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