi-owned Etihad Airlines on a four-year deal that will assist in the travel. Emirates Airline, the Dubai-owed rival of Etihad, signed a long-term deal with the NBA in 2024 to become the title sponsor of the NBA Cup.

Still, the league doesn’t currently have plans to base an NBA Europe team in the Middle East and playing the NBA Cup final in Dubai isn’t under consideration, Silver told ESPN.

Recently, the league announced changes to the NBA Cup schedule, including moving the semifinals to home team markets from Las Vegas starting in 2026, with the final at a neutral site.

Last spring, the EuroLeague held its final four in Abu Dhabi, another deal put together by Al Mubarak, to sold out crowds, the first time the event had ever been held outside Europe.

The future of European basketball, it is increasingly clear, runs through the UAE.

As he stood in Abu Dhabi in early October, NBA commissioner Adam Silver outlined how Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak and his group have built the Manchester City club and have been innovators and active participants. “They’re dream investors,” Silver said. David Dow/NBAE via Getty Images

LAST APRIL, IN a news release that made some noise in the private equity world, TWG Global announced a $10 billion investment from Mubadala Capital with the proceeds “to be used by TWG to capitalize on its attractive set of proprietary investment opportunities.”

TWG Global is the holding company for the investments of Los Angeles businessman Mark Walter and his partners. Mubadala Capital is the asset management wing of Abu Dhabi’s largest sovereign wealth fund.

Two months later, this development contributed to enormous noise in the sports world when Walter, via TWG Global, agreed to buy the controlling share of the Los Angeles Lakers for a $10 billion valuation.

The future of the NBA’s most prized franchise, it seems, is also linked to the UAE.

The Middle East interest in new basketball ventures goes deeper.

Two years ago, the Qatar Investment Authority, a subsidy of the wealthy Gulf nation’s sovereign wealth fund, bought 5% of the Washington Wizards’ parent company. That same year, Qatar won a bid to host the 2027 FIBA World Cup.

Qatar, via its Qatar Sports Investments (QSI) fund, is also the controlling owner of European soccer power Paris Saint-Germain, which in March 2025 confirmed it had been in talks regarding NBA Europe.

Like Abu Dhabi with its Manchester City property, PSG could launch an expansion team under the same brand and act as an anchor tenant. Over the summer, in a move that could ultimately dovetail with such an eventual basketball investment, PSG made a landmark agreement to expand a partnership with NBA superstar Kevin Durant in which Durant got a small ownership stake in PSG.

“This club has big plans ahead and I can’t wait to be a part of the next phase of growth,” Durant said at the time. “And to explore new investment opportunities with [Qatar].”

There are other ventures also seeking investment from Middle East sources.

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In February, the Financial Times reported the sovereign wealth funds of both Singapore and Saudi Arabia were among the potential backers behind a new global circuit basketball league.

In the months since, the extent of the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund’s (PIF) proposed involvement in the new basketball league has not been formally made public. Sela, a Saudi events company owned by the PIF, did confirm its involvement with the startup league.

Multiple player agents, current and former league executives and support staffers told ESPN they’d been recruited to join the league ahead of a possible 2026 launch and, in some cases, were required to sign NDAs.

At times, this recruitment involved superstar LeBron James’ longtime business partner Maverick Carter, who worked as an adviser to the league for months.

Last week, Carter confirmed to ESPN he had left the venture, which calls itself Project B and its representatives said in media interviews it is now focusing on starting a women’s basketball league to rival the WNBA.

The PIF and Sela did not respond to requests for comment on their level of involvement. A spokesperson for Swiss banking giant UBS, which announced it was advising the startup league earlier this year, declined to comment on its current relationship with the project but confirmed the fledgling league was still a client.

James’ representatives, including agent Rich Paul, told ESPN that James himself was not connected to the venture.

James has developed a relationship with Saudi Arabian leaders and the PIF over the past few years, though. James held a clinic at Al-Azem Academy in Riyadh in 2023 as a guest of Saudi Minister of Culture Bader bin Farhan Al Saud. Last January, James became a team owner in E1, a global electric boat racing circuit that was launched by the PIF. Tom Brady and Rafael Nadal are also affiliated with teams in E1.

At a recent conference hosted by Front Office Sports, Silver said he was not following those developments, but added: “Competition is good. It keeps everyone on their toes.”

Silver, however, is focused on his Middle East partners in Abu Dhabi. How and where all the money might flow and the impact it could have remains to be seen.

But what is known is that the connection between the NBA and the Middle East is real, and an expansion of the relationship is coming, and the league is shoring up support with rivals, both seen and unseen, across the region.

“We are thinking about the long term, not just the next couple of years,” Al Mubarak said. “I believe that this partnership with the NBA will outlive me.”

ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne contributed to this story.

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MADRID — Marco Penge is in position to win the Spanish Open after the Englishman reeled off eight birdies on Saturday, while home favorite Jon Rahm saw his hopes of landing a record fourth title all but disappear.

Penge went to 16 under for the tournament after hitting a 7-under 64 in Round 3. The overnight leader started the day with a third-hole bogey but then went on a red-hot run, going under par on eight out of 10 holes to distance himself from the pack.

“Whatever the outcome is, it’s going to be a great experience, great memories for me,†Penge said. “Tomorrow doesn’t define anything, it’s just another day, an 18-hole round of golf.â€

Playing partner Joel Girbach of Switzerland is his nearest challenger, four shots back. Daniel Brown and Patrick Reed are five back, followed by Tom McKibben, who is six behind.

Rahm will need a massive turnaround Sunday after a 71 that included a double bogey. He is 12 shots back and tied for 28th. The Ryder Cup winner is trying to surpass Seve Ballesteros as the tournament’s most successful golfer since the creation of the European Tour in 1972.

The 27-year-old Penge broke his wedge when he got stuck behind a tree on the second hole.

“I knew it was going to break,†he said. “I kind of picked a club I didn’t think I was going to need the rest of the way, just made sure not to hit my hand on the tree.â€

Penge began the day with a one-shot lead. He will now bid for his third tour win, after also prevailing this year at the Danish Golf Championship and the Hainan Classic.

John Cena and The Rock will always be synonymous with pro wrestling. Cena and Rock have limited their in-ring careers following successful transitions to Hollywood, and now a controversial name is revealing more on how unfortunate circumstances surround a failed last chance for Cena and The Rock to work together.

Vince Russo and Big Match John never really got the chance to do creative work together. However, the one-time WCW World Heavyweight Champion has made several claims over the years about how he was responsible for a few of Rock’s unique identifiers and catchphrases that set him on a path to success early in his career.

The Never-Seen Seventeen and The Final Boss battled each other more than anyone else in the late stages of their careers, while also standing together at times such as WrestleMania 32 against The Wyatt Family. Cena and Rock reignited their rivalry in the main event of WrestleMania 40 in 2024, but earlier this year Cena aligned with The Great One to shockingly turn heel on Cody Rhodes, which led to Cena’s Undisputed Championship victory at WrestleMania 41.

Sources have gone back-and-forth on why The Rock did not work WrestleMania Vegas earlier this year and why his involvement in Cena’s farewell tour has been extremely limited, among other questions and theories surrounding Rock’s ongoing run. In talking with Dr. Chris Featherstone on The Wrestling Outlaws, Russo commented on how Cena got caught up in some of Rock’s behind-the-scenes drama.

“A lot went sour with Rock. A lot went sour with Rock and people not being on the same page, and Cena got caught right smack in the middle of that, and since that happened, they have not been able to recover from that,” Vince Russo said.

Russo dismissed any idea of Cena potentially extending his WWE farewell tour to WrestleMania 42. Among the reasons Cena would decline such an offer, Russo pointed to how Cena likely has had a negative creative experience over the last 9 months, and has a much better gig on-set with The Peacemaker series.

Vince Russo Speaks On John Cena’s WWE Creative Control Amid Farewell Tour

Vince Russo continued discussing John Cena’s farewell tour with Dr. Chris Featherstone on The Wrestling Outlaws, and thinks a WWE contract extension for the 17-time World Champion would not be ideal at this point. Russo then defended The Rock against accusations of bailing on plans with the Cenation leader, and dropped a scoop on Big Match John’s creative control for the retirement run.

“I think that’s where Cena’s head is at. I would just love to know, bro, like, man… if we were a fly on the wall, what really, really, really happened? I don’t think the Rock, the Rock that I knew, I don’t think The Rock would make a commitment to John Cena, and then The Rock would pull out, and bail out, on Cena. I don’t believe that about Dwayne Johnson, not for a minute. If Dwayne Johnson made a commitment, then he made a commitment, and when you watch that WWE Unreal, he was into it. Rock was into it with the [cuts neck] and the whole 9 yards. We saw he was into it. I was also told this, bro… I was also told by an active person on the roster that Cena is calling all his own shots in this run,” Vince Russo said.

He continued:

“I was told that Cena definitely has final say. So, Rock and Cena at one point were on the same page, there’s no question about that, Rock committed to that. Something happened, and when that something happened, and Rock is pulled out of the equation, now they have no idea what to do with John Cena, and what’s John Cena doing? He’s trying to book himself against the best opponents he can. Brock Lesnar’s a good opponent, there’s a history. He’s probably a huge supporter of AJ Styles, probably loves AJ because everybody that knows AJ loves AJ. So, why wouldn’t Cena give AJ a shot? But man, I would just truly love to know because nobody is going to tell me that freakin’ The Rock bailed on John Cena. Nobody’s going to tell me that,” Vince Russo said.

Cena is set to wrestle AJ Styles at WWE Crown Jewel this coming weekend. He’s then booked for RAW at Boston’s TD Garden on November 10, RAW from Madison Square Garden in NYC on November 17, and the 39th annual Survivor Series on November 29 in San Diego. Cena will work his last match on December 13 at Saturday Night’s Main Event in Washington, DC. Gunther is rumored to be Cena’s final opponent, while Dominik Mysterio has also been discussed for a match.

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The week after the Ryder Cup is sometimes just as juicy as what happens during Ryder Cup week. GOLF’s writers and editors break down the fallout from Bethpage Black, the reaction to unruly fans, who should captain next, and more.

In the days after Europe’s Ryder Cup victory at Bethpage Black, much of the conversation has focused on the fans, the heckling and the reaction to it, by players, golf legends, organizers and more. Is the Ryder Cup experience out of control? Or is some of this overblown?

Jessica Marksbury, senior editor (@jess_marksbury):Loud and partisan crowds are what makes the Ryder Cup fun, but it sounds like this year things went over the top. The kind of vitriol that was reported is against the spirit of the event — and the sport itself — and that’s a shame, because rowdy atmospheres can and should still be respectful. It’s what makes tournaments like the WM Phoenix Open so beloved. But there’s obviously a fine line there.

Sean Zak, senior writer (@sean_zak):Wouldn’t call it “out of control,” but rather “un-controlled.” Event organizers clearly did not have the proper protocols in place to manage for unrelenting verbal abuse. I think you saw that in their removing certain hecklers from certain pairings. I.e. it’s okay to take your absurd show to another part of the property, rather than expelling them period. I’m not going to act like it’s simple — but I think there wasn’t enough control, and we’d benefit to see more of it four years from now at Hazeltine.

Jack Hirsh, associate equipment editor (@JR_HIRSHey):I think Rory McIlroy’s comments on Sunday night hit the nail on the head. Golf can hold itself to higher standard. The Ryder Cup and the Phoenix Open are the only tournaments of the year where you even hear boos on the course. How it could devolve so far for people to be calling McIlroy slurs and throwing things at his wife, not to mention people screaming while Euro players were over shots? There’s a clear and obvious line and it was crossed and fans who took part in that should be ashamed of themselves.

If something does need to be changed, what’s the move?

Zak:Better communication — including from the captain — better messaging by the emcee, better precedents set early in the week, etc. Oh, and when it seems to be brewing, get out ahead of it. On Saturday morning rather than Monday morning. Talking to fans waiting half-a-hole ahead of the groups receiving the worst of it. That wasn’t happening.

Marksbury:Blatantly disruptive behavior should not be tolerated, full stop. There needs to be enough staff members in place to identify instigators and remove them — not to a new spot on the course, but off the property.

Hirsh:These are both good, but I saw a tweet on Monday I agree with. Because the pricing of tickets at this Ryder Cup was so absurd, the only people who could afford had no fear of retribution of what they did. I think the PGA priced out the very people who would have appreciated the chance to watch the Ryder Cup.

The next Ryder Cup is two years away at Adare Manor in Ireland, and now the conversation turns to who leads the two squads. Does Luke Donald come back for three in a row? And who leads the U.S.?

Zak:I’m guessing Luke will want to know who he’s up against, since captains are often remembered in respect to their competition. He won’t rush into that decision, and will have six months or so to settle into it. That said, I bet he does it again. He seems to enjoy it a lot.

For the Americans … hmph. The shortlist seems to be 5-deep. Keegan Bradley, Stewart Cink, Brandt Snedeker, Jim Furyk and Tiger Woods. The one I think will do the best job is … Furyk. But Bradley would do well, I think. Plenty of this year’s Cup was out of his control, as is often the case.

Marksbury: It sure sounded like Luke would strongly consider giving a three-peat a go. I’d actually like to see Keegan get one more shot, if he’d be up to it. It seemed like the U.S. players enjoyed his leadership and that’s saying something after a loss. Given the list of other names Sean floated, I’m not sure who the next pick would be.

Hirsh:Zak, I believe it was you who mentioned the next U.S. captain should have the captaincy until he loses. Donald hasn’t lost and seems to have everything covered. Even if he goes for three wins and loses, he will still go down as one of the best European Ryder Cup captains.

For the U.S., I don’t even know at this point. Tiger seems the obvious choice, but not sure if he could foster the team atmosphere that Europe has succeeded with. I say go back to Steve Stricker. Not even sure why he wasn’t the captain in Rome.

In the lead-up to Bethpage, Keegan Bradley had the opportunity to be a playing-captain, although he elected not to pick himself and, in hindsight, it could have hurt the Americans without having him as a player. Should the PGA of America avoid this situation in 2027 so Bradley has an opportunity to contribute as a player?

Zak: Eh, we shouldn’t count on a 41-year-old version of Keegan Bradley to be the best version of Keegan Bradley. Particularly with the many younger Americans who will certainly be better than 41-y.o. Keegs. It might make most sense to offer the job to Bradley tomorrow and say, “We’ll handle the playing-captain thing again if you happen to be crushing it in 18 months.”

Marksbury: Given the way Keegan has played these last two years, he may want to focus fully on getting on the team himself! I’m sure the stress of a captaincy is even more draining than it appears. So yes, if Keegan is the pick, I agree with Sean — they should lock him in ASAP.

Hirsh:I don’t think Keegan should be captain in 2027, so this isn’t an issue to me!

Robert MacIntyre won a weather-shortened Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, the DP World Tour stop that plays bucket-list courses like the Old Course at St Andrews, Carnoustie and Kingsbarns. With visits to these venues (and the above average fields it usually produces), is the Dunhill the most underrated stop in pro golf? If not, what is?

Zak:It’s on the short list. The Aussie Open is right up there, though. It routinely visits some of the best golf on the planet, and Melbourne in December doubles as a much better vacation destination than Fife in October, with all due respect to my Scottish friends.

Marksbury: From an eye-candy perspective, I’m partial to the European Masters, and the epic views on display at Switzerland’s Crans-sur-Sierre GC.

Hirsh:It’s kind of fun to know that St. Andrews gets a tournament every year. It’s basically the DP World Tour’s AT&T Pebble Beach. I’ll also throw up the Irish Open in years it goes to Royal County Down.

The abuse hurled at Europe’s golfers in the Ryder Cup elicited gasps and dismay on both sides of the Atlantic. The crowd at the Bethpage Black course in New York graduated from boos and heckles to homophobic slurs and insults aimed at players’ wives. The first-tee master of ceremonies set the tone by leading a chant of “fuck you, Rory!â€, putting Rory McIlroy firmly in the crosshairs – along with his wife, who was hit with a beer cup.

After initially playing it down, American golf officials apologised and said some fan behaviour had “crossed the lineâ€, but the affair has left a nagging sense of unease. What if the line has in fact moved? What if accepted codes of crowd behaviour have changed?

It is a question social scientists and event managers have been asking in recent years and spans several countries and types of spectacle, obviating any sense that the issue is confined to US golf fans.

New York state park police watch the crowd at the Ryder Cup tournament on the Bethpage Black golf course. Photograph: Lindsey Wasson/AP

Taunting banners brandished at football terraces, gum spat at tennis players, objects hurled on to concert stages, heckles during concerts – an apparently never-ending litany of boorish, loutish behaviour fills news feeds.

“It’s undeniable that in all aspects of public life a growing number of people are becoming more belligerent,†said Kirsty Sedgman, a University of Bristol cultural studies scholar.

“It’s not just that people are becoming more badly behaved, it’s that when they’re called out, instead of simmering down they’re much more likely to turn against those making the complaint.â€

Last week the Broadcasting, Entertainment, Communications and Theatre union (Bectu) published a survey that showed 34% of those working in live events in the UK had experienced antisocial behaviour, violence, aggression or harassment from audience members in the past 12 months, with that figure rising to 77% for front-of-house staff.

Some theorists of crowd psychology attribute aggression to “deindividuationâ€, whereby a sense of anonymity and sensory overload untether people from their sense of individual identity and they do things they ordinarily would not.

Other theorists posit “convergenceâ€, in which the crowd dynamic uncorks individuals’ inner beliefs and values.

Either way, the results can be ugly. “Faggot!†some US fans screamed at McIlroy. “Wanker!†shouted others. Many commentators have linked such invective to toxic social media feeds and the climate of political polarisation, which suggests a modern phenomenon.

But there is nothing new in sports fans or theatre audiences behaving badly. In ancient Athens, Plato complained about spectators becoming mobs, arguably making him the first theorist of crowd behaviour.

Any gathering of humans, in fact, can cause upset. Thomas Hardy took the title of his novel Far From the Madding Crowd from Thomas Gray’s 1751 poem, Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard, that railed against the “ignoble strife†of those who disrupt “sacred calmâ€.

Today’s anxiety over the coarsening of crowd behaviour can be overdone and is to some extent “moral panicâ€, said Sedgman. “Each society has golden-age thinking – looking back to a time when everyone was kind and courteous.â€

Plastic beer cups lie on the pitch after the Uefa Euro 2024 match between Croatia and Italy in Leipzig. Photograph: Dan Mullan/Getty

Some Scottish boxing fans still squirm over memories of a crowd booing Muhammad Ali during an exhibition bout at Paisley in 1965. “All booing must stop when the king’s in the ring,†he exhorted in vain.

Eric Cantona took more direct action in 1995 when a Crystal Palace fan shouted “fuck off back to France you French motherfucker†by leaping over the barrier to deliver a kung fu kick.

Some experts question whether modern manners really have degraded. “The headlines tend to come from high-profile incidents: disorder at Wembley, gate-rushing at the Copa América final,†said Anne Marie Chebib, the managing director of the UK Crowd Management Association (UKCMA). “Yet the data tells us these are exceptions. The overwhelming majority of events take place safely and securely, with no disruption, but those stories rarely make the news.â€

In a 2023 poll of the association’s members, 93% reported deteriorating behaviour but the following year 57% reported no change or only a slight worsening, a pattern replicated in a Global Crowd Management Alliance report. “Many practitioners now see behaviour as broadly stable,†said Chebib.

Diogenes the Cynic (c412-404BC to 323BC) challenges Plato in the academy at Athens. Photograph: Alamy

Stephen Reicher, a University of St Andrews psychology professor and an authority on crowd behaviour, said there were perennial fears about the rowdiness and danger of crowds but that violence was extremely rare.

Of 49 million attendances at British football matches last year, there were 1,963 arrests, of which half were disorder, he said. “You would likely get far more arrests if that many people of that demographic were in town of a Saturday afternoon. So you could argue that people are less likely to be disorderly and violent in a football crowd.â€

However, crowds make news only when there are disturbances, said Reicher. “You can have hundreds of games on a Saturday afternoon and violence at one. So which will be reported? And if we only see crowds when crowds are violent we get a highly distorted view of crowds as characteristically violent.â€

The Ryder Cup’s history and uniqueness suggest other reasons not to extrapolate too much from the scenes at Bethpage Black. The 1999 contest at Brookline, Massachusetts, was marred by abuse likened to a bear pit. McIlroy asked security officials to expel a particularly obnoxious heckler at Hazeltine in Minnesota in 2016.

Eric Cantona delivers a kung fu kick to a Crystal Palace fan in 1995. Photograph: Action Images

The tournament is structured around the US versus Europe at a time that Donald Trump is reconfiguring the meaning of Americanism, said Reicher.

“It affirms the new world against the old. It is about triumphalism, about domination, about success by any means necessary. It rejects a rule-based order. It celebrates masculinity, domination excess.

“The Ryder Cup shows the traction it is getting among at least some Americans. We cannot suppose from that it is relevant to all sports or even all golf.â€

Mark Breen, the strategic director of Safe Events Global, a company that advises on security, said swift action can shape crowd behaviour.

“It’s about knocking bad norms on the head early, or establishing good ones,†he said.

“Normal, decent people will get caught up in some behaviours so maybe you throw out the first hecklers, make an example of the worst offenders. But you don’t want to sterilise the sport, take the passion out of it.â€

Fans watch Wet Leg play the Other stage at Glastonbury. ‘You don’t want to take the passion out,’ say crowd security experts. Photograph: Guy Bell/Shutterstock

Adding concerts and other events as adjuncts to sporting occasions complicates the balance, said Breen. “When you’re building a festival vibe, it’s harder to manage social norms. You just have to work as hard as you can to avoid boorishness.â€

John Drury, a social psychology professor at the University of Sussex, said music event organisers had reported deteriorating audience behaviour since the Covid pandemic, to the point it was now normalised.

One possible explanation was that lockdown restrictions stunted socialisation, said Drury. “You’ve got a cohort of people that weren’t socialised by older generations when they’re going out, so they’re not used to it, and so perhaps don’t know what the norms are. What they’re doing feels right to them, but to other people it doesn’t feel right.â€

Another possible factor was audience members doing stunts to get attention on social media. In most cases it was just a tiny minority causing disruption, said Drury. “But these dramatic events are then presented as a kind of trend in audiences.â€

Sedgman has a more ominous analysis. Audience behaviour is a bellwether of wider societal trends and the apparent growth in loutishness, or lack of consideration, shows a fraying in the social contract, of the agreed norms that bind a society, she said.

“An increasing number of people think they don’t need to follow these norms, that only mugs do so. It’s the canary in the coalmine.â€

Following a lot of concerns about the level officiating during the regular season, Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon is not pleased with how the referees have called the first two games of the WNBA semifinal series against the Indiana Fever.

Speaking to reporters after the Aces’ 90-68 win in Game 2 on Tuesday, Hammon said the physicality in the series is “out of control” for both teams:

“I mean, you can bump and grab a wide receiver in the NFL for those first five yards, but you can do it in the W for the whole half court. You put two hands on somebody like that, it should be an automatic foul. The freedom of movement, there’s no freedom. And I’m not saying that we’re not fouling, too, not saying that. I’m saying it’s out of control. Most of my assistants come from the NBA, and they’re like, ‘This would not fly in the NBA. … There’d be fights.’ We just have very well-mannered women that can get to the next play.”

There were a total of 41 fouls called between the two teams on Tuesday night after 27 in Game 1. Hammon did note she told her players to get “a little feisty” in Game 2 following their disappointing effort in Game 1.

Players and coaches throughout the league have expressed frustration with the way games are officiated this season. Leading into the All-Star break in July, ESPN’s Maria Lawson spoke to several people in the WNBA about their concerns.

New York Liberty guard Natasha Cloud told Lawson the relationship between players and refs has become strained.

“I work my f–king ass off all offseason for these 4.5 months to try to win a championship,” Cloud said. “And if I feel like [refs are] having too much f–king impact on the game, it shouldn’t be. … This is collaborative to make this thing go.”

Monty McCutchen, head of WNBA officiating, acknowledged to Lawson the league is always emphasizing things for the refs to get better at, but “there’s always going to be noise about officiating that is inaccurate.”

Teams averaged 17.5 fouls per game during the regular season, a slight increase from 2024 (17.2). The league has been very sensitive about anyone saying anything about the officiating.

Fever guard Sophie Cunningham was fined twice in the span of 10 days for comments she made on her podcast.

Unlike NBA referees, the vast majority of whom are full-time employees, the WNBA has 35 officials who are all part-time workers and generally moonlight as college or G League refs.

Despite both teams being unhappy with how Tuesday’s game was called, the Fever and Aces split the first two games in Las Vegas. The series will shift to Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis for the next two games, starting with Game 3 on Friday.

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  Bradford DoolittleSep 24, 2025, 12:49 AM ET

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  • MLB writer and analyst for ESPN.com
  • Former NBA writer and analyst for ESPN.com
  • Been with ESPN since 2013

CHICAGO — The Mets have a lot of work to do to lock down a postseason return, but a desperately needed comeback at Wrigley Field on Tuesday demonstrated one thing: From here on out, New York is in postseason mode.

“Needed that one,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said after cataloging the big moments from his team’s win. And how.

The evidence of New York’s right-now postseason mindset was all over its 9-7, come-from-behind win over the flagging Chicago Cubs: A short stint by a starter. A long outing by a closer. A cathartic go-ahead homer from a beleaguered catcher. A rally from a deficit that the Mets hadn’t overcome in over two years.

For the Mets, the playoffs aren’t here, but playoff baseball already is.

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“The only thing that I’m focused about is winning and getting back to the playoffs,” Mets catcher Francisco Alvarez said through an interpreter. “Last year, we went to the playoffs and we had a deep run, and I just love the way that that felt.”

The Mets’ win coincided with the Reds’ 4-2 loss to last-place Pittsburgh, putting New York back into the sixth slot in the NL playoff pecking order after Cincinnati nudged ahead of them on Sunday. The Reds hold the tiebreaker over New York should the teams finish in a tie.

Alvarez’s two-run, eighth-inning blast off Chicago reliever Caleb Thielbar capped a rally from an early 6-1 hole. Dating back to May 19, 2023, the Mets had lost 80 straight games in which they trailed by five or more runs, according to ESPN Research

That it was Alvarez striking the key blow ignited the Mets’ dugout, which erupted when the ball cleared the ivy-covered wall in left center and settled into the bleachers. Alvarez stopped just before reaching first base and turned to yell at his teammates in the dugout before rounding the bases.

Alvarez said he yelled, “Let’s go!” at the dugout, though he then laughed in a way that suggested there was another word or two peppered in there.

“That’s who he is, you know, and we feed off that,” Mendoza said. “Guys love it as a team. We need that, you know? We need that spark. We need that energy.”

The blast was Alvarez’s 10th of a season in which he has battled hand injuries and a midseason stint in the minor leagues. If the Mets can get back to October, it’ll all have been worth it.

Francisco Alvarez’s two-run homer in the eighth capped the Mets’ comeback from a 6-1 deficit on Tuesday night, when New York leaped back into the third NL wild-card slot. Photo by Justin Casterline/Getty Images

The Cubs jumped on Mets starter David Peterson early, knocking him out of the game after he allowed five runs on five hits in just 1 1/3 innings, continuing a string of lackluster outings that has left his ERA at 4.22, the first time it has been over four all season.

Yet, the Mets won, and Peterson, who has made all 30 of his appearances this season as a member of the New York rotation, has to wipe the slate clean. With five games to go, he and everyone else on the Mets’ staff has to be ready for anything.

“I don’t have enough words to show my appreciation for what they did,” Peterson said of the Mets’ offense. “They picked me up big time. We’ve got to win every game possible, and I will do everything that I can to help this team win ballgames.”

The same holds true for the Mets’ bullpen, which held the Cubs to two runs, one earned, in 7 2/3 innings after Peterson was pulled. Alvarez’s go-ahead homer didn’t just give the Mets the lead, it set up star closer Edwin Diaz for his third two-inning save of the season.

Diaz retired all six batters he faced, striking out five and throwing just 27 pitches to get through his two frames. Yet he knows that in playoff mode, he and all the Mets’ other pitchers have to come back on Wednesday, ready to do it all over again.

“Just get outs,” Diaz said. “I think every single guy in the bullpen knows what they have to do to get outs. Today, the bullpen did a really good job. Tomorrow, we’ve got to have the same mentality.”

If Tuesday’s game had a playoff feel to it — and it did — it wasn’t just coming from the Mets. The loss was Chicago’s fifth straight, and the Cubs now hold just a 1 1/2-game lead over San Diego for the NL’s fourth seed, with homefield advantage in a wild-card series next week on the line.

That all sets the stage for Wednesday’s return match in which the Mets will send rookie Jonah Tong to the hill against Chicago’s 13-game winner, Matthew Boyd. Tong is going through all of this the first time, but if there was one lesson he could take from the Mets’ Houdini job on Tuesday, it’s that he’s going to have plenty of help.

But that’s tomorrow — in postseason mode, you’ve got to take care of today first.

“I can’t be thinking about tomorrow,” Mendoza said. “I’ve got to do whatever we got to do to win today. I’m glad that the guys came through today. Now, we’ve got to sit here and see how we want to piece it together.”

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