22
Philippine Showbiz Today
December
October
22, 22 2018
- November
- January
7, 7,
2017
2019
King is Queen of tennis
Legendary tennis player Billie
Jean King was has been accord-
ed with the Lifetime Achievement
honor during BBC’s Sports Per-
sonality of the Year awards night
ceremony on Sunday in Birming-
ham.
The 75-year-old American,
former No.1 and one of the great-
est female tennis players of all
time, had won 39 Grand Slam ti-
tles, 12 in singles during her play-
ing career in the 60s and 70s.
King, an advocate for gender
equality, not only in her sport, but
in all sports as well, who in 1973
won the Battle of the Sexes match
against Bobby Riggs.
She also founded the Wom-
en’s Tennis Association (WTA).
“We all stand on the shoul-
ders of those who came before us
and we all have an opportunity to
share our lives, our experiences
and our vision for the future,” King
said in her acceptance speech.
“Each of us is an influencer,
and to all the athletes who truly
have a platform, let’s continue to
use the power of our voices and
our actions to inspire others.”
Other awardees are cyclist
Geraint Thomas, Sports Person-
ality of the Year for winning the
Tour de France; England Netball
Basketball
team, Team of the Year, for
winning the gold medal in the
Commonwealth Games; Gareth
Southgate, for guiding England
to its firsts World Cup of Soccer
semifinals round in 28 years;
Francisco Molinari, World
Sports Star of the Year, for being
instrumental in Europe’s Ryder
Cup glory in golf; Kirsty Ewe, Un-
sung Hero, for overcoming men-
tal health issues to inspire others
to do the same and find a better
place through swimming.
King turned professional in
1959 and gained global recogni-
tion two years later when she and
Karen Hantze Susman became
the youngest pair to win the wom-
en’s doubles title at Wimbledon.
In 1966, she won her first
major singles title, again at Wim-
bledon, and was crowned world
number one for the first time - a
ranking she held for five further
years (1967-1968, 1971-1972
and 1974).
She retained her Wimble-
don titles in both 1967 and 1968
- the years in which she also won
her first US Open and Australian
Open singles titles respectively.
All in all, King won a record
20 Wimbledon titles as well as
13 US Open, four French Open
and two Australian Open crowns
between 1961 and 1979. She col-
lected three Grand Slam titles in
one year in 1972.
She won 129 singles titles in
all, 78 of which were WTA titles.
In addition, she won seven Fed
Cups as a player and four as the
US team’s captain.
King retired from profession-
al tennis in 1983.
Off the court, King was a
pioneer in campaigning for equal
prize money in tennis, and in 1971
became the first female player to
earn more than $100,000 in prize
money.
However, when she won the
US Open in 1972, she received
$15,000 less than the men’s
champion and vowed not to re-
Tennis
turn the following year unless the
prize money was equal.
In 1973, the US Open be-
came the first major tournament
to offer equal prize money for
men and women.
Her campaigning didn’t end
there, though, and throughout
the 1970s - the height of her
competitive years - she led player
efforts to support the formation
of the first professional women’s
tour and became the first presi-
dent of the WTA.
In 1974, along with then-
husband Larry King, she started
the Women’s Sports Foundation,
which works to ensure all girls
have access to sport.●
Early NBA Rookie of the Year candidates
As
the
NBA continues
its evolution
towards the perimeter, talented
forwards who were without a po-
sition in the previous back-to-the-
basket era and seemingly without
a role in the current pace-and-
space era have emerged as the
league’s newest super-subs.
These forwards are the an-
tithesis of the modern NBA big
man: They post up fewer than five
times a game, attempt fewer than
two three-pointers a night and
aren’t true rim protectors.
Yet Julius Randle, Doman-
tas Sabonis and Montrezl Harrell
are all front-runners for the NBA’s
Sixth Man of the Year award. An-
other forward playing a similar
role, Marvin Bagley, will most-
likely be a First Team All-Rookie
performer, too.
In the past if a power forward
didn’t have a traditional low-post
game or size or couldn’t stretch
the defense from the three-point
line, then more often than not,
that guy couldn’t stay on the court
— no matter how talented and
athletic he was.
There were occasionally
those who did carve out a role,
such as Corliss Williamson and
Thad Young, but for every one of
them, there are probably twice as
many guys, such as Ike Diogu,
Derrick Williams, Earl Clark and
Anthony Randolph, who were out
of the league before turning 30.
Meaning Randle, Sabonis,
Harrell and Bagley are simply out-
liers? Or are they pioneers for a
new age, star sixth man — an al-
ternate to the score-first, Lou Wil-
liams-type guard off the bench?
After examining these super-
subs’ respective games, it appears
that teams have gotten smarter
about exploiting mismatches
against other teams’ second units
by bringing these talented for-
wards off the bench and playing
to their respective strengths.
Each of these players has a
unique game with certain high-
level attributes. For Randle, they
are his powerful drives to the bas-
ket and his ability to finish through
contact. For Sabonis, they are his
screening and touch inside the
paint. For Harrell, they are his
smart cutting and relentless fin-
ishing at the rim. And for Bagley,
they are his speed in the open
court and vertical athleticism on
lobs and offensive rebounds.
Did you know that only four
non-guards have won Sixth Man
of the Year this century? Or that
the last non-guard to win was
Lamar Odom in 2011? The sixth
man du jour around the NBA is
ripe for change, and these afore-
mentioned niche forwards seem
ready to take the mantle from the
heat check combo guards.
If this trend continues, look
for the Lakers to ultimately test
this role out with Kyle Kuzma, or
better yet, Brandon Ingram. If
Jabari Parker can recommit him-
self to the game, he would seem
like an ideal candidate for this role
as well.
Same goes for guys such as
Dario Saric, Jonathan Isaac or
even Michael Porter Jr. when he
gets healthy. Any forward who has
an obvious set of skills but doesn’t
have a true position can potential-
ly thrive in this role.●
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