
Ben Simmons calls Karl-Anthony Towns’ shot
Towns drops 56 on Hawks, whom Simmons told him not to worry about
7:16 AMBen Simmons is set to make just $6 million this season, but he could easily make nearly 100 times that if he plays the lottery Friday.
The Philadelphia 76ers rookie guard is obviously some kind of wizard or prophet based on his ability to predict the future, so why not take a stab at Friday’s reported $500 million-plus Mega Millions jackpot?
Let’s rewind first.
On Tuesday night, Simmons was playing something called PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds over a livestream (reading that sentence is like reading Spanish or Mandarin), and was joined by Minnesota Timberwolves center Karl-Anthony Towns. At one point, the third-year 7-footer told Simmons he had to hop off because 1) it was bedtime and 2) he had a game the next day.
Simmons wanted to keep playing, so he asked Towns who the Timberwolves’ next opponent was. Towns responded the Atlanta Hawks, to which Simmons quipped: “You got plenty of time.”
.@BenSimmons25 told KAT he has "plenty of time" to play PUBG with him because the Wolves play the Hawks tomorrow 😂
(va SimmoTheSavage25/Twitch) pic.twitter.com/qZWoyQ5Ujf
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 28, 2018
We haven’t seen that level of disrespect from a rookie since Daniel Puder sized up Kurt Angle on WWE SmackDown.
Anyway, Simmons turned out to be correct, as Towns laid a franchise-record 56 points on the Hawks on Wednesday night, including 26 in the first half. This was the third-highest point total the Hawks have allowed, behind only Michael Jordan’s 61 and Larry Bird’s 60. This also continues a rough seven-day stretch for Atlanta, who lost to the Sacramento Kings in front of fewer than 2,000 fans on March 22 because of protests outside the Kings’ arena.
Karl-Anthony Towns’ 56-point game is the third-highest point total the Hawks have ever allowed behind Michael Jordan (61) and Larry Bird (60) pic.twitter.com/Y4jBgbyCIL
— Martenzie Johnson (@Martenzie) March 29, 2018
But back to Simmons. If the young guy can predict a player’s first 50-point game, there’s no telling what else he knows.

Andy Reid on diversity in coaching: Just do the right thing
Kansas City coach has the league’s only black offensive coordinator, Eric Bieniemy, on his staff
6:20 PMORLANDO, Florida — During the Super Bowl, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell acknowledged that the NFL has too few coaches of color in the pipeline on offense. That’s a problem during an era in which owners prefer to pick from that side of the ball to fill openings.
“The trend now is offensive coaches,” Goodell said.
And Eric Bieniemy of the Kansas City Chiefs is the league’s only African-American offensive coordinator. So how can the gap be bridged?
Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid has some thoughts. Reid was recently honored by the Fritz Pollard Alliance, the group that helps the NFL oversee compliance with the Rooney Rule, for his contributions to furthering opportunities for candidates of color in coaching, front-office and scouting roles.
The answer to improving diversity in the ranks on offense, and coaching in general, is simple: Just do the right thing.
“I’m into good coaches,” Reid said. “I don’t get caught up in all the color. I don’t do all that. I can’t speak for other people on that. I talk to everybody. When you see me at the Senior Bowl, I’ve always got people coming up [to me] and I talk to ’em. Young guys. I don’t care what color they are, let’s talk some ball.
“As long as a guy loves ball, he’s got aptitude and is willing to work, I’m all in on him, man. And that’s what Eric Bieniemy is. That’s what I like. Just open your heart, man. Do what’s best for the game. I don’t care what color you are. Do what’s best for the game.”
Under Reid, Bieniemy is in a good spot. And that’s a big part of it, Cleveland Browns head coach Hue Jackson said.
“Eric Bieniemy is with Andy Reid, who’s definitely about diversity and about giving guys opportunities,” said Jackson, one of the NFL’s seven African-American head coaches. “There’s a lot of head coaches that feel that way too. But you have to be in the right situation at the right time.”

Off-White founder Virgil Abloh named artistic director of men’s wear at Louis Vuitton
The Illinois-born son of Ghanaian immigrants is noted for his ‘fascination with irony, with memes, and with context’
6:56 AMThe news broke just a few moments after midnight on March 26. Virgil Abloh, founder (in 2014) of the upscale street wear label Off-White, and a former creative director for Kanye West, is the new artistic director of men’s wear at Louis Vuitton. Vuitton, a staple of fashionistas around the world, is according to The New York Times, “one of the oldest and most powerful European houses in the luxury business.”
Known for a relentless work ethic, and his deep influence within the style world, Abloh is at the cutting edge of global fashion. His collaborations alone — Nike, Vans, and Levi’s among them — seem never to be not trending, whether on Instagram, or on the glossy pages of magazines. His portfolio also includes an upcoming project with Ikea, and a retrospective of his work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. The Illinois-born son of Ghanian immigrants, Abloh is noted for his “fascination with irony, with memes and with context.”
Abloh, who has an undergraduate civil engineering degree and a master’s in architecture, is Vuitton’s first African-American artistic director. He’s in a rare but rising space for black designers: Olivier Rousteing is currently creative director of Balmain, and Ozwald Boateng was designer for Givenchy men’s 2003-07. Vuitton though, from its classic monogram to its brightest and most whimsical eras, is Vuitton.
The house captures imaginations, whether they be on relaxing on the decks of yachts or the standing in a subway platform. At a panel a few years ago, Abloh said, “My motivation is, in part, a bit of angst that comes from feeling like I don’t belong; that our generation doesn’t belong. I made a conscious decision that I wasn’t just going to be a consumer; that at least one of us would appear at the end of a Parisian runway.” Talk about speaking it into existence.