The beginning of the end for ’23-24 season

The spring honors and athletes of the year selections are alway a little weird. No matter how much the Daily Journal sports department — which is just myself and Terry Bernal — say we want to roll out the series a little earlier, it always seems like there are a bunch of loose ends we have to tie up and the next thing you, the Daily Journal’s Boys’ Swimmer of the Year doesn’t roll out until the beginning of July.

The spring season has the most sports of any of the three seasons in high school athletics: the fall season has the second most, while the winter season has the least number of sports offered.

Unlike all-league teams, we take into account a player’s entire season, which includes any playoffs. Sometimes, the selections are a slam dunk. Other times, there is some discussion and, in some cases, we end up settling on co-players of the year.

And occasionally we run into a situation when we’re set on one person, only to start looking at the numbers someone else has put up and now there is a discussion to be had.

And the athletes we select are so much more than simply taking the best player on the best team. While it sometimes works out that way, it’s not always an automatic selection.

While they’re all tremendous athletes, several of them have interesting background stories that show how they got here or how they had to overcome some kind of adversity to reach the heights they do.

So while you may not agree with all of our selections, just know that everyone of them is deserving.

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Well, the first domino in the post “Big Three” era for the Golden State Warriors just fell, as Klay Thompson’s tenure with the team is done after he signed a free-agent contract with the Dallas Mavericks.

Thank goodness. Does this mean sports-talk radio can turn attention to other sports now? For the last month, that’s all anyone on the radio has been talking about. At least now we know what his future holds.

He reportedly signed a three-year, $50 million contract with Dallas, which works out to just under $17 million per year. He reportedly turned down a two-year, $48 million contract with the Warriors last offseason.

Sure does seem like he wanted out. Around $17 million a year is not that much for a player of Thompson’s caliber and it almost seems like a spite move because the Warriors didn’t fawn over Thompson like they did Draymond Green last offseason before signing him to a $100 million, four-year extension.

What gets me in the “I thought it was never going to end” mentality I’ve seen on social media. Of course it was going to end. It always ends. Only Father Time is undefeated.

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There are a lot of exciting plays in sports: a walk-off home run, a Hail Mary for a touchdown, a buzzer-beating jump shot, or an overtime hockey goal.

But nothing can top a late goal in a major soccer tournament and, with the European Championship and Copa America tournaments being played concurrently, there has been plenty of opportunity for memorable goals.

First, it was Italy’s Mattia Zaccagni’s stoppage-time strike a week ago that forged a 1-1 tie with Croatia in their final group-stage game on the game’s final kick which sent the Azzuri into the knockout round.

But that goal was usurped by Jude Bellingham’s cracker of a goal in England’s 2-1 extra-time win over Slovakia in the round of 16 Sunday.

England, trailing 1-o for most of the match, showed no urgency and no passion and were staring at a deserved 1-0 loss to a side that is ranked No. 45 in the world by FIFA — 40 spots below England.

But Slovakia couldn’t close out England, thanks in part to one of the best goals you’ll ever see. Off a corner kick, the ball eventually fell to Bellingham. With his back to the goal, he kicked the ball over his head and backward — channeling the late, Brazilian great Pele — to draw England even with about a minute left in stoppage time. England them scored what turned out to the game-winner just minutes into overtime.

Nathan Mollat can be reached by email: nathan@smdailyjournal.com.