Month: June 2017

Golden State’s playoff run wasn’t bad for NBA, but Cavs-Warriors IV must be better

The Warriors’ scorched-floor tour is in the history books. Kevin Durant shined like the NBA Finals MVP and earned his first championship ring. Pre-production for Cavs-Warriors IV begins now.

The first two statements didn’t hurt the NBA at all. The third needs to be addressed. We could use a better sequel next time. Another one like Cavs-Warriors III will not be good for the league.

Golden State’s 16-1 run through the NBA postseason — which concluded with a 129-120 victory against the Cavaliers in Game 5 — wasn’t bad for the league. The gap between 16-0 and 16-1 is meaningless when you consider Golden State made history in 2015-16 with a 73-9 regular-season record. The Warriors deserve this place in history.
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So, there sat James Wednesday, Forbes’ third-highest paid athlete (He made an estimated $77.2 million in 2016), an international celebrity, three-time NBA champion and four-time league MVP, solemn, with steely resolve, answering questions for the first time since vandals spray-painted the n-word onto his $21-million Los Angeles home.

James was happy his family is physically safe, but was noticeably somber as he tried to make sense of the senseless.

Teddy Bridgewater Kids Jersey He continued: And I think back to Emmett Till’s mom, actually. It’s kind of one of the first things I thought of, and the reason that she had an open casket is because she wanted to show the world what her son went through as far as a hate crime and being black in America. So it’s like it doesn’t — no matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are, no matter how many people admire you, being black in America is — it’s tough. And we got a long way to go for us as a society and for us as African Americans, until we feel equal in America. But my family is safe, and that’s what’s — that’s what’s important.

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Enes Kanter’s father released from police custody in Turkey, report says

Enes Kanter’s father has been released from jail in Turkey after an investigation into alleged ties to government extremist Fethullah Gulen, according to media reports.

This didn’t sit well for Cleveland, which lost 113-91.

“He’s an assassin,” coach Tyronn Lue told ESPN. “We’re reminding him of that. Go out there and shoot. We need him to.”

Golden State is known for its quick offense, so it’s important for the Cavaliers to keep up their tempo if they want to stay on par.

“They do a great job of taking away the 3,” Smith said of Golden State. “That’s why they have been one of the top defensive teams in the league the last three years. And we just got to do a better job of finishing at the rim to make those guys come to us. If we do that and eliminate the turnovers, it will be a different Game 2.”

However, Smith has only scored double digits twice in this year’s playoffs, which means he hasn’t been firing on all cylinders this entire postseason.

“We just kept telling the guys, they’re going to get tired. Stay in front of them. Force them into outside shots, if you can,” Kerr said. “Fatigue will play a role. And I think when you get guys playing 45, 44 minutes, basically attacking one-on-one the whole game, it’s — you hope eventually it’s going to take its toll. I wasn’t sure after awhile, they just were going nuts.

“But I think that we just stayed with it, and our defense finally kicked in.”
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Draymond Green recalls ‘You thought you was Kobe?’ dis toward Paul Pierce

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When the Warriors played the Clippers in February, Draymond Green dropped one of the best disses while talking to Paul Pierce.

Chasing that farewell tour, they don’t love you like that! You can’t get that farewell tour! They don’t love you like that! You thought you was Kobe?
Green, of course, was referring to the fact Pierce announced before the season this would be his last before retirement.

James and Gilbert have history dating to their acrimonious 2010 split. When James returned to Cleveland in 2014, it was Griffin who assembled the pieces around him, culminating in the most successful three-year stretch in franchise history and its first championship in 2016.

James in turn lobbied for Gilbert to extend Griffin’s contract, to no avail.

Mel Blount Jersey OGilbert called Griffin’s departure a mutual decision on Monday. In a Monday statement of his own, Griffin said he stepped down, adding, Dan and I know now that are a team built largely on the concept of fit and we now at a point where the fit is not right for us to continue with one another.

Former NBA guard Chauncey Billups is reported to be a leading candidate to replace Griffin.

ESPN.com and other media reports indicated James was not consulted by Gilbert about the transition. With rumors already swirling around his pending free agency in 2018, whether the King is pleased remains of utmost importance in Cleveland.

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NBA Finals 2017: Was Mike Brown hired to stop LeBron James?

Authentic Womens Ka’Deem Carey Jersey Mike Brown is a defensive guru. After spending a few years under Gregg Popovich as an assistant with the Spurs he learned how to coach defense from the ground up.

In his first five seasons as the head coach of the Cavaliers, his team never finished outside the top 15 in the league in defensive rating, and thrice finished in the top seven. The year he left they were 29th in the league.

He knows how to coach defense. He also knows LeBron James, having coached him those five years. San Francisco writer Connor LeTourneau suggests Brown knows how to stop James and he was hired to do just that.

Authentic Womens J.J. Jansen Jersey Why Kerr would replace the offensive-minded Luke Walton with Brown, a defensive guru, when Golden State already had Ron Adams — perhaps the NBA’s top defensive assistant — on staff? But after watching LeBron James engineer the biggest Finals comeback in NBA history at the Warriors’ expense, Kerr was subscribing to the philosophy that a team can never have too much defense.

It was an astute call in hindsight. Ten years after Brown shepherded a James-led Cavaliers team to the 2007 NBA Finals, he is overseeing a strategy to contain the future Hall of Famer while the ailing Kerr is on an indefinite hiatus from the bench.
The Warriors interviewed Brown for the job between games 3 and 4 of the NBA Finals a year ago. Maybe they knew they had to do something else to stop James. In Game 3 of those Finals, James scored 32 points and the Cavs won by 30 over the Warriors.

Not only did the Warriors hire Brown in July of 2016, they went on to sign Kevin Durant the same month. And what Brown did with Durant in Game 1 Thursday completely threw James off his game.

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Mike Tomlin getting caught by Antonio Brown might just save Steelers against Patriots

Mike Tomlin didn’t need Antonio Brown’s help to let us know what he really thinks about the Patriots. Now that everyone outside the Steelers’ locker room has heard just how bad he wants to beat thoseholes in the AFC championship game, let’s hope it only resonated louder and clearer with his players.

Pittsburgh fans absolutely should not be worried that Tomlin gave Belichick’s team more bulletin-board material and extra motivation. They instead should love the fact that he’s conveying the hate toward New England above all else.

Free agency, the cap, trades, injuries, suspensions, age and retirements have gutted the roster more than most championship contenders have endured, even in a league where keeping a winning roster together is a supreme challenge.

Filling those spots, though, has been an unending stream of failures, in free agency and the draft. it’s now so talent-poor that theyve had virtually no chance to win week to week all season.

Kelly will pay the price, but success with this roster was all but impossible and it was the same for Tomsula the year before.

Baalkes window to be supported by York, in spite of this and the clash with Harbaugh, couldn’t stay open forever.

How about a case that Brown, Shula and Lombardi were better at coaching pro football?

Chew on this for a second. Belichick has broken his tie with Shula for most Super Bowl appearances with his seventh. A win breaks his tie with Chuck Noll for Super Bowl wins, at four. Lombardi won five NFL titles, beginning in the pre-Super Bowl era; Belichick would then tie him.
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Giants GM Jerry Reese’s message to Odell Beckham Jr.: ‘Grow up’

Limited Andrew Cogliano Jersey Odell Beckham Jr. wasn’t solely to blame for the Giants’ embarrassing playoff exit Sunday, but he provided plenty of tabloid fodder that has surrounded the team since.
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In the week leading up to the NFC wild-card game blowout to the Packers, the Giants’ embattled wide receiver led a group of teammates on a South Florida jaunt where a viral yacht portrait would serve as a distraction. Then, after dropping three passes in Sunday’s 38-13 loss, including a potential touchdown, Beckham reportedly punched a hole in a Lambeau Field hallway wall during a postgame tantrum.

Left to atone for the mess, Giants general manager Jerry Reese met with reporters Monday and spoke candidly about Beckham’s antics.

I see a guy who needs to think about some of the things that he does, Reese said. Everybody knows that he’s a gifted player, but there have been some things that he’s done that he needs to look himself in the mirror and be honest with himself about some of the things that he’s done.

Watson, who graduated in three years, has a huge opportunity in front of him with his invite to the Senior Bowl. He would play for the South team, coached by Cleveland’s Hue Jackson and his assistants. The chance to go through pro-like practice with invaluable pro instruction has been a consistent source of raising stock see Wentz and Prescott last year.

Kizer, Trubisky are Mahomes are not set up to have the same pre-draft experience. The more times teams and scouts get a long look at Watson, the more he’s bound to impress.

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WATCH: Matt Prater one-ups Justin Tucker with ridiculously long field goal

Ravens kicker Justin Tucker nailed a 75-yard field goal Wednesday during Pro Bowl preparations in Orlando, but Matt Prater of the Lions was not to be outdone.
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Prater, who was named to the Pro Bowl as the replacement for the Falcons’ Matt Bryant, tried a field goal from even longer distance and posted his attempt on Twitter.

The 64-yard field goal Prater booted as a member of the Broncos in 2013 stands as the longest in NFL history.

While Tucker’s career long is 61, he hits 50-plus yarders for fun seemingly every week and is considered by many football observers as the best kicker in the league.

Speaking of Brees, his 350 yards against the Falcons give him 5,208 for the season. Of the nine 5,000-yard passing seasons in NFL history, Brees has five of them. Marino (1984), Brady (2011), Matthew Stafford (2011) and Manning (2013) have the others.

Vikings quarterback Sam Bradford did take a record from Brees. Bradford was 25 of 33 for 250 yards with three touchdowns and an interception in Minnesota’s 38-10 win over the Bears. By completing 75.8 percent of his passes on Sunday, Bradford finishes the season with a 71.6 completion percentage to set a new NFL mark previously held by Brees.

Bears running back Jordan Howard ran for 135 yards against the Vikings and set a new Bears rookie record with 1,313 yards this season. That breaks the record previously held by Matt Forte.
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Chargers tight end Antonio Gates caught five passes for 55 yards in the loss to the Chiefs. He also scored on a 2-yard pass and tied former Chiefs and Falcons tight end Tony Gonzalez with 111 touchdowns, the most ever by a tight end.

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Edinson Volquez tosses sixth no-hitter in Marlins history

Marlins Park is a notorious pitcher’s haven and Edinson Volquez was safe from all comers Saturday. The 33-year-old starting pitcher tossed the first no-hitter of his career in a 3-0 Miami win over the Diamondbacks throwing a mere 98 pitches in the process.

This was the sixth no-hitter in Marlins history.

Volquez walked just two batters in the game and faced the minimum 27 batters on his way to just his second win of the season. He struck out 10. It had been more than two years since Volquez even pitched into the eighth inning. The last time he did so was April 9, 2015.

The Redbirds will turn to? Carlos Martinez (4-5, 3.25 ERA), who has pitched six or more innings in his last eight starts, on Saturday in what they hope is their second win in a row.

Steven Souza Jr., Mallex Smith, Logan Morrison, Tim Beckham and Corey Dickerson all homered for the? Rays, who? tied a season-high with five home runs in a 13-4 rout of the A’s.Souza fell a double shy of the cycle, finishing 3 for 5 with three RBIs.
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Cameron Maybin starred in his return from the DL, recording three hits and a career-high four steals in the Angels’ 9-4 win over the Astros.

Elite Womens John Riggins Jersey Royals starter Eric Skoglund’s first road start of his career was one to forget. The southpaw lasted just 1 1/3 innings and allowed two runs on seven hits and a pair of walks before getting pulled with the bases loaded in San Diego.

Aaron Hicks homered twice for the Yankees in an 8-2 win over the Orioles. New York now leads the American League East by three games over the Red Sox and 4 1/2 over Baltimore.

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Darrelle Revis’ preliminary hearing moved to March 15

Jets cornerback Darrelle Revis will have to wait a few more weeks as the aftermath of an altercation that left two men unconscious continues to unfold.

The Federal Aviation Authority agreed to exempt Lady Gaga’s performance from a ban on drones within a 34.5-mile radius around Houston’s NRG Stadium on Super Bowl Sunday, a source told CNN Money.

The New York Times noted a few more known details about the show: there will be an introduction featuring Lady Gaga’s fans and her friend and musical collaborator Tony Bennett.

Lady Gaga promises there will be no wardrobe malfunction similar to the one Janet Jackson treated fans to the last time the Super Bowl was in Houston, nor will she wear the meat dress she put on for the 2010 MTV Music Video Awards.

But she has remained tight-lipped about what we can expect in terms of a setlist or what political statements she’ll make, if any.

Khan went on to say that Trump’s executive order, which has been stayed by federal judges and suspended by Homeland Security, is “kind of a sobering time for somebody like me.” He added that the controversial order would prevent the immigration of “the tens of thousands of people who can contribute to the making of America.”

Khan, who worked at the automotive manufacturing company Flex-N-Gate while attending the University of Illinois before purchasing the company in 1980, took over as owner of the Jaguars in 2011. While living in Champaign, Ill., he turned Flex-N-Gate into a multibillion-dollar company with 48 plants across the globe.

“We have to look at it based on what can we do to make a difference,” Khan said. “And right now, there are enough forces in power and play that we have to see how this thing ends up.”
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49ers free agency: San Francisco has the cash, QB options it needs for a turnaround

“Everyone knows that 鈥?you need a quarterback to be consistently competitive,” he said. “That’s what everybody is looking for, coaches and personnel people. That’s where it starts.”
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With the Falcons, Shanahan has a general manager in Thomas Dimitroff who got him exactly what he needed, whether that meant drafting players such as Jake Matthews and Tevin Coleman or signing players such as Gabriel, Mohamed Sanu and Alex Mack.

Game Tony McDaniel Jersey The Niners’ new GM, John Lynch, is set up nicely for Shanahan, too. Like Mike, Kyle is well aware of what a Stanford-educated, Hall of Fame-caliber player named John can do to both lead and build a Super Bowl team. Kyle Shanahan sees a lot of John Elway in John Lynch.

“John is a guy with whom I’ve developed a relationship over the years,” Shanahan said of Lynch. “He’s a guy who lives and dies football. He’s a very smart guy.”

Just four years ago, the 49ers were coming off their third NFC championship game appearance in as many seasons. They looked poised to be one of the dominant teams of the decade.

Since then it has been nothing but chaos in San Francisco, and three different head coaches combined for just 15 wins from 2014 to 2016.

With a new general manager and head coach in place, the 49ers are optimistic that they can fix their mess. And with nearly $80 million in cap room, they have the potential to make big changes in a hurry.

Here’s a breakdown of the 49ers’ offseason options.

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