Feb

Djokovic says he’d rather skip Wimbledon and French Open than get a coronavirus vaccine

Adela Suliman

The Washington Post

The world’s top-ranked men’s tennis player, Novak Djokovic, said in an interview broadcast Tuesday that he had not been vaccinated against the coronavirus and was prepared to sacrifice playing in Grand Slam tournaments rather than be forced to take the shot.

In an interview with the BBC, the Serbian star said it was a “misconception” and “wrong conclusion” that he was part of the antivaccine movement, stating instead that he supported the freedom to choose.

“I was never against vaccination,” Djokovic said. “I understand that globally, everyone is trying to put a big effort into handling this virus . . . but I’ve always represented and always supported the freedom to choose what you put into your body and for me that is essential.”

Asked whether he was prepared to forgo major tournaments such as the French Open and Wimbledon, Djokovic said, “Yes, that is the price that I’m willing to pay. The principles of decision-making on my body are more important than any title or anything else. I’m trying to be in tune with my body as much as I possibly can.”

Djokovic, 34, was deported from Australia in January after a nearly twoweek saga that included court challenges, visa cancellations and a stay at an immigration detention hotel as protesters and supporters stood vigil outside. The government canceled his visa on the grounds that his presence in the country might incite anti-vaccine sentiment and “civil unrest.”

Governments, employers and public health officials globally have enc o u r a g e d c o r o n a v i r u s vaccination and championed its primary role in quelling the spread of the deadly virus. In many countries, those who are unvaccinated face the loss of their jobs and greater travel restrictions.

People who are vaccinated and boosted have considerable protection from serious illness, top health officials have said, with the unvaccinated more vulnerable to death and hospitalization from covid-19. Health officials have also argued that getting vaccinated helps to protect others, including the immunocompromised.

Djokovic said that he understood he was part of a global sport and that not being able to travel freely because of his unvaccinated status could hinder his storied career.

“I understand the consequences of my decision,” he said. Djokovic has won the French Open twice, including in 2021, and has six Wimbledon titles, including the past three.

Although he has been championed by those in the global anti-vaccine movement, “I have never said that I’m part of that,” he added.

Djokovic’s deportation had sparked a diplomatic crisis, with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic claiming the tennis star was the victim of a “political witch hunt,” as Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended the decision, noting that Australians “have made many sacrifices during this pandemic . . . and they rightly expect the result of those sacrifices to be protected.”

Djokovic said in the BBC interview that he sympathized with the people of Australia who had to endure a strict and lengthy lockdown and understood the “frustrations” toward him.

“I would like to say that I always followed the rules,” he said. “I never used my privileged status to get into Australia by force or do anything in this entire process.”

Last month’s men’s Australian Open final was won by Spanish star Rafael Nadal, who at the time said he felt “sorry” for his rival over the uproar but noted that Djokovic knew the risks. Nadal said that he supported vaccination and that it was “normal” for people in Australia to feel “very frustrated with the case.”

Djokovic, who has tested positive for the virus twice, said he has never downplayed the severity of covid-19 - which has so far killed more than 5.8 million people globally.

“Millions of people have and are still struggling with covid around the world so I take this very seriously,” he said.

He also did not rule out getting vaccinated in the future, stating: “I keep my mind open.”

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Seth Curry, Andre Drummond key Nets to blowout win, snapping 11-game losing streak

Matthew Roberson

New York Daily News

All it took for the Nets to s n a p t h e i r e m b a r r a s s i n g 11-game losing streak was a game against another team that barely knows each other.

As has become their custom, the Nets did not always make it easy on themselves. They were able to stay out of their own way enough to scratch together a 109-85 win over the visiting Sacramento Kings, though.

Monday night’s showdown at Barclays Center hosted two teams that look very different than they did a week ago. On the Nets’ side, newcomers Andre Drummond and Seth Curry both got a start in their Brooklyn debut. Drummond finished with 11 points and nine rebounds in 24 minutes while Curry showcased the type of quick-heating offense that will make him a lifesaver for this floundering team. The younger Curry brother went for 23 points on 10-of-18 shooting (3-of-8 from deep) in his first game with the Nets.

For Sacramento, one half of their new franchise duo was slow to acclimate. Domantas Sabonis, who the Kings are praying can be a playoff-worthy tandem with De’Aaron Fox, had just five points in the first half and nine total. Fox did his part, leading the way with 26, but their supporting cast turned in a perfect example of why the league was so puzzled to see the Kings make a trade deadline push to go all in.

In addition to Sabonis, Justin Holiday was in the starting lineup for the Kings, giving them two starters who were playing for different teams last week, just like the Nets. While the continuity took a while to set in for the guys in purple and white, the Nets had no such problems.

The newly-inspired team jumped out to an early 19-point lead that slowly dripped down to a one-point lead early in the second half. It was then that the Nets appeared to remember these were the Kings they’re dealing with. Led by Curry, who exhibited some Steph-like confidence throughout the frame, the Nets outscored their opponents 25-18 in the third quarter. Curry hit a series of buttery jump shots set up by his expert footwork, Drummond provided a crowd-fueling block on one end and a timeout-inducing dunk on the other end to cap a 23-7 run, and that basically wrapped things up.

While the haters will say that the win was cheapened because it came against a team learning its personnel on the fly, the Nets would have taken a win in any way, shape or form. Whether it was 70-69 or 150-100, a win means the Nets are no longer lugging around a worrisome losing streak, and the raucous celebration in their locker room could be heard throughout the bowels of the arena.

If Curry’s first day on the job was any indication, the team has solved its shooting woes too while also instantly adding a scoring guard who can carry some of Kyrie Irving’s weight during the home games he’s choosing to skip.

Though it’s just one game, the Nets exhibited an unbridled joy throughout Monday’s win that had been sorely missing all season. Whenever Ben Simmons is ready to lace them up, he’ll do so without the burden of having to be the main attraction. At some point, presumably, he’ll play alongside both Irving and Kevin Durant, allowing him to mostly focus on defense and distribution. Durant’s gravity is sure to make life very easy on Curry, who is making 40% of his three-point attempts for the sixth straight season. The Nets did all of this without Nic Claxton as well, who was part of the active roster but caught a DNP - coach’s decision. The night of inactivity was Claxton’s fifth straight as the former first-round pick eases his way back from a hamstring injury.

LaMarcus Aldridge was back in the lineup after seven games on the shelf. The veteran scorer was dealing with ankle troubles but didn’t show it against the Kings’ frontline. His 13 points in the first half were the Nets’ high and he finished the game with an efficient 19 in 19 minutes off the bench. Bruce Brown, who started the game by canning his first four shots, added 19 points of his own.

A trip across the bridge awaits the Nets now, as they’ll tangle with the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday in a rare road game that will not grant Irving attendance. It is still quite striking to think about how good the Nets can and should be when they have all of their players together on the same court.

Until that can happen, performances like Monday’s are a great building block, both for getting back in the win column and for feeling the positive emotions that come with good basketball again.

WENDELL CRUZ/USA TODAY Brooklyn Nets guard Seth Curry (30) drives past Sacramento Kings guard Donte DiVincenzo (0) in the fourth quarter at Barclays Center on Monday.

NHL roundup: Matt Boldy’s first hat trick boosts Wild past Wings

Field Level Media

Matt Boldy notched his first career hat trick as the Minnesota Wild downed the Detroit Red Wings 7-4 on Monday in Saint Paul, Minn.

Boldy, a 20-year-old rookie who entered the night with four goals on the season, also had an assist. Kirill Kaprizov supplied two goals and an assist for Minnesota, and Joel Eriksson Ek had a goal and an assist. Ryan Hartman also scored, Mats Zuccarello notched three assists and Jared Spurgeon collected two assists.

Kaapo Kahkonen stopped 30 shots for the Wild, who are 11-1-1 in their past 13 games.

Third-year player Gustav Lindstrom scored his first career goal for Detroit. Dylan Larkin had a goal and an assist. Lucas Raymond and Sam Gagner also scored for Detroit, and Moritz Seider and Tyler Bertuzzi each had two assists. Alex Nedeljkovic made 18 saves.

Blackhawks 3,

Jets 1

Patrick Kane had a goal and an assist, giving him 10 points over his past seven games, and Marc-Andre Fleury made 31 saves to lead Chicago to a win at Winnipeg.

With the game tied 1-1 at 9:42 of the third period, Alex DeBrincat took a loose puck at center ice and skated into the slot before wiring a wrist shot past Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck (21 saves).

Brandon Hagel sealed Chicago’s victory with an empty-net goal in the final minute, with both Kane and Fleury recording assists. Mark Scheifele tallied the Jets’ only goal, extending his goalscoring streak to four games.

Oilers 3,

Sharks 0

Stuart Skinner made 20 saves for his first career shutout while leading visiting Edmonton past San Jose.

Connor McDavid, Warren Foegele and Darnell Nurse scored goals for the Oilers, who improved to 2-0-0 under new head coach Jay Woodcroft while also moving to 4-0-1 in their past five road games. Evan Bouchard added a pair of assists.

James Reimer stopped 36 of 39 shots for San Jose, which was playing its first game since Feb. 1. It was the fourth shutout at home this season for the Sharks, who are winless in their past four games (0-2-2).

Maple Leafs 6,

Kraken 2

Mitchell Marner had a goal and two assists, Michael Bunting contributed a goal and an assist and Toronto won at Seattle.

Alexander Kerfoot, Ondrej Kase, David Kampf and Jake Muzzin also scored for the Maple Leafs, who finished a threegame trip with one win. Auston Matthews and Timothy Liljegren each added two assists while Jack Campbell made 23 saves for the Maple Leafs.

Calle Jarnkrok had a goal and an assist for the Kraken, who lost for the fourth time in their past six games. Jared McCann also scored. Seattle goaltender Philipp Grubauer allowed three goals on 11 shots in the first period. He was replaced to start the second period by Chris Driedger, who made 11 saves.

BRAD REMPEL/USA TODAY Minnesota Wild left wing Matt Boldy (12) celebrates his hat trick against the Detroit Red Wings in the second period at Xcel Energy Center on Monday.

New York Daily News

NEW YORK — The Knicks didn’t deserve love on Valentine’s Day.

No chocolates for Tom Thibodeau. No flowers for their defense. No cards for Immanuel Quickley.

They were again booed out of Madison Square Garden on Monday, this time after losing to the tanking Thunder in overtime, 127-123, with a defeat that underscored New York’s sad state of affairs.

The defeat was sealed 1.5 seconds left in the extra period, when Quickley, who has lost confidence in his shot and missed all seven of his attempts Monday, bricked a wide-open corner 3-pointer. The Knicks (25-32) blew it. The Thunder gave them every opportunity and they threw it away.

It was a frantic final minutes of regulation and not a good reflection on Thibodeau. The coach burned his final two timeouts -- first on a pointless challenge with 1:07 left, then unnecessarily with 39 seconds remaining and the Thunder at the foul line -- leaving him no way to set up the final play (a potential game-winner from Randle that clanged off the rim).

That drama was preceded by OKC’s Darius Bazley driving past Mitchell Robinson and tying the score with 5.5 seconds left. Again, the Knicks had no timeouts to advance the ball and Randle rushed his midrange game-winning attempt.

The Thunder (17-39), which owns the worst offense statistically in the league, scored 10 points in the first three minutesof overtime. The Knicks couldn’t keep pace and their coldest player took the final shot.

Randle recorded his first triple-double of the season with 30 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists, but faltered down the stretch and fouled out in overtime.

Tre Mann and Josh Giddey led the Thunder with 30 points and 28 points respectively.

The young and talent-deficit Thunder didn’t have its best player, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who suffered an ankle injury. Like last season, the Thunder and its asset-hungry executive Sam Presti are tanking away the schedule.

His payroll is not only the lowest in the league, it’s $36 million less than No. 29 on the list (Memphis) and nearly $100 million less than No. 1 (Golden State). The average age of Oklahoma City’s starting lineup Monday was 21.6, with three rookies (Mann, Giddey and Aaron Wiggins).

It had dropped five straight coming into the Garden. Still, the collection was good enough to topple Thibodeau’s reeling squad.

The Knicks were coming off their 1-4 road trip, a disheartening week out West that buried them deeper in the standings and spanned a dead silent trade deadline. RJ Barrett was also injured midway through the trip and has missed three straight games with an ankle sprain. He was on the bench in street clothes Monday.

Rookie Quentin Grimes started in Barrett’s place at small forward and played well with 19 points. RE-LINNING

The Knicks and Jeremy Lin have appeared to make amends.

With the 10-year anniversary of Linsanity beginning this month, the former Knicks guard appeared Monday on the MSG Jumbotron and wished fans a Happy Chinese New Year.

Lin was persona non grata at MSG for years after he signed Houston’s poison pill contract and left in free agency. Owner James Dolan reportedly felt betrayed and deceived at the time, but MSG Network began showing Linsanity games during the pandemic and, 10 years after his inspiring tale set the Garden on fire, Lin was again a spokesman at 4 Penn Plaza.

ANDY MARLIN/USA TODAY New York Knicks guard Alec Burks (18) shoots against the Oklahoma City Thunder during the second half at Madison Square Garden on Monday.

U.S. vs. Canada once again set to determine Olympic women’s hockey supremacy

Los Angeles Times

To the surprise of no one and the delight of anyone who can appreciate an impassioned rivalry no matter the sport, the U.S. and Canada will meet again to decide supremacy in women’s Olympic hockey.

The two superpowers have faced off in every women’s Olympic gold medal game except 2006 in Turin, where the U.S. lost to Sweden in the semifinals and went on to win a bronze medal. The U.S. won the first women’s hockey gold at Nagano in 1998 and the most recent, at Pyeongchang in 2018, in a shootout. Canada won the other four.

The rest of the world has improved a bit, but no other team has enough resources or has developed enough depth to push them for more than a period or two.

“These are the games we live for, the games we dream for,” U.S. captain Kendall Coyne Schofield said Monday night after the Americans scored twice in the second period and twice in the third in a 4-1 semifinal victory over Finland at Wukesong Sports Centre. “Everyone is going to have to take their game up a notch.”

Canada has blasted through to Thursday’s final on the strength of a fearsome and balanced offense. They’ve outscored their opponents 548, including a 4-2 preliminary-round decision over the U.S. They have the top six scorers in the tournament, led by Sarah Nurse’s 16 points. They clinched their berth in the gold medal game with a 10-3 rout of Switzerland earlier on Monday.

“I think we know that history, but we’re going to give ourselves a blank slate,” said Canada forward Brianne Jenner, who leads the tournament with nine goals. “We looked at it as an opportunity to go out there and claim a gold rather than looking at the history books and what has happened.”

The Americans, held back during this tournament by a surprisingly fitful offense, lost only to Canada in the preliminary round. They’ve scored 28 goals and given up eight. The upside to their offensive woes is that they’ve learned to be patient and rely on grit when the goals aren’t flowing and games are close.

“I think we’re in a great place. Our backs have been up against the wall a couple times and we’ve had to really dig deep and find a way to score,” said defenseman Cayla Barnes, a native of Eastvale in Riverside County. “I think it’s been really great. We’ve grown a lot and I’m happy with the way we’re heading.”

Goaltender Alex Cavallini ensured that the first period against Finland on Monday would be scoreless when she managed to stop two close-in shots by four-time Olympian Michelle Karvinen in the closing seconds. She was particularly sharp in extending her left pad to stop Karvinen’s second attempt.

Her teammates rewarded her efforts by providing her some offensive support in the second period. Gifted a power play on a phantom tripping call against Finland’s Tanja Niskanen, the Americans capitalized when Barnes took a crisp pass from Hannah Brandt and whipped a shot from the lower edge of the right circle to beat goalie Anni Keisala at 3:39 of the second period Hilary Knight, who tied the U.S. women’s Olympic record by appearing in her 21st game, converted the rebound of a shot by Savannah Harmon for a 2-0 lead at 18:53.

Hayley Scamurra tipped a shot by Barnes for a 3-0 lead at 15:20 of the third period, which proved important when Finland’s Susanna Tapani got a lucky bounce and cut the U.S. lead to 3-1 at 19:34. Abby Roque put the game away with an emptynet goal with five seconds left in the third period.

“To get to this point and have the performance that we did tonight is awesome,” said Cavallini, who made 25 saves. “It was really fun to watch the team working at the other end, continuing to get shots, continuing to create opportunities. Defensively they were awesome, blocking shots, picking up sticks, making my job pretty easy.

“It’s exciting now to be able to put that game past us with a big win and move on to the next game and set out for what we’ve been here to accomplish.”

The Americans never get tired of testing themselves against the only other country that has won a women’s Olympic or world title. “I think it’s one of the best rivalries in sports,” Barnes said. “I’m definitely looking forward to playing against a great Canadian team.”

Knight, a four-time Olympian, never gets tired of seeing Canada, either. “It’s wonderful hockey, it’s the most beautiful rivalry in sport,” said Knight, who tied Jenny Potter and Angela Ruggiero for most Olympic contests played in U.S. hockey history with her 21st appearance. Knight also moved into second place in U.S. career scoring with 26 points, behind Potter’s 32.

“It gets the best and the worst out of both of us at the same time,” Knight said. “It’s a wonderful game.”

And no less wonderful because it was expected. “I’m confident. I told our group I like the way we’re playing. I know that we’re going to be prepared,” U.S. coach Joel Johnson said. “I just feel really good about how we match up against Canada.”

Once more, with feeling, for a rivalry like few others.

Once more, with feeling.

GEORGE WALKER IV/USA TODAY Team United States forward Kendall Coyne Schofield (26) shoots the puck against Team Finland defender Jenni Hiirikoski (6) during the second period in the women’s ice hockey semifinal of the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games at Wukesong Sports Centre on Monday.

Will Sean McVay be back with Rams next season? Coach says: ‘We’ll see’

Dylan Hernandez

Los Angeles Times

Is the party already over?

The Rams were only a handful of hours removed from a Super Bowl LVI celebration that extended into Monday morning when coach Sean McVay said two words with potentially alarming implications for their future: “We’ll see.”

That was McVay’s response to The Los Angeles Times when asked whether he would return to coach the Rams next season.

Regarding speculation he could retire, or take a break, from coaching to take a job as a broadcaster, McVay said, “I’m just enjoying this moment right now. I’m really happy to be a part of this. Happy for that.”

McVay, 36, acknowledged the championship he won Sunday would make it easier for him to walk away when he determines it’s the right time to do so.

“I think you could definitely say that,” McVay said.

Seated on the side of a conference room in the Los Angeles Convention Center, McVay glanced in the direction of a nearby stage on which receiver Cooper Kupp posed for photographs with a couple of newly-won trophies.

“But to me,” McVay continued, “I think the biggest thing that drove me this year was doing it with people like him. That drives you. I love coaching. I’m just so excited about this moment right now.”

In other words, he wasn’t ready to address the subject.

So, as McVay said, we’ll see.

The consequences for the Rams will be significant.

They were a four-win team before they made him, at 30, the youngest coach in NFL history. They are now a team built in his image, as tenacious as they are talented.

However, the high-energy, high-intensity approach can be exhausting, as McVay touched on last week when he said there was “no chance” he would be coaching at 60. “I won’t make it,” he said.

It was one thing to work frantically around the clock when he was the golden boy and everything was moving in a positive direction the way it was for the majority of his first two seasons with the Rams.

Losing to the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LIII marked a turning point.

Instead of being on an unobstructed turbo-charged run to a championship, the Rams were suddenly stuck in mud. Instead of being worshipped as a dono-wrong genius in the football world, McVay came under scrutiny after he was outcoached by Bill Belichick in that Super Bowl.

Tumbling down the mountain after nearly reaching the summit, McVay had trouble regrouping for another ascent. The work was as draining as it was before, only now there were fewer rewards.

How much more of this could McVay take, especially with the broadcast booth offering him a possible out? The New York Post reported last week that ESPN would pursue him to be part of the “Monday Night Football” team if he left coaching, estimating he could make upwards of $10 million as a commentator.

McVay’s stay in football purgatory turned out to be relatively short, with the Rams taking down the Cincinnati Bengals at SoFi Stadium three years after their crushing defeat to the Patriots.

In the aftermath of the victory, McVay shared a moment with Rams owner Stan Kroenke. When they were finished talking, McVay visibly exhaled and shook his head.

His relief was obvious.

McVay’s beard is whiter than it was in his first years with the Rams, but the coach reported to the NFL’s news conference on Monday morning projecting as youthful a vibe as he did when he was first named coach.

“It’s an incredible honor to be here,” McVay said, before joking, “It’s also torturous to have a team win a championship and then make you come the next morning and do a press conference this early.”

The renewed exuberance is why the guess here is that McVay remains the Rams’ coach.

Winning on Sunday freed him from the burden of his unrealized potential and slayed the ghost of Belichick that haunted him. The golden boy is golden again.

He is now the youngest coach to win a Super Bowl. He already has a coaching tree, with four of his former assistants now NFL head coaches or about to be named a head coach, including Zac Taylor of the Bengals. He has built on a family legacy that was started by grandfather John McVay, who won five Super Bowls as a San Francisco 49ers executive.

McVay is obsessed with football. How could he walk away from this?

With two years remaining on his contract, McVay is in line for an extension. Rams president Kevin Demoff sounded open to making that happen.

The Washington Post

ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Eileen Gu was out of time.

The 18-year-old had just won her second medal of the Beijing Games on Tuesday at Genting Snow Park, a silver in women’s slopestyle that sent Chinese fans and volunteers alike into a frenzy, but as she pulled her hair back into a ponytail and set about the business of answering questions at her news conference, she had no time to revel. Gu had to rush off to practice for halfpipe.

“I’m actually missing it already, so that’s why I have to cut this short,” Gu said, switching from Mandarin to English, apologizing to the packed room of reporters before her. “I always want to try to use my voice as much as possible, but I really gotta go!”

At a Winter Olympics where the theme is pressure, Gu is a study in how to use it to one’s advantage. An American-born teen skiing for her mother’s native China, she is the face of these Games in Beijing, hustling her way through with a shot at becoming the first action-sport athlete to reach the podium in three events with eyes on both sides of the Pacific trained squarely on her.

She is two-thirds of the way there. Gu, won gold in freestyle skiing big air’s Olympic debut last week, took silver Tuesday in slopestyle and has a shot at clinching the milestone in halfpipe Friday.

Watching Gu work her way through a competition and then a gantlet of media obligations provides evidence of her relationship with pressure. The number of reporters in Gu’s post-medal news conference Tuesday was comparable to the last Olympic news conference of three-time gold medalist and snowboarding legend Shaun White’s career, held in the same room last week.

White is 35, with more than a decade of practice in front of the bright lights. Gu, a little more than half his age, looked equally as comfortable.

Perhaps it was the glow of her second medal, which wasn’t a given for her in slopestyle.

The discipline, which requires riders to string together several skill-sets into one clean run across a course with rails, ramps and imposing jumps, is Gu’s weakest by a slim margin, and she entered the third heat of Tuesday’s final in eighth place. After a big fall on her second run drew a loud groan from her many supporters - as many as the small, covid-era stands would allow - Gu mustered her strongest, surest run of the day to vault to silver with a score of 86.23.

“I was feeling a little bit tired mentally after big air,” Gu said Tuesday. “I almost felt like I wasn’t fully in it. I wasn’t in the zone. I wasn’t feeling that rush of excitement and feeling too calm, which sometimes doesn’t work out the best. I’m one of those people that needs the pressure on and glad I was able to put it down.”

Gu finished just behind Swiss gold medalist Mathilde Gremaud, with whom she also shared the podium in big air and who won with a score of 86.56 in her second run. Estonia’s Kelly Sildaru earned bronze with an 82.06 from her first run.

As was the case in big air, Gu needed a clutch final run to land on the podium.

“It really came down to the last run - again. I don’t know why I keep doing it to myself,” Gu said. “It doesn’t make it easy for myself. It certainly doesn’t make it easy for my coaches. My mom has a heart attack every day; it’s definitely not the easiest. But I’m happy I was able to push through and turn that pressure into fuel, and it feels so, so good. My goal coming into the Olympics was to have one gold and have one more podium in a different event. I’ve already met that goal, and [I’m] going into my strongest event next week.”

Readying for her strongest event, halfpipe, with history at stake requires a balancing act. Gu did not stop for many of the TV stations vying for interviews directly after her slopestyle medal - she did the same Monday and was instead available for interviews after her halfpipe practice later in the day - and took just three questions at her news conference.

There, she flaunted her ability to deal with a different kind of pressure.

Gu is the subject of controversy at the Games because of her decision years ago to compete for China despite being raised in San Francisco. She has faced questions at and before these Olympics about whether she surrendered her U.S. citizenship without providing a clear answer - the International Olympic Committee requires athletes hold a passport for the country they represent, and China does not permit dual citizenship.

On Tuesday, an Englishspeaking reporter was granted the second of three questions Gu had time to answer. He identified himself as another Chinese American person who went to Gu’s rival high school in San Francisco, and began by asking a joke about why Gu hadn’t matriculated where he went. She answered in good humor.

Does whiplash count as pressure? The reporter’s second question was if Gu had made a compromise doing business in China given the government’s “official narrative on things like human rights allegations.” In addition to skiing for China, Gu has filmed commercials played constantly during the Games and earns money from Chinese sponsors.

“Here’s the thing,” Gu said. “I don’t really think of skiing as a business endeavor. I mean, I guess it’s my job, but also I do it because I love it, and I chose to ski for China because there’s this massive opportunity to spread the sport to people who haven’t even heard of it before. And honestly, I have met my goal. There are 300 million people on snow, so to even have influenced a tiny fraction of that makes me immensely proud.

JACK GRUBER/USA TODAY Ailing Eileen Gu on her third run during the women’s freestyle skiing slopestyle final during the Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games at Genting Snow Park.

Senior

GERMANTOWN — Germantown overcame a halftime deficit to edge Heatly in Monday’s Central Hudson Valley League girls basketball game on senior Night at Germantown.

Germantown led 15-6 after one quarter, but fell behind, 20-18, by halftime. The Clippers went on to outscore the Hornets, 16-11, in the second half to earn the victory.

Katie Bathrick was Germantown’s top scorer with 14 points. Ryane Anderson added 12.

Alexa McCarthy scored a game-high 18 points for Heatly.

B e f o r e t h e g a m e , t h e Clippers honored seniors Ryan Anderson, Katie Bathrick and Jordan Wyant.

HEATLY (31): Seeloff 2-05, Sagendorf 2-0-4, McCarthy 8-1-18, Dawson 2-0-4. Totals 14-1-31. 3-pointers: Seeloff, McCarthy.

GERMANTOWN (34): Anderson 4-4-12, Heuer 2-0-5, Wyant 1-1-3, Bathrick 7-0-14, Ferrer 0-0-0. Totals 14-5-34. 3-pointers: Heuer.

COLONIAL

Ichabod Crane 66,

Holy Names 27

ALBANY — Ichabod Crane jumped out to a 20-4 lead after one quarter and rolled to a 66-27 victory over Holy Names in Monday’s Colonial Council girls basketball game.

The Riders (13-3 Colonial, 16-4 overall) led 39-11 at halftime and 56-17 after three quarters.

Carolina Williams led the Riders with 27 points. Ashley Ames had 13, Delaney More eight, Haley Ames four, Ava Heffner and Abby Dolge three apiece and Malati Culver, Alexa Barkley, Ava Heffner and Julia Rivers two each.

Sophia Bologna’s 11 points topped Holy Names.

BOYS VOLLEYBALL

Ichabod Crane 3, Voorheesville 0

VALATIE — Ichabod Crane handed Voorheesville a 3-0 loss in Monday’s boys volleyball game.

The Riders won by scores of 25-15, 26-24 and 25-22.

For ICC (15-2): Erik Holmberg 24 assists; Paul Zietsman 17 kills, 4 aces, 3 blocks; Topher Pelesz 6 kills; Luke Desmonie 4 kills, 2 blocks; Caden Tiernan 3 kills, 1 ace.

Yankees

effective. He did not give up a run in six innings pitched, scattering two hits. He struck out eight and walked one in four regular-season relief appearances. He allowed his only run of the 2021 season in 1.1 innings of work in the Wild Card game.

Severino had been expected to return to the rotation and be a strong No.2 starter behind Gerrit Cole. The Yankees certainly have questions with their starting staff behind Cole. Jameson Taillon flashed some really good stuff, but ended the year needing ankle surgery. Nestor Cortes, Jr. was their most consistent starter and Jordan Montgomery is a solid back-end of the rotation lefty. Deivi Garcia could not find his way back to the big leagues after some success in 2020 and Clarke Schmidt missed most of the season with an elbow issue. Michael King has proven more useful as a reliever than a starter.

The Yankees could use a strong Severino in the rotation, but he might be better used coming out of the bullpen.

He has pitched a total of 27.2 innings in the past three years. There is no way the Yankees can expect him to jump up his workload dramatically and give them 100 innings. Especially since the injuries have come in bunches over the past three year.

Severino, who will turn 28 next week, had a shoulder issue in spring training of 2019. The Yankees extended Severino on what looked like a very team-friendly, $40 million deal over four years. He was coming off a season in which he finished ninth in American League Cy Young voting. As he warmed up for his very first spring training start after signing that deal, Severino felt something in his arm. That turned into a torn lat muscle, which held him out of that year until September.

In March 2020, it turned out that Severino tore his ulnar collateral ligament in the playoffs and he was shut down for Tommy John surgery. He was expected back in midsummer, but had several setbacks, including a groin strain, and did not return until September of 2021.

The Yankees have to figure out how they can put him in position to give them the biggest impact this season. And then they have to make a decision on his $15 million option for 2023.

WINSLOW TOWNSON/GETTY IMAGES Luis Severino (40) of the New York Yankees pitches against the New York Yankees during the sixth inning of the American League Wild Card game at Fenway Park on October 5 in Boston, Massachusetts.

Nets

since he was spooked out of an open dunk in Game 7 of last year’s Eastern Conference semifinals.

Ben Simmons was present at Nets’ shootaround on Monday morning but did not do anything on the court, providing a physical reminder of just how far off the rails this season has gone. Monday night’s affair with Sacramento will be yet another in the long line of games without Irving, Kevin Durant and James Harden, a trio now relegated to the great what if section of NBA history.

W i t h I r v i n g e s s e n t i a l l y banned from the building, Durant still dealing with his MCL sprain and James Harden now in Philadelphia, the Nets are grasping at any straws that could be twisted and bent into a happy shape.

“We’re just all trying to stay positive,” Cam Thomas said after shootaround. “We had a good stretch in Miami that we want to keep building off of, down by 20, came back, and had a chance to win at the end. We want to stay as positive as we can because we know things are going to turn around eventually. The key is to stay positive.”

As the roster itself transforms into something new every day, the rookie experiencing all of this for the first time -- and at an extremely unprecedented level, no less -- is trying his best to ignore the hoopla.

“When I leave the facility, I don’t try to look too much into the media,” Thomas said. “I do what I love to do and don’t look too much at what people say about us.”

Stress relief looks different for everybody, but the freshfaced 20-year-old finds his comfortable detachment in video games.

“I game,” he smiled. “I be gaming with some dudes on the team.”

In addition to Simmons, whose highly-anticipated season debut feels slated for after the All-Star break, Seth Curry and Andre Drummond are also now in the fray. Thomas, who said he just met Simmons for the first time and got to know Curry and Drummond a little bit while they were in Miami with the team, is thrilled about the idea of adding guys who are committed to the Nets.

“I think we have really good guys who want to be here,” Thomas stated. “That helps us have a better vibe amongst each other. It’s a step in the right direction.”

Any sort of victory, be it by one point over an equally miserable team or a cathartic blowout, is a sizable step in the right direction. Nic Claxton is drinking the positivity Kool-Aid as well. The big man offered his ideas for what the team could look like now that Harden is out and Simmons is eventually taking the reins.

“I think we’ll be able to play really fast and get out in transition,” Claxton predicted. “We’ll definitely be able to switch a lot on defense. I think it’s going to be a lot of fun.”

Fun has not been a word often used to describe this team. The great shakeup at the trade deadline came, in some part, because Harden was seemingly not having any fun at all. Philadelphia fans will tell you that watching Simmons and his reluctance to shoot has been anything but fun, and it’s hard to imagine that he’ll drastically change his ways now. Of course, nobody understands the ins and outs of this mess more than the people who are in the building every day.

Now in his third season with the team -- a lifetime ago in Net years -- Claxton has some experience dealing with turmoil. His first year ended with the Nets getting swept out of the bubble by Toronto, then the Steve Nash era began one year later, and now he’s playing with a group that’s completely unrecognizable than it was when he was drafted.

“When you go through things like this you can either fall or you can get closer together,” Claxton offered. “I think we just gotta mesh. The vibes have been better. Everybody settled in after the deadline, even myself.”

With more time in the league comes more knowledge of how the deadline works, though. This time around, the center says, it was scary.

“I didn’t really know what was going to happen,” Claxton shared. “The NBA is a business. I thought there was a possibility that I was getting moved. It was a rollercoaster. I’m happy that I’m still here.”

Happy is a relative term around these parts. Eighth in the Eastern Conference entering play on Monday, losers of 11 straight, and now with the NBA’s biggest question mark replacing one of its greatest scorers ever, the vibes could be in for another cataclysmic setback.

COLUMBIA-GREENE MEDIA Wednesday, February 16, 2022 B7

Kristi Yamaguchi won gold 30 years ago ... American figure skating would never look the same

Robert Samuels

The Washington Post

She had all the ingredients of the classic American women’s figure skating champion. She was an artist and an athlete, elegant and expressive, with a competitive arsenal of jumps and a program of intricate footwork and transitions ahead of its time.

But Kristi Yamaguchi was also an Olympic champion unlike any the country had seen: An Asian American woman in a sport that long had been the domain of White Americans and Europeans.

Thirty years ago, Yamaguchi won a gold medal. And while she wasn’t feted in traditional ways, her triumph now looks like a seminal moment in the sport’s transformation. Her deep edges carved a new path for Asian American superstars: Michelle Kwan, a two-time Olympic medalist; Nathan Chen, who won the gold medal in the Olympic men’s competition last week; and Alysa Liu and Karen Chen, who will compete in the women’s competition that began Tuesday.

Five of the 16 figure skaters on the U.S. team in Beijing are of Asian descent. In PyeongChang four years ago, there were seven, including the Shibutani siblings, who won a bronze medal in ice dance. The sport has become so popular with skaters of East Asian decent that those numbers hardly seem remarkable.

Yamaguchi faced a different landscape. Back then, an Olympic figure skating title usually guaranteed certain spoils: Gushing media coverage, endorsements deals, the moniker of “America’s sweetheart.”

But when she returned home from the games in Albertville, France, advertisers questioned whether Yamaguchi - the daughter of second- and thirdgeneration Japanese Americans - could fill that role.

“To Marketers, Kristi Yamaguchi isn’t as good as gold,” read one headline. A sports advertising executive put it this way in a 1992 Associated Press story: Yamaguchi “is definitely suffering because of her Japanese race and her Japanese name.”

“Right now there is a negative connected with anything Japanese,” the executive said. “It’s wrong, wrong, wrong, but that’s the way it is.”

Yamaguchi had become the first Asian American woman to win gold at the Winter Olympics, and she wasn’t deterred, saying in a recent interview that she “just felt like any other California girl representing her country.” She starred in a handful of commercials, mesmerized audiences on tour, won on “Dancing with the Stars” and started a foundation focusing on early childhood literacy. She reconciled her own questions of identity and found a place on the world stage, having provided a road map both for Asian American talent and for the modern incarnation of her sport.

Asked how she helped find a path, Yamaguchi, now 50, had a simple answer:

“I didn’t go away.”

She grew up fascinated by Dorothy Hamill, the spunky 1976 Olympic champion with the trendy wedge haircut who later headlined the Ice Capades. There was something elegant and accessible about the sport of figure skating to a tiny child with club feet and dreams of stardom.

“I was a small, scrawny, skinny, uncoordinated little kid and tried a lot of different sports, but skating just clicked with me,” Yamaguchi recalled. “I didn’t have to keep up with anyone else. I could go at my own pace.”

Her parents, Carole and Jim, weren’t sure she had what it took to be an Olympian. Other girls had an easier time picking up the basic skills. But Kristi never stopped trying.

And at home, there was another skater the Yamaguchis loved to watch. Nine years after Hamill won her gold medal, a fellow Californian named Tiffany Chin became the nation’s first Asian American figure skating champion, capable of long balletic lines and big triple jumps.

Injuries prevented Chin - who last month was inducted into the U.S. Figure Skating Hall of Fame - from reaching her full potential. But a young Yamaguchi had an affinity for Chin that Yamaguchi’s mother said she did not fully expect. When Kristi was young, Carole Yamaguchi joked, “I don’t think she knew she was Asian.” Sure, they went to a Japanese church and celebrated Children’s Day, a Japanese national holiday, but she lived in the diverse Bay Area, where there was not just one way to think about being an American. Nothing about her identity made her feel distinct.

Her family history, though, encompassed both patriotism and the indignities that can come with being a person of color in the United States. Carole’s father, George Doi, served in World War II, earning a bronze star as the only Japanese member of his troop. As Doi fought for his country, his wife, Kathleen, received a special clearance to leave Heart Mountain internment camp. But she could not find work in an environment distrusting of Japanese Americans and eventually went back into internment, where Carole Yamaguchi was born.

When George Doi came home, the family tried to assimilate, and the past was rarely discussed.

“I think much of that first generation that had gone through World War II tried so hard to just put it behind them and move forward and not talk about it,” Kristi Yamaguchi said. “They wanted to really establish themselves as American and living the American life.”

Carole married Jim Yamaguchi and had three children, all of whom loved sports. Brett played basketball. Lori twirled batons. And Kristi’s persistence in skating soon paid off, as she became one of the United States’ best young skaters in two disciplines. In 1988, skating with a Mexican American named Rudy Galindo, Yamaguchi won the world junior championships in pairs. She also won the ladies event. The accomplishment remains singular. It was at the competition that Kristi began to realize that not everyone in the skating world processed her identity.

Yamaguchi had finished ahead of two Japanese skaters that year. She was eager to stand atop on the podium and hear the national anthem, but there was an unusual delay backstage. She did not understand why until she heard an organizer say, “We can’t find three Japanese flags.”

“I’m like, ‘Can someone tell them I’m American?’ “ she recalled.

She was 20 years old when she came to the Albertville Games, the reigning national and world champion. Even so, she was not expected to win after recent rule changes placed more of an emphasis on power and jumping. Yamaguchi’s technical arsenal was nothing to shirk at, but compatriot Tonya Harding was a better jumper and Japan’s Midori Ito was the finest technician in the world. Both of those women were capable of landing the treacherous triple axel.

Without the triple axel, Yamaguchi tried to match her arsenal of triple jumps and difficult combination spins with detailed programs in which every beat - from the turn of her head to a flirtatious lifting of her skirt - was choreographed.

Harding and Ito both crashed on their triple axel attempts in the first phase of the event, clearing Yamaguchi’s path to the victory, and a strong (if flawed) program in the final was good enough.

Yamaguchi’s visage landed on a Special K box and the cover of “Sports Illustrated,” and she sat on the couch with talk show host Arsenio Hall. Those appearances were a far cry from the cultural ubiquity that came when her role model, Hamill, won gold.

“I didn’t skate, and try to win, for endorsements,” Yamaguchi told herself. “If I get something, awesome. That’s cool.”

But as skaters and other Japanese Americans posited whether race was limiting her exposure, she wrestled with questions that are familiar to many minorities: Was it me? Was it some broader culture bias? Was it something else?

“It was a hard time,” Yamaguchi said, noting that her Olympic win came a few weeks after the 50th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. “At the time, with the auto industry, there was a lot of tension with Japanese American relations. I think that’s what led people to think well . . . that may be why she’s not getting endorsements.

“I thought maybe that could be a little bit of it,” Yamaguchi said. “Who knows? I’m 20. I’m shy. I was not well spoken. You’re just so young, and so naive.”

But those experiences also drove home a new awareness of what she had achieved - and a new feeling of responsibility to speak about her heritage. She was flattered when she received letters from little girls who said they looked up to her, that they wanted to be like her. Japanese American groups reached out to her family to offer support.

Yamaguchi was struck when she saw a family friend interviewed on television, talking about the special pride she felt when she saw that “Sports Illustrated” cover with the headline, “American Dream.”

“I feel like this is the new face of the American dream: an Asian-American,” her family friend said.

Less than two years into her pro career, the infamous clubbing of Kerrigan, her former teammate, set off a media frenzy. Kerrigan had the “look” of an America’s sweetheart that advertisers had grown used to: She was brownhaired and blue-eyed, with a signature move in which she’d glide along the ice with her hand on her heart. The fanfare and endorsement deals that eluded Yamaguchi came easily to Kerrigan, even before she won silver at the 1994 Olympics.

The controversy created a surge of interest in figure skating, leading to huge ratings and weekly made-for-TV competitions. Yamaguchi didn’t go away. And although audiences might have tuned in because of the bizarre incident, they kept watching - and fell for Yamaguchi.

She continued to do the intricate steps and many of the jumps that she did while she was competing. She made audiences dance while skating to En Vogue, made them cry while skating to Chopin, brought them to their feet while skating to Simon & Garfunkel.

“Stars on Ice, when we founded it, it was a 30-city tour,” Scott Hamilton, the 1984 Olympic men’s champion said. “When Kristi joined it, it became a 60-city tour overnight. And so she had a great, incredible capacity to draw. People adored her.”

That silenced doubts about whether an Asian American could capture American hearts. Paul Wylie, a silver medalist in the 1992 Games who later toured with Yamaguchi, said she had the ability to mesmerize audiences every night.

“Wow, look at Kristi go,” Wylie recalled thinking. “She’s a star.”

And her arrival was the vanguard for a wave of Asian American talent in the sport. In the 30 national championships held since her gold medal, only three have not included an Asian American woman on the podium. She provided mentorship and sponsorship to many of the women who followed her, including Liu and Chen, the 2022 Olympians.

There is “an intrinsic value with seeing someone who looks like you and in the national spotlight,” said Kadari Taylor-Watson, the director of diversity, equity and inclusion at US Figure Skating. “You start believing you can achieve that, too.”

Four years after Yamaguchi won her gold medal, a 15-year-old American named Michelle Kwan won the world championship. Kwan would go on to win silver and bronze medals at the Olympics and five world championships in all, becoming one of the most decorated skaters of all time. Her performances in Salt Lake City inspired a young man from Utah to take up skating. That boy was Nathan Chen.

“You don’t get a Nathan Chen without a Michelle Kwan, and you don’t get a Michelle Kwan without Kristi,” said Barbara Reichert, a spokeswoman with US Figure Skating. “[Kristi] helped to open the door.”

WIRE PHOTO

Kristi Yamaguchi won gold 30 years ago for the United States.

The Winter Olympics are offering women more opportunities, but equality hasn’t yet arrived

The Washington Post

ZHANGJIAKOU, China — Ashley Caldwell knew she had lost her shot at the podium as soon as her back hit the snow. The freestyle skier from Virginia possessed the two highest scores of the night entering the third of three rounds in the women’s aerials final. But on her last performance of the Beijing Games, she went into the jump a little too fast, caught a small draft and fell backward upon landing.

“I thought I had it, I really did,” Caldwell said, smiling through tears.

Instead, Caldwell finished fourth with a score of 83.71 - more than 20 points behind the lower of her two scores entering the final - behind surprise American bronze medalist Megan Nick (93.76), silver medalist Hanna Huskova of Belarus (107.95) and gold medalist Xu Mengtao of China (108.61), who let out a roaring fist pump as she landed her jump.

But Caldwell’s fourth Olympic Games will have a happy postscript despite what she described as a heartbreaking competition.

She leaves Beijing with the first medal of her career - gold, to boot - which she won with the U.S. team last week when freestyle skiing’s mixed team aerials event made its Olympic debut.

That she even had the chance to compete for two medals felt like a breakthrough 12 years into her Olympic career.

“Having a second opportunity for a medal is huge,” Caldwell, 28, said. “It draws attention to what an incredible sport this is, and for our country, the United States - I would love for these two medals now, the team medal and Megan Nick’s bronze to help encourage the sport in our country.”

Mixed team aerials is one of seven events that debuted during the Beijing Games, five of which were part of the International Olympic Committee’s continued push toward gender parity at the Olympics. In addition to mixed team aerials, mixed team snowboard cross, mixed team short-track relay, mixed team ski jumping and women’s monobob had their inaugural runs here.

Men’s and women’s big air freestyle skiing is also new this year.

Caldwell’s second competition of the Beijing Games fell on a day in which Kallie Humphries took gold and Elana Meyers Taylor took silver in the Olympic debut for women’s monobob, a pair of wins for Team USA that were aired in a prime slot on NBC following the Super Bowl.

Four-man bobsled has been a part of the Olympic program since the first Winter Games in 1924 and two-man bobsled was added in 1932, but two-woman bobsled wasn’t added until 2002.

Like female aerials skiers, until this year, female bobsledders had just one choice of event at the Olympics despite that fourwoman bobsled debuted at the world championships five years ago.

Adding women’s monobob was the first step toward solving a systematic problem: In part because women couldn’t compete in Olympic bobsled for so long, many countries lack a sliding program with the ability to produce and support enough women - drivers and brakemen - to send teams of four to the Olympics. In monobob, countries need just one athlete to participate, and enough nations had that to fortify a new event.

Humphries and Meyers Taylor were critical in getting the discipline added to the Games.

“To be able to have two opportunities to medal now, that’s a game-changer,” Meyers Taylor said. “Now we’re more onpar with the men, with the two medals. We’d still like to have more numbers for women, and to have that comparability to medal for all the women, brakemen included, but you know, getting the monobob added was a start. It’s really cool to see all the girls out there, see all the different nations represented and see how well they did, like, this was a tough track for these monobob sleds, this is not easy. And to see from top to bottom how well the girls did and how well they represented, it’s really amazing.”

Because of the new events in Beijing, Games organizers are touting these Olympics as the most gender-balanced Winter Games to date, with women making up 45% of athletes and women’s events tallying 46, up two from four years ago in PyeongChang.

But as Meyers Taylor pointed out Monday, gender parity can be measured in myriad ways. The number of events available only to women - which is still fewer compared to men - is just one.

At the Winter Games, women still race shorter distances than men in cross-country skiing, speed skating, short-track speedskating and biathlon. In ski jumping, which didn’t allow women to compete in the Olympics until 2014 after a decade-long push spearheaded by a group of American women, women jump off only what’s called the normal hill.

Men can jump off the normal hill, the target landing distance for which is 90 meters, and the large hill, the target landing distance for which is 120 meters. The discrepancy means male ski jumpers have four events open to them: individual normal hill, individual large hill, the men’s team event and the mixed team event. Women have just two.

In luge, only men compete in doubles. And Nordic combined, which is cross-country skiing plus ski jumping, is the last sport in either the Winter or Summer Olympics that is available only to men.

Meyers Taylor reiterated Monday that women may not feel the need to race the exact same distances or compete in Nordic combined to be considered equals to men; parity isn’t about achieving the exact same thing. It’s about having just as many quality choices and opportunity.

“My hope is that women will continue to have options. Of course, if I had it my way, there would be women’s four-man, and breakmen would have multiple medal opportunities,” Meyers Taylor said. “ . . . I really want the younger pilots to have the choice. If they decide that monobob is what they want to do, then yes, I’ll support them wholeheartedly. But if they decide they want four-woman, then yes, I’m going to support that, too. Now it’s up to the next generation to decide where the sport goes, and I think it’s in good hands.”

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NBA roundup: Spurs can’t stop Bulls’ DeMar DeRozan

Field Level Media

DeMar DeRozan poured in 40 points and continued his historic scoring run as the Chicago Bulls outlasted the visiting San Antonio Spurs 120-109 on Monday to win their fourth straight game.

The Bulls trailed by six points entering the fourth quarter but then DeRozan took charge, scoring 13 of Chicago’s next 15 points to give the Bulls the lead. The Bulls never trailed again, as DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic dominated down the stretch.

DeRozan has scored 30 or more points in seven consecutive games (improving on a career-high) and established a franchise record with his sixth straight game of at least 35 points, supplanting the mark set by Michael Jordan in the 1996-97 campaign. Vucevic added 25 points and 16 rebounds, with Coby White scoring 24 points.

Lonnie Walker IV led San Antonio with 21 points off the bench. Doug McDermott and Dejounte Murray added 19 points each, with Murray contributing 11 assists.

Clippers 119,

Warriors 104

Terance Mann scored a season-high 25 points and Reggie Jackson added 19 points, nine assists and eight rebounds as host Los Angeles pulled away in the second half to hand Golden State its third loss in four games.

Ivica Zubac finished with 18 points and eight rebounds as the Clippers won consecutive games for just the second time since mid-January.

Jazz 135,

Rockets 101

D o n o v a n M i t c h e l l scored 30 points and Rudy Gobert played well after a nine-game absence but then was ejected as Utah pummeled Houston in Salt Lake City for its sixth win in a row.

Gobert, who had been out due to a left calf strain, recorded 14 points and seven rebounds. He played 22 minutes before his night ended when he was tossed midway through the fourth quarter after getting whistled for his second technical foul.

Nuggets 121,

Magic 111

Nikola Jokic scored 26 points, grabbed 15 rebounds and dished out seven assists to lead host Denver past Orlando for its fourth win in five games.

Jeff Green and Will Barton added 17 points apiece for the Nuggets.

Franz Wagner scored 26 points to pace the Magic, who fell for the third game in a row and the fifth time in six contests. Wendell Carter Jr. had 25 points and 12 rebounds, and Jalen Suggs scored 16 points.

Wizards 103,

Pistons 94

Kyle Kuzma scored 17 of his 23 points in the third quarter as Washington notched a win over visiting Detroit.

Kentavious CaldwellPope had 16 points and Deni Avdija recorded his second double-double of the season with 12 points and a career-high 15 rebounds for Washington, which has won its first two meetings against Detroit this season.

Trail Blazers 122,

Bucks 107

Anfernee Simons scored at least 30 points for the second straight game as visiting Portland defeated Milwaukee to extend its winning streak to three games.

Simons poured in 31 points on 12-of-24 shooting to hand the Bucks just their second loss over the last six games.

The NBA slam dunk contest has nowhere to go but up after last year’s dud

Ben Golliver

The Washington Post

The tape of last year’s slam dunk contest in Atlanta already feels like it belongs in a pandemic time capsule.

There were no fans because of coronavirus concerns before the national vaccine rollout. The condensed event took place at halftime of the All-Star Game because the NBA scrambled to relocate its midseason showcase from Indianapolis and shorten the festivities. There were only three competitors because of the strict health protocols and subdued stage. And Portland Trail Blazers guard Anfernee Simons was named champion with a kiss-the-rim dunk in which he didn’t get all that close to actually kissing the rim.

In other words, there’s nowhere to go but up for this year’s event in Cleveland, which will see four competitors and two rounds of dunks in front of a live crowd. There might still be questionable judging decisions, but at least this year’s dunk contest should look and feel like a traditional all-star Saturday night capper.

Though the NBA was unable to recruit any all-stars like Ja Morant or past dunk contest champions like Zach LaVine, this year’s field features some intriguing new faces and a nice blend of styles and physiques. Here’s a quick rundown of what to expect from the four participants. 1. Jalen Green, Houston Rockets

The 20-year-old Green has struggled as a rookie after being picked second in the 2021 draft, shooting just 38.1 percent from the field and averaging nearly as many turnovers as assists. While his scoring efficiency and defensive awareness need work, his leaping ability is world class. Like Simons, Green has a lithe frame and plenty of spring, but his best in-game finishes have an extra degree of ferocity.

Online oddsmakers have installed the 6-foot-4 Green as the early favorite, a logical decision given that he leads the field in midair fluidity and flair. While standout rookies like Evan Mobley, Franz Wagner, Scottie Barnes, Cade Cunningham and Josh Giddey have all gotten more acclaim than Green, the slam dunk contest should introduce the Rockets guard to a national audience. 2. Obi Toppin, New York Knicks

Toppin acquitted himself well in last year’s competition, where he displayed good creative range, delivered on comparisons to a young Amar’e Stoudemire and finished second to Simons. In Atlanta, the 23-year-old forward bounced the ball through his own legs for a reverse dunk, hurdled his father and Knicks teammate Julius Randle for a windmill and then went through his legs again on his final attempt.

The tallest participant in this year’s field at 6-foot-9, Toppin dunks more like an oversized wing rather than a clunky big man. Despite playing limited minutes in a bench role for New York, he ranks among the NBA’s top 20 most prolific dunkers this season. In addition to being the only competitor with previous contest experience, Toppin could enjoy a little home-court boost. The 2020 lottery pick played his college ball at Dayton, a three-hour drive from Cleveland. 3. Cole Anthony, Orlando Magic

Although Anthony has toiled in obscurity for the dreadful Magic, he doesn’t lack for swagger or bounce. After hitting a game-winner in isolation last May, Anthony declared: “I knew if I got someone on an island, they weren’t going to be safe. . . . I saw I had Kyle Anderson on me. It’s game-time. I’m trying to get this money.” Expect the brash 21-year-old son of former NBA player Greg Anthony to play to the crowd in Cleveland rather than freeze up under the spotlight.

Before going one-and-done at North Carolina and getting selected 15th in the 2020 draft, Anthony was a blue chip prospect who excelled in high school dunk contests. As a result, there’s a well-honed craftsmanship to his dunk toolbox: The 6-foot-3 guard bursts off the court like Steve Francis, and he can throw down 360s, hurdle human props and go between his legs with ease. 4. Juan Toscano-Anderson, Golden State Warriors

Toscano-Anderson was a surprise inclusion given that he’s considerably older than his fellow competitors at 28 and doesn’t boast first-round name recognition. Naturally, the oddsmakers view him as the long shot. An undrafted forward who played in Mexico, Venezuela and the G League before making his NBA debut in 2020, the 6-foot-6 ToscanoAnderson nevertheless has the ability to finish with authority. Just ask Phoenix Suns center JaVale McGee, who was on the wrong side of a sensational ToscanoAnderson poster back in December.

The big question for the Oakland native is whether he will be able to expand past his trademark piledriver in-game dunks with enough imagination and preparation to win in the contest setting. If he’s savvy, Toscano-Anderson will work in tributes to Jason Richardson, a former Warriors wing who won back-toback dunk contests in 2002 and 2003.

use your VOICE.

With Burrow leading the way, Bengals believe ‘this is just the beginning for us’

Tom Archdeacon

Dayton Daily News

INGLEWOOD, Calif. — They were all dressed up with nowhere to go.

One by one the Cincinnati Bengals showed up at postgame press conference Sunday wearing the affectations of a winner, but the unsmiling looks that come in defeat.

Quarterback Joe Burrow wore a bold, black and gray tiger stripe suit and white Air Jordan 1 Dior lows, an outfit that looked better when he walked into SoFi Stadium than when he came out of the locker room after the Los Angeles Rams had stolen the oft-used, come-from-behind script the Bengals used so often this season and marched to a 23-20 victory in Super Bowl LVI.

Tight end C.J. Uzomah carried his featheradorned safari hat to the postgame dais and safety Jessie Bates wore a ball cap with the iconic LA logo turned upside down.

But the only thing that got upended here this evening was Cincinnati’s Cinderella season. That doesn’t mean they became midnight pumpkins.

They just lost a game they could have won with some better play calling in the final minute and some better pass protection throughout the entire second half.

“Collectively, we shot ourselves in the foot,” Uzomah said.

With 54 seconds left in the game, Cincinnati had a second-and-1 situation at the Rams’ 49-yard line. They still were eight to 10 yards out of Evan McPherson’s field goal range, but coach Zac Taylor said afterward they were trying to win the gam, not tie it. But Burrow missed on a deep pass in Ja’Marr Chase’s direction on second down.

On third down, he handed off to back-up running back Samaje Perine -- in the game instead of starter Joe Mixon -- and Perine was stopped for no gain.

On fourth and 1, Burrow immediately was under siege by Rams’ defensive end Aaron Donald, who grabbed him around the waist and was about to pull him down for another sack -- L.A. already had seven -- but this time quarterback twisted free just enough to fling the ball away and see it fall incomplete.

While the Bengals’ offensive line did a good job protecting Burrow in the first half, it couldn’t keep him from becoming a pinata once gain. Six of those seven sacks came in the second half. One of them early in the fourth quarter left him with a wrenched right knee.

He hobbled off the field, but never missed a play.

Afterward he stressed: “I wasn’t coming out.”

He said he will get it checked by doctors once he gets back to Cincinnati today.

Meanwhile his counterpart, Matthew Stafford, orchestrated the most memorable drive of his 13-year NFL career. The Rams quarterback got the ball with 6:13 left and his team trailing by four points. He took them 75 yards in 15 plays and connected with Cooper Kupp, the game’s MVP, on a 1-yard touchdown pass with 85 seconds left.

Stafford to Kupp was eerily reminiscent of the final-minute TD pass from Joe Montana to John Taylor when San Francisco edged Cincinnati in the Bengals last Super Bowl appearance 33 years ago.

One big difference is the way the future looks for this team compared to the what happened to the Bengals’ Super Bowl XXIII team.

Following that title game, the franchise had just had one winning season over the next 16 years.

This team is young and talented and as Burrow said: “You’d like to think we’ll be back in this situation multiple times over the course of the next few years.”

Rookie kicker Evan McPherson -- whose two field goals Sunday made him a perfect 14 for 14 in the playoffs, tying him with Adam Vinatieri -- said the reason for the unbridled optimism is Burrow.

Uzomah agreed: “He should have been the (league) MVP. He’s a (expletive) dog. He immediately makes our team better when he’s in the huddle, when he’s calling plays and when he’s in the training rooms and practice. He’s telling us how to run things and how he wants them.”

One thing Burrow certainly doesn’t want is the way his first two pro seasons have ended for him.

In his 2020 rookie year, he was carted off the field during a late November game after a sack left him with a destroyed left knee that required extensive surgery.

Sunday, when he stepped off the riser following his press session, he noticeably winced when he put weight on his right knee.

He can’t continue to take the beatings he’s getting. He was sacked a league-high 51 times in the regular season. In the playoffs, he overcame nine sacks by the Titans and won. He couldn’t do the same after seven sacks by the Rams.

Sunday, Burrow completed 22 of 33 passes for 263 yards, including a 75-yard touchdown pass to Tee Higgins to open the second half.

Afterward, he didn’t belabor the sacks or say much about the TD pass. Instead he said he was disappointed in his own performance:

“I thought I could have played better and given us a better chance to win.”

Uzomah, though, said this game would fuel the entire team and especially Burrow:

“I mean, when’s the last time he lost a playoff game? In high school? And he went on a run after that.”

That high school loss came in the Division III state championship game in 2014 when Burrow threw for over 500 yards and six touchdowns, but his Athens Bulldogs fell to Toledo Central Catholic, 56-52.

“Losing the state championship game or the Super Bowl, obviously there’s different media coverage, but it feels the same to me,” he said.

As Uzomah noted, Burrow followed that high school title loss with an unbeaten season and national championship at LSU and now a change in culture, confidence and fortune for the Bengals, who had had just six wins in the two previous seasons combined.

After Sunday’s game Burrow said he had to make sure the disappointment didn’t eclipse what this team had done:

“I watched the football life of Kurt Warner last week and I kind of thought about that in the locker room now.

“It told how they lost one (Super Bowl) and he said they’d let it sting too much and didn’t celebrate what they’d accomplished. We have to remember that. This last game didn’t turn out the way we wanted it, but we had a great year and we still have something to celebrate.”

Defensive end Sam Hubbard said at the start of the season, the team, nor the fans knew what was possible: “Now we know what it takes to get to the Super Bowl. And I think we made a lot of people happy along the way.”

Uzomah agreed:

“Cincy is lit! Cincy is going crazy right now and even today Cincinnati fans came out here in bulk. They were going crazy. I love it. I love this city and how they backed us this year.

“I love going out and people just yelling randomly, ‘Who Dey!’ They try to stop in front of your car at a red light. It’s dope!

“Baseball started it low key when the Reds made a run. Then UC (football) started it and now we made it to the Super Bowl.

“This is just the beginning for us. And it’s going to be exciting to see the fan base grow and be a part of all that.”

So it looks like the Bengals need to hold onto those party clothes.

As McPherson put it: “We could back next year or the year after.”

MARK J. REBILAS/USA TODAY Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow (9) drops back to pass against the Los Angeles Rams in the third quarter of Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.

Matthew Stafford adds a Super Bowl ring to his Hall of Fame case, but it isn’t enough

Neil Greenberg

The Washington Post

It wasn’t the prettiest game of Matt Stafford’s career but Sunday’s matchup against the Cincinnati Bengals ended with him earning a Super Bowl ring as a member of the Los Angeles Rams, a crowning jewel in an otherwise barren trophy case. Will that ring also be the thing that pushes him into the Football Hall of Fame in Canton? Despite some admirable statistical accolades, Stafford still has more work ahead of him to secure enshrinement.

Stafford has his championship and 49,995 passing yards, just shy of the other eight quarterbacks in NFL history with 50,000 passing yards and at least one Super Bowl win: Tom Brady, Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Brett Favre, Ben Roethlisberger, Eli Manning, Aaron Rodgers and John Elway. Peyton Manning, Favre and Elway a r e a l r e a d y e n s h r i n e d i n Canton while Brady, Brees and Rodgers are locks. The consensus is Roethlisberger and Eli Manning will get in, too, giving Stafford a solid litmus test against which to judge his bona fides. But let’s pull back some layers and see why Stafford’s career to date doesn’t yet add up to the Hall of Fame career.

According to Pro Football R e f e r e n c e ’ s h a l l o f f a m e monitor, which uses weighted approximate value as a starting point with bonuses a d d e d f o r e n d - o f - s e a s o n awards and adjustments for position, Stafford scores a 58.4, leaving him 41st among qualified quarterbacks. An average hall-of-fame quarterback has a monitor score of 104.1. There are some notable exceptions in the Hall of Fame near Stafford’s score (the Bills’ Jim Kelly checks in with a 59.1, while the Cowboys’ Troy Aikman sits at 64.28), but both of them enjoyed much more postseason success. Kelly took the Bills to four consecutive Super Bowls and Aikman won three with the Cowboys. Meanwhile the Rams went to the Super Bowl just two years ago, with Jared Goff under center.

Why such a disparity? For starters, his passing yards total is inflated due to the timing of his career. During Stafford’s tenure as a pro q u a r t e r b a c k , t h e l e a g u e ’ s average passer threw for 233 yards per game, just slightly lower than Stafford’s career average of 269 passing yards per game. His career average yards per pass attempt was just four percent above the league average.

For comparison, Dan Marino’s career passing yards per attempt was nine percent higher than the league average and he played during a time when the average passing yards per game was 204 yards per game. See the difference? Stafford’s counting stats are very much a product of the timing of his career, not a special talent to accumulate yards while playing quarterback. In fact, among the elite eight quarterbacks mentioned earlier, only Eli M a n n i n g ’ s c a r e e r p a s s i n g yards per attempt was lower than Stafford’s after factoring in league averages.

P l u s , S t a f f o r d ’ s t e a m s trailed in the game during 4,053 of his 7,582 regular season drop backs, a situation t h a t f o s t e r s m o r e p a s s i n g attempts than rushing attempts. For Stafford specifically, his teams passed the ball 66 percent of the time while trailing, compared to a 50/50 split when leading. That, too, helps move you up the leader board for career passing yards. And before you bring up Detroit’s woes as a franchise in defense of Stafford, consider his passer rating in losses for the team (79.7 vs 103.2 in wins). While not a perfect measure of quarterback success, it is worth noting he ranked in the bottom half of the league in this regard in five seasons, including a three-year stretch between 2013 to 2015. He might not have been able to pull his team out of the mire but it is clear he was at least partly responsible for the organization’s struggles too, loosening his grip on a spot in the Hall of Fame.

The newly-minted Super Bowl champion also won’t fare well with the Keltner list, a list of 15 subjective questions created by noted baseball sabrematician Bill James to help clarify a player’s standing in the league atlarge. For example, here are some of the questions: - Was Stafford ever regarded as the best player in football? No, he was named to one Pro Bowl as an alternate and never won any other major award. - Was he the best player on his team? Not always. Stafford had hall of fame wide out Calvin Johnson to throw to for seven seasons. - Was Stafford the best quarterback in football? No. E S P N ’ s T o t a l Q u a r t e r b a c k Rating had him in the Top 10 just three times before he joined the Rams with the rest of his season-long campaigns earning him finishes of 13th or worse. The game charters at Pro Football Focus, a group that focuses on p e r f o r m a n c e r a t h e r t h a n the actual outcome, ranked Stafford in the Top 10 three times, with just one of those a s a T o p 5 q u a r t e r b a c k (2013). This year he finished as the eighth-best passer under center for the Rams. - Did he have an impact on a number of playoff games? No, up until this season he played in three postseason games, all losses with each of his playoff performances getting progressively worse. He also had two interceptions in the Super Bowl.

T h e f o r e n s i c s e x e r c i s e seeks to uncover if a player was regarded as the best in their sport, the best player on his team or the very best player in football history who is not in the Hall of Fame. If you get more negatives than affirmatives, it is clear the player is not as deserving as you might think. And you can see several notable negatives above.

Quarterbacks, especially those coming off a Super Bowl win, are always going to be at the forefront of these discussions, yet while Stafford does a lot of good things on the football field, most of them fall short of what should be expected of a hall of fame player.

MARK J. REBILAS/USA TODAY Los Angeles Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford (9) throws a pass against the Cincinnati Bengals during the first quarter in Super Bowl LVI at SoFi Stadium on Sunday.