J-Speaks: The Possible End in South Beach For Perennial Heat All-Star

The past two seasons have come to an early end for Miami Heat forward/center Chris Bosh at 44 and 53 games respectably due to blood clot around on one of his lungs in that was discovered back in Feb., 2015 and in his left leg in Feb. 2016. He sat out at the end of this past season on the recommendation of physicians and the Heat organization because of the potential dangers of a reoccurrence of the current condition. Bosh and the organization felt very optimistic that he would return in time for the start of the 2016-17 NBA campaign, but those thoughts of optimism hit a serious road block at the start of last weekend.

The Heat announced this past Friday that the 11-time All-Star who along with current Cleveland Cavaliers forward and current Chicago Bulls guard Dwyane Wade help lead the organization to four straight trips to The NBA Finals and two straight titles in 2012 and 2013 failed his physical and will not be able to be a part of the Heat’s training camp in any capacity.

According to NBA.com and The South Florida Sun Sentinel, Bosh, 31 suffered a recurrence of the aforementioned blood clotting.

To add insult to injury, Heat President Pat Riley said on Monday morning at the team’s media day that Bosh’s time with the team is “probably over.”

The NBA’s current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) though has a rule in it that, “precludes a team from releasing certain medical information without a player’s consent.”

This brings a bitter end to the NBA’s version of the Super Friends as James left the team to return to the Cavs, who he led to the NBA title back in June and Wade, who in a shocker of the off-season left in free agency to sign with the Chicago Bulls.

“This business is tough. The personal relationships and the things that happen that you can’t control. Everybody knows how much CB means to me and his family” Heat head coach Erik Spoelstra said in a press conference on Monday.

“I love CB dearly. It’s tough to watch CB and his family go through this the last couple of years. Your heart just goes out to him… CB was always the guy I would go, especially on those championship teams. I just really always trusted his perspective. My love for him and his family won’t change.”

As far as the future for the team, Spoelstra said he has clarity of who is going to be a part of training camp in the Bahamas and that the focus will be on the 19 players who will take part.

As for Bosh, he stated on the digital platform distributed by James Uninterrupted that, “little setbacks happen. But that doesn’t change my intentions and what I want to accomplish.”

That accomplishment of getting back on the court for Bosh more than likely will not occur with the Heat and that means there will be more tension over the coming days, weeks and very likely months between the organization and their highest-paid player, who in the summer of 2014 signed a five-year $118 million max contract that has three years and $76 million dollars left on it.

Thanks to certain mechanisms in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the Heat would be allowed to remove Bosh’s salary from their cap sometime in 2017 if he is unable to play.

The team did reiterate this past Friday though the goal this whole time has been to get Bosh back on the court as soon as possible.

While getting back on the court is something important to Bosh, it is also important for him to understand that there is more to this than just his career. He has a wonderful better half in Adrienne Williams, who he married in 2011 and they have five children together.

“I wouldn’t be a friend if I didn’t express to him my concerns. To me, the biggest thing is Chris has five kids and a wife and a family that depends on him being there. To me, that’s always most important. I told him, ‘Make sure you focus on that first,” Wade said of his former teammate.

Bosh though has not closed the book on his NBA career and mentioned on an Uninterrupted podcast a week ago that he had been tirelessly researching information about blood clots and the ability for a professional athlete to continue playing despite having them. He also said that he found doctors that told him he could continue playing basketball on a program of blood thinners.

“It’s just a matter of time,” Bosh said on that podcast last week. “I’m not the first—and that’s the best part about this—I’m not the first athlete to do this regimen.”

Among those who found a way to play after dealing with blood clots include NHL’s Tomas Fleischmann and Pascal Dupuis and tennis legend Serena Williams.

Fleischmann played for six consecutive seasons after being diagnosed with blood clots while with the Washington Capitals. He played pretty well during this time with the Colorado Avalanche and Florida Panthers, but this earlier this month, he flunked a physical performed by his new team the Minnesota Wild.

Another NHL player Pascal Dupuis developed a blood clot, a pulmonary embolism in his lung that occurred after a collision with his Pittsburgh Penguins teammate Sydney Crosby that tore Dupuis’s ACL, MCL and PCL. The blood clot spread from his calf initially.

While he rehabbed as able to return to the ice at the start of the NHL season two seasons ago after being put on blood thinners for six months, Dupuis developed another embolism in his lung. He was placed back on blood thinners and missed the remainder of the season.

The 36-year-old Dupuis came back for one more seasons with the Penguins, but this comeback was cut short back on Dec. 1, 2015 and was shut down the rest of the season.

He stayed with the organization as a coach unofficially and was on the ice when the team captured the Stanly Cup this past June.

Perennial tennis champion Serena Williams was shelved for much of 2011 after she was rushed to a hospital to have multiple embolisms in her lungs handled.

She managed to come back and has won nine more major titles since, tying a tennis legend in her own right Steffi Graf with 22 major wins, the most in the Open era, which includes this past year’s Wimbledon Championships.

James’ other former teammate Anderson Varejao in 2013 was shut down after a blood clot was found in his lung. He managed to comeback and played two of the last three seasons, with his latest team the Golden State Warriors.

While none of these successful returns from blood clot or blood clots will have a bearing on what happens to Bosh, he does know that it can be done

If this is Chris Bosh’s swan song, he accomplished more in 14 seasons than most players do in their entire career. He has averaged 19.2 points and 8.5 rebounds per game on 49.4 percent shooting from the floor in his career. Bosh garnered as mentioned before 11 All-Star selections; led the Heat to four straight Finals appearances and two straight titles; is the Toronto Raptors all-time leading scorer, where he spent the first seven years of his career; was a part of the 2008 USA Men’s Basketball team that captured the Gold medal in Beijing and as a collegiate at Georgia Tech, the former Mr. Basketball of Texas in 2002 was the American Coastal Conference (ACC) Rookie of the Year in 2003.

“I have full confidence,” Bosh said in the aforementioned podcast last week before flunking his physical. “Yeah, I’ll be there. Will I be cleared, I don’t know. But that’s out of my hands. But I will play basketball in the NBA. I’m confident.”

Information, statistics and quotations are courtesy of 9/23/16 www.nba.com article, “Bosh Fails Physical, Not Cleared For Training Camp,” by Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press; 9/23/16 8 p.m. ESPN Bottom Line news crawl, NBA section; 9/26/16 www.nba.com’s Morning Tip: Bosh’s Return Remains Murky Amid Blood Clots by NBA Insider for NBATV/NBA on TNT David Aldridge and http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_Bosh.

J-Speaks: Farewell To "The Big Ticket"

Twenty-one years ago, the Minnesota Timberwolves drafted a young man from Mauldin, SC with the No. 5 overall pick in the National Basketball Association (NBA) Draft out of Farragut Career Academy High School on the West Side of Chicago, IL. This relatively unknown would turn a franchise with no direction into a title contender and made himself into a transformative figure through his relentless energy, effort, hard work and dedication. His individual stats do not even come close to explaining what kind of player and champion he was in practice and in games. This past Friday, the guy who was nicknamed, “The Big Ticket” said goodbye to the game he fell in love with as a student at Hillcrest High School.

Kevin Garnett, who played 21 seasons in the NBA averaging 17.8 points, 10.0 rebounds and 3.7 assists on 49.7 shooting from the field with the aforementioned Timberwolves, Boston Celtics and Brooklyn Nets announced his retirement from the NBA this past Friday, which was first reported by the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

According to a report from Jon Krawczynski of The Associated Press, Garnett informed the Timberwolves of his decision at the start of this past weekend as the team is on the verge of starting training camp this Tuesday.

The organization waived their most iconic player, allowing him to collect the entire eight million dollars in salary he was set to make this season.

K.G. posted a video on his Instagram account on Friday where he narrated a short black-and-white piece of him walking through the Target Center by himself with sunglasses on. While his eye could not show it, you could feel the emotion of him saying goodbye to the game that put him and the franchise he represented on the map.

“I’m just thankful. I can’t even put that into words. I’m just thankful. I’m just thankful for everybody and the love,” Garnett said in his viral video on Friday. “I never would have thought that people love me like this. But, for it to be reality is just something else man. Man.”

The 40-year-old Garnett, who also went by the nickname K.G. played 13 of his 21 NBA seasons with the T’Wolves; six seasons with the C’s, who he help to their 17^th NBA title back in 2007-08 and two years with the Nets.

In an ironic way, he finishes his career playing the same number of years as the number as his jersey number with the T’Wolves No. 21 leaving a legacy as one of the most competitive, intense and influential players in NBA history.

Garnett retires as the T’Wolves all-time leader in points, rebounds, assists, blocks and steals.

“I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate and thank Kevin for all of his great accomplishments and contributions to the NBA, the Minnesota Timberwolves organization, and for me personally with the Boston Celtics,” T’Wolves new head coach and president Tom Thibodeau, who as an assistant coach on that 2007-08 Celtics title team.

“Kevin combined great talent with a relentless drive and intelligence. I will always cherish the memories of the way in which he led the Celtics to the 2008 NBA Championship. His willingness to sacrifice and his unselfishness led us to that title. Kevin will always be remembered for the way in which he played the game. His fierce competitiveness, his unequalled passion for the game and the many ways in which he cared about this team was truly special.”  

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver echoed similar words of respect and honor of K.G. by saying, “Kevin Garnett is one of the fiercest competitors our league has ever seen. He held himself to the highest standard of preparation and performance for a remarkable 21 seasons. On behalf of the NBA family, I thank Kevin for his sustained excellence and the enormous impact he’s had on the game.”

In his 21 seasons in the league, K.G. was named an All-Star 15 times; a nine-time All-NBA Team selection (four-time First-Team; three-time Second-Team and two-time Third-Team); a 12-time member on the NBA All-Defensive Team (nine appearances on the First-Team and three on the Second-Team); a member on the 2000 Gold Medal winning USA Olympic team in 2000 in Sydney and a four-time league rebounding champion (2004-07).

“I’m proud of our association with Kevin, just seeing him grow over the years,” T’Wolves owner Glen Tayler told the AP on Friday. “I wish him the very best in the future and want to thank him, along with our fans, for the great memories that he has given us.”

To put a brighter light on the greatness of Garnett, only the recently retired and five-time NBA champion with the Los Angeles Lakers Kobe Bryant, the late great Moses Malone and three-time NBA champion LeBron James have scored more points in NBA history by a player to turn pro right out of high school than the 26,071 points by him.

Garnett also joined Hall of Famers Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Karl Malone as the only players in league history to score 25,000 points, grab 10,000 rebounds and dish out 5,000 assists.

Before the arrival of Garnett, the Timberwolves were a serious mess never making the playoffs in their first six seasons of existence, including K.G.’s rookie season.

That all changed in his second season as the team led by him, rookie lead guard Stephon Marbury and Tom Gugliotta led the T’Wolves to a 40-42 record and their first playoff appearance in franchise history. It was short lived as they were swept by the eventual Western Conference runners-up the Houston Rockets led by Hall of Famers Hakeem Olajuwon, Clyde Drexler and current NBATV/NBA on TNT studio analyst Charles Barkley 3-0. Garnett improved his numbers going from 10.4 points, 6.3 boards per game as a rookie to 17.0 points, eight rebounds, 3.1 assists and 2.1 blocks in his second season. K.G. and Gugliotta made their first All-Star appearances.

The T’Wolves would be a participant in the postseason garnering then franchise records of 50 wins in 1999-00 and 2001-02 and then 51 victories in 2002-03, but were ousted in the opening round each time.

Things changed in the 2003-04 NBA campaign with the off-season additions of seasoned two-time champion with the Rockets in the middle of the 1990s Sam Cassell; very talented, but volatile five-time All-Star Latrell Sprewell and defensive center Ervin Johnson.

Surrounded by the best supporting cast he ever had in his career to that point, Garnett averaged career-highs of 24.2 points, a league-leading 13.9 boards, five assists, 2.2 blocks and 1.5 steals and led the T’Wolves to 58 regular season wins and garnering his only Most Valuable Player Award.

In the playoffs, the team finally got the monkey off their back winning their first playoff series in franchise history defeating the Denver Nuggets in the opening round 4-1.

They withstood and knockout drag out Semifinals outlasting All-Stars Chris Webber, Vlade Divac, Peja Stojakovic and the Sacramento Kings defeating them in seven games. In Game 7 at home, Garnett had a game to remember with 22 points and 21 boards.

The team would fall short of the NBA Finals as they were defeated in six games by Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and the Los Angeles Lakers 4-2 in the Western Conference Finals.

This high moment was not only the T’Wolves only appearance in the Conference Finals, but their last appearance in the postseason.

Over the next three seasons, the team’s win totals went from 44 to 33 to 32.

The fall of the team was not on the feet of Garnett as he garnered All-NBA Second and Third team honors during this time.

In the 2007 offseason, Taylor admitted that it was time to take the team in a different direction and look to trade its most valuable piece Garnett.

On July 31, 2007, K.G. was dealt to the Boston Celtics for Al Jefferson, Ryan Gomes, Sebastian Telfair, Gerald Green, Theo Ratliff, cash considerations, the Celtic’s 2009 first-round pick (a top three protected) and the 2009 first-round pick that the T’Wolves acquired from the C’s in the Ricky Davis-Wally Szcerbiak trade three years prior.

At that time, the seven for one trade constituted the largest number of players sent to a single team in NBA history. On the day the trade took place, Garnett signed a three-year $60 million contract extension.

Alongside fellow perennial All-Stars and future Hall of Famers Ray Allen, who was acquired from the then Seattle Supersonics, Paul Pierce and head coach Glenn “Doc” Rivers, the Celtics started fast and never looked back winning 66 games that season, the best record in the Eastern Conference and the entire NBA and Garnett was named NBA Defensive Player of the Year for the 2007-08 season and made history as the first Celtic to win that particular award.

Despite their dominance during the regular season, the C’s struggled in the first two rounds of the postseason beating the Atlanta Hawks and the Cleveland Cavaliers in seven games. They got past the Detroit Pistons in six games in the Conference Finals and earned the franchises 17 title by defeating the arch rival Lakers in six games.

In that Game 6 that put them back on top of the NBA mountain top, K.G. had 26 points and 14 rebounds and during his interview with then ESPN sideline reporter Michelle Tafoya were he let out a whole lot of emotion, which included him saying, “Anything is possible!!!”

“He literally changed our culture,” currently head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers Glenn “Doc” Rivers, who coached K.G. in Boston. “You look at all the things he stands for. He follows through on all of them.”

After being bounced in the Semifinals by the Orlando Magic in six games in the 2009 playoffs, the Celtics made it back to The Finals in the 2009-10 season and faced the Lakers again. The two teams battled it out this time to the limit, but the Lakers and Bryant stole victory in Game 7 83-79 on June 17, 2010 to win their 16^th NBA title. Garnett in the loss had 17 points going 8 for 13 from the field.

The Celtics had another shot at making it back to The Finals two seasons later, but they lost in seven games to the Miami Heat and the “Big Three” of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The road for the Celtics “Big Three” of Garnett, Paul Pierce and Ray Allen came to a conclusion in 2012-13 when they lost in the opening round to the New York Knicks 4-2.

In his six seasons with the Celtics, Garnett helped the team to five straight Atlantic Division titles and 248-145 record in the regular season.  

On June 28, 2013 the day of the draft, the Celtics and Brooklyn Nets reached a deal where the C’s traded Garnett, Pierce and Jason Terry to their Atlantic Division rivals for first-round picks in 2014, 2016 and 2018 in exchange for Kris Humphries, Gerald Wallace, Kris Joseph, MarShon Brooks and Keith Bogans.

Unfortunately the Nets and K.G. had a subpar regular season going just 44-38 and while they defeated the Division champion Toronto Raptors in the opening round of the playoffs in seven games, they fell to James and Heat 4-1 in the Semis.

The next season, Garnett waived his no-trade clause and was dealt back to the Timberwolves in exchange for Thaddeus Young.

In his second tour of duty with the team, Garnett served as a mentor to the future of the team in last year’s Rookie of the Year in No. 1 overall pick Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Zach LaVine and Gorgui Dieng.

“They looked at him like three kids looking at Santa Claus coming down the chimney,” the late former head coach of the team Flip Saunders said a year ago recounting a session with K.G. and the three core members of the Timberwolves. “There eyes were wide open and they looked at him in disbelief. He was just telling them about his experience of 20 years being in the league.”

Garnett had been contemplating about returning to the team for his 22^nd season in “The Association,” which no player had ever done. Unfortunately knee issues had limited the future Hall of Famer to just 85 games played the last two seasons. Losing the person he trusted the most in the whole organization and who turned the team into a perennial playoff team in Saunders, who passed away before the start of last season due to Hodgkin’s lymphoma did not help either.

K.G. often spoked about his desire to get into owning of the T’Wolves one day, but with the aforementioned passing of Saunders, Thibodeau being not just the team’s new head coach but president of basketball operations and veteran personnel guy Scott Layden being the organization’s new general manager, that dream may be just that.

Thibodeau was still very complimentary of K.G. and what he has meant to the organization when he stated over the weekend, “KG is without question the all-time best player to wear a Minnesota Timberwolves jersey and he is also one of the best to ever play this game.”

This great career almost got stalled in the summer before Garnett’s senior year of high school when back in Mauldin, SC he was in the area of a fight between African-American and Caucasian students. While Garnett was not involved in the fight directly, he was one of three students that were arrested by authorities and charged for second degree lynching. The charge was expunged through a pre-trial intervention. It was then that Garnett transferred from Mauldin High School to Farragut Career Academy and the rest is history.

He had a career that paved the way for the likes of James, Bryant, Tracy McGrady, Tyson Chandler and Dwight Howard to name a few to jump to the pros straight from high school. He earned over $330 million, the most by any player in league history and his six-year $126 million deal back he signed at the age of 21 back in 1997 stoked league owners and they stood firm in instituting the lengthy lockout a year later.

Kevin Garnett proved to his teammates and coaches he had during his career that he was worth every penny and then some.

His intensity was felt leading up to the opening tip-off from hitting his head on the support of the basket; muttering to himself to working up a major sweat. His trademark blocking the shot of an opposing player on the other team trying to get a free shot after a foul was called.

Kevin Garnett was a leader who became a champion. He was loved and respected from the ownerships of the teams he played for to the coaches and players he went to battle with each night.

The basketball world has said goodbye to three of the best this summer in him, Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan who played 21, 20 and 19 seasons respectably and the hope is we see all three of them again in 2020 or 2021 in Springfield, OH as they are first ballot inductees into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.  

Information, statistics and quotations are courtesy of 9/23/16 5:30 p.m., 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. bottom line new crawl on ESPN; 9/23/16 8 p.m. edition of NBATV’s “Gametime,” with Vince Cellini and Dennis Scott; 9/23/16 www.nba.com article “Garnett Says ‘Farewell’ To the NBA After 21 Seasons,” by Jon Krawczynski; 9/24/16 www.businessinsider.com article “Kevin Garnett Announces Retirement With a Short and Emotional Video,” by Cork Gaines; 924/16 9 p.m. news crawl from NBATV; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Garnett; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Boston_Celtics_seasons; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Brooklyn_Nets_seasons; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Minnesota_Timberwolves_seasons.

J-Speaks: New Faces on "Sunday NFL Countdown"

For the past few years, I have watched and more recently recorded in my opinion the best pregame show during the NFL season. ESPN’s “Sunday NFL Countdown,” presented by Snickers a jam packed show full of insight and analysis of each game from injuries to key players to what that particular contest means to each team to the most in depth insider information. In those past few years the show has been piloted at the desk with Chris “Boomer” Berman as the lead pilot. Former linebacker great of the Denver Broncos Tom Jackson; two of the best wide receivers to fly up and down the field in Hall of Famer Chris Carter and Keyshawn Johnson. Rounding out the crew at the desk was Hall of Famer as a player and former head coach Mike Ditka. This season the show as well as “Monday Night Countdown” got a facelift with four new faces at the desk flagging Berman.

The new additions which made their debut this past Sunday morning were the 1997 Heisman Trophy winner, nine-time Pro Bowler, four-time First-Team All-Pro and Four-Time Second-Team All-Pro Charles Woodson who played defensive back for 17 seasons with the Oakland Raiders and Green Bay Packers, who he won Super Bowl XLV with back in 2010.

Also new on the block is one of the most prolific wideouts in NFL history in Randy Moss. The former NFL analyst for FOX Sports on Sunday mornings the past three years reached six Pro Bowls, was a four-time First-Team All-Pro; led the NFL in touchdown receptions on five occasions in his 14-year career; is second in NFL history with 157 touchdown receptions, sixth all-time in receiving yards with 15,292, 10^th all-time in receptions with 954 and his 64 career 100-yard receiving games is second in NFL history.

Rounding out the crew at the anchor desk are 13-year signal caller who played for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Baltimore Ravens, Seattle Seahawks, Cleveland Browns and San Francisco 49ers Trent Dilfer, who led the Ravens to a victory in Super Bowl XXXV and has been with ESPN since 2008 and 18-year veteran quarterback with Packers, Seahawks, Titans and Indianapolis Colts Matt Hasselbeck, who led the Seahawks to Super Bowl XL where they lost to the Pittsburgh Steelers 21-10. Matt becomes the second member of his family to work for ESPN as his brother younger brother Tim also works for ESPN as the co-hosts of Fantasy Football Now which airs during the NFL season on ESPN 2.

Watching the debut of the new four additions alongside Berman, Wendy Nix and NFL Insider for ESPN Adam Schefter, there was a different excitement and energy. The analysis was spot on, fun and enjoyable and the discussions were very insightful.

The other thing that these four new additions bring to the table is that they are not too far removed from the game. They can bring an analysis to the table that is more updated and fresh.

Both Woodson and Hasselbeck are just a few months removed from playing although they were a part of two teams in the Raiders and Colts that missed the playoffs.

The biggest thing that Hasselbeck and Dilfer bring to the show is an analysis of the quarterback position that they played very well in. How to read defenses; the kind of focus that the so-called leader of team and face of the franchise must bring from the meeting room to the practice field to game day week in and week out.

One analysis that I am looking forward to from Hasselbeck is his insight on his former teammate Andre Luck, who he served as his backup the prior three seasons.

The other analysis that I cannot wait to see is the receiving crews versus the defensive backs of Woodson and Moss as well as the demos.

During his eventual Hall of Fame career, Moss went against every single defense possible from press coverage to Cover 2 to nickel and dime and these are the kinds of defensive schemes that made Woodson a soon to be Hall of Famer collected 65 interceptions, ranked sixth all-time in league history and finished tied with current Raiders defensive backs coach and 16-year defensive back Rod Woodson, who was also a part of the Ravens Super Bowl title team and former Packers and Vikings safety Darren Sharper with 13 defensive touchdowns.

Beyond the analysis and opinions of the players and the games themselves is dealing with heavy topics like what is going on with 49ers backup QB Colin Kaepernick and his stance against standing for the national anthem.

As I am sure many of you have heard or have been following, since the middle of this past preseason, Kaepernick has been taking a stand against standing for the national anthem in protest against how our country has been treating African Americans in recent months with headlines of law enforcement falsely shooting and killing innocent lives.

Woodson pointed out during a segment on this past Sunday’s show that many African Americans look at “The Star Spangled Banner” as very hypocritical because the author of it Francis Scott Key was a slave owner.

“Now when I’m thinking about the national anthem, and I hear that line, ‘for the land of the free,’ he wasn’t talking about me,” Woodson said. “So when we talk about Colin Kaepernick and the stand that he’s taking, he’s saying, ‘Look, let there be justice for all of us.”

Dilfer, a Saratoga, CA resident and aforementioned former 49er had a whole different view of the situation when he said two days ago, “The big thing that hit me through all this was this is a backup quarterback whose job is to be quiet and sit in the shadows and get the starter ready to play Week 1.”

“Yet he chose a time where all of a sudden he became the center of attention. And it has disrupted that organization. It has caused friction. And it’s torn at the fabric of the team. 

Yet in the team’s season and home opener against the Los Angeles Rams, the back end of the doubleheader to open the Monday Night Football schedule on ESPN, the team as well as the fans in Levi Stadium treatment of Kaepernick was the complete opposite in their 28-0 victory.

Starting free safety Eric Reed kneeled right beside Kaepernick during the anthem this past Monday night and when he was on the field for pregame warmups he was greeted well by the fans taking signing autographs and taking pictures.

In response to Dilfer, outside linebacker Eric Harold said on twitter @EliHarold_, “Trent Dilfer you are an idiot. You really pissed me off.”

The cherry on this Sunday came when Moss, Kaepernick’s former teammate on the 49ers 2012 team that reached the Super Bowl gave a stoic glare that was a combination of anger and displeasure that trended across the internet.

Woodson also said during this segment, “I actually applaud him for having the gall to stand up when he knew what kind of ridicule he was going to get, when most people would not do it, when he knew the backlash he was going to get.”

“He sat down in peaceful protest. And if I was somebody in the military, and I looked there and seen this young man protesting in peace, I would actually feel proud…that the freedom that I got across these waters to fight for-that’s it, right there, exercised.”

One thing is for sure if this crew is as insightful, captivating and profound as the previous combination was, Sunday NFL Countdown will be a must see pregame show as it has always been and that was because of what Carter, Johnson, Ditka and Jackson brought to the table week in and week out. They were themselves and if Moss, Hasselbeck, Woodson and Dilfer are that, the viewers will like myself will be very happy.

Information, statistics and quotations are courtesy of 6/21/16 www.espnmediazone.com  story, “Trent Dilfer Expands NFL Studio Role in New ESPN Deal,” by Bill Hofheimer; 9/11/16 www.mercurynews.com story, “Colin Kaepernick Told by ESPN’s Trent Dilfer to ‘Be Quiet, Sit In The Shadows,” by Cam Inman 9/12/16 www.rawstory.com story, “People Who Still Don’t Get Kaepernick’s Protest Need to Watch This NFL Legend’s Perfect Example,” by Brad Reed; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trent_Dilfer; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Hasselbeck; http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Woodson; http://en.m;wikipedia.org/wiki/Rod_Woodson;
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Moss.

J-Speaks: The Passing of A Legendary Journalist

To become great at something you have to have a passion for it. You have to set solid goals that you will hold yourself to in becoming great at that craft. Many African American journalist had that in a man born in the south of the United States who at the beginning of his career worked at a major sports magazine; became a big time columnist; a regular on political shows for stations like CBS, NBC and ABC and was the a man who sought to publish stories that fought against segregation and racism. The world said goodbye to that beacon of journalism last month.

Back on Aug. 20, award-winning journalist, editor and longtime black press champion George E. Curry passed away at a hospital in Takoma Park, MD. He was 69 years old.

He is survived by his son, Edward; his mother Martha Brownlee, three sisters and a granddaughter.

His partner Ann Ragland told The Washington Post that Curry passed away after he was taken to the emergency room. The immediate cause of death was not known. She also said that Mr. Curry had a heart attack a year ago.

“I am heartbroken to learn that Mr. George Curry has passed. He has been a beacon for so many and a pivotal voice among black publishers. His strength and pursuit for the truth will carry on in the lives he touched,” National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) President Sarah Glover said back on Aug. 21.

“I had a chance to talk with him recently at the Democratic National Convention. His 5,000 watt smile stays etched in my mind. On behalf of the entire NABJ family, our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones.”

Curry was born on Feb. 23, 1947 in Tuscaloosa, AL, and grew up in the housing projects in the segregated south.

The aforementioned Martha Brownlee, who was a domestic worker and his father Homer Lee’s occupation was a mechanic.

Upon graduation from Druid High School, Curry attended Knoxville College, a historically black liberal arts college in Knoxville, TN, where he was the quarterback and co-captain of the school’s football team. He also served on the schools board of trustees and was the editor of the sport section of the school’s paper.

For two summers, Mr. Curry studied at Yale and Harvard University.

After graduating from college in 1970, Curry worked for Sports Illustrated and then moved onto the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where in his first year with the paper had 25 published stories that made the front page.  

He also during this time published a biography of black football coach Jake Gaither in 1977.

Mr. Curry made his mark of telling stories about what took place in the African American community from racism, poverty and national politics in 1983 when he worked for the Chicago Tribune.

One year later, he covered the presidential campaign, which included Rev. Jessie Jackson and vice-presidential campaigns of Geraldine Ferraro and George H.W. Bush.

What put Mr. Curry on the map of the journalism world was his time as the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine “Emerge,” that was founded in 1989 by Time magazine reporter Wilmer C. Ames, Jr.

It was a monthly magazine that was the news-oriented rival to well-known monthly magazines like Ebony and Essence that were aimed to the African American audience.

Mr. Curry, who became the top editor at Emerge in 1993 once said to the Washington City Paper that the goal was to turn the magazine into one where, “people can think of us as a black Time or Newsweek, or, better yet, think of them as a white Emerge.”  

To reach this goal, Mr. Curry replaced the entire newsroom and pilfered contributors from the New York Times and The Washington Post and other publications.

On top of that, he gave Emerge a new striking, eye popping new tagline: “Black America’s Newsmagazine.”

From 1993-2000 under his guidance, the magazine won over 40 national journalism awards, including Curry’s honor for journalist of the year by the Washington Association of Black Journalists in 1995.

At its peak, Emerge had a circulation of more than 160,000, which gave Mr. Curry his most prominent platform as an editor.   

The magazine drew the attention of the nation in Nov. 1993 when it published a bold depiction of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with an Aunt Jemima handkerchief tied on his head serving as a symbol of subservience to Caucasians.

The headline of the piece was “Betrayed,” which argued that Justice Thomas on a consistent basis ruled against minorities and advances in civil rights following his confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991.

The magazine ran another about Thomas five years later publishing a defaming caricature of him as a cast-iron lawn jockey holding a lantern, with the headline of “Uncle Thomas: Lawn Jockey of the Far Right.”

Mr. Curry explained in an editor’s note that the lawn jockey was used by plantation owners as an indicator that a slave escaped.

“I apologize,” he said in the note of the magazine’s prior over of Thomas in the aforementioned handkerchief.

“In retrospect, we were far too benevolent. Even our latest depiction is too compassionate for a person who has done so much to turn back the clock on civil rights, all the way back to the pre-Civil War lawn jockey days.”

The one story that was said by many to be the “highlight” of Mr. Curry’s career was his 1996 piece entitled, “Kemba’s Nightmare.”

A 17-page cover story in May of 1996 about a girl who attended historically black Hampton University who was sentenced to 24 years in prison for taking part in a drug-distribution scheme.

She received a pardon of that offense from President Bill Clinton in 2000 after talking with Curry and his piece was credited as the inspiration of the national movement against harsh sentences for drug offenders.

While Emerge gave a voice to the African American community, it also had many detractors.

Back in 1997, the conservative publication the Weekly Standard noted that African American publication’s tended to cover stories that consisted of a conspiracy-minded tinge that involved the CIA and FBI.

Their exact words were, “Emerge has become one of the chief propounders of the idea that the white establishment consciously uses government authority to harass, persecute, and downgrade American blacks.”

While Emerge served as a voice for the black community and did it very well, it struggled to gain commercial viability during its run.

Back in 2000, magazine publisher Keith Clinkscales acquired all of BET magazine holdings and he relaunched Emerge as a lifestyle magazine.

Mr. Curry left and for a brief time served as head of American Society of Magazine Editors. He also tried to create a follow-up publication to emerge.

Before his sudden passing, Mr. Curry was raising money to relaunch emerge as a digital magazine.

“There is a black middle-class audience that’s looking for a news with an edge,” he told Time 16 years ago. “Our people still need a magazine like Emerge.”

As host of TV One’s “News One Now,” friend, colleague and fellow columnist Roland S. Martin said back in August, “George Curry died with his boots on, still fighting.”

Along with his work at Emerge, Curry worked at the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) News Service in Washington, D.C. where his work consisted of hearing oral arguments in the Supreme Court to making visits to Doha, Qatar to write stories about the Iraq war.

In 2001, Mr. Curry became the NNPA’s editor-in-chief of their News Service and of BlackPressUSA.com, where he wrote a weekly column that was published in more than 200 African-American newspapers in the country.

Mr. Curry announced his resignation from the NNPA as the Editor-In-Chief of their Washington, D.C. news service on Mar. 15, 2007. 

In the years that followed Mr. Curry delivered the George E. Ken Lecture, which was a speech given annually. He became the founding director of the St. Louis Minority Journalism Workshop and of the Washington Association of Black Journalists.

Mr. Curry also served on many boards, which included his alma mater Knoxville College, the Kemba Smith Foundation, St. Paul Saturdays and Young D.C.  

The main driving force in Mr. Curry’s formative years that made him the kind of hard hitting stand up for his people kind of journalist that he became was segregation.

He once said to the reference guide of Contemporary Authors, “I used segregation, as cruel as it was, as a positive factor in my life.”

He also said that he refused to drink from “colored” water fountains and that he, “was determined not to let any system or anyone deter me from reaching my goals.”

Mr. Curry had a career and life where he did reach all of his goals and then some. He also during this great rise in this tough nuts and bolts business of sharing this wisdom and knowledge with anyone and everyone, especially young African American journalist like myself.

When I was a senior at Howard University in the School of Communications back in 2005, I took this journalism course where I and several other classmates had to produce stories for a website www.BlackCollegeView.com a part of the NNPA.

I spent a couple of weeks being tutored by Mr. Curry and I have to admit in our first encounter, it was not a smooth moment. I learned from that first encounter that becoming great is not a walk in the park or as glamourous as I first thought.

Through this time though, I did learn that to be great you have to believe in yourself, which I always had, but also being able to listen to a great journalist like him whose made a great name for himself was going to make me a lot better.

I did manage to produce a great story about the first African American head coach in the National Football League (NFL) Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard, who also along with Bobby Marshall were the first two African American players to play in the NFL back in 1920.

One very big key for me in completing this story for www.BlackPressUSA.com entitled " 'Fritz' Pollard Was A Pioneer In Professional Football" was that I was able to get a contact number from Hall of Fame linebacker of the New York football Giants and fellow HBCU graduate of South Carolina State University and Executive Director of the Firtz Pollard Alliance Harry Carson.

That interview that I had with him over the phone was the key in me getting this article completed.

I learned a great deal about Mr. Pollard how he was the first every African American to play running back in the Rose Bowl for Brown University in 1915.

How he led the American Football League (AFL) in 1920 in rushing, receiving scoring and punt returns and led the Akron Indians to an 8-0-3 record and its first title.

After his playing career concluded, Pollard founded the first Black investment firm in New York City; established a black tabloid called "N.Y. Independent News;" managed the Suntan Movie Studio in Harlem, NY and founded coal delivery companies in Chicago, IL, the town of his birth and New York City.  

I had to dig deep to get this story accomplished and I learned from this journey that by bringing a unrelenting focus to the task, something that Mr. Curry did throughout his career, I can be not just a good journalist, but a great one.

From his appearances on television shows like PBS, the “CBS Evening News,” ABC World News Tonight,” NBC’s “The Today Show” and ABC’s 20/20; his legendary work in print journalism and his willingness to share his knowledge with the next generation, it is not accident that Mr. George E. Curry made the list in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who Among Black Americans, and Outstanding Young Men in America.

He had a work ethic that made him a legend. He had a joy of sharing with people how to be great in a business that can slice and dice you when you are not looking. He had a belief that you can be better than the tough surroundings that you might have grown up in like he did. More than anything else, Mr. George E. Curry understood that becoming great was an everyday non-stop pursuit and the ones that had the willingness to take on that challenge were going to achieve all of their dreams no matter what stood in their way.

That is what I and many others before me and after learned and we are all the better for it. Look at me. I have my own blog because of that. Thank you Mr. Curry for letting me know that I can be great and that outworking people is how I will get there as well as knowing my craft both inside and out.

Information and quotations are courtesy of 8/22/16 article from www.washingtonpost.com’s National section, “George E. Curry, Journalist Who Led Black Publication Emerge, Dies at 69;” 8/21/16 post from National Association of Black Journalist website www.nabj.org, “NABJ Mourns the Passing of Longtime Black Press Advocate George E. Curry;” http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_E_Curry.

J-Speaks: The Passing of A Legendary Journalist

To become great at something you have to have a passion for it. You have to set solid goals that you will hold yourself to in becoming great at that craft. Many African American journalist had that in a man born in the south of the United States who at the beginning of his career worked at a major sports magazine; became a big time columnist; a regular on political shows for stations like CBS, NBC and ABC and was the a man who sought to publish stories that fought against segregation and racism. The world said goodbye to that beacon of journalism last month.

Back on Aug. 20, award-winning journalist, editor and longtime black press champion George E. Curry passed away at a hospital in Takoma Park, MD. He was 69 years old.

He is survived by his son, Edward; his mother Martha Brownlee, three sisters and a granddaughter.

His partner Ann Ragland told The Washington Post that Curry passed away after he was taken to the emergency room. The immediate cause of death was not known. She also said that Mr. Curry had a heart attack a year ago.

“I am heartbroken to learn that Mr. George Curry has passed. He has been a beacon for so many and a pivotal voice among black publishers. His strength and pursuit for the truth will carry on in the lives he touched,” National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) President Sarah Glover said back on Aug. 21.

“I had a chance to talk with him recently at the Democratic National Convention. His 5,000 watt smile stays etched in my mind. On behalf of the entire NABJ family, our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones.”

Curry was born on Feb. 23, 1947 in Tuscaloosa, AL, and grew up in the housing projects in the segregated south.

The aforementioned Martha Brownlee, who was a domestic worker and his father Homer Lee’s occupation was a mechanic.

Upon graduation from Druid High School, Curry attended Knoxville College, a historically black liberal arts college in Knoxville, TN, where he was the quarterback and co-captain of the school’s football team. He also served on the schools board of trustees and was the editor of the sport section of the school’s paper.

For two summers, Mr. Curry studied at Yale and Harvard University.

After graduating from college in 1970, Curry worked for Sports Illustrated and then moved onto the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, where in his first year with the paper had 25 published stories that made the front page.  

He also during this time published a biography of black football coach Jake Gaither in 1977.

Mr. Curry made his mark of telling stories about what took place in the African American community from racism, poverty and national politics in 1983 when he worked for the Chicago Tribune.

One year later, he covered the presidential campaign, which included Rev. Jessie Jackson and vice-presidential campaigns of Geraldine Ferraro and George H.W. Bush.

What put Mr. Curry on the map of the journalism world was his time as the Editor-in-Chief of the magazine “Emerge,” that was founded in 1989 by Time magazine reporter Wilmer C. Ames, Jr.

It was a monthly magazine that was the news-oriented rival to well-known monthly magazines like Ebony and Essence that were aimed to the African American audience.

Mr. Curry, who became the top editor at Emerge in 1993 once said to the Washington City Paper that the goal was to turn the magazine into one where, “people can think of us as a black Time or Newsweek, or, better yet, think of them as a white Emerge.”  

To reach this goal, Mr. Curry replaced the entire newsroom and pilfered contributors from the New York Times and The Washington Post and other publications.

On top of that, he gave Emerge a new striking, eye popping new tagline: “Black America’s Newsmagazine.”

From 1993-2000 under his guidance, the magazine won over 40 national journalism awards, including Curry’s honor for journalist of the year by the Washington Association of Black Journalists in 1995.

At its peak, Emerge had a circulation of more than 160,000, which gave Mr. Curry his most prominent platform as an editor.   

The magazine drew the attention of the nation in Nov. 1993 when it published a bold depiction of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas with an Aunt Jemima handkerchief tied on his head serving as a symbol of subservience to Caucasians.

The headline of the piece was “Betrayed,” which argued that Justice Thomas on a consistent basis ruled against minorities and advances in civil rights following his confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1991.

The magazine ran another about Thomas five years later publishing a defaming caricature of him as a cast-iron lawn jockey holding a lantern, with the headline of “Uncle Thomas: Lawn Jockey of the Far Right.”

Mr. Curry explained in an editor’s note that the lawn jockey was used by plantation owners as an indicator that a slave escaped.

“I apologize,” he said in the note of the magazine’s prior over of Thomas in the aforementioned handkerchief.

“In retrospect, we were far too benevolent. Even our latest depiction is too compassionate for a person who has done so much to turn back the clock on civil rights, all the way back to the pre-Civil War lawn jockey days.”

The one story that was said by many to be the “highlight” of Mr. Curry’s career was his 1996 piece entitled, “Kemba’s Nightmare.”

A 17-page cover story in May of 1996 about a girl who attended historically black Hampton University who was sentenced to 24 years in prison for taking part in a drug-distribution scheme.

She received a pardon of that offense from President Bill Clinton in 2000 after talking with Curry and his piece was credited as the inspiration of the national movement against harsh sentences for drug offenders.

While Emerge gave a voice to the African American community, it also had many detractors.

Back in 1997, the conservative publication the Weekly Standard noted that African American publication’s tended to cover stories that consisted of a conspiracy-minded tinge that involved the CIA and FBI.

Their exact words were, “Emerge has become one of the chief propounders of the idea that the white establishment consciously uses government authority to harass, persecute, and downgrade American blacks.”

While Emerge served as a voice for the black community and did it very well, it struggled to gain commercial viability during its run.

Back in 2000, magazine publisher Keith Clinkscales acquired all of BET magazine holdings and he relaunched Emerge as a lifestyle magazine.

Mr. Curry left and for a brief time served as head of American Society of Magazine Editors. He also tried to create a follow-up publication to emerge.

Before his sudden passing, Mr. Curry was raising money to relaunch emerge as a digital magazine.

“There is a black middle-class audience that’s looking for a news with an edge,” he told Time 16 years ago. “Our people still need a magazine like Emerge.”

As host of TV One’s “News One Now,” friend, colleague and fellow columnist Roland S. Martin said back in August, “George Curry died with his boots on, still fighting.”

Along with his work at Emerge, Curry worked at the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) News Service in Washington, D.C. where his work consisted of hearing oral arguments in the Supreme Court to making visits to Doha, Qatar to write stories about the Iraq war.

In 2001, Mr. Curry became the NNPA’s editor-in-chief of their News Service and of BlackPressUSA.com, where he wrote a weekly column that was published in more than 200 African-American newspapers in the country.

Mr. Curry announced his resignation from the NNPA as the Editor-In-Chief of their Washington, D.C. news service on Mar. 15, 2007. 

In the years that followed Mr. Curry delivered the George E. Ken Lecture, which was a speech given annually. He became the founding director of the St. Louis Minority Journalism Workshop and of the Washington Association of Black Journalists.

Mr. Curry also served on many boards, which included his alma mater Knoxville College, the Kemba Smith Foundation, St. Paul Saturdays and Young D.C.  

The main driving force in Mr. Curry’s formative years that made him the kind of hard hitting stand up for his people kind of journalist that he became was segregation.

He once said to the reference guide of Contemporary Authors, “I used segregation, as cruel as it was, as a positive factor in my life.”

He also said that he refused to drink from “colored” water fountains and that he, “was determined not to let any system or anyone deter me from reaching my goals.”

Mr. Curry had a career and life where he did reach all of his goals and then some. He also during this great rise in this tough nuts and bolts business of sharing this wisdom and knowledge with anyone and everyone, especially young African American journalist like myself.

When I was a senior at Howard University in the School of Communications back in 2005, I took this journalism course where I and several other classmates had to produce stories for a website www.BlackCollegeView.com a part of the NNPA.

I spent a couple of weeks being tutored by Mr. Curry and I have to admit in our first encounter, it was not a smooth moment. I learned from that first encounter that becoming great is not a walk in the park or as glamourous as I first thought.

Through this time though, I did learn that to be great you have to believe in yourself, which I always had, but also being able to listen to a great journalist like him whose made a great name for himself was going to make me a lot better.

I did manage to produce a great story about the first African American head coach in the National Football League (NFL) Frederick Douglass “Fritz” Pollard, who also along with Bobby Marshall were the first two African American players to play in the NFL back in 1920.

One very big key for me in completing this story for www.BlackPressUSA.com entitled " 'Fritz' Pollard Was A Pioneer In Professional Football" was that I was able to get a contact number from Hall of Fame linebacker of the New York football Giants and fellow HBCU graduate of South Carolina State University and Executive Director of the Firtz Pollard Alliance Harry Carson.

That interview that I had with him over the phone was the key in me getting this article completed.

I learned a great deal about Mr. Pollard how he was the first every African American to play running back in the Rose Bowl for Brown University in 1915.

How he led the American Football League (AFL) in 1920 in rushing, receiving scoring and punt returns and led the Akron Indians to an 8-0-3 record and its first title.

After his playing career concluded, Pollard founded the first Black investment firm in New York City; established a black tabloid called "N.Y. Independent News;" managed the Suntan Movie Studio in Harlem, NY and founded coal delivery companies in Chicago, IL, the town of his birth and New York City.  

I had to dig deep to get this story accomplished and I learned from this journey that by bringing a unrelenting focus to the task, something that Mr. Curry did throughout his career, I can be not just a good journalist, but a great one.

From his appearances on television shows like PBS, the “CBS Evening News,” ABC World News Tonight,” NBC’s “The Today Show” and ABC’s 20/20; his legendary work in print journalism and his willingness to share his knowledge with the next generation, it is not accident that Mr. George E. Curry made the list in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who Among Black Americans, and Outstanding Young Men in America.

He had a work ethic that made him a legend. He had a joy of sharing with people how to be great in a business that can slice and dice you when you are not looking. He had a belief that you can be better than the tough surroundings that you might have grown up in like he did. More than anything else, Mr. George E. Curry understood that becoming great was an everyday non-stop pursuit and the ones that had the willingness to take on that challenge were going to achieve all of their dreams no matter what stood in their way.

That is what I and many others before me and after learned and we are all the better for it. Look at me. I have my own blog because of that. Thank you Mr. Curry for letting me know that I can be great and that outworking people is how I will get there as well as knowing my craft both inside and out.

Information and quotations are courtesy of 8/22/16 article from www.washingtonpost.com’s National section, “George E. Curry, Journalist Who Led Black Publication Emerge, Dies at 69;” 8/21/16 post from National Association of Black Journalist website www.nabj.org, “NABJ Mourns the Passing of Longtime Black Press Advocate George E. Curry;” http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_E_Curry.