Jimmy Butler trolls the troll, plus a 2026 NFL Mock Draft (with Arch)

Summarize and humanize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in EnglishThe Pulse Newsletter 📣 | This is The Athletic’s daily sports newsletter. Sign up here to receive The Pulse directly in your inbox.Good morning! Hello, Arch Manning.While You Were Sleeping: Everyone’s on the brinkWe had four more huge playoff games last night across the NBA and NHL. Let’s start with the best one: 1. The Dubs’ gritty dubJimmy Butler was back for the Warriors, and it’s not hyperbole to say Golden State couldn’t win this series without him. He scored 27 points last night, wincing in pain down the stretch while still hitting big buckets and grabbing the game-sealing rebound. Playoff Jimmy combined with Steph Curry and Draymond Green is quite scary. He also got very mad at notorious pest Dillon Brooks:
“You a bum and a b*tch. You weak.”😳
– Jimmy Butler to Dillon Brooks
(h/t @Fullcourtpass )
pic.twitter.com/K7fgZeumOz
— NBACentral (@TheDunkCentral) April 29, 2025The Warriors are up 3-1 on the Rockets. 2. Florida blitzes a rivalFor most of the third period, the Lightning looked ready for a 2-2 tie. On the road against the defending champions (and hated rivals), up 2-1, Tampa faltered. The Panthers scored three goals in the last four minutes of the game to take their own 3-1 series lead. Brutal. 3. In Dallas, a blowoutThe Avalanche find themselves down 3-2 after a 6-2 loss to the Stars last night, in a series that has included wild swings between the teams. The Stars’, ahem, star power finally arrived. 
Also: The Cavs closed out the Heat quickly last night. Cleveland’s 138-83 win was a 29-point game in the first quarter and the top-seeded Cavs never relented, leading by 60 at one juncture. Darius Garland didn’t even play. Cleveland is a problem, and the Heat have problems ahead this offseason. Read more in our takeaways file. 
Onward:Fairytales? The new reality in WrexhamTo the casual observer, the story of Wrexham AFC reads like a script. Two genial Hollywood stars enter a small town in Wales, boost the local soccer club and shepherd it to marvelous success. When Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney took over as co-owners, Wrexham was a fifth-tier team. After earning a third straight promotion last weekend, the club is one rung down from the Premier League. Stunning stuff. In the States, most fans are smitten. They know and love both owners and probably watched the popular FX docuseries about the club’s rise. But I wanted to know more about how the team is seen in the United Kingdom — and more importantly, how realistic an EPL spot is — so I went to our The Athletic FC wordsmith Phil Hay: I think stateside, with our more casual soccer fans, everyone knows Wrexham because of Rob and Ryan. Take away the celebrity — how incredible is this story?💬 Those were my words in Monday’s TAFC: Let’s strip back Hollywood and judge the sporting context. Three promotions in a row is lightning-quick progression; unheard of in England’s top five leagues, in fact. It isn’t being done on a pittance — Wrexham are jacked up financially — but read this by Richard Sutcliffe and you’ll probably conclude, as I did, that their business plan is rational and progressive, rather than a dream built on sand.On that note, I am curious about the feeling about Wrexham over there. Enamored? Oversaturated?💬 Plenty of people in the UK don’t regard Wrexham as a fairytale. They think the club have spent big (in relative terms), leveraged their celebrity connections and steamrollered the lower divisions. The Hollywood element seems to dazzle the States far more. But if Wrexham were to make the Premier League one day, the vision of the project will speak for itself. Climbing to that level takes so much more than simply having money.What’s a realistic timeline for when they could compete for an EPL spot?💬 Great question. Don’t bet the mortgage on a fourth successive promotion. Their squad needs fresh blood, they’ve got a stadium development to pay for and teams who come down from the Premier League are incredibly hard to outrun. It’s not inevitable that Wrexham will make the EPL — but if their plan is viable, I could see them mobilizing for a credible playoff tilt in the next three to five years.Thank you to Phil, who is a must-read every day during soccer season. It will be fascinating to see Wrexham’s offseason moves. Let’s keep going:News to KnowA legend leavesThe Penguins and coach Mike Sullivan mutually agreed to part ways yesterday, which ends a 10-year stint for Sullivan that saw two Stanley Cup titles. It’s as nice of an ending as you could get here — Pittsburgh is in a transitional phase, having missed three straight postseasons, while the 57-year-old Sullivan will be a hot name on the coaching market immediately. 🎙️“The Athletic Hockey Show” went way deeper. Listen here.More news
Imaging confirmed Damian Lillard tore his Achilles tendon in Milwaukee’s Game 4 loss Sunday. It’s a disaster for everyone.
The NBA is considering a 4 Nations-style All-Star Game. Please do it.
USC commit Alijah Arenas, the son of Gilbert Arenas injured in a single-car crash last week, is “progressing very well” after coming out of a medically induced coma. More details here.
Charlie Dixon, the Fox Sports executive accused of sexual battery, is out of a job.
Pretty good: Brandon Nimmo tied a Mets franchise record with nine RBIs yesterday. See how he did it.
Aston Villa star Marcus Rashford will likely miss the rest of the season with a hamstring injury. The question now is whether he stays at Villa.
📫 Love The Pulse? Check out our other newsletters.Sneak Peeks: The Year of Arch comethExpectations are fickle, but a kid named “Arch Manning” has to know that already. The Texas junior has mostly been a fun whisper throughout his college career, the popular backup with a famous lineage. Now, though, he is the guy for college football next year. And it starts with … a mock draft: 
The Athletic’s Dane Brugler published his way-too-early 2026 NFL mock draft today, which is an exercise of pure fun. The first pick: My New Orleans Saints select Arch Manning. Stirring.
Manning hasn’t played much college football yet, but if you’re telling me Peyton and Eli’s nephew has a strong arm and happens to be mobile, I understand the first-pick hype. Vegas agrees: BetMGM has Manning tied with LSU’s Garrett Nussmeier (also a first-rounder in the mock) for Heisman odds — and Texas tied with Ohio State for national title odds. The Longhorns also ranked No. 2 in Stewart Mandel’s early 2025 Top 25. 
I will take a bad Saints season if I can buy an Arch Manning Saints jersey at some point. The funniest part is that Manning could theoretically return to school for 2026 and render this all moot. See Dane’s entire one-round mock here.What to Watch📺 NHL: Senators at Maple Leafs7 p.m. ET on ESPNToronto can clinch the series here, demons be damned. The atmosphere will be … tense. This is a must-watch. 📺 NBA: Clippers at Nuggets10 p.m. ET on TNT/MaxGenuinely no idea what happens here, but I hope we get another wild buzzer-beater. This series is 2-2 and the teams are about as evenly matched as you can get. Winner of this bloodbath first-round matchup gets the Thunder. Get tickets to games like these here.Pulse PicksWhy is Juan Soto not doing his signature “Soto Shuffle” anymore? Will Sammon investigated. Mike Jones writes that Deion and Shedeur Sanders learned a lesson in humility in the latter’s NFL Draft slide. That slide didn’t stop the younger Sanders’ jersey sales from skyrocketing, though. First impressions can be misleading. Just ask Eagles coach Nick Sirianni. Most-clicked in the newsletter yesterday: Our story from a couple weeks ago about Jordon Hudson, Bill Belichick’s girlfriend, who popped up in the news again over the weekend. Most-read on the website yesterday: Mike’s column above.Ticketing links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process and do not review stories before publication.(Top photo: Kelley L. Cox / Imagn Images)