When Anthony Rizzo opened spring training with the Cubs by telling reporters — from two lockers away — that “money talks,” it might as well have been the opening scene to the sequel to "The Last Dance."
Never mind that he said it with a smile and that it was in response to a reporter’s contract question to teammate Kyle Schwarber.
Rizzo meant it.
The first cornerstone player in the Cubs’ improbable rise from last place to baseball’s most celebrated World Series title in two years, Rizzo — like Scottie Pippen more than two decades earlier — had signed a team-friendly, seven-year deal early in his career for deeply personal reasons that made security at the time important.