Victors are determined decisively on the court, but one great joy of fandom outside the lines has no clear winner. We love to weigh the merits of our favorite players against each other, and yet a taproom full of basketball fans can never unanimously agree on the GOAT. In this series, we attempt to settle scores of NBA undercard debates — or at least give you fodder for your next “Who is better?” argument.

Prime numbers

After leading Syracuse to the NCAA title as a freshman in 2003, Anthony average 20 points per game as a 19-year-old rookie. It took two more seasons for the shoot-first forward to establish himself as a perennial top-10 scorer, and he remained one until Year 11 of a career still in search of an NBA championship. Battling injury during a 17-win 2014-15 campaign, Anthony notoriously held off his season-ending knee surgery until after his eighth All-Star Game. He has fallen into increasingly rapid decline in the years since.

From 2005-14, Anthony averaged 26.3 points (55.4 true shooting percentage), 6.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.6 combined blocks and steals in 36.7 minutes per game. Playing alongside post-prime stars Allen Iverson, Chauncey Billups and Amar’e Stoudemire, Anthony led the Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks to the playoffs in the first eight seasons of that nine-year run, reaching the 2009 Western Conference finals.

Anthony finished top-10 in MVP voting twice, peaking with a third-place finish with the Knicks in 2013.

In 57 playoff games during his prime, Anthony averaged 27 points (51.9 TS%), 7.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.7 combined blocks and steals in 39.6 minutes per game. He twice advanced past the first round.

King’s prime may be harder to pin down than anyone else in NBA history. He averaged 24 points as a 21-year-old rookie on the New Jersey Nets, but substance abuse issues limited him to just 19 games for the Utah Jazz in a third season sandwiched by a pair of trades that led him to the Golden State Warriors.

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King earned Comeback Player of the Year honors in his fourth season — his first with the Warriors — and his first All-Star selection the following year. It was not until a sign-and-trade deal with the Knicks that he ascended to peak form, averaging a league-best 32.9 points a game before blowing out his knee in March 1985. He missed nearly two full seasons but managed a few unlikely resurgent years with the Washington Bullets, even averaging 28 points per game as a 34-year-old before requiring yet another knee surgery.

In an 11-year span from 1980-91 that included nearly two full seasons on the shelf, King averaged 23.5 points (57.1 TS%), 5.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.1 combined steals and blocks in 34.2 minutes per game. His teams reached the playoffs just three times in his prime, never advancing past the Eastern Conference semifinals. He did not play with a contemporaneous star until joining an aging Moses Malone on the Bullets.

King also twice finished top-10 in MVP voting, peaking with a second-place finish to Larry Bird in 1984.

In just 23 playoff games during his prime, King averaged 27.3 points (61.4 TS%), 4.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.1 combined blocks and steals in 36 minutes per game. He too advanced past the first round twice.

The production is awfully close, but Anthony’s more consistent availability in his prime gives him an edge that is reflected in the superior advanced statistics he accumulated in both the regular season and playoffs.

Advantage: Anthony

Career high

There is a case to be made that Anthony peaked at age 24, when he went toe-to-toe with Kobe Bryant in a conference finals that was deadlocked at two games apiece before the Los Angeles Lakers extinguished the Nuggets, but there is little doubt his inside-out game reached its apex in the 2012-13 season. Anthony led the Knicks to 54 wins and a six-game second-round playoff loss to Paul George’s Indiana Pacers, and his lone first-place vote spoiled what would have been a unanimous MVP campaign by LeBron James.

Story continues

Victors are determined decisively on the court, but one great joy of fandom outside the lines has no clear winner. We love to weigh the merits of our favorite players against each other, and yet a taproom full of basketball fans can never unanimously agree on the GOAT. In this series, we attempt to settle scores of NBA undercard debates — or at least give you fodder for your next “Who is better?” argument.

Prime numbers

After leading Syracuse to the NCAA title as a freshman in 2003, Anthony average 20 points per game as a 19-year-old rookie. It took two more seasons for the shoot-first forward to establish himself as a perennial top-10 scorer, and he remained one until Year 11 of a career still in search of an NBA championship. Battling injury during a 17-win 2014-15 campaign, Anthony notoriously held off his season-ending knee surgery until after his eighth All-Star Game. He has fallen into increasingly rapid decline in the years since.

From 2005-14, Anthony averaged 26.3 points (55.4 true shooting percentage), 6.7 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.6 combined blocks and steals in 36.7 minutes per game. Playing alongside post-prime stars Allen Iverson, Chauncey Billups and Amar’e Stoudemire, Anthony led the Denver Nuggets and New York Knicks to the playoffs in the first eight seasons of that nine-year run, reaching the 2009 Western Conference finals.

Anthony finished top-10 in MVP voting twice, peaking with a third-place finish with the Knicks in 2013.

In 57 playoff games during his prime, Anthony averaged 27 points (51.9 TS%), 7.4 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.7 combined blocks and steals in 39.6 minutes per game. He twice advanced past the first round.

King’s prime may be harder to pin down than anyone else in NBA history. He averaged 24 points as a 21-year-old rookie on the New Jersey Nets, but substance abuse issues limited him to just 19 games for the Utah Jazz in a third season sandwiched by a pair of trades that led him to the Golden State Warriors.

More

King earned Comeback Player of the Year honors in his fourth season — his first with the Warriors — and his first All-Star selection the following year. It was not until a sign-and-trade deal with the Knicks that he ascended to peak form, averaging a league-best 32.9 points a game before blowing out his knee in March 1985. He missed nearly two full seasons but managed a few unlikely resurgent years with the Washington Bullets, even averaging 28 points per game as a 34-year-old before requiring yet another knee surgery.

In an 11-year span from 1980-91 that included nearly two full seasons on the shelf, King averaged 23.5 points (57.1 TS%), 5.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.1 combined steals and blocks in 34.2 minutes per game. His teams reached the playoffs just three times in his prime, never advancing past the Eastern Conference semifinals. He did not play with a contemporaneous star until joining an aging Moses Malone on the Bullets.

King also twice finished top-10 in MVP voting, peaking with a second-place finish to Larry Bird in 1984.

In just 23 playoff games during his prime, King averaged 27.3 points (61.4 TS%), 4.7 rebounds, 2.5 assists and 1.1 combined blocks and steals in 36 minutes per game. He too advanced past the first round twice.

The production is awfully close, but Anthony’s more consistent availability in his prime gives him an edge that is reflected in the superior advanced statistics he accumulated in both the regular season and playoffs.

Advantage: Anthony

Career high

There is a case to be made that Anthony peaked at age 24, when he went toe-to-toe with Kobe Bryant in a conference finals that was deadlocked at two games apiece before the Los Angeles Lakers extinguished the Nuggets, but there is little doubt his inside-out game reached its apex in the 2012-13 season. Anthony led the Knicks to 54 wins and a six-game second-round playoff loss to Paul George’s Indiana Pacers, and his lone first-place vote spoiled what would have been a unanimous MVP campaign by LeBron James.

Story continues

They don’t make Mother’s Day cards gushy enough to reflect the kind of sacrifices Xiaoning Sui has made for her son.

Five months in “quasi-isolation” in a Spanish prison; handwashing his tennis teammates’ underwear in a hotel room sink; spending $400,000 in an ultimately unsuccessful — and as it turned out criminal — bid to get him into a top notch American school.

The 49-year-old’s final humiliation came this week as a judge in Boston sentenced her to time already served for attempting to bribe a soccer coach into securing a place for her son at the University of California, Los Angeles as a supposed top-tier soccer recruit.

“I set a horrible example for my child and I was a bad influence,” Sui told the judge through an interpreter via teleconference from her home in Surrey, B.C., according to a report in the New York Post.

“I promise that I will never do that again.”

No matter how cold or hot, ‘she sat there to watch’

Although the case made headlines around the world this week, documents filed as part of the proceedings reveal new details about Sui, her path to Canada and the circumstances in which she found herself at the centre of the so-called Varsity Blues scandal.

Born in Shanghai, Sui — who is also known as Peggy — has been the principal caregiver for her son Eric since he was born in 2000.

She has a degree in electronics and has worked as both a technician and an office manager, but left the workforce in 2007 to spend more time with her son — and to guide his athletic career.

“She brought up her son and was there every step of the way,” Sui’s sister Xiaomin Sui told the U.S. court in a letter.

“Every time her son was in training, or playing a game, no matter how cold or how hot the weather was, she sat there to watch, and helped him analyze after the game, in order to improve the game.”

Washing son’s teammates’ underwear

According to a sentencing submission filed by Sui’s lawyer, she and her son moved to Canada in 2015, seeking better educational opportunities for Eric.

She lives with her sister and niece in the Lower Mainland, while her husband continues to live and work in China.

Since Eric was five, Sui has thrown herself into his sport.

“She helped other parents who could not drive their kids by driving their kids to the tennis training and bringing them back,” the document says.

When her son’s team went to compete and the hotel did “not have washing machines, she helped young athletes wash their underwear and sportswear by hand.”

In 2018, Sui began working with a Florida-based recruiter who “matched tennis players with college tennis coaches to facilitate the players’ potential recruitment as part of the college admissions process.”

And that’s how Xiaoning “Peggy” Sui came to know William “Rick” Singer.

‘A practitioner of that mysterious art’

Search Rick Singer’s name on YouTube and you’ll come across a series of black and white videos dedicated to overcoming the mysteries of the U.S. college admissions system: The Right Fit; Personal Best; Mastery.

According to American prosecutors, Singer founded his college counselling and preparation business — known as “The Key” — in California in 2007, getting approval as a charity in 2013.

In his promotional videos and a book — Getting In: Gaining Admission to Your College of Choice — Singer promises to help students and parents unveil the curtains on the admissions process.

“I’m one of the people who decides who gets in and who doesn’t. I am a practitioner of that mysterious art,” he writes.

“And I’ll tell you a secret. It’s not an an art. It’s a science.”

What Singer’s book and videos don’t say is that his version of that academic alchemy cost parents millions.

He turned average students into golden applicants by paying ringers to write their exams and greasing the palms of sports coaches who secured coveted spots on university teams for his clients’ children as fake athletic recruits.

She said ‘OK’

Sui was told Singer could help her son get into UCLA — but it would cost $400,000.

She spoke through a Chinese translator with the tennis recruiter and Singer in a conference call in August 2018. She was told Singer had a “special way of writing” applications.

“Singer never disclosed that any portion of the $400,000 Ms. Sui agreed was intended to be a bribe,” Sui’s lawyer wrote in her sentencing documents.

On the same call, she begged Singer and the recruiter to keep the payment a secret from her son.

In the months that followed, Singer worked to create a fake athletic profile for Eric and to arrange with UCLA soccer coach Jorge Salcedo to admit him as a purported soccer recruit.

They combined pictures of Sui’s son playing tennis with those of another individual playing soccer to invent a “top player for two private soccer clubs in Canada.” 

And Salcedo filled out a form claiming he saw Eric playing soccer in China and that he had “good quickness and speed.”

In the court documents, Sui’s lawyer claims his client wasn’t part of efforts to fabricate an athletic resume for her son.

He claims it wasn’t until October 2018 that the reality of the situation was explained in terms that left no room for doubt as to what was actually happening.

Sui was told to wire $100,000 directly to the UCLA soccer coach and told that although her son was a tennis player, he would be entering the school as a soccer prospect.

She said “OK.” 

And investigators were listening, because by then Singer was cooperating with the FBI in an investigation that would see dozens of his clients — including Desperate Housewives star Felicity Huffman, Full House‘s Lori Loughlin and Vancouver businessman and former CFL athlete David Sidoo — charged with conspiracy to commit fraud.

‘A money crime’

The charges against Sui were filed in a sealed indictment on March 5, 2019, but Sui claims she had no knowledge of them until she was arrested in Spain while travelling the following September.

She waived extradition to the United States, but the process took five months. Sui spent the time in Madrid V Penitentiary.

Despite being held in an institution known as a “VIP prison” for the high-profile politicians who have been held there, Sui’s lawyer claims his client’s time behind bars was scarring.

“She was confined to her cell for approximately 15 hours per day. For approximately one month, she was in a cell alone,” he wrote in the court documents.

“For a vast majority of the time there was no other Mandarin speaking inmate in the facility. With her family members thousands of miles away, Mrs. Sui spent 157 days in quasi isolation.”

Sui was finally transferred to U.S. marshals and sent to the United States in February. She was released on $250,000 bail at that time and allowed to return to Canada.

Her sentencing was set for this week, but given restrictions imposed because of COVID-19, both the prosecution and the defence suggested the proceedings be held by video conference instead.

It was unlikely she would be able to travel to the U.S. anyway.

Sui had pleaded guilty in February, and her lawyer argued she had already served more time — and in much harsher conditions — than any of the other parents ensnared in Singer’s dealings.

It wasn’t a lesson she would need to learn twice.

“No rational person aware of what has occurred to Ms. Sui would ever knowingly and intentionally choose to ensure what she has experienced over the last nine months,” her lawyer wrote.

U.S. District Judge Douglas Woodlock agreed. But he also said there should be a fine.

“It’s a money crime,” he told Sui. “And it seems to me that it ought to be paid for in money too.”

The penalty — $250,000.

But what is money, anyway — compared to the love for a son?

A 19-year-old Blue Bulls rugby player charged with two counts of rape and one count of robbery is in line for selection for the captaincy of the Under-20 Springbok side for the World Cup Championship in France this year and because of his high profile rugby commitments should be released on bail, the New Brighton Magistrate’s Court in the Eastern Cape heard on Friday.

The rugby player is facing charges after an 18-year-old woman opened a case against him on December 28, last year. The alleged incident took place after a night out in KwaMagxaki in Port Elizabeth. The player who cannot be named until he has formally pleaded, is from Queenstown in the Eastern Cape but desperately wants to be released on bail to get back to his rugby commitments in Pretoria.

During court proceedings, Investigating Officer, Captain Michael Shanagan was cross examined by lawyer Danie Gouws. Gouws argued that the player should be released on bail as he was also selected to play in the Super Rugby tournament which starts in later this month.

Gouws told the court that the franchise wanted the 19-year-old player to be released so that he could start training. He argued that it was unfair to let the athlete languish in prison for something he probably did not do.

“If he is not granted bail, they most probably won’t have his contract renewed. He will not be able to play rugby and will most probably become a pauper and his two-year-old son will suffer. What’s serious is when an innocent person is accused of rape,” Gouws  said.

“He will be playing one game in New Zealand, one game in Australia and one game in Argentina. He will be supervised by the CEO and management, it is very easy to get someone back from those countries.”

Gouws argued that Makhaya Ntini was accused of rape yet he was released on bail and even went on to point out that South Africa’s very own President Jacob Zuma, was not detained in custody after being charged with rape.

“I was in contact with the CEO, and it seems if anything he will get a fine. They are waiting for him to come out so that he can start training and hopefully realise his dream of playing for the Springboks,” Gouws said.

“It’s my understanding, from my sources that he is going to be the Under-20 Captain for the World Cup,” said Gouws.

According to detective Shanagan, on the night of the alleged incident, the complainant and the player had attended a party at a flat in Central. The woman’s statement to Shanagan details that the player, and another person, drove the woman home.

At some stage the athlete needed to relieve himself. When the car stopped the woman decided to walk home, she claimed that the rugby player came from behind, tripped and dragged her into the bushes where he raped her.

However, Gouws said that he was in possession of a voice recording where the complainant could be heard saying that she got out of the vehicle herself and walked home and there was no mention in these recordings that she was dragged.

Gouws said that the State had a weak case and at trial the woman would be confronted with what he called a material contradiction. He said that the woman was posting information all over social media.

Gouws went on to show the court a video of the party in Central where alcohol was seemingly being consumed and with the woman allegedly wearing the rugby player’s jersey. The State’s forensic nurse noted that the woman had sustained bruising on her legs, breasts and tenderness on her face.

However, Gouws questioned why her clothing was clean and no blood was noted after an alleged brutal rape. He further dismissed the nurse’s qualifications and pointed out the findings of his own forensic expert, Dr Phillip Kapp.

“Abrasions are nil, scars are nil, swelling is nil, bruising yes but in the absence of significant injuries [Dr Kapp] cannot agree with the examiner’s conclusion consistent with forceful anal penetration. We are sitting with a lady who is a afraid of her father, it is hard to believe it was her first time [having sex], it’s very difficult to say that,” Gouws argued.

The bail application was postponed until February 5 for argument.

– African News Agency (ANA)

Allister Coetzee quits as Springbok coach

Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images

Former NFL defensive lineman Greg Hardy told TMZ Sports he’d be interested in the XFL if the league were reformed. 

“I’m an entertainer, I’ll say that, and I love the game of football. There’s nothing in the world like football fans, man. For drama, for support, for anything you need in life, there’s nothing like football fans. So, if I got paid—because we all know I’ve gotta get paid to show up—but if I got paid, I’d probably be there, man.”

Hardy also said there was more to come for his UFC career.

“Keep watching. Don’t get too excited. This is nothing. This is not me getting ahead of myself. I want everyone to know that I know these are stepping stones and to know that this is nothing. I haven’t even begun to eat yet, like, I’m starving. I’m malnourished.”

Hardy, 29, knocked out Joe Hawkins in 32 seconds in his MMA debut at “Rise of a Warrior 21” in early November.

“It’s a habit of an athlete, a player and a baller to put his whole heart and soul into what I’m doing. So the UFC has got my heart and soul,” Hardy said after that fight, per James Walker of ESPN.com. “That’s where I’m going in my mind and my heart. Everything that I do is focused on this MMA career, so I’m coming.”

Hardy last played in the NFL in the 2015 season for the Dallas Cowboys. He was placed on the exempt/commissioner’s permission list in the 2014 season while with the Carolina Panthers after he was accused of and ultimately convicted of domestic abuse against his ex-girlfriend, Nicole Holder, in a bench trial.

Holder didn’t cooperate with the court upon appeal, however, and the charges were dismissed. The Panthers moved on from Hardy, though he signed with the Cowboys. He was initially suspended for 10 games in the 2015 season before that punishment was reduced to four games.

For his career, Hardy registered 40 sacks in 75 games. In his prime, he was one of the top pass-rushers in the NFL, posting 26 sacks between the 2012 and 2013 seasons. But he was largely a distraction in his lone season in Dallas, and his chances of ever playing in the NFL again all but ended when he was arrested and charged with cocaine possession in September 2016.

It’s unclear if the XFL will return, let alone if it would accept a player with Hardy’s checkered past. However, all indications are that Vince McMahon is moving toward giving the formerly failed league—the original XFL lasted for just one season in 2001—another try.