So, first off, after weeks of speculation, misinformation, and deflection, Duchess Kate released a video revealing she is in preventative chemo for cancer. She did not say what kind, and asked for privacy as she and her family deal with this situation. Positive energy vibes for a full and complete recovery for Kate. I DO have a serious issue though with the Buckingham Palace communications team. The comms team could have put out a simple statement about Kate's condition, and crushed all the wild theories and speculation that has been out there for weeks. Instead, what they did AFTER Kate had her abdominal surgery, was not only basically nothing, but when asked my the media if Kate did have some form of cancer, they flat-out lied and said "No." As they might say in England and elsewhere, very bad form.
Onto basketball, where the Golden State Warriors welcomed the fast-paced Indiana Pacers to Chase Center, and lets just say this game was like watching an Formula One race, with the Pacers being the Red Bull team and the Dubs being not an F1 team, as the Pacers were constantly on the move, with a smothering defense, led by Myles Turner, who kept the Warriors out of the paint and denying layup's and dunks, and Tyrese Haliburton doing his Steph Curry impression, dropping impossible-looking threes and finishing the game with 26 points. it truly was an exhausting game to watch, as Indiana set the pace from the beginning with their up and down coverage of the court. The other note to make is that the Pacers have never lost at Chase Center, now with a 5-0 record.
The Dubs played a mostly solid game on Sunday against the Timberwolves in Minnesota, but too many points off of turnovers and sitting Curry out for a big chunk of the fourth quarter lead to a T-Wolves win, 114-110. Dubs are barely holding on to the last playoff spot with about 11 games to go in the season.
Off to Florida for a back-to-back starting with a depleted Miami Heat team. With Draymond leading the defense, (0 points during five minutes in the 3rd quarter for Miami!), Klay Thompson with a game-high 28 points, and Kuminga putting up highlight reel Air Congo dunks, Golden State wins 113-92 to get the road win.
Onto Orlando to face a very dynamic Magic team. No Kuminga due to knee soreness, and four minutes into the game, Green got himself tossed from the game, so Dubs down two of their best players early on. However, the Magic could not find the basket in the first quarter, scoring only 11 points! The game was a back and forth as the Magic's poor shooting and the Dubs holding serve on defense while Wiggins scored 23 points and Trayce Jackson-Smith scooped up 14 rebounds to help scrap out a 101-93 victory over Orlando. Next up, a trip to Charlotte, Steph Curry's college town.
Well, we are down to the Sweet Sixteen in the March Madness. After some amazing upsets in the first two days, the main contenders took care of those Cinderella teams, and now the real gaming begins next weekend. UConn still my pick, put Purdue and Houston looked really good. Also, I don't really watch much of ladies basketball, but Sunday's match-up between #2 Stanford and # 7 Iowa State was per the commentators, "one of the best games of the tournament", and I have to agree! A nail-biter that went to overtime, where Stanford won the game, and on their home court. I may have to peek into their Sweet Sixteen contest next weekend!
A guest writer section! My friend in Indiana is a huge ice skating fan, much like I with F1 racing, and the Worlds skating was this weekend in Montreal. I did get to see NBC's coverage of the recap of the ladies, and ice skate pairs along with the men's finals. My pal is so good with the knowledge of this sport, I invited him to write up the finals with me, so here we go:
Canada’s Deanna Stellato-Dudek and Maxime Deschamps captured gold in the pairs competition Thursday night at the world figure skating championships. The Pairs champion made history for Deanna being the oldest champ (40 years old).
Ice Dance: Madison Chock and Evan Bates are now a two-time world champions and the only American ice dance team to medal 5 times at worlds (2G, 1S, 2B)
Mens Final: USA's Ilia Malinin, with his six quad jumps, including the very difficult quad-axel, broke the score box and record set for free skate (227.79), I think it’s a world record I know his combined short and free skate score was 333.49 .
Ladies Final: Japan's Kaori Sakamoto made history Friday during Day 3 of the 2024 ISU World Figure Skating Championships. Sakamoto rallied from a fourth-place short program finish to win her third straight world title, becoming the first woman to three-peat as singles champion since 1968, when ladies champ American Peggy Fleming (1966-1968) accomplished that feat. American Isabeau Levito of the United States, a 2022 world junior champion, claimed silver (212.16) for her first medal at a senior worlds
Ilia Malinin- AP News
This viewer personally loved the elegance that US skater Jason Brown skates with- so enchanting, I could not stop watching how fluid his glides were. He doesn't do many "high points" jumps, but was just a pleasure to watch! Off to some non-sports stuff! NBC/Universal made the bone-headed decision to hire former RNC chairwoman (who Thump dumped and installed his daughter in-law) Ronna McDaniel as a commentator on their networks and streaming. Ronna being a Republican or a conservative wasn't the problem, the problem was she was a prominent election-denier, and in fact she will be part of a trail in Michigan later this year. To say viewers of NBC/MSNBC and basically a whole lot of people were unhappy is an understatement. After a back-pedaling interview on Meet the Press Sunday, the MSNBC talent came out in force on Monday, as each host made their case as to why having Ronna on the payroll was not and is not a good idea. With that much unity among the talent and production crews, Ronna got her pink slip from the CEO on Tuesday. All I can say about this is Bye, Felicia!
Locker Room Buzz: Ohtani "press conference". Well, not really, Ohtani and his NEW interpreter did a "zoom conference" and basically made statements claiming he has never made bets on any sport, and that his former interpreter and presumably former best friend Ippei Mazatura stole the 4.5 million from Ohtani. Like me, and others this still smells fishy. As New York writer Will Leitch breaks it down in his column, this has a three-track possibility: 1. Mizuhara stole the $4.5 million from Ohtani without him knowing. This is what Ohtani and his handlers are claiming, to the point that they even claim Mizuhara gave Ohtani wrong translations to cover his tracks.
2. Mizuhara asked Ohtani, his close (and in many ways only) friend, to bail him out, and Ohtani obliged. This was the original claim from both Mizuhara and Ohtani’s camp until they changed their stories, perhaps after realizing that writing wire transfers to illegal bookies is, in fact, illegal.
3. The gambling debts are Ohtani’s and Mizuhara is taking the fall for him.
The column brings up some great points of just how little the world knows of Ohtani, and I still ask, how did Ippei have access to Ohtani's account and Ohtani didn't notice 4.5 million dollars missing? Actually, I have a lot more questions, but check out the link below for Leitch's well-written piece: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/shohei-ohtanis-press-conference-didnt-help-him.html Not sports related, but dang buzz-worthy news broke on how Sean Diddy Combs had both his Miami and Los Angeles homes raided by the sex trafficking unit of Homeland Security! here have been sexual assault lawsuits filed by several people against Combs, and obviously the Feds felt they had enough evidence to raid Comb's two residences. Combs attorney put out a statement calling the claims and raid "meritless". Shortly thereafter, one of Combs personal assistants was arrested carrying contraband, and who the Feds refer to as Comb's "drug mule." Where there's smoke, I say.....
It's been quiet on the F1 drama front other than a couple of morsels. It seems that RB's Daniel Riccardo is on this ice to hold on to his seat at the team. The next few races will be telling about Riccardo's future. Buzz also has heard that Sauber is looking to potentially dump both its drivers, Zhou and Bottas if there is not improvement shown on the track. Lastly, MLB's Opening Day kicks off this week, so expect some Giants news- in fact, I have some buzz now, after today's opener in San Diego, SF Giants outfielder Mike Yazstremski will leave the team to join his wife as they prepare for the birth of their second child this weekend- which means Giants first roster move of the season!
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