Yahoo Sports AM: The PGA Tour's billion-dollar investment - Yahoo Sports

In today's edition: The PGA Tour's huge cash infusion, "Behind the Lens" with Getty Images, the man coaching two teams at once and more. The PGA Tour has secured a $3 billion investment from a consortium of American sports titans, potentially indicating its intention to abandon its merger with LIV Golf. The investment, which will start at $1.5 billion and potentially increase to $3bn, will give Strategic Sports Group a minority stake in PGA Tournament Enterprises, a new for-profit entity that will manage the Tour's commercial interests. Players have also been promised an equity stake in this new venture, a first among major U.S. sports leagues. Cristiano Ronaldo will not play in a friendly match between Al-Nassr and Lionel Messi in Saudi Arabia. The Seattle Seahawks have announced the hiring of Ravens DC Mike Macdonald as their new head coach. The NBA draft will expand to two nights in 2024.

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In today's edition: The PGA Tour's huge cash infusion, "Behind the Lens" with Getty Images, the man coaching two teams at once and more.

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⚽️ The "Last Dance" is off: Cristiano Ronaldo (calf injury) will miss Al-Nassr's friendly against Inter Miami and Lionel Messi today in Saudi Arabia, which was being marketed as the final meeting between the two legends. If that's the end, what a rivalry it was.

🏈 Seattle's new head coach: The Seahawks are hiring Ravens DC Mike Macdonald. At 36, he'll be the NFL's youngest head coach and is half the age of the man he's replacing, Pete Carroll.

🏀 NBA draft expands: The 2024 NBA draft will expand to two nights (from the traditional one-night event), with Round 1 on Wednesday, June 26 and Round 2 on Thursday, June 27.

⚾️ O's ownership update: Cal Ripken Jr., Grant Hill, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg (who went to Johns Hopkins) and former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke are part of the investor group that has agreed to buy the Orioles.

🏀 NBA returns: Damian Lillard received a raucous standing ovation in his return to Portland, and Kevin Durant got a video tribute (that he specifically said he didn't want) in his return to Brooklyn.

The PGA Tour has secured up to a $3 billion investment from a consortium of American sports titans — a move that could signal its intention to back away from the unpopular merger with LIV Golf, Jeff writes.

Details: Strategic Sports Group, which includes the owners of the Mets (Steve Cohen), Red Sox (John Henry), Falcons (Arthur Blank) and Celtics (Wyc Grousbeck), among others, is behind the investment, which will begin at $1.5 billion and could eventually increase to as much as $3 billion.

• None The deal will give SSG a minority stake in PGA Tour Enterprises, a new for-profit entity that will manage the commercial interests of the Tour, which operates as a nonprofit.

• None Players have also been promised an equity stake in this new venture, which would be a first among major U.S. sports leagues, notes the Washington Post.

Of note: The Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund is not involved — at least not yet. The SSG deal reportedly allows for the PIF (the money behind LIV) to become co-investors in the future.

The backdrop: The seeds of this deal were technically sown during last summer's bombshell merger between the PIF and PGA Tour, which decided to join forces with its rival's backer after acknowledging it couldn't compete financially with them.

• None But that merger received immediate backlash, not the least of which came from lawmakers concerned with potential antitrust violations, and the two sides have already blown past their initially agreed-upon timeframe to finalize the deal (Dec. 31).

• None Now, this infusion of American cash at the very least gives the PGA Tour leverage in its negotiations with the Saudis, and could ultimately result in them backing out of the merger entirely. "I don’t think it's needed," Jordan Spieth told reporters on Wednesday.

What to watch: PGA Tour purses have already exploded in an effort to keep players from going to LIV. With this influx of capital, $20 million marquee events could become the norm. But will that be enough to stem the tide of LIV defectors chasing higher guaranteed paydays?

Coming up: The PGA Tour is in Northern California this week for the Pebble Beach Pro-Am, while LIV is in Playa del Carmen, Mexico, for the first event of the season.

Each week, we go "Behind the Lens" with Getty Images to get the backstory on the best photographs in sports.

‌This week's photo: Rockets rookie Cam Whitmore dunks against the Nets during their game at Barclays Center on January 27.

Behind the lens: My first question when I saw this photo was, "How?" Here's Al's answer…

For this photo, I was looking for an angle that was different from floor level, so I decided to hang a remote camera in the roof of the building overlooking one of the baskets. I used a Canon 1DX Mark III combined with a 400 mm lens.

The camera was double clamped with safety cables and support straps, and I framed it before the game and focused manually. I added a radio receiver, allowing me to trigger the camera from my floor position during the game. The camera was set to fire whenever I pressed the button.

🏀 Meet the man coaching two teams at once

LSU Shreveport's Kyle Blankenship has both the men's and women's basketball teams in postseason contention.

Only a few months ago, LSU Shreveport athletic director Lucas Morgan approached his men's basketball coach with an audacious plea. Morgan asked Kyle Blankenship if he'd be willing to take on the challenge of also coaching the school's women's basketball team this season.

That wasn't a request Morgan ever expected to make, but these were desperate circumstances. LSU Shreveport's previous women's basketball coach had just abruptly resigned a little over two weeks before the team's Oct. 27 season opener to tend to a family situation.

Morgan didn't think he had time to conduct an external search for a replacement, nor did he feel the team's 27-year-old assistant coach was ready to take over. As a result, he turned to Blankenship, the trusted men's coach who had guided LSU Shreveport to the NAIA national tournament in each of his first 11 seasons.

At first, Blankenship was hesitant. He wanted to help the women's players whose coach had just abandoned them, but he worried that he'd miss too many practices and games as a result of scheduling conflicts. He didn't see how he could coach two teams at the same time without leaving at least one feeling shortchanged.

Blankenship began to reconsider after Morgan returned with printouts of both teams' 2023-24 schedules. Morgan showed him there was only one day when the men's and women's teams played simultaneously in different states and an assistant would have to coach the women in Blankenship's absence.

Blankenship, 40, called his wife Alexis to get her opinion. "Let's do it," she told him. "I trust you, and I know you're capable."

The three-and-a-half months since Blankenship took on double duty have been some of the most taxing yet rewarding of his coaching career. Fueled by a mix of stubborn determination, encouragement from loved ones and excessive caffeine, Blankenship is thriving in a dual role few other college coaches have ever attempted.

The results so far: The women's team is 17-2 and sits atop the Red River Athletic Conference. The men's team is 15-4 and one of four teams still in striking distance of an RRAC title.

What he's saying: "I had a lot of people tell me I was crazy when I did this, and I would say they're probably right," Blankenship told Yahoo Sports. "But any challenge that is put in front of me, I want to always try to do my best, have fun while I'm doing it and never quit. That's the mindset I've tried to take."

USMNT midfielder Gio Reyna is headed to Nottingham Forest on loan from German club Borussia Dortmund, Jeff writes.

Americans in England: Reyna is the third USMNT player on Nottingham Forest and the eighth in the Premier League.

Elsewhere: 17 other USMNT players are on top-flight clubs across Europe…

Captain America shoutout: Pulisic, the USMNT's best player, is also having the best club season of the bunch, with seven goals and five assists in 28 matches for Milan.

Evanston, Illinois — Fans packed into a sold-out Welsh-Ryan Arena on Wednesday to see one person: Caitlin Clark. The Iowa superstar delivered, scoring 35 points to lead the Hawkeyes to a 110-73 win over Northwestern and move to No. 2 on the all-time scoring list.

Lexington, Kentucky — Florida beat No. 10 Kentucky, 94-91 (OT), on Tuesday to hand the Wildcats their second loss in three games. If the Gators end up making the NCAA Tournament as a bubble team, this will be the game that gets them in.

Detroit — The Senators beat the Red Wings, 3-2 (OT), on the final night of NHL action before the All-Star break. Photo of the night? Ottawa's Mathieu Joseph giving a puck to a young Red Wings fan during warm ups. You love to see it.

Mobile, Alabama — Practices are underway ahead of Saturday's Senior Bowl. Some notable QBs playing in the annual showcase: Washington's Michael Penix Jr., Oregon's Bo Nix, Notre Dame's Sam Hartman, South Carolina's Spencer Rattler and Tennessee's Joe Milton.

20 years ago today, Justin Timberlake exposed Janet Jackson's nipple at the end of their Super Bowl Halftime Show performance in the most infamous wardrobe malfunction since "The Emperor's New Clothes," Jeff writes.

What happened: Jackson and her stylist allegedly came up with a costume stunt wherein Timberlake would rip off her shirt to reveal a lacy red bustier. But with no time to rehearse, they ended up flashing nearly 150 million people instead.