Mickey Togs

OG Anunoby is coming back to the Knicks on a megadeal. The forward agreed to a five-year contract worth $212.5 million that includes a player option for the final season.

Anunoby, 26, carried heavy leverage into the negotiations and clearly flexed it before agreeing to the biggest contract in franchise history. 

The total sum and average salaries destroyed the previous Knicks record, set by Carmelo Anthony and Julius Randle. 

Concern about Anunoby’s extensive injury history are real. He hasn’t reached 70 games since his rookie campaign in 2017-18.

He didn’t exceed 50 games in three of the last four seasons, missing 27 with the Knicks last season because of an elbow injury that required surgery. 

Anunoby then strained his hamstring in the playoffs and sat most of the second round, which ended with the Knicks falling in seven games to the Pacers. 

Barring another seismic trade before the season starts, the Knicks’ lineup will include Anunoby, Bridges, Jalen Brunson and Julius Randle — a foursome built for championship contention. 

The Jacksonville Jaguars and quarterback Trevor Lawrence have reached an agreement on a five-year, $275 million contract extension, which includes $200 million guaranteed and a $142 million signing bonus.

Lawrence’s reported extension matches Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow‘s 2023 extension as the highest-paid deal in NFL history with an average salary of $55 million.

Lawrence, 24, was selected by the Jaguars at No. 1 overall in the 2021 NFL Draft and has led Jacksonville to a 20-30 record in three seasons which included the franchise’s first playoff berth and AFC South Division title in five seasons in 2022.

Lawrence enters his fourth NFL season with 11,770 yards, 58 touchdowns and 39 interceptions on 1,116 of 1,750 passing, as well as 964 yards and 11 touchdowns on 205 rushing attempts. The Knoxville native entered the NFL after a decorated collegiate career at Clemson.

In a lineup that includes Juan Soto and Aaron Judge and on an afternoon that Gerrit Cole was on the mound, it was new leadoff hitter Ben Rice who would not let his team lose a fifth straight game. 

It was Rice — who debuted just two and a half weeks ago — who opened the scoring with a homer, all but ended the game with another and launched himself into Yankees history with a third. 

It was Rice, a 25-year-old who came up through the system without much pedigree as a 12th-rounder from Dartmouth and really without a position, who became the first Yankees rookie ever to blast three home runs in one game. 

Proof of his rawness could be found in his circuitous trip through the dugout after his final shot of the afternoon, trying to find the right spot for his first curtain call as teammates jostled him. 

By the time Rice’s work was done, the Yankees had pounded the Red Sox, 14-4, in front of 45,504 fans in The Bronx.