Author: lleonardbw

NBA Playoffs report: San Antonio not surprisingly the favorite in the second round

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by David Zizmor

San Antonio vs. Portand: Portland was not the team that everyone expected it to be and made it to the second round but they had a very strong series against Houston with the Trailblazers point guard Damian Lillard right out of Oakland having a fantastic series and scoring the game winner with no time left to clinch it for Portland.

That might be the high point for the Trailblazers because Houston in round one are a good team, still the Rockets haven’t developed much of an identity and their not a team with a lot of playoff experience or success in the past. Portland and Houston as far as overall talent were fairly well matched.

San Antonio is a whole other ball game, as the Warriors learned last year you really need to stick the dagger in these guys because San Antonio will just not die. They are a fantastic team, they had a few short struggles with Dallas in the first round but San Antonio ended up winning that one like everybody expected them too.

Oklahoma City vs. LA Clippers: This is an evenly matched contest this is the two seed (Thunder) vs. the three seed (L.A.) you have the NBA MVP Kevin Durant going against one of the runners up Blake Griffin. You just have teams that are really strong from top to bottom. You have these two teams who have been there to a certain extent.

The Thunder made to the finals and they have a lot of success in the post season, they have all their players healthy which was not the case last year in the post season. Last season everybody thought Oklahoma City was the team to beat and then Russell Westbrook got injured.

The Westbrook injury didn’t stop the Thunder right away but it definitely slowed them up enough that they didn’t have the fire power when they had to face San Antonio. OKC their on a mission they had a rough opening series against Memphis. It’s not likely that L.A. is as tough as tough of an oppnent as Memphis is.

Miami vs. Brooklyn: The Brooklyn Nets are an interesting team all year long and they got off to a really bad start back in November and December. They tried to turn it around since then and who knew what was going on. Brooklyn since the beginning of 2014 has done pretty good.

The Nets have been particularily good against Miami they were 4-0 in the regular season against the Heat, of course that meant nothing in the first game where Miami knocked them off and did a pretty solid job of putting the Nets in their place. Miami didn’t have to work that hard in the first round to beat the Bobcats.

That Charlotte series went as a sweep for Miami and they had a chance to rest and heal up and to give their crickety older players especially Dwayne Wade time to prepare themselves. Miami was chomping at the bit to get at Brooklyn. The one thing that Miami really got annoyed at Brooklyn and made it very well known they tanked a few of their final games so they could get a seed that would allow the Nets to face Miami in the second round rather than Indiana.

Indiana vs. Washington: Indiana is the number one seed and Washington is the number five, but if you look at how this post season has been going the Wizards are playing really well and the Pacers have been struggling. They barely made it out of the first round against Atlanta and the Hawks were a team that no body thought was a threat in any way shape or form.

Atlanta ended up forcing the Pacers to play seven games in the first round, let’s face it the Hawks are not a good team. They lost their best player Al Horford earlier this season and they have had good enough pieces to make themselves mediocre and in the Eastern Conference that’s good enough to make the eighth spot in the playoffs.

Atlanta was not a good team and if they were in the west they would have been far far out of the playoffs and Indiana looked completely befuddled at times and they look like they didn’t know what they were doing. The Hawks had some of the worst offense in the entire season in that game.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportstalk radio

A’s drop front game for third straight loss 6-4 in 10th inning

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by Paul Gackle

OAKLAND — After tagging Felix Hernandez for three late-inning runs, the A’s coughed up another lead at the O.co Coliseum on Wednesday, falling to the Seattle Mariners 6-4 in 10 innings in the first game of a doubleheader.

Southpaw reliever Fernando Abad surrendered his first run of the season in 15 outings when Robinson Cano singled in outfielder Michael Saunders in the top of the eighth inning, tying the game at 4-4.

The bullpen has been an issue for the A’s throughout the season. The team leads the American League in blown saves (six) and Manager Bob Melvin has shuffling his bullpen trying to find a winning formula

Saunders also scored the game-winning run for the Mariners with two outs in the 10th after Justin Smoak hit a high chopper to first that a leaping Daric Barton couldn’t come down with.

Ryan Cook (0-1), who surrendered a leadoff single to Saunders in the 10th, took the loss for the A’s, while Yoervis Medina (2-1) picked up the win for the Mariners.

The A’s rallied back from a 3-1 deficit in the 7th when Eric Sogard, Gentry, John Jaso and Brandon Moss strung together hits off Hernandez, chasing him from the game by scoring three runs.

The bats hit Hernandez hard all day, collecting 11 hits off the Mariners ace in 6 1/3 innings

Dan Straily put together a quality start for the A’s, surrendering three earned runs over six innings of work after giving up 14 earned runs in his previous 19 1/3 innings pitched.

Straily’s two big mistakes were home runs to Corey Hart — on his first pitch of the second — and to Mike Zunino in the fifth. The right-hander has now allowed the most home runs in the American League this season.

“It’s got to stop — I know that,” Straily said. “But I’m not going to say it’s a concern. There’s nothing I can really do to change it, just move forward and have a short memory.”

Coco Crisp left the game with a strained neck in the fourth inning after crashing into the wall at full speed in right-center field, robbing Kyle Seager of an extra-base hit.

“One heck of a catch,” Straily said. “Just the ability to hold onto that ball, running and hitting that post out there, running into the pad. That has to be tough to just hold on to that — he’s a tough guy.”

Paul Gackle covers all A’s home Wedesday and Thursday day games on http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Feitelberg report: Neither SF mayor or Giants will come out to oppose prop B

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The politics of Proposition B in San Francisco is full of catch 22s, for one Mayor Ed Lee will not come out with a public endorsement for the measure that restricts height development along the waterfront because if he does he could offend such organizations like the San Francisco Giants who want to develop a urban village in Lot A of their parking lot which is situated next to the AT&T Park. We should mention the Giants have not endorsed the proposition one way or the other too.

If Lee comes out against the measure he would offend valuable voters who could use that against him in his next re-election bid for going in favor of waterfront development and going against protecting height development. The Giants have said they have not taken a postion on Prop B. Prop B, the Warriors never admitted specifically that Lee’s indecision on the measure was the reason to end their bid on trying to build at Piers 30-32.

Residents of the waterfront have made it clear that they don’t want to lose the bay views and the environment of what the waterfront now presents and they’ve got a good bead on things as voters signed ballots during the Warriors effort of getting an arena at Piers 30-32 and the minimum amount of ballots were met by almost double.

A victory of Prop B the city said would cost the city losses up to $1.6 billion in repairs to housing, transit and for a seawall that’s needs repair to hold back the bay. The Giants wanted to build on Lot A parking lot next to AT&T Park also with Pier 70 owned by Forest City a developer who wants to build condos and retail on that large location.

The Sierra Club who supports Prop B wants to see prop B contol growth at waterfront and Embarcadero to preserve the neighborhood for it’s future generations and that such growth on heights would Manhattonize the neighborhood with towering condos, retail, and luxury hotels. The waterfront neighbors do not oppose the Warriors new arena site development at Mission Bay.

Opponents against the measure say such projects would not only benefit the neighborhood but would provide more jobs and that private developers would spend $322 million to fix infrastruture.

The opponents of Prop B say the city would receive $93.6 million out of the $322 million that would fix the sea wall, transit and affordable housing and the Giants and Pier 70 would be able to move ahead with their development plans.

For Prop B to lose at this point those are long odds after the grass roots ballots that went to City Hall that showed the proponents of the measure have the support to get Prop B passed by a convincing proportion.

Former San Francisco Mayor Art Agnos who was opposed to constructing a new Warriors arena at Pier 30-32 and other height unlimited projects proposed for the waterfront. A condo measure for the waterfront back in November Propositions B and C called the 8 Washington lost, that made the odds for the Warriors arena or any other future developments dim and that San Francisco voters would more than likely vote down any development idea at the waterfront.

There’s little doubt in June voters will come out big for Prop B and that San Francisco voters will resoundly support Prop B for various reasons, to keep the views of the bay or that the voter just doesn’t trust the politicians and developers who some say plan to help the rich rather than the working people in the waterfront neighborhood, “I sleep better at night knowing the voters, rather than politicians and beuraucrats, have a final say on height limit waviers on port waterfront property,” said Agnos.

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the Golden State Warriors and Sacramento Kings arena developments for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Michael Duca on A’s and Giants: Posey doesn’t have any complaints about replay rule;Chavez hits rough patch in first loss

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by Michael Duca

OAKLAND–With the exception of certain pitchers in Japan nobody is perfect, occasionally pitchers will run into a stinker such as A’s starting pitcher Jesse Chavez on Tuesday night at the Coliseum when he surrendered three runs in the top of the first inning against the Seattle Mariners. His offense didn’t help him a whole lot.

Chavez really didn’t get a shot to stay in the game to see if he could hold the M’s who had a one run lead on Oakland going to the sixth. Chavez got lifted in the middle of the sixth inning after getting charged with four runs all earned. MLB.com came out with the pitcher power rankings and they had the Giants at number one and the A’s number two for best pitching in the majors, ironically for Tuesday night the both teams lost.

A’s outfielder Yoenis Cespedes has time to lift his .257 average, he was largely underschooled when he arrived in the Oakland. He’s been learning a lot of his craft at the Major Leauge level and he’s a major challenge and can be a force and as time goes by he will learn what pitchers are doing to try and get him out.

Cespedes banged out his fifth home run and 19th RBI against the M’s on Tuesday night.

Giants update: One thing about instant replay I’ve talked to several team coordinators and they’ve already began to realize you don’t challenge your plays that are close but you challenge your plays that are obvious. In the case of Giants catcher Buster Posey’s tag on Pirates runner Starling Marte there was nothing to lose on Tuesday night’s game as the Bucs challenged the play at the plate.

The other thing the players have to figure you have the umpires making these calls back in New York off TV, and the interesting thing is at the other three bases they determined whether or not somebody is on the base or not with his hand or his foot or whether or not the base deflects. You can’t do that with home plate.

Whether or not Posey regrets it regarding the replay rule, it’s a rule that people have to adjust to, in fact truthfully it’s not a change. The only thing that’s a change is adding language to the rule that a catcher has to leave a lane around home plate for the runner. The bigger change is to the runner and the catcher himself, the runner is not allowed to contact or push through to get home.

Michael Duca does Giants and A’s commentary each week for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Feitelberg report: Joe Montana issued protective order in Yee-Shrimp Boy case

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by Jerry Feitelberg

In San Francisco U.S.Federal Court on Tuesday U.S.District Judge Charles Breyer issued a protective order for former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Joe Montana in the Senator Leland Yee and Raymond Shrimp Boy Chow case. Montana was questioned by the FBI earlier regarding the Yee-Chow corruption sting.

Montana since retiring from football in 1994 has lived a primarly secluded life outside of football and does not grant interviews and shot just a handful of TV commericals. He has been heavily involved in real estate investments and what speicific questions the FBI asked Montana was not forthcoming according to press reports from the San Francisco Chronicle who broke the story.

Montana received the protection order because Breyer wanted to make sure that his reputation is in tact and that there is no misunderstanding that Montana did anything wrong in the Yee-Chow investigation, “it’s important for people who are innocently involved are not subjected to undue speculation” said Breyer.

One of the defendant’s attorneys James Brosnahan representing Keith Jackson a former fundraiser for Yee and San Francisco School Board of Education president who is currently out on bail, Brosnahan said he would not confirm or deny the meeting between the FBI and Montana, “I have nothing to say affirmantively or negatively about it”

Montana attorney Rob Mezzetti said that the FBI was not trying to reach Montana and that Mezzetti had no information about any conversations between the former 49er quarterback and the FBI, “if the FBI was trying to reach out to Joe I would know about it and nobody has tried reaching out to him.” said Mazzetti.

FBI spokesman Peter Lee said that he also could not confirm or deny any talks between Montana and the FBI, “I wouldn’t be able to confirm or deny that interaction.” As far as any association that Montana has had with Senator Yee or Shrimp Boy that has never been established. Yee is being charged with wire fraud and conspiracy to illegally deal fire arms and Chow is being charged for money laundering.

Montana is involved in a number of real estate ventures including building a $300 million transit village near the South Hayward BART Station and a $400 million project near Levis Stadium in Santa Clara which includes a hotel.

Montana quarterback for San Francisco from 1980 to 1992 before finishing his career with the Kansas City Chiefs from 92-1994.

Jerry Feitelberg is a talk show host for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaury’s News and Commentary: Jeter will get tribute in every A.L. park he visits before retiring this year

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

ANAHEIM–I’m glad to be back in the wonderful World of Disney, the New York Yankees are paying a visit at Anaheim opening up Monday night. The Yankees are on tour on the west coast it’s going to be the Bronx Zoo here in Anaheim. The Yankees Derrick Jeter is going to have a tribute in every town he goes to outside of New York he’s going to get a tribute becuse this is his last season in the big leagues.

Jeter is one of the best, everytime I look at Jeter it’s hard to believe this is the one stat on Jeter, how can you figure it out but it’s true in the history of the Yankees there are so many mega stars, 27 World Series he’s the only Yankee with 3,000 hits so far thats incrdible.

Nobody but Jeter has 3,000 hits and that’s amazing he deserves the accolades so were going to dedicate the trivia at Anaheim to Jeter this week and the Yankees are right there in sunny, sunny California. You look at Jeter’s career, five World Series rings, count them five and he hit .300 in the playoffs and World Series.

He lived and worked for one team only in the biggest media market in the country and maybe in the world New York, he never was involved in any scandal, you never heard a rumor. You talk about something that’s not normal these days. You play in New York your talking about Alex Rodriguez whose in the middle of a season long suspension.

Here’s a guy who played his whole career in the media capital of the world on the number one franchise in the United States the Yankees, here’s a guy whose never had any scandal, never anything, everything is positive about this man. That by itself is a story.

Cobb County residents moving forward with petition against paying for Braves stadium: The Atlanta Braves who are planning to move out of downtown Atlanta after playing in ten year old Turner Field plan to move to suburban Cobb County they are being met with some protests from tax payers where County residents are putting a petition together not to pay the $450 million in public money for the $672 million new Braves stadium.

The Braves and county officials say it’s all but a done deal the Braves have been met with some political pressure and the reason is very clear because of the demographics it’s more of an upper middle to upper class and it’s more white and they will support baseball and spend bigger bucks at the park on the game and more than the downtown stadium.

The few times when I traveled to their old park at Fulton County and their current park Turner Field, Turner is actually a wonderful facility. The Giants just got done sweeping the Braves in a three game series over the weekend and there is nothing wrong with Turner but it’s just about the money with their planned move to Cobb County.

The Braves think they can do better in Cobb County, I really don’t know if there is enough momentum to stop them from moving because that’s a franchise decision. If Major League Baseball apporoves it it’s going to be very tough for anybody to stop it.

Turner Field was built for the 1996 Olympics and the Braves wanted some upgrades done with Turner but Fulton County didn’t provide the subsidies and so the Braves began to look elsewhere espeically after they were approached by Cobb County officials about a new site.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for Angels baseball and does News and Commentary for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

That’s Amaurys News and Commentary: Racism in sports

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by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

LOS ANGELES–The LA Clippers advanced to the next round after eliminating the Warriors in a very emotional series at Oakland and in Los Angeles. Unfortunately this very good seven game series, won by the Clippers, was overshadowed by the now famous recording of the owner of the LA Clippers making some racist remarks.

BREAKING NEWS: And this is not CNN. There still racism in America and it is also living inside of our pro sports.

As a Hispanic-American I have experienced racism in the past, and those like me will understand it more than those that have not been discriminated.

As a man that was born in Cuba, who loves this country, my country, served in the US Army during the Vietnam years, and have been a proud citizen of the United States of America, and have a successful career in my line of work, I know that racism comes in many forms. But, whichever form it comes it is never good.

I feel sorry for the ignorant people that are racist, and they can be white, black, brown, yellow. Racism/Bigotry is not “owned”by any particular race. As a matter of fact, I have always said that considering that in our country there are more different races than any other country in the world, we still get along very well. Main reason? We are a country of laws.

I never met the owner of the LA Clippers, and as a Christian, I do not make an opinion of somebody I do not know. If he is a racist, that is not enough of a “crime”to force him to sell his team. And I still do not know(I am not an attorney)how can they force somebody to sell his/her team, because of a racist remark, in a country that respects free enterprise and private ownership.

A couple of years ago, Ozzie Guillen was the manager of the Miami Marlins and he made a remark to a magazine, saying: ” I like Fidel Castro”. As a Cuban-American sports journalist-broadcaster, I was interviewed by the USA Today, on the Ozzie Guillen situation then. I said to the newspaper -quote- “I believe in free speech, that is one of the reasons I left a communist country, Cuba, to come and live here, and as much as I disagree with what Guillen said, he has the right to say what he wants, this is America”.

To say “I love Castro”in Miami, is something very stupid, but it is not a crime. That year Ozzie’s team also finished last, and Ozzie was fired. I always liked Ozzie, interviewed him many times, when he was a player, a very good shortstop, and also when he as a manager with Chicago and Miami.

To this day, Ozzie Guillen is the only Major League Baseball manager, born in Latinamerica that has won a World Series.

People in powerful positions say many things to many people, however, racism (in my opinion)is something that is in somebody’s heart, it is not something that you wake up one morning and all-of-a-sudden you are a bigot.

This case of the owner of the Clippers and the other people involved is becoming a circus, all-of-a-sudden, a team that not long ago was great material for late night comedians, because they were the epitome of a losing franchise(at least in the court, not necessarily in the business side)now there is a long line of people that want to buy the LA Clippers, from Oprah and Magic Johnson, to Oscar de la Hoya. Some of Los Angeles’ best soap opera’s have not been produced in Hollywood studios, but(like the OJ case)in real life courts of justice.

I am afraid this one is also heading there.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish TV voice for Angels baseball and does News and Commentary each week for

http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Kings arena downtown: Blue prints not complete for new arena plans vote on hold at Sac City Hall

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by Jerry Feitelberg

The Sacramento City Council whose planned vote on the new arena will be put on hold as it was scheduled to be voted on May 13th. Details of the new arena plan were not finalized and won’t be ready by the 13th. Without such documents of the plan the city council will have to wait to vote on the plan.

It was however assured that the Kings and developers will have a plan in place in the very near future perhaps as soon as late May or early June. With such an enormous project in hand the final touches of the designs and doucments of the plan are still in the process of being matched up with the foot print of the new arena site at downtown plaza.

The city proposed $225 million subsidy is being detailed under the watchful eye of the Kings ownership and city officials as they’re looking at everything from the windows of the arena to the planned entertainment grounds and surrounding areas outside of the building. The Kings have assured the city council that the delay will not disrupt the October 2016 finish date.

“The definitive agreements are in the last stages of completion and will be finalized soon” the city said. The contract requirement is $1 million and had to be completed according to the city ten days in advance of the crucial May 13 city council vote and the agreement was not ready yet because the Kings were still working on some details of the agreement.

“There are a lot of documents, a lot of comprehensive documents, they all have to work together. It’s going to take a little more time.” said Sacramento Assistant Manager John Dangberg. Kings president Chris Granger said the deal is about 99.9 percent done. The Kings will be contributing $222 million and the City is in for $255 for a total of $477 million on the project.

Jerry Feitelberg is covering the arena developments for the Sacramento Kings and Golden State Warriors for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Larry Leavitt on the Stanley Cup playoffs: Will Sharks be looking at coaching and player changes;plus a look at the Stanley Cup Playoffs

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by Larry Leavitt

I’m not as much shocked that the San Jose Sharks were eliminated in that the Los Angeles Kings came back and won it and they are an extremely good team. The Kings are strong and powerful and they’re well coached. I’m more shocked that the Sharks didn’t give them a better fight when they had them up 3-0. That just amazes me how they could not finish this off.

As far as changes in coaching or player personnel what history shows us the Sharks organization always takes its time to disect what is happening in the past. They very metodically go through top to bottom, there is no stone unturned everybody will have a talk with the general manager Doug Wilson and the coaches and eventually Wilson will have to give his reccomendations to the ownership.

The owners have a right to override it or do whatever they want, the question will start with Wilson whether they want him to stay or do they go down to the coaches or do they go down to the players? There will have to be some change and for the players, it looks like head coach Todd McClellan will still be there.

Unless there is a coach who is available from another team and if the Sharks like that coach much better, we’ll just have to wait and see time will tell.

Minnesota vs. Chicago playoff preview: The Blackhawks are the dominate team and everyone expects them to roll through this and Minnesota has really been making a good series out of this. If you compare this to the Sharks-Kings series can Chicago come back and make it past the Wild in a seven game series anything can happen.

New York Rangers vs. Pittsburgh: Both of these teams have that hot and cold streak in them and right now it’s just who’s riding the hot hand, the Rangers are doing really well. The Penguins you can’t count them out with Syd Crosby this should go seven games and this will be a back and forth series.They really match each other up very well.

Montreal vs. Boston: The Canadiens after sweeping to get into the second round has had time to get ready for this second round series with the Bruins. The Habs have had a lot of time to watch the Bruins struggle and get into this series and what’s not to like about both of these teams going into this head to head.

Montreal has a lot of pressure in this series, there the only Canadian team in the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the toal country is behind them pushing and they have a lot of pressure from the country to do well. On the other hand Boston their always there, their a tough team the Bruins are well rounded they have four good lines and they push hard.

Anaheim vs. Los Angeles: The Southland can be very proud of both of their teams getting to the second round and facing each other. The interesting part of this is both of these clubs they played in the Winter Classic at Dodger Stadium this year and they played each other very hard this year.

This will be about bragging rights who is going to win this series? I don’t know how to pick the winner on this one and I don’t want either one of them to win but kind of proud that California has two great teams in the race still. This is going to be a tough series, I’ll give the edge to the Kings believe it or not even though their the lower seed and they just keep battling back and the toughness they showed in coming back from behind down 3-0 against San Jose to win it.

Larry Leavitt will be doing commentary throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

Warriors Playoff commentary: Clippers owner most likely will litigate lifetime ban

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by David Zizmor

LOS ANGELES–It’s most likely the NBA owners will vote to have Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling banned for the league for life and force him to sell the franchise. There is no question about that, Sterling he got caught red handed and there’s not much he could do about it.

Even in some of the statements from the last week he knows that he’s been caught, the most recent comment from Sterling was that he wished that he paid the woman (V.Stiviano) off. No one knows whether that means she was trying to black mail him with the recordings of him that she released.

Sterling is not denying what was in those recordings he’s admitting everyting that was said all those racist comments were his and that he essentially believed them and he hasn’t made any excuses about them. This is the thing Sterling has been a lousy owner for three decades, the racism is part of it also he’s been charged in the past with sexism.

Then there’s him being a bad owner it’s not him just being sexist, racist, he’s just an awful owner and an awful person by all accounts. This is a guy who when the Clippers season would end in early April every year because they never made the playoffs would fire his entire front office sales staff because he didn’t want to pay them for the four or five months until October until the season started again.

Sterling didn’t care that they needed to make ends meet, that they needed to pay their bills and the Clippers should have had people selling themselves to help make money for the team. This is a bad business practice that turned stupid. Were talking aobut a person who doesn’t care about other people beyond himself.

There was another story that another employee in the Clippers front office was suffering from cancer and needed a serious operation to get it taken care of except Sterling didn’t offer a health care plan and this man’s cancer treatment was not covered by whatever Sterling was offering.

Further Sterling wouldn’t give him anything so he could be treated and fortunately the players on the Clippers were quite generous and chipped in about $120,000 for this man to get his cancer treatment. This is Sterling people, this is a guy who wouldn’t even help one of his employees get treated for cancer. Ironically Sterling said he had prostate cancer himself this past week.

Daivd Zizmor covers the NBA for Sportsralk radio