The Sports Report: Reggie Bush wants his Heisman Trophy back

Howdy, I’m your host, Houston Mitchell. Let’s get right to the news.

Chuck Schilken on Reggie Bush: Reggie Bush forfeited his Heisman Trophy in 2010.

Now he wants it back.

After an NCAA investigation determined Bush had received improper benefits while playing at USC, the star running back returned the prestigious trophy he had been awarded five years earlier.

Also at the time, the NCAA stripped USC of its 2004 national title and the school had to vacate 14 wins from 2004 and 2005, with all mentions of Bush’s stats from those years either erased or accompanied by asterisks.

But times have changed. The NCAA approved a policy change Wednesday that allows college athletes the right to profit off their names, images and likenesses.

“Well well well….look what we have here,” Bush tweeted soon after the announcement.

The next morning, Bush tweeted a longer statement “in regard to the reinstatement of my college records and my Heisman.”

“It is my strong belief that I won the Heisman trophy ‘solely’ due to my hard work and dedication on the football field and it is also my firm belief that my records should be reinstated,” Bush wrote.

What do you think? Should Reggie Bush get his Heisman Trophy back? Vote in our poll here and let us know what you think.

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DODGERS

Max Muncy is greeted in the dugout by teammates after hitting a grand slam off in the fifth inning.

(Associated Press)

Jorge Castillo on the Dodgers: There was an elevated focus in the Dodgers’ dugout entering the fifth inning at Nationals Park on Thursday night. The thunderstorms were coming and they were trailing the Washington Nationals by one run. A scoreless top of the fifth probably meant a loss and the end of their five-game winning streak. The weather forecast was not pretty.

The concerns were erased two pitches into the inning when AJ Pollock clubbed a slider from Nationals left-hander Patrick Corbin for a home run. Tie game. Minutes later, the Dodgers had the bases loaded and Corbin hung a slider to Max Muncy. He swatted it for a grand slam.

In the moment, it gave the Dodgers a 6-2 lead. By the end of the night – after a delay of one hour and 17 minutes – it gave them their sixth straight win since getting no-hit by the Chicago Cubs.

“There was a little urgency in the dugout,” Muncy said. “But we were mostly just trying to play our game, trying to go out there and put good at-bats together. Thankfully the timing was right on that.”

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CLIPPERS

Dan Loumena on the Clippers: The Clippers’ season ended Wednesday night in a 130-103 loss to the Phoenix Suns in Game 6 of the Western Conference finals.

Here are some takeaways from exit interviews on Thursday (Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, among others, did not address the media):

— Second-year guard Terance Mann was first and discussed how superstar teammates Leonard and George evolved as leaders with the help of coach Tyronn Lue. “I’m not going to lie,” Mann said. “It took time for them to figure out the team, figure out what everybody was about. But a big part of it was having T. Lue back. … He played a big role in helping Kawhi and PG learn the team and lead the team.”

— Center Ivica Zubac, who is under contract for two more seasons, which includes a club option in 2022-23, is hopeful that free agents Nicolas Batum and Reggie Jackson return. He said Batum “did all the little stuff” while adding what Jackson “did in the playoffs was really incredible.”

— Batum, signed by the Clippers after a dismal end to his tenure in Charlotte, was surprised by how his season turned out. “Back in November,” he said, “if someone had told me I’d still be playing basketball in late June and competing for something big and being on the court and playing, I would not believe it.”

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ANGELS

Jack Harris on the Angels: After waiting out two rain delays on Wednesday night, the Angels’ 11-8 win over the New York Yankees not ending until almost six hours after first pitch, the two teams made a proactive choice with more bad weather in the forecast Thursday afternoon.

More than 90 minutes before scheduled first pitch, the series finale at Yankee Stadium was postponed and rescheduled for Aug. 16.

The Angels will return home with a 3-3 record on the shortened trip, their seven-run ninth-inning rally on Wednesday now the final act of a East Coast swing that kept them two games under .500 at 39-41.

“We could have taken another game in Tampa Bay also,” manager Joe Maddon said. “I just like the way we’ve been playing. … For me, it’s not been as dire as maybe people are viewing this. We’re playing again with a lot of guys that are gaining experience and would not play everyday in a different situation. But they’re gaining experience and holding their own. We just have to continue to start pitching better, in general and out of the bullpen.”

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OLYMPICS

Jennifer Brady

(Associated Press)

Helene Elliott on tennis: Jennifer Brady, who helped UCLA win an NCAA women’s tennis title in 2014, and Marcos Giron of Thousand Oaks, who won the 2014 NCAA singles title while representing the Bruins, were nominated to the 12-person U.S. Olympic tennis team for the Tokyo Games. David Wagner of San Diego, an eight-time Paralympic tennis medalist in the wheelchair quad division, will lead a seven-person U.S. tennis delegation to the Paralympic Games, which will be held in mid-August after the Olympics conclude.

The team nominations were announced on Thursday by the U.S. Tennis Assn.

Brady, who reached the semifinals of the U.S. Open last year and was the runner-up at the Australian Open earlier this year, is ranked No. 15 in the world. She will join 17-year-old Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Alison Riske in the women’s singles competition. All are first-time Olympians. Serena Williams, who has won four Olympic gold medals in singles and doubles, recently said she would not compete in Tokyo. Sofia Kenin, the highest-ranked American woman at No. 6 in the world, said on Wednesday she had relinquished her spot.

In doubles, Nicole Melichar will partner with Gauff, and Bethanie Mattek-Sands will play alongside Pegula.

Giron, No. 66 in the men’s world rankings, will be part of a quartet of first-time Olympians in men’s singles. Also nominated were Tommy Paul, Frances Tiafoe — who upset third-seeded Stefanos Tsitsipas in the first round of Wimbledon this week — and Tennys Sandgren. Rajeev Ram will team with Tiafoe in doubles, and Austin Krajicek will team with Sandgren. David Nainkin of Los Angeles will coach the men’s team.

The men’s and women’s mixed doubles teams will be announced later. The highest-ranked American men — No. 32 Reilly Opelka, No. 33 John Isner, and No. 40 Taylor Fritz of Rancho Palos Verdes — opted out of playing in Tokyo.

Wagner will try to win a medal for the fifth consecutive Paralympics. He has won three gold medals and a silver in doubles as well as two silver medals and two bronze in singles. Also nominated in the quad competition were San Diego native Dana Mathewson, Emmy Kaiser and Shelby Baron among the women, and men’s competitor Bryan Barten. Casey Retzlaff and Conner Stroud will compete in the Paralympic men’s field.

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SOCCER

Kevin Baxter on soccer: Galaxy midfielder Sebastian Lletget was named Thursday to a young U.S. squad for this month’s CONCACAF Gold Cup but teammate Julian Araujo was not, an exclusion coach Gregg Berhalter chalked up to Araujo’s unwillingness to commit to the national team.

“It’s a case of him being a dual national and not fully ready to commit to the team. He knew the Gold Cup would lock him in permanently and he wasn’t ready to make that step,” Berhalter said.

Lletget was one of five Galaxy players called up for their national teams for the Gold Cup. LAFC midfielder Mark-Anthony Kaye was also called up by Canada.

Araujo, 19, who was born in Lompoc and has made one appearance for the senior national team, is also eligible to play for Mexico. But playing in the Gold Cup for the U.S. could close that window. Berhalter said Araujo wasn’t ready to do that.

Fernandomania at 40

Episode seven of our docuseries, “Fernandomania @ 40” is now live. Only a handful of pitchers in major league history have thrown the screwball with regularity. Even fewer have mastered the pitch. But after the Dodgers’ Bobby Castillo taught Fernando Valenzuela how to throw the screwball in the winter of 1979, he went from a minor league prospect to a big leaguer in less than a year. Valenzuela would confound batters with the pitch throughout his 17-year career in the big leagues. Sherman Oaks Notre Dame High School baseball coach Tom Dill and former minor league pitcher Josh Goossen-Brown demonstrate what made Valenzuela’s screwball so great.

Watch it here.

NBA PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE/RESULTS

All times Pacific

WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS

No. 2 Phoenix vs. No. 4 Clippers
Phoenix 120, Clippers 114
Phoenix 104, Clippers 103
Clippers 106, Phoenix 92
Phoenix 84, Clippers 80
Clippers 116, Phoenix 102
Phoenix 130, Clippers 103

EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS

No. 3 Milwaukee vs. No. 5 Atlanta
Atlanta 116, Milwaukee 113
Milwaukee 125, Atlanta 91
Milwaukee 113, Atlanta 102
Atlanta 110, Milwaukee 88
Milwaukee 123, Atlanta 112
Saturday: at Atlanta, 5:30 p.m., TNT
*Monday: at Milwaukee, 5:30 p.m., TNT

*-if necessary

NHL PLAYOFFS SCHEDULE/RESULTS

STANLEY CUP FINALS
All times Pacific

No. 2 Tampa Bay vs. No. 4 Montreal

Tampa Bay 5, Montreal 1
Tampa Bay 3, Montreal 1
Today: at Montreal, 5 p.m., NBC
Monday: at Montreal, 5 p.m., NBC
*Wednesday: at Tampa Bay, 5 p.m., NBC
*Friday, July 9: at Montreal, 5 p.m., NBC
*Sunday, July 11: at Tampa Bay, 4 p.m., NBC

*-if necessary

THIS DATE IN SPORTS

1921 — The Jack Dempsey-Georges Carpentier heavyweight match at Rickard’s Orchard in Jersey City, N.J., becomes the first million-dollar gate in boxing history. The receipts total $1,789,238 with $50 ringside seats. In front of 80,183, Dempsey knocks out Carpentier at 1:16 of the fourth round.

1927 — Helen Wills becomes the first American to win at Wimbledon since May Sutton in 1907, beating Lili de Alvar 6-2, 6-4 for the title.

1937 — Don Budge beats Gottfried von Cramm, 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 to win the men’s singles title at Wimbledon. Budge sweeps the championships winning the singles, the men’s doubles title with Gene Mako and the mixed doubles crown with Alice Marble.

1938 — Helen Wills Moody wins her eighth and final singles title at Wimbledon, defeating Helen Jacobs 6-4, 6-0.

1966 — Billie Jean King wins the first of her six singles titles at Wimbledon, beating Maria Bueno of Brazil 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

1967 — Catherine Lacoste of France becomes the first foreigner and first amateur to win the U.S. Women’s Open golf championship. At age 22, she is also the youngest champion.

1976 — Chris Evert beats Evonne Goolagong, 6-3, 4-6, 8-6, to win the women’s singles title at Wimbledon.

1988 — Steffi Graf ends Martina Navratilova’s six-year reign as Wimbledon champion with a 5-7, 6-2, 6-1 victory. It is the first time in nine finals that Navratilova loses a Wimbledon singles match.

1989 — Jockey Steve Cauthen becomes the first rider in history to sweep the world’s four major derbies after winning the Irish Derby with Old Vic. He had previously won the Kentucky Derby with Affirmed (1978), the Epsom Derby with Slip Anchor (1985) and Reference Point (1987) and the French Derby with Old Vic (1989).

1994 — Colombian defender Andres Escobar, 27, is killed outside a bar in Colombia in retaliation for deflecting a ball into his own goal in a 2-1 loss to the United States in the World Cup.

1995 — Tom Weiskopf withstands a charge by Jack Nicklaus to win the U.S. Senior Open by four strokes.

1999 — Alexandra Stevenson becomes first qualifier in Wimbledon history to reach the women’s semis. She beats another qualifier, 16-year-old Jelena Dokic, 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.

2005 — Venus Williams overcomes an early deficit and a championship point to beat top-ranked Lindsay Davenport 4-6, 7-6 (4), 9-7 at Wimbledon for her fifth major title and her first in nearly four years.

2010 — The United States beats Japan 7-2 to win its seventh consecutive world softball championship.

2011 — Wladimir Klitschko wins a lopsided unanimous decision over David Haye, adding the WBA title to his heavyweight haul. Klitschko and his older brother, Vitali, hold all three major heavyweight titles. Wladimir already had the IBF title (and minor WBO, IBO belts), while Vitali is the WBC champion.

2016 — Sam Querrey ends Novak Djokovic’s quest for a true Grand Slam in the third round at Wimbledon. In a match interrupted by three rain delays after being suspended in progress because of showers a night earlier, Querrey ousts Djokovic 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (5) at the All England Club.

2018 — A wild brawl breaks out between Australia and the Philippines during the Basketball World Cup qualifying game in Manila. Thirteen players, including four Australians, are ejected for their part in the brawl. The game is won 79-48 by Australia.

And finally

Venus Williams wins the 2005 Wimbledon ladies’ singles title. Watch it here.