Sports & Entertainment Beat

First and foremost (and not to detract from Sir Anthony Hopkins—lest I incur the wrath of Hannibal Lecter himself), the late Chadwick Boseman should have won the Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Full stop. Indeed the award show, from the Boseman NFT included in attendees’ “swag bag” to moving the best actor category to the end of the night, was seemingly orchestrated as King T’challa’s win being a foregone conclusion—until it wasn’t. Credit to Boseman’s family and Hopkins for handling the news with grace, but this seemed like a letdown from the Academy.

Speaking of handling news with grace, let’s take stock of what’s on my radar this week:

Welcome back to the Spotlight: the blog with more longevity (but far less financial backing) than the European Super League (ESL). OK, maybe that’s not saying a lot, as the ill-fated collection of 10 of the most preeminent soccer clubs in Europe announced the formation of a new league that threatened to shake the time-honored foundations of the soccer world—only to have (as of this writing) eight clubs back-out within less than three days of such announcement. While a crisis appears to have been averted – at least for the time being – lawsuits amongst the ESL member clubs may be on the horizon. Until then, let’s get into what else is making headlines this week:

“Happy” Tax Day to those of you here in the United States celebrating/commiserating (noting of course that certain taxpayers have until May 17 to file their returns this year). Like taxes, this installment of the Spotlight ought not be evaded. I know that some of my readers are accountants, so let’s waste no time diving right into this week’s featured topics/stories:

Happy Thursday and a big congratulations to the Stanford Cardinal and the Baylor Bears on their respective NCAA Women’s and Men’s Basketball Tournament wins (the latter of which helped yours truly place second in our Firm’s Bracket pool). Perhaps it also counts for something that my alma mater Wisconsin Badgers were defeated by the eventual champions, but I digress…

At any rate, here are the highlights from this week’s Spotlight:

March is over, a new month begins.
Congrats on the Final Four to the Zags, Cougars, Bears and Bruins.

Opening Day is upon us, it’s time to play ball,
And battle for the World Series title deep into the fall.

Enough setting the stage, let’s get on with the show,
Here’s what’s going on this week to put you in the know:

A devilish sneaker collaboration leads to a lawsuit by Nike,
with allegations that its brand was tarnished and that consumer confusion is likely.

NFTs as collectibles remain one of the hottest items in town,
as the creators of NBA Top Shot close a huge financing round.

Apple throws it support behind a DIY music distribution up-start
That enables creators to shun labels and retain ownership of their art.

Against the NCAA, student-athletes took their case to the Supreme Court,
And Justices tipped their hands to show the NCAA skepticism and the athletes support.

Will be back next week with my usual pithy prose,
If you guessed this was April Fools’ hijinks, you hit it right on the nose.