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As the Jackie Robinson statue returns to Wichita, so do the lessons learned

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WICHITA, Kansas — Six months ago, the city had an issue. Under cover of darkness, someone drove a van into McAdams Park, cut a figure off at the feet and towed him away. The security footage is downright difficult to watch. A bunch of shadowy figures loitering in the plaza on seventeenth Street, after which suddenly the majestic figure drops onto the platform, bouncing barely from the impact.

It’s one thing to know in your mind that tons of of children who play baseball and admire the statue will not have an icon to look up to. It’s quite one other to see the actual footage of the theft and the gruesome footage of Robinson’s severed head burning on the ground.

“When I got there, there were already multiple officers on the scene,” Wichita Police Department Lt. Drew Seiler said of the theft. “We had officers in the League 42 constructing reviewing video footage from the last 24 hours. The area was cordoned off. We began a forensic investigation to collect any physical evidence and document the scene because it was found.

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“This is the first time I’ve seen a physical statue removed like this. And it’s scary because we have a lot of thefts in cemeteries. People go to the cemetery and cut off the brass candlesticks or flower pots that are glued to either side of the headstone.”

He was placed on trial for the case, which he claims to have treated as a murder, spending an important deal of time and energy trying to find the perpetrators. When I first heard about the case, it appeared like a transparent case of somebody deliberately trying to desecrate a monument related to Robinson, which happens so often that the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri, has a complete exhibit devoted to these perpetrators.

But after spending time there, the reality of the situation is way sadder than what we initially believed on the surface. The sheer desperation it takes to try to scrap a complete statue for metal, irrespective of who it’s, is such a grim reminder of the circumstances many face in 2024. A shortsighted, mean decision ultimately driven by substance abuse affected many individuals and effectively ended the lifetime of one when Ricky Alderete was sentenced to 15 years for theftand various other previous accusations.

Not that this was anything latest for Seiler — absolutely nothing.

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“You and I probably have a different lifestyle than the person we identified as the person who did this,” Seiler explained as calmly as possible. “So what you and I consider normal behavior is different than the behavior of the people who were involved in this. And going through this investigation, the sentimental value of what Jackie Robinson represents — not just to this youth program, to our city, but to our state and our nation, what he does for sports and the doors that were opened — the sentimental value that he brings was never felt. It wasn’t even considered, from what I understood from talking to the detectives and the officer who followed up on all of our leads. It was never considered. It was the value of the physical object.”

Jackie Robinson’s brown cleats, left after the theft of the MLB player’s statue from a Kansas park, are displayed at the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum on May 17 in Kansas City, Missouri.

Nicholas Ingram/AP Photo

As much as I feel offended and upset as a black person and a baseball fan, there may be also an element of me as a human being that’s just ashamed that a gaggle of persons are trying to pull off a Scooby-Doo level scam, all for drugs.

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“Wichita is not the yellow brick road that everyone thinks it is, with the wind blowing around the weeds,” explained councilman and native Brandon Johnson. “You know, we’re an enormous city, the largest city in Kansas. An amazing city. Our strength is our people. When you walk around, you don’t see people just ignoring you. Everyone smiles at you. You might get a number of waves.

“There’s a lot of opportunity here. And growing up here was fun. You know, we made the best of it, even though I was poor. And that’s kind of my focus now, is making sure that our lower-income communities have those same opportunities.”

In an election 12 months, especially one which takes place during the Olympics, Wichita is a stark reminder of the real drug problem in America. It’s not only the fictional Walter White from a TV show running around New Mexico, a gaggle of wealthy kids at a highschool party in Los Angeles, or the drug lord Ghost trying to run his business legally.

This is a grown man, a profession criminal — a nasty one at that — trying to feed his fentanyl addiction with a vile, brazen stunt. He wasn’t alone, but he was the one who got caught. Even after the statue returned to McAdams Park on Monday to much fanfare, there’s something about the final result that feels so sad.

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Maybe it’s because Alderete is around my age. Maybe it’s because my friends have lost their lives to accidental drug overdoses. Or possibly it’s because his life as he knows it’s effectively over.

“I let fentanyl get to me and I made a lot of bad decisions. I’m not going to deny that. I never meant to hurt anyone. I’m ashamed, I’m embarrassed. Whatever you do today, I accept it,” he said. “I’m ready for it. I believe I’m where I need to be right now because at the rate I’m going, I could be dead.”

He got 15 years.

“For someone who thinks they can drop all this and make a few dollars and see it as meaningless and fueling this idea of, ‘Let’s just make a few dollars,’ it’s more disappointing and hurtful,” Johnson lamented.

In short, a few of this doesn’t look like a very comfortable ending. Despite all the possibilities in Kansas, the desperation is apparent. When you see people walking down the street after a certain time of day, they probably don’t have anywhere to stay. The margins through which individuals slip are the ones from which individuals should have the option to return.

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“I would not only invite him to the unveiling, but I would ask him if you have a baseball background. How can we make this a success story for you so you don’t have to spend the rest of your life as a villain?” So that will be really cool,” Lutz said. “But if he’s sitting in a jail cell right now, regretting what he did, and he wants to tell us about it, he should be able to do that. And if he wants to go further and be a part of League 42, we wouldn’t be following the Jackie Robinson model if we denied that.”

David Hobbs, of Art Castings of Colorado, touches up a wax solid of the head of MLB legend Jackie Robinson in Loveland, Colorado, May 8. The original figure was cut off at the ankles and stolen from a park in Wichita, Kansas, in January.

Thomas Peipert/AP Photo

While the symbolism and uplifting are great, it’s still only a statue. It might be rebuilt. And since the form still exists, although John Parsons, the sculptor and friend of Lutz’s, has died, that’s exactly what they did — 560 miles away in Loveland, Colorado.

Tony Workman stands in his foundry, Art Castings of Colorado, watching certainly one of his crew members polish a bronze head of Jack Roosevelt Robinson. Right next to him is a breastplate bearing the iconic Brooklyn Dodgers name and the number 42, for the second baseman whose metal likeness is getting a second likelihood at life.

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“We use 100,000 pounds of metal a year,” Workman said.

He explains the intricate technique of making a statue. The smell of metalworking is unforgettable. To them, it’s just one other statue. They make plenty of them. Tom Osborne in front of Memorial Stadium in Lincoln, Nebraska. Willie Mays in front of Oracle Park in San Francisco. Roberto Clemente in Pittsburgh. The list goes on.

“The first step in the process is pouring all the rubber into the molds. That gives you all the detail,” Workman said as we toured the facility amidst fields. “And if you’ve ever built a candle, you’ll pour in wax that’s three-sixteenths of an inch thick. That’s the thickness of the wax and ultimately the metal. For larger pieces like Jackie Robinson, I think the castings are eight pieces. We’re not just casting full-size figures.”

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The whole thing could be very rough, noisy and, frankly, physically dangerous, a reminder of what people undergo to each earn an honest living and feed their addictions. Even in the event that they weren’t pumping out motion figures of all types, it could take a month to construct a statue of Robinson, he said.

On Monday at McAdams Park, the community and League 42 celebrated the return of their premier facility.

“There’s not much you can do if someone gets the idea to steal something, and copper prices are what they are,” Workman said. “The only problem with stealing a sculpture is you can’t break it down into a small enough piece that people don’t realize it’s a sculpture, right? And every scrap dealer in America knows not to take that. You know, if you’re going to commit a crime, it’s usually not the best or brightest, but they tried.”

Hopefully, the lessons learned from this complete ordeal will help greater than only one Little League, one city, or one foundry. Hopefully, we’ll keep in mind that there are methods to help one another so this never happens again—to anyone.

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Clinton Yates is a trendsetter at Andscape. He likes rap, rock, reggae, R&B, and remixes—in that order.

This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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Ball Up Top: Lakers, Fakers, Quakers … Wolves in 5

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“Ball Up Top” is a weekly NBA video series in which David Dennis Jr. With AndScape he talks about hot topics in the league and popular culture with special guests in addition to personalities and sejds.

In episode 8, David is joined by a senior author Justin Tinsley to debate Los Angeles Lakers, who was rejected from Playoffs and what to do next. In addition, a really exciting opera clip that David cannot stop enthusiastic about.


Episode 8, 2 May 2025
Host: David Dennis Jr.
Guests: Justin Tinsley
Manufacturers: Charles Abankwa, Ryan Cortes, Rodney Davis, Chris Gavin, Charles Peach

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Archives

Episode 1 (March 7, 2025): Quentin Richardson on Phoenix Suns, his moment “Welcome to the NBA” and beef with “Nad edge”

Episode 2 (March 14, 2025): Plus/Minus! Nikola Jokic (not) MVP, whose Knicks and Lakers don’t need to see, asks Cooper Flagg

Episode 3 (March 21, 2025): Danny Green evaluates his pretenders to the Western Conference, members of the Abrevocal Team

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Episode 4 (March 28, 2025): Talking Heat Culture after the outbreak of warriors, more plus/minus

Episode 5 (April 4, 2025): The most vital games left in the NBA schedule

Episode 6 (April 17, 2025): Kazeem Famuyide talks NBA Playoffs, Wrestlemania 41, Army X

Episode 7 (April 24, 2025): Which NBA Playoffs teams are cooked/not cooked?

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David Dennis Jr. He is an older author in Andcape and the creator of the award -winning book “The Ruch Made Us: A Father, son and the Legacy of a Freedom Ride”. David is a graduate of Davidson College.

This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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Lebron James is not sure what will happen after leaving Playoff Los Angeles Lakers: “I have no answer to it”

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On Wednesday evening, Lebron James, Luka Dončič and Los Angeles Lakers lost to Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert, the full of life Julius Randle and Minnesota Timberwolves, 103-96, within the match of the primary round of Playoff of the Western Conference, losing 4-1. This loss ended the Lakers season-the second exit from the primary round in a row-their records of 50-32 and 3-nance within the West.

This season, limited by the legendary (historical, crazy, etc.) in the course of the season, talent talent NBA All-Nba Dončič Lakersom in exchange for NBA All-Star (and a member of Lakers within the NBA championships) Anthony Davis, was perceived by many as a likelihood for lakers for an additional title. These hopes were broken through the series, when Edwards continued to delight analysts and fans together with his determination and will to win.

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Of course, because it happens yearly, when James’s teams lose in Playoffs (James has 4 NBA championship rings – two with Miami Heat and one in every of the Cleveland Cavaliers and Los Angeles Lakers), He was asked through the pressure after the match for his thoughts about his future (And retirement) When he closed his twenty second season within the NBA.

“I don’t know. I have no answer to it. Something to sit with my family, wife and support group and I will just talk about it and see what will happen. And just talk to each other as I want to continue playing.”

Of course, James was asked how the list may very well be improved to (hopefully) to provide higher probabilities for Playoffs next 12 months, if he returns; James is until June 29 to choose a contract with the lakeers for the 2025-2026 campaign, which might pay him $ 52.6 million. Otherwise he would change into a free agent.

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“It’s business,” probably said the largest player of the NBA of all time. “So you don’t know what the list will look like next year, except for guys who (they are) closed in contracts. S …, I have a lot to think about myself. So I don’t know what the list will look like. I don’t know where I stand now.”

Lebron James: From basketball to a cultural icon

In particular, James-who’s son Lebron “Brony” James, Jr., has a contract with Lakers until the season 2027-2028-was instrumental in his son, putting the Lakers uniform and the addition of a coach, JJ Redick. Redick and James had a podcast together wherein they talked about basketball, before Redick was announced with the brand new Lakers coach.

James, asked to make clear his comments concerning the contract, made sure that he did not consider (now) other teams wherein you’ll be able to play, but his desire to play.

“I just continue playing, I don’t know where I am. That’s how it is. I’m not coming back to play here. Just play, dot.”

He continued: “To be honest, I don’t know the answer, so we’ll see.”

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It seems that the summer of 2025 will be thoughtful at James’s house.

(Tagstranslate) Lebron James (T) Los Angeles Lakers (T) NBA Playoffs

This article was originally published on : thegrio.com
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Black basketball players were called to the NBA 75 years ago

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Monty Williams, Detroit Pistons, fired


NBA recently celebrated and confirmed the seventy fifth anniversary of the first three black players who took the court in the league.

According to the 1950-51 basketball season, three black men broke the racial barrier once they made debut (*75*) the National Basketball Association: Nat “Sweetwater” Clifton, Chuck Cooper and Earl Lloyd. To recognize their feat, NBA talks about the celebration of three pioneers annually, from the next season during the Black History month.

“I am excited about the fact that we intend to honor the heritage, courage and determination of these pioneers, as well as many players who came after them,” said NBPA (National Basketball Players Association) and the Pelicans Guard of the New Orlean CJ McCollum. “But it begins with them and how they transformed the NBA and the way they inspired players like me. They fought many extremely difficult challenges from racism to discrimination. But they showed great determination to overcome these obstacles and continue to come up with a way to perform at a high level.”

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Clifton had the honor to be “Jackie Robinson” NBA because he became the first black player who had a NBA contract after New York Knicks bought his contract from Harlem Globetrotters in May 1950. Cooper had a distinction between being the first black player made by the NBA team, when Boston Celtics selected him in the second round of NBA Fraft. In the same project, in the ninth round, with 101, Washington Capitals selected Lloyd to change into a part of their team.

Due to the problem of planning, Lloyd became the first black player who played in the official game in the regular season, when he took over the court on October 31, 1950. Another achievement for Lloyd was one in every of the first black coaches, when he did it for Detroit Pistons. He and Jim Tucker were the first black players who won the NBA title when Syracuse Nationals won the championship in 1955.

NBPA plans to release three movies on its social and digital platforms that may have a good time Clifton, Cooper and Lloyd. In the next season, NBA will honor three pioneers who’ve transformed the league and enables the ones who play today.

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(Tagstotransate) nba legends

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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