How video games connected me with Bill Walton
The Sporting Tribune's Arash Markazi traveled the world with Bill Walton as the two connected over their love of video games.
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1. How video games connected me with Bill Walton
The Sporting Tribune's Arash Markazi traveled the world with Bill Walton as the two connected over their love of video games.
Bill Walton never thought of himself as a celebrity.
Despite being a 6-foot-11 hall of fame basketball player who loved wearing tie-dye shirts, he simply wanted to be a chameleon whenever he was out and about, exploring the world. When someone would walk up to him to ask for a photo or an autograph, he would first introduce himself and ask for their name. Sometimes he would do it twice if he didn’t catch it the first name.
“What was your name, again?” he would genuinely ask them. “My name is Bill.”
We were colleagues at ESPN for nine years and our travels took us around the world from Los Angeles and Las Vegas to Hangzhou and Shanghai in China.
But it wasn’t basketball that brought us together. It was video games. Yes, video games.
2. Players union chief on WNBA charter-flight rollout: ‘League is scrambling’
WNBPA's Terri Jackson has been lobbying for a WNBA charter flight program since 2020, but she said the league is "scrambling" to put program in place, writes The Sporting Tribune’s Jackson Thompson.
WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson said Thursday the WNBA has struggled to make good on its promise of charter flights for all teams so far this season as other issues with the flights have arisen.
“I recognize that the league was kind of scrambling to get this in place for the start of the season,” Jackson said to The Sporting Tribune. “Their decision-making came together kind of lake as the process as I understand.
However, the rollout of the charter flights hasn’t been a smooth trip early this season. Several players have spoken out about the limited availability and quality of the planes.
“(The league) is working as hard as they can to roll it out for everybody, so there’s some bumps and there’s some hiccups,” Jackson said.
The WNBA promised to make charter flights available to all 12 teams for player travel this season by Tuesday. The initiative marked one of the biggest wins for players in the league’s 28-year history and a professional victory for Jackson, who said she had been lobbying the league to make charter flights available to all teams since 2020.
3. ‘I’m a Team USA athlete! Don’t amputate it!’ The inspiring story of Goose Helton
Since 2006, Jonathan "Goose" Helton has consistently played for the best club and professional teams, writes The Sporting Tribue’s Josh Frojelin.
Team USA and San Diego Growlers ultimate frisbee player Jonathan ‘Goose’ Helton is as fit as any former national team athlete. He stands tall, with large shoulders and veins popping from his arms. But when he walks, it’s clear why he’s now glued to the sideline.
The 40-year-old’s right leg is uncharacteristically slender and seemingly held together by a complex brace with two large back rods and a carbon fiber heel. His strength, quickness, and athleticism couldn’t prepare him for a car suddenly pulling out of a driveway alongside a two-lane highway.
Traveling at 55 miles per hour, Goose tried to evade the car before it crushed his right leg between the body of his motorcycle and the bumper. Almost three months in the hospital, 38 surgeries, and several infections later, Goose returned to the field as an assistant coach for the Growlers on May 3, almost a year-and-a-half since the accident.
It was Thursday, Jan. 12, 2022. Kaela Helton was at work when she got a call from her husband Goose. She knew Goose left work early on beautiful, calm afternoons like that one to ride his motorcycle into the mountains.
“He has a speaker in his helmet,” she said. “He called me from the ground seconds after the accident… I answered. He just said, ‘I was in an accident. It’s bad. Come find me.”
4. Can we stop with the Caitlin Clark hate, please?
Indiana Fever rookie Caitlin Clark is handling herself with grace and doesn't deserve the ire of those trying to tear her down, writes The Sporting Tribune’s Steve Carp.
They arrived early. Some wearing black and gold Iowa t-shirts. Others were in blue and gold Indiana Fever gear. All with the No. 22 adorning it.
The Caitlin Clark Experience came to town Saturday and the hottest ticket on the Las Vegas Strip was at Michelob Ultra Arena. Clark’s popularity knows no bounds, sort of like the range on her jump shot.
Clark, the No. 1 overall draft pick of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever, leads her team in scoring, averaging 16.7 points a game. She also leads it in turnovers with an average of 5.2 per contest and it had resulted in an 0-5 start before the Fever finally got into the win column Friday, beating the Los Angeles Sparks 78-73 in front of a team-record sellout crowd of 19,103 at Crypto.com Arena.
5. Belmont Stakes update: Waiting is hardest part for next race
Belmont Stakes updates from The Sporting Tribune's Louis Rabaut two weeks out from the final leg of horse racing's Triple Crown.
The two weeks between the Preakness and Belmont Stakes always drag. And it’s simple to see why.
The three circuits that hold the Triple Crown Races: Kentucky (Derby), Maryland (Preakness Stakes) and New York (Belmont Stakes) are all not a month out of their major stakes days. In other words, next week with mark a month since the Kentucky Derby; it also marks the first Saturday of major stakes since Derby weekend.
Maryland is just a week out from Preakness and the Belmont runs in two weeks. Simply put, it isn’t advantageous to host a number of high-level races when they are traditionally spread out a month at a time.
But this week was anything but quiet on the Belmont Stakes probables front.
6. Juan Soto returns to San Diego, blasts homerun and talks future
The Sporting Tribune's Fernando Ramirez on Juan Soto returning to San Diego and shinning some light about not only his time with the Padres but his future.
The name Juan Soto can be taken in several directions in the city of San Diego because of the two trades that have included him.
He returned on Friday night when the New York Yankees came into Petco Park for a three-game series to a mixture of boos and cheers while also taking game one 8-0.
The cheers came from the Yankees fans that flooded the park, while the boos came from angry Padres fans that felt betrayed.
“I don’t know, man,” Soto said before the game. “I really don’t know. It’s going to be tough for me because they were right there everyday for me… I was like kind of sad about it because I can’t couldn’t show them the really how great I can be.”
7. Video of the Day
Make sure to subscribe to The Sporting Tribune YouTube page for all of our latest videos:
8. Ticket Time
Here are the “get in” prices for tickets if you’re thinking about going to a game today:
6:30 p.m. – Yankees at Angels – $8
9. On the Air
Here are the game times and television channels for professional teams in the region today:
1 & 4 p.m. – Dodgers at Mets – SportsNet LA
4:00 p.m. – Sparks at Fever – NBA TV
6:30 p.m. – Yankees at Angels – Bally Sports West
10. The Arash Markazi Show presented by The Sporting Tribune
Listen to The Arash Markazi Show presented by The Sporting Tribune on The Mightier 1090 ESPN Radio in Southern California, 98.5 The Bet in Las Vegas and the Hawaii Sports Radio Network 95.1 FM and 760 AM in Hawaii. You can also listen to the show on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play and Stitcher. You can also watch every Friday on BLEAV on FuboTV.
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That’s it for today. Talk to you tomorrow!