January 2024 - Page 4 of 6 - Adamsonmedia.com

Turnovers doom Squadron

**Birmingham’s first quarter lead evaporated in a 14-point loss to Raptors 905 Saturday at Legacy Arena.** (photo courtesy of **RODTEE Media**)

After racing out to a 15-point lead in the first quarter, the Birmingham Squadron appeared to be in good position to extend its winning streak to two games.

But basketball games are never won in the first quarter, and it was the last three that helped put the New Orleans Pelicans developmental club back in the loss column.

**Scott Adamson writes stuff. Follow him on Threads @sladamson1960 and Adamsonmedia on Facebook.**

Raptors 905 (3-5), G league farmhands of the Toronto Raptors, heated up from the floor from the second quarter on and took advantage of Birmingham (2-5) turnovers in a 112-98 victory on Saturday in front of 1,616 fans at Legacy Arena.

“Turnovers,” Squadron coach T.J. Saint said, shaking his head. “They scored 112 points on 102 or 103 possessions. If we have normal turnovers, our defensive effort and rating would’ve been better than Memphis (a 122-111 victory on Thursday) but turnovers killed us. They’re demoralizing.”

While Birmingham’s 24 turnovers were actually one less than 905, they came at the worst possible times.

“Trying to pick up human morale when you’re dealing with turnovers is a trick I’ve got to figure out as a coach,” Saint said. “But the good thing is that it’s very correctible, it is on us, and we will be ready (Monday).”

Trey Jemison recorded his sixth consecutive double-double (13 points, 11 rebounds), and Malcolm Hill led the home team with 19 points. Others scoring double figures for the Squadron were Jalen Crutcher (17), Izaiah Brockington (16), Tevian Jones (12) and Devin Cannady (11).

Raptors 905 shot a sizzling 51 percent from the floor and netted 12 more field goals than Birmingham.

Omari led six double-digit men with 22 points, followed by Jaysean Paige (20), Kevin Obanor (16), Mauhamadou Gueye (14), Drake Jeffries (13) and Markquis Nowell (11).

Gueye had 13 rebounds and Nowell added 11 assists to give each player double-doubles.

Birmingham controlled the first quarter, leading by as many as 15 points before settling for a 33-22 edge after 12 minutes.

Brockington and Jones had already accounted for eight points each, although Brockington was saddled with three personal fouls.

The team repping Mississauga, Ontario, however, stormed back in the second quarter, wiping out the deficit and taking the lead (44-42) at the 5:10 mark. Their cushion inflated to five before the Squadron launched a mini-rally and tied it up at 52-all with 1:47 to go before halftime.

But 905 got those points back – and more – and with 24 minutes in the books, held a 61-54 advantage.

The visitors threatened to end all doubt about this one early in the third quarter, scoring the first 14 points of the frame to secure a 75-54 lead.

Brockington’s 3-pointer finally ended the drought, but Eric Khoury’s team rarely cooled down, and led 91-73 going into the fourth.

From there, 905 put the game in maintenance mode.

Specialty unis: The Squadron wore theme uniforms for Saturday’s game, the first time in 2023-24 the team has dressed out in alternate colors. As part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Weekend, the Squadron paid tribute to the Birmingham Black Barons by wearing black unis that featured the legendary Negro League club’s BBB logo on the jersey, and an outline of the Magic City skyline across the shorts.

The team will wear the same uniforms again for Monday morning’s MLK Day game.

OTD in 1949: The Birmingham Steelers of the Southern Professional Basketball League beat the New Orleans Sports, 119-75.

The win at Municipal Auditorium, which improved Birmingham to 14-8, was also record-setting as the 119 points by the victors was an all-time high in a SPBL game.

Bob Murphy led the onslaught with 28 points, followed by John Murphy (27), Darrell Lorance (26), Joe Parker (23), and Lloyd Spitzer (11).

OTD in 2023: The Squadron lost to Salt Lake City Stars, 132-110, at Legacy Arena.

Feron Hunt led Birmingham with 24 points, Javonte Smart scored 21, and Kelan Martin added 17.

Both Zyan Cheatham and James Kelly Sr. recorded double-doubles. Cheatham had 18 points and 10 boards, while Kelly tallied 13 points to go with 14 rebounds.

Up next: The MLK Celebration Weekend continues on Monday as the Squadron faces Raptors 905 again to close out a two-game set.

Game time is set for 11 a.m., and Red Panda will perform at halftime.

‘Platinum’ end to an era

Preston Goldfarb’s final soccer team didn’t return from the 2023 Pan American Maccabi Games in Buenos Aires with any medals to display.

But the mettle they displayed?

Well, that made Goldfarb as proud as he’s ever been during a storied career.

In his finale as a soccer coach on January 3, Goldfarb’s United State Men’s Open team defeated Argentina – the eventual gold medalists – 3-2.

A glance at the box score shows the Americans jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first 21 minutes thanks to goals from Yaniv Bazini, Yoni Sorokine and Jake Rozhansky.

But that hardly tells the whole story.

Due to a rash of injuries, Goldfarb’s club had only nine field players available for the match. Argentina was down a man due to a red card, but the USA team was still outnumbered.

Not only that, many of the players who were able to participate were injured.

“You had to be there to witness my proudest moment in coaching,” Goldfarb said. “We wound up with nine players on the field against Argentina – not because of a red card – but because we had injuries and I didn’t have any subs. One player had a hamstring injury and all he could really do was stand there at midfield. We had a body out there that could at least get in the path of a pass or something.

“Fortunately, they got a player ejected for a handball, but we were still playing nine versus 10 against a very good team.”

Having played four games in a short time window, the Americans were dealing with exhaustion as well as pain. And the whistle didn’t blow after 90 minutes.

“It was mind-boggling,” Goldfarb said. “For them to play the way they did was just remarkable. After 90 minutes were done, the referee added 12 minutes of stoppage time. And it turned into 20 minutes, and then more minutes were added. So, our guys, despite all the injuries, and having to play all those additional minutes, still managed to win.”

The celebration was short-lived, as the USA found out quickly they had failed to qualify for the Final Four after losing a convoluted tiebreaker to Brazil.

“Even if we had qualified for the Final Four, we only had six healthy players after the Argentina match,” Goldfarb explained. “We basically had seven field players and two keepers. Physicians ruled nine players out for the fifth-place game and we refused to play it because we simply didn’t have enough players. The organizers didn’t like that, but I wasn’t going to endanger the health of my guys.”

The trip was a trying one for Goldfarb, with personnel issues starting to pile up before the plane ever left for Buenos Aires.

And things didn’t get much better after he and his team arrived.

“Sometimes the best laid plans fall flat,” Goldfarb said. “We had three players that dropped out before we left, and we had three more players who were nursing injuries that I didn’t know about. One was my best player, Evin Nadaner, and he only played 20 minutes in the first game and got a concussion in the second game.

“He was the link between our defense and our midfield and losing him threw everything off.”

Goldfarb said his team had roughly 20 minutes of practice time before opening the round robin tourney against Mexico – a 3-1 loss.

“When I tell you the field was a postage stamp, it was smaller than that,” Goldfarb joked. “The goals – I measured them – were 7×20, and they’re supposed to be 8×24. And the posts were these little sticks. Of course, both teams played on it and it’s not an excuse, but other teams had gotten there earlier and practiced on it.

“Uruguay, Mexico, Argentina go year-round, and we had guys on our team who were still trying to learn each other’s names.”

And despite occasions where the Americans got off the bus and had to walk a mile to the stadium (and a mile back to the bus after the match), they still managed to log round robin victories against both Uruguay and Argentina.

There were plenty of frustrations along the way, but Goldfarb was able to end his time on the sidelines with one of his most memorable results.

“I didn’t go out with a medal, I went out with beating Argentina,” he said. “So, we didn’t win gold, we won platinum on effort and what those kids did. The parents who were there couldn’t believe what we did and what we accomplished in that game. To see that moment, with those players knowing they did everything with heart against the team that went on to win it, was my proudest moment as a coach. They were ecstatic until the bubble was burst and we found out we didn’t qualify for the Final Four.

“To be on the bench, watching those kids literally crying through pain to play, was something I’ll never forget as long as I live. That moment in time is indelibly painted in my mind forever.”

Aside from Bazini, Sorokine, Rozhansky and Nadaner, the USA roster featured Benjamin Ziegler, Richard Shapira, Nadav Zarmi, Aaron Olson, David Abidor, Stephen Elias, Ryan Hepp, Jack Beer, Sam Friedman, Eric Hepp, Joshua Ziarno, Gabriel Einhorn, Alec Weiss and Gaston Becherano.

Ryan Jones was Goldfarb’s assistant.

“On paper I had a great team – no question – but we were missing so many key players and had so many injuries it just changed the complexion of everything,” Goldfarb said. “But those things happen, and it just made it a crazy tournament. But regardless, we came home with platinum.

”For a complete recap, go to prestongoldfarb.blogspot.com.

Cannady adds author to his resume

**Devin Cannady’s children’s book *Aliya Can* comes out on Monday, January 15.** Copyright 2023 NBAE (Photo by Alex Nahorniak-Svenski/NBAE via Getty Images)

Devin Cannady has been a professional basketball player for six seasons, and currently hones his craft as a guard with the NBA G League’s Birmingham Squadron. He averaged 10.2 points per game during the Showcase Cup portion of the Squadron’s 2023-24 season, and through five regular season contests is scoring 9.2 points per outing.

His wife, Katie Lou Samuelson, has six WNBA seasons on her resume, following a decorated college career with the UConn Huskies. She is now with the Los Angeles Sparks.

Hoops is likely a hot topic of conversation in their home, but so is parenthood; they welcomed their first child last August. And while all parents want their kids to succeed, Cannady decided to put his hopes and dreams for his daughter in writing.

Cannady is the author of Aliya Can, a book “for all parents who want their children to believe that they can achieve anything they set out to do.”

The book – set for release on Monday, January 15 – is illustrated by Danika Runyan.

“My wife and I were just having a conversation on the way to our honeymoon,” said Cannady, who’ll suit up for the New Orleans Pelicans’ affiliate tonight in a road game against the Memphis Hustle. “And we were just thinking, ‘Hey, how great would it be to write a book for our daughter about our daughter?’ She’s like, ‘Oh, my gosh, that’d be so fun. How would you ever do something like that?’”

Cannady, who says he’s always looking to learn new things, began to investigate what such an undertaking would involve. So, he decided to Google “How to write a book.”

Eight months later, his book was written.

“That brings us where we are today, where we have a physical copy in hand and they’re ready to be distributed,” he said. “It’s really been a process of learning for me.”

Cannady said he hopes Aliya Can is something that his daughter can one day read and know that it was for and about her, but also provide a positive impact for other children and their parents.

“I guess it sounds cheesy or cliché, but I just wrote it from my heart,” he said. “When you think about children’s books, and study some of the classics with a rhyme scheme, you want to do something that’s quick-hitting and that kind of flows, almost like a nursery rhyme. So that’s what I had in mind from day one.

“When I talked about it with my wife, I was like, ‘This is the vision I have. Let me just speak from my heart and see what that end product could be.’ And honestly, it didn’t take very long for me to come up with what is now the final product.”

Although aimed at young kids, the message is universal.

“It blends in with my ethos of believing in yourself and having confidence,” he said. “I think that’s something that parents or anyone, for that matter, can embrace, and inspire kids to believe in themselves and achieve anything at a young age. That’s something I’m going to be preaching to my daughter her whole life. So, I figured I’d get it in book form. Once it’s out there, I can say that’s my philosophy.”

His Squadron coaches and teammates have been supportive of his project ever since they found out it was almost ready for publication a few weeks ago.

“A lot of my teammates just look at me like, ‘Are you kidding me … you’re doing that?’ So, they’re all super excited for me. I think a couple of guys, even coaches, are looking to purchase some for siblings and cousins, and it’s really exciting to have that support.”

And while fatherhood might not have changed his approach to basketball, it most certainly has changed him as a person.

“One hundred percent, yes,” he said. “Once you’re in that delivery room, and in the moment she’s born … it’s a feeling you can’t truly describe or put into words. But you feel kind of this overwhelming sense of joy, and also a sense of responsibility. For someone like me who’s been in the NBA, who has goals and aspirations and feels a need to give back, it just raises that level of focus and intensity.”

Aliya Can will be available through Barnes & Noble or you can get further information by clicking on Cannady’s bio link on Instagram at devin_cannady3.