Many people are unhappy with UCLA’s decision to join the Big Ten, and that includes one of the school’s most famous athletic alums.
Bill Walton has been outspoken about his love for the Pac-12, so it’s not a surprise that he’s unhappy UCLA plans to leave the conference. Portland-based journalist John Canzano posted Walton’s full thoughts on JohnCanzano.com, and Walton explained exactly what makes him upset with UCLA’s decision.
“I don’t like this attempted move. I don’t support it. I hope it does not happen,” Walton said, per Canzano.
Walton went on to explain that his opinion isn’t just about personal preferences, but rather his belief extends to what he thinks is best for the school.
“I don’t believe that joining the Big Ten is in the best interest of UCLA, its students, its athletes, its alumni, its fans, the rest of the UC system, the State of California, or the world at large,” he said.
Specifically, Walton explained that UCLA joining the Big Ten will add more travel that will negatively impact student athletes’ mental health along with their family, friends and fans. He added that he believes any added costs that arise from the move will counteract the financial benefits of the decision.
Walton said UCLA’s decision to join the Big Ten is centered around football and money, without taking into account “the other 24 sports and 600+student-athletes at UCLA, who are responsible for 99+% of UCLA’s National Championships.”
Walton claims nobody thinks this move is a good idea, and he has let the UC Board of Regents know his feelings.
“My hope and dream is that this proposed move by UCLA, my alma mater, will be rescinded,” he closed in his plea.
The decision isn’t final yet, as the UC board has to finalize the move because UCLA is a public school.
Between Kyrie Irving’s recent antisemitic tweets, the now-fired Steve Nash’s defense of the point guard and the franchise’s likely hiring of the suspended Udoka, Brooklyn has become a mess created by cowardice.
The Nets are absolutely tired of letting talented people get away with whatever they want. Their solution is to hire Ime Udoka.
Oh, sure. Makes perfect sense.
Udoka apparently misbehaved so much with the Boston Celtics that they basically fired him without firing him, even after a wildly successful season. If the Nets are the place for Udoka, as ESPN and Sports Illustrated have reported, then I wonder whether they’ll give him the full employee handbook or the limited-edition Kyrie Irving version, in which half the pages are ripped out.
There have been many worse-run franchises in NBA history. Heck, the Nets have been managed more poorly for most of their existence. But what we’re seeing now in Brooklyn is obscenity as art: a franchise that seems determined to win in as many unseemly ways as possible.
It started, of course, with the genius idea to, functionally, turn the team over to a smug, antisemitic conspiracy theorist who thinks his $36-million-a-year job is a hobby. Irving has become the exact opposite of what you want from a franchise player: He makes everybody around him look worse.
On his last day as head coach, Nash did what the whole organization has done for four years—he kowtowed to Irving.
Jesse D. Garrabrant/NBAE/Getty Images
Consider the last stand of Steve Nash, which wasn’t much of a stand at all. On his final day as Nets’ coach, Nash was asked about Irving promoting an antisemitic, lie-filled film last Thursday, and he responded with this pathetic piece of spineless gobbledygook:
“There’s always an opportunity for us to grow and understand new perspectives,” Nash said Monday night. “I think the organization is trying to take that stance where we can communicate through this. And try to all come out in a better position and [have] both more understanding and more empathy for every side of this debate and situation.”
New perspectives? Every side? Debate? This is a film that denies the Holocaust happened! Was Nash so spooked by the prospect of upsetting Irving that he couldn’t say his star was wrong about literally anything?
Nash did what the whole organization has done for four years—he kowtowed to Irving. When the Nets hired Nash in 2020, he had never even been an assistant coach. They gambled that he could handle the X’s-and-O’s part of the job because he was such a brilliant player. But what they knew—or thought they knew—was that he was a fundamentally decent person who garnered respect and affection from almost everybody. Nash’s in-game acumen was sketchy. But what happened to the person they hired?
Udoka is a better coach than Nash, but he is a laughable choice of a replacement. He is perhaps the candidate least equipped to create the culture of accountability that the Nets so desperately need. Everybody on that team will know Udoka got a long don’t-bother-coming-back suspension in his last job.
The Nets are about to give Irving one more signal that anything goes, and we’ve seen how Irving handles that. Earlier this season, he shared a clip from Alex Jones, who is widely known for peddling the outrageously offensive lie that the Sandy Hook school shooting was a hoax. When he was called on it, Irving said he didn’t agree with Jones on Sandy Hook, but what the pundit said about “occults” was “true.” Irving is too arrogant to understand that promoting anything Jones ever says about anything is bad for society.
Imagine telling those families, “Hey, I didn’t agree with that guy when he said you lied about your children being murdered, but putting that aside: He made a good point about something else.”
And yes, if you’re keeping track: That is twice this season that Irving supported somebody who denied a mass murder took place.
His actions are bad enough to damage the reputation of the whole league. The NBA has leaned hard into social justice movements in the last two years, and a lot of good has come from that. But you can’t just dip your toes in and out of those waters when it’s convenient. On Saturday, the league released a statement objecting to Irving without mentioning him by name. Where are the NBA stars condemning Irving’s hate? Is it O.K. to spread hate if you happen to be an All-Star?
Nobody has looked good here, but the Nets look especially awful. The following sentence is both darkly hilarious and absolutely true: Kevin Durant left Golden State for Brooklyn to show he was a winner.
The shame of it is that Durant has been extraordinary in Brooklyn. He is truly an all-time great. But he has made two big mistakes: wanting to play with Irving in the first place and signing an extension to keep playing with him.
Twice in the last two years, the Nets started to stand up to Irving, then quickly resumed crawling into his arms. The first time was when he refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine, making him ineligible for home games. They said he couldn’t play for them at all, then said “ah, never mind.” Then, after last season, general manager Sean Marks said the Nets “need people here that want to be here, that are selfless, that want to be part of something bigger than themselves,” which was a clear shot at Irving. But then Irving exercised his contract option for this season, and the Nets figured they would make another trip around the sun with a point guard who thinks the Earth is flat.
Predictably, Irving has already made this whole season all about himself. The more the Nets enable him, the worse he behaves. And now Ime Udoka is supposed to fix this mess? Heck of a coach, but he was supposed to be suspended for the whole season. The Nets don’t care. They never do.
If you’re a serious tequila lover, your bar cart is adequately stocked with the agave spirit’s holy trinity: blanco, reposado, and añejo. But there’s an emerging category that’s piquing the curiosity of spirits enthusiasts: Cristalino, an aged tequila that’s filtered to remove the amber hue so that it looks like a crystal-clear blanco, but sips (and smells) like an añejo. These bottles pack deceptive amounts of depth.
Gran Centenario has become the latest brand to debut an ultra-smooth cristalino, which is the fastest-growing tequila category in the United States. With hints of baked apple and oak imparted from a brandy cask, Gran Centenario Cristalino (suggested retail, $79.99 for a 750ml bottle) is an especially good bottle to have on hand over Thanksgiving for sipping and remaking classic cocktails.
Gran Centenario uses añejo and extra añejo tequilas for its cristalino expression, which is a first for the historic family portfolio. The blended aged tequilas are finished in Calvados (apple brandy) casks for a minimum of two months. Traditionally, cristalinos are filtered through activated charcoal to strip away color, but Gran Centenario filters its liquid with Mexican silver to give it flawless clarity without altering the taste.
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On the nose, the cristalino has sweet agave and caramel aromas with a touch of vanilla, oak, and apple. Tasting notes include cooked agave with hints of vanilla beans, baked apple, and oak. It’s bottled at 40% ABV.
“The hints of baked apple in this Gran Centenario Cristalino Tequila expression are a pleasant surprise, as it’s not a flavor we often encounter in tequila,” says Gran Centenario’s brand ambassador and head of advocacy, Jaime Salas.
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He recommends drinking the cristalino neat or on the rocks with a lime twist to enhance the taste profile. But the beauty of the cristalino style of tequilas, he says, is their versatility. Given Gran Centenario Cristalino’s bright notes, it works well in refreshing cocktails like highballs with a seasoned twist, and can also be enjoyed in a more spirit-forward remake of an Old Fashioned—or this clearly inspired tequila Negroni.
Gran Centenario Cristalino Tequila Clear Negroni
Ingredients:
2 oz Gran Centenario Cristalino Tequila
0.75 oz Lillet Blanc
0.25 oz ginger liqueur
Garnish: lime peel
Instructions:
Combine all ingredients in a mixing glass with ice.
Stir and pour into a chilled coupe glass. Garnish with lime peel.
In return, the Bills sent running back Zack Moss and a sixth-round pick that could potentially turn into a fifth-rounder to the Colts, per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero.
Even though Hines plays as a running back, he actually has more receiving yards (1,725) than rushing yards (1,205) in his fifth year in the league. He has the fifth most receiving yards by a running back in the league since the 2018 season.
Hines will join a strong Super Bowl contender, the 6–1 Bills. Buffalo’s current starting running back is Devin Singletary.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
With the anticipation for new iPad models reaching a fever pitch, retailers are offering deep discounts on the last-gen model, granting a prime opportunity to pick one up for well under retail. The older iPad Air may lack the speed of Apple’s M1 processor, but its A14 Bionic CPU still delivers plenty of power for the vast majority of apps. The Air is also compatible…
