(“The TEN” is not a top ten but ten items worth being included in “The TEN”)
1. All NBA playoff games and several MLB and MLS games were canceled Wednesday due to the players response to the police shooting of a black man, Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
2. The Dodgers swept a doubleheader from the Giants 7-0 and 2-0 Thursday after Wednesday night’s game was postponed.
3. The Lakers and the Clippers reportedly voted to boycott the rest of the season Wednesday night but the NBA players voted in favor of resuming the playoffs Thursday sources said. The season is expected to resume Saturday.
4. Michael Jordan, now the owner of the Charlotte Hornets, was instrumental in talking to the players and owners and helping in the decision to resume the playoffs. Jordan is the only black majority owner in the NBA.
5. Lute Olson, who was the head basketball coach at Arizona for 24 years, and won over 700 NCAA games in his career, passed away Thursday at the age of 85.
6. Kenny Smith walked off the “Inside the NBA” set Wednesday in a show of solidarity with the NBA players boycotting games in response to the shooting.
7. The 2020 NFL season is set to kick off Thursday September 10 with the Houston Texans at the Kansas City Chiefs.
8. The Dodgers have the best record in baseball at 24-9.
9. Former New York Yankee lefthander Ron Guidry turns 70 today.
10. Fernando Tatis Jr. of the San Diego Padres is batting .302 with 13 HR and 30 RBI in 32 games.
@ “Back to Sports”: The vast majority of people in this country, including Democrats and those who identify as being on the left, do not support the wholesale confiscation of guns. There are, however, people who have no business owning them.
Joe Biden, who says he owns a couple of guns himself, favors a voluntary buy-back of guns by the government. That is not an extreme position.
Biden also supports an assault-weapons ban. We actually had one in force on the national level for 10 years, but it was allowed to expire in around 2005.
In a democratic republic such as ours, there should be no need for any civilians to possess assault rifles and high-capacity magazines. These are weapons of war which were designed to kill people at a fast rate.
The 17-year-old from Illinois who went to Kenosha, Wis. and ended up killing two anti-racism protestors was carrying an AR-15. Where were his parents, by the way?
If people got to know their neighbors and other members of their community better, maybe they wouldn’t feel the need to arm themselves to the teeth. Obviously, some locations are more dangerous than others, and I would never criticize those who really need a firearm to protect themselves and their families.
@ Tank: On the other hand, did a police officer in Kenosha, Wis. really have to shoot Jacob Blake seven times in the back, right in front of his three young sons?
Did that officer in Minneapolis actually have to kneel on George Floyd’s neck for almost nine minutes until he suffocated to death? (All of that over an allegedly phony $20 bill.)
I sympathize with all the victims of criminal violence, but there’s rarely any justification for police killings of unarmed people, who, in some cases, didn’t commit any crimes.
With the current ban on law enforcement, gun sales have soared. These are first-time buyers, people who have long disdained the thought of owning firearms. Question: with more and more people recognizing the need for self-defense, will this increase or decrease support for the party which has stated its intent to REDUCE the number of guns in private hands?
Puzzling to me why pro athletes would would unite in protest over the death or killing of mostly criminal people not complying with the police, but not a peep from them on the young and innocent that die because of the actions of these same kind of criminals. And the number of young and innocent people (and police) killed far exceeds those of the criminal type slain by police.
Say his name. Cannon Hinnant
# So Lakers and Clippers are forfeiting the remainder of their games? Does anyone really care anymore?
#6 Kenny Smith is a tool. Does anyone really care if he left?
#2 & #8 GO DODGERS!
Finally a team in San Diego that can compete with the Dodgers in the standings. Maybe this will become a good rival because both stadiums are fun places to watch a ball game, not to mention the weather in SD.
My days of watching pro basketball are over. I’ll stick with the high school variety of this sport, where the players understand that the world would be just fine without them.