News

Yesterday, the French Tennis Federation president, Bernard Giudicelli, went viral after banning Serena Williams‘ catsuit from the French Open. Everyone has been blasting the 60-year-old and now Nike has responded.

Nike responded on Twitter with a photo of Serena with text that read, “You can take the superhero out of her costume, but you can never take away her superpowers. #justdoit” See below:

Giudicelli said in an interview with Tennis Magazine’s 500th edition, “I believe we have sometimes gone too far. Serena’s outfit this year, for example, would no longer be accepted. You have to respect the game and the place.”

Twitter is obviously outraged by the decision, which is clearly racism and sexism. Click here for the reactions.

Considering the serious backlash, it would be no surprise if the French Open decides to “reverse” their ban. Saying Williams doesn’t have respect for the game is asinine and insulting. Serena Williams is the winner of 23 Major singles titles at the French Open. The reason why the French Open sells tickets is partly because of Serena’s presence. No one has more respect for the game than Serena.

Put some respect on her name, Mr. Giudicelli.

Source: https://newsone.com

AHoward University student and two of her siblings are taking their talents to the 2020 Olympics. Senior Latroya Pina and her sister and brother Jayla and Troy have been selected to be on the Cape Verde National Swim Team during the Summer Olympics which is slated to take place in Tokyo, Japan, the Sun Chronicle reported.

Pina has been racking up several accolades at Howard for her swimming skills, the news outlet writes. She came out victorious in the women’s 100 breaststroke and 200 individual medley against Marymount during the 2017-2018 season. The honors went beyond the swimming pool for Pina. She made the 2018 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) Commissioner’s All-Academic Team and the 2018 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Spring President’s Honor Roll List. Although having the opportunity to compete in the Olympic Games is a huge honor for Pina and her siblings, she says their accomplishment isn’t “far-fetched.” “We’re not just swimming for our colleges or schools, but for a nation so we want to do our best,” she told the Sun Chronicle. Pina also added that she’s proud to be representing Cape Verde. “Cape Verde is trying to make swimming a big sport now, so it’s our responsibility to represent our country. People in Cape Verde and all the Cape Verdeans in the U.S. will be looking up to us.”

Howard’s Swimming & Diving Head Coach Nicholas Askew is excited for Pina and her siblings. “To represent your country at the Olympic level is every swimmer’s dream,” he said in a statement, according to HU Bison. “We are excited for Latroya and have no doubt, she will make Howard University and Cape Verde very proud.”

The siblings are slated to compete in the Confederation Africaine de Natation Championship Meet in Algeria next month

A venture capitalist firm is aiming to level the playing field for Black women when it comes to securing funding for their business ventures. Backstage Capital recently announced that it will invest $36 million in the entrepreneurial endeavors of African American women, Business Insider reported.

The firm unveiled the plan for the fund at the United State of Women 2018 Summit in Los Angeles, the news outlet writes. Through the initiative, Backstage Capital plans to invest in nearly 20 companies over the next three years. Arlan Hamilton, the founder and managing partner of the firm, says that the statistics surrounding Black women securing venture capital are alarming and it needs to be changed. “I think the figures speak for themselves: less than .2% of all early-stage venture funding goes to Black women, while we make up approximately 8% of the U.S. population and are one of the fastest growing entrepreneur segments in the country,” she told Tech Crunch. She also believes that its unfair Black women have had to “accept scraps” when trying to get financial backing for their business endeavors.

According to Business Insider, the first group of entrepreneurs will be awarded this year.

Many Black entrepreneurs are launching initiatives to help their fellow Black business owners thrive. Marceau Michel—creator of Black Founders Matter—is aiming to raise $10 million for visionaries of color in the tech industry. “By raising awareness, using our supporters as walking billboards and reaching our community, I believe we can raise more than enough funds to shake up venture funding as it pertains to people of color and make them pay attention to our resourcefulness and resilience,” said Marceau.

Source: https://newsone.com

Even in supposed defeat, LaVar Ball is winning.

The face of the world’s newest professional basketball league has been raked across the coals for what critics have described as sparse attendance at the games that feature lower tier talent in the Junior Basketball Association’s (JBA) inaugural season. But after just about three weeks’ worth of games, online metrics show that there was a much higher interest in the JBA than critics care to admit, no matter who was running the league.

With all of its games streamed on Facebook, the JBA has averaged “between 100,000 and 200,000 views” for each contest, according to a report published in the Undefeated on Friday. When Ball’s son and star player, LaMelo, plays, his “games have closer to 800,000.”

Source: Alius Koroliovas / Getty

Those enviable analytics could end up helping to disprove the naysayers who have gleefully predicted the demise of the JBA – and LaVar Ball – since the day it was announced. Those statistics could also pave the way for “views of more than a million per game” and “potential Fortune 500 advertisers,” Ball’s JBA co-founder Alan Foster said. If that were to become a reality, the longevity and overall sustainability of the league would be all but solidified.

While it’s tough to accurately translate those views into immediate dollars, Facebook’s continued relationship with Ball – don’t forget he has a successful reality show in its third season streamed and documenting his family life – shows LaVar’s brand has an audience the social network trusts to reliably bring in a dedicated viewership, something that is far from a guarantee in digital media.

And before you go dismissing shows on Facebook as inconsequential, the uber-successful, all-world soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo was reportedly negotiating a deal for his own reality show to stream on the social site. If it goes through, he could make an eye-popping $10 billion for just 13 episodes, according to CNBC.

Now, of course that doesn’t mean LaVar will ever see that kind of money from Facebook (or does it?). But given that payday for Ronaldo, it’s pretty safe to assume Ball’s compensation from Facebook alone will reach, if not break, the seven-figure mark.

That’s not including revenue from his Big Baller Brand sports apparel company and other professional ventures and business dealings that the public may not know about. (Never mind the fact that Ball has created a viable alternative to college basketball – which has repeatedly been likened to slave labor – that actually pays its players on their quest to ultimately compete in the NBA or other professional leagues around the world.)

Not bad for a guy who’s been branded by critics as a loudmouth helicopter dad who jeopardized the basketball careers and overall livelihood of his children while trading barbs with the president, who supposedly negotiated the jail release of son LiAngelo for trying to steal a Louis Vuitton belt.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any lower, a Michigan cop tased an unarmed Black man while he was holding his two-month old baby. The video of the incident has gone viral and now the police have released a statement.

Police showed up to a home in Westland, Michigan where people were having a barbecue on Friday night, according ABC 7 in Detroit.

“We were just barbecuing, and we saw the cops come up,” said one eyewitness and neighbor who recorded the footage. “They came up and asked us who was fighting. We were like, ‘You got the wrong house.’”

Ray Brown, the man who was tased, got agitated with the police coming on his property and demanding answers for something no one knew anything about, according to other witnesses. Audio from the video indicated that an officer told Brown he was going to be arrested and to “get the baby out of here” as police tried to take the baby from him.

Brown responded defiantly:

“That’s my child. He can be exactly where he’s at. Give me my child. Give me my child.”

“I had to catch the baby. I was in the street talking with the cops. I had to come over,” Nichole Skidmore, the mother to two-month-old Christopher, told ABC 7. “The taser is on this side of him, and the baby is over here. As soon as they start tasing him the baby flew out of his hands and I had to grab him, or he would have fell.”

Brown was ultimately arrested and was placed in custody.

In a statement, police claimed officers went to Brown’s house because of a “report that a male subject had physically assaulted a female and that he had damaged her vehicle.”

The statement about the unconfirmed assault continued:

“Westland Police Officers made contact with the man involved in the incident. It was determined that the man was going to be arrested for the assault, the damaged property and also for a number of outstanding arrest warrants.”

However, police were denying tasing Brown even though it’s on video.

“The video shows that during the deployment the child was also in the hands of the mother,” the statement continued. “The child was not injured during the arrest. The child was examined by the Westland EMT and turned over to the mother.”

The statement also indicated that the “investigation is only in the beginning phase.”

The video clearly showed Brown being tased with his baby; eyewitnesses were screaming in the moment he was tased while holding the baby; the child’s mother said the baby flew out of Brown’s hands while he was being tased; yet the cops still managed to spit out this statement?

Make America great again.

Source: https://newsone.com

President Donald Trump’s animosity toward the late Sen. John McCain was on full display Monday when he sent a shout out to his favorite Black athletes instead of joining his fellow politicians in sending warm condolences.

See Also: Jim Brown Continues To Remind Us He’s In The Sunken Place: ‘I Am Not Going To Denigrate My Flag’

Trump tweeted fist bumps early in the morning to golfer Tiger Woods and football legend Jim Brown, thanking them for their loyalty.

A reporter on Sunday asked Woods, a longtime friend and golf buddy of Trump’s, how he would respond to people who find his relationship with Trump unusual, Yahoo Sports reported.

“Well, he’s the President of the United States. You have to respect the office. No matter who is in the office, you may like, dislike personality or the politics, but we all must respect the office,” Woods replied.

Jim Brown has been on Trump’s side in the president’s dispute with Black NFL players who have been kneeling during the national anthem to protest police brutality.

Meanwhile, other political leaders have been paying tribute to McCain. He succumbed on Saturday to his battle against brain cancer. The lawmaker and Vietnam War hero, who ran twice for U.S. president, died at his home in Arizona at age 81.

McCain openly criticized Trump on several occasions and voted against the president’s plan to repeal Obamacare. Trump, who apparently continues to hold a grudge, rejected a statement drafted by his staff that praised McCain for his heroism, the Washington Post reported.

Instead, Trump chose to tweet a generic condolence post on Saturday night shortly after McCain’s death was announced.

That stands in sharp contrast to former President Barack Obama, who was McCain’s rival for the presidency in 2008. Obama tweeted a statement that honored the senator’s life and sacrifices to the nation.

“Few of us have been tested the way John once was or required to show the kind of courage that he did,” the statement said in part.

Even France’s President Emmanuel Macron had more to say to honor McCain than the current American President.

“John McCain was a true American hero. He devoted his entire life to his country. His voice will be missed. Our respectful thoughts go to his beloved ones,” Macron tweeted.

Source: https://newsone.com

Odell Beckham and his teammates were dancingin the Giants locker room to a song about money on Monday afternoon and it appears a big chunk of it is going Beckham’s way.

Josina Anderson of ESPN reports that Beckham has agreed to a five-year, $95 million contract with the team. She reports that $65 million of the money is guaranteed.Odell Beckham agrees to five-year, $95 million contract

The details of the contract will provide a better look at how Beckham’s deal stacks up with others around the league, but an annual average salary of $19 million per year would put him ahead of Antonio Brown for the most of any receiver. The total guaranteed money would also put him ahead of the league’s other wideouts.

It was a rocky road at times getting to the point of agreeing on a contract, but the journey appears to have been well worth it for Beckham.

UPDATE 2:57 p.m. ET: Anderson has reported other details of the deal, including that the deal has $5 million of the $95 million total value is in the form of incentives. She also reports that his $8.4 million salary for this year is part of a deal that will cover the next six years in total at $98.4 million in base total value, so the average annual salary for the overall deal comes in at $16.4 million while the new money average is $18 million per season.Odell Beckham agrees to five-year, $95 million contract