Draft forecast
We love the draft. You know this.
Here's a quick top-five of things we are intrigued by heading into tonight's NBA Draft.
We enjoyed TFP ace sports columnist Mark Wiedmer's view on UK one-and-donee and Hamilton Heights product Shai-Gilgeous-Alexander. There are three former SEC players who are pegged as lottery picks we think could have huge futures: Alexander, Collin Sexton and Kevin Knox.
Speaking of former SEC players - and that's very kind if 53 minutes make you a former anything - Michael Porter Jr. is the biggest boom-or-bust name in this draft. A year ago he was the No. 1 player among all of these kids. Porter has monster upside but has monstrous injury concerns. Is he Joel Embiid or is he Greg Oden?
Speaking of boom-or-bust, we all have heard the hype of Luka Doncic, the 6-7 backcourt player from Spain who is consistently pegged to Atlanta at No. 3. If you are a Hawks fan, you are used to disappointment. But know this stat coming in: In the last 15 years of the lottery era of the NBA Draft, 23 international players have been picked in the lottery; only one (Kristaps Porzingus) of those 23 made an NBA all-star game.
Speaking of all-stars, the league's power teams have made a lot of hay in the second round, highlighted by Golden State taking Draymond Green in round two. Here are a few of the cats who have become top-flight players in the league after sliding out of round one: DeAndre Jordan (35), Goran Dragic (45), Isaiah Thomas (60), Marc Gasol (48), Paul Millsap (47), Louis Williams (45) as well as Green. Of the guys who could fall, here are three potential second-round picks we think will translate very well into today's NBA: Michigan's Mo Wagner, Maryland's Justin Jackson and Kentucky's Jarred Vanderbilt.
Speaking of steals, it will be interesting to see who makes what deals and what that may mean for a busy couple of weeks in the free agent market.
Good times.
Former NFL football player Anquan Boldin, left, Philadelphia Eagles Malcolm Jenkins, center, and San Francisco 49ers Eric Reid, right, speak to the press outside the league's headquarters after meetings, Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)Players' response
OK, not sure if you have heard this but apparently President Trump is not a fan of NFL players protesting during the National Anthem. He went as far as uninviting the Super Bowl-champion Eagles after he caught wind that reportedly less than 10 of the invited team were going to show up at the White House.
That move came after the controversial announcement from the league that players will either stand or they can wait in the locker room. The NFL owners dubbed that a compromise, and in actuality it really made both sides even more angry and more divided. And more focused.
After the uninvite (if that's a word), President Trump asked the NFL players to submit a list of names who were "unfairly treated by the justice system" and the President would consider them for pardons.
Some of the more high-profile protestors responded this morning with an op-ed piece in the New York Times.
The response offers thousands of names and points the finger at what the players - Malcolm Jenkins, Benjamin Watson, Doug Baldwin and Anquan Boldin.
Trump's offer seemed like an olive branch, at least it did to a lot of us. It was the first step from the Oval Office toward progress rather than diatribes.
Apparently the players did not feel the same way. The wrote the following: "But a handful of pardons will not address the sort of systemic injustice that N.F.L. players have been protesting. These are problems that our government has created, many of which occur at the local level. If President Trump thinks he can end these injustices if we deliver him a few names, he hasn't been listening to us."
The complaints in the op-ed - which was very well done and well written - opened the door to a lot of the talking points and issues with our prison system. To be clear, our corrections system has many flaws and talking about them and trying to correct them is a worthy and noble conversation.
But completely ignoring the fact that these people committed crimes and the rest of us need to do more for those criminals seems to be frequently glossed over.
More from the players' op-ed: "As Americans, it is our constitutional right to question injustices when they occur, and we see them daily: police brutality, unnecessary incarceration, excessive criminal sentencing, residential segregation and educational inequality. The United States effectively uses prison to treat addiction, and you could argue it is also our largest mental-health provider. Law enforcement has a responsibility to serve its communities, yet this responsibility has too often not met basic standards of accountability. These injustices are so widespread as to seem practically written into our nation's DNA. We must challenge these norms, investigate the reasons for their pervasiveness and fight with all we have to change them. That is what we, as football players, are trying to do with our activism."
OK. But this, like so many other spinning versions of the original kneel Colin Kaepernick took because of issues of police brutality on minorities it's next to impossible to keep up.
It also is one of the reasons why the league needs to get everyone on the same page sooner rather than later because this opens the umbrella open for everyone to vent every concern - be it world hunger, border issues, war on terror, the treatment of red-headed step children, you name it - will be protested in some form or the other.
And the more protests will mean the more customers that continue to find other ways to spend their Sundays.
Former voice of the Tennessee Vols, John Ward, is recognized during a timeout in an NCAA college football game between Tennessee and Vanderbilt Saturday, Nov. 25, 2017, in Knoxville, Tenn. (AP Photo/Wade Payne)
Good-bye to a legend
Sometime in the last year we had a conversation on Press Row about what Tennessee legends should have their picture above the Neyland Stadium JumboTron.
A couple were pretty clear. I made the case for John Ward, the longtime voice of the Vols who was larger than life for Tennessee Vols fans who grew up before every game was televised in high-def.
Ward died Wednesday night. He was 88.
Simply put, he was a state icon, as big as anyone in the history of UT athletics. Yes, Neyland and Summitt and Fulmer have nattys and buildings and fields named after them. They are all all-timers and Hall of Famers.
And John Ward does not have to take a backseat to anyone. (Here's a great first-person column about Ward from our buddy and GoVols247 ace Wes Rucker.)
In truth, since Larry Munson and Al Ciraldo and Woody Durham and Cawood Ledford and so many of the other legendary voices of college athletics in the South have long since hung 'em up, it's a reminder of the way better but somewhat saddening way we consume our favorite college football teams.
It will be a cliche by the end of the day to hear the stories of how those of us in our 40s and older used to turn off the sound on the TV game and listen to Ward or Munson or Jim Fife.
These days, the broadcast teams for the schools are good, and in some ways more professionally polished. But the connection is not there. The emotional investment is not as direct.
Ward was always kind. He was a pro's pro. And he was a legend.
That's high praise for a man held in amazingly high regard by so many.
In fact, we'll offer this final assessment for how truly loved those old-school, emotionally invested radio announcers: For all the animosity between hard-core rivals in the SEC, today Alabama fans and Georgia fans grieve with UT fans because everyone can relate to how much Ward meant to them.
And how many other Vols legends could you say that about?
This and that
- On Marty Smith's podcast, Lane Kiffin told a story that Tennessee security suggested he wear a bullet-proof vest when he returned to Neyland Stadium as the Alabama OC.
- Dwight Howard was dealt Wednesday to Brooklyn. How's this for a stat: Howard is one of only two players to average a double-double in points and rebounds in their first 14 NBA Seasons. The other is some dude named Wilt Chamberlain. Side question: Has there ever been a player in any modern sport that the game completely changed around him and he went from one of if not the best in the league to a marginal player who was just traded for Timofy Mazgov and a second-rounder.
- Completely count me in on this. Yes, that's Creed II, and Apollo's son fights Drago's son. Giddy-up and call the sitter, daddy's going to a non-animated movie in the theater.
- OK, because not all headlines are created equally, we will give the background and then share the best headline we saw from the strange story of the day. The mascot of the Philadelphia Phillies - he's known as the Phillie Phanatic and since we're not really sure what a Phillie is, trying to describe the Phanatic is pointless - had a strange Wednesday. During his normal routines, he fired off his hot dog cannon, which is a lot like a T-shirt cannon only it fires frankfurters. Wednesday it caught Kathy McVay in the face, leaving her with a black eye and in need of a CAT scan. As for the headline potentially a different picture, well, here's this from the Tallahassee Democrat: "Phillie Phanatic's wayward wiener hits woman in face, causes injuries."
Today's questions
We have a few before we get to the Rushmore.
First, a true or false on Thursday: True or false, John Ward was better than Larry Munson. And try to be kind because this is the Southern college football version of LeBron or MJ.
Second, has the Rocky family of movies moved into No. 2 all time behind the Star Wars family of movies in the ranking of film franchises with five or more in the series? Rocky or Bond? Who you got?
As for today, June 21, well Chris Pratt is 39 today. Prince William is 36. Craig Sager would have been 67.
Today also is the Summer Solstice. Let's do a Rushmore of "summer" and always, be creative.