FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, APRIL 14, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
COLLEGE
FOOTBALL
RB from Texas
commits to OSU
The Oregon State
Beavers have a long tra-
dition of finding hidden
gems and molding them
into elite college football
players.
No one embodied
that more than Jesuit
High School gradu-
ate-turned-Oregon State
walk-on-turned-2005
Biletnikoff winner Mike
Hass.
But it’s possible the
more endearing, pro-
gram-altering recruiting
discovery were brothers
James and Jacquizz Rod-
gers, the latter of which
ran for 8,246 yards and a
Texas high school record
135 touchdowns from
2004-2007 before gradu-
ating in spring 2008.
So, it stands to reason
Beaver Nation may have
a soft spot for talented,
uber-productive, un-
der-the-radar Texas run-
ning backs.
On Monday, Jonathan
Smith added one into the
fold, as 247Sports three-
star prospect Damien
Martinez committed to
Oregon State over Geor-
gia Tech and Kansas.
He is rated the nation’s
No. 79 running back and
the No. 150 prospect in
Texas.
But that doesn’t tell
the 5-foot-10, 220-pound
ball-carrier’s whole story.
Last season at Lewis-
ville High School (Texas),
Martinez ran the ball 232
times for 2,010 yards (8.7
yards per carry) and 30
touchdowns.
Martinez projects as a
solid, physical 1-2 punch
alongside shifty class of
2021 ball-carrier Damir
Collins, the headliner of
last year’s haul.
Martinez is the second
class of 2022 commit-
ment for Oregon State
in less than a week, as
he joins Rivals four-star
inside linebacker Melvin
Jordan (Florida).
— The Oregonian
NFL DRAFT
Ex-Duck Sewell
projected at No. 5
Penei Sewell is con-
sidered not only the best
offensive lineman in the
2021 NFL draft, he’s also
among the best athletes
in the draft.
ESPN draft analyst Mel
Kiper, Jr. hasn’t wavered
much regarding the for-
mer Oregon Ducks’ star
offensive lineman in his
mock drafts. Kiper has
the tackle being selected
at No. 5 by the Cincinnati
Bengals in his latest mock
draft released Tuesday.
“This was the toughest
call for me. It came down
to Sewell and wide re-
ceiver Ja’Marr Chase, who
knows (Bengals’ quar-
terback) Joe Burrow well
from their time together
at LSU ,” Kiper said. “Ulti-
mately, the Bengals’ offen-
sive line was such a disas-
ter that I don’t think they
can pass on Sewell, who
should start immediately
at one of the tackle spots .”
Other mock drafts have
the Bengals selecting
Chase with the No. 5 pick.
Burrow and Chase were
teammates during the
Tigers’ historic run to the
national championship
during the 2019 season.
Kiper cites the need
to protect Burrow as the
higher priority after he
suffered a season-end-
ing knee injury while
being sacked during his
rookie season. Burrow
was sacked 32 times in 10
games in 2020.
The three-day NFL
draft begins April 29.
— The Oregonian
RUNNING
‘THOUGHT
THAT
WAS IT’
Olympic-hopeful runner recalls
Boulder store shooting
David Zalubowski/AP
Runner Maggie Montoya is shown as she trains with fellow runners at a park on the east side of Boulder, Colorado, on Friday. The Olympic hopeful was working in the pharmacy
at the King Soopers supermarket in Colorado on March 22 when 10 people were killed in the mass shooting.
BY PAT GRAHAM
Associated Press
BOULDER, Colo. — Inside a small room where
she and four others were hiding from a gunman just
steps away from their locked door, Olympic hope-
ful Maggie Montoya made a quiet and emotional
phone call to her parents.
Just to tell them one last time that she loved them.
“Because I honestly thought,” Montoya softly said,
“that was it.”
The 25-year-old distance runner was working
in the pharmacy at the King Soopers supermarket
in Boulder, Colorado, on March 22 when 10 peo-
ple were killed, including a police officer, in a mass
shooting.
For a harrowing hour or so, she and those with
her waited in the room — growing more and more
“There was so much gunfire. I just thought,
‘I don’t know how many shooters there are.’
We were just waiting for the moment that they
were going to hop the counter in the pharmacy
and be able to get into the room with us.”
— Runner Maggie Montoya
fearful that a constantly ringing pharmacy phone
outside their door would betray their location —
until they were escorted to safety by the SWAT team
after the shooter was arrested.
The next day, Montoya was picked up by her dad
and taken home to Rogers, Arkansas — to be with
family and remember those who lost their lives.
To escape even for a moment on long runs with
her boyfriend as she trains for the 10,000 meters at
the U.S. Olympic Trials in June in Eugene.
To emotionally mend from that time she spent
behind a metal door where she could hear every-
thing, including the chilling voice of the gunman.
And to forget this image: Bloody footprints close
to that door that she was later told likely belonged to
the wounded gunman.
“Being home definitely helped me separate and
work through everything that had just happened,”
she said.
That Monday afternoon, Montoya was just a few
hours into her shift following an exciting weekend
during which she finished seventh at the USA Track
& Field 15-kilometer championships in Florida.
See Running / A7
NBA COMMENTARY
COMMENTARY
No cheering in the press box?
Kobe turning Mamba changed that
Olympic boycott chatter
shouldn’t go any further
BY BILL PLASCHKE
Los Angeles Times
The broken Kobe Bryant
bricked his first five shots,
yet for the next two hours the
Lakers legend kept shooting,
shooting, shooting.
It was as if he knew he was
aiming at forever.
Once the scoring started,
the packed Staples Center
crowd began chanting, then
cheering, then roaring, con-
stantly roaring, creating the
most deafening din in the
building’s history.
It was as if they knew this
love would have to last for-
ever.
There is a strict rule against
cheering in the press box, yet
when all the shooting and
scoring multiplied into some-
thing mystical, a certain col-
umnist jumped to his feet and
screamed.
It was as if I knew I would
be seeing this forever.
The magic of Kobe Bryant’s
60-point final game against
the Utah Jazz five years ago
was so plain, so pervasive, so
… astounding, it was as if ev-
eryone involved knew the un-
knowable.
That this would be the last-
ing memory. That this would
be the indelible portrait. That
this would be a forever fare-
well.
Bryant and Los Angeles
would come together briefly
for a two-jersey retirement
ceremony a year later, but
never again. He will not hear
the cheers at his Staples Cen-
ter statue unveiling. He will
not give a speech at his Bas-
ketball Hall of Fame induc-
tion ceremony. He will never
BY TIM DAHLBERG
AP Sports Columnist
Mark J. Terrill/AP file
Los Angeles Lakers forward Kobe Bryant waves to the crowd during
a ceremony before Bryant’s last NBA game against Utah, five years
ago in Los Angeles. He scored 60 points in the game.
have a chance to connect with
the crowd on slow walks to
his courtside seat for upcom-
ing decades of Lakers playoff
games.
His death in January 2020
ensured that the final game of
his career would, for most, be
the last real vision anyone had
of the most glowing athlete in
Los Angeles history.
In that, it was absolutely
perfect. For that, it was heav-
enly scripted.
Even though it didn’t in-
volve a championship, it was
inarguably one of greatest
Lakers moments ever, because
it was about something far
bigger. It was about the final
framing and hanging of a leg-
acy. It was about that priceless
chance for one last hug, for
one more goodbye.
“I can’t believe this actu-
ally happened,” Bryant said
afterward. “I’m still in shock
about it.”
Five years later, that shock
remains.
He threw up 50 shots —
50 shots! — the most in the
NBA since they started keep-
ing track of such things more
than three decades earlier.
Of his 22 baskets, 18 were
made with a defender in his
face, and 16 were made with-
out a direct pass, meaning he
basically took on the entire
Jazz team by himself.
His 60 points were the most
in the NBA that season, all
scored by a 37-year-old man
who could barely move.
Remember that seem-
ingly outrageous two-year,
$48.5-million contract he was
given at the frail end of his
career?
Those final hours paid that
bill.
“I gave my soul to this
game,” he said. “There’s noth-
ing else I can give.”
See Kobe / A6
It may have been a slip of the
tongue, or perhaps a bit of mis-
communication in a new ad-
ministration.
That’s little consolation to
hundreds of potential Olympi-
ans around the country. Just to
hear chatter in the nation’s cap-
ital about a possible boycott of
the Winter Olympics in China
had to be enough to alarm ath-
letes already deep in prepara-
tion for the games.
Thankfully, there doesn’t
seem to be any groundswell
of support for the idea of boy-
cotting the games, which are
scheduled to take place just 10
months from now. The U.S.
State Department suggested
earlier this month that an
Olympic boycott was among
the possibilities because of hu-
man rights issues in China, but
a senior official said later that
keeping the U.S. team home
has not been discussed.
Here’s hoping it doesn’t enter
the conversation again.
“For an Olympic athlete, a
boycott is an absolute tragedy,’’
track great Edwin Moses said.
“We only get that one shot ev-
ery four years.’’
Moses hasn’t run in an
Olympics since 1988, though
he’s got a unique insight into
boycotts. When he was dom-
inating the 400-meter hurdles
for the better part of two de-
cades he seemed to run into
one every time he set his sights
on the Olympics.
The boycott in 1988 in Seoul
was so small he struggled to re-
member the nations involved.
The one in Moscow eight years
earlier was so big that it almost
surely cost him a gold medal.
Moses still managed to win
gold medals in Montreal in
1976 and Los Angeles in 1984.
But even the greatest hurdler
ever couldn’t win when he
wasn’t allowed to run.
“We couldn’t even watch the
Moscow Olympics because
they weren’t televised,’’ Moses
said in a phone interview with
The Associated Press. “I took a
midsummer beak, went to Cal-
ifornia, and laid on the beach.’’
It was probably best that
Moses didn’t watch. His stom-
ach might have turned had he
seen the 400-meter hurdles
gold won in 48.70, more than
a second slower than the win-
ning time he ran in 1976.
Two weeks before the 1980
games he broke his own world
record in a meet in Milan, win-
ning so easily that the other
hurdlers are barely in the pic-
ture after he cleared the last
hurdle.
Moses was lucky in some
respects because he was so
good for so long that his career
spanned four different Olym-
pics. He missed just one, the
1980 games in Moscow, after
President Jimmy Carter or-
dered the U.S. team to boycott
because the Soviet Union had
invaded Afghanistan.
A lot of his potential team-
mates for Moscow weren’t
as fortunate. Many lost their
only chance for Olympic
glory when the games became
caught up in cold war politics.
Two out of every three never
got a chance to compete in an
Olympics again.
See Boycott / A6