At a time when the NBA appears to be looking for a new face, Anthony Edwards is staking his claim.

Edwards and the Timberwolves eliminated the Warriors in five games Wednesday, the first time in franchise history that the team has made consecutive Western Conference finals appearances.

Before knocking out Steph Curry and the Warriors, Edwards & Co. eliminated LeBron James and the Lakers. (Curry missed the final four games after going down with a hamstring injury in Game 1.)

For the NBA, the loss of James and Curry may lead to some short-term viewership dips. The most-watched game of the playoffs so far was Game 4 of the first-round series between the T-Wolves and James’s Lakers, while the final game of the Warriors’ seven-game gauntlet with the Rockets was the most-watched game on cable this year. 

But Edwards’s moniker as The King Slayer, as Adidas put it, places him in a position to take the mantle from James and Curry, who, despite being two of the league’s oldest stars, are still its most popular players. 

The 23-year-old’s profile grew last year after he led the Wolves to their first playoff series win since 2004, then eliminated the defending champion Nuggets. He was seventh in jersey sales this year, and second among those still active in the playoffs (behind Jalen Brunson). 

This year, however, he has the chance to advance even further while also eliminating an NBA MVP in every round through the Western Conference. A trip to the conference finals awaits either against three-time MVP Nikola Jokić and the Nuggets or the likely 2025 MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the 68-win Thunder. 

“We just got here. We haven’t [done] anything yet.” Edwards said Wednesday. 

What’s Next for Golden State?

The Warriors extended their competitive timeline by acquiring Jimmy Butler in February, then signing him to a two-year, $121 million extension. But it also tied the team to an aging trio of Curry (37), Butler (36 in September), and Draymond Green (35) for at least another year.

Golden State has about $140 million tied to the trio next year, but its supporting cast could look quite different as it has just six players on fully guaranteed deals. Its options to acquire talent include the non-taxpayer mid-level exception, worth about $14.1 million per year, the biannual exception worth about $5.1 million, and the 41st pick in the 2025 draft.

The NFL schedule release video arms race has finally drawn blood. The Colts deleted theirs Wednesday night and issued an apology after the Minecraft-themed compilation went a little too far in its digs at teams.

The video opened with a dolphin jumping in the water with the name “Hill” wearing a No. 10 Miami jersey being apprehended by the Coast Guard. Police pulled Hill over for speeding on his way to the Dolphins’ home opener last season that led to officers pulling him from his car, pinning him to the ground, and handcuffing him.

“We removed our schedule release video because it exceeded our rights with Microsoft and included an insensitive clip involving Dolphins wide receiver Tyreek Hill,” the Colts said in a statement to Front Office Sports and other outlets. “We sincerely apologize to Microsoft and Tyreek.” 

Hill says he wasn’t offended. “Should have left it up,” he wrote in a post tagging the Colts. “This was funny.”

The apology to Microsoft, which bought Minecraft in 2014, is particularly noteworthy given that the Colts weren’t the only team to distribute a Minecraft-themed release. The Chargers, one of the most notorious teams in the age of clever schedule release videos, also based their release on Minecraft, though their video was two minutes longer and had more complex designs than the Colts’ release.

The Chargers’ video opened with a disclaimer that the following scenes would not be “available in-game,” and that their Minecraft theme was “used with permission from Microsoft.” The Colts’ video contained no such wording.

A spokesperson for the Chargers said the team worked with Microsoft ahead of the schedule release, and needed to make clear in the disclaimer that the video was for entertainment purposes only. The Chargers didn’t know another team was going to use a Minecraft theme, they said.

Both the Chargers and Colts referenced the infamous fight at a Starbucks between NFL reporters Ian Rapoport and Jordan Schultz.

NFL teams do not have to clear their schedule release videos with the league office before posting them, a league spokesperson confirmed.

The Colts also did a collaboration with popular account NBA Paint to announce each game in a series of simply doodled posts.

Elaborate schedule release videos have become an NFL staple, with the ante upped by the viral popularity of the Titans’ 2023 video recorded on Nashville’s Broadway.

This year, videos ranged from Dave Portnoy making digs at Tom Brady’s Raiders ownership and media gig in the Patriots’ video to Cleveland releasing an odd video of Brownie the Elf using magical powers to control time and reveal opposing teams.

The Colts’ video also showed Patrick Mahomes—depicted as a frog to reference jokes that his voice sounds like the Muppets’ Kermit—breaking up a fight between his father Patrick Mahomes Sr. and former MLB player John Rocker. It also pins Cardinals quarterback Kyler Murray as a “chicken jockey,” a joke poking fun at the quarterback’s height and referencing a moment from the game that surged in popularity with A Minecraft Movie. 

CHARLOTTE — The merchandise store at the PGA Championship won’t be confused for—or sell as much as—the famous Masters golf shop at Augusta National. But the 50,000-square-foot temporary structure built just off the first hole at Quail Hollow Club is humming this week.

While there aren’t any garden gnomes or $500 teddy bears for sale, the fun fact of the week is that the merch store, officially known as the PGA Shops, sells 20 hats per minute. That’s 1,200 hats an hour, and well over 10,000 on any given day. The total will easily surpass 50,000 by the end of the week.

Local-themed merch is turning out to be extremely popular, with many fans grabbing up and sporting the trendy large block-letter-style hats featuring inscriptions like CLT, 704 (the city’s area code), and QUAIL. 

With no fans allowed at Monday’s practice round and more inclement weather Tuesday, no PGA Championship merch sales records will be set this week, but there are more options than ever. 

More than 50 brands and 1,200 different logoed items are available for purchase. Men’s apparel accounts for roughly 70% of the offerings, and women’s 30%, which officials said lines up with typical sales at large events run by the PGA of America.

Nike is running a DJ booth at the front of the store (one of the perks of being the “official outfitter” of the PGA Championship), which has a big section of gear from the Swoosh as fans walk in.

For fans not at the course, PGA Championship organizers for the first time built an off-site pop-up merch shop in uptown Charlotte that’s open throughout the tournament.