It’s well documented that Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid immensely wants to win his first NBA regular season MVP. The 7-foot highly skilled native of Cameroon, who topped the league in scoring this season with a per game average of 33.1 points per game, says any elite player who says it’s not a personal desire or goal is being disingenuous.
“One thing I’ll say is that if people tell you they don’t care about it, they’re lying,” Embiid said recently to journalist Rachel Nichols on the new Showtime series, “Headliners with Rachel Nichols.”
“That’s the best award you can get as a basketball player. It means a lot,” said the 29-year-old future Hall of Famer. “But if I were to win it, it would validate all the work that I put in, that’s why I cared about it, because you put in so much work and if you get that recognition, it just validates that you didn’t waste your time. But like I said, if someone tells you that they don’t care, that’s bulls–t.”
What Embiid has in common with the Denver Nuggets reigning back-to-back MVP, center Nikola Jokic, 28, is neither has won the league’s most coveted prize: an NBA championship. Jokic, the engine of the Nuggets, the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference, and the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo, are the other leading candidates for this season’s most valuable player. However, the latter’s resume is much more complete. All basically the same age, Antetokounmpo, 28, is a two-time league MVP (2019, 2020), and NBA champion, and a 2021 Finals MVP. The title and Finals award have already cemented his legacy as a winner.
Same for the Los Angeles Lakers’ Lebron James, a four-time champion, four-time Finals MVP, and four-time league MVP; Stephen Curry, a four-time title winner and last season’s Finals MVP; Kevin Durant, now with the Phoenix Suns, who took home the league MVP as a member of the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2014, and won two NBA championships and two Finals MVPs with the Warriors; and the Los Angeles Clippers Kawhi Leonard, who twice captured a Finals MVP—in 2014 with the San Antonio and in 2019 when he carried the Toronto Raptors.
Even with so much hardware, to whom much is given, much is expected, and each of the aforementioned greats will be under intense scrutiny to take their teams deep into what is a wide open postseason.
Workers went on strike at all three Rutgers University campuses on April 10th: faculty, grad workers, postdocs, and medical researchers are all part of the work stoppage.
Under the banner of #WeROnStrike, some 9,000 Rutgers staff members are petitioning at the schools’ New Brunswick, Newark, and Camden, New Jersey campuses for new labor agreements.
Members of the Rutgers AAUP-AFT, Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union, and the AAUP-BHSNJ say they have been working without a fair contract since June. They are demanding changes like improved job security, access to healthcare coverage for part-time lecturers (PTLs), a 14-week release time for new parents and a child-care subsidy of $5,000 per year, across-the-board salary increases for Camden and Newark campus Arts and Sciences faculty, and more programs to promote diversity and to support faculty working on issues faced by underrepresented students.
The Rutgers Adjunct Faculty Union claims in a fact sheet that its members “teach about a third of classes on each campus, including some of the largest core courses in the sciences, humanities, and professional schools” yet “are paid less than a living wage,” “often teach at multiple universities to make ends meet,” “have to be rehired every semester and often don’t know whether their classes will run” and “are not covered by Rutgers health care plans.”
Many of the unions’ proposals for contract changes have so far been rejected by university management. The Associated Press reported on Apr 10th that instead “the university has offered to increase salaries for full-time faculty members, teaching assistants and graduate assistants by 12% by 2025. The university offered an additional 3% lump-sum payment to all the faculty unions that would be paid over the first two years of the new contract.”
The strike at Rutgers, New Jersey’s flagship state university, is a first in the 257-year history of the school. The turmoil caused Gov. Phil Murphy and his administration to join the negotiations so that they could help mediate a resolution. Since Monday, union bargaining teams have been meeting with Rutgers management at the state capital, Trenton.
“We are encouraged by Gov. Murphy’s request and genuinely welcome his leadership,” University Pres. Jonathan Holloway noted in a letter to the school about the situation. “We are hopeful that we can quickly come to a resolution of the remaining outstanding issues.
“The governor also asked me personally to delay taking legal action asking the courts to order strikers back to work. I agreed to the governor’s important request while it appears that progress can be made.
“Obviously,” though Holloway warned, “if there is no movement towards an agreement, we will have no choice but to take legal action to assure the continued academic progress of our students and prevent irreparable harm.”
The Rutgers University webpage claims that, during the strike, the school remains open for business. The website’s top banner states that “The university is open and operating, and classes are proceeding on a normal schedule.”
Meanwhile striking union members are upset about the threats of a court injunction against them. “An open letter signed by more than 1,300 leading scholars and academic workers across the country points out just how disappointing such threats are from a labor and civil rights historian,” Rutgers AAUP-AFT said on April 11th. “Rather than threatening us, we urge President Holloway to demand movement from his negotiators, who have repeatedly said no to our core proposals.”
Holloway, who is Rutgers 21st president, assumed the post on July 1, 2020. According to a report in NJ.com, the new president was awarded a “$1.2 million … compensation package that includes a house, a car and other perks.”
Supporting protestors yelled,“Rutgers is for education, we are not a corporation.”
Union members voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Rutgers strike: 94% voted yes for the authorization. But while support for the strike might be real, that does not often mean that workers will show up and take shifts on a picket line. So, to give members other options rather than the standard one of marching back and forth with a picket sign, the unions have been engaging wide interest in their cause by featuring different events during their work stoppage. They have held creative writing and poetry readings, screen printing workshops, and exercise classes. They have hosted live DJ sets and musical performances and conducted drag queen-led marches to bring more interest––and bodies––to the frontlines for their strike effort.As of Amsterdam News press time there was no resolution. Revolting Rutger protestors determined, “RU listening? We are picketing.”
The Brooklyn Nets will face another difficult challenge as they have had to overcome obstacles all season when they play the Philadelphia 76ers in the opening round of their best-of-seven playoff series this Saturday at 1p.m. The Nets will be on the road as the No. 6 seed in the East for Games 1 and 2 to begin the postseason while the 76ers will have home court advantage at the Wells Fargo Arena as the No. 3 seed.
The complete Round 1 schedule detailing dates and times will be announced tomorrow. The Nets, which finished the regular season 45-37, and the Sixers, which was 54-28, met four times this season with the Sixers going 4-0. The Nets’ greatest concern is Sixers center Joel Embiid, who is a good bet to win his first career league MVP award. Embiid topped the NBA in scoring at 33.1 points, to go along with 10.2 rebounds and 4.2 assists. Team defense will be critical in slowing down the 7-foot Embiid, but Nets center Nic Claxton, who has had a strong season on the defensive end, will be the primary defender. The Nets and 76ers’ recent history includes the trade of James Harden for Ben Simmons last September in a deal that so far has been one-sided if it’s based on the production of the two players. The 33-year-old, 6-foot-5 Harden played in 58 games this season averaging 21 points, 6.1 rebounds, and a league-high 10.7 assists. Simmons, a, 26, a 6-foot-10 point-forward, appeared in just 42 games, the last on Feb. 15, due to knee and back issues. He ended his season averaging 6.9 points, 6.3 rebounds, and 6.1 assists.
“Ben will not be joining us the rest of the year and through the playoffs,” said Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn a little over two weeks ago in announcing Simmons was being shut down. “After consulting with our doctors, multiple specialists, he’s just going to begin a rehab program. Our doctors and the specialists feel and think that he’ll have a full recovery so that starts now.”
A trade that has worked out well for the Nets’ present and future was the acquisition of forward Mikal Bridges from the Phoenix Suns. The centerpiece of the deal was Kevin Durant, whose Suns are the No. 4 seed in the Western Conference and will meet the No. 5 seed Los Angeles Clippers in Round 1. Since coming to the Nets at the NBA trade deadline, Bridges has averaged 26.1 points for Brooklyn, roughly nine points above his pre-Nets average of 17.2.
The Philadelphia native is excited to get to play against the team he grew up loving. “I was a huge Sixers fan. I mean, everybody knows that,” said Bridges this week. “Just grew up in Philly and grew up going to all the games in the world.”
Experience Art Lovers’ and publishing collaboration. Our limited edition exclusive collaboration with our visual artist and Harlem World Magazine publisher Danny Tisdale and Harlem World Magazine is led by Atlanta-based art dealer and Harlem World Magazine contributor, Montanette Jones. The photographs were taken in 2003, in Harlem, NY, long before COVID, the images document Harlem’s…
A little over 10 games into the Major League Baseball season, the Yankees and the Mets have had mixed results. The Yankees began a three-game series on Monday versus the Cleveland Guardians with a 3–2 loss. They went into Tuesday night’s game with a record of 6–4 with ace Gerrit Cole on the mound. The 32-year-old righty has been characteristically stingy, boasting a 2–0 record and 0.73 ERA with 19 strikeouts in 12.1 innings pitched before facing the 7–4 Guardians, who were leading the American League Central division.
The Yankees, who have taken all three of their series before meeting the Guardians, winning two of the three against the San Francisco Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, and Baltimore Orioles, were in Baltimore this past weekend to play an ascending young team. The Orioles have not been to the postseason since 2016, but are on the rise with cornerstone players, led by center fielder Cedrick Mullins, catcher Adley Rutschman, and shortstop Gunner Henderson.
The Yankees lost the opening game by 7–6 but bounced back and won the next two, 4–1 on Saturday and 5–3 on Sunday. Giancarlo Stanton’s third home run of the season powered the Yankees in Game 2 and Aaron Judge’s two solo homers the following day—he had four going into Tuesday’s game—led the charge in the series finale.
On Monday night, the Yankees bats were stifled by Guardians starter Shane Bieber, who went seven innings and gave up just five hits and two earned runs. “I thought we swung the bats well against him. We just obviously couldn’t break through,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone.
After closing out their series in Cleveland last night (Wednesday), the Yankees will begin a 10-game homestand tonight in the Bronx hosting the Minnesota Twins for four games. The Los Angeles Angels will be at Yankee Stadium next Tuesday through Thursday and the Toronto Blue Jays April 21–23.
The Mets began a three-game series at Citi Field on Monday versus the ultra-talented San Diego Padres, which defeated them in a National League Wildcard matchup last season. The Mets’ No. 1 starter, Max Scherzer, took the mound against the Padres’ five-time MLB All-Star Yu Darvish, looking to redeem himself not only from last October’s playoff performance when he gave up seven earned runs in a 7–1 Game 1 loss to San Diego, but a 9–0 April 4 trouncing by the Milwaukee Brewers in which he was rocked for three homers in three straight at-bats and five earned runs.
Scherzer indeed resembled a three-time Cy Young Award winner on Monday by going five innings and holding the Padres to one hit and zero runs, striking out six in a 5–0 Mets victory. “Thought I was able to avoid the big hit and was able to sequence well enough, and I had all my off-speed pitches going,” said Scherzer.
The Mets were 6–5 before the final game of their series with the Padres yesterday afternoon and will now be in California for the next 10 days as they begin a 10-game road trip tomorrow against the Oakland A’s. Manager Buck Showalter’s crew will take on the Los Angeles Dodgers for three games next Monday through Wednesday and the Giants for four next Thursday through April 23.
Twin sisters, both high jumpers and competing on the same team, but also having a bit of school rivalry. Barnard College, the women’s undergraduate school of Columbia University, and Columbia College, the university’s coed undergraduate school, compete together under the Columbia-Barnard Athletic Consortium. This allows Anna Jordahl-Henry, a Barnard senior, and twin sister Julia, a Columbia senior, to root for each other while having a bit of competition.
“We always had this plan to go to college together, but at the same time, had very different boxes that we wanted a school to check off,” said Anna. “I wanted somewhat of a smaller, more intimate school, and Julia wanted a big college, but not too big. She really loved Columbia. When I came to visit, I liked the track coach, but I wasn’t in love with Columbia. It felt very big and kind of overwhelming. Then my coach said, ‘Let’s go check out Barnard,’ and I loved the atmosphere.”
Anna said it has given she and Julia a chance to be apart, but also together. Barnard is literally across Broadway from the Columbia campus. While each does her own thing, they’ve also been able to support each other as student-athletes.
“A lot of people ask, ‘How do you compete against each other?’ I think it really pushes both of us…,” said Anna. “We’re both trying to reach the school record. Having each other there motivates us to push each other to higher heights.”
Their father was a track athlete at Harvard, as well as doing the jumping events—high jump, long jump, and triple jump. His nickname was “Shoes” because he needed different shoes for every event. At an early age, he put the girls into a track and field program.
Their athletic prowess was obvious from the start. Julia picked up high jump first and Anna soon after. In high school, Anna was predominantly a sprinter, and still holds the 200-meter outdoor record for Massachusetts.
Barnard is the only women’s college that gives student-athletes the opportunity to compete at the Division I level. There is a relatively small number of student-athletes at Barnard, but that enables them to be a close-knit group.
“It’s definitely a community,” she said of Columbia’s track and field team. “If I didn’t have such a great relationship with my teammates and the Barnard women, it would be a lot harder to push through all the time and energy I put into track and field.”
On Wednesday, April 12, 2023, photojournalist Seitu Oronde was with Rev. Al Sharpton at National Action Network (NAN) Conference downtown at The Hilton Hotel, NY. At this NAN Conference, years were much like past years filled with leaders, legends trailblazers who come to discuss the challenges and accomplishments from the financial and investment seminar with Robert F. Smith to Brad…
Do you want to learn more about the various features, advantages, and disadvantages of blockchain nodes? Then you are at the right place! The GetBlock team gives readers a thorough understanding of what blockchain nodes are and how they operate. This guide also details some helpful tools and practices for deploying nodes, including Bitcoin API. But…
Plastic injection molding is one of the best production methods for its versatility. The reason for this is that it has many advantages over other traditional injection molding methods. This approach is simpler, more dependable, and more effective. The majority of manufacturers use it to make parts because of this. In this article, we will…
Dr. Leslie A. Hayes, deputy commissioner of the Division of Family and Child Health in the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, spoke with the Amsterdam News recently about her role, the Division of Family and Child Health, and health resources for children and families in NYC. This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
AmNews: Could you tell us a little about yourself?
Background: I am a Harlemite by birth, born and raised on 139th Street. I went to high school in the Bronx at the Academy of Mount Saint Ursula. After that, I did my undergraduate work at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, then came back to New York, to the medical school at what was called Mount Sinai at the time (and is) now the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
AmNews: Can you talk to us a bit about what got you interested in a medical career?
I witnessed first-hand how social determinants of health, health disparities, and inequities impacted families and communities. I was very fortunate to have a pediatrician and mentor by the name of Frederick Greene, who was considered a social activist back in the day and also provided quality, comprehensive healthcare to citizens of Harlem. He had his private practice on 116th Street. He went on to be appointed by the Johnson administration to the Office of Child Development at the Department of Health and Education and Welfare, and he really inspired me to want to be a pediatrician and to be a social activist in my community.
I’m very passionate about bringing positive change and improving healthcare outcomes and communities. You know, I’ve served for over 30 years as a clinician—someone on the first line, having an impact on the lives of children and their families—and I’ve done that primarily in Brooklyn.
AmNews: Could you talk about your work as a pediatrician and how it informs your current work?
I am an adolescent medicine specialist. I describe it as a pediatrician who has done more training and focuses primarily on providing healthcare to adolescents and young adults—adolescents and young adults between the ages of 11 and 21. The focus of adolescence medicine is ideally to provide support for young adolescents and young adults to be educated.
[I’ve also done] a lot of program implementation that relates to school health, empowering students in schools, as well as educating young adults and adolescents about sexual reproductive health and education with counseling and parenting in those areas.
My position currently is as deputy commissioner of the Division of Family Child Health in the New York City Department of Health. Basically in that position, I’m part of a team of other health professionals whose vision is to provide affordable quality care that’s equitable and culturally competent to New York City. Not only children, but New York City families as well. As deputy commissioner, I’m able to do that with a team and be more effective.
AmNews: The last question I have for you has to do basically with resources available to support parents and families with young children.
In the Bureau of Maternal and Infant Reproductive Health, there’s the maternal child health unit, there’s a sexual reproductive health unit, and there is the Maternal Health Quality Improvement Network in that unit as well.
A more recently launched program that came about as a response to the overturning of Roe v. Wade is our abortion access hub. It is a call-in center where anyone, not only in New York City or New York State, but even out of state, can call in and receive confidential, no-cost support. [The phone number is 877-692-2482.]
We also have resources for new parents. Mothers who are just delivering their first child can be referred for home visiting services where someone will support them and their significant other in setting up cribs, teaching them about breastfeeding, supporting them in getting to their well-child visits. All of that is under our new family home visiting services, and that is another resource that I think is important for families to know about.
We have services in the Office of School Health, which is another bureau within the Division of Family Child Health. I think what’s important for parents to know is the ability to get services, medical care, and preventive health screening from the school.
The Office of School Help is responsible for promoting the health of those students and getting them enrolled in our schools that have school-based clinics. We have nurses in every school who provide case management for chronic diseases like diabetes. There’s preventive health screening, as well as urgent care counseling and contraceptive counseling.
In providing service to not just a few families, but to New York City as a whole, we are dedicated to giving every family in New York City the best start in their life, which is what I tried to do as a pediatrician, as well as provide support.
