Basketball
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The WNBA Finals kicked off Sunday (October 8) between the Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty in Las Vegas, Nev. with the home team showing off their champion form as they defend their title in this best-of-five series. While the first half was competitive and saw the Liberty up by a handful, the Aces turned things around in the second.
Coached by Becky Hammon, the Aces, led by guards Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young, and Chelsea Gray, the Aces came out the gate slow but managed to keep the scoring of Liberty stars Sabrina Ionescu and Courtney Vandersloot under their usual output.
The play from the Aces trio stood out as the Liberty used much of their energy attempting to contain Aces power forward A’Ja Wilson, who scored 19 points and hauled in 8 boards, allowing Young to go off for 26 points. Young played hard all 94 feet and hindered the usually productive Ionescu from a scoring explosion. Plum also scored 26, and Gray had 20 points with a team-leading 9 assists.
On the other side of the ball, Breanna Stewart scored 21 with 9 rebounds, while Jonquel Jones had a double-double of 16 points and 10. Ionescu scored 7 points with 5 rebounds and 5 assists.
Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello, leading the team back to its first WNBA Finals appearance since 2002, stressed in the postgame press conference that her players will have to adjust to the swarming defense of the Aces and reminded the reporters in tow that this isn’t typical New York basketball.
“We can obviously learn a lot from this and we can play better,” Brondello said. “That’s what we have to remember. We haven’t lost two in a row all season long, and we’re going to know that we responded the right way. I trust these players.”
Because of the two marquee teams, the WNBA Finals attracted plenty of star power with LeBron James, Sheryl Swoopes, Mark Wahlberg, and Aces minority owner, Tom Brady all in attendance among others. The Brooklyn Nets also had several players in attendance such as Ben Simmons and Mikal Bridges, proving that women’s basketball is growing in popularity in the States.
Game 2 of the WNBA Finals kicks off on Wednesday, October 11 in Las Vegas. The series returns to New York on October 15.
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Photo: Getty
Damian Lillard has officially been traded to the Milwaukee Bucks, just three months after he requested a trade away from the Portland Trail Blazers. To celebrate, the NBA player shared a new song, fittingly titled “Farewell,” with his fans. “‘Farewell’ out on @AppleMusic and @Tidal now. Hitting the rest of the platforms soon,” the athlete […]
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Fat Joe has managed to remain an important figure within the culture for the past three decades all while maintaining an authentic connection to the streets that raised him. ClashTV, a burgeoning livestreaming digital platform, announced Thursday (August 17) that Fat Joe will be its first Streetball commissioner.
With Fat Joe taking the helm as ClashTV’s Streetball commissioner, the Bronx native will enter the new role overseeing the platform’s coverage of the sport while also joining ClashTV’s board along with an ownership stake in ClashTV.
“I’m proud to team up with ClashTV and establish a new era of Streetball. The ClashTV team truly understands the cultural and community impact of Streetball, so I’m looking forward to helping them elevate the game and bring athletes, creators and fans together in an innovative and meaningful way,” the rapper shared in a statement.
ClashTV CEO Jonathan Anastas adds, “Clash is with the culture. Joe is a superstar in the culture, and a lifelong Streetball fan. Together, we are going to unite the basketball leagues of America. In our mission to own the category of Streetball, there is no one more suited for this role than Fat Joe. What first bubbled up from the courts of New York City has become a worldwide movement. Joe’s expertise at leveraging media to grow the culture is legendary and we look forward to his contributions to ClashTV.”
ClashTV has a number of notable moves under its belt as it continues to grow the platform. The company partnered with AND1, and has forged partnerships with Alpha Metaverse Technologies Inc., creating and promoting summer basketball content, and was instrumental in the celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Drew League in Los Angeles among other moves.
Learn more about ClashTV here.
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Photo: Fat Joe
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Even though San Francisco’s Chase Center is Steph Curry’s home turf, he was the guest of honor at Paramore‘s Monday (Aug. 7) show. Staying true to the band’s on-tour tradition of bringing out one fan every night to assist frontwoman Hayley Williams in singing “Misery Business,” Paramore this time invited none other than the Golden […]
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Indiana is home to a passionate base of basketball fans as evidenced in a new video that showed a man coming from the stands to attack a referee on the court. The situation took place at a youth basketball game and the man who attacked the ref got taken down MMA style before it was broken up.
Twitter user Jeff Lytle shared a video via Twitter this past Saturday (May 20) from a youth basketball game at SportONE Parkview Fieldhouse in Indiana, according to a report from local outlet WANE which has more.
From WANE:
A witness told WANE 15 that the parent in the video was complaining about foul calls. After speaking to the referee, he was then asked to leave the game.
As the official attempted to get help in removing the parent, the man got in his face and grabbed the referee, according to the witness.
The witness then said the man was ultimately escorted out of the game and did not return. The witness claimed they showed officers the video of the incident.
The outlet adds that the eight-grade teams were playing in the Gym Rats Basketball tournament in Fort Wayne.
Thankfully, things were broken up at the scene as police officers were never called to the venue to intervene.
As we said, basketball is life in Indiana. Word to Larry Bird.
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Photo: Getty
Blxst and his Evgle record label have teamed up with NBA 2K23 to curate the new season 7 soundtrack. Two of the eight tracks from the soundtrack are from Blxst’s recent Just for Clarity 2 EP: “Passionate,” featuring Roddy Ricch, and “Keep Calling,” featuring Larry June. “Spend It” by Babyface Ray, Blxst and Nija is […]
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Source: Ezra Shaw / Getty / Stephen Curry
Unlike his teammate Draymond Green, Stephen Curry rarely makes a mistake on the court, until yesterday.
The best shooter in basketball, Stephen Curry, almost cost his Golden State Warriors the game, and they could have been down 3-1 heading back to Sacramento after making an egregious blunder.
With just 40 seconds left in the game, the Kings trapped Curry leaving him nowhere to go or pass the ball. So generally, in that situation, you will call a timeout, and that’s what he did.
But there was one issue, the Warriors didn’t have any timeouts left after head coach Steve Kerr lost the team’s final timeout in an unsuccessful challenge that even Draymond Green told him not to do.
“I didn’t realize when we lost the challenge that we didn’t have any timeouts left,” Curry said. Like a true leader, Steve Kerr took the blame for the moment, protecting his all-star player.
Curry still owned up to his mistake, adding, “[Coach] took the blame for it, but I ain’t going to lie: I thought it was the smartest play in the world. I looked at the bench, and everybody was shaking their head. It was an unfortunate situation.”
The Kings took advantage of what many call Steph’s “Chris Webber moment,” referencing retired hooper calling a timeout his team did not have during the 1993 National Championship game costing the Michigan Wolverines the chip.
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With a technical free throw and a three-pointer from the NBA’s most clutch player, De’Aron Fox, the Kings were only down one in a game that at one point looked like a sure win for the Warriors.
The Warriors did survive after Harrison Barnes missed a go-ahead three-pointer.
NBA Twitter Came With The Jokes
As you can imagine, NBA Twitter had plenty of reactions to Curry’s brain lapse and Harrison Barnes’s potential game-winning brick.
You can see those in the gallery below.
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Photo: Ezra Shaw / Getty
1. Accurate
2. Very true
7. Y’all aint right
As E-40 taught us, everybody’s got choices. The Sacramento Kings chose to eject the Bay Area rapper from the April 15 game against E-40’s hometown Golden State Warriors, and now they’ve released a joint statement addressing the incident.
E-40 made the trek to Sacramento to enjoy courtside seats at the Warriors’ game against the Kings only to be kicked out by security after a verbal altercation with a woman whom E-40 referred to as a heckler in his section. “Security saw a disagreement between a Black man and a White woman and immediately assumed that I was at fault,” he wrote in his initial statement, attributing the incident to “racial bias.”
Now, the Kings have released a joint statement with the rapper, born Earl Stevens, setting the record straight. “After a series of thoughtful and transparent conversations, both parties agree that there was a miscommunication regarding the circumstances that occurred during the Kings vs. Warriors game on Saturday night,” the statement begins.
“Contrary to speculation, Mr. Earl ‘E-40’ Stevens did not stand excessively from his ticketed courtside seat; the outcome resulted from an unfortunate misunderstanding between both parties. The Kings will continue to equitably enforce the NBA Fan Code of Conduct to ensure guests can comfortably enjoy games free of disrespectful heckling and other disruptive conduct. The organization has been a longtime leader in promoting social justice and racial equality with a track record of measurable results and community impacts. Mr. Stevens has previously attended games at Golden 1 Center without incident, and the Kings look forward to welcoming him back to our arena in the future.”
Following E-40’s ejection, the rapper received an outpouring of support, with the Philadelphia 76ers, the Warriors and TNT’s Inside the NBA playing his songs during games and programming. Jalen Rose also posted a video addressing the matter and demanding an apology from the Kings.
E-40 called the experience “jarring” in his initial statement. On Thursday, he released his latest single, “Front Row 40,” which a source told Complex was recorded months ago and was slated to drop “during the Warriors’ postseason.”
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Source: Jim McIsaac / Getty / Ben Simmons
Brooklyn Nets fans don’t have to worry about Ben Simmons being a liability for the team when the playoffs begin.
ESPN reports the Brooklyn Nets are shutting down Ben Simmons for the remainder of the season; coach Jacque Vaughn told the press on Tuesday.
“Ben will not be joining us the rest of the year and through the playoffs,” Vaughn revealed after practice. “After consulting with our doctors, multiple specialists, he’s just going to begin a rehab program. Our doctors and the specialists feel and think that he’ll have a full recovery, so that starts now.”
The fragile hooper has not hit the court for the Nets since the team’s final game before the All-Star break because of a nerve issue in his back. Simmons has been beset with knee and back issues, but Vaughn says he does not expect the point guard to get surgery for this latest injury.
“That is not in sight,” Vaughn said. “That’s the recommendation right now.”
Before making his Nets debut following a trade that saw the Brooklyn franchise swap James Harden for him, Simmons underwent back surgery last summer.
When he did return, he was a mere shell of his former self, seeing a steep decline in his performance from his All-Star days with the Sixers.
During the small sample size with the Nets, Simmons posted career lows in minutes (26.3), points (6.9), rebounds (6.3), assists (6.1), and free throw percentage (43.9).
Jack Vaughn Still Believes In Ben Simmons
Still, his coach remains hopeful the 26-year-old professional hooper can return to his old form.
“That’s our goal,” Vaughn said. “And overall, you just think about, he’s 6-10, athletic, what he can do and bring to our team, how he can help our group on both ends of the floor. We want to be involved in that. We want to see that. I want to coach Ben, and I want to be able to push Ben to get back to all-defensive team and impact our team on both ends of the floor. So that’s definitely the goal going forward.”
The Nets Will Continue To Support Him & Remain Hopeful He Can Return Next Season
According to general manager Sean Marks, the Nets will also continue to support Simmons.
“Same thing we’ve done in the past is support him,” Marks told ESPN. “This is a young man that has been through a very traumatic and pretty arduous last couple years here. And this is not news that he wants to hear. He didn’t want specialists telling him, ‘Hey look, here’s the best thing for you.’ The good news, they were in unison in their plan for a full recovery. I worked hard with these doctors, all the different specialists as well as Bernie Lee, his new agent, to come up with a plan that’s hopefully going to get him back, and back to being the Ben we’ve all seen.”
Marks continues, “I do feel for him because I know he wants to be out here. I know he wants to be part of this team. Nobody likes being told, ‘You didn’t amount to what you should have, and it shouldn’t be this, you should have done this, and so forth’ I hope he uses all of this as whatever you want to call it, chalkboard fodder for motivation, and attack [his rehab]. But I think he would fit with these guys we’ve got, and he fits for multiple reasons. So we hope that he’s back — and that he’s healthy, ready to go.”
Twitter Believes It’s A Wrap For Ben Simmon’s Career
While Simmon’s current team still believes in him, NBA Twitter is saying it’s a wrap for N0.10, and he will probably end up playing professional basketball in China.
LOL.
Damn, you all are ruthless.
You can see more reactions in the gallery below.
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Photo: Jim McIsaac / Getty
2. Howling
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The Final Four field for the Men’s NCAA basketball tournament was set over the weekend with three schools making it to the hallowed quartet for the first time in over 50 years. One of the teams celebrated its first entry into the Final Four, and everything will kick off this coming weekend.
March Madness for both the men’s and women’s teams is an unpredictable affair every year and this tourney was no different. The Elite Eight field was one for the books as not one No. 1 seed advanced that far in 2023 in the men’s division. In fact, brackets were busted on day one of the tournament but few could’ve predicted the outcome of the field like this.
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The University of Connecticut Huskies are in line to win their fifth national championship since 1999. The Florida Atlantic University Owls never had a tournament win ahead of landing in the Final Four over the weekend.
The University of Miami Hurricanes is priming itself to win its first national championship along with celebrating its first Final Four appearance and is the current ACC champion. The San Diego State Aztecs are also in a position to win their first chip.
Florida Atlantic and San Diego State will battle it out on Saturday, April 1 at 6:09 PM EST. The Huskies and the Hurricanes will play at 8:49 PM EST.
Check out the NCAA coverage of the Final Four field here.
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Photo: Getty