Wolves’ second-round pick lied about age, should have been ineligible
The second round of Thursday night's NBA draft was full of obscure players from foreign leagues, but no one selected has as unknown a profile as Tanguy Ngombo. A 6-6 forward from the Qatar League, Ngombo was virtually unknown by even the most committed draftniks until Jonathan Givony of DraftExpress.com tweeted about his potential selection by the Minnesota Timberwolves in the second round.
Sure enough, Givony was right -- Minnesota took Ngombo on Thursday night with the 58th overall pick. ESPN appeared to have ripped his highlight video straight from YouTube and his profile photo from Google Images, while analyst Fran Fraschilla compared him to Sidd Finch, a baseball phenom George Plimpton made up for a now-notorious April Fool's Day hoax in a 1985 issue of Sports Illustrated.
It turns out that Fraschilla was at least partially right: Ngombo exists, but his story doesn't check out. When the Wolves selected him Thursday night, they thought they were getting a 21-year-old golden nugget hidden from all other times. Instead, they found pyrite, because Ngombo is really 26 years old. Givony tweeted the truth on Friday afternoon:
Uh-oh, looks like our guy T'Wolves draft pick Tanguy Ngombo has been busted for lying about his age: http://bit.ly/kfxzqp (hat-tip @sJacas )
Here is a direct link to the FIBA website archive with Tanguy Ngombo 's profile and date of birth: http://bit.ly/lxStcJ
It looks like even Qatar is lising Tanguy Ngombo as being born in 1984: http://bit.ly/m5NXPI - I don't think there's any way around this now
NBA rules dictate that European players become automatically eligible for the league at 22 years old, at which point they become free agents unless a team already holds their rights through the draft. Since Ngombo had never been selected and his real age of 26 appears to have been a matter of public record, the selection should have never been allowed to happen and may be voided after the fact.
If the Wolves have a case to keep Ngombo's rights, it's that his NBA.com draft profile lists his year of birth as 1989. (The profile also gets his name wrong, but, in fairness, "Targuy" has been a common spelling since he entered the draftosphere on Monday.) The FIBA and Qatar links above look to be more official listings, so it looks as if the Wolves (and the NBA, to be sure) appear not to have done their due diligence. If they want Ngombo, they may have to sign him to a contract. Of course, it's also not entirely clear why any franchise would want a 26-year-old forward who plays in a low-level league in the Middle East. The only reason Minnesota should want to hold on to the pick is to avoid embarrassment. There's no reason that general manager David Kahn couldn't have done a rudimentary web search about Ngombo, and he deserves mockery for failing to carry out some basic research.
It's unclear if a case like this one has ever occurred in the NBA, but there is something of a precedent in the WNBA, as Kevin Pelton of Basketball Prospectus told me on Friday afternoon. In 2007, the Sacramento Monarchs took Charel Allen with the 36th pick even though she was set to return to Notre Dame for a fifth year and had not declared for the draft. Under league rules, she was declared ineligible, although the Monarchs did make her the Miss Irrelevant in 2008 when they chose her with the 43rd and final pick of the draft.
If that example serves as precedent, then the Wolves probably aren't going to end up with Ngombo. Given his advanced age and lack of reputation, they may be just fine with that. However, this mess will remain as a black mark on the resume of Kahn. Up until now, his most ridiculous accomplishment as an NBA GM was taking two point guards with back-to-back lottery picks in 2008. Failing to look into the full history of Tanguy Ngombo may be impossible to top.
$1m Pan Am bill
IT IS GOING to cost Barbados $1 million to send a contingent to the 16th Pan Am Games slated for Mexico in October.
President of the Barbados Olympic Association (BOA), Steve Stoute, told WEEKEND SPORT that the bulk of the cost would come from sending men’s and women’s field hockey teams to the multi-sport event.
The hockey teams qualified having won medals at last year’s Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games in Puerto Rico.
Stoute said the organising committee was giving Barbados a travel subsidy which was for individuals who qualify, that would help with the overall costs.
Last year, the BOA spent $1.2 million in funding for the CAC Games, at which Barbados won three gold, two silver and five bronze medals – 11th overall in the tables.
A further $800 000 was spent for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, but Barbados left India without a medal.
Stoute reiterated that they will revisit the selection criteria.
“Most certainly for Pan Am, we will be a lot more conservative in our selection based on the prevailing performances,” he said.
World-class hurdler Ryan Brathwaite and ace swimmer Bradley Ally are the only Barbadians that have a semblance of a chance of winning a medal in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.
It will be the largest multi-sport event of the year, with about 6,000 athletes from 42 nations expected to participate in 36 sports.
US increases support to Caribbean Basin Security Initiative
The United States will be increasing its financial support to the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI) with US$77 million in funding committed for fiscal year 2011/12.
US Secretary of State, Hillary Rodham Clinton, made the announcement at a press conference held on Wednesday in Montego Bay following high-level talks with Caribbean Community (CARICOM) foreign ministers.
She said that the amount represents an increase of more than 70 percent over the US $45 million allocated in the first year of implementation in 2010.
"This support is just one piece of our broader regional security issues that we are tackling," Clinton said.
"We are pleased with the progress that we have made so far and optimistic about what we can accomplish in the future," she added.
One of the initiatives to come out of the inaugural Caribbean-United States Security Cooperation Dialogue held in Washington on May 27, 2010, the CBSI brings all members of CARICOM and the Dominical Republic together to collaborate jointly on regional security issues with the US as a partner.
The aim is to develop a joint strategy to tackle the full range of security and criminal threats to the Caribbean basin.
Focus is placed on tackling the illicit trafficking of drugs and guns; advancing public safety and security through programmes to reduce crime and violence and improve border security; and promoting social justice through justice sector reform, combating government corruption, and assistance to vulnerable populations at risk of recruitment into criminal organisations.
OAS assistant secretary general calls on member states to join forces in promoting regional tourism
The assistant secretary general of the Organization of American States (OAS), Albert Ramdin, on Thursday called on member states to join forces to promote regional tourism, since it has “become one of the most important sectors in the world economy and for many OAS member states it is the main source of employment and exports, helping to drive economic growth.”
Speaking at the inauguration of the preparatory meeting for the nineteenth Inter-American Travel Congress, which is scheduled to be held September 29 and 30 in El Salvador, Ramdin said the event “is particularly meaningful because it takes place at a critical time for our economies.”
The event’s theme will be “Tourism: A Challenge in the Face of Poverty.”
The Inter-American Travel Congress, created in 1939 with the objective of promoting the development of tourism in the Americas, is one of the oldest institutions in the inter-American system. The last Travel Congress was held in Guatemala in 2003.
“Tourism is one of the economic activities that allowed the region to recover from the recent global financial crisis,” Ramdin pointed out. “In my view, the need for a regional dialogue is more relevant than ever as the region faces not only the global economic crisis and volatile oil prices, but also climatic disturbances, and security challenges, as well as the need to build and strengthen existing strategic alliances within countries with the business community and between sub-regions so as to optimize the existing opportunities.”
Ramdin recalled the OAS’s considerable experience in supporting its member states, particularly in relation to small and medium tourism enterprises and in promoting corporate social responsibility among tourism operators.
“We must consolidate and expand on the successes of our flagship Small Tourism Enterprise Program or STEP, and replicate where possible the transfer of successful programs to and from different sub-regions,” he concluded.
Furthermore, the OAS executive secretary for integral development (SEDI), Mauricio Cortes Costa, offered an assessment of the Hemisphere’s current favorable economic situation and recalled the importance of tourism in promoting social development and economic growth.
“Despite the global financial crisis, which reduced tourism activity inside our countries, there is a hopeful panorama today in our Hemisphere,” he said.
Presiding over the meeting was the Permanent Representative of El Salvador to the OAS, Ambassador Joaquín Alexander Maza, who reiterated his country’s commitment to improve its tourism sector and collaborate with other countries to make regional improvements.
“In offering to host the next Travel Congress, El Salvador wishes to revitalize a process of dialogue and cooperation in the tourism sector that goes beyond a single meeting of ministers and authorities,” he said. “That is why it is appropriate to use this opportunity to create initiatives that would give an active continuity to this mechanism and lead to commitments on the common goals of tourism in the Americas.”
The preparatory meeting for the nineteenth Inter-American Travel Congress will take place Thursday and Friday in the headquarters of the OAS in Washington, DC. It brings together member state and permanent observer representatives, alongside other organizations and agencies of the Inter-American system, to debate the topic of tourism as an engine of economic growth in the region and prepare a draft document of hemispheric commitments to be approved at the Congress meeting in El Salvador.
Diddy Settles Shooting Lawsuits
Sean "Diddy" Combs has settled all of the lawsuits relating to a wild shootout at a now defunct New York nightclub in 1999.
According to the New York Post, Diddy, Jamal "Shyne" Barrow, and the former owner of Club New York settled with the three victims who were shot during a confrontation inside of the club.
According to reports, the most seriously injured victim was paid $1.8 million dollars. Natania Reuben was shot in the face and still has seven bullet fragments lodged in her skull. Two other victims in the shooting were paid $500,000 and $50,000 respectively.
The high-profile shooting occurred on December 27th, while Combs was out on a date with then girlfriend, Jennifer Lopez. While Combs and his now deceased bodyguard Anthony “Wolf” Jones were acquitted of criminal charges, rapper shine was convicted of the shooting and sentenced to nine years in prison.
Jamaican artistes talks about Buju
Following the 10-year sentence handed down by US District judge James Moody on Mark 'Buju Banton' Myrie when he appeared in a Tampa Federal courtroom yesterday morning, members of the entertainment fraternity have been expressing their sympathies toward the artiste and his family.
General Degree told The WEEKEND STAR, "In my view I'm just sorry to know and mi just wish Buju to be a road right now because every man deserve freedom and every man deserve a second chance in anything."
He continued, "Mi just a look pon it from an artiste point of view, wi need a powerful voice like dat out deh right now, we need da conscious message weh Buju always a push enuh. Mi wish Buju did deh a road."
However, for singer Tony Rebel, a prison sentence is not the end of the road for anyone, as he gave examples saying, "We've seen Marcus Garvey our first national hero, went to prison and came back and he is what he is, we've seen Mandela walk out of prison into presidency in South Africa, we've seen the great Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, all of these people."
He added that he hopes Banton will use all of those moments to put his life into perspective and use it to inspire him as he himself has inspired many individuals.
Several entertainers also took to social networking website Twitter and Facebook to express their views.
great life
Among those on Twitter included Mr Vegas who tweeted, "Just touch down and saw the report on Buju. I will look on the positive side and say "it coulda worse". Him do 2+ (years or time served) already."
He also intends to do Informer, a song he described as a 'Buju song'.
Producer/artiste Delly Ranx was also among the tweeters saying, "Thanks to everyone who prayed for Buju Banton, your prayers do work so please continue to do so. God bless you all, have a great life."
One fan on Facebook posted on the entertainer's page, "My heart is heavy with sadness for you and your family. Keeping you in my prayers. You will thrive and survive this challenge. The Most High will see you through to victory. One love, peace and blessings."
Banton, who won a Grammy award this year for his album Before the Dawn, for best reggae album, will not be able to record music while in prison. However, he will be allowed to keep his dreadlocks and practice his Rastafarian faith.
Buju's lawyer, David Oscar Markus, however, says the artiste may only be required to serve six of the 10 years due to time already served and if he maintains his good behaviour.
Markus says they still intend to appeal Buju's sentence.
Eminem & Royce Hit #1 and more
Eminem's debut performance in Northern Ireland is in jeopardy of being boycotted by locals, who fear his performance will interrupt a missionary prayer service taking place near the park where he will be performing.
Em is slated to headline the Tennent's Vital at Ward Park, which in Northern Ireland on August 24th.
The rapper's performance is taking place on the same day as Bangor's Missionary Convention, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary.
According to the Belfast Telegraph, locals will lobby the North Down Borough Council and call for Eminem's performance to be canceled.
A meeting is scheduled tonight to discuss the issue of the proximity of the concert to the prayer service.
An entertainment license has not been granted for the event, according to the Belfast Telegraph, over 55,000 tickets have already been sold for the two day festival.
Meanwhile:
Eminem and Royce Da 5'9's group project Bad Meets Evil debuted at #1 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart. Their album, Hell: The Sequel, moved 171,000 units, according to Nielsen SoundScan. According to Billboard magazine Eminem has hit # 1 on the charts six times as a solo artist, twice as part of the group D-12 and now with Bad Meets Evil, making this his ninth appearance at the top of the Billboard charts.
Dancehall heavyweights on show for Ninja Man
Dancehall heavyweights Bounty Killer, Beenie Man and Vybz Kartel have headlined a number of artistes who have come on board to perform at a benefit show for deejay Ninja Man.
The show, which will be held on Saturday at Jam World in Portmore, St Catherine, will seek to assist the incarcerated deejay and his family with their financial expenses.
Other entertainers who have been added to the line-up include Stacious, D'Angel, Cobra, Whickerman & Barky, Twins of Twins, Friso Kid, Admiral Tibet, Nitty Kutchie, Hezron, Egg Nog, Danny English, Determine, Stacia Fya, Mikeylous, Dajigga, Iyara, Blaze, Mr. Lexx, Tanto Blacks, Face, Crush Hunta, D.I., Renegade, Ras Segal, Nigga Mikey, Villa Dutch and Round Head, among others.
The organisers said since word of the show got out, most of the entertainment industry has been coming on board to do what they can for the deejay.
Non-stop selections will be served up from Jamaica's top sound systems and selectors as the vibrations of Stone Love, the agile Sky Juice and Tony Matterhorn should serve up a storm.
MCs for the night will be GT Taylor and Shaka Pow.
Patrons will pay $1,000 to see the line-up, but provisions will be made at the venue for persons who wish to make an additional contribution.
Ninja Man has been incarcerated since March 2009. He is scheduled to appear in court on Monday.
Sentence leaves Buju's father speechless
BENJAMIN Myrie, the father of Grammy-winning reggae artiste Buju Banton was yesterday distraught by the news that his son had been sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment in the Sam M Gibbons Federal Court in Tampa, Florida.
Myrie was still processing the news, delivered hours earlier, of his beloved son's sentencing when the Observer called. However, the obviously overwhelmed Myrie was unable to talk.
"I really don't want to talk right now," said Myrie.
Myrie's sadness mirrored that of a few friends the artiste grew up with in the Whitehall Avenue community, off Red Hills Road in St Andrew, as news of the lengthy incarceration broke yesterday morning.
Although struck by the news, some were thankful that the artiste was given a sentence below the minimum mandatory 15 years, which could have been imposed had US Judge James Moody not thrown out the gun conviction against the 37-year-old artiste whose real name is Mark Anthony Myrie.
"It is certainly a sad feeling, as you would expect, but we will not be discouraged as it could have been worse," said Garnet Whyte, a close friend of Banton's.
Whyte, who spoke on behalf of a group of friends and close associates at the Red Hills Road-based Gargamel Recording Studio of the entertainer, said the spirits of those who supported the entertainer would remain high. "We will be keeping the faith alive and waiting on the appeal. The feelings might be down, but not out," added Whyte.
Whyte was supported by Kenisha Willis, another friend of Banton's. "We just want him to know that we will continue to pray for him and just want him to remain strong," said Willis.
"We want him to know that we are still here and we will always have him in our thoughts," added Georgia Forrester, a close family friend who lives metres away from the home of the senior Myrie. "Keep the faith, Buju. Just leave everything to the Almighty."
Meanwhile, Patrick Sawyers of Whitehall Avenue expressed resentment over the length of the sentence.
"Feel they could have given him a chance," said Sawyers, who seized the opportunity to encourage the artiste to use the situation as a life lesson.
Similar sentiments were expressed by Althea Williams, mother of young Jamaican athlete Ramone Bailey. "Him have to just hold the faith and know life does not end there," Williams told the Observer.
Barbadians urged to take responsibility for treatment of visitors to the island
Barbadians are being urged to take responsibility for how they treat each other and by extension visitors to the island; and stop trying to affix blame on someone for bad service.
Prime Minister Freundel Stuart gave this advice on Wednesday while addressing the Fifth Annual General Meeting of the National Imitative for Service Excellence (NISE) at the University of the West Indies' Cave Hill Campus.
He said, "Frankly speaking, I am tired of people blaming workers for bad service, workers blaming schools, schools blaming families, and families blaming society. We are all responsible for how Barbadians treat each other and the visitors on whom we depend for our economic well-being. It is also customary to blame the gatekeepers at the workplace."
Notwithstanding the fact that the first and lasting impression about a service provider is formed by the first person that one encounters, Stuart maintained that the behaviour of all frontline workers was dependent on the kind of training received and the monitoring of it by management.
He also admonished management for providing training programmes at the inception of their businesses only to allow them to go on auto-pilot months after.
In view of this, Stuart praised NISE for allocating resources to not only train managers and supervisors, but for "exposing them to good practices at home and abroad".
Akin to the ongoing training for managerial staff, the prime minister also praised NISE for conceptualising the NICE Customer Service Index -- a tool designed to measure customer satisfaction against the service offered.
"...I have been informed that instead of this assessment being perceived as ‘naming and shaming,’ it has received positive response from organisations, many of which want to learn from each other as it relates to improving their service delivery," he added.