Page 27 - Florida Sentinel 3-24-17

Sports
Jerry Krause, Two-Time NBA Executive Of The Year, Dies
Georgetown To Lose L.J. Peak To NBA Draft
L.J. PEAK
The Georgetown program has suffered another hit, as L.J. Peak has decided to enter the NBA draft and sign with an agent.
The 6-foot-5, 215-pound junior averaged 16.3 points, 3.8 rebounds and 3.5 assists per game this past season for a Hoyas team that finished 14-16 overall. It was the third time in the past four seasons that Georgetown failed to make the NCAA tournament.
Georgetown will lose Peak, a South Carolina na- tive, as well as leading scorer Rodney Pryor, who trans- ferred in this past year from Robert Morris.
The Hoyas' top incoming freshman, Tremont Wa- ters, requested his release earlier this month.
Falcon’s Rich McKay Gets Extension
Rich McKay, the son of former Buc coach, John McKay and a former Buc exec, gets an extension to re- main with the Falcons.
The Atlanta Falcons an- nounced a five-year extension for team president and chief executive officer Rich McKay through June 2022.
McKay, the key figure in the construction of the $1.53 billion Mercedes-Benz Sta- dium scheduled to open this summer, is entering his 14th season with the Falcons. He joined the organization in 2004 as the team's president and general manager. He also serves as president of AMB Sports & Entertainment, part of owner Arthur Blank's family-owned businesses.
Panthers' Cam Newton To Have Shoulder Surgery, To Miss OTAs
Jerry Krause, the archi- tect of the Chicago Bulls dy- nasty of the 1990s, has died at age 77.
The Bulls confirmed his death on Tuesday.
A Chicago native, Krause was both revered and reviled in his hometown.
After taking over as Bulls general manager in 1985, Krause was responsible for bringing together the pieces around Michael Jordan that led to six championships.
He hired Phil Jackson from the Continental Basket- ball Association as an assis- tant to coach Doug Collins and eventually fired Collins in favor of the unconventional Jackson. The move raised
JERRY KRAUSE questions because Collins
had led the Bulls to the East- ern Conference finals in 1988 and '89, losing to the eventual champion Detroit Pistons.
Jackson's maneuvering of superstar personalities, though, was later seen as a big part of the Bulls' sustained success.
Carolina Panthers star quarterback Cam Newton will have surgery on March 30 to repair a partially torn rota- tor cuff on his throwing shoul- der, the team announced Tuesday.
The 2015 NFL MVP will be sidelined for offseason work- outs, but is expected to be ready for the start of training camp in late July.
The injury occurred in a Week 14 game against the Chargers. Newton finished the game, but an MRI the fol- lowing week revealed the par- tial tear. The team did not report the tear at the time.
Newton was limited in practice during the week for the remainder of the season but didn't miss a start.
"It is well-documented and well-researched that over- head-throwing athletes com- monly have wear and tear to their rotator cuffs," Panthers head athletic trainer Ryan Vermillion told the team's website. "As a result of the MRI, we modified all of
Cam Newton, who suf- fered a rotator cuff injury in Week 14, finished last season with 3,509 passing yards and 19 touchdowns for the Pan- thers.
Cam's work in the weight room and on the field for the final three weeks of the sea- son."
The team said Newton has had multiple MRIs after the season and saw a rehabilita- tion specialist in Atlanta who has been updating Vermil- lion. The decision to have the surgery was made after New- ton experienced increased pain during the throwing por- tion of his rehab.
Ray Rice On Why He's Not Playing
Ray Rice reiterated Sun- day that he's not giving up on playing football again even though he's been out of the NFL since 2013.
"The reason why I'm not playing football, you do the dots," Rice said before Tor- rey Smith's charity basket- ball game in Baltimore.
Rice, 30, was suspended indefinitely by the NFL in September 2014 and was re- leased by the Baltimore Ravens when a video sur- faced of him punching his then-fiancee in an elevator. His suspension was later overturned by a neutral arbi- trator.
Last year, he acknow- ledged that his window for a return to the NFL was clos- ing.
"I can still play football," Rice said Sunday. "I'm never
RAY RICE
going to give up. You're never going to hear me say I gave up."
Rice is a three-time Pro Bowl running back who to- taled a Ravens record 9,214 yards from scrimmage. In his last season in the NFL, Rice didn't show much explosion behind a ragged offensive line, averaging a career-worst 3.1 yards per carry.
He previously said he wouldn't be discouraged if he never played again.
Russell Wilson Training Hard This Offseason
The 2016 sea- son didn't go the way Seattle Sea- hawks star quar- terback Russell Wilson wanted.
After leading
the NFL in
passer rating the
previous year,
Wilson was
hoping to pick
up where he left
off. But injuries
slowed him
down, pass pro-
tection issues
became too much to over- come, and the Seahawks' running game never got on track.
The result was an offense that finished 17th in effi- ciency, the lowest ranking since Wilson joined the team in 2012.
But even though the num- bers weren't great, Wilson continued to show he's one of the toughest and most durable quarterbacks in the NFL. He battled through a high ankle sprain, a sprained MCL in his knee and a pec- toral strain, never missing a start.
"He was hurt," wide re-
Without Russell Wilson's legs as a fac- tor, Seattle's running game never really got going last season.
ceiver Doug Baldwin said during a recent interview on the "Brock and Salk" show on 710 ESPN Seattle.
"To be completely honest with you, he was hurt. And I have to give him a lot of credit because for him to play through the injuries that he had, it was miraculous. It was unbelievable.
Wilson went to extreme lengths to get ready to play -- calling in his personal physi- cal therapist and undergoing round-the-clock treatments.
He finished the season rel- atively healthy and has been training in Los Angeles this offseason.
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