3 Stories: Response To Harvey, NBA Tampering, Mayweather-MacGregor

Like the rest of the country, the sports world has been responding to the extraordinary damage done by Hurricane Harvey. That's where we began on this week's edition of "3 Stories You Should Know."

Cindy Boren of the Washington Post and Michael Lee of Yahoo! Sports joined Bill Littlefield.

1. The Sports World's Response to Harvey

J.J. Watt, Kelvin Sampson and Clint Capela are just some of the sports figures who have been trying to help in the wake of Hurricane Harvey. Cindy Boren weighs in.

The most incredible thing, really, was J.J. Watt, of course, of the Houston Texans who was stranded in Dallas. And he put out a little video saying, "I'm going to put $100,000 of my money in this fund. And let's just see where it goes. Hopefully we'll match it." Well, it's now cruising toward around $15 million leading into the Labor Day Weekend.

2. A $500,000 Fine For The Lakers

The Los Angeles Lakers have been fined $500,000 for "tampering." The cause: the Lakers general manager reportedly contacted the agent of star forward Paul George while George was still signed to the Pacers. Michael Lee says this sort of thing is difficult to control.

Tampering's one of the more complex issues the NBA struggles to police. Teams talk to agents all the time. Agents represent players on multiple teams, and they talk to each other.

3. Mayweather-MacGregor Aftermath

Last weekend, Floyd Mayweather defeated Conor McGregor with a 10th round TKO. Sports Illustrated writer Justin Barrasso has speculated that the fight may have been "a work." Bill Littlefield explains.

Barrasso's argument is that whereas boxing matches generally feature body punches, Mayweather-McGregor featured none. Whereas boxers don't normally turn their backs on opponents in the ring, Mayweather did that a number of times. Barrasso is wondering whether Mayweather knew he would win and could dance around and do all this stuff because he knew it would come out with him winning and so did everybody else. If it turns out Justin Barrasso is correct, will anybody care?

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