Greg Cote’s Hot Button Top 10: Spain women, Lionel Messi bring the trophies home, Oher mess & more

GREG COTE’S HOT BUTTON TOP 10 (AUGUST 20): WHAT IN SPORTS HAS GRABBED US LATELY: Our Sunday Hot Button Top 10 feature had been blog-only, but since our blog retired it moved, re-imagined, to online-only. HB10 means what’s on our minds, locally and nationally, but from a Miami perspective and accentuating stuff that’s major, offbeat, damnable, funny or worth needling as the sports week just past pivots to the week ahead. Welcome to the 28th edition of the new HB10:

1. INTER MIAMI: Messi checklist: Leagues Cup won, two more trophies in sight: Lionel Messi spoke at last in his first press conference for Inter Miami, and then his feet kept talking with another goal Saturday -- his 10th in seven games since coming to America -- as Miami won at Nashville on penalty kicks to claim the Leagues Cup trophy. Two more on the horizon: Miami plays at Cincinnati Wednesday in U.S. Open Cup semifinal, then resumes MLS regular season next Saturday -- with that uphill climb to the playoffs no longer seeming insurmountable. And in ‘24: CONCACAF Champions Cup and Copa Libertadores. Messi ... he’s pretty good!

2. SOCCER: Enhorabuena, España! Spain World Cup win continues England agony: World No. 6-ranked Spain beat No. 4 England, 1-0, to win the nation’s first Women’s World Cup crown Sunday in Australia. Olga Carmona’s goal in the 29th minute held up. England stopped a penalty kick in the 70th minute but could not find the net Spain had never before made a WC final four and survived turmoil to win this one, with 15 of coach Jorge Vilda’s players writing the Spanish Federation last fall to demand changes over his management style. Meanwhile the close-call agony continued for the Brits, who previously had finished third in 2015 and fourth in 2019.

3. DOLPHINS: Miami bounces back in preseason (and it still doesn’t matter): Tua Tagovailoa is intercepted on his first pass of the preseason but Miami wins at Houston 28-3 and none if it matters. Any more than last week’s 19-3 loss to Atlanta was cause for concern. The Dolphins’ 1972 Perfect Season began 0-2 in exhibitions. The Fins’ worst-ever 1-15 season in 2007 began 2-0 in the preseason. Quit caring what happens in August!

4. NFL: Everybody looks bad and loses in Michael Oher/Blind Side scandal: The people who made the blockbuster 2009 move, The Blind Side, look like dopes who got duped, missing the real story to present a fanciful fairy tale. The Tuohy family look like connivers who instead of adopting Oher entered into a conservatorship that profited off him. And the ex-player Oher, now seeking back-pay from the Tuohys for money made off him, looks like someone who naively let himself be taken advantage of. However the truth plays out, nobody wins. Author Michael Lewis, whose book became the movie that made $309 million, blames the Hollywood studio system. He said he and the Tuohys each received only about $350,000 from the movie’s profits. No word on what if anything found its way to Oher.

5. SOCCER: USWNT should not give up on pursuing England’s Wiegman: U.S. women get bounced in round of 16, their worst World Cup finish ever, and coach Vlatko Andonovski “steps down.” -- as if the choice were his. (USWNT general manager Kate Markgraf also is out.) The highest aim on a new coach? England’s Sarina Wiegman, by a mile. The notion immediately was snuffed by the coach and by England. No wonder. It came up as she was headed to Sunday’s championship match vs. Spain. Now is when the pursuit, backed by truckloads of money, should begin full-on.

6. NFL: Washington Commanders are past ownership scandal. Now about that name...: The Redskins became the Washington Football Team became the Commanders. Now what? The new owner’s rebranding will include yet another new nickname after the 2023 season, most believe. A petition started by the Native American Guardians Association (NAGA) is calling to bring back Redskins and has gained more than 100,000 signatures. The betting odds say a return to Football Team (or Club) is the favorite, followed by Spartans. No matter what, rest assured, fans will complain about the new name.

7. MARLINS: On Loria’s hilariously picayune criticism of Jeter: As the present-day Marlins fight for a playoff spot, notorious former club owner Jeffrey Loria is pushing a new book, “From the Front Row: Reflections of a Major League Baseball Owner and Modern Art Dealer.” So he’s doing interviews.. In one with the Miami Herald the big headline was Loria ripping ex-CEO Derek Jeter, saying he “destroyed the ballpark” by removing the giant and distinctive (if somewhat garish) Home-Run Sculpture. Seriously? That’s the big knock? Loria gets a little meatier in the book (if not in interviews), ripping some of Jeter’s bad trades including the ill-fated Christian Yelich deal.

8. NBA: Wonder why players love going to China? Harden will tell you: NBA is investigating James Harden calling76ers president Daryl Morey a “liar” and whether Harden implying a holdout violates the league’s collective bargaining agreement as he tries to force a trade. Meantime, Harden visited China recently to promote his J-Harden line of wine. And basketball-mad fans there bought 10,000 bottles from his signature brand within seconds thanks to his appearance on a livestream on the Chinese version of TikTok, hosted by online celebrity Crazy Brother Yang. Harden said he usually sells “a few cases” a day. Yang told him, “I’ll give you a sense of how many orders I can make in an instant.” Harden said, “Show me.” And he did.

9. TENNIS: Swiatek tells online haters to “be more thoughtful”: World No. 1 Iga Swiatek of Poland, after a fourth-round victory in Cincinnati, revealed she and her team received an overwhelming amount of online hate despite winning. “The hate and criticism we get after even losing a set is just ridiculous,” she said. “I want to kind of encourage people to be more thoughtful when they comment on the internet and also focus on the positive side.” She’s right, of course. Unfortunately, the anonymous voice given mean-spirited trolls on social media is the gutter of free speech and knows no remedy. Here’s suggesting Iga simply not pay attention to pissant commentary that should be utterly weightless to her.

10. NFL: The weird double life of a Chiefs superfan: A federal grand jury indicted a well-known Kansas City Chiefs fan for bank robbery. Xaviar Babudar, 29, known as ChiefsAholic on social media, wore a gray wolf suit to games and often was shown on TV. He is known to the U.S. attorney’s office, too, charged with three counts of armed bank robbery, one of bank theft, 11 counts of money laundering and four of transporting stolen property across state lines. He pleaded not guilty. Prosecutors say he laundered stolen money through Midwest casinos and used it to attend Chiefs games home and away.

Other most recent stuff from me: ‘It’s like a movie’: And the soccer gods somehow gifted Inter Miami with Lionel Messi, amen / A failed savior in Year 1, Miami Hurricanes’ Mario Cristobal must find vindication now / Surreal stays real: Messi scores again, Miami wins again to reach Leagues Cup final / Previous HB10 / And my latest podcast: