At 17-years-old many people would be
happy to graduate high school, but for swimmer Missy Franklin the
accomplishments go much further.
The Team USA member beat out her fellow
competitors in the 100-meter backstroke on Monday (July 30), which meant she was
bringing home the gold medal in her first individual win.
Overjoyed about her achievement, the
young Olympian tweeted, “I am so grateful for everything that has happened. God
has blessed me with so much. Thank you so much for all the love and
support!”
Although Missy, who resides in Aurora,
CO, is celebrating her win, the soon-to-be high school graduate says that right
now all of her races are dedicated to her grief-stricken hometown.
In a recent interview with the Los
Angeles Times Franklin explained, "Right now, all of my races are dedicated back
home to Colorado," adding, "No matter how well I do, I'm going to give my best
in every single race, and every single race, I'm going to have that Colorado
incident on my mind."
As previously reported by GossipCenter,
Aurora was the setting for a horrific tragedy where James Holmes, who was
charged with 24 counts of murder, entered a midnight screening of "The Dark
Knight Rises” killing 12 people and injuring 28.
Aside from bringing home top honors
today, Missy and her relay team were already proud holders of a bronze
medal.
Making for quite the sight to be seen,
the 2012 Olympic Summer Games Opening Ceremony was held in London, England on
Friday night (July 27).
Taking place at Olympic Stadium, the
kickoff to the event that sees 26 sports contested by 10,500 athletes over 17
days of competition drew out royals including Queen Elizabeth II, Prince
William, Kate Middleton and Prince Harry, as well as U.S. First Lady Michelle
Obama, actress Nicole Kidman and footballer David Beckham - who helmed a
speedboat carrying the Olympic flame during the UK festivities.
As for the theme of London's Opening
Ceremony, spectators were treated to a colorful display charting Britain's
history from the start of the modern Games back in 1896 to the
present.
With 80,000 people in attendance for the
production, director Danny Boyle took on choreographer duties while including
segments such as 1,000 drummers marching through a pastoral setting complete
with cows, goats and sheep roaming about with farm children.
The complete Opening Ceremony was put
together with Boyle trying to remain under his $15 million budget, which falls
far below Beijing's 2008 production that ended up being the most expensive
Opening Ceremony ever at a hefty $40 million total cost.
Of his low-cost efforts, Boyle told the
AP, "There has to be a modesty. You can't get grandiose with this job because
you are following Beijing."
In a sport dominated by giants, Kobe Bryant fears a lack of height could be the downfall of the United States as they
bid to retain their Olympic basketball title at the London Games.
The U.S. won their third straight warm-up
match on Thursday, beating Britain 118-78 in Manchester, and will now jet off to
Barcelona to face Spain and Argentina.
They are clear favorites to win gold in
London, but they are not unbeatable, according to Bryant.
"We definitely have weaknesses that teams
can take advantage of," he told reporters. "So, we'll get a good look at
that.
"It's size. It's size and teams being
able to slow the game down and work the ball inside on us, and we have to do a
good job of taking care of our defensive pressure."
Head coach Mike Krzyzewski said they are
taking nothing for granted, but are confident they can turn their current form
into gold medal success.
"We're not going to look great all the
time because the rest of the world is that good," he said.
"We're not going to assume anything.
Hopefully the way we're playing will translate into a gold medal."
The U.S. begin their Olympic competition
against France on July 29.
MSG is the company that owns the New York
Knicks. It also owns the Madison Square Garden, the historic Beacon Theatre in
New York and the gorgeous Chicago Theatre in that city's downtown loop, along
with the New York Rangers and several television stations. It's a publicly
traded company that would seem, considering its considerable holdings, to be
impervious to the play of a pretty good point guard. Apparently that's not the
case, as we look at the effect that former Knick guard Jeremy Lin has had on MSG
stock.
When Lin busted out of relative obscurity
last February to lead New York on a 10-3 midseason run, MSG's stock shot way up,
as documented by the New York Observer's Foster Kamer. That boon continued even
throughout Lin's trip to the bench in late March, following an MCL tear, and New
York's first-round ouster from the playoffs. The stock didn't dip until the
Houston Rockets made Lin an offer as a restricted free agent that made even the
spend-heavy Knicks uneasy, but because the assumption at the time was that New
York would match any offer no matter how ridiculous, MSG's shares stayed
somewhat steady.
Then word leaked out that New York might
not match, and Knicks guard (and hopeful Lin mentor) Jason Kidd was arrested on
a DWI charge. And the stock fell, by 8.5 percent. All this after a 31 percent
upshot in the wake of what we'll all fondly recall as "Linsanity."
Seriously? A point guard can do this? An
unproven one that, despite his brilliant February turn, still has quite a few of
us wondering if he can even man the handle as a NBA starter?
Apparently these things count. They count
more than, say, the Rangers making the Stanley Cup Finals or eight nights worth
of tasty licks from the Allman Brothers at the Beacon, man.
And now that we've realized that the
NBA's "stretch provision" could have mitigated New York's risk with Lin, should
he fail to pan out before his 2014-15 balloon payment hits, and that personal
and typically petty politics played a role in Lin's jump to Houston, it's
becoming clearer and clearer that MSG head honcho James Dolan truly is a
dunderhead for the ages. With stock falling, Lin's contract was one that the
Knicks could not afford to pass on, and yet they let him slip away in spite of
several strong and significant reasons to keep the third-year guard.
Give Kobe Bryant credit. The guy doesn’t
lack confidence — and he and the rest of the U.S. men’s basketball team will
carry plety of it to London for the Olympics.
Asked how the 2012 Olympic roster would
match up with the original 1992 “Dream Team,” Bryant made a bold
statement.
“Well, just from a basketball standpoint,
they obviously have a lot more size than we do — you know, with (David) Robinson
and (Patrick) Ewing and (Karl) Malone and those guys,” Bryant told Yahoo Sports
at Team USA’s training camp in Las Vegas earlier this week. “But they were also
— some of those wing players — were also a lot older, at kind of the end of
their careers. We have just a bunch of young racehorses, guys that are eager to
compete.
“So I don’t know. It’d be a tough one,
but I think we’d pull it out.”
“I absolutely laughed,” Michael Jordan told the
Associated Press when asked how he responded to Bryant’s assertion.
“For him to compare those two teams is
not one of the smarter things he ever could have done.”
Of course, Jordan has never had a hubris
deficiency either. And his response before a celebrity golf tournament in
Charlotte shows he hasn’t lost anything in that department.
“Most of us were in the prime of our
careers, at a point where athleticisim doesn’t really matter. You have to know
how to play the game, ” said Jordan, who was quick to note he was 29 at the 1992
Olympics. At 33, Bryant is the oldest player on the 2012 team.
The tentacles of the proposed deal
stretched across more than 10 players and three teams on Monday, with the Nets
recruiting a fourth team to take on guard MarShon Brooks in exchange for an
additional draft pick to send to Orlando. Nevertheless, multiple complexities
need to be resolved to complete the deal, including the negotiation of contracts
for four of the players in the proposed trade: Brook Lopez, Kris Humphries,
Damion James and Shelden Williams.
In the proposed deal, Howard, Jason
Richardson and Earl Clark would be sent to Brooklyn, and the Magic would receive
the Nets' Lopez, James, Williams and Armon Johnson, Cleveland's Luke Walton and
three future first-round picks, sources said. Cleveland would receive Orlando's
Quentin Richardson, Brooklyn's Sundiata Gaines, Humphries (on a one-year
guaranteed deal), a first-round pick and $3 million from the Nets. Brooklyn also
is in talks with the Los Angeles Clippers to exchange Brooks for an additional
first-round pick to send to the Magic. If the Clippers decline to participate,
other teams are in position to take on Brooks, sources said.
Talks between the Magic and Nets remain
fluid with some of the deal's parts moving in and out based on different
scenarios. One proposed hangup to a trade: Humphries would be against taking a
one-year contract with the Cavs, instead seeking a four-year deal, a league
source told Y! Sports' Marc Spears. Like Humphries, Lopez, James and Williams
are all free agents and would have to agree to new contracts to be included in
the deal as sign-and-trades.
Despite Orlando’s desire to make Lakers
center Andrew Bynum the centerpiece of a trade package, a significant stumbling
block remains in Bynum’s reluctance to commit to a long-term contract if he's
traded to the Magic, sources said. Orlando doesn’t want to face the possibility
of trading for Bynum only to lose him to free agency after the upcoming
season.
The appeal of the Lakers' potential
package for Bynum has also been diminished with Los Angeles sending its 2013 and
2015 first-round draft picks to the Phoenix Suns in the Steve Nash
sign-and-trade deal. The NBA doesn’t allow teams to trade first-round picks in
consecutive years, so the Lakers can’t offer Orlando their 2014 and 2016
first-round picks.
The Magic are portraying patience in
making a deal for Howard, but have a strong distaste for engaging in a prolonged
process that drags into the summer. From new general manager Rob Hennigan
through Orlando ownership, the Magic want to find the best possible deal for
Howard soon and cut ties with him, sources said.
Steve Nash could have earned more money
while enjoying the twilight of his remarkable NBA career in Manhattan, his
offseason home. Or he could have returned to Canada, finishing up his playing
days in Toronto with an eye toward national history and another career in the
front office.Instead, the two-time MVP point guard is going
Hollywood.
Nash is teaming up with Kobe Bryant and
whatever 7-foot stars end up with the Los Angeles Lakers for at least a few more
seasons of title contention on the best team within a short flight of Phoenix,
where his three children live.
So what if the Lakers have been among his
biggest rivals throughout his entire NBA career with Dallas and Phoenix? So what
if he'll be in a backcourt with a ball-dominating superstar who has never shared
possession with a point guard of Nash's abilities? So what if he can't wear No.
13, which is hanging in the Staples Center rafters with Wilt Chamberlain's name
forever attached to it?
''The idea to be close to my son, my
daughters, who will be in Phoenix, was the No. 1 priority,'' Nash told ESPN's
Los Angeles station Thursday.
''Don't get me wrong, it's fantastic,''
he added. ''I think I'm a good fit for the team, and we have a great team, we're
a contender, that's all incredible, too. But as far as getting over the hump and
being able to be a Laker after being a Sun and trying to beat the Lakers in the
playoffs all those years, the reality is it was too great of an opportunity to
pass up as far as my children were concerned. And fortunately for me, it's a
great basketball situation.''
The 38-year-old Canadian says he spoke to
Bryant by phone Monday to see whether he wanted to work together. Bryant took a
break from his basketball camp in Santa Barbara to confirm he thinks Nash would
be a perfect fit in the Lakers' backcourt, providing a dimension they never
possessed even in Derek Fisher's best years - a playmaking talent Los Angeles
hasn't seen since Magic Johnson was running the show.
Nash said Bryant thinks he can be
''somebody to handle the ball and lead. He also felt that we were complementary
leaders. I'm more on the positive side, he's more ... I think as he said it,
cracks the whip. I think pick-and-roll, adding that to the offense and being
able to space the floor for the big guys inside, I think it's a good fit. He was
excited, and I think that was important for me. It's going to be fun to work it
all out and try to create some cohesion and chemistry on the floor and make all
these pieces work.''
The Los Angeles Lakers are rumored to be
working on a Dwight Howard deal…again. Unfortunately for the Lakers, Howard has
indicated that he wants to go to Brooklyn, and only to Brooklyn. He can't veto a
trade, but his demands will certainly cause teams to think twice about giving
away a lot of assets to get the big man. If he won't sign a long-term deal, you
don't want to trade away their stars. Could the Lakers make a deal? Possibly.
Should they? No.
A possible deal
If Orlando is going to trade away Dwight,
they clearly want to get the best deal possible. The player being discussed is
obviously Andrew Bynum, and you have to assume that the Magic would be
interested in the young center. Bynum may have some attitude issues, but he is
younger and may be the type of player that can be a cornerstone athlete. As
mentioned, Howard doesn't have the right to kill a deal, but stars in the NBA
can certainly make things difficult by making demands to the media. Granted, Jim
Buss may not want to give away his favorite player.
Sharing the spotlight
Is this about Kobe Bryant? Why wouldn't
Dwight want to come to Los Angeles and play alongside Kobe and Pau Gasol? That
seems like a pretty solid trio of players. There have been some rumblings that
perhaps Howard wants to be "the man" in whatever city he plays. As a fan, I get
really tired of this prima donna behavior. Just play the game and stop thinking
about whether you are the most popular player on the team. If the rumors are
true about why Howard does not want to come to Los Angeles, that is just
sad.
A major risk
The problem with this deal is that the
Lakers could end up with nothing. There is no guarantee that Bynum will sign a
long-term deal, but he is at least saying the right things right now. Howard has
stated that he will only sign an extension with one team. If that is the case,
you can understand why teams would be hesitant to make a deal. The only scenario
might be if Orlando moves him at the trade deadline next year and accepts what
they can get rather lose him to free agency without any compensation.
The irony
I do wonder if Dwight realizes that his
demand might make it harder for him to end up in Brooklyn. Maybe he is willing
to wait, but can Brooklyn make a trade right now? What do they have to give
Orlando? The roster is not exactly stocked with young talent. In addition, since
everyone knows that Howard wants to go to Brooklyn, the Nets are in the best
position to dictate the offer. Still, they may spend a lot of money this
offseason on Deron Williams, which could limit their ability to sign Howard next
season.
