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There is some doubt, however, whether the Nets will move to Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn as planned, given the lawsuits surrounding the project and the bad economy, which has dramatically altered the scale of the development. The builders will lose valuable tax-free bond funding if there is not a groundbreaking by the end of this year; and there is flux in the Nets ownership, as Bruce Ratner is in the midst of selling a majority stake in the team to Russian industrialist billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov.
Corona native Jimmy Valvano was one of the most successful and colorful college basketball coaches in the history of the sport. He was also a well-respected sports reporter for ESPN at the time of his untimely death in 1993 at age 47 from bone cancer. At the ESPY Awards, held two months prior to his passing, Valvano galvanized the nation with a speech that showed his grit. “Cancer can take away my physical abilities,” he said. “It cannot touch my mind, it cannot touch my heart, and it cannot touch my soul.” He finished by saying, “Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up!”
Immediately after Valvano’s death, ESPN executives and Valvano’s brothers, Nick and Bob, helped create the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Last week, ESPN personalities Hannah Storm and Scott Van Pelt emceed a fundraising event at Chelsea Piers that brought in nearly $100,000 for this very worthy medical research organization.
I was saddened to learn of the passing last week of professional wrestling icon “Captain” Lou Albano. Albano was always a sight to behold with his loud Hawaiian shirts, beer belly and rubber bands hanging from his face and goatee. Although he had a successful career in the ring, he was best known for managing villainous wrestlers who would try to get the championship belt by any means necessary from the good-guy heroes of the time, such as Bruno Sammartino, Pedro Morales and Bob Backlund.
At last week’s New York Comic Con, held at Pier 94, a number of retired wrestlers were signing autographs for fans. The stars of Demolition, a tag-team Albano managed in the early ’80s, reminisced about how he kept an audience pumped. “Lou was so great at riling up a crowd in an arena that the only way that we could leave the building safely was via an ambulance!” said Bill Eadie, better known to wrestling fans simply as Ax.
