Grades: what a concept
Emeka Okafor didn’t have the talent as a prep player to make it far in basketball. Books, he said, opened the door to the NBA.
Speaking to about 300 high school students Thursday night at a screening of the movie “Coach Carter,” the Charlotte Bobcats forward told them that all his success is based on taking his education seriously.
“I knew a whole bunch of other cats who could play, but they didn’t have the books. They couldn’t pass a class. They got left behind,” Okafor said. “When the college coaches came looking at me, they said ‘This guy right here, his basketball skills … we can work on them. But we know he can pass a class.’
“They knew they didn’t have to worry about eligibility issues. They knew I had a good head on my shoulders and they didn’t have to worry about me going crazy. And that’s how I snuck my way into the college game.”
Okafor, the No. 2 overall pick in the NBA draft, graduated in three years from Connecticut with a 3.8 grade-point average in finance.
An academic All-American, he also led UConn to the national championship.
The Bobcats hosted the invitation-only screening of “Coach Carter,” a movie based on real-life basketball coach Ken Carter, who benched his entire team when they didn’t meet his academic standards.
On the other hand …
Washington Redskins’ rookie Sean Taylor was cleared of a drunken driving charge because of insufficient evidence, but his defense attorney still found fault with some of the field sobriety tests administered.
“The alphabet test, to me, is kind of confusing,” attorney Warren McLain said. “I don’t think anybody’s asked Mr. Taylor to say the alphabet since fourth grade.”
As The Sporting News’ “Caught on the Fly” column noted: See, look what you can miss out on by leaving the University of Miami before your senior year.
Clothes fit for a wonder woman
Just days after being ranked No. 6 on Mr. Blackwell’s annual worst-dressed list, tennis star Serena Williams unveiled her new line of lime green-and-white Nike tennis apparel.
Williams co-designed a three-in-one dress and knee-high boots to go with it. Watch for her getup when she begins play at the Australian Open tennis championships this week.
Williams, No. 7 in the world tennis rankings, modeled the outfit, stepping out of the dress to reveal what she’ll be wearing at the Open: a top and shorts that are just “ideal” for practice.
Unconventional? “You bet!” she said.
Like the black knee-high warmup boots that made headlines at the last U.S. Open, the new and improved lime green-and-white knee-highs can be unzipped and removed between the warmup and a match.
“My legs take a little longer to warm up than the next opponent, so it’s perfect for me. They’ll keep me warm and then I’ll be able to blast off,” she said.
Couldn’t take the ribbing
Shaquille O’Neal is busy these days trying to protect his sore ribs, according to Bill Scheft of Sports Illustrated.
“I believe the last time Shaq had to wear a flak jacket,” Scheft wrote, “was when the reviews came out for ‘Kazaam.’ ”