Up Next

What Had Happened Was

What Had Happened Was: 12/7/17

Oh, you didn’t know? We got you.

Up Next From Sports

    Sacramento Kings v Cleveland Cavaliers
    LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers celebrates a win against the Sacramento Kings on December 6, 2017 at Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, Ohio. David Liam Kyle/NBAE via Getty Images
    Aaron Dodson By @aardodson

    Game. Blouses.

    • The Cleveland Cavaliers claimed their 13th straight game on Wednesday, after a 3-pointer from LeBron James with 16.6 seconds left sealed a 101-95 win against the Sacramento Kings. James recorded five 3-pointers on the night as part of a game-high 32-point performance that propelled the Cavs to a tie of the franchise record for consecutive wins in a season set in 2009 and matched in 2010. Although James was on both Cleveland teams that previously pieced together 13-game winning streaks, he’s now shooting far better from deep than he did in the 2009 and 2010 seasons, when he shot 34.4 and 33.3 percent, respectively. This season, James’ 3-point shooting average has reached a career-high 43 percent. “I just wanted to continue to improve my game,” James said. “I try to get better and better each and every year, and shooting the ball is what this league has kind of turned into, so for me to continue to improve, that’s what I wanted to do. I put a lot of work into my offseason training, and I just try to implement it into the season once it gets here.”
    • Warren Moon, the only black quarterback in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, is facing a lawsuit for sexual harassment and sexual battery. Wendy Haskell, Moon’s assistant at his firm Sports 1 Marketing, said Moon made unwanted sexual advances toward her, including demanding that she sleep in the same bed with him on business trips. Moon has taken a leave of absence from his job as a Seattle Seahawks radio analyst. He has denied the allegations.
    • Roger Goodell signed a five-year contract extension to remain the commissioner of the NFL. If league owners sign off on all of Goodell’s bonuses and incentives outlined in the contract, the deal would run through 2023 and be worth a reported total of $200 million, and $40 million annually, a source told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. The six-member NFL compensation committee, which negotiated the extension, has pledged its full support of the new contract, according to a signed letter sent to NFL owners. “Our Committee unanimously supports the contract and believes that it is fully consistent with ‘market’ compensation and the financial and other parameters outlined to the owners at our May 2017 meeting, as well as in the best interests of ownership,” the letter reads. “… We are pleased to report that there is a nearly unanimous consensus among the ownership in favor of signing the contract extension now.”
    • The NFL overturned its one-game suspension of Cincinnati Bengals safety George Iloka for his hit on Steelers wide receiver Antonio Brown in Pittsburgh’s 23-20 win on Monday Night Football. NFL appeals officer Derrick Brooks reduced the punishment to a $36,464.50 fine for Iloka, who was called for an unnecessary roughness penalty at the end of the game after a helmet-to-helmet hit on Brown during a touchdown reception. “We are grateful to appeals officer Derrick Brooks for reducing George’s penalty from a one-game suspension to a fine equivalent to what players who were recently involved in similar plays received,” Ron Slavin, Iloka’s agent, said in a statement. “While we still believe George did nothing wrong on the play and the helmet-to-helmet contact was a result of Antonio Brown’s lowering his head as he braced for contact, we felt and argued that a suspension was particularly egregious. We thank Derrick for acknowledging our concerns and making the proper decision.” Out of the three Week 13 suspensions that were issued to Iloka, Steelers wide receiver JuJu Smith-Schuster and Patriots tight end Rob Gronkowski for illegal hits, the Bengals safety is the only player to win his appeal. Smith-Schuster and Gronkowski will each sit out one game.

    Top three tweets

    1. YES … THE ANSWER IS YES

    2. THE POWER OF 2K!

    3. S/O TO THE BULLS INTERN WHO DID THIS!

    ICYMI

    On this day in sports history

    On Dec. 7, 1973, Terrell Owens, one of the greatest wide receivers of all time, was born. In the third round of the 1996 NFL draft, the San Francisco 49ers drafted the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Owens, who developed into a six-time Pro Bowler, five-time first-team All-Pro selection and three-time NFL receiving touchdowns leader over the course of 16 seasons with five different teams. Owens ranks second all-time in receiving yards (15,934), behind Jerry Rice, and third all-time in receiving touchdowns (156), behind Rice and Randy Moss. Despite his numbers, Owens failed to be elected into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in his first two years of eligibility (2016 and 2017), presumably because of off-the-field issues. In November, he was named a semifinalist for the 2018 Hall of Fame class.

    Picture-perfect

    Aaron Dodson is a sports and culture writer at Andscape. He primarily writes on sneakers/apparel and hosts the platform’s Sneaker Box video series. During Michael Jordan’s two seasons playing for the Washington Wizards in the early 2000s, the “Flint” Air Jordan 9s sparked his passion for kicks.

    This Story Tagged: LeBron James Cleveland Cavaliers What Had Happened Was