Many children dream of becoming professional athletes. If that dream comes true, they really won’t need to grow very much.
Example: Draymond Green from Golden State. As one of the NBA’s standout defenders and hotheads, he teammate Jordan Poole in practice last week.
Someone leaked the video to TMZ. This infuriated Warriors management for the wrong reasons.
“As soon as things leak, all hell breaks loose,” coach Steve Kerr said. “It’s like if you have a camera in your family and there’s a family argument. Do you really want to discuss this with the world? No.”
Green is just lucky that Poole isn’t discussing it with the police. The rules of combat are different from sports, where tempers often turn into skirmishes. But this one was different.
Another opinion:The Warriors’ Draymond Green deserves a harsher suspension for his hit on Jordan Poole
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After the exchange of trash, Green came over and everyone but Poole got up coolly. If you did that to a colleague, you’d be fired on the spot and your employer would get a call from John Morgan. Even Green was stunned when he saw the video.
“It looks even worse than I thought,” he said. “It’s pathetic.”
Green has apologized and is taking a voluntary leave of absence. He said the leak was a “bull-beep” but the leaker did him a favor.
The tumult may force him to face his demons. This is something his employer has never done.
Teams reflexively sweep these things under the rug, and Kerr wields a regular broom. He said questions about Green’s position with the team “do not concern anyone but us.”
Fear not, though, the Warriors have launched a full-scale investigation into the leak. They are far more concerned about who alerted the world to the attack than the attack itself.
Pathetic, really…
Al Michaels calls it like he sees it
Student of the Week: Al Michaels. He broke NFL etiquette by mocking the 12-9 Indy-Denver snooze fest he covered Thursday night for Amazon. “This is the type of game you would have as the fifth regional on CBS on Sunday,” Michaels said.
If only the team had scored a TD, Michaels might have exclaimed, “Do you believe in miracles?”
Crap of the week: The animal rights player who two weeks ago ran onto the field with a pink smoke bomb and was hit by Rams linebacker Bobby Wagner. He filed a police report, accusing Wagner and teammate Tuckair McKinley of “outrageous assault.” The guy needs to be made to guard Draymond Green at Warriors practice…
Sunday’s Chicago Marathon had a non-binary division, prompting some of those runners to say that the winner of the division should get the prize. The top men and women received $100,000.
I’m all for inclusion, but something tells me that if the non-binary division starts giving out prize money, a lot of men will suddenly have a gender identity crisis…
Speaking of speed, last week a robot developed in Oregon set a world record for bipedal robots in the 100-meter dash. Cassie ran it in 24.73 seconds, four seconds faster than any current Miami linebacker has accomplished…
Kudos to former Gator Udonis Haslem, who is set to become the third player in NBA history to play 20 years with one team. The 42-year-old Heath center is more of a coach/mentor than a player, having been on the court for just 273 minutes over the past five seasons.
That’s $45,267 per minute, according to HoopsHype. That’s the third-highest average in sports, trailing only Texas A&M’s recruiting and Deshaun Watson’s legal team…
Cassie’s update: Oklahoma researchers are reportedly working feverishly to develop a robot that can perform a forward pass…
Victor Wembanyama. Remember the name. He is 18 years old, 7’4, lives in France and is considered to be the next super duper basketball star. After impressing scouts in exhibition games last week in Las Vegas, NBA teams are planning how to lose enough to get the No. 1 pick in next year’s draft.
In their opening move, the Lakers named Russell Westbrook their starting point guard…
Cheat fever: At first, chess was excited when Grandmaster Hans Niemann was accused of fraud. Then the winners of the prestigious Lake Erie Walleye Trail fishing tournament were disqualified after judges found lead weights in the bellies of their catches.
The Irish dance world is currently engulfed in allegations of sham competitions. Lesson here: don’t play chess with an Irish fisherman who likes to litter…
Florida quarterback David Reese signs with Reese’s
Florida backup linebacker David Reese is one of 12 players to sign with Reese’s, the peanut butter cup brand. Imagine the other possibilities on the UF roster:
Ventrell Miller beer. Wrapper by Daejon Reynolds. Josh Brown Razor. Jadarius Perkins Restaurant and Bakery. And, of course, Justus Boone’s farm…
Upgrade tanks: The Celtics have announced that they have re-signed Bob Cousy. In response, the Magic say they will only start one-armed non-binary players this season…
Under the terms of his suspension, Monday was the first day Deshaun Watson could enter the Browns’ practice facility. He reportedly spent six hours studying the AFC Central massage parlor inspection report…
This just came in: Chess officials discovered 11 pounds of lead weights in Hans Neumann’s stomach…
Houston’s Dameon Pierce became the NFL’s fourth-leading rusher with 99 yards in Sunday’s win over the Jaguars. Tell me again why he carried the ball less than a non-binary robot last year at UF? …
That’s about all the space we have this week for Whitley’s Believe It or Not. Until next time, be careful and don’t order all-you-can-eat.
David Whitley is a sports columnist for The Gainesville Sun. Contact him at dwhitley@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DavidEWhitley
