Witnessing NBA history last night was surely a treat. The Golden State Warriors made history at home, the Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. They beat the Memphis Grizzlies in a blowout game, 125-104 led by Stephen Curry with 46 points to win the NBA-record 73rd game breaking the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls’ record of 72 wins.
The determined Defending Champs’ 24-0 start to the NBA season was definitely a contributing factor to the record.
Congrats to the Warriors and to Coach Steve Kerr who was also a part of that 95-96 Bulls team.
However, since that game was a blowout, all eyes went to Kobe Bryant’s last NBA game when he was at 50 points. Jay-Z told him during the game he traveled all the way there to see it and Jack Nicholson was there as usual, happy to see Kobe perform so well in his last game. Kobe went further to score 60 points! He not only made the Lakers win a game versus the Jazz, 101-96 (well win a game period), he has now scored the most points by a player 37 or older. He passed the great, Michael Jordan who scored 51 at 38 years in the 2001-2002 season and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who scored 46 at 38 years in the 1985-86 season.
Kobe was extremely winded after the game but was happy that his kids got to see him play in his true element and that his teammates actually didn’t want or beg him to pass the ball for once.
Watch “Kobe Bryant 60 Points Highlights | Jazz vs Lakers | April 13, 2016 | NBA 2015-16 Season” on YouTube here:
His teammates were happy for him and embraced him after the game.
When Kobe spoke to reporters after the game, he finished by saying ‘Mamba out (drops mic)’.
Farewell to Kobe Bryant, a true legend in the NBA.
Goddard Catering Group also known as GCG Events are THE Caterers to watch! Up to last week Thursday, many did not know who or what was Goddard. How did that change? GCG hosted what I considered as a launch titled, ‘Destination: Delicious!’ last Thursday night at the Ruins, Mona that was Simply Outstanding, fully representing their brand.
Fidelity Motors Ltd. is a part of the Goddard Enterprises Group of Companies and GCG often works together with Tai Flora Luxe. So on the outskirts of the event, a car was on display followed by a beautiful table arrangement and lounge area decorated by Tai Flora.
GCG and Tai Flora pair beautifully together, as GCG not only caters for Corporate and Social events but for Weddings as well. They describe themselves as expensive but based on Suga’s experience with them, I absolutely disagree. For the complete package that they offer, for instance if you also require their Bar Services, they provide all the necessary glassware, ice, flatware, cutlery, disposables and service staff for an unbeatable price. Not to mention that they come fully equipped with their cooling trucks, electricity and more. To add icing to the cake, they are partners with Pop Up Gourmet Jamaica, which means that once you have your Pop Up Gourmet Advantage Card you get a 10% discount. Depending on the size of your event, that could turn out to be up to $30,000 to $50,000 or more off of your bill! My Gosh, where have they been all along? They have been around for many years Suga Bears. After successfully catering for the ICC Cricket World Cup in 2007, they saw the need to raise the bar on catering services throughout the region, leading to the birth of GCG Events in 2008, an affiliated company of Goddard Catering Group and a member of the Goddard Enterprises Group of Companies. Some persons who know of them may also familiarise them with the airport or airport/airplane food. But when you taste their food, you would have no idea. They are thus familiar with the importance of punctuality as well.
They do a lot of Overseas Weddings and Funerals. Funerals?! Yes, because when persons land at the airport where their office is located, all they have to do is ask for GCG to take care of everything for them and work with their budget stating how much a head they can afford. The headache they thought they would have is usually gone once it reaches into GCG’s hands as they seem to be an excellent team. It is likely that you would communicate with Jasmin Ramsay or Cheridah Douglas who are the epitome of quick, efficient communication, quality service and the ability to deduce the needs of their customers, often without even having to ask.
To the general public, GCG probably started to visually creep into the Events market since the 1st Epicurean Escape in 2012 held at Grizzly’s Plantation Cove, close to Ocho Rios, Discovery Bay and Runaway Bay. The Festival featured some of Jamaica’s finest including Chef Ravi Anne, Chef Dennis McIntosh, Chef Theo Smith, Chef Christopher Evans, many others and most importantly, GCG’s current head Chef, Daniel Schwietzer. Since then they have been taking their time filtering into the Events market even more.
Executive Chef Daniel Schwietzer is Swiss and discovered his love for cooking from his Uncle who had a restaurant in Geneva, Switzerland. He knew very quickly from then that he wanted to be a Chef. He traveled across Switzerland where he learnt French and Italian cuisines, Los Angeles, California and then finally to Jamaica 25 years ago! He has served in the capacity of Executive Chef at Morgan’s Harbor Hotel, Temple Hall Estate, Plantation Inn and for the past 19 years, Goddard Catering Group Jamaica Ltd.
So what did Chef Schwietzer and the other Chefs as well as Bartenders have to offer at Destination: Delicious held last Thursday? It was quite a spread. Suga arrived at about 7:45pm. The event was slated to be from 6:30pm to 10pm so I arrived when things were about to be in full swing. Invited Guests were greeted with Sangria and I was just in time to hear Chef Schwietzer be introduced and have him take us through all the stations where he was sure to display his passion of fusing Caribbean and European cuisines.
The Cocktail station had Roasted Tuna with balsamic glaze drizzled over micro greens, Bruschetta with jerked cream cheese, escellion and wine, Rice noodles with Salmon, usually paired well with white wine and Ceviche drizzled with lime juice and some country pepper. The Ceviche and Tuna Appetizers impressed Suga.
The Soup station had Red peas, Manish water and Pumpkin soup with Spicy Banana Bread croutons that enhanced the flavour. All were tasty, but the Manish water was the hit for the night.
There was a Salad station to top off wetting the appetite. I loved the general use of fresh micro greens as I am in total support of the local farm to table concept.
Then for the meat lovers, the Beef and Pork station were kicking where the mango salsa complemented the Beef Tenderloin well and the coffee rubbed and chocolate infused methods were a delightful enhancement in flavour.
The Flat Bread station had THE most toppings including pesto, smoked marlin, fresh mozzarella and mushrooms, basil, micro greens, you name it!
There was a live cooking, Pasta station with Seafood pasta and a Dessert station where for Suga, the highlight was the Apple crumble. It was delicious.
Wines, Cocktails and Premium Spirits galore were offered.
The most outstanding for Suga was the tender, fresh, succulent cut of Beef! Perfection.
The Chefs were personable and pleasant, especially the men who had a charming flair to their service. Well done Goddard. Well done.
Executive Chef Daniel Schwietzer and Gabrielle Williams from Suga Lifestyle
I thoroughly enjoyed the night and expected nothing less. It was evident that persons were pleasantly surprised, impressed and pleased with the high standard and quality of service, food and drinks that GCG presented. A lot of power players in the Events industry were present and I am sure they will be key to future events and persons that GCG will cater to.
There is currently a breakdown across the service industry, Wedding vendors in particular, with regards to efficient communication such as getting quotes to customers in a timely fashion, following up with customers etc., but GCG is coming full force now and they will be at Dîner en Blanc this Saturday and other events to come. You won’t have to look out for them too hard because they will be Simply Outstanding!
The Warriors managed to hold off the Spurs not once but twice, to equalize the record of 72 wins by the Bulls of the 1995-1996 NBA season.
After the Warriors beat the Spurs last Thursday, they joined the Bulls as the the only other team in the NBA league to have 70 wins in one season. The Spurs were also close to joining them in that prestigious category but fell short and are currently at 65 wins with two more games left to play. Both on Thursday and last night they played without one of their key defensive players and facilitators, Boris Diaw who has a minor injury and it costed them big time. In order to beat this Warriors team, the best hands have to be on deck. Warriors won 92-86 last night with Stephen Curry scoring 37 points as they recorded their names in history and also stopped the Spurs’ 48-game home win streak. Note that Curry could have scored 40 points if his shot that made the basket from the Spurs’ 3-point line wasn’t released after the buzzer. Just amazing.
So what is the mind frame of Steph and thw Warriors now? According to ESPN Score Center, Steph Curry said they put themselves in position to win 73 games and they will approach it the right way.
Tune in this Wednesday to witness history (Yes, Suga is calling it) as the Warriors face the Grizzlies at 9:30pm.
Last night the Golden State Warriors suffered a terrible loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in overtime, 124-117. After the Warriors were leading by 17 points they should have never allowed that loss to happen.
What happened?! 24 turnovers, Splash brothers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson missed a lot of shots, they went for 3s when there was limited time left in the game and they should have just gone for jump shots and most importantly, Shabazz Muhammad from the Timberwolves came up big scoring 35 points and Andrew Wiggins also of the Timberwolves was on fire scoring crucial clutch shots and the game winning shot.
Watch the recap of the game here:
Before last night’s loss, they had a 55% chance of breaking the Bulls’ 72-win record. With the loss, they are now 69-9 with a 15% chance of breaking the record.
Warriors Coach, Steve Kerr (Past Chicago Bulls player) stated that the Bulls felt the pressure and had a few losses on the final stretch as well.
The Warriors also failed their first attempt to join the Bulls as the only team to win 70 games in a season. This brings the San Antonio Spurs on their heels as well with their current 65-12 record.
The Warriors need to win each of their next 4 games to break the Bulls’ record and 2 of those games will be versus the Spurs!
It is still possible but Suga thinks they are likely to equal the record and not break it. Draymond Green of the Warriors said he cannot wait for the regular season to be over and all of the hype in the media about them breaking the record could have had an impact on their focus during the last few games.
The pressure is on and the Warriors already seemed burnt out but let us see how much fight they have left in them.
Rotary and partners in Rotary, Rotaract, serve their communities wherever they see a void and opportunity for improvement. They also help with developing young minds and develop their own members personally and professionally as well.
Every Mikkle Jamaica is another non-profit organization that creates positive memories for Jamaica’s Orphaned and at-risk children.
The Rotaract Club of Kingston partnered with Every Mikkle Jamaica and visited the National Children’s Home in Papine during World Rotaract Week in March of this year.
They interacted with the kids, assisted with repairs to their Chicken coop, donated 100 baby chicks and stationery.
President of the Rotaract Club of Kingston, Pierce Ramsay (Left) looks on with the kids of National Children’s Home as baby chicks get settled into a new home
Pure awesomeness from Rotaract Club of Kingston and Every Mikkle Jamaica, helping to Build a Better Jamaica.
For more information on these non-profit organizations and how you can join, participate or contribute, check out the following:
The West Indies men had a superb start to their innings with a wicket before England made any runs. Badree was on fire with both bowling and fielding and seemed to aggravate a shoulder injury towards the end of the innings after he made a lovely catch. Thankfully he had done all the work he needed to do already. England ended their innings on 155/9.
The pressure was then put on England. Even though their wickets fell quickly, pressure was still on the West Indies as well because the score of 155 was the second highest number of runs made in World T20 final history.
England responded well to the pressure and fought hard. They got 2 crucial early wickets, with Charles (1) and Gayle who just scored one boundary. Gayle has an issue timing the ball and needs to address it by being receptive to proper coaching for his shortfall.
Simmons went for a duck but Samuels was still there taking it easy with runs. There was a scare when he was called out for being caught by the wicket keeper but got called back as ‘not out’ when the umpires reviewed England’s wicket keeper scooping the ball off of the field into his glove claiming he caught it. Aussie tactics maybe? Thankfully justice was in our favour and Samuels had another chance to repeat or improve a possible game-winning performance as he did in 2012 when the Windies won their first T20 title.
England also dropped a crucial catch and missed running out Samuels as well, which definitely hurt them in the end.
Bravo stuck with Samuels for a little while and then he went. When Russell was caught for 1 and Captain Sammy came and went for 2, we knew this would end up being another nail biter for the West Indies and their fans. All of India who hosted the tournament were behind them as well, even though we booted them out in the semis.
Then we had the pair of Samuels and Brathwaite. It all came down to get 19 runs off of 6 balls!
What happened?! Strength, no weakness!
Watch “ICC T20 World Cup 2016 Final – Carlos Brathwaite Hit 4 Winning Sixes in Last Over” on YouTube here:
The West Indies won with the highest score in T20 history of 161/6.
Marlon Samuels was named Player of the Match with scoring 85* and was awarded with a Hublot watch. India’s Virat Kohli was named Player of the Tournament.
However, it was Samuels’s speech after he received his Player of the Match Award that was negative yet quite hilarious. At the end of answering his questions he made it a point to call out or send a message rather, to Australian Bowler, Shane Warne that he answers with his bat and not the mic.
On a more positive note, the West Indies now hold 3 titles this year with the Under 19 squad as World Cup Champions and the senior Men and Women teams as World T20 Champions.
With the Windies’ CPL T20 experience, their performance wasn’t perfect but they delivered.
Rally round the West Indies!
By: Gabrielle Williams (Daughter of Basil ‘Shotgun’ Williams)
The West Indies Women dancing and singing, ‘Champion, Champion….’
The West Indies Women have done it! They have won their first ICC World T20 final, beating the Defending Champs for 3 years, the Australians by 8 wickets.
The opening women stuck it out for the majority of their innings. 18 year old, Hayley Matthews won Woman of the Match with 66 runs and Captain Stafanie Taylor won Player of the Tournament with 246 runs at an average of 41. Today she made 59 runs.
It was a spectacular final. The Australian bowlers failed to find much dot balls (deliveries bowled without any runs scored off it, so called because they are recorded in the score book with a single dot)Â and most importantly, in the last over, they missed a crucial opportunity for a run out right by the wicket, giving the West Indies women the 2 runs they needed to win.
The West Indies men were there to show their support and the Captain for the men, Darren Sammy also sent messages of encouragement before the match and with various tweets.
Well done ladies, now it’s time for the men versus England!
