A6 — BAKER CITY HERALD
TUESDAY, JULY 27, 2021
SPORTS
SUMMER OLYMPIC GAMES CONTINUE IN TOKYO
Hoops stunner: U.S. men lose
and this one still can — but
it’s far from a certainty.
SAITAMA, Japan — The
“When you lose a game,
fi nal buzzer sounded and
you’re not surprised,” Popov-
France barely celebrated.
ich said. “You’re disappointed.”
To them, beating the
Fournier had 28 points for
United States again wasn’t
France, while Rudy Gobert
really a surprise. And that
scored 14 and Nando de Colo
might be the biggest indicator
had 13. Jrue Holiday had 18
yet that the Americans —
points for the U.S., Bam Ade-
even after three consecutive
bayo had 12, Damian Lillard
Olympic gold medals — are
11 and Kevin Durant had 10
no longer feared by other top
for the Americans — who are
international teams.
just 2-3 in their games this
Robert Gauther-Los Angeles Times/TNS summer, the fi rst four of them
A 25-game Olympic win-
Team France shooting guard Evan Fournier (10) knocks
ning streak for the U.S. is
exhibitions in Las Vegas that
over, ending Sunday, July 25 the ball from Team United States forward Kevin Durant
weren’t supposed to mean
when France closed the game (7) in the second half at Saitama Super Arena on Sun-
much.
day, July 25.
on a 16-2 run to beat the
The Olympics, they were
Americans 83-76 in the Tokyo
supposed to be different.
Games. Evan Fournier’s
They weren’t. They lost,
“They are better individually, but they can be beaten
3-pointer off a broken play
again.
with just under a minute left as a team.”
“I mean, it’s great,” Gobert
put France ahead for good,
said. “But until we have what
— Evan Fournier, French Olympic men’s basketball team
as the Americans simply fell member, talking after France beat the U.S. on Sunday
we want to have around our
apart in the fi nal minutes.
neck it doesn’t really matter.”
“They are better indi-
Fournier — who led all scor-
cans are supposed to just roll
The idea of anyone else
vidually,” Fournier said of the ers with 28 points — made
out the balls and win,” U.S.
leaving an Olympics with gold
Americans, “but they can be
the go-ahead 3-pointer. Rudy coach Gregg Popovich said.
hasn’t been all that realistic
beaten as a team.”
Gobert wildly missed a layup “We’ve got to work for it just
in recent years. Now, it’s very
That’s been proven with
on that play, but Guerschon
like everybody else. And for
real.
alarming regularity in the
Yabusele chased down the
those 40 minutes, they played
A 10-point U.S. lead in the
last two years. Starting with bouncing rebound and just
better than we did.”
third quarter was wasted,
France’s win over the U.S. in before he dove into the U.S.
The Americans lost for only and so was a 12-point barrage
the Basketball World Cup
bench he made a desperation the sixth time in 144 games
from Holiday in the opening
quarterfi nals at China two
swipe at the ball in an effort
at the Olympics all-time, and 4 ½ minutes of the fourth
years ago, the Americans are to knock it into Fournier’s
fell to 53-4 in the Olympics
quarter as the Americans
merely 3-5 in their last eight direction.
with NBA players on the
went from six points down to
games with NBA players in
Fournier turned Yabusele’s roster. The 2004 team at the
start the period to six points
the lineup.
dive into a dagger, and just
Athens Games lost the other up with 5:23 remaining.
The U.S. missed its fi nal
like that the Americans are in three, and won bronze. Every
The U.S. lead was seven
nine shots, fi ve of them com- Olympic trouble.
other U.S. team in the era
with 3:30 left. France out-
ing in a 21-second span in
“I think that’s a little bit of that started with the “Dream scored the U.S. 16-2 from
the fi nal minute shortly after hubris if you think the Ameri- Team” in 1992 won the gold
there.
By Tim Reynolds
AP Basketball Writer
Cleveland Guardians? At least it’s a
mascot that reflects city’s history
Scrolling through my
Twitter feed last week,
I remember seeing the
hashtag, “#Guardians,”
trending, and I decided
to do some digging.
When I saw the Indi-
ans, the mascot of Cleveland’s
Major League Baseball fran-
chise, will be no more after
this season, that didn’t shock
me. However, on hearing
that the team is changing its
mascot to the Guardians, my
fi rst reaction was similar, I
suspect, to most of the fandom
of the realm of baseball.
I was skeptical.
Since 1915, Cleveland’s
baseball team has been
known as the Indians, and the
blatant cultural appropriation
was something that aggra-
vated indigenous cultures.
Similar to what the Washing-
ton Football Team in the NFL
went through with formerly
being known as the Redskins,
both of these franchises
fi nally answered the calls
back in 2019 for changes as
Washington dropped the mas-
cot, and Cleveland was going
to remove the Chief Wahoo
logo from its brand. Two years
are excited for our play-
ers and staff to debut our
COREY
new team name and look in
2022,” Cleveland president
KIRK
of baseball operations Chris
Antonetti said in a statement
later, the team name of the
Friday. “We look forward to
Guardians was announced
our team proudly represent-
this past Friday, July 23, the ing the city of Cleveland as
name to take effect at the
the Guardians.”
start of the 2022 season.
Though many might have
Reading the initial tweet, I expected Cleveland to pick a
wanted to reach out to one of mascot referencing the Rock
the biggest Cleveland sports ’N Roll Museum in the city, to
fans I knew, a former boss of
me that would have been too
mine from Arizona. Express- predictable and hard to rally
ing my doubt, she completely behind.
shut it down by letting me
After learning the history
in on a secret. The Guardian of what the Guardian Statues
name is enriched in the his-
mean to the city, my feelings
tory of the town.
of skepticism disappeared
Since 1932, the Guardian of with a new perspective.
Traffi c statues on both sides
If it means something to a
of the Hope Memorial Bridge city, then that should be what
are among the city’s historical matters. At least Cleveland
pieces of art. There are four,
didn’t follow Washington and
each standing more than 43
choose to name themselves
feet tall.
the Cleveland Baseball
Wilbon Watson, a bridge en- Team. Guardians has a solid
gineer, told Sports Illustrated
that each statue signifi es, “the
spirit of progress in transpor-
tation.”
“This is a historic moment
for our franchise, and we
“So much of who we are is
where we have been.”
backstory, and is a lot more
creative than most names. It
could be a lot worse.
Corey Kirk is sports editor for the
Baker City Herald.
Ledecky’s gold
medal streak ends
By Paul Newsberry
AP Sports Writer
TOKYO — Katie Ledecky strolled onto the deck fi rst,
which meant she was headed to the second spot on the
medal podium.
What a strange place for her to be.
For the fi rst time in a brilliant career, Ledecky wasn’t
the fi rst swimmer to touch the wall in an individual
event at the Olympics.
She had nothing to be ashamed of. She swam one of
the best races of her career on the biggest stage. She
was simply beaten in the 400-meter freestyle by some-
one who was a bit better on this day.
Still, it was a bit jarring.
“Of course, you always want to hear your national an-
them,” Ledecky said Monday. “But I’m just really proud
of the time I swam.”
It wasn’t quite good enough to beat Australia’s Ari-
arne Titmus, who chased down Ledecky over the fi nal
two laps to win in 3 minutes, 56.69 seconds.
It was the second-fastest time ever recorded, sur-
passed only by Ledecky’s world record of 3:56.46 at the
2016 Rio Games.
Ledecky touched in 3:57.36, her fastest time in three
years and fourth-fastest in the history of the eight-lap
event.
“I felt so good coming into this meet,” the 24-year-old
said. “I felt like I really believed in myself going into
that. It is very satisfying to swim a time like that and
start my meet off like that.”
U.S. softball team
wins group stage
By Ronald Blum
AP Baseball Writer
YOKOHAMA, Japan — Kelsey Stewart has a knack
for walk-off hits in Japan.
Stewart hit a game-ending home run leading off the
seventh inning, and the United States rallied late to
beat Japan 2-1 Monday and win the Olympic softball
group stage — and with it the right to bat last in the
gold medal game.
“It’s like you dream about when you’re a little kid,
about hitting a home run at the Olympics, let alone a
walk-off,” Stewart said.
Trying to bounce back from their 3-1 loss to Japan in
the 2008 gold medal game, the Americans fi nished the
group stage 5-0 while Japan dropped to 4-1.
The gold medal game is scheduled for Tuesday, July
27. Rain is in the forecast, however.
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