Year-End Shoe Clearance Sale - Up to 70% Off Wednesday, December 27, 2006
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posted by Brandon Schenz @ 1:32 PM,
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Wade Named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year
Dwyane Wade, whose NBA Finals MVP performance led the Miami Heat to the franchise's first championship, has been chosen as the 2006 Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year for symbolizing in character and performance the ideals of sportsmanship, it was announced by SI Group Editor Terry McDonell.
The Sportsman of the Year issue, which is dated December 11, will hit newsstands this Wednesday, December 6. SI.com/sportsman includes the tribute to Wade as well as exclusive video segments, galleries of past Sportsman covers and My Sportsman nominations from dozens of SI writers. Wade will receive the new Sportsman of the Year award, a sterling silver trophy crafted by Tiffany & Co., at a party in his honor in New York on Thursday night, December 14.
Tuesday, December 5, at 10 p.m. ET/PT, HBO's Costas Now will celebrate Wade's selection and profile the year's top performers and newsmakers.
"This award has always stood for more than the victory alone. It recognizes the manner of an athlete's striving and the quality of his or her efforts," said McDonell. "Dwyane embodies that winning spirit by playing for his team, not himself, and by working in the community to ensure young people have the chance to realize their own dreams."
SI senior writer S.L. Price profiles Wade in the magazine and chronicles both his difficult childhood and his disciplined rise to stardom. Price writes, "But here's the factor, more than any other, that may decide if Dwyane Wade can survive even success: he likes difficulty. Ease makes him anxious. Perfect makes him squirm. But set him up with an early childhood from hell? Put him in a two-game hole in the Finals? He dares you to doubt him."
In only his fourth season in the league, Wade has established himself as one of the sport's premier players and as the standard bearer for a new generation of NBA superstar. Elevating his game when the stakes are highest, Wade has scored more postseason points in his first three seasons than any other player in NBA history. His Finals MVP honor adds to a deep resume of two All-Star Game appearances and a career-scoring average of 22.9 points per game. His credentials off the court are as impressive as the leadership he displays among his teammates. The Dwyane Wade Foundation, a nonprofit promoting social enrichment, education and physical fitness among youth, assists young people in reaching their educational and athletic goals through mentoring.
Wade is the fifth NBA player to be named Sportsman: Bill Russell (1968), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1985), Michael Jordan (1991) and Tim Duncan & David Robinson (2003). He is also the youngest player on the NBA/SI Sportsman list. (In addition, NBA player Rory Sparrow was named as one of eight Athletes Who Care in 1987.)
The last Miami-area recipient was former Dolphins' coach Don Shula (1993).
posted by Brandon Schenz @ 9:56 AM,
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World of hoops at Gelabale's fingertips
As strangers in a strange land, it made sense that Sonics center Johan Petro, a Frenchman, would invite countryman Mickael Gelabale and his parents to his Redmond home to celebrate Christmas.
The two families had what Petro described as a West Indies-themed celebration, where their mothers prepared the meals and they spent the day relaxing and getting away from basketball.
"The way he's playing right now, it doesn't seem like he needs a break at all," Petro said of Gelabale. "He's playing very well. When he first got in the league back in France (in 2001) he was like this.
"He's the kind of guy who would play everywhere. He's the kind of guy who is going to surprise you because he'll do things that you didn't think he could do."
Gelabale, 6 feet 7, is incredibly thin at 215 pounds, which hurts him in the post, but enables him to slither around defensive screens on the perimeter. He sometimes looks as if he's gliding on the court, which belies the effort he's exuding.
And his easy-going demeanor and unflappable coolness sometimes causes skeptics to question his desire.
"I get emotional, but I just keep it inside," Gelabale said. "I get excited. Not nervous anymore ... I like to celebrate in here [the locker room] when the game is over. On the court, I like to play and help my team win."
The Sonics believed they'd stolen a gem in the 2005 draft when they nabbed Gelabale in the second round (48th overall), but they figured the 23-year-old swingman would need time to mature and develop.
After spending the 2005-06 season with Real Madrid in Spain, Gelabale joined the Sonics this summer and played well in the exhibition season.
Still, Sonics coach Bob Hill never imagined he'd seriously contemplate starting Gelabale so soon into his rookie season.
But when Ray Allen suffered a bone bruise in his right foot, Hill he had a hole in his starting lineup and a decision to make. Who to start: Damien Wilkins or Gelabale?
So the Sonics coach summoned both players to his office and asked for their input.
Gelabale, from Pointe Noire, France, didn't say many words, but he extended an index finger and pointed toward Wilkins.
"I said to him [Gelabale], 'You probably deserve to start and do you feel comfortable starting?'" Hill said. "And he just pointed to Damien and I started Damien. That's important to me. He's comfortable coming off the bench right now."
Said Gelabale: "It's better if I sit for 5-10 minutes, then after that I can go in and get a feel for the game."
After just two months, Gelabale has become an integral part of the Sonics and one of their most consistent bench players.
His season averages, 3.6 points and 2.2 rebounds, aren't eye-popping, but in four of the past six games Gelabale has shown flashes of brilliance. During the span, he's averaging 7.6 points and 4.3 rebounds.
He scored a career-high 16 points against Cleveland on Dec. 15 and has scored in double figures three times.
"He's one of those guys that morphs into what the team needs," Allen said. "He can sit outside and shoot it if we need him to. He can penetrate if we need him to. He does so many things well that he's great to have out there on the floor."
When it was suggested that Gelabale looks like a poor man's Andrei Kirilenko, the do-everything-forward for Utah, Allen said: "Oh no, he's a much better offensive player. But he is just as active on the defensive end as Kirilenko."
In the 110-97 victory against Toronto on Saturday, Gelabale finished with six points and a game-tying nine rebounds. He also had two assists, a steal and blocked a shot.
"Nine rebounds?" Petro said. "I didn't have nine rebounds and that's my job, to get rebounds. It just shows you how active he is."
For the record, Petro, a 7-foot second-year center, had two rebounds against the Raptors.
"I don't know how it would have been for me as a rookie if I had someone here [from France]," Petro said. "It's probably easier for Mickael. We talk about things and I try to be like a big brother to him ... But the way he's playing right now, I can learn a lot from him."
posted by Brandon Schenz @ 5:39 AM,
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After Christmas Sale - Up to 55% Off Tuesday, December 26, 2006
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posted by Brandon Schenz @ 1:43 PM,
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Last Chance Wednesday, December 20, 2006
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posted by Brandon Schenz @ 10:30 AM,
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