Advertisement - scroll for more content
Colorado State’s Nique Clifford announced Wednesday on social media that he has declared for the NBA draft. The Colorado Springs native played one season at CSU after three years at Colorado.
When 17-year-old -year-old Gregg Popovich reported to the United States Air Force Academy on June 27, 1966, he and the other 1,034 members of the USAFA Class of 1970 marched under an archway and up a wide ramp onto the grounds of the campus, just north of Colorado Springs, Colo., that 735 eventual graduates would call home for the next four years. There, they were addressed by the Academy’s Commandant of Cadets, Air Force Brig. Gen. Louis T. Seith. His message, terse and hopeful, assured them they comprised the cream of America’s youth. In the hours that followed the general’s laudatory welcome, the would-be 2nd Lieutenants were ushered through several hours of orientation, indoctrination, inoculation and humiliation that thoroughly curdled them. This would be their first, and possibly most important, lesson: Get over yourself.
The Nets are working out this week at Team USA’s Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs ... when they’re not hiking up trails, getting as high as 7,735 feet. That’s 1,700 feet higher than the city! Sources tell NetsDaily most of the team is there with one exception, Isaiah Whitehead, who is at home dealing with a new baby. Colorado Springs may seem like a random place for the Nets to train until you consider two things. HSS Training Center in Brooklyn is occupied with draft workouts and a free agent mini-camp. The other, bigger issue, is that there’s a reason why the Olympic Training Facility is located there. The higher the altitude, the less oxygen, the better conditioning. Altitude improves attitude. And pictures posted by the team show a number of training and strength and conditioning types are on hand.
Anthony Puccio: It's late May and some #Nets players are training together in Colorado Springs. No word on who facilitated. Playoffs serving as motivation?
Advertisement
Krzyzewski never violated an NCAA rule when he climbed aboard a flight, flew cross-country and addressed the 2013 under-19 USA Basketball national team at its Colorado Springs training camp. He addressed players in a group, and talked to them individually, sources told Yahoo Sports. For the record, Krzyzewski is USA Basketball's senior national coach and the visit gave him an opportunity to personally welcome those young men into the program's feeder system.
The Spurs will hold training camp at the alma mater of head coach Gregg Popovich, the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., from Oct. 1-4. Popovich was a standout player at the Academy, serving as a team captain during his senior season and earning an invitation to the 1972 Olympic team trials. He returned the following year to serve as an assistant coach, the first entry on a resume that will one day place him in the Basketball Hall of Fame.
USA Basketball is on the move. The governing body for men's and women's basketball in the USA will relocate to Tempe, Ariz., from Colorado Springs, Colo., in the fall of 2015. The $350 million development project is a major upgrade to its current facilities and will include USA Basketball headquarters, training center, a 4,500-seat multi-purpose arena with multiple basketball courts, a 330-room hotel, 30,000 square feet conference center, 500 apartments and retail and office space totaling 360,000 square feet.
Jeff Zillgitt: It's been in the works for some time but USA Basketball formally will announce today its plans to move to Tempe, Ariz. from Colorado Springs
USA Basketball, the national governing body responsible for choosing the U.S. Olympic teams, plans to relocate to Tempe as part of an Arizona State development project, multiple sources told azcentral sports. Currently located in Colorado Springs, Colo., USA Basketball is expected to announce its plan soon to be part of a 10-acre project adjacent to the ASU campus, sources said.
Advertisement
On Jan. 28, Gregg Popovich’s three biggest North Texas fans sent him a combination happy birthday/get well email message. Popovich turned 64 that day. Three days earlier, he’d missed the Spurs’ game in Dallas because of illness. Usually when the Spurs play here, Joe Kreimborg, Bill Purcell, Charlie Brown and their wives sit behind San Antonio’s bench, compliments of Popovich. “You don’t care one damn if I’m feeling better,” Popovich responded via email, proving that he types with the same gruff sarcasm with which he speaks. “You just want more tickets to games, so stop breaking the honor code and just be honest.” The honor code refers to the Air Force Academy near Colorado Springs, Colo., where Popovich, Kreimborg, Purcell and Brown were basketball teammates for three seasons. Popovich graduated in 1970, a year before North Texas’ threesome, whom he addressed in the January email as “the Bohunks.”
Mike (Colorado Springs) Any big trade plans for Denver? Chad Ford (1:27 PM) Keep hearing their name in a lot of scenarios, but it's never clear who they are going to give up. Gallanari and Wilson Chandler are the two names that come up the most, but there's not a big market for either player.
Colengelo requested an extension from the US Olympic Committee in Colorado Springs for submitting the final roster. "We asked for dispensation because of all the injuries that have come down during this NBA season," said Colangelo, whose original list of 20 Olympic finalists has lost Dwight Howard, Derrick Rose, LaMarcus Aldridge and Chauncey Billups due to injury. "We wanted to buy time, especially since the deadline was June 18 and the playoffs (might not) even end until June 26 . . . If we had been locked in with the June 18 date and we had another injury before the playoffs ended, that would not have sat well with us."
Asked why he's so optimistic about the deadline being extended, Colangelo said from his Phoenix office, "A wind blew down from Colorado Springs (home of USA Basketball and the US Olympic Committee) that said they're thinking very positively" of that.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement