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High Point Climbing and Fitness Birmingham will hold a ribbon cutting and open house on January 18. Half-price day passes and an opportunity to win a free one-year membership will be available. High Point Birmingham has 25,000-square-feet of indoor climbing and includes zones for kids, bouldering, weights, aerobics and yoga. When: 1 p.m., open house, 2 p.m. ribbon cutting, Wednesday, January 18 Where: High Point Climbing and Fitness Birmingham, 4766 Highway 280, Birmingham, AL 35242  Picture via http://highpointclimbing.com/birmingham/  Pure Fitness is holding an open house in the Parks South Plaza on Montgomery Highway in Vestavia Hills on January 3rd beginning at 5:45 p.m. During the open house, registrants can sample several classes for free including: plyoga, bootcamp, step, dance and yoga. There will also be food provided.
To save your spot, RSVP to purefitness01@gmail.com. Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton recently spoke out in a press conference about dangerous hits in the NFL being overlooked by referees. Newton stated, "I no longer feel safe." He also alluded to the fact that he'd be speaking to the NFL's commissioner about his safety concerns. Now, the sports world is engaged in a national debate about Newton's motives. Some sport commentators on ESPN stated that maybe Newton was just bringing these concerns up now to make excuses for bad play. The Panthers were on the top of the world just last season and now hold a 2-5 record. However, some maintain that Newton has serious points that should be dissected. Newton did just receive a concussion from an extreme hit about two weeks ago. Oftentimes, referees are not catching these hits or helping prevent the roughing of quarterbacks it seems. Check out one NFL sports commentator's views on the subject below.  NBA star Ray Allen announced today that he is retiring from basketball after being a 3-point dagger in the game for 18 years. The 41-year old announced his retirement through a letter to the Players Tribune.
Allen has not technically been on a NBA roster in two years since he was playing with the Miami Heat. His most notable performances came with the Boston Celtics during a time when Rajon Rondo, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett were unstoppable with Doc Rivers as their coach. He won a championship with the Celtics in 2008 and another with the Miami Heat in 2013. Allen stated in the letter that he has no regrets. He wrote, “I am completely at peace with myself.”   Have you ever heard of the Skirvin Hilton Hotel in Oklahoma City? Apparently, there are tales of ghosts and ghouls coming from their resting places into the rooms of guests. If you don’t believe in those types of wives’ tales, then you better hear NBA title winner Metta World Peace explain his personal account at the hotel when the Lakers took on the Oklahoma City Thunder this past week. Metta World Peace, formerly Ron Artest, told a reporter at the Orange County Register an interesting story about ghosts “touching him.” Artest told the reporter: "The ghosts were all over me. I just accepted it. They touched me all over the place. I'm taking one of the ghosts to court for touching me in the wrong places." Apparently, Artest was not the only Laker shaken by ghost tales. Reportedly, Lou Williams and Larry Nance Jr. paid to stay at another hotel to avoid the ghouls. Happy Halloween to the Lakers.  ESPN just released an article that suggests the NFL’s tanking ratings can be attributed to Colin Kaepernick’s protest of the national anthem.
A Seton Hall Sports poll asked NFL viewers why they thought ratings were down 11 percent from last year around this time. Most concluded that it was because of Kaepernick’s protest. While we do recall seeing a few people on Twitter mentioning boycotting football games because the “NFL was not disciplining players for not observing the flag,” one poll cannot prove that is the cause. Roger Goodell, the commissioner of the NFL, disagrees with the findings. He stated that multiple factors could be contributing to the decline including “the presidential election, over-saturation of games, the focus on postseason baseball and head injuries that have resulted in the decline of play.” The poll supposedly acquired their results from a sample of 841 adults in the U.S.  For the first time in years, the Los Angeles Lakers have a better record than the Golden State Warriors. However short-lived this fact may be, many Lakers fans are relishing in the moment. The Lakers looked like the skilled, youthful team many have been longing for last night against the Houston Rockets. The competition was fierce and heated right up until the last few minutes of the fourth quarter. In the first quarter, the two teams were neck and neck, each ending the quarter with 38-points. In the second quarter, the Lakers were actually outscored by 8-points, but roared back in the third and fourth quarters for a total score of 120 to the Rockets’ 114. What contributed to the Lakers’ success against James Harden and the Rockets? Jordan Clarkson contributed 25-points and D’Angelo Russell added 20 for the Lakers. Julius Randle produced seven rebounds and six assists to help the team to victory. This was ex-Laker Luke Walton’s debut as coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. The Lakers may be coming off the worst season in the team’s history, but this game shined a hopeful light for the future.  Golden State was served a rude awakening last night with their 29-point loss to the Spurs. The Warriors were out scored in every quarter of the game, despite newbie Kevin Durant adding 27-points.
The real showstopper was the Spur's Kawhi Leonard, putting up 35-points on the Warriors in their own Oakland arena. The Spurs dominated the entire game, ending with a 129-100 win over Golden State. In a post-game press conference, former MVP Stephen Curry called the loss, "a slap in the face." Curry went on to say, "We didn't have many answers to start the game and every run we made, they answered for whatever reason. We do have a lot of work to do, but I think we're still in a pretty good spot." The official start to the NBA season begins tonight with some star-studded games. The Knicks will be facing off against the Cleveland Cavaliers at 6:30 p.m. on TNT, followed by the Spurs battling the Golden State Warriors at 9:30 p.m. on the same network. Who are you most excited to see? Take our poll!  Since Auburn has been eradicating SEC teams at every turn lately, it’s no surprise they made the largest jump of any other team on the Associated Press NCAA poll this week. The Tigers jumped up five slots to being ranked No. 15 in week 9 after the team demolished every play thrown at them by Arkansas last Saturday, beating them 56-3.
The Tigers exuded fire and confidence from the start, scoring their first touchdown with Eli Stove’s 78-yard run. Auburn kept hammering the Razorbacks with a second touchdown deriving from a 9-yard run that Kamryn Pettway produced. By the end of the first quarter, Auburn was up 21-0. The second half of play didn’t offer much reprieve for Arkansas. They managed to sink in close enough to kick a 54-yard field goal. However, Auburn’s defense never enabled the Fayetteville team to gain footing or any additional points after that drive in the second quarter. 87,451 people attended the game at Jordan-Hare Stadium that may just have sunk a hole in the coffin of Alabama’s visions of grandeur. Many believe that the Iron Bowl will not be an easy win this year for the Tide.  Not everyone is on board with a remake of the 1996 classic, “Space Jam”. Reportedly, LeBron James will reprise the role that we all knew and loved of Michael Jordan in the sequel, which does not have a current release date.
Patrick Patterson of the Tonto Raptors believes the remake is simply a money grab that is set to make a mockery of the original film. We’re not sure we’re too far behind his thoughts. Patterson wrote an open letter to Players' Tribune, where he stated, “To make a sequel to Space Jam would be like trying to paint the Mona Lisa again. Sure, you can probably do it, but why would you want to? Some things are bigger than money, though. Some things are sacred. I think the rich legacy of Space Jam is one of those things. What a tragedy it would be if even one kid was deterred from watching the original Space Jam because Space Jam 2 was just horrible. We simply can't let that happen. We were welcomed to the Space Jam once. Why can't that be enough?” Honestly, we’re not all that excited about a Space Jam reboot either, especially throwing athletes into acting roles that they are not privy to. One example would be Ray Allen in the film, “He Got Game.” The acting wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t beneficial either. According to ESPN, Alcorn State is facing heavy repercussions for ineligible players taking part in sporting events. The NCAA statement said, “Alcorn State failed to monitor its progress-toward-degree certification process when it improperly certified 28 student-athletes.” This impacts various teams at Alcorn State including football, baseball, men’s football, women’s tennis, tracks and field and soccer. The school has also been placed on a probationary period until 2018 and each team impacted must vacate wins from the 2012 and 2013 season when the ineligible players participated.  |
