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Chris Broussard: Another ex-NBA player could be returning to coach his alma mater. @Bonzi Wells is interviewing for the Ball State job tomorrow. Following in the footsteps of Michigan’s Juwan Howard & UNC’s Hubert Davis, whose teams are still dancing in the NCAA Tournament.
The change comes after the NBA used a version of the Elam Ending for the 2020 All-Star Game in Chicago, which ended when Anthony Davis sank a free throw to take Team LeBron to the target score. The main goal of the Elam Ending, created by Ball State professor Nick Elam, was to eliminate intentional fouls by teams trailing down the stretch.
The call came that Ball State University professor Nick Elam had been waiting for. His clockless basketball vision — born amid the ruckus of college buddies watching March Madness — was getting ready to play out on basketball's biggest stage. On the other end of the line were a couple of executives from the NBA league office. Elam's invention of an untimed game ending — coined the Elam Ending — would be used in this year's NBA All-Star Game, they told him. Elam would later learn the NBA was using his invention to honor the late NBA legend Kobe Bryant.
Q: Who is your favorite Blazer great? Mason Plumlee: "I really liked the team that went to the Western Conference Finals (in 2000). I don't know if there was any one player. The Rasheed (Wallace), Bonzi (Wells) team. Bonzi Wells played at Ball State, so I kind of liked him. I don't know if he's one of the great Blazers. (smiles) But I like that he was from Indiana. Zach Randolph, too."
Bonzi Wells was both startled and “hurt” by allegations made in a recent lawsuit filed against him by a lifelong acquaintance. Wells, a star at Central High School and Ball State University before a 10-year career in the NBA, for the first time publicly addressed the claims made in the lawsuit — filed in May by Rasul Shabazz and his mother, Raushana — in a Friday interview with The Star Press. The Delaware Circuit Court 1 suit alleges that after Rasul Shabazz, then 37, clashed with Wells’ 11-year-old son at the downtown YMCA on May 7, 2011, the basketball star came to Shabazz’s home in Muncie’s Whitely neighborhood, damaged a door and threatened to kill Shabazz, at that time a YMCA employee, and his mother. It also alleges Wells battered Rasul Shabazz several days later during an encounter in a Ball State University athletics office.
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Ten days later, Wells said, he had been playing basketball with current Ball State players at Worthen Arena and, as was his routine, was saying hello to old friends in BSU athletic offices — where he encountered Rasul Shabazz. “I was surprised as anyone,” Wells said. “I wasn’t prepared to see him.” Wells said when they suddenly found themselves in the same office, Shabazz shouted, then shoved a female employee in his direction. The NBA veteran said when he saw Shabazz reach into his pocket, “I reacted the way I was supposed to react.” Wells said he gained possession of the knife, and “we had an altercation.” “I restrained him, took the knife from him, and told him, ‘Hey, I just want an apology from you.’” With that, Wells said, Shabazz apologized to the basketball player’s son.
Originally scheduled to be a solo workout, Drummond ended up facing some one-on-one competition. Ball State’s Jerrod Jones, a 6’9, 231 lbs. power forward, worked out with Drummond. The former UConn Husky said this was the first time he played against someone in nearly two months. ”It feels kind of good getting back on the court with somebody else and trying to put stuff I learned all throughout the summer into game form.”
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