There have been a lot of complaints from players about Chambers Bay, the site of this week's US Open.

Many of those complaints center around the conditions, which are hard and fast, as well as an inability to distinguish between the fairways and the greens.

But those complaints would be less worrisome if the greens weren't already incredibly difficult. Like a traditional links course, many of the greens are large and in some cases they are covered in hills and mounds, leading to putts whose final destination will be anybody's guess.

Frank Nobilo of Fox Sports spent some time at the green on hole No. 4 to show just how crazy these greens can be, describing it as a "roller coaster."

The hole, formerly a par-5, is now a par-4 that measures just under 500 yards. Adding to the difficulty is that it is a raised green, so the players are going to have to play a longer club on their approach.

If a player can't get his approach shot close, that is when the fun starts.

The green itself is enormous (see above). But things are much different when the hole is placed on the right edge. That area of the green is almost like a completely different green in and of itself. It's much smaller and surrounded by a bunker on three sides and a mound on the other.

Nobilo stood on the far left side of the green and showed just how hard it is to get close to the hole from the other side. If you try to take the direct route, you are in danger of ending up in the bunker.

Nobilo noted that the back edge of the green was banked, basically like the racetrack at Daytona International Speedway. A player can actually ride the "track" around the outer edge of the green, even off the green, and hope to lag the ball to a playable distance for the second putt.

But one of the dangers of playing putts near the edges of greens is the presence of sprinklers, which are unusually close to the greens at Chambers Bay. It is just another variable the players have to consider.

Maybe the only way to play this hole location close is to use the back of the green as a backboard, and instead of riding the Daytona track, take a more direct route to the back edge and hope the ball comes down the ridge without too much speed.

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ESPN's Marc Stein has a pretty damning report on the way LeBron James interacted with Cleveland Cavaliers coach David Blatt in the NBA Finals.

Stein, who sat right near the Cavs bench all series (you could see him on in the background on the live broadcast at times), says he saw LeBron "emasculate" Blatt in a variety of ways first hand.

In the worst example of the awkwardness between the two, Blatt had to erase a play off his whiteboard after LeBron was vigorously shaking his head while he was drawing it up.

Here's Stein listing off the ways Blatt's power was usurped by LeBron, saying that he saw:

LeBron essentially calling timeouts and making substitutions. LeBron openly barking at Blatt after decisions he didn't like. LeBron huddling frequently with [assistant coach Tyronn] Lue and so often looking at anyone other than Blatt.

There was LeBron, in one instance I witnessed from right behind the bench, shaking his head vociferously in protest after one play Blatt drew up in the third quarter of Game 5, amounting to the loudest nonverbal scolding you could imagine.

Which forced Blatt, in front of his whole team, to wipe the board clean and draw up something else.

LeBron and Blatt had an awkward relationship all year but the closest it came to revealing itself in the playoffs was in the Chicago Bulls series, when LeBron changed a Blatt play call and ended up making a buzzer beater.

It was almost as if the injuries to Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving took away the expectations for the Cavs, and the loss of those expectations abolished the need for a close examination of the LeBron-Blatt partnership. But it's clear from the Stein report that even during a period where the Cavs objectively overperformed, things weren't great between the two.

Other basketball insiders seem to be backing up Stein's report. Ethan Skolnick of Bleacher Report says he tried to write an article about Blatt's coaching, but the players wouldn't give Blatt credit individually:

Grantland's Zach Lowe says there was speculation about the Cavs bringing in Tom Thibodeau:

LeBron has unprecedented power within the Cavs organization. He can opt out after this season, which gives him the leverage to affect change when it comes to roster moves, free agents, and, of course, coaching.

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With one week until the 2015 NBA Draft, one prospect is slowly starting to enter the conversation for one of the top picks in the draft.

20-year-old Croatian wing player Mario Hezonja has been considered one of the best prospects all year long, but has now landed at No. 5 on ESPN's Chad Ford's mock draft and No. 6 on DraftExpress' Jonathan Givony's mock draft.

Like fellow European prospect Kristaps Porzingis, Hezonja is a bit of a mystery, perhaps even more so than Porzingis because Hezonja's European team, FC Barcelona, is in the playoffs, so he hasn't worked out for NBA teams.

In Ford's first mock draft of the season in August 2014, he had Hezonja going 11th in the draft. To get to No. 5 shows the level of intrigue surrounding Hezonja in the NBA, especially for a player teams have hardly seen up close.

Hezonja is a six-foot-eight athletic specimen, quick and explosive, who can handle the ball, attack the rim, shoot three-pointers off the catch or dribble, and create his own shot. He's talented, aggressive, self-confident, and has all of the tools to be a star and the NBA's next great villain.

Playing on a stacked Barcelona team, Hezonja comes off the bench and sees limited minutes. Nonetheless, he knows his skill level and potential. Perhaps the best Hezonja anecdote comes from when he was asked if he would see Lionel Messi play while in Barcelona. Hezonja replied, "Let Messi come see me."

This, from a player averaging 10 minutes per game!

He doesn't lack for confidence. He told David Pick of Basketball Insiders, "If I was in college I’d probably be the No. 1 pick. I had an offer from Kentucky."

It's not entirely far off. In April a scout spoke to Ford about Hezonja and said, "I really love him. I love [Justise] Winslow, too, but I really think if this kid was in college we'd all be going crazy for him. He's tough, he's athletic, he shoots the s--- out of it. And the kid just knows how to play. He's going to be really, really good in the NBA."

Hezonja's game speaks to his attitude. He told a Croatian newspaper in 2014:

"Respect? No, I never had respect to anybody on a basketball court. I heard about: 'If they smell blood, you get eaten.' I'm not like that. I don't care. Whether it's a veteran or a young player standing in front of me I always have the same goal. I want to run over everybody."

Hezonja's primary mission on a basketball court, it seems, is demoralizing opponents, often with big dunks:

He'll hang on the rim for good measure:

And as SB Nation's Kevin O'Connor notes, Hezonja broke one of the greatest unwritten rules in basketball: showboating when the game's fate has been decided. He went through an opponent's legs and threw down a windmill dunk, despite his team being up 19 with five seconds remaining:

Hezonja's mentality can sometimes be a weakness, though. Givony scouted Hezonja and wrote:

As we've noted in previous reports one of the more significant ongoing concerns about Hezonja is his demeanor. His body language is poor at times and he seems to get down on his teammates. Though he's become far less demonstrative than he appeared at the junior level, it will be fascinating to watch how his swagger, ego and unlimited self-confidence fit in on whichever team opts to draft him. His mentality could pay huge dividends if he reaches his lofty potential down the road, but what kind of growing pains will he experience early in his NBA career?

In an earlier scouting report, Givony noted Hezonja was "constantly talking to opponents."

In Grantland's profile of Hezonja, Danny Chau recalls watching a game in which Hezonja looked off an open teammate to throw a behind-the-back pass to somebody else. At the next whistle, the teammate had to be held back from fighting Hezonja.

A GM told Fold in May, "He's crazy. But I think it's a good crazy. The type of crazy confidence that elite players need. If he can keep that competitiveness under control and be patient, he's got a good shot to be one of the two or three best players in this draft in five years."

In a draft where the top players have often been described as high-character, mature prospects, Hezonja sounds like a harmless, fun, intriguing player. If Hezonja brings this attitude to the NBA and develops into the significant talent he possesses, everybody will be a winner because of it.

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The Red Sox ugly season just got uglier as one of their big offseason free agency acquisitions, third baseman Pablo Sandoval, has been benched for one game after admitting he used Instagram during a game in which he was participating, according to Ian Browne of MLB.com.

The issue arose during the Red Sox' 5-2 loss on Wednesday night when Jared Carrabis of Barstool Sports, a popular Boston-centric blog, noticed that Sandoval had favorited two photos on Instagram.

Producers for the "Dennis and Callahan Show" on WEEI in Boston determined that the activity occurred while the Red Sox were batting in the 7th inning. Sandoval was due up sixth that inning.

Sandoval met with the media on Thursday and confirmed that he was the one using the account, saying he went to the bathroom and grabbed his phone on the way.

The Red Sox, a popular pick to win their division and contend for a World Series title, have struggled this season and are currently in last place in the AL East, 9.0 games behind the Yankees.

Sandoval, a fan favorite with the San Francisco Giants, signed a five-year, $95 million free agent contract with the Red Sox this past winter.

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Twitter wanted the rights to broadcast the first streaming-only NFL game, but lost out to Yahoo, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Twitter offered the split revenue with the NFL, and the non-exclusive rights to stream, but fell short on the money side. Instead, it tried to woo the NFL with its expansive audience. The NFL took the money.

Yahoo reportedly paid $20 million for the game, which will be played in London.

But this doesn’t mean a partnership between Twitter and the NFL is done. They already have a content deal to post NFL highlights on Twitter, splitting the ad revenue.

And the NFL might become even more important to Twitter with the introduction of its new “events-based” feature, Project Lightning, which curates primarily photo and video content around live events.

Twitter’s editors will create multimedia packages based around events, which users can swipe through to get an immersive experience, even if they aren’t there. It’s akin to an enhanced Twitter TV channel that can also be woven into your home feed (if you follow an "event," its content will intersperse itself in your regular Twitter feed). And then it will just melt away when the event is finished.

Project Lightning is still months away, and the revenue model with potential partners isn’t public, but if Twitter’s interest in streaming NFL games is any indication, live sports events will likely be a substantial force in Project Lightning.

SEE ALSO: Twitter's new 'Project Lightning' could dramatically change how people experience live events

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Minor league baseball manager Joe Mikulik, who's currently the manager for the Texas Rangers' Double-A affiliate the Frisco RoughRiders, had the most dramatic meltdown of the year during a game against the Midland RockHounds.

It all started in the fifth inning after to a blown call by the the home plate umpire, who incorrectly ruled a RoughRiders player was out when replays clearly showed he should have been called safe due to the opposing catcher dropping the baseball: 

After all three members of the officiating crew gathered and decided not to reverse the call, Mikulik slammed his helmet to the ground and was immediately ejected:

But that was just the beginning of Mikulik's tantrum. The RoughRiders manager proceeded to take off both of his shoes and spike them in protest:

Mikulik then picks up one of his shoes and punts it sky-high as fans cheer in delight:

After finally making his way back into the RoughRiders' dugout, Mikulik had one more thing he just had to do to make sure he really got his point across:

While the RoughRiders may have gone on to lose the game 5-4, Mikulik clearly won the day. Watch the full sequence of events unfold below:

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In a week when many thought the US Open would be won with a score over par, Dustin Johnson jumped out to an early lead, shooting a solid 5-under in the first round.

While Johnson is well-known on the PGA Tour with nine career wins and three top-5 finishes at the majors, it may surprise casual fans that only two golfers have earned more than Johnson on the Tour since 2010. Rory McIlroy is the unsurprising leader, with $26.9 million in earnings since the start of the 2010 season. But Johnson ($22.8 million) and Matt Kuchar ($24.9 million) are not far behind.

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Bryce Harper injured his leg and was taken out of Thursday's game against the Tampa Bay Rays when he tried to throw a ball towards the infield.

The incident came in the sixth inning and appears to have been caused by his right foot either getting caught or slipping on the grass.

[UPDATE] Harper told the media after the game that the injury was to his lower hamstring, near his knee.

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NOW WATCH: 12 awesome facts about WWE superstar Brock Lesnar

With one week until the 2015 NBA Draft, one prospect is slowly starting to enter the conversation for one of the top picks in the draft.

20-year-old Croatian wing player Mario Hezonja has been considered one of the best prospects all year long, but has now landed at No. 5 on ESPN's Chad Ford's mock draft and No. 6 on DraftExpress' Jonathan Givony's mock draft.

Like fellow European prospect Kristaps Porzingis, Hezonja is a bit of a mystery, perhaps even more so than Porzingis because Hezonja's European team, FC Barcelona, is in the playoffs, so he hasn't worked out for NBA teams.

In Ford's first mock draft of the season in August 2014, he had Hezonja going 11th in the draft. To get to No. 5 shows the level of intrigue surrounding Hezonja in the NBA, especially for a player teams have hardly seen up close.

Hezonja is a six-foot-eight athletic specimen, quick and explosive, who can handle the ball, attack the rim, shoot three-pointers off the catch or dribble, and create his own shot. He's talented, aggressive, self-confident, and has all of the tools to be a star and the NBA's next great villain.

Playing on a stacked Barcelona team, Hezonja comes off the bench and sees limited minutes. Nonetheless, he knows his skill level and potential. Perhaps the best Hezonja anecdote comes from when he was asked if he would see Lionel Messi play while in Barcelona. Hezonja replied, "Let Messi come see me."

This, from a player averaging 10 minutes per game!

He doesn't lack for confidence. He told David Pick of Basketball Insiders, "If I was in college I’d probably be the No. 1 pick. I had an offer from Kentucky."

It's not entirely far off. In April a scout spoke to Ford about Hezonja and said, "I really love him. I love [Justise] Winslow, too, but I really think if this kid was in college we'd all be going crazy for him. He's tough, he's athletic, he shoots the s--- out of it. And the kid just knows how to play. He's going to be really, really good in the NBA."

Hezonja's game speaks to his attitude. He told a Croatian newspaper in 2014:

"Respect? No, I never had respect to anybody on a basketball court. I heard about: 'If they smell blood, you get eaten.' I'm not like that. I don't care. Whether it's a veteran or a young player standing in front of me I always have the same goal. I want to run over everybody."

Hezonja's primary mission on a basketball court, it seems, is demoralizing opponents, often with big dunks:

He'll hang on the rim for good measure:

And as SB Nation's Kevin O'Connor notes, Hezonja broke one of the greatest unwritten rules in basketball: showboating when the game's fate has been decided. He went through an opponent's legs and threw down a windmill dunk, despite his team being up 19 with five seconds remaining:

Hezonja's mentality can sometimes be a weakness, though. Givony scouted Hezonja and wrote:

As we've noted in previous reports one of the more significant ongoing concerns about Hezonja is his demeanor. His body language is poor at times and he seems to get down on his teammates. Though he's become far less demonstrative than he appeared at the junior level, it will be fascinating to watch how his swagger, ego and unlimited self-confidence fit in on whichever team opts to draft him. His mentality could pay huge dividends if he reaches his lofty potential down the road, but what kind of growing pains will he experience early in his NBA career?

In an earlier scouting report, Givony noted Hezonja was "constantly talking to opponents."

In Grantland's profile of Hezonja, Danny Chau recalls watching a game in which Hezonja looked off an open teammate to throw a behind-the-back pass to somebody else. At the next whistle, the teammate had to be held back from fighting Hezonja.

A GM told Fold in May, "He's crazy. But I think it's a good crazy. The type of crazy confidence that elite players need. If he can keep that competitiveness under control and be patient, he's got a good shot to be one of the two or three best players in this draft in five years."

In a draft where the top players have often been described as high-character, mature prospects, Hezonja sounds like a harmless, fun, intriguing player. If Hezonja brings this attitude to the NBA and develops into the significant talent he possesses, everybody will be a winner because of it.

Join the conversation about this story »

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Tiger Woods!

Not good!

He shot a 10-over 80 yesterday, putting him in third-to-last place. 

If you want to be optimistic about Tiger, here's the case: He's in the middle of a swing change (the fourth of his career).

Every time he changes his swing it takes two to three years to get the hang of the change. Once he gets it figured out, he's very good.

For instance, he changed his swing in 2010, when he hired Sean Foley as his coach. Just three years later, Woods was playing some of the best golf of his career, winning five times on the PGA Tour and coming one bad shot away from winning the Masters to break his major drought.

But that swing put stress on Woods' body and it was never good enough to win a major. So, after sitting out most of 2014 with injuries, Woods decided to change things up again. He's trying to create a swing that's closer to what he had in the '90s.

It's flat-out insane for a golfer to change his swing multiple times in his career, but here we are. At Woods' age, with his baggage, it's entirely possible that he'll never be able to get it back. 

If you want to be optimistic, you have to give him a year or two to sort through the changes. Maybe he figures it out.

But if you want to be pessimistic, here's some ammunition.

On the night before the US Open started, Woods was on the range hitting balls. And he looked pretty good.

Former pro Paul Azinger tweeted, "Watching Tiger Woods on Golf Channel hitting balls. Looks fantastic! Pro tracer on all his shots as well. He's hitting it nice."

This is from that session, and you can see what Azinger is talking about:

But when Tiger gets to the course, he can't control his shots. He's all over the map. Here's a shot from his round:

Again, if you want to be optimistic, you say he's just learning to get comfortable with his new swing, and he doesn't trust it under the pressure of tournament play.

But if you want to be pessimistic, you say he's a basket case mentally. He clearly has the physical ability to hit the right shows. He doesn't seem to have the mental ability to make it happen.

Like any weekend hacker, he can't bring his swing from the range to the course. He's totally lost out there and doesn't trust himself. 

This is worrisome, because for years Woods' strength was his mental game. He was stronger upstairs than the rest of the field. Now he's a mental mess. He can't trust himself or his swing. That makes him vulnerable for the rest of his career. 

Even if he gets the hang of this swing, he's got too many scars, too many thoughts. He's going to struggle to figure out what's what.

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Tiger Woods shot a 10-over 80 in the opening round of the US Open. It's easy to see that his game is in a terrible place. But there was one shot in the first round that summed things up perfectly.

Woods started the 617-yard par-5 18th hole with a drive in the fairway. He then went with a 3-wood, apparently intent on trying to run the ball up the hard fairway to reach the green in two shots.

That's when things went horribly wrong, leaving Fox Sports commentators Joe Buck and Greg Norman nearly speechless.

Woods' shot barely got off the ground, skipping off the fairway after about 15 yards and then just barely clearing the bunker right in front of him before settling into the second bunker.

Maybe more telling is the commentary by Buck and Norman.

Norman had more than his fair share of meltdowns at major championships and yet both he and Buck both sound embarrassed for Tiger, with Norman only saying, "I don't know what to say" and Buck noting how hard it is to watch.

The replay showed just how terrible the ball was coming off the club.

Tiger, who is often angry when he hits a bad shot, was not angry this time. Rather, he looked despondent.

Tiger's game is an absolute mess right now. But if there is a silver lining it is that Tiger has learned to take it in stride. Despite shooting 80+ for the third time this year, he still found time after the round to make a joke at playing partner Ricky Fowler's expense.

"The bright side is," Tiger told the media. "At least I kicked Ricky's butt today."

Woods shot 80. Fowler shot 81.

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Despite a career-worst US Open round that saw him involuntarily throw a club into the air, hit three-straight bunker shots, and straight-up top an approach shot directly into the ground, Tiger Woods was optimistic in his post-round news conference.

As Business Insider's Jay Yarow notes, there's an argument to be made that Tiger's game is going to be fine, even though it looks terrible right now.

After shooting an 80, Tiger more or less laid out this argument:

1. He's in the middle of a swing change. That means he's going to be bad now, but once he masters it he'll be okay. Here's what he said when asked if he thought he was on the right track with this new swing, "Yeah, I am, I am. I know when I do it right, it's so easy. It just feels easy to control, easy to do it, easy to hit all my shots. I just need to do it more often and build from there."

2. He has successfully changed his swing three times before. He developed new swings under coaches Butch Harmon, Hank Haney, Sean Foley, and now Chris Como. But this one is particularly tricky because the difference between his previous swing and his new one is greater than usual: "Going from [Haney] to [Foley in 2010] was similar because you're on your left leg. The bigger change was probably going from [Harmon] to [Haney in 2004], because I was on my right leg and I had to switch to my left leg, so that was a little bit different. But now we're trying to go back the other way, so it's — they're all not easy to do. I've gone through tough phases in each one of these things and I've come out okay on the other side."

3. He just needs reps. On top of all these swing change issues, Tiger has barely played golf because of the back surgery he had 16 months ago. He says at this point he just needs reps: "I haven't played enough. I haven't had a rhythm to play. I didn't play much last year and I haven't played much this year. Knee surgeries are pretty easy compared to a back surgery, the recovery time. And for some reason, it's just a lot harder dealing with a nerve than a joint."

Unless he has some sort of mental block (note: possible!) or he gets hurt again (note: even more possible!), there's no reason why Tiger can't, in time, master this new swing the way he mastered the others over the course of his career. This isn't a case of Tiger suddenly losing his golf game and not knowing how to get it back, it's a case of Tiger consciously breaking his golf game and thinking he can put it back together. You could say that's a dumb plan for a guy with his age and injury history, but at least there is a plan here.

While it feels like Tiger hasn't been good forever because he hasn't won a major in so long, it was just two years ago that he won five tournaments and was the No. 1-ranked player in the world. It's hard to see him ever becoming the dominant Tiger again, but becoming 2013 Tiger again is plausible.

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Cole Hammer became the surprise of the US Open by simply making it into the tournament. 

After shooting rounds of 64 and 68 and finishing with four birdies in his five final holes at a Dallas qualifier in June, the 15-year-old Hammer became the third-youngest player to ever qualify for the tournament.

After the first round of the US Open, Hammer is tied for 135th place at 7-over. It's not a great score, even on the challenging Chambers Bay course. But it's still three shots better than Tiger Woods, who had a career-worst day at the Open.

On the first tee, cameras caught Hammer seemingly overwhelmed by the moment, crouched down and looking emotional:

Afterward, Hammer told reporters he was just praying and taking in the moment. He "wasn't emotional or anything," he says:

"I was just praying. I always pray right before my round on the first tee. And so, yeah, that's all I was doing. I wasn't emotional or anything... I don't even know, I mean, I've never felt that feeling, for sure, it was so different. But I liked it. It was kind of a different like kind of a sweet feeling to have. But, yeah, I can't even describe it."

Hammer comes across as a wide-eyed, happy-to-be-here kid, but he has golfing maturity beyond his years and is only gaining more experience at the Open. According to ESPN's Jason Sobel, both of Hammer's parents are avid golfers, with multiple championships at their local country club, and Hammer himself has been golfing since he was two years old.

According to Helen Ross of PGATour.com, upon arriving at Chambers Bay, Hammer played 36 holes over the weekend, including nine with his idol, Jordan Spieth. Like Spieth, the Masters champion and one-time prodigy, Hammer is already committed to University of Texas.

Spieth recognized Hammer's talent and how vital the experience could be for him:

"He's getting better experience than I had at his age. He maybe didn't expect himself to be out here testing his game this soon, but it just shows how the game is growing, how much better it's getting at a young age, and Cole's the living image of it. And I'm interested to see how he does this week. I think with really no expectations, it could help him. And on a golf course like this, you just never know."

Pat Wilson, a 24-year-old golfer who shot +9 on the day, raved about Hammer's composure to ESPN's Ian O'Connor:

"I can't even imagine what I'd be doing at age 15 on a stage like this. I definitely wouldn't be able to hold it together like he did... I was nervous as hell on those first few holes, and Cole's composure was amazing. To hit it that far and straight at 15 is something, but I was really blown away by his maturity. I was like, 'Wow, this kid is really good.'"

As Spieth mentioned, the pressure is essentially off for Hammer — anything positive he does will be a surprise and any of his struggles will be considered learning experience. At the very least, finishing above Tiger Woods at his first PGA tournament would be a noteworthy accomplishment. 

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Warning: Spoiler Ahead

Earlier this month, NBC’s ProFootballTalk revealed that the NFL team uniforms featured in Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s upcoming HBO show “Ballers” are used without the consent of the league.

HBO’s reply to the story, and Business Insider, was that "HBO is always mindful of other intellectual property owners, but in this context there is no legal requirement to obtain their consent.”

It turns out that is 100% true, according to a prominent entertainment lawyer.

After speaking to entertainment lawyer Michael C. Donaldson, who has over 30 years of experience in copyright and entertainment issues, BI learned that as long as the use of the NFL trademark and team logos are used as it was intended to be used, and do not disparage or tarnish it, there is no need to ask for permission.

“[The NFL] brow beat a lot of people into paying fees that don’t have to be paid,” Donaldson told BI. “They extract those fees from filmmakers who are either nervous or not completely aware of their rights under the law.”

Donaldson gives this example in how to understand trademark law:

“It’s alright to say, ‘This Coca-Cola takes awful.’ You can say, ‘I hate Coca-Cola.’ What you can’t say is something that misrepresents it, such as you drink a Coke and you drop dead and someone says, ‘That happens all the time.’”

What causes the confusion, according to Donaldson, is what goes on at the networks. Because they air NFL games they have broadcast rights. You may notice the disclaimer during games that say in part, “…any pictures, descriptions, or accounts of the game without the NFL's consent is prohibited.”

“So people think, ‘Oh, the networks pay for the use of logos, obviously I have to,” Donaldson said.

That is completely different from trademark rights.

In the opening scene of "Ballers" we see Johnson’s character, Spencer Strassmore, having flashbacks from his days on the gridiron as a Miami Dolphin. He’s wearing a Dolphin’s uniform with its logo in plain view. He’s chasing down a Buffalo Bill quarterback, his helmet logo also clearly visible.

Donaldson said what the show is depicting is completely legal.

According to Donaldson’s partner at his practice, Chris Perez, the show can go even further and the NFL could still not have a case.

“One thing that we can say for sure about players in the NFL in the last few years is that fights happen on the field every so often and then they get broken up by referees or coaches," said Perez. “Players have engaged in domestic violence and then convicted of that, and NFL players have committed murder. So you can create a show that uses NFL logos and create a fiction situation where all of those things happen.”

Later in that episode, the show does depict a player in a negative light. Star receiver for the Green Bay Packers, Ricky Jarret (John David Washington), gets into an altercation with another man at a night club and beats him to the ground in front of everyone.

Though the NFL won’t like that scene, Perez says the show is within its right to have a scene like that.

“Where you can get into trouble,” Perez said, “is portraying how the NFL reacts to it. The response has to be consistent to how the NFL would react in real life.”

According to Donaldson, if there were a scene where someone playing the NFL commissioner held a press conference saying that the NFL wants their players to get into fights at bars, the show would “get into big trouble.”

Jarret's actions in the episode do not go unpunished. Following the altercation he is cut from the team (with the Packers logo in full view, we see the GM say “cut him.”).

The NFL had “no comment” for this story.

“Ballers” premieres on HBO on Sunday, June 21.

SEE ALSO: Twitter wanted to broadcast the first streaming-only NFL game, but lost to Yahoo's $20 million bid

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The 1996 Chicago Bulls are widely regarded as one of the best teams in sports history. They went 72-10 in the regular season and won the NBA title.

The roster featured three future Hall of Fame players (Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, and Dennis Rodman), a future Hall of Fame coach (Phil Jackson), and numerous All-Stars.

While many of the players are still involved in the basketball world, others have gone on to different things. One player has become a volleyball coach, another is a media personality, and one even makes frequent trips to North Korea.

Michael Jordan won regular season and NBA Finals MVP.

He now owns the Charlotte Hornets and is a billionaire.

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Luc Longley was the starting center.

TGIF! might be what's going through one cyclist's mind today after he avoided disaster in a fall at the Tour of Switzerland.

On Thursday's stage six, Czech rider Zdeněk Štybar slid out on a rain-slick road near the finish — then he went into an epic slide right at the head of the peloton for a good 40 feet or so:

His teammate Julien Vermote also went down, as did a few other riders.

All got up and continued the race, but several riders lost a bunch of time. "Vermote has abrasions on the right side of his body, while Štybar also has a few small abrasions," their Etixx-Quick-Step team said.

Štybar is one of the best bike handlers in cycling. He's a former BMX world champion and a former cyclocross world champion, and since he's dedicated himself to road racing, he's racked up big wins and was runner-up at the cobbled classic Paris-Roubaix this spring.

Some riders complained about the tricky finish, which would have been technical with its many turns even in dry conditions. Vermote was one of them:

 He ended up not starting the next stage:

A representative from one team criticized the finale too (via CyclingWeekly): 

“The stage was long, very wet, and especially dangerous in the finale. I don’t understand the attraction of having that type of final kilometer which must be delicately negotiated,” he said on the team website.

On Wednesday, Olympic medalist Lizzie Armitstead crashed hard after winning stage one of the Aviva tour in the UK and then a moment later running into photographers after the line.

Also this week, on Tuesday, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized Secretary of State John Kerry for cycling at age 72.

Kerry suffered a leg fracture after crashing while riding his bike in France a month ago.

SEE ALSO: A brutal photo of an American cyclist after he lost a weeklong race on the very last climb

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In an interview with The New York Times' Scott Cacciola, Phil Jackson tried to explain a heavily criticized tweet he sent during the NBA playoffs.

During the second round of the playoffs, Jackson, whose Twitter feed is an adventure unto itself, sent out this tweet:

Jackson appeared to be criticizing teams like the Golden State Warriors, Cleveland Cavaliers, Atlanta Hawks, and Houston Rockets, all of whom took a high volume of three-pointers in the regular season and were trailing their opponents in their respective series.

When Cacciola asked him about the tweet, Jackson explained his thinking, resulting in a puzzling, rambling answer:

Q.In the middle of the playoffs, you took to Twitter to ask N.B.A. analysts to give you “some diagnostics” on how 3-point-oriented teams were faring. It struck most as a criticism of teams like the Warriors who take a lot of 3-point shots. You asked, “How’s it goink?” What was that about?

JACKSON: They have all these analysts. I just wanted to see someone come back to me with statistics: Is 3-point shooting in the playoffs as consistent as it is in the regular season? Does your 3-point-shooting percentage change because you’re in the playoffs? No one figured that one out. And that’s probably me being obtuse to leave it open at the end. But “goink” is one of those New York expressions that we use, and I will tell you this: I learned something. Someone sent me the fact that if you look it up on Urban Dictionary, you’ll find out what it means in today’s society.

Cacciola continued and Jackson gave a brief explanation of the slang definition of "goink":

Q.So it wasn’t just a typo?

JACKSON: “Goink” is a castoff expression, right? Instead of, “How’s it going?,” it’s, “How’s it goink?” It turned out to be either a combination of a mixed ethnic group: part Korean, part Chinese. Or it’s a vernacular term for how do you deal with a sexual partner.

Q.That was not your intention though?

JACKSON: No, I had no idea.

When Jackson sent the tweet, the NBA world immediately criticized him:

Of course, the Cavs, Hawks, and Warriors all won those series, and the Warriors won the championship.

Later in May, after all of the criticism, Jackson sent out a few more thoughts on Twitter in an attempt to better explain himself:

Jackson is already criticized for pushing what many people feel is an outdated offensive system in the Triangle offense on the Knicks. Though Jackson, a more traditional basketball philosopher, is entitled to his opinion about the best methods of scoring, his explanation, particularly to what seems like a simple typo, has really only made him an easier target.

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Over the last few weeks undefeated boxers Andre Ward and Gennady Golovkin have traded barbs in an ongoing dispute over a possible fight.

The initial attacks began in February when Golovkin's trainer, Abel Sanchez, repeatedly called out Ward. He said Ward wouldn't last 12 rounds with Golovkin, and that he hasn't put in the effort needed to make the potential fight happen.

"Three years ago I said that nobody from 154 pounds to 168 pounds will go 12 rounds with Gennady, I say that now," Sanchez told FightHype’s Luis Sandoval. "Not even Andre Ward would go [12 rounds]. But Andre Ward’s got to call [Golovkin's promoter] Tom Loeffler, his people have got to call Tom Loeffler, make an offer. ... Make an offer then that way the fight will get made. You just keep talking it’s never going to get made."

Ward then responded with a full fledged rant in an interview with Boxing Scene's Rick Reeno, calling Golovkin and his camp liars and saying they're the ones that have been ducking and making countless excuses:

"Guys like [Carl] Froch, or even [Gennady] Golovkin, these guys have had at least eight or nine different excuses — from 'we'll fight everybody but him, we've got to build it up, he's scared, he's just talking.' It's just ridiculous...You can't come to my weight class and side-step me. Just because a trainer or a promoter says something, it doesn't make it true. ... All of the different narratives that they come up with, all of the different excuses and even lies they come up with — I am not going to get caught up in that and you are not going to hear me calling this guy's name no more."

Ward also insinuated that Golovkin is "begging" for a fight with Miguel Cotto or Canelo Alvarez because the two weigh much less than the current 172-pound Ward:

"He's going to cross his fingers that Canelo or Cotto take a fight with him. He's literally begging these guys, who are smaller guys, to step in the ring and fight with him, but you can't have this reputation that you want to claim without fighting the best."

When Golovkin was made aware of Ward's comments, he didn't hold back any punches in an interview with AllBoxing. While the interview was in Russian, SB nation has a translated copy of the transcript:

"Hey, Ward, wake up! Why are you talking trash about other people? Speak for yourself. If you're trying to make a name for yourself by mentioning me to build up your own fight, then be a man about it and tell the truth. At our meeting with HBO they asked us whether we are ready to box. You know our answers — I said yes, you said no. You said something about your shoulder or promoter — I'm not interested in the reason, I only heard your "no." But you remember that HBO said then that they would need a long time to build-up the fight. Then what the f--- are you talking about excuses?"

"If you do provocative attacks, do not even think that Loeffler [Gennady's K2 promoter] will buy into them. You haven't been interesting to anyone for a long time, so he will no longer engage in the promotion of your name. Go and build your own image. Although everyone already knows what you are, and because of this, they do not go to your fights."

"You shouldn't worry about who I'm going to box or have boxed. You, like the rest, were lucky with the 'Super Six' tournament because you got your opponents by contract. And who are you fighting now? The fourth-fifth ranked fighters in England. ... If I say that I'm ready to box any middleweight and ready to rise to 168 for a big fight, then I am responsible for the words. And I have nothing left to discuss with you. As a man, you are dead to me."

If these latest attacks are any indication, expect a heated bout between the two if they ever do manage to get into the ring together.

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In April, every MLB team is dreaming of October. After close to 70 games, many teams have given up on that dream and the good teams have separated themselves from the bad and the unlucky.

As we close in on the All-Star break, let's take a look at where all 30 teams stand after 11 weeks.

Using each team's actual performance, their expected performance, as well as their chances of making the playoffs according to PECOTA, here is how every team ranks so far.

1. St. Louis Cardinals

Record: 43-23

Expected Record*: 42-24

2015 Playoff chances (PECOTA): 94.0%

2015 Preseason projected wins (Fangraphs): 88

2015 Preseason projected wins (PECOTA): 87

What to know: The Cardinals now have to deal with the distraction of an FBI investigation into their front office.

*Using the difference between the number of runs scored and the number of runs given up, we calculated each team's Pythagorean Win Percentage which tells us how many games a team typically wins based on their run differential.

2. Los Angeles Dodgers

Record: 38-29

Expected Record: 40-27

2015 Playoff chances (PECOTA): 90.6%

2015 Preseason projected wins (Fangraphs): 91

2015 Preseason projected wins (PECOTA): 93

What to know: Clayton Kershaw, who struggled early in the year, is starting to show his Cy Young form, posting a 1.56 ERA over his last five starts with 49 strikeouts and just seven walks.

3. Pittsburgh Pirates

Record: 39-27

Expected Record: 41-25

2015 Playoff chances (PECOTA): 74.8%

2015 Preseason projected wins (Fangraphs): 85

2015 Preseason projected wins (PECOTA): 81

What to know: The Pirates have the second-best record in the National League, but are still 4.0 games back in the NL Central.

Rookie commissioner Rob Manfred has been proactive in speeding up the pace of play in Major League Baseball and the early signs are promising. On the other hand, Manfred has said he would rather see baseball's other problem fix itself, that is, the lack of scoring and home runs. It turns out, the early signs are promising here also.

As we near the halfway point of the season there are currently 10 players on pace to at least 40 home runs this year, led by Giancarlo Stanton who is on pace to hit 60, and an 11th player on pace to his 39.3. That is more than the last three seasons combined and comes just one year after there was just one such player, Nelson Cruz, who led of MLB with exactly 40.

What is even more exciting about this for MLB is that of the 11 players, five are 25 years old or younger, including Stanton (25), Bryce Harper (22), Mike Trout (23), Joc Pederson (23), and Nelson Arenado (24).

If MLB keeps up this pace, it will be the most players with 40+ home runs in a single season since the 1996-2006 era when players routinely hit 40+ home runs and may have had some pharmaceutical help doing so.

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