NBA competition changes for worse

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By JIHAD SHATARA

Eleven years ago, 2006, was a great year for basketball. The NBA playoffs came around and almost every team in the 16-team bracket had a legit shot at winning a title.

Young stars like Dwyane Wade, Lebron James and Tayshaun Prince were split apart. Seasoned veterans like Kobe Bryant, Shaq, Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki were all on separate teams fighting for the NBA crown.

There was no “Big 3” that came together via free agency. The teams featured in the playoffs were not teams who constantly tanked either. It was great basketball to watch. The Heat were a No. 2 seed when they won the East. The Mavericks were fourth seed in the West.

Nowadays, we are lucky to see a No. 2 seed even compete in the conference finals. In 2007, an eighth-seeded Golden State Warriors upset the No. 1 seeded Dallas Mavericks. There was parity in a once fun league.

The worst part is the news media chooses to make this acceptable. The news media have made it seem like this is the new norm. Glorifying teams like Philadelphia for tanking and playing the lottery. Or praising the Cavs for luring Lebron back with shiny players like Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love.

Fast forward to present day. The league is filled with 18 to 19 year old kids who are not ready to be in a man’s league. Imagine being a 19-year-old guarding Lebron James. I am sure it is not too pleasant. The NBA was once a fun league that had diversity. It was fun to watch knowing that anyone could win a seven-game series. Hopefully we see that day where teams do not tank to try and win. Hopefully the league will be as fun as that 2006 season.

WNBA draft selects next pros

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By ERYKAH DAVENPORT

The 2017 WNBA draft landed a remarkable number of professional athletes on April 13.

Kelsey Plum went first in the WNBA draft Thursday. Then, South Carolina took over. Plum was taken No. 1 by the San Antonio Stars. Plum finished her college career with an NCAA-record 3,527 points.

“I’ve been dreaming about it for so long,” Plum said. “I’m really excited and grateful for the opportunity and will make the most of it.”

Nearly every known sports news outlet has covered a story about Washington guard Kelsey Plum. For example ESPN, USA Today, Seattle Times and many more immediately began writing detailed interest stories about the elite guard.

Throughout the time leading up to the day of the WNBA draft a ton of predictions have been made by many websites such as “Doc Sports” and “ODDSHARK.” These predictions along with social media outlets has put a ton of stress and pressure on the student-athletes seeking an opportunity to play professionally.

As the South Carolina Lady Gamecocks are coming off a National Championship, they also had three elite athletes enter the WNBA draft this year. One Lady Gamecock, Alaina Coates, recently had surgery regarding an ankle injury got drafted in the first round as the second overall pick.

After sitting out last season due to the NCAA transfer rules, Allisha Gray was drafted as the 4th overall pick in the first round. Lastly, Kaela Davis topped it off for the Gamecocks as the 10th overall pick in the first round.

One of our very own Lady Canes, Adrienne Motley was drafted as the 32nd overall pick in the third round. The Miami Herald, Sun Sentinel, The ACC, and Daily Press all covered Motley. Local news media outlets are looking to do interviews and reach out to her to gain more detailed feedback about Motley’s reactions and feeling to being drafted to the Indiana Fever.

Tommi Lahren sues The Blaze

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By COURTNEY ADELMAN

Tommi Lahren is an outspoken conserve commentator that formally worked for Glenn Beck and has filed suit against The Blaze for ” wrongful termination.”

“The suit, filed in Texas Friday, alleges that Beck and The Blaze got rid of Lahren and her nightly talk show due to her making pro-choice comments on “The View” last month,” CNN reported.

Her comment on the view was “I can’t sit here and be a hypocrite and say I’m for limited government, but I think the government should decide what women do with their bodies,” she said on the broadcast.

It was because of this comment that she was let go from her job and was informed that she would have no more shows.

She is not one to do nothing about it so she exclaimed in a tweet that “playing dead,” isn’t her style so she has decided to sue for wrongful termination.

Lahren may not have a lot of people on her side, but she will stop at nothing to get her voice heard.

She is certainly relentless and her strong conservative beliefs will take charge as she tries to win her case on wrongful termination.

Whether or not this is news is debatable, however her comment on the view caused a lot of uproar as it can be considered extremely inappropriate or even incorrect.

Trump tweets change news coverage

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By AMANDA PRATS

“Mr. Trump said on Twitter,” has become a common way to source quotations from the President of the United States. In an article regarding the missile strike ordered by the president on Syria Thursday night, The New York Times referenced a tweet from President Trump from 2013.

The tweet read, “President Obama, do not attack Syria. There is no upside and tremendous downside. Save your ‘powder’ for another (and more important) day!”

The president’s extensive use of Twitter has thrown political pundits and news media professionals for a loop. His tweets have been regarded differently by different audiences.

Some insist his tweets are largely hyperbolic in nature; others assert that when the president tweets, that is an official statement and should be regarded as such.
Regardless of how the tweets are interpreted, they’re out there. It seems for nearly every comment Trump makes, one of his tweets surfaces. Oftentimes, they’re contradictory, uninformed, and inflammatory.

Since taking office, Trump’s tweets have been even more deeply analyzed. Many expressed concern when the timeline of Trump’s tweets on April 3 made clear that the president spent close to three hours watching Fox News that morning.

Beginning at 3:15 a.m., Trump tweeted, “Such amazing reporting on unmasking and the crooked scheme against us by @foxandfriends. ‘Spied on before nomination.’ The real story.”

He posted three more tweets, each of which correlated to coverage on Fox News at the time. This continued until 5:51 a.m.

“@FoxNews from multiple sources: “There was electronic surveillance of Trump, and people close to Trump. This is unprecedented.” @FBI,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter.

Rolling Loud festival in jeopardy

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By ISABELLA HALILI

Miami’s Bayfront Park is planned to be the home of the new hip-hop music festival Rolling Loud. Headliners, such as Kendrick Lamar, Future and Lil Wayne, are planned to perform in early May.

The entertainment agency, Dope Entertainment, that is producing the music festival is continuing to act as if the festival is still on, although there is talk the public agency that manages Bayfront Park is considering cancelling the event.

The initial discussion of cancelling the festival started with Frank Carollo, chairman of the Bayfront Park Management Trust, since the event was approved without his knowing or the consent of the board.

There will be a meeting held on April 11, where the trust will be voting whether to cancel the music festival or not.

As of now, Rolling Loud has not broken any rules of its agreement, so it’s harder for the committee to cancel the event .

Miami residents have always complained about the noise and trash that the electronic dance music festival Ultra brings downtown and don’t want another weekend filled with noisy music festival-goers dirtying up the city.

The Miami Herald has done a sufficient job on reporting about this music festival. It has discussed both parties’ concerns and the logistics behind music festivals. As of right now, this story only pertains to the Miami area, but if the festival is to be cancelled, there is going to need to be more coverage so that the public knows.

Ultra keeps off news radar this year

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By ALISON GOEBEL

One of Miami’s most well known music festival has come and gone once again.

This music festival is the Miami version of Coachella, Lollapalooza and other nationally known music gatherings.

March 23, 24 and 25 were the magical days of Ultra this year.

The festival itself is based around EDM (electronic dance music), making it the ultimate hot spot for shinny body suits, swim suits, very little clothing, very questionable clothing and every color you can possibly imagine.

This year, Ultra held it’s concert at Bayfront park with its multiple-stage layout in the middle of downtown Miami, bringing in more than 165,000 people from 60 different countries.

With a lineup featuring world-class talent, unbelievable production, and fans from around the world, Ultra was set for success. Some headliners were Major Lazer, Alan Walker, DJ Snake and Justice and many more.

The 218 performers drew in sold out tickets ranging from $300 to $1,300 for the three-day VIP ticket.

It is very interesting because the news media didn’t really cover anything on Ultra. If it weren’t for half of the students at my school attending this festival, I wouldn’t know much about it.

Even when I Google stories on it, it’s kind of just reviews on EDM music websites saying what it was about and how well they did.

There was also nothing really to report about. According to one article there were only 35 arrests this year, which was 50 percent lower than previous years and only 50 people had to be transported to the hospital.

I guess reporters decided that Ultra Music Festival wasn’t interesting enough to cover and nothing super exciting or newsworthy happened.

It’s time for Lavar Ball to be quiet

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By JOSH WHITE

If you’re a college basketball fan, you saw the tremendous skill set of freshman Lonzo Ball this season at UCLA.

Ball was one of the best players in the nation and has already declared for the 2017 NBA draft and is currently projected to be a top three pick.

However, it isn’t Lonzo who is making headlines for his play on the court.

His father Lavar is taking the spotlight from his son and running with it.

Day after day, Lavar is on talk show after talk show, makes appearances on ESPN and other sports outlets just talking up a storm making preposterous claims.

The news media keep gobbling it up like it were turkey on Thanksgiving Day.

News media outlets love having Lavar Ball talk on their shows because he brings a controversial opinion, which generates viewers. However, enough is enough. I understand it is a business, but this is bad journalism.

Ball doesn’t bring any relevant sports topics to the forefront. He just makes claims about how his sons are the greatest in the world and that he could beat Michael Jordan 1-on-1.

Anyone’s dad would say their son is the best, why do you need to put an arrogant man on the air?

It baffles me that media outlets would rather have that man on the air or as the lead stories rather than an top line analyst grade talent. Putting Lavar Ball on the air cuts into the content sports fans are looking to see.

Lavar it is time for you to be quiet and let your son play ball.

MLB tries international branding

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By JIHAD SHATARA

There is nothing better than the sound of the crack of the bat and a bag of peanuts being opened.

The sounds of opening day bring joy to many ears and has become not only a country wide phenomena, but a global one as well. What is different from back then to now though? It really is a simple answer: the coverage by the news media.

Events like the World Baseball Classic bring so much national attention to the sport and other countries love it. Although the event is held in the United States, it involves countries that predominantly play baseball.

ESPN and the MLB, along with their own network, have done a fantastic job of coverage as far as international baseball has gone. They have shown tremendous love to players like Ichiro and they help not only the player brand themselves but the sport.

Brexit ‘diet’ arises as snacks get smaller

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By VERONICA SPAGNA

What if you were to pay the same amount of money that you usually pay for a bag of M&Ms, but with fewer M&Ms? Well, this is happening in Britain and not only with M&Ms. Because of Brexit, big American food companies have acted under pressure in accordance with the decreasing value of the pound, by diminishing the sizes of their products but leaving it at the same price.

The term Brexit comes from Britain’s decision to exit the European Union. The voting was held June 23 last year and the decision of leaving Europe was a very close call as “exit” won by 51.9 percent to 48.1 percent.

Since June, the pound has dropped 17 percent against the U.S. dollar. This is changing foreign exchange rates and is impacting the cost of commodities, such as ingredients and materials, increasing the price of imported goods such as food and electronics.

The chocolate industry seems to be one of the most impacted, as cocoa is priced in dollars and so producers in the U.K. pay more.

The process of shrinking the packages or decreasing the amount of the product in the packages is called “Shrinkflation.” Firms use shrinkflation hoping that their consumers do not notice, in fact, most of the time consumers do not seem to check the quantity or weight of the product on the packages.

Companies such as PepsiCo and Mars have been downsizing their products to make up for the decrease in values of the pound, which is why reporters in news articles have been calling this situation “Brexit Diet.”

For example, the 160 grams bag of M&Ms has been downsized to a 145 grams bag of M&Ms, but has remained the same price. Another example is the bags of Doritos, Tostitos, and Fritos, which now have 20 percent fewer chips than before but at the same price.

The retail sales have dropped significantly in the U.K. for three consecutive months. Many articles seem to focus mostly on how companies are decreasing the packaging, but not the impact that this is having on the British economy.

There doesn’t seem to be as much coverage on American news sites on this issue. The few American articles that do feature this topic, lack to mention how Brexit and how these current events also impact the American economy. Yes, the dollar is getting stronger, but this only makes American products more expensive outside the country, making them less attractive in the U.K.

Lady Gamecocks win NCAA title

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By ERYKAH DAVENPORT

One of the big stories in sports this week is the South Carolina Lady Gamecocks winning their first national basketball championship. After losing a prime piece to their team, 6-foot-4 Alaina Coates, the Lady Gamecocks were not expected to make such a run in the NCAA tournament.

The Portland Press Herald covered South Carolina’s history-making debut. The article mentioned how Dawn Staley, SC’s head coach, had never earned a national championship while playing for four years for Virginia. She also coached the Gamecocks to the national semifinals two years ago before losing to Notre Dame.

“You have to give tribute to the former players,” Staley said in the story. “Go back to my Temple days, they believed in our vision. We took that vision to South Carolina, and that vision was we’ll be national champions. If you stick with us and if you’re disciplined, if you believe, all these players believed in that. Happy our words came true to them.”

USA Today also published coverage on the record-breaking team. The article discussed how Mississippi State had all the momentum on its side after a shocking win over UConn on Friday night that ended the Huskies’ record 111-game winning streak. MSU was expected to pull off another upset, however, the Bulldogs fell short.

NCAA.com explained how this women’s basketball team has built its reputation on defense. The stellar defensive effort propelled the team past a nine-point halftime deficit in the Final Four.

“So, we were fortunate to be down nine,” Staley said. “But I just wanted to get our kids to the locker room at halftime because I knew, no matter how many points we were down, we could utilize our speed to get back into play — whether that’s trapping in the half court, whether that’s picking up full court, whether that’s coming off ball screens, setting our players up in positions where they could be effective.”

ESPN also covered this story in which Staley described her emotions the night she was crowned a national champion versus the emotion she felt in 1992 after losing her senior year in the semi-finals.

“I was exhausted, because I wanted it so much,” Staley said. “I put so much work and energy into being a national champion that the emotion was just to cry. To let it out. And 25 years later, no tears. Just going to enjoy it.”

New Marvel superhero is lesbian Latina

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By SHELLIE FRAI

Marvel’s newest comic-series is all about America Chavez, an 18-year-old college student who studies, hangs out with friends and fights evil aliens all in her signature gold hoops.

America is the first lesbian Latina superhero with her own comic series, making Marvel one of the most diverse comic book publishers.

Marvel also features comics of diverse protagonists like Muslim Mr. Marvel, an African-American Iron Man and a female Thor.

What is different about America Chavez’s comic, is that her writer, Gabby Rivera is herself a lesbian Latina.

Rivera, 34, is Puerto Rican and a proud member of the LGBTQ community.

While she did not set-out to be a comic book writer, her novel “Juliet Takes a Breath,” about a lesbian, Puerto Rican teen, was picked up by a Marvel editor and later became the basis for the comic series.

America first appeared fighting in across dimensions in Marvel’s “Vengeance” in 2011, now in 2017, she has her own popular comic series.

With the rise in political tension and threatened Hispanic community, America’s character seems all the more appropriate.

To keep up with her growing audience and popularity of America, Rivera has been learning more and more about comic writing, forming America’s identity as both a Latina and a lesbian.

Lamar under scrutiny with ‘Humble’

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By ANDREA HUETE

Seven-time Grammy award winner, Kendrick Lamar, is under scrutiny for his new rap song, “Humble.”

The music video to “Humble” was released last week. The lyrics read “I’m so f***in’ sick and tired of the Photoshop, show me somethin’ natural like the afro on Richard Pryor, show me somethin’ natural like ass with some stretch marks.” The music video mirrors the lyrics with images of a black woman with a bare face and stretch marks.

Unhappy women took to scrutinizing Lamar over these lyrics on Twitter. Stating that “black women are not here for your visual or sexual pleasure.” And that this song is “just another example of Black men giving women directives on how to present themselves to the world based on what men find attractive.”

However, in a world where we as women feel incredible pressure to live up to advertisements, magazines and our favorite billion-dollar bodied celebs, could Lamar just be telling us to love ourselves the way we are?

Many women are ashamed of stretch marks, afraid to wear their hair natural, and are too insecure to walk out of the house without makeup. And while wearing weave or extensions, makeup or deciding to get rid of your stretch marks doesn’t make you any less of a woman … embracing natural beauty doesn’t make you any less of a woman either.

In fact, I don’t believe that Lamar was victimizing or demeaning women who aren’t natural, but rather pointing out Photoshop means being something online or in print that you are not in person. Pointing out that Photoshop being a cheap quick fix for what one deems a flaw or a personal insecurity that puts unrealistic beauty standards on women.

In 2014, The Renfrew Center conducted a survey that said that 48 percent of adults Photoshop their pictures before posting them online. In 2015, that went up to 68 percent and recently Snapchat just posted an article speaking about Photoshop’s impact on body image in young people stating that more than 80 percent of images we see online are retouched in some way.

There have been many campaigns embracing body image in women such as Lane Bryant’s “I’m No Angel” campaign, Dove’s “Redefine beauty”, Aerie “Aerie Real” the “Body Gossip” campaign. These all embrace women of all colors, heights, sizes, ages, and so forth.

Specifically, Dove’s “Redefine Beauty” campaign took middle school aged girls and had them pick something they normally hide about themselves in a selfie, embrace it, and post it. It also ignited discussion between the daughters and mothers.

Lamar is stating in his song for women to embrace themselves without the unrealistic beauty standards Photoshop sets, just as these campaigns are. And he deserves credit, not scrutiny.

Students arrested for prostitution

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By CHELSEA LOVELL

University of Miami students Acacia Friedman, 23, and Maury Noun, 21, along with Florida International University student Samara Charlotin, 19, were arrested last week after Friedman and Noun were surprised by an undercover cop.

This all took place at the at the Colonnade Hotel. The undercover policeman then asked them to verify “what he was getting” for the money he handed over and, while at first, the women said that it would be a “hang out,” they did agree that there would be sex with a condom.

Both women were charged for prostitution. Charlotin was also charged with possession of one gram of cannabis and one Oxycodone pill. Noun was hit with a charge of aiding and abetting.

Judge Mindy Glazer ordered Charlotin in court on Thursday to stay away from the other two, saying, “You’re a smart girl, and if you want to see age 20, you need to find a new line of employment. A very risky thing you are doing, alright, for someone with a lot of potential such as yourself. You need to stay away from them.”

Noun met with the undercover officer at the restaurant at the hotel. He then directed his girls to a room after the officer paid the $3,000. Noun was arrested on charges including deriving proceeds from prostitution.

Every local news station featured the story on their evening newscast, including NBC6, CBS4, Fox Channel 7 and ABC Channel 10.

Robot responds to president’s tweets

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By VERONICA SPAGNA

We should all be at least a little familiar with Donald’s Trump famous Twitter account; @realDonaldTrump.

The president’s tweets are bold and mostly childish, they can be categorized as a form of entertainment, mostly because they are hard to take seriously. He attacks anyone who offends him and twitter seems to be his main medium of expression.

But how will Donald Trump respond to an offense made by a robot?  I’m talking about a robot’s Twitter account responding to the president’s tweets with videos of a robot designed to print and set fire to them.

Since Donald Trump has opened his Twitter account in March 2009, he has gained more than 27 million followers and sent out around 35,000 tweets. His tweets bring with them a lot of controversies and are very condemning, leading to disappointment in the president even among people who voted for him.

This Tuesday a new account was introduced on Twitter with the description “Giving Trump’s tweets the attention they deserve.”

Since it went live, the account called @burnyourtweet, has posted a video each time @realDonaldTrump has tweeted. The videos posted consist of a robot printing the tweet on a piece of paper. The paper is then moved above a lighter, which sets fire to the paper and tosses it in an ashtray.

The video captions “I burned your tweet.”

After just one day of replying directly to Trump’s twitter, @burnyourtweet gained more than 10,000 followers. Many seem to praise this ritual and numerous reporters called it genius. I feel like it can be seen; as a work of art, a form of expression. A message that can be interpreted in various ways, but that shows clear disapproval in Donald Trump’s statements.

Behind the twitter account and the building of the robot is engineer David Neevel. A creative technologist from Portland who currently lives in Amsterdam.

He reasoned that Donald Trump’s tweets continuously cause negative emotions and the robot can isolate feelings because of its immunity to them.

Trump’s tweets depict his thinking. He is supposed to be a leader and an inspirational figure as he is the president of one of the most powerful countries in the world. His Twitter topics are improper for his position. His tweets can be inflammatory and, in this case, the response is a robot that turns his words into ashes.

Live action Lion King in the works

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By ISABELLA HALILI

“The Lion King” is one of Disney’s most beloved storylines. It’s originally an animated musical movie that has been adapted for the theater stage and is now going to be Disney’s newest computer graphics project.

Pre-production for Disney’s live-action remake of “The Lion King” has been in the works for a couple of months now, but the production team has just announced that director Jon Favreau’s top choice to voice the character of Nala is Beyonce.

The film has already cast the voice of Simba to the Golden Globe winner and star of the television series “Atlanta,” Donald Glover and also the voice of Scar to the original voice James Earl Jones.

The original movie premiered in 1994 and, with the inclusion of the Broadway stage adaptation, “The Lion King” is still the top grossed film in the world.

There has been no recent update as to when this remake will arrive in theaters, but it is a much anticipated film for Disney.

Articles from Variety and Time have been written revolving around the casting of the film, but there has been no recent updates as to when production will start or when then the film is expected to hit the theaters.

There needs to be more news media coverage as soon as production does start.

New York Times curates artisan writing

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By AMANDA PRATS

In the age of fake news, alternative facts and Facebook feeds, attempting to filter through the deluge of media we are faced with can be overwhelming.

For many, the difficulty of this task unfortunately translates into a complete lack of filtering.

Simply put, it’s often easiest to take the information presented to us at face value rather than critically examining our sources. This has led to what some have called a misinformation crisis, with “fake news” stories become a story of their own, particularly during the 2016 presidential election.

Beyond simply trying to find information that is at the very least reliable, challenging our personal views takes a step further. Many have referred to social media as an “echo chamber,” and have criticized it’s functionality as a source for news because we tend to receive information that falls in line with our personal opinions and the opinions of people in our social circles.

There is an incredible value in reading opinions that challenge ours, which is why The New York Times compiled a list of quality partisan writing to expose readers to diverse viewpoints. The list included links to articles from the right, left and center from a variety of sources. The list can be viewed here.

Dallas hosts NCAA Women’s Final Four

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By ERYKAH DAVENPORT

As March Madness is gradually coming to an end, this first week of April will mark the day one out of the final four teams remaining will be crowned national champions.

Four elite teams have managed propel pass very talented teams in search of winning the NCAA women’s basketball championship. The championship tournament is being held in Dallas. Dallas is home to one of the top WNBA teams, the Dallas Wings, and many of the players will be in attendance to check the immense talent present.

The four teams remaining are South Carolina, Stanford, Connecticut and Mississippi State. With final four match-ups taking off soon, a variety of news media outlets are making their predictions known in regards to how things will turn out. In a story published by USA Today, each of the four teams received coverage in regards to why they may win it all.

The South Carolina Gamecocks are back in the Final Four for the second time in three years. Led by two time SEC player of the year, the Gamecocks are a solid team. Accompanied by a ton of athleticism from Kaela Davis and Allisha Gray, this versatile team has every bit of reason as to why they are a special contender.

Being eliminated in the Sweet 16 in the previous year, Stanford has proven this postseason to be a gritty team. They defeated Notre Dame by one point in the Elite Eight. With the exclusion of drastically elite scorers, the Cardinals are well-balanced and have several talented perimeter shooters, including senior guard Karlie Samuelson.

The talk of the town is the matchup between the Samuelson sisters. Power forward, Katie Lou Samuelson, is averaging more than 20 points per game while shooting exceptionally well from behind the arc. The Huskies arrive in Dallas as the overwhelming favorite to win their fifth consecutive national title, while riding a 111-game winning streak.

The Mississippi State Lady Bulldogs might be the only other team in Dallas that can score enough to keep up with Connecticut after averaging nearly 93 points in four NCAA tournament games. This talented team is led by guard, Morgan William, who scored 41 points in the game against No. 1 seed Baylor. This is the Bulldogs’ first trip to the Final Four, so a just an NCAA championship appearance will be record breaking for them.

UM, FIU students arrested in Gables

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By COURTNEY ADELMAN

Students from the University of Miami and Florida International University were arrested yesterday during a prostitution sting in Coral Gables.

Acacia Friedman, a 23-year-old from UM, Maury Noun, age 21 from UM, and Samara Charlotin, a 19-year-old FIU student were all charged with prostitution after an undercover police investigation on Wednesday night.

Friedman and Charlotin were said to have met with and undercover detective at the Colonnade Hotel after they agreed to have sex for $5,000.

Once inside the Colonnade, the detective handed Friedman the money and asked for reassurance as to what was happening.

Both Friedman and Charlotin faced additional charged for having drugs on them.

Noun was charged with aiding or abetting prostitution.

Local 10 news reported the judge saying, “You’re a smart girl, and if you want to see age 20, you need to find a new line of employment…. A very risky thing you are doing, alright, for someone with a lot of potential such as yourself. You need to stay away from them.”

UM has declined information about the ongoing investigations.

The Pro Day craze out of control

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By JIHAD SHATARA

Pro day is a special event sacred to schools, coaches, scouts and most importantly, athletes.

After the NFL Combine that is held annually in Indianapolis, many teams want to see more. Players are more than happy to showcase their abilities all over again repeating the drills they just did a month ago; but why are they so eager to do these drills all over again? It is due to the high volume of news media exposure. For some players, they do not receive an invite to the combine, so this is their one and only chance to showcase their skills.

Pro day has become an event so big it is unimaginable to think that players would deny participating unless they could not walk. And the news media has allowed this to happen. The NFL Network along with ESPN sends multiple correspondents to schools all over the nation to cover these pro days. The schools holding pro day announce what scouts have representation at pro days, along with head coaches. It has become beyond crazy how much attention these days garner.

Yet, it only helps the schools and players. Potential recruits look at this as an opportunity to participate in these pro days one day. Maybe it can be them getting this attention one day.

The debacle that is the New York Knicks

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By JOSH WHITE

Carmelo Anthony has been the face of the New York Knicks since being acquired from the Denver Nuggets in 2011. However, times have changed.

Although the Knicks were never contenders to win the NBA title, they were playoff contenders. Anthony and the Knicks had been a team that battled for a bottom spot in the Eastern Conference making the playoffs in Carmelo’s first three seasons in New York.

Since then, diddly squat.

While Melo has aged and the supporting cast around him has diminished, there has been one other clear change: Phil Jackson.

Yes, the former 11-time NBA champion head coach stepped into a front office role for the first time in his career as the new president of the New York Knicks in 2014.

However, this experiment has failed. Jackson has introduced his trademark triangle offense. An offense that has worked with some of the greatest players of all-time, has been a case gone awry since he took the helm in 2014.

The Knicks had their worst year in franchise history finishing 17-65 in the 2014-15 season and haven’t looked all that much better since.

New York has already been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention and are on their way to another losing season.

This power struggle between Carmelo Anthony and Phil Jackson has been well documented by the New York news media.

A story that the journalists in the big apple have eaten up and chewed out multiple times over.

Jackson and the Knicks have made front page headlines numerous times after being one of the worst teams in the NBA something that wouldn’t happen in a market like Portland and Minnesota.

The New York news media continue to grill the Knicks and rightfully so.

I think the news outlets in the city that never sleeps is doing a good job from a journalistic standpoint because they are covering stories of a somewhat comedic franchise as it burns to the ground something that creates a lot of views from readers that generates a lot of cash for these news organizations.