Selasa, 11 Juni 2019

First Call: Antonio Brown is a singer now; enough Drake in the NBA Finals, already! - TribLIVE

46 minutes ago

In Tuesday’s “First Call,” Antonio Brown dabbles in Le’Veon Bell territory. Emotional reaction to Kevin Durant’s injury. Kyle Rudolph is staying with the Vikings. And, please, enough Drake!

Move over Le’V

Mr. Big Chest is Mr. Big Voice now.

Yup. A.B. is trying his hand at singing now.

Look out, Le’Veon Bell. Your old teammate is stealing your spotlight!

Brown has vast crooning experience. Remember his stint as the hippo on the “Masked Singer?”

Crying for K.D.

Golden State general manager Bob Myers cried his way through a post-game interview Monday night.

This after his team won Game 5 of the NBA Finals, 106-105, to stay alive against Toronto. The reason for his emotions was the apparent Achilles injury to Kevin Durant.

The Warriors star hadn’t played since injuring a calf May 8 against the Rockets. As ESPN.com points out, Durant might now choose to stay with the Warriors on a $31.5-million option if he’s sidelined for an extended period. He was due to be a free agent.

There had been rumblings that Durant was protecting himself, more so than risking an appearance on the court, even in the finals with the team in a desperate situation.

It’s clear now that wasn’t the case.

Teammate Demarcus Cousins skewered Durant’s critics with some rather not-safe-for-work language after the game.

Enough, Drake! Please

Nah. You don’t get to do this.

You don’t get to play the role of spotlight-hogging opponent-troll and Mr. Nice Guy all at the same time.

Or, at least you shouldn’t. But, hey, it’s sports journalism in the social media world, so I guess there is no consistency.

A bunch of national outlets bent over backward last night to turn Drake into a great diplomat after he has spent the entire postseason trying to be as much of a distraction as possible to every visiting NBA team that has come through Toronto in the playoffs.

The Raptors’ unofficial team mascot — and occasional music icon — has yapped at visiting stars nonstop during the playoffs, even having multiple obvious exchanges with Draymond Green of the Warriors earlier in the finals.

But when Durant got hurt, national media outlets seemed just as concerned writing about Drake’s reaction to Durant’s injury as they did K.D.’s Achilles itself.

I really didn’t need to see this story of the injury through the lens of Drake’s reaction to appreciate the gravitas, did you?

Sure. Let’s focus on one guy trying to worm his way into another camera shot with a hug, while everyone else courtside is appropriately letting the wounded athlete get treated and taken off the floor.

Ugh. Enough of this guy. I just feel so bad for him that he was so visually upset after the Raptors lost.

Better than the alternative

Some — including me — would’ve liked to have seen the Steelers kick the tires on Kyle Rudolph.

It had looked like he may be a cap casualty in Minnesota or traded.

But the franchise and the tight end appear to have worked out a contract extension.

There never was much of a connection between Rudolph and the Steelers, even though he would’ve been a great duo with Vance McDonald and insurance at the tight end position.

But at least he’s not going to the Patriots. There was some talk in New England of Rudolph potentially filling the void left by Rob Gronkowski’s retirement via trade.

Overkill?

When propaganda meets practicality.

That’s what the Carolina Panthers are dealing with.

Via ProFootballTalk, the team is going to livestream all of Cam Newton’s mini-camp throws on various outlets. The goal is to “show that all is well with the quarterback after he had shoulder surgery in January. The team built up anticipation for Newton’s minicamp work with a video featuring Newton’s response to anyone doubting he can make it back.”

Here’s the problem, just last week, head coach Ron Rivera wasn’t happy about a passing fan who snapped a picture of Newton throwing.

Yet the organization itself posted a video of Newton saying doubters would fuel his comeback as a way to build up minicamp attention.

Was there really going to be that much of a difference in Newton’s results between June 3 and June 11?

So there seem to be divergent goals between the franchise’s goal to calm concerns with the fan base, and Rivera’s desires to moderately monitor his quarterback’s progress in secret.

Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at [email protected] or via Twitter. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.

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https://triblive.com/sports/first-call-antonio-brown-is-a-singer-now-enough-drake-in-the-nba-finals-already/

2019-06-11 13:48:20Z
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