BASKETBALL

Lionel Messi Shows Off Impressive Basketball Skills

By Elsie A. Dotson 2 weeks ago


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Lionel Messi at the Copa America with Argentina

Lionel Messi needs no introduction when it comes to playing football but it seems that the Barcelona legend is no slouch when it comes to impressing in other sports either.

The 34-year-old has been captured enjoying a spot of makeshift basketball with Argentina teammates Papu Gomez and Rodrigo De Paul. Gomez showed the trio in action in a video on Instagram.

All three players were part of the Argentina squad that won the Copa America this summer, beating Brazil 1-0 in the final at the Maracana Stadium to end the Albiceleste’s 28-year wait for a trophy.

The trio will all play in La Liga next season too. De Paul is back for a second spell in Spain and has signed for champions Atletico Madrid from Udinese, while Gomez joined Sevilla in January. Messi is expected to continue at Barcelona and sign

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WNBA All-Star team defeats U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team in All-Star Game

By Elsie A. Dotson 3 weeks ago

LAS VEGAS — In the fourth quarter, Arike Ogunbowale was the best player on the court between 24 of the best players on the planet.

Ogunbowale, the Dallas Wings star, scored nine of her game-high 26 points in the final quarter and Courtney Williams iced the game with a last-minute layup to push Team WNBA over Team USA 93-85 in the 17th WNBA All-Star Game Wednesday at the Michelob ULTRA Arena.

Ogunbowale, who said on Tuesday she would be content with just 10 points, won the All-Star MVP award with her red-hot shooting performance in her first all-star appearance in front of a crowd of 5,175.

“It just turned out I scored a little bit more,” Ogunbowale said.

That award was the most normal aspect of an unusual All-Star Game, which was anything but the friendly exhibition between the WNBA’s best that most all-star games become.

Team WNBA outlasted

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Kevin Durant claps back at Scottie Pippen for saying he can’t play team basketball

By Elsie A. Dotson 1 month ago

Even though he and the Brooklyn Nets’ season is over, Kevin Durant has been making headlines as of a late for a couple of reasons.

Just a few days ago, Durant committed to represent the United States in the upcoming Tokyo Olympics, but that is not why he is the talk of the sports world today.

No surprise here, this war of words occurred on Twitter, which we all know Durant enjoys the twitter-verse whether it is his account or not.

His reaction does seem warranted though, as Scottie Pippen spoke about Durant while being interviewed by GQ, where he expressed that he does not think Durant has surpassed LeBron James as the best player in basketball.

Durant is known for being one of the NBA’s most interactive players when it comes to social media, as he often gets into riffs with fans, and once Pippen’s comments surfaced Durant was

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UGA basketball hire has connection to ESPN anchor, football assistant

By Elsie A. Dotson 2 months ago

Georgia officially announced the hire of a new assistant basketball coach on Thursday, prompting two fellow New Orleans natives to go on social media to celebrate Wade Mason’s move.

ESPN SportsCenter anchor Stan Verrett and Georgia wide receivers coach Cortez Hankton took to Twitter to recognize Mason, who spent the past five seasons on the Stephen F. Austin staff.

“Proud of you, man!” Verrett wrote.

“Purple Knights in the building! Welcome brother @wmason1409!!! #GoDawgs,” Hankton said.

Mason played on St. Augustine High’s 1995 USA Today national championship basketball team. Verrett and Hankton also graduated from St. Augustine.

Mason will be paid a $260,000 base salary annually effective last Friday, according to an open records request. Chad Dollar, who was making $300,000 a year, left last month for a similar job at Cincinnati.

At Stephen F. Austin, Mason helped recruit three key players from Georgia—program all-time leading scorer Kevon Harris from

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