Andy Roddick 's spent nearly a decade
trying to claim that ever-elusive second Grand Slam singles title, and now Andy
Roddick seems to be down to his very last opportunity.
The American ace made a surprise
announcement during his press conference at the U.S. Open in Flushing, NYC on
Thursday (August 30), as he revealed his plans to retire from tennis after
tournament's end.
Talking with media on-hand at the USTA
Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Roddick said, “I have decided that this
is going to be my last tournament. I wanted an opportunity to say good-bye. I
hope I’m sticking around.”
And while he'll certainly be missed,
there's no need to feel sorry for Andy - who turned 30-years-old today - as he
gets to look forward to open days with his stunning Sports Illustrated Swimsuit
Issue wife, Brooklyn Decker.
In a revealing interview on "Oprah's Next
Chapter," U.S. Olympic gymnastics team member Gabby Douglas spoke about the
obstacles she had to overcome to make it to the Olympics.
The 16-year-old gold medalist admitted to
Oprah Winfrey she was a victim of racism at the gym she trained at in Virginia
Beach. She confessed, "I was just, you know, kind of getting racist jokes, kind
of being isolated from the group. So it was definitely hard. I would come home
at night and just cry my eyes out.”
More specifically, "One of my teammates
was like, ‘Could you scrape the bar? And they were like, ‘Why doesn’t Gabby do
it, she’s our slave?’"
Later, the young gymnast found relief
when she moved to Iowa to train with a new coach. The "Fierce Five" member also
talked with Oprah about the gossip involving her hair style.
Oprah responded disgustedly, "You know
why it sickens me?” She told Gabby, referring to African-Americans in general.
“We’re the only ones who would care to notice, because the whole world is
looking at your athletic prowess, and there are a few naysayers — haters — who
are on talking about your hair.”
President Barack Obama sees the
presidential contest as a clutch moment in his favorite sport - the fourth
quarter of a taut basketball game.
Fundraising with the help of current and
former National Basketball Association stars, Obama told a small group of donors
gathered Wednesday night at Alice Tully Hall in Lincoln Center that the current
campaign is like the final minutes of a basketball contest with his team up by a
few points.
''But the other side is coming strong,''
Obama said. ''And they play a little dirty. We've got a few folks on our team in
foul trouble. We have a couple of injuries. And I believe they have one last run
in them.''
Obama raised $3 million with the help of
the players, who included former Chicago Bulls player Michael Jordan and former
New York Knicks Walt Frazier and Bill Bradley. NBA Commissioner David Stern also
was there.
Invoking Jordan's competitive nature,
Obama concluded, ''If you have seven minutes to go and you have a little bit of
a lead, that's when you put them away.''
The players were part a daylong
fundraiser. Earlier, former and current players participated in a
$250-per-person autograph session and in a skills camp priced at $5,000 for two
people.
''It is very rare that I come to an event
where I'm like the fifth or sixth most interesting person,'' Obama joked at the
Lincoln Center dinner.
Later, Obama changed out of his dark suit
to shoot baskets with some of the players out of sight of the press. Obama, an
avid basketball fan and a player, made a splash during his 2008 campaign by
sinking a 3-point shot while visiting troops in Kuwait. His most recent
star-studded game, also played in private, featured actors George Clooney and
Tobey Maguire.
The idea of an estate sale is creepy
enough as it is. Usually they're put together in an attempt to sell off the last
remaining vestiges and assets of someone who has recently passed on, or a person
run afoul of either the law or their own checking account. Phoenix Suns forward Michael Beasley appears to be in no such trouble, and even though he didn't
exactly break the bank with his second pro contract, its average-sized makeup
falls right in line with the rookie deal he started working under in 2008 that
paid him just over $20 million over four years.
This doesn't explain why the former
Minnesota Timberwolves forward, as he moves on to his third NBA city in five
seasons, needs to set up an estate sale for his abandoned Minnesota home, rather
than just hiring a crew to toss everything into a truck and move his clutter
down to Phoenix. This also doesn't explain why Beasley, even while we're aware
of his goofball reputation, has so much goofball stuff in his house. Though it
is well-penned, to read her recap is to be left confused; all because Beasley is
such a confusing dude.
Tchotchkes and oddities seemed to dot the
house; and it wasn't just that hoops-related memorabilia wasn't available for
sale, apparently there wasn't any in the house to begin with. What was available
were the sort of dusty book-filled shelves and animal-themed salt and pepper
shakers that you'd tend to pick up at an estate sale set up for someone four
times Beasl
ey's age that had shuffled off this Minneapolis coil.
Look at Niesen's photo gallery (or Jake
Nyberg's Twitter-based run). It's not so much that Beasley took his
modern-as-tomorrow entertainment systems and "Scarface" posters down to Phoenix
and left the estate sale to deal with his flotsam and jetsam, it's that he had
all this Your Aunt-styled clutter to begin with. And, again, instead of dumping
it all in a truck or piling it in the back of a U-Haul dragged by his PT Cruiser
(we're guessing, after looking at the remnants of this sale), Beasley decided to
add to his bank account 15 bucks at a time by selling off every last throw
pillow.
It's all so wonderfully Super Cool Beas,
even if it's the furthest thing from "Super Cool" that we could imagine.
Toasters and stuffed animals and more coffee table books and all sorts of stuff
that even you or I would leave behind, regardless of whether or not we were just
given a three-year, $18 million contract to go play in a state with lax income
tax laws.
Heads-up, Phoenix. You're getting a
goofball for the ages. Hopefully one that, after three-straight seasons of
declining production, is using his "Everything Must Go"-sale as a way to
completely leave his past behind, and start over from scratch.
Or maybe Michael just wanted an excuse to
shop for some new pillows with tassels hanging from them.
After a pre-trade deadline telephone call
when Dwight Howard and Kobe Bryant hung up believing they could never co-exist
as teammates, months and months passed and, still, the two superstars never
spoke again. Howard wanted Bryant to tell him what the Lakers could do to
elevate his offensive stature, and Bryant wanted Howard to tell him he was
determined to come with a defensive and rebounding mindset to make the Lakers
champions again.
The call ended poorly, and it wouldn't be
long until Howard had turned toward a path of far less resistance with the
Brooklyn Nets.
As much as anything, Howard was
determined to stop marching down the path of Shaquille O'Neal: From No. 1
overall pick to ring-less Orlando Magic center to self-proclaimed Superman,
comedian and goofball musician, there was a part of Howard that resisted the
inevitable power play to also make him a Laker.
Nevertheless, Howard made a mess of an
easy exit out of Orlando, obliterating his march into a max-contract salary slot
with Deron Williams and the Nets with an impulsive choice to reject his contract
opt-out. Freedom of choice was gone, and the Magic wouldn't do a deal with
Brooklyn.
In the end, Howard needed the Lakers and
Bryant. And yes – for now and the future – Bryant and the Lakers needed Howard.
The trade was completed on Friday and Howard gets the bright lights, big city
and a championship chase with the Lakers. Howard gets his Showtime, but make no
mistake: Howard comes without leverage in the locker room and doesn't have the
latitude to revert back to his old class-clown self.
"I think that changes just by the
pressure that he's under now," Bryant told Yahoo! Sports late Friday night "That
pressure is on us all. We have to win championships. The focus will be higher,
the intensity will be higher."
[Yes, the Lakers need a serious-minded
star for a serious-minded basketball franchise. Stan Van Gundy tried so, so hard
to instill that within Howard, but the culture of Orlando always made the Magic
beholden to Howard. No more. Howard is bigger than life, but he isn't bigger
than the Lakers.
So, yes, Bryant searched out Howard's
cell phone on Friday morning and made the call to Howard that the two superstars
had resisted for months now. When the time comes rest assured Bryant will make
something clear: The carnival act ends now. The clowning and goofing are done.
During games, players used to hear Kevin Garnett screaming at Howard: "Paint
your face, clown!" up and down the floor.
In a tight race, the U.S. defeated Spain
today (August 12) to win the gold medal for Men's Basketball.
Kevin Durant scored 30 points for the
team, topping LeBron James' 19 and Kobe Bryant's 17. The game echoed the 2008
Beijing gold medal game in which the U.S. pulled away in the fourth quarter from
Spain to win 118-107.
After bragging that their team was better
than the 1992 Dream Team, the U.S. just squeaked by Spain to win 107-100. The
win does help to detract from the 2004 bronze medal disaster in
Athens.
Unfortunately, U.S. team coach Mike
Krzyzewski has announced that he'll be retiring as the national team coach
following this Olympics, after taking the team to gold in 2008 and now
2012.
Extending their Olympic winning streak to
21 consecutive games, Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings bested fellow
Americans Jen Kessy and April Ross at the beach volleyball finals in London on
Wednesday (August 8).
The faceoff between the pair of American
squads marked the first time since the sport debuted at the Olympics in 1996
that two teams from the same country battled in the gold medal match.
In the end, 33-year-old Walsh Jennings
and 35-year-old May-Treanor put forth their third consecutive event winning
performance - as the duo won top honors in Athens, Beijing, and now
London.
Of the feat, Kerri told NBC, "Misty and I
have something really special. The world knows it, we know it, and we embrace
it."
Having trouble finding words, Misty May -
who plans to retire from the sport following London's 2012 Olympic Summer Games
- overwhelmingly uttered, "I'm a little speechless right now. I can't believe
this is my last match."
With Prince Harry watching from the
stands, the 11-year teammates pulled ahead in the first set and came out strong
in the second, never losing their lead.
After the match, the exuberant partners
made a victory lap in the stands, high-fiving fans and hugging friends and
family.
Following the medal ceremony, Walshj
Jennings summed up her feelings, saying, "It's insane. It doesn't feel like it's
real. I told Misty when we were getting our medals, 'If I wake up tomorrow and
we have to replay this match, I'm going to be furious.' Because it feels like
I'm in a dream. It truly feels surreal and it didn't feel like that the first
two times for whatever reason. But this, it's almost too good to be
true."
Kessy and Ross earned a silver for the
U.S. while Juliana and Larissa of Brazil beat Xue Chen and Zhang Xi of China to
take the bronze.
Kate Middleton ventured to Weymouth,
England, today to watch Olympic sailing. She was on a boat, armed with
binoculars, to see the women's Laser Radial competition. China's Xu Lijia won,
while Kate's own Team GB's Alison Young came in fourth and the USA's Paige
Railey was number six.
Kate was joined by her husband's aunt,
Princess Anne, as well as Anne's husband, Sir Timothy Laurence, who has some
familiarity with the water as a retired British naval officer. Kate's likewise
demonstrated her own interest in aquatic sports. She practiced helming a dragon
boat for a 2007 competition across the English Channel, though she had to drop
out due to security concerns. During a stop on Prince Edward Island during her
Canadian tour in 2011, Kate raced William in a dragon boat. William was the
victor in that matchup.
