Canadian tennis star Genie Bouchard kept her side of a bet for a date after the Atlanta Falcons lost the Super Bowl to the New England Patriots.
Bouchard, who also appears in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, sat courtside at a Brooklyn Nets game Wednesday night with a University of Missouri student who won a bet with her on Twitter.
Bouchard tweeted during the Super Bowl that she knew the Falcons would win. John Goehrke responded by writing, 'if patriots win we go on a date?" and she responded "Sure."
The Falcons then blew a 25-point lead as the Patriots rallied to win in overtime. Bouchard kept her word, meeting Goehrke in New York while in town for ceremonies for the swimsuit issue launch.
They sat together for the Nets' game against the Milwaukee Bucks, then came on the court and threw souvenir balls into the stands.
After the date, Bouchard told TMZ that she had planned the date, but that "for sure" she'd have a second date with Goehrke.
"He's normal," Bouchard said. "He's a normal man. ... It's complete luck. I'm so lucky."
Pretty good pitcher
Chicago Cubs third baseman Kris Bryant once pranked the Mesa (Ariz.) College baseball team, making them believe he was a transfer before revealing his identity.
As the old saying goes, what goes around comes around.
Bryant recently shot a commercial for the energy drink Red Bull, in which he takes batting practice. Before the shooting could finish, the batting practice pitcher is called away. The boom microphone operator -- aptly described as "a scraggly-lookin' dude who doesn't look particularly athletic" by Craig Calcaterra of NBC Sports -- volunteers to step in and pitch.
Bryant is dubious, but the microphone operator does a good job. He was even able to get in a couple of nasty curve balls and cut fastballs.
That's because the microphone operator was Hall of Famer Greg Maddux.
A video of the prank shows Maddux didn't have his 1995 form or anything, but Bryant had a harder time getting solid contact than he expected.
"Sound guy has a pretty good curve," the National League MVP said.
Pick and choose
In a recent interview with Bleacher Report, Kentucky Coach John Calipari said he has a theoretical formula to win an NBA championship over the likes of the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Golden State Warriors.
He said beating those teams would be simple -- put together a roster of the best former Kentucky players and let them go to work.
"Oh yeah," Calipari said when asked if a team of ex-Kentucky players would win the NBA championship. "But it could never happen. It would have to be hypothetical, because they'd all have to be ... max players, and you can't pay them that. Let's say this: If they were all max players and they were all making their money, oh, you could win a title. There'd by nothing except, 'Let me fit into this.' But you couldn't do it. You could have maybe two or three max players and the rest would have to take less."
So, given his hypothetical scenario, Calipari said he knows who his starters would be.
"Well, Anthony Davis. John Wall. Karl Towns. I'd probably play DeMarcus Cousins and let Anthony be a 3. And what would the last position be? Shooting guard? I'd probably say Devin Booker."
Sports on 02/17/2017