Think Like a Point Guard 👉💂
Smallball’s back!
And today, we’ve got a post packed with basketball, football, and the Winter Olympics.
So, what’s with the title?
Guess you’ll have to keep reading! Starting with the…
NBA 🏀⛹️♂️
Best game: You’d expect the 31-17 Rockets to easily handle the 13-37 Pacers, right?
And with a 63-56 halftime lead, it seemed like Houston was pulling away.
🎥 But check out these second half highlights!
Alperen Şengün: not a point guard! (Also not an All Star! More on that in a moment…)
But he had 39 points and 16 rebounds, and led Houston to a close win!
Wildest play: Since they’re from the same game, let’s pick two!
Timberwolves vs. Grizzlies.
🎥 For Minnesota, here’s Ant somehow getting it to go!
🎥 And for Memphis, two of GG Jackson’s 16 points off the bench!
The better play? You decide.
The winning team? Memphis with the upset, 137-128.
Biggest news: A few weeks ago, we learned the 10 players who were voted All-Star Game starters.
Now, we know the 14 other All Stars. Here’s the rest of the West:
And the East:
🧠 Want to play a quick game?
Of the 30 NBA teams, how many have multiple players on the All Star roster? Drop your answer in the comments! 💭
Now, let’s move on to…
Unrivaled 🏀⛹️♀️
Remember Unrivaled?
We learned about the new, player-led 3-on-3 league in a post last year:
Unrivaled was born from a simple idea:
What if WNBA players didn’t have to fly far from home just to keep playing and take care of their families?
For years, most WNBA players couldn’t rely on their WNBA jobs alone to support themselves or their families. So after the W season ended, many had to go play overseas in places like Turkey, Russia, or Australia.
Co-founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart, Unrivaled was built by players, for players… with better pay, better support, and more say in how things work.
The league features fast-paced, full-court action with star-studded teams, vibrant visuals, and a family-first setup that includes things like on-site childcare. The vibe? Part playground, part pro league, and 100% thrilling.
And now, the 2026 season is underway!
Over the next month, 48 players on 8 teams will compete for a championship.
Last Friday, the Breeze played the Phantom in Philadelphia.
And the 21,490 fans who attended made it the largest crowd for a women’s regular season basketball game…ever.
Also amazing: the fourth quarter drama!
Here’s how it works:
The first three quarters are seven minutes each.
After the end of the third quarter, the leading team’s score plus 11 points becomes the “winning score.”
There’s no clock in the fourth quarter, and the first team to reach the winning score wins.
Want to see what it looks like?
🎥 Here’s Breeze vs. Phantom in front of the record crowd!
That game-winning bucket?
Phantom’s Kelsey Plum.
Point guard. 👉💂
But how will we talk about point guards in the…
NFL 🏈👔
Good question!
The Super Bowl is on Sunday, and we’ll have a preview on Friday.
You know it’s Patriots vs. Seahawks. Drake Maye vs. Sam Darnold.
But did you know one of Darnold’s secrets to success?
Thinking like a point guard. 👉💂
Here’s part of an article in The Athletic:
When Sam Darnold arrived in San Francisco before the 2023 season, his NFL career was at a crossroads. The third pick in 2018, he had washed out [with] the New York Jets and spent two unsatisfying seasons with the Carolina Panthers. His career opportunities drying up, he signed with the 49ers to back up Brock Purdy, a quarterback whose path resembled his polar opposite.
The last pick of the 2022 draft, Purdy’s career had unfolded like a fairy tale — an unlikely trip to the NFC Championship in Year 1, a Super Bowl appearance in Year 2. Listed at a generous 6 feet 1 and athletically nondescript, Purdy was perpetually overlooked and consistently successful, and at some point during the 2023 season, he shared a piece of advice that lodged itself in Darnold’s brain.
One secret to playing quarterback in the NFL was to think like a point guard, to put the ball in the hands of your playmakers and set up others to have success.
“Like, my job is just to play point and get the ball in their hands and let them go do great things with the rock,” Darnold told reporters in March, relaying the message. “When I changed my thought process as a quarterback to kind of just getting the ball in my guys’ hands, that’s really where it unlocked for me.”
It might sound like Purdy was arguing for a change in style. But rather he was outlining a shift in mindset, a mental trick to simplify the position, an idea that can be expanded beyond the sports realm — the power of the point-guard mentality.
The argument: When people stop thinking of themselves as the hero in their personal narrative — and instead focus on how they can set up others — their own performance can benefit.
For Darnold, the change in mentality was a catalyst for a breakout season in Minnesota in 2024 — where he threw for 35 touchdowns and won 14 games — and another excellent season for the Seattle Seahawks, where he again won 14 games...
Think like a point guard.
It’s an easy metaphor. The point guard requires vision, selflessness and tactical awareness. They are, by positional requirement, facilitators and distributors, often asked to see the whole floor and initiate the action. But they don’t have to do it all; they just have to put others in a place to succeed.
So, the next time you’ve got a basketball or football in your hands or soccer ball at your feet…
Try thinking: how can I help my teammates score?
Now, let’s pass the mic over to the…
Winter Olympics ⛷️⛸️
🎥 This should tell you everything you need to know!
Wait…
That didn’t tell me anything!
Okay, here goes…
Ready to watch the best snow and ice athletes on the planet? The 2026 Winter Olympics are here! ❄️🏅
Where and When? 📍
Location: Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy (plus a few other locations in betewen)
This is the first time ever that two cities are co-hosting the Olympics together. Milan is a huge city famous for fashion and soccer. Cortina is a small mountain town in the Alps that’s perfect for skiing.
Dates: February 6–22, 2026
Opening ceremony: San Siro Stadium in Milan. That’s the home stadium for two famous Italian soccer clubs: AC Milan and Inter Milan.
Closing ceremony: The Verona Arena. It’s an ancient Roman amphitheater that’s almost 2,000 years old.
By the Numbers 🔢
116 medal events (the most ever at a Winter Olympics!)
16 different sports
Nearly 3,000 athletes
93 countries
15 venues spread across four main areas
47% of athletes are women (the most balanced Winter Olympics in history)
What Sports Can You Watch? 🎿⛸️
The 16 sports include classics like figure skating, ice hockey, skiing, and snowboarding.
But also…
Ski mountaineering is making its Olympic debut! What’s that?
Oh, just athletes race up and down mountains, switching between skiing and running on foot.
🎥 It looks exhausting. (And awesome.)
Other new events this year include women’s large hill ski jumping, women’s doubles luge, and mixed team skeleton.
What About the Point Guard? 👉💂
Meet Brittany Bowe.
She’s a two-time Olympic bronze medalist in speed skating.
But here’s the twist: she didn’t grow up on the ice!
In college, Bowe was a point guard at Florida Atlantic University.
After watching the 2010 Winter Olympics on TV, she decided to try speed skating. She moved to Utah, learned from scratch, and just a few years later? Olympic medalist.
So… yeah… When people say, “Work hard and you can do anything,” she proves it!
Now 37, Bowe’s heading to her fourth and final Olympics in Milan.
Meet the Mascots! 🦦
Tina and Milo, who you saw earlier?
They’re stoats, which are small furry animals related to weasels. Tina is the Olympic mascot (named after Cortina), and Milo is the Paralympic mascot (named after Milano... the Italian way of saying Milan).
One More Thing 🇮🇹
This is the third time Italy has hosted the Winter Olympics. The first was in Cortina way back in 1956 (check out these cool pictures!). The second was in Turin in 2006.
Now it’s 2026, and Italy is ready to show off again.
Let the Games begin!
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Dear Smallball, I love your call-out for the Unrivaled women’s professional basketball league and your telling of the story of how and why the league came to be. And, your advice to think like a point guard is awesome!
Thanks for all the fun Olympics facts!