Culture and News

Central Park, NYC — August 30, 2026

I’m sitting here at City Pickle at Wollman Rink in Central Park watching the New Jersey Fives celebrate their first-ever MLP championship, and I have to say: this was the most inevitable outcome that took the longest to happen.

Two years of runner-up finishes. Two years of winning the regular season and getting to the finals. Two years of looking like the best team in the league while somehow being the second-best team when it counted. And now, finally, they’re holding the trophy.

Here’s the thing though—it wasn’t pretty. It wasn’t dominant. It was messy, it went to a Dreambreaker in the first match against St. Louis, and it required Anna Leigh Waters to hit the final points when everything was on the line. That’s championship pickleball. That’s what separates the teams that finish with the best record from the teams that actually win titles.

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Tesla and Selkirk are back with a new collaboration, pickleball facilities are expanding worldwide, and the equipment landscape is changing in ways that matter to your game. Let’s talk gear and growth.

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The MLP regular season just ended with an absolutely unforgettable Super Sunday in Orlando. The New Jersey 5s got revenge against St. Louis with the most dramatic mixed doubles game in league history, securing the #1 playoff seed, the playoff bracket is now set, and we’re officially one week away from everything that matters. Let’s dig in.

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The MLP Mid-Season Tournament just wrapped up in Grand Rapids, and it was absolute chaos. The St. Louis Shock just dethroned the New Jersey 5s from their perch atop the league, Anna Leigh Waters suffered her first loss of the season in the most surprising way possible, and we got a blueprint for how to actually beat the world’s most dominant player. Let’s dig into what went down.

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Pickleball just got its own movie, The Dink, and Ben Stiller is involved, which means two things are now true: the sport has officially arrived in the mainstream, and I am contractually obligated as a child of the 90s to have an opinion about it.

The Dink premieres July 24 is out now on Apple TV. It stars Jake Johnson as a washed-up former tennis prodigy who gets pushed into pickleball during rehab, Ed Harris (never ages!) as his pickleball-skeptical father, Mary Steenburgen (never ages!) as the partner who pulls him into the sport, and Stiller himself in a supporting role as the doctor who hands him a paddle in the first place. The trailer just dropped, the internet has takes, and I have a personal reason to care about this one beyond the usual “my hobby is famous now” excitement…but we’ll get there.

Here’s everything worth knowing, plus the part of this story I genuinely did not expect to write about myself.

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We just witnessed something historic: pickleball became a $225 million business, five members of the Amarillo Pickleball Club died in a plane crash on their way to a tournament, and the PPA Tour crowned champions in Atlanta to close out the 2025/26 season.

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This week was stacked: the PPA Tour’s final event of the season kicks off in Atlanta, a reality show trailer just dropped that’s already causing chaos, Grayson Goldin is making his comeback after suffering two strokes, and new facilities keep opening across the country. Let’s get into it.

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This week was insane—India wrapped up a historic tournament, the US Open kicked off in Naples, indoor facilities keep popping up everywhere, and Honolulu’s Gen 4 foam paddles started shipping.

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