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Detroit Pistons legend and former Chicago Bull Rip Hamilton is back in town for NBA All-Star weekend, and we caught up with him Thursday night at the Rookie USA fashion show. The event benefits the James R. Jordan foundation, managed by Michael Jordan’s mother, and named for his late father.
Hamilton is close to Jordan and he talks to him all the time, so coming out and supporting the cause was a natural course of action and easy decision for him.
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We’re all in different stages of grief right now, but we’re alike in that the Kobe Bryant news is hitting us very hard. Bryant, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven other souls, perished in a southern California helicopter crash yesterday morning.
On one hand, we all hurt for the obvious, natural reasons- seeing someone so young, with so much left to live for taken away in an instant. It makes us realize how fleeting life truly is. On the other hand, we all hurt on our own individual level for what happened in the Los Angeles metropolitan area yesterday as we see commonalities to our own lives and experiences.
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The basketball world lost one of its most titanic figures today as Kobe Bryant, along with his daughter Gianna and seven other souls, perished in a southern California helicopter crash this morning. Bryant was huge in not just the basketball world, but in the sporting universe as well. Not to mention he transcended sports to become a cultural and entertainment icon.
One sport in which he had a huge impact was football/soccer, and that originated with his father, Joe “Jellybean” Bryant, who played professionally in Italy. Kobe lived in Italy from ages 6-13, and it was there and then that he developed his love for AC Milan.
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It all seems just so surreal, and nearly impossible to believe, but we have to accept it- Kobe Bryant is dead the age of 41; perishing Sunday morning in a southern California helicopter clash.
The retired NBA superstar, who was second all-time in scoring until just last night when he was surpassed by Lebron James, died, along with eight others (the pilot and seven other passengers, including his 13-year-old Gigi) when the aircraft crashed into a Calabasas area hill.
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It’s not a secret that the athletes’ villages at every Olympics games are a hot-bed of sexual activity. You have a lot of young people, from all over the world (and likely never to see one another again) in peak physical condition, having just completed a competition with the highest of stakes. It’s the culmination of an event they’ve been training their whole lives (often missing out on socializing) for, and once it’s done the time arrives to blow off some teams.
The Olympics organizers know this, they’re well aware of the sex games that take place every four years (well, now every two). They distributed about 450,000 condoms at the Rio summer Olympics in 2016. The International Olympic Committee has a stated position of encouraging the 10,500 athletes and staff to practice safe sex.
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Like Randy Newman, the NBA title handicappers love L.A. The top two favorites to win it all in the National Basketball Association this season both reside in Los Angeles and they squared off in the season opener.
The L.A. Clippers, who have the most favorable title odds of anyone in the league, beat the L.A. Lakers 112-102 Tuesday night, on the strength of their fourth quarter defense, which held the Lakers to just 17 points in the final 12 minutes. The Lakers have the second most favorable NBA title odds with the Milwaukee Bucks coming in third.
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Chelsea forward Christian Pulisic welcomed New Orleans Pelicans shooting guard Josh Hart to Stamford Bridge today for the Blues home opener against Leicester City. Hart is a Chelsea super supporter who played college basketball at Villanova, which is not far from Pulisic’s home town of Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Hart, a two time All-American in college, helped lead Villanova to a national title in 2016. However, he certainly has not been a “star” (as the tweet below indicates) in the NBA thus far. The former Los Angeles Laker, traded to New Orleans as part of the Anthony Davis trade, is actually more a “role player.”
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As a University of Illinois alumna, I can say from experience that no fan base is as paranoid about the officials as Illini fans are.
The one exception being, oh, every other zealous sports fan base on the planet. Remember “fan” is short for “fanatic,” and one thing that every member of all zealous fan bases has in common is a serious belief that the refs are all out to get their team. Which makes RefRatings, a new app that just launched in 2019 and is available for free in the App Store, timeless.
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Welcome to our fourth version of our 2018 NBA Mock Draft. It’s the first edition post lottery. For more on a given prospect, click his name where hyper-linked, and that will take you to an in-depth feature piece on said player. Team needs were sometimes, but not always taken into account, and the order was derived from Tankathon, who we linked here.
You may not agree with the picks in this 2018 NBA mock draft, and yes, somebody will get left out, but you can air your grievances in the comments section. Just keep it all above board.
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Friday night Donald Trump held a campaign rally for an election that he already won 10 months ago. At the rally he called Colin Kaepernick, and other NFL players who don’t stand for the national anthem, “sons of bitches.”
Therefore he also called mothers of NFL players “bitches” in the process. Naturally and deservedly, he’s getting a ton of blowback for such hateful and divisive commentary. Chicago Bears Team Captain Akiem Hicks called Trump out on Saturday.
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A few years ago, a Twitter user (and we only use the term “Twitter user” because we literally cannot locate the Tweet now) posted “the NFL Draft is porn, the NBA Draft is comfort food and the MLB Draft is stamp collecting.”
He did not even bother analogizing the NHL Draft, and he was right not to do so. Here in 2017, his hilariously accurate at the time metaphors are now a bit off. While the NFL Draft is still a huge event it has definitely peaked in relevance. Its importance was overrated anyway. The MLB Draft is still certainly about as exciting as stamp collecting, but the NBA Draft is definitely not comfort food.
It’s more like a mediocre frozen dinner or run-of-the-mill cafeteria fare.
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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar pens a column for The Hollywood Reporter these days, and in his latest offering, he weighed in on the firestorm surrounding HBO talk show host Bill Maher. The polarizing comedian was the #1 trending term on Twitter for much of Friday night due to his using the N-word while interviewing Nebraska Republican Senator Ben Sasse.
Abdul-Jabbar, yes the very same Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who is the all-time leading scorer and player with the most career wins in NBA history, says he doesn’t think that Maher should be fired for what he did.
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