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    13-Year-Old Boy Drove Truck That Hit Van in Texas, Killing 9, Officials Say

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    The fiery crash killed a golf coach and six of his players, along with the boy and a man who was traveling with him.A 13-year-old boy was behind the wheel of a pickup truck that struck a van in Texas on Tuesday night in a collision that killed nine people, including a college golf coach and six of his players, along with the boy and a man traveling with him, officials said on Thursday.Bruce Landsberg, vice chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said at a news conference that the truck’s left front tire was a spare that had blown out before the truck veered into the lane the golf team’s van was traveling in and struck the van head-on. It was unclear at what speeds the vehicles were traveling, but Mr. Landsberg noted that the speed limit in the area is 75 miles per hour.“It was very clearly a high-speed, head-on collision between two heavy vehicles,” he said. “There is no question about the force of impact.” Both vehicles went up in flames in the collision near Andrews, Texas, about 50 miles east of the state line with New Mexico.It was unclear why the 13-year-old boy, whose name was not released by the authorities on Thursday, was driving the truck. Henrich Siemens, 38, of Seminole County, Texas, who was also in the truck, was killed in the collision, the authorities said.The University of the Southwest identified the victims from that institution as Tyler James, 26, the coach, and the student-athletes Travis Garcia, Karisa Raines, Mauricio Sanchez, Tiago Sousa, Laci Stone and Jackson Zinn. Most of the golfers were freshmen at the university, a private, Christian institution in Hobbs, N.M., near the state line with Texas.Two golfers who were in the van, Dayton Price and Hayden Underhill, were critically injured but survived the crash, and they were undergoing medical treatment in Lubbock, Texas, on Thursday, a spokesman for the university said at a news conference.Ryan Tipton, provost of University of the Southwest, said on Thursday that both players were “making steady progress.”“One of the students is eating chicken soup,” Mr. Tipton said. “Every day it’s a game of inches. There is no indication of how long it’s going to take, but they are both stable and recovering and every day making more progress.”In Texas, 14-year-olds can begin a classroom phase of a driver’s education course, but they cannot apply for a learner’s license until they are 15, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.In a statement on Wednesday, Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas said state officials were helping to investigate the collision.“We grieve with the loved ones of the individuals whose lives were horrifically taken too soon in this fatal vehicle crash near Andrews last night,” Mr. Abbott said.Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico said on Wednesday that she was “deeply saddened” by the news.“This is a terrible, tragic accident,” she said. More

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      Coach and Six College Golfers Die in Texas Bus Wreck

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      The University of the Southwest said its golf coach, Tyler James, was among the dead and that two people were in critical condition.Seven people from the University of the Southwest died after its men’s and women’s golf teams were involved in a fatal wreck in Texas on Tuesday night, officials from the Christian university in New Mexico said Wednesday.“The U.S.W. campus community is shocked and saddened today as we mourn the loss of members of our university family,” the university said in a statement that also said that two passengers were in critical condition and being treated in Lubbock, Texas.Although the university did not identify any of the victims by name, it said its golf coach was among the people who had died in the wreck, which it said happened when its bus was “struck by oncoming traffic.” A spokeswoman for the university in Hobbs, N.M., said the only people aboard the bus were the golf coach, Tyler James, and students.The Texas Department of Public Safety, which is investigating the wreck, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday. But a spokesman, Sgt. Steven Blanco, told local news outlets that the other vehicle involved in the crash had been a pickup and that at least one person in the truck died.“It’s a very tragic scene,” the sergeant told KWES-TV near the crash site on Tuesday night. “It’s very, very tragic.”The golf teams had traveled to Texas, where many of their players had gone to high school, to compete in a collegiate tournament in Midland. The crash happened in nearby Andrews County.James was new to the nondenominational religious university, hired just last summer as coach after he had worked at other Christian universities and at a high school about 120 miles southwest of Fort Worth.The U.S.W. sports program, which competes in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics, is a part of the undergraduate experience for most students, according to federal records. Between July 2019 and June 2020, it earned revenues of about $3.5 million and recorded just more than that in expenses. More

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      Tiger Woods Set to Play the PNC Championship With His Son

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      The golfer, who is still recovering from a serious car crash in February, has not competed in a tournament since he and his son, Charlie, last played in the family team event a year ago.Last week, Tiger Woods was emphatic that he would never again be a full-time player on the PGA Tour because of the serious leg injuries he sustained in a high-speed car crash in February. But Woods conceded that he could “play a round here and there,” which he called, “a little hit and giggle.”Woods is not waiting long to make an informal, and public, return to a golf course. On Wednesday, he announced he would play in a family team tournament with his son, Charlie, on Dec. 18 and 19. The event, the PNC Championship, has a small limited field — it was once called a father/son tournament — and will be contested at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Club in Orlando, Fla.“Although it’s been a long and challenging year,” Woods, whose doctors considered amputating his right leg 10 months ago, wrote on Twitter Wednesday. “I’m very excited to close it out by competing at the @PNC Championship with my son Charlie. I’m playing as a Dad and couldn’t be more excited and proud.”Although it’s been a long and challenging year, I am very excited to close it out by competing in the @PNCchampionship with my son Charlie. I’m playing as a Dad and couldn’t be more excited and proud.— Tiger Woods (@TigerWoods) December 8, 2021
      Woods, who turns 46 on Dec. 30, has not played in a tournament of any kind since he entered the 2020 PNC Championship with Charlie, who is now 12, roughly a year ago. The duo finished seventh. Shortly afterward, Woods had a fifth back surgery that sidelined him for the next few months.The PNC Championship’s 36-hole team format should make it easier for Woods to avoid placing too much stress on his lower right leg, which was reconstructed by doctors using a rod, screws and pins during emergency surgery following his crash outside Los Angeles on Feb. 23. Each player in a pairing will begin a hole by hitting from the tee and players will then pick which tee shot is most advantageous to play. Both players hit a second shot from that spot, a process that is repeated until the hole is finished.Importantly for Woods, there will be only two 18-hole rounds rather than the usual four rounds on the PGA Tour and players can use golf carts driven within a few feet of a player’s ball. On the tour, golfers are required to walk.The players will also play from different sets of tees, which means Charlie Woods will play from the forward tees and often make his father’s tee shots, which will be struck from much farther away, unnecessary. While Tiger Woods was hitting golf balls at a practice range during last week’s World Hero Challenge, a PGA Tour event he hosted in the Bahamas, he also made several jokes about how his shots were traveling about half the distance they once did because he lacked strength and the nerves in his right leg were diminished. From 2018 to 2020, Woods averaged about 299 yards in driving distance during tour events.In last year’s PNC Championship, Woods sometimes had his son hit first — from tees that could be dozens of yards closer to the hole — and if Charlie’s tee shot was well-positioned on or near the fairway, Woods did not bother hitting his tee shot. The format, known as a scramble, could conceivably put Woods in a position to primarily hit less physically demanding shots struck with irons, wedges and a putter throughout his rounds. The format would also permit Woods to decline hitting any shots from a challenging, uneven lie or from daunting terrain that might put added force on his right leg.NBC will televise both rounds of the PNC Championship.Woods’s appearance on a golf course next week will likely spawn conversations about when he might return to the PGA Tour. The Masters Tournament, which he has won five times, is only four months away. But last week Woods cautioned against speculation about when, or if, he will return to elite competitive golf.“I haven’t proven it to myself that I can do it,” Woods, who has won 15 major golf championships, said. “I can play a par-3 course and I can hit a few shots. I can chip and putt, but we’re talking about going out there and playing against the world’s best on the most difficult golf courses under the most difficult conditions.“I’m so far from that. I have a long way to go to get to that point. I haven’t decided whether or not I want to get to that point. I’ve got to get my leg to a point where that decision can be made.”Last year, however, Woods talked repeatedly about how much it meant to him to be able to play with Charlie.“We can do this together for a lifetime,” Woods, who was taught the game by his father, Earl, who died in 2006, said. “I like the thought of having that opportunity to play with him for as long as I live.”Several of Woods’s colleagues from the PGA Tour in the previous 25 years will join him in next week’s field, including his good friend Justin Thomas and his father and coach Mike Thomas; Jim Furyk and his son, Tanner; Henrik Stenson and his son, Karl; and the multiple major champion turned broadcaster Nick Faldo and his son, Matthew. Nelly Korda, the world’s top-ranked women’s golfer, will also make her debut in the event playing with her father, Petr. More

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      Vanessa Bryant Tells of Kobe Bryant's Death in New Deposition

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      Bryant was being questioned by a lawyer defending Los Angeles County in her lawsuit about the sharing of photos of human remains from the helicopter crash that killed nine people.The morning started for Vanessa Bryant the way most weekends do for parents with busy children. One of her daughters was at a college prep class. Her husband was taking another daughter to a basketball game. She stayed home with the two youngest girls, a toddler and a newborn.But then a family assistant knocked on the door around 11:30 a.m. that Sunday and told Bryant that her husband, Kobe Bryant, and their daughter Gianna had been in a helicopter accident, according to a transcript of a deposition of Bryant in a lawsuit between her and Los Angeles County.The assistant said that five people had survived the crash that day, Jan. 26, 2020. Bryant said that she figured Kobe and Gianna would be among them and would be helping the other victims. But as she tried to call her husband, notifications began popping up on her phone: R.I.P. Kobe. R.I.P. Kobe.“My life will never be the same without my husband and daughter,” Bryant said during the deposition.Read the Deposition of Vanessa BryantBryant described the day of the helicopter crash that killed her husband, Kobe Bryant, and their daughter Gianna.Read Document 50 pagesIt would be hours before Bryant would learn, officially, that Kobe, 41, and Gianna, 13, had been killed along with seven others in a crash just outside Los Angeles. In her rush to get to the crash site, before she learned of their deaths, Bryant went to an airport in an attempt to secure a helicopter to take her — but was rebuffed because she was told the weather made it unsafe to fly.These and many other details of that day have become public for the first time through questions Bryant answered during a videoconferencing meeting with a lawyer defending Los Angeles County. She is suing the county and some of its agencies and employees for emotional distress she said was caused by emergency medical workers who took and shared photos of the human remains at the helicopter crash site.Kobe Bryant, the retired Los Angeles Lakers superstar, had been on his way to coach Gianna in a series of games at his Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, Calif.Vanessa Bryant’s deposition comes at a crucial point in the case and amid an escalating battle between the lawyers over the scope of what Los Angeles County and the other defendants can request of Bryant, other plaintiffs and witnesses.One of the most contentious issues, the subject of numerous court filings in recent days, is whether the county can conduct what are called independent medical examinations, which involve psychiatric evaluations, of each of the plaintiffs.Bryant’s lawyers argue that the examinations are “cruel” and that the county is sending a message by requesting them. “When public servants violate the privacy and constitutional rights of the citizens they swore to protect and serve, the victims must run a gauntlet to seek justice,” Bryant’s lawyers argued in one of the filings.But the county contends that the examinations are “a routine part of the discovery process,” according to filings. Bryant and the other plaintiffs are arguing that they suffered emotional distress because of the actions of county employees, and the county believes a medical professional should be allowed to examine the extent of that suffering.At times, Louis Miller, an attorney representing Los Angeles County, expressed remorse for asking Bryant invasive questions. “It’s not harassment,” Miller said at one point. “It’s just a lawsuit. And I’m so sorry to put you through this, but like I said at the beginning, I’ve got to do my job.”“I shouldn’t have to be going through this,” Bryant responded. “It’s not just a lawsuit.”Bryant said that after she was told that she could not fly to the crash site, she met up with Rob Pelinka, the Lakers general manager who served as Kobe’s agent during part of his N.B.A. career. Pelinka, Bryant said, drove them during the hour-and-forty-five-minute trip to the sheriff’s station in Malibu, near the crash site.At the sheriff’s station, Bryant said “no one would answer” questions about her husband and daughter. She was escorted back and forth between rooms, and after a long wait, she said, a pastor walked in and then Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva came with a publicist. Bryant said she wanted privacy and asked the publicist to leave the room.Villanueva confirmed the deaths, Bryant said, and asked if he could do anything for her.“And I said: ‘If you can’t bring my husband and baby back, please make sure that no one takes photographs of them. Please secure the area,’” Bryant said during the deposition. “And he said: ‘I will.’ And I said: ‘No, I need you to get on the phone right now and I need you to make sure you secure the area.’”Villanueva, Bryant said, excused himself from the room. Bryant said that he reassured her the area had been secured when he returned. Bryant said that she exited the back of the office while a news conference was being conducted in the front of the office.Miller asked Bryant if she was seeking a monetary judgment in the lawsuit.Bryant expressed her desire to have the responders who took the pictures held accountable.“The impact of the helicopter crash was so damaging, I just don’t understand how someone can have no regard for life and compassion, and, instead, choose to take that opportunity to photograph lifeless and helpless individuals for their own sick amusement,” Bryant said.Miller asked again: “Ms. Bryant, I understand your testimony about accountability. My question to you is: Are you also seeking monetary recovery, damages, money, in this lawsuit?”Bryant responded that it would be up to the jury.Later in the deposition, Miller repeatedly asked Bryant to look at some graphic images and messages that had been sent to her on social media, some digitally altered, to make the point that others besides sheriff’s deputies were causing her emotional distress. Bryant, according to the deposition, put her hand in front of the camera and monitor instead of looking at the images. She said she interacted with fans less often on social media out of fear that she would be blindsided with pictures of the crash site.Bryant said she recovered the clothes that Kobe and Gianna wore during the crash over concerns that people would take photos of them.“They suffered a lot,” Bryant said during the deposition. “And if their clothes represent the condition of their bodies, I cannot imagine how someone could be so callous and have no regard for them or their friends and just share the images as if they were animals on the street.”The sides are also fighting over whether Villanueva and Daryl Osby, the Los Angeles County fire chief, should sit for depositions.Villanueva has gained public prominence in the last few years in part because his department handled high-profile cases like the helicopter crash, and a car crash in which the golf star Tiger Woods was injured. As he prepares for re-election next year, Villanueva has been accused of targeting political enemies and has fought with city councilors and watchdog groups.The defendants contend that, as department heads, Osby and Villanueva generally are not subject to depositions, and that they do not have any specialized knowledge that other fire and law enforcement officials who have already been deposed do not have. But in an email, lawyers for Bryant listed 14 different reasons they believe Villanueva should have to sit for a deposition, mostly relating to how he handled the possession of photos of the crash site by sheriff’s deputies.After the requests to medically examine all plaintiffs, 10 of them, including all of the young children involved, have recently exited the case. Two families settled with the county last week, the terms of which have not been disclosed. And while Christopher Chester, whose wife, Sarah, and daughter Peyton died in the crash, is continuing his lawsuit, he has dismissed his surviving children as plaintiffs.The sides are also fighting over the scope of witness interviews, and which documents those witnesses must produce.Bryant listed a number of witnesses to the emotional distress she said she has experienced, including Rob and Kristin Pelinka; the pop star Ciara Wilson; the television host and actress La La Anthony; the R&B singer Monica Arnold, known more popularly as Monica; Sharia Washington, Kobe Bryant’s sister; and Catherine Gasol, the wife of the former N.B.A. player Pau Gasol.All of those witnesses are being scheduled for depositions, and they are being asked to produce volumes of documents. The subpoena issued to Wilson, for instance, asked for all documents and communications related to Bryant’s emotional distress between Wilson and Bryant or anybody else since 2010 — 10 years before the crash. It also sought all documents and communications between Wilson and Bryant about any topic since the day of the crash, and all of Wilson’s communications with others about Bryant since the day of the crash.“Defendants’ document requests are grossly overbroad,” a lawyer for the witnesses wrote in an email on Monday that was submitted to the court.“As we have discussed, the document requests are not overbroad,” a lawyer for the county responded, though they did later agree that witnesses wouldn’t have to turn over all of their communications with Bryant since the crash, just the communications about her mental state going back to 2010.Some of these issues and others could be resolved in the coming days. The judge has scheduled hearings for Oct. 29 and Nov. 5 to rule on some motions. More

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      Greg Knapp, a Jets Assistant Coach, Dies at 58

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      Knapp, the team’s new passing-game specialist, was hit by a car while biking over the weekend and never regained consciousness, his family said.Greg Knapp, the Jets’ passing-game specialist, died on Thursday from injuries he sustained while being struck by a car as he rode a bicycle in California last weekend. He was 58.In a statement released through the Jets on Thursday afternoon, Knapp’s family said he was immediately rendered unconscious.“Greg never regained consciousness,” his family said. “He was surrounded by his mom, his wife, his three daughters and his brother.”Knapp, a California native, joined the staff of Robert Saleh, who is in his first year as the Jets’ head coach, in January after spending the last three seasons with the Atlanta Falcons as a quarterbacks coach. He had been an offensive coordinator in Atlanta from 2004 to 2006.“Greg had such an inner peace about him that people always seemed to gravitate towards,” Saleh said in a statement on Twitter, adding, “In his short time here, I believe the people in this organization had a chance to experience that connection.”During his short time with the Jets, Knapp, who was also known as Knapper, had been preparing the team’s young quarterbacks, including Zach Wilson, the No. 2 pick in the 2021 draft, for the coming season.At last month’s minicamp, Knapp told reporters that he had been enjoying coaching the young quarterback group, which also includes the second-year player James Morgan and the third-year player Mike White, neither of whom has played in an N.F.L. game.“As I’ve gotten older, I can say, here, from my experiences, I can tell you this because I’ve got enough trial and error on it,” said Knapp, who has coached veteran quarterbacks like Peyton Manning, Michael Vick, Matt Ryan and Steve Young. “And they’re getting it, they’re learning. It’s pretty exciting and it’s invigorating for me.”Knapp spent the first nine years of his coaching career at Sacramento State, where he had played quarterback. He was entering his 26th year coaching in the N.F.L. Knapp began with the San Francisco 49ers in the 1990s and eventually was promoted to quarterbacks coach and then to offensive coordinator in 2001.In addition to two stints in Atlanta, Knapp made stops in Seattle, Denver, Oakland and Houston either as an offensive coordinator or a quarterbacks coach.He was the Broncos’ quarterbacks coach when Manning threw for 5,477 yards and 55 touchdowns during the 2013 season, both league records at the time, and in the 2015 season when Manning led the team to a Super Bowl win.Arthur Blank, the Falcons’ owner, was one of many of Knapp’s former colleagues who posted their condolences on social media on Thursday. In a statement on Twitter, Blank said that Knapp was a “wonderful person who had the love, admiration and respect” of everyone he worked with.“Greg’s infectious personality is most people’s first and lasting memory of him,” Knapp’s family said. “The phrase ‘He never met a stranger’ encapsulates Knapper’s zest for life. He had a unique gift to make everyone feel special, and to Knapper, they all were.” More

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      After Bonding Over Basketball and Biking, a Big Loss

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      Mark Eaton and Rudy Gobert, paint protectors past and present for the Utah Jazz, had built a relationship of mutual admiration and respect.Mark Eaton did not connect with Rudy Gobert because they were both big men from a small-market franchise known for their immense shot-blocking presence. Not exclusively, anyway.Eaton and Gobert, paint protectors past and present for the Utah Jazz, bonded over a love of bike-riding, too.In August 2016 in Las Vegas, at a National Basketball Retired Players Association function, Eaton was introduced to a Frenchman named David Folch, who specialized in making custom bicycles for tall riders and had been referred to the association by the Hall of Famer Bill Walton. Eaton was so excited that he hopped right onto Folch’s sample bike and began pedaling through the corridors of the hotel.“He had a big smile on his face as he’s coming back and, with that deep voice, he’s telling me, ‘I feel like a kid — I haven’t felt like this since I was 10,’ ” Folch said in a telephone interview.Within a year, Eaton had arranged for Gobert to meet the 6-foot-6 Folch to get a DirtySixer bike of his own, outfitted with 36-inch wheels for a frame that, as Folch described it, comes with “everything oversized and everything proportionate” for N.B.A.-sized cycling enthusiasts. Gobert was quickly hooked and would soon have his own custom bike to join Eaton for occasional rides. He later ordered 15 bikes from Folch as presents for his Jazz teammates.I recently wrote about Gobert’s trying year in the spotlight after he was the first N.B.A. player known to test positive for the coronavirus. The piece included a passage about how Eaton had become a mentor to Gobert. Eaton shared the story of their first 7-footers-only bike ride and a subsequent tour of Eaton’s Park City, Utah, home, where Gobert spotted Eaton’s Defensive Player of the Year Award trophies from 1984-85 and 1988-89. Gobert vowed that day to win one, too.“Now he has two of his own,” Eaton said in our March conversation.Gobert is widely expected to soon be named the winner of the award for the third time, but Eaton sadly won’t be here to see it. Last Friday, on his second bike ride of the day, Eaton was found lying unconscious on a roadway after a suspected crash near his home in Summit County, Utah. Eaton was taken to a hospital, where he died that night. The state’s medical examiner’s office has yet to announce an official cause of death.Eaton became a mentor to Rudy Gobert, and inspired Gobert to try to win the Defensive Player of the Year Award, a trophy Eaton won twice in his career.Getty ImagesSorrow spread quickly around the league on Saturday because Eaton, just 64, was a beloved figure in N.B.A. circles, as much for the way he campaigned for retired players as for his own unlikely rise from the community college ranks to an 11-year career with the Jazz that peaked with one All-Star selection (1988-89). It was also the latest in a string of devastating bike accidents involving N.B.A. figures, adding to the anguish felt last October, when the longtime Houston Rockets scout BJ Johnson was killed on a ride in Houston. In March, Shawn Bradley, the 12-year veteran center, announced through the Dallas Mavericks that he had been paralyzed in January after a vehicle struck him during a ride in St. George, Utah.Gobert dedicated the Jazz’s Game 3 victory in Memphis on Saturday night to Eaton. The 7-foot-4 Eaton often told the story of his struggles at U.C.L.A., where he barely played in two seasons, until the iconic Wilt Chamberlain watched him in a few practices and told him to focus on dominating around the rim instead of trying to match the mobility of faster opponents. Eaton repeatedly passed the same message on to the 7-foot-1 Gobert, who, like Eaton, was not an instant force in the N.B.A., after Denver selected him with the 27th overall pick in the 2013 draft on Utah’s behalf.“I feel his presence,” Gobert said after the Game 3 win, adding that he could imagine receiving his customary postgame text message from Eaton that read, “Way to protect the paint, big guy.”My personal memories of Eaton are equally fond. As a basketball-loving resident of Orange County, Calif., it was impossible for me not to be schooled on the Eaton fairy tale — how he had been spotted by a coach from Cypress (Calif.) Community College while working as a mechanic and had been talked into joining the team, at age 20, after he had given up the sport. Eaton was earning an annual salary of $20,000 at Mark C. Bloome Tires, but he showed enough promise at Cypress to be drafted by the Phoenix Suns with the 107th overall pick in the fifth round of the 1979 draft, before deciding it would be wiser to transfer to U.C.L.A. rather than trying to go directly to the pros.The Jazz selected Eaton in the fourth round of the 1982 draft at No. 72 overall after his virtually nonexistent Bruins career. In his third N.B.A. season, he blocked 5.6 shots per game to set a single-season league record that still stands. His last season as an active player with the Jazz (1992-93) narrowly preceded my first season as an N.B.A. beat writer (1993-94), but Eaton also holds a distinction found in only one record book — mine. He was the first N.B.A. player I ever interviewed.Rudy Gobert, left, David Folch, center, and Mark Eaton, right, in November 2017.Courtesy of DirtySixer BikesDuring the summer of 1989, as a part-time correspondent for The Orange County Register while attending Cal State Fullerton, I was dispatched to cover the N.B.A.’s annual summer league at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. I had spent months pestering an assigning editor, Robin Romano, who graciously put up with my badgering. Summer league in those days was nothing at all like the monster enterprise we see now, with big crowds in Las Vegas and cameras everywhere. Established N.B.A. writers rarely covered it — especially those based in Southern California accustomed to long playoff runs reporting on the Showtime Lakers.Romano fought for me to get the assignment, partly because I had besieged her with reminders that, thanks to my overseas ties and full-fledged N.B.A. nerdity, I was already well acquainted with the Lakers’ little-known first-round draft pick from Europe: Vlade Divac. Yet it was Eaton I encountered first in the L.M.U. hallway as I entered the gym, and I approached him, terrified, for an interview — and without any good questions or even a story angle.Eaton had just made his lone All-Star appearance five months earlier and, if I remember right, was not even playing that day as one of the veterans known, in that anything-goes era, to drop in unannounced to get some run. As a 20-year-old neophyte, I just figured I better interview an N.B.A. All-Star because I saw one. To my relief, Eaton couldn’t have been nicer about my lack of preparation or know-how as I held my tape recorder as high as my meager, trembling wingspan could manage.He got me through it. I recounted the tale for him more than once in recent years and, when we last spoke nearly three months ago for the Gobert piece, Eaton made sure to remind me: “I love your story about Loyola.”Video of that interaction, had it existed, wouldn’t be nearly as compelling as the footage of Eaton pedaling in the halls of a Vegas hotel, or the great clip that has been circulating of Eaton smothering a drive to the basket by the former N.B.A. player Rex Chapman with his right palm without jumping. Yet Eaton’s compliment, coming from the gentle giant who had one of the best back stories in N.B.A. history, is one I plan to hang on to.The Scoop @TheSteinLineCorner ThreeLarry Nance Jr. had a little support from his father, the three-time N.B.A. All-Star Larry Nance Sr., during the 2018 slam dunk contest.Bob Donnan/USA Today Sports, via ReutersYou ask; I answer. Every week in this space, I’ll field three questions posed via email at marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com. (Please include your first and last name, as well as the city you’re writing in from, and make sure “Corner Three” is in the subject line.)Questions may be condensed and lightly edited for clarity.Q: The 1996-97 Charlotte Hornets had Glen Rice and Dell Curry on the roster. Their kids, Glen Rice Jr., and Stephen and Seth Curry, all reached the N.B.A. so those Hornets had two dads of future N.B.A. players. Has an N.B.A. roster ever had more than two? — Steven Friedlander (Knoxville, Tenn.)Stein: A comprehensive breakdown of N.B.A. rosters with the most N.B.A. dads was not readily available, but some consultation with the Elias Sports Bureau found multiple teams in the 1990s that had at least three players whose sons made it to the N.B.A., too.Golden State in 1991-92: Tim Hardaway (Tim Hardaway Jr.), Rod Higgins (Cory Higgins) and Jaren Jackson (Jaren Jackson Jr.)Cleveland in 1993-94: Higgins, Larry Nance (Larry Nance Jr.) and Gerald Wilkins (Damien Wilkins)Golden State in 1994-95: Manute Bol (Bol Bol), Hardaway and HigginsPortland in 1995-96: Harvey Grant (Jerami and Jerian Grant), Arvydas Sabonis (Domantas Sabonis) and Gary Trent (Gary Trent Jr.)Portland in 1997-98: Rick Brunson (Jalen Brunson), Sabonis and Trent.Another memorable example: As my pal Mike Lynch from Stathead noted, Henry Bibby (Mike Bibby), Joe Bryant (Kobe Bryant), Mike Dunleavy (Mike Dunleavy Jr.) and Harvey Catchings (whose daughter Tamika Catchings starred in the W.N.B.A. and was just inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame’s 2020 class alongside Kobe Bryant) all played for Philadelphia in 1976-77.Q: Have my Hornets finally turned a corner? Can LaMelo Ball’s exciting style help us attract free agents? Will Michael Jordan be willing to break the bank again on a proven player after the signing of Gordon Hayward? — Glenn Gibson (Mount Holly, N.C.)Stein: Ball’s presence could help some, but it’s a stretch to describe Charlotte as any sort of emerging free-agent destination or to suggest that the Hornets’ standing in the league has changed after one season that ended with a blowout defeat in the play-in tournament.Mitch Kupchak, Charlotte’s president of basketball operations, said in an interview with me last week — and when he did a season-ending news conference with local reporters — that the Hornets were pleasantly surprised to win the Hayward sweepstakes in November. Kupchak was initially skeptical that Hayward would decline a player option with Boston for the 2020-21 season worth nearly $35 million to come to small-market Charlotte.Given that the Hornets committed to a four-year deal to Hayward worth $120 million, this isn’t the time to question Jordan’s willingness to spend. That deal was widely regarded as an overpayment given Hayward’s age (31) and injury history. Yet I hold firm on what was covered in last week’s newsletter about Jordan’s limited presence around the team.Understandable as it was for Jordan to be distant throughout a season played through the pandemic, I remain convinced that he needs to be more visible and involved to boost the Hornets, because his star power is such a difference maker.Q: Another collapse? From a franchise perspective, sure, but Luka Doncic and Kristaps Porzingis weren’t even teenagers when the 2006 finals happened, so I doubt they give it much thought. — @BrettChisum from TwitterStein: Fair point. Tuesday’s piece wasn’t intended to suggest that Doncic and Porzingis have been weighed down in their first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers by memories of what happened to the Dirk Nowitzki-led Mavericks in the 2006 N.B.A. finals against Miami.But I still think “another” applies, as I used in a tweet to promote the story, because (as you also noted) this is a franchise — and a fan base — that will never forget what happened in 2006. Dallas’s inability to win a single playoff series since the 2011 finals triumph over Miami that avenged the 2006 loss factors into that.Like it or not, if the Mavericks lose this series to the Clippers after taking a 2-0 lead on the road, it will dredge up talk of the worst collapses in league and, yes, franchise history.Numbers GameGiannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks got their playoff revenge on the Miami Heat this year.Sam Navarro/USA Today Sports, via Reuters37.3It’s hard to believe now, given the depths of his struggles against the Hawks, but Julius Randle averaged 37.3 points, 12.3 rebounds and 6.7 assists in three regular-season games against Atlanta. Although Randle had his best game of the series in the Knicks’ Game 4 defeat (23 points, 10 rebounds and 7 assists), his 7-for-19 shooting performance inspired derisive chants of “Play-off Randle” and “over-rated” from Atlanta’s fans. Randle, who last week won the N.B.A.’s Most Improved Player Award, has missed 53 of 73 shots from the field in the series. The Hawks had the league’s 18th-ranked defense during the regular season.16.1Milwaukee’s overtime victory against Miami in Game 1 of their first-round series did not exactly suggest that the Bucks were poised to sweep the Heat. The Bucks pulled out a victory in the series opener despite shooting a dreadful 5 for 31 on 3-pointers (16.1 percent). The Heat shot 20 for 50 from long range in the 109-107 defeat and were never again close in the series, absorbing three further defeats by an average of 26.7 points per game in a stunning reversal from the teams’ second-round matchup in last season’s bubble playoffs at Walt Disney World.49Jayson Tatum’s 50 points last Friday in Boston’s Game 3 win over the Nets marked the fourth time in 49 days that Tatum had scored at least 50 points. He also scored 53 points in an overtime victory against Minnesota on April 9; 60 points in an overtime victory against San Antonio on April 30; and 50 points on May 18 in a victory over Washington in an Eastern Conference play-in game. Only five other players in Celtics history have scored 50 points or more in a playoff game, and none of them were named Larry Bird or Bill Russell, according to Stathead: John Havlicek (54 in 1973), Isaiah Thomas (53 in 2017), Ray Allen (51 in 2009), Sam Jones (51 in 1967) and Bob Cousy (50 in 1953).37Portland’s Carmelo Anthony, who ranks 10th on the N.B.A.’s career scoring list with 27,370 regular-season points, turned 37 on Saturday. The only player older than Anthony to see game action in these playoffs was Miami’s Andre Iguodala, according to Stathead, who turned 37 in January.14Despite losing Denver’s Jamal Murray and Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to injury, Canada Basketball named 14 N.B.A. players to its 21-player roster for its Olympic qualifying bid. That means Canada Coach Nick Nurse, of the Toronto Raptors, has more N.B.A. players than roster spots (12) at his disposal, which is a first for any nation apart from the United States since professionals were granted permission to participate in Olympic basketball in Barcelona in 1992. Canada must win a six-nation Olympic qualifying tournament in Victoria, British Columbia, from June 29 to July 4 to join the United States in the 12-team men’s basketball Olympic field in Tokyo.Hit me up anytime on Twitter (@TheSteinLine) or Facebook (@MarcSteinNBA) or Instagram (@thesteinline). Send any other feedback to marcstein-newsletter@nytimes.com. More

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      Britt Reid Charged With Felony D.W.I.

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      Reid, a former assistant coach for the Kansas City Chiefs and the son of the team’s head coach, crashed into two cars in February, leaving a child seriously injured.Britt Reid, the former outside linebackers coach of the Kansas City Chiefs and the son of the head coach Andy Reid, was charged Monday with one count of driving while intoxicated when he crashed into two cars, leaving a child seriously injured. The collision occurred just days before the Chiefs played in the Super Bowl in February.If Reid, 35, is convicted of the charge, a felony, he faces up to seven years in prison. The legal action could also increase scrutiny on the Chiefs’ workplace. Reid crashed about a mile from the team’s complex at Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City, Mo., and according to the charging document, Reid told police officers responding to the collision that he had just left work before it happened.On Feb. 4 at about 9 p.m., Reid crashed his truck into two cars that were pulled over on a highway entrance ramp. One of the vehicles had stalled, and the driver called a cousin for help.Shortly before the crash Reid was driving 83.9 miles per hours in a 65 m.p.h. zone, according to the charging document. Because the shoulder of the entrance ramp was narrow, the vehicles were sticking a foot or two out into the roadway. Reid told officers that he had been glancing over his shoulder preparing to merge before he struck the cars, and that he had not seen the first vehicle because its lights were off.The driver of the first car told the police that he had activated his hazard lights, but that they might have gone dead because the car’s battery was weak.Officers responding to the crash wrote in a statement that Reid smelled of alcohol and that his eyes were bloodshot. His blood alcohol concentration two hours after the crash was .113, the statement said. The legal limit to operate a motor vehicle in Missouri is .08.The effects of the crash were catastrophic. A 5-year-old girl in the second car that was struck sustained a severe traumatic brain injury, brain contusions and subdural hematomas, among other injuries. According to a crowd fund-raising campaign started for the girl, she remained in the hospital at least seven weeks after the crash. An adult who was in the same car had a concussion and facial lacerations.Reid was also severely injured. He sustained a “blunt force trauma injury to his groin” that required emergency surgery, according to the charging document.Jean Peters Baker, the prosecutor in Jackson County, Mo., said in an interview that felony driving while intoxicated was the highest charge Reid could be given. Missouri revised its criminal code in 2017, simplifying D.W.I. laws, and Baker said that under the old code Reid probably would have received additional charges.Baker said she did not have direct evidence about whether or not Reid was drinking at the Chiefs offices, but she said the authorities do have evidence from when he left Arrowhead Stadium.“Mr. Reid voluntarily appeared before the court for his initial appearance and was released on conditions of bond,” Reid’s lawyer, J.R. Hobbs, said in a statement. “A status conference will be set in the future, as is customary. There will be no further comment at this time.”A spokesman for N.F.L. did not respond to a request for comment.In a statement, a spokesman for the Kansas City Chiefs said the organization “remains steadfast in our concern for all who have been impacted by this tragic accident.” The statement added that the Chiefs were “regularly” in contact with the representative of the family of the girl who was injured.The crash occurred on the Thursday night before Super Bowl LV, which the Chiefs lost to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Chiefs flew from Kansas City to Tampa, Fla., that Saturday, but Britt Reid did not join the team. The team put him on administrative leave, and shortly after the Super Bowl his contract with the Chiefs expired and was not renewed.Britt Reid was a Chiefs coach for eight years, starting when his father became the team’s head coach. He was also a graduate assistant coach with Temple University, and an intern with the Philadelphia Eagles while his father was the coach there.He has faced legal charges a number of times previously. In 2007, when he was 22, Reid pleaded guilty to gun and drug charges after he brandished a handgun at another driver in suburban Philadelphia. While out on bail before the case was decided, he was arrested after driving into a shopping cart in a parking lot and eventually pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and drug possession in that case. More

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      Why Didn't Tiger Woods Get a Speeding Ticket?

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      Woods’s crash raised questions about how law enforcement officers treated his case.To anybody who has ever received a speeding ticket, the resolution of the investigation into Tiger Woods’s car crash in February might seem odd.Despite the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s determination that Woods drove well above 80 miles per hour in a 45 m.p.h. zone, he was not given a ticket or charged with reckless driving. Law enforcement officers did not conduct field sobriety tests or obtain a search warrant for a blood test or toxicology report.This week, at a news conference to announce the results of his department’s investigation, Sheriff Alex Villanueva said his officers had conducted a thorough investigation and treated the famous golfer as they would anyone else.“Now, I know there is some saying that somehow he received special or preferential treatment of some kind,” Villanueva said. “That is absolutely false.”Some criminal defense lawyers in the Los Angeles area who regularly represent clients accused of reckless driving or driving under the influence questioned whether the Sheriff’s Department pursued its case against Woods as aggressively as it had pursued cases against others.“I know how law enforcement works there, and this one is curious,” said Stephen Sitkoff, a criminal defense lawyer who spent a decade working in the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office.There are three key portions of the investigation to consider:Why didn’t Woods get a speeding ticket?Tiger Woods was driving at least 40 m.p.h. above the posted speed limit when he lost control. But nobody actually saw him driving that fast — a major detail under California law. His approximate speed of about 84 to 87 m.p.h. at the start of the crash was recorded by the vehicle’s event data recorder, known colloquially as the black box.California’s vehicle code places a strong emphasis on needing a witness to ticket somebody for speeding.“In order to issue a citation, you have something to indicate — an independent witness or an observation by a peace officer,” said James Powers, the captain of the Lomita Sheriff’s Station, which handled the investigation of Woods’s crash.Had Woods been issued a citation based on the readings from the data recorder, Powers said and experts agreed, there was a good chance a judge would have thrown the case out.“We have gotten accustomed to this very false presumption, which is a computer said so, so it must be true,” said Anthony Falangetti, a criminal defense lawyer in Long Beach.Falangetti reeled off a list of ways the data recorder could be challenged if used by itself as evidence: The data recorder could have been programmed improperly, its estimates could be inaccurate and the speedometer in the car could be calibrated incorrectly.“There are all sorts of reasons why that circumstantial evidence isn’t taken for granted by the sheriff’s department,” he said.Woods during the Masters tournament in November 2020.Doug Mills/The New York TimesWhy wasn’t Woods charged with reckless driving?Section 23103 of the California Vehicle Code states that somebody is guilty of reckless driving if they drive with “willful or wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property.”Driving 40 m.p.h. over the speed limit on a winding, downhill road arguably meets the criteria for reckless driving. In a weird quirk of the law, it might actually have been easier to charge Woods with reckless driving, a misdemeanor crime that holds the possibility of jail time, than to give him a speeding ticket, because the California vehicle code does not require witnesses to charge someone with reckless driving.Captain Powers, however, said there was no evidence of reckless driving. “For reckless driving, you have to have multiple violations in conjunction with one another — like multiple unsafe lane changes, passing vehicles in an unsafe manner, kind of like road race stuff — and that did not exist here,” he said. “Therefore, reckless driving is not appropriate.”But a number of lawyers who have defended clients charged with reckless driving disagree.“The D.A. could easily get a conviction for reckless driving based on the black box alone,” said Hart Levin, a Los Angeles lawyer who specializes in D.U.I. defense. “And even if the black box were somehow not deemed reliable, the accident reconstruction would show the car going in excess of 70 m.p.h. when it hit the tree.”Patrick Carey, a criminal defense lawyer and former deputy district attorney, also wonders why Woods was not charged. “I personally have handled cases with much less egregious facts where my clients have been charged in court with misdemeanors,” he wrote in an email.But while it’s possible Woods could have been charged, Carey said he did not think that a less famous person would necessarily be charged under the same circumstances.That highlights a fundamental but easily overlooked part of the justice system: Thousands of single-vehicle crashes occur every day and law enforcement authorities have wide latitude in how hard they decide to pursue cases.Woods was treated at Harbor-U.C.L.A. Medical Center after his crash.Allison Zaucha for The New York TimesWhy wasn’t Woods checked more thoroughly in regard to driving under the influence?The Sheriff’s Department did not obtain a warrant to draw blood from Woods to test whether or not he was under the influence of drugs or alcohol when he crashed.“Without the signs of impairment, we don’t get to the point where we can actually author a search warrant and develop the probable cause to get that, and execute that search warrant — so that did not happen,” Captain Powers said.Several pages of the 22-page official crash report are dedicated to laying out the steps sheriff’s deputies took to investigate whether Woods was impaired:Field sobriety tests could not be performed because of Woods’s injuries.The first deputy on the scene did not smell alcohol, and there were no open containers or prescription medications in the car.While being extracted from his car, Woods responded to questions without delay, his speech was not slurred and his eyes were not bloodshot or watery.The firefighters who treated Woods at the scene said his pupils did not show signs of “narcotic analgesic influence.”Video obtained from Woods’s hotel on the morning of the crash did not show him swaying or staggering, and he drove away from the hotel safely.The hotel’s valet and valet service manager did not notice anything unsafe or unusual.Woods was interviewed at the hospital and there were no signs of impairment.Someone who was with Woods throughout his time in Los Angeles, including the morning of the accident, said they did not observe Woods drinking alcohol or taking any prescription medications. This person’s identity is redacted in the report.Four years ago, Woods pleaded guilty to reckless driving, after he was found asleep at the driver’s wheel on the side of the road. He blamed the episode on the interaction between prescription medications he was taking at the time.But just because Woods has previously driven while impaired by prescription medications does not mean the Sheriff’s Department could use that to obtain a warrant to test his blood.“‘He did it before, therefore he did it again’ is fundamentally not a constitutional basis for anything,” Falangetti said. “We are principally opposed to that kind of accusation in criminal law.”Still, the Sheriff’s Department could have pushed harder to test Woods’s blood, especially considering there was at least minor evidence of prescription pill use. According to the crash report, an “empty plastic pharmaceutical container” with no label was found in a backpack that was resting in the brush next to Woods’s vehicle.“If it was one of my clients, not anybody special, I think they would have been given a blood test,” Sitkoff said.Would pursuing the case have been worthwhile?Woods sustained severe injuries in the crash and ultimately, the Sheriff’s Department may simply believe it is not necessary to seek more punishment. When asked why Woods was not cited for speeding, Captain Powers said, “Part of it was because of the circumstances that he endured throughout the collision.”Woods did not hit another car, and nobody else was hurt. A speeding ticket would most likely have been thrown out, a reckless driving case may have been difficult to prove and there were no obvious signs that Woods was illegally impaired.Under the circumstances, Woods’s sustaining devastating leg injuries that hold the possibility of ending his golf career is perhaps a worse punishment than being charged with a misdemeanor.“I think that, based on the physical punishment he suffered, it is more of a case of ‘What’s the point in charging him?’” Carey said. More

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      Tiger Woods Was Driving About 40 MPH Past The Speed Limit When He Crashed

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      The stretch of road where Woods crashed in February is known for speeding and crashes.Tiger Woods was speeding when he crashed his sport-utility vehicle in February, reaching speeds of more than 80 m.p.h. in a 45 m.p.h. zone on winding road near Los Angeles, according to Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva.Villanueva said Woods was traveling between 84 and 87 miles per hour when he lost control, crossing over a median and hitting the curb on the opposite of the road. The vehicle struck a tree at an estimated 75 m.p.h. and was sent airborne, eventually stopping in some brush.“The primary causal factor for this traffic collision was driving at a speed unsafe for the road conditions and the inability to negotiate the curve of the roadway,” said Villanueva.Woods was not cited for driving too fast and no criminal charges will be filed, Villanueva said. He added that there were no signs of impairment or intoxication, and that Woods was wearing his seatbelt.The captain of the Lomita Sheriff’s Station, James Powers, said that data was obtained from the vehicle’s event data recorder, known colloquially as the black box. The data showed that Woods had hit the accelerator throughout the crash, and that the pressure applied to the pedal was 99 percent. Powers said he believed that Woods inadvertently hit the accelerator while trying to brake.Woods has no recollection of the collision, and there were no witnesses to the crash.Woods was not cited, Villanueva said, because under California law that typically requires either an independent witness or a law enforcement officer to witness the excessive speed. He said that Woods did not receive any special treatment, and nobody would be cited for speeding in a solo vehicle collision without any witnesses.Woods had to be extracted from his S.U.V. after the crash on the morning of Feb. 23 and taken to the hospital, where he underwent several surgeries on his right leg. Doctors not involved in Woods’s care have predicted an extremely difficult recovery from his injuries.During a news conference, Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva showed a depiction of the path of the crash.via Los Angeles County Sheriffs DepartmentWoods crashed his car on a windy and tricky stretch of Hawthorne Boulevard that is known for car crashes near Rancho Palos Verdes, a coastal city in Los Angeles County. According to data collected by the sheriff’s department, there were 13 crashes, four with injuries, from Jan. 3, 2020, to Feb. 23 of this year within a 1.35-mile stretch of Hawthorne Boulevard that includes the site where Woods crashed.That stretch of road is also known for speeding. Deputy Carlos Gonzalez, the first emergency responder to arrive at the scene, said at a news conference in February that he had sometimes seen vehicles going more than 80 miles per hour on Hawthorne Boulevard.According to a diagram of the collision shown by the sheriffs department, there were four areas of impact. The first two were the sides of the median, the third was the curb and the fourth was the tree. Woods’s vehicle rolled several times before coming to a stop. After he hit the tree, his S.U.V. went “airborne” where it did “somewhat of a pirouette,” according to Powers.Before the crash, Woods had hosted a golf tournament in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles.Ryan Kang/Associated PressWoods was quickly taken to Harbor-U.C.L.A. Medical Center, where he underwent emergency surgery, and then was transferred to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center for follow-up procedures. He spent several days in the hospital receiving treatment, though there is still some confusion about the exact nature of his injuries.Dr. Anish Mahajan, the acting chief executive of Harbor-U.C.L.A., said in a statement the night after the crash that both bones in Woods’s lower right leg, the tibia and the fibula, had been broken in multiple places and were “open fractures,” meaning the bones had pierced his skin.The statement did not describe any injuries to Woods’s left leg, though Daryl L. Osby, the Los Angeles County fire chief, had said earlier that Woods had “serious injuries” to both legs.Woods underwent back surgery, his fifth, in Dec. 2020, just the latest injury to slow his golf career. He has won just one major golf championship since 2008.February’s crash is not the first time Woods’s life, and career, has been derailed by a car crash. In 2009 he crashed his S.U.V. into a fire hydrant outside his Florida home in the middle of the night. He was knocked unconscious and was taken to a hospital in an ambulance, where he was treated for minor facial injuries.But the incident is remembered mostly for what happened next and the fallout for his career. There were numerous reports of Woods’s infidelities and an apology in which he admitted cheating on his wife. He lost numerous sponsors and stepped away from golf for months. Woods and Elin Nordegren eventually divorced.Woods was also arrested in 2017 in Florida, after police found him asleep in his car on the side of a road at 3 a.m. with the engine running. Woods blamed the incident on the interaction of several prescription medicines, including Vicodin, and did not have any alcohol in his system. He eventually entered a diversion program for first-time D.U.I. offenders, and pleaded guilty to reckless driving.Captain Powers said there was no odor of alcohol, open containers or any narcotics in the vehicle or on Woods after the February crash. Woods told law enforcement investigators that he had not been drinking and had not taken any prescription pills. Investigators did not obtain or test Woods’s blood.Woods, who lives in Florida, was in Southern California to host the Genesis Invitational at the Riviera Country Club in the Pacific Palisades section of Los Angeles the weekend before the crash. Genesis Motor is a luxury vehicle division of Hyundai. Woods was driving a 2021 Genesis GV80 S.U.V., which was provided to him during the tournament; he is known for always driving himself in a courtesy car at tournaments.Sheriff Villanueva said at a news conference last week that the cause of the crash had been determined, but citing California privacy laws, said it could not be released without Woods’s consent. Woods eventually waived his right to privacy and authorized the release of the report. More