Sports

Winston Brings Spotlight to Alabama Hometown for Draft

Published

9 years ago

May 1, 2015

James Winston reacts with his grandmother Myrtle Winston to learning he is the first pick in the NFL draft Thursday, April 30, 2015 in Bessemer, Ala. Winston was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. (AP Photo/Hal Yeager)

Jameis Winston reacts with his grandmother Myrtle Winston to learning he is the first pick in the NFL draft Thursday, April 30, 2015 in Bessemer, Ala. Winston was drafted by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. (AP Photo/Hal Yeager)

JOHN ZENOR, AP Sports Writer

BESSEMER, Ala. (AP) — Jameis Winston celebrated the NFL draft his way, creating his own memorable moment with family and friends in his hometown. It was his mother who handed him his No. 3 Buccaneers jersey after he became the top pick, not the NFL commissioner.

For Winston, it was perfect.

“They actually felt the moment with me,” Winston told The Associated Press after the draft, clad in a dark suit with a gold tie and gold and black shoes. “I wasn’t just walking up by myself and getting taken away. They’re actually here with me right now, and it’s a blessing.”

The Heisman Trophy-winning Florida State quarterback was driven up to the spacious home of a family friend at 8:01 p.m. ET Thursday night, just a couple of minutes before the call came. A grinning Winston hung up the phone, turned to his family and announced he was heading to Tampa Bay.

“If you watched any Florida State games last year, we always cut it close,” Winston quipped about his arrival time. “But what happened? We always came through.”

He delivered again on Thursday — flashing smiles and poise in the face of the bright spotlight he’s already accustomed to. This time, he brought the national spotlight with him to Bessemer.

Earlier Thursday, camera crews filed in and out of Hueytown High School, where Winston’s No. 8 jersey is retired.

Everyone was in town on to see Winston, who skipped the televised festivities in Chicago to celebrate in his hometown, next door to Hueytown.

And he did it in grand style.

The home had a fountain in the front, a huge Winston banner on one side and tables in the back for guests, including Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher. Traffic on the normally serene tree-lined road moved at a crawl beforehand. The scene had the feel of what was happening hundreds of miles away in Chi-Town.

This, however, was all just for Winston.

Commissioner Roger Goodell stepped to the podium in Chicago and ended the suspense, saying, “With the first pick in the 2015 NFL draft, the Tampa Buccaneers select Jameis Winston, quarterback, from Florida State.”

Fisher beamed like a proud father before the pick was announced.

“It’s just a great night,” Fisher said. “It’s a night to be joyful and happy for him.”

Plenty of people in these suburban Birmingham communities with a combined population of about 43,000 had planned to watch the draft and see if the Buccaneers would pick Winston.

“Just like we watched Bo Jackson,” said Bessemer’s Harry W. Carey.

Jackson is another Heisman-winning superstar who hails from Bessemer — and incidentally went No. 1 in the 1986 draft, to the Bucs.

Holly Adams, who taught Winston AP physics in 2011 at Hueytown High, said she hadn’t heard much buzz about the draft.

“Not really just because it’s become such a common thing in Hueytown to hear about Jameis,” Adams said. “But any time you get introduced to someone and they say, ‘Oh, this person teaches at Hueytown’ or ‘she’s from Hueytown,’ that’s the first thing they ask you. Do you know Jameis? Did you teach Jameis.”

Winston, though, remains a polarizing figure even in his hometown.

He was involved in several highly publicized off the field incidents while at Florida State, including the infamous crab legs caper. posted an Instagram photo of him celebrating on draft night with a tray of crab legs. Winston, showing he’s willing to make fun of himself, posted an Instagram photo of him celebrating with a tray of crab legs.

In a more serious allegation, a former FSU student has filed a lawsuit against Winston, accusing him of rape, assault, false imprisonment and emotional distress. Winston has said the sex was consensual and was never arrested or charged.

“We know more about him than we do any player in this draft,” Fisher said. “Every part of his life has been picked apart.

“People will be shocked with how he represents” the Bucs, the coach said.

Even those who expressed concern seem to be pulling for him.

Michael Raymond, a big Alabama fan from nearby Oak Grove, has mixed feelings about Winston, citing other incidents during the quarterback’s college career. He worries that “it’s almost a Johnny Manziel thing going on.”

He added, “being a quarterback, since they’re the key to everything, they’re willing to risk that kind of investment on somebody that could be a bust. I hope he’s not.”

Carey went to many of Winston’s games at neighboring Hueytown and his nephew was a childhood friend of the quarterback. He believes Winston deserves another chance at the “new life” Winston would later proclaim he’s embarking on.

“We’re all capable of making mistakes in life, but we should not hold that against him,” said Carey, while having lunch at a Hueytown barbecue restaurant. “We’re all human. We’re capable of doing things and learning from the mistakes we make in life.

“He’s going to make a difference in the game.”

___

AP NFL website: www.pro32.ap.org and www.twitter.com/AP_NFL

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Opinion: Sha’Carri, H.E.R., and Kamala’s Olympian Dash to the Presidency

I know the Olympics are over. Consider this me just running through the tape. You know, the one at the finish line. (Remember as the 100-meter gold medalist Noah Lyles found out, a leg can beat you, but it’s the first torso to cross that counts). I’m still savoring all of the Olympics highlights.

Published

3 weeks ago

August 19, 2024

Oakland Post

Courtesy of Harris-Walz Campaign.

By Emil Guillermo

I know the Olympics are over. Consider this me just running through the tape. You know, the one at the finish line.

(Remember as the 100-meter gold medalist Noah Lyles found out, a leg can beat you, but it’s the first torso to cross that counts).

I’m still savoring all of the Olympics highlights.

My favorite moment — even more than the wild Stephen Curry three that nailed the gold in men’s basketball–was the Women’s 4×100 relay and Sha’Carri Richardson. Far behind, as she got the baton for the anchor leg, Richardson was magic in motion. With a phenomenal burst of speed, she made up the lost ground in seconds. But it was her glance back at the smoked competition as she crossed the finished line that got me.

Unforgettable.

To top it off was the closing ceremony that included H.E.R., singing the “Star Spangled Banner,” our country’s national anthem. It was H.E.R. representing all of us — the Asian American Filipino/African American pop star a/k/a Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson of Vallejo, Calif.

She was the face of America, welcoming the next games to our nation where in 2028, the entire country will be closer to what California already is, a minority-majority state. Seeing the multiracial singer was the extension of an ideal theme that a world where people have a love interest in one another, will get along with each other.

It’s the hope of a world at peace beyond the Olympic zone.

KAMALA IN THE BAY AREA FOR $13 MILLION

As the closing ceremonies were relayed from Paris, another biracial icon was continuing her Olympian sprint to the presidency. Kamala Harris was back in the Bay Area to share her campaign joy with rich homies.

At the Fairmount in San Francisco, the tickets ranged from $3,300 to up to $500,000 — a sliding scale for the well-heeled. Far from the $5 dollar internet pitches that end up in your inbox daily.

There were some who gladly paid at the low-end forgoing a vacation to support a historic run to save democracy. Nearly 700 attendees offering up more than $13 million were reported on the inside, including high tech folks and politicos like attorney general Rob Bonta.

Outside of the event, Harris also drew the same type of Pro-Gaza protestors who have dogged her at events in Las Vegas and Detroit. “Killer Kamala, you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide,” was the chant, according to reports.

The protestors accuse Israel of genocide against the Palestinians but hold the Biden/Harris administration just as accountable for the tens of thousands who have died in Gaza.

Harris never saw the protestors on Nob Hill. But she saw them in Detroit, where she let the protestors have their First Amendment right, and then spoke directly them.

“If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that, otherwise, I’m speaking,” Harris said to cheers from supporters who drowned out the protestors.

It was as tough and as candid as Harris has been on any issue since she began her campaign.

For now, she is the joyful, feelgood Kamala, raising millions, staying on message, and “moving forward not backward.”

About the Author

Emil Guillermo is a journalist and commentator. See him on YouTube.com/@emilamok1. Or at www.amok.com

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A Member of 1975 GSW Championship Team Recalls the Greatness of Coach Al Attles

Next year marks the 50th Anniversary of the 1975 Golden State Warriors NBA Championship. Led by coach Al Attles, this team brought the first NBA championship to the Bay Area. A graduate of North Carolina A&T, an HBCU institution, Attles became the NBA’s first full-time African American coach.

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Oakland Post

At the end of the day, this was a basketball team that succeeded against all odds to become NBA World Champions. Never recognized, rarely mentioned, and playing during a racially and socially turbulent time in Oakland and the Bay Area, our 1974-75 Warriors team had no chance to have a successful season were it not for the foundations and strategic brilliance laid out by Al Attles.

By Charles Dudley

Next year marks the 50^th Anniversary of the 1975 Golden State Warriors NBA Championship. Led by coach Al Attles, this team brought the first NBA championship to the Bay Area. A graduate of North Carolina A&T, an HBCU institution, Attles became the NBA’s first full-time African American coach.

He also became the first full-time African American head coach in history to win an NBA Championship. On the eve of this 50^th anniversary, I would like to share what Coach Attles meant to myself and my teammates.

Al was a force of nature, and it is reflected in his accomplishments during his 50-year career tenure with GSW starting with the 1960-61 season when he was drafted the 39^th overall pick by the then Philadelphia Warriors. The Philadelphia Warriors were the only professional team Al has ever been associated with.

He played 11 seasons and coached six playoff teams, including the 1975 champions. In 2014, he was the recipient of the John W. Bunn Lifetime Achievement Award, the Basketball Hall of Fame’s most prestigious honor aside from enshrinement.

There are only seven surviving players from the 1974-75 season. Those no longer with us are: Steve Bracey, Charles Johnson, Phil Smith, Derek Dickey and Bill Bridges. Assistant Coach Joe Roberts, who played an integral part in the team’s success during the 1974-75 season, recently passed away.

The remaining players are this writer, Clifford Ray, George Johnson, Rick Barry, Jamaal Wilkes, Jeff Mullins, and our trainer, Dick D’Doliva. Over time, the gratitude and love for Coach Attles has been deeply felt and to this day is embodied in what is engraved on our Championship rings – “Togetherness.”

Here is what Al meant to all of us. More than a coach, he was a tremendous leader, mentor, innovator and made all 12 of us feel important. On the bench, at practice or on the road and even when the chips were down, Al never swore, never belittled or yelled at any of us in front of each other.

No one ever wanted to disappoint him, everyone accepted their respective roles, and we knew what we had to do to achieve long-term success. That is where the slogan “Strength in Numbers” began for us. He taught us how to set goals and how to achieve them. An honorable man, he never went back on anything he promised.

At the time, we were living in a basketball world that refused to see us, recognize us, or want us to be a part of professional basketball because of the makeup of our team, which consisted of 10 African American players and two white players. In 1975, this was not the norm in the NBA. No matter what was going on outside the arena, Al always kept us focused on the prize. “We win together or we lose together.” Importantly, he created the foundation for our individual successes after our basketball careers had ended.

Al saw something special in all the players on the 1974-75 team. It started with training camp that season in Hawaii and culminated in Game Four of the NBA finals against the Washington Bullets (now Washington Wizards).

Attles also saw something special in Joe Roberts, who became the Warriors first assistant coach. His trust in Roberts paid dividends when he had to take over for Al in Game Four of the NBA Finals.

At the start of the 1975 NBA Playoff Finals, Attles’ team was being vilified by the media as being the worst ever to reach the finals and shouldn’t have been there at all. At a team meeting and Al said to the players “I don’t know if we can beat this team in four straight, but I think we can beat them in five.”

The word was that the Bullets were supposed beat us in four straight games. Everyone heard that prediction, took it to heart and won the first three games. In Game Four, it came down to the wire, but with the belief in togetherness, we beat the Washington Bullets 96-95. In that four-game sweep, the Warriors became only the third team in NBA history to do so. To date, there have only been nine teams to accomplish this.

His coolness under pressure and confidence in his players resulted in this victory that saved professional basketball in the Bay Area; and his leadership in forming a racially diverse team laid the foundation for how the NBA looks today.

Speaking on behalf of my team and myself, I’m very honored to have been coached under “Mr. Warrior,” Al Attles.

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California Black Media

Several Prominent Californians Appointed to Presidential Delegations to Paris Olympic Games

As the world turns its eyes to Paris for the 2024 Olympic Games this week, four official delegations appointed by President Joe Biden are representing the United States at opening and closing ceremonies. Several prominent California officials and public figures are among the delegates. On July 26, Jill Biden, first lady of the United States, led a delegation to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Published

3 weeks ago

August 19, 2024

Oakland Post

First Lady Jill Biden stands with some members of the U.S. delegation to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

By Lila Brown

California Black Media

Several prominent California officials and public figures are among the delegates.

On July 26, Jill Biden, first lady of the United States, led a delegation to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games.

Among presidential delegates to that event were California’s Democratic Senior Sen. Alex Padilla; Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass; Casey Wasserman, chairperson, LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games; and Brian Boitano, three-time Olympian and Olympic gold medalist in figure skating. Boitano is from Sunnyvale in Santa Clara County.

“We must continue our urgent work ensuring that Angelenos benefit from the preparation for the Games, as well as in the decades following,” said Bass. “Together, we will showcase Los Angeles – not just the popular tourist destinations, but each of our beautiful neighborhoods and communities. Together, we will leverage the Games to help local small businesses, create local jobs and create lasting environmental and transportation improvements throughout Los Angeles.”

The other two non-California appointees on that delegation were U.S. Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del) and Dawn Staley, three-time Olympic gold medalist and head women’s coach, University of South Carolina.

“Mr. Douglas Emhoff, Second Gentleman of the United States, will lead the delegation to the Closing of the Olympic Games,” read a White House Press release dated July 22 announcing the delegations.

Emhoff was a Los Angeles entertainment attorney before moving to Washington when his wife became vice president of the United States.

Californians appointed to the delegation to the closing ceremony, which will take place Aug. 11, are Junior Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-Calif.); U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA-42); Denise Bauer, a former Los Angeles TV anchor who currently serves as United States Ambassador to Paris; and Chaunté Lowe, a member of the President’s Council on Sports, Fitness and Nutrition, four-time Olympian and Olympic bronze medalist, Track and Field. Lowe is from Riverside.

The only non-Californian appointed to the Closing Ceremony delegation is two-time Olympic gold medalist and World Cup Champion in Women’s Soccer, Brianna Scurry.

“The Honorable Xavier Becerra, secretary of the United States Department of Health and Human Services, will lead the delegation to the closing of the Paralympic Games,” read the White House press release. The closing ceremony will take place on September 8, 2024.”

Becerra is a Sacramento native and former California Attorney General.

According to the White House, members of each Paralympic Presidential Delegations will be announced at a later date.

Illinois U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth will lead the delegation to the Opening Ceremony of the Paralympic Games on Aug. 28.