Page 28 - Florida Sentinel 11-25-16 Online Edition

Sports
Texas Plans To Fire Head Football Coach Charlie Strong
Magic Johnson Gifts Over 12,000 People In Detroit And Flint With Food, Clothing And Toys
Texas has decided to fire Charlie Strong as football coach, according to ESPN's Brett McMurphy and multi- ple reports.
Strong is 16-20 overall and 12-14 in Big 12 play in three seasons with the Longhorns.
Coach Strong, however, had a regularly scheduled meeting with the team Sunday night and had a regularly scheduled news conference Monday.
Strong told ESPN's Kirk Herbstreit on Sunday night that he had heard the reports that he was going to be fired,
Charlie Strong was the for- mer defensive coordinator for Florida and the Head Coach for Louisville before taking the job at Texas.
but had not heard anything from the university.
Texas athletic director Mike Perrin issued a state-
ment earlier Sunday night ad- dressing the reports and saying the university would continue to evaluate Strong.
Strong will be owed a $10.7 million buyout for the remain- ing two years on his contract, a fee that would be reduced if he takes another job.
The decision to part ways with Strong became in- evitable Saturday night, after Texas (5-6, 3-5 Big 12) lost 24- 21 in overtime to a Kansas team that was 1-9 and had lost its past 19 Big 12 games, and not beaten Texas since the 1930s.
Kevin Durant Backs LeBron James On Phil Jackson's 'Posse' Comment: 'It Sounds Like A Downgrade'
KEVIN DURANT
Kevin Durant has now doubled down on Stan Van Gundy's stance on Knicks team president Phil Jack- son's controversial "posse"comment to describe LeBron James' inner circle last week.
Durant spoke to ESPN's Chris Haynes about why he understands James lost re- spect for Phil following the "posse" comment, and de- fended his longtime friend about the matter. "I see why Le- Bron took offense to it." He added, "He doesn't just work on the basketball court; he puts his work in [off of it as well]. He's trying to set himself, his kids, his kid's kids up forever. So doing it for 10-plus years, to not associate what he's done with being an empire, I understand why he took offense to it."
James and his longtime business partner Maverick Carter took umbrageto Jack- son's comment about his asso- ciates, family, and friends. KD agreed that this term tends to connote a group of people in a pejorative tone, but he doesn't believe Jackson is a racist.
"I don't think Phil is racist. I think he just used a bad word, and he shouldn't be talking about other players anyway on another team," Durant said. "But I don't think Phil, I don't think he meant it in a bad way, but it sounds like a downgrade to what they really are. I under- stand why [LeBron] was upset.
Magic Johnson is jump- ing into the holiday spirit by giving back to his hometown and surrounding areas. The basketball great, along with the Magic Johnson Founda- tion and Feed the Children, partnered with sponsors to provide food, toys and clothes, for thousands in Flint, Michigan and neighbor- ing Detroit.
Besides providing over 10,000 people with food and clothing, Johnson hosted a holiday party in his home- town of Lansing gifting 200
MAGIC JOHNSON
children with books, toys, and more. The charity event also gave away winter coats for more than 4,000 Michigan residents (with help from Macy’s).
Former NFL Superstar Opens Up Grocery Store
Tiger Woods On Track To Return At Hero World Challenge
Former NFL superstar, Ty- rone Legette, played for the New Orleans Saints and several other teams before retiring in 1998. Now he is another kind of superstar -- he is an entrepre- neur who recently opened his own grocery store in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
The transition from sports to the food business was not im- mediate. One year after retiring from football, Legette started his own construction company, Legette Construction Inc., where he focused on working with non-profits to build subdi- visions in New Orleans that provided homes aimed at first- time home buyers.
Legette says he got into the grocery business for some of the
Tyrone Leggette in his store.
same reasons he started his own construction firm. As a contractor, he wanted to help others -- first-time buyers. As a grocery store owner, he wanted to help people save money on their groceries. In addition, the location, North Baton Rouge, is considered to be a food desert - that is, an urban area where it is very difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food.
Tiger Woods is on track to make his competitive re- turn to golf in two weeks at the Hero World Challenge, having had time to practice and pre- pare recently after he aborted his expected return last month at the Safeway Open in Cali- fornia.
Woods' agent, Mark Steinberg, told reporters on Tuesday that Woods is "get- ting after it a bit more, contin- uing to work toward that goal and excited to get back out there and compete, see the guys and be in the locker room instead of being an assistant captain,'' as the golfer was during the U.S. Ryder Cup vic- tory.
The decision to withdraw from the Safeway event in Oc- tober -- where Woods had
TIGER WOODS
intended to return, committed on the Friday prior and then changed his mind three days later -- was "never about his determination."
"The determination is still there," Steinberg stated. "We've still got two weeks to go, but he is doing the things necessary to get himself as ready as he can be, but it's going to be 15 months since the last time he played com- petitively.''
Michael Jordan's Father's Killer To Get Evidence In Bid For New Trial
Warriors' Steve Kerr Fined $25,000 After Criticizing Officials On Radio Show
A judge on Friday ordered prosecutors to look for and turn over evidence to the man con- victed of gunning down Michael Jordan's father in Robeson County more than two decades ago as he seeks a new trial.
Attorneys for Daniel Green have alleged law en- forcement corruption played a role in his 1996 murder convic- tion in James Jordan's death, and they have been seek- ing evidence in recent years to support that argument.
James Jordan was shot to death in his car along U.S. Highway 74 near Lumberton on July 23, 1993. His body was found a couple of weeks later in a South Carolina swamp.
Green has repeatedly in- sisted that he didn't kill James Jordan, acknowledging that he only helped dispose of the body and later had some items taken from Jordan and his car. Co-defendant Larry De- mery was convicted of a lesser crime in exchange for his testi- mony implicating Green in the murder.
DANIEL GREEN
Special Superior Court Judge Michael Beale or- dered prosecutors to turn over the notes from or transcripts of any interviews Demery had with State Bureau of Investiga- tion agents between January 1990 and August 1993, as well as any interviews the SBI had with Hubert Larry Deese after James Jordan's murder through March 1997.
Deese, the son of former Robeson County Sheriff Hu- bert Stone, was a known drug dealer in the area who worked with Demery and was a friend of the lead investigator into Jordan's murder. Someone also used Jordan's cellphone shortly after the killing to call Deese.
The NBA announced on Sunday that Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr has been fined $25,000 for public criticism of officiating during a radio interview on Thursday.
Kerr went on KNBR 680 after the Warriors played the Toronto Raptors on Wednes- day at Air Canada Centre. The hosts of the radio program were discussing how traveling has regularly gone unpunished in recent years, and Kerr used the opportunity to call out a missed travel call on Raptors All-Star DeMar DeRozan.
"Speaking of which, did you enjoy the DeMar DeRozan foray to the rim last night?" Kerr asked. "How is it that everybody on earth can see these traveling violations ex- cept for the three people that we pay to do the job? I don't get it. It's bizarre. ... But I can literally put together a blooper reel of plays that are embar-
STEVE KERR
rassing travels that are just not called."
The play in question was when DeRozan took four steps to get to the basket and no whistles were blown.
Kerr later said: "It's a case of they have so many things to look at. They are looking at de- fensive three seconds, they're looking at contact in the lane when people are cutting through. They are looking at the charge and block circle. They are looking at everything except what they should be looking at, which is the basic rule of the game: which is trav- eling.
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