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First it was Grant Hill who made waves with news of his retirement.
Two days later, the man who shared Rookie of the Year honors with Hill in 1995 took his turn.
New York Knicks point guard and NBA journeyman Jason Kidd has decided to hang up the sneakers after 19 seasons of professional basketball.
What’s big in the media right now?
Scandal.
No, not the popular television show, Rutgers basketball. The Scarlet Knights are making waves Wednesday after firing their head coach Mike Rice.
Rice, who appeared in a video on ESPN’s Outside the Lines abusing his players during practice, was terminated by the school today.
A few NBA players spoke up about the scandal on Twitter, including Philadelphia 76ers guard Jason Richardson.
Richardson may have responded to an abusive coach differently than the Rutgers players (had it happened to him), but some of the parents (according to Boston Celtics reserve center Jason Collins) may share that sentiment.
Of course, that’s all hypothetical conjecture. Only time will tell what happens from here.
The OTL video (below), which aired Tuesday, elicited an almost immediate outpouring of opposition to the school’s pior decision to merely suspend coach Rice. Even New Jersey governor Chris Christie spoke out in disgust.
“The way these young men were treated by the head coach was completely unacceptable & violates the trust parents put in [Rutgers]. All of the student-athletes entrusted to our care deserve much better.”
While some, like Atlanta Hawks player development instructor Nick Van Exel, may have hoped that the video was some sort of April Fools prank, the truth of the matter is that the video was footage from a practice during the regular season—a few months ago.
Hopefully this type of coach conduct will not crop up again somewhere else.
Previous Tweet Posts:
Tweet of the Night: Shaquille O’Neal
Tweet of the Night: Courtney Lee
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Michael Brumagin is the “Tweet of the Day” columnist for Sheridan Hoops. You can follow him on Twitter.
Over the All-Star break, news broke that longtime Los Angeles Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss had been hospitalized and was battling cancer.
Monday, Dr. Buss passed away.
[Heisler on Buss: As owners go, he stands alone]
Many NBA players (former and current), owners and personnel sent their regards via Twitter.
Remember the 1990s, back when it was trendy to break backboards?
Darryl Dawkins broke them almost with regularity, then the league introduced breakaway rims. Shaquille O’Neal brought down entire basketball goals. Eventually, the NBA was prompted into action, implementing rules to prevent such breaks.
Well, breaks are back, as we can see in this tweet from Atlanta Hawks reserve Anthony Tolliver.
Earlier today, Tolliver’s teammate Ivan Johnson shattered a backboard at Butler’s practice facility in Indiana as the Hawks prepared for Tuesday night’s preseason game against the Pacers.
All-Star center Al Horford sent out the aforementioned tweet confirming the story. In the accompanying photo, Johnson appears to be laughing about the incident while being interviewed. You can see the interview below.
Ivan Johnson vs. the Backboard
Tweeting about the event seemed to have been a team effort, as can be seen below:
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Michael Brumagin is the “Tweet of the Day” columnist for Sheridan Hoops and a sports column Contributor for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter and read more of his writing on B/R:
