On Sunday night, the Warriors tied the NBA record for most straight games won to open the NBA season at 15-0 vs. the Denver Nuggets.
Golden State has bolted out of the gate this season and the Lakers should pose no threat to them tonight, playing at home at the ORACLE Arena in Oakland California at 10:30pm.
Reigning MVP Stephen Curry improves every season and he has certainly been entertaining the crowd. But most importantly, he is a team player and Curry along with Thompson, Barnes, and Green have been scoring an even spread to dominate other teams so far this season.
Curry has also been named Western Conference Player of the Week, which is his 4th Career Weekly Award. It was for the games played, Monday, November 16th to Sunday, November 22nd. He joins Chris Mullin and Baron Davis with 4 and looks to even up with Tim Hardaway with 5. Note that the Warriors’ Klay Thompson is on 3.
LeBron who? Oh yes, he is still playing. Cleveland’s LeBron James was named Player of the Week for the Eastern Conference.
But look out for the Warriors tonight as they play to win and have the Best Start in NBA History!
Basil Williams, a principal scorer with 87, cutting Sheikh in the 1st innings at Poona
My father, Alvadow Basil Williams, more familiarly known as Basil ‘Shotgun’ Williams was born on November 21, 1949 of Caymanas, St. Catherine. He was the 2nd oldest of 9.
Basil attended St. Catherine High School and was quite a proud person from a young age. So he started to look into his future from very early in order to seek better opportunities for himself, especially because he had to stop high school in 4th form.
He played cricket for Jamaica Youths and Senior Cup Cricket for St. Catherine Cricket Club as a Middle-order Right-hand Batsman. He then became a member of Jamaica’s Under-19 Cricket team and quickly moved on to the Jamaica Cricket team in 1970. His debut performance in the middle order was disappointing, but he never gave up on his dream. He ensured he was on point for his 2nd chance in 1977 in a more adaptable spot to him, as an opener.
Basil continued to play well, taking a good look at the situation then pulling the trigger, using his wrist to generate powerful shots that would echo around the park, hence the name SHOTGUN. He later earned his spot to play with the West Indies in 1978 with a solid regional first class season. At this time, all International cricket was affected by the Packer intervention, meaning the defection of many leading players to Kerry Packers’ World Series Cricket. The Shell Shield was affected as well. So players like my father, Richard Austin, Desmond Haynes, Gordon Greenidge and Sylvester Clarke capitalised on the opportunity to make their marks in International Cricket by excelling in the Shell Shield matches. I can say proudly that my father, Shotgun was the biggest scorer, firing 399 runs at an average of 79.8!
Now with the West Indies, how did his debut go this time? With an aggressive and attacking approach, he is in the history books as one of the elite few players to score a century on his debut versus Australia. He ended that series with 257 runs!
I keep hearing and seeing that he played against a depleted Australian side in Guyana for that debut, probably giving reason to such an impressive performance. But his talent, brilliant batting style and subsequent performances, prove such assumptions invalid. He was consistent and rarely misfired. Furthermore, he scored 111 versus the best of India in 1979 at Eden Gardens, Calcutta, matching skills with some of the very best in the game.
Basil played 7 tests for the West Indies between 1978 and 1979, that included two entertaining centuries. He had an impressive test average of 39.08 and an average of 36.02 in the regional first class game. They said he was then discarded. Though it was the reality I am sure he would prefer the choice of a better word. In those times, the competition was stiff, with a better, more talented pool of players. So whether the outcome of the new selection was good or bad, talented players like my father were left behind, but he made such an impact during his short tenure, I am sure many wondered, WHAT IF. What if he continued to play with the West Indies.
Either way, his passion for the sport continued with his career in local cricket, including his Captaincy of the Jamaica Cricket team.
HOME AND HAPPY: Jamaica’s victorious cricket team returned home on March 12, 1984 after their thrilling win over the Leeward Island in the Geddes Grant/ Harrison Line Limited over competition in Antigua last Saturday.Photo shows captain Basil Williams with the prized trophy (centre) and manager Bill Bennett (second left).
I was happy to hear the West Indies Cricket Board President, Whycliffe ‘Dave’ Cameron express in his Press release after Dad passed, that ‘Basil was a tough, but fair captain and a no-nonsense guy’. That is indeed very true. Daddy would always say persons loved to call him ‘BOASY’. To him, he had reason to be. You could be the best player on the squad, but if you failed to have a certain level of discipline that he knew might affect the quality of your game and if he had the power to, sometimes he did, he would let you know that you would not be playing in the upcoming match. He knew his consistency and success not only came with natural talent but discipline, practice and hard work and he wanted to see players under his tutelage acquire similar results doing just that. He was a winner and taught me and my two brothers to be winners as well, with the same fiery, competitive spirit. He was a role model and teacher to many and genuinely wanted to see persons be the best they could be.
Shotgun retired from the Jamaica team in 1986 on a high note and remained involved in the sport as a Selector, Board member, Team manager and of course had a few knocks in Club Cricket before he migrated to the US.
SENIOR CUP PRESENTATION: Kensington’s captain Basil Williams (left) receiving the Senior Cup from Vayden McMorris, Chairman of the Victoria Mutual Building Society. Williams, a former West Indies opening batsman, led Kensington to victory in this year’s Sealy Senior Cup and J.K. Holt competitions.
The Jamaica Cricket Association and Kensington Cricket Club of which he played such a big part of, will miss him. I know some persons may miss that random phone call with him cursing about a disappointing West Indies innings or giving his opinions on what persons in various positions of power should be doing. He would have made an entertaining, humorous, yet controversial commentator.
He always went out to bat with NO FEAR, whether it was a fast or spin bowler. One of the times he was ill this year, he said to me, ‘Don’t worry Gabby, whenever the pitch gets slippery, I always have to go out and bat’. He walked out to the ambulance October 25, 2015, the day he died of a cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital.
Hello Sports fans! It is here! The NBA 2015-2016 kicked off last night.
Who played and what happened?
The Hawks lost to the Pistons, 94-106. The Bulls overcame LeBron James’ 15 points and 10 rebounds to beat the Cavs by a narrow margin of 97-95. President Obama was also in attendance.
The Defending Champs, Golden State Warriors received their rings and their opening game was versus the Pelicans. It was raining 3s from reigning MVP Stephen Curry who made 40 points. When he had 20 points, so did the Pelicans. Amazing. The Pelicans’ Anthony Davis struggled and managed to make 18 points. Final score was Warriors 111- 95 Pelicans.
The Spurs vs OKC and other teams will be up tonight!
Suga called it! Congratulations to Flavia Pennetta and Novak Djokovic, the 2015 US Open Champions!
The more experienced, Pennetta won her first singles Grand Slam title on Saturday in 2 sets, 7-6, 6-2, defeating the woman responsible for the upset of the year, Roberta Vince.
The Men’s Final with World no. 1, Novak Djokovic vs no. 2, Roger Federer was delayed by 3 hours because of rain but definitely worth the wait. Note that there will be no more delays next year because there will be indoor options.
Djokovic has won his 10th Grand Slam title and 2nd US Open. 3 this year except for the French, where he was a finalist! Amazing season. He won physically and mentally with the crowd against him in 4 sets, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Well deserved.
The match was epic! Both players were a bit nervous in the first set. Djokovic was the more relaxed player, but had a nasty fall in one of the early games, then lost his momentum. He got it back and played well to win the first set, where Federer was very tight. The commentators said it was a messy first set for Roger.
Roger looked more like himself in the 2nd set, using a lot of variety to even sets, 7-5. That set was an hour long!
Djokovic regained control and took the 3rd.
In the 4th set, Djokovic was up 5-2 to serve for the match, but Roger wasn’t finished just yet. Roger broke his serve and held for it to go to 5-4. Djokovic had some big serves in the last game and after 3 hours and 20 minutes, Djokovic hit a massive serve that Roger sent long to seal the deal for Djoko.
Roger is clearly the People’s Champion. Djoko had to hit deep to win most rallies or serve big to win points. A few well executed lobs worked in his favour as well. Roger said he is very pleased with where his game is at and we will see him next year.
After losing the 1st set, he was already at a disadvantage to make up physically in the 2nd, then try to overcome the excellence of Djokovic in the 3rd at his age and current fitness level. He looked fitter than Wimbledon but he has more work to do. Kudos to him though for helping to make the match so entertaining. You know it was epic when Djoko jumped up into the stands afterwards and shouted, ‘This is Spaaaaarta!’ with members of his box. Suga thinks this is probably his best and most meaningful win of his career so far. Well done Djoko.
BOXING
Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather has hung up his boxing gloves, going out with a win by a unanimous vote over Andre Berto to retire undefeated 49-0. It was a good fight. Much more entertaining than the most hyped and marketed fight in history, the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight earlier this year. Props to the referee for denying Mayweather Barney hugs and there was less running, but more dancing. No joke. Mayweather actually did the running man during one of the rounds. He enjoyed himself. He displayed his quickness and agility off the ropes, as he is known for. Besides a very low, direct blow to Mayweather from Berto (for all the abused women out there!), it was a fairly clean fight. Finally we saw some upper cuts! Yes! Both boxers lost their footing during the fight, but it was in the last round that Mayweather piled on the right hooks and upper cuts, weakening the knees of Berto. But Berto recovered quickly and put up a good fight.
What did Mayweather and Berto say after the match? Well Mayweather explained why he was retiring. He said he is almost 40, been fighting for 19 years and has been a World Champion for 18 years. He believes he has accomplished everything, having broken every record there is, so there is not much left in the sport of Boxing for him. He is happy to leave the sport with all his faculties, something he has mentioned before, that clearly was a concern for him. He also mentioned that he has done a lot of charity work, which the media never mentions, for instance, feeding the homeless. He of course closed with, ‘Money don’t make me, I make money. I am the best at boxing’.
The defeated, Andre Berto said Mayweather was slippery. He had a lot of speed and was real crafty, using a lot of little things to keep him off his rhythm. He was asked about an exchange between them during one of the rounds and Berto explained that he basically said, ‘Here I come. I am here to fight.’ Berto said he pushed it to the limit but he fell short. He was asked if he thought Mayweather was the best ever. There was a pause and unclear shout from the crowd. Thankfully he kept it real and said Mayweather is ONE OF the best ever.
FOOTBALL: Barclay’s Premier League
It’s not looking like a good year for Chelsea. They continue to dig a deeper hole with a 3-1 loss to Everton. The other big sides, Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United were all victorious. Arsenal with a 2-0 win over Stoke City, Man City beat Crystal Palace 1-0 and Manchester United beat Liverpool 3-1!
Huge upset on the Women’s side of the draw yesterday at the US Open. Last year it was on the Men’s side with Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori knocking out Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the Semi Finals. Now, Novak Djokovic defeated the Defending Champion who has been plagued with an ankle injury during the tournament, Marin Cilic easily in 3 sets with a 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 victory. Federer defeated Stan Wawrinka easily with a  6-4, 6-3, 6-1. Wawrinka has not shown his usual fighting spirit this Open. So it will be a Djokovic-Federer final tomorrow at 4pm ET. It has been a few years that Roger has made it to the US Open final, but he surely looks better than how he was at Wimbledon this year. He has started to run more and looks fitter, but still 80% of the Roger Federer we know aka Fed Express so Suga has Djokovic for the win in an entertaining match.
Now for the ladies! It was expected to be a Williams-Halep final. First of all, Flavia Pennetta (26) upset young, world #2, ‘ jalepeño’ Simona Halep in 2 sets! 6-1, 6-3.  Suga did not see that match but one would think that after that marathon of a Quarterfinal with Victoria Azarenka, Halep would have been exhausted.
Then Serena’s quest for Grand slam history ended dramatically yesterday to an UNSEEDED 32-year-old that looks like 60, Roberta Vinci whose odds were 300 to 1! Wow. What an anti-climax! What happened?! Drake? No, just kidding. But you never know. Serena played relatively well, but was not consistent. With a 6-2 start in the 1st set she probably thought she was safe. She was crushed in the second and looked like she recovered in the 3rd, breaking Vince early, going up 2-0. But it all went downhill from there. She had a lot of unforced errors and just could not maintain focus and settle her emotions. Vinci capitalized on every opportunity she got. She played the match of her life and was pumped! After winning a long rally at a pivotal moment in the 3rd set, she put her hand to her ear to the crowd, then raised both hands saying something like yessss! Look at me! Applaud me! Check that moment out here.
I thought Serena would steam roll her for that but Serena just could not answer. Vinci had a flurry of powerful forehands setting up Serena for an open court and frequently went to the net with effective drop shots. Then the inevitable happened, Vince finishing Serena in a LOVE GAME, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Steffi Graf can prepare to hand over the Championship trophy to Serena another time. All preparations can go back into storage. It will be an all Italian final at 3pm ET today with the oldest players in a women’s major final combined, as Pennetta is 33.
Well done Roberta Vince for pulling off one of the BIGGEST upsets in history and showing that even towards the end of the road or your career, anything is possible if you keep fighting. She said it was the best moment of her life.
See Vinci’s hilarious post match interview here:
Pennetta with a lot of experience, has already won the Australian Open Doubles title in 2011 and is well rested after just a 2 set match vs Halep. After Vince used all the gas her tank, it is likely that Pennetta may win, but Suga supports Vince for the win. Afterall it’s sports. As we witnessed yesterday, anything can happen. Good luck to her in the final. With an upset victory like that, it would be even sweeter to go all the way.
SCHIPPERS, ELAINE, FELIX, all in the 200m women! It should be a cracker! Will Elaine Thompson get her revenge? The more experience she gets, the better she will be.
With a goal in the 89th minute after many successful time-wasting tactics by Nicaragua, Simon Dawkins secured a place for Jamaica in the Semi Final round of the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying game with a final score of Jamaica 2: 0 Nicaragua. Thanks also to Darren Mattocks who scored a goal in the 13th minute, which started to get Jamaica out of debt. Mattocks displayed a valiant effort throughout the entire match. Jamaica needed 2 clear goals to win and the Reggae Boyz accomplished just that. Well done. I wish I could say the same about the commentators on FLOW Channel 100 though. They probably put Jamaica to sleep, making some miss the 2nd goal. The same thing was said about every 5 minutes in a different way, CNN style. Though debatable, for Suga, there were a lot of dull aka boring moments in the game, especially in the 2nd half where it looked for a moment like the Reggae Boyz gave up, but the commentators could have done better. They even closed the curtains on the Reggae Boyz until World Cup 2022 with about 15 minutes left in the game, which is A LOT in football time. Shame on them and extremely poor coverage.
They will now join Costa Rica, Panama and Haiti in Group B. Haiti, who was also in a knock out round, beat Grenada to advance. How does the rest of the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying 4th round look?
Group A: Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Canada
Group C: United States, Trinidad & Tobago, St.Vincent and the Grenadines, Guatemala
So the Road to Russia continues!
US Open
Serena Williams won 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 last night in a 98- minute long Quarterfinal versus her sister, Venus Williams. It seemed much longer for them and it wasn’t easy for Serena at all compared to their match up this year at Wimbledon, where it took Serena only 2 sets to win. Serena’s face looked like she was in emotional pain for the entire match. Since they are both power hitters and servers, rallies if any, only lasted about 3 or 4 hits and nobody knows Serena’s serve better than Venus.
Serena closed out the match with an ace and Venus whispered in Serena’s ear that she was very happy for her. Very sweet exchange and embrace afterwards.
Serena will move on to play the unseeded Italian, Roberta Vinci in the Semi Final this Thursday, continuing her quest to complete a Calendar Grand Slam and even Steffi Graf’s 22 Grand Slam titles in the open era.
Serena now leads Venus 16-11 in head to head Grand Slam matches and has won 7 of the last 8 meetings.
See why Venus says Serena is the ‘best ever’ here:
http://es.pn/1K7Ppem
The men’s side of the Quarterfinals was also pretty exciting yesterday with a 5 – setter from Cilic and Tsonga, where Defending Cham, Cilic prevailed 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 6-4. Marin Cilic will meet Novak Djokovic in the Semi finals.
Djokovic who continues to look good defeated Feliciano Lopez in 4 sets, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6. Do you know that he gets his sneaker company to shave down the bottom of his tennis shoes so that he can skid more. It has been noticed he gets to balls that are usually out of reach for most players, by skidding over to them during the open. Interesting stuff.
We will witness our favourite sibling rivalry in Sports again with ‘Sister Sister’ action between the Williams sisters at the Quarterfinals of the US Open at 7pm ET/6pm Jamaican time.Â
There is clearly a lot more on the line for Serena, but it would surely be nice to have Venus move on to the Semi Finals as well since she may not have this opportunity again. Bitter sweet, but as Serena said on Sunday, ‘At least one of us, a Williams, will be in the Semi Finals, so that’s good.’
May the best sister win!
Image: www.jamaicafootballfederation.com
The Reggae Boyz had a disappointing loss versus Nicaragua at the Office at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica last Friday night, with the final result of 3-2. The Reggae Boyz were behind by as much as 3-0 and fought hard in the end to score 2 goals. This now gives Nicaragua the edge over Jamaica on aggregate in the 2nd Leg tonight at 8:30pm, Jamaican time, which will also be a knock out round to continue on the Road to Russia. Jamaica will have to score 2 clear goals above Nicaragua in order to WIN and keep their dreams, as well as Jamaica’s dreams alive. If they score 1 goal above them, for a scoreline of 3-2, that would mean we have tied on aggregate, facing more than likely overtime and penalties if necessary. With a scoreline less than that, we can kiss our dreams of Russia goodbye.
The  Reggae Boyz will be without Giles Barnes, who due to previous joint and tendon issues, cannot play on Nicaragua’s artificial surface. Upston Edwards has taken his place. Jamaica’s Captain, Rodolph Austin is also questionable since he is dealing with personal priorities to access a visa to continue his professional career in Scandinavia. Can’t blame him. If unavailable, Coach Schaefer said Adrian Mariappa could Captain the team and Andre Clennon is a possible substitute for the game depending on how he performs in their training session.
So there is a lot of work to do and they have to stay completely focused.
*Flow Jamaica Limited will have live and exclusive broadcast of the match on FLOW 100.
The euphoria of how well the Reggae Boyz did in the Gold Cup is still in the air, but a clean slate starts tonight as they begin to dodge some pot holes, starting at 8pm in the National Stadium versus Nicaragua with the hope of a place in the World Cup Finals in Russia 2018 as their final destination.
So how do they move on after tonight’s match?
The return leg will be next Tuesday in Nicaragua with the hope that the Reggae Boyz will advance to the 4th round on aggregate and go into Group B with Costa Rica and Panama, as well as the winner of Haiti vs Grenada. The top 2 teams will then advance to the 5th and final round, where the top 3 teams will head to Russia! The team in 4th place will be entered into a Continental Play-off.
Good Luck Reggae Boyz! Keep playing with heart and pride!
