Greg Cote’s Hot Button Top 10: U.S. in hunt for Paris triple crown, Dolphins, Messi, Canton, bull riding

GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (AUGUST 4): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US THIS WEEK: Our Sunday Hot Button Top 10 notes column brings you what’s on our minds, locally and nationally, but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that’s big, weird, damnable, funny or otherwise worth needling as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Welcome now to the 68th edition of your Sunday sports-potpourri notes column, the HB10:

1. OLYMPICS: Super Saturday gives U.S. shot at medals triple crown: Team USA won five more gold medals Saturday including another each for G.O.A.T.s Simone Biles in gymnastics and Katie Ledecky in swimming. That saw the U.S. leap from fifth to second in overall golds with 14, trailing China’s 18. America will comfortably be No. 1 in overall, silver and bronze, and now has a chance for the medals triple crown with golds possible today/Sunday. Also Saturday, U.S. women’s soccer advanced to the semifinals with a 1-0 win over Japan on Trinity Rodman’s spectacular extra-time goal (thanks for the genes, Dennis), and U.S. men’s basketball and Heat’s Bam Adebayo walloped Puerto Rico. USA women’s hoops faces Germany today.

2. DOLPHINS: Tyreek gets richer; camp segues to fake games: They showed Tua the money, now they’ve shown star receiver Tyreek Hill a restructured deal worth $90 million over the next three years -- $65M of it guaranteed. No additional years were added. Meanwhile training camp revs up this week with a pair of joint practices with the Atlanta Falcons prior to those teams opening the three-game exhibition schedule with fake game No. 1 Friday night. Expect very little of the starters, a cavalcade of guys trying to make the roster and thus a result that won’t mean much.

3. INTER MIAMI: Still sans Messi, IM loses but still moves on in Leagues Cup: Reigning Leagues Cup champion Inter Miami fell to Mexico’s Tigres 2-1 Saturday night in Houston, with Lionel Messi again in a walking boot from his ankle injury in the Copa America final. But the Herons still advance from group play and will host a home match this Thursday night in the round of 32 vs ther winner of Sunday night’s game between Mexico’s Pachuca and MLS side Toronto. Messi’s availability remains in doubt.

4. HALLS OF FAME: Ex-Canes Johnson, Hester among 7 inducted in Canton: Former Miami Hurricanes wide receiver Andre Johnson and receiver/returner Devin Hester led the seven-man Class of ‘24 into the Pro Football Hall of Fame Saturday in Canton, Ohio. Hester is the first ever inducted primarily as a kickoff and punt returner. The other five newbies are defensive stalwarts Dwight Freeney, Randy Gradishar, Steve McMichael, Julius Peppers and Patrick Willis. Johnson and Hester are the 10th and 11th Canton Canes. Only Notre Dame and USC with 14 have more.

5. OLYMPICS: Afghan woman finishes last in 100-meter heat ... but wins: A United Nations report lists Afghanistan among the world’s most repressive nations toward women and girls, depriving them of almost all basic rights in a worsening situation since the 2021 Taliban takeover. One Afghan woman competed in Paris. Kimia Yousofi finished last n her 100-meter qualifying heat but afterward showed the back of her bib on which she’d written by hand the words “Eduction” [sic] and “Our Rights.” She said later, “I think I feel a responsibility for Afghan girls because they can’t talk.” We worry Yousofi may face reprisals back home, bu\t she leaves Paris a champion of human rights.

6. MARLINS: Trade deadline a 5-alarm fire sale for reeling Fish: Trading batting champion Luis Arraez early in the season was a warning of what was to come at the trade deadline. That‘s when tanking Miami traded away popular star Jazz Chisholm, ace reliever Tanner Scott, starting pitcher Trevor Rogers and best-hitter-left Bryan De La Crz, among others, and all for the hit-or-miss of other teams’ prospects. More in the endless rebuild for the penurious, wheel-spinning Marlins. Shameful.

7. HURRICANES: How realistic are hopes for ACC crown and playoff berth?: Sunday’s Canesfest fan event at Hard Rock should find hopes high. But how high? A column by me (link below) predicted Canes would vie for ACC title and make playoff in a huge return to power. Some scoffed, but UM is third in ACC title odds, after Florida State and Clemson (and tied for second at some sportsbooks). ESPN’s Football Power index odds entering the season have Miami 20th in the fight for the expanded 12-team playoff, with an 18.2 percent likelihood.

8. OLYMPICS: Matters of gender simmer at Summer Games: Algerian Imane Khelif is one of two female boxers in Paris previously banned for failed gender testing by the IBA, a boxing governing body the IOC no longer recognizes. Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting was disqualified from the 2023 World Championships, an IBA-sanctioned event, and had a bronze taken away. In Paris, both are assured a medal, both controversially. Athletes who are transgender and nonbinary also are making a mark in these Olympics, though no transgender women (assigned male at birth) are known to be competing in Paris. Women’s boxing includes Hergie Bacyadan of the Philippines (assigned female at birth but identifies as male), who lost but made history as the first openly transgender male to compete in the Olympics. There have been at least two transgender women competing: The single-named Canadian soccer player Quinn and U.S. runner Nikki Hiltz.

9. BULL RIDING: No bull. South Florida has a new pro bull riding team: The Florida Freedom is one of 10 teams, newly based in Sunrise, in the Professional Bull Riders team-competition league. The team is based at the Panthers’ hockey arena, which (sans the ice) is hosting a three-day PBR competition ending today/Sunday with all 10 teams. PBR was formed in 1992 but in 2022 formed teams to transform what in rodeo and elsewhere always has been an individual sport. We won’t get into the controversy over whether the sport is animal cruelty, because this is just a fun little blurb.

10. NBA: New Kobe Bryant sculpture a sweet tribute to girls, women’s sports: A new bronze sculpture outside the L.A. Lakers arena depicts Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna in a tribute called “Girl Dad.” Both were among nine who perished in a helicopter crash in January 2020. The artwork depicts Kobe seated with his arm around Gianna, earing a WNBA sweatshrt she had given him. The Lakers said the statue honors “the Bryant family’s support for women and girls in sports.”

Other most recent stuff from me: Paris Olympics is one for the ages as golden oldies Biles, Ledecky, James lead U. S. charge // Book it! Miami Hurricanes will vie for ACC title, make playoff in huge return to power // Jazz trade continues Miami Marlins’ losing cycle of talent-for-prospects cost cutting // Previous HB 10 // Poll Dance: Confidence in Tua // Dolphins paying Tua like he’s elite with new $212 million extension. Now it’s on him to win like it // Gold, silver and bronze to protest, tension and threats as Paris Olympics begin // The stand-pat Miami Heat must keep up as aggressive NBA East improves all around it // Rain soaks Florida Panthers’ Stanley Cup celebration ... and it was glorious // Blasphemy! Vindication? How ‘McDavid overrated’ took on life of its own in Stanley Cup Final // Willie Mays, 1931-2024: A fond and personal tribute to top-tier baseball legend // Lionel Messi is hero/savior in MLS, but Caitlin Clark is resented in WNBA. Here’s why // And my latest podcast: