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About The Bulletin. (Bend, OR) 1963-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2021)
INSIDE: COMICS, OPINIONS & CLASSIFIEDS B S PORTS THE BULLETIN • SaTUrday, aUgUST 21, 2021 NBA Blazers open ’21 season at home The Portland Trail Blaz- ers will open the 2021-22 regular season at home against Sacramento on Oct. 20. That jump stars an 82- game schedule as the NBA looks to return to a normal number of games for the first time since the 2018-19 season. The Blazers (42-30 last season) will play 16 na- tionally televised games, with five on TNT, four on ESPN and seven on NBATV. The Blazers’ sea- son opener will not be nationally televised and the team will not play on Christmas Day, which will feature five games. The Blazers games will air on Root Sports. Portland probably needs to get off to a good start because the second half of the season will in- clude 25 road games, with a stretch in March of nine out of 10 games coming on the road over 20 days. — The Oregonian Giannis joins Brewers ownership MILWAUKEE — One month after leading the Milwaukee Bucks to their first NBA title in half a century, Giannis Antetok- ounmpo is teaming up with the city’s other ma- jor pro sports franchise by joining the Milwau- kee Brewers’ ownership group. “Man, this is unbeliev- able,” Antetokounmpo said Friday at a news con- ference. “This is a dream come true for a kid from Sepolia, Athens, Greece, born from immigrant par- ents. I could have never imagined I would be in this position.” Antetokounmpo mod- eled a Brewers jersey with No. 34, the same number he wears on the basket- ball court. Brewers princi- pal owner Mark Attanasio joked that he wondered whether president of baseball operations David Stearns might want to try out the 6-foot-11 forward at first base. Attanasio and Ante- tokounmpo said they finalized this agreement in May. Antetokounmpo said he and the team kept it quiet at the time be- cause they didn’t want to distract the Bucks’ playoff run and the early part of the Brewers’ season. Attanasio said Antetok- ounmpo is the first new individual investor who has been added to the Brewers ownership group since Attanasio purchased controlling interest of the franchise in 2005. Antetokounmpo said he started thinking about getting involved in own- ership of a pro sports franchise last year while he was in the NBA play- off bubble at Walt Disney World. Antetokounmpo, who is from Greece, said his team first discussed the possibility of buying a European soccer club. But the two-time NBA MVP said he wanted to team up with the Brewers to show his support to the city of Milwaukee. “Milwaukee made me who I am today,” said Antetokounmpo, who signed a supermax con- tract extension with the Bucks in December. The two-time NBA MVP isn’t the only no- table Wisconsin athlete with an investment in another of the state’s pro franchises. Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers has a mi- nority ownership stake in the Bucks. — Associated Press bendbulletin.com/sports COLLEGE SPORTS Pac-12, Big Ten and ACC near agreement to align BY J. BRADY MCCOLLOUGH Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES — The Pac-12, Big Ten and Atlantic Coast conferences are nearing an agreement to join forces to map the future of college sports, and an announcement could come as early as next week, a source familiar with the discussions confirmed. The impending alliance, first reported by The Ath- letic, comes in response to the Southeastern Conference’s move to add the Big 12 Con- ference’s two powerhouse pro- grams, Texas and Oklahoma, which was announced earlier this summer. Fear quickly set in that the SEC’s bold strike to move to 16 teams would center too much influence in one of the “Power Five” leagues and lead to a wave of realignment similar to a decade ago. This alliance featuring con- ferences that cover the entire country with behemoth brands such as Ohio State, Michi- gan, USC, Clemson and Notre Dame (the latter of which com- petes under the ACC banner in all sports but football) could theoretically squash those fears in one fell swoop. If those conferences agreed to begin scheduling intriguing nonconference matchups ex- clusively with each other, there would be little need to go pil- laging one another — or add- ing any of the remaining Big 12 schools — for an edge in media rights negotiations. The Big 12’s omission in the alliance is significant and would place its eight schools in danger of losing their stand- ing in a power conference. The Big 12 could elect to raid the American Athletic Conference or risk the AAC coming for some of its teams. But this move would likely stabilize the conference makeup at the top. While realignment has got- ten the most attention since Texas’ and Oklahoma’s move to the SEC, this alliance has been made with broader goals in mind. As college sports faces large looming questions about pro- fessionalization (currently in the form of name, image and likeness), the NCAA’s out- dated governance structure (the association is planning a “constitutional convention” in November to assess big-pic- ture priorities) and the pro- posed expansion of the College Football Playoff to 12 teams, the three aligned leagues want to make sure the SEC doesn’t have an outsized role in chart- ing the way forward. If the 41 schools in the Pac- 12, Big Ten and ACC are as like-minded as they believe, they should be able to rein in any SEC aggression prompted by the addition of Texas and Oklahoma to move toward a dominant football “supercon- ference” that intends to play by its own rules. With this alliance, the Pac- 12, led by new commissioner George Kliavkoff, will have gained more than any other conference during this wild summer, jumping fully ahead of the Big 12 in stature and guar- anteeing its place at the big kids’ table going forward despite a decade of underperforming in football and men’s basketball. Youth baseball Reliving the dream Bend North Little League World Series memories still fresh 5 years later BY BRIAN RATHBONE • The Bulletin W alking through a small shop Thursday in McCall, Idaho, Julian Mora saw a television airing the Little League World Series and he could not help but Gene J. Puskar/AP file to reminisce. Five summers ago, Mora and his 12 Bend North Little League teammates lived the dream of young baseball players across the world by making it to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, where the top 16 little league teams in the world gather each summer. This year’s tournament began Thursday. “It doesn’t feel like it has been that long,” said Mora, now a senior at Sum- mit High. “It hadn’t set in what we did and how cool it was.” Once the all-star season started that summer, Mora, Zack Reynolds, Sam Renner, Aaron Platner, Blaine Causey, Braeden Intlekofer, Chase Terry, Ca- leb Carpenter, Isaiah Jensen, Bowen Nelson, Joe Schutz, Declan Corrigan and Evan Ullman, along with coaches Steve Mora, Al Ullman and Joel Jen- sen formed a bond through baseball that is still felt years later. “I don’t think a lot of people will ever have that,” said Renner, who no longer plays baseball but has turned into one of Oregon’s top high school Bend North players in a parade before the Little League World Series in Pennsylvania in 2016. “I don’t put any pressure on myself anymore. I played on ESPN, had those big moments. That transfers over today.” — Aaron Platner, member of Bend North Little League team that went to the Little League World Series five years ago golfers for Summit. “It was closer than siblings. It was scary. We were close, close.” They might have spent more time together during the summer than most families. When they were not playing in tournaments, their days still revolved around baseball. They would practice in the morning and another later in the evening. Sandwiched be- tween the practices were team trips to the river or all going out to share a meal. “It was a big ask of the players and the parents,” said Steve Mora, the team’s manager. “Everyone was 100% in.” Two practices a day and weekend tournaments could seem like a grind for some, but for a dozen 12-year-old boys, there was no better way to spend the summer. “I just enjoyed hanging out with everybody,” said Platner, now a star pitcher for Mountain View. “Spending time with your best friends is the best thing.” It turns out, winning baseball games was pretty fun too and Bend North did a lot of that. The run to the Little League World Series was not a complete shock to those on the team. The summers leading up to the world series run were spent traveling across the north- west trying to get a sense of how they stacked up against the other teams in the region. “To us it wasn’t surprising,” said Reynolds. “We knew we put in the work and that was the goal all along. That was the goal for the past two or three years.” But at the Northwest Regional held in San Bernardino, California, the goal nearly fell a step short. Bend North had to win three elimination games to reach the championship game and a rematch against Lynnwood Pacific — the team that had beaten them in the tournament opener. The second time around, Bend North won 5-1. “We had to play every day to get back,” said Julian Mora. “We just ral- lied and came back in the champion- ship. That is the tournament that de- fined our team the most.” In many ways, the win in San Ber- nardino was the apex of the whole run. Nothing beat celebrating on the pitcher’s mound, then running around the stadium flying the Bend North Little League flag. See Little League / B2 BOXING Manny Pacquiao set to take on Yordenis Ugás BY GREG BEACHAM Associated Press John Locher/AP Manny Pacquiao, left, of the Philippines, and Yordenis Ugas, of Cuba, pose for photographers during a news conference Wednesday in Las Vegas. The two are scheduled to fight in a welterweight championship bout Saturday in Las Vegas. LAS VEGAS — Even Manny Pacquiao is uncertain whether his 26-year profes- sional boxing career is ending Saturday night when he faces Yordenis Ugás for the WBA welterweight title. Pacquiao has plans and am- bitions reaching far beyond the fight game at this point in his wild life, and that’s why he might be saying goodbye at T-Mobile Arena. If he enters the presidential race in his na- tive Philippines a few weeks after this bout, as nearly every- one expects, he will be running for a job that would effectively prevent him from fighting again. While the 42-year-old Pac- quiao has said nothing official, his fans around the globe real- ize it’s at least one of the final chapters in a boxing story with few equals. “I never imagined what I would have accomplished in boxing from the beginning of my career leading up to now,” Pacquiao said. “I went from nothing to something in order to be an inspiration for people both inside and outside of the ring.” Pacquiao (62-7-2, 39 KOs) is returning to the ring after a two-year absence — the lon- gest of his career — to fight for another world title in front of a big Vegas crowd and a pay-per- view audience. In the next few weeks, al- most everyone in the Philip- pines expects him to declare his candidacy ahead of the May 2022 presidential elec- tion. See Boxing / B2
