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Kings new queen Nancy Lieberman George Karl adds Naismith Hall of Famer to his coaching staff. She becomes second woman on an NBA coaching staff.
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Your guide to what’s going on in sports
B2 • SV Weekend
www.saukvalley.com
Saturday, August 1, 2015
MY 2 CENTS
What did you do this summer? On the tube TV listings
Saturday Auto racing 8 & 10:30 a.m.
• NASCAR Sprint Cup, practice for Pennsylvania 400, at Long Pond, NBCSP 9 a.m.
• NASCAR Trucks, pole qualifying for Pocono Mountains 150, at Long Pond, Pa., FS1 Noon
• NASCAR Trucks, Pocono Mountains 150, at Long Pond, Pa., FS1 2 p.m.
• IndyCar, pole qualifying for Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, at Lexington, NBCSP 3:30 p.m.
• NASCAR Xfinity, pole qualifying for US Cellular 250, at Newton, Iowa, NBCSP 7 p.m.
• NASCAR Xfinity, US Cellular 250, at Newton, Iowa, NBCSP • NHRA, qualifying for Sonoma (Calif.) Nationals, ESPN2
T
here’s a classic scene in the movie, “A Christmas Story” where Ralphie’s teacher announces that she wants a class to write a theme. Before finishing the statement, the class of adolescents moan. As it turns out, the theme is to write what each student wants for Christmas. Ralphie’s ears perk up and his mind races, seeing this as the perfect opportunity to articulate why he wants a Red Ryder BB gun. His plan doesn’t work out, and hilarity ensues, before the movie climaxes with Ralphie getting his coveted BB gun and then nearly shooting his eye out. Writing essays like that were once a traditional assignment, and maybe they still are. I am not familiar enough with modern teaching practices to say one way or another.
On the calendar That used to be an danWOESSNER annual part of summer break. Add in Little Sports League baseball, weight Editor Reach lifting, summer football him at camps and baling hay, dwoessner@ and that was pretty saukvalley. much the extent of my com or 800798-4085, activity ext. 5555. Things have changed for kids, especially those active in varsity sports. It has changed so One theme I had to much that I can’t even write one year is what I tell you exactly what did over summer break. area kids are doing to I can’t recall much I prepare for the fall seawrote for that particular son. essay, but my mind has But that’s the great been reminiscing about part of this job. We get summer activities over to find out. the last few weeks. Next week is the last On Friday, I played full week of summer basketball at Kilgour before fall sport pracPark with SVM co-work- tices begin, and so we ers Ty Reynolds, Jerare going to spend it maine Pigee and Chris- whetting your appetites topher Heimerman. for prep sports. We are going to be The backboards at Kilgour have Gus Mack- making calls around the area to find out what er emblems on them, and we talked about the some of the area’s best have been doing the last tournament that used 2 months. to crowd the streets Before I hear any around Sterling High moaning out there, the School.
good news is that we have a staff of guys here willing to do the writing. All you’ll have to do is answer the phone and provide some information. So if you’re a golfer that has been traveling around the area or state playing in tournaments, we want to hear about it. Heck, if you’ve just been standing on a green perfecting your short game at your home course, we’d like to hear that too. If you have been getting up at the crack of dawn and running 10 miles a day for cross country, that’s really dedicated. Let’s hear that. If you’ve been bench pressing until your arms feel like jello, that’s pretty impressive. Whatever it is for whatever sport, let us know. So get ready – ha, you already have been – we’ll be calling.
Local events
Saturday Golf 8 a.m.
• Rock River Classic, first round, at Shady Oaks, Amboy
Sunday Golf 8 a.m.
• Rock River Classic, final round, at Sunset, Mount Morris
On the tube TV listings
Sunday Auto racing
NBA
12:30 p.m.
• NASCAR Sprint Cup, Pennsylvania 400, at Long Pond, NBCSP
Golf 9 a.m.
5 p.m.
• Women’s British Open, third round, at Turnberry, Scotland, ESPN2 • European PGA, Paul Lawrie Match Play, quarterfinals, at Aberdeen, Scotland, TGC
• IndyCar, Indy 200 at Mid-Ohio, at Lexington, NBCSP 8 p.m.
• NHRA, Sonoma (Calif.) Nationals, ESPN2
2 p.m.
Cycling
• PGA, Quicken Loans National, third round, at Gainesville, Va., TGC • Champions, 3M Championship, second round, at Blaine, Minn., TGC
7 a.m.
• Tour de France, stage 15, Mende to Valence, NBCSP
Golf
5 p.m.
8 a.m.
• Web.com Tour, Utah Championship, third round, at Lehi, TGC
• European PGA, Paul Lawrie Match Play, final match, at Aberdeen, Scotland, TGC
4:30 a.m. (Sunday)
• European PGA, Paul Lawrie Match Play, semifinals, at Aberdeen, Scotland, TGC
MLB 3 p.m.
• Angels at Dodgers, FS1 6 p.m.
• Yankees at White Sox, CSN • Rockies at Cardinals, FSN
NBA 8 a.m.
• Exhibition, Team World vs. Team Africa, at Joahnnesburg, ESPN
Special Olympics 6 p.m.
• World Games, at Los Angeles, ESPN
Tennis 3 p.m.
• ATP World Tour, Atlanta Open, semifinal, ESPN2
Let us hear it • Game results, story tips, athlete of the week nominations, team and individual stats can be faxed to 815-625-9390, called into 800-7984085, ext. 5555 or e-mailed to sports@ saukvalley.com.
Contact us at 800-798-4085 Sports Editor Dan Woessner, ext. 5555 dwoessner@saukvalley.com Sports Reporters Cody Cutter, ext. 5550 pmason@saukvalley.com Patrick Mason, ext. 5550 pmason@saukvalley.com Ty Reynolds, ext. 5554 treynolds@saukvalley.com Brian Weidman, ext. 5551 bweidman@saukvalley.com
9 a.m./4 p.m.
AP
NBA player Bismack Biyombo of Toronto Raptors watches kids juggle balls Thursday during the visit at the newly built Boys and Girls Club at Protea Glen in Soweto, South Africa. Twenty top NBA players are in Johannesburg for the exhibition game Saturday featuring Team World versus Team Africa.
Continental drift NBA making first stop in Africa for exhibition
• Women’s British Open, final round, at Turnberry, Scotland, ESPN2/ABC 2 p.m.
• PGA, Quicken Loans National, final round, at Gainesville, Va., TGC • Champions, 3M Championship, final round, at Blaine, Minn., TGC 5 p.m.
• Web.com Tour, Utah Championship, final round, at Lehi, TGC
Horse racing 4 p.m.
BY GERALD IMRAY AP Sports Writer
JOHANNESBURG – Chris Paul keeps waking up in his hotel at 3 a.m. because of jet-lag and is wiped, though it hasn’t stopped him getting out and visiting the house where Nelson Mandela lived. Luol Deng couldn’t wait to talk to Pau Gasol about a trip he recommended the Spaniard take to one of South Africa’s most beautiful cities. Gregg Popovich is planning a safari and a tour of the country’s wine region. As he said, “If you come all this way, you may as well do something.” Oh yeah, there’s also a game to play on Saturday. The NBA is in Africa, and a practice session at a downtown Johannesburg arena on Friday, the day before the NBA’s first exhibition game on this continent, was dominated not by basketball, but by talk of who is going where and doing what off the court. “How beautiful is Cape Town?” Deng asked a smiling Gasol of his trip
to the city on the coast, breaking away from an interview with reporters offering boring questions like: Who’s going to win the game? Saturday’s exhibition, where Paul will captain Team World against Deng’s Team Africa, is the NBA’s biggest statement of intent so far in Africa, and a precursor to a preseason and maybe even a regular season game over here, according to Commissioner Adam Silver, who is also on the trip. But the exhibition, which also features, among others, Gasol brothers Pau and Marc, Washington’s Bradley Beal, Orlando’s Nikola Vucevic, and coaches Popovich, Mike Budenholzer and Brooklyn’s Lionel Hollins, is secondary right now to the African experience for many of the NBA’s biggest names. Paul, an eight-time All Star, began his prep on the long flight from Los Angeles by reading “Long Walk to Freedom,” the memoir of Mandela, the anti-
apartheid leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner, and South Africa’s first democratic president who died in 2013. “The coolest part of the trip so far was having the opportunity to go to Soweto yesterday, and have the opportunity to visit Nelson Mandela’s house,” said Paul, who is visiting South Africa for the first time. “When you come on a trip like this, a lot of times everyone talks about the game, the game, the game. But, in actuality, the game has been secondary.” The next thing on the to-do list for Paul is a lion park on the outskirts of Johannesburg. Two-time NBA champion Pau Gasol of the Chicago Bulls took time out to go to Cape Town on the southwest tip of Africa on the advice of Miami’s Deng, who has been traveling to South Africa every summer for the last 7 or 8 years. It was a good tip, judging by Gasol’s grin when they met up on court. Before heading off for his safari, Popovich, the five-time NBA title-
winning coach, will handle the “home” team. Team Africa is made up of African-born players like Deng and those with African heritage like Portland’s Al-Farouq Aminu and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, who both have parents from Nigeria. Popovich isn’t taking it too seriously. “We’re going to have a great night, a lot of fun,” he said. “This isn’t regular season. We’re going to put on a great show for everybody. We’re not drawing up plays, we’re not going to stay up late tonight wondering if we’re going to win or lose.” But it’s still a game, and NBA players being NBA players, it’ll be competitive on Saturday, exhibition or not. “Once the juices get going and tip-off starts, you want to win,” Marc Gasol said. “That’s our nature. All of us can tell you the same thing, we’re gonna be careful, we’re not gonna get hurt. This and that. At the end of the day, if you have a chance, you want to win.”
• Thoroughbreds, Haskell Invitational, at Oceanport, N.J., NBC
MLB 1 p.m.
• Yankees at White Sox, TBS • Rockies at Cardinals, FSN 7 p.m.
• National at Mets, ESPN
Soccer 9 a.m.
• FA, Community Shield, Arsenal vs. Chelsea, at Wembley Stadium, FS1 2 p.m.
• International Champions Cup, Barcelona at Fiorentina, FS1 4 p.m.
• MLS, Portland at San Jose, ESPN2 6 p.m.
• MLS, Dallas at Chicago, FS1
Tennis Noon
• World Team Tennis, championship, ESPN2 2 p.m.
• ATP World Tour, Atlanta Open, championship, ESPN2