Rabu, 30 September 2015
Selasa, 29 September 2015
basketball stream live What It's Like To Be A Woman Playing Competitive Football
"When you step out in to the arena, you challenge yourself."
That's what Deena Fagiano had to say about being a woman who plays tackle football. Fagiano is an offensive lineman for the Chicago Bliss, a team in the Legends Football League. The 7-on-7 League currently has six teams in the U.S.
"Pretty. Strong.", an Oxygen docu-series that begins airing on Oct. 6, follows the women of the Bliss as they manage full-time careers alongside playing tackle football. At a Sept. 27 tailgate celebrating the upcoming release of "Pretty. Strong.", four members of the Chicago Bliss talked to The Huffington Post about their experiences playing in such a male-dominated field.
"It's very empowering," said defensive lineman Yashi Rice. "Especially in 2015, I feel unstoppable. I feel that [women] can do anything that we put our minds to."
The women, who have sports backgrounds in everything from competitive cheerleading to college basketball, all expressed excitement at being able to break down gender barriers and inspire other women to follow their athletic dreams.
"I love the fact that you're able to go absolutely crazy, rage nuts on the field," said wide receiver Alli Alberts. "There's not really another place that a woman's allowed to do that."
"I think it's such an awesome opportunity to be able to play such an aggressive sport, and be actually, breathtakingly beautiful at the same time," said running back ChrisDell Harris. "I'm excited. It's awesome for little girls to grow up and be able to play a professional female sport."
It's hard not to take note of the LFL uniforms, which are very different from the uniforms any male athlete would be asked to wear. In a follow-up email to The Huffington Post, the players shared their thoughts on wearing the famously skimpy uniforms. All four explained that they feel confident and strong in the uniforms, but, as Fagiano put it, "We don't want the focus to be on the uniform, we want the focus to be on how hard we play the game of football!"
Rice said that when she is wearing the uniform, she is "embracing [her] athletic and sexy side." Alberts shared a similar opinion.
“I actually enjoy looking good in the uniforms, and it really made me appreciate and accept my body after I started playing," Alberts said. "Now that I've played for a few years, I wouldn't mind having more of a sports bra cut on the top and a boyshort or spandex for the bottom.”
Harris told HuffPost that she was originally worried that her father wouldn't approve of the uniforms, but that he was quickly able to look past the outfits and focus on her skill in the sport.
"After he came to my first game, it was all uphill from there," she said.
At the end of the tailgate, the players offered advice to young girls interested in playing competitive sports.
Harris encouraged tomboys to be themselves, and Alberts urged young girls to keep playing against their male peers, because "If you can beat the boys, you'll be the best."
"Women should never be afraid of any failure," Fagiano added. "Don't give up. Never stop."
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basketball stream live Larry Brown And SMU Suspended By NCAA For Academic Fraud
DALLAS — The NCAA banned the SMU men's basketball team from postseason play Tuesday and suspended veteran coach Larry Brown for nine games after concluding that he lied to investigators, ignored academic fraud and fell far short of expectations in leading his staff when it came to compliance.
In a scathing report, the NCAA noted that Brown had previously coached at Kansas and UCLA yet made "choices against his better judgment when it came to compliance issues" at SMU, where he is preparing for his fourth season.
"These choices included not reporting possible violations in his program, initially lying to the enforcement staff during the investigation and providing no specific guidance to his staff on rules compliance," the NCAA said in punishing SMU for its 10th major infractions case over the years.
SMU did not immediately comment on the findings, which it can appeal.
The NCAA said Brown had acknowledged "his failed judgment" during a hearing on the case and that it found him "reflective and remorseful."
"But I realize, you know, in hindsight that was a terrible mistake on my part," Brown said, according to the NCAA report. "I wish I could have changed all that. But we had that interview with the NCAA, I don't know why I lied. You know, dealing with people that I really care about, and I used terrible judgment, and I tried to acknowledge that as quickly as I could, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. I realize that."
Brown led Kansas to the 1988 national championship before returning to the NBA as San Antonio's coach. But the Jayhawks were banned from postseason play the next season and placed on probation for recruiting violations during Brown's tenure. UCLA was 42-17 in Brown's two seasons, but the Bruins' runner-up finish in the 1980 NCAA tournament was later vacated by the NCAA after two players were determined to be ineligible.
The SMU infractions were revealed more than eight months after the school acknowledged an NCAA investigation and months before the Mustangs went to the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1993. The basketball team will also lose nine scholarships over the next three seasons.
SMU's acknowledgement of an investigation in January came after an appeal of an academic suspension that sidelined sophomore guard Keith Frazier the rest of the season. That was also days after assistant coach Ulric Maligi, who recruited Frazier out of Kimball High in Dallas, took an indefinite leave of absence for personal reasons. Maligi is no longer on staff.
While no names were revealed in its report, the NCAA said a former assistant men's basketball coach encouraged an athlete to enroll in an online course to meet NCAA initial eligibility standards and be admitted to the university. The NCAA also said a former men's basketball administrative assistant hired by Brown then completed the coursework; she then provided false information to NCAA investigators and also attempted to influence the player to also provide false information.
According to the report, Brown learned of the misconduct in 2014 and didn't report it to anyone for more than a month.
When asked by the NCAA enforcement staff about the potential violations, he initially denied having any information about conversations with the former administrative assistant and player. He later explained why.
"Now, this might sound so silly, when all these allegations are read, and when (enforcement staff) was basically taking the position I didn't do the right thing, I can't argue with that," Brown said, according to the NCAA. "There is no excuse for not going to (the athletic director) when (the student-athlete) told me he didn't do this online the course. That's all he said to me. There is no excuse for that, there is no excuse to go before the committee and not tell the truth when a question is directed at you. I have no excuse for that. I did not do that promptly."
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basketball stream live Kobe Bryant Teaches D'Angelo Russell The Secret To Laker Basketball
D'Angelo Russell, the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 NBA Draft, has been handed a gift: He gets to start his career under the mentorship of five-time champion Kobe Bryant, one of the greatest NBA minds of this or any generation.
So what was one of the first lessons Bryant, who has a vast amount of NBA knowledge over his two-decade NBA career, imparted on the rookie? Let's go to AP reporter Greg Beacham:
That's right, Bryant essentially told Russell "pass me the ball and get out of my way."
Bryant admitting that he likes to shoot the ball should be of no surprise to Russell. Earlier in August, in a video for SB Nation, Russell "imitated" Kobe with a herky-jerky motion that Bryant often uses to evade defenders. The No. 2 overall pick then finished the imitation by chucking up a likely contested, fadeaway jumper.
Russell might be able to get more shots when Bryant retires -- whenever that may be. But at least he now knows the first rule of Laker basketball: Get the ball to No. 24.
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basketball stream live Dwyane Wade Is Really Good At Lip-Syncing 'This Is How We Do It'
Bad knee or not, Dwyane Wade proved his value to the basketball world at the Miami Heat’s Media Day on Monday afternoon.
Outfitted in a multi-colored fanny pack and a gold chain, Wade lip-synced to an impressive amount of Montell Jordan’s 1995 hit “This Is How We Do It" yesterday, dancing and cheesing for the cameras.
Media Day is typically filled with players’ trope answers to reporters’ commonplace questions. Methinks Wade just revolutionized Media Day.
Forget LeBron; the 107 seconds of this video may just be peak Miami Heat.
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Senin, 28 September 2015
basketball stream live Gregg Popovich Breaks The Fourth Wall In Hilariously Uncomfortable Interview
If you didn't know, San Antonio Spurs coach Gregg Popovich hates talking to reporters. In game, postgame, during the offseason -- it doesn't matter where or when Popovich speaks to the media, because more often than not, he'll find himself dissatisfied with the questions being asked of him.
Lo and behold, on the NBA's pre-training camp media day, Popovich naturally found himself at odds with another basketball reporter. This time, NBA TV's Jared Greenberg was on the receiving end of Popovich's venomous crank, which made for one painfully awkward interview on Monday.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is what it looks like when a reporter totally loses control of his interview.
"Are there some questions here you're going to ask me?" is probably the meanest answer to an actual question one can imagine. Not stopping there, "I have no idea what you're talking about" and "I think you made that up" were just a few of the burns Popovich had in response to Greenberg's questions.
The whole segment was "painfully awkward" in the way Larry David made us gawk during episodes of "Curb Your Enthusiasm" or how Steve Carrell forced us to nervously LOL during scenes from "The Office." So much hurt, but so many laughs.
Popovich's continued trolling of NBA reporters could be classified as comedic genius at this point. He holds the power to make interviewers squirm for our entertainment and he knows it.
If anything though, he's become too self-aware of his pervasive saltiness. While speaking to Greenberg, he eventually cut the act and broke the fourth wall.
“I’m screwing with you, because I’m getting ready for the season. You can cancel all this stuff. Now we can start the interview," said Popovich, looking directly into the camera.
“I just wanted to prepare myself to talk to all those jerks over there too," he continued.
Ah, classic Pop. The NBA is nearly back. Nearly.
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basketball stream live Wizards Star John Wall Donates $400,000 To Help Homeless Kids
Washington Wizards star John Wall is helping homeless children by donating $400,000 to a charity that serves kids whose families are in shelters or transitional housing.
Bright Beginnings, which provides childcare and educational services for around 162 kids each day, made an announcement about the donation on its Facebook page Friday.
“Support from individuals like Mr. Wall, gives Bright Beginnings the encouragement to continue to provide comprehensive services for homeless children in the District of Columbia,” Betty Jo Gaines, the organization's executive director, said in the statement. “It is evident that John Wall is sensitive and concerned about the plight of homeless children in D.C. and he wants these children to succeed.”
The center, which focuses on kids preschool-age and younger, hopes to open a second child development center that would serve an additional 100 children, according to the Washington City Paper. The donation, which Wall made via the John Wall Family Foundation, will help the center achieve that goal.
In addition to the generous donation, the point guard also a hosted two half-day-long youth basketball camps in Potamac, Maryland, this past weekend. Last year, SB Nation praised the player’s philanthropic work, noting that he donated $1 million to D.C. charities in 2013 and has partnered with the Boys & Girls clubs of Greater Washington to promote education for young people.
Contact the author of this article at Hilary.Hanson@huffingonpost.com.
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Sabtu, 26 September 2015
basketball stream live The Myth of SEC Football
With college teams being voted upon--rather than engaging in a March Madness-style tournament like college basketball, or playing against "equal" competition, as they do in the NFL--there's no way we can ever know how great (or not so great) a team is.
In order to win a so-called "national championship," you have to be voted into the championship game. That's the only way you can win, by being invited to play in it. And up until a year ago, the voters made sure an SEC team was almost always invited.
What gives the SEC such an advantage in the polls is that they have this built-in "winning" mechanism. It works like this: When a low-ranked SEC team beats a high-ranked SEC team, instead of concluding that the conference is having an "off" year, the voters lose all perspective and succumb to the myth, gushing at how "powerful," from top to bottom, the SEC is.
In any other conference, the exact opposite happens. For example, if a low-ranked Big 10 school beats a high-ranked Big 10 team, the voters sadly conclude that the Big 10 conference is overrated. Illinois beating Ohio St. is something to be ashamed of. Kentucky beating Alabama is something to be proud of. Why? It's the SEC.
The same applies to the PAC-12. In fact, it applies especially to the PAC-12, because this is the West Coast, it's Hollywood, it's beaches, surfing, car culture, drugs, and bearded professors. West Coast football is, by definition, soft and effeminate, whereas Dixie football is, by definition, "country boy football," the real deal.
In 2007, a heavily favored USC team lost by one point (24-23) to Stanford at the LA Coliseum. Some football pundits actually referred to it as the "greatest upset in college football history."
Of course, it goes without saying that had this occurred in the SEC, they would marveled at how incredibly strong the conference was, from top to bottom. But that ain't going to happen in the PAC-12
Mind you, not only was Stanford a conference school, it was (and is) a big-time college program, with people like Jim Plunkett and John Elway having played there, and people like Bill Walsh having coached there. Indeed, the coach of the team that beat USC was Jim Harbaugh, soon to be a successful NFL coach.
So what happened last year, when college football finally went to something vaguely resembling a "playoff" configuration (where you could be voted into the playoffs, but not the championship game)?
What happened was that the SEC never made it. Alabama got beaten by an underdog Ohio State team, advertised to be way slower, stodgier and less athletic than the vaunted SEC. Instead, OSU beat Alabama decisively, and did it with speed and athleticism.
Again, no one is saying the SEC isn't impressive. They've produced some great players (e.g., the remarkable Manning brothers, two future Hall of Famers) and memorable teams. Had Ole Miss or Mississippi State been savvy enough to sign Bret Favre (who chose Southern Mississippi), they would have had yet another HOF'er.
But not only has the SEC profited from its reputation, it has also protected itself by playing some of the weakest opponents ever to appear on the schedule of a big-time college team, which, given that beating lousy teams allows them to climb in the polls, shows how smart they are. Say what you will, but the SEC deserves credit for knowing how to exploit the system.
If the NFL had a vote instead of a playoff system, the 2005 Pittsburgh Steelers (11-5, 2nd in the AFC North) would never have been chosen to play Seattle in Super Bowl XL. They would have been reduced to spectators. But look at what Pittsburgh accomplished. They roundly kicked everyone's butt. Yes! Go, Steelers!
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basketball stream live High School Quarterback Dies After Getting Tackled During Game
Warren Hills Regional High School varsity quarterback Evan Murray died after taking a hit during a home game on Friday night. He was 17.
The Washington, New Jersey, senior died in the hospital after telling teammates he was "woozy" but fine, giving a thumbs-up as he was carried away in a stretcher, the New York Daily News reports. He was hit by an opposing Summit High School player late in the second quarter, but friends told NJ.com that he got up on his own power.
He then collapsed on the sideline.
"Our coach was telling us he was going to be all right," cheerleader Kaitlin Bell, 16, told the Daily News. "We didn't expect anything would happen."
Friends took to social media to eulogize Murray after hearing the grim news that he may have suffered a heart attack.
An autopsy to determine Murray's cause of death was scheduled for Saturday afternoon.
"We're all very deeply saddened by the passing of Evan Murray," Gary Bowen, interim superintendent of schools, told NJ.com.
Murray's team reportedly went on to win the game. His teammates then left the stadium to meet his family in the hospital.
The student was part of the National Honor Society and a three-sport athlete, playing on the varsity basketball and baseball teams, according to a GoFundMe page set up to help his family. Donations had already reached more than $13,000 on Saturday afternoon.
The news of Murray's death spread through the state quickly. New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) extended his "thoughts and prayers" over Twitter on Saturday afternoon.
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Jumat, 25 September 2015
basketball stream live Utah Jazz Center Rudy Gobert Will Break Out in 2015-2016
Last year, Gobert's 8.4 points and 9.5 rebounds per game were certainly not eye-popping numbers. However, if you look past these basic numbers, you'll certainly be impressed and optimistic about the Frenchman's future.
He played in all 82 games and played a lot of minutes for a player of his size at his position. The NBA season is a long, arduous path, especially for frontcourt players, who tend to be more fragile than backcourt players, due to the constant contact down on the block. This showing of durability also put to rest claims that the big man would be facing injury concerns throughout his career, after missing 37 games during his rookie season.
He started 37 games in 2014-2015, due to Enes Kanter's departure midway through the season. In those starts, he was a nightly double-double threat and averaged 10.6 points and 12.4 rebounds per contest.
While as a reserve, Gobert didn't see major minutes, but after he became a starter, he recorded 30-plus minutes in 32 of his 37 starts, including two 40-plus minute nights. As a starting center, he logged 34.4 minutes per game, which is a testament to his physical fitness. Another main reason? He committed just 2.1 fouls per game as a starter, which is remarkable for an interior post defender in today's NBA.
Gobert ranked 3rd in the NBA with 2.30 blocks per game. This is despite not getting major minutes for over half of the season. But, that's just the beginning of trying to quantify his efficiency on the court. In fact, he blocked 7.0 percent of total two-point shots taken against him, good for the second-best mark in the NBA among qualified players (John Henson was first with a 9.2 percent mark).
The three qualified centers who ranked above Gobert's Player Efficiency Rating of 21.6 last year were DeMarcus Cousins (25.2), Brook Lopez (22.7), and Marc Gasol (21.7). Player Efficiency Rating is a measure of per-minute production that's standardized so that the league average is 15.0. For comparison, Gobert ranked ahead of star players like Carmelo Anthony, Kyrie Irving, Andre Drummond, Al Horford, Dwyane Wade, DeAndre Jordan, Klay Thompson, Dwight Howard, John Wall, and Damian Lillard in this regard. This doesn't suggest that he's better than these players, per se, but it does mean that he was more statistically-productive during his time on the court.
He also appeared towards the top of other metrics, finishing 5th among qualified players in Total Rebound Percentage (20.7), which is a measure of the number of available rebounds the player brought in while on the court. Translation: Gobert was hungry for the basketball.
Gobert ranked 15th in the NBA in Win Shares, adding 9.3 wins to the Jazz's season output and ranked 7th in Defensive Win Shares, at 4.3. In addition, he ranked 11th in VORP (Value Over Replacement Player), at a 4.3 mark, thus further bolstering claims that he was one of the most productive frontcourt players in the NBA while on the hardwood last season.
As we have seen with players like Miami's Hassan Whiteside, finding a center who can be the defensive cornerstone of the franchise is a luxury that can't be ignored. Like Whiteside, Gobert is raw offensively, but possesses incredible length and ability on the defensive side of the ball. Unlike Miami, the Jazz don't have key role players to take over the scoring load (Derrick Favors and Gordon Hayward are not Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade by any stretch of the imagination). Therefore, I fully expect Gobert to have more potential on the offensive side of the ball mainly because he will have more opportunities to score the basketball.
Head coach Quin Snyder also seems to be adamant about Gobert demanding the ball on the low block heading into this season.
on Rudy's offense: "Go take it. Demand the ball. He's getting more comfortable. He shows the team film of them not passing to him." Snyder
— Austin Horton (@austinhorton) September 24, 2015
Last season, he took 6.7 shots per game as a starter, making 59.4 percent of the high-percentage opportunities close to the rim. Look for him to up these numbers, especially after a confidence-building offseason dominating with the French National Team in international competitions. Defensively, I can see him easily cracking the top 10 in terms of rebounding, and I fully expect him to lead the league in blocked shots.
Reminder: Rudy Gobert was the 27th pick in the 2013 draft. Eight centers went before him (including Lucas Nogueira, Mason Plumlee, etc.).
— Alex Kennedy (@AlexKennedyNBA) September 17, 2015
What's truly amazing is that eight other centers were selected before Gobert in the 2013 NBA Draft. Those general managers must be kicking themselves now, since they passed up on who I think will become the NBA's best French player in 2015-2016 and one of the best all-around centers in the league for years to come.
Look for an All-Star appearance in 2015-2016 for Gobert with many more on the horizon.
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basketball stream live 37 Years Ago, A Female Journalist Won The Right To Do Her Job
On Sept. 25, 1978, a federal judge in New York ruled that the New York Yankees could no longer enforce an MLB policy that banned female reporters from the locker room on the grounds that it gave an unfair advantage to their male peers and violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The case was brought forward by a young Sports Illustrated reporter by the name of Melissa Ludtke, who had been tasked with covering the 1977 World Series between the Yankees and the Los Angeles Dodgers. Ludtke would go on to have a distinguished career in journalism, but it will always be that day in September in which her influence was most felt -- a declaration that female reporters belonged right there next to the men.
The Huffington Post spoke with Ludtke for the 37th anniversary of her victory about what that moment taught her, what she hopes young female journalists today can take away from it and whether things are better or worse in the industry today than they were back in 1978.
What did everything that happened in 1978 teach you, as a reporter, about how to deal with being a woman in a male-dominated field?
What I learned, as one of the only women covering baseball at the time, was that I better know damn well what I'm talking about when I open my mouth, because there are going to be a lot of people watching me, a lot of people ready to say that I don't know what I'm talking about, a lot of people running to the assumption that I have to be there for some other reason than that I actually think I can do this job. That's kind of my memory of that time -- putting pressure on myself to be as absolutely as prepared as I could possibly be whenever I opened my mouth to speak or ask a question. That might have meant me doing a lot more reading and research and knowing things a lot better than maybe lot of people around me did when they went up to ask questions. But it always gave me a feeling that at least I belonged.
What I learned, as one of the only women covering baseball at the time, was that I better know damn well what I'm talking about.
Unfortunately, that sounds like that I hear when I talk to female sports writers and reporters still today. Do you think things have changed that much since 1978? Or do you still feel like there's still just so much progress left to go?
There's a lot of progress left to go. [One thing that's worse is] the social media environment, [which] is clearly something that we did not have back then. When people wanted to say something about me or about my lawsuit or about women in general doing this job, they actually had to put their byline on top of it. A lot of critics and a lot of sports columnists who went after me and this legal action and are really present in their profession, they did it with a restraint that I don't see now, and this, of course, goes far wider than sports journalism. You see it across the board with much of what is out there [today]. If women come to express an opinion that someone doesn't like, often anonymously the criticism comes back in very sexist terms -- most people would also say misogynist, in many ways. So in some ways, I think that the women today who are out there doing this job, they [work in] an even more challenging environment than I did because of the anonymity, [because] of people's ability to say things about them and characterize them in ways that they couldn't do back then.
The women today who are out there doing this job, they [work in] an even more challenging environment than I did.
[Sexism in sports journalism] been discussed more in the weeks since Norwood Teague, the athletic director at the University of Minnesota, was dismissed over sexual harassment allegations, and Minneapolis Star-Tribune reporter Amelia Rayno subsequently wrote about all the harassment she faced [from him].
Her story led to other young sports reporters to talk about the harassment they still face today inside the locker room and outside of it. What kind of advice to you have for young female sports journalists, or young female journalists in general, to push back against this sort of harassment and do as well as you can in such a male-dominated environment?
I followed that story that you're referring to, and I read lots of the commentary about it. I read her piece that she wrote about that, and I have to say that I thought back to my own time. Taking this out of just the sports arena, this is a situation that faces many women in their workplaces, where they face, sometimes on a daily basis, things that they would regard as sexual harassment, either in comments or in treatment that they get, etc. But it is extremely difficult to voice that within that environment and feel that you are going to get an honest hearing.
I think many women rightfully, sadly, feel that if they do voice this and try to express it even within the channels that may have been set up for this, that they are going to find that their workplaces become an even more challenging place for them. The easiest solution may be for your boss to say, "Well, OK, we’re just going to move you out of there." That's the easy way. The harder way is to continue to do the day-to-day work to change the attitudes and the practices and the treatment patterns that are still sadly prevalent for us.
Anyone who faces that sort of harassment or challenging situation has to really work within herself to balance off the risk that goes with voicing what has happened. But if you love your job and you just want to be out there doing it, you just keep believing that if you keep doing it, these things will go away, that somehow the path will clear itself out. And I certainly can relate to that. I think there were many incidents where I felt that way back in the '70s.
One of the last things [women] want to do is go into an environment where they might end up trying to conduct an interview with a man who is naked.
While I was doing research for this interview, I came across a quote of yours in which you said, "Most people understood [the lawsuit] as girls wanting to go into a locker room and see men naked." I also read a Richard Deitsch column in Sports Illustrated that talked extensively about the harassment that women still face in the locker room. I’ve asked you what you think young women can take away from this, but what about people in the sports world who aren't young female journalists, the men who make up those locker rooms? Is there anything you wish they understood that they don't maybe hear day-to-day?
The characterization you give that quote was, in fact, the way that our case and my interest in having this equal access was characterized by Major League Baseball -- in the way that they conducted themselves in the interviews about it, but also in the arguments that were made before judge [Constance Baker] Motley in the courtroom.
That was the intonation, that there was something inside of me, as a woman, that wanted to be around men who were naked. I think what that is is men putting themselves in the position of women and thinking that women see the world through the same eyes as they do. Because during that time, many, many columnists made the comparison that if women could go into the men's locker room, then clearly they should be able to go in and see Chrissie Evert naked or they should be able to go in and interview the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders. So there was, I think, this kind of putting on to women what might be men's own fantasies. I think that if they ever talked to women, they would find that one of the last things they want to do is go into an environment where they might end up trying to conduct an interview with a man who is naked in front of them. That is not something that any woman would choose to do.
So I would say to the athletes that if they want to provoke this kind of circumstance, then continue to do it in that way. They both embarrass themselves and they make the whole situation much less conducive to working for everyone. It just doesn't make sense. It just doesn't make sense. You do not have to be naked. It is only difficult if you want to make it difficult. If you understand why its important to make it work, it can work. And it did work well in many instances, even back in the 1970s, when athletes were getting used to it. There were many times that I ended up in locker rooms whether it was in the NBA or in baseball, the two major sports I covered, where there wasn't any incident. It wasn't a major thing.
This was not about the issue of nakedness. This was about the issue of exclusion.
[In fact,] the major time that most beat writers and magazine writers did their interviews [in the locker room] was actually before the game, between the batting practice and when the game started. There would be roughly half an hour, and during that time, there was not one naked athlete in there. They had their uniforms on for batting practice and they kept their uniforms on. [Yet] we were not permitted there either during that time. So this was not about the issue of nakedness. This was about the issue of exclusion, of not wanting women to come into a clubhouse. This was sort of a place that was supposed to be for men only. It was really perceived in the '70s to be the last bastion where men could be men.
Do you think that culture still exists today?
I'm not around it, but I think it has probably gotten better because there have been more women around, and you know people have gotten more used to it. The numbers are out there more. Women have proven themselves over and over and over again of being enormously capable of doing this job.
And there were always, among these athletes, those who would stand up for understanding that women deserve to have equal access to do this job. ... I don't want to forget that there were and are some terrific, terrific people who really get this and have been leaders both in the clubhouse and in this issue. That should not be forgotten.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
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Kamis, 24 September 2015
basketball stream live John Calipari Was Super Duper Pumped To See The Pope
Pope Francis spoke to Congress today as part of his ongoing tour of the United States. While politicians in attendance at Capitol Hill were profoundly moved by his historic address, the basketball coach in the audience may have been the most excited person to see the Pope.
At the invitation of House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, University of Kentucky head basketball coach John Calipari went down to Washington, D.C., today to bask in the Pope's 3,404-word speech.
He tried to live-tweet and take photos of the event, but wasn't allowed to bring his phone inside the building.
Nevertheless, Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) nabbed a picture of Calipari, who flashed a quick grin for the camera. Look at how happy this man is:
When Calipari got his phone back after the speech, he fired off a few tweets, giving his broad thoughts on Pope Francis.
No word on if Pope Francis was offered a scholarship after his standout performance.
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basketball stream live Why The NCAA Is So Uneasy About The Rise Of Daily Fantasy Sports
America's four major professional sports leagues and their teams have jumped aboard the growing behemoth that is the daily fantasy sports industry, signing exclusive partnerships with or investing in DraftKings and FanDuel, the two largest daily fantasy websites.
But in the NCAA, the rise of daily fantasy is turning heads -- and stomachs -- as the world of college sports tries to reckon with the rise and popularity of the industry.
At a speech in Dallas on Tuesday, NCAA vice president Oliver Luck reminded college athletes that participating in daily fantasy leagues violates NCAA rules and would jeopardize their eligibility. That followed warnings about gambling and daily fantasy from Big 12 conference commissioner Bob Bowlsby at a speech in Washington on Monday. And on Saturday, PAC 12 commissioner Larry Scott told reporters that the NCAA's major football conferences sent letters to DraftKings and FanDuel, asking them to quit offering college sports-themed daily fantasy games.
The NCAA and pro sports leagues have long argued that traditional sports gambling threatens the integrity of their events, as they did when they collectively sued New Jersey to halt its attempt to legalize sports betting.
But the pro leagues have made accommodations for daily fantasy as it continues to drive up revenues, and they have justified their partnerships with the industry by relying on the murky legal landscape around it. A 2006 federal law prohibiting online gambling includes a carve-out for fantasy sports that the industry and leagues say separates daily fantasy from traditional wagering, which is illegal in most states.
The NCAA, however, classifies paid fantasy sports as gambling, and its bylaws and a pamphlet distributed to players make clear that they are prohibited from participating. Its comparative queasiness about fantasy, including the daily version, likely stems from factors that separate it from its professional counterparts on the issue -- chiefly, its adherence to amateurism, and the risk that it believes any form of wagering poses both to that primary tenet and to the integrity of games played by athletes who aren't compensated.
Some gaming law experts say they see hypocrisy in the NCAA's stance that daily fantasy and other forms of gambling threaten "the well-being of student-athletes," as a spokesman said in a statement Tuesday. The PAC 12 is still running daily fantasy ads during its games, and conferences and athletic programs benefit from the increased interest and ad revenue that comes along with the contests' connection to college sports.
"They want all of the benefits, but none of the burdens," said Daniel Wallach, a Florida gaming law attorney. "They're profiting too."
The NCAA may have some legitimate gambling concerns, and it can point to recent scandals to argue that point: Football and basketball players at the University of Toledo were implicated in a point-shaving scandal spanning 2004 to 2006, and federal authorities indicted an assistant coach and multiple basketball players at the University of San Diego in 2011 on charges that they took money to shave points or throw games. To the NCAA, paid fantasy brings similar threats in a different form.
"I think the NCAA sees daily fantasy as a gateway to other forms of gambling," said Jeffrey Standen, a gaming law expert and the dean of Northern Kentucky University's law school. "Because of the fact that they aren't paid, they're more susceptible to corruption, to bribery from gamblers. For most athletes, college is the end of the road. And for a point guard in his senior year, or a quarterback with no professional prospects, it's more enticing."
Some of the professional leagues have started to soften stances on traditional gaming as the size of the underground sports betting industry continues to grow and the prospects for reining it seem increasingly remote. NBA commissioner Adam Silver called for legal and regulated sports gambling in a New York Times editorial last year, and MLB commissioner Rob Manfred has indicated that his league may revisit its stance on the issue in the near future.
The NCAA, however, remains committed to its opposition, and its classification of daily fantasy as gambling means its position likely won't change soon.
But it may be taking the wrong tack, some gambling experts said. Prohibition is "an antiquated approach" that doesn't adequately stem the threat different forms of gambling or fantasy may pose to athletic events, Wallach said.
"The risk that high-rollers will pay athletes to alter their performance already exists," Wallach said. "Regardless of the position the NCAA takes" on daily fantasy, "those athletes remain susceptible."
Indeed, the NCAA has been unable to totally stop gambling or fantasy participation among its athletes. A 2004 survey it commissioned found that 35 percent of male athletes bet on college sports and that 1.4 percent of athletes said they had altered their performance to affect the outcome of games. A similar survey in 2012 found that half of athletes said they had participated in free fantasy sports. Nearly 20 percent said they had paid to play, and that 4.6 percent had been contacted by "outside sources" seeking insider information, accoriding to the survey.
The NCAA, like pro leagues, has largely relied on Las Vegas sports books to monitor potentially problematic gambling activity, a fact an NCAA enforcement chief admitted in recently unsealed New Jersey deposition documents Wallach found. (It was a Vegas book's notice of irregularities in betting that unearthed the Toledo scandal.) That is an indication, Wallach said, that changing attitudes toward a legalized avenue for gambling -- which could also include closer regulations on activities like daily fantasy -- would provide better monitoring than the current system, in which legal gambling makes up roughly 5 percent of the money wagered on sporting events annually.
"We've seen that the tiny amount that is regulated and monitored is instrumental in bringing (problems) to light," Wallach said. "Right now," he added, everyone "is in the dark."
The NCAA probably won't adopt that view. But changes, or perhaps more clarity, may be coming to daily fantasy, as Congress and state legislatures apply more scrutiny to the industry.
The NCAA likely has little legal recourse to force DraftKings and FanDuel to stop offering college-themed contests, experts said, and the benefits daily fantasy may bring college sports may prevent the conferences from taking action, at least for now. Which means the NCAA and its members may have no choice but to ride out the changing atmosphere around daily fantasy -- and to shift their approach to the issue, too.
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Rabu, 23 September 2015
basketball stream live Highest-Priced Basketball Memorabilia
Have you cleaned out an attic lately and found a basketball autographed by some kid at the University of North Carolina named Jordan? You may want to hang onto that and get it appraised. The original Magic Mike can bring in the big bucks.
Michael Jordan basketball collectables (pictured below) are some of the highest-priced pieces of sport memorabilia because of their high market demand. A game-used jersey from his North Carolina days sold for $114,000, and his 1986-1987 Fleer rookie card sells for $100,000 in mint condition and in the $300,000 range if autographed. Unfortunately, this may also be the most counterfeited card in existence based on price and demand.
Older basketball cards and souvenirs tend to be more valuable, simply for the scarcity. There is plenty of LeBron James memorabilia available on the market costing thousands of dollars, and that keeps the price from heading into the tens of thousands. For example, the game-used jersey from Wilt Chamberlain's hundred-point game in 1961-1962 -- yes, kids, Wilt the Stilt scored 100 points in a real live NBA game -- recently sold for over $130,000, while the 1948 card of George Mikan, the gentle giant of the then-Minneapolis Lakers (pictured below), sold for $218,550.
If you do happen to stumble across basketball memorabilia in your attic or old collection that your eccentric uncle bequeathed to you, the first order of business is to assess its value honestly. For any potentially valuable pieces, it is best to have it appraised by a professional. However, you can do a reasonable first-pass assessment of value using online resources, especially eBay.
Start by understanding what you have. Card values can be looked up online by the card manufacturer (which will be noted on the back of the card) and by the year (look on the back for the last year of statistics, then add a year). Multiple price guides and sports collectable auction sites, as well as eBay, are available for price comparisons. Signed jerseys, basketballs, and old programs can also be priced on those sites.
Do not overlook college memorabilia. Many collegiate fan bases pay top dollar for souvenirs from hometown heroes, even if they never went on to NBA stardom.
Evaluate the condition of any collectibles carefully. It makes a huge difference in card prices at the highest levels. Well-centered cards with sharp corners are preferred, with no creases, scratches or markings, except for legitimate autographs. Look for legibility and location of the signature with signed basketballs or jerseys, and try to establish authenticity by whatever means possible. Otherwise, you leave it in the hands of an appraiser who may or may not have a vested interest in low-balling you.
Your most likely valuable finds are from the 1986-1987 Fleer trading cards set. Unlike baseball cards from that era, basketball cards had been almost completely absent from the market. Topps halted production after the 1981-1982 season, making a Fleer's set full of five years' worth of "rookie cards," including the Jordan rookie, highly valuable.
Finally, do not assume that it must be a card, an autographed basketball, or a jersey to be valuable. Ticket stubs (especially unredeemed ones) for important games, programs, promotional items, and other objects can have disproportionate value. The card company Upper Deck actually purchased the wood floor from Michael Jordan's final championship game in the Delta Center for a cool $1 million -- not that you are likely to find a piece of that in your attic.
To illustrate this point, the most expensive piece of basketball memorabilia sold is not a basketball, an autograph, a card, or a jersey. Dr. James Naismith's original manuscript on the founding rules of basketball sold for over $4.3 million in 2010. Take that, Michael and LeBron.
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Basketball cards by Hgrobe (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://ift.tt/HKkdTz)], via Wikimedia Commons | Michael Jordan memorabilia by Marcin Wichary [CC BY 2.0 (http://ift.tt/o655VX)], via Wikimedia Commons
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basketball stream live Can Deontay Wilder Save Boxing From Floyd Mayweather?
TUSCALOOSA, Alabama -- The heavyweight champion of the world was stepping into his bronze Rolls Royce Phantom one afternoon this August when a man walked up and asked for a picture.
“What position does he play?” the selfie-seeker asked a nearby photographer after Deontay Wilder drove away.
It wasn't the first time someone had mistaken Wilder, the 6-foot-7, 220-pound holder of the World Boxing Council's heavyweight championship belt, for a ballplayer. Wilder -- the first American heavyweight champ in nearly a decade -- hails from Tuscaloosa, Alabama, home of the Crimson Tide. Most people don't know about his 34-0 record or his 33 knockouts. They don't know his nickname, "The Bronze Bomber," a tribute to fellow Alabaman Joe Louis. They don't know about his title, and they don't know he'll be defending it on national television on Saturday.
When they're not mistaking Wilder for one of Nick Saban's players, people sometimes mistake him for LeBron James. That started at the Olympics in 2008, when James led Team USA to a gold medal in basketball and Wilder won a bronze medal in boxing. “People would be like, ‘James! James! We love you!’” Wilder remembered.
It’s been a long time since boxing seized Americans' attention -- in Tuscaloosa or anywhere. Just 14 percent of respondents in a recent Huffington Post/YouGov poll said they were boxing fans -- and 58 percent of those people said the sport's best days are "already behind it." Jack Johnson, Jack Dempsey, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano and Joe Frazier are dead. Muhammad Ali uses a wheelchair. George Foreman sells grills. More young people know Mike Tyson as a character from the "The Hangover" -- or as a convicted rapist -- than have seen him box.
Floyd Mayweather, the country's most famous boxer, is a misogynist and batterer.
"There are really no fighters in the pipeline," Robert Boland, a professor of sports business at New York University, told Reuters ahead of the match that was supposed to recapture the nation’s lasting attention: Mayweather's May fight with Manny Pacquiao, the Filipino eight-division champ. “This is a time when boxing is probably at its lowest point since the beginning of the 20th century and the rise of pro fighting."
Despite Mayweather-Pacquiao's record-breaking ratings, Pacquiao looked long past his prime and the fight didn’t live up to the hype. Mayweather claims his dominating victory over Andre Berto earlier this month was his last. But it's likely that American boxing hasn't seen the last of its woman-battering standardbearer: Few people believe Mayweather, now 49-0, will quit the sport for good before breaking his current tie with Marciano for the longest unbeaten streak in professional boxing history.
Wilder's fans think he's the last, best chance to save American boxing: the anti-Mayweather -- the kind of charismatic, likeable, underdog hero the sport needs. On Saturday, he will defend his title live on NBC, and become the first heavyweight to do so on primetime broadcast television since before he was born.
"I honestly feel like when Floyd retires, the boxing world will be depending and eyeing and looking at Deontay Wilder," said Damarius “Cuz” Hill, one of Wilder's trainers.
"I will be that guy to change this sport, especially in the heavyweight division," Wilder said. "A lot of people have lost interest. I’m the right man for the job … I want to make it bigger and better than it ever have been before.”
But if Wilder is going to succeed, people are going to have to know who he is.
Wilder, 29, grew up as one of four children in Tuscaloosa, where his father worked as heavy machine operator for the nearby city of Northport and his mother still works at a local restaurant. As a kid, Wilder knew and admired fighters such as Ali and Tyson. But he didn't grow up boxing like fighters such as Mayweather and Oscar de la Hoya, who each put on gloves before they were even 10 years old.
That's not to say Wilder, who was picked on as a kid, was a stranger to fighting.
"The craziest thing about it, I used to hate fighting, but you had to show how tough you was, you had to show you wasn't no punk," Wilder said.
Wilder wanted to play football or basketball for Alabama, but his journey to the ring began in 2005, on the day he learned he would be a father.
Wilder, who was 19 at the time, was "just living my life as a teenage boy," he remembers. "Now you find it ain’t all about you anymore." Soon after, doctors told Wilder and the baby’s mother their daughter had spina bifida, a condition in which a baby’s spinal cord does not develop properly. In some cases, spina bifida leads to difficulties walking or even paralysis.
“Everybody wish and hope and pray for a healthy child,” Wilder said. “In the end, [the doctor] also gave us the option, ‘You can terminate the pregnancy. You don’t have to worry about it and y’all can go back to your lives.’” Abortion “was immediately out of the picture,” though, he said. “At this far along in the pregnancy, ain’t no need to terminate. She’s here. She’s developing. And when you get to that point, I believe let a life live,” he said. “I was willing to take all the challenges for this little girl to have a successful life and be happy.”
When his daughter Naieya arrived in March 2005, Wilder held the tiny baby in the palms of his hands, bonding instantly. “She was so small. I remember carrying her around just like that,” Wilder says, curling his arm into his body. “Whatever it takes, we’re going to make this happen.”
Dreams of playing football or basketball came to a halt, and Wilder, who had been taking classes at a local community college, decided to drop out of school. He took multiple jobs, first as a waiter at IHOP and Red Lobster, and later as a Budweiser truck driver. With costs of Naieya’s treatment and surgeries mounting, he spoke to friends about taking up boxing as a career.
“[My friend] thought it was a good idea because I handled myself well streetwise, although nothing good ever came of that,” Wilder said.
He visited a local gym, Skyy Boxing.
“When I walked into those doors, it was like a hallelujah moment,” Wilder remembered. “The angels and everything. … Guys hollering. When they throw punches, the breathing, the sparring. The heavy bags being hit. All of that -- it was a heavenly sound to me. … I felt I was at the right moment at the right time in my life, and I knew this was my last opportunity to be a famous athlete and to provide for my daughter.”
His trainers at Skyy Boxing were not as optimistic.
“When I first saw him, I just saw him as a tall, skinny kid,” Cuz said. “But he proved us all wrong.”
It was tasking schedule at first. Wilder would shadow-box while on deliveries for his beer distributing job. His trainer Jay Deas, who founded Skyy Boxing in 1997, told HuffPost Wilder would park outside the gym and sleep in his car, exhausted from the triple burden of working, training and fatherhood. Wilder worked "hard or harder when he thought I wasn’t watching," Deas said. "That was my first thought when we may have something special.”
Wilder’s daughter remained the fighter's driving force.
“That’s the thing that got him to the gym after a long day at work," Deas said. "That’s the thing that got him running hills at 7 a.m."
Wilder had his first amateur fight within three months of walking into Deas' gym. It was “by far the quickest I’ve ever done that," Deas said. "Typically it takes a guy at least six months.”
Within three years, Wilder was an Olympian, earning a bronze medal at the 2008 games in Beijing. Out of 286 fighters throughout all weight classes, he ranked 286th in experience. He may not have come away with the gold, but Wilder remains the last American male fighter to medal in boxing at the Olympics.
It was “unheard of,” Deas said. “Nobody knew who he was. He didn’t go through the camps that all the other guys went though to prepare themselves for the Olympics. He just came in and destroyed everybody in his path. Nobody had ever seen anything like that.”
Wilder stayed humble. After the boxer returned from the Olympics win, Deas found him at the gym on his hands and knees, retiling the bathroom floor.
A few months after his success in Beijing, Wilder turned pro and began racking up wins. Boxing became his full-time job, and he set his sights on a heavyweight title. It was a goal, Wilder said, that he had promised to Naieya early in his career, when their story began attracting the attention of the local media.
Wilder remembers trying to get baby Naieya comfortable with the cameras by letting her play with his gloves.
"I just said, ‘Baby, it’s going to be OK and Daddy’s doing this,'" he recalled. "'Daddy’s going to be a world champion one day.' But she didn’t understand, she was just looking, playing with the gloves. She wasn’t even paying attention to me. But I meant it. I meant every word.”
Wilder delivered on that promise this year on Jan. 17, Muhammad Ali’s 73rd birthday. He defeated Bermane Stiverne in front of a Las Vegas crowd to win the WBC heavyweight championship belt -- the same one that Ali, Tyson and Evander Holyfield once owned. After he became the first American since Shannon Briggs in 2006 to win a heavyweight championship title, Wilder went on to defend the title in June, knocking out Eric Molina in nine rounds before a Birmingham crowd.
“It took a lot of hard work, dedication, blood, sweat, tears and just being focused on boxing," Cuz, his assistant trainer, said. "If you put anything before boxing, I don’t think you’ll be successful. Well, you put God first, and then boxing.”
Cuz said he hopes Wilder’s growing success and recognition will bring more Americans back to boxing.
“The heavyweight division has been on downfall, but now with Deontay reigning as the champion, he’s slowly but surely bringing back into the limelight,” Cuz said. “You don’t have any Alis any more, any Tysons that really trains hard. … Deontay just has different demeanor about himself. … He’s more of a people’s champion.”
On Sept. 26, Wilder will return to Birmingham to defend his title against France’s Johann Duhaupas, live on NBC's Premiere Boxing Champions series and free of any pay-per-view or premium channel costs.
Wilder's critics say there's less to him than meets the eye, and say he's fought weak opponents. Yahoo Sports questioned his title defense against Molina, a “no-hoper” and a “non-entity.” The Living Daylights, sports outlet FanSided’s boxing site, has reported that Wilder and his team are "circumnavigating legitimate opponents," a claim Wilder and his trainers dismiss.
“I can only fight what’s in front of me, for one; that was their era, this is my era,” Wilder said. “If you don’t like it, you train a fighter, or get in it yourself. Whether somebody think badly of me, whether somebody don’t feel that I should be doing this or I should be doing that way, I don’t really care. Whether they think that my fatigue is being laid, legs are skinny, I don’t care."
Even Wilder's fellow champs have doubted him. "We have to see what happens when he gets hit back," Tyson said in 2014, according to Showtime. "Anyone can knock someone out, even my 3-year-old son."
Wilder said he’s a “big fan of Tyson,” but he hasn’t spoken to him. “Past, present, future -- I wish everybody the best,” he said, adding that he has “a lot of things" he has to do for his sport. "So I can’t let no confusion come in and knock me from what I’m trying to do.”
Wilder does have a lot left to do. He wants to become the first undisputed heavyweight champion of the world since Britain's Lennox Lewis in 2000, who Wilder said he talks to often. To do that, he'll have to win the International Boxing Federation, World Boxing Association and World Boxing Organization titles, all of which currently belong to the Wladimir Klitschko, the Ukrainian who has dominated the heavyweight division for years alongside his elder brother, the now-retired boxer turned politician, Vitali.
Wladimir has his own match -- against Britain’s Tyson Fury -- less than a month after Wilder's title defense. It will be an unprecedented 28th title match for Klitschko, breaking Joe Louis’ record 27 title bouts.
Wilder’s team said a match against the victor of the Klitschko-Fury fight could happen as early as 2016.
“We want all the belts," Cuz said. "We want the world to know exactly who Deontay Wilder is.”
Despite his championship title and his hopes for the future, Wilder and his team still train across the river from Tuscaloosa at Skyy Boxing in Northport. The gym is housed in a low metal building that looks like a converted garage.
There’s a leak in the roof. Faded posters line the walls, and you can spot a young Mike Tyson’s Sports Illustrated cover alongside photos of Skyy’s other staff and boxers, as well as rates for training -- $50 a month for adults -- and T-shirts. There's no air conditioning, just a few giant fans that thrum along while a round timer continuously buzzes and echoes.
“Just Because We Love What We Do, Does Not Mean We Will Do It For Free!” one sign reads.
In the morning, cars pull up along the rocky, dirt drive, and trainers such as Cuz, Mark Breland (a five-time Golden Gloves winner and 1984 Olympic gold medalist) and Willie Lowe start setting up the gym, while young boxers, including Wilder's younger brother Marsellos, lift weights, fight in the ring or hit the half-dozen bags hung up around the small space. People dip in and out, signing their name on a simple spiral notebook when they check in.
"This is like a Philadelphia, Joe Frazier-type gym,” Cuz said. "You want to train where it’s like suffering. … I wanna feel that pain, the sweat, the blood, and that’s what makes you even hungrier. … If you want to be a champion, you have to suffer.”
Cuz and the rest of Wilder's team know plenty about suffering as well for Wilder's success. Cuz said he's fractured each thumb taking Wilder's punches. Breland has had a shoulder knocked out of place. Deas suffered a hernia.
Rain comes and goes in sudden, summer downpours, and the air is thick with moisture. After a while, it's hard to tell the difference between the natural humidity and the sweat evaporating from the fighters.
Eventually, Wilder strolls in. Someone turns up the music. Familiar voices -- Marvin Gaye, Michael Jackson, Bobby Brown, D’Angelo -- fill the air. Wilder steps up to the corner of the ring. He hunches over, already beginning to drip sweat, and laces up his red and gold Everlasts. A fly rests on his back.
The guitar riff from “Get Down Tonight,” by K.C. and the Sunshine Band, echoes throughout the gym. A small crowd in the gym gathers to watch Deontay Wilder train. They all know who he is.
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Selasa, 22 September 2015
basketball stream live Only NBA Nerds Will Catch The Joke In This NBA 2K16 Trailer
In this NBA 2K16 hype video filled with Steph Curry spinning layups and LeBron's step-back J's, the best move is one so short you probably didn't even notice it.
Go to the 20-second mark, focus your eyes and you'll see it: Yes, that was a signature Chris Bosh videobomb that will surely delight NBA nerds everywhere.
Chris Bosh's sequence of superbly timed photo- and videobombs gained fame as an entertaining asterisk to the Heat’s continuous, monotonous drubbing of the Eastern conference throughout recent regular season play.
Sadly, Bosh was sidelined for much of the 2014-2015 season for health reasons. But he'll be back this season. Here's to hoping his antics will be, too.
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basketball stream live Stephen Curry Outshines Stephen Colbert In Silly Sock-Shooting Game
Stephen Colbert has a beef with Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry, and it has a little something to do with this:
Curry, appearing on Colbert's "The Late Show" on Monday night, was chastised by Colbert for beating him in Google's search rankings. Spending over a decade on television can't seem to beat Curry's trove of easily digestible daily highlights and press conference clips.
An aggrieved Colbert cornered Curry on his show, challenging him to a shootout to settle the score. The game wasn't basketball, but laundry sock shooting. Or, as it's also known, the sporting pastime for lazy kids with dirty rooms.
Colbert thought he had Curry beat, but when it comes to anything involving a ball and a shooting motion, know that the reigning NBA MVP will eventually show up.
Undust those shoulders, "other" Stephen.
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Senin, 21 September 2015
basketball stream live Big 12 Commissioner Predicts College Athletes One Day Will Go On Strike
WASHINGTON -- College athletes at Northwestern University lost their effort to form a union in August when the National Labor Relations Board declined to rule on their case. But while officials at the NCAA and its member conferences might be relieved that the issue of unionization is settled for now, that particular fight may take an even more direct form in the future, Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby predicted Monday.
“There will be a day in the future when the popcorn is popped, the TV cameras are there, the fans are in the stands, and the team decides they are not going to play,” Bowlsby said at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. “Mark my words. We will see that in the years ahead.”
There have long been rumors of players considering walkouts before major collegiate sporting events, particularly the men’s Final Four or a prominent football bowl game, and at times players have taken symbolic action. The University of Michigan’s famed Fab Five wore blank warm-up shirts before games in 1993 to protest their belief that they were “cogs in a money-making machine.” The Northwestern labor movement, meanwhile, grew in part out of a 2013 protest in which players in various college football programs wore wristbands bearing the slogan, “All Players United.”
Bowlsby made the prediction during a wide-ranging speech that covered numerous ideas for reform within the NCAA, the billion-dollar behemoth that oversees college athletics. The NCAA, Bowlsby noted in an interview with The Huffington Post earlier this month, remains “under siege” as lawsuits and even congressional action threaten its long-held tenet of amateurism and the belief that compensating athletes would compromise the integrity of collegiate sports.
The Big 12 commissioner has positioned himself as a reformer within the college athletics world, and on Monday, he touted his support more than 20 years ago for scholarships that cover the entire cost of attendance. The NCAA finally approved full cost-of-attendance stipends for athletes in January, and it also has made other changes to benefit athletes as it attempts to stave off the threat of antitrust lawsuits like those brought by former UCLA basketball player Ed O’Bannon and current and former players represented by prominent sports labor attorney Jeffrey Kessler.
The NCAA is currently appealing a federal judge’s 2013 ruling in the O’Bannon case that gave athletes limited rights to revenue generated off the use of their names, images and likenesses. The Kessler suit seeks an injunction that could create a free market for the services of college athletes.
In his speech Monday, Bowlsby cycled through a number of other potential reforms that could come up for consideration, including further limits on time spent on sports, efforts to curb high rates of athletic transfers, restricting sports to a single semester, or even broader changes toward an end to the current conference-based model.
Internal changes are a must, Bowlsby said, to further help athletes and to prevent continuous legal fighting.
Many of the potential reforms Bowlsby posed would help promote the stated NCAA mission of educating athletes, a goal Bowlsby said he "still believes in." Though that may address some of the issues raised in the Northwestern movement, it would not answer the central question of the broadest legal challenges: whether athletes deserve the right to compensation.
Even while anticipating a potential strike, Bowlsby held firm to his belief that athletes should not be compensated beyond the full cost of college.
“There is a good and appropriate reason to pay every nickel of what it costs to go to college. There is not a compelling case, in my estimation, to pay above that,” Bowlsby said. “I think once we get above that, we’re on a very slippery slope. And then it just becomes a matter of how much.”
Still, he acknowledged that compensation will remain a source of conflict. Bowlsby recounted a recent conversation with a college basketball player during a trip to one campus. Like the Northwestern athletes and the NLRB regional director who issued the first major ruling in their case, the player saw himself as an employee of his athletic program.
“The tensions in the system,” Bowlsby said, “aren’t going away anytime soon.”
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