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Williams revealed that Yale was his second option, not Harvard, but his decision to attend Tennessee raised concerns within his family, given the academic opportunities he was passing up. He acknowledged that as a young black male in society, opting for a non-Ivy League school wasn’t the conventional choice for academic pursuits. “My mom wasn’t necessarily happy with that, being that I’m a black male in society and I had a chance to go to an Ivy League. It doesn’t necessarily sit well when you say you’re going to Tennessee for academics, but also to play sports,” Williams explained during a conversation with Emily Austin on The Hoop Chat.
Miye Oni returns to the NBA with Orlando
Jason Beede: NEWS: Free agent Miye Oni — a 2nd round pick who spent 3 years in Utah — has agreed to a 1-year deal with the Orlando #Magic, sources told the @orlandosentinel. The 2019 Ivy League Player of the Year helped the London Lions win the '22-23 British Basketball League Championship.
Jason Whitlock tweeted racist stuff about you during the game—literally making an Asian dick joke at your expense—and ESPN ran that infamous “Chink in the Armor” headline on its homepage. That’s the part I didn’t understand in the moment. I understood everything else that was happening. The reason why I didn’t even blink was because I grew up so exposed to it, and because I grew up so exposed to it I thought, oh, that’s just normal. At least it wasn’t like in the Ivy League when I would look at these drunk students with bloodshot eyes in the courtside students’ section shouting racist things at my face to the point where it sounded like they were going to charge me and beat me physically. At least it was over the internet, you know? I think that’s why I didn’t speak out more at the time, because I just thought, it could be worse. And that’s just so sad, and I regret that. But when it comes to Linsanity, portions of the media were definitely part of reinforcing stereotypes and reinforcing how it’s “cool” to make fun of Asians in these ways and no one will care, and no one will do anything about it. That’s the stereotype about us—that we won’t stand up for ourselves—and in those moments I didn’t. And I regret it. But you’re totally right that the media in many ways failed the moment and failed society.
Jeremy Lin: I know this will disappoint some of you but I'm not naming or shaming anyone. What good does it do in this situation for someone to be torn down? It doesn't make my community safer or solve any of our long-term problems with racism. When I experienced racism in the Ivy League, it was my assistant coach Kenny Blakeney that talked me through it. He shared with me his own experiences as a Black man — stories of racism I couldn't begin to comprehend. Stories including being called the n-word and having things thrown at him from cars. He drew from his experiences with identity to teach me how to stay strong in mine. He was also the first person to tell me I was an NBA player as a sophomore at Harvard. I thought he was crazy.
Do you replay what happened over and over with the bribe? Jerome Allen: It’s not the story of my life, but it’s a part of my life. … I tried to pen the story from a real perspective. One of the stories in [the book] is I was a junior in college [at Penn] and we were about to play Harvard one night, and as I’m walking off the floor for pregame shooting, someone comes up to me, asks if my father needs money. And I’m like, ‘What?’ He asked me again, ‘Jerome, does your dad need money?’ I’m asking, ‘What are you talking about?’ And they say, ‘Oh, he’s outside, in front of The Palestra asking people for change as they come into the gym.’ And so, he was so high, that he didn’t realize where he was at. And for me to be on campus at an Ivy League institution inside The Palestra, for him to kind of embarrass me like that was, that judgment I’ve placed on him, I vowed to hate him for the rest of my life.
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Kyle Goon: Doc Rivers breaking news: He says DeAndre Jordan got accepted into an Ivy League school, “I think maybe Brown.”
Yale’s All-Ivy League forward Jordan Bruner will be making himself available to be selected in the NBA Draft. “I felt like I was ready to show NBA people what I was capable of,” Bruner said. “I decided I was going to make a decision when the season ended and the season ended earlier that we thought and I made my decision.”
In his 78th summer on this earth, Brown spent a few days on an Ivy League campus, coaching a squad of collegians for a tournament that will never notch a footnote on his Hall of Fame resume. He spent his days with those players, eating with them at Chipotle, and staying with them on the same floor of Wallach Hall, sharing the communal bathrooms. Being one of the best basketball coaches ever has its perks — he was granted a single room, not a double. If it’s surprising to hear that Brown would find himself there, a world away from the glamour of one of the nine NBA jobs he once held, it’s not to the people who spent that part of August with him. “It’s what drives him,” Guy Rancourt, who runs the East Coast All-Stars, said. “It’s his passion. It’s what makes him happy.”
I like Koby personally. I think he’s incredibly intelligent. To come as far as he has as fast as he has is proof, considering he was coaching in the Ivy League six years ago. But he was third in command last season in Cleveland and was rushed into a job for which he wasn’t prepared because over the years, those who know Gilbert well insist he has considered the GM role less and less important. That might have been his biggest miscalculation in all of this. Now a franchise that boasted the postseason slogan the last few years of “All-In” instead hedged its bets last summer with the team’s two most important players.
“The way that the league has progressed since I played in it during the 2005-06 season is incredible,” Northern Arizona Suns head coach Cody Toppert said. “Back then, there were A contracts, B contracts and C contracts. I was on a C contract, so I made $12,000 for the whole season. That was definitely an adventure. My friends at Cornell would joke with me all the time because when you’re at an Ivy League school, people make a big deal about your starting salary. My friends would say, ‘You must have the worst starting salary of any Ivy League graduate ever! Jeez, you’d make more working at McDonald’s!’ They eventually got rid of the C-level contracts because that was cruel and unusual punishment to some degree (laughs). Also, back then, you didn’t get paid if you were an inactive player. That was really tough because you would be giving everything you had to the team and then not get paid just because you were inactive. They fixed that, which is great.
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Junior guard Matt Morgan announced Monday on Twitter his intention to declare for the NBA Draft, after leading the Ivy League in scoring for the third straight year. [...] Morgan said while he hopes to be drafted by an NBA team, he will return to Cornell for his senior season if he isn’t selected. “I’m going into this process with the intention of getting selected to play for a NBA organization, but I don’t want to lose my last year of college if that opportunity isn’t there for me,” he said.
Six years ago, Altman was an assistant coach in the Ivy League. Now he has vaulted from third chair in the Cavs’ front office last season to the man in charge. While the Cavs insist Altman’s duties are no different from Griffin’s job before him, up and down the roster and throughout the organization, the belief is unanimous that Altman is the front man and Gilbert is in full control.
One, the Cavs will be under some pressure to retain him because he's a prime asset from the Kyrie Irving trade. Though the Cavs made it clear behind the scenes that they saw the Nets' pick as the primary carrot, the Nets' stronger-than-expected play this season is threatening to push that pick deeper into the lottery. Currently, it is projected to be the ninth pick. A team, even a rebuilding team as the Cavs might be if James walks, cannot allow prime assets to leave for nothing. Second, Gilbert loves underdogs like Thomas. He sees himself as an underdog, a self-made billionaire who went to Michigan State, not the Ivy League. In 2016, Gilbert was the driving force behind paying $2.4 million to buy a draft pick to take Kay Felder, an undersized point guard from Oakland University who attracted Gilbert because of his ability to overcome challenges. Felder didn't make it with the Cavs, but Thomas is the embodiment of what the Cavs were dreaming of with Felder.
Second, Gilbert loves underdogs like Thomas. He sees himself as an underdog, a self-made billionaire who went to Michigan State, not the Ivy League. In 2016, Gilbert was the driving force behind paying $2.4 million to buy a draft pick to take Kay Felder, an undersized point guard from Oakland University who attracted Gilbert because of his ability to overcome challenges. Felder didn't make it with the Cavs, but Thomas is the embodiment of what the Cavs were dreaming of with Felder.
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