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The San Antonio Spurs and USAA are joining forces once again to honor active duty, National Guard and reserve, and retired servicemembers during a Veterans Day game on Wednesday, November 10, as the Silver and Black host the Sacramento Kings at the AT&T Center. The 2021-22 season marks the 12th season that USAA and the Spurs have teamed up to honor the military community.
When participating in rallies and marches, Isiah Thomas recalled a time that he had a weapon pointed at him for the first time in his life: “My mom didn’t have babysitters. We grew up extremely poor,” Thomas told Thurl Bailey. “So we participated in all the marches. We participated in all the rallies. The first time I had a weapon pointed at me was by the United States government. When they shut down Chicago and the National Guard came in, never forget, they rolled up off the Eisenhower Expressway and I lived 3340 West Congress, and a tank rode up off the Eisenhower Expressway and the barrel of the tank rolled around and pointed directly at our house. Because they were shutting down the city. They were shutting down the west side of Chicago.”
Temple, who has been studying for the LSAT during the league’s hiatus, is the son of Collis Temple, the first Black athlete to play basketball at LSU. Collis Temple received threats while playing for the Tigers in the early 1970s, and the National Guard was called in to protect him. As he got older, Collis Temple shared his experiences with his children. Those stories had a profound effect on Garrett, who has been active in the Black Lives Matter movement for years. The 6-foot-5 guard was in Los Angeles in 2013 when George Zimmerman was acquitted in the killing of Trayvon Martin and said he did not recall the acquittal eliciting a notable uproar there. But he said recently he’s seen a change in the movement after George Floyd was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis. “It made me angry that it was so foreign to so many people, or people just didn’t even pay attention to it,” Temple said. “Fast forward, it seems like people are finally starting to care about unarmed Black men being brutalized by the police and just Black Americans in general being marginalized.”
“Every time I got to serve in the National Guard, it was a great feeling. It never felt like work,” Plumlee said. “I kept getting that itch and wanted to serve in a different capacity. It’s really Coach K, I called him and he encouraged me to pursue active duty. His advice was, ‘You don’t always have a great jump shot and you don’t always dribble that well, but you do have a really good heart,’ and he encouraged me to follow my heart. I loved the NBA experience, but my gut told me I think it’d be cooler to continue to be a part of something bigger than myself.
He recalls seeing the barrel of a tank from the National Guard pointed at his home during the same riots. "The barrel of the tank swerved around and was aimed right at our house as the troops marched in to secure the West Side of Chicago. This is how I grew up," Thomas, the former Knicks president and coach and current NBA TV and Turner studio analyst, said during a phone interview this week. "My family and I have been in this fight for freedom and citizenship and equal rights since I was born. I don't remember anything else."
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The Houston Rockets joined Mayor Turner’s initiative to support Houston restaurants by providing Whataburger to members of the National Guard who are managing the COVID-19 testing site at Butler Stadium.
The Phoenix Suns gave an 8-year-old boy named Logan the surprise of a lifetime Monday night. Logan was brought onto the court during a timeout and blindfolded as a part of a game, and he tried find the Suns mascot holding a pizza. At the other end of the court was National Guard Specialist Jamie Bledsoe, Logan’s dad, who had just returned from a 9-month deployment in Afghanistan. The pair got an ovation from Suns fans at the US Airways Center.
Filmmaker Spike Lee said he doesn't blame James for joining the Miami Heat, but said The King could have been more gracious toward Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, who said he learned of the move via a last-minute phone call from Rich Paul, one of James' associates. "LeBron should have called instead of having Rich Paul call him," Lee said on ESPN. "For me, that's the same thing as Pat Riley faxing the Knicks, 'I'm outta here.'" Because of the backlash in Ohio, Lee said, James must say "outta here" to Cleveland and Akron. "I don't know how he's going to live in Akron or Cleveland anymore," Lee said. "They're going to make his life miserable. ... Why live someplace where you're going to be hated? And the first time the Heat go to (Cleveland), they're going to need the National Guard."
Michael Jordan lingering in the main dining room at Cafe Milano for nearly three hours Sunday night. White shirt, jeans. Accompanied by a co-ed crew of five, including his brother James and superagent David Falk. The retired NBA star was in town for business -- a meeting with the National Guard, which sponsors his motorcycle racing team -- but he also fit in a visit with wounded troops at Walter Reed.
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