Results tagged “finalfour”

Magic Johnson is sure to be in the spotlight this weekend, with his alma mater Michigan State's place in the Final Four falling on the 30th anniversary of his legendary National Championship with the Spartans. So some Brooklyn union workers are using the extra attention to point out some of the basketball star-turned-entrepreneur's shady business practices. At a rally this week, City Councilwoman Letitia James said, "Magic Johnson should be ashamed of himself. here is nothing magic about what he does. What he does is prey upon poor people." Magic and his business partners have not unionized One Hanson Place, despite 90% of other luxury buildings hiring union workers. Johnson is also a spokesman for Jackson Hewitt and Rent-A-Center, both of which have been accused of predatory business practices. One local union rep said, "It's a disgrace to see Johnson actively promoting businesses that we believe hurt low-income communities."

Did you excel at yo-yo and rock, scissor, paper as a kid? Well, this past weekend was the 1st ever New York State Yo-Yo Contest at the South Street Seaport. From what we hear, excelling in yo-yo is the way to get all the ladies (they dig the finger dexterity and creativity with the yo-yo). It's not just the kids that are throwing the yo-yo around either. Downtown Express tells us that Riad Nasr, the executive chef at Balthazar is also a yo-yo fanatic. "I have a yo-yo in my pocket on the line. In between pick-ups, I’ll throw a trick or two." Watch out for that DOH inspection, Riad.

Local teams may have been shut out of the NCAA tournament's Final Four, but New York is not without representation in Atlanta. Florida phenom Joakim Noah calls NYC home, as does Georgetown's Jesse Sapp. Neither played high school basketball in New York: Noah played for The Lawrenceville School in New Jersey and Sapp attended National Christian Academy in Maryland. Ohio State and UCLA are sadly New York City-free teams.

Yes, it appeared that Dwight Howard committed a goaltending violation on Stephon Marbury’s subsequent drive, but Nelson came down and hit another 3, part of the 10-2 run the Magic used to seal the game.

Ahhhh! It's Olympus Fashion Week and today, the designers from Project Runway showed their collections! Now, as we all know, all four designers from the Final Four - Jeffrey, Laura, Michael and Uli - get to present at Fashion Week, but one of the shows is a decoy, in order for people not to know who the true Final Three are. (Last year, Kara Janx presented at Fashion Week, though Daniel V., Chloe and Santino were the only ones really competing.)

Gothamist knew this Final Four had the potential to be a dud following the first two weeks leading up to the tournament. That said, we didn't think it would be this bad. Florida romped through UCLA 73-57 in Monday's championship game, giving the Gators their first national title and preventing the Bruins from collecting their twelfth. Florida played like a well-coached, athletic team that made a normally stingy UCLA team look lost on defense and out of rhythm on offense.

As most of the country fawns over George Mason's surprise advancement to the Final Four, four teams will fight it out for the National Invitational Tournament championship at Madison Square Garden this week. Pundits joke the winner represents the 66th best team in the country, but Gothamist has found it usually represents the best power conference team to not make that other tournament, the NCAA Championship version.

It is an annual right of spring; “Selection Sunday” gives way to “Moaning Monday”, a chance for the teams who didn’t make the NCAA Tournament to complain. Florida State, Michigan, Cincinnati and Maryland are all grumbling today after not being invited to the big dance.

As conference play continues, St. John's Big East conference continues to make its claim to the title of best conference in the country. Given the talent of the teams at the top, the Red Storm have played well. Unfortuantely for Norm Roberts' squad, playing well was not enough for the second straight game. West Virginia held off St. John's Sunday days after the Red Storm hung with top-ranked Connecticut on the road Wednesday.

After stumbling through the non-conference season, St. John's finally picked up a victory it can be proud of when the Red Storm defeated Louisville at the Garden Tuesday night. Louisville may have been worn out from battling a tough Pitt team this past weekend, but St. John's still deserves plenty of credit for taking down the 17th-ranked team in the country. The Red Storm still figure to struggle in Big East play this year, but they didn't struggle Tuesday night.

Dan Shanoff, Sports Columnist