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Kristian Winfield: The Nets can finally exhale after clinching playoff spot

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:49 GMT

Jacque Vaughn couldn’t find the words.His Nets had just clinched the Eastern Conference’s sixth and final playoff seed with a 101-84 victory over the Orlando Magic on Friday, and after a long speech to his team, an emotional Vaughn took the podium to field questions.“I really do …,” the Nets coach said before taking a moment to compose himself, “I really do enjoy coaching this team.”That was the moment both he and a Nets franchise under never-ending pressure and scrutiny over the years finally let out a sigh of relief.The job is complete, even if its description changed along the way.For the fifth time in as many years, and for the eighth time in the 11 seasons since relocating to Brooklyn, the Nets have punched their ticket to the NBA playoffs.Only this time, they did it with the odds stacked against them. This time, to qualify for the playoffs, the Nets had to build a brand-new foundation on the drop of a dime — with an identity oppo...

Pat Leonard’s NFL Notes: Mac Jones and Patriots showing all the signs of an eventual breakup

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:49 GMT

Mac Jones and the New England Patriots don’t seem, from the outside looking in, like two parties who are interested in a long-term relationship.Ignore the debatable details of the ongoing he-said he-said happening during this murky and eyebrow-raising Patriots offseason, and take a snapshot of it from 30,000 feet:There is too much noise and too much evidence of discord in Foxborough, Mass., to believe that nothing is afoot.Sometimes a break-up doesn’t require someone actually saying “it’s over.”This is not to say that Jones won’t be the Patriots’ starting quarterback this season. Certainly the odds are that he will be.But Lamar Jackson is available, and the Patriots hold the No. 14 overall pick in this month’s draft.So put on Bill Belichick’s grungy hoodie, step into his tennis shoes, and think about the 2023 NFL season this way:If the AFC East is going to include Aaron Rodgers quarterbacking the Jets, Josh Allen quarterbacking t...

Heat’s focus now on play-in madness and win-and-in home game Tuesday vs. Hawks

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:49 GMT

For most of the Miami Heat roster, this is all new, having to try to advance to the NBA playoffs through the play-in tournament.To Kevin Love and Caleb Martin, having been there before with other teams, it essentially is March Madness in April.“You’ve got to come ready to play,” Martin said, with the Heat hopeful of advancing to the playoffs with a Tuesday night victory over the Atlanta Hawks at Kaseya Center, the new name for the Heat’s arena. “I mean, all I know is this isn’t a situation we were banking on. So you have to come in prepared like it’s the NCAA Tournament, like you’re one and done. So come in ready.”Love agreed.“I feel like because there’s so much at stake, it almost feels like a one-and-done type situation,” Love said. “It almost feels like a Game 7 or a March Madness type situation.”Neither Love, last season with the Cleveland Cavaliers, nor Martin, two years ago with the Charlotte H...

Dave Hyde: Udonis Haslem and 20 years of fights, rebounds, ‘The Hansbrough Game’ and finding Dwyane Wade’s stolen property

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:49 GMT

Mr. Miami, Mr. 305, No. 40, Udonis Haslem, will have his final regular-season home game Sunday after 20 years with the Miami Heat.A 40 for 40 to mark the day:1. Haslem has said a few times over his years, “Nothing happens in Miami without me knowing.” One example? “One of the first times out with Dwyane [Wade], somebody broke into his car and stole his jewelry,” he said. “Somebody called me the next day and said where it was. He was skeptical about getting it back. We got it back.”2. Undrafted, cut by Atlanta and having played in France, he singles out a play in the 2003 Heat training camp for making the team. “A shot went up, the rebound went all the way to half court and I chased it,” he said. “I was only one to chase it to half court. [Coach Pat Riley] blew the whistle. He looked at me and said, ‘Everyone else stopped, why didn’t you?’ I said, ‘I didn’t hear a whistle.’ I had a different des...

Thousands of doctors plan to walk off job again in England

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:49 GMT

LONDON (AP) — A four-day strike planned by tens of thousands of doctors in England next week could lead to the postponement of a quarter-million medical appointments, a National Health Service official said Saturday. Dr. Layla McCay, policy director at the NHS Confederation, said the impact is expected to be far greater than a three-day walkout last month by doctors early in their career that led to 175,000 appointments and procedures being postponed.“The impact is going to be so significant that this one is likely to have impact on patient safety, and that is a huge concern for every health care leader,” McCay told BBC Radio 4.The strike planned for Tuesday by so-called junior doctors would be the latest in a wave of disruptive labor actions by public sector workers demanding pay hikes to offset inflation that exceeds 10%. A cost-of-living crisis driven by sharp food and energy price increases has left people struggling to pay bills as union wages have fallen in real terms over the...

Report: Florida officials cut key data from vaccine study

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:49 GMT

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — An analysis that was the basis of a highly criticized recommendation from Florida’s surgeon general cautioning young men against getting the COVID-19 vaccine omitted information that showed catching the virus could increase the risk of a cardiac-related death much more than getting the mRNA shot, according to drafts of the analysis obtained by the Tampa Bay Times.The nonbinding recommendation made by Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo last fall ran counter to the advice provided by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ladapo, a Harvard-trained medical doctor who was appointed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in 2021 to head the Florida Department of Health, has drawn intense scrutiny over his shared resistance with the Republican governor to COVID-19 mandates for vaccines and masks and other health policies endorsed by the federal government.The early drafts of the analysis obtained by the Times through a records request showed that catchin...

Man claiming to be a roofer wanted in mischief investigation in Riverdale

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:49 GMT

Toronto police are looking for a man who posed as a roofer and damaged a home in Riverdale. Police say a man went to a home in the area of Langley and Logan avenues around 8 a.m. on March 25. He told the homeowner he was a roofer and offered to insepct the roof of the house. The homeowner alleges he heard loud banging on the roof and when the man returned, he told him that they had a hole in their roof and gave them a quote to repair it before leaving the home. The homeowner claims that when he went up to the roof he noticed it had been damaged. The suspect is described as being in his early 20s, five-foot-11 to six-feet tall, with a medium build. He was last seen wearing a white t-shirt and overalls and he spoke with an Irish accent. Anyone with information is asked to contact police.

Estonia PM’s party clinches new coalition government deal

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:49 GMT

TALLINN, Estonia (AP) — Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said Saturday that her center-right Reform Party has clinched a deal with two other parties to form a coalition government, five weeks after a general election in the Baltic country.The party councils of Kallas’ pro-business Reform Party, which overwhelmingly won Estonia’s March 5 parliamentary election with 31.2% of the vote, the centrist Estonia 200 party and the Social Democratic Party said they would form the coalition after agreeing on government programs for the nex four years following lengthy talks.“This agreement ensures that Estonia is protected, that we can continue as an independent and self-sustaining country,” Kallas, who will remain as prime minister, said during a news conference.Kallas has held the premiership of Estonia — a European Union and NATO member — since January 2021, when she became the first female head of government in the nation of 1.3 million.The Reform Party was also the senior partner in th...

Afghan religious scholars criticize girls’ education ban

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:49 GMT

JALALABAD, Afghanistan (AP) — Afghan religious scholars Saturday criticized a ban on female education, as a key Taliban minister warned clerics not to rebel against the government on the controversial issue.Girls cannot go to school beyond sixth grade in Afghanistan, with the education ban extending to universities. Women are barred from public spaces, including parks, and most forms of employment. Last week, Afghan women were barred from working at the U.N., according to the global body, although the Taliban have yet to make a public announcement. Authorities present the education restrictions as temporary suspensions rather than bans, but universities and schools reopened in March without their female students.The bans have raised fierce international uproar, increasing the country’s isolation at a time when its economy has collapsed and worsenied a humanitarian crisis. Two religious scholars who are well-known within Afghanistan said Saturday that authorities should reconsi...

Berlusconi’s doctor says he’s responding well to treatment

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 11:18:49 GMT

ROME (AP) — Silvio Berlusconi’s doctor, who is treating him for a lung infection, said Saturday that the former Italian premier is responding well to treatment in an intensive care unit at a Milan hospital, an Italian news agency reported.Alberto Zangrillo, who also heads the ICU at San Raffaele hospital where the Italian media mogul was admitted on Wednesday, said Berlusconi “is used to responding with his best” and that despite the “grave illness in a truly difficult situation, he’s responding well to the treatments,” ANSA reported.Zangrillo revealed earlier in the week that Berlusconi, 86, has had a chronic form of leukemia for some time. On Saturday, Berlusconi was visited by a longtime advisor, Gianni Letta, who said, “I found him better than what I thought” and eager to rebound.“You know how every time he sets an aim, he reaches it,” Letta told reporters outside the hospital.In remarks to reporters, Zangrillo referred to the infection as a “complication,” giv...