FOUR-PAGE PULLOUT
A5
S PORTS
THE BULLETIN • WEdNEsday, JUNE 30, 2021
bendbulletin.com/sports
MLB
M’s pitcher gets
10-day suspension
NEW YORK — Seattle
Mariners pitcher Héctor
Santiago became the first
player disciplined under
Major League Baseball’s
crackdown on grip-en-
hancing foreign sub-
stances, given a 10-game
suspension Tuesday.
Michael Hill, the for-
mer Marlins general
manager who is senior
vice president for on-field
operations, announced
the penalty two days af-
ter Santiago was ejected
from a game at the Chi-
cago White Sox. Santiago
also was fined an undis-
closed amount.
He appealed the deci-
sion to MLB special adviser
John McHale Jr., and the
suspension will be delayed
until the appeal is decided.
Santiago, a 33-year-old
left-hander, is in his 10th
major league season, his
first with the Mariners.
Under a crackdown
that started June 21,
all pitchers are being
checked by umpires
during games and Santi-
ago was examined as he
exited in the fifth inning.
Crew chief Tom Hallion
said then that Santiago
was ejected for “having
a foreign substance that
was sticky on the inside
palm of his glove.” The
pitcher said what the um-
pires found was a combi-
nation of rosin and sweat.
Santiago started this
season at Triple-A and
made his big league sea-
son debut with the Mar-
iners on June 1. He is 1-1
with a 2.65 ERA in nine
games.
Seattle will not be al-
lowed to fill Santiago’s
spot on its 26-man roster
roster during a suspension
and will play a man short
while a penalty is served.
Baseball officials, con-
cerned about offense
that dropped to its lowest
level in 50 years, first men-
tioned the crackdown on
June 3, and Commissioner
Rob Manfred announced
the start date on June 15.
— Associated Press
WIMBLEDON
Prep sports
‘Bizarre’ year in rearview mirror
High school sports set for
a return to normal this fall
BY BRIAN RATHBONE • The Bulletin
P
layers and coaches alike compared
high school sports in the 2020-21
school year to a roller coaster. There
were peaks, valleys, twists, turns and drops
that would have any adrenaline junkie
begging for another ride.
In Oregon, those in the prep sports world
just wanted off.
And finally, for the first time since March
2020, when high school sports were turned
upside down due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
a return to normalcy is coming this fall.
“We are trending toward a more normal year,” Pe-
ter Weber, executive director of the Oregon School
Activities Association, told The Bulletin. “Playing
fall sports in the fall is a good start to getting back to
normal.”
The prep sports year that will likely never be rep-
licated can be put to rest, as it concluded late Satur-
day evening — well after seniors had graduated and
the school year had finished.
“Bizarre is the first word that comes to my mind,”
said Bend High boys basketball coach Aaron John-
son after wrapping up the season this past Friday
with a 59-45 loss to McNary. “Two weeks before the
start of the season we weren’t sure if we were going
to play. We thought basketball wasn’t going to hap-
pen. All of a sudden we were able to play all of our
games.”
In Oregon, high school sports in 2021 started
later than in most other states. The “fall” sports sea-
son started with shoveling snow off the field rather
than in the dog days of summer. The “winter” sea-
son came to a close on the first day of the current
heat wave in Oregon, and not with snow on the
ground.
The past 15 months were an eye-opener for
coaches, for whom part of their profession is teach-
ing high schoolers how to handle challenges.
See Prep sports / A6
Ryan Brennecke/The Bulletin
Bend’s Ben Keown (3) drives to the basket on an attempt to score during the first quarter against McNary at Bend
High on Friday. McNary defeated Bend 59-45 in the final game of the season for the Lava Bears.
Williams out after
injuring leg
WIMBLEDON, England
— Serena Williams is out
of Wimbledon after she
stopped playing her first-
round match in the first
set Tuesday because of a
left leg injury.
The 23-time Grand
Slam champion was serv-
ing in the fifth game at
Centre Court when she
lost her footing near the
baseline while hitting a
forehand against Aliak-
sandra Sasnovich.
Williams winced and
stepped gingerly be-
tween points, clearly trou-
bled. After dropping that
game, she took a medical
timeout and tried to con-
tinue playing.
Williams was visibly
upset. The crowd tried to
offer support and encour-
agement.
But eventually, the
39-year-old American
dropped to her knees, and
the chair umpire came
over to check on her.
Williams then made
her way up to the net to
shake hands with Sas-
novich, conceding with
the score 3-all, 15-30.
Williams raised her
racket with right arm and
put her left palm on her
chest. Then she waved to
the spectators.
Officially, it will go in the
books as only the second
first-round Grand Slam
exit of Williams’ career.
She is a seven-time sin-
gles champion at the All
England Club, including
most recently in 2016.
— Associated Press
COLLEGE SPORTS
NBA COMMENTARY
Oregon college athletes
Trail Blazers kick away easy win in
Chauncey Billups’ first news conference to be compensated for
NIL starting on July 1
BY JOHN CANZANO
The Oregonian
The Trail Blazers suffered
their first loss under new head
coach Chauncey Billups on
Tuesday.
No plays were diagrammed.
No baskets were shot.
This was Billups’ introduc-
tory news conference — a
low-hanging ‘hello Portland!’
moment. The easiest win on
the schedule. These kinds of
events are difficult to lose but
the Blazers kicked it away.
Billups sat alongside gen-
eral manager Neil Olshey,
hoping to set the tone for a
new era of Blazers’ basketball.
What fans, sponsors and me-
dia badly needed was a unify-
ing, reassuring performance.
The news conference should
have overflowed with au-
thenticity, accountability and
transparency.
It didn’t have any of that.
The new Blazers coach was
accused of sexual assault in
1997. He was never charged.
He settled a civil case out
of court in 2000. This news
conference was a perfect op-
portunity for the Blazers and
Billups to put what they re-
peatedly called, “the incident
of 1997,” to rest.
Instead, they tripped all
BY JAMES CREPEA
The Oregonian
Craig Mitchelldyer/AP
Neil Olshey, right, and Chauncey Billups talk to media after Billups
was announced as the head coach of the Portland Trail Blazers at the
team’s practice facility in Tualatin on Tuesday.
over themselves.
Olshey called the incident
“consensual” in his opening
remarks. There are a lim-
ited number of people who
know exactly what happened
in 1997. Olshey is not one of
them. True or not, with or
without a financial settlement,
that word should have never
been used in association with
a rape allegation.
Portland’s GM offered that
the organization conducted
a thorough vetting of Billups,
including an independent
investigation into the rape
accusation. Who did inves-
tigators talk with? What did
they learn? What in the inves-
tigation made the Blazers feel
good about hiring Billups?
When asked for clarity about
the investigation Olshey bris-
tled and called it “proprietary”
information.
Added Olshey: “You’re
just going to have to take our
word.”
There have been some
wild moments over the years
around here when it comes
to introductory news con-
ferences for Portland head
coaches.
See Blazers / A7
College athletes in Oregon
will be permitted to receive
compensation for their name,
image and likeness starting on
July 1.
Gov. Kate Brown signed
Senate Bill 5, the state bill ad-
dressing college athlete NIL
rights, into law Tuesday morn-
ing, according to a spokesman.
SB 5, which passed in the
state Senate (23-6) and state
House (51-7) earlier this
month, will allow Oregon col-
lege athletes to earn compen-
sation from their name, im-
age and likeness and retain an
agent for such opportunities
beginning July 1.
That’s the same date similar
laws or executive orders are to
go into effect in Alabama, Ar-
izona, Connecticut, Florida,
Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky,
Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio
and Texas with Nebraska and
Oklahoma also having passed
NIL laws that can go into effect
at any time, with the expecta-
tion they’ll do so on July 1.
During its meeting on Mon-
day, the NCAA’s Division I
Council recommended an in-
“This bill is historic. … I wish
Oregon was the first to do
it. Our college athletes have
not been treated fairly. We
are giving our athletes back
what is rightfully theirs: their
name, their image, their
likeness. This should have
been done a long time ago.”
— Sen. Peter Courtney, D-Salem,
co-sponsor of Oregon’s NIL bill
terim NIL policy that would
suspend amateurism rules
under Bylaw 12. The NCAA
Division I Board of Directors
is expected to approve those
recommendations during its
meeting on Wednesday.
Sens. Peter Courtney, D-Sa-
lem, and James Manning Jr.,
D-Eugene, co-sponsored the SB
5 and led it through the three-
month long legislative process.
“This bill is historic. … I
wish Oregon was the first to
do it,” Courtney said in a state-
ment.
See NIL / A6