Professor: Ron DeSantis Is a Racist for His ‘Freaks of Nature’ Basketball Comments

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis noted in an interview that he preferred baseball over basketball partly because the latter is played by guys who are “just freaks of nature.”

Speaking to the Christian Broadcasting Network, the 2024 GOP presidential candidate said baseball is a “thinking man’s game” that requires special skill sets, Newsweek reports.

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Michigan Basketball Coach Suspended for Rest of Regular Season after Striking Wisconsin Coach

Juwan Howard

University of Michigan head basketball coach Juwan Howard is suspended for the remainder of the regular season and is forced to pay a $40,000 fine, The Big Ten Conference announced Monday.

The ddisciplinary action comes after Howard struck Wisconsin assistant coach Joe Krabbenhoft on Sunday in Madison, Wis.

The Big Ten also found University of Wisconsin head basketball coach Greg Gard in “violation of the conference’s sportsmanship policy” and gave him a $10,000 fine.

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Phoenix Suns Arena Renamed ‘Footprint Center,’ Will Serve as Testing Ground for Environmental Initiatives

Talking Stick Resort Arena

The Phoenix Suns Arena will now be known as the “Footprint Center,” named after their new partner: local material science and environmentalist company, Footprint. This partnership will reportedly advance environmentalist initiatives concerning plastics. The company’s main initiative is eliminating single-use plastics entirely. 

Included in the partnership are the valley’s professional men’s and women’s basketball teams, the Phoenix Suns and Mercury, as well as the professional men’s soccer team, Real Mallorca. 

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Georgia Passes Bill to Let College Athletes Get Paid for Utilization of ‘Name, Image, or Likeness’

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Thursday signed legislation that will allow athletes at higher educational institutions to get paid for the utilization of their “name, image, or likeness.”

The bill, which is slated to go into effect on July 1, 2021, states that “participation in intercollegiate athletics should not infringe upon the rights of student athletes to have control over and profit from the commercial use of their name, image, or likeness.”

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NBA Doing Business with Chinese Company Accused of Using Slave Labor

Basketball with CCP logo

In the latest example of the National Basketball Association (NBA) undergoing scrutiny due to its close ties with China, the organization has been revealed to be doing business with a shady Chinese company that has been accused of producing goods with forced labor from Uyghur Muslims, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

The Chinese company in question is Anta Sports, the largest sportswear brand in all of China. Anta specifically relies on cotton from the Xinjiang region of China, which also happens to be one of the major hubs of systematic incarceration, indoctrination, and forced labor for Uyghur Muslims. Together, the NBA and Anta sell at least two different kinds of basketball shoes, with one of the shoes selling for up to $120 per pair in the United States.

The Xinjiang region, however, has seen more than one million Uyghurs removed from their homes and sent to concentration camps, known as “reeducation camps,” and are forced to do manual labor on behalf of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and other Chinese entities. Through such labor, Xinjiang produces approximately 85 percent of all cotton in China, and around 20 percent of the world’s supply of cotton.

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Boycott: NBA Playoff Games Called Off Amid Player Protest

All three NBA playoff games scheduled for Wednesday have been postponed, with players around the league choosing to boycott in their strongest statement yet against racial injustice.

Called off: Games between Milwaukee and Orlando, Houston and Oklahoma City and the Los Angeles Lakers and Portland. The NBA said all three games would be rescheduled, yet did not say when.

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The Detroit Pistons’ Onetime Home, the Palace of Auburn Hills, Torn Down

One of Michigan’s most beloved sports and entertainment venues was turned into rubble on Saturday with a series of controlled explosions.

The shell and roof of the Palace of Auburn Hills, which was home to three championship Detroit Pistons teams and three Detroit Shock teams and played host to some of the world’s biggest musical acts during its nearly 30-year run, crumbled to the ground following a series explosive pops. The rest of the arena had already been removed.

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Minnesota High School Basketball Team Can’t Play in Tournament After Fans Hoisted Trump Flag at Game

The superintendent of a rural Minnesota school district cancelled a high school basketball team’s scheduled participation in a Monday tournament because a few student fans recently brought a Trump flag to a game. Last week, students at Jordan High School showed up to a game with a flag that said: “Trump 2020: Keep America Great.” A coach for the opposing team, Minneapolis Roosevelt, took a picture of the students holding the flag and wrote about it on Facebook. “I coach a predominantly black inner city high school team. We go out to a rural area in Jordan, MN and this is there. Please explain how and why this is appropriate at a high school basketball game?” Michael Walker wrote. One person commented on his post to explain that she lent the flag to students to be used as part of a planned USA-themed night. But on Sunday, Jordan School District Superintendent Matthew Helgerson announced that he wouldn’t be allowing the Jordan High School basketball team to participate in an MLK-day tournament. “Given recent events, we believe the participation of our team in the event will detract from the hard work of the athletes and the upbeat focus of the MLK…

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East Nashville Girls Hoops Team Wins Triple Overtime Thriller

Editors Note: Tennessee Star Sports Editor Scott Wallace announced today that former Fisk University basketball and baseball player McKinley (Mac) Young Jr. will be one of the writers for the Star’s sports department. Young has a plethora of contacts and knowledge of local sports. He is currently an assistant football and baseball coach for Hillsboro High School and does sports information work for basketball at East Nashville Magnet. He is also a correspondent for Wallace Media Group. “Mac has been with me for a number of years now and has been a reliable source of sports in Nashville,” said Wallace. “He brings excitement to whatever he does. His knowledge of sports makes him a force to be reckoned with.” Young will mostly handle Nashville Metro Sports. He will also contribute from time to time with writing about other schools in the Middle Tennessee area. He will also provide a his weekly Top 19 Metro Girls’ and Boys’ teams. Metro Girls Metro’s top team gets a big game from four-year starter to prevent upset. This past Tuesday, the East Nashville Lady Eagles (16-1, 4-0 10AA) pulled out a classic three overtime road victory over the Sycamore Lady War Eagles 67-64. The…

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Commentary: How Nike Transformed the University Of Oregon

by George Leef   While money is not the root of all evil, it is undeniably responsible for the transformation of the University of Oregon (UO). It changed from a typical state flagship where athletics were a nice diversion for some students and alums into a sports powerhouse where the quest for glory in football and basketball dominates the school. The person directly responsible for that is Phil Knight, the founder of the athletic shoe and apparel giant Nike.  At a time when the university’s president was desperately looking for outside funding for the school, Knight, an Oregon alum and huge athletics booster, was on hand to help with funds for projects he liked. Is it a bad thing for an alum to give money? In his recent book University of Nike, author Joshua Hunt shows how Oregon became so hooked on money from Knight that it has allowed athletics to badly distort its priorities. The university’s success on the gridiron and court was crucial to Nike’s business strategy of selling not just shoes, but an entire “dream” package for Americans who were caught up in football and basketball. Once the school started taking Nike money, it simply couldn’t stop.…

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Number 24 Tennessee Holds Off Lipscomb, 81-71

Sophomore forward Grant Williams had 19 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots to help No. 24 Tennessee post an 81-71 victory over Lipscomb on Saturday in a nonconference contest at Knoxville, Tenn. Junior forward Admiral Schofield scored 13 points as the Volunteers (7-1) continued their strong start. Senior guard James Daniel III tallied 12 points on four 3-pointers and junior guard Chris Darrington added 11 points.

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Middle Tennessee holds off Mississippi

Middle Tennessee earned its fifth consecutive win against a Southeastern Conference team with a 77-58 victory over Mississippi on Saturday night at Murphy Center in Murfreesboro, Tenn. The Blue Raiders’ 8-0 run to start the second half took away the Rebels’ last lead, then the hosts owned the final four minutes after Mississippi chopped a double-digit…

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Brentwood Academy Varsity Basketball Players Suspended After a ‘Locker Room Incident’

As many as four varsity basketball players have been suspended following what is described as a ‘locker room incident’ at the prestigious private Christian school, Brentwood Academy, WSMV reports. Although the school is not sharing any details about what took place, it was serious enough to warrant the cancellation of last Friday’s game. School spokesperson Susan Shafer issued the following statement: Last week, a number of students failed to meet the high expectations we have for them at Brentwood Academy. As a result, the students involved have been disciplined. When the school became aware of an incident on last Thursday, we immediately addressed the issue with students involved and their parents. While Brentwood Academy has been transparent about its disciplinary procedures with the students and parents involved, we are committed to protecting the privacy of our students and families. We are not going to elaborate further on student discipline. Other news outlets have said that among those suspended is senior starter, point guard Darius Garland. According to 247Sports, Garland is a 5-star player whose skills have ranked him No. 13 overall of college recruits. He is ranked as the No. 3 point guard, and is the No. 1 player from the state of Tennessee in his 2018…

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Former NBA Player-Turned-Western Kentucky Coach Quits After Embarrassing Incident on the Road

Drinking and driving can come with other consequences besides possible jail time and fines. A former NBA player turned college basketball coach found that out the hard way. Ben Hansbrough, who had just been promoted to a full-time assistant coach’s role at Western Kentucky University this summer, resigned his position just two days after he was…

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Report: Pitino Received 98 Percent of Louisville’s Adidas Money

Suspended Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino received 98 percent of the money from the university’s current contract with Adidas, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported Thursday. According to the newspaper, Pitino got $1.5 million of the money as part of his personal services agreement with the shoe and apparel firm, with the school getting only $25,000. The prior…

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Referee Files Lawsuit Against Kentucky Radio Station After Harassment He Endured for Elite Eight Officiating

It’s not often that you see a referee fight back fans or radio stations in a court of law. Those people are allowed to have their opinions of how you officiated a game after all. However, referee John Higgins is filing a federal lawsuit against Kentucky Sports Radio citing intentional infliction of emotional distress, invasion of…

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President Trump Withdraws NBA’s Warriors Invitation to White House

President Donald Trump said Saturday he was withdrawing a White House invitation extended to the Golden State Warriors after several players on the NBA championship-winning side voiced misgivings about attending a reception. Writing on Twitter, Trump singled out Warriors star Stephen Curry, who on Friday had signalled that he would vote against attending the White House…

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