FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • TUESDAY, MAY 25, 2021
PREP
BOYS TENNIS
Redmond wins
IMC championship
Redmond boys tennis
capped off an undefeated
season as a team, win-
ning the Intermountain
Conference champion-
ships on Saturday at Sam
Johnson Park in Red-
mond.
The Panthers, the 2019
Class 5A state champions,
finished 10-0 as a team
on the season. There are
no tennis state champi-
onships this year due to
the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s a great group of
kids, and a solid group of
seniors,” said Redmond
boys tennis coach Nathan
Saito. “This was nice to
get something in consid-
ering the challenges of
the last year and a half.
I’m just grateful we got
a season in and we were
able to conclude with a
district tournament.”
Redmond finished
with 43 points to take the
IMC team title over sec-
ond-place Hood River Val-
ley (20) and third-place
Ridgeview (17).
Redmond’s Skyler
Jones won the singles
championship, defeating
Hood River Valley’s Mat-
thew Vaughn Reardon in
three sets and winning
the third-set tiebreaker
10-8.
“It was one of the best
singles matches I’ve seen
in years,” Saito said. “Very
entertaining and very
high-level tennis.”
Yoshi Saito, also of
Redmond, finished third
in singles.
The Panthers’ team of
Charlie Rawlins and Aus-
tin Osborne won the IMC
doubles championship,
defeating fellow Redmond
players Tanner Jones and
Xavier NcCorchuk in the
doubles final.
bendbulletin.com/sports
MLB COMMENTARY
Oakland A’s set to scope out Portland
Team’s fact-finding mission takes owner to
Las Vegas this week in search for new home
BY JOHN CANZANO
The Oregonian
The Oakland A’s are vis-
iting Las Vegas this week. A
four-person travel party led by
owner John Fisher will make
the trip. They’ll talk about relo-
cating the Major League Base-
ball franchise. I expect 82-year-
old Mayor Carolyn Goodman
will greet the baseball contin-
gent at a private airstrip wear-
ing a hard hat and holding a
blank check.
This is a recruiting mission
now.
The A’s contingent will also
make an official visit to Port-
land next month. An MLB
source confirmed that Fisher
along with team president
Dave Kaval, vice president Billy
Beane and executive Sandy
Dean are planning to come to
Oregon to do some fact find-
ing.
The Portland Diamond
Project confirmed it all on
Monday. Founder Craig
Cheek and managing partner
Mike Barrett issued a state-
ment to The Oregonian that
said, “PDP can confirm that
we have engaged in talks with
the Athletics, and plans for a
visit by team officials are un-
derway.
“PDP will have no further
comment at this time.”
This is an encouraging de-
velopment. One that begs a
comparison between the ef-
forts in Las Vegas and Port-
land.
Vegas comes to play. No-
body is fooled by the lack of an
Young
superstars
show their
time is now
in playoffs
BY BRIAN MAHONEY
AP Basketball Writer
Matt York/AP photo
Phil Mickelson hits out of the rough on the 17th hole during
the final round at Sunday’s PGA Championship golf tourna-
ment on the Ocean Course in Kiawah Island, South Carolina.
NBA
The Portland Trail Blaz-
ers are increasing capac-
ity at the Moda Center
for the NBA playoffs with
special sections for fans
who have been fully vac-
cinated against COVID-19,
according to a new an-
nouncement between
the Blazers, the Oregon
Health Authority and the
office of Gov. Kate Brown.
The move is pending the
final approval of Mult-
nomah County’s vaccina-
tion equity plan .
The Blazers are pre-
paring to host their first
home playoff game
in their first-round se-
ries against the Denver
Nuggets. Portland will
play Denver at home for
game three on May 27 at
7:30 p.m. and game four
on May 29 at 1 p.m. in the
best-of-seven series.
If necessary, game five
of the series would return
to Denver, game six re-
turns to the Moda Center
and game seven is back
in Denver.
After going the major-
ity of the season without
fans, the Blazers received
permission from the state
to allow 10% fan capacity
at the Moda Center for
their four remaining reg-
ular-season home games
at the beginning of the
month.
Vaccinated sections
will be available to fully
vaccinated fans ages 16
and over who are at least
two weeks past their sec-
ond dose of the Pfizer or
Moderna vaccine, or the
single-dose Johnson &
Johnson vaccine. Fans will
be required to provide
proof of full vaccination .
— The Oregonian
See Oakland A’s / A6
NBA
GOLF | PGA CHAMPIONSHIP
— Bulletin staff report
Blazers plan area
for vaccinated fans
organized effort there.
The city doesn’t have an
MLB-to-LAS group. No
headquarters. No websites,
bumper stickers or signatures.
No stadium renderings, MLB
rallies or Russell Wilson and
Ciara, either.
But Las Vegas has Mayor
Goodman, who often gets her
way. She’s the wife of former
longtime Vegas mayor Oscar
Goodman.
Champ at 50
looks ahead for more
BY DOUG FERGUSON
AP Golf Writer
KIAWAH ISLAND, S.C. —
P
hil Mickelson has an
imagination few in golf
have possessed, along with a
NEW YORK — Trae Young
didn’t look like a postseason
rookie in silencing a rocking
road crowd in New York.
“The moment wasn’t too big
for him,” Atlanta teammate
Lou Williams said.
Nor for Ja Morant or Devin
Booker, who were just as im-
pressive in their debuts. Throw
in Luka Doncic picking up
where he left off last year, and
the opening weekend of the
playoffs may have proven that
the time is now for some of the
NBA’s best young guards.
“The great players, in every
era, that’s what they do,” Knicks
coach Tom Thibodeau said.
“They pose problems.”
Booker and Doncic will be
back in action Tuesday, hoping
to send the two Los Angeles
teams into 2-0 holes.
Phoenix beat the Lakers 99-
90 on Sunday behind 34 points
from Booker. In his sixth sea-
son, he’s got much more NBA
experience than Young, Morant
or Doncic. But he’s still only 24
years old, and no amount of
regular-season games is prepa-
ration for LeBron James and
the defending champions in the
postseason.
Phoenix coach Monty
Williams said Booker has
worked on his game to be in
this position.
“He trusts the work. I’ve al-
ways said this about Devin, he’s
not afraid of the moment. He’s
not afraid of these games,” Wil-
liams said. “He actually wants
to be in these games. That’s
what I attribute it to — his abil-
ity to focus and play the same
way no matter the stage.”
See Playoffs / A7
skill set that allows him to see
shots no one else can.
One year at The Players
Championship, he was in a
bunker blocked by trees with
Chris Carlson/AP photo
no way forward except to go
Phil Mickelson, right, hugs his brother and caddie Tim after winning the PGA
Championship.
around them.
Mickelson hit 7-iron
Self-belief has never been
that made him the oldest major
through a gap so small he
an issue. It’s why Mickelson,
didn’t tell his caddie what he
even at age 50, always thought
was doing so no one could talk
he could win another major.
what no one else had in 161
him out of it. He hit it on the
That moment came Sunday at
years of the majors was getting
green and wound up winning
Kiawah Island with a victory
blurry.
that week.
in the PGA Championship
champion.
Even so, the vision of doing
Ross D. Franklin/AP
See Mickelson/ A7
Phoenix Suns guard Devin
Booker (1) shoots during Game 1
of their first-round playoff series
Sunday in Phoenix. The Suns de-
feated the Lakers 99-90.