Sports

Go Jawad! :)

UNC grads Jackie Manuel and Melvin Scott are working on their pro basketball dreams this summer. Jackie’s rehabbing his foot, and Melvin played for the Utah Jazz summer league team. Inside Carolina has a good article catching up with both of them.

Bowler hats, multi-layered full skirts…must be Bolivian women’s professional wrestling! Courtesy of The New York Times (free registration required), via Gawker

From the Chicago Tribune: “The Bulls have no picks in the June 28 NBA draft, but that didn’t stop them from bringing perimeter players Mike Bell, Drake Diener, Jackie Manuel and Rawle Marshall to the Berto Center on Wednesday. “Management wants to get a handle on some players who may go undrafted and could fill the summer-league roster and/or be invited to October’s training camp.”

Darn it. I was hoping Fields would be getting good news, particularly with his friend Sam Mills passing away.

We were walking toward Ted’s Montana Grill in Durham to partake of some bison, and we see some tall fellows walking toward us. I think one of them looks like Marvin Williams, so I stare until I figure out that it is him. Nice guy that he is, he even moved out of the way as I wandered blankly by, gawking. After we get into the restaurant, Lorrie points out that he was with Sean May and Wes Miller. (Who looked taller in person than he does with the rest of the team.) You know, it’s not like I really need more proof that my brain isn’t exactly agile when surprised. There go my dreams of being Sherlock Holmes. :) ...

Earl “The Pearl” Monroe and Coach “Big House” Gaines. Photo courtesy of the WSSU Archives and NARA Clarence “Big House” Gaines, who spent 47 seasons coaching men’s basketball at Winston-Salem State University, passed away yesterday. He was 81. When he retired, he had won more men’s basketball games than anyone except Adolph Rupp. A few coaches passed him since then, including Dean Smith, but he was at WSSU long enough for 828 wins and entrance to the Hall of Fame. ...

One of my favorite NFL players, Mills played as an undersized linebacker for the New Orleans Saints and the original Carolina Panthers team. He then went on to coach for the Panthers, continuing through his illness and treatment. A high-effort player, as I recall he usually had a smile on his face to let everyone know it was just a game, but a game he loved to play. He passed away today at the age of 45 from cancer. ...

So Mitch Albom just made up significant portions of a column on Michigan State’s Final Four game, and now there’s a debate about whether he should be fired. Personally, although I don’t want to, I can’t help but think sports journalists have to meet lower standards of reporting than someone who is reporting “hard news.” After all, sports reporting has had a long history of colorful characters and colorful writing that didn’t always come close to the facts. ...

We went to the UNC Men’s Basketball awards ceremony, along with a bunch of other fans. It was good.