To tweet: https://es.pn/SgcrYg
BREAKING NEWS:
#TarheelTurmoil: UNC Hoops Academic Scandal
Outside the Lines (Friday, 3 p.m. ET, ESPN)
ESPN.com (currently posted)
Rashad McCants speaks to ESPN’s Steve Delsohn
Football players have been in the spotlight of the academic scandal at the University of North Carolina. But, for the first time, a star from the Tar Heels’ 2005 National Championship basketball team is speaking out. Rashad McCants, the team’s second leading scorer, says tutors gave him and other players improper academic assistance and that he believes coach Roy Williams and the athletic department were well aware of the bogus classes many players were encouraged to take. Steve Delsohn investigates for OTL and ESPN.com.
“It’s hard for anybody not to know about the fact that we’re taking African-American study courses and we don’t have to go to class. I think that’s very obvious, especially when, you know, he has his coaches checking our classes and checking our schedules and checking our grades.” – Rashad McCants, former UNC basketball star, on why he believes coach Roy Williams knew about his players being involved in academic fraud
Putting on the Shift
Outside the Lines (Sunday, 9 a.m., ESPN)
Baseball’s biggest hitters have seen better days. Offensive numbers across Major League Baseball are down. One possible reason is the extreme defensive shifts that used to be rare but now are the rage. T.J. Quinn reports that the explosion in shifting isn’t a revolution but an evolution.
“I hate it. I put so many good swings through the middle, down the hole. I got no chance of hitting the ball down the line, no chance.” — David Ortiz, Boston Red Sox DH on facing the defensive shift
“I think it can be a negative if it’s introduced into the competition just automatically. Let the manager and the coaches use their expertise, their guts, to decision-make.”— Tony La Russa, Chief Baseball Officer, Arizona Diamondbacks
Chasing the Triple Crown
ESPN.com
Secretariat’s Triple Crown at the 105th Belmont Stakes
Credit: Bill Meurer/NY Daily News Archive
“Of all the memories that Secretariat left behind, strewn for me along a road that ran from Saratoga to Louisville, from Baltimore to New York, none remains more vivid than the sight of that gracefully moving horse as he swept toward the far turn in the ’73 Belmont Stakes. For it was there — as he pulled away from Sham and widened his lead at once to two lengths then quickly to three … four … five … six … seven — the scene grew surreal, almost mystical, with the colt galloping as if from the pages of a storybook, a creature out of myth.” – William Nack
“Millonarios: Gritos de libertad,”
ESPN Deportes (Tuesday, June 10, 6 p.m.)
The latest episode of the Destino Futbol series leading up to the 2014 FIFA World Cup, “Millonarios: Gritos de libertad,” is a one-hour special chronicling three fans of the Millonarios football team in Colombia whose passion for the team became a way to escape isolation and terror, and a reason to tolerate captivity and torture.
Pelé and the Art of Being Pelé
ESPN The Magazine (World Cup issue on newsstands)
E:60 (Thursday, June 12, 11 p.m., ESPN2)
Pelé, one of sports’ most famous athletes, is both beloved by fans and criticized for not doing enough for his nation. Wayne Drehs profiles Pele, and poses questions to him from fans.
An encore presentation of E:60’s World Cup special will be aired Thursday, June 12 at 11 p.m. on ESPN2 and include a rare interview with Argentina superstar Lionel Messi, the backstory of U.S. Men’s captain Clint Dempsey and Jeremy Schaap’s shocking report on the preparations for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.