Tuesday, December 21, 2010
New Mission statement
New Mission 68, West Roxbury 62 — With the score tied at 55 in the final seconds last night, Samir McDaniels made a dangerous mistake. The New Mission senior turned the ball over and watched as host West Roxbury streaked down the court needing just a layup to secure victory. The West Roxbury shot missed as time expired and the game went into overtime, where McDaniels took charge. He drained 8 of his 31 points in overtime and helped lift New Mission to a 68-62 victory. ‘‘This was a huge win for us,'' said coach Cory McCarthy. ‘‘It really set the tone for our season. Westie is always a tough place to play.'' Things started slow for New Mission (2-1). With star forward Kachi Nzerem in early foul trouble, the Titans struggled to gain a rhythm. Nzerem managed 9 points and his team was down by 11 at intermission. ‘‘They got off to a really fast start and we were struggling a bit,'' McCarthy said. ‘‘We got into some foul trouble and we were a bit careless with the ball.'' Then McDaniels went on a tear. The 6-foot-4-inch senior knocked down 15 points in the second half and 8 in overtime, buoyed by his 13-for-14 effort at the free throw line. McDaniels helped clinch the victory by stealing a West Roxbury inbounds pass early in overtime and converting it on the other end, giving his team a 7-point cushion. Roger Paul led the Raiders with 14 points.
Wayne Turner Joins Men's Basketball Staff
Former UK standout is finishing his degree
Sept. 24, 2010
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky head coach John Calipari is pleased to announce the addition of former UK guard Wayne Turner to the 2010-11 men's basketball staff.
Turner, who is currently finishing his undergraduate degree at UK, will assist pre-, during and post-practice and primarily focus on working with UK's guards.
A newly installed NCAA rule allows returning former players who are working toward their undergraduate degree to be used as on-court staff. With that opportunity Turner, who was part of two national title teams at UK, will join a list of former Wildcats and Calipari assistants and former players who have returned to their schools to finish their degrees.
“I’m really excited to be back in school getting my degree and to have an opportunity to work with the basketball team,” Turner said. “Coach Cal is one of the best, if not the best coach in the world, and who better to learn from. I’m looking forward to the season and feel like I can give some great advice to the players.”
Turner finished his career as the NCAA’s all-time games played leader at 151. A member of Kentucky’s prestigious 1,000-point club (1,170), Turner earned All-SEC status his senior year (Coaches) and was named the 1998 NCAA Regional Most Outstanding Player as well as the SEC Tournament MVP that same season.
"I'm so happy to be able to bring back a player and person of Wayne's stature to our program," Coach Calipari said. "I've always tried to bring former players back to finish their degrees wherever I have been and I applaud the NCAA for this new rule. It's always been one of the pleasures of my career to bring people back to campus and finish their degrees and let them know their University hasn't forgotten about them.
"What's also neat is that we get to help guys like Wayne or Tony Delk or Scott Padgett - all guys who are members of our family - to get their start in coaching and help them pursue their next goals in life," Calipari said. "I've passed this information on to the NBA office and my contacts in the league so that players know this opportunity exists and is available if coaches will allow it on their staffs."
Calipari, who recruited Turner out of Boston's Beaver Country Day high school while coaching at UMass, said that he will be a valuable asset to the current team.
"Wayne will do a lot of work with our guys before and after practice, but there could be times when he needs to strap it on and jump in for practice," Coach Calipari said. "I used to be able to do that myself, but not anymore!
“It's funny, when I was recruiting him and I lost him to Kentucky, but I was okay with it because it was Kentucky! At that point, when UK or Duke or UNC wanted a kid, they got him," Coach Calipari recalled. "It's interesting to be on the other side of that now."
http://www.ukathletics.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/092410aaa.html
Sept. 24, 2010
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Kentucky head coach John Calipari is pleased to announce the addition of former UK guard Wayne Turner to the 2010-11 men's basketball staff.
Turner, who is currently finishing his undergraduate degree at UK, will assist pre-, during and post-practice and primarily focus on working with UK's guards.
A newly installed NCAA rule allows returning former players who are working toward their undergraduate degree to be used as on-court staff. With that opportunity Turner, who was part of two national title teams at UK, will join a list of former Wildcats and Calipari assistants and former players who have returned to their schools to finish their degrees.
“I’m really excited to be back in school getting my degree and to have an opportunity to work with the basketball team,” Turner said. “Coach Cal is one of the best, if not the best coach in the world, and who better to learn from. I’m looking forward to the season and feel like I can give some great advice to the players.”
Turner finished his career as the NCAA’s all-time games played leader at 151. A member of Kentucky’s prestigious 1,000-point club (1,170), Turner earned All-SEC status his senior year (Coaches) and was named the 1998 NCAA Regional Most Outstanding Player as well as the SEC Tournament MVP that same season.
"I'm so happy to be able to bring back a player and person of Wayne's stature to our program," Coach Calipari said. "I've always tried to bring former players back to finish their degrees wherever I have been and I applaud the NCAA for this new rule. It's always been one of the pleasures of my career to bring people back to campus and finish their degrees and let them know their University hasn't forgotten about them.
"What's also neat is that we get to help guys like Wayne or Tony Delk or Scott Padgett - all guys who are members of our family - to get their start in coaching and help them pursue their next goals in life," Calipari said. "I've passed this information on to the NBA office and my contacts in the league so that players know this opportunity exists and is available if coaches will allow it on their staffs."
Calipari, who recruited Turner out of Boston's Beaver Country Day high school while coaching at UMass, said that he will be a valuable asset to the current team.
"Wayne will do a lot of work with our guys before and after practice, but there could be times when he needs to strap it on and jump in for practice," Coach Calipari said. "I used to be able to do that myself, but not anymore!
“It's funny, when I was recruiting him and I lost him to Kentucky, but I was okay with it because it was Kentucky! At that point, when UK or Duke or UNC wanted a kid, they got him," Coach Calipari recalled. "It's interesting to be on the other side of that now."
http://www.ukathletics.com/sports/m-baskbl/spec-rel/092410aaa.html
Friday, December 3, 2010
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Khadijah Ellison chooses Miss. St. hoops
Burke star signs
By Dan Ventura | Tuesday, November 16, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Other High School
The halls of Burke High have housed some of the best female basketball talent in the state.
Burke now can add another name to the list.
Khadijah Ellison signed her letter of intent yesterday to attend Mississippi State on a basketball scholarship starting next fall.
The 5-foot-8 senior guard averaged more than 25 points in guiding the Bulldogs to a 17-4 record last season and the Division 3 South sectional quarterfinals. In a season-ending 55-54 loss to Ashland, Ellison poured in a game-high 36 points to go along with seven steals.
“We’ve been fortunate to have some real good players here - Elanie McCants, Starr Fuller, Rekiya Penton, Brianna Forde - and this girl is right there with them,” Burke coach John Rice said. “A school like Mississippi State isn’t recruiting her unless they are sure she can play at that level, and I think she can.”
Ellison took a pair of official recruiting trips, one to Temple in Philadelphia and the other to Mississippi State. She immediately fell in love with the Starkville campus and was ready to sign on the dotted line.
“I just loved everything about it,” Ellison said. “I liked the girls, talked to the players about how things worked.”
Ellison praised Rice for preparing her on what to expect during the recruiting journey.
“He told me how everything was going to be,” Ellison said. “He didn’t beat around the bush, he told me straight up.”
Last season, the Bulldogs won 21 games and reached the Sweet 16 of the NCAA tournament for the first time. Rice, familiar with the Southeastern Conference landscape, teased Ellison as she was signing.
“You know, next year, you’re going to be playing Tennessee,” Rice said with a laugh. “This ain’t going to be New Mission anymore.”
Ellison simply smiled and went about the business of becoming the newest member of the Bulldogs.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/general/view.bg?articleid=1296677
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Madison Park captures Boston North flag
City crown in the Cards
By Bruce Lerch | Saturday, November 13, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com |
After three years of being the bridesmaid in the Boston City North, Madison Park can now call itself champion.
Khayree Hudson caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from Ely Plaza, and Dequell Golson and Isiah White each ran for scores as the MP Machine cranked up a 22-14 victory over East Boston at Airport Stadium last night.
The win clinches the North title and a Division 4 playoff berth for Madison Park (6-1, 5-0) for the first time since 2007.
“All year our whole mentality was to get to the Super Bowl,” Plaza said. “Second place is the first loser and we were sick of that. We aren’t losers anymore.”
Following a sloppy quarter and a half of play that included three turnovers, the Cardinals went to work on an 11-play, 71-yard drive to close out the first half. Hudson had a 15-yard run out of the Wildcat formation to get MP into Jets territory, and a pass interference call set them up at the 30-yard line.
Four plays later, Plaza found a wide-open Hudson on a fade route to give MP 6-0 lead at the break.
“The first time I threw it to him, he dropped it. And when he came back to the huddle, he looked at me and said he was going to make up for it,” Plaza said. “I didn’t think he was going to be open, but he broke out and I just tossed it to him and he caught it. That set the tone for the rest of the game.”
MP forced Eastie (6-3, 3-1) to punt on the opening possession of the second half, and a 37-yard return by Stevon Brathwaite gave the Cardinals the ball at the Jets 34. Big runs by White and Chris Philyew (12 carries, 86 yards) helped push the ball to the 3, with Golson punching it in. After Philyew’s two-point rush, it was 14-0 to the Park.
Eastie responded quickly, getting off to a good start on a 58-yard kick return by Marvin Depaz, then scoring on an 18-yard TD pass from Anthony Whitney to Maicol Restrepo.
Undeterred, MP marched right back downfield with White (8 carries, 51 yards) capping an eight-play drive with a 1-yard plunge with 4:40 remaining.
Eastie tacked on another score when Whitney caught an 11-yard pass from Davonte Holloway on a flea flicker, but MP’s Plaza was able to kneel out the clock.
“I’m really happy for the seniors, because they have watched years of us being in second place,” said MP coach Roosevelt Robinson. “Now they can finally take this one home. I’m really proud for them. This is what you set your sights for, and we were the ones that got it done.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/football/view.bg?articleid=1295983
By Bruce Lerch | Saturday, November 13, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com |
After three years of being the bridesmaid in the Boston City North, Madison Park can now call itself champion.
Khayree Hudson caught a 12-yard touchdown pass from Ely Plaza, and Dequell Golson and Isiah White each ran for scores as the MP Machine cranked up a 22-14 victory over East Boston at Airport Stadium last night.
The win clinches the North title and a Division 4 playoff berth for Madison Park (6-1, 5-0) for the first time since 2007.
“All year our whole mentality was to get to the Super Bowl,” Plaza said. “Second place is the first loser and we were sick of that. We aren’t losers anymore.”
Following a sloppy quarter and a half of play that included three turnovers, the Cardinals went to work on an 11-play, 71-yard drive to close out the first half. Hudson had a 15-yard run out of the Wildcat formation to get MP into Jets territory, and a pass interference call set them up at the 30-yard line.
Four plays later, Plaza found a wide-open Hudson on a fade route to give MP 6-0 lead at the break.
“The first time I threw it to him, he dropped it. And when he came back to the huddle, he looked at me and said he was going to make up for it,” Plaza said. “I didn’t think he was going to be open, but he broke out and I just tossed it to him and he caught it. That set the tone for the rest of the game.”
MP forced Eastie (6-3, 3-1) to punt on the opening possession of the second half, and a 37-yard return by Stevon Brathwaite gave the Cardinals the ball at the Jets 34. Big runs by White and Chris Philyew (12 carries, 86 yards) helped push the ball to the 3, with Golson punching it in. After Philyew’s two-point rush, it was 14-0 to the Park.
Eastie responded quickly, getting off to a good start on a 58-yard kick return by Marvin Depaz, then scoring on an 18-yard TD pass from Anthony Whitney to Maicol Restrepo.
Undeterred, MP marched right back downfield with White (8 carries, 51 yards) capping an eight-play drive with a 1-yard plunge with 4:40 remaining.
Eastie tacked on another score when Whitney caught an 11-yard pass from Davonte Holloway on a flea flicker, but MP’s Plaza was able to kneel out the clock.
“I’m really happy for the seniors, because they have watched years of us being in second place,” said MP coach Roosevelt Robinson. “Now they can finally take this one home. I’m really proud for them. This is what you set your sights for, and we were the ones that got it done.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/high_school/football/view.bg?articleid=1295983
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Paul Pierce in higher Big 3 - Joins Hondo, Larry Bird at 20,000 feat
By Steve Bulpett / Celtics Beat | Thursday, November 4, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Boston Celtics
Paul Pierce couldn’t do it during the game. The Bucks were too close on the Celtics’s heels. There was still business at hand.
But once the overtime came to a close and the C’s had beaten Milwaukee, 105-102, the 33-year-old grown man cried.
He had reached the 20,000 career point mark and gone five beyond. That made him the 36th player in NBA history to do so. More importantly, it made Pierce just the third player to score 20,000 while playing only for the Celtics.
John Havlicek, Larry Bird and Paul Pierce.
A sentimental tear or two was, indeed, appropriate.
“Even when my mom whupped me, I didn’t cry,” Pierce said later, smiling as he held up his right arm to display the proper defensive stance against maternal attack.
With 13.3 seconds left in the game and the Celtics leading by two, Pierce was fouled. It stands as testament to the fans’ depth that, before they were prompted, the noise began to swell and they rose. Pierce needed 23 points coming into the night, and he was sitting on 22.
He looked into the hoop at the west end of the Garden, paused and sent the ball cleanly through the strings. Pierce let his right arm linger a moment on the follow through.
The standing ovation grew even louder after he made the second shot and Milwaukee called a timeout. Pierce nodded as he moved toward midcourt, then the Celtics bench.
“Coming into the game I knew it, but I didn’t want to press it,” he said. “It was going to happen. But I knew I needed 23 I think tonight to get it. I knew once I got to 22, I looked up and it was a great opportunity to go to the line.
“As a player . . . you ask players about certain things, they know. Like when guys are close to a triple-double, they know if they need another rebound, they need another point. Whether they like to admit it, the players know.”
Pierce knew he didn’t want to reach the milestone in a loss, so he hit four more free throws to keep the Bucks at bay.
Then he dropped a few tears into Boston Harbor.
“A little bit,” Pierce said when asked about losing it. “It was a little emotional, man. I mean, a lot of people in here, they’ve seen a lot of that 20,000. You know, not a lot of people in NBA history have accomplished that. Just to make history for the NBA is great.
“Five years ago, I wouldn’t have even dreamed I would be scoring 20,000 points in a Celtics uniform. The team was going in a direction, I was a disgruntled player at the time, and to still be here and still be talking about this feat is an incredible moment for me.”
Pierce said he found it tough to swallow when he hit the mark.
“I was just thinking about all the years I have been here, and you don’t see it to often where a player accomplishes that kind of feat playing with one team,” he said. “It is a great accomplishment, you know, the fans seeing my ups and downs throughout the years and sticking with me. Just to be able to accomplish this type of feat, it means a lot to me. I am not going to even downplay it. It means a lot.”
In his 13th season in Green, the Celtics history of which he’s always been well aware has become even more important. There have been few players here who have enjoyed being part of this fraternity as much as Pierce.
And now . . . John Havlicek, Larry Bird and Paul Pierce. Seven players have scored their 20,000th point while wearing the uniform, but just those three have worn it only.
“You know, you say those names,” Pierce said. “Those are Hall of Fame players, top 50 players. Just to be mentioned in the same sentence with them as far as scoring, it means a lot. These guys are part of history. These are guys you’re going to remember in Celtic lore forever.
“Hopefully I can enshrine my name in that category as I continue to play and continue to do good things for this franchise.”
It’s more than fair to say he already has.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1293944
Paul Pierce couldn’t do it during the game. The Bucks were too close on the Celtics’s heels. There was still business at hand.
But once the overtime came to a close and the C’s had beaten Milwaukee, 105-102, the 33-year-old grown man cried.
He had reached the 20,000 career point mark and gone five beyond. That made him the 36th player in NBA history to do so. More importantly, it made Pierce just the third player to score 20,000 while playing only for the Celtics.
John Havlicek, Larry Bird and Paul Pierce.
A sentimental tear or two was, indeed, appropriate.
“Even when my mom whupped me, I didn’t cry,” Pierce said later, smiling as he held up his right arm to display the proper defensive stance against maternal attack.
With 13.3 seconds left in the game and the Celtics leading by two, Pierce was fouled. It stands as testament to the fans’ depth that, before they were prompted, the noise began to swell and they rose. Pierce needed 23 points coming into the night, and he was sitting on 22.
He looked into the hoop at the west end of the Garden, paused and sent the ball cleanly through the strings. Pierce let his right arm linger a moment on the follow through.
The standing ovation grew even louder after he made the second shot and Milwaukee called a timeout. Pierce nodded as he moved toward midcourt, then the Celtics bench.
“Coming into the game I knew it, but I didn’t want to press it,” he said. “It was going to happen. But I knew I needed 23 I think tonight to get it. I knew once I got to 22, I looked up and it was a great opportunity to go to the line.
“As a player . . . you ask players about certain things, they know. Like when guys are close to a triple-double, they know if they need another rebound, they need another point. Whether they like to admit it, the players know.”
Pierce knew he didn’t want to reach the milestone in a loss, so he hit four more free throws to keep the Bucks at bay.
Then he dropped a few tears into Boston Harbor.
“A little bit,” Pierce said when asked about losing it. “It was a little emotional, man. I mean, a lot of people in here, they’ve seen a lot of that 20,000. You know, not a lot of people in NBA history have accomplished that. Just to make history for the NBA is great.
“Five years ago, I wouldn’t have even dreamed I would be scoring 20,000 points in a Celtics uniform. The team was going in a direction, I was a disgruntled player at the time, and to still be here and still be talking about this feat is an incredible moment for me.”
Pierce said he found it tough to swallow when he hit the mark.
“I was just thinking about all the years I have been here, and you don’t see it to often where a player accomplishes that kind of feat playing with one team,” he said. “It is a great accomplishment, you know, the fans seeing my ups and downs throughout the years and sticking with me. Just to be able to accomplish this type of feat, it means a lot to me. I am not going to even downplay it. It means a lot.”
In his 13th season in Green, the Celtics history of which he’s always been well aware has become even more important. There have been few players here who have enjoyed being part of this fraternity as much as Pierce.
And now . . . John Havlicek, Larry Bird and Paul Pierce. Seven players have scored their 20,000th point while wearing the uniform, but just those three have worn it only.
“You know, you say those names,” Pierce said. “Those are Hall of Fame players, top 50 players. Just to be mentioned in the same sentence with them as far as scoring, it means a lot. These guys are part of history. These are guys you’re going to remember in Celtic lore forever.
“Hopefully I can enshrine my name in that category as I continue to play and continue to do good things for this franchise.”
It’s more than fair to say he already has.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1293944
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Eastie blasts Brighton
EAST BOSTON 58, BRIGHTON 26
Jets are riding high after blowout victory
Globe Correspondent | October 23, 2010
After a 40-22 drubbing last week at the hands of Blue Hills and sophomore Vincent Burton’s career night of five touchdowns, the Jets decided to play a little role reversal yesterday against Brighton at Harvard Stadium.
The Best of Boston squared off, the North represented by Eastie and the South by Brighton, both teams entering 5-2, 2-0 in league play. This week, though, Eastie handed out the punishment, dismantling Brighton’s defense for 40 minutes in a 58-26 blowout.
Led by senior Brandon Campbell’s career-high four touchdowns, the Jets snapped Brighton’s five-game streak, just as Blue Hills ended their streak a week ago.
“We were coming off a loss and I think that’s what made us hungrier for the win,’’ Campbell said. “Since I’ve been at this school, we haven’t lost two in a row.’’
It was a mismatch from the opening kickoff, as Brighton mishandled a squib kick, handing East Boston the ball on the 36-yard line.
“It was huge for us to kick the ball off and recover it right after and march downfield and score. That was big,’’ said coach John Parziale.
Four plays, and just a minute and a half into the game, Campbell flaunted his speed and elusiveness, rushing 25 yards for the first score of the game, putting Eastie up, 6-0.
The Jets went up, 14-0, on Campbell’s 10-yard run and Kyle Jimenez-Fox ran 22 yards for a TD to make it 22-0 at the end of the quarter.
Eastie boosted its lead to 28-0 with five minutes left in the half on a 33-yard run by Andre Rickerson.
Andrew Maestre gave Brighton some life, dragging three Jets players 6 yards into the end zone for Brighton’s first score.
Brighton’s celebration didn’t last long though, as Campbell broke loose again and turned on the jets, returning the ensuing kickoff 80 yards for his third touchdown of the half.
The Bengals responded one last time before the half when Jonathan Marrero hooked up with Dwight Kennedy on a wide receiver screen pass for a 15-yard touchdown, cutting their deficit to 36-14.
Rickerson’s 3-yard romp on Eastie’s opening drive of the third quarter made it 44-14, ending the suspense. Rickerson and the Jets weren’t done as he blasted through for a 16-yard TD.
“Did you see this game?’’ asked Brighton coach James Philip in disgust. “We got our hats handed to us.’’
“It was important this win. You never want to go into a bye week with back-to-back losses, this was a good win for us,’’ said Parziale.
Jets are riding high after blowout victory
Globe Correspondent | October 23, 2010
After a 40-22 drubbing last week at the hands of Blue Hills and sophomore Vincent Burton’s career night of five touchdowns, the Jets decided to play a little role reversal yesterday against Brighton at Harvard Stadium.
The Best of Boston squared off, the North represented by Eastie and the South by Brighton, both teams entering 5-2, 2-0 in league play. This week, though, Eastie handed out the punishment, dismantling Brighton’s defense for 40 minutes in a 58-26 blowout.
Led by senior Brandon Campbell’s career-high four touchdowns, the Jets snapped Brighton’s five-game streak, just as Blue Hills ended their streak a week ago.
“We were coming off a loss and I think that’s what made us hungrier for the win,’’ Campbell said. “Since I’ve been at this school, we haven’t lost two in a row.’’
It was a mismatch from the opening kickoff, as Brighton mishandled a squib kick, handing East Boston the ball on the 36-yard line.
“It was huge for us to kick the ball off and recover it right after and march downfield and score. That was big,’’ said coach John Parziale.
Four plays, and just a minute and a half into the game, Campbell flaunted his speed and elusiveness, rushing 25 yards for the first score of the game, putting Eastie up, 6-0.
The Jets went up, 14-0, on Campbell’s 10-yard run and Kyle Jimenez-Fox ran 22 yards for a TD to make it 22-0 at the end of the quarter.
Eastie boosted its lead to 28-0 with five minutes left in the half on a 33-yard run by Andre Rickerson.
Andrew Maestre gave Brighton some life, dragging three Jets players 6 yards into the end zone for Brighton’s first score.
Brighton’s celebration didn’t last long though, as Campbell broke loose again and turned on the jets, returning the ensuing kickoff 80 yards for his third touchdown of the half.
The Bengals responded one last time before the half when Jonathan Marrero hooked up with Dwight Kennedy on a wide receiver screen pass for a 15-yard touchdown, cutting their deficit to 36-14.
Rickerson’s 3-yard romp on Eastie’s opening drive of the third quarter made it 44-14, ending the suspense. Rickerson and the Jets weren’t done as he blasted through for a 16-yard TD.
“Did you see this game?’’ asked Brighton coach James Philip in disgust. “We got our hats handed to us.’’
“It was important this win. You never want to go into a bye week with back-to-back losses, this was a good win for us,’’ said Parziale.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Bulls name Salem's Rick Brinson assistant coach
Ron Adams, Andy Greer, Rick Brunson and Adrian Griffin have been hired as assistant coaches on Tom Thibodeau's staff.
Also: Adrian Griffin rounds out Bulls' coaching staff
September 9, 2010 — The Chicago Bulls announced today that Ron Adams, Andy Greer, Rick Brunson and Adrian Griffin have been hired as assistant coaches on Tom Thibodeau’s coaching staff. In addition, Randy Brown has been named Special Assistant to the General Manager and Pete Myers has been named a Scout. In accordance with club policy, terms of the contracts were not announced.
Adams, 63, begins his second stint with the Bulls after spending the last one-and-a-half seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Prior to his stint with the Thunder, Adams spent six seasons with the Bulls as an assistant coach (2003-08) and special assignments scout (2008). While an assistant, Adams helped guide the Bulls to three consecutive playoff appearances (2004-07). Adams also held assistant coaching stints with the Milwaukee Bucks (1998-03), San Antonio Spurs (1992-94) and the Philadelphia 76ers (1994-96). He also served as a player personnel-scout for the Portland Trail Blazers (1996-98). Prior to his work in the NBA, Adams coached at the collegiate level. He began his coaching career as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Fresno Pacific University in 1969. He was promoted to head coach in 1972, a position he held for three years. Adams was also an assistant coach at U.S. International, University of Cal-Santa Barbara, Fresno State University and University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He was head coach at Fresno State during a second tour of duty from 1986-90.
Greer, 48, has held three different assistant coaching positions in the NBA, most recently with the Memphis Grizzlies (2007-09), as a member of Marc Iavaroni’s staff. Prior to his time with the Grizzlies, Greer spent four seasons with the Houston Rockets (2003-07) under Jeff Van Gundy and two seasons with the New York Knicks (2001-03) under head coach Don Chaney. In addition to his NBA experience, Greer coached at the collegiate level for nearly two decades. Prior to joining the Knicks, he spent four years at Northern Illinois University, where he logged three-and-a-half seasons as an assistant coach and a half-season as the team’s interim head coach. Greer received his first coaching job as an assistant coach at Genesee Community College in 1983.
Griffin, 36, spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach/player development with the Milwaukee Bucks. He enjoyed a nine-year NBA career that included stops in Boston (1999-01), Dallas (2001-03, 2005-06), Houston (2003-04), Chicago (2004-05, 2006-08) and Seattle (2007-08). Undrafted out of Seton Hall, Griffin played one season in Italy and three seasons in the CBA and was named league MVP and Finals MVP while playing with CBA champion Connecticut Pride in 1998-99. Following that season, he moved on to the NBA where he started 47 of the 72 games that he appeared in as a rookie with the Celtics. The Wichita, Kan. native advanced to the postseason in five of his nine seasons in the NBA.
Brunson, 38, a former Bull, returns to Chicago as he makes his transition to the sidelines of the NBA. In 2009-10, he served as an assistant coach at the University of Hartford. Prior to his year in Hartford, he spent two seasons at the University of Virginia, where he was the Director of Basketball Operations. A veteran of nine seasons in the NBA, Brunson played for seven different teams, including two stints with the Bulls (2002-03, 2003-04). A native of Salem, Mass., the 38-year old former point guard played collegiately at Temple University under Hall of Fame head coach John Chaney.
Brown, 42, served as the Director of Player Development for the Bulls during the 2009-10 campaign. Prior to his return to Chicago, he spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings. A 12-year veteran of the NBA, Brown played for the Sacramento Kings (1991-1995), Chicago Bulls (1995-2000), Boston Celtics (2000-02), and Phoenix Suns (2002-03). During his five seasons as a member of the Bulls, the Chicago native was a member of three NBA Championship teams (1996, 1997, 1998), including the 1996 squad that won an NBA-record 72 games during the regular season.
Myers, 46, joined the Bulls during the 2000-01 campaign as a scout and will enter his 11th season with the organization. Last season, he completed his ninth season as an assistant coach. He served as Bulls interim head coach for two games (at Dallas 11/25/03 and at San Antonio 11/26/03) during the 2003-04 season and one game (at San Antonio 12/26/07) during the 2007-08 season. During his eight-year NBA career, he played for five teams, including three seasons with the Bulls (1986-87, 1993-95).
Also: Adrian Griffin rounds out Bulls' coaching staff
September 9, 2010 — The Chicago Bulls announced today that Ron Adams, Andy Greer, Rick Brunson and Adrian Griffin have been hired as assistant coaches on Tom Thibodeau’s coaching staff. In addition, Randy Brown has been named Special Assistant to the General Manager and Pete Myers has been named a Scout. In accordance with club policy, terms of the contracts were not announced.
Adams, 63, begins his second stint with the Bulls after spending the last one-and-a-half seasons with the Oklahoma City Thunder. Prior to his stint with the Thunder, Adams spent six seasons with the Bulls as an assistant coach (2003-08) and special assignments scout (2008). While an assistant, Adams helped guide the Bulls to three consecutive playoff appearances (2004-07). Adams also held assistant coaching stints with the Milwaukee Bucks (1998-03), San Antonio Spurs (1992-94) and the Philadelphia 76ers (1994-96). He also served as a player personnel-scout for the Portland Trail Blazers (1996-98). Prior to his work in the NBA, Adams coached at the collegiate level. He began his coaching career as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Fresno Pacific University in 1969. He was promoted to head coach in 1972, a position he held for three years. Adams was also an assistant coach at U.S. International, University of Cal-Santa Barbara, Fresno State University and University of Nevada-Las Vegas. He was head coach at Fresno State during a second tour of duty from 1986-90.
Greer, 48, has held three different assistant coaching positions in the NBA, most recently with the Memphis Grizzlies (2007-09), as a member of Marc Iavaroni’s staff. Prior to his time with the Grizzlies, Greer spent four seasons with the Houston Rockets (2003-07) under Jeff Van Gundy and two seasons with the New York Knicks (2001-03) under head coach Don Chaney. In addition to his NBA experience, Greer coached at the collegiate level for nearly two decades. Prior to joining the Knicks, he spent four years at Northern Illinois University, where he logged three-and-a-half seasons as an assistant coach and a half-season as the team’s interim head coach. Greer received his first coaching job as an assistant coach at Genesee Community College in 1983.
Griffin, 36, spent the last two seasons as an assistant coach/player development with the Milwaukee Bucks. He enjoyed a nine-year NBA career that included stops in Boston (1999-01), Dallas (2001-03, 2005-06), Houston (2003-04), Chicago (2004-05, 2006-08) and Seattle (2007-08). Undrafted out of Seton Hall, Griffin played one season in Italy and three seasons in the CBA and was named league MVP and Finals MVP while playing with CBA champion Connecticut Pride in 1998-99. Following that season, he moved on to the NBA where he started 47 of the 72 games that he appeared in as a rookie with the Celtics. The Wichita, Kan. native advanced to the postseason in five of his nine seasons in the NBA.
Brunson, 38, a former Bull, returns to Chicago as he makes his transition to the sidelines of the NBA. In 2009-10, he served as an assistant coach at the University of Hartford. Prior to his year in Hartford, he spent two seasons at the University of Virginia, where he was the Director of Basketball Operations. A veteran of nine seasons in the NBA, Brunson played for seven different teams, including two stints with the Bulls (2002-03, 2003-04). A native of Salem, Mass., the 38-year old former point guard played collegiately at Temple University under Hall of Fame head coach John Chaney.
Brown, 42, served as the Director of Player Development for the Bulls during the 2009-10 campaign. Prior to his return to Chicago, he spent two seasons as an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings. A 12-year veteran of the NBA, Brown played for the Sacramento Kings (1991-1995), Chicago Bulls (1995-2000), Boston Celtics (2000-02), and Phoenix Suns (2002-03). During his five seasons as a member of the Bulls, the Chicago native was a member of three NBA Championship teams (1996, 1997, 1998), including the 1996 squad that won an NBA-record 72 games during the regular season.
Myers, 46, joined the Bulls during the 2000-01 campaign as a scout and will enter his 11th season with the organization. Last season, he completed his ninth season as an assistant coach. He served as Bulls interim head coach for two games (at Dallas 11/25/03 and at San Antonio 11/26/03) during the 2003-04 season and one game (at San Antonio 12/26/07) during the 2007-08 season. During his eight-year NBA career, he played for five teams, including three seasons with the Bulls (1986-87, 1993-95).
MIAA COACHES REQUIRED TO TAKE CONCUSSION EDUCATION COURSE
MASSACHUSETTS INTERSCHOLASTIC ATHLETIC ASSOCIATION
33 Forge Parkway Franklin, MA 02038
FOR RELEASE: IMMEDIATELY CONTACT: PAUL WETZEL781-982-8899
MIAA COACHES REQUIRED TO TAKE CONCUSSION EDUCATION COURSE
Franklin, MA - - Coaches at Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) member schools will be required to take a concussion education course offered by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) prior to the start of the Winter season. The MIAA Board of Directors voted recently to add this requirement to its existing wellness program for students, coaches and others involved in high school athletics.
“This summer the state enacted a Concussion Law directed at MIAA member schools. We now are waiting for the Department of Public Health (DPH) to develop resultant regulations,” Barry Haley, Athletic Director of Concord Carlisle High School and MIAA President said. “Meanwhile, we have advised our members to follow the wellness protocols already in place for many years and any other aspects of the new law they can meet until new regulations are established by the DPH.”
As part of the wellness program MIAA member school coaches are required to participate in an education course within one of year being hired. The course includes first aid instruction, recognizing the signs of head injuries and drug or steroid use among other wellness issues. In addition, member schools continue to require physical examinations for student/athletes and submission from a parent or guardian of a health history. The MIAA has long had a rule requiring a medical clearance before an athlete who has suffered a head injury can return to play.
“Many of our schools go beyond the Association’s requirements and programs, working with physicians, trainers, school nurses, parents and outside consultants to expand awareness of safety issues in different sports,” Haley said. He reported that more than 4,700 Massachusetts people have taken the NFHS on-line concussion program voluntarily this Fall. Visit the MIAA website (www.miaa.net) for a comprehensive concussion resource menu, developed by the Association’s Sports Medicine Committee.
The MIAA Wellness Program is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary of promoting the health and safety of the student-athlete. The program consists of extensive programming and policies focusing on helping students make healthy life choices. This month the MIAA held its 14th Annual Wellness Summit at which hundreds of students, coaches and administrators participated in the daylong conference.
# # # #
10/21/2010
33 Forge Parkway Franklin, MA 02038
FOR RELEASE: IMMEDIATELY CONTACT: PAUL WETZEL781-982-8899
MIAA COACHES REQUIRED TO TAKE CONCUSSION EDUCATION COURSE
Franklin, MA - - Coaches at Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association (MIAA) member schools will be required to take a concussion education course offered by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) prior to the start of the Winter season. The MIAA Board of Directors voted recently to add this requirement to its existing wellness program for students, coaches and others involved in high school athletics.
“This summer the state enacted a Concussion Law directed at MIAA member schools. We now are waiting for the Department of Public Health (DPH) to develop resultant regulations,” Barry Haley, Athletic Director of Concord Carlisle High School and MIAA President said. “Meanwhile, we have advised our members to follow the wellness protocols already in place for many years and any other aspects of the new law they can meet until new regulations are established by the DPH.”
As part of the wellness program MIAA member school coaches are required to participate in an education course within one of year being hired. The course includes first aid instruction, recognizing the signs of head injuries and drug or steroid use among other wellness issues. In addition, member schools continue to require physical examinations for student/athletes and submission from a parent or guardian of a health history. The MIAA has long had a rule requiring a medical clearance before an athlete who has suffered a head injury can return to play.
“Many of our schools go beyond the Association’s requirements and programs, working with physicians, trainers, school nurses, parents and outside consultants to expand awareness of safety issues in different sports,” Haley said. He reported that more than 4,700 Massachusetts people have taken the NFHS on-line concussion program voluntarily this Fall. Visit the MIAA website (www.miaa.net) for a comprehensive concussion resource menu, developed by the Association’s Sports Medicine Committee.
The MIAA Wellness Program is currently celebrating its 25th anniversary of promoting the health and safety of the student-athlete. The program consists of extensive programming and policies focusing on helping students make healthy life choices. This month the MIAA held its 14th Annual Wellness Summit at which hundreds of students, coaches and administrators participated in the daylong conference.
# # # #
10/21/2010
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Top national prospect Austin Rivers chooses Duke over Kansas, UNC
WINTER PARK, Fla. (AP) -- The son of Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers and one of the nation's most highly recruited players says he is heading to Duke.
Austin Rivers posted on his Twitter site Thursday: "World i have decided to go to duke! Let's go blue devils ha'." Rivers, who later made the announcement on ESPN, chose Duke over Kansas and North Carolina.
The 6-foot-4 guard of Winter Park, Fla., is considered a terrific athlete and prolific scorer. He verbally committed to Florida in 2008 but reopened his search after the Gators struggled to sustain the success that won them back-to-back national titles.
Rivers led Winter Park High School to the Class 6A championship last season. He also played for the world champion USA Basketball 18-under team.
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/highschool/09/30/duke.rivers.ap/index.html#ixzz113uWfh2t
Austin Rivers posted on his Twitter site Thursday: "World i have decided to go to duke! Let's go blue devils ha'." Rivers, who later made the announcement on ESPN, chose Duke over Kansas and North Carolina.
The 6-foot-4 guard of Winter Park, Fla., is considered a terrific athlete and prolific scorer. He verbally committed to Florida in 2008 but reopened his search after the Gators struggled to sustain the success that won them back-to-back national titles.
Rivers led Winter Park High School to the Class 6A championship last season. He also played for the world champion USA Basketball 18-under team.
Read more: http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2010/highschool/09/30/duke.rivers.ap/index.html#ixzz113uWfh2t
Monday, September 27, 2010
Maryland's Gary Williams: Colleges Can Pay Players, and Should
By David Steele (CNN)
At least one prominent college basketball coach says that athletes in revenue-producing sports should be paid, and he said he is not alone.
Maryland's Gary Williams told a Baltimore radio station Tuesday afternoon that he would be in favor of athletes receiving a monthly stipend, that the NCAA undoubtedly could afford it without taking away from the non-revenue sports, and that as a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, the topic is discussed constantly among his colleagues.
"The problem we have, anything we bring up with the NCAA, they kind of look at it as, 'What do these coaches -- what are they doing now, what do they want? This is just to help them,''' Williams told the "Sports With Coleman'' show on Baltimore's Fox 1370 Sports Radio. "But it's not, and I know with all the stuff that's in the paper right now, there's a ton of coaches out there who care about their players and do a great job, and hopefully will be heard in the future.''
Williams was referring to last week's return of the Heisman Trophy by Reggie Bush in the wake of NCAA findings that he received benefits while playing for USC, as well as the spate of agent-related controversies in college football, including at fellow ACC member North Carolina. Williams, entering his 22nd season at Maryland and his 32nd overall in college coaching, pointed to the new $11 billion television contract for the NCAA basketball tournament as a rebuttal to the idea that
there is not enough money to go around for all sports to give some to the football and basketball players.
"That's what the NCAA will tell you,'' he said, "but if you did pay the revenue-producing sports athletes, you would still have that money coming in that they exist on now. There's plenty of money off the men's basketball tournament that you can pay men's basketball players, football players, whatever, the revenue-producing sports, and still have enough money to run your other sports, and I think that's why a lot of people (believe) they should be paid.''
The figure Williams suggested was $200 a month -- based, he said, on the fact that when he played at Maryland in the mid-1960s, he and other athletes got $15 a month spending money as part of their scholarship. Even today, he added, regular students are allowed to receive living expenses and spending money as part of financial aid, but athletes on scholarship are not -- even though, he said, "they say that they want student-athletes to be treated just like everybody else.
"These guys don't receive anything except room, board, books, tuition and fees, which doesn't put any cash in their pockets,'' Williams said. "And some of these guys are pretty poor coming here, and a lot of college students have some money -- you feel out of place, you don't feel competitive academically sometimes, and I think it could do a lot of good.
"Plus, hopefully, it would keep away some of the unscrupulous people that do hang around the great athletes, where an athlete wouldn't befriend a guy just because a guy gave him 100 bucks or something like that.''
Better yet, Williams pointed out, it might keep players in school longer and decrease the temptation to go to the pros before they are truly ready, or if they are not ready at all. "The thing is, $200 is not gonna keep a kid in school if he's got a chance to be a first-round pick,'' he said, "but it's the other athletes, the four-year players and things like that, that might need money that, instead of taking a chance at going into the draft, they might stay another year so that they can afford to stay on the campus and they don't need that money and take the risk of not making a pro team.
"The whole thing was set up with college sports ... it was entertainment value for the other students on campus, but also to give people a chance to get an education because of the skill they do have. They shouldn't be discouraged, they should be encouraged in any way possible.''
Paying players is, he said, "a tough argument, I understand, but amateurs make money now,'' pointing to track and field athletes among others whose definition of "amateur'' has changed over the years.
"In college, you're kind of on an island now in terms of these guys,'' he said. "They do get a scholarship -- the scholarship's probably worth here, at Maryland, about $40,000 (a year), so it's not a bad thing. But it gets tough when you see what's out there, and you see the people that kind of take advantage of that situation with the players.''
Williams, who coached Maryland to the 2002 NCAA title, will be inducted next week into the new Hall of Legends at Baltimore's Sports Legends at Camden Yards Museum; also in the inaugural class of state honorees are Babe Ruth, Johnny Unitas, Brooks Robinson, broadcaster Jim McKay and former Ravens owner Art Modell, who moved the Browns to Baltimore in 1995.
At least one prominent college basketball coach says that athletes in revenue-producing sports should be paid, and he said he is not alone.
Maryland's Gary Williams told a Baltimore radio station Tuesday afternoon that he would be in favor of athletes receiving a monthly stipend, that the NCAA undoubtedly could afford it without taking away from the non-revenue sports, and that as a member of the board of directors of the National Association of Basketball Coaches, the topic is discussed constantly among his colleagues.
"The problem we have, anything we bring up with the NCAA, they kind of look at it as, 'What do these coaches -- what are they doing now, what do they want? This is just to help them,''' Williams told the "Sports With Coleman'' show on Baltimore's Fox 1370 Sports Radio. "But it's not, and I know with all the stuff that's in the paper right now, there's a ton of coaches out there who care about their players and do a great job, and hopefully will be heard in the future.''
Williams was referring to last week's return of the Heisman Trophy by Reggie Bush in the wake of NCAA findings that he received benefits while playing for USC, as well as the spate of agent-related controversies in college football, including at fellow ACC member North Carolina. Williams, entering his 22nd season at Maryland and his 32nd overall in college coaching, pointed to the new $11 billion television contract for the NCAA basketball tournament as a rebuttal to the idea that
there is not enough money to go around for all sports to give some to the football and basketball players.
"That's what the NCAA will tell you,'' he said, "but if you did pay the revenue-producing sports athletes, you would still have that money coming in that they exist on now. There's plenty of money off the men's basketball tournament that you can pay men's basketball players, football players, whatever, the revenue-producing sports, and still have enough money to run your other sports, and I think that's why a lot of people (believe) they should be paid.''
The figure Williams suggested was $200 a month -- based, he said, on the fact that when he played at Maryland in the mid-1960s, he and other athletes got $15 a month spending money as part of their scholarship. Even today, he added, regular students are allowed to receive living expenses and spending money as part of financial aid, but athletes on scholarship are not -- even though, he said, "they say that they want student-athletes to be treated just like everybody else.
"These guys don't receive anything except room, board, books, tuition and fees, which doesn't put any cash in their pockets,'' Williams said. "And some of these guys are pretty poor coming here, and a lot of college students have some money -- you feel out of place, you don't feel competitive academically sometimes, and I think it could do a lot of good.
"Plus, hopefully, it would keep away some of the unscrupulous people that do hang around the great athletes, where an athlete wouldn't befriend a guy just because a guy gave him 100 bucks or something like that.''
Better yet, Williams pointed out, it might keep players in school longer and decrease the temptation to go to the pros before they are truly ready, or if they are not ready at all. "The thing is, $200 is not gonna keep a kid in school if he's got a chance to be a first-round pick,'' he said, "but it's the other athletes, the four-year players and things like that, that might need money that, instead of taking a chance at going into the draft, they might stay another year so that they can afford to stay on the campus and they don't need that money and take the risk of not making a pro team.
"The whole thing was set up with college sports ... it was entertainment value for the other students on campus, but also to give people a chance to get an education because of the skill they do have. They shouldn't be discouraged, they should be encouraged in any way possible.''
Paying players is, he said, "a tough argument, I understand, but amateurs make money now,'' pointing to track and field athletes among others whose definition of "amateur'' has changed over the years.
"In college, you're kind of on an island now in terms of these guys,'' he said. "They do get a scholarship -- the scholarship's probably worth here, at Maryland, about $40,000 (a year), so it's not a bad thing. But it gets tough when you see what's out there, and you see the people that kind of take advantage of that situation with the players.''
Williams, who coached Maryland to the 2002 NCAA title, will be inducted next week into the new Hall of Legends at Baltimore's Sports Legends at Camden Yards Museum; also in the inaugural class of state honorees are Babe Ruth, Johnny Unitas, Brooks Robinson, broadcaster Jim McKay and former Ravens owner Art Modell, who moved the Browns to Baltimore in 1995.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Michael Vick shines in Eagles' 35-32 win vs. Lions
DETROIT (AP) -- On the bus ride to his first start at quarterback since 2006, Michael Vick thought of everything that has happened the last several years.
Then he went out and took full advantage of the opportunity. Vick looked like the Pro Bowler he used to be by effortlessly flicking the football down the field and avoiding sacks with slick steps.
Vick's second touchdown pass put the Philadelphia Eagles ahead just before halftime and they had to hold on to beat the Detroit Lions 35-32 Sunday.
He didn't take the first snap in a game the past three seasons because he served an 18-month prison sentence for his role in a dogfighting operation and spent last year as a backup.
Vick said he reflects "all the time" on his journey back onto an NFL field.
"It's been a long road for me," he said softly. "It's been tough. Throughout it all, I had to be resilient and overcome a lot of adversity and self-inflicted wounds."
The electrifying athlete was 21 of 34 - connecting with nine teammates - for 284 yards with two TDs, ran for 37 yards and escaped losses with the spin moves of a dancer and speed of a sprinter.
"A lot of people doubted him and said he wasn't able to do this," said DeSean Jackson , who caught four of Vick's passes for 135 yards and a TD. "He's been able to prove everybody wrong."
LeSean McCoy gave the Eagles (1-1) an 18-point lead on his third score with 6:17 left, but they gave Detroit comeback hopes.
The Lions (0-2) rallied to pull within three points and recovered an onside kick with 1:48 left, but turned the ball over on downs without gaining a yard.
"I'm proud to stand among the players," coach Jim Schwartz said. "This is a tough team, a team that's resilient, that fights through a lot of situations."
Detroit has had to deal with a lot of tough times, winning just twice last year after enduring the league's first 0-16 season. The franchise is a league-worst 33-113 since 2001.
The Lions lost their franchise QB - Matthew Stafford - in the season-opening loss at Chicago with an injured right shoulder and had to turn to Shaun Hill . He was 25 of 45 for 335 yards with two TDs, including one to Calvin Johnson late in the game, and had two interceptions.
"The losses are tough, but you can only worry about them for a day," Hill said. "You can't dwell on mistakes."
The Eagles didn't dwell on Vick's, giving him a shot to revive his career last year.
He was more than ready to take the first snap in place of Kevin Kolb , who missed the game because of a concussion.
Eagles coach Andy Reid insisted before the game he didn't need to reassure Kolb he was still the team's starting QB. Even though Vick seemed to do enough to make it tough to put him back on the bench, Reid said it won't be difficult to turn him back into a part-time player.
"We've got more plays for him than we did a year ago, so he'll be on the field," Reid said. "It isn't going to be five or six plays this year."
Vick passed his first test, rolling left and throwing back across the field against pressure to convert a third down on his opening drive to set up a 45-yard TD pass to Jackson.
After rookie Jahvid Best turned a short pass into a 75-yard reception to put Detroit ahead 17-7 midway through the second quarter, Vick ran and threw for first downs to set up McCoy's 14-yard run for his first TD.
Vick easily lofted a 53-yard pass that perfectly hit Jackson in stride before connecting with Jeremy Maclin on a 9-yard pass that put Philadelphia ahead 21-17 with 13 seconds left in the first half.
"You should have seen him before the game," Reid said. "He was like a kid in a candy store. He was so excited about getting a second chance at being a starter in this league."
The Lions, meanwhile, didn't have much to be proud about.
Best was an exception, catching nine passes for 154 yards and a score and running 17 times for 78 yards and two TDs.
He created a buzz at Ford Field, but by the time he scored for a third time against the Eagles - and fifth time in two games - most of the fans had left after growing tired of seeing the Lions lose again.
Detroit didn't give up, but it also couldn't come close enough to attempt a field goal that could've sent the game into overtime.
"We can't wait until the end of the game," Lions center Dominic Raiola lamented.
Then he went out and took full advantage of the opportunity. Vick looked like the Pro Bowler he used to be by effortlessly flicking the football down the field and avoiding sacks with slick steps.
Vick's second touchdown pass put the Philadelphia Eagles ahead just before halftime and they had to hold on to beat the Detroit Lions 35-32 Sunday.
He didn't take the first snap in a game the past three seasons because he served an 18-month prison sentence for his role in a dogfighting operation and spent last year as a backup.
Vick said he reflects "all the time" on his journey back onto an NFL field.
"It's been a long road for me," he said softly. "It's been tough. Throughout it all, I had to be resilient and overcome a lot of adversity and self-inflicted wounds."
The electrifying athlete was 21 of 34 - connecting with nine teammates - for 284 yards with two TDs, ran for 37 yards and escaped losses with the spin moves of a dancer and speed of a sprinter.
"A lot of people doubted him and said he wasn't able to do this," said DeSean Jackson , who caught four of Vick's passes for 135 yards and a TD. "He's been able to prove everybody wrong."
LeSean McCoy gave the Eagles (1-1) an 18-point lead on his third score with 6:17 left, but they gave Detroit comeback hopes.
The Lions (0-2) rallied to pull within three points and recovered an onside kick with 1:48 left, but turned the ball over on downs without gaining a yard.
"I'm proud to stand among the players," coach Jim Schwartz said. "This is a tough team, a team that's resilient, that fights through a lot of situations."
Detroit has had to deal with a lot of tough times, winning just twice last year after enduring the league's first 0-16 season. The franchise is a league-worst 33-113 since 2001.
The Lions lost their franchise QB - Matthew Stafford - in the season-opening loss at Chicago with an injured right shoulder and had to turn to Shaun Hill . He was 25 of 45 for 335 yards with two TDs, including one to Calvin Johnson late in the game, and had two interceptions.
"The losses are tough, but you can only worry about them for a day," Hill said. "You can't dwell on mistakes."
The Eagles didn't dwell on Vick's, giving him a shot to revive his career last year.
He was more than ready to take the first snap in place of Kevin Kolb , who missed the game because of a concussion.
Eagles coach Andy Reid insisted before the game he didn't need to reassure Kolb he was still the team's starting QB. Even though Vick seemed to do enough to make it tough to put him back on the bench, Reid said it won't be difficult to turn him back into a part-time player.
"We've got more plays for him than we did a year ago, so he'll be on the field," Reid said. "It isn't going to be five or six plays this year."
Vick passed his first test, rolling left and throwing back across the field against pressure to convert a third down on his opening drive to set up a 45-yard TD pass to Jackson.
After rookie Jahvid Best turned a short pass into a 75-yard reception to put Detroit ahead 17-7 midway through the second quarter, Vick ran and threw for first downs to set up McCoy's 14-yard run for his first TD.
Vick easily lofted a 53-yard pass that perfectly hit Jackson in stride before connecting with Jeremy Maclin on a 9-yard pass that put Philadelphia ahead 21-17 with 13 seconds left in the first half.
"You should have seen him before the game," Reid said. "He was like a kid in a candy store. He was so excited about getting a second chance at being a starter in this league."
The Lions, meanwhile, didn't have much to be proud about.
Best was an exception, catching nine passes for 154 yards and a score and running 17 times for 78 yards and two TDs.
He created a buzz at Ford Field, but by the time he scored for a third time against the Eagles - and fifth time in two games - most of the fans had left after growing tired of seeing the Lions lose again.
Detroit didn't give up, but it also couldn't come close enough to attempt a field goal that could've sent the game into overtime.
"We can't wait until the end of the game," Lions center Dominic Raiola lamented.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Hubbard’s suspension over, cleared to practice
By Kelly Hodge
Press Managing Sports Editor
East Tennessee State basketball coach Murry Bartow says senior forward Tommy Hubbard still has obligations to fulfill, but his suspension is officially over.
Hubbard was suspended indefinitely after an altercation on April 7 in which he reportedly damaged his girlfriend’s laptop. The charges were later dropped with certain conditions attached.
“Based on what happened, based on the agreement, based on things Tommy and I have discussed, there could still be some things that have to take place before he’s fully in good standing,” Bartow said Wednesday from Atlanta, where he was recruiting. “But he has been reinstated and is very much a part of our team. His suspension is over.”
Hubbard led the Bucs in scoring (13.9) and rebounding (8.2) as a junior. He’ll be part of a core of four seniors this season as the team shoots for its third straight Atlantic Sun Conference championship.
• Bartow certainly expects Hubbard to be a positive influence on his freshman roommate. Point guard Ryan Woumn is also from the Boston area and is the only scholarship freshman on the roster.
“Tommy and Ryan are from the same AAU program up in Boston,” said Bartow. “To have Tommy here for Ryan is huge. He’s got to be like a big brother and set a good example.”
Woumn said Tuesday that he’s still getting a feel for the East Tennessee scene. It’s obviously a world away from where he grew up in Lynn, Mass.
“It’s different than back home. Real different,” said Woumn. “But I’m getting used to it. I really like it here, to tell you the truth.”
Woumn averaged over 26 points and five assists as a senior at Lynn English High School and is expected to blossom into an outstanding playmaker for the Bucs. To his credit, he comes in with no preconceived notions about how his first season of college basketball will unfold.
“This year will be a learning experience, which is not a bad thing,” said Woumn. “People want to come in and start, but I think my first year will be about getting to know how coach Bartow runs his offense and defense. I’m going to watch Adam (Sollazzo) and the other guys to see how they do things.”
Woumn, 6-foot-3 and 170 pounds, has already gotten a glimpse of what his teammates are capable of.
“We’ve played pickup a whole bunch of times,” he said. “These guys are good.”
Woumn is one of four newcomers, along with junior-college forwards Anthony Johnson and Curtis Wilkinson, and Josh Johnson, the 6-10 walk-on from Gate City, Va.
Bartow and his staff always keep a closer eye on the players this time of year.
“We’re concerned about all the guys and want to make sure everybody gets off to a good start,” he said. “As I look at our team this year, Ryan is the youngest and a long way from home. The junior-college kids have come in from California, so they’re a long, long way from home.
“Those three could potentially be homesick, and they’re having to learn new faces, new terminology and a new system along with just going to school. They can be overwhelmed the first three or four weeks.”
© 2001-2010 Johnson City Press and The Associated Press
Press Managing Sports Editor
East Tennessee State basketball coach Murry Bartow says senior forward Tommy Hubbard still has obligations to fulfill, but his suspension is officially over.
Hubbard was suspended indefinitely after an altercation on April 7 in which he reportedly damaged his girlfriend’s laptop. The charges were later dropped with certain conditions attached.
“Based on what happened, based on the agreement, based on things Tommy and I have discussed, there could still be some things that have to take place before he’s fully in good standing,” Bartow said Wednesday from Atlanta, where he was recruiting. “But he has been reinstated and is very much a part of our team. His suspension is over.”
Hubbard led the Bucs in scoring (13.9) and rebounding (8.2) as a junior. He’ll be part of a core of four seniors this season as the team shoots for its third straight Atlantic Sun Conference championship.
• Bartow certainly expects Hubbard to be a positive influence on his freshman roommate. Point guard Ryan Woumn is also from the Boston area and is the only scholarship freshman on the roster.
“Tommy and Ryan are from the same AAU program up in Boston,” said Bartow. “To have Tommy here for Ryan is huge. He’s got to be like a big brother and set a good example.”
Woumn said Tuesday that he’s still getting a feel for the East Tennessee scene. It’s obviously a world away from where he grew up in Lynn, Mass.
“It’s different than back home. Real different,” said Woumn. “But I’m getting used to it. I really like it here, to tell you the truth.”
Woumn averaged over 26 points and five assists as a senior at Lynn English High School and is expected to blossom into an outstanding playmaker for the Bucs. To his credit, he comes in with no preconceived notions about how his first season of college basketball will unfold.
“This year will be a learning experience, which is not a bad thing,” said Woumn. “People want to come in and start, but I think my first year will be about getting to know how coach Bartow runs his offense and defense. I’m going to watch Adam (Sollazzo) and the other guys to see how they do things.”
Woumn, 6-foot-3 and 170 pounds, has already gotten a glimpse of what his teammates are capable of.
“We’ve played pickup a whole bunch of times,” he said. “These guys are good.”
Woumn is one of four newcomers, along with junior-college forwards Anthony Johnson and Curtis Wilkinson, and Josh Johnson, the 6-10 walk-on from Gate City, Va.
Bartow and his staff always keep a closer eye on the players this time of year.
“We’re concerned about all the guys and want to make sure everybody gets off to a good start,” he said. “As I look at our team this year, Ryan is the youngest and a long way from home. The junior-college kids have come in from California, so they’re a long, long way from home.
“Those three could potentially be homesick, and they’re having to learn new faces, new terminology and a new system along with just going to school. They can be overwhelmed the first three or four weeks.”
© 2001-2010 Johnson City Press and The Associated Press
Sunday, September 12, 2010
NEPSAC Realignment Finalized
September 10th, 2010
Realignment set for upcoming 2010-2011 basketball season.
The New England Prep School Athletic Council will have a new look this season as St. Andrew’s School head coach and NEPSAC boys’ basketball president Mike Hart confirmed the realignment has been finalized and will take effect in the upcoming season.
NEPSAC will add a sixth league abandoning the A through DD set-up of previous years and instead creating leagues AAA, AA, A, B, C, and D.
Triple A is essentially the old class A league minus a couple of defections. Eight schools make up this league moving forward in Brewster Academy, Bridgton Academy, Maine Central Institute, New Hampton School, Winchendon School, St. Thomas More School, and Northfield Mount Hermon School.
Classes A, B, C, and D were organized based on enrollment with any school who desired having the option to play up in AA.
While Hart says the realignment is still a work in process and could be adjusted following this season he says he believes the NEPSAC committee satisfied their goal of creating the “greatest good for the greatest amount of kids.”
“We finally have a model of classification where almost everyone agrees,” Hart said. “There were very few complaints. Three to be exact.”
Among the concerns were allowing longstanding private leagues to continue to exist even if participating schools were spread over three leagues. The most notable example is the ISL who will remain intact despite having their teams spread through AA, A, and B.
Hart said scheduling will be flexible during the first year but will be more strictly enforced by year two.
“It’s fair and we’ve created opportunities for kids to be successful and play in a good basketball league,” he said. “Each league is going to have exciting playoffs. Many teams have a chance to qualify for playoffs and possibly win a championship instead of having the same teams every year.”
2010-2011 NEPSAC Leagues
Class AAA
Participating Teams – Brewster, Bridgton, MCI, New Hampton, Winchendon, NMH, South Kent, St. Thomas More
Schedule – Each team is limited to 34 games including tournaments but is allowed to schedule any opponent they desire.
Class AA
Participating Teams – Holderness, Tilton, Kimball Union, Vermont Academy, Proctor Academy, St. Andrew’s, St. Mark’s, Worcester, Cushing, Boston Trinity, Brimmer & May, Lawrence Academy, Christian Heritage, Master’s School, Hotchkiss, Marianapolis, Wilbraham & Monson
Schedule – Each team is limited to 30 games including tournaments but is allowed to schedule any opponent.
Class A
Participating Teams – Andover, Exeter, Choate, Avon, Loomis, Brunswick, Belmont Hill, Deerfield, Milton, Salisbury, Trinity Pawling, Landmark, Taft, Tabor, Kent, Hopkins, St. Paul’s, St. Sebastian’s, BB&N, Thayer
Schedule – Each team is limited to 25 games including tournaments and allowed to play no more than six non-conference games “up” against teams from higher leagues. If a school’s location makes this a hardship, budgetary or otherwise, the school can appeal to the association.
Class B
Participating Teams – Nobles, Williston, Westminster, Suffield, Berkshire, Governors, Roxbury Latin, Rye Country Day, Portsmouth Abbey, Master’s NY, Kingswood, Canterbury, Cheshire, Brooks, Pomfret, Concord, Gunnery, Middlesex, St. George’s, Rivers, King, Groton
Schedule – Each team is limited to 25 games including tournaments and allowed to play no more than six non-conference games “up” against teams from higher leagues. If a school’s location makes this a hardship, budgetary or otherwise, the school can appeal to the association.
Class C
Participating Teams – Hamden Hall, Wheeler, Pingree, Cambridge, Gann, Beaver Country Day, St. Luke’s, Millbrook, Kents Hill, Harvey, Dexter, Hebron, Berwick, Storm King, Forman, PCD, Greens Farms, Lexington Christian, Marvelwood, Putney, Newman, Williams, Chapel Hill, Hyde CT
Schedule – Each team is limited to 25 games including tournaments and allowed to play no more than six non-conference games “up” against teams from higher leagues. If a school’s location makes this a hardship, budgetary or otherwise, the school can appeal to the association.
Class D
Participating Teams – Bancroft, Chase, Oakwood, Hyde ME, Cape Cod, Watkinson, Dublin, BU Academy, Wooster, Hoosac, Commonwealth, Rocky Hill, NYMA, MacDuffie, Darrow, ASD, High Mowing, Falmouth, Waring, Woodhall, Poughkeepsie, Learning Center, Waldorf
Schedule – Each team is limited to 25 games including tournaments and allowed to play no more than six non-conference games “up” against teams from higher leagues. If a school’s location makes this a hardship, budgetary or otherwise, the school can appeal to the association.
Realignment set for upcoming 2010-2011 basketball season.
The New England Prep School Athletic Council will have a new look this season as St. Andrew’s School head coach and NEPSAC boys’ basketball president Mike Hart confirmed the realignment has been finalized and will take effect in the upcoming season.
NEPSAC will add a sixth league abandoning the A through DD set-up of previous years and instead creating leagues AAA, AA, A, B, C, and D.
Triple A is essentially the old class A league minus a couple of defections. Eight schools make up this league moving forward in Brewster Academy, Bridgton Academy, Maine Central Institute, New Hampton School, Winchendon School, St. Thomas More School, and Northfield Mount Hermon School.
Classes A, B, C, and D were organized based on enrollment with any school who desired having the option to play up in AA.
While Hart says the realignment is still a work in process and could be adjusted following this season he says he believes the NEPSAC committee satisfied their goal of creating the “greatest good for the greatest amount of kids.”
“We finally have a model of classification where almost everyone agrees,” Hart said. “There were very few complaints. Three to be exact.”
Among the concerns were allowing longstanding private leagues to continue to exist even if participating schools were spread over three leagues. The most notable example is the ISL who will remain intact despite having their teams spread through AA, A, and B.
Hart said scheduling will be flexible during the first year but will be more strictly enforced by year two.
“It’s fair and we’ve created opportunities for kids to be successful and play in a good basketball league,” he said. “Each league is going to have exciting playoffs. Many teams have a chance to qualify for playoffs and possibly win a championship instead of having the same teams every year.”
2010-2011 NEPSAC Leagues
Class AAA
Participating Teams – Brewster, Bridgton, MCI, New Hampton, Winchendon, NMH, South Kent, St. Thomas More
Schedule – Each team is limited to 34 games including tournaments but is allowed to schedule any opponent they desire.
Class AA
Participating Teams – Holderness, Tilton, Kimball Union, Vermont Academy, Proctor Academy, St. Andrew’s, St. Mark’s, Worcester, Cushing, Boston Trinity, Brimmer & May, Lawrence Academy, Christian Heritage, Master’s School, Hotchkiss, Marianapolis, Wilbraham & Monson
Schedule – Each team is limited to 30 games including tournaments but is allowed to schedule any opponent.
Class A
Participating Teams – Andover, Exeter, Choate, Avon, Loomis, Brunswick, Belmont Hill, Deerfield, Milton, Salisbury, Trinity Pawling, Landmark, Taft, Tabor, Kent, Hopkins, St. Paul’s, St. Sebastian’s, BB&N, Thayer
Schedule – Each team is limited to 25 games including tournaments and allowed to play no more than six non-conference games “up” against teams from higher leagues. If a school’s location makes this a hardship, budgetary or otherwise, the school can appeal to the association.
Class B
Participating Teams – Nobles, Williston, Westminster, Suffield, Berkshire, Governors, Roxbury Latin, Rye Country Day, Portsmouth Abbey, Master’s NY, Kingswood, Canterbury, Cheshire, Brooks, Pomfret, Concord, Gunnery, Middlesex, St. George’s, Rivers, King, Groton
Schedule – Each team is limited to 25 games including tournaments and allowed to play no more than six non-conference games “up” against teams from higher leagues. If a school’s location makes this a hardship, budgetary or otherwise, the school can appeal to the association.
Class C
Participating Teams – Hamden Hall, Wheeler, Pingree, Cambridge, Gann, Beaver Country Day, St. Luke’s, Millbrook, Kents Hill, Harvey, Dexter, Hebron, Berwick, Storm King, Forman, PCD, Greens Farms, Lexington Christian, Marvelwood, Putney, Newman, Williams, Chapel Hill, Hyde CT
Schedule – Each team is limited to 25 games including tournaments and allowed to play no more than six non-conference games “up” against teams from higher leagues. If a school’s location makes this a hardship, budgetary or otherwise, the school can appeal to the association.
Class D
Participating Teams – Bancroft, Chase, Oakwood, Hyde ME, Cape Cod, Watkinson, Dublin, BU Academy, Wooster, Hoosac, Commonwealth, Rocky Hill, NYMA, MacDuffie, Darrow, ASD, High Mowing, Falmouth, Waring, Woodhall, Poughkeepsie, Learning Center, Waldorf
Schedule – Each team is limited to 25 games including tournaments and allowed to play no more than six non-conference games “up” against teams from higher leagues. If a school’s location makes this a hardship, budgetary or otherwise, the school can appeal to the association.
Brady, Welker produce as Pats beat Bengals 38-24
By Associated Press | Sunday, September 12, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | N.E. Patriots
FOXBOROUGH — Tom Brady [stats] was back where he’s most comfortable, on the field with Wes Welker grabbing touchdown passes.
The headline-making quarterback threw two of his three touchdown passes to Welker, who returned from a serious knee injury, and led the New England Patriots [team stats] to a 38-24 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
The season-opening victory came just three days after Brady was unhurt in a two-car crash then agreed to a contract making him the NFL’s highest paid player.
His day was made smoother by Welker, who caught eight passes for 64 yards less than eight months after surgery for a torn knee ligament.
Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens combined for 19 receptions for 212 yards and a touchdown for the Bengals, but their impact fell short of the hype that accompanied their partnership.
The Patriots’ dominance was complete as they also scored on defense with Gary Guyton’s 59-yard interception return and on special teams on Brandon Tate’s 97-yard runback of the second-half kickoff.
Welker led the NFL with 346 receptions the past three years, the last coming on Jan. 3 in the regular-season finale at Houston. He tore a ligament in his left knee on the play and missed New England’s 33-14 first-round playoff loss to Baltimore.
The Ravens led that game 24-0 in Gillette Stadium. On Sunday in the same stadium, the Patriots led the Bengals by the same score.
New England quickly boosted a 24-3 halftime lead to 31-3 on Tate’s touchdown.
Cincinnati cut that to 31-17 on Carson Palmer’s scoring passes of 1 yard to rookie tight end Jermaine Gresham midway through the third quarter and 28 yards to Ochocinco with 22 seconds remaining in the period.
Then, Brady took back control by leading a 14-play, 81-yard march capped by a 1-yard scoring pass to Rob Gronkowski, another rookie tight end. It was his first pro touchdown and, before lining up to block for the extra point, he handed the ball to Brady for safekeeping on the sideline.
Brady completed 25 of 35 passes for 258 yards. Palmer, forced to throw because of the big deficit, finished 34 for 50 for 345 yards and two touchdowns. Ochocinco had 12 catches for 159 yards, and Owens added seven receptions for 53 yards.
Cedric Benson scored on a 1-yard run for Cincinnati with 3:57 left in the game.
While the Patriots’ offense was expected to be strong, the young defense was suspect but was very stingy in the first half. The Bengals first five possessions ended with three punts, a lost fumble and Guyton’s touchdown that made it 24-0 with 5:38 left in the half.
On their first offensive play, Palmer threw about 35 yards down the left sideline toward Owens. Rookie cornerback Devin McCourty, a first-round draft pick, stayed with him step for step and broke up the play.
Ochocinco gave Owens the nickname "Batman" after the Bengals signed him as a free agent and assumed the "Robin" identity for himself.
On the Patriots’ first offensive play, Welker caught a 5-yard pass over the middle. He ended that drive with a 9-yard touchdown. Stephen Gostkowski’s 32-yard field goal made it 10-0, and Welker struck again with a 4-yard scoring catch about 6 minutes into the second quarter.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1280956
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Final: Patriots 38, Bengals 24
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/sports/football/other_nfl/view.bg?articleid=1280948
FOXBOROUGH — Tom Brady [stats] was back where he’s most comfortable, on the field with Wes Welker grabbing touchdown passes.
The headline-making quarterback threw two of his three touchdown passes to Welker, who returned from a serious knee injury, and led the New England Patriots [team stats] to a 38-24 win over the Cincinnati Bengals on Sunday.
The season-opening victory came just three days after Brady was unhurt in a two-car crash then agreed to a contract making him the NFL’s highest paid player.
His day was made smoother by Welker, who caught eight passes for 64 yards less than eight months after surgery for a torn knee ligament.
Chad Ochocinco and Terrell Owens combined for 19 receptions for 212 yards and a touchdown for the Bengals, but their impact fell short of the hype that accompanied their partnership.
The Patriots’ dominance was complete as they also scored on defense with Gary Guyton’s 59-yard interception return and on special teams on Brandon Tate’s 97-yard runback of the second-half kickoff.
Welker led the NFL with 346 receptions the past three years, the last coming on Jan. 3 in the regular-season finale at Houston. He tore a ligament in his left knee on the play and missed New England’s 33-14 first-round playoff loss to Baltimore.
The Ravens led that game 24-0 in Gillette Stadium. On Sunday in the same stadium, the Patriots led the Bengals by the same score.
New England quickly boosted a 24-3 halftime lead to 31-3 on Tate’s touchdown.
Cincinnati cut that to 31-17 on Carson Palmer’s scoring passes of 1 yard to rookie tight end Jermaine Gresham midway through the third quarter and 28 yards to Ochocinco with 22 seconds remaining in the period.
Then, Brady took back control by leading a 14-play, 81-yard march capped by a 1-yard scoring pass to Rob Gronkowski, another rookie tight end. It was his first pro touchdown and, before lining up to block for the extra point, he handed the ball to Brady for safekeeping on the sideline.
Brady completed 25 of 35 passes for 258 yards. Palmer, forced to throw because of the big deficit, finished 34 for 50 for 345 yards and two touchdowns. Ochocinco had 12 catches for 159 yards, and Owens added seven receptions for 53 yards.
Cedric Benson scored on a 1-yard run for Cincinnati with 3:57 left in the game.
While the Patriots’ offense was expected to be strong, the young defense was suspect but was very stingy in the first half. The Bengals first five possessions ended with three punts, a lost fumble and Guyton’s touchdown that made it 24-0 with 5:38 left in the half.
On their first offensive play, Palmer threw about 35 yards down the left sideline toward Owens. Rookie cornerback Devin McCourty, a first-round draft pick, stayed with him step for step and broke up the play.
Ochocinco gave Owens the nickname "Batman" after the Bengals signed him as a free agent and assumed the "Robin" identity for himself.
On the Patriots’ first offensive play, Welker caught a 5-yard pass over the middle. He ended that drive with a 9-yard touchdown. Stephen Gostkowski’s 32-yard field goal made it 10-0, and Welker struck again with a 4-yard scoring catch about 6 minutes into the second quarter.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/football/patriots/view.bg?articleid=1280956
Related Articles:
Moss doesn’t expect to be with Pats next season
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Final: Patriots 38, Bengals 24
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Cinci’s T.O. hits 15,000-yard milestone vs. Pats
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Golden again: US captures world championship
By Associated Press | Sunday, September 12, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | NBA Coverage
ISTANBUL - The so-called "B-Team" turned out to be the best team in the world.
The United States won its first world championship since 1994 on Sunday, beating Turkey 81-64 behind another sensational performance from tournament MVP Kevin Durant.
Durant had 28 points, setting a record along the way for most in the tournament by a U.S. player. He left the court with 42 seconds left and shared a long hug with coach Mike Krzyzewski, who finally won the world title after his previous two attempts ended with bronze medals.
Lamar Odom added 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Americans, who won gold in the worlds for only the fourth time, doing so with a team that was no sure thing after coming to Turkey without the superstars from its Olympic gold medal team.
With Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Co. sitting home, this group was called a "B-Team," which the players were aware of and used as motivation.
And they came through where many of their bigger-name predecessors couldn’t four years ago in Japan in the world championship, beginning to quiet a raucous crowd midway through the second quarter with a superb defensive effort.
Durant, who scored 33 and a U.S.-record 38 points in the previous two games, again took care of the offense, qualifying the U.S. for the 2012 Olympics.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/other_nba/view.bg?articleid=1280963
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Kevin Durant’s 38 points carry Team USA to title game
/sports/basketball/other_nba/view.bg?articleid=1280733
ISTANBUL - The so-called "B-Team" turned out to be the best team in the world.
The United States won its first world championship since 1994 on Sunday, beating Turkey 81-64 behind another sensational performance from tournament MVP Kevin Durant.
Durant had 28 points, setting a record along the way for most in the tournament by a U.S. player. He left the court with 42 seconds left and shared a long hug with coach Mike Krzyzewski, who finally won the world title after his previous two attempts ended with bronze medals.
Lamar Odom added 15 points and 11 rebounds for the Americans, who won gold in the worlds for only the fourth time, doing so with a team that was no sure thing after coming to Turkey without the superstars from its Olympic gold medal team.
With Kobe Bryant, LeBron James and Co. sitting home, this group was called a "B-Team," which the players were aware of and used as motivation.
And they came through where many of their bigger-name predecessors couldn’t four years ago in Japan in the world championship, beginning to quiet a raucous crowd midway through the second quarter with a superb defensive effort.
Durant, who scored 33 and a U.S.-record 38 points in the previous two games, again took care of the offense, qualifying the U.S. for the 2012 Olympics.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/other_nba/view.bg?articleid=1280963
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Friday, September 10, 2010
Rumeal Robinson found guilty
Ex-Cambridge star misses bank shot
By Associated Press | Thursday, September 9, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | NBA Coverage
DES MOINES, Iowa - Rumeal Robinson, the former Cambridge Rindge and Latin star who led Michigan to the NCAA men’s basketball championship in 1989 and later played in the NBA, was convicted in federal court yesterday of borrowing more than $700,000 for a sham business deal and then spending the money on a condominium, expensive furniture and cars.
A jury found Robinson guilty of 11 counts, including bank bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and making a false statement to a financial institution. He faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on each count. A date for sentencing hasn’t been set.
Among a lengthy list of accusations by prosecutors was one accusing Robinson of scheming to sell his mother’s home in Cambridge, Mass., without her knowledge.
A telephone message left for Robinson’s attorney, J. Keith Rigg of Des Moines, wasn’t immediately returned.
Robinson grew up in Cambridge and was a star at Michigan best known for sinking two free throws that helped the Wolverines beat Seton Hall in the 1989 national title game. He was drafted 10th overall by Atlanta in 1990 and went on to play six seasons in the NBA with the Hawks, Nets, Hornets, Trail Blazers, Suns and Lakers.
Federal prosecutors say Robinson schemed between 2004 and 2005 to borrow the money from Community State Bank in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny. He had the help of Brian Williams, a loan officer at the bank who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud before Robinson’s trial began.
Prosecutors said Williams signed off on an initial $377,000 loan to Robinson for his business, Megaladon Development Inc., which was supposedly pursuing a development deal in Jamaica. Instead, Robinson bought a condo, plasma TVs and designer furniture, prosecutors said.
They said Robinson put the condo in the name of his girlfriend, listing her as his company’s marketing director though she actually worked in a strip club.
Williams later approved an $80,000 loan for Robinson, which was supposed to be used for business but again was spent on personal items, including cars, clothes and more furniture, prosecutors said.
When Williams’ lending authority at the bank ran out, he and Robinson circumvented the $500,000 limit by having the mother-in-law of Robinson’s business partner, Jorge Rodriguez, sign documents for a $150,000 loan that was wired directly to Robinson’s company.
Prosecutors said the woman was told she was signing the documents to invest in Robinson’s company, but he spent $44,000 to buy or lease 10 vehicles, including three Mercedes, two BMWs and five motorcycles. He also spent $3,000 at strip clubs, bought a dog for $1,000 and spent $28,000 on house-related payments, prosecutors said.
They said Robinson later obtained three more loans from the Ankeny Bank totaling more than $111,000 in the name of his girlfriend.
When it became obvious the Jamaica deal would fail, Robinson and Williams became involved in an energy project with a company called Fairway Energy. Williams loaned $495,000 to the company in exchange for a promise of a payment of that same amount to Williams. Another $101,000 loan was made by Williams in connection with the energy company.
Prosecutors also said Robinson arranged for the sale of his mother’s house in Cambridge. His business partner became the owner of the house in 2004 because Robinson persuaded his mother to use equity in the house for the Jamaica project, and the sale of the house occurred in 2006 without his mother’s knowledge.
U.S. Attorney Nicholas Klinefeldt said Robinson paid off Williams to obtain the loans, lied on court documents and took advantage of people for their credit scores. Klinefeldt said he used the Jamaica project as an excuse to ask people for money when in reality "he planned to use it for his own lavish lifestyle."
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/other_nba/view.bg?articleid=1280089
By Associated Press | Thursday, September 9, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | NBA Coverage
DES MOINES, Iowa - Rumeal Robinson, the former Cambridge Rindge and Latin star who led Michigan to the NCAA men’s basketball championship in 1989 and later played in the NBA, was convicted in federal court yesterday of borrowing more than $700,000 for a sham business deal and then spending the money on a condominium, expensive furniture and cars.
A jury found Robinson guilty of 11 counts, including bank bribery, wire fraud, conspiracy to commit bank fraud and making a false statement to a financial institution. He faces up to 30 years in prison and a $1 million fine on each count. A date for sentencing hasn’t been set.
Among a lengthy list of accusations by prosecutors was one accusing Robinson of scheming to sell his mother’s home in Cambridge, Mass., without her knowledge.
A telephone message left for Robinson’s attorney, J. Keith Rigg of Des Moines, wasn’t immediately returned.
Robinson grew up in Cambridge and was a star at Michigan best known for sinking two free throws that helped the Wolverines beat Seton Hall in the 1989 national title game. He was drafted 10th overall by Atlanta in 1990 and went on to play six seasons in the NBA with the Hawks, Nets, Hornets, Trail Blazers, Suns and Lakers.
Federal prosecutors say Robinson schemed between 2004 and 2005 to borrow the money from Community State Bank in the Des Moines suburb of Ankeny. He had the help of Brian Williams, a loan officer at the bank who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit bank fraud before Robinson’s trial began.
Prosecutors said Williams signed off on an initial $377,000 loan to Robinson for his business, Megaladon Development Inc., which was supposedly pursuing a development deal in Jamaica. Instead, Robinson bought a condo, plasma TVs and designer furniture, prosecutors said.
They said Robinson put the condo in the name of his girlfriend, listing her as his company’s marketing director though she actually worked in a strip club.
Williams later approved an $80,000 loan for Robinson, which was supposed to be used for business but again was spent on personal items, including cars, clothes and more furniture, prosecutors said.
When Williams’ lending authority at the bank ran out, he and Robinson circumvented the $500,000 limit by having the mother-in-law of Robinson’s business partner, Jorge Rodriguez, sign documents for a $150,000 loan that was wired directly to Robinson’s company.
Prosecutors said the woman was told she was signing the documents to invest in Robinson’s company, but he spent $44,000 to buy or lease 10 vehicles, including three Mercedes, two BMWs and five motorcycles. He also spent $3,000 at strip clubs, bought a dog for $1,000 and spent $28,000 on house-related payments, prosecutors said.
They said Robinson later obtained three more loans from the Ankeny Bank totaling more than $111,000 in the name of his girlfriend.
When it became obvious the Jamaica deal would fail, Robinson and Williams became involved in an energy project with a company called Fairway Energy. Williams loaned $495,000 to the company in exchange for a promise of a payment of that same amount to Williams. Another $101,000 loan was made by Williams in connection with the energy company.
Prosecutors also said Robinson arranged for the sale of his mother’s house in Cambridge. His business partner became the owner of the house in 2004 because Robinson persuaded his mother to use equity in the house for the Jamaica project, and the sale of the house occurred in 2006 without his mother’s knowledge.
U.S. Attorney Nicholas Klinefeldt said Robinson paid off Williams to obtain the loans, lied on court documents and took advantage of people for their credit scores. Klinefeldt said he used the Jamaica project as an excuse to ask people for money when in reality "he planned to use it for his own lavish lifestyle."
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/other_nba/view.bg?articleid=1280089
NBA continues to expand with new office in Moscow
MOSCOW (AP) -- The NBA has opened an office in Russia, shortly after approving Mikhail Prokhorov as owner of the New Jersey Nets.
Deputy commissioner Adam Silver made the announcement Thursday, saying the league wanted to move closer to its fan base in Russia and Eastern Europe. Former NBC Universal executive Egor Borisov also was hired as vice president of development for the region.
The announcement came the day the U.S. beat Russia in the quarterfinals of basketball's world championship.
Prokhorov, a billionaire who became the NBA's first owner from outside North America, said he looks "forward to working together with the NBA to create more opportunities for boys and girls and students throughout Russia to become active basketball participants."
The NBA's Atlanta Hawks toured the Soviet Union in 1988, and Russian power CSKA Moscow will play three preseason games in the United States against NBA teams.
"This is a great time for the NBA to expand its presence in Russia, especially given Mikhail Prokhorov's commitment to further grow the sport in the country," Silver said in a statement.
The NBA now has offices in 16 worldwide markets.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Deputy commissioner Adam Silver made the announcement Thursday, saying the league wanted to move closer to its fan base in Russia and Eastern Europe. Former NBC Universal executive Egor Borisov also was hired as vice president of development for the region.
The announcement came the day the U.S. beat Russia in the quarterfinals of basketball's world championship.
Prokhorov, a billionaire who became the NBA's first owner from outside North America, said he looks "forward to working together with the NBA to create more opportunities for boys and girls and students throughout Russia to become active basketball participants."
The NBA's Atlanta Hawks toured the Soviet Union in 1988, and Russian power CSKA Moscow will play three preseason games in the United States against NBA teams.
"This is a great time for the NBA to expand its presence in Russia, especially given Mikhail Prokhorov's commitment to further grow the sport in the country," Silver said in a statement.
The NBA now has offices in 16 worldwide markets.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Celtics bringing back Delonte West
By Steve Bulpett | Wednesday, September 1, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Boston Celtics
Delonte West is coming back to the Celtics.
A league source confirmed moments ago that the former Celts guard is prepared to sign a free-agent deal with the team.
West was drafted by the Celtics 24th overall in the 2004 draft and played in Boston for three seasons before being traded to Seattle as part of the deal that brought Ray Allen to the Green. On February 21, 2008, West was involved in a three-team deal that sent him to Cleveland to play with Lebron James.
According to a source, West will sign a non-guaranteed contract and will be on hand when the team begins camp this fall.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1278512
Delonte West is coming back to the Celtics.
A league source confirmed moments ago that the former Celts guard is prepared to sign a free-agent deal with the team.
West was drafted by the Celtics 24th overall in the 2004 draft and played in Boston for three seasons before being traded to Seattle as part of the deal that brought Ray Allen to the Green. On February 21, 2008, West was involved in a three-team deal that sent him to Cleveland to play with Lebron James.
According to a source, West will sign a non-guaranteed contract and will be on hand when the team begins camp this fall.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1278512
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Rajon Rondo departs U.S. team
By Associated Press | Wednesday, August 25, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Boston Celtics
ATHENS, Greece - The U.S. national basketball team finalized its roster yesterday for the world championships, and there’s no Rajon Rondo [stats].
The Celtics [team stats] star asked to withdraw from consideration, a release from the team said.
Rondo had started the Americans’ first two exhibition games, then surprisingly didn’t play at all Sunday when the U.S. edged Spain.
The final 12-man roster set yesterday includes: Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Rudy Gay, Lamar Odom, Chauncey Billups, Danny Granger, Russell Westbrook, Eric Gordon, Stephen Curry, Kevin Love, Tyson Chandler and Andre Iguodala.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s squad has one more tuneup, against Greece today, before the world championships start Saturday in Turkey. They run through Sept. 12.
Earlier yesterday, Krzyzewski said that his team’s relatively small size, the differences between NBA and global basketball rules, and his players’ lack of experience playing together are all challenges for the U.S.
“We have only played three (warmup) games and we have never played together before (in a championship game),” Krzyzewski said after a shootaround at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Athens.
“(Tonight’s) game for us is about getting a better understanding of ourselves and the international game before we get into the world championships. We get the chance to do it against one of the best teams.”
Tonight’s game is being held in the same arena where the U.S. team at the 2004 Olympics - which included LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson [stats], among others - failed to win gold for the first time since 1972.
And Greece upset the United States at the last world championships, in 2006, winning their semifinal against a lineup that again contained James and Wade.
Only with Krzyzewski’s “Redeem Team” of 2008 did the U.S. win another Olympic gold and break a string of disappointing results in major tournaments dating back to the 2002 worlds in Indianapolis.
Krzyzewski’s roster for Turkey this year boasts just two veterans - Denver Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups and Lakers forward Lamar Odom. He has said that defending champion Spain is the favorite, but his team edged the Spaniards 86-85 last Sunday in Madrid.
“In Beijing (in 2008) we had a team of experienced professionals; this team has younger professionals, outside of Odom and Billups,” Krzyzewski said.
“We are trying to adapt (to different kinds of players) and it’s good. I don’t think the players should have to adapt to you as much as you should adapt to them.”
Tyson Chandler is the team’s only true center as well as its only 7-footer, but Krzyzewski said that situation was not intentional.
“We thought we would be bigger but the first day of training camp we lost (Brook) Lopez, (Amare) Stoudamire and (David) Lee and we could not bring other people in,” he said. “There’s more (chance of) error with the lack of size.”
He added that he might use a zone defense extensively tonight against Greece’s tall frontline.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1276743
ATHENS, Greece - The U.S. national basketball team finalized its roster yesterday for the world championships, and there’s no Rajon Rondo [stats].
The Celtics [team stats] star asked to withdraw from consideration, a release from the team said.
Rondo had started the Americans’ first two exhibition games, then surprisingly didn’t play at all Sunday when the U.S. edged Spain.
The final 12-man roster set yesterday includes: Kevin Durant, Derrick Rose, Rudy Gay, Lamar Odom, Chauncey Billups, Danny Granger, Russell Westbrook, Eric Gordon, Stephen Curry, Kevin Love, Tyson Chandler and Andre Iguodala.
Coach Mike Krzyzewski’s squad has one more tuneup, against Greece today, before the world championships start Saturday in Turkey. They run through Sept. 12.
Earlier yesterday, Krzyzewski said that his team’s relatively small size, the differences between NBA and global basketball rules, and his players’ lack of experience playing together are all challenges for the U.S.
“We have only played three (warmup) games and we have never played together before (in a championship game),” Krzyzewski said after a shootaround at the Olympic Indoor Arena in Athens.
“(Tonight’s) game for us is about getting a better understanding of ourselves and the international game before we get into the world championships. We get the chance to do it against one of the best teams.”
Tonight’s game is being held in the same arena where the U.S. team at the 2004 Olympics - which included LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Tim Duncan and Allen Iverson [stats], among others - failed to win gold for the first time since 1972.
And Greece upset the United States at the last world championships, in 2006, winning their semifinal against a lineup that again contained James and Wade.
Only with Krzyzewski’s “Redeem Team” of 2008 did the U.S. win another Olympic gold and break a string of disappointing results in major tournaments dating back to the 2002 worlds in Indianapolis.
Krzyzewski’s roster for Turkey this year boasts just two veterans - Denver Nuggets guard Chauncey Billups and Lakers forward Lamar Odom. He has said that defending champion Spain is the favorite, but his team edged the Spaniards 86-85 last Sunday in Madrid.
“In Beijing (in 2008) we had a team of experienced professionals; this team has younger professionals, outside of Odom and Billups,” Krzyzewski said.
“We are trying to adapt (to different kinds of players) and it’s good. I don’t think the players should have to adapt to you as much as you should adapt to them.”
Tyson Chandler is the team’s only true center as well as its only 7-footer, but Krzyzewski said that situation was not intentional.
“We thought we would be bigger but the first day of training camp we lost (Brook) Lopez, (Amare) Stoudamire and (David) Lee and we could not bring other people in,” he said. “There’s more (chance of) error with the lack of size.”
He added that he might use a zone defense extensively tonight against Greece’s tall frontline.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1276743
Monday, August 16, 2010
Taking his shot
Mission Hill's Will Blalock has played professional basketball all over the world, from Anaheim to Israel, but he's still trying to make it big.
By PAUL FLANNERY {Boston Phoenix} August 15, 2010
WILL POWER: At 26, Blalock is at the point in his career where he’s not so much auditioning for teams as reminding them what he can do. It’s been a long haul, but if he’s frustrated, it doesn’t show: “When the bell rings and it’s time to go,” he says, “you can’t think like that.”
LAS VEGAS — The Cox Arena is sold out. Everyone is here to see John Wall make his professional debut for the Washington Wizards. The top pick in the 2010 draft, Wall has a game that's undeniably electric, which is why Reebok gave him $25 million to wear their kicks before he even put on a uniform, and why everyone who has anything to do with the NBA is in the building. Everything about him says superstar. He's 19 years old and living the dream.
At the other end of the floor is reality.
Will Blalock, the pride of Mission Hill and a four-year veteran of the professional grind, takes his seat at the end of the Golden State Warriors bench. Barring some extremely good fortune, he won't come remotely close to making as much in his entire career as Wall will get from his rookie contract, let alone his sneaker deal. He's a point guard like Wall, but in every other way the two couldn't be further apart.
Blalock is 26 years old, going on 27, and his NBA career has consisted of exactly 14 games, with his last appearance coming in 2007. In between, he's bounced around from Israel to the Development League to Germany and back again. He doesn't know where he will be playing next year and his future is as shrouded in uncertainty as Wall's is secure.
If not for Wall's presence on the court, the arena would be much quieter during an NBA summer-league game. Typically, the action off the court is far more interesting than anything that happens on the floor. Only here can you bump into the head of the players' union getting a pretzel at the concession stand, or kill an hour trading gossip with a coach at the Hard Rock.
There are 23 teams in Las Vegas and about 270 players, but only a handful actually have NBA contracts. The vast majority, like Blalock, are essentially independent contractors, hustling for their next gig. Some will never make it, while others are locked in basketball limbo: good enough to be there, but not good enough for one of the few jobs available. Blalock falls into the latter category.
"All these guys on the bubble, they're not not NBA players," says David Thorpe, an analyst for espn.com and the executive director of the Pro Training Center in Clearwater, Florida. "They're NBA-[caliber] players. They just need a break."
Blalock's well-connected agent, Reggie Brown, is determined to get him that break. "I'm going to do everything I can to give him the opportunity, because it's his time," Brown says. "I'm not going to ask for a favor. I don't want any favors for him because he's good enough to be there and if he wasn't, I'd tell him."
But Blalock is more circumspect about his prospects. He'd love to be back in the NBA, but he's thinking about going overseas, where the money is better. "If this is a game of cards, my hand really ain't that great right now," he says. "[Europe] is an opportunity to make money for me and my family. I realize in the back of my mind there's not a lot of teams picking up 26-year-old point guards."
Mingled with the 4000 paying customers to watch Wall's debut are scouts, general managers, and coaches representing every level of professional basketball, both here and abroad — and quite possibly his next employer.
You might think this would make someone in Blalock's position nervous, but very little fazes him when it comes to basketball. He battled Chris Paul in his AAU days and was one of the top 100 college recruits in his high-school class. He made SportsCenter's top plays twice while at Iowa Stateand lives on in the school's record book alongside Cyclone heroes like Jeff Hornacek and Jamaal Tinsley. He was a second-round draft pick and spent a year with the Detroit Pistons when they were still championship contenders.
As the game begins, Blalock's face is stoic, unmoved, and he betrays exactly zero emotion. If he is frustrated by his circumstances, he learned long ago not to let it show. This is his credo: "When the bell rings and it's time to go — 'Will, get in there' — you can't think like that because it messes up your whole situation."
All things considered, his situation isn't that bad. He is, after all, making a living playing ball and everyone here whose opinion matters about basketball knows his name — he's not so much auditioning for teams as reminding them. Beyond all that, there is something else that makes him see this encounter as just another in a long line of possibilities. Two years ago in an airport terminal, Will Blalock came perilously close to losing everything.
'I wake up and everyone's gone'
In the spring of 2008, Blalock was sitting in Logan Airport with a first-class ticket to Seattle and an invitation to the Sonics mini-camp. (This was just before the franchise was relocated to Oklahoma City.) The invite carried no guarantees, but Blalock was feeling good about his chances.
He was only a year removed from the NBA, where he absorbed as much as he could from veterans like Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace. From Chauncey, he learned how to run a team and think two or three steps ahead on the court, and from Sheed he learned to see beyond the hype when he was away from it.
He split his time shuttling between the Pistons and their D-League affiliate in South Dakota, an experience he found useful, if not humbling. The D is bus rides through the Badlands and airplane connections in Atlanta, always Atlanta, zigzagging across the country with a game somewhere in Texas one night and another in New Mexico the next. The NBA is tantalizingly close and yet another universe away.
Blalock spent one season with Detroit, playing in those 14 games, but when the Pistons didn't renew his contract he did a brief stint in Israel and spent the rest of the next year back in the D with Anaheim. It wasn't glamorous, but he was gaining experience. The young team in Seattle represented a great opportunity to get back in the league.
That's when everything went wrong.
"It was crazy, man," Blalock remembers. "It felt like I blacked out. I couldn't feel nothing. It was like something got numb."
He was on the phone in the terminal when he reached down to pick up a drink. "I couldn't feel my hand," Blalock says. "I hung up the phone and my arm was dangling."
A woman sitting next to him asked if he was okay. He said yes, and stood up to look for his ticket. When he got to his feet, he discovered that he was drenched in sweat and that the left side of his body wouldn't move. The woman ran to get help. He took a step back, and began to pray.
"The next thing I remember," says Blalock, "I wake up and everyone's gone." He had just suffered a stroke.
Blalock was rushed to the hospital, where doctors performed an MRI and a CAT scan. He knew about the small hole in his heart — he was born with it, although it had never been a problem — but a blood clot was found near his neck. Either could have caused the stroke. The doctors told him that if he had boarded the plane he could have died.
"I was scared," his friend Will Dickerson recalls. "I had tears in my eyes, because that's my little brother. Had he got on that plane, God knows what would have happened."
The Johnson Center
The two Wills may be unrelated, but they're as close as family. Dickerson is five years older and remembers first seeing Blalock as a 13-year-old kid throwing behind-the-back passes at the Thomas Johnson Center in Roxbury. He's been watching, critiquing, and supporting his friend ever since.
To the extent that Blalock has an entourage, Dickerson and a small group from home are basically it. Blalock still lives in Boston and Dickerson fondly recalls Blalock riding his bike over to the Johnson Center after his season with the Pistons to spend time with the kids who hung out there. "He's got a big heart," Dickerson says. "Will doesn't know how to say 'no.' "
Blalock grew up a few feet from the center and it was there that he watched local legends like Randall Jackson and Wayne Turner play — not to mention his sister, Marsha, who was the reigning hoop star in the family at the time. It was where he began to get serious about ball, and where he began to get his own rep.
His talent took him from East Boston High to Notre Dame Prep. In the summers, his toughness was forged by Leo Papile's Boston Amateur Basketball Club, whose players delighted in going to high-profile AAU tournaments and beating their more-hyped opponents.
Jeff Adrien, the powerful former Brookline High and UConn star, remembers watching Blalock in his BABC days and being in awe. "Nobody could guard him," says Adrien, a free agent who played with the Grizzlies in Vegas. "Still, no one can guard him."
Blalock signed with Iowa State, but on the day he Fed-Exed his letter of intent, ISU coach Larry Eustachy went on ESPN to announce that he was leaving the school because of a drinking problem, after photos of him partying with co-eds hit the Internet. It was a huge scandal, but Blalock is able to laugh about it now. He spoke up for assistant Wayne Morgan and kept his commitment once Morgan got the job.
Blalock skipped his senior year to turn pro, a decision he would rethink if he had the chance. "It goes by so fast," he says of college. "Kids don't realize." He pauses a beat. "You really miss it."
And so, at just 24, when he should've been hitting his prime, Blalock found himself recovering from a stroke. He underwent heart surgery and was put on blood thinners and Coumadin. The doctors told him his career was on hold for the next seven or eight months. They may as well have told him that he was done. "I felt like that was the beginning of the end," Blalock says. "I didn't know which way was up. I was stressing out every day. It was a tough time."
Blalock began his comeback with the Artland Dragons in Germany in late 2008, and then it was back to the states for another D-League tour last season. Only now does he feel like he's getting his game back together, and the simple act of playing basketball has taken on a new meaning. "After that episode, I felt like a completely different person," Blalock says. "For the people that love me from Boston, just to see me out there, it's big for them."
Dancing with John Wall
After an opening quarter in which Wall basically confirms everyone's belief that he's the second coming, Blalock gets his chance. His job is to make Wall's life difficult, and that means getting up into him defensively and shedding picks set by a seven-foot behemoth named Hamady N'Diaye. Wall very quickly finds out that it won't be as easy to get to the rim against Blalock, who — despite standing only six feet tall — is deceptively strong.
It would be a nice end to this small snapshot of Will Blalock's life if he got into a duel with the phenom and had GMs rushing up to him afterward with contracts in hand. This very scenario will take place several days later when a rookie from Harvard named Jeremy Lin goes off against Wall and winds up with a guaranteed deal from the Warriors. Blalock's experience isn't nearly as dramatic.
Wall finishes the game with 24 points and eight assists and the Wizards win easily. He gets front-page treatment in the Las Vegas paper, while Blalock — after getting only one assist in 18 minutes — is relegated to the "Nonstars" notation in Scott Schroder's D-League blog, Ridiculous Upside.
It's a little unfair, since Blalock spends most of his minutes on offense camped out in the corner, which not only accentuates his biggest weakness (his outside shot), it also negates his best attribute — his ability to run the offense and break defenders down with his dribble.
When he does have a chance to operate, he's able to lay down a move that draws a few oohs and aahs from the crowd, but he isn't able to finish inside and he can't knock down the two open jumpers that come his way. Passes that should become assists are dropped and kickouts for jump shots are missed. "I've been in far worse situations," Blalock says. "If I have my opportunity, even if it's for 20 seconds, it's an opportunity."
A few nights later, Blalock is back in action against Miami at the 18,500-seat Thomas & Mack Center. It's the last game of the night and the buzz is completely gone. He's playing in front of a couple hundred half-interested folks, Dickerson and Brown among them, and there's a spooky, soul-crushing ambiance in the nearly deserted arena. Opportunity is opportunity.
All the Warriors have to do to finish it off is get the ball inbounds and make a couple of free throws. Blalock is the inbounder, but the Heat decide not to guard him and his defender is turned away from the play, a rookie mistake. Seeing this, he whips the ball off the unsuspecting player's back, picks it up himself and gets fouled.
Blalock's coach buries his head in his hands but emerges with a huge grin on his face. His teammates pat him on the head. Dickerson is up on his feet, relieved that his little brother's gamble has paid off. The only one unaffected by the chaos is Will, who steps to the line and calmly makes both free throws.
Ultimately, Blalock chose security over opportunity, signing a one-year contract with the Townsville Crocodiles in Australia. He thought about taking another run at the NBA, but after talking to the Crocs coach, Gleeson Taylor, he felt like he finally found the right situation. The team finished third in Australia's National Basketball League last year, and Taylor convinced Blalock that he was the missing piece.
"He was straightforward with me and said he was looking for what I do: lead guard and a vocal leader on the court," says Blalock.
He had to go halfway around the world, but maybe, just maybe, Will Blalock has finally found a basketball home.
Paul Flannery covers the Celtics for weei.com and teaches journalism at Boston University. He can be reached at pflannery@weei.com.
By PAUL FLANNERY {Boston Phoenix} August 15, 2010
WILL POWER: At 26, Blalock is at the point in his career where he’s not so much auditioning for teams as reminding them what he can do. It’s been a long haul, but if he’s frustrated, it doesn’t show: “When the bell rings and it’s time to go,” he says, “you can’t think like that.”
LAS VEGAS — The Cox Arena is sold out. Everyone is here to see John Wall make his professional debut for the Washington Wizards. The top pick in the 2010 draft, Wall has a game that's undeniably electric, which is why Reebok gave him $25 million to wear their kicks before he even put on a uniform, and why everyone who has anything to do with the NBA is in the building. Everything about him says superstar. He's 19 years old and living the dream.
At the other end of the floor is reality.
Will Blalock, the pride of Mission Hill and a four-year veteran of the professional grind, takes his seat at the end of the Golden State Warriors bench. Barring some extremely good fortune, he won't come remotely close to making as much in his entire career as Wall will get from his rookie contract, let alone his sneaker deal. He's a point guard like Wall, but in every other way the two couldn't be further apart.
Blalock is 26 years old, going on 27, and his NBA career has consisted of exactly 14 games, with his last appearance coming in 2007. In between, he's bounced around from Israel to the Development League to Germany and back again. He doesn't know where he will be playing next year and his future is as shrouded in uncertainty as Wall's is secure.
If not for Wall's presence on the court, the arena would be much quieter during an NBA summer-league game. Typically, the action off the court is far more interesting than anything that happens on the floor. Only here can you bump into the head of the players' union getting a pretzel at the concession stand, or kill an hour trading gossip with a coach at the Hard Rock.
There are 23 teams in Las Vegas and about 270 players, but only a handful actually have NBA contracts. The vast majority, like Blalock, are essentially independent contractors, hustling for their next gig. Some will never make it, while others are locked in basketball limbo: good enough to be there, but not good enough for one of the few jobs available. Blalock falls into the latter category.
"All these guys on the bubble, they're not not NBA players," says David Thorpe, an analyst for espn.com and the executive director of the Pro Training Center in Clearwater, Florida. "They're NBA-[caliber] players. They just need a break."
Blalock's well-connected agent, Reggie Brown, is determined to get him that break. "I'm going to do everything I can to give him the opportunity, because it's his time," Brown says. "I'm not going to ask for a favor. I don't want any favors for him because he's good enough to be there and if he wasn't, I'd tell him."
But Blalock is more circumspect about his prospects. He'd love to be back in the NBA, but he's thinking about going overseas, where the money is better. "If this is a game of cards, my hand really ain't that great right now," he says. "[Europe] is an opportunity to make money for me and my family. I realize in the back of my mind there's not a lot of teams picking up 26-year-old point guards."
Mingled with the 4000 paying customers to watch Wall's debut are scouts, general managers, and coaches representing every level of professional basketball, both here and abroad — and quite possibly his next employer.
You might think this would make someone in Blalock's position nervous, but very little fazes him when it comes to basketball. He battled Chris Paul in his AAU days and was one of the top 100 college recruits in his high-school class. He made SportsCenter's top plays twice while at Iowa Stateand lives on in the school's record book alongside Cyclone heroes like Jeff Hornacek and Jamaal Tinsley. He was a second-round draft pick and spent a year with the Detroit Pistons when they were still championship contenders.
As the game begins, Blalock's face is stoic, unmoved, and he betrays exactly zero emotion. If he is frustrated by his circumstances, he learned long ago not to let it show. This is his credo: "When the bell rings and it's time to go — 'Will, get in there' — you can't think like that because it messes up your whole situation."
All things considered, his situation isn't that bad. He is, after all, making a living playing ball and everyone here whose opinion matters about basketball knows his name — he's not so much auditioning for teams as reminding them. Beyond all that, there is something else that makes him see this encounter as just another in a long line of possibilities. Two years ago in an airport terminal, Will Blalock came perilously close to losing everything.
'I wake up and everyone's gone'
In the spring of 2008, Blalock was sitting in Logan Airport with a first-class ticket to Seattle and an invitation to the Sonics mini-camp. (This was just before the franchise was relocated to Oklahoma City.) The invite carried no guarantees, but Blalock was feeling good about his chances.
He was only a year removed from the NBA, where he absorbed as much as he could from veterans like Chauncey Billups and Rasheed Wallace. From Chauncey, he learned how to run a team and think two or three steps ahead on the court, and from Sheed he learned to see beyond the hype when he was away from it.
He split his time shuttling between the Pistons and their D-League affiliate in South Dakota, an experience he found useful, if not humbling. The D is bus rides through the Badlands and airplane connections in Atlanta, always Atlanta, zigzagging across the country with a game somewhere in Texas one night and another in New Mexico the next. The NBA is tantalizingly close and yet another universe away.
Blalock spent one season with Detroit, playing in those 14 games, but when the Pistons didn't renew his contract he did a brief stint in Israel and spent the rest of the next year back in the D with Anaheim. It wasn't glamorous, but he was gaining experience. The young team in Seattle represented a great opportunity to get back in the league.
That's when everything went wrong.
"It was crazy, man," Blalock remembers. "It felt like I blacked out. I couldn't feel nothing. It was like something got numb."
He was on the phone in the terminal when he reached down to pick up a drink. "I couldn't feel my hand," Blalock says. "I hung up the phone and my arm was dangling."
A woman sitting next to him asked if he was okay. He said yes, and stood up to look for his ticket. When he got to his feet, he discovered that he was drenched in sweat and that the left side of his body wouldn't move. The woman ran to get help. He took a step back, and began to pray.
"The next thing I remember," says Blalock, "I wake up and everyone's gone." He had just suffered a stroke.
Blalock was rushed to the hospital, where doctors performed an MRI and a CAT scan. He knew about the small hole in his heart — he was born with it, although it had never been a problem — but a blood clot was found near his neck. Either could have caused the stroke. The doctors told him that if he had boarded the plane he could have died.
"I was scared," his friend Will Dickerson recalls. "I had tears in my eyes, because that's my little brother. Had he got on that plane, God knows what would have happened."
The Johnson Center
The two Wills may be unrelated, but they're as close as family. Dickerson is five years older and remembers first seeing Blalock as a 13-year-old kid throwing behind-the-back passes at the Thomas Johnson Center in Roxbury. He's been watching, critiquing, and supporting his friend ever since.
To the extent that Blalock has an entourage, Dickerson and a small group from home are basically it. Blalock still lives in Boston and Dickerson fondly recalls Blalock riding his bike over to the Johnson Center after his season with the Pistons to spend time with the kids who hung out there. "He's got a big heart," Dickerson says. "Will doesn't know how to say 'no.' "
Blalock grew up a few feet from the center and it was there that he watched local legends like Randall Jackson and Wayne Turner play — not to mention his sister, Marsha, who was the reigning hoop star in the family at the time. It was where he began to get serious about ball, and where he began to get his own rep.
His talent took him from East Boston High to Notre Dame Prep. In the summers, his toughness was forged by Leo Papile's Boston Amateur Basketball Club, whose players delighted in going to high-profile AAU tournaments and beating their more-hyped opponents.
Jeff Adrien, the powerful former Brookline High and UConn star, remembers watching Blalock in his BABC days and being in awe. "Nobody could guard him," says Adrien, a free agent who played with the Grizzlies in Vegas. "Still, no one can guard him."
Blalock signed with Iowa State, but on the day he Fed-Exed his letter of intent, ISU coach Larry Eustachy went on ESPN to announce that he was leaving the school because of a drinking problem, after photos of him partying with co-eds hit the Internet. It was a huge scandal, but Blalock is able to laugh about it now. He spoke up for assistant Wayne Morgan and kept his commitment once Morgan got the job.
Blalock skipped his senior year to turn pro, a decision he would rethink if he had the chance. "It goes by so fast," he says of college. "Kids don't realize." He pauses a beat. "You really miss it."
And so, at just 24, when he should've been hitting his prime, Blalock found himself recovering from a stroke. He underwent heart surgery and was put on blood thinners and Coumadin. The doctors told him his career was on hold for the next seven or eight months. They may as well have told him that he was done. "I felt like that was the beginning of the end," Blalock says. "I didn't know which way was up. I was stressing out every day. It was a tough time."
Blalock began his comeback with the Artland Dragons in Germany in late 2008, and then it was back to the states for another D-League tour last season. Only now does he feel like he's getting his game back together, and the simple act of playing basketball has taken on a new meaning. "After that episode, I felt like a completely different person," Blalock says. "For the people that love me from Boston, just to see me out there, it's big for them."
Dancing with John Wall
After an opening quarter in which Wall basically confirms everyone's belief that he's the second coming, Blalock gets his chance. His job is to make Wall's life difficult, and that means getting up into him defensively and shedding picks set by a seven-foot behemoth named Hamady N'Diaye. Wall very quickly finds out that it won't be as easy to get to the rim against Blalock, who — despite standing only six feet tall — is deceptively strong.
It would be a nice end to this small snapshot of Will Blalock's life if he got into a duel with the phenom and had GMs rushing up to him afterward with contracts in hand. This very scenario will take place several days later when a rookie from Harvard named Jeremy Lin goes off against Wall and winds up with a guaranteed deal from the Warriors. Blalock's experience isn't nearly as dramatic.
Wall finishes the game with 24 points and eight assists and the Wizards win easily. He gets front-page treatment in the Las Vegas paper, while Blalock — after getting only one assist in 18 minutes — is relegated to the "Nonstars" notation in Scott Schroder's D-League blog, Ridiculous Upside.
It's a little unfair, since Blalock spends most of his minutes on offense camped out in the corner, which not only accentuates his biggest weakness (his outside shot), it also negates his best attribute — his ability to run the offense and break defenders down with his dribble.
When he does have a chance to operate, he's able to lay down a move that draws a few oohs and aahs from the crowd, but he isn't able to finish inside and he can't knock down the two open jumpers that come his way. Passes that should become assists are dropped and kickouts for jump shots are missed. "I've been in far worse situations," Blalock says. "If I have my opportunity, even if it's for 20 seconds, it's an opportunity."
A few nights later, Blalock is back in action against Miami at the 18,500-seat Thomas & Mack Center. It's the last game of the night and the buzz is completely gone. He's playing in front of a couple hundred half-interested folks, Dickerson and Brown among them, and there's a spooky, soul-crushing ambiance in the nearly deserted arena. Opportunity is opportunity.
All the Warriors have to do to finish it off is get the ball inbounds and make a couple of free throws. Blalock is the inbounder, but the Heat decide not to guard him and his defender is turned away from the play, a rookie mistake. Seeing this, he whips the ball off the unsuspecting player's back, picks it up himself and gets fouled.
Blalock's coach buries his head in his hands but emerges with a huge grin on his face. His teammates pat him on the head. Dickerson is up on his feet, relieved that his little brother's gamble has paid off. The only one unaffected by the chaos is Will, who steps to the line and calmly makes both free throws.
Ultimately, Blalock chose security over opportunity, signing a one-year contract with the Townsville Crocodiles in Australia. He thought about taking another run at the NBA, but after talking to the Crocs coach, Gleeson Taylor, he felt like he finally found the right situation. The team finished third in Australia's National Basketball League last year, and Taylor convinced Blalock that he was the missing piece.
"He was straightforward with me and said he was looking for what I do: lead guard and a vocal leader on the court," says Blalock.
He had to go halfway around the world, but maybe, just maybe, Will Blalock has finally found a basketball home.
Paul Flannery covers the Celtics for weei.com and teaches journalism at Boston University. He can be reached at pflannery@weei.com.
Friday, August 13, 2010
NCAA backing plan for tougher academic standards with frosh
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Men's basketball players may have to give up those summer vacations to focus on academics.
On Thursday, the NCAA's board of directors agreed to back a new proposal requiring incoming freshmen to have their academic records assessed by university officials. Those in need of additional classwork would have to take at least six credit hours during summer school, earning at least three credits, to become eligible in the fall.
In addition, school officials would have to reassess the academic records of players at the end of each school year and determine whether additional summer classes are needed.
Schools that do not offer summer classes would be exempt from the legislation.
The reward: Coaches could then designate an eight-week summer period in which the athletes enrolled in classes could attend up to eight hours per week of strength and conditioning training. Two hours of that could be designated for skills development with the coaching staff.
College basketball coaches have long contended they wanted more time to work with their players during the summer.
NABC executive director Jim Haney was out of town and unavailable for comment.
The proposal will now go to the membership schools for comment. It is scheduled to be voted on in January.
Under the proposal, schools would also have to provide a learning-skills assessment and education program for all incoming men's basketball players, and require schools to cover the cost of summer classes for incoming freshmen through their scholarships.
Critics argue that the legislation will be too expensive, give the national governing body too much power over the decisions of individual schools and give coaches more practice time.
The board also approved a proposal that would limit the number of physical education courses that junior college transfers can use as credit and a requirement that all schedules and practice schedules in men's basketball be approved by the school's faculty athletic representative.
But the board asked the football committee to revise its proposal before making a final presentation in October.
Among the possible changes are a requirement that football players earn at least nine credit hours during the fall semester, or eight hours at schools with a quarter system, to be eligible the following fall. Those athletes who fail to meet the requirement could be suspended for up to four games the following year.
In other action, the board also introduced legislation requiring new Division I members to go through a four-year transition period and pay a $1.3 million application fee. Schools would also have to have an invitation from a conference. Schools facing historically based penalties, based on the Academic Performance Program, would not be eligible to move up to Division I.
That vote also is scheduled for January.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
On Thursday, the NCAA's board of directors agreed to back a new proposal requiring incoming freshmen to have their academic records assessed by university officials. Those in need of additional classwork would have to take at least six credit hours during summer school, earning at least three credits, to become eligible in the fall.
In addition, school officials would have to reassess the academic records of players at the end of each school year and determine whether additional summer classes are needed.
Schools that do not offer summer classes would be exempt from the legislation.
The reward: Coaches could then designate an eight-week summer period in which the athletes enrolled in classes could attend up to eight hours per week of strength and conditioning training. Two hours of that could be designated for skills development with the coaching staff.
College basketball coaches have long contended they wanted more time to work with their players during the summer.
NABC executive director Jim Haney was out of town and unavailable for comment.
The proposal will now go to the membership schools for comment. It is scheduled to be voted on in January.
Under the proposal, schools would also have to provide a learning-skills assessment and education program for all incoming men's basketball players, and require schools to cover the cost of summer classes for incoming freshmen through their scholarships.
Critics argue that the legislation will be too expensive, give the national governing body too much power over the decisions of individual schools and give coaches more practice time.
The board also approved a proposal that would limit the number of physical education courses that junior college transfers can use as credit and a requirement that all schedules and practice schedules in men's basketball be approved by the school's faculty athletic representative.
But the board asked the football committee to revise its proposal before making a final presentation in October.
Among the possible changes are a requirement that football players earn at least nine credit hours during the fall semester, or eight hours at schools with a quarter system, to be eligible the following fall. Those athletes who fail to meet the requirement could be suspended for up to four games the following year.
In other action, the board also introduced legislation requiring new Division I members to go through a four-year transition period and pay a $1.3 million application fee. Schools would also have to have an invitation from a conference. Schools facing historically based penalties, based on the Academic Performance Program, would not be eligible to move up to Division I.
That vote also is scheduled for January.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Husky lives dream
Suns shine on Janning
By Dan Duggan | Friday, August 6, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com
Matt Janning always believed he’d reach the NBA, but there were times the 22-year-old’s faith was tested.
There have always been detractors quick to point out Janning’s weaknesses.
It started when he was at Watertown-Mayer High in Watertown, Minn., and he was told he was too skinny to ever play varsity. After three years on varsity, including an All-State senior season, he was told he wouldn’t be able to play for a Division 1 college program.
Undeterred, Janning went to Northeastern, where he starred for four years. After he graduated this spring, more doubters said Janning wasn’t an NBA-caliber player.
But Janning got the last laugh, signing a two-year deal with the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday.
“Whatever the deal was, everybody had their knock,” Janning said yesterday. “I’ve continued to prove everybody wrong my whole life. I’ve had success wherever I went and I’m ready to do it at the next level too.”
While signing with the Suns is a major step, only a small portion of the contract is guaranteed. Janning will be fighting for one of the team’s final roster spots in training camp.
“It’s not a time to stop working by any means,” the 6-foot-4, 198-pound guard said. “This is when you have to put more work in than you’ve ever really done, and continue to prove to people that you can keep playing at new levels and getting better.”
Janning drew the attention of NBA executives with strong play in the Orlando and Las Vegas summer leagues. Playing for the Celtics [team stats], Janning had 20 points in his final game in Orlando.
Despite the C’s attempts to convince him to stay for the rest of the week, Janning kept his commitment to the Suns and joined the team in Vegas - where he averaged 12.6 points and 5.8 rebounds in five games.
After his stellar summer league performances, Janning said six or seven teams, including the Celtics, invited him to their training camps. But the Suns showed the most interest and he believes it’s the best fit.
“Just thinking about it, I don’t know if it’s really hit me a whole lot yet,” Janning said. “It’s really a dream come true.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/other_nba/view.bg?articleid=1272683
By Dan Duggan | Friday, August 6, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com
Matt Janning always believed he’d reach the NBA, but there were times the 22-year-old’s faith was tested.
There have always been detractors quick to point out Janning’s weaknesses.
It started when he was at Watertown-Mayer High in Watertown, Minn., and he was told he was too skinny to ever play varsity. After three years on varsity, including an All-State senior season, he was told he wouldn’t be able to play for a Division 1 college program.
Undeterred, Janning went to Northeastern, where he starred for four years. After he graduated this spring, more doubters said Janning wasn’t an NBA-caliber player.
But Janning got the last laugh, signing a two-year deal with the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday.
“Whatever the deal was, everybody had their knock,” Janning said yesterday. “I’ve continued to prove everybody wrong my whole life. I’ve had success wherever I went and I’m ready to do it at the next level too.”
While signing with the Suns is a major step, only a small portion of the contract is guaranteed. Janning will be fighting for one of the team’s final roster spots in training camp.
“It’s not a time to stop working by any means,” the 6-foot-4, 198-pound guard said. “This is when you have to put more work in than you’ve ever really done, and continue to prove to people that you can keep playing at new levels and getting better.”
Janning drew the attention of NBA executives with strong play in the Orlando and Las Vegas summer leagues. Playing for the Celtics [team stats], Janning had 20 points in his final game in Orlando.
Despite the C’s attempts to convince him to stay for the rest of the week, Janning kept his commitment to the Suns and joined the team in Vegas - where he averaged 12.6 points and 5.8 rebounds in five games.
After his stellar summer league performances, Janning said six or seven teams, including the Celtics, invited him to their training camps. But the Suns showed the most interest and he believes it’s the best fit.
“Just thinking about it, I don’t know if it’s really hit me a whole lot yet,” Janning said. “It’s really a dream come true.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/other_nba/view.bg?articleid=1272683
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Shaquille O’Neal, Celtics get it done
2-year deal meets mutual need
By Mark Murphy | Thursday, August 5, 2010 | http://www.bostonherald.com | Boston Celtics
The Celtics, after yesterday, aren’t a team constructed with Rajon Rondo’s most explosive abilities in mind.
Until Kendrick Perkins returns from reconstructive knee surgery, probably in January, the Celtics middle is going to be older, slower and softer than a Three Dog Night reunion.
But in agreeing to terms with Shaquille O’Neal on a two-year, veteran minimum contract worth approximately $3 million, general manager Danny Ainge once again demonstrated there is no time but the present when it comes to this team winning another NBA title.
Just don’t measure them by a stop watch. Though the Celtics will likely avoid playing their two aging O’Neals (Shaq and Jermaine) together, the sight of both attempting to run the floor with Rondo may be too gruesome to imagine.
On the other hand, this signing was a case of mutual need.
Shaq was about to run out of options. Forays with other teams - teams with more money to offer than the Celtics - had turned sour. His only option, beyond the Celtics, was reportedly Europe.
No wonder he decided to goose the process Monday night on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” by discussing what a good fit the Celtics would be.
And despite signing Jermaine O’Neal, the C’s still needed one more big man to plug the first half of the season in Perkins’ absence.
Little wonder that when Doc Rivers recently paid Shaq a recruiting visit, the Celtics coach was warmly received.
“We recruited each other,” Rivers said last night via text.
Even at this, though, there were a few bumps along the way, including yesterday morning when both sides attempted to finalize the deal.
The C’s were initially committed to offering O’Neal only one year at the veteran minimum of $1.39 million.
It was more, as O’Neal knew, than just about any other team - at least any other team with a legitimate contending chance - was willing to offer.
Cleveland, in its deteriorating post-LeBron James state, was no longer a realistic spot for a return by the one-year Cavalier.
That considered, O’Neal’s new deal - undoubtedly the last by a 38-year-old who has said he wants to retire at age 41 - marked a significant victory by the center. Talks hit a snag yesterday when the Celtics attempted to limit the deal to one year.
But O’Neal, frustrated by a dwindling field of suiters that included the Celtics and possibly the Hawks, eventually had it his way.
It’s unclear whether O’Neal pushed for a more lucrative sign-and-trade arrangement between the Celtics and Cleveland that would have sent the retiring Rasheed Wallace’s $6 million salary slot to the Cavs.
But that conversation reportedly never took place between the teams.
Not that it ultimately mattered anywhere but in O’Neal’s bank account. Rivers was certainly pleased.
“I am very excited,” Rivers said in a statement released by the team yesterday. “Adding a player, like Shaq, is a major plus and it fills a void for our team. He’s a real nice piece of the puzzle and he will complement us in where we want to go this coming season.”
Nate Robinson, ever active on Twitter, put it a little more emphatically upon hearing the news when he posted, “Wow we got @THE-REAL-SHAQ on the celtics we bout to be kick (expletive) like the movie.welcome to beantown.”
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/celtics/view.bg?articleid=1272469
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Uncle: Police find former NBA star Lorenzen Wright dead
By Associated Press
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The uncle of former NBA player Lorenzen Wright says police told the family the athlete who had been missing for 10 days has been found dead.
Curtis Wright told The Associated Press that police called the player’s father, Herb Wright, a couple of hours ago.
Police weren’t commenting, but The Commercial Appeal cited a police source as identifying a body found in field in southeast Memphis as Wright’s.
As police were at that scene, people flooded the area to watch.
The 34-year-old Wright was last seen July 18 when he was expected to fly out of town. His family filed a missing person report July 22.
Wright played 13 years in the NBA with five different teams.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/other_nba/view.bg?articleid=1270858
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The uncle of former NBA player Lorenzen Wright says police told the family the athlete who had been missing for 10 days has been found dead.
Curtis Wright told The Associated Press that police called the player’s father, Herb Wright, a couple of hours ago.
Police weren’t commenting, but The Commercial Appeal cited a police source as identifying a body found in field in southeast Memphis as Wright’s.
As police were at that scene, people flooded the area to watch.
The 34-year-old Wright was last seen July 18 when he was expected to fly out of town. His family filed a missing person report July 22.
Wright played 13 years in the NBA with five different teams.
Article URL: http://www.bostonherald.com/sports/basketball/other_nba/view.bg?articleid=1270858
Lorenzen Wright never forgot promise to friends, family
The Wright Stuff
If my math is right, Vince Chase, Turtle and E were likely still in Queens. And Johnny Drama was on Viking Quest.
It was 2002 and I attempted to put together a piece for Sports Illustrated on NBA players and their entourages. Or, to use the racially tinged term of art, their poss�s. I visited with Gary Payton's crew in Seattle. And Jerry Stackhouse's "Stack Pack" in Detroit. And Ricky Davis' various wingmen in Cleveland.
In the course of the reporting, I heard one story again and again: LorenzenWright, then of the Memphis Grizzlies, was the Jordan of poss�s. Hell, he employed one "bobo" who drew a check just for waking him up every morning.
Like a lot of rumors floating around the sportscape, it contained vestiges of truth, but ultimately it was a lot more complicated. Wright not only kept a sizable entourage, but it also even had a name, "the Wright Stuff." And, yes, Rewis "Raw Dawg" Williams was tasked with getting Wright out of bed each morning at 9:15, a job made even odder by the fact that Wright was married at the time.
Along with Raw Dawg, there was "A-One," "E Man" and two security staffers, Tim and Dennis. They shared "a company car," a green Ford Expedition that Wright, naturally, purchased. They each earned a salary, as much as $2,000 a month. When they went out for barbecue or gambled at the casino in Tunica, Miss., Wright paid. When they each had "The Wright Stuff" tattooed on their arms, Wright picked up the tab on that, too. Stop the story there and it sounds like a trite cautionary tale: groupies, sponges and still another athlete hell-bent on blowing his millions.
But then Wright explained the situation to me. In the early '90s he was the star forward on a Memphis high school team. Raw Dawg was the point guard. They drove around their corpse of a neighborhood in Wright's beat-up car and if they had a few bucks they went to Taco Bell. But they dreamed big. Raw Dawg explained that one night, over a 10-pack of tacos, he and "Ren" made a deal. "If one of us blew up, he'd take care of the other," Raw Dawg recalled. "Of course, to us at the time that meant buying nice shoes."
Raw Dawg stopped growing at 5-foot-9 and went to tiny Tougaloo (Miss.) College. He was supposed to play ball there, but it didn't work out, and he eventually left school. Wright, meanwhile, became a star at Memphis State. In 1996, the Los Angeles Clippers made him a lottery pick. And he remembered the pledge he made Raw Dawg.
It wasn't a debt he was paying, a bet he had lost or blind loyalty. "I wanted him to share in some of my success," Wright said. "Why wouldn't you want your friends with you in the good times?"
For his part, Raw Dawg took his duties seriously. He learned to cook and became Wright's personal chef of sorts. He read up on fitness and physiology and became a personal trainer for Wright. And, yes, there were the wake-up calls, too. "My day is pretty much up to Ren," Raw Dawg said. "The biggest thing is that I be on time."
And the other Wright Stuff members had similar stories. One was a cousin of Wright's who was going through some hard times. "He could use some help," shrugged Wright, then in the middle of a $42 million contract. Another was a longtime friend who had hoped to major in business in college but had dropped out when the bills piled up. Wright wanted to help him, too.
Apart from the odd jobs and the errands, the Wright Stuff served another purpose. Lorenzen Wright's father, Herb, was a well-regarded coach and rec center director in Memphis. When Lorenzen was in grade school, Herb kicked a man out of the gym. The man returned with a gun, opened fire and paralyzed Herb. Now, the Wright Stuff was taking care of Herb, whether it was wheeling him to his courtside seat at a Grizzlies game or shuttling him to his doctors appointments.
So Wright was using his success to help out family members and prop up the careers of quasi-siblings down on their luck. He was happy to let fortunate friends share some scraps of his success. He let a boyhood friend serve as a business manager. Funny, no one wanted to make a half-hour HBO series about this arrangement.
On Wednesday, the Memphis Commercial Appeal reported that law enforcement officials found Wright's body in a wooded area in Memphis. Wright, who played his final NBA game in 2009, was last seen at a Memphis barbershop on July 19.
For whatever sordid details might or might not emerge in the coming days, it bears remembering that this was a guy saddled with pressures beyond basketball who went to great lengths looking after his family and friends.
By: Jon Wertheim (CNNSI)
NABC tells coaches no more financial ties with Pumps
KANSAS CITY, Mo.(AP) -- The National Association of Basketball Coaches said Friday this will be the last year its members can have financial relationships with the Harold Pump Foundation, a charity run by basketball power brokers David and Dana Pump.
The brothers are well known in college basketball circles, sponsoring camps and summer leagues. The NABC, however, said the NCAA has barred financial links in this area, expressing concern about "funneling of money" issues in men's basketball recruiting.
NABC executive director Jim Haney said the move was not necessarily aimed only at the Pumps.
"There are foundations that have been formed to create funding mechanisms for summer programs, for club teams as a means of soliciting funding," Haney told The Associated Press. "One of the things that's occurred, directly or indirectly, is college coaches have felt pressured to contribute to those funds -- 'You fund it, you'll have access to the players that I control.' "
Calls to Double Pump Inc. in Westwood, Calif., were not immediately returned. Yahoo! Sports reported Friday that the NCAA has also adopted legislation shutting down a coaching search company operated by the Pumps called ChampSearch. Tennessee reportedly retained the company before hiring Bruce Pearl as head coach of its men's program.
"What are Dana and I supposed to do?" David Pump told Yahoo! Sports. "Of course I'm very disappointed. Dana and I work our whole life to build our business, and people are doing things like this. Don't you think they're being a little unfair?"
The NCAA's new rules on the subject bar schools and staff to pay a consulting fee "to an individual associated with a prospective student-athlete or to a consulting firm in which an individual associated with a prospective student-athlete has a proprietary or financial interest."
The NCAA did not immediately return calls Friday. Its director of basketball enforcement, LuAnn Humphrey, told Yahoo! Sports there were concerns about a conflict of interest.
"We are going to be concerned about the structure of any business who would potentially meet that definition (of being associated with prospects)," she said. "If you have a consulting firm that is in some way tied to prospects -- some of the benefits or the monies could be going to prospects -- there is that conflict of interest. Is the person being hired because they have a connection to prospects? Or are they being hired because they are a search firm?"
The Kansas City-based NABC said "numerous athletic administrative and coaches" have attended the Harold Pump Foundation golf outing and fundraiser over the past decade. Haney said the NCAA ban doesn't take effect until next year and coaches may attend the foundation's fundraiser this year.
"There may be some guys who decide to attend. There may be some guys who choose not to attend," he said.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The brothers are well known in college basketball circles, sponsoring camps and summer leagues. The NABC, however, said the NCAA has barred financial links in this area, expressing concern about "funneling of money" issues in men's basketball recruiting.
NABC executive director Jim Haney said the move was not necessarily aimed only at the Pumps.
"There are foundations that have been formed to create funding mechanisms for summer programs, for club teams as a means of soliciting funding," Haney told The Associated Press. "One of the things that's occurred, directly or indirectly, is college coaches have felt pressured to contribute to those funds -- 'You fund it, you'll have access to the players that I control.' "
Calls to Double Pump Inc. in Westwood, Calif., were not immediately returned. Yahoo! Sports reported Friday that the NCAA has also adopted legislation shutting down a coaching search company operated by the Pumps called ChampSearch. Tennessee reportedly retained the company before hiring Bruce Pearl as head coach of its men's program.
"What are Dana and I supposed to do?" David Pump told Yahoo! Sports. "Of course I'm very disappointed. Dana and I work our whole life to build our business, and people are doing things like this. Don't you think they're being a little unfair?"
The NCAA's new rules on the subject bar schools and staff to pay a consulting fee "to an individual associated with a prospective student-athlete or to a consulting firm in which an individual associated with a prospective student-athlete has a proprietary or financial interest."
The NCAA did not immediately return calls Friday. Its director of basketball enforcement, LuAnn Humphrey, told Yahoo! Sports there were concerns about a conflict of interest.
"We are going to be concerned about the structure of any business who would potentially meet that definition (of being associated with prospects)," she said. "If you have a consulting firm that is in some way tied to prospects -- some of the benefits or the monies could be going to prospects -- there is that conflict of interest. Is the person being hired because they have a connection to prospects? Or are they being hired because they are a search firm?"
The Kansas City-based NABC said "numerous athletic administrative and coaches" have attended the Harold Pump Foundation golf outing and fundraiser over the past decade. Haney said the NCAA ban doesn't take effect until next year and coaches may attend the foundation's fundraiser this year.
"There may be some guys who decide to attend. There may be some guys who choose not to attend," he said.
Copyright 2010 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Remembering Reggie
By Kirk Minihane
Created 07/27/2010 - 12:21pm
Reggie Lewis died 17 years ago Tuesday.
Hard to believe that he would be 44 years old now, probably be six or seven years out of the league. Maybe he'd be a coach, maybe he'd be sitting next to Mike and Tommy, maybe he would have moved into the front office. Who knows?
My best guess, though, is that he would have retired and just gone away. Reggie Lewis was quiet, shy, retreating. Everything that the year or so after his death wasn't. He wasn't built like a Jo Jo White or M.L. Carr, mugging for JumboTrons or playing a million local golf [1] tournaments. Sure, he would have shown up for the occasional playoff game. And it would have been nice to see Reggie Lewis, after a 16 or 17-year career, be able to watch his No. 35 go up to the rafters. But I think he would have followed the John Havlicek school of ducking out of the spotlight.
He would have also, I think, followed Havlicek somewhere else.
Springfield.
When Reggie Lewis stepped on the floor for Game 1 of the Celtics [2] first-round series with the Hornets [3] on April 29, 1993 it was supposed to be the start of a new era. Larry Bird [4] had retired after the previous season and the skinny kid from Northeastern had taken over as captain. He averaged 20.8 points per game in 1992-93, shooting 47 percent from the floor and nearly 87 percent from the line. Already established as an All-Star, Lewis had proven that he could be the best player on a very good team. The Celtics [2] won 47 games in a tough Eastern Conference [5] (Jordan, the Riley Knicks [6], Price and Daugherty in Cleveland, LJ and Alonzo in Charlotte) and there could be a case made that Reggie Lewis was the second-best shooting guard in the NBA [7] and one the 10-12 best overall players.
And he started out the first three minutes of the Charlotte game seemingly intent on making sure that everyone knew that this was both his team and his time. He scored 10 points in those three minutes, hitting a couple of his trademark pull-up jumpers over Kendall Gill. The idea that Reggie Lewis could be dominant in a playoff game was nothing new -- he was probably the best player not named Michael Jordan [8] in the 1992 playoffs, averaging 28-4-4 in 10 playoff games in 1992, outplaying Reggie Miller for the second straight year in a head-to-head playoff matchup -- but to do it without Bird meant something else to Celtics fans. Everyone liked Reggie enough, but could be THE guy? For those three minutes the answer sure looked like "yes".
And then he staggered and fell …
Look, there is a time and place for talk of Donna Harris and Gilbert Mudge and the Dream Team and Jerome Stanley and Arnold Scheller and unmarked graves and lawsuits and did he or didn't he and why did let him back on the court. But this isn't about that. When Reggie Lewis died a father and husband died. Of course that's paramount over anything else. But it also signaled the death of the Celtics for a decade and a half. The one-two combo of the Len Bias and Reggie Lewis tragedies spiraled the Celtics into 15 years of NBA [7] irrelevance.
Reggie Lewis, at the very worst, was going to be the best player on a year-in, year-out 45-50 win team for a decade. He was never going to be an MVP, but just a level below that. A seven or eight-time All-Star and occasional second or third team All-NBA guy. He couldn't win a title as the best player maybe, but could have done it with one or two other guys at his level. Think Paul Pierce [9].
(Crazy that Pierce would almost certainly not been a Celtic had Lewis lived and had a full career. Lewis would have been 32 years old -- Pierce's age now -- and a team with a still close to prime Reggie Lewis probably wasn't going to pick 10th in the draft. Plus Pierce played the same position and did a lot of the same things offensively. Strange to think that Pierce has been around here forever and it was already five years after Reggie died when he was drafted. Oh, and the NBA was just about to enter a truly ugly era when Reggie died. They sure could have used a quiet, classy guy who eschewed the trash talk and just played basketball during the years of 78-74 games and the likes of Antoine Walker [10] demanding max contracts.)
But he never got that chance. His death is still a mystery (imagine how crazy all the stuff around his death would be today? Remember, no internet and sports talk radio was still young in 1993) but the kind of player he was is not up for argument or whacked out theories.
One of the big reasons I wanted Kevin Durant [11] to end up in Boston in 2007 was because of how much he reminded me of Reggie Lewis. He's a better player than Reggie (not by much, though), but the pull-up jumper and where the ball is released is uncanny. When I see Durant I always think of Reggie. That's the kind of player he was.
An almost impossible cover as a one-on-one scorer. Also one of the two or three players I can remember who actually was a better shooter with a hand in his face as opposed to being wide open (the harder the shot the more likely he made it). His pull-up jumper, usually after two or three hard dribbles with his left hand, was becoming one of the NBA's signature moves by 1993. What made it so difficult to defend was what in large part made Lewis such a good defender -- his long arms. He was 6-foot-7 but seemed 6-11 with his wingspan. Ask Michael Jordan [8] -- nobody defended Jordan better (want proof? [12]). A terrific all-around player on the verge of stardom when it all ended.
Reggie Lewis died 17 years ago Tuesday.
And we still wonder why it happened and what could have been.
Published on WEEI (http://www.weei.com)
Created 07/27/2010 - 12:21pm
Reggie Lewis died 17 years ago Tuesday.
Hard to believe that he would be 44 years old now, probably be six or seven years out of the league. Maybe he'd be a coach, maybe he'd be sitting next to Mike and Tommy, maybe he would have moved into the front office. Who knows?
My best guess, though, is that he would have retired and just gone away. Reggie Lewis was quiet, shy, retreating. Everything that the year or so after his death wasn't. He wasn't built like a Jo Jo White or M.L. Carr, mugging for JumboTrons or playing a million local golf [1] tournaments. Sure, he would have shown up for the occasional playoff game. And it would have been nice to see Reggie Lewis, after a 16 or 17-year career, be able to watch his No. 35 go up to the rafters. But I think he would have followed the John Havlicek school of ducking out of the spotlight.
He would have also, I think, followed Havlicek somewhere else.
Springfield.
When Reggie Lewis stepped on the floor for Game 1 of the Celtics [2] first-round series with the Hornets [3] on April 29, 1993 it was supposed to be the start of a new era. Larry Bird [4] had retired after the previous season and the skinny kid from Northeastern had taken over as captain. He averaged 20.8 points per game in 1992-93, shooting 47 percent from the floor and nearly 87 percent from the line. Already established as an All-Star, Lewis had proven that he could be the best player on a very good team. The Celtics [2] won 47 games in a tough Eastern Conference [5] (Jordan, the Riley Knicks [6], Price and Daugherty in Cleveland, LJ and Alonzo in Charlotte) and there could be a case made that Reggie Lewis was the second-best shooting guard in the NBA [7] and one the 10-12 best overall players.
And he started out the first three minutes of the Charlotte game seemingly intent on making sure that everyone knew that this was both his team and his time. He scored 10 points in those three minutes, hitting a couple of his trademark pull-up jumpers over Kendall Gill. The idea that Reggie Lewis could be dominant in a playoff game was nothing new -- he was probably the best player not named Michael Jordan [8] in the 1992 playoffs, averaging 28-4-4 in 10 playoff games in 1992, outplaying Reggie Miller for the second straight year in a head-to-head playoff matchup -- but to do it without Bird meant something else to Celtics fans. Everyone liked Reggie enough, but could be THE guy? For those three minutes the answer sure looked like "yes".
And then he staggered and fell …
Look, there is a time and place for talk of Donna Harris and Gilbert Mudge and the Dream Team and Jerome Stanley and Arnold Scheller and unmarked graves and lawsuits and did he or didn't he and why did let him back on the court. But this isn't about that. When Reggie Lewis died a father and husband died. Of course that's paramount over anything else. But it also signaled the death of the Celtics for a decade and a half. The one-two combo of the Len Bias and Reggie Lewis tragedies spiraled the Celtics into 15 years of NBA [7] irrelevance.
Reggie Lewis, at the very worst, was going to be the best player on a year-in, year-out 45-50 win team for a decade. He was never going to be an MVP, but just a level below that. A seven or eight-time All-Star and occasional second or third team All-NBA guy. He couldn't win a title as the best player maybe, but could have done it with one or two other guys at his level. Think Paul Pierce [9].
(Crazy that Pierce would almost certainly not been a Celtic had Lewis lived and had a full career. Lewis would have been 32 years old -- Pierce's age now -- and a team with a still close to prime Reggie Lewis probably wasn't going to pick 10th in the draft. Plus Pierce played the same position and did a lot of the same things offensively. Strange to think that Pierce has been around here forever and it was already five years after Reggie died when he was drafted. Oh, and the NBA was just about to enter a truly ugly era when Reggie died. They sure could have used a quiet, classy guy who eschewed the trash talk and just played basketball during the years of 78-74 games and the likes of Antoine Walker [10] demanding max contracts.)
But he never got that chance. His death is still a mystery (imagine how crazy all the stuff around his death would be today? Remember, no internet and sports talk radio was still young in 1993) but the kind of player he was is not up for argument or whacked out theories.
One of the big reasons I wanted Kevin Durant [11] to end up in Boston in 2007 was because of how much he reminded me of Reggie Lewis. He's a better player than Reggie (not by much, though), but the pull-up jumper and where the ball is released is uncanny. When I see Durant I always think of Reggie. That's the kind of player he was.
An almost impossible cover as a one-on-one scorer. Also one of the two or three players I can remember who actually was a better shooter with a hand in his face as opposed to being wide open (the harder the shot the more likely he made it). His pull-up jumper, usually after two or three hard dribbles with his left hand, was becoming one of the NBA's signature moves by 1993. What made it so difficult to defend was what in large part made Lewis such a good defender -- his long arms. He was 6-foot-7 but seemed 6-11 with his wingspan. Ask Michael Jordan [8] -- nobody defended Jordan better (want proof? [12]). A terrific all-around player on the verge of stardom when it all ended.
Reggie Lewis died 17 years ago Tuesday.
And we still wonder why it happened and what could have been.
Published on WEEI (http://www.weei.com)
Former Harvard standout Lin ready to prove himself with Warriors
As he sat on a couch in the coach's office at Palo Alto High School in Northern California, the walls festooned with aged, curling photos of teams from 50 and 60 years ago, Jeremy Lin understood the importance of his contract with the Golden State Warriors. After all, his new deal meant as much to him as it did to the Asian community that has been rooting for him.
But he's chosen to narrow his focus.
"I understand my unique situation," said Lin, who, as an undrafted free agent out of Harvard, signed a two-year deal with Golden State last week. "But I am playing because I love the game. I am not playing for other fans. I don't think that is the right approach to the game. I appreciate everything they do, and I totally appreciate that support -- I really do. But when I step on the floor it is going to be because I love the game, pure and simple.
"When I put that pressure of pleasing everybody else, the Asian community and every other Asian, that's when I lose my joy for playing the game and that is when it's not fun for me anymore because I am playing for the wrong reasons," added Lin, the son of Taiwanese immigrants. "It is impossible to please everybody."
It is interesting to see a player like Lin in these early days of fame. After a solid summer league performance in Las Vegas with the Mavericks, the versatile guard drew interest from other teams, including the Warriors and Lakers. And Golden State, which recently traded C.J. Watson to Chicago and was in need of a backup for Stephen Curry, gave Lin a partially guaranteed contract.
Suddenly, he is being interviewed on national television shows. His parents -- both computer engineers -- are being called by journalists inquiring about his upbringing, and the Warriors are creating a marketing campaign designed specifically for him.
"Just my whole story is so unique," Lin said. "Not only Asian-American, I'm from Harvard, from the Bay Area, I was virtually unknown coming into the draft scene. Not once -- never -- was I on anybody's draft board coming in. Everyone just kind of removed me from the picture once the season ended. My emergence was so sudden."
It was sudden, but perhaps overdue. As a high school senior in 2006, he averaged 15 points, seven assists, six boards and five steals, leading underdog Palo Alto to a state championship over Mater Dei, a team stacked with future NBA talents.
In his senior year at Harvard, Lin averaged 16.4 points, 4.5 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 2.4 steals and was unanimously selected for the All-Ivy League First Team. And his 30-point, nine-rebound performance against 12th-ranked Connecticut had Huskies coach Jim Calhoun saying, "I've seen a lot of teams come through here, and he could play for any of them."
But for Lin, who still drives around in his beat-up Ford Taurus with dents spattered on the driver's side, going pro, he says, is "surreal." Especially with his hometown Warriors.
He often thinks back to 2007 when he was sitting in his Harvard dorm room. The Warriors completed their "We Believe" defeat of the Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs -- the first No. 8 seed to beat a top seed in a seven-game series -- and only he was there to jump up and down in celebration.
How interesting, then, that his choice of where to play in the league came down to those two teams, and the Warriors won out again.
"Well, we'll see," Lin said. "I have not done anything in the NBA yet. Who knows? If my career is terrible, maybe it will be the Dallas Mavericks who won."
You do not hear too many NBA players talk like this, seeds of self-doubt occasionally sprouting. You also rarely hear this sentence: "I compare myself to [Suns backup point guard] Goran Dragic."
Lin may have been a slashing shooting guard at Harvard, but he will have to return to playing point in the NBA, a position he last played in high school. Adding strength and a consistent jump shot and improving his defense and knowledge of the game are musts for every NBA rookie. And Lin is no exception.
But he will also have to reconcile his beliefs with the NBA lifestyle. A non-denominational Christian, he speaks openly of playing for the glory of God, of one day becoming a pastor who can head up non-profit organizations, either here or abroad.
Lin said that when he showed up to play in the Mavericks' mini-camp, he was handed a jersey with the No. 7, God's number, which represents Divine completion.
"I was like, 'Wow, that's interesting,' " Lin said. "Deep down inside, that was God's way of reminding me he was there with me."
But Lin also has heard the stories about the NBA -- reckless spending, women and drugs.
"I know there is a lot of temptation out there and I have heard about the NBA lifestyle," Lin said. "I am not saying I am better than anybody else, but I am going to try to live the way I have always lived and try not to change just because I am in the NBA."
That mini-camp is where Lin really started to believe he was capable of playing at the NBA level. He sensed it at the pre-draft camp in Portsmouth, Va. It was validated as he went around the country participating in individual workouts and discovered time after time that he was as good as, and sometimes better than, the players against whom he was competing.
Still, that was not translating to recognition.
"I thought there were several workouts where I played very well and it just seemed like nobody noticed or cared," Lin said. "I was very confused at times. I'd call my agent and say I was easily the best one in this workout, and no one seemed to care. Deep down inside I believed in myself and it started to show at summer league."
That's when Lin matched up against Wizards point guard John Wall, the top pick in the draft. Everyone in the gym stopped to watch Wall, and they couldn't help but notice the Asian kid who was playing pretty well against him.
That's when the calls began coming in to his agent and this strange journey began. It remains to be seen where it will go.
"I still need to prove I can play in the NBA," Lin said, "and I have not proved that yet."
But he's chosen to narrow his focus.
"I understand my unique situation," said Lin, who, as an undrafted free agent out of Harvard, signed a two-year deal with Golden State last week. "But I am playing because I love the game. I am not playing for other fans. I don't think that is the right approach to the game. I appreciate everything they do, and I totally appreciate that support -- I really do. But when I step on the floor it is going to be because I love the game, pure and simple.
"When I put that pressure of pleasing everybody else, the Asian community and every other Asian, that's when I lose my joy for playing the game and that is when it's not fun for me anymore because I am playing for the wrong reasons," added Lin, the son of Taiwanese immigrants. "It is impossible to please everybody."
It is interesting to see a player like Lin in these early days of fame. After a solid summer league performance in Las Vegas with the Mavericks, the versatile guard drew interest from other teams, including the Warriors and Lakers. And Golden State, which recently traded C.J. Watson to Chicago and was in need of a backup for Stephen Curry, gave Lin a partially guaranteed contract.
Suddenly, he is being interviewed on national television shows. His parents -- both computer engineers -- are being called by journalists inquiring about his upbringing, and the Warriors are creating a marketing campaign designed specifically for him.
"Just my whole story is so unique," Lin said. "Not only Asian-American, I'm from Harvard, from the Bay Area, I was virtually unknown coming into the draft scene. Not once -- never -- was I on anybody's draft board coming in. Everyone just kind of removed me from the picture once the season ended. My emergence was so sudden."
It was sudden, but perhaps overdue. As a high school senior in 2006, he averaged 15 points, seven assists, six boards and five steals, leading underdog Palo Alto to a state championship over Mater Dei, a team stacked with future NBA talents.
In his senior year at Harvard, Lin averaged 16.4 points, 4.5 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 2.4 steals and was unanimously selected for the All-Ivy League First Team. And his 30-point, nine-rebound performance against 12th-ranked Connecticut had Huskies coach Jim Calhoun saying, "I've seen a lot of teams come through here, and he could play for any of them."
But for Lin, who still drives around in his beat-up Ford Taurus with dents spattered on the driver's side, going pro, he says, is "surreal." Especially with his hometown Warriors.
He often thinks back to 2007 when he was sitting in his Harvard dorm room. The Warriors completed their "We Believe" defeat of the Mavericks in the first round of the playoffs -- the first No. 8 seed to beat a top seed in a seven-game series -- and only he was there to jump up and down in celebration.
How interesting, then, that his choice of where to play in the league came down to those two teams, and the Warriors won out again.
"Well, we'll see," Lin said. "I have not done anything in the NBA yet. Who knows? If my career is terrible, maybe it will be the Dallas Mavericks who won."
You do not hear too many NBA players talk like this, seeds of self-doubt occasionally sprouting. You also rarely hear this sentence: "I compare myself to [Suns backup point guard] Goran Dragic."
Lin may have been a slashing shooting guard at Harvard, but he will have to return to playing point in the NBA, a position he last played in high school. Adding strength and a consistent jump shot and improving his defense and knowledge of the game are musts for every NBA rookie. And Lin is no exception.
But he will also have to reconcile his beliefs with the NBA lifestyle. A non-denominational Christian, he speaks openly of playing for the glory of God, of one day becoming a pastor who can head up non-profit organizations, either here or abroad.
Lin said that when he showed up to play in the Mavericks' mini-camp, he was handed a jersey with the No. 7, God's number, which represents Divine completion.
"I was like, 'Wow, that's interesting,' " Lin said. "Deep down inside, that was God's way of reminding me he was there with me."
But Lin also has heard the stories about the NBA -- reckless spending, women and drugs.
"I know there is a lot of temptation out there and I have heard about the NBA lifestyle," Lin said. "I am not saying I am better than anybody else, but I am going to try to live the way I have always lived and try not to change just because I am in the NBA."
That mini-camp is where Lin really started to believe he was capable of playing at the NBA level. He sensed it at the pre-draft camp in Portsmouth, Va. It was validated as he went around the country participating in individual workouts and discovered time after time that he was as good as, and sometimes better than, the players against whom he was competing.
Still, that was not translating to recognition.
"I thought there were several workouts where I played very well and it just seemed like nobody noticed or cared," Lin said. "I was very confused at times. I'd call my agent and say I was easily the best one in this workout, and no one seemed to care. Deep down inside I believed in myself and it started to show at summer league."
That's when Lin matched up against Wizards point guard John Wall, the top pick in the draft. Everyone in the gym stopped to watch Wall, and they couldn't help but notice the Asian kid who was playing pretty well against him.
That's when the calls began coming in to his agent and this strange journey began. It remains to be seen where it will go.
"I still need to prove I can play in the NBA," Lin said, "and I have not proved that yet."
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