The Boston Red Sox are among the teams in major league baseball commemorating Juneteenth. The Red Sox honored Ben Haith before the second game of their doubleheader against the New York Yankees on Sunday. He's the designer of the red and blue Juneteenth flag with an exploding white star. Haith threw out a ceremonial first pitch at Fenway Park and said he felt like he was "living a miracle."
Nikola Jokic made it back to Serbia in time to watch his beloved horses race in his hometown. Less than a week after leading the Denver Nuggets to their first NBA championship, Jokic was back in his hometown of Sombor to enjoy his big passion of horse racing. Thousands of his supporters in the usually sleepy northern Serbian town of some 47,000 people also converged on the local horse racing track where Jokic was watching his family-owned horses compete in harness races.
Fans of the San Antonio Spurs couldn’t wait for the NBA draft. Their expectations were high long before their team landed the No. 1 pick which is expected to be 7-foot-3 French phenom Victor Wembanyama. Season ticket packages have been selling ever since the draft lottery in mid-May when the Spurs secured the third No. 1 pick in team history. The last two were used to draft David Robinson and Tim Duncan.
David Freese has decided to decline his induction into the St. Louis Cardinals’ Hall of Fame. The former third baseman was a postseason hero for his hometown team in helping the Cardinals win the 2011 World Series. He was chosen for the Hall of Fame by fans, garnering the most votes in online balloting for this year’s class.
Marty Walsh was less than halfway through his term in the Biden administration as labor secretary when the phone rang with an interesting opportunity. The call was about a job running the NHL Players' Association. The former mayor of Boston and longtime Bruins fan was intrigued, interviewed and earlier this year got the role as executive director.
Vegas Golden Knights fans are expected to jam the Las Vegas Strip for a Stanley Cup victory parade and a rally in front of their home arena to mark the team’s first-ever NHL championship. Hotel security was checking guest room windows overlooking the motorcade route and Las Vegas police were preparing for upwards of 100,000 people for the Saturday night celebration.
Danny Corona hit a go-ahead two-run single in the eighth inning to roust a dormant Wake Forest offense and the Demon Deacons opened their first College World Series in 68 years with a 3-2 win over Stanford. The No. 1 national seed Deacons were held to three hits and one run before storms in the area caused a 1-hour, 28-minute delay in the seventh inning.
Ja Morant's immense basketball talents have transformed the Memphis Grizzlies into NBA title contenders. Without him in the lineup, they're not. And after Morant was suspended for the first 25 games of the upcoming season, Memphis has more questions than answers. The Grizzlies already faced personnel issues before Morant's expected suspension.
The timing of Michael Jordan’s decision to sell his majority stake in the Charlotte Hornets leaves the franchise in flux, with several key personnel decisions upcoming. The Hornets have the No. 2 pick in the NBA draft next week. They also have some difficult decisions to make in free agency, including whether to re-sign embattled restricted free agent Miles Bridges.
Victor Wembanyama wasn’t the only young French NBA prospect turning heads overseas this season. Granted, fans would have had to look much farther to find Rayan Rupert, who played for the New Zealand Breakers. He is among the international prospects expecting to hear their names called at the NBA draft on Thursday in New York.
West Virginia basketball coach Bob Huggins has been arrested on suspicion of drunken driving. The arrest Friday night in Pittsburgh comes a month after the university suspended him for three games for using an anti-gay slur during a radio interview. According to a police report, officers saw an SUV with a shredded tire blocking traffic. Huggins was charged with driving under the influence. He'll have a preliminary hearing at a later date.
Blaze Brothers hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the ninth inning after an Oral Roberts pitching meltdown in the eighth and the Golden Eagles opened the College World Series with a 6-5 win over TCU. The Eagles are the lowest seed to make it to Omaha since 2012. Drew Stahl’s RBI single pulled ORU within 5-3 and then Brothers drove an 0-1 pitch to left for his first homer since May 24.
New University of Colorado head football coach Deion Sanders faces the possibility of having his left foot amputated as a result of continuing bloodflow issues. Sanders had two toes amputated from his left foot in 2021 while he was coaching at Jackson State. He missed three games that year. Sanders told his medical team that if a procedure is recommended he wants to have it done before the football season begins.
This is not a defense of Ja Morant, whose erratic behavior certainly seems worthy of a lengthy suspension. Then again, in a country that worships its firearms and shrugs off mass killings, we shouldn't be the least bit surprised when a brash young athlete chooses to flash a gun. Talk about mixed messages. Morant will have to sit out at least the first 25 games of the next NBA season for briefly displaying a pistol on social media. Meanwhile, politicians who serve in some of the highest offices in the land have brazenly posed with their assault weapons.
Preps-to-pros prospect Scoot Henderson is the headliner among the guards in the upcoming NBA draft. Henderson bypassed college basketball to play for the G League Ignite program. He has explosive athleticism that could land him in the first three picks of the draft. The position includes more athleticism and upside in twin brothers Amen and Ausar Thompson. There are multiple one-and-done college prospects such as Arkansas' Anthony Black and Kentucky's Cason Wallace. There's also a potential lottery pick from national champion Connecticut in sophomore Jordan Hawkins.
