Page 52 - Florida Sentinel 5-19-17

Sports
Golden State Wins Game 2; Headed To San Antonio
Source Says Lonzo Ball Uncertain On Non-Lakers Workouts
LONZO BALL
Lonzo Ball is undecided on whether he will work out for teams other than the Los Angeles Lakers, a source close to Ball told ESPN's Ramona Shelburne.
The source added that it has been "clear from the start our desired destination is Los Angeles."
Ball starred in his only season at nearby UCLA. He also played high school ball at Chino Hills.
A Lakers source says the team will look at dozens of players with the second and 28th picks. The players under the strongest consideration at No. 2 right now are Markelle Fultz, Ball, De'Aaron Fox, Josh Jackson and Jayson Tatum.
USF Coach Charlie Strong
Has ‘Positive’ Meeting With
The Golden State War- riors won Game 2 Tuesday night, 136-100. If you didn’t watch it, don’t worry, you did- n’t miss anything.
The Warriors smelled blood in the water and ended the game almost right after it started. The Kawhi Leonard-less Spurs lost every single quarter and someone named Bryn Forbes played 23 minutes.
The Spurs do have the consolation of a Zaza Pachulia injury, but that
Judge Who Rebuked Him
Golden State Warriors, Dray- mond Green, JaVale McGee and Steph Curry.
only means more minutes for JaVale McGee. The series will now go back to San Anto- nio but it’s hard to feel like that matters.
Charlie Strong met with the judge who rebuked him in court last week, and the meeting apparently went well.
Last week a judge in Tampa had harsh words for a University of South Florida player who was charged with sexual battery. The judge was also very critical of the pro- gram’s new head coach, Strong, because another one of the program’s players was recently involved in a road rage incident. She went after both with some very strong words.
Not too long after, an- other judge reached out and arranged a meeting. Strong went to the courthouse and met with Judge Margaret Taylor on Tuesday. The judge who set up the two, Chief Judge Ron Ficar- rotta, said things went well.
“I think Coach Strong
CHARLIE STRONG
was able to educate Judge Taylor on some of the is- sues,” Ficarrotta said via the Tampa Bay Times. “It went very well.”
Part of the reason Judge Taylor came down so hard on Strong is because she’s a USF alum. She also may have been somewhat unfair to Strong, considering he had a reputation for being a great disciplinarian at Texas, and he just inherited the South Florida program. It’s good they worked things out.
Interim Coach Mike Brown Nearly Arrested For Following Spurs Bus
Before the Warriors began their unholy beatdown of the San Antonio Spurs, acting Warriors coach Mike Brown relayed the story of how he al- most got arrested following the Spurs bus into the War- riors arena.
It’s very good, and involves Brown actively messing with the cops (who didn’t care that he was trying to get to the same place as the Spurs for the same game) until they had five vehicles on him.
MIKE BROWN
got out of the way, Gregg Popovich figured out that the antagonistic SUV be- longed to Brown and he called him for a laugh.
Buccaneers Expecting More
After Brown eventually
Baltimore Oriole CF Adam Jones Donates
On Defense In 2017 After
To Negro League Baseball Museum
Midseason Turnaround
The Negro Leagues Base- ball Museum in Kansas City received a large donation from Baltimore Orioles center fielder Adam Jones last weekend.
Recently, Jones was sub- jected to a racist attack by fans in Boston, while his team was playing against the Red Sox.
Jones was stunned by the peanuts being thrown at him and the use of the N-word by a group of Boston fans. Per- haps his experience of actu- ally living a small episode of what players like Jackie Robinson and others faced constantly to integrate the game of baseball encouraged his generosity.
The museum started off as a one-room collection of arti- facts in 1999, and has since expanded to its current 10,000 square foot incarna- tion.
On Saturday, Jones, gifted the museum with a $20,000 donation.
The money will go in large part to providing free mu- seum admission to students at Kansas City’s Operation Breakthrough.
“It’s all about giving
Baltimore Oriole centerfielder, Adam Jones at the Negro League Baseball Museum in Kansas City on last Saturday. (photo of Jones inset)
Tampa Bay Buccaneers defensive coordinator Mike Smith had a little project this offseason -- compile a tape for each player featuring the good, bad and ugly plays they were responsible for. Then assistant coaches were to watch those tapes privately with players.
It was an eye-opener, even for guys such as sixth-year linebacker Lavonte David, a former First-Team All-Pro, Pro Bowler and defensive captain.
"It was what I needed, to be honest," David said. "It was really what I needed. Since I've been here, I don't think I ever had that, so when I [saw] that, I thought it really helped me out a lot."
"[It] kinda helps you learn [the] defense," David said. "What could be better, what you did good on this play and what you did bad on a certain play, this guy loafed, this guy missed tackles -- they had a whole bunch of things that you could put in your bag of things to get better at."
In addition to helping the players, it gave the coaching staff feedback on what they needed to improve on as teachers. The process took
LAVONTE DAVID
about three weeks.
Another offseason project
for the defense has been con- tinuing to improve communi- cation. It was a huge issue for them in the first half of last season. Players weren't speaking up in meetings, in walk-throughs or out on the practice field. Smith believed alotofithadtodowith everything being so new.
Balls would fly over defen- sive backs' heads. They were getting gashed on run plays that should have never gotten to the second level. A 43-28 blowout loss to the Atlanta Falcons at home was rock bottom. Even with their late- season turnaround and five- game win streak, they still managed to give up 96 explo- sive pass plays, the most in the league, and 41 explosive run plays (tied for fifth).
knowledge,” Jones told the Baltimore Sun, “Give kids op- portunities ... I’m just a per- son who likes to give kids, give humans, give people an opportunity to learn.”
Jones learned a lot when visiting the museum over the weekend, “about the Negro Leagues side of it, their point of view — the things that they didn’t have as much as every- body else, the things they did- n’t care about as much as everybody else.”
“When I walk through those walls, I learn. It would be selfish of me not to help other people learn.”
In addition to supporting
free admission, Jones’ dona- tion will also be used to build “new augmented reality tech- nology” for the museum, ac- cording to its president, Bob Kendrick.
And, in a testament to making a dolla holla, the money will be further used in putting on a show to be called Barrier Breakers that will salute players like Jackie Robinson and Pumpsie Green.
Jones was inspired to be- come a museum donor he says, because “you walk through those doors, [and there is] such a love for base- ball that it’s contagious.”
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