Hometown Broadcasting Sports Monday 5/11/20
11 May 2020 Sports
Alex Antetokounmpo, the youngest brother of NBA superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo plans to skip college and play professionally in Europe to prepare for the NBA. Alex Antetokounmpo, who graduated from Dominican High School in Wisconsin, told EuroHoops.net of his plans on Saturday. He had reportedly received offers to play at DePaul, Ohio and Green Bay. He moved to the Milwaukee area from Greece in 2013 when Giannis was a rookie with the Milwaukee Bucks. Alex Antetokounmpo isn’t ranked in the 2020 ESPN 100 rankings. He was twice a first team all-state selection and averaged 20 points and 7.3 rebounds per game during his senior season, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Antetokounmpo will be eligible for the NBA draft beginning in 2021. If he makes it to the NBA he would become the fourth Antetokounmpo brother to do so. Giannis and Thanasis both play for the Bucks while Kostas plays for the Los Angeles Lakers.
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Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez, football coach Paul Chryst and men’s basketball coach Greg Gard are being asked to take a 15% pay cut over the next six months as part of the school’s response to the pandemic. School officials say Alvarez, Chryst and Gard are among 25 of the athletic department’s highest-earning employees who are being asked to take that voluntary cut. There will be no reduction in that group’s work hours. The pay cuts were announced as part of what the athletic department described as a “compensation and work reduction plan” that will impact most of its employees as it deals with budget problems resulting from the coronavirus. The plan tentatively takes effect May 18 and runs through July 25.
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Brett Favre on Friday disputed a Mississippi state auditor’s report that said the Hall of Fame quarterback received $1.1 million in welfare money for multiple speaking engagements that he didn’t actually attend.
Favre told ESPN Wisconsin he instead was being paid for his role in radio public service announcements and advertisements that ran for a few years in Mississippi. Favre reiterated that he is paying back the money.
“I did ads that ran for three years, was paid for it, no different than any other time that I’ve done endorsements for other people, and I went about my way,” Favre said. “For (the auditor) to say I took $1.1 million and didn’t show up for speaking engagements is absolutely, 100% not true.”
An audit released Monday said Favre Enterprises received $500,000 in December 2017 and $600,000 in June 2018 from the Mississippi Community Education Center, a nonprofit group whose former leader has been indicted in an alleged welfare embezzlement scheme. Mississippi is one of the poorest states in the U.S., and the education center had state contracts to spend money through the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, also known as TANF.
According to the auditor’s report, Favre was supposed to make speeches for at least three events but “upon a cursory review of those dates, auditors were able to determine that the individual contracted did not speak nor was he present for those events.”
Favre emphasized Friday the money had nothing to do with scheduled speaking engagements and that he has “never no-showed anybody.”
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Sixty of the 5,754 people in a study of the Major League Baseball employee population tested positive for coronavirus antibodies, a rate lower than what similar studies run in California found, the studies’ authors said Sunday. The results of the study, which was held in mid-April, revealed a prevalence of COVID-19 antibodies in the MLB employee population of 0.7 percent — a number adjusted to reflect testing accuracy. The survey showed that about 70% of those who tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies had been asymptomatic. After volunteering to participate, MLB was chosen by Stanford to join the study, which will have no bearing on the league’s ability to return to play as it prepares to offer a proposal to the players’ association this week that will outline a plan to do so. Twenty-six of MLB’s 30 teams participated in the study, which sent out 10,000 test kits.
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The French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros could be held without fans later this year, the president of the French Tennis Federation said Sunday. The clay-court tournament at Roland Garros was initially slated to be held May 24 to June 7 but was postponed amid the coronavirus pandemic and rescheduled for Sept. 20 to Oct. 4. Bernard Giudicelli told French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche that organizers are considering the prospect it might need to go ahead without fans present. It could even start one week later. However, he conceded that “the lack of visibility” when hosting a tournament without fans is a concern. Recent reports have speculated that the French Open could be rescheduled again
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If the NBA season continues, Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant won’t be a part of it. The Nets are determined to let Durant rest until next year, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. While some fans believed the coronavirus postponement would give Durant more time to recover, perhaps making him ready for game action, the Nets don’t want to take that risk. Durant, 31, is recovering from a torn Achilles. Durant suffered the injury in last year’s NBA finals. He signed with the Nets in the offseason, and was expected to miss the entire year rehabbing the injury.
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The American Legion’s Department of Wisconsin has cancelled its programming of American Legion Baseball within the state for the 2020 season due to concerns of COVID-19. The recommendation was made by the Wisconsin American Legion Baseball Association (WALBA) Board of Directors on a video conference Wednesday and the Department Executive Committee then made the final decision Saturday. It marks the first time since 1927 the Department of Wisconsin will not crown an American Legion Baseball champion. A total of 24 other states have canceled their American Legion Baseball program for 2020 as of Wednesday.
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