Veteran Anaheim Ducks center Ryan Kesler underwent right hip resurfacing surgery last week, the team announced on Monday.

It is unlikely Kesler will play in the 2019-20 season.

According to the team, the surgery is a "bone-preserving hip replacement that can provide pain relief and increase function in normal activities of daily living." The Ducks said the surgery leaves "open the possibility that Kesler could resume his NHL career following a lengthy recovery."

General manager Bob Murray said in a statement that the team would support any decision the 34-year-old Kesler makes on his future. "At this point, Ryan needs to think about his life and family," Murray said.

Kesler underwent major hip surgery after the 2016-17 season and has struggled since. He was limited to 60 games last season -- in which he scored just five goals and three assists -- and 44 games in 2017-18. Last season, he became the seventh active U.S.-born player to reach the 1,000-career game mark.

In 1,001 games with the Canucks and Ducks, Kesler has 285 goals and 315 assists for 573 points.

"At this point in my career, this surgery was the best option for my quality of life," Kesler said in a statement. "The pain I was suffering has been greatly reduced since the procedure, and I'm grateful for that. While my playing future is unknown, I'm in a good place."

Kesler added that he looks "forward to spending more time with my family and doing everyday activities without pain."

Kesler, an alternate captain, carries a $6.875 million cap hit through the 2021-22 season. His contract includes a no-movement clause. The team can put him on Long Term Injury Reserve for the remainder of his contract.

The Ducks are coming off a difficult season, in which they fired longtime coach Randy Carlyle -- the winningest coach in franchise history -- and Murray took over as interim behind the bench. The Ducks have yet to name a new head coach.

Kesler, a Michigan native, was a part of the Ducks' "big three," which also includes captain Ryan Getzlaf (34 years old) and Corey Perry (33). Kesler joined the Ducks via a trade from the Vancouver Canucks in 2014.

Getzlaf and Perry helped the Ducks win the Stanley Cup in 2007 and have made three appearances in the Western Conference final (2006, 2007 and 2017). However, after a dismal season, the team is looking to retool -- making changes to become faster and younger. Getzlaf and Perry both have cap hits of over $8 million, both under contract through 2020-21, and both have no-movement clauses as well.

With the Los Angeles Lakers hiring Frank Vogel as head coach after being rejected by Monty Williams and Ty Lue, questions are swirling about the team's power structure.

Who is calling the shots? Who is gaining influence? How are these individuals affecting the Lakers since the sudden resignation of Magic Johnson as team president on April 9 and the split with head coach Luke Walton on April 12? Who was involved in negotiating the coaching candidacies of Williams -- since hired by the Suns -- and Lue and Vogel in the last month?

No one from the front office has conducted a news conference since the Lakers' season ended, making it difficult to be sure how the org chart looks these days. What's known is there are plenty of people who have a stake in the proceedings. Though everyone in this group ostensibly shares the goal of seeing the Lakers return to prominence, there are varied personal motivations involved in getting there. Family pride. Legacy building. Respect. Money. Notoriety. All of it.

Perhaps the only clarity is who's at the top of the hierarchy.

The boss

Jeanie Buss | controlling owner

As Buss was ousting her older brother Jim -- who was executive vice president of basketball operations -- and general manager Mitch Kupchak in 2017, she received a text from Kobe Bryant encouraging her to see things through. "I sent her a meme from 'Game of Thrones' of Khaleesi riding on the ship, going to her homeland with the ships behind her," Bryant told ESPN's Rachel Nichols. "I said, 'Sometimes the mother of dragons has just got to be the mother of dragons.' And Jeanie went full Khaleesi."

Bryant was referring to the queen character on the popular HBO drama who cut through a crowded field of competitors to make a legitimate run at ruling the land.

Buss' position atop the Lakers' hierarchy is unchallenged, if not unblemished.

Buss, 57, took over as the Lakers' governor after the death of her father, Dr. Jerry Buss, in 2013. She had previously filled a variety of positions in her dad's pro tennis and roller hockey businesses. Later, Jeanie Buss cut her teeth as an executive in charge of The Forum in Inglewood, California, and subsequently transitioned to the business operations side of the Lakers.

As the controlling owner, she had publicly stated her trust in Johnson and general manager Rob Pelinka to make basketball decisions. Those decisions had the potential to run counter to her personal preferences. Johnson told Nichols he was prepared to make the decision of whether to fire Walton, and it was going to be tough for Buss because she loved Walton and Johnson. But Johnson didn't make his decision official before stepping down.

Walton and the Lakers parted ways shortly after Johnson's departure, and Buss was tasked with reshaping her team with two major roles vacated.

The inner circle

Linda Rambis | executive director, special projects

Don't let the title fool you: Rambis is Buss' longtime best friend and most trusted adviser. League sources have described her as a "shadow owner."

And though the buzz over Rambis gaining the most influence in the organization has intensified since Johnson stepped down, the fact is she has been Buss' consigliere for four decades. Rambis, who was then Linda Zafrani, was one of the first hires by Jerry Buss when he purchased the Lakers in 1979, according to an article in The Beach Reporter. Linda Rambis told the paper that Jerry Buss introduced her to Jeanie, who was in high school at the time, and the two became friends and worked together while Jeanie was in college. They also worked together on Jerry Buss' pro tennis venture.

Jeanie Buss respects advice from senior basketball adviser Kurt Rambis -- Linda's husband and a former Laker -- as well as Johnson, Bryant and Phil Jackson. But it's Linda Rambis' opinion Buss has long valued the most, according to league and team sources. Many believe Buss has leaned on Rambis even more after Johnson blindsided the organization with his resignation.

Rob Pelinka | general manager

Pelinka has remained in his GM role since Johnson's departure and is the Lakers' highest-ranking basketball official.

With Johnson gone, Pelinka reports to Buss while communicating with Linda and Kurt Rambis. Sources around the league said those four operate as a group on basketball decisions.

The position of team president currently remains vacant.

Unless Buss hires someone to replace Johnson, Pelinka -- with Kurt Rambis involved -- is expected to oversee the draft and free agency. Sources said Pelinka and Rambis worked in tandem during the coaching interview process.

ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski reported the influence of Rambis and Jackson weighed heavily in the hiring of Vogel and of Jason Kidd as an assistant coach.

On the night he stepped down, Johnson said he did not like "the backstabbing" and "the whispering" that was going on but would not elaborate. Johnson also was given opportunities to endorse Pelinka but said that it would be up to Buss to determine if Pelinka should remain as GM, offering that he and Pelinka had "worked well."

League sources said Buss and Linda Rambis trust Pelinka, who has been around the organization since his days as an agent representing Bryant, his longtime client and best friend.

However, some agents and executives around the league said they preferred to deal with others they felt more comfortable with, like Johnson, according to sources. Some longtime agents said they have gone directly to Buss, Linda Rambis or Joey or Jesse Buss when they need to talk.

Two other agents said Pelinka and the Lakers just have "a lot of haters" out there and that the agents do not have a problem with the GM.

Kurt Rambis | senior basketball adviser

Johnson hired Rambis, a former Lakers forward and assistant coach, to be an adviser to the president in September 2018. With Johnson gone, Rambis has emerged as a powerful voice in basketball operations and played a major role in the coaching search, as Wojnarowski reported.

Rambis has held positions with several organizations over his career, from assistant coach to head coach to assistant general manager, many of them served under Jackson with the Lakers and Knicks. His most recent job before rejoining the Lakers was as associate head coach of the Knicks from 2014-15 to 2017-18. Wojnarowski reported Jackson and Rambis strongly considered Vogel's candidacy in New York before hiring Jeff Hornacek in 2016. Vogel would later tell New York reporters that he was surprised the Knicks didn't hire him based on how his interview with Jackson went.

Rambis and Jackson remained good friends after each was fired by the Knicks.

The star factor

LeBron James | forward

James signed a four-year, $153 million deal with the Lakers in the summer of 2018, bringing with him four MVPs and three championships' worth of experience. Yet Year 1 as a Laker for James, who will turn 35 in December, could not have gone much worse as he got hurt, missed five weeks and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2005.

James said he was "stunned" by Johnson's departure, saying on HBO's "The Shop" that he joined the Lakers after a conversation with Johnson and had no clue the resignation was coming.

James has a strong relationship with Kidd, multiple sources told ESPN, which may have helped Kidd's leverage in landing the job on the Lakers' bench.

James was taken aback by how the Lue negotiations broke down, a league source told ESPN, but James "liked" several Instagram posts touting the Vogel/Kidd hires over the weekend. It has been James' only public endorsement of the team's recent hires.

Known as the ambassador who ushered in an era of athlete empowerment, James has found ways to leverage his situations. He helped convince Kevin Love to request a trade to Cleveland that coincided with James' return to the Cavs in 2014. He also influenced the Cavs' hand into reshaping the roster at midseason in 2017-18 to salvage a stretch run, because, sources said, it was the only way Cleveland brass believed it could "get back Bron" due to the disconnected vibe he was projecting.

Rich Paul | president/founder of Klutch Sports, James' agent

Paul represents Kentavious Caldwell-Pope, among others, and learned the lay of the land with the Lakers when Caldwell-Pope signed a one-year deal in 2017-18. Caldwell-Pope returned for a second season and James joined L.A., but Paul's most notable move during the 2018-19 season went awry. Anthony Davis, also represented by Paul, requested a trade from the New Orleans Pelicans, leading to a very public pursuit by the Lakers that damaged the chemistry and on-court results for both teams.

The team executives

Tim Harris | chief operating officer

After a professional soccer career playing goalkeeper, Harris -- like Jeanie Buss -- parlayed a gig with The Forum into a career on the business side with the Lakers that has spanned 30 years. He was included in the Lakers' traveling party that interviewed Williams in Philadelphia. Harris negotiated one of sports' largest regional TV deals, with Spectrum SportsNet in 2011, and helped secure partnerships with UCLA Health for the team's training facility and Wish as a jersey sponsor. He also serves as a Lakers alternate governor and has been a part of planning and executing the Lakers' free-agent pitch meetings in the past.

Joe McCormack | chief financial officer

McCormack was included in an emergency meeting Buss convened with trusted advisers in El Segundo the night that Johnson stepped down. McCormack has been involved in projects with the Lakers over the years ranging from locking up their 20-year local TV deal to installing solar panels at the new training facility.

The family ties

Joey Buss | co-owner/team president of the South Bay Lakers

Many fans first saw Joey, the second-youngest of the Buss children, when he filled in for his father during the Lakers' championship celebration in Orlando in 2009. Joey started with the title of coaching associate for the Lakers in the 2006-07 season and has worked his way up the ranks. Most recently, the Lakers' G League president engaged in one-on-one conversations with Williams and Lue during the interview process.

Jesse Buss | co-owner; director of scouting and assistant general manager

The youngest of the Buss siblings, his responsibilities in the organization focus primarily on the team's draft process. For all of L.A.'s struggles in recent seasons, the draft decisions have generally been considered sound. He was also part of the Lakers' interview process with Williams and Lue.

Ryan West | director of player personnel

The older of two sons of former Lakers general manager Jerry West, Ryan often finds himself on the road, scouting for the Lakers. Having started his NBA career in Memphis when his father was the GM for the Grizzlies, West has been with the Lakers since 2009 and now works closely with Jesse Buss.

The alumni

Phil Jackson | former Lakers head coach

The Zen Master proved that his influence remains strong with the Lakers, with whom he won five titles as head coach. He is also Jeanie Buss' ex-fiancé.

Jackson spends half the year at his Montana residence, but he remains close to Kurt Rambis and has been a regular visitor to the Lakers facility.

Kobe Bryant | former Laker

Bryant told Slam Magazine in March that he has no desire to be a GM or own a team or coach. Still, Bryant will always make time for Pelinka. The two talk often and share the same passion and outlook. And Bryant is always available to advise Buss, with whom he remains close. Bryant could have considerable influence over the Lakers' matters if he so chooses.

Magic Johnson | former Lakers team president and player

He may have left the building, but Johnson said he still talks to Buss regularly and wants to help the Lakers. "I'm still helping them," Johnson told TMZ in April, less than two weeks after he stepped down. "It's almost like I never left. I'm still talking to them every day. I'm going to help them get the Lakers back right. You can believe that."

"I love Jeanie," he added. "I've been talking to her almost every day. I'm trying to help. Listen, I may not be in there physically, but I'm still there." Despite his intentions, Johnson's departure shook the franchise and sent the Lakers into a chaotic start to the offseason.

NEW YORK -- Right-hander Jonathan Loaisiga has a strained pitching shoulder and became the New York Yankees' 17th player to go on the injured list this season.

New York announced the roster move Monday before starting a homestand against Baltimore and made it retroactive to Friday. Luis Cessa is to start in place of Loaisiga, weather permitting, in his 20th career start and first this season.

The Yankees have 12 players on the IL. Outfielder Aaron Hicks, sidelined since straining his back March 1, was activated Monday and was in the lineup to lead off and play center field.

New York optioned outfielder Mike Tauchman to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre and recalled right-hander Chance Adams from the RailRiders.

Loaisiga is 1-1 with a 4.50 ERA in three starts and one relief appearance. He gave up four runs over four innings in a loss to Seattle last week.

American Nicole Gibbs has withdrawn from this month's French Open after being diagnosed with a rare form of cancer that was found by her dentist.

Gibbs, 26, said she was alerted to a growth on the roof of her mouth, with a subsequent biopsy coming back positive for salivary gland cancer.

The world number 117 will have surgery on Friday and said there is a "great prognosis" for this type of cancer.

She added she hopes to return for Wimbledon qualifying in June.

"Unfortunately I will be withdrawing from the remainder of the clay season and will not be competing at this year's Roland Garros," Gibbs said on Monday.

"Fortunately this form of cancer has a great prognosis and my surgeon is confident that surgery alone will be sufficient treatment.

"He even okayed me to play an extra couple of tournaments these past few weeks, which served as a nice distraction."

The 2019 French Open runs from 26 May to 9 June, while qualifying for Wimbledon is set to take place in late June before the tournament starts on 1 July.

Gibbs said she expects a recovery period of four to six weeks but "will be doing everything to shave that down and get back to full health as soon as possible".

INDIANAPOLIS — For more than four decades, the United States Auto Club had a heavy presence in Indy car racing as the sanctioning body for the world’s biggest event — the Indianapolis 500.

During that time, many drivers from the USAC Championship Trail found their way to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, with many becoming household names and others achieving legendary status.

Drivers such as A.J. Foyt, Johnny Rutherford, the Bettenhausen brothers, Mel Kenyon, Rich Vogler and Gordon Johncock came to Indianapolis with sprint car and midget racing roots, and nearly the entire group found success in one form or another during The Greatest Spectacle in Racing.

However, in due time, Indy car racing and its cars became more and more specialized and eventually, the pipeline from USAC short-track racing to the Indianapolis 500 began to wane.

While the relationship between USAC and IMS formally ended after USAC was dropped as the sanctioning body for the Indy Racing League in mid-1997, hopes always remained that one day, a path for USAC stars to return to the speedway’s hallowed grounds would materialize again.

That path may be starting to reappear, but this time the bridge isn’t in the form of a series or schedule.

Instead, the bridge may well be coming from USAC’s reigning sprint car national championship team.

When Clauson-Marshall Racing — the dirt open-wheel operation co-owned by Tim Clauson and Richard Marshall which won last year’s AMSOIL USAC National Sprint Car Series title — announced its intentions to field an Indianapolis 500 entry, short-track fans across the country paid attention.

Would this be the time that a star USAC driver would appear at the famed 2.5-mile oval?

Those dreams didn’t come true this year, with Indy 500 veteran Pippa Mann brought in as the driver of the No. 39 Dallara-Chevrolet, but the emotion and impact behind the announcement was clear.

A major USAC team was finally racing at Indianapolis again and Clauson knew as much as anyone how big a deal that was to Midwestern auto racing.

It meant the two sides were becoming closer again, particularly in the wake of last year’s successful USAC national midget event held at the quarter-mile dirt track nestled inside turn three at IMS.

“The sentiment from everyone, ever since we first made the announcement that we were going to do this, was that this effort starts to bring some of that USAC flavor back to the speedway, and that’s something that we’re really excited about,” said Clauson. “This is not just because of what Bryan (Clauson) did in 2012 in making it to Indy, either. You have to look at what Doug Boles did for our sport at the speedway, with the BC39 and the dirt track last year, and the monumental effort that he put in to help build that bridge.

“I feel like it’s a lot easier to do this now because we’re all trying to achieve the same goal, in that we want to get our fans to enjoy Indy car racing and the Indianapolis 500, and then vice versa, we want to get Indy carfans to also enjoy our type of racing.”

The first cry from many onlookers when the CMR announced its Indy entry, was for reigning USAC national sprint car champion Tyler Courtney, or perhaps former USAC sprint car and Silver Crown titlist Chris Windom (who will race the Freedom 100 Indy Lights race at IMS) to get a shot at the Indianapolis 500.

Clauson took a more-calculated approach, however.

SOUTHBURY, Conn. -- Even when Tiger Woods had given up on Tiger Woods and had confided in friends that he was done as a competitive golfer, Joe LaCava remained his last man standing. The caddie still believed he would share more magical Sundays with his employer. He still thought what happened last month at the Masters was more likely than not.

"I know Tiger can win again," LaCava told his wife, Megan.

As she recalled the darkest days of the extended Tiger-and-Joe layoff last week, Megan LaCava grew emotional just thinking about her husband's blind faith. Woods' back problems started in the spring of 2014. His fourth back surgery three years later, a spinal fusion, seemed like merely the act of a desperate, bedridden man dying to be able to play with his kids.

Joe caddied for Tiger only two dozen times over four years, so LaCava busied himself watching son Joe's high school football games and daughter Lauren's high school softball games. He painted some rooms inside his Connecticut home, worked on some other house projects, drove Lauren up to college and helped with the dishes and laundry while his wife was at work. But as much as anything, Joe waited for Tiger. He said he would have waited 100 years if he'd had to.

A sales manager at a women's apparel store, Megan wasn't worried about her husband and her family; Woods was generous with his caddie during the layoff. Megan was worried about Tiger, and whether he'd ever be healthy enough to play another event.

"But I have to tell you that Joe never doubted that," she said. "He may have had a couple of moments where he said, 'Oh boy, here we go again.' There were a lot of thoughts running through Joe's mind, but he never, ever thought Tiger was done."

So here they are together again at the PGA Championship at Bethpage, the five-time Masters champion and the two-time Masters champion caddie who also won at Augusta National with Fred Couples in 1992. LaCava, 55, was effectively introduced in April to millions of teary-eyed viewers worldwide who aren't regular golf fans but who were nonetheless mesmerized by Woods' comeback and the Sunday scene on the 18th green, where Tiger shouted, "We did it," as he embraced the bald man in the white jumpsuit.

Those viewers had no idea that LaCava played a meaningful role in so many people crying when 43-year-old Woods -- once a broken athlete and a broken man -- finished off his first Masters victory in 14 years and his first major victory in 11. Woods' previous caddie, Steve Williams, was a snarling, raging bull of a bodyguard who only reinforced the notion of Tiger as a bloodless cyborg built to destroy opponents and ignore fans. Hired away from Dustin Johnson in 2011, LaCava, the ultimate Everyman, brought a humanity to Woods' bag that, people close to the player and caddie believe, helped inspire Tiger's evolution into a more likable and relatable figure in this second act of his professional life.

"And then people clap around me like I'm doing something great, but it was Tiger's idea. I'm not going to announce that when I give away a ball. This is probably the first time I'm sharing this, and I don't know if he even wants me saying it for a story. But too bad, I'm saying it." Joe LaCava, on how Woods would often see a kid in the crowd, or a fan in a wheelchair, and quietly instruct the caddie to deliver that person a ball.

To understand how LaCava impacted Woods is to understand LaCava and where he came from. He grew up lower-middle-class in Newtown, Connecticut, a Revolutionary War town known for its outsized flagpole smack in the middle of Main Street long before it became a global dateline for the 2012 mass murder at Sandy Hook. LaCava's father, Joe, was a three-sport captain at Danbury High who lost some teeth as a rugged 160-pound center and linebacker on the school's undefeated football team and who enlisted in the Army rather than attend college. He started as a teller at Newtown Savings Bank and stayed there nearly his entire working life, finishing in the mortgage department. His wife, Mary Ann, his high school sweetheart, became a teacher at Middle Gate Elementary. Like her husband, Mary Ann spent more than three decades in the same place.

Joe and Mary Ann raised three girls and one boy in their modest ranch home. The family could afford an annual vacation at the Jersey shore, nothing more exotic than that. The LaCava kids knew if they wanted to attend college, they would need to pay their own way to nearby Western Connecticut State University. Joe had played some basketball, football and golf in high school. He could regularly break 80 as the No. 1 man on his varsity team. But Western Connecticut was a Division III program in a lousy climate for ambitious golfers.

"I played one year," LaCava said of his college experience. "I had no dreams whatsoever. I knew exactly where I stood."

Armed with a finance degree and prepared to follow his parents into banking or teaching, LaCava was hired by his cousin, PGA Tour pro Ken Green, for whom he'd caddied at the old Westchester Classic. Green won three times with LaCava before making the 1989 Ryder Cup team. Then Green made a change on his bag, hiring a sibling who was down on his financial luck. Couples, already a three-time Tour winner, decided to give a fellow sports fanatic, LaCava, a shot.

"I knew Big East basketball," Joe said. "That's why Fred hired me."

They won their fourth tournament, the Los Angeles Open, together. Two years later, they won the Masters. That Sunday evening after Couples' tee ball on the 12th hole famously stayed dry on the bank instead of tumbling into Rae's Creek, LaCava tried on his man's green jacket after drinking a few beers and ripped one of its seams.

In later years, a graying Couples -- burdened by lingering back problems -- repeatedly told his caddie it was time for him to switch to a younger bag. LaCava waved him off and gave him a season on the Champions Tour (they won four times that year) before returning to the big show in 2011, when he helped Dustin Johnson seriously contend at The Open and then prevail at the Barclays. LaCava knew he had a great thoroughbred in DJ, but he also knew Woods needed a caddie after firing Williams for, among other things, working with Adam Scott while Woods rehabbed his leg injuries.

"It's Tiger Woods," he said. "If he's calling, I'm going to say yes."

Couples, for one, wasn't surprised by news of the pairing.

"Tiger knew the whole time he wanted Joe," Couples said. "Tiger and Joe spoke a lot when we played practice rounds together. ... I didn't know of a better fit for Tiger, and I can surely tell you that Tiger was a perfect fit for Joe. I think one of the things Tiger does really, really well is he stays in the ballgame, and I think Joe does that well, too. He's never down. In 22 years for me, I don't know if Joe was ever sick. One time going across a ravine, he slipped and he thought he broke his wrist. The next day you would've never known. Joe's very tough, but not tough on his player. He's very low key, and I think Tiger really likes that."

LaCava inherited the post-scandal Tiger, the one without a major title since 2008 and without a PGA Tour victory since 2009. They won two and a half months later at the Chevron World Challenge (now the Hero World Challenge), Woods' first victory in 27 starts. After that, they won eight more times over the next two seasons before Tiger's back started betraying him. LaCava had no idea how long Woods would be out.

"There were days I didn't like not doing anything," LaCava said. "When I say days it was months, maybe a year in [2017] where I said to myself, 'It sucks, because I feel like I need to work.'"

LaCava thought of taking a job outside of golf during Tiger's various rehabs, but he was uncomfortable with the possibility of quitting on an employer the moment his player was healthy enough to compete. A handful of pros approached LaCava when Tiger was hurt, surprising absolutely nobody.

"You can spend 10 years on the tour," said Jim "Bones" Mackay, Phil Mickelson's former caddie and LaCava's longtime friend, "and you're never going to find anyone who'll say a bad word about Joe."

Woods gave his caddie permission to carry for another pro if he wanted. LaCava declined.

LaCava said he learned the value of commitment from his parents, who worked for the same employers for decades and who were married for half a century.

"It meant a lot to me," Woods told ESPN.com earlier this month. "Joe could have left and had pretty much any bag that was available, his reputation is that solid. But he didn't. He hung in there with me. Joe's a great person and very loyal, and I appreciate it."

More than anything, Woods appreciated LaCava's friendship.

"I think we have a lot in common," Tiger said. "We're both fiery and very competitive, although Joe hides it sometimes. And we both love sports. I give Joe the needle about his New York teams and how the L.A. ones are better."

Yes, LaCava has a furnace raging beneath that calm and approachable tee-to-green demeanor. He is hopelessly invested in his New York Rangers and New York Yankees, but nothing can touch his passion for his New York Football Giants. LaCava had the nerve to taunt Bill Belichick at the 2012 AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am. One day the New England coach was hitting balls on the range next to Mickelson, and LaCava let loose:

"How about my G-Men kicking the Patriots' asses again in the Super Bowl?" LaCava barked loudly at Mackay, who was standing near Belichick. "How great was that?"

LaCava has known longtime Giants executive Chris Mara for the better part of 20 years. In their many conversations at training camp, or by text, Mara said he has never heard the caddie say a single bad word about Woods, DJ or Couples.

"But Joe is very critical when it comes to [the Giants]," Mara said. "I get a lot of bad text messages from him after many of our losses. He thinks he's a coach. He laid into me about the draft. I had to spend 45 minutes with him explaining every pick."

(For the record, though, LaCava wasn't a big believer in Ohio State quarterback Dwayne Haskins. LaCava does agree with the popular opinion that the Giants reached for Daniel Jones at No. 6.)

That passion also manifested itself in a game of H-O-R-S-E at Tiger's house. LaCava used his jump shot to beat his boss in nine consecutive games, then called his wife to tell her that Woods was furious and, only half-kiddingly, no longer speaking to him. Megan suggested that maybe her husband should back off and let Tiger get a W. Joe told her that would never happen.

"I'm going to play my game," he said.

That story, said someone who knows Woods and LaCava, "speaks volumes about their relationship." So does the control, or lack thereof, that Tiger exerts over his caddie. Woods and his camp have long subscribed to an inflexible policy with support staff that the less said publicly the better. Yet Woods, longtime agent Mark Steinberg and chief spokesman Glenn Greenspan have clearly seen LaCava as a valuable public relations asset. The caddie is free to share stories of how an older Tiger isn't the Tiger of old, of how he's high-fiving more people, signing more autographs, making more eye contact.

"He's much more fan-friendly, which I think is awesome," LaCava said. "He's great with the kids, talking to guys in groups more ... and everybody out there is pulling for him."

LaCava said this while sitting in the back of Tiger's SUV in Augusta National's champions' parking lot -- right after Woods' epic victory at the Masters. A week later, while picking at his favorite meatball panini dish at his favorite Southbury lunch place, Julio's, LaCava revealed a telling story.

Woods, he said, would often see a kid in the crowd, or a fan in a wheelchair, and quietly instruct the caddie to deliver a ball to that person.

"And then people clap around me like I'm doing something great," LaCava said, "but it was Tiger's idea. I'm not going to announce that when I give away a ball. This is probably the first time I'm sharing this, and I don't know if he even wants me saying it for a story. But too bad, I'm saying it."

Tiger Woods recalled one thing Joe LaCava said on Sunday morning, April 14, that helped him win his fifth green jacket.

"On the first tee, Joe said, 'Let's play loose, but intense,'" Woods said. "And I knew exactly what he meant."

They stayed in separate houses in Augusta, as usual, and LaCava arrived at the course before Woods did, as usual, for a final round moved up to beat the ominous weather forecast. For their 9:20 a.m. tee time with the leader, Francesco Molinari, and Tony Finau, LaCava was out checking pin placements in the dark at 6:45 a.m. Woods worked with his trainer in a room near the caddie shack, then met LaCava on the putting green at their normal time, about 90 minutes before their opening tee shot.

LaCava liked the way the surgically altered Woods was moving so early in the morning.

"That's the first thing I look for," the caddie said.

Tiger and LaCava followed their normal routine -- about 12 minutes of putting, followed by 45-50 minutes on the range (Woods likes to get to the range at least one hour before his tee time), and then another five minutes of putting back on the practice green -- before they headed to the first tee box, where the caddie gave the player his brief pep talk.

"Joe is really, really good at what you'd call an economy of words," said Mackay, now an NBC and Golf Channel analyst. "Joe is great at making his point -- in not very many words, in a diplomatic fashion, in a very convincing way. Certainly with a guy like Tiger, who has a golf IQ as high as anyone's in the game, if not higher, it just makes for a perfect situation."

Mackay also described LaCava as a preparation freak and told a story of the last time Joe and Tiger played a tournament at Bethpage Black -- the 2012 Barclays.

"They were with another player who was walking off the tee after hitting a driver on the 11th hole," Mackay said, "And the player and the caddie were discussing where the player's ball might've ended up, because he pulled it off the tee. And Joe said to them just very casually, 'That ball is in the first cut of the rough," which means Joe knew from 305 yards that the ball had finished in a 5- or 6-foot area because he knew the golf course so well. ... When you combine all those things with the kind of confidence Joe carries himself with, that's a heck of a combination for a player to have to deal with. It's no wonder Tiger loves him to the degree that he does."

Woods would show his love on that glorious Sunday at Augusta. LaCava knew it was coming, too, even before he saw what he called "a great calmness" inside Tiger during the final round. The caddie worries a lot about the self-imposed weight of expectation on his boss.

"Tiger puts so much heat on himself," LaCava said.

So it was a good sign that Woods was relaxed enough Wednesday to play his practice round as a foursome -- he usually plays with only two others. And as one of those players, Couples, left the ninth green and headed for the Par 3 Contest, LaCava told him, "My man's ready."

Sometimes LaCava had to fire up Couples back in the day and boost his sagging confidence.

"Hey, grab a glove and get in the f---in' game," he barked at Couples after he fatted an iron off the third tee during the '92 Masters.

After Woods bogeyed the fifth hole on Sunday of this year's Masters, his second straight bogey of the round, LaCava ripped into him, too. Woods just listened as his caddie gave him a profane lecture.

"Then I went into the restroom and proceeded to say the same things over and over to myself," Woods said. "And then I came out and I felt a lot better."

Woods would play the next 10 holes in 3 under while Molinari drowned his hopes at the 12th and 15th. Tiger hit it tight at the 16th, then told Joe to look at the putt. Woods has deep respect for LaCava's ability to read greens, in part because the caddie consistently drains difficult putts on Tiger's backyard green.

"You don't expect a guy built like Brian Urlacher to be rolling in 10-footers," Mackay said, "and yet Joe can really roll it."

But this request by Tiger on the 16th on Sunday at the Masters was a bit ridiculous.

"Take a look?" LaCava said incredulously. "It's a foot and a half."

It was a little longer than that, but Woods knocked it in to get to 14 under and to grab the Masters by the throat.

"That was genius Joe LaCava," Mackay said. "How many caddies, in the biggest spot maybe those guys are ever going to be in, are going to laughingly look at their player and say, 'Are you kidding me? It's a foot and a half.' That's what makes Joe so good at what he does."

But as much as LaCava helped Woods, Tiger helped Joe, too. Woods has never yelled at LaCava for misclubbing him or for some other not-so-venial sin.

"Not once," Joe said. "I swear to you."

Asked if Tiger ever shot him a dirty look after a lousy read on the greens, LaCava said, "No. If anything, he does the opposite. He almost always comes back and says, 'I pushed it,' or, 'I pulled it.' ... And even the other caddies in the group, they admire that about Tiger. He takes ownership of everything."

Over the years, LaCava would sometimes tell Woods, "Hey, I'm a big boy. If you need more from me, less from me, whatever you need, just tell me. I want what's best for us. I know it's not your personality to scream at somebody all day, but if you need to get something off your chest while you're on the golf course, f---, fire away."

Woods would normally respond by simply saying, "We're all good."

So LaCava didn't have to worry when he suggested a 9-iron for the approach on the 13th, and when Tiger instead chose the correct 8-iron shot that led to his birdie. Nor did LaCava need to worry when Woods' tee shot to the right on the 18th left him blocked out in an area the caddie hadn't fully scouted. When he surveyed the course the previous Sunday, LaCava decided against walking past the Drive, Chip & Putt Championship unfolding on the 18th green and possibly ending up on TV ("I didn't want to look like Joe Caddie," he said), and never returned to the right side of that hole until Tiger put his final tee ball there ... and discovered the severe overhang of the obstructing tree.

"Now I'm feeling, 'Oh s---, I didn't do my job,'" LaCava said.

Woods didn't blink, even with mud on his ball. He needed only a bogey to win, so he sliced an 8-iron short of the bunker, chipped onto the green and two-putted to close out one of the greatest American sports stories ever told.

"It's the first time I saw you smile all week," LaCava's daughter, Lauren, told him.

Woods and his caddie hugged and playfully shoved each other, and, of course, Tiger told Joe "We did it" instead of "I did it."

In the scoring room, Woods turned to LaCava and said, "This is the first time I've come from behind to win a major."

Typical Tiger, the caddie thought.

"He knows exactly what he's done and hasn't done," LaCava said.

?Congrats to @TigerWoods and my cousin Joe LaCava for a remarkable round today. As Joey's first job, I filled his empty melon with all the best Ken Greenisms. Ergo: I taught him everything he knows. ? pic.twitter.com/RbNWE87z0W

— ?Ken Green?? (@KenGreenGolf) November 30, 2017

The room eventually cleared out, except for one green jacket who kept reminding them, over and over, that they had to get to the ceremony quickly. The man was just doing his job, a fairly important one.

"But we both kind of looked at him like, 'Get away from us. Let us enjoy this for 10 seconds,'" LaCava said. "He went out the door, like he almost read our minds."

And then Tiger and Joe stared at each other. No words required.

Tiger spent part of the aftermath thinking about what this all meant to his kids, his mother and his late father. Joe did the same. His dad died of leukemia in 2009, at age 72, and never saw his son ride shotgun with arguably the greatest golfer ever. Joe's mom, Mary Ann, almost never watches golf tournaments on TV, but she was smart enough to head over to her daughter's to watch this one.

LaCava grabbed the flagstick from the 18th hole and loaded it into Tiger's SUV, then conducted interviews as he sat in the cargo area of the black Mercedes. He eventually made his way to Butler Cabin, where he was later joined by his wife. Without a credential, Megan had talked her way past a security guard and waited and waited near the caddie shack, with her husband's peers, for the winning caddie to show. He never did. Cellphones aren't allowed at Augusta National, but someone put out an APB on Joe, put Megan in a cart and, after more than an hour, the LaCavas were reunited at last.

Joe later wore his sweat-drenched Saquon Barkley T-shirt and shorts to a ballroom filled with men in green jackets and women in formal dresses and merrily drank some cold Bud Light. LaCava would tell The Caddie Network that he read some of his 670 text messages before going to bed that night, including one from his boss.

"Appreciate you hanging in there with me," it read. "I love you like a brother."

Tiger had said a lot of kind things in past texts to Joe. "But 'love you like a brother,' I don't think that has been in there," the caddie said.

LaCava did some Monday interviews before and after his flight to LaGuardia. At some point he texted Chris Mara to honor Joe's tradition of matching up Tiger's total victories (in this case, 81) with the Giants who wore that jersey number (in this case, Andy Robustelli and Amani Toomer). Finally, LaCava made it to his Southbury home with his best friend, the former high school tennis player he married 25 years ago this September.

They met at a Danbury sports bar. Joe took her to a Clint Eastwood movie ("Unforgiven") on their first date, and then to the US Open tennis tournament on their second; Joe impressed Megan by buying her a $20 Open hat. She knows Joe the way Joe knows his players. Over the years, Megan has watched her husband connect with them, push them, calm them, respond to their body language.

"It's a gift," she said.

A gift that helped the caddie read Woods like a book.

"Somehow Joe knew Tiger would make it back," Megan said. "To have that belief and gut feeling for someone is a special thing."

Before they attend their daughter's college graduation on May 25, the LaCavas will have a date at Bethpage, where Woods won the U.S. Open in a different life with a different caddie. Joe will be among scores of his fellow New York sports fans. It would be a hell of a place for him to win his next major.

But win or lose on Long Island, Joe and Megan will always have that moment they shared after they returned to Connecticut, unpacked their bags and fell into each other's arms. Megan told her husband that she couldn't believe this was happening and that she was so proud of him for pulling it off.

Joe looked at his wife and said the three words that will forever define the 2019 Masters.

We did it.

Phoenix Suns forward Josh Jackson was arrested in Miami this weekend and faces a felony charge of escape and a misdemeanor charge of resisting arrest, according to online court records.

Jackson has an arraignment hearing scheduled for June 10, according to the records.

SlaterScoops.com reported that Jackson was arrested at the Rolling Loud music festival in Miami Gardens, Florida, after he attempted to enter the VIP area too many times without a proper pass. He was reportedly handcuffed by police and then ran away from the officers.

Arizona Sports 98.7 reports that the Suns are aware of the incident and are gathering more information.

Jackson, 22, averaged 11.5 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.3 assists in 79 games (29 starts) last season, his second in the NBA since the Suns made him the fourth overall pick in the 2017 draft out of Kansas.

Before entering the NBA, Jackson agreed to enter a diversion program in 2017 to settle a misdemeanor count of criminal property damage stemming from a confrontation with a Kansas women's basketball player in 2016.