THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WEDNESDAY, APRIL 30, 2008
SPORTS
NBA
7B
Nuggets have talent but no team
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Denver Nuggets forward Carmelo Anthony looks on from the sidelines after fouling out against the Los Angeles Lakers during the fourth quarter in Game 4 of a first-round NBA playoff basketball series Monday in Denver. The Lakers beat the Nuggets 107-101 to sweep the series.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DENVER — Carmelo Anthony and Kobe Bryant agreed on what separated their All-Star studded teams in their lopsided first-round playoff series; teamwork.
"Talent-wise, I don't think they're better than us. Team-wise, I think they're better than us," Anthony said of the apparent gap during the Lakers' impressive sweep of the bedraggled Nuggets.
The Lakers are moving on after turning the Nuggets from a team that was giddy just to reach the postseason in the power-packed Western Conference into a gloomy bunch that trudged off the court Monday night as the first 50-win team in NBA history to get shut out in the playoffs.
"They have a lot of talent," Bryant said. "But a lot of times it's not necessarily the amount of talent you have on a team but it's the chemistry within that talent and how well you play together. I'm very fortunate to be on a team where everybody just meshes. We all work well with one another."
Like too many bulldogs on a playground, the Nuggets, on the other hand, don't play well together.
They feature two superstars in 'Melo and Allen Iverson, who started alongside each other in the All-Star Game, plus another player who probably should have in Marcus Camby, the league's premiere rebounder.
Kenyon Martin resurrected his career after two knee surgeries, J.R. Smith's game and maturity took giant leaps in 2007-08 and Anthony Carter started 67 times after playing just two games last year.
Linas Kleiza and Eduardo Najera added versatility to their games, giving the Nuggets one of the best benches in basketball even with Nene missing most of the season with testicular cancer and various injuries.
The Nuggets won 50 games for the first time in 20 years, tallying just seven fewer wins than the top-seeded Lakers. Yet, Denver lost to the Lakers by an average of 13 points.
Coach George Karl, whose job is safe according to Mark Warkentien, the team's vice president of basketball operations, accepted that the Nuggets were never going to play defense for 48 minutes or cut to the basket whenever 'Melo or A.I. had the ball. He just hoped the explosiveness that allowed them to slice into deficits so often during the season would show up at the right time in the playoffs.
It didn't.
And so the Nuggets were bounced out of the first round for the fifth-straight season. Only this time, they didn't even win their customary one game before getting
a jump on their summer vacation.
With a lot of immovable parts with hefty contracts that make up one of the highest payrolls in the NBA at over $80 million, the Nuggets' options are limited as they search for a solution to their one-and-done rut.
"I definitely think our team has made a big step forward this season. But I think the Western Conference is amazing" and only going to get better next year, Karl said.
So, how are the Nuggets going to keep pace, and actually advance instead of continuing to serve as first-round fodder?
The solution seems so simple: Play as hard in front of your basket as you do in front of your opponent's.
Jewish leaders urge boycott
OLYMPICS
BY ERIC GORSKI ASSOCIATED PRESS
A wide-ranging group of U.S. Jewish leaders plans to release a statement Wednesday urging Jews worldwide to boycott the Summer Olympics in Beijing, citing China's troubling record on human rights and Tibet.
The statement also notes China's close relationships with Iran, Syria and the militant group Hamas.
So far, 175 rabbis, seminary officials and other prominent Jews have signed the declaration, which comes shortly before Holocaust Remembrance Day on Friday, organizers said.
"We are deeply troubled by China's support for the genocidal government of Sudan; its mistreatment of the people of Tibet; its denial of basic rights to its own citizens; and its provision of missiles to Iran and Syria, and friendship for Hamas," the statement reads.
"Having endured the bitter experience of abandonment by our presumed allies during the Holocaust, we feel a particular obligation to speak out against injustice and persecution today."
Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, past chairman of the United States Holocaust Memorial Council, said signers are not alleging that the Chinese government is the equivalent of the Nazi regime, but that China, like Germany in 1936, is trying to use the Olympics as a public relations tool to deflect attention from its record.
The declaration was organized
Olympic organizers' plans for a kosher kitchen at the Olympic Village, where athletes stay. Greenberg characterized the move as an attempt to lure Jewish tourists by presenting an image of sensitivity.
The deck by Greenberg and Rabbi Haskel Lookstein of New York and the Washington-based David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies.
"I would say in principle, athletes and tourists and governments should all draw the same conclusion to this." Greenberg
Several representatives of
"Unless the Chinese make some significant corrections, they should not participate."
YITZ GREENBERG Rabbi
Judaism's major U.S. branches and large Jewish institutions signed on. They include Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism; Neil Goldstein and Richard Gordon of the American Jewish Congress; and Rabbi Joel Meyers, executive vice president of the Rabbinical Assembly.
said. "Unless the Chinese make some significant corrections, they should not participate."
The statement seizes on
Meyers said he hopes the declaration is interpreted as a call for Israel and Jewish
athletes worldwide to boycott the games, although he doubts such a boycott will come to pass.
"It would be good if that happened," Meyers said. "(But) I know Israel has political ties to China, and does business with China. It presents a somewhat awkward issue for Israel."
WORLD
WORLD Judge says he can't ban Internet video of sex acts
accessible from France — like all others on the Web — is not enough to justify French jurisdiction," Boyer wrote.
PARIS — A judge said Tuesday it was not within his jurisdiction to ban an Internet video of motor racing chief Max Mosley with prostitutes, but he ordered the French recall of newspapers containing photos of the scene.
Judge Joel Boyer said he couldn't ban access to a Web site of the British tabloid the News of the World, which had carried a video with images of the scene, because the site is owned and based in Britain. Mosley's lawyer, "The mere fact that this site is
However, Boyer said French law did cover copies of the newspaper printed in France and ordered issues containing photos of the scene that are still available in the country to be recalled. He ordered a penalty of $2,335 per infraction be applied if the recall is not respected.
In his decision, Boyer wrote the scenes were clearly"sadomasochistic stagings of sexual fantasies" that merit protection under privacy laws.
most intimate aspects of private life, with its element of shadow and mystery that no one should be forced to explain to a third party' the judge wrote.
"Sexual practices between consenting adults are among the
The News of the World reported earlier this month that Mosley engaged in sex acts with five prostitutes that involved Nazi role-playing. A video posted on the newspaper's Web site showed a man identified as Mosley arriving at an apartment and then engaging in various sex acts with several women, at least one in a prisoner's uniform, while also speaking German.
MLB
Associated Press
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Cardinals remember Hancock one year later
ST.LOUIS - The St. Louis Cardinals observed the one-year anniversary of reliever Josh Hancock's fatal crash without fan-fare.
Everything appeared to be business as usual on Tuesday for the team, which canceled a scheduled game on April 29, 2007, after Hancock's early morning, drunkendriving accident near downtown. A memorial sticker with Hancock's initials and his uniform number 32 has been on the back wall of the bullpen since the accident, not far from another sticker in memory of Darryl Kile, but the anniversary was not mentioned in the team's daily game notes package.
"I think you always mark it; manager Tony La Russa said. "It's definitely not a day like any other"
But he wasn't sure if the accident left a lasting impact on players.
"I haven't seen anything too
dramatic," La Russa said. "Don't you read the paper every day? Isn't there something in the paper every day about tragedies and mistakes?
"But when it's a member of your family I think it does get your attention in a special way."
The Cardinals banned alcohol in the clubhouse in the wake of the accident, and banned alcohol on return flights home. La Russa thought the clubhouse ban was mostly symbolic, given that most players don't hang out for hours after games, yet he thought it was sending the proper message.
“It's crossing every 'T' and dotting every 'I', and I agree it should be done," La Russa said. "But there wasn't anything happening here where guys were walking out of here staggering."
appointment after informing the team of elbow pain after allowing one run in four innings on April 22 at Milwaukee. He was placed on the 15-day disabled list on Tuesday.
The second game against the Reds came a day after an elbow injury provided a reprieve from a minor league demotion for reliever Brad Thompson. He kept a doctor's
Thompson had been optioned to Triple-A Memphis when infielder Brendan Ryan was activated from a rehab assignment. He has not appeared since the demotion.
"I've been kind of battling with stuff all year," said Thompson, 1-1 with a 4.58 ERA in six games, including two starts. "It just started to get worse.
"The last game that I threw in, I told the doc after the game I'd like to see the doc. I got sent down the next day but still kept my appointment to see him."
La Russa said Thompson hadn't said anything about his elbow. He wasn't that surprised, reasoning that pitchers often deal with aches and soreness and perhaps Thompson was just waiting for it to subside.