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Rule No. 1 in playing with Renaldo Balkman: Watch your neck.
On Friday, Balkman, a former first-round pick of the New York Knicks now playing in the Philippine Basketball Association, choked a teammate during a heated moment.
Balkman was upset with a call and aggressively approached several referees when his Patron Blaze Boosters teammate Arwind Santos attempted to calm him down.
Balkman shoved Santos then grabbed at his neck, creating one of the most bizarre scenes of a public teammate-on-teammate spat.
Afterwards, Balkman apologized to Santos as well as his teammate’s wife and mother. Also, according to the Boosters’ Facebook page, Balkman said: “Everybody does something once in a life they’re not supposed to do. At that time, I blanked out and went at it. It’s my first time ever in my entire life to do that.”
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The only thing worst than being Balkman’s teammate may just be playing for Seattle-based high school softball coach Troy Hennum.
According to a report in the Seattle Times, the Roosevelt High coach was placed on administrative leave this week for allegedly sending several of his players on a mission to locate “cute girls,” take their pictures, nab their phone numbers and bring back their findings for his examination.
Hennum, 25, had only been coaching the Roughriders for six days when school district officials removed him from the post. The Times quoted a woman who purportedly was scouted by the Roosevelt softball players. In a text the woman shared with the newspaper, the coach wrote: “Genius, great way to meet a girl, use my girls lol.”
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With a 1-point lead, 2.9 seconds to play and possession of the ball, all Hugo High School had to do was inbound the basketball and run out the clock to advance to the Oklahoma championship tournament.
But what followed stunned everyone. Hugo guard Trey Johnson got confused and laid the ball into the wrong basket just before the buzzer, giving the opposing team, Millwood High, a 38-37 win and a place in the Class 3A state semifinals.
“When I saw the kid going that way, I was like, ‘No, he’s not. No, he’s not … Oh, yes he is,”‘ Millwood assistant coach David Samilton said. “I couldn’t believe it.”
Johnson received the pass during Thursday night’s game, needing only to dribble away the remaining seconds for a Hugo win. Instead, he got turned around and dropped a layup in the wrong basket just before the buzzer.
