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junker-town · 4 years ago

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Ayo Dosunmu is the star Illini basketball always needed

How Chicago native Ayo Dosunmu left a lasting legacy at Illinois.

Ayo Dosunmu put on an all black outfit when he woke up to go to school on October 19, 2017. He changed his Twitter avatar to a blank black box, and so did the rest of his large, supportive family that had been visible throughout the recruiting process. Dosunmu had whittled down his college choice to Illinois and Wake Forest, and he wasn’t about to give any clues before he revealed his decision at the Jordan Brand store in the heart of downtown Chicago.

Dosunmu was considered the top basketball player in the city and a borderline five-star prospect depending on which recruiting service you trusted. He was exactly the type of recruit that had broken the spirit of Illini fans so many times before.

Illinois basketball didn’t always feel like a punchline, but it had become one in the years following its 2005 Final Four run. Illinois captivated the country behind Dee Brown, Deron Williams, and Luther Head, but it couldn’t turn an iconic team into future wins on the recruiting trail. It started to feel like making the Illini your second choice was a rite of passage for top local recruits who were deciding where they would play college basketball.

Eric Gordon verbally committed to Illinois only to end up at Indiana. Jon Scheyer became a legend for his scoring outbursts at suburban Glenbrook North playing for the brother of Illinois coach Bruce Weber, but he still picked Duke over heading to Champaign. Sherron Collins and Julian Wright picked Kansas. Jalen Brunson picked Villanova. Cliff Alexander, then the No. 2 overall prospect in America out of Chicago’s Curie High School, mistakenly picked up an Illinois hat for a moment before revealing that he’d spend his lone college season in Lawrence. The reaction video of Illinois fans watching Alexander’s mishap felt like the program’s defining moment since the Final Four run.

Illinois fans remembered Shaun Livingston wearing an Illini jersey to school at nearby Peoria the day before picking Duke. They had pegged Quentin Snider and Jeremiah Tilmon as saviors only to see each renege on their oral commitments and eventually go to Louisville and Missouri, respectively, instead. The thought of a highly-touted recruit listing the Illini as a finalist was enough to trigger feelings of dread and resignation for anyone who cared about the program. These stories only ended one way.

Illinois coach Brad Underwood reportedly didn’t know Dosunmu’s intentions when the lights went off in the Jordan Brand store and a short video played thanking everyone who helped the point guard get to this point. Kanye West’s “Homecoming” blared from the speakers as the lights came on and Dosunmu entered the room wearing a white Illini polo. Illinois basketball, for once, didn’t come in second.

Three and a half years later, Dosunmu has become the best guard in college basketball, and maybe even its best player. He would have led Illinois to its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2013 as a sophomore last season before Covid-19 stopped daily life as we know it. Now he has Illinois lined up for a No. 1 seed.

“I just felt that playing for my home state and investing in my home state meant more than it would at another school,” Dosunmu told SB Nation. “I thought I had a chance to do something special at Illinois.”

This is the impact Illinois basketball was always waiting for when it pinned its hopes and dreams on high schoolers who ultimately decided they’d rather play college basketball somewhere else. Dosunmu was the right player at the right time to finally make it happen.

Dosunmu started his high school career in Chicago playing at Westinghouse, a formerly proud program that had been relegated down to the inferior White division when he showed up as a freshman. The team appeared to be entering a rebuilding phase, but Dosunmu wouldn’t let that happen. He put up gaudy scoring numbers all season and led Westinghouse to a conference championship that put the school back to the Red division with the rest of the Public League powers.

Still, Dosunmu wanted to compete for state championships and knew he needed a bigger stage for that. He decided to transfer to Morgan Park, one of the city’s premier programs. The Mustangs were led by Nick Irvin, the boisterous and affable head coach whose family also runs the city’s top grassroots program on Nike’s EYBL circuit, the Mac Irvin Fire. Irvin had coached plenty of great players, but he quickly realized Dosunmu could be better than all of them.

“The first day of practice, I knew he had the chance to become one of the best players to ever come out of Chicago,” Irvin told SB Nation.

If Irvin saw his long-term potential, Dosunmu knew it wasn’t his team just yet. Morgan Park had a senior guard in Charlie Moore who was positioning himself as the top player in the city and a top 100 recruit nationally. Irvin pleaded with Dosunmu to take over more often offensively, but the sophomore was content to defend and distribute while Moore pushed for Mr. Basketball. Morgan Park was upset in the super-sectional round of the state playoffs, but Dosunmu’s reputation was starting to take off.

He debuted on the EYBL’s 17U level in the spring and started opening eyes. His first scholarship offer came from Illinois-Chicago and assistant coach Ron ‘Chin’ Coleman. Illinois and then-head coach John Groce offered shortly after. Before long, Dosunmu had gone from unranked to a top-40 recruit flirting with five-star status on some publications.

Suddenly, Dosunmu was crowned the next big thing in the city. With Moore off to play college ball at Cal, Morgan Park would be his team. Irvin says Dosunmu worked as hard as any player he’s ever been around heading into his junior year, often going from hours-long practices with Morgan Park straight into individual skill training with his father Quam. Irvin found a player who hated being coddled and wanted to be pushed to the limit by his coach.

“It’s either state championship or bust,” Irvin recalls telling Dosunmu. “It’s going to come down to you closing out games and closing out teams. I always told him people remember players that close games out like MJ and Kobe. His junior year, he won us a lot of games late.”

Now nearing 6’5 as a point guard, Dosunmu was becoming a takeover scorer who thrived going to the basket and was starting to make progress with an awkward-looking jump shot. He powered Morgan Park through the Public League gauntlet and into the state semifinals, where he suffered a season-ending ankle injury in the first five minutes of the game. Morgan Park would win a state championship without him.

Dosunmu went back to the EYBL circuit months later and certified his borderline five-star status. USC, Xavier, NC State, and Wake Forest were all-in. Illinois had hired a new head coach in Brad Underwood, and he hired a new assistant: Chin Coleman, the same coach who gave Dosunmu his first scholarship.

Dosunmu and his family didn’t want to let speculation over his college decision hang over his senior year. He got together with his inner circle — his parents Jamarra and Quam, his sisters Joselynn and Khadijat, his brother Kube — and made a decision that felt natural for him.

“Illinois is our state program,” Dosunmu’s father told SB Nation. “We want Illinois to be on top. We believed we had the right pieces and could turn it around.”

“We like challenges. We like building things. We’re a hard working family. Illinois was a perfect fit.”

Dosunmu played through another leg injury as a senior, but he wasn’t going to let it keep him off the floor. After leading Morgan Park back to the state title game, he scored a record 28 points in the final outing to bring the Mustangs back-to-back championships.

Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images

Dosunmu didn’t have much time to heal up after high school season — he was invited to try out for USA Basketball’s U18 team in the FIBA Americas Championship, made the team, and flew to Ontario for the competition. There, Dosunmu teamed with current NBA players Coby White, Cole Anthony, and Tyrese Maxey and finished sixth on the team in scoring as the Americans won the gold medal. It was another impressive accomplishment in his prep career, but his body never had much time to recover from nagging leg and ankle injuries.

Dosunmu was hailed as the Illini’s savior when he committed, but those around him sensed it wasn’t going to happen overnight. Illinois had lost two key players to transfer over the offseason in Mark Smith and Michael Finke, leaving a young team without much proven talent or depth in the front court.

Illinois was swept out of the 2018 Maui Invitational. It started 1-7 in Big Ten play and finished only above Nebraska and Northwestern in the conference. It had the second-worst defense in the Big Ten and an offense that ranked No. 83 in the country. This was a young team and a bad team by any measure, but there were flashes of the player Dosunmu would eventually become. He closed out a win against Michigan State with a pull-up three, and beat Ohio State with a catch-and-shoot triple from NBA range. He led the team in scoring, but his efficiency — 43.5 percent from the field, 69.5 percent from the foul line — left a lot to be desired.

Dosunmu was projected as a borderline first round pick throughout his freshman year. If some expected him to leave school for good, his father wasn’t one of them.

“He didn’t pass the eye test to me,” Quam Dosunmu said. “I knew he wasn’t ready for grown men at the time because his body hadn’t healed.”

Dosunmu made the surprising decision to announce his return to school without even testing the draft process. He was back for his sophomore season with a goal of going from top prospect to top player.

Illinois got a big boost going into the season with the commitment of Kofi Cockburn, a mammoth seven-foot, 290-pound center from Brooklyn by way of Jamaica. Cockburn provided a much needed infusion of talent as the No. 43 recruit in the RSCI while also filling Illinois’ biggest need. Finally, the Illini had a big man who could fortify the paint on defense and provide interior scoring.

The Illini lost close games to Maryland, Miami (FL), and Missouri to start the season, but things fully started to click in the heart of conference season. Illinois rattled off seven straight wins against Big Ten opponents during one stretch, and they closed the regular season as winners of five of six. Dosunmu was the catalyst and was fully growing into his reputation as one of the best closers in the sport.

He iced a win over Wisconsin with a step-back three. He finished off Northwestern with a deep pull-up. He used his size to bang home a 15-foot game-winner over Zavier Simpson and Michigan. He hit a bomb to beat Indiana and a mid-range shot to down Iowa. Dosunmu improved his scoring average to a team-best 16.6 points per game and was named All-Big Ten First Team. Illinois was ranked in the 30s in efficiency on both ends of the floor and set to get its first NCAA tournament bid since 2013.

Then the pandemic hit.

“We had a chance to win the Big Ten Tournament and I had a chance to improve my stock,” Donsumu said. “But Covid had other plans. I tried to accept it for what it was.”

Covid-19 changed life as we know it for everyone, but it felt particularly devastating for a 20-year-old on the precipice of accomplishing what he had worked so hard for. Again, Dosunmu had a decision to make: turn pro or return for his junior year. To hear his family tell it, he may have made a different choice if not for the pandemic.

“We’re a family of planners,” Quam said. “There was too many uncertainness that came with draft process, with the G League during Covid. We probably wouldn’t be doing an interview right now if not for the pandemic.”

Dosunmu himself also said it was a difficult question to answer:

“I pretty much took it one year at a time,” Dosunmu said. “Talking to my family, they really helped me make the best decision for myself and for my long-term future. My mom always told me you don’t have to save this family. We’re in a great financial situation. I think that allowed me to put in the work I needed.”

Greg Bartram-USA TODAY Sports

The success Dosunmu has experienced as a junior is the direct result of a hard-charging offseason meant to transform his body and his skill set. He owes the former to Illinois strength and conditioning coach Adam Fletcher. The work didn’t stop after hours of lifting. Fletcher also overhauled Dosunmu’s diet and took it upon himself to see that the point guard was eating enough even when he didn’t have the appetite for it.

“Baked chicken, macaroni, mashed potatoes, salad,” Dosunmu recalls. “He’d give me a big plate and say you gotta eat all of this. It came a point where he would sit down at the table with me and watch me eat and make sure I digested it right.”

From the time he entered the program until now, Dosunmu says he put on at least 25 pounds of muscle. The player he is today wouldn’t be possible without it.

When it came to fine-tuning his skill set, Dosunmu went back to the only trainer he’s had his entire life: his family. His father Quam and his brother Kube worked to remake a three-point shot that bottomed out as a sophomore. For as good as Dosunmu was last season, he knew only making 29 percent of his three-pointers wasn’t going to cut it.

The elder Dosunmus recorded every shot Ayo was taking in his training sessions and compared it to what they saw in games. When they found an attempt that looked good, they would go back to the floor and try to replicate the mechanics with a focus on his elbows and follow through. They held him to a high standard, not considering each drill complete until he made 80 percent of his shots.

“It took so many long nights in the gym,” Dosunmu told SB Nation. “Frustrating nights. Threw so many balls all over the gym to get to the point where I got to now.”

Dosunmu has been one of the very best players in the country from the start of the season. Along the way, he’s helped make the Illini one of the country’s very best teams.

Underwood has spread the floor around the two-man game of Dosunmu and Cockburn with electric results. Pick-and-rolls including passes make up half of Dosunmu’s possessions, and Illinois has scored in the 88th percentile in the country on those play types. Dosunmu has thrived driving the ball to the basket since his high school days, but now he knows how to read pick-and-roll coverages as a passer and has more confidence in his pull-up shooting.

Almost every area of Dosunmu’s game has leveled up as a junior. His 30 percent assist rate is a career-best, up from 21 percent. He ended the regular season making 40 percent of his three-pointers, a massive improvement from last season, even if it’s still on modest volume. He’s getting to the line more than ever — a 34 percent free throw rate, up from 25 percent each of his first two years — and he’s making the freebies when he gets there. The point guard who was a 69 percent free throw shooter as a freshman now makes 78 percent from the foul line. He’s pulled off the impressive feat of having his most efficient scoring season (57.1 percent true shooting) while posting his highest usage rate (30 percent) yet.

Illinois has a top-10 offense and top-10 defense, one of only three teams in America that can say that. Right now, Dosunmu is the only player in the country to average more than 20 points, five assists, and six rebounds while shooting better than 50 percent on two-pointers and 40 percent on three-pointers.

The late game heroics have, of course, been there again. He hit a catch-and-shoot three to bury Indiana, a pull-up to beat Nebraska in overtime, an NBA-range three to finish off Northwestern, and a driving layup to defeat Ohio State.

Dosunmu made that last shot while wearing a black mask after suffering a broken nose at the end of a close loss against Michigan State. He doesn’t love how the mask affects his vision, but it has a way of making him look even more intimidating.

The Illini are finally back in the NCAA tournament, and they aren’t just happy to be there. With a likely No. 1 seed next to their name, Dosunmu is thinking about the Final Four and the national championship. Anything less will ultimately be a disappointment.

When asked why he broke the trend of hometown stars spurning the Illini, Dosunmu looked forward instead of backward.

“Five to 10 years from now, the legacy I leave at my home school will mean more than anywhere else.”

That legacy — one of the great players in the history of Illini basketball — has already been cemented. The final chapter just might be the best part yet.

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klindseyphotog-blog · 5 years ago

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G'day from Laurel, MS

Today I had the chance to meet and talk to a couple who flew in all the way from Australia. The couple - Audrey and Phillip - flew in just a week ago to LA, then Chicago, down to Atlanta, back west to Birmingham. Knowing how close they were to Mississippi, they braved the tropical storm and came down to Laurel, MS.

Mr. Phil is a teacher and basketball coach for a private school in Melbourne, Australia and had several weeks of vacation time. He and his wife flew in for a wedding and to see family. This lovely couple decided to visit Laurel - specifically downtown - after hearing so much about it on television. They were so complimentary of everything our town had to offer, and loved the sweet tea! As of today, they had visited the Lauren Rogers Museum, Pearl's Diner, and many other locations including some of the houses from Ben and Erin Napier's HGTV show.

The couple could not get over how welcoming, warm, and inviting Mississippians were, and how Laurel was. Contrary to most national media's opinion, they absolutely loved what the south has to offer.

Below is a video attached from our new friends. I certainly hope they have a lovely time and safe travels as they visit other places in the USA! Also, Mr. Phillip is a Chicago Bulls fan and occasionally watches "gridiron ball" but said it is much too slow compared to Aussie rules ball.

#australia #mississippi #blog #photography #downtown #laurel #fun

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flauntpage · 7 years ago

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LaMarcus Aldridge Finally Opens Up

It’s All-Star Weekend, and San Antonio Spurs forward LaMarcus Aldridge is shepherding giddy children who barely clear his kneecaps through layup lines at a Jr. NBA event in Downtown Los Angeles. He bends his 6’11” frame at a 45-degree angle and is instantly mobbed by dozens of tiny hands that leap for a high five.

We’re in a massive room that fits more than a dozen large basketball courts, each separated by aluminum bleachers. For some reason, an Ed Sheeran song bounces off the walls at an unreasonably high volume.

Aldridge wades through it all at his own pace. He smiles, claps his hands, mimes quick dribbling tutorials for the little ones who don’t know the thing they hold was made to bounce, then whispers words of encouragement as they uncoil their tiny bodies trying to heave a regulation-sized basketball 11 feet in the air. Mascots from the Chicago Bulls, Charlotte Hornets, Milwaukee Bucks, Philadelphia 76ers, and Los Angeles Clippers randomly slalom on and off the court while Aldridge poses as a very chill traffic cop, directing the kids through various activities as they skip from baseline to baseline.

It’s chaos, but Aldridge is at ease. Wearing a navy blue Jr. NBA t-shirt that's long enough to someday be recycled as a shower curtain, gym shorts, and black and white Jordan XII's, he also looks relieved.

Coming into the season five months ago, Aldridge faced the lowest expectations of his career. Last year his role on the Spurs was volatile, and by its end his clunky output resembled a bug-infested iOS update. He drifted in big spots and struggled to assert himself inside the very same ecosystem that successfully demanded sacrifice from some of the greatest players who ever lived. San Antonio was a better team when Aldridge sat, and his usage percentage dipped to its lowest point since 2010.

But instead of sagging into irreversible decline, the 32-year-old might now be having his best season, taking up the mantle for a team overburdened with injuries to key players. Heading into the break, his 1,209 total points more than doubled the combined output from San Antonio’s second- and third-leading scorers. (The only other player in the league who can make a similar claim is LeBron James.)

When we talk, most of Aldridge’s answers are rambling odysseys through a landscape of ideas and issues he has entertained over weeks, months, and, in some instances, years. He’s thoughtful and exhaustive, but not premeditated. He tries out a phrase, then refines it as if tacking a ship to something slightly closer to his truth.

Photo by Kim Klement - USA TODAY Sports

The very first question I ask doesn’t catch him off guard: Are you surprised to be here?

“I wouldn’t say I had doubt,” Aldridge begins. “I knew I’d have to have some things fall into place and I’d have to refine myself and kind of work with [Gregg Popovich] and the organization on how I could be the player I was in this system.

“I knew some work had to be done. I wouldn’t say I doubted it, but I knew a lot of things had to be worked on and I took my responsibility and I went home and got healthy and worked hard and made sure I came back with the right mentality. Pop and the organization then did their thing to try and let me be myself. So I wouldn’t say I doubted it, but I knew a lot of things had to be done. I knew it was going to be tough.”

In his 12th season, Aldridge’s renaissance has been muffled by several factors, from his unfair standing as an increasingly useless and persistently boring mid-range craftsman to the simple fact that over the past dozen years he hasn’t showed any explicit desire to reveal himself the way most famous people do.

Today, Aldridge deserves to be celebrated for more than his routine 25-point performances or the unprecedented act of bending San Antonio to his will without alienating any of his teammates or coaches. A self-described introvert (a label those who know him well don't argue with), Aldridge had to step outside his comfort zone in some very relatable and difficult ways to get where he’s at. In doing so, he displayed how vulnerable he is.

The capacity to craft one’s own narrative has become an obligatory skill either possessed or learned by almost every relevant star in the NBA. From Steph Curry’s on-brand waltz through a Brita commercial to Kyrie Irving embracing his inner conspiracy theorist, the NBA’s very best know how to distinguish themselves off the court even more so than on. Aldridge—who’s somehow as puzzling as he is grounded as he is brilliant at basketball—doesn’t have/want that power.

“I feel like everything with me gets blown out of proportion,” he says. “I think it’s because I’m so quiet about things that people just run with anything they hear.”

Aldridge has never worried about injecting himself into a grandiose marketing campaign, or projecting a façade that elevates a perception that’s probably more dispassionate than anything else. The result? He gets called sensitive, jealous, and insecure. He’s accused of skirting leadership duties and distancing himself from teammates.

“I’m probably one of the most misunderstood people in the league.”

Not all of these descriptions are false, but rumors cause reputations to fester in the absence of information. Aldridge has long been a blank canvas, susceptible to speculation about how he really feels on any given topic by fans, reporters, or just anyone loosely connected to the NBA. That reserved persona, combined with a game that’s the antithesis of glamour, have clouded a remarkably consistent career.

“I don’t want this to come off like I’m whining, but if someone else had done the things that I’ve done, it would be talked about more,” Aldridge says. “But since it’s me, and I don’t do a lot of media—I’m not out there on red carpets and things like that—it kind of gets overlooked a little bit.”

Even with the antiquated embrace of a shot profile that’s more VCR than DVR, Aldridge has been selected to four All-NBA teams. (He joins LeBron, Chris Paul, and Curry as the only four players who made an All-NBA team in every season from 2014 to 2016.)

“He doesn’t get the attention that maybe a Blake Griffin gets, or some of the more dynamic players throughout the league,” says Portland Trail Blazers assistant coach David Vanterpool, who coached Aldridge earlier in his career. “I mean, he doesn’t get the attention that DeAndre Jordan gets, and no disrespect to DeAndre Jordan but LaMarcus is phenomenal in every aspect of the game...I think throughout the league he’s grossly overlooked. Even now. Even at this moment. I don’t think that people really appreciate when you’re able to perform at that level, that often, year after year after year after year.”

Aldridge grew up in Dallas, Texas where he was a McDonald’s High-School All-American who battled Chris Bosh as a teenager. He was skinny and 6’7” when he first enrolled at Seagoville High School. Three years later he was nearly seven feet tall, with physical advantages that allowed him to control the paint, and enough skill to step out and unleash a potent jumper that started on his right and aberrantly followed through across his body (a form that was nicknamed the “Seagoville Shot” in college).

“He was our hardest worker,” Seagoville High School basketball head coach Charles Brooks, who was the team’s JV coach when Aldridge was there, says. “We talk about drills, we talk about running, we talk about doing a lot of things that kids don’t like doing that lead up to playing in the game, LaMarcus was at the forefront. He never was in the middle of the pack or in the back in our drills. He always was at the front.”

During his final season, Seagoville traveled to an out-of-state tournament in Charlotte, North Carolina. Brooks remembers one night, as all the players and coaches were milling around in front of their downtown hotel, a car full of kids drove by. The window rolled down and they all shouted “We love you LaMarcus Aldridge!” at him and the team. Not even 18 years old, Aldridge was already getting recognized over 1,000 miles away from his hometown. He was in the spotlight.

Aldridge spent two seasons at the University of Texas before the Chicago Bulls selected him second overall in the 2006 NBA Draft. That same day, he and a 2007 second-round pick were shipped to Portland for Tyrus Thomas and Viktor Khryapa. (Thomas had outplayed Aldridge in that year’s NCAA Tournament, leading LSU to a 10-point win over Texas, as Aldridge missed 12 shots and only scored four points.)

That same night, the Blazers also traded for Brandon Roy, who was the sixth overall pick. He and Aldridge instantly became pillars at ground zero for an organization that desperately wanted to distance itself from the Jail Blazers era.

“I was really impressed with how hard [Aldridge] worked when he worked out for us,” says Indiana Pacers head coach Nate McMillan, who spent nearly six seasons with Aldridge as Portland’s head coach. “I recall LaMarcus, after an hour and a half, two-hour workout, he stayed and shot afterwards. Most guys, that was unusual for us...Most guys are icing and they’re getting out of the gym. He stayed.”

The very next year, Portland won the lottery and selected Greg Oden, a stroke of luck that, in the eyes of many, virtually guaranteed deep playoff runs and possible championship contention for the next decade. Instead, an immediate avalanche of injuries to their prized center forced Aldridge down to the block, where he tirelessly worked after every practice with former Blazers assistant coach Monty Williams—who currently serves in San Antonio as Vice President of Basketball Operations.

“We felt like he could be a Rasheed Wallace type of guy. So after a season of playing [in the post] he really got in the weight room and got stronger and worked on his game down there,” McMillan says. “And that helped him. It’s where he’s still dominating. Down on that left block.” (Aldridge’s 1,907 two-point baskets scored from 2013 to 2015 led the league over that span—LeBron ranked third with 90 fewer makes in over 400 more minutes.)

Photo by Raj Mehta - USA TODAY Sports

In an alternate universe, Aldridge spends his prime thriving in a slightly reduced role on a Blazers dynasty flanked by two fellow perennial All-NBA talents. But in this one, a degenerative knee condition forced Roy to retire in 2011, while multiple microfracture surgeries limited Oden to 82 total games in a Blazers uniform. It’s one of the more paralyzing What If’s in recent NBA history. Under McMillan, Portland never made it out of the first round.

“If I’m still there and those guys are still healthy, with Brandon, LaMarcus, and Greg Oden,” McMillan muses, “If we don’t have a title by now, it would be…” his voice trails off. “Injuries to Brandon and Greg almost crippled that organization.” The Blazers moved on from McMillan during the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, which doubled as Aldridge’s All-Star debut.

A year later, with Aldridge as their lone tentpole, Portland hired Terry Stotts as head coach and drafted Damian Lillard with the sixth pick. They were rebuilding on the fly.

As the Jr. NBA session winds down, I hop up off the bleachers juggling my notebook and a large iced coffee, then walk over to a partitioned area in the back of the room. To my right are roughly 10,000 Jr. NBA t-shirts neatly stacked on top of a long fold out table. Straight ahead and to my left are a dozen more empty tables. I walk over to the corner and pull out two chairs.

As a Spurs employee bends over to ask if I want to do the interview in a quieter space, Aldridge enters with a pair of cell phones cradled in his left hand. He lays both upside down on the white tablecloth and cracks a joke about a promotional video he shot earlier in the morning with Kevin Hart and Tiffany Haddish.

I place my recorder down beside the phones and realize that despite all the research done for this story—articles read, interviews studied, videos watched—there isn't nearly enough available information, relative to every other player at or near his stature, to capture who the man sitting next to me really is.

I don’t know if he’ll be candid with my questions or even if his voice will be loud enough to get picked up over the unrestrained speaker system. I’m neurotic and nudge my recorder a few inches closer, but his slight Texas drawl is more than lively enough to carry us through a conversation that provides real insight into how he feels and thinks about a variety of topics, especially himself.

“[I’m] very, very, very closed off at first,” Aldridge says. “But then as you get to know me and I trust you—because trust isn’t given, it’s earned—as you earn my trust you’ll see I’m a very caring, selfless, overly giving guy. At first I probably come off as cold and uninterested or whatever, but that’s just because I don’t trust easy. But then once you earn my trust I’m a very loyal person. Once I’m on your side, I’m on your side.”

With a new coach and franchise point guard, the Blazers rebounded faster than anyone could have expected. Lillard was an instant spark who won Rookie of the Year and made the All-Star team as a sophomore, which doubled as the first season Portland advanced out of the first round since 2000.

Aldridge was still their best player—and made more baskets than anyone else in the league during the 2014-15 season—but bad luck and unfortunate timing once again kept the Blazers from reaching their full potential. It was a promising situation, but at that stage of Aldridge’s life, with free agency on the horizon, it ultimately wasn’t one worth fighting for.

I recently sat down with Chicago Bulls center Robin Lopez, who was Aldridge’s teammate for a couple years in Portland, to chat about their brief time together. The Blazers won 105 regular-season games with those two as a frontcourt tandem, but injuries derailed the franchise’s high aspirations. I ask Lopez about that particular what if. Could the Blazers have won a championship in 2015?

“Without question,” Lopez says. “Without question. We were really clicking that year.”

The Blazers were 41-19 when Wesley Matthews tore his Achilles at the tail end of a five-game winning streak. They had just traded for Arron Afflalo. Aldridge would go on to finish the season averaging 23 points and 11 rebounds per game, playing through a thumb injury that would later require surgery.

Reminiscing at his locker, Lopez stares at a nearby TV and is still. “[Matthews’ injury] was rough,” he says. “It was an excellent season up to that point. Even afterwards it was still a great season, but I thought that squad was something special.”

As special as they were, the Blazers still had to reckon with Aldridge’s contract, and how trying it could be to deal with a franchise player who rarely vocalized exactly how he felt about every other issue. Team employees in Portland were forced to read his facial expressions or react off how he responded to something else. It was a guessing game.

“I’m not Nostradamus by any stretch of the imagination, and nobody else that I know is,” Vanterpool says. “Nostradamus has been wrong a bunch of times, so you can imagine how wrong we could be if we think ‘OK this is how he feels, this is what he’s thinking about,’ and it could be completely wrong.” (Vanterpool spent the surrounding 25 minutes of our interview gushing about how awesome Aldridge was to coach; they still text each other from time to time.)

After the 2014-15 season ended with a first-round exit, Aldridge entered free agency. He took meetings with the Los Angeles Lakers, Phoenix Suns, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Rockets, Spurs, and Trail Blazers. In the aftermath of his eventual move to San Antonio, a new narrative took hold: Somewhere along the way, Aldridge’s relationship with Lillard had curdled.

The choice to leave Portland and sign with the Spurs was, to any unbiased observer, understandable and benign. Free agents have the right to choose where they want to play. It’s their life, their bank account, their happiness. It’s a life-altering decision made with countless factors coming from multiple directions, and, as unfair as it is, there’s also pressure knowing what you do will impact other people’s lives, too (Lopez, whose free agency coincided with Aldridge’s, tells me he would’ve stayed in Portland had Aldridge never left).

The whispers that followed Aldridge out of town weren’t the result of his choice to leave, but the environment he helped create before he left. In a workplace that requires constant connection, Aldridge and Lillard didn’t always have it. Earlier this season, Lillard spoke to the media about mentoring Portland’s 23-year-old center Jusuf Nurkic. The conversation expanded into a regretful one about Aldridge. “As a younger player, I came into the league wishing…and thinking [LaMarcus] was going to take me under his wing, like his lil’ bro,” Lillard said.

Photo by Soobum Im - USA TODAY Sports

I ask Aldridge if he agrees with Lillard’s view—a question he says nobody’s ever asked him before. He quickly takes ownership for his part in letting their alliance crumble, while also acknowledging just how complicated the dynamic between two alphas at different points in their career, trying to co-exist on one NBA roster, can be.

“It’s always tough for me to find that balance where I want to tell [Damian] not to do this or this is better,” Aldridge says. “But I don’t want him to feel like I’m trying to hold him back from being who he wants to be. I do regret not talking to him at times, but also I feel like he was trying to find himself.

“I would say him and I have learned more about each other since I left that would’ve helped us when I was there, so I’ve learned from that and I’m trying to be better and not worry if I come off a certain way, because I feel like when people know who I am as a person, they know I have no ill will. I’m more reserved, so I didn’t want to come off as trying to stifle his shine. I just got back in the corner and let him do his thing...I feel like if him and I communicated as much then as we do now, then things would’ve been totally different.”

From Aldridge’s initial glimmer in the Pacific Northwest as the ostensible third wheel beside Roy and Oden, to a productive albeit abrasive partnership with Lillard, to an instantly infamous exchange last summer with Popovich, wherein Aldridge expressed frustration over his role on a 61-win team, every major period of his career has been undermined by some kind of disappointment—at least that’s how it looks from the outside.

After years as the first and sometimes only option on a pretty good team, in Aldridge’s first year in San Antonio he suddenly had Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker, and Kawhi Leonard as teammates, with Popovich instructing him from the sideline. The system changed, shots fluctuated, and responsibilities shrunk.

He was still an All-Star and the Spurs won 67 games, but they unexpectedly blew a 2-1 series lead against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the conference semifinals. Aldridge only needed 44 shots to score 79 points in the first two games of that series, but barely converted 40 percent of his field goal attempts in the final three, which were all lost by the Spurs.

After Duncan retired and a few new pieces entered the mix, Aldridge’s comfort in San Antonio didn’t improve. Tendinitis in his knees flared up. Despite the team’s absurd success (they qualified for the freaking conference finals), the fit just wasn’t ideal.

“You’re going to have to run things for him,” McMillan says. “You know, last year I think he was a little unhappy because he’s a player where you have to run offense through him. He’s not one of those guys who moves and plays. It kind of has to be structured.”

As the response to a limiting situation, Aldridge could have easily committed the same mistakes that were made in Portland. Instead, he took it upon himself to initiate change.

Unprompted, Aldridge brings up the initial talk he had with Popovich after last season ended, one that was followed up by several phone calls. It was over lunch at one of Pop’s favorite restaurants in San Antonio. (With a smirk, Aldridge won’t reveal the exact location because “he goes there all the time, so if I say it people are gonna stalk him.”) It’s a meeting now viewed as a necessary catalyst for Aldridge’s success, a sit-down chat designed to send him and the organization down one of two possible roads: Either they identify the problem and adapt, or one side refuses to hear the other and a different kind of adjustment is made.

I ask if he was tense walking through the restaurant's door, knowing just how uncomfortable the encounter could be as someone about to kick through the shell he mostly stayed inside while in Portland.

“To have a heart-to-heart with a coach about me not being able to be myself, I’m not anxious at that point because I’ve never done that before,” he says. “I felt like I had to have that conversation. It was like this has to happen. It wasn’t about being nervous, it was about going about it the right way, making sure it was professional. Making sure I respected everything about him and the organization. I feel like the way I went about it and how I communicated my feelings, he listened to me. It was about figuring out how to do it in the right way so he doesn’t think I’m some arrogant punk just trying to cause problems.”

“I think it’s because I’m so quiet about things that people just run with anything they hear.”

In early January, Popovich shed some light on those talks. The primary takeaway being that Aldridge was the first player Pop ever coached who requested a trade. Not that it’s the most meaningful detail, but Aldridge’s version of what happened is a little different.

“I think a lot got lost in translation. I didn’t go and say ‘Hey, I want out.’ It was like ‘I can’t be the player you want me to be, so let me help you get that person because I respect you and the organization so much.’ That’s how it really went, but people took it and twisted it.”

In today’s NBA, where front offices construct their rosters like analytically-supported dioramas, populated by predictable pieces who are more replaceable than indispensable (ideally, when one catch-and-shoot wing defender goes down, another can slide right in), Aldridge is the opposite of plug-and-play.

He instead needs to be orbited by others, with skills best served in a bygone time. He’s not the ideal illustration of a contemporary first option or even a vital second fiddle, but Aldridge has demonstrated that it’s possible to find success through adaptation and rigidity at the exact same time. He might also be the first Spur to bend San Antonio’s style to his own will. This is because Popovich was willing to listen.

"In the past, I just confused him,” Popovich said earlier this season. “Tried to make him somebody he wasn't. On offense, I was going to move him everywhere. I was gonna make him Jack Sikma off the post, or get him on the elbows, or he was gonna pull it through, do this or that. That was just silly on my part. Total overcoaching."

The on- and off-court tranquility that led to this year’s All-Star appearance is not because Aldridge is suddenly accustomed to his surroundings. It’s a product of expanding self-awareness, personal growth, and a genuine effort by him and his employer to make their relationship work.

Photo by Isaiah J. Downing - USA TODAY Sports

According to Cleaning the Glass, the Spurs perform like a 55-win team when Aldridge is on the court. When he sits, their Expected Wins drop to 34. They function as the NBA's seventh-best offense with him in the game and rank 29th when he's not. Forget about how Aldridge’s strengths personify a strategy that’s been bleached from the modern game—one that calls for the bulk of San Antonio’s attack to funnel through the low post. The Spurs disintegrate without him.

Aldridge has willingly etched his name onto an endangered species list but it doesn’t even matter. He’s a bull wearing ballerina slippers against single coverage down low. According to Synergy Sports, post-ups accounted for roughly one third of his total possessions in his first two seasons with the Spurs—33.7 percent in 2016 and 32.7 percent in 2017. This year, that number is up to 43 percent.

At the All-Star break, he led the league in post-up possessions and points while rarely turning the ball over. (His overall turnover rate has never been better.) Aldridge’s 480 points with his back to the basket were exactly twice as many as Karl-Anthony Towns, who appeared in seven more games and ranked fifth in that category.

“You can’t double team him because by the time you get there the ball is gone. He’s already taken the shot,” Vanterpool says. “You can’t switch. He’s far too big and much stronger and bigger than people really think. It’s very, very difficult. Very, very difficult.”

Even though he still doesn’t like to be called a center, and enforces a rule that disallows the PA announcer to label him as anything but a power forward during pregame introductions, Aldridge has spent a majority of his minutes at the five for the first time this year, too.

He is pulling it all off with a significant degree of difficulty. He’s averaged more shots with a defender between 2-4 feet than anybody else, and the percentage of his field goals that are assisted is the second lowest of his career. In clutch situations (when the scoring margin is within five points with five or fewer minutes left on the clock) he’s +46 and shooting 52.6 percent from the floor.

In October, Aldridge signed a surprising three-year, $72.3 million contract extension. His agent, Jeff Schwartz, noticed how comfortable he looked in training camp and during the preseason, then asked Aldridge if he could approach the Spurs about widening their partnership.

“[Schwartz] was like ‘they might think I’m batshit crazy, but I’m gonna call them.’ I was like ‘go ahead.’ He made the call just to see if they were interested, and they were taken aback. But I think they could see in my body language and my demeanor that I was happier,” Aldridge says. “I felt more comfortable. Both sides went back and forth until they got it done.”

Aldridge can pinpoint the very night he first felt positive that his talk with Popovich would translate to legitimate, long-term, in-game success. It was a week before Halloween. Aldridge scored an easy 31 points as San Antonio smoked the Miami Heat by 17.

He was a racehorse up and down the floor who seamlessly blended an impossible amount of patience with two bulldozers where his shoulder blades should be. If Heat rookie Bam Adebayo—who was a newborn when Aldridge was about to become a teenager—had a weak mind, this experience could’ve ended his career before it began. No matter how close his fingertips came to blocking Aldridge’s shot or obscuring his vision, the ball dropped through the basket. Over and over and over again.

But anyone who’s ever witnessed this sort of demolition before knows nobody is to blame. Peak Bill Russell would’ve had his hands full. Aldridge pirouettes down the lane, flutters out on the perimeter, and toys with grown men as they dig forearms into his lower back. Perfect defensive execution is futile when he's in rhythm. In only San Antonio’s fourth game of the year, Aldridge redefined how unstoppable he can be.

The prescription for stagnant offense is such: The ball is entered to Aldridge in the mid post, he reverse pivots then somehow manages to rise and fade at the exact same time. The touch behind this shot is basically a magic trick, one learned after torn cartilage in his left hip cut Aldridge’s freshman year in college short.

“He sat on a stool that we put in the gym and had guys stand around him during practice,” former Texas head coach Rick Barnes recalls. “He would literally sit on a stool and shoot, working on that high release where he gets it way up over his head. He did it for hours on hours and came back and really made it a weapon.”

To call it his signature move would be like saying the ocean has a signature fish. Aldridge can carve up a defense in so many different ways. Still, few actions he, or anyone else in the game, regularly pull off can leave an opponent feeling that helpless.

Photo by Soobum Im - USA TODAY Sports

Aldridge has also grown in areas that allow San Antonio to feed off his individual expertise. He’s isolating more around the free-throw line, a section of the floor that forces opponents to think twice before sending help. He’s not hoisting up threes at a volume most expected, but the percentage of his shots that come from the mid-range is down over 10 percent from last season. He’s sprinting the floor (a skill that, all these years later, still sticks out to his high-school and college coaches), recognizing double teams, finding open teammates, and averaging more free throws per 36 minutes than he ever has.

“I’m doing everything that no one wants to do,” he laughs.

Popovich called Aldridge “an All-Star performer at both ends” in early January, a statement that’s supported by San Antonio’s ownership of a top-three defense for most of the season. His name doesn’t surface in discussions about the All-Defensive team, though, which is illogical. (He received one second-team vote in each of the last two seasons.) Situation and scheme matter, but Aldridge brings it on that end, on every play, despite having so many offensive responsibilities. It’s a dedication and awareness that ever-so-slightly separates him from the likes of Towns or (a healthy) DeMarcus Cousins.

Not only is his length intimidating around the rim, but Aldridge is agile enough to switch out onto the perimeter, smart enough to direct traffic along the backline, and filled with enough guile to get stops without fouling. His hands stay vertical and his elbows never straighten out at the wrong time.

“People sometimes tell me ‘You made it easy for LaMarcus,’ but LaMarcus, he did so many things,” Lopez says. “He was always an underrated defender. He’s a very savvy defender. It was just a pleasure to play next to him in the post.”

Not all is copacetic in the here and now, though. Thanks to a lingering quadricep injury, Leonard has only seen 210 total minutes of action this season, and the 26-year-old’s own free agency looms in 2019 as an organization-wide crossroad. (He recently told reporters he wants to spend the rest of his career in San Antonio.) Aldridge is obviously aware of how important his Finals MVP teammate is and will be for the next few years, at least, and he has learned from past mistakes just how important it can be to open up around teammates.

“Kawhi is a great guy. He talks more as he gets to know you. We talk all the time. Locker room, on the bus, on the plane, at the games, so I would say we’re good friends as far as playing together and things like that. I wouldn’t say we’re best friends but we’re good friends and we try to communicate.” Aldridge says.

Their on-court compatibility isn’t much of a concern, but the fact that Aldridge has reached his summit without Leonard by his side cannot be ignored. It’s unknowable how he’ll respond whenever Leonard steps back on the floor, but it’s fair to surmise that the two-time Defensive Player of the Year will boost Aldridge before he dislodges him from this happy place.

“That was a goal for myself, to learn to communicate even more with him. If he and I are communicating constantly, he can see something I can’t see or maybe he’s feeling some way about something that I didn’t know,” Aldridge says. “The one thing I wanted to have with him was a good open dialogue about how he’s feeling, how I’m feeling, so if something’s going on we can just talk it out.”

Throughout our time together, Aldridge hardly resembles the monotonous tower seen on League Pass. His eyes widen, hands twirl, and voice amplifies when responding to questions only he can answer. I ask him to explain why he hates being called a center, why he felt especially overlooked in Portland at the beginning of his career (“They tried to trade me twice!”), and whether he wants to clear up any gossip that splashed across the internet during his free agency.

“I’m probably one of the most misunderstood people in the league,” Aldridge says. “I have no bad intentions, but I carry myself in a very protective way. I like my little shell. I like my little circle of three or four people that I’m close to. I think that comes off as bad to people that don’t really know my personality. I don’t like new environments. I don’t like being around a lot of new people. It makes me uncomfortable.”

The contrast between him and a majority of his peers is clear when, at the conclusion of our interview, I walk out from behind a curtain and see Steph Curry on the other side of the room, taking his turn with the Jr. NBA kids. He is mic’d up, standing at the far centercourt, facing a wall of fans who all have their hands raised hoping to ask the two-time MVP a question. Aldridge never had a microphone and his voice didn’t project over a loudspeaker. Instead of being the center of attention, Aldridge was right in there among them. It was almost like he was trying (comically) to blend in.

And that’s, of course, a perfectly fine way to be. Aldridge is comfortable in his own skin. “He doesn’t try to be something that he’s not,” Barnes says. “And he’s not an attention seeker.”

Despite calling himself an introvert several times when we talk, there’s no wall around him. Aldridge is modest and polite, and never looks at either cell phone even when they buzz. He occasionally bookends his replies by looking down at his lap and letting out a chuckle.

Aldridge is having one of the more productive seasons anyone his age, at his position, ever has. But he’s still growing, learning, and working. He hasn’t reached the same level as someone like Kevin Garnett, Tim Duncan, or Dirk Nowitzki—postseason struggles are just one reason why it’s hard to justify those comparisons—but squint hard enough and a general outline of that same mythical talent starts to appear. With one or two reasonable breaks at watershed points in his career, Aldridge could have a ring or maybe even an MVP.

“I think he’s a Hall of Famer, and I think that he will get the recognition that he deserves because he’s not done,” Barnes says. “I want to see him keep winning.”

Right now, all he wants to do is enjoy a life that is blessed (a word Aldridge repeats multiple times, and had tattooed along his right arm when he was a junior in high school), and focus on maintaining a comfort level that can keep him as upbeat as he appears to be.

In arguably the best professional situation of his life, with a new contract, fresh outlook, and numbers that prove he’s never been more efficient or essential, Aldridge is at the point in his career where he can kick both feet up on a desk, lean back, and exhale. On and off the court, as his sport, league, and world revolutionize themselves over again, the big man has evolved on his own time. He’s rooted himself to core principles and beliefs, and emerged on the other side with supreme confidence—almost like a dinosaur who weathered the asteroid’s crash into Earth.

“I feel like I’ve definitely shown people I haven’t lost it,” Aldridge says. “That’s what bothered me more last year. People were acting like I lost it and I’m like ‘No, I’m just trying to figure out this system and how to be myself. I haven’t lost who I was and how dominant I can be.’ And then once we found that compromise where I can play as myself again, I’m back to being that guy.”

He thinks back to that October night in Miami, which, in a way, kick-started this pseudo-vindication tour.

“I remember just playing my game, scoring down the stretch, and I was like ‘This is who I am. This is who I’ve been for my whole career’,” Aldridge says, growing more serious with every word. “I remember feeling: ‘Man, I’m back to that player again, and it feels good.’ That feeling felt really good.”

LaMarcus Aldridge Finally Opens Up published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

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amtushinfosolutionspage · 7 years ago

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LaMarcus Aldridge Finally Opens Up

It’s chaos, but Aldridge is at ease. Wearing a navy blue Jr. NBA t-shirt that’s long enough to someday be recycled as a shower curtain, gym shorts, and black and white Jordan XII’s, he also looks relieved.

Photo by Kim Klement – USA TODAY Sports

The very first question I ask doesn’t catch him off guard: Are you surprised to be here?

Today, Aldridge deserves to be celebrated for more than his routine 25-point performances or the unprecedented act of bending San Antonio to his will without alienating any of his teammates or coaches. A self-described introvert (a label those who know him well don’t argue with), Aldridge had to step outside his comfort zone in some very relatable and difficult ways to get where he’s at. In doing so, he displayed how vulnerable he is.

“I feel like everything with me gets blown out of proportion,” he says. “I think it’s because I’m so quiet about things that people just run with anything they hear.”

“I’m probably one of the most misunderstood people in the league.”

“He doesn’t get the attention that maybe a Blake Griffin gets, or some of the more dynamic players throughout the league,” says Portland Trail Blazers assistant coach David Vanterpool, who coached Aldridge earlier in his career. “I mean, he doesn’t get the attention that DeAndre Jordan gets, and no disrespect to DeAndre Jordan but LaMarcus is phenomenal in every aspect of the game…I think throughout the league he’s grossly overlooked. Even now. Even at this moment. I don’t think that people really appreciate when you’re able to perform at that level, that often, year after year after year after year.”

“I was really impressed with how hard [Aldridge] worked when he worked out for us,” says Indiana Pacers head coach Nate McMillan, who spent nearly six seasons with Aldridge as Portland’s head coach. “I recall LaMarcus, after an hour and a half, two-hour workout, he stayed and shot afterwards. Most guys, that was unusual for us…Most guys are icing and they’re getting out of the gym. He stayed.”

Photo by Raj Mehta – USA TODAY Sports

A year later, with Aldridge as their lone tentpole, Portland hired Terry Stotts as head coach and drafted Damian Lillard with the sixth pick. They were rebuilding on the fly.

I place my recorder down beside the phones and realize that despite all the research done for this story—articles read, interviews studied, videos watched—there isn’t nearly enough available information, relative to every other player at or near his stature, to capture who the man sitting next to me really is.

“Without question,” Lopez says. “Without question. We were really clicking that year.”

Photo by Soobum Im – USA TODAY Sports

“I would say him and I have learned more about each other since I left that would’ve helped us when I was there, so I’ve learned from that and I’m trying to be better and not worry if I come off a certain way, because I feel like when people know who I am as a person, they know I have no ill will. I’m more reserved, so I didn’t want to come off as trying to stifle his shine. I just got back in the corner and let him do his thing…I feel like if him and I communicated as much then as we do now, then things would’ve been totally different.”

As the response to a limiting situation, Aldridge could have easily committed the same mistakes that were made in Portland. Instead, he took it upon himself to initiate change.

I ask if he was tense walking through the restaurant’s door, knowing just how uncomfortable the encounter could be as someone about to kick through the shell he mostly stayed inside while in Portland.

“I think it’s because I’m so quiet about things that people just run with anything they hear.”

“In the past, I just confused him,” Popovich said earlier this season. “Tried to make him somebody he wasn’t. On offense, I was going to move him everywhere. I was gonna make him Jack Sikma off the post, or get him on the elbows, or he was gonna pull it through, do this or that. That was just silly on my part. Total overcoaching.”

Photo by Isaiah J. Downing – USA TODAY Sports

According to Cleaning the Glass, the Spurs perform like a 55-win team when Aldridge is on the court. When he sits, their Expected Wins drop to 34. They function as the NBA’s seventh-best offense with him in the game and rank 29th when he’s not. Forget about how Aldridge’s strengths personify a strategy that’s been bleached from the modern game—one that calls for the bulk of San Antonio’s attack to funnel through the low post. The Spurs disintegrate without him.

But anyone who’s ever witnessed this sort of demolition before knows nobody is to blame. Peak Bill Russell would’ve had his hands full. Aldridge pirouettes down the lane, flutters out on the perimeter, and toys with grown men as they dig forearms into his lower back. Perfect defensive execution is futile when he’s in rhythm. In only San Antonio’s fourth game of the year, Aldridge redefined how unstoppable he can be.

Photo by Soobum Im – USA TODAY Sports

“I’m doing everything that no one wants to do,” he laughs.

“I think he’s a Hall of Famer, and I think that he will get the recognition that he deserves because he’s not done,” Barnes says. “I want to see him keep winning.”

He thinks back to that October night in Miami, which, in a way, kick-started this pseudo-vindication tour.

LaMarcus Aldridge Finally Opens Up syndicated from https://australiahoverboards.wordpress.com

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paulbenedictblog · 5 years ago

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New Post has been published on %http://paulbenedictsgeneralstore.com%

Usa today Trump tax records, Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard shooting, Cowboys-Bears: 5 things to know Thursday

Usa today

Editors, USA TODAY Published 3: 40 a.m. ET Dec. 5, 2019 | Updated 6: 29 a.m. ET Dec. 5, 2019

Trump has one final likelihood to build monetary records secret

President Donald Trump's years-long fight to build his tax and monetary records secretwill take one other turn Thursday with the Supreme Court docket. Trump's private attorneys will quiz the justices to hear his charm of lower court docket rulings that eight years of economic paperwork need to silent be equipped to a Dwelling committee investigating unlawful habits and conflicts of hobby. That query will replicate one other in the end of which Trump's attorneys instructed the excessive court docket to seem at lower court docket decisions favoring Long island District Lawyer Cyrus Vance's effort to procure tax and monetary knowledge as portion of a disclose gigantic jury investigation into payments to two ladies who claim they had affairs with Trump sooner than his election — claims Trump has denied.

Trump tax returns strive in opposition to: Lawyers scream he has absolute immunity from criminal investigations

Trump tax returns: Unusual York prosecutor says president can not block subpoena for monetary records

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Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard shooting investigation resumes

Authorities will resume their investigation Thursday after a U.S. sailor opened fire at a Pearl Harbor shipyard, killing not less than two civilians and injuring one other sooner than taking his private lifestyles. In conserving with the Connected Press, the sailor turned into assigned to the rapid-assault submarine USS Columbia, which is at Joint Snide Pearl Harbor-Hickam for repairs. Situated on the Hawaiian island of Oahu, the naval shipyard is all the design in which by strategy of the harbor from the Pearl Harbor Nationwide Memorial, which on Saturday will imprint the 78th anniversary of the Eastern bombing that propelled the U.S. into World Warfare II.Names of the victims won’t be launched except subsequent of kin were notified.

Cowboys! Bears! Football!

Two NFL teams that had preseason Extensive Bowl aspirations but are for the time being stuck in 6-6 mediocrity meet Thursday night at Soldier Field when the Chicago Bears host the Dallas Cowboys (8: 20 p.m. ET, FOX and NFL Network). While Dallas is main the division no team seemingly wishes to take, the NFC East, Chicago has fallen at the serve of NFC North rivals the Inexperienced Bay Packers (9-3) and Minnesota Vikings (8-4), and wish a wide turnaround to possess any shot at the playoffs. The Cowboys' struggles possess build coach Jason Garrett on the fresh seat, but team proprietor Jerry Jones defended the coach after a humbling loss on Thanksgiving Day.

NFL coach sizzling seat rankings: Who would possibly perhaps be subsequent to be fired after Ron Rivera?

Energy rankings: How raise out Week 13 losses possess an tag on Patriots, Cowboys?

What I'm Listening to: Jori Epstein attended Cowboys discover on Sunday following the team's Thanksgiving day loss to the Funds and describes the present temper of the team. USA TODAY

Peek within the fresh Rosa Parks show screen in D.C.

"Rosa Parks: In Her Enjoy Phrases," a fresh exhibition opening at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, will expose Rosa Parks turned into greater than the act of heroism that made her neatly-known. That you would possibly perhaps well agree with Rosa Parks, but this fresh show screen aims to educate you even extra. The Rosa Parks assortment comprises 140 years of family history and roughly 10,000 objects, per curator Adrienne Cannon. The exhibition comprises all the pieces from Parks' private reflections on her arrest to family photos and letters to a hand-crafted blue dress from Parks' materials cloth wardrobe. Parks herself died in 2005, but these that knew her scream she'd be amazed and honored. The show screen runs by strategy of September 2020.

Rosa Parks statue unveiled in downtown 1st viscount montgomery of alamein

Upward thrust of the Resistance: Disney World is first with fresh Star Wars shuffle

Disney hopes that The Force is solid – very, very solid – when its fresh Star Wars: Upward thrust of the Resistance shuffle opens Thursday at Disney World in Orlando, Florida. The heart-piece enchantment of the Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge trip takes company aboard a shuttle, the build they're kidnapped by the depraved guys, then fracture out with the good thing about the ethical guys, all thanks to an countless array of 3D gadgets, animatronics, holograms and video screens. That is assuming there will not be any breakdowns: Disney's most-advanced shuffle ever turned into purported to originate first at the Galaxy's Edge in California's Disneyland, but Orlando got the nod after designers reportedly ran into technical problems.

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junker-town · 5 years ago

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DePaul basketball’s dream resurgence is finally real

Are the Blue Demons for real?

DePaul has the team its waited 15 years for.

DePaul fans ran into a numbers problem the last time they tried to rush the court. There were only 12 people in the student section. So after the Blue Demons had shocked No. 11 Providence and future top-five draft pick Kris Dunn, DePaul players did the next best thing: they jumped over a railing and celebrated with the few fans who had gone out to suburban Rosemont to see the win.

There would be no need for a reverse court-storming on Wednesday night. As DePaul held on in the final moments for a heart-stopping victory over Texas Tech, a real, tangible student section stormed the court in their new downtown arena and lifted hero Jalen Coleman-Lands in the air.

The Blue Demons are 9-0, and have a legitimate shot at their first NCAA tournament berth in 15 years.

This season has been a long-time coming for DePaul. What was once one of the country’s proudest programs in the late ‘70s and throughout the ‘80s had devolved into college basketball’s most lifeless sleeping giant. DePaul has finished dead last in the Big East in nine of the last 11 years, and were second-to-last the other two seasons. DePaul hasn’t been ranked since 2000-01. The team is only two years removed from consecutive seasons with single-digit wins. Attendance hit at an all-time low. The program continually missed on Chicago-area players in recruiting, only to watch them play in the NCAA tournament for other schools.

DePaul basketball didn’t just hit rock bottom, it made its home there. That’s why, despite having its most talented roster since the glory days of Quentin Richardson and Bobby Simmons, Chicago had to see DePaul actually win before it started to believe. Finally, it’s happening.

“We’re trying to exorcise the demons of the past,” head coach Dave Leitao said after beating Texas Tech.

Only 17 of the 353 schools in DI men’s basketball are undefeated, and DePaul is one of them. They have true road wins over Iowa, Minnesota, and Boston College. They just knocked off a Texas Tech that was ranked No. 12 in the country a week earlier and went to the national championship game last year.

It might finally be time to believe in DePaul basketball. This team is simply too talented to be dragged down by its own history.

DePaul has NBA talent in the front court

DePaul hasn’t had a player drafted since Wilson Chandler in 2007. Before that, you have to go back to Simmons and Steven Hunter in 2001. DePaul has two players with real NBA aspirations this season, and its rise starts there.

Paul Reed committed to DePaul as a 6’5 wing out of Florida and the No. 235 prospect in his class three years ago. Now a junior, Reed has grown into a 6’10 big man with a skill set tailor made for modern basketball. ESPN has him as at No. 42 in their most recent mock draft, but there’s a real chance he crashes the first round.

PAUL REED GOIN' for @DePaulHoops! They call him @BBall_Paul for a reason! #PlayingPossessed | #BIGEASThoops pic.twitter.com/j31nk6wMkM

— #BIGEASThoops (@BIGEASTMBB) November 6, 2019

Reed has a rare combination of quickness and length, with the ability to switch screens and contain ball handlers on the defensive end. He’s been one of college basketball’s great shot blockers, swatting eight shots against Minnesota and currently placing No. 18 in the country in block rate. Reed is also a tremendous rebounder who high-points the ball well over the rim at both ends. His offensive game is blossoming this season, as well. He runs the floor hard in transition for easy buckets, has finished well around the rim, and has canned 6-of-17 three-pointers (35 percent). Reed is also an 88 percent foul shooter.

While Reed has come out of nowhere to make his way onto NBA radars, Romeo Weems was always supposed to be good. Weems was named Mr. Basketball in Michigan as a senior and grew into a top-50 recruit on the strength of an impressive run with USA Basketball’s U17 World Cup team. At 6’7, 210 pounds, Weems is the perfect glue guy, a versatile defender, a smart cutter, a good passer, and a developing shooter. This backdoor cut gave DePaul the lead in overtime vs. Texas Tech.

HYPERVENTILATING OVER HERE. IT'S FINE. WE ARE FINE.#PlayingPossessed pic.twitter.com/qmP3yuVTQk

— DePaul Basketball (@DePaulHoops) December 5, 2019

Weems doesn’t put up big scoring numbers, so it’s hard to say if he’s a prospect for the 2020 draft or if he’ll need another year in school. Either way, Weems will one day be a pro because he’s the type of tenacious but selfless player every good team needs. DePaul is finally that.

DePaul has veteran guards who are good

The calculus of DePaul’s season changed when Charlie Moore was ruled eligible. Moore was Mr. Basketball in Illinois out of Chicago’s Morgan Park High School in 2016 where he grew into one of the city’s great prep players of this decade. After being ranked as a top-100 recruit, Moore started his college career at Cal, and once scored 38 points in a game as a freshman. He then transferred to Kansas, sitting out a season and struggling to crack the rotation last year.

Moore is back home in Chicago now and he’s found a program that desperately needs his talents. Though he’s only listed at 5’11 (and probably isn’t even that tall), Moore is a skilled facilitator and shooter who can create offense out of thin air. He’s currently top-20 in DI in assist rate and is shooting 40 percent from three. Moore hardly ever leaves the floor because DePaul is so dependent on his creation ability.

A nice dribble, drive and assist from @CharlieM2_ ➡️ @Bball_paul pic.twitter.com/1SzHkSXJs7

— FOX College Hoops (@CBBonFOX) December 5, 2019

Then there’s Coleman-Lands, who suffered so many setbacks throughout his college career before finally getting his moments against the Red Raiders. Coleman-Lands was a top-40 recruit in the class of 2015 who started his college career out at Illinois. He dealt with a stress fracture in his left leg each of his first two seasons in Champaign, and broke his left hand in 2016. Coleman-Lands transferred to DePaul and continued to deal with leg issues. Then last year, just as he had finally gotten back on the court, he suffered a broken right hand that ended his season.

There might not be a player in college basketball who has had worse injury luck. But there was Coleman-Lands on Wednesday night, hitting three crucial daggers to give DePaul the win, including a bomb to tie the score in the closing seconds of regulation.

WE ARE GOING INTO OT!!!!#PlayingPossessed pic.twitter.com/7KwLQQGZnp

— DePaul Basketball (@DePaulHoops) December 5, 2019

This is the player Illinois fans thought they were getting five years ago. Coleman-Lands is a knockdown shooter who can’t be left alone from anywhere on the court. If anyone deserves DePaul’s success this season, it’s him.

DePaul has a great chance of making the NCAA tournament

It’s been nearly two decades since DePaul was ranked, but the team received 18 votes in the last AP Poll before beating Texas Tech. If it defeats a solid Buffalo team this weekend, DePaul should finally find itself back in the top-25.

Leitao took the team to its last NCAA tournament berth in 2004 before accepting the Virginia job two years later, where he was eventually replaced by some guy named Tony Bennett. This is Leitao’s fifth season in his second stint at DePaul. It hasn’t been without controversy: Leitao was suspended the first three games of the season and the program was placed on three years of probation for its part in the Brian Bowen recruiting saga that played a central role in the FBI sting that has engulfed college basketball ever since.

At this point, DePaul will take a winner any way they can get it. The team has real talent, and is already building a solid tournament resume. An at-large berth to the Big Dance doesn’t feel like a hallucination anymore. DePaul has been dreaming about this type of resurgence for 15 years. This season, it’s finally starting to feel real.

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davidoespailla · 6 years ago

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Launching Pads: America’s 10 Best Starter Cities for New College Grads

iStock; realtor.com

A near-record number of college graduates are set to walk across that long stage to pick up their degrees and kick off their lives in earnest. But this first wave of Gen Z grads—most born after (gulp) 1996—face some unprecedented challenges on their hops, skips, and jumps to adulthood. It’s a classic good news, bad news story. The good: a supercharged economy with low unemployment. The bad: boundary-breaking levels of student debt, monthly rents, and real estate prices. Yikes!

Choices, choices. Where to start out? Many of the places with the brightest career trajectories, highest-paying jobs, and liveliest social scenes are the same exact places where struggling 20-somethings are going to have to scrape together a small fortune for rent—let alone buying a home. That doesn’t leave much for, um, life. Meanwhile, many cities offering cheap housing also have some of the grimmest professional (and romantic) prospects.

So what’s a new newly minted college grad to do? Realtor.com®’s studious data team found the best cities for new degree-holders that offer just the right mixture of housing affordability, career opportunities, and great dating scenes. Hey, success is lonely without someone to share it with.

“As graduates consider where they should move for that first job, they need to consider if that place has a good level of real affordability,” says Ali Wolf, director of economic research for Meyers Research, a real estate and construction data firm. And more and more, that may well mean passing on ultrapricey cities like New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco in favor of smaller cities that offer a primo combination of diversified career growth and achievable lifestyles.

Certainly there is no shortage of folks about to make these decisions. At 3.9 million strong, the 2019 class will be the second-largest ever, according to the U.S. Department of Education. For those keeping track, that’s about 1 million associate’s degrees, 1.9 million bachelor’s degrees, 780,000 master’s degrees, and 182,000 doctorate, medical, and law degrees. Phew! The number of undergrads has risen 17.5% in the past decade.

To find out where they should all go, we looked at the following metrics for the 100 largest metropolitan areas* in the country:

Unemployment rates

Median income for households aged 25 to 34; incomes for residents with a bachelor’s degree

Five-year wage growth

Percentage of college grads, percentage of singles

Median one-bedroom apartment rents

Median home prices

Housing affordability (median mortgage vs. take-home pay, for 25- to 34-year-olds)**

Number of venues for nightlife, bars, gyms, karaoke, sports bars, and social clubs on Yelp

So, before all those caps get thrown in the air, let’s look at these best markets for those with brand-new diplomas. It’s our graduation gift!

Best places for new college grads

Tony Frenzel

1. Madison, WI

Median list price: $330,000 Unemployment rate: 2.4% 5-year wage growth: 21.1%

Madison, WI

reelwavemedia/iStock

Home to the University of Wisconsin-Madison and its more than 40,000 students, Madison has a thriving nightlife and music scene, a surprisingly strong job market, and a reasonable cost of living.

“If you look at a lot of Midwestern industrial cities, their companies aren’t growing much,” says Wisconsin-based career coach Bill McGinnis of Exponential Careers. But in Madison, there are “a lot of start-ups and older companies growing very fast.”

Indeed, SwanLeap, a Madison-based business bringing artificial intelligence to logistics, was named the fastest-growing company in the nation last year by Inc. Magazine.

While Madison’s home prices are a bit above the $300,000 national median, bargains abound. Twenty-somethings with good jobs can score a condo for around $200,000 near downtown.

And it’s not too hard to meet a mate in the city known for its brewhouses.

“Madison has a lot of young residents, which makes finding friends and relationships much easier,” McGinnis says.

2. Austin, TX

Median list price: $360,000 Unemployment rate: 3% 5-year wage growth: 24.2%

Austin, TX

galinast/iStock

It’s not surprising that new grads are flocking en masse to the capital of Texas—it’s an infinitely more affordable tech hub than Silicon Valley, and has way better music and tacos to boot.

Prices within the city limits are high, at a median $545,100. So younger buyers typically head to the surrounding suburbs or nearby, smaller cities. One hot spot is Manor, 20 minutes from downtown. A recently built three-bedroom, one-story home is going for $230,000. The lower price point explains why realtor.com named Manor one of the fastest-growing suburbs.

It’s worth noting, though, that the recent building boom in the area has helped bring down prices. Median home prices in the metro dropped 2.4% year over year.

“Austin is a very outdoor-friendly destination, and I think that’s a huge driver for recent grads,” says Brad Pauly, a local broker with Pauly Presley Realty. “All those green spaces, trails, lakes, and natural pools are very appealing.”

But what makes it a truly kick-ass place for singles? There’s “culture here as well as fantastic beer and food scenes. It’s very easy to mingle,” Pauly says.

3. Columbus, OH

Median list price: $250,000 Unemployment rate: 3.8% 5-year wage growth: 18.7%

Columbus, OH

aceshot/iStock

The hottest housing market in the nation isn’t on the East or West Coast—it’s the capital of Ohio. And thanks to a surge in young professionals moving to the city in America’s heartland, the popularity of walkable neighborhoods near downtown has exploded. These include German Village, known for its brick cottages, or Grandview Heights, with charming homes built in the ’30s and ’40s.

“Microbreweries are popping up everywhere in these neighborhoods—they’ve become cool places to eat and grab a drink,” says Lee Ritchie, a real estate agent at Re/Max Metro Plus.

Columbus sees a lot of grads from Ohio State University who decide to stick around. But it also attracts professionals who work at Fortune 500 companies such as Nationwide Mutual Insurance, and L Brands (Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works).

4. Harrisburg, PA

Median list price: $219,100 Unemployment rate: 3.5% 5-year wage growth: 18.9%

Harrisburg, PA

Sean Pavone/iStock

It’s common for Philadelphia and Pittsburgh students to head to Pennsylvania’s state capital after graduation. Harrisburg has tons of good government, political, and lobbying jobs.

But Harrisburg’s biggest draw is affordability. With rent and home prices so low, the median $68,500 household income of millennials here can stretch a great deal. Buyers can easily find older homes in need of some work for under $150,000. Those looking for new construction can try Mayberry, a growing subdivision where new Craftsman-style homes start around $300,000.

Extracurriculars? Try joining the popular running groups that jog through the 229-acre Wildwood Park near downtown.

5. Grand Rapids, MI

Median list price: $295,100 Unemployment rate: 2.9% 5-year wage growth: 21%

Grand Rapids, MI

csfotoimages/iStock

Grand Rapids’ rep as Beer City USA has helped it to attract millennials who might have otherwise headed to larger Midwestern cities.

“A lot of kids may think Chicago or New York are the best places for them, but when they start drilling down the numbers, they realize they won’t be able to afford much,” says Trisha Cornelius, a real estate agent with Keller Williams. “Grand Rapids is a hidden gem where they can get a good job, pay little rent, and have all those big-city amenities.”

For weekend fun, folks head to the Pyramid Scheme, a pub and music venue in the Heartside Neighborhood which hosts bands and events like Yoga Mondays. Another great place to meet people is the Watersview Rooftop Bar—offering, as the name suggests, a sweet combo of awesome views of the river and tasty cocktails.

Many younger residents rent lofts in converted warehouses or new apartment buildings near downtown which go for $800 to $1,400. When they’re ready to buy, they can get find deals such as this remodeled, four-bedroom home with a front porch for just $175,000. But they had better not wait too long: Earlier this year realtor.com named Grand Rapids the top market poised to skyrocket in 2019.

6. Nashville, TN

Median list price: $355,100 Unemployment rate: 2.4% 5-year wage growth: 24.2%

Downtown Nashville, TN

DenisTangneyJr/iStock

These days, it’s not just country music fans heading to the trendy Music City. Younger newbies are going to places like East Nashville, an up-and-coming neighborhood known for its farm-to-table restaurants, underground music shows, and vintage clothing shops. Rent for a one-bedroom in a new, swanky apartment building start above $1,500—but there are some smaller, older homes for around $1,100.

After years of huge price appreciation, Nashville home list prices are beginning to fall, dropping 1.5% year over year. That’s music to the ears of buyers. Condos with balconies can go for under $250,000. Plus, there are still a few single-family homes around $300,000 on the market.

The city also has plenty of good-paying jobs. Amazon announced in November it would bring 5,000 corporate jobs averaging $150,000 salaries to Nashville.

And folks who tie the knot here don’t have to travel far for the festivities: Nashville has become a mecca for bachelorette parties.

7. Pittsburgh, PA

Median list price: $180,000 Unemployment rate: 4.3% 5-year wage growth: 15.9%

Market Square in Pittsburgh, PA

peeterv/iStock

The tech companies that have moved into the old factories and warehouses lining the Allegheny River are attracting young engineers to the Steel City. Pittsburgh has offices for big companies like Uber, Facebook, and Google—as well as fast-growing start-ups like Duolingo, an online language learning service.

“We have a big influx of people from Long Island and the rest of the New York City area,” says Bobby West, a real estate agent at Coldwell Banker. “They can no longer afford to buy homes around their friends and family there.”

Young grads often get apartments in Lawrenceville, a former working-class neighborhood that’s been transformed into a hipster enclave full of new breweries and cafes. Once they get sick of shelling out around $1,500 per month on an apartment there, they might head to a community like Brighton Heights, around 15 minutes from downtown, where they can find three-bedroom, ’50s ranches for under $150,000.

“Pittsburgh is not a McMansion city. Our homes are usually [built] pre-1950s,” says West. “They are popular with first-time home buyers who want something charming.”

8. St. Louis, MO

Median list price: $210,300 Unemployment rate: 3.8% 5-year wage growth: 17.9%

Busch Stadium, home of the St. Louis Cardinals

Philip Rozenski/iStock

St. Louis is hard at work revitalizing its downtown, a project it’s dubbed the Downtown Next 2020 plan. It includes deep dives into the renovation of historic neighborhoods (Garment District, you’re next) and even improving landscaping across the area. And it’s already paying off as more local grads from schools like Washington University and Webster University are putting down roots.

Grads in the Gateway to the West can skip renting altogether if they so choose. This one-bedroom condo in a converted historic building in the Lafayette Square neighborhood can be had for $152,000.

Ands there’s plenty of fun things to do here. A great way to meet locals is through the communal love of the St. Louis Cardinals—expressed either in Busch Stadium or one of the many, many beer bars that’ll be showing the game. What else would you expect from the hometown of sudsy juggernaut Anheuser-Busch?

9. Denver, CO

Median list price: $475,100 Unemployment rate: 3.3% 5-year wage growth: 24.7%

16th Street pedestrian mall in Denver, CO

AlbertPego/iStock

Between the many hiking, kayaking, and skiing opportunities in the mountains, the legal recreational weed, and the high-flying start-up scene, the Mile High City is an aspirational landing spot for many recent grads. But its popularity has also driven up real estate prices.

“The starter home range is the minimum of $300,000 to $500,000. You can’t find anything under that right now,” Ryan Penn, associate broker at 360dwellings Real Estate in Denver, tells realtor.com.

Someone aged 25 to 34 would need to plunk down one-third of their income on a median-priced home on the market. That’s higher than the other places on the ranking and a little more than the rule of thumb advising folks not to spend more than 28% of their monthly income before taxes on housing. But it’s still lower than Seattle, San Francisco, and many other big cities in the West. And this market is still seeing some of the biggest pay increases in the nation.

10. Portland, ME

Median list price: $359,600 Unemployment rate: 2.9% 5-year wage growth: 27.7%

Portland, ME

DenisTangneyJr/iStock

This town has a great food scene that punches way above its weight. Bon Appétit named Portland—the one in Maine, not Oregon—the Restaurant City of the Year. Give some of the credit to the Roman (thin crust) pizza, Jewish-style delis, seafood joints, and excellent craft breweries.

The city also has a strong job market that keeps getting stronger. In fact, incomes grew more here over the past five years than any other market on our ranking.

“There’s a lot going on in Portland, a lot of energy and a lot of buzz. We see a lot of people moving in from other cities and bringing ideas with them,” says Jeremy Lock, a broker with Portside Real Estate Group.

That cool factor makes for a good dating scene. A local favorite is Flask Lounge, a bar that has karaoke, DJs, and comedy nights.

Most new grads are renting near downtown Portland. When they start looking to buy, they’ll head 15 to 20 minutes out to small cities like Westbrook or South Portland, where four-bedroom, Cape Cod–style homes are listed for $250,000.

“They’ve grown up in Maine, moved somewhere for school, and end up coming back,” Lock says. “Recent graduates seem to want their money to last.”

* A metropolitan statistical area is a designation that includes the urban core of a city and the surrounding smaller towns and cities.

** Fixed, 30-year mortgage payment calculated on that metro’s realtor.com median list price in March, given a 20% down payment and 5% interest rate on the loan

Data sources: realtor.com, U.S. Census Bureau, U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics, Nielsen, Yelp.com, and Zumper.com

Allison Underhill contributed to this report.

The post Launching Pads: America’s 10 Best Starter Cities for New College Grads appeared first on Real Estate News & Insights | realtor.com®.

Launching Pads: America’s 10 Best Starter Cities for New College Grads

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buddyrabrahams · 6 years ago

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10 early NBA Rookie of the Year candidates

We’re a third of the way through the NBA season, and a number of players have staked an early claim for postseason hardware. Recently, we reviewed 10 early candidates for MVP.

Though no rookie will enter that conversation this season (the last rookie to win the award was Wes Unseld in 1968-69), a few first-year players look like future MVP candidates. Here are 10 rookies who have gotten off to a hot start – the leading candidates, at this point, to win Rookie of the Year.

10. Miles Bridges, Charlotte Hornets

Bridges made an interesting decision choosing to return to Michigan State for his sophomore year. Though he had a solid season, he didn’t help his draft stock, and he may have hurt it slightly. A top prospect out of high school, he fell to No. 12 in the draft. In his rookie campaign, Bridges isn’t putting up jaw-dropping numbers — 7.5 points and 3.9 rebounds per game. But he’s playing 20 minutes a night for a surprisingly good Charlotte team (currently No. 6 in the East), and he’s shooting 48.4 percent from the field. Last week, he dropped a career-high 16 points and connected on three of his six three-point attempts. Look for his role in James Borrego’s offense to continue to increase.

9. Kevin Knox, New York Knicks

Knox was a favorite to win Rookie of the Year heading into the season, as the Knicks lacked a clear No. 1 scoring option with Kristaps Porzingis out for the foreseeable future. Knox hasn’t been great, but he’s had more opportunity than most rookies. He’s playing 21.4 minutes per game. Though he’s had some off nights (like a 1 for 7 showing against Detroit in late November), and his Player Efficiency Rating is only 9.5, Knox seems to be finding his groove. In his last two games, he’s put up 26 points and 15 rebounds (against Charlotte) and 19 points and seven rebounds (against Cleveland). Another Knicks rookie who narrowly missed this list: the surprising Allonzo Trier, who went undrafted out of Arizona.

8. Wendell Carter Jr., Chicago Bulls

Carter has been exactly as expected: consistent. The Duke product was ready to play from the second he stepped onto an NBA court. Though the Bulls have had a miserable season and coach Fred Hoiberg was canned, Carter has been a bright spot. His PER of 15.9 is seventh-best among rookies. In a recent game at Detroit, he scored 28 points and grabbed seven rebounds. He has five double-doubles this season. Carter is taking fewer shots now that Lauri Markkanen is back, and he’ll need to develop a better outside shot to take that ‘next step’ – but early signs are overwhelmingly positive. Bulls fans should be encouraged.

7. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Los Angeles Clippers

Gilgeous-Alexander was one of my favorite prospects in the draft. Watching him in his lone season at Kentucky, he just seemed to “get it” – and he had the ability to really turn it on when the moment was biggest, as we saw in the NCAA tournament. “Man, he got the midrange down,” Kevin Durant recently said of Gilgeous-Alexander. “His midrange is so good…he’s probably the guy that stood out the most because I never watched him in college…he got confidence on him.” After dealing Chris Paul, the Clippers have found their point guard of the future. Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 10.6 points, 3.3 rebounds, and 3.0 assists per game, with only 1.8 turnovers.

6. Collin Sexton, Cleveland Cavaliers

The Cavs are another team having a miserable season. At 7-21, the post-LeBron era (Part II) is off to a rough start. Like Chicago, Cleveland has already moved on from its coach. But, like the Bulls, the Cavs should be encouraged by the play of their first-round pick. He’s another guy who’s not afraid of the moment. In a recent battle with Steph Curry, he scored 21 points. With 15.8 points per game, Sexton is third among rookies. His three-point shot has been better than advertised, too. Though he doesn’t attempt many jumpers from downtown, he’s connecting on 43.6 percent of his attempts. After coming off of the bench for the first 10 games of the season, he’s become a permanent fixture in the Cavs’ starting lineup.

5. Marvin Bagley III, Sacramento Kings

I placed Bagley No. 1 on my summer list of Rookie-of-the-Year candidates. He just seemed “pro ready.” And, for the most part, he has been. The lefty is putting up impressive numbers of 13.0 points and 6.3 rebounds per game. Dig a little deeper and his performance becomes more impressive. His PER of 18.4 is second among rookies (behind only his long-time rival Deandre Ayton). The Kings are undergoing a renaissance, and with studs like Bagley, De’Aaron Fox, and Buddy Hield, their fans have reason to be optimistic. Bagley has missed some time with back spasms, and he has yet to start a game, but he’s played a key role in Sacramento racing to the West’s No. 8 seed.

4. Jaren Jackson Jr., Memphis Grizzlies

I love this guy. He has “All-Star” written all over him. A 6-foot-11 big with a 7-foot-4 wingspan, Jackson can do it all. He’s an explosive scorer. He recently dropped 36 on the Nets, shooting 13 for 22 from the field and adding eight rebounds. He’s received praise from his teammates, with Mike Conley Jr. saying the former Spartan has “the gene to make the big shots in the big time” and is “built for it.” Jackson has jockeyed for minutes with JaMychal Green. One thing Jackson needs to work on: his foul rate. He’s averaging nearly four fouls per game, which has inhibited his ability to stay on the court.

3. Trae Young, Atlanta Hawks

Young received perhaps more flack than any other prospect leading up to the draft -– a result of the “ESPN treatment” he received during his freshman season at Oklahoma -– and he has continued to be under the spotlight as a rookie. He’s had an up-and-down season. In his last game, at Dallas, he dropped 24 points on 11-for-20 shooting and added 10 assists. Dallas came out on top, but Young impressed. You’d better believe Young had that game circled on his calendar, given that the Mavs traded Young for Luka Doncic on draft night. Young still is shooting poorly from outside (24.7 percent), but you have to think he’ll figure that out. His stroke is too pretty for him to continue shooting so inefficiently, and the rest of his game has been better than expected.

2. Deandre Ayton, Phoenix Suns

Is Ayton the league’s next dominant big man? That remains to be seen. He has, like Young, had highs and lows. But one thing is for sure: Phoenix got a good one. This guy is going to be an excellent player. The advanced statistics tell the story. He’s the only rookie with a PER over 20 (20.4), and his Value Added of 126.7 is head and shoulders above the competition (Jaren Jackson is second at 68.9). Further, his Estimated Wins Added score of 4.2 is also tops in the league among rookies. With 15.8 points and 10.2 rebounds per game, he’s started 27 of 28 games this season, and he’s been one of the best players on a miserable Suns team.

1. Luka Doncic, Dallas Mavericks

The Mavs are, like the Kings, one of the league’s early surprising teams. At 15-12, they’re currently No. 7 in the West, and they’ve won three straight. They’re really fun to watch. During Wednesday’s battle with Young and the Hawks, Doncic played the most minutes (35) of any Dallas player. He dropped 24 points, 10 rebounds, and six assists. This guy is amazing. He’s out there getting buckets and hanging with veterans while wearing jersey number 77 — what a time. Though, like pretty much every rookie on this list, he’s had some bad games, he’s also been more consistent than any other first-year player. His 32.4 minutes per game leads the Mavericks, and his 18.0 points per game is tied with Harrison Barnes for the team lead. Expect to see him in an All-Star Game in the next two years.

Aaron Mansfield is a freelance sports writer whose work has appeared in Complex, USA Today, and the New York Times. You can reach him via email at [email protected].

from Larry Brown Sports https://ift.tt/2CdosIN

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frontproofmedia · 6 years ago

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Matchroom Boxing USA Media Day: Jessie Vargas vs Thomas Dulorme

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By Steven Weinberg | Contributing Writer and Photographer

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Published: October 04, 2018

On October 6, in Chicago, Illinois, Matchroom Boxing USA will be holding its first U.S. fight card available on the DAZN app.

Jessie Vargas and Thomas Dulorme will headline the show in a battle for the WBC Silver Welterweight title. Artur Beterbiev returns to the ring, and Chicago, to defend his IBF World Light-Heavyweight title against unbeaten Callum Johnson. Daniel Roman defends his WBA Super-Bantamweight crown against second time World title challenger, Gavin McDonnell. Big talking heavyweight Jarrell “Big Baby” Miller squares off against Polish legend Tomasz Adamek, in a fight that may put the winner in line to meet Anthony Joshua. Also, Chicago’s Jessica McCaskill will be making her second world title bid by facing WBC World Super Lightweight title holder, Erica Anabella Farias.

With three belts on the line and a third fight with title fight implications, Matchroom held an open media workout in downtown Chicago’s Millennium Park. Frontproof Media was on hand and able to speak to many of the participants ahead of the historic event.

Jessica McCaskill

FP: I’m here with Jessica McCaskill who has a world title fight coming up on Saturday night. How did training camp go?

JM: Camp was great. It was actually about a ten-month camp considering we haven’t had any fights since December. Every plan we’ve had fell through, but we kept pushing.

FP: You had a fight scheduled in the Caribbean?

JM: Yes, it was actually scheduled and then rescheduled. We had bad weather so it just got dropped from there.

FP: You were essentially training straight through from that until Saturday’s fight got made?

JM: Yes. There were a couple of other fights that were supposed to get made. They all fell through. Four or five fights. We’ve just been ready and waiting for something to come along.

FP: I’ve had the opportunity to see you fight a couple of times here in Chicago. I have to say, with all due respect, I think you’re like the Shawn Porter of women. You just have relentless energy, and the body attack is just unreal. Where does that come from?

JM: Well, my gym is “Body Shots” so I gotta live by the name. Females don’t really go to the body. They just sort of head hunt and rely on combinations. I came from St. Louis where I started out as a brawler. Once I got to Chicago with Coach Ramos he taught me how to box, so he uses that brawling technique when necessary and we just kinda flip in between whenever we need to.

FP: Your last fight was against Katie Taylor. She did a lot of clutching and grabbing that seemed to get to you, and that was the big difference. If the ref didn’t allow that, I think the fight would have been a lot different.

JM: I think it would have been different, but I used it to my advantage. Until the ref said break, I was punching the whole way, so I actually got a lot of punches in that way. I think I wore her down on the inside. We were pretty much ready for whatever and were ready to fight under any circumstances, so we expected it, prepared for it, and trained hit until the ref breaks you up kinda of a thing. It wasn’t bad.

FP: Did you prepare for the same thing this Saturday - your opponent grabbing and clutching you to slow down the body attack?

JM: We always prepare for that. We have a few different things we prepare for and try to mix up the sparring and mix up the skills we’re trying to accentuate for the fight. It’s never really one game plan. I do remember the fight I had for the ABO title, we were expecting one thing, and then she came out and did something different. She fought a totally different fight. From there you learn not to expect too much of one thing.

FP: Are you going into this fight not expecting anything, just playing it by ear, round by round?

JM: We’re going to have play it round by round, but we know what’s she’s good for, but have prepared for everything.

FP: How close are you to making weight?

JM: (Laughing) I’ve had to gain weight. The last few weeks I’ve had to put on weight because like I said we’ve been training for so long and ready. I had a great croissant and coffee, fruit and eggs this morning (laughing) so we’re good to go.

FP: Thank you very much, good luck on Saturday night.

Tomasz Adamek

FP: Tomas Adamek is facing Big Baby Miller on Saturday night. First, welcome to Chicago.

TA: Thank you. Not first time, I came into the U.S. through Chicago. I was in Chicago in 2005. Last time I fought in the U.S. I think 2007.

FP: How’s the weight for this fight?

TA: I think around 225 lbs. I fight at my natural weight, so I’m not worried.

FP: There’s a good chance you’re going to be giving up 60 pounds to Miller. What do you plan on doing about that?

TA: My speed. Speed always wins. When I lose, I don’t have speed.

FP: Do you plan on using foot movement to move around the ring?

TA: My feet and my hand speed. My hand speed is very good.

FP: There’s a good chance that the crowd will be majority Polish. How does that help you?

TA: Listen, it’s not a fight without a crowd. The crowd helps. But I feel very good and very confident that on Saturday I will have my arm raised.

Callum Johnson

FP: We’re here with Callum Johnson who will be facing Artur Beterbiev on Saturday night. How did the training camp go?

CJ: Training camp’s gone well, man, it’s gone really well.

FP: Are you on weight right now?

CJ: Yeah, I’m thereabouts, thereabouts. Everything’s done, the work’s done. You know obviously, we’ll make weight on Friday and then we’re good to go.

FP: What are you expecting on Saturday night?

CJ: I’m expecting a tough fight. I’m expecting to go through something I’ve never probably had to go through before. But, I’m ready for it. Mentally I’m ready. Physically I’m ready.

FP: Are you prepared for the inside game which Beterbiev is known for?

CJ: Yeah, I can fight on the inside and the outside and whatever I’ll need to do I can do.

FP: Did you do anything different in this training camp?

CJ: Not much that amounts, not much that amounts. We worked on getting me to the best that I can be, and that’s it really.

FP: Is this your first time in Chicago?

CJ: Yeah, Chicago, lovely city, great city.

FP: Have you had the opportunity to enjoy it all?

CJ: Yeah, we had a look around today, actually. It’s a great city, really nice.

FP: Thank you, and we hope to see your arm raised on Saturday night.

CJ: Thank you, take it easy.

Gavin McDonnell

FP: Gavin McDonald, you’re facing Danny Roman on Saturday night.

GM: Yeah man.

FP: You’re absolutely no stranger to world title fights.

GM: No.

FP: Are you expecting anything different in this one?

GM: End of the day at this level, every fight is a mad fight, and you can’t expect anything less. But I am expecting to come over here and take that title home because I’m very, very confident. And how things have gone, and how I’m feeling, I can come over here and grab that belt and take it back home.

FP: How are you feeling?

GM: Great, unbelievable. Like I say, I’m full of confidence, and it’s just this next day or two and then its show time.

FP: Where are you as far as making weight right now?

GM: We’re nearly there, you know what I mean? Every fight I’m always making weight, you know what I mean, and our goals, and we’re right on track. We got a day or two and then weigh in and get a chance to refuel and then time to shine.

FP: Have you ever faced any Mexican fighter before with the prototypical Mexican style?

GM: No, I’m not really sure, but we got plenty of sparring, and I’ve sparred guys with that style, the Mexican style, so we’re very well prepared for this fight, and it will show on Saturday night.

FP: Are you expecting to be able to come forward or fight going backwards and counter?

GM: I’ll do whatever I need to do, and the game plan is generally what my coach says I’ll stick to, and I’ll follow his instructions on whatever he wants me to do, and then I’ll do it, and you’ll see on fight night I’ll put on a win and not just a win but a good win. And I’ll make a statement to the world scene.

FP: Has the time change effected you at all (from Great Britain to Chicago)?

GM: We’ve been here a long time now so. . .

FP: How long?

GM: Ten days, so we’ve been here a long time and back into the swing of things, and everything is fine, and so yeah, that won’t bother us.

FP: Thank you very much, we’re looking forward to a great Saturday night and best of luck to you.

GM: Thank you mate, Cheers.

Jessie Vargas

FP: Jessie Vargas – you’re headlining on Saturday night. It’s a pretty big event. How did this all come about for you? This is the first or second Matchroom/DAZN event.

JV: It is the first fight in the U.S. for DAZN. The very first one. The first international one was Anthony Joshua v. Povetkin a couple of weeks ago, but this is the first one in the U.S. We’re looking forward to shining, we’re looking forward to entertaining the fans with entertaining fights, and with great fights at that. And we do have a good line up from beginning to end. How did it come about? We have a great promoter in Eddie Hearn and Matchroom Boxing, including DAZN we have a great network, a great platform. And we’re going to do great things together. You’re going to see entertaining fights so don’t miss out. Come out to the Wintrust Arena or tune in through the DAZN app, it’s $9.99 per month, no contract deal. It’s month-to-month, and not only that, the first month is free. So subscribe now. Don’t hesitate.

FP: Is this your first time in Chicago?

JV: Second time. First time was to promote it. Now it’s actually to fight for my fans.

FP: How are you enjoying Chicago so far, have you had the opportunity to see the City at all?

JV: I did when I was here about a month and a half ago, and I enjoyed it. I wish I could to know more of it, but I’m here to fight. But right after we’ll probably make sure to get to know a little more of the City and there are a few museums I have in mind to see. It’s a beautiful city, and I’m looking forward to hanging out after the fight.

FP: How long have you been in town before the fight?

JV: I’ve been in town for about two days. There isn’t much to do but stay in the room and be focused and concentrate on wanting to win come Saturday night.

FP: How’s the weight going?

JV: Extremely well. I’ve got it all under control.

FP: How did training camp go?

JV: Training camp was great. I’m looking forward to giving the fans what they want to see: a victory.

FP: What can we expect on Saturday night?

JV: Expect fireworks.

FP: Should we expect boxing or a brawl?

JV: Usually a little bit of both. Any time you see a Jesse Vargas fight, you’re going to see fighter that comes to brawl at times and a fighter that is showing off his boxing skills and doing what he needs to do to win.

FP: Thank you very much.

Danny Roman

FP: We’re here with Danny Roman ahead of his Saturday night fight with Gavin McDonald. How’d the training camp go?

DR: It was a great training camp like always. We’re always working hard to get a strategy and work on changes and to always stay ready and get in the best shape for fights.

FP: When you say change the strategy, what did you do different this training camp?

DR: I know this other guy I’m fighting has the reach, he has the height, so we saw little mistakes we made [in the past], and we’re going to try and work on them.

FP: Your opponent is certainly no stranger to title fights. Are you expecting anything from him because this is a major title he’s fighting for opposed to the minor titles he fought for in the past?

DR: This is his second chance at a world title. He lost against Ray Vargas. I’m sure he learned from his mistakes there. He lost, you learn from your mistakes. So he’s going to come at me with everything because he got another chance at a title. I’ve been in that situation before against a challenger so we’ll be ready for anything.

FP: How’s the weight going?

DR: It was good, it was good. This morning I was 126, so I’m still eating good and training a little bit, so we’re good with the weight. In my old career I never struggled with the weight, so we’re good.

FP: So four pounds by Friday, no problem?

DR: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

FP: Thank you, we’re looking forward to a great Saturday night.

DR: Thank you.

Josh Greer

As a bonus, also on hand was Chicago native and newly signed Top Rank fighter Josh Greer.

FP: We’re here with Josh Greer coming off a big win, his first fight with Top Rank. How’s it feel?

JG: It feels good. It was a blessing. The game plan worked out, and it all came to fruition.

FP: As a Chicago guy, why did you move to California?

JG: Well, I have to go where I can be focused, and I can get the best out of me because and the end of the day I have to make sure I’m in the best predicament to be a world champion.

FP: When you moved to California, did you already have a trainer picked out, or did you have to find somebody?

JG: I had an idea of who I wanted to work with so when I went out there, me and John Pullman clicked right away, and we started working together.

FP: Are you living out there permanently?

JG: I have a place in LA, and I have a place in Chicago also because my kids are still here?

FP: So you come back to Chicago a lot?

JG: Yes, I come back and forth.

FP: How did the whole thing happen with Top Rank? You fought on a couple of Warrior cards here in Chicago.

JG: Well, Top Rank knew I needed a promoter, and they gave me the best deal. And also, I’m managed by Jay Prince so when he came into the picture, we did some research as to who would have my best interests to heart, and Top Rank came with the best deal, and everything looked good, and we made it happen.

FP: Do you have anything planned in the future? I know it’s only been a week or so since your last fight.

JG: Yes. Top Rank is already talking to Jay Prince, my manager, and they’re looking at a fight possibly in December before the year is out.

FP: Do you know where that will take place?

JG: I’m not sure yet, but I know next year, maybe in January there will be a fight here in Chicago that I’ll probably be the main event on.

FP: Oh, fantastic! Any idea if that will be at the Wintrust Arena or the UIC Pavillion?

JG: I’m not sure, I like UIC.

FP: I hear the locker rooms at Wintrust are nicer.

JG: (Laughing) I don’t know, I haven’t fought at Wintrust yet.

FP: Well, thank you, and welcome back to Chicago.

JG: Thank you.

(All Photos: Steven Weinberg/Frontproof Media)

#SW #Jessie Vargas #Matchroom Boxing USA

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tophatal · 6 years ago

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I Don’t Care and There Isn’t A Goddamn Thing You Can Do About It !!!! ..

Now that idiots seem to be in an uproar over the fact that sport’s apparel company Nike will make Colin Kaepernick the face of their thirtieth anniversary celebrations . It continues to speak volumes as to what it is inherently wrong with America in general. On the one hand you have the player’s detractors , many of whom are clearly right-wing Conservative fanatics , loyal to Donald Trump . On the other hand , we have supporters of the now disenfranchised quarterback no longer allowed to play in the NFL , because essentially the league hierarchy and franchise owners combined , have seen fit to blackball Kaepernick. Are these same vociferous supporters who call themselves patriots, who were recently parading along the streets of downtown Charlottesville , Virginia and in the nation’s capital , Washington , DC ,with the American flag in one hand and a Swastika in the other ? Suffice to say, there’s an idiot born every minute and they come no brighter than those claiming to proud American patriots, especially the ones who took part in the protests in Charlottesville and Washington.

Slide show.

In light of that fact, Colin Kaepernick has won the first round in what is likely to be long and hard-fought legal case. In an arbitration hearing , the player and his legal team won the first round, when it was decided by an arbitrator that there was enough evidence to proceed ahead with a legal case against the NFL , with their having colluded to stop Kaepernick with the continuation of his playing career in the league. It has been over two years since the quarterback lasted suited up in a regular season game for his now former team , the San Francisco Forty-Niners . His last game for the team took place in 2016 and since then the franchise has seen their fair share of ups and downs. Niners’ GM Jon Lynch might have found the franchise’s savior when they acquired Jimmy Garopollo from the New England Patriots , in a trade that some believe the Patriots are likely to regret. The Forty-Niners have instantly become a credible threat in the NFC and real favorite to win the NFC West this upcoming season . Over the final five games of the 2017 NFL season , there was not a better starting quarterback in the league as Garopollo led San Francisco to five consecutive wins . That win streak was also the best in the league to end the regular season, even if the team did fail to make the postseason .

Colin Kaepernick’s future might well be impaired, as the league (NFL) will do their utmost to stymie any effort of the player to make a successful return to the NFL . How things now play out will be predicated upon the judgment rendered in US Federal District Court .

There’s less than a month left in the regular season for Major League Baseball and all things look to their being a major disappointment for several teams thought to have been top contenders for the World Series . The Washington Nationals have essentially seen their hopes dashed , having been subjected to another loss , this one at home to the Chicago Cubs , when the two teams met at Nationals’ Ballpark in Washington DC . Led by their two Big League All Stars , Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper , the team succumbed to a Cubs’ team intent on winning their second title in the last three years. The Cubs will be in action over the weekend as they begin a schedule which sees them facing the the Nationals once again as part of their regular season meetings .

With the Chicago Cubs on route to the postseason, the Washington Nationals are left to ponder what might have been . Injuries asides , this team has failed on so many levels and it gives cause for concern as to whether or not they can afford to retain the services of Bryce Harper . The former NLMVP is not due to become a free agent until until 2019, when it is believed he will seek to become the highest paid player baseball history. Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins is currently afforded that luxury and he’s also the highest paid player at his position in baseball .

The Miami Marlins’ own plight this season has been horrendous with the new ownership group not yet scampering away, making for the hills. Suffice to say, this has been another miserable season for the ball-club. Team manager Don Mattingly will be preparing his players for their weekend series against the Pittsburgh Pirates . Game one of the series begins tonight on the road with the opposing pitchers being Dan Straily of the Marlins against Chris Archer of the Pirates. There is likely to be a major organizational shake-up within the Marlins, with several players likely to be on their way , solely for economic reasons.

With the announcement that this is to be the last season with Mike Scioscia in charge of the managerial staff of the Los Angeles Angels , it will be interesting to see who will succeed the veteran manager. Team GM Billy Eppler and their billionaire owner Arte Moreno ,will be looking for someone with experience and winning ability . The talent is there on the field with Albert Pujols and Mike Trout leading the fray . Trout has long been considered the best player in baseball over the last six seasons.Over the weekend the Los Angeles Angels were in a weekend series against the Chicago White Sox on the road . All three games were won by the visiting team , which as such aided the Angels’ position among the wildcard aspirants . But this will not be the year where the Los Angeles Angels make a return to the MLB postseason . The team will next be in action when they face the Texas Rangers at home , with in a game being played on Monday 10th September at Angels Ballpark , in Anaheim, California ,. Monday will bring about a series of games as part of the regular season schedule . At this point last season things were very much in full swing as the schedule wound down .

Serena Williams created something of a furor in Women’s Final at the US Open as she succumbed to a surprisingly lopsided two-set loss to her Japanese counterpart Naomi Osaka . What brought the crowd’s attention to the contest was not the thrilling entertainment provided by these two players , but the out of character behavior by Serena Williams, with her truculent verbal attack on the umpire. At the end of it all , Williams came away as the villain of the piece as Osaka made history as the first Japanese female player to capture a Grand Slam singles’ title in over a decade. Unfortunately, what comes out of this all , now comes down to the fact how much will this hurt the legacy of Serena Williams moving forward and how she’s viewed in the eyes of her fans and contemporaries

What do you believe has been the most troubling scenario to have been raised within the sports’ world in the past seven days ?

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Tophatal …..

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NFL news

NFL week one regular season schedule

NFL transactions

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MLB news

MLB divisional standings

Wildcard standings

MLB weekend schedule

MLB payroll 2018 and the top earning players of 2018 .

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Tennis news

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Byron Scott, the now fired former coach of the Hornets. GM , Jeff Bower who has now assumeed the position of head coach on an interim basis. And assistant coach , Tim Floyd. It’s safe to assume that the reins may well be handed over to Floyd at some time in the future given the fact Bower has no experience as a coach of any kind with regard to the NBA . picture apears courtesy of nbae/ getty images / Richard Tyson …………..

Rays’ third baseman , Evan Longoria at the plate for team. photo appears courtesy of Getty Images/ Vic Hallam

Carl Crawford’s three-run home run in the sixth inning highlighted Tampa Bay’s three-game sweep of the Angels. The Rays are five games over .500 for the first time in team history. photo appears courtesy of the Associated Press/ Mike Carlson ………….

Gatots’ player Tim Tebow (15) and his coach Urban Meyer discuss their options during a game. photo appears courtesy of Getty Images/ Chris Dickson ……………….

Major League Baseball commissioner Bud Selig’s steroids proposal, made to the union last month, calls for a 50-game ban for first offenders, a 100-game penalty for second offenders and a lifetime ban for a third positive test. photo appears courtesy of Associated Press / Adam Roundtree …….

Carolina Panthers’ Julius Peppers saluting fans as he walks off the field after the Panthers’ 23-10 win over the New Orleans Saints in an NFL football game in Charlotte, N.C. The Panthers have decided the price is too steep to keep their all-time sacks leader. It means five-time Pro Bowl defensive end Julius Peppers is about to become one of the top prizes in free agency. Agent Carl Carey says the Panthers have told him they won’t place the restrictive franchise tag on Peppers for a second consecutive year at a cost of more than $20 million. The move Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010, comes two days before the tag deadline. photo appears courtesy of Associated Press/ Rick Havner ……

Mike Dunleavy (#17) of the Indiana Pacers goes up for the lay up against Brendan Haywood (#33) of the Dallas Mavericks during a game at the American Airlines Center on February 22, 2010 in Dallas, Texas. photo appears courtesy of NBAE/ Getty Images/ Glenn James ……………….

University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman, left, and head football coach Rich Rodriguez, right, are shown at a news conference in Ann Arbor, Mich., Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010. The NCAA has found that Michigan’s storied football program was out of compliance with practice time rules under coach Rodriguez. Incoming athletic director David Brandon disclosed the finding Tuesday. He says there were no surprises in the NCAA findings. He also says Rodriguez remains the coach. Michigan has 90 days to respond and will appear at an NCAA hearing on infractions in August. photo appears courtesy of Associated Press/ Paul Sancya ……

Los Angeles -January 13th 2010. New head coach of the USC Trojans Lane Kiffin shakes a hand as he makes his way to his press conference at Heritage Hall in Los Angeles, California. photo appears courtesy of Getty Images/ Harry How ……………..

Duke’s Jon Scheyer collides with Virginia Tech’s Malcolm Delaney, left, during the first half. Scheyer scored 25 points and collected 10 rebounds in the win. The Blue Devils defeated Virginia Tech (Hokies) 67-55 in the game . photo appears courtesy of Associated Press / Sara Davis ……………..

Chicago Cubs owner Tom Ricketts speaks to the media Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010 at the Chicago Cubs spring training facility in Mesa, Ariz. photo appears Assoc. Press/ Matt York ….

Chicago Cubs manager Lou Piniella, right, along with coaches Matt Sinatro, middle, and Lester Strode watch pitchers warm up during spring training baseball camp practice Saturday, Feb. 20, 2010, in Mesa, Ariz. photo appears courtesy of Assoc. Press/ Ross D. Franklin ………..

Minnesota Twins pitcher Joe Mauer swings in the batting cage at baseball spring training in Fort Myers, Fla., Thursday, Feb. 25, 2010. photo appears courtesy of Assoc Press/ Nati Harnik …….

Florida Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria, left, watches batting practice with Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez during spring training baseball Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010, in Jupiter, Fla. With the smallest payroll in the majors last year, the Marlins won 87 games and finished six games behind eventual league champion Philadelphia in the NL East. Visiting spring training to watch the first full-squad workout, Loria said the 2009 Marlins underachieved. photo appears courtesy of Assoc Press/Jeff Roberson ……..

Israeli model Bar Refaeli seen here doing a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit edition phot-shoot.

Ray Allen (#20) of the Boston Celtics looks for a play against LeBron James (#23) of the Cleveland Cavaliers on February 25, 2010 at the TD Garden in Boston, Massachusetts. photo appears courtesy of NBAE/ Getty Images/ Brian Babbineau …..

Floyd Mayweather, left, and current WBA welterweight super champion Shane Mosley exchange words during a news conference in New York, Tuesday, March 2, 2010. The press conference was to promote their May 1, 2010 fight in Las Vegas, Nevada. photo appears courtesy of Assoc Press/ Seth Wenig ……..

Floyd Mayweather, left, and current WBA welterweight world champion Shane Mosley pose for a picture during a news conference in New York, Tuesday, March 2, 2010. The news conference was to promote their May 1, 2010 fight in Las Vegas, Nevada. photo appears courtesy of Assoc Press /Seth Wenig

Scott Boras, chided for bonus demands for amateur clients, says the Major League Baseball draft needs restructuring. “In this system, everybody thinks this is about money. No, this is about saving money. It allows for less mistakes,” he says. photo appears courtesy of USA Today Jason M. Millstein ………………..

Commissioner of Major League Baseball Bud Selig and actress Sarah-Jessica Parker take part in an on field presentation during the 79th MLB All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium on July 15, 2008 in the Bronx borough of New York City. photo appears courtesy of Getty Images North America / Jim McIsaac ……………

Stacey Dash , actress , designer and entrepreneur .

Jennifer Aniston shows us that she’s more than willing to be your ‘friend’ ?

Model & Playboby playmate Naureen Zaim . Who wouldn’t mind teaching her a lesson or two on human anatomy ?

Cuban American actress & model Natalie Martinez

Martinez again looking good as only she possibly can !

Oh mon ami ! she possibly can ! Je t’aime !</strong

Who wouldn’t want to play with Natalie Martinez ?

Well hello there !

Model & actress Natalie Martinez ……….

Actress & model Natalie Martinez …….. Who wouldn’t want to get ahold of her rims ? I know I would !

New York Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez watches his fly-out in the first inning of a spring training baseball game against the Philadelphia Phillies, Friday, March 26, 2010, in Tampa, Fla. photo appears courtesy of Assoc Press / Mike Carlson ….

Sarasoata , Fl ,. Infielder Adrian Beltre (29) of the Boston Red Sox throws over to first for an out against the Baltimore Orioles during a Grapefruit League Spring Training Game at Ed Smith Stadium on March 27, 2010 in Sarasota, Florida. photo appears courtesy of Getty Images/ J Meric ……….

St. Louis , Bobby Maze (3) of the Tennessee Volunteers looks to shoot the ball against Mike Kebler (20) and Draymond Green (23) both of the Michigan State Spartans during the midwest regional final of the 2010 NCAA men’s basketball tournament at the Edward Jones Dome on March 28, 2010 in St. Louis, Missouri. Michigan State beat Tennessee 70-69. photo appears courtesy of Getty Images/ Dilip Vishwanat …

The Duke Blue Devils hold up the trophy after a 78-71 win over the Baylor Bears in the south regional final of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament at Reliant Stadium in Houston on Sunday. photo appears courtesy of Getty Images/ Ronald Martinez …

Butler’s Nick Rodgers hold up the West Regional trophy as the team returned home to Indianapolis amid a throng of fans after earning a spot in the Final Four with a victory over Kansas State Saturday. photo appears courtesy of Associated Press/ A J Mast ………..

West Virginia’s Da’Sean Butler and Joe Mazzulla hug after the game. Butler scored 18 points and Mazulla pitched in a career-high 17 to help West Virginia hold off the Wildcats. The Mountaineers would defeat the Kentucky Wildcats 73-66 to make their way the Final Four of the NCAA Tournament. photo appears courtesy of Getty Images/ Jim McIsaac ……….

Russian actress & model Anya Monzikova . Who wouldn’t want some of Monzikova alongside some fresh Beluga caviar ?

2008 Heisman Trophy winner Sam Bradford. The player is widely expected to be taken number one overall in the upcoming NFL Draft. The team with the first pick are the NFC’s St Louis Rams . photo appears courtesy of Associated Press/ Chris Rogers ………..

Eagles’ quarterback Donovan McNabb. The player is said to want to remain with the Eagles but it’s becoming clear that he will be traded sooner rather than later. Eagles’ coach Andy Reid and team President Joe Banner are willing to listen to offers for the Pro Bowler. photo appears courtesy of US Presswire/ Jody Gomez ………….

Tebow (15) left is seen here alongside his former college coach Urban Meyer. The two proved to be very sucessfule as a team combining to win two national titles in four years. photo appears courtesy of boston.com/ articles …………

DeMaurice Smith Executive Director of the NFLPA. Smith who assumed the position after the death of his predecessor Gene Upshaw. He was elected to the position by the board members of the Players’ Association. Smith was a corporate litigation attorney for the DC law firm Patton Boggs. photo appears courtesy of Associated Press/ Phillip Mitchell

Carlos Boozer #5 of the Utah Jazz has his shot challenged by Kobe Bryant #24 of the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on April 2, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. The Lakers would go on to defeat the Jazz 102-96 in the game . photo appears courtesy of NBAE/ Getty Images/ Andrew D Bernstein ………..

Donovan McNabb of the Philadelphia Eagles. The player was traded to the Washington Redskins a divisional rival in the NFC East. It adds to the flavor this upcoming season when the player meets his ‘former team’ . photo appears courtesy of Getty Images/ Hugh Malcolm ………………..

Baylor’s Brittney Griner and U Conn’s Maya Moore are seen here during the women’s Final Four game between the two teams. Geno Auriemma’s Huskies would go on to defeat the Baylor Lady Bears 70-50 in the game played at the Alamodome in San Antonio , Texas , Sunday April 4th 2010. photo appears courtesy of Getty Images/ Alicia Mack ………..

Cleveland Browns nose tackle Shaun Rogers and his lawyer Patrick D’Angelo, center, talk to reporters after leaving Cleveland Police Headquarters where Rogers was charged with one felony count of carrying a concealed weapon on Friday, April 2, 2010, in Cleveland, Ohio. Rogers was arrested at Cleveland Hopkins International airport on Thursday after he tried to take a loaded handgun through airport security. photo appears courtesy of Associated Press/ Jason Miller …..

Butler head coach Brad Stevens , left to right, Gordon Hayward and Ronald Nored smile during an interview session for the men’s NCAA Final Four college basketball championship Sunday, April 4, 2010, in Indianapolis. The Butler Bulldogs will face Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke Blue Devils in the championship game Monday night to be played at Lucas Oil Stadium , Indianapolis, Indiana. This in many ways will be very much a “home game” for the small and in-obtrusive college team from Indiana. The furor over over their improbable journey has resonated within the state and across the nation. photo appears courtesy of Associated Press/ Mark J Terrill ……………

Los Angeles, April 4th 2010. Manu Ginobil (20) of the San Antonio Spurs goes to the basket against Luke Walton (4) of the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center on Sunday. The San Antonio Spurs would go on to defeat the Los Angeles Lakers 100-81 in a game played at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. photo appears courtesy of NBAE/ Getty Images/ Noah Grahame …………….

Tiki Barber and his wife Gina Cha. Barber’s wife is six months pregnant with twins and is now in the midst of separating from the former NFL star. photo appears courtesy of Wire Image/ Duffie Marie Arnoult ………….

23 year old Traci Lynn Johnson an intern with NBC Universal and who works alongside Tiki Barber on the NBC morning show “The Today Show” . Barber and Johnson are romantically involved and the former NFL star has now separated from his wife of 11 years , Gina Cha. The couple have two children with twin now on the way in terms of Cha’s pregnancy. photo appears courtesy of Social Media SEO ……….

http://www.nfl.com/draft/2010/tracker#dt-tabs:dt-by-round/dt-by-round-input:1

Playboy Playmate Kayle Collins …………August 2008. Is there a need to proceed further concerning Kayle’s attributes ?

Jameer Nelson of the Orlando Magic goes for the layup in the Eastern Conference semi-final game played against the Atlanta Hawks. NBAE/ Getty Images/ Fernando Medina ………

Head Coach Jerry Sloan of the Utah Jazz fields questions from the media following his team’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game Two of the Western Conference Semifinals during the 2010 NBA Playoffs at Staples Center on May 4, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. NBAE Getty Images _ Andrew D Bernstein

Kobe Bryant (24) of the Los Angeles Lakers shoots against Deron Williams (8 )of the Utah Jazz in Game Two of the Western Conference Semifinals during the 2010 NBA Playoffs at Staples Center on May 4, 2010 in Los Angeles, California. NBAE Getty Images/ Noah D Bernstein

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – JUNE 24: (L-R) Robert Vittek, Martin Skrtel and Radoslav Zabavnik of Slovakia celebrate victory after knocking Italy out of the competition during the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Group F match between Slovakia and Italy at Ellis Park Stadium on June 24, 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo by David Cannon/Getty Images ……

Johannesburg , South Africa – June 24 th 2010. Kamil Kopunek of Slovakia celebrates scoring his team’s third goal during the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Group F match between Slovakia and Italy at Ellis Park Stadium on June 24, 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo by Christof Koepsel/Getty Images ……

Fabio Cannavaro, captain of Italy, leaves the field dejected after being knocked out of the competition by Slovakia during the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Group F match between Slovakia and Italy at Ellis Park Stadium on June 24, 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa. Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images ………

In this Sept. 18, 2010, photo, Florida Marlins’ Dan Uggla bats in a baseball game against the Chicago Cubs in Miami. Uggla has been traded from the Marlins to the Atlanta Braves for infielder Omar Infante and left-hander Mike Dunn. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz)

This is a 2008 file photo of Dan Uggla of the Florida Marlins baseball team. Uggla and the Atlanta Braves have reached a preliminary agreement on a $62 million, five-year contract, a person familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press Wednesday Jan. 5, 2011 on condition of anonymity because the agreement was not yet final. (AP Photo/Rob Carr, File)

Baltimore Orioles starting pitcher Wei-Yin Chen (16), of Taiwan, comes into the dugout following the fourth inning of a baseball game against the Tampa Bay Rays, Saturday, Aug. 4, 2012, in St. Petersburg, Fla. (AP Photo/Brian Blanco)

ST. PETERSBURG – AUGUST 04: Designated hitter Jeff Keppinger #7 of the Tampa Bay Rays fouls off a pitch against the Baltimore Orioles during the game at Tropicana Field on August 4, 2012 in St. Petersburg, Florida. (Photo by J. Meric/Getty Images)

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Brady

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Picture gallery with accompanying narrative.

I Don’t Care and There Isn’t A Goddamn Thing You Can Do About It !!!! I Don’t Care and There Isn’t A Goddamn Thing You Can Do About It !!!! ..

#Colin Kaepernick #New England Patriots #NFL #Roger Goodell #San Francisco 49ers #Sports #Sports Commentary

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ellismorris0 · 6 years ago

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The Highball Device – Coming to a Bar Close to You

The highball turns out easy sufficient: whisky, ice, soda. It’s no longer rocket science. Until, after all, you’re in Japan—the place no job, irrespective of dimension and scope, escapes a laser-like precision of execution. Within the Land of the Emerging Solar, the highball isn’t such a lot a drink as it’s an inventive expression of minimalism. When Suntory presented Toki in 2016—essentially the most modestly priced mix in its portfolio—the logo noticed a chance to lift the Stateside stature of one in every of its maximum liked local consuming traditions. Input the Toki Highball Device, coming quickly to a craft bar close to you.

THE ART OF THE HIGHBALL

There are a handful of elements in highball development which can also be simply overpassed. They imply the variation between a serviceable drink and an outstanding one. Leader amongst them is meticulous preparation. Follow conventional Eastern bartenders assembling the elemental cocktail and also you’ll sense the affected person care with which they unharness the soda water upon the ice and whisky. This subtle method imbues the drink with its refreshing effervescence—keeping up the fizz this is its lifeblood.

Toki Highball / Picture Credit score: Beam Suntory

Sadly, top quantity bars in the USA normally don’t have sufficient time to treat each drink with this degree of love. “The system solves one of the demanding situations in generating a top quality highball,” explains Johnnie Mundell, Suntory’s West Coast Whisky Ambassador. “By way of making top power, carbonated water repeatedly to be had at the back of the bar and keeping up the whisky at a relentless, chilled temperature, it’s able to in reality dialing issues in.�� Moreover, the era permits bartenders to set the ratio of the liquids, permitting manufacturing to be expedited with out sacrificing the standard of the outcome.

However the system gained’t do the whole lot. You continue to wish to concern concerning the ice, warns Mundell. “Ice maintains the chilly and helps the carbonation,” he says. But it surely’s no longer as simple to supply as you may suspect. “Top density transparent ice is to be had in the United States, however it’s important to search it out and pay a top rate for it. In Japan, it’s to be had in 7-11s.”

FROM TOKYO TO LA

Suntory has already unfold its patented software throughout a lot of its hometown. Izakayas —full of life consuming dens the place locals normally move to unwind after paintings—shape the perfect settings for its good fortune. Certainly, they’ve bought hundreds of them there, every one retailing at an undisclosed sum someplace within the low Four-digit vary. The emblem has been sluggish to roll them out in the United States, fearing that many bars gained’t see the price in such an funding.

Toki Highball Device / Picture Credit score: Beam Suntory

That’s starting to alternate. In downtown Los Angeles, Faith & Flower changed into the primary account in southern California to deliver the Toki Highball Device on-line previous q4. Bar Supervisor Adam Fournier is already making a song its praises. “It provides a measure of thoughtfulness again into the method,” he contends. “It’s unusual to name a system considerate, however all excellent bartending has a definite level of prep that occurs at the back of closed doorways—whether or not it’s batching, method coaching or infusions—a significant portion of our task is doing the determine of sight in order that the buyer can sit down on the bar and experience a unbroken, pleasant night time out in town. The behind-the-scenes paintings has unquestionably been completed to deliver those highballs from Tokyo to LA.”

BUBBLE PROBLEM SOLVED

Suntory’s software puts the integrity of mixology at the vanguard of its design. That includes a separate water cooler machine, a top level of specificity in carbonation, unbiased of the whisky, this is a toy for bartenders, made by means of bartenders. “My bubbles downside was once solved,” Fournier exclaims, obviously in awe of its considerate development. He isn’t by myself. Religion & Flower joins a part dozen different early adopters around the nation who’ve purchased into the era. Los Angelenos can opt for spherical two at whiskey haven Seven Grand. New York drinkers can experience the very best highball at Ippudo in Midtown. San Franciscan’s must head to Pacific Cocktail Haven, and Chicago simply joined the celebration with Prairie School and Momotaro.

Toki Highball / Picture Credit score: Beam Suntory

The rest that makes bartenders this giddy is sure to translate to the opposite facet of the stick. The easiest highball is simple, in the end. So long as you’ve were given the fitting cutting-edge era to ‘make it so.’

With Distiller, you’ll all the time know what’s within the bottle prior to you spend a cent. Charge, Evaluate, and Uncover spirits! Head on over to Distiller, or obtain the app for iOS and Android lately!

The publish The Highball Machine – Coming to a Bar Near You seemed first on The Distiller Blog.

The post The Highball Device – Coming to a Bar Close to You appeared first on Liquor Gift Baskets.

from http://liquorgiftbaskets.net/2018/08/20/the-highball-machine-coming-to-a-bar-near-you-2/

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investmart007 · 6 years ago

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WASHINGTON | The Latest: Segura hits 3-run homer, AL leads 5-2

New Post has been published on https://is.gd/y8O4ax

WASHINGTON | The Latest: Segura hits 3-run homer, AL leads 5-2

WASHINGTON — The Latest on baseball’s All-Star Game (all times local):

11:05 p.m.

Jean Segura hit a 3-run homer after first baseman Joey Votto’s error gave him another chance, and the American League took a 5-2 eighth-inning lead over the National League in the All-Star Game.

Votto dropped a foul popup along the NL dugout railing with runners on first and second and a 3-2 count on Segura, who launched the next pitch over the left-field wall.

It was the first hit with a runner in scoring position in the game. All seven runs were scored via home runs, the first four coming on solo shots.

Segura went deep off Josh Hader. He became the third player in the game to homer in his first career All-Star at-bat, following Willson Contreras and Trevor Story.

___

10:45 p.m.

Trevor Story has homered in the seventh inning to draw the National League even 2-2 in the All-Star Game.

Story pulled his hands in and ripped an inside fastball from Charlie Morton down the left-field line and into the first row of bleachers.

It was Story’s first All-Star at-bat. Willson Contreras also went deep for the NL in his first time at the plate as an All-Star.

All four runs have been scored on solo homers.

___

10:20 p.m.

Light rain has begun falling at the All-Star Game as a small band of showers moves through Washington.

The rain caused some fans to head for the concourses but appeared unlikely to delay the game.

Earlier Tuesday, strong thunderstorms led to standing water in the National League dugout. But the field was in good shape by the time the game started after 8 p.m.

The American League leads the National League 2-1 in the top of the seventh inning.

___

9:10 p.m.

Willson Contreras put the National League on the board in the All-Star Game by homering off Blake Snell in the third inning.

Contreras hit the first pitch from Snell just over the wall in left field to cut the American League lead to 2-1.

All three runs have scored on solo homers.

In the top of the third, Mike Trout homered off Jacob deGrom.

Trout went deep on a 1-2 fastball, sending it into the AL bullpen in left field.

It was Trout’s second homer in five All-Star Game appearances and improved him to 7-for-15 (.467) in his All-Star career. He was named MVP of the game in 2014 and 2015.

___

8:45 p.m.

Aaron Judge has given the American League a 1-0 lead in the All-Star Game with a homer off Max Scherzer.

Leading off the second inning, the Yankees slugger got ahold of a belt-high 0-1 fastball from Scherzer and sent it into the bullpen beyond the left field fence.

It was Judge’s first All-Star Game hit in his second appearance. He went 0-for-3 last year.

National League manager Dave Roberts tapped Scherzer to start the game in part because it’s being played at his home ballpark. The Nationals right-hander made his third All-Star start.

___

8:10 p.m.

A combat medic who received the Medal of Honor for his service in Vietnam has thrown out the ceremonial first pitch for the All-Star Game at Nationals Park.

James McCloughan was one of 30 Medal of Honor recipients to be honored before the game. After serving in Vietnam, McCloughan spent 38 years as a high school baseball coach in Michigan.

In choosing McCloughan, Major League Baseball stayed away from political controversy during the first All-Star game in 49 years in Washington. President Donald Trump did not attend the game a day after he drew bipartisan criticism for siding with Russian President Vladimir Putin over Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

Franklin D. Roosevelt and John F. Kennedy threw out the first pitch at All-Star games in Washington during their terms. Dwight D. Eisenhower declined because he was recovering from surgery, while Richard M. Nixon had to delegate the responsibility to Vice President Spiro Agnew because the 1969 game was postponed one day by rain.

___

7:20 p.m.

Some Cubs fans — and gamblers — are claiming on social media that Bryce Harper “cheated” during the Home Run Derby to beat Chicago’s Kyle Schwarber.

Harper hit 19 homers in the final round of Monday night’s competition at Nationals Park to beat Schwarber by one. Hitting in front his hometown fans with his father pitching, Harper appeared to be running out of time to catch the Cubs slugger before he hit nine homers in his final 10 swings to tie him. Because he hit two homers over 440 feet in the round, Harper earned 30 seconds of extra time that he used to hit the decisive long ball.

The competition rules state that the pitcher has to wait until the previous ball has landed before throwing another one. Video from the event shows Harper’s father, Ron, apparently breaking that rule. Umpires on the field did not intervene.

But that didn’t stop Cubs fans from complaining that Harper cheated or that the event was rigged. The result was also bitter for bettors who put money on Schwarber to win, a population that has increased with expanded legal sports gambling in the United States.

___

6:30 p.m.

Severe thunderstorms that blew through Washington in the afternoon soaked the field at Nationals Park, but players hope the conditions are safe and playable for the All-Star Game.

The rain stopped in time for the NL and AL to take abbreviated batting practice

“You have to deal with elements,” NL starter Max Scherzer of the host Nationals said. “You have to pitch when it’s cold, you have to pitch when it’s hot, when it’s windy, when it’s rainy. This is just another element of baseball that a pitcher just has to deal with.”

With the storms over, there was not much concern about delaying or postponing the game as much as how the water on the field could affect play. Nearby Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport took more than 2 inches of rain, and there was standing water in the NL dugout.

“Hopefully it’s dry and everybody’s safe and nobody gets injury,” Mariners designated hitter Nelson Cruz said. “That’s the goal.”

___

6 p.m.

If Manny Machado is heading to Los Angeles, the Dodgers would be thrilled to have him.

USA Today reported Tuesday that the Orioles were expected to trade their All-Star shortstop to the Dodgers on Wednesday, barring a last-minute snag. Machado says he hasn’t heard anything from his agent and he refused to answer a hypothetical question about going to the Dodgers.

Dodgers right-hander Ross Stripling says: “Things are getting serious now. That’s the kind of bat and the kind of player that you want in your lineup.”

Stripling says it’s good to be on a team that’s buying instead of selling at the trade deadline. He also credited the Dodgers for making midseason moves while hanging onto big league-ready prospects.

Dodgers outfielder Matt Kemp says he’s good friends with Machado but hasn’t heard anything. He says Machado would bring excitement to LA.

___

5:20 p.m.

Cubs pitcher Jon Lester and Reds first baseman Joey Votto believe this offseason will be a test of whether last year’s free agent situation was a one-off or cause for concern.

Tony Clark, the head of the baseball players’ union, said earlier Tuesday he’d like to talk to the league about free agency after so many players were left unsigned for months last winter.

Lester said that with the free agent class that could be available — including Bryce Harper and Manny Machado — if the same situation occurs, it would present a problem.

With Clark broaching the possibility of a 2021 labor struggle, Votto told The Associated Press that previous generations of players set up the current tug of war between the sides, which he thinks is healthy for the game.

___

5:05 p.m.

With trade rumors swirling, Manny Machado made a fashion statement as he arrived at Nationals Park for the All-Star Game.

Machado wore a gray double-breasted suit with no shirt underneath the jacket and an inch-wide gold chain during a red carpet interview with MLB Network. He sported bare ankles, white sneakers and tortoiseshell sunglasses.

As for where he’ll play next, Machado doesn’t know. He says it’s “tough” to think that the All-Star Game could be his last in a Baltimore Orioles uniform. But he also says he’s “blessed to be talked about. Blessed to know that people out there want me, they want me to go out there and help (the) team win.”

Machado played third base before this season, when he moved to shortstop, the position he’d played in childhood and throughout the minor leagues. He thinks he’d stay at short for any team that trades for him and says he would prefer not to move back to third.

___

3:30 p.m.

The tarp is on the field and early arriving fans are seeking cover or wearing ponchos as a summer thunderstorm rolls through downtown Washington ahead of the All-Star Game.

Heavy rain and lightning started shortly after 3 p.m. Tuesday at Nationals Park and were predicted to continue into the early evening. But if the forecast holds, it should be clear by the first pitch, which is scheduled for 8:18 p.m.

The last All-Star Game to be postponed by rain was the last one in Washington, 49 years ago. It was rescheduled for the next day and President Richard Nixon had to delegate first-pitch duties to Vice President Spiro Agnew.

___

12:55 p.m.

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is outlining concerns in the way the sport has changed and says owners want a broad conversation with players about rules changes.

Manfred says concerns include the time between putting balls in play, the increased number of strikeouts, an increase in home runs, the far greater use of infield shifts, the lessened length of starting pitcher outings and the increase in the use of relief pitchers.

He maintains the changes are the result of “smart people who want to win more” in front offices and says MLB and the players must decide “at what point do we want to step in, OK, and manage that organic change.”

Manfred says “this organic change may be driven by competition, but there’s lots of places in life where competition has to be bridled a little bit.”

___

12:30 p.m.

Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred is defending teams’ reluctance to sign free agents last offseason and says union head Tony Clark has not responded to a pair of invitations to have a broad discussion about players’ concerns and changes in the way the game is played.

Manfred says “the only purposeful behavior that took place in the free-agent market last year is our clubs carefully analyzed the available players and made individual decisions as to what they thought those players were worth. … I’m pretty sure, based on what’s already in the books, you’re going to make the judgment that the clubs made sound decisions as to how those players should be valued. That’s how markets operate.

___

12:10 p.m.

Players consider teams’ reluctance to sign free agents last offseason “a direct attack” on their rights, according to union head Tony Clark. He hinted that the sport’s quarter-century of labor peace could end if concerns are not addressed.

More than 100 free agents remained unsigned when spring training began. Many signed at a fraction of the price they thought they were worth and many received shorter deals than they expected.

Baseball had eight work stoppages from 1966-95 but has had labor peace since. The current labor contract runs through the 2021 season.

Asked whether he thought there could be a work stoppage at the end of the deal if players’ concerns are not addressed, Clark says that, “to the extent there are challenges to those rights, historically I would suggest those have manifested themselves a particular way.”

___

12:05 p.m.

The head of the baseball players’ union favors expanding the wild-card playoff from one game to a series, but he says there are scheduling challenges.

Major League Baseball began winner-take-all, one-game playoffs in each league in 2012, when the postseason field was expanded from eight to 10.

In the AL East this year, the New York Yankees could wind up as a wild card with a record that currently projects to 106 wins.

Union head Tony Clark says “having series is always … better for a player in a lot of ways than a one-game playoff” and adds “it would be great if we can find a way in the future to have that first game be a series, but there are some challenges there.”

The schedule currently starts in the last week of March or the first week of April, and the World Series sometimes ends in November. But, the division winners might not like having an extended break before the playoffs.

___

11:35 a.m.

The head of the baseball players’ union says conversations will take place with the commissioner’s office over whether prohibitions against legalized gambling among his members’ relatives may be needed.

Following a U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down a federal prohibition on sports gambling, New Jersey enacted a law allowing bets on games. Team employees including players are prohibited under baseball rules from betting on the sport, but there are no rules covering their families.

Union head Tony Clark said there will a wide discussion with management about legalized gambling that will include talk of “six degrees of separation” and where lines should be drawn. Clark also is concerned about player data in relation to gambling.

By Associated Press

#AL leads 5-2 #All Star Game #Charlie Morton #Jean Segura #Los Angeles #Major League Baseball #Medal of Honor #National League on the board #President Donald Trump President Donald Trump #Segura hits 3-run homer #TodayNews #U.S. Supreme Court #Washington #Willson Contreras

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365footballorg-blog · 7 years ago

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This Week in MLS - April 16, 2018

USA Today Sports Images

April 16, 20183:41PM EDT

This Week in MLS – April 16, 2018

Toronto FC is two games away from the FIFA Club World Cup

LAFC to unveil Banc of California Stadium on Wednesday

Belgian defender Ciman returns to Montreal to face former side

Ibrahimović, Galaxy host league’s top offense in Atlanta

Two most recent MVPs clash as Portland hosts league leading New York City FC

MLS Week 8: Match Notes

Toronto FC is two games away from the FIFA Club World Cup

History is on the line Tuesday night at BMO Field for the first game in a series that TFC President Bill Manning speculated could be the most important in MLS history.

Win the two-leg aggregate-goal series and Toronto FC will become the first MLS club to book a ticket to the FIFA Club World Cup to compete against the top clubs from around the world like Real Madrid, Liverpool, A.S. Roma or Bayern Munich. Goalkeeper Alex Bono could face the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo. Sebastian Giovinco could go toe-to-toe in a scoring duel against Mohammed Salah or Robert Lewandowski.

But first, Toronto FC must defeat Mexico’s all-time winningest team in Chivas de Guadalajara.

Toronto defeated defending Mexican champion Tigres UANL with a 2-1 victory at BMO Field in Leg 1 of the quarterfinals before scoring twice in a 3-2 second leg at El Volcán to advance to the semifinals on away goals. The Reds once again flexed their muscle at home defeating Club América 3-1 in Leg 1 of the semifinals before a strong defensive outing at Estadio Azteca for a 1-1 draw in the second leg.

A tournament title would be Toronto’s fourth trophy in the past year, solidifying its spot atop MLS history books. Sebastian Giovinco and Homegrown midfielder Jonathan Osorio are both tied for the Golden Boot lead with three goals scored in this tournament, helping Toronto become the first team in league history to defeat two Mexican clubs in multi-leg series. Complementing the outstanding home goalscoring, Toronto will need its defense to come up strong once again as a shutout at BMO could put Chivas in a hole without any away goals entering the second leg.

Soundbytes from Toronto FC press conference can be found here

How to Watch:

Toronto FC vs. Chivas de Guadalajara (Tuesday, April 17, 8:15 p.m. ET) – Watch live on UDN or TSN2, or live stream via go90.com or the go90 app.

Chivas de Guadalajaravs. Toronto FC (Wednesday, April 25, 9:30 p.m. ET) – Watch live on UDN or TSN, or live stream via go90.com or the go90 app.

LAFC to unveil Banc of California Stadium on Wednesday

Los Angeles Football Club (LAFC) will officially unveil the 22,000-seat, $ 350 million Banc of California Stadium during a star-studded ribbon cutting ceremony this Wednesday. Celebrity owners, including Magic Johnson, Mia Hamm, Nomar Garciaparra, and Tom Penn alongside MLS Commissioner Don Garber and local elected officials will participate in the ceremony at 11 a.m. PT before the LAFC players take the field for their first training session at the new facility. Throughout the afternoon, attending media will have the opportunity to work from the press box that features striking views of downtown.

Below is a timeline of events for Wednesday, April 18 at Banc of California Stadium. Media wishing to attend should RSVP to [email protected], as credentialed media access will be required for this event.

11 a.m. LAFC Ribbon Cutting Ceremony

(Select owners available to speak with media immediately following ceremony)

1:00 p.m. LAFC Training Session begins

2:00 p.m. LAFC head coach Bob Bradley and players available to media

Belgian star defender Ciman returns to Montreal to face former side

Los Angeles Football Club and Belgium national team defender Laurent Ciman heads back to Montreal for the first time to face his former Impact side on Saturday at Stade Saputo (1 p.m. ET / TVA Sports, ESPN+). The 2015 MLS Defender of the Year, who will likely represent Belgium in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, spent the three previous seasons in Montreal.

Ciman was an integral part of the Impact, leading the club to the Concacaf Champions League final during his first MLS season in 2015. Now, he anchors an exciting expansion campaign with LAFC, which won its first two games to open the 2018 and enters this week fourth in the Western Conference. This match will be LAFC’s sixth straight on the road, before the club moves into its state-of-the-art new home, Banc of California Stadium, to host Seattle Sounders FC on April 29.

LAFC’s acquisition of Ciman was the first trade in organization history; the club sent their fourth- and fifth-round MLS Expansion Draft selections – former Columbus Crew SC defender Jukka Raitala and former Toronto FC forward Raheem Edwards, respectively – to Montreal.

One of the Impact’s brightest spots this season has been Chilean midfielder Jeisson Vargas, who is among a number of young South American talents who joined MLS this season. The 20-year-old leads Montreal with three goals, two of which were game-winners in March against defending MLS Cup champions Toronto FC and 2017 MLS Cup runners-up Seattle Sounders FC.

Ibrahimović, Galaxy host league’s top offense in Atlanta

The LA Galaxy’s show master, Sweden great Zlatan Ibrahimović, returns to StubHub Center this Saturday for a bout against the league’s top-scoring offense, Atlanta United (10:30 p.m. ET / ESPN+). For fans seeking goal-scoring prowess, this matchup of the Western Conference’s and Eastern Conference’s second-place teams has all the ingredients.

Atlanta (4-1-1, 13 points) leads MLS with 2.5 goals per game, led by 24-year-old Venezuelan Josef Martínez who owns the distinction of scoring more goals in his first 25 MLS games (24 tallies) than any other player in league history. Martínez is tied for the league lead with five goals alongside Sporting Kansas City’s Felipe Gutiérrez. This past week for Atlanta also featured the long-awaited debut of 19-year-old Argentine midfielder Ezequiel Barco, who has worked his way back from an early-season quad injury. The offseason acquisition played the final 20 minutes during Atlanta’s 2-2 draw against New York City FC on Saturday.

For the Galaxy (3-2-1, 10 points), the 2018 spotlight continues to shine on Ibrahimović, who has now scored three goals in three games, tallying the lone score during their 1-0 victory against the Chicago Fire on Saturday. LA is hoping for a substantial turnaround from the only other previous meeting between the two sides, a dominant 4-0 Atlanta victory on Sept. 20, 2017, at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Two most recent MVPs clash as Portland hosts league leading New York City FC

Two of the most electrifying players in MLS history and the last two winners of the Landon Donovan MLS MVP award will square off on Sunday when the Portland Timbers host league-leading New York City FC at Providence Park (6 p.m. ET, FS1 / TSN2). Portland midfielder Diego Valeri captured the 2017 MVP award, holding off a repeat effort from 2016 MVP David Villa, with both players off to strong individual starts in 2018. Valeri has three goals and two assists in six starts for the Timbers, while Villa has two goals and two assists despite starting in only two matches this season.

NYCFC currently sits atop the league standings with 17 points (5-0-2 record) and is one of two undefeated teams in MLS. Depth has been a strong suit of the club this season as 20-year-old Paraguay National Team midfielder Jesús Medina leads the league with five assists, while Maxi Moralez and Ismael Tajouri-Shradi are tied for third in the league with four goals scored. Portland will look to build off last week’s home opening 3-2 victory over Minnesota United FC with another strong performance at Providence Park. Costa Rica National Team midfielder and World Cup hopeful Sebastián Blanco is off to a strong start in his second season with the Timbers with three goals and one assist and will play a pivotal role in Sunday’s matchup.

MLS Week 8: Match Notes

Friday, April 20, 2018

Sporting Kansas City vs. Vancouver Whitecaps FC, 9 p.m. ET (TSN, ESPN+)

Sporting extended their undefeated streak to six games, getting a late goal from Graham Zusi to come back for a 2-2 draw with Seattle Sounders FC at Children’s Mercy Park on Sunday evening.

Whitecaps FC suffered a second consecutive defeat, their league home undefeated streak put to an end after nine games in a 2-0 loss to the Los Angeles Football Club at BC Place on Friday evening.

The teams met twice a season ago, and Whitecaps FC won both – a 2-0 victory on May 20 at BC Place, and a 1-0 win on Sept. 30 at Children’s Mercy Park.

The Whitecaps FC win at Children’s Mercy Park was their first ever in Kansas City in league play. Sporting had won four of the first five meetings there in MLS play (with one draw) – though Vancouver did win there in group play in the Concacaf Champions League in 2016.

Saturday, April 21, 2018

Montreal Impact vs. Los Angeles Football Club, 1 p.m. ET (TVA Sports, ESPN+)

Jeisson Vargas scored his third goal of the season, but the Impact dropped a second consecutive decision, falling 3-1 to the New York Red Bulls at Red Bull Arena on Saturday afternoon. Vargas has scored each of the Impact’s past three goals, over the last four matches (since March 17).

LAFC put an end to a two-game losing skid, defeating Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2-0 at BC Place on Friday evening.

Diego Rossi scored his fourth goal and added his fourth assist – the only player in MLS this season with at least four goals and four assists – and Carlos Vela also added his fourth goal. The pair have combined for eight of LAFC’s 11 goals on the season.

The Impact have defeated an incoming expansion team in their first league meeting just once in their MLS history – a 2-1 win against Atlanta United last April 15 at Stade Saputo.

New York Red Bulls vs. Chicago Fire, 2 p.m. ET (Univisión, UDN)

The Red Bulls won their third game in a row in league play at Red Bull Arena, defeating the Montréal Impact 3-1 on Saturday afternoon.

Bradley Wright-Phillips scored a goal and added an assist – he now has 90 goals in his MLS regular-season career, passing Carlos Ruiz for No. 11 on the all-time list.

The Fire saw their brief two-game undefeated run at Toyota Park put to an end, falling 1-0 to the LA Galaxy on Saturday afternoon.

The Red Bulls have a six-game undefeated streak alive in the series, winning four of those, coming away with points in both meetings a year ago. The Red Bulls won 2-1 at Red Bull Arena on April 29, their third consecutive win in the series at Red Bull Arena. The teams played to a 1-1 draw at Toyota Park on Sept. 9.

The Red Bulls have come away with a result on their past three trips to Toyota Park (one win, two draws). When the Red Bulls won on Oct. 25, 2015 at Toyota Park, it was their first win ever in Bridgeview. The Red Bulls’ last away win against Chicago had come May 14, 2005, a 3-0 victory at Soldier Field; in between, the Fire were unbeaten in 14 home games in the league series (9-0-5).

Houston Dynamo vs. Toronto FC, 3 p.m. ET (CTV, TSN, ESPN+)

The Dynamo saw their winless slide extended to four games with a second draw in that time, reaching a 2-2 result with the San Jose Earthquakes at Avaya Stadium on Saturday evening. Tomás Martínez and Mauro Manotas scored for the Dynamo, with Manotas netting his third of the year.

TFC headed into their massive Concacaf Champions League final first-leg match with a 2-0 loss to the Colorado Rapids at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, their third loss in four league outings.

Toronto FC won the lone meeting between the teams last year, a 2-0 victory at BMO Field on April 28. The TFC win ended a four-game winless streak in the series; their last win vs. the Dynamo had come July 12, 2014, a 4-2 victory at BMO Field.

The teams have played to five consecutive draws in Houston, all at BBVA Compass Stadium. The last win for either team there came in 2011, a 2-0 Dynamo victory at Robertson Stadium.

Columbus Crew SC vs. New England Revolution, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN+)

Crew SC suffered their third consecutive defeat, conceding the opening goal after just 43 seconds and then seeing D.C. United hold out for a 1-0 victory in Annapolis, Md. It was the third-longest in MLS history a team held out for a win by the game’s only goal.

The Revolution saw their two-game winning run put to an end, dropping a 1-0 decision to FC Dallas at Gillette Stadium on Saturday evening.

The teams met twice a season ago, each winning on their own ground. Crew SC claimed a 2-0 win on May 6 at Mapfre Stadium, before the Revolution took a 2-1 win on May 21 at Gillette Stadium, which ended a three-game Crew SC winning streak in the series.

Crew SC have won the past four league meetings in Columbus, since 2014, though the Revolution won the first leg of their Eastern Conference Semifinal Series in 2014, as well as both matches in Columbus during the 2013 regular season.

Orlando City SC vs. San Jose Earthquakes, 7:30 p.m. ET (ESPN+)

Orlando City made it three wins on the trot, winning on the road for the first time since last September in a 2-0 defeat of the Philadelphia Union at Talen Energy Stadium on Friday evening.

Dom Dwyer netted for a third game in a row, with four goals over that span. He now has goals in each of his past four league appearances dating back to the end of last season, matching the longest goalscoring streak of his MLS career.

The Quakes reached a second consecutive draw but saw their winless streak stretched to four matches, playing to a 2-2 result with the Houston Dynamo at Avaya Stadium on Saturday evening. Magnus Eriksson scored for a second consecutive game.

The teams have played to draws in each of their three meetings all-time. The teams reached a 1-1 draw last May 17 at Avaya Stadium, the second 1-1 they have played to in San Jose (also in 2015).

The teams played to a 2-2 draw in their lone encounter in Orlando on June 18, 2016, at the Citrus Bowl.

FC Dallas vs. Philadelphia Union, 8 p.m. ET (ESPN+)

FC Dallas remained undefeated on the new season with a second victory in five matches, defeating the New England Revolution at Gillette Stadium on Saturday evening, FCD’s first game outside of Frisco. Jacori Hayes scored his first professional goal for the game’s lone tally.

The Union had their winless streak extended to four games with a second loss in that span, falling 2-0 to Orlando City SC at Talen Energy Stadium on Friday evening.

The Union defeated FC Dallas for the first time in their history last year, a 3-1 win at Talen Energy Stadium on Aug. 5. Over the first nine meetings between the clubs in league play, FCD had won five, with four draws, including three wins in a row before last year’s Union victory.

FC Dallas have won four of the five all-time meetings in Frisco, with one draw, including each of the past two encounters at Toyota Stadium.

Real Salt Lake vs. Colorado Rapids, 9 p.m. ET (ESPN+)

RSL were shut out at the attacking end for first time this season, falling 4-0 to New York City FC at Yankee Stadium last Wednesday evening.

The Rapids stretched their undefeated streak to four games with a second win in that time, defeating Toronto FC 2-0 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park on Saturday afternoon.

The teams met three times a season ago, and Real won twice. RSL took wins on both grounds, a 2-1 victory on April 15 at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park, then a 4-1 victory on Aug. 26 at Rio Tinto Stadium. The Rapids claimed a 1-0 win in Commerce City, Colo., on Oct. 15.

Real have a 15-game home undefeated streak alive vs. Colorado. Since the Rapids’ last win in Utah, a 2-0 victory on April 30, 2007, at Rice-Eccles Stadium, Real have won 11 games with four draws. Colorado has never won at Rio Tinto Stadium (0-9-4 all-time in league play). Real Salt Lake have won three of the past six visits to Commerce City, over the last four seasons.

The rivals play for the Rocky Mountain Cup, a trophy awarded by the supporters’ groups of both teams.

LA Galaxy vs. Atlanta United, 10:30 p.m. ET (ESPN+)

Zlatan Ibrahimović scored his third goal since coming to MLS in making his first start for the Galaxy, his new club winning for the third time this season in a 1-0 defeat of the Chicago Fire at Toyota Park on Saturday afternoon.

Atlanta United saw their club-record four-game winning streak put to an end but still extended their undefeated run, reaching a 2-2 draw with New York City FC at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The teams met once in Atlanta United’s inaugural MLS campaign, a 4-0 win for Atlanta on Sept. 20 at Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

Sunday, April 22, 2018

Seattle Sounders FC vs. Minnesota United FC, 4 p.m. ET (ESPN)

Sounders FC scored their first goal of the 2018 league campaign, but still remained winless on the new season, reaching a 2-2 draw with Sporting Kansas City at Children’s Mercy Park on Sunday afternoon.

MNUFC suffered their third consecutive defeat, falling 3-2 to the Portland Timbers at Providence Park on Saturday evening.

Darwin Quintero made his MLS debut, starting in the midfield and scoring his first league goal.

The teams met twice in Minnesota United FC’s inaugural MLS campaign, and Sounders FC won both. Seattle took a 4-0 win when the teams first met, Aug. 5 at TCF Bank Stadium, then claimed a 2-1 victory just 15 days later at CenturyLink Field.

Portland Timbers vs. New York City FC, 6 p.m. ET (FS1)

The Timbers won for the first time in 2018 in their first home match of the season after five away contests, defeating Minnesota United FC 3-2 at Providence Park on Saturday evening.

Diego Valeri scored his third goal of the season, now with goals in the last three matches – last year he set the all-time MLS record with goals in nine consecutive matches July 29-Sept 24.

NYCFC remained undefeated on the new season with their second draw in seven outings, reaching a 2-2 result with Atlanta United at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

David Villa scored his second goal of the season and added his second assist – already the 15th time in his MLS career he’s had at least one goal and one assist in the same game.

The teams have met three times all-time – and the visiting team has won each. The Timbers have won twice at Yankee Stadium, both by 1-0 scorelines, the first in the inaugural meeting between the clubs in 2015, and the second in last year’s lone meeting, Sept. 9.

NYCFC took a 2-1 win in the only encounter between the teams in Portland, May 15, 2016, at Providence Park.

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This Week in MLS – April 16, 2018 was originally published on 365 Football

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