NBA Draft 2013: Cavaliers select Anthony Benneth with No. 1 pick

Here’s a quick look at the players selected in the first round of Thursday’s NBADraft in New York.

This will also be NBA Commissioner David Stern’s last time at the podium on draft day. Stern will retire in February after 30 years on the job.

PHOTOS:Top 10 draft picks of 2013

No. 1 -- Cleveland Cavaliers -- Anthony Bennett, 6-7, 239, Nevada Las Vegas, power forward

Bennett may be the best pure athlete of the draft, based on his explosiveness, speed and physique. He may be undersized for an NBA power forward but he counters that with his versatility. He can post up, shoot the three and take defenders off the dribble, providing a matchup problem for almost any team. The Canadian international made an immediate impact at Nevada Las Vegas in his freshman year, averaging 16.1 points and 8.1 rebounds per game.

Ben Bolch comment: Surprise, surprise! Even for someone who played collegiately in the land of prop bets, Bennett going first was the longshot of longshots.

No. 2 -- Orlando Magic -- Victor Oladipo, 6-4, 213, Indiana, shooting guard

Oladipo is considered one of the more NBA ready guards based on his impressive defensive prowess. But the biggest area where Oladipo has improved is his shooting. With the Hoosiers, the 21-year-old junior shot 60% from the field (44% from three-point range) and averaged 13.6 points and 2.2 steals. Maybe Oladipo isn’t a great shot creator or playmaker, but he could make an instant impact of the defensive side of the floor for any team.

Bolch comment: Picking Oladipo could be a sign that the Magic are aggressively shopping Arron Afflalo, who could end up with Clippers.

No. 3 -- Washington Wizards -- Otto Porter Jr., 6-9, 198, Georgetown, small forward

Porter has immense raw talent, but he still is considered one of the most draft-ready players with his versatility. He turned heads with his improvement in his sophomore year at Georgetown, as he won the Big East player-of-the-year honors. The 20-year-old averaged 16.2 points and 7.5 rebounds and was held to single-digit scoring only three times. His slender physique needs some added muscle, and scouts have raised concerns over his athleticism. But Porter makes up for these shortcomings with court awareness and a high basketball IQ.

Bolch comment: The former Georgetown star has the added bonus of knowing the few spots to get cell phone reception inside the Verizon Center.

No. 4 -- Charlotte Bobcats -- Cody Zeller,7-0, 230, Indiana, power forward/center

Zeller’s draft stock might have taken a hit by returning for his sophomore season, but he made steady improvements while in Bloomington. Zeller averaged 16.5 points and 8.1 rebounds, including 10 double-doubles. Scouts say that Zeller does many things well, but does not excel in any one area. He needs to get stronger in the post and on defense. But the second-team All-American has great court awareness and versatility that can spread the floor.

Bolch comment: Athletic big man becomes the third Zeller brother in the NBA and the second Hoosier to go in the top four of this year’s draft.

No. 5 -- Phoenix Suns -- Alex Len, 7-1, 250, Maryland, center

Experts consider the Ukrainian big man as one of the more raw players in the draft pool, having just turned 20 years old and still filling into his huge frame. In his second season with the Terrapins, Len averaged 11.9 points and 7.8 rebounds and 2.1 blocks a game, including a 20-point, eight-rebound season-ending performance against North Carolina. A stress fracture in his ankle has kept the pick-and-roll specialist out for the last month, limiting his workouts and activity.

Bolch comment: The 7-foot-1 center from Maryland was the highest-drafted Terrapin since Steve Francis went No. 2 in 1999.

No. 6 -- New Orleans Pelicans -- Nerlens Noel, 6-11, 206, Kentucky,power forward

Noel arguably has the highest upside of any player in this draft. A pure shot-blocker and impressive leaper, he has the size, timing and talent to be a top-tier NBA big man — if he stays healthy. His offensive game is relatively raw: he averaged 10.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 4.4 blocks in 24 games before tearing his left ACL in February. Noel said he expects to be able to play in a game by Christmas.

Bolchcomment: Consolation prize: Noel may not have been the first player taken but he’ll go down as the first Pelican ever drafted and traded!

No. 7 -- Sacramento Kings -- Ben McLemore, 6-5, 189, Kansas,shooting guard

NBA teams see a lot of potential in McLemore, especially as a spot-up shooter and lockdown defender. McLemore can get out and run with the best of them in transition and has the athleticism that scouts drool over. In his only year with the Jayhawks, McLemore shot 42% on three-pointers and averaged 15.9 points a game, underlined by a 36-point outburst against West Virginia on March 2. His offensive repertoire and ballhandling could use some work, but the key word with McLemore is upside.

Bolchcomment: Kings hoping they got lucky that the player with perhaps the biggest upside in the draft fell to them in this slot.

No. 8 -- Detroit Pistons -- KentaviousCaldwell-Pope, 6-6, 204, Georgia,shooting guard

Caldwell-Pope enters as one of the draft’s best pure scorers, utilizing a consistent jump shot and a reliable offensive instinct. At Georgia last season, he averaged 18.5 points per game and led the team in rebounding. No opponent was able to hold Caldwell-Pope to single-digit scoring in a breakthrough 2012-13 season that ended with Southeastern Conference player of the year honors. The only major knock on the Greenville, Ga., native is his lack of defensive prowess and consistency.

Bolchcomment: The prolific shooting guard may need to shoot 100% to lift the Pistons out of mediocrity.

Source: Latimes

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Edmonton Oilers pick defenceman Darnell Nurse: 7th overall in draft

The Edmonton Oilers have selected defenceman Darnell Nurse with the seventh pick in the NHL draft.

Nurse joins a blue-line that includes Justin Schultz and a young team that includes first-rounders Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Taylor Hall, NailYakupov and Jordan Eberle.

Nurse was the second defenceman drafted, behind Seth Jones, who went fourth overall to the Nashville Predators. Nurse had 12 goals and 29 assists this past season for the Sault Ste. Marie Greyounds of the OntarioHockey League.

He is the son of former CFL wide receiver Richard Nurse and nephew of former NFL quarterback Donovan McNabb.

Source: cbc

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2013 NHL Draft: Canadiens select Michael McCarron with No. 25 pick

With the No. 25 pick of the 2013 NHL Draft, the MontrealCanadiens select right wing Michael McCarron from the U.S. National Team DevelopmentalProgram.

McCarron, a Macomb, Mich. native who will be attending Western Michigan University this fall, played the full regular season with the USNTDP in Ann Arbor, and also participated in the Four Nations Under-18 tourney. He will be participating in the U.S. National Junior Evaluation Camp this August in Lake Placid, N.Y. That could put him in contention to play on Team USA at the World Junior Championships.

The right winger is ranked No. 31 by the NHL Central Scouting Bureau among North American skaters. He's ranked No. 23 by ISS among all skaters, and the service projects him to be a player comparable to former Philadelphia Flyer John LeClair.

Source: sbnation

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Jared Jero Dresses In Drag For New Magazine Cover

Is that Katy Perry or Jared Leto in drag? The 30 Seconds To Mars frontman dons a pink wig, fake eyelashes and red lipstick for ‘Candy’ magazine’s cover shoot.

DallasBuyers Club star JaredLeto sports a complete style transformation on the cover of the July issue of Candy magazine, which was photographed by famed celebrity photographer Terry Richardson. On the cover, Jared flaunts big blue eyes and mile-long lashes.

JaredLeto Dresses In Drag — Actor Covers ‘Candy’ Magazine In PinkWig & Makeup

The 30 Seconds to Mars frontman, 41, plays a transexual woman in the AIDS-centric movie, alongside MatthewMcConaughey. For his role in TheDallas Buyers Club, Jared sported a different drag look and lost an alarming amount of weight, just like Matthew famously did.

JaredLeto’s Dramatic Weight Loss For Movie Role

“Your body goes through weird stages,” Jared admitted to Vulture in November 2012. “Sometimes it’s hard to hold on to water. But for me, it’s not about the most weight I can lose, it’s more to represent the character. I’m focused on what it means to be a transsexual woman.”

Along with dropping weight, Jared also transformed his body by waxing his legs and plucking his eyebrows, which he hopes will actually bring him closer to a “meditative state.”

Previous cover models for Candy include Chloe Sevigny, James Franco, and Tilda Swinton.

What do YOU think, HollywoodLifers? Did you recognize Jared Leto?

Source: Hollywoodlife

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Rockets: Draft , Trades and Dwight Howard

With the 2013 NBA Draft just hours away, the Rockets have a limited amount of time to trade their way into the first round. The Rockets may be working to trade Thomas Robinson to free up cap space for a free agent signing such as Dwight Howard.  According to Kurt Helin of ProBasketballTalk, a trade is imminent.

“Well, first off in the case on Robinson, they are definitely trying to move him. They are definitely looking at a variety of options in the first round and which guys they may or may not want, which teams they want to deal (with) and wisely.  You wait.  Look, offers are going to come flying at you all day today and they’re only going to get better as time goes on. So, patience is really the option,” Helin told SportsRadio 610′s MaD Radioon Thursday.

Should the Rockets trade their way into the first round, they could pick an international player who would stay oversees.  This would allow even more cap space to become available for signing a free agent like Dwight Howard, who is reportedly not interested in returning to Los Angeles.

“Really the buzz is around the league that more and more, they think he is not going back. He didn’t enjoy the experience in L.A. He didn’t enjoy playing for D’Antoni, even playing with

Kobe, and that when he starts really looking around and he says well Houston is a fresh slate. Let’s be honest, with him and Harden and Parsons, the rest of the guys on that team, that’s a contender and so he’s looking at that as a real possibility.”

During the 2012-13 season, Howard ranked first in the NBA in rebounds per game (12.4), defensive rebounds (694), and defensive rebounds per game (9.1).  Howard finished second overall in double-doubles (48), field-goal percentage (0.578), and total rebounds (945).

Source: cbslocal

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Calgary on Edge After day fearing exlosive CP train would topple into Bow River

The dark wooden bridge that crosses the Bow River is a great, gaping mystery to the city of Calgary; its origins and safety record unknown, held totally under the provenance of Canadian Pacific.

That was true even at 3:30 a.m. on Thursday, when the deputy fire chief of the flood-besieged city received even more bad news; an eastbound 102-car train derailed, leaving six sleek black rail cars filled with flammable petroleum product stranded on the 101-year-old Bonnybrook Bridge as it slowly collapsed into still-swollen Bow River.

It would drop about 15 feet throughout the day, bringing Calgary closer, inch-by-inch, to another disaster after a week that had been unbearably chalk full of them.

With resources stretched by more than a week of unprecedented flooding that trashed thousands of homes, bridges and roads, the mayor lashed out at Canadian Pacific. He also lamented the municipal government’s lack of control over CP’s domain.

“How is it that we don’t have regulatory authority over this when it’s my guys down there risking their lives to fix it?” Mayor NaheedNenshi said.

Once again, a swath of the city was shut down, creating gridlock so intense that some drivers complained of commutes stretching three hours. Again, Mr. Nenshi begged employers to keep their employees at home.

Hunter Harrison, the CEO of CP, said the piers of the bridge were built on gravel, not bedrock. The flood caused the bridge to tilt, then crack, derailing the cars as they travelled across the track early Thursday at 14 kilometres per hour.

By Thursday afternoon, acting fire chief Ken Uzeloc said the bridge had been stabilized. The fuel-bearing tanks were anchored in place by heavy train cars weighted with grain and stones. Secondary tethers tied each tank in place.

There was a small chance the train could explode.

“There are still flammable liquids that are in there,” he said. “We have that possibility … but my concern was more that a floating rail car would float downriver, taking out a bridge that would impact the stability of Deerfoot Road.’’

With the train secure, city officials reopened major arteries time for rush hour. But they still faced hours of arduous work.

If crews tried to pull the cars while full, they could snap open like a pill capsule, he said. Instead, empty cars were paired alongside the damaged track and three pumps were installed to transfer the petroleum distillate, a product used as a solvent in polishes, paint thinner and paint.

It would take several hours to complete pumping, Chief Uzeloc said; they would then decide how to move the empty cars off the track.

James Carmichael, the regional senior investigator with the TransportationSafety Bureau, said two people were on hand to investigate the incident. He believed it was too soon to say whether the flood weakened the bridge.

“Right now they are trying to stabilize it the best they can to do the work they need to do to get it cleared off,” he said.

The derailment forced a nearby wastewater treatment plant to evacuate, leaving untreated sewage spilling into the urban waterway.

Messrs .Nenshi and Harrison met on Thursday, but it was clear the derailment had strained relations between city hall and one of the city’s largest companies.

“I’ll be very blunt. I’ll probably get in trouble for saying this,” Mr.Nenshi said. “We’ve seen a lot of people lose their jobs at CP over the last year. How many bridge inspectors did they fire?”

Mr. Harrison disputed the mayor’s remarks, saying the Bonnybrook Bridge was inspected five times, although it was unclear when the company looked at the structure.

“We’ve talked publicly about the downsizing, but we’ve not done anything with the engineering personnel or bridge inspectors or supervisors of the bridge inspectors,” Mr. Harrison told reporters at the Emergency Operations Centre in Calgary, where he was to meet the mayor.

“It was clearly a failure of the piers at the bottom of the river,” he said. “We couldn’t have seen anything from an inspection on top unless there was severe movement as a result of the failure down below.’’

After the meeting, Mr. Nenshi said Canadian Pacific Railway had apologized for the chaos caused by the train and that he and Mr. Harrison and both agreed to work together more on safety.

Source: nationalpost

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Target , QVC latest companies to drop Paula Deen products

Country cooking queen Paula Deen's admission last week that she had used the N-word in the past and once planned a slavery-themed wedding has caused two more companies to jump ship Thursday. Target announced it was severing ties with the former TV chef and later shopping networkQVC announced it was "taking a pause" in its relationship with Deen. 

"We have made a decision to phase out the Paula Deen merchandise in our stores as well as on Target.com," a company rep told FOX411'sPop Tarts column. "Once the merchandise is sold out, we will not be replenishing inventory."

Diabetesdrug maker Novo Nordisk also said Thursday it and Deen have "mutually agreed to suspend our patient education activities for now."

"For now, we have decided to take a pause,"  QVC president and CEO Mike George said in a statement. "Paula won’t be appearing on any upcoming broadcasts and we will phase out her product assortment on our online sales channels over the next few months."

In response, Deen issued a statement to her QVC customers saying, "As you know, I have some important things to work on right now, both personally and professionally. And so we’ve agreed that it’s best for me to step back from QVC and focus on setting things right."

Target and QVC join Walmart and Caesars Entertainment (Wednesday), Smithfield Foods (Monday), and the Food Network (last Friday) in the list of companies no longer doing business with Deen.

But not everyone is running fast in the other direction.

Retailers JC Penney and Sears have not said the will stop selling her products.

The fate of her magazine “Cooking with Paula Deen” remains unknown. Its Alabama-based publisher Hoffman Media told a local news outlet that it “does not condone discrimination of any kind,” adding "we are not in a position to discuss her magazine and contract right now.” Hoffman Media did not respond to a request for further comment. 

And Deen's annual “Paula Deen Cruise” on board the “Mariner of the Seas” has been flooded with so many calls, the cruise is adding an extra departure in 2014. 

"Due to so many requests from Paula’s fans in the past we are actually planning two cruises for 2014 and look forward to both," a rep for the cruise told FOX411's Pop Tarts column. "It’s always an amazing time with Paula, her family and fans. If she goes – we go."

Deen, 66, is also still scheduled to make appearances at the Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show in Houston and Dallas in September, and in Washington, DC in November. She remains a key personality on the website with tickets to see her specifically ranging from $95 to $500.

“PaulaDeen has been a friend of The Metropolitan Cooking & EntertainingShow for many years. She has apologized and we are taking her apology at her word and moving forward accordingly,” the show's rep told us. “The Metropolitan Cooking & Entertaining Show does not condone or believe in the use of derogatory slurs by anyone. This is a nation of forgiveness and second chances. In that spirit we intend to go forward with the MetroCooking Shows in Houston, Dallas and Washington, DC as planned with Paula as a presenter.” 

And for publisher Random House, slated to release “Paula Deen’s New Testament: 250 Favorite Recipes, All Lightened Up” in October, her predicament has proven to be a book-selling bonanza. The cookbook, ranked in the 1,500s on Monday, moved all the way to No. 1 on Thursday. 

Source:foxnews

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