Harrison Barnes is a great high school basketball talent. He's also a smart kid, genius maybe. Maybe he'll be the next great college player. Maybe he'll be the next Kobe or Lebron.
One thing he certainly is already is master showman. Witness the spectacle that was his college selection process Friday. The Ames, Iowa, prep phenom chose North Carolina as his new home for a year until he flees to the land of million-dollar contracts.
The foot-7 swingman, widely regarded as the top player in the Class of 2010, stretched out the announcement, touting a draft boardesque selection of school logos and ticking off the merits of each school - until he dialed up Roy Williams and crew at Chapel Hill - via a Skype video call, no less - to tell them he was the next great seeker of the Michael Jordan throne. Let's just hope coach Williams doesn't make the same mistake Dean Smith did with Jordan and leave him off the Sports Illustrated cover photo.
Barnes was also considering Duke, Kansas, Oklahoma, UCLA and Iowa State, his hometown school. He made his announcement Friday before hundreds of students in the gym at Ames High School and via a live video feed watched by thousands.
Barnes led Ames to a 26-0 record and a state title last winter, but he's made a name for himself nationally with impressive performances on the summer circuit.
Writing a post about something absurd or off-the-wall or inappropriate that Charles Barkley says is almost the blog equivalent of breathing air: It takes almost no effort or thought and happens almost every second of every day.
Case in point: Sir Charles decided to goof on Sammy Sosa's recent skin rejuvenation project that has him looking like something out of the "Thriller" video. So, during the TNT NBA show Thursday night, Barkley, who proclaimed, "I know you want to get in the Hall of Fame, but going white ain't the way to do it!," eventually took to transforming himself into a white man - a process slowed significantly by the continued flapping of his jaw while the makeup person efforted away.
No, on the grand scale, this isn't up there with any Northwestern blackface screwup. But has the Round Mound of Rebound stepped over the line? Nevermind the discussion of whether he'll be able to eat fried chicken and chitluns after he's white. Or is this just another case of Charles being Charles?
Mike Tyson cannot catch a break. largely from himself, it turns out.
Just after he spent time straightening up http://www.oprah.com/dated/oprahshow/oprahshow-20090912-mike-tyson and playing rock star to crowds in India, the law is once again in his life.
Police say the ear-chomping boxer has been detained on suspicion of battery following an alleged altercation with a photographer at Los Angeles International Airport.
The photographer has accused Tyson of hitting him, causing him to fall to the ground and cut his forehead. He's being treated at a hospital.
Holcomb says The cops say both Tyson and the photographer want to press charges for misdemeanor battery and that Tyson has been compliant and cooperative with officers and is currently waiting in a holding cell at the airport.
NBA Hall-of-Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar revealed Tuesday morning the he battling a rare form of leukemia.
Abdul-Jabbar, who was diagnosed last December with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia, is going public now to spread the message of treatment and show that it's a disease that doesn't need to be fatal:
"I have chronic myeloid leukemia," Abdul-Jabbar told CNN. "I think it's possible for someone in my position to help save lives.
Abdul-Jabbar, long an involved member in the community, has bee active in raising cancer awareness in the African-American community after dealing with a family history of colorectal cancer, for which he has the gene, he says.
He told CNN his specialist said the cancer diagnosis did not have to be a death sentence, as long as he followed a proper treatment regimen. Abdul-Jabbar wouldn't reveal his prognosis, but he did say he is managing his disease and that having CML "doesn't impact my life too significantly."
According to the American Cancer Society (ACS), the average person's chance of getting CML is less than 1 in 500. The cancer society says CML is slightly more common in men than women, and it accounts for 10 percent to 15 percent of all leukemias or blood cancers.
The ACS estimates just over 5,000 people will be diagnosed with CML this year, and that 470 will die from it. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society estimates the five-year survival rate for CML of 44.4 percent.
Aside from basketball greatness, Abdul-Jabbar also played the pivotal role of pilot Roger Murdoch in "Airplane."
Funny, that doesn't look like the Jaws of Life, Joe. (AP)
World Series-winning New York Yankees manager Joe Girardi may not walk on water, but he's apparently one step closer to sainthood in the Bronx.
Not content to simply end the torturous nine-year championship drought for the Bombers, formerly Chicago Joe took time after the celebrations were over last night to come to the aid of a woman in an car accident, lohud.com reports:
"The guy wins the World Series, what does he do? He stops to help," said Westchester County police officer Kathleen Cristiano, who was among the first to arrive at the accident scene. "It was totally surreal."
Girardi and Yankees pitcher Andy Pettitte had actually passed Cristiano earlier in the night at a drunk driving checkpoint before the Yankee skipper came up on the minor spinout. The driver, Marie Henry of Stamford, Conn., was uninjured and declined treatment, apparently. And there were no charges in what police described as a simple loss of control of the car.
In fact, the only crime was that Henry apparently had no idea who Girardi was:
"The driver didn't know it was him until after I told her," Cristiano said.
First, a full disclosure: I grew up in Virginia singing "Hail to the Redskins" and worshiping at the alter of Hall-of-Famer John Riggins as the team dominated all before them in the 1980s.
So I now know how fellow Pros(er) Kyle feels watching the Lions. Somewhere between sick to my stomach and just plain heartsick. It's a bumbling team that at one time not long ago was the class of the NFL - OK, similarity with the Lions ends there - that's become a conundrum of underperforming talent and a league laughingstock that winless teams look forward to on the schedule.
But I'm nowhere near as upset as Riggins, who currently is hosting a video series and lighting up Twitter with his ideas on why the Redskins have become one of the worst teams in the league. "Head" coach Jim Zorn ("he could be a good high school coach") and General Manager Vinny Cerrado ("He should go on radio ... be an analyst") receive the brunt of the Diesel's wrath.
Jim Nantz found out the price of a broken heart - $916,000 a year. (AP)
CBS' omnipresent sports voice Jim Nantz is used to calling the hard-hitting action as it takes place on the field. Now he knows what's it's like to get drilled by a linebacker going across the middle.
Nantz must pay $916,000 yearly in alimony and child support to his ex-wife and give up their Connecticut home under terms of a newly issued divorce decree. The ruling, made Monday in Bridgeport Superior Court, dissolves the 26-year marriage of Nantz and Ann-Lorraine "Lorrie" Carlsen Nantz. It comes after both testified about the breakdown of their marriage during what really turned out to be a tear-jerker of a trial with both parties breaking down on the stand and outside the courtroom (highlights from Deadspin since the Connecticut Post took the story off their site):
Nantz cried on the stand as he testified about how his wife used to follow him around the country to various sporting events, but gradually lost interest in his career. She could not even be bothered to go to New York City to watch him collect a "Man of the Year" award. Or let him hang the oil painting--of himself--that he received with the award in their house. (He had to put it in storage.) He was even offered the hosting slot on the CBS Early Show, but turned it down because she was against it. He admitted to taking a younger lover, but that it didn't matter much because his marriage was already "dead."
Nantz, 50, acknowledged dating a 29-year-old woman before the divorce was final, the judge concluded the marriage deteriorated years earlier and "this remote event in no way contributed to the breakdown of the marriage."
Owens noted that the couple didn't share the same interests in Nantz's television career, which required frequent travel as the network's primary commentator for college football, golf and basketball, as well as appearances at charity events.
Under the ruling, Nantz must pay $72,000 in alimony monthly until he dies or his ex-wife remarries, and another $1,000 weekly in child support for the next two years.
Nantz's attorney, Gaetano Ferro of New Canaan, said Tuesday that the famed sportscaster only wants what's best for his daughter and will not fight the terms of the divorce decree.
But don't worry about Jim. Court records show he's pulling down about $7 million a year for blabbing on the Eye. He'll be OK, once his broken heart heals.
The Cult of the Air Jordan is a passionate one. Since the first release of Michal Jordan's iconic shoe line in 1985, Nike has managed to develop a dedication of follower that borders on frenzy - do a Google search for "Air Jordan" and gaze at the 33,000,000+ links for proof if you have a few spare minutes.
Each year a new high top is rolled out to the delight of the fashion-aware ballers, hipsters, trendsters and collectors - mostly long gone are the days when you could get jacked up for you Mikes, even thought they still command a mighty price.
Nike's Jumpman23 site is, yes, above all a marketing/advertising push for you to fork over your hard-earned dollars for a tennis shoe. But at least they do it in a cool way. Not least of the interesting features is this new timeline feature that takes you through the years of Air Jordan with interesting videos, photos and facts about the man who could fly.
Sure, Mr. Cub has a statue at Wrigley Field, but that's not enough to make Ernie Banks happy. (AP)
Ernie Banksis the Cubs. As any fan knows, he's an icon of the team perhaps equaled only in popularity and legend by Ron Santo.
"Let's play two!"
Back-to-back MVP awards despite his team.
512 homeruns.
The Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.
There's little the great slugger and ambassador of the game didn't accomplish. Yet in this interview with Boston Public Radio station WBUR, the face of one of the most-storied franchises in baseball says he hasn't accomplished anything as a person.
"I haven't done anything yet. ... Nothing."
While Banks fans may scoff at that notion coming from the beloved Cub, he makes it clear he's talking about his shortcomings as a member of the human race and his desire to achieve one more award for excellence - the Nobel Peace Prize. Sure, he got edged out this year by President Obama - maybe that was art of the controversy? - but it remains Banks' largest unfulfilled dream, he tells the interviewer.
"I always had a bigger goal when I was 15, and that was to win the Nobel Peace Prize. I see myself in Stockholm. That has been my journey. I've been chasing the footsteps of my life to do something worthwhile."
Maybe the 79-year-old Banks can get closer to his dream by brokering peace between the North and South Side baseball fans in a city fractured by cross-loathing?
For now, though, the 79-year-old legend is surely plenty busy raising the 1-year-old daughter, Alyna Olivia Banks, he adopted with his wife, Liz. And, of course, still waiting for that championship parade riot in Wrigleyville.
There are few Major League Baseball luminaries more celebrated that Ted Williams. The Splendid Splinter was the last man to hit .400 in a season, stroking at a .406 clip for the Boston Red Sox in 1941.
The famously prickly Hall of Famer and hero of World Ward II and the Korean conflict is considered by many to be the greatest hitter ever and, at least for son John-Henry Williams, was a treasure worth trying to save for all eternity. John-Henry chose to have dear dad cryogenically preserved upon his death at the age of 83 in 2002. Or, more specifically, Ted Williams head.
And that's where things get weird according to a new book, "Frozen," according to the New York Daily News:
In "Frozen," Larry Johnson, a former exec at the Alcor Life Extension Foundation in Scottsdale, Ariz., graphically describes how The Splendid Splinter" was beheaded, his head frozen and repeatedly abused.
The book, out Tuesday from Vanguard Press, tells how Williams' corpse became "Alcorian A-1949" at the facility, where bodies are kept suspended in liquid nitrogen in case future generations learn how to revive them.
Johnson writes that in July 2002, shortly after the Red Sox slugger died at age 83, technicians with no medical certification gleefully photographed and used crude equipment to decapitate the majors' last .400 hitter.
Williams' severed head was then frozen, and even used for batting practice by a technician trying to dislodge it from a tuna fish can.
John-Henry, who had a brief pro baseball career, including with the Schaumburg Flyers, was a controversial figure before his father died. But the heat really came down him with his 2002 decision to freeze his father without so much as a public funeral. John-Henry himself died of Leukemia in 2004 and was also treated at the Alcor facility as part of the ted Williams agreement.
A voracious consumer of all things sports and all things blog, Koster keeps his eyes on the biggest stories in sports while sacrificing any chance at a social life. Waste your entire day with him On Our Twitter .
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