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Before the Oklahoma City Thunder began their quest for a second straight championship, they celebrated their first.

OKC celebrated the 2024-25 championship with its fans at Paycom Center ahead of Tuesday’s season opener against the Houston Rockets. That meant raising the banner to the rafters and receiving their championship rings for the first title in franchise history since it moved to Oklahoma City.

Here is a look at some of the celebrations and the ring:

Any celebration of the Thunder starts with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who turned in one of the most memorable seasons in NBA history while leading his team to the crown.

He won the league MVP during the regular season, was the scoring champ at 32.7 points per game and took home the NBA Finals MVP for the victory over the Indiana Pacers. He carried the Thunder all season and then delivered in the biggest moments.

SGA notched a double-double of 29 points, 12 assists and five rebounds during the Game 7 win over the Pacers. He also poured in more than 30 points in four of the NBA Finals games and finished with 35 points in the Game 7 win over the Denver Nuggets in the second round.

It was far from a solo effort, though, as players such as Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren also played starring roles during the playoffs. Throw in a strong supporting cast of Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, Lu Dort and others, and it was no surprise the Thunder took home the championship.

The majority of those same players are back again in 2025-26, which puts Oklahoma City on the short list of realistic title contenders.

If it parlays those expectations into another triumph, the Thunder will be celebrating once again to start the 2026-27 season.

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The Utah Mammoth unveiled their new mascot, Tusky, during Wednesday night’s home opener against the Calgary Flames.

The Mammoth—formerly the Arizona Coyotes before the organization was transferred to the expansion franchise Utah Hockey Club—have started the season 1-2.

“We named the Utah Mammoth mascot Tusky to lean into our team’s ‘Tusks Up’ rallying cry,” Utah owners Ryan and Ashley Smith said in a statement. “Tusky is going to be a big part of our community, creating memorable experiences in and out of the arena. Fans can expect to see Tusky everywhere—from Mammoth games and team events to community gatherings, schools and hospitals.”

Tusky stands at 6’5″ and wears No. 00. The team has said he’s a great skater, shoots left-handed and his position is the center… of attention.

The team’s nickname, the Mammoths, is a nod to the prehistoric animal that lived in Utah during the last Ice Age.

“Tusky embodies the strength, momentum and earth-shaking presence of the herds that once roamed Utah more than 10,000 years ago,” the team said.

And listen, while Tusky might look a bit aggressively angry, you’d probably be a bit perturbed as well if you emerged from a block of ice in the middle of a hockey arena—like Tusky did on Wednesday night—and learned that the rest of your species was extinct.

Perhaps he’ll reach out to Gritty for consolation, who is assuredly is the only member of whatever his species is to ever exist.

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London’s Wembley Stadium isn’t the only unique location in which the Los Angeles Rams will be playing in this week.

The Baltimore Banner‘s Hayes Gardner reported last week that the Rams will spend the days leading up to their Week 7 game in London practicing at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, home of MLB’s Baltimore Orioles.

The stadium featured a pair of partial fields, as seen in pictures by Kevin Richardson (via Matt Weyrich of the Baltimore Sun):

The Rams were in town to face the Baltimore Ravens in Week 6, a game they won by the score of 17-3. That game comes ahead of a game in London that will see the Rams take on the Jacksonville Jaguars.

Rather than flying back to the West Coast in the intervening week, the Rams will remain in Baltimore before traveling to the United Kingdom, Gardner reported.

The Rams are expected to use the playing field at Camden Yards along with both the team and visitors’ clubhouses and dining areas, The Baltimore Sun’s Todd Karpovich reported.

The Maryland Stadium Authority approved the plan during board meeting on Oct. 7, per Gardner.

The Ravens’ M&T Bank Stadium was initially discussed as an option to host the Rams, but stadium authorities expressed concern the field would be damaged ahead of the Ravens’ next home game against the Chicago Bears on Oct. 26, Gardner reported.

The Rams gained access to the ballpark starting Saturday and lasting for one week, per Gardner. Karpovich reported the Rams will pay for staff, security and insurance while using the stadium.

There won’t be any scheduling conflict with the Orioles, which were eliminated from postseason contention in mid-September and played their final game of the MLB season on Sept. 28.

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The Los Angeles Kings’ alternate uniforms for the 2025-26 season were unveiled by the team on Tuesday night.

The uniforms feature black jerseys, silver stripes and silver helmets as well as a crown logo that was inspired by the original design used by the team in 1967.

The jersey reveal was particularly unique, as the Kings warmed up in their their traditional home uniforms prior to their season-opening matchup with the Colorado Avalanche on Tuesday.

The team then changed into the new jerseys prior to the first puck drop of the season.

The Kings enter their 2025-26 campaign looking to go on a deeper run in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, as they’ve suffered first-round eliminations against the Edmonton Oilers in each of the past four years.

Los Angeles is coming off a 48-25-9 finish last season, ultimately falling to the Oilers in six games during the first round of the playoffs.

The Kings made several acquisitions to improve their depth surrounding 2024-25 team points leader Adrian Kempe during the offseason, adding Joel Armia, Corey Perry, Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin.

Los Angeles will also be relying on veteran center Anže Kopitar to contribute in his final year after he announced his retirement on Sept. 18.

As the Kings’ new season commenced, they also debuted new jerseys.

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The New York Rangers will be firmly under the spotlight in 2025-26 since it is their 100th season in franchise history, and goaltender Igor Shesterkin honored that history Tuesday.

Shesterkin took the ice for the season opener against the Pittsburgh Penguins with special centennial season gear. He also had a mask with a Big Apple that had the number 100 in the middle of it:

The Rangers are one of the Original Six teams alongside the Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs and have an extensive history.

That history features four Stanley Cup titles and a legendary Hall of Fame goaltender in Henrik Lundqvist.

Lundqvist set the standard for so long, but Shesterkin has the chance to carve out his own memorable legacy with the historic team. The 29-year-old already won the 2021-22 Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goalie and was an All-Star in 2023 and 2024.

He has a career save percentage of .917 and a goals against average of 2.52 and will look to lead the Rangers to the playoffs for the fourth time in five years. They advanced as far as the Eastern Conference Final in two of those postseason appearances.

However, he is still chasing his first Stanley Cup of his career, which is an accomplishment that would feel quite fitting in the Rangers’ 100th season.

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A neck injury has prevented Kevin Owens from being around for much of John Cena’s retirement tour, but the former WWE grand slam champion still found a way to honor his longtime rival.

Owens got an early start on Halloween by dressing up as Cena:

“Can you see me?” Owens wrote in a post on Instagram.

Even though Halloween is still a few weeks away, true believers know it’s never too early to start celebrating as soon as the calendar flips to October.

Per Subhojeet Mukherjee of Ringside News, Owens and his family were cosplaying as different pop-culture figures during a recent trip to the Magic Kingdom.

Owens went all out with his Cena attire, including wearing the knee pads with the jorts. The former WWE universal champion has been out of action since March due to a neck injury that resulted in his planned WrestleMania 41 match against Randy Orton being called off.

There has been no definite return date for Owens after he underwent neck fusion surgery, or if he will be able to get back in the ring at all, but he has said the hope is to be back at some point in 2026.

One of the many sad parts about Owens being out of action is it prevented fans from getting one more match between him and Cena. The two had a terrific feud in 2015 when Owens made his main-roster debut, challenging Cena for the United States title.

Owens even spoke about his hope of getting a match with Cena this year, specifically on May 31 to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of their first showdown at Elimination Chamber.

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The Miami Dolphins are 0-3 to start the season, so they might need a fresh look to change things up.

And they will have just that for Monday’s AFC East showdown against the New York Jets.

Tua Tagovailoa, Tyreek Hill and the rest of the Dolphins took the field at Hard Rock Stadium wearing their “Dark Water” uniforms, which are largely dark with the team’s colors sprinkled in through various locations:

“On September 29, the Dolphins will debut their newest uniform against the New York Jets on Monday Night Football as part of the Nike Rivalries Collection,” the team’s official website explained.

“This design is unlike any before, featuring dark aquatic tones made to represent a team who hunts in dark waters. Complete with orange accents and sleek dark blue touches throughout, these uniforms are as fierce as the competition between longtime rivals when they meet in prime time.”

Eight teams in total are participating in the Rivalries uniform looks in 2025, with the AFC East and NFC West participating.

The Arizona Cardinals became the first team to wear their designs during Thursday’s loss to the Seattle Seahawks.

Miami is hoping for a better result than Arizona and its first win of the season. The Dolphins lost to the Indianapolis Colts, New England Patriots and Buffalo Bills to start the 2025 campaign.

They should at least be relatively fresh for Monday’s contest, as the Week 3 loss to Buffalo came on Thursday Night Football. Not playing until Monday in Week 4 means they have enjoyed something of a mini-bye ahead of the game against the Jets.

New York is also 0-3, so there figures to be some desperation on the field Monday.

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Two weeks after his unanimous-decision victory over Canelo Ãlvarez, Terence Crawford celebrated Saturday with a parade in his hometown of Omaha, Nebraska.

The Ring magazine provided full coverage of Crawford’s parade, which saw the undefeated fighter show appreciation for his supporters while making his way down the streets of Omaha:

Once the parade was over, Crawford addressed the crowd while on stage and also spoke directly to his mother and grandmother, saying, “We made it.”

The mayor of Omaha, John Ewing Jr., presented Crawford with the key to the city, which made for a funny moment when Crawford asked what the key opens:

Several notable stars sent video messages to congratulate Crawford, which was played on a big screen. They included rapper Eminem, NBA legend Shaquille O’Neal, Boston Celtics star Jayson Tatum, UFC president Dana White and volleyball player Brooke Nuneviller:

Despite being 41-0 and having held world titles across four different weight classes, Crawford was a decided underdog going into his clash with Canelo.

That was largely due to the fact that Crawford had to move up in weight in order to face Ãlvarez.

That didn’t seem to matter for Crawford, as “Bud” was the decidedly quicker and more effective fighter, taking the action to Canelo en route to winning the WBA (Super), WBC, IBF, WBO and The Ring super middleweight titles.

Crawford improved to 42-0 with that victory, and he may have cemented himself as the unquestioned No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer in the world.

It is unclear what’s next for Crawford, or if he even plans on fighting again, but he finally has a signature win under his belt against a boxer who was the face of the sport for the past several years.

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The Boston Celtics’ City Edition uniforms for the 2025-26 season were officially unveiled on Wednesday.

The jerseys forgo the team’s typical green color for a white and gold look, with the organization releasing photos highlighting the details of the attire in an Instagram post.

The gold is a nod to Boston’s 18 championships, the most among all NBA teams.

The names and numbers of each jersey also contain a black trim. Meanwhile, the signature of legendary head coach Red Auerbach is featured near the bottom of the uniform.

The Celtics’ storied history has also been a theme for past City Edition jerseys, as their alternate uniforms for the 2020-21 season were modeled after the championship banners hanging in the rafters of TD Garden.

Boston is only one season removed from its most recent NBA Finals victory in 2024, although head coach Joe Mazzulla’s team will look vastly different heading into the 2025-26 season.

Jayson Tatum is in danger of missing the entire year as he recovers from a torn Achilles that he suffered in the 2025 playoffs, while starters Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porziņģis were both moved during the offseason in separate trades.

As the Celtics introduce several fresh faces to their rotation surrounding Jaylen Brown, they’ll also have a new City Edition look.

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WWE legend and Hollywood megastar Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson provided some insight this week into the body transformation he underwent to play the role of Mark Kerr in the upcoming movie The Smashing Machine.

During an interview on CBS Sunday Morning (beginning at the 29-minute mark of the video), The Rock discussed the challenges he faced to make his physique look like that of Kerr, and explained why it was unlike anything he had done before:

While The Rock has long been among the fittest and most muscular actors in the world, he revealed that The Smashing Machine director Benny Safdie tasked him with becoming “bigger” and “puffier” in order to more accurately portray Kerr’s unique body type.

Safdie also expressed to The Rock that he would prefer to not have to use a stunt double, and since The Rock agreed with that assessment, he went to great lengths to evolve his look.

The Rock called Kerr a “unicorn athlete,” before adding: “I had to transform my body, which was a massive challenge for me. I’m a workout nut, I like working out and just being physical and sweating every morning. But this was different. … It’s different if you put on size and put on muscle. I’ve done that in the past for some roles. But this is the kind of muscle that you have to put on that has real fast-twitch fibers to it.”

Johnson noted that he put on 30 pounds overall, and further explained that it was “quality muscle,” since it was the type of muscle that had to allow for him to still be athletic in order to effectively act out the fight scenes in the movie.

In The Smashing Machine, The Rock plays the role of one of the most iconic MMA fighters of all time in Kerr.

After starring as a collegiate wrestling at Syracuse University, Kerr became one of the first major stars in MMA, winning the heavyweight tournaments at UFC 14 and UFC 15 in 1997, and later enjoying success in Pride Fighting Championships.

While The Rock went to great lengths to become the best version of Kerr possible, he has already transformed his body again in anticipation of his next role.

According to Parade and US Weekly (h/t Megan Cartwright of Newsweek), The Rock has shed 60 pounds in anticipation of his next movie.

Per Borys Kit of The Hollywood Reporter, the film is a crime thriller set in Hawai’i and directed by Martin Scorsese, and it also stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Emily Blunt.

Before that, The Smashing Machine will hit theaters in the United States on Oct. 3.

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