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Section
Cl^arlotte $o£it
SPORTS
THURSDAY, MAY 11,2006
Currie
spices up
dismal
preseason
Sting’s top draft pick
shows she can handle
WNBA competition
By Herbert L. White
herh.whiie@thecharloneposleom
mucn to leai
i
Bogues
Monique Currie is finding the WNBA is
nothing like college basketball.
The Charlotte Sting rookie has lived up
to expectations after being the third play
er picked in last month’s draft, but there’s
much to learn. After three preseason
games, Currie, a former
Duke standout, is finding
her way.
“I’m stiU getting adjust
ed,”, she said. “There’s a lot
of different rules, especially
on defense (about) what
you can do, what you can’t
do. The preseason gives
you a little bit of time to
adjust to those types of
things.”
Like most rookies, Currie’s learning on
the fly. In Saturdays 85-66 loss to
Indiana, Curry was matched against all-
star forward Tamika Catchings. Currie
picked up a couple of fouls early, but more
than held her own, leading Charlotte
with 18 points on 5-of-6 shooting.
Catchings scored 14 points on 4-of-ll
shootintg.
“I wanted her to have that challenge of
playing Catchings and let her have that
feeling of the type of top players in this
league,” Sting coach Muggsy Bogues said.
“She responded well. She got some tick-
tack fouls, but she stayed with it.”
The Sting, which opens the regular sea
son May 20 against Chicago at Bobcats
Arena, expects more of the same from
Currie, a two-time Kodak-All-America
and all-ACC pick. After a fi'anchise-worst
Please see CURR1E/2C
HE STUDIES NUANCE AND DEFENSE
PHOTO/CURTIS WILSON
Carolina Panthers linebacker James Anderson looks in a pass during a drill at the team’s mintcamp last
week in Charlotte. Anderson was drafted to bolster a rebuilt linebacker corps.
Imitation of art
Panthers rookie Anderson paints his own canvas at linebacker
By Herbert L. White
herb-whiie® rhechaiioueposi.com
Leave it to James Anderson the
artist to describe the linebacker’s
canvas.
The Carolina Panthers rookie -
an art major at Virginia Tfech - can
relate his profession to his acade
mic pursuit. On the field, his job is
to create as well as react by merg
ing the science of football to
improvisation.
“You set your rules, you set your
guidelines, but you’ve also got to
adjust to what you see, making
changes just like
art,” he said. ‘You
start out your
painting one way
but by the time you
see it on the canvas
it can change and
be totally differ
ent.”
That approach is
what made
Anderson attractive to Carolina,
which selected him in the third
Anderson
round of last month’s NFL draft.
A cover linebacker who can also
support the run, he fits the mold
of mobile defenders the Panthers
covet.
“He’s a guy we targeted early on
in the draft process,” Carolina
head coach John Fox said. “If you
had to compare him to somebody,
we thought he was a lot like (for
mer Panther) Will Witherspoon
when he came out of Georgia.
He’s a smart coverage guy ...and
See ART/2C
Bonds on HR chase: ‘It’s overwhelming’
PHOTO.WADE NASH
Rookie Monique Curry has been one of
the few bright spots for the Sting in a 0-
3 preseason.
Lakers left to
By Tim DahIberg
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
PHILADELPHIA - The night
starts off awful, just like the rest of
the road trip. Barry Bonds is slump
ing, the crowd isn’t letting up, and his
mother is in th$ stands to witness it
aU.
The boos and chants of ‘Balco
Barry” are bad enough. Now Bonds
lumbers out to left field only to be
greeted by a huge sign stretching
across the front row of the stands.
‘Babe Ruth did it on hot dogs and
beer. Hank Aaron did it with class.
How did you do it?”
On this night, \rith a bang.
A home run of Ruthian proportions
helps to wipe away a season worth of
frustration Sunday night, bringing
Bonds to within one home run of the
Please see FOR/4C
PHQTO.ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds has been booed and vili
fied , but continues his quest for the albtime home run record.
Distant
replay
for hoop
pioneers
Barnstormers
want props from
basketball’s
establishment
By Eric Bozeman
FOR THE CHARLOTTE POST
Former Harlem
Globetrotter John Kline is
hoping the black legends of
basketball get their just due.
Recently U.S. Rep. Carolyn
PQlpatrick and Sens. Debbie
Stabenow and Carl Levin of
Michigan introduced a reso
lution to Congress to get the
nation and the NBA to rec
ognize the contributions that
black barnstormers made to
the game in the first half of
the 20th century. Unlike
their baseball counterparts,
players like Kline, Nate
“Sweetwater” Clifton, Bobby
“Showboat” Hall, Walter
Dukes, Vertis Zigler, Ernest
Wagner, and Don Barnette
have yet to be properly rec
ognized for trailblazing a
path for today’s profession
als.
Congress eventually
passed the bill, but the play
ers of that lost era want the
NBA and the Hall of Fame to
acknowledge them as well.
Kline, who founded the
Black Legends of Basketball
Foundation in 1996, wants
to see African American
players who played for trav
eling teams like the New .
York Renaissance,
Washington Bears and
Harlem Globetrotters given
their due for their playing
days between the 1920s
until the late ‘50s.
“We would like acknowl
edgement from the NBA and
the Naismith Hall of Fame,”
Kkne of Detroit said. “We
were just barnstorming
teams, we didn’t have
leagues like the Negro base
ball players did, but we suf
fered through some of the
same things that they did.”
The sad state of African
American NBA players not
being connected to the histo
ry of these players was never
more evident to Kline than
when NBA big man (Jeorge
Mikan died last June. Kline,
74, explained that it
appeared as though the
Mikan family was having
trouble bur3dng the former
NBA star, but Shaquille
O’Neal stepped up to pay for
his funeral. However, when
seven-footer Walter Dukes
' died, it was left up to family,
friends, and Kline’s organi
zation to help with the
details of the former
See BASKETBALL/3C
ponder what Robinson’s effort opened baseball as global game
went wrong
By John Nadel
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
LOS ANGELES - The joy and anticipa
tion stoked by the possibility of an
imprecedented Battle of L.A. disappeared
with the greatest playoff collapse in
Lakers history.
Tb make matters even worse, it was
capped by an embarrassing flop in Game
7.
So now, with the Clippers about to play
Phoenix in the Western Conference semifi
nals, the Lakers head home for the sum
mer to ponder what went so completely
wrong against the Suns.
The Lakers were just a reboimd and six
seconds away fi’om advancing to the sec
ond round of the playoffs in Game 6..
How in the world could they have been
so horrific in Game 7?
Please see LAKERS/2C
By Earl Heath
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER
PUBUSHERS ASSOCIATION
LOS ANGELES -‘Baseball
has done more to improve the
social landscape in our country
than any other sport.”
Those were the words of
Baseball Hall of Famer Joe
Morgan on the 59th anniver
sary of Jackie Robinson’s break
ing baseball’s color barrier. On
hand at Dodger Stadium was
Jackie’s daughter Sharon
Robinson.
She stood at home plate with
Dodger great Don Newcombe.
They both watched the Dodger
video board. The video not only
featured Robinson in his rookie
year, but also showed the
Mariners’ Japan-bom Ichiro
Suzuki waving to the crowd and
the Boston Red Sox Dominican
bom Manny Ramirez running
on to the field holding the
American flag.
“’It never gets old,” said Sharon
Robinson. “’Every time that
video goes up on the board, I
have to hold back tears.”
This is in part to the state
ment Morgan made as in recent
years there has been an influx
of foreign players to the Major
Leagues from the far east.
There’s also a heavier contin
gent of Latin players now than
there was before Robinson’s fete
was accomplished. Dodger’s
centerfielder Kenny Lofton was
off the disabled list just in time.
“’At this point, anything to do
with Jackie Robinson is very
important to African-
See ROBINSON’S/2C
NATIONAL NEWSPAPER PUBLISHERS ASSOCIATION
Sharon Robinson, Jackie Robinson’s daughter, Los Angeles Dodgers
outfielder Kenny Lofton and Dodgers great Don Newcombe participat
ed in a ceremony honoring Jackie Robinson’s Major League debut in
1947.
O® OES^