mple, making sure the accused and accusers dont end u

MIAMI -- Who said the days of significant centers are dead in the NBA?Not the 1-0 Miami Heat or the 1-0 Charlotte Hornets, who meet Friday night at AmericanAirlines Arena.It will be the home opener for the Heat, who remade their team largely around 7-foot, 265-pound center Hassan Whiteside, who signed a four-year, $98 million contract extension in July.Whiteside had 18 points, 14 rebounds and four blocks in 31 minutes on Wednesday night, leading Miami to a 108-96 win over the Orlando Magic.I wasnt trying to make a statement, Whiteside said when asked about his first game since signing the initial major contract of his career. I was just playing.This is the first time that the 27-year-old Whiteside has had his name at the top of the marquee, sharing top billing with point guard Goran Dragic.The Heat no longer have the Big Three that won two NBA titles and got them to four championship series in four years. Dwyane Wade bolted to the Chicago Bulls, Chris Bosh is in limbo due to health concerns and LeBron James had previously gone back home to the Cleveland Cavaliers.Over on the Hornets side, they are also relying heavily on a center, 7-2, 270-pound Roy Hibbert, who has been in the spotlight since he was drafted in the first round by the Indiana Pacers in 2008.Hibbert, 29, is a two-time NBA All-Star, but he has bounced around lately, spending last season on a brutal Los Angeles Lakers team before signing this year with Charlotte.In fact, Hibbert signed with the Hornets on the same day Whiteside re-signed with Miami -- July 7.On Wednesday night against the Milwaukee Bucks, Hibbert made his Hornets debut, getting 15 points, nine rebounds, four blocks and three assists. He made 6-of-9 shots from the floor, 3-of-3 from the foul line and grabbed four of his rebounds on the offensive end, giving Charlotte 32 excellent minutes.The Hornets led by as many as 24 points in the third quarter.We just stuck to our game plan, said Hornets point guard Kemba Walker, who had eight assists. We got a lot of stops.Part of the plan for the Hornets, both on Friday night and for the entire season, is to get the ball inside to HIbbert, who had two monster dunks against the Bucks.Charlotte let injury-prone center Al Jefferson go in free agency after a season in which he played just 47 games, including only 18 starts.Hibbert, who played 81 games last season, is much more durable than that. In fact, he has played at least 65 games in each of his eight seasons in the NBA.Thats not to say Hibbert has nothing to prove. His scoring average dipped to a career-low 5.9 points last season, perhaps influenced by the train wreck that was the Lakers season.For his career, HIbbert averages 10.6 and 6.6 rebounds.But while Hibbert is looking for a bounce-back year, Whiteside is trying to continue to ascend to what he believes is his rightful place among the games greats.In Heat circles, Whiteside is well known for using any perceived slight as motivation for domination -- such as when he was only third last season in the voting for the NBA Defensive Player of the Year.Whiteside led the NBA last season with 3.7 blocks per game, adding 14.2 points and 11.8 rebounds.He was even better after the All-Star Game, averaging 17.5 points, 13.3 rebounds and 3.4 blocks. Thats why Heat president Pat Riley made re-signing Whiteside his No. 1 offseason priority.Beyond the intriguing center matchup, there are several other storylines to follow for Fridays game:--Hornets small forward Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, who played just seven games last season due to a shoulder injury, had 23 points and 14 rebounds on Opening Night.He will be opposed by Heat small forward Justise Winslow, a first-round pick out of Duke last season who is just beginning to tap into his potential.--Hornets backup center Cody Zeller, who gets by mostly on sheer hustle, missed the entire preseason due to a knee injury. Yet he produced 15 points in 14 minutes on Wednesday, making 5-of-6 shots from the floor.--Hornets power forward Frank Kaminsky, their first-round pick last year, missed the opener due to a strained right foot. His status is undetermined.--Heat shooting guards Josh Richardson (knee) and Wayne Ellington (quad) sat out the opener and likely wont be ready for a while. Dion Waiters, who averaged 9.8 points last season while serving mostly as a backup for the Oklahoma City Thunder, started for Miami at shooting guard while also making his Heat debut.--Miamis other new starter this year is 6-9 forward Luke Babbitt, a career 40.2-percent shooter from three-point range. This is his seventh year in the league, and last season was his career high in scoring (7.0). Nick Foles Jaguars Jersey . The Dane followed up his first European Tour title last weekend with eight birdies and just a single dropped shot on Thursday for a one-stroke advantage over South Africas Allan Versfeld and Portugals Ricardo Santos. Jalen Ramsey Youth Jersey . Defencemen Drew Doughty, Shea Weber and forward Ryan Getzlaf also scored for the Canadians, who started their gold-medal defence 2-0. Goalie Roberto Luongo, getting the call in place of Game 1 starter Carey Price, was solid when needed in making 23 saves for the shutout. http://www.authenticjaguarslockroom.com/Youth-Chris-Conley-Elite-Jersey/ .C. -- Calgarys Kevin Koe did it the hard way again. Jalen Ramsey Jaguars Jersey . It was the kind of score that might make everyone else wonder which course he was playing. Except that Graeme McDowell saw the whole thing. Crouched behind the 10th green at Sheshan International, McDowell looked over at the powerful American and said, "Ive probably seen 18 of the best drives Ive seen all year in the last two days. Leonard Fournette Womens Jersey . The next step is a better finish. Bae played bogey-free Friday on another gorgeous day at Riviera for a 5-under 66, giving him a one-shot lead over Aaron Baddeley and Robert Garrigus going into the weekend. Whether or not Minnesota plays in the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27 is the least important part of the standoff thats developing between the football players and the administration over whether 10 players have been fairly suspended around a case of alleged rape.If the school doesnt go to the bowl game, it stands to lose a big revenue opportunity and leaves players with lingering questions about due process. If the administration capitulates, it conveys in no uncertain terms that football is more important than a sexual assault investigation.Truthfully, football always has been more important.This particular case hinges on the idea of consent. According to police records, a woman told officers she was drunk when she was sexually assaulted in a players apartment by several men on Sept. 2, including some of the suspended players. She said her sexual contact with two men may have been consensual but that her contact with four of them was not. Other people were in the room while this happened, but prosecutors declined to take the case forward, citing lack of evidence.?The university started its own Title IX investigation at the same time as the polices investigation, a source told ESPN. According to a report by ESPNs Adam Rittenberg, the primary issue for the boycott was the school suspending the players before a hearing based on the Title IX investigation had been held. That hearing wouldnt have taken place until January, after the bowl game.Football players and parent Antoine Winfield are saying they arent sure why these players have been suspended in the middle of the football season. And to be sure, those players do have rights in the Minnesota investigation.Concern about those rights has resulted in one of the rare instances in which athletes have banded together and refused to play football because they believe in something more than wins and losses. The boycott, involving all the players of the team, represents exactly what you want to see in some ways -- a group bonded, calling each other brothers, loyal above all to each other. Thats admirable. And yet, as more than one person has pointed out on Twitter, it would be nice to see a team boycott to defend alleged victims of sexual assault.Earlier this year, a player at Baylor insinuated that the team would wear black in support of Art Briles, their former coach who reportedly knew about sexual assaults allegedly perpetrated by players and didnt report thhose incidents.dddddddddddd.Unity is a great trait in a football team. However, when it comes to sexual assault, the togetherness creates an us-against-them mentality that sends a clear message to those who might need to report a rape against a member of a team: We will fight back. With numbers.Unlike Baylors players, Minnesotas team may be putting into place a challenge to Title IX. A statement made by wide receiver Drew Wolitarsky was full of legalese, such as saying the school breeched fiduciary duty to the players by implementing the suspension. Now, Wolitarsky or some other player on the team could be legally minded, but its not news that opponents of Title IX have been looking for the test-case to unhook the law from cases of rape and sexual assault at universities, which it now protects. For the laws dissenters, Wolitarskys reference to an unjust Title IX investigation may be a crumb to build on.Despite Wolitarskys conjecture, theres a difference between the legal standard in a courtroom for conviction -- beyond a reasonable doubt -- and what is required for an institution to find a student violated the rights of another person. For survivors of rape and assault, the college setting can provide more support -- for example, making sure the accused and accusers dont end up in the same classes or dorms while an investigation is taking place. Thats something the legal system cant control. There are also actions that can be grounds for expulsion that arent grounds for criminal prosecution -- say, plagiarism of a term paper.Weve heard from the players and a parent, but we havent heard the voice of the other party in this case: the victim of the alleged crime. Without it, we can listen to players and hope they are treated fairly and with justice. We can hope the school is operating along the guidelines it has set to ensure the rights of the accused and the accuser. But we cannot think we have the entire story.Whether its college football, the NFL or beyond, if sports leagues are going to take sexual assault seriously, there may be times it conflicts with the game. And thats really OK. The most important lesson each of the parties in this case stands to learn will come off the field -- about consent, their rights and others rights and about choosing your causes carefully. ' ' '