Shane Phillips

🏀🥎 🏈dad. Tri-Valley Vikings

[Mötley Crüe @MotleyCrue]

9.1.89

Thank you for listening

LISTEN TO DR. FEELGOOD:

https://t.co/sPApjwowc3

[Mötley Crüe @MotleyCrue]

Working with Dolly on “Home Sweet Home” was one of the true highlights of our career. We can still hear her voice saying, “Well, how about that, Dolly and Mötley at #1?”

Thank you for the music, the laughter, the kindness and the inspiration, Dolly.

Our deepest condolences to her family, friends, and fans around the world.

With love and respect,
Mötley Crüe

[Shane Phillips @shanep42]

@NateAlgoPicks @Playbook

[AC/DC @acdc]

#PowerUpTour

[Justin Turner @redturn2]

Wrigley Fans giving a standing ovation to Baez, a visiting player, who hit 3 HRs in his debut for the same team that intentionally walked Michael Busch, in the 2nd to last game of the season last year (meant nothing to either team in the standings), when he had a chance to hit for the cycle. Just sayin, #WrigleyGetsIt @Cubs

[🪩 Machine Gun Philly 🪩 @xXPhillyCXx]

Soundgarden playing “Outshined” - featuring EDDIE FUCKING VEDDER

I cannot stress much I love this video enough - it’s not possible

Watch it for your own good

[OBVIOUS SHIRTS® @obvious_shirts]

WINNING IS FUN! WINNING AGAINST THE CARDINALS IS A LOT MORE FUN! CUBS WIN!!! FLY THE W! #Cubs

[Shane Phillips @shanep42]

Schwarbomb! @BudweiserUSA #LeadoffBud

[MLB @MLB]

Kyle Schwarber hit a leadoff home run in the MLB at Field of Dreams Game!

Reply and tag @BudweiserUSA with #LeadoffBud for a chance to win a season's worth of beer.

[Shane Phillips @shanep42]

It’s like JD and Boog were reading my mind on the @WatchMarquee Cubs broadcast. I was trying to figure out who Lance Barksdale reminds me of, and it’s Mr. Hand from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Thanks guys!

[Super 70s Sports @Super70sSports]

I saw a post where a guy said “Someone needs to explain to me what Jordan was better at than LeBron.”

Offense and defense. I hope that clears it up.

[the Sports ON Tap @thesportsontap]

In 2003, the most hated team in the NBA did the kindest thing anyone has ever done on a basketball court.

April 25, 2003. Rose Garden, Portland. Game 3 of the first round against Dallas. The Blazers are down 2-0 and facing elimination from the moment they wake up.

That Blazers team had a nickname. The Jail Blazers.

They were, at the time, maybe the least likable team in professional sports. Arrests. Suspensions. A roster full of guys the national media treated as villains. Portland fans were exhausted by them.

Before the game, a 13 year old girl named Natalie Gilbert walks to center court to sing the national anthem in front of 19,980 people.

What nobody in the building knew is that she was sick. She had the flu. She later said she just didn't feel like herself at all that day.

She gets a few lines in.

And then her brain goes blank.

She sings "star's last gleaming" instead of "twilight's last gleaming," realizes it instantly, and stops. She looks around. She puts her hand to her face.

Thirteen years old. Twenty thousand people. National television. Frozen.

There is no worse feeling available to a human being.

And then a man walks out of the Portland huddle.

Maurice Cheeks, the head coach, minutes away from a playoff elimination game, leaves his team, walks across the floor, puts his arm around her shoulder and says, "C'mon."

Then he starts singing with her.

Now understand something. Maurice Cheeks cannot sing. At all. He is not remotely trying to rescue the performance.

He's just refusing to let a kid stand there alone.

He keeps his arm around her the whole way. He feeds her the next words. And within a few seconds, all 19,980 people in that building stand up and sing it with them.

A moment that was going to define a little girl's life in the worst possible way became the exact opposite.

Dan Patrick wrote at the time that Cheeks' simple actions had become the defining moment of the entire playoffs.

They went on Jay Leno together. CNN. Good Morning America. It became one of the first truly viral NBA moments, years before that word meant anything.

Portland lost the game. They lost the series. Cheeks finished his Blazers tenure with a fairly ordinary record and was eventually let go.

Now here's the ending.

In March 2025, almost 22 years later, Maurice Cheeks came back to Portland as an assistant coach with the New York Knicks.

The Blazers found Natalie Gilbert.

She's 35 now. Married. Goes by Natalie Zito. She's also, as it turns out, a Blazers season ticket holder.

They brought her back to sing the anthem again.

She nailed it. The whole building erupted. And the camera cut to Cheeks on the sideline, beaming like a proud father.

The two of them met before the game and hugged.

What she said afterward is why this story matters. She explained that she'd been made fun of a lot as a kid, and that in the moment she felt most helpless and hopeless, a stranger walked right over with no hesitation.

"This moment changed my life."

And then she said something even better. That she wouldn't go back and change any of it. That seeing him again and finding out he's still the same standup guy proved it was all real.

Twenty two years. One arm around a shoulder.

Follow @thesportsontap, we post a story like this every day.

[Foo Fighters @foofighters]

CHICAGO! ARE YOU READY???
@SoldierField 🎟️ https://t.co/c5hs5RgnYJ

4:00pm Doors Open
5:30pm  Mannequin Pussy
6:30pm  @qotsa
8:00pm  #FooFighters

EARLY MERCH SHOPPING begins at today at 1:30pm!!!
3 Merch Stand Locations will be open outside Soldier Field. They are located:
- Outside Gate 4
- Outside Gate 47
- Waldron Deck (Northwest Corner)

Poster art by Emek Studios
#FF2026

[carl @CarlsBeef]

To be clear, I believe Cubs fans are booing Kyle Tucker for being a gutless pussy the last 100 games of 2025.

I also believe Cubs fans are booing him because he never embraced our values: Wrigley, being friendly, and giving a fuck.

I’d probably boo if I was there but I’m that guy. So I’m personally biased on the matter.

Even so I can be reasonable and render an objective and official verdict.

I defer to basic logic: it’s impossible to get boo’d at Wrigley without deserving it. Nobody wants to go to Wrigley then boo. It’s so opposite of the experience. So if you get boo’d, you’ve personally offended the general fanbase. And if you do that to Cubs fans then you *probably* deserve to get boo’d which means it’s totally fine to boo Kyle Tucker as much as you want.

Boo approved 🤝

[Sia Nejad @SiaNejad]

**ONE-HIT WONDER BRACKET + GIVEAWAY**

To QUALIFY for the giveaway, just give this a RETWEET. Feel free to drop your Final Four and/or snubs in the comments.

Giveaway is $50 to two people ($25 goes to a charity of your choice). Close-ups of each region are in the comments.

[Shane Phillips @shanep42]

@NateAlgoPicks @Playbook

[Shane Phillips @shanep42]

@NateAlgoPicks @Playbook

[Shane Phillips @shanep42]

@NateAlgoPicks @Playbook

[Shane Phillips @shanep42]

@NateAlgoPicks @Playbook

[Shane Phillips @shanep42]

@NateAlgoPicks @Playbook

[Shane Phillips @shanep42]

@NateAlgoPicks @Playbook