2015 NBA Draft

6/26/15 - grading the draft
NBA draft winners and losers

6/25/15 - Here we go, live on ESPN
1 - Minnesota - Karl Anthony-Towns, C, Kentucky
2 - L.A. Lakers - D'Angelo Russell, PG, Ohio State (surprising most experts)
3 - Philadelphia - Jahlil Okafor, C, Duke (joining Noel and Embiid)
4 - New York - Kristaps Porzingis, PF, Latvia

Hmm.  I'm getting the results on Yahoo before ESPN.

5 - Orlando - Mario Hezonja, SG-SF, Croatia
6 - Sacramento - Willie Cauley-Stein, C, Kentucky
7 - Denver - Emmanuel Mudiay, PG, DRC
8 - Detroit - Stanley Johnson, SF, Arizona
9 - Charlotte - Frank Kaminsky, PF-C, Wisconsin
10 - Miami - Justise Winslow, SF, Duke
11 - Indiana - Myles Turner, C, Texas
12 - Utah - Trey Lyles, PF, Kentucky

NBA draft day trades

[6/21/16 - Finch scouting reports -- yes that's 2016 that I entered this]

6/19/15 - Mock Draft 2.0
1. Minnesota: Karl Anthony-Towns, Kentucky, C-PF
2. L.A. Lakers: Jahlil Okafor, Duke, C
3. Philadelphia: D'Angelo Russell, Ohio State, G
4. New York: Kristaps Porzingis, Latvia, PF [up from 5]
5. Orlando: Justise Winslow, Duke, SF [up from 7]
6. Sacramento: Emmanuel Mudiay, China, PG [down from 4]
7. Denver: Mario Hezonja, Croatia, SG [up from 8]
8. Detroit: Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky, C [down from 6]

6/4/15 - Consensus Mock Draft
1. Minnesota: Karl Anthony-Towns, Kentucky, C
2. L.A. Lakers: Jahlil Okafor, Duke, C
3. Philadelphia: D'Angelo Russell, Ohio State, PG
4. New York: Emmanuel Mudiay, China, PG
5. Orlando: Kristaps Porzingis, Latvia, PF
6. Sacramento: Justise Winslow, Duke, SG
7. Denver: Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky, C
8. Detroit: Stanley Johnson, Arizona, SF

5/20/15 - Mock Draft by Scott Howard Cooper
1. Minnesota: Karl Anthony-Towns, Kentucky, C-PF
2. L.A. Lakers: Jahlil Okafor, Duke, C
3. Philadelphia: D'Angelo Russell, Ohio State, G
4. New York: Emmanuel Mudiay, China, PG
5. Orlando: Kristaps Porzingis, Latvia, PF
6. Sacramento: Willie Cauley-Stein, Kentucky, C
7. Denver: Justise Winslow, Duke, SF
8. Detroit: Mario Hezonja, Croatia, SG

5/19/15 - David Aldridge Big Board - Center
5/18/15 - David Aldridge Big Board - Power Forward
5/18/15 - David Aldridge Big Board - Small Forward
5/18/15 - David Aldridge Big Board - Shooting Guard
5/18/15 - David Aldridge Big Board - Point Guard
3/18/15 - The top 30 of the moment: Okafor, Towns, Mudiay, Russell, Porizngis, Johnson, Hezonga.

Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock

They're still active?  I guess this would be good match in a video game.  Or a movie..

Anyway, they actually did meet at Bellator 138 tonight.

Friday night's Bellator event in St. Louis was headlined by a fight six years in the making, pitting 41-year-old onetime Internet sensation Kimbo Slice vs. 51-year-old MMA legend Ken Shamrock. Kimbo ended up scoring a knockout with a vicious punch in 2:22 of the first round. Neither man had participated in a professional mixed martial arts fight since 2010.

When the bell rang to start the fight, Shamrock went for a takedown right away, eventually scoring a trip takedown, although Slice was able to get right back up. A minute later, Shamrock scored a single-leg takedown, then got Slice's back. He sank in a rear naked choke, then a neck crank, but Slice was somehow able to survive in the submission attempt for over half a minute, then wriggled free. Both men made it to their feet and Slice immediately unloaded, rocking Shamrock and then knocking him down and out for the win.

Slice entered the fight (his first for Bellator) with a professional MMA record of 4-2. Shamrock (also making his Bellator debut), entered with a 28-15-2 record, with two of those losses coming in his most recent year in MMA, 2010. The catchweight fight in the main event of Bellator 138 was at 232 pounds.

*** [6/28/15] fight fake? (see comments)

Warriors defeat Cavaliers for NBA Championship

CLEVELAND -- Revived by a fresh-faced shooting superstar and a first-year coach who made them believe, the Golden State Warriors again reign supreme.

Their 40-year NBA championship drought is finally over.

A half century of misery in Cleveland drags on. LeBron James just didn't have enough help.

Stephen Curry and finals MVP Andre Iguodala scored 25 points apiece, Draymond Green recorded a triple-double and the Warriors -- using a barrage of 3-pointers in the fourth quarter -- won their first title since 1975 by finishing off James and the Cavaliers 105-97 on Tuesday night in Game 6.

For the first time since Gerald Ford was in the White House, disco was in vogue and Rick Barry was flicking in free throws under-handed, the best pro basketball team resides in the Bay Area.

And these Warriors are a lot like Barry and his old crew: fluid, balanced, together. Just like coach Steve Kerr hoped.

After falling behind by two points early in the third quarter, the Warriors took control with Curry, the league's MVP, and Iguodala, who made his first start of the season in Game 4, leading the way.
"World champs," Curry said, letting the title sink in. "This is truly special. This group is a special group. From the time we started the season this is what we envisioned and a lot of hard work goes into it, all the way down to the last minute of this game. This is what it's all about. ... We're going to remember this for a long time."

***

The Golden State Warriors won an NBA title on Tuesday pushing the pace, launching 3s and starting a 6-foot-6 'center.' Associate head coach Alvin Gentry, who will make Anthony Davis' New Orleans Pelicans more fun next season, excitedly credited Phoenix Suns head coach Mike D'Antoni while celebrating. Gentry served under D'Antoni during the seven-seconds-or-less era, and he hasn't forgotten all the crazy criticism that coaching staff received for the sort of outside-the-box thinking that completely changed the game.
From ESPN's Ethan Sherwood Strauss:

Victorious Gentry: "Tell Mike D'Antoni he's vindicated! We just kicked everyone's ass playing the way everybody complained about!"

6:53 PM - 16 Jun 2015

Gentry elaborated to Bleacher Report's Howard Beck:

I would say this is vindication for Mike D'Antoni, if nothing else.  We played like he's been trying to get this league to play forever.  And you can win a championship like that.  So for all the people that said you can't win a championship being a three-point shooting team, and not really a low-post scoring presence or anything like that, we just did it.  So I think it's great for Mike D'Antoni.

Asked postgame about Stephen Curry breaking the mold for a transformative player, Golden State head coach Steve Kerr referenced D'Antoni and Steve Nash's Suns, too. "Steve was kind of the original Steph Curry," he said, adding that he thought Phoenix was going to win a title that way.
"I think Steve kind of laid out a vision for a whole generation of young point guards," Kerr said. "And with the game changing, Mike D'Antoni kind of initiating that style in Phoenix, the floor starting to spread, the whole league kind of playing shooting 4s and 5s and playing a little faster, I think Mike and Steve in many ways set the table for Steph Curry. And I think Steph would tell you that, too."

Kerr told ESPN that the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs, with their spacing and shooting, had already vindicated D'Antoni. For some, that is certainly true, but the Warriors winning means much more. To the Charles Barkleys of the world, the Heat's system wasn't relevant because they had LeBron James on the roster. The same goes for the Spurs and Tim Duncan. Golden State just won the Larry O'Brien trophy with Curry breaking 3-point shooting records alongside four 6-6 to 6-7 guys in the starting lineup. Fans of those Phoenix teams should have smiles on their faces, and it's not just because of Leandro Barbosa finally winning a ring.

The Olympics films

The official Olympic film of the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games in it's entirety is now here on the official Olympic YouTube channel.

This official Olympic film features some of the most inspiring and courageous stories from the Atlanta Games including those of Michael Johnson, Josia Thugwane, Naim Süleymanoğlu, Ghada Shouaa and Jackie Joyner-Kersee.

More films:
Athens 2004 Olympic Games
Sydney 2000 Olympics
Atlanta 1996 Olympics
Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games
Mexico City 1968 Olympics
Tokyo 1964 Olympics
London 1948 Olympics

Official Olympics Films - Full Versions
Olympic History: Official Films

Dusty Rhodes

 (CNN)Dusty Rhodes -- the rotund, easy bleeding, easy talking professional wrestler who billed himself as "The American Dream" -- died Thursday, the WWE said on its website.

Rhodes, whose real name was Virgil Runnels, was 69. The WWE didn't give a cause of death.

Rhodes rose to fame as a common-man figure. He didn't have the chiseled body some associate with today's wrestlers. He was a good guy wrestler, often battling heels like Superstar Billy Graham, Blackjack Mulligan, Harley Race and The Four Horsemen, who were led by Ric Flair.

"My mentor @WWEDustyRhodes. Much love to your family and more respect than can ever be measured. Love you Dream," Flair tweeted.

Rhodes liked to pitch himself as the son of a plumber from Austin, Texas, and an everyman who became the extremely popular champion of the National Wrestling Alliance three times in the 1980s.

He moved on to the World Wrestling Federation (now the WWE), and also wrestled on several other circuits before coming back to the WWE in the mid-2000s.

He will be remembered for the spirited and often hilarious in-studio interviews he would give to wrestling commentators to promote upcoming matches.

"I have wined and dined with kings and queens, and I've slept in alleys and dined on pork and beans," he once exclaimed.

Don Nelson's house of hemp

KIHEI, Maui » Building one of the first homes in Hawaii made of hemp has left Hall of Fame NBA coach Don Nelson open to some friendly ribbing from his Maui neighbors.

“Most of them think they can smoke it,” Nelson said.

While industrial hemp used in the construction of homes comes from the same cannabis sativa plant species as marijuana, it contains only a small amount of tetrahydrocannabinol — the psychoactive chemical that creates the marijuana high.

“You’d have to smoke a telephone pole worth to get a little buzz on,” said Don’s wife, Joy Nelson.

The walls of the Nelsons’ 700-square-foot guest house are being filled with a material — made out of the chips and fibers of hemp stalk mixed with water and lime — called “hempcrete.”

Once the smaller house is finished later this month, the next project for the Nelsons is to construct the main house on their Sugar Beach oceanfront property — a 6,000 square-foot home — with hempcrete.

Don Nelson, 75, said he wanted to use hempcrete because of its low environmental impact, noting the sustainability of the hemp plant, which can be grown in Hawaii.

“I always felt that hemp was the building material of the future. It’s a wonderful plant. Some day there will be a lot of hemp homes,” Nelson said.

The building material is nontoxic and has other advantages for construction, including being resistant to insects, mildew and fire.

“We’re not killing any trees, which makes us feel good,” said Nelson, the winningest coach in NBA history. Nelson ended his NBA career in 2010 with the Golden State Warriors, the team heading into the NBA Finals Thursday against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

UAB Football to be reinstated

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -- After making what was described by UAB president Ray Watts as an agonizing decision to terminate the football program in December, he and the university reversed field and announced Monday that they would reinstate the program, along with bowling and rifle.

Watts, who originally disbanded the three programs based largely on a reported lack of financial solvency, said recent changes in private support through individuals and the business community made the reinstatement possible. An estimated $27 million has been raised through the UAB Football Foundation, the city of Birmingham and the UAB Undergraduate Student Government Association.

"The biggest single difference is we now have tangible commitments for additional support that we have never had before," Watts told reporters. "Without that additional support, we could not have maintained a balanced budget moving forward."