Party time?
Not so much for Green
Did Danny Green party with the Miami Heat after Game 7 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night?
That’s what many believe after photos surfaced of Green, the San Antonio’s sharp-shooting guard, hugging LeBron James at a Miami nightclub.
Green didn’t deny he was there. It was hard to do that given the photos.
But, while James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and other members of the Heat were sipping champagne at the Miami nightclub Story, Green, who was held to eight points in the final two games of the finals, insists it was a coincidence.
He took to Twitter to explain himself, writing “Got give credit to Miami…but don’t think for one sec I was out celebrating with them…jus happened to be at the same place, wrong time”.
James, Green’s former Cleveland teammate then took to Twitter himself to defend him.
“Danny Green did not party with us on Thursday night,” James wrote. “He came to say congrats and I told him how proud of him I was for taking advantage…..
“We dapped up, showed love and he left.”
Sounds like a logical explanation, but Green’s cavorting with the team that bounced the Spurs the same night he made 1 of 12 shots from the floor isn’t a pleasing combination.
As for that party? Reports surfaced that it $100,000 in champagne was drank that night.
And it was all on the house. So, maybe Green just wanted to make his own donation to the party.
Culture clash
Mississippi State and UCLA will meet in the best-of-three championship series at the College World Series starting tonight. The schools, or athletic departments, don’t have a lot in common other than the fact that neither has won a baseball national title.
During a news conference Sunday, players from both teams acknowledged some of the differences between Los Angeles and Starkville, Miss.
“I don’t know how much deer hunting or bass fishing they do in Los Angeles, so off the field is probably going to be a little bit different,” Mississippi State first baseman Wes Rea said.
UCLA pitcher Adam Plutko said the Bruins do, in fact, engage in such activities.
“We do the bass fishing on the video games, and big-game hunting and all that kind of stuff, so it’s pretty similar there,” he said.
UCLA shortstop Pat Valaika said he had never been to Starkville, but might be planning a trip.
“LA is a big city,” he said. “You have the beach and a lot of things to do. Starkville is Starkville. I mean, I can’t say I’ve ever visited.
But some bass fishing does sound pretty good, so maybe after the season ends I’ll hit up Starkville.”
Future gazing
As part of it’s off season coverage, ESPN.com recently unveiled rankings for each conference based on how each football team was set up for the future. The rankings weren’t made on how each team will do in 2013, but how they’ll do over the next few years.
The SEC rankings, made by writer Edward Aschoff had, to no surprise, Alabama at No. 1, followed by LSU, Florida, Texas A&M and Georgia.
To find Arkansas, one will have to go all the way down to No. 11, ahead of only Mississippi State, Kentucky and Missouri.
Aschoff’s reasoning: a lack of talent currently in the fold.
“[Coach Bret Bielema] just doesn’t have the players he needs to compete at the high level that he wants to,” Aschoff wrote.
“It’ll be tough enough competing in the West, which will only get stronger, so Bielema has to make sure that his recruiting efforts improve and that he builds more evenly on both sides of the ball.”
Quote of the day “Yeah, we were fast, even on pit road. Twice.” Kurt Busch, who finished fourth Sunday in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Toyota/Save Mart 350 in Sonoma, Calif.
Sports, Pages 14 on 06/24/2013