Enjoy!<\/p>\n
July 1 isn\u2019t just Canada Day; it\u2019s a massive date in the NBA and NHL. Free agency kicks off in both leagues \u2013 with NHLers able to actually finalize deals \u2013 and NHL general managers are wasting no time making moves already.<\/p>\n
NHL news: Leafs acquire Kris Versteeg in five-player swap<\/strong><\/p>\n The Blackhawks needed to shed salary on Free Agency Eve; the Leafs needed a top-six forward. Both teams were thus a natural fit for a deal last night. Toronto shipped youngsters Viktor Stolberg, Philippe Parades, and Chris DiDomenico to Chicago for Kris Versteeg and Bill sweat. Versteeg, the key to the trade, has two 20-goal seasons under his belt at age 24.<\/p>\n Stay tuned for more free agency news on Friday.<\/p>\n NBA news: Cavaliers will hire Byron Scott; Heat to meet with Amare Stoudemire<\/strong><\/p>\n Byron Scott, who guided Jason Kidd\u2019s New Jersey Nets to the NBA Finals eight years ago, has confirmed the rumors and officially signed a three-year deal to coach the Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n Now, the juicy stuff: free agency. The NBA is a bit different than the NHL in that, while free agency does start July 1, players can\u2019t finalize deals for two more weeks. So we can expect fewer fireworks from the basketball side tomorrow in terms of actual deals but plenty of rumors as the team visits begin.<\/p>\n Though some sources are suggesting Chris Bosh has already completed a sign-and-trade to join the Miami Heat, other sources say Amare Stoudemire and Carlos Boozer are competing with him for the right to join Dwyane Wade on the team. Indirectly, these rumors tell us D-Wade is almost certainly sticking with his team. <\/strong><\/span> The Mavericks and Hawks are working hard to retain their departing stars. The Mavs are reportedly close to re-signing Dirk Nowitzki and Atlanta may even be having luck keeping Joe Johnson \u2013 albeit with a massive contract offer.<\/p>\n MLB news: Giants trade Bengie Molina to Texas<\/strong><\/p>\n The Rangers are looking more serious by the day \u2013 especially with both Vladdy Guerrero and Josh Hamilton pushing hard to win the American League Triple Crown. One hole on their roster was at catcher and they did well to fill it on Wednesday, acquiring veteran bat Bengie Molina from the Giants for reliever Chris Ray and a player to be named.<\/p>\n The move may seem strange on the Giants\u2019 side but it\u2019s intended to free up playing time for blue-chipper Buster Posey behind the plate.<\/p>\n NFL news: Randal Cunningham\u2019s son dies in hot tub accident<\/strong><\/p>\n Tragedy has struck former NFL quarterback Randall Cunningham and his family. Cunningham, now 47 years old and an ordained minister, was out of town when his two-year-old son was found unconscious in his hot tub. The adult who was minding him couldn\u2019t resuscitate him and he was pronounced dead less than an hour later.<\/p>\n Keep the Cunningham family in your thoughts and prayers this week. Or hearts go out to them.<\/p>\n <\/strong> Sports water cooler headlines and sports gossip for Thursday July 1st, 2010. Shea Matthews weighs in with his analysis and opinions on today\u2019s sports action\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":68,"featured_media":23759,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1141],"tags":[30779,20762,23186,30845,158,30851,24704,5296,30850,30846,28800,28143,8803,29921,25169,30847,4113,2765,22116,30777,5067,66502,12525,839,3971,30849,30843,12676,1157,22112,30709,22678,30848,30844,30781,29923],"class_list":["post-23758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-2010-nba-free-agents","tag-2010-world-cup","tag-amare-stoudemire","tag-bengie-molina","tag-bet-on-sports","tag-bill-sweat","tag-carlos-boozer","tag-chris-bosh","tag-chris-didomenico","tag-chris-ray","tag-dwyane-wade","tag-fifa-world-cup","tag-hawks","tag-jason-kidd","tag-josh-hamilton","tag-kris-versteeg","tag-mavericks","tag-miami-heat","tag-mlb-news","tag-nba-free-agency","tag-new-jersey-nets","tag-nfl","tag-nfl-headlines","tag-nfl-news","tag-nhl-news","tag-philippe-parades","tag-randal-cunningham","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports-handicapping","tag-sports-headlines","tag-tennis-news","tag-todays-sports-headlines","tag-viktor-stolberg","tag-vladd-guerrero","tag-wimbledon","tag-world-cup-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/68"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23758"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108713,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23758\/revisions\/108713"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.capperspicks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/kris-versteeg-150x150.jpg\")
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\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"