The Machine NBA2K25 Career Pt. 47 + 🌎My Thoughts on the Sports World Today🌎
Happy Easter!
Prior to the game, The Machine has averages of 12.9 points, 4 rebounds, 6.7 assists and 0.9 steals per game.
January 28th, 2025 - Philadelphia 76ers vs Los Angeles Lakers
The Machine and the Sixers are rolling! They hold the top spot in the Eastern Conference and took care of the Lakers pretty easily.
Luka Dončić is an NBA icon and one of The Machine's favorite players of all time. The Machine definitely showed out in front of one of his biggest athletic heroes. He had one of the biggest scoring nights of his rookie year! He finished the night with:
- 29 points, 1 rebound, 5 assists
- Teammate Grade: B+
The Machine is really coming for that Rookie of the Year award!
🌎My Thoughts on the Sports World Today🌎
In the real world, it's another UFC Fight Night and there's a decent bit of random news throughout the sports world I shall give my two cents on.
Tonight is another UFC Fight Night and it's not exactly the biggest event of the year, but for some reason I'm mildly excited for it. I guess I'm just in the mood for some fights today. Events like these help me understand the roster as a whole a lot more. Sports are a never ending story and in the UFC this notion perhaps rings the truest. Lore and hype is built in events like these.
Lando Vannata is fighting for the first time in just about three years. Literally just a few days short of the three year mark. When I saw his name that was certainly surprising. I'm intrigued to see what he looks like after so long away. His opponent Darrius Flowers missed weight so Vannata gets 20% of Flowers's purse. I bet that extra money will be appreciated after so long on the sidelines! I have no clue if Vannata will win but it would be cool if he did after such a lengthy layoff. He's always a fun fighter to watch and isn't too old despite the time away.
The main event is #10 lightweight Renato Moicano vs Chris Duncan. This fight is seriously interesting to me.
Renato Moicano is one of my favorite fighters and he's actually pretty funny outside of the octagon as well. Moicano has one of the most intriguing records in MMA and an underrated strength of schedule. He's beaten names like Jeremy Stephens, Calvin Kattar, Cub Swanson, Alexander Hernandez, Brad Riddell, Drew Dober, Jalin Turner and Benoît Saint Denis. All seven of Moicano's losses have come versus very good to legendary fighters like Brian Ortega (that was an excellent fight), José Aldo (an all-time great), Jung Chan-sung "The Korean Zombie", Rafael Fiziev, Rafael dos Anjos, Islam Makhachev (an all-time great), and Beneil Dariush.
Moicano may be considered a journeyman, but there's levels to journeymen and he's one of the better journeymen you'll come across!
His opponent Chris Duncan looks solid as well. Duncan has steadily risen the ranks and appears to be ready to make a substantial leap into the rough lightweight waters. He has fought at a consistent rate throughout his MMA career. He's 15-2, on a four fight winning streak, three of which came in 2025 alone, and is 32 years old which is four years younger than Moicano.
Moicano is on a two fight losing streak but is way more experienced. This will be Duncan's biggest test to date!
A lot on the line between two fighters at different phases of their careers!
I think Moicano has a little left in the tank though and gets the win. He's slightly longer and seems perhaps a bit sharper fundamentally. Duncan appears quite dense to be fair, while Moicano is a bit more slender. Who knows man, because Duncan is clearly hungry and is tough as nails! I just hope it's a good one.
The MLB season has been fun so far. I'm liking the ABS system they've implemented! Behind the plate umpires will be a thing of the past soon. A new era is certainly approaching and games will only get more efficient. Field umpires may be around slightly longer though, I think their value will remain longer simply for in field action like tags and following rules etc. I imagine ABS will one day be able to assist with foul calls as well. Pretty cool!
Juan Soto, who was playing well in the very early stages of 2026, is dealing with a potentially problematic calf injury. Hate to see that, he's a superstar of the sport and the MLB is better with him playing. He's going to undergo an MRI soon. For the Mets this is possibly huge in an unfortunate way. They signed Soto to a massive contract both monetarily and time wise so hopefully it's nothing major.
Cooper Flagg likely secures NBA Rookie of the Year after becoming the first teen to score 50 in an NBA game! He dropped 51 in just 34 minutes. It was a highly efficient 51 as well as he went 19-30 from the field and only shot seven free throws, of which he made all of them. He was also 6-9 from three point territory! Some say Kon Knueppel should win the award but that's just silly to me. Cooper exceeds Kon in points, rebounds, assists, and steals per game. I guess Kon has the advantage of better shooting percentages and his team is playing better. In addition the league is just obsessed with three pointers and Kon is a beast at that. But Cooper is the Mavericks' number one option so opponents key in on Flagg to a high degree game after game and he's still outperforming Kon in four major statistical categories. Now Cooper drops a crystal clean 51 points at 19 years old. Yeah, I'd say just ship Flagg the ROY award and call it a day. Flagg is living up to the hype! He's got a bright future!
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Luka Dončić is dealing with what looks like a fairly nasty hamstring injury. Tough scene for him and the Lakers. Luka isn't perfect but he's one of my favorite players in the sport.
Soto and Luka injured, yikes.
The NBA is attempting to solve the tanking problem in the sport. I think that's a great idea. I don't know the solution, but tanking is disgusting to me. Every instinct in me finds it shameful and strange. No other aspect of life does one get rewarded for sucking. Every year, not just in the NBA but it's most obvious in the NBA, it's like the league is chopped in half. Half the teams are trying and half aren't. What type of league is that? It's insulting. Might as well just have the teams forfeit and go 0-82, then those teams can enter the lottery. People that support tanking, I can't understand that attitude. Where is the accountability of front offices and whatnot? People add labels to talent, and write off players. There's never any 'mid-season turnarounds' or any type of underdog stories in the NBA. In football and baseball a team that stinks at the half-way mark could get hot and make a run. That's why I was hyped for the Pacers last year who were pretty close to a Cinderella story. Maybe the Heat were the closest team before the Pacers. If anything the Pacers and Heat prove that tanking is NOT always the way. I don't think the Warriors tanked. MORE proof!
Anyway, tanking is dumb and risky. There's plenty of top picks that never amount to anything. Tank too much and you'll be awful for a decade or longer.
The Raiders signed QB Kirk Cousins which I find interesting. While Kirk is a bit of a stat padder, I think he's pretty solid. I have a higher opinion of him than most. I think he could be an excellent mentor to likely number one draft pick QB Fernando Mendoza. From what I have seen of them off the field, Mendoza and Cousins have very similar personalities. Tom Brady being involved is good too for obvious reasons and he has a fairly similar demeanor to Cousins and Mendoza as well. If the Raiders are smart they take it slow and start Cousins the whole entire season and let Mendoza learn. Very interesting move for them. Raiders fans should be excited.
The sports world never sleeps, till next time!
