Hawks’ John Collins Masterfully Trolls Joel Embiid, Sixers: TRAINA THOUGHTS

1. This is how you troll. This is how you flex. This is how you taunt.

Hawks forward John Collins posterized Joel Embiid on a thrilling alley-oop during Atlanta’s Game 6 loss to Philly on Friday.

Obviously, Collins couldn’t really celebrate the dunk Friday since his team lost, but it was a whole different story Sunday after the Hawks eliminated the Sixers in Game 7.

After scoring 14 points and grabbing 16 rebounds in Atlanta’s 103–96 win, Collins showed up to his postgame press conference wearing a shirt that featured the image of him dunking over Embiid.

There has been one tiny problem with the Collins troll job. British rower, John Collins, who competed in the 2016 Olympics, keeps getting tagged in tweets for the Hawks’ John Collins.

To his credit, he is having fun with the whole thing.

So we need to give props to Collins (the basketball player) for the awesome shirt and Collins (the rower) for embracing the case of mistaken identity.

2. The latest episode of the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast features an interview with my colleague Jon Wertheim.

Wertheim has a new book out, Glory Days: The Summer of 1984 and the 90 Days That Changed Sports and Culture Forever. During the podcast, we discussed several topics covered in the book including the animosity-filled relationship between Bobby Knight and Charles Barkley, the NBA Finals between the Celtics and Lakers that saw a referee pass out because of the oppressive heat inside Boston Garden, Donald Trump destroying the USFL and much more.

Wertheim also talks about David Stern and Vince McMahon's recognizing the importance of cable back in 1984 and explains how Cyndi Lauper's involvement in the then WWF led to the birth of WrestleMania. Other events from '84 that we discussed on the podcast include the release of The Karate Kid, Michael Jackson's Victory Tour and more.

Following Wertheim, we debut a new Traina Thoughts segment for the podcast.

You can listen to the podcast below or download it on Apple, Spotify and Stitcher.

3. The Ted Lasso Season 2 trailer dropped this morning. The show returns to Apple TV+ on July 23.

4. I'm not going to get into a whole thing about the vaccine and people who don't get vaccinated, etc.

But I will say this: "Everybody is so all-in on science now" has to be one of the stupidest things I've ever heard an athlete say (or write, to be more accurate).

5. Shohei Ohtani is on an absurd run.

Here are the four home runs he hit this weekend.

Sunday

Saturday

Friday

6. We recently told you about the family situation involving CBS's Boomer Esiason. If you recall, Esiason's son, Gunnar, was set to get married this past Saturday. His brother-in-law, Matt Martin, of the Islanders, had to miss the festivities because he was playing in Game 4 of the Eastern Conference finals that night.

The story ended up taking a couple of amazing twists. Martin scored the game-winning goal in New York's 3–2 win over the Lightning, and Gunnar announced he is going to become a father.

7. RANDOM VIDEO OF THE DAY: Props to this creative TikToker. 

Be sure to catch up on past editions of Traina Thoughts and check out the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast hosted by Jimmy Traina on Apple, Spotify or Stitcher. You can also follow Jimmy on Twitter and Instagram.