After NBC got the chance to break the news of an incredibly tight NBA Rookie of the Year win by Dallas’ Cooper Flagg on Monday night, Carmelo Anthony took the opportunity to revisit one of the league’s most ridiculous stories of the past year.

That would be the rise and fall of Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, the galaxy-brained architect of the trade that sent franchise cornerstone Luka Dončić to the Lakers — widely regarded as one of the most lopsided trades in sports history.

Given the national profile of Dončić, who at the time he was traded was coming off his first NBA Finals appearance, and the constant spotlight on the Lakers, NBA media has churned through numerous news cycles around the trade in the year since it happened. Once Dallas lucked into (or, if you prefer conspiracies, was given) the No. 1 overall pick in the following draft and selected Flagg, some in the media began to turn back to Harrison’s side.

Of course, the Mavericks remained a mess behind the scenes and sucked for most of Flagg’s rookie season. So even as some commentators attempted to spin the story to give Harrison more credit, the team fired him.

Which made it all the more bizarre when Anthony, in celebrating Flagg’s closely contested ROY win on national television, chose to once again heap praise on Harrison.

“Shout out to Nico Harrison, man,” Anthony said. “For seeing this right here, for understanding this vision. No matter what happened, how it happened, Dallas got something back. They got the No. 1 pick.”

“You start talking about Cooper’s ceiling and a young face of this league in the NBA, that’s Cooper Flagg.”

Carmelo Anthony shouts out Nico Harrison for Cooper Flagg winning ROY

“Shout out to Nico Harrison for seeing this right here. For understanding his vision. Whatever happened or how it happened, Dallas got something back. They got the #1 pick and a rookie who led the squad in… pic.twitter.com/Bg9qyrANsv

— NBA Courtside (@NBA__Courtside) April 27, 2026

It’s one thing to defend Harrison, as some in the media have, after seeing Doncic continue to struggle with his conditioning or commitment to defense in L.A.

It is another for Anthony to credit him for “vision” when it comes to Flagg and claim that “they got something back” in relation to the Dončić trade. The whole reason the Dončić trade was considered such a disaster for the Mavericks is that they got so little back. The pick that became Flagg did not come back in that deal; Dallas entered lottery night in 2025 with a 1.8 percent chance at the top selection and miraculously came away with the right to pick Flagg.

Either Anthony completely forgot the details of how Dallas came to pick Flagg during a segment coronating the star rookie, or he genuinely wants to give Harrison credit for the way the ping-pong balls fell at the lottery.

Regardless of how a viewer might have parsed Anthony’s praise for the ousted GM, the audible laughter that came from Anthony’s fellow NBC panelists as he argued on Harrison’s behalf is all you need to see just how preposterous the take was.

The post Carmelo Anthony wants Nico Harrison to get credit for Cooper Flagg’s Rookie of the Year win appeared first on Awful Announcing.

A fixture of NBC’s horse racing coverage will be calling it a career after this year’s Triple Crown.

NBC Sports’ on-track horse racing reporter Donna Brothers will retire following the Preakness Stakes next month, making this Saturday’s Kentucky Derby her 26th and final, according to a report by Richard Deitsch in Sports Business Journal.

Most will know Brothers from her iconic interviews on horseback with winning jockeys immediately following the completion of a race. Deitsch notes that it was Brothers who interviewed Triple Crown-winning jockeys Victor Espinoza (American Pharoah) and Mike Smith (Justify) following the Belmont Stakes in 2015 and 2018, respectively. Brothers is the only member of NBC’s Kentucky Derby crew to have worked every single Derby since the network gained rights to the event in 2001.

“It’s been 26 years and it has been such a fun ride,” Brothers told Sports Business Journal. “I’m really grateful for every bit of it.”

In addition to working the Triple Crown, Brothers has covered Breeders’ Cup World Championships and the World Equestrian Games for NBC Sports.

“When I started covering horse racing for NBC Sports, I had just stopped riding three years prior. I retired from professional riding in 1998, then started working for NBC in 2000. I don’t want to be there so long that all the jockeys on the racetrack never rode with me and didn’t know me as a jockey. I think it’s just time to pass the baton,” she said of her decision to retire after the Preakness.

Brothers’ role on the Derby is perhaps the most important on-air position aside from that of Larry Collmus, the longtime race caller for NBC’s Triple Crown coverage. The post-race horseback interview is a staple of any major horse racing event, and is a moment that often creates lasting memories for viewers who are eager to hear from the winning jockey. With NBC locked into a rights deal for the Kentucky Derby through 2032, the network should have ample opportunity to develop another on-track reporter to fill Brothers’ stirrups, perhaps for another 26 years.

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