Kevin Durant is the latest superstar athlete to join Jay-Z’s new Roc Nation sports agency, according to reports.
Since selling his shares of ownership of the Brooklyn Nets in order to become a sports agent, the hip-hop mogul has already signed a handful of young superstars.
Durant, one of the three most popular players in the NBA, will join the likes of Robinson Cano, Victor Cruz, Geno Smith and Skylar Diggins as clients of Roc Nation.
While Jay-Z might not be the most seasoned sports agent, his brand development skills are undeniable. In the new age of brand marketing and social media, teaming up with a pop culture icon is one of the best ways for an athlete to increase his or her public image.
“KD doesn’t want a traditional NBA agent anymore,” a league source told Yahoo! Sports. “He wants Jay-Z to handle his branding. …He had a chance to be with his idol and couldn’t say no.” It also helps that Roc Nation is backed by Creative Artists Agency, one of the most powerful sports agencies in the country.
This is the second time in two years that Durant has changed agencies. He was most recently with Rob Pelinka of Landmark Sports, which represents both Kobe Bryant and James Harden. Pelinka had been Durant’s most recent agent. In a year with Pelinka, Durant was the most marketed player in the league, with national TV spots for Nike, Sprint and Degree, to name a few.
But very few agencies can offer what Roc Nation offers. Jay-Z has influence and connections in sports and entertainment that very few people can match. If Durant wants to be surpass LeBron James and Kobe Bryant as the most popular figures in basketball, teaming up with Jay-Z was the right move.
article via sportingnews.com
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Then the national anthem played for the first American singles champion at Roland Garros since Williams’ previous title. Williams whacked 10 aces, including three in the final game, and the last came on match point at 123 mph — her hardest serve of the day. She then sank to her knees, screamed at the sky and buried her face in the clay.
The victory completed her rebound from a shocking loss to 111th-ranked Virginie Razzano in the first round at the French Open a year ago. Since that defeat she’s 74-3, including titles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, the London Olympics and the season-ending WTA Championships.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Newark Mayor Cory Booker formally announced today he’s in the race to finish the U.S. Senate term of the late Frank Lautenberg. The 44-year-old Democrat made his candidacy official at a news conference Saturday in Newark, New Jersey’s largest city. He was joined by former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley, a former pro basketball player who for 18 years held the seat Booker is seeking.
Bradley, who endorsed Booker, called him “the right person for the right office at the right time.” Booker began raising money for a Senate run even before Lautenberg, who died Monday, announced retirement plans in February. He had raised $1.9 million by the end of the last reporting period in March.
Reps. Frank Pallone and Rush Holt are also planning to enter the Democratic primary. Booker is considered the early front-runner. Pallone, 61, had $3.7 million in his campaign coffers at the end of March and has deep union support. Holt, 64, a former research physicist, had $800,000 on hand.
Gov. Chris Christie, a Republican, announced this week that there would be party primaries Aug. 13 and a special general election Oct. 16 The only Republican running so far is Steve Lonegan, a former Bogota mayor who runs the New Jersey office of Americans for Prosperity.
Booker, 44, has 1.4 million followers on Twitter — or five for every resident of the city where he’s the mayor. He tweets frequently, answering questions about city services, posting about his workouts and, perhaps most often, trying to provide inspiration.
Former Ward 2 Councilman and civil rights activist Chokwe Lumumba, 65, is the new mayor of Jackson, Miss., winning the general election on Tuesday with 87 percent of the vote, reports Fight Back! News.
He will succeed Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr., who finished third in this year’s Democratic primary. Lumumba ran as a mainstream candidate who would represent all city voters. He defeated businessman Jonathan Lee in the Democratic primary runoff last month.
Lumumba spent part of the ’70s and ’80s as vice-president of the Republic of New Afrika, an organization which advocated for “an independent predominantly black government” in the southeastern United States and reparations for slavery. He wrote on Facebook Tuesday night, “Thank you, Jackson. None of this would be possible without faith and your support.” He went on to say, “This is the people’s victory. Together we will make Jackson rise!”
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press via thegrio.com
In an effort to promote fatherhood, award-winning filmmaker Art Hooker and former director of President Barack Obama’s Office Of Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships Joshua DuBois have teamed up to create the “This Is Fatherhood” challenge.
Launched on May 1st, the challenge targets young Fathers who may need encouragement and support to become better parents. Contestants can submit videos, songs, and essays about fatherhood through June 10th. The winners will receive cash prizes and a trip to Washington, D.C., for a ceremony on Father’s Day.
Miami Heat player Dwyane Wade (pictured) has signed on to promote the challenge. As a Father with primary custody of his two sons, Wade says he is honored by the opportunity. “When I was first [approached to become] involved with the initiative, I was humbled,” Wade said. He noted the President’s fatherhood speeches as further inspiration. “More than that, I was moved by the fact that one of the reasons President Obama was so passionate about this issue is that he grew up without his dad. He, too, has recognized that being a Father is his most-important role.”
Obama’s Chicago speech in February helped inspire the challenge. In it, the President noted how “there are entire neighborhoods where young people, they don’t see an example of somebody succeeding. And for a lot of young boys and young men, in particular, they don’t see an example of Fathers or grandfathers, uncles, who are in a position to support families and be held up and respected.”
Wade appears along with Obama and Jay-Z in a public service announcement promoting “This Is Fatherhood.” Eugene Schneeberg, current director of the Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, worked with predecessor DuBois to support Obama’s fatherhood program. He is also one of the challenge’s judges.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s top national security adviser Tom Donilon is resigning and will be replaced by Susan Rice, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. who has been a lightning rod for Republican criticism over faulty explanations for the attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya.
Donilon has been a key foreign policy adviser to President Barack Obama. But the 58-year-old had been expected to depart sometime this year, with Rice seen as the likely candidate to replace him. Her selection is sure to anger congressional Republicans, who have accused the administration of inconsistency and a cover-up in the Benghazi attacks.
Rice, a close Obama confidante, came under withering criticism from Republicans as part of the investigations into the deadly attack on a U.S. compound in Benghazi. Relying on talking points from the intelligence community, Rice said in television interviews that the attacks were likely spontaneous, which was later proven incorrect.
Obama considered nominating Rice as his second-term secretary of state, but she withdrew amid the GOP criticism, saying she didn’t want her confirmation fight to be a distraction for the White House. The president instead nominated John Kerry, who easily won confirmation from his former Senate colleagues.
David “Deacon” Jones (pictured), the defensive end who was credited for using the word sack to describe how he knocked down quarterbacks on the field, passed away at his Southern California home on Monday night of natural causes. He was 74 years old, according to USA Today.
Jones was a legendary player that other players idolized and was often referred to as “one of the greatest players in NFL history.” Jones played for the L.A. Rams from 1961 to 1971, San Diego Chargers from 1972 to 1973, and signed on with the Washington Redskins in 1974, marking the end of his stellar career.
Former Rams head coach George Allen once referred to Jones as the “Greatest Defensive End of Modern Football,” while the New York Times pegged the gridiron great as the “Most Valuable Ram of All Time.” Jones was voted to the NFL’s 75 Year All Time Team and was inducted in to the Pro-Football Hall of Fame in 1980.
Jones, who has been deluged with honors throughout his playing career and has never been taken off any sports analyst’s or enthusiast’s list of “Top 100 players of all time,” actually came from humble beginnings.
Jones was born in Eatonville, Fla., and shared the home with nine other family members. He attended Hungerford High School, where he excelled in all areas of athletics, baseball, basketball, and football. Even though Jones managed to earn a scholarship to South Carolina State University, when he finally landed there in 1957, it was revoked after academicians discovered he took part in a civil rights sit-in.
An assistant coach at South Carolina State, who was leaving and had taken a position at Mississippi Vocational, convinced Jones and a handful of other Black players that he could get them scholarships to his new school.
When Jones and the players went to the college, though, they were not allowed to join their White team members at motels and were relegated to sleeping on shoddy cots at the opposing school’s gymnasiums.
The Rams selected Jones in 1961, and he quickly became one of the team’s “Fearsome Foursome” defensive line of players along with Rosey Grier (pictured second from right), Lamar Lundy (pictured far left), and Merlin Olsen (pictured second from left).
These four men are now considered to be one of the best defensive lines in all of NFL history.
Jones was a legendary player that other players idolized and was often referred to as “one of the greatest players in NFL history.” Jones played for the L.A. Rams from 1961 to 1971, San Diego Chargers from 1972 to 1973, and signed on with the Washington Redskins in 1974, marking the end of his stellar career.
Former Rams head coach George Allen once referred to Jones as the “Greatest Defensive End of Modern Football,” while the New York Times pegged the gridiron great as the “Most Valuable Ram of All Time.” Jones was voted to the NFL’s 75 Year All Time Team and was inducted in to the Pro-Football Hall of Fame in 1980.
Jones, who has been deluged with honors throughout his playing career and has never been taken off any sports analyst’s or enthusiast’s list of “Top 100 players of all time,” actually came from humble beginnings.
Jones was born in Eatonville, Fla., and shared the home with nine other family members. He attended Hungerford High School, where he excelled in all areas of athletics, baseball, basketball, and football. Even though Jones managed to earn a scholarship to South Carolina State University, when he finally landed there in 1957, it was revoked after academicians discovered he took part in a civil rights sit-in.
An assistant coach at South Carolina State, who was leaving and had taken a position at Mississippi Vocational, convinced Jones and a handful of other Black players that he could get them scholarships to his new school.
When Jones and the players went to the college, though, they were not allowed to join their White team members at motels and were relegated to sleeping on shoddy cots at the opposing school’s gymnasiums.
The Rams selected Jones in 1961, and he quickly became one of the team’s “Fearsome Foursome” defensive line of players along with Rosey Grier (pictured second from right), Lamar Lundy (pictured far left), and Merlin Olsen (pictured second from left).
These four men are now considered to be one of the best defensive lines in all of NFL history.
LOS ANGELES — Musical. Romance. Epic history. Social drama. Christmas comedy. After years of complaint and self-criticism about the shortage of prominent movies by and about black Americans, film companies are poised to release an extraordinary cluster of them across an array of genres in the last five months of 2013.
At least 10 new films will be released, including several awards contenders, from both independent and major distributors, like the Weinstein Company, Fox Searchlight and Universal Pictures. Even some of those who made this year’s movies have been caught by surprise.
“You tell me!” said the director and screenwriter Lee Daniels, when asked how so many black-driven films had materialized at once. His historical drama “The Butler” — based on a real-life White House butler who served eight presidents — is to be released by Weinstein on Aug. 16. “I’m working in my own bubble, I come up for air, and there they are,” Mr. Daniels said.
Black filmmakers say the wave of 2013 releases was built in large part on the creativity that has flourished on the independent-film circuit, which has become a laboratory of sorts for more prominent African-American-themed productions. Writers and directors have been sharpening their skills on indie films the last several years while waiting for big distributors to regain interest.
CAMBRIDGE — On a recent Wednesday afternoon, 22-year-old Cortlan Wickliff walks into a pizzeria looking every bit the college student, with headphones, braces, and slightly overgrown hair. Finals are over, and there’s not much to do but have dinner with friends and watch movies, lots of movies, until graduation.
Oh, and start studying for the bar exam. When Wickliff dons his cap and gown, regalia his mother had to remind him to order, the Texas native will be one of the youngest African-Americans ever to graduate from Harvard Law School. Wickliff was 19 when he graduated from Houston’s Rice University with a degree in bioengineering in 2010. That fall he started law school, but said the age gap with his classmates, about five to six years, was not the biggest issue.
“Being at a school where there aren’t any right answers when you have been in engineering or sciences classes, that’s a bit of a change,” he said with a shrug. “School was different because of my engineering background, being from the South, being from Texas, rather than different because of my age.”
There is no age requirement for admission to Harvard Law; school administrators said the average age in the graduating Class of 2013 is 27. Students need strong test scores and grades. But more than anything, they must show an aptitude for advocating a point of view, something proven through work experience, extracurricular activities, volunteering, leadership positions.