USA men’s basketball players “accidentally” went to a famed brothel

RIO DE JANEIRO – TMZ reported Friday that a group of Team USA men’s basketball players “accidentally” went to a famed brothel here.

Apparently, the group, which TMZ said included DeMarcus Cousins, DeMar DeRozan and DeAndre Jordan, thought they were just going to a regular spa and merely had a drink (the place plays music, welcomes only male customers and has a full bar). They then – and only then – figured out they probably shouldn’t be there.

“They realized it wasn’t the right place for them and immediately left,” a source told TMZ.

Sure, sure, sounds totally plausible. Who the heck was the “source” peddling that story? Draymond Green?

Now, this story is begging for a full breakdown – and we’ll be pleased to offer it.

Before that, though, let it be said we personally couldn’t care less and we contain no outrage that the guys decided to have a drink – or pretty much do anything else – inside a noted Brazilian brothel. Whatever.

Personally, as both an internet sports columnist in need of easy columns to write and a fan of the NBA in part because of this exact kind of recurring comical absurdity, this is exactlywhat I want out of my Olympic basketball team. That crew was getting boring when the suburban dad known as LeBron James was in charge and they’d pass the time between blowout victories playing poker and watching “Pitch Perfect.”

This is the good stuff. It’s far more entertaining than watching them beat China by 40 or 50 points on Saturday.

However, USA Basketball under Jerry Colangelo and Mike Krzyzewski has spent considerable effort trying to rehab the image of NBA players competing in the Olympics. There remains a portion of America that foolishly wants us to “go back to sending the college kids.” This, despite the fact that said college kids would get wiped out, let alone college kids who are just as likely as anyone else to wind up in this kind of establishment.

So image-conscious USA Basketball officials probably spent Friday night sitting in a darkened room, weeping as they took pulls out of a shared bottle of Jack Daniels. This “Dream Team” already had the headlines of Green posting a picture of his, well, you know what, onto social media. Now this.

USA Basketball does all it can to avoid such things. For instance, the players aren’t housed in the Olympic Village, which wouldn’t work for understandable security and comfort reasons. I believe the Portuguese word for Olympic dorms is “Dellavedova.”

Instead, USA Basketball rented “The Silver Cloud,” a 514-foot, 196-suite luxury cruise ship to serve as a home away from home. It’s docked in the waters off Rio, nowhere near the other regular athletes. It has pools, gyms, hot tubs, beds built for 7-footers, bars, a cigar lounge, plenty of places to play cards and hang out.

[Related: Check out USA Basketball’s cruise ship at the Rio Olympics]

It even has … a spa. Oops.

USA Basketball made this so the guys would never have to leave the boat – or have any reason to want to leave the boat – except to practice and play.

And yet … they left the boat.

And wound up at the Termas Monte Carlo. Now, how anyone thought the Termas Monte Carlo was just a spa – a spa better than either the one on the luxury cruise ship, or a spa with people capable of giving honest, physical treatment better than the highly qualified USA Basketball training staff – remains an unanswered question.

From the outside, the first floor of the Termas Monte Carlo presents itself as an anonymous, windowless, half-stucco dump. You’d be hesitant to go in there and have them fix the muffler on your car, let alone provide deep tissue work on a world-class athlete.

The place is famous/infamous in Rio, as a simple internet search would reveal. It has a somewhat racy website. It’s been written about, reviewed and the subject of various law enforcement busts through the years.

One website that apparently serves to offer detailed reviews of such establishments notes, “the staff here tends to turnover fast, hence if you don’t like the selection one day, give it a few days and you might see some new faces in the line.” I guess that could sound like a spa … if you’re the most naïve person in South America.

It’s located nowhere near where the team boat is docked; with traffic it might be an hour away. You don’t just stumble upon it.

So this is the place they thought was just a regular spa – and a better spa choice than the one on their own luxury cruise ship?

And then when the players got there and noticed it looked pretty much like a den of iniquity right out of a Hollywood movie set … they went in?

[Related: USA Basketball’s airplane karaoke session is as awesome as it sounds]

Then when they noticed this spa had a full bar (what kind of spa has a full bar?), they grew so concerned that maybe it wasn’t legitimate after all … they ordered a round of drinks and hung out for a stretch?

But then they definitely left after just one drink. Or maybe it was two drinks. That was it. Sure. Definitely.

Look, we’re going to take their word and the word of that TMZ source for it. No one wants to call Olympians liars. Go America! U-S-A! U-S-A! It was all just an accident.

But guys, can you just visit the spa on the damn boat the next time? What happens in Rio does not stay in Rio – it appears on TMZ. One more story like this and you’re going to finally turn Coach K’s hair gray.

World Cup Title for West Indies

A Sunday night here at the Eden Gardens turned surreal for the 49,818 fans, who embraced Darren Sammy’s men as their own and found ecstasy in a last over of pulsating thrills. The West Indies, known for its hoary past, won the ICC World Twenty20 title.

Marlon Samuels (85 n.o., 66b, 9x4, 2x6) anchored the chase and Carlos Brathwaite (34 n.o.) mocked the 19 runs required from the final six deliveries. The burly Brathwaite’s riposte — 6, 6, 6 and 6 — stunned England and forced a hapless Ben Stokes, the bowler, on to his haunches.

The West Indies won by four wickets, scoring 161 for six in 19.4 overs while in pursuit of England’s 155 for nine. In racing towards the victor’s podium, the West Indies became the only squad so far to win the World Twenty20 title twice, having secured it last in 2012.

Strangely, the initial fireworks that the West Indies witnessed were the ones engineered by the event managers as its top-three fell in quick succession. Johnson Charles and Chris Gayle could not resist their suicidal big-hits against Joe Root’s off-breaks while Lendl Simmons was trapped by seamer David Willey.

At 11 for three, the West Indies suffered the batting horrors. Samuels, however, proved to be the bulwark, and also survived a scare on 27 — being adjudged caught behind off Liam Plunkett — before the cameras pointed out a bump-catch by Jos Buttler.

A lot hinged on Samuels and when he rolled his wrist just a fraction to nail a four past backward square-leg, the West Indies may have sensed a second-wind. At its half-way mark, the Windies was 54 for three in 10 overs and staring at a required rate of 10.

Samuels’s partner Dwayne Bravo, largely sedate, suddenly exploded with a six off spinner Adil Rashid but in trying for an encore, miscued and retreated.

Samuels and Bravo added 75 runs off 69 balls, for the fourth-wicket, offering hope before the West Indies stumbled again. Samuels, with two spectacular sixes off Plunkett, continued to promise an oasis.

In 2012, when the West Indies ambushed host Sri Lanka and won its maiden World Twenty20 title, Samuels’s 78 was a key cornerstone.

History was going to be repeated, just that it came through in the last over as Brathwaite held centrestage.

Earlier, Root’s 54 (36b, 7x4) and to some extent Buttler’s 36, offered some stability in a rather lukewarm England innings. Having elected to field, the West Indies skipper Sammy found vindication within the first two overs as his counterpart Morgan had to hurriedly stride in at number four.

Morgan had to paper over the cracks suffered due to Jason Roy’s frozen feet against leg-spinner Samuel Badree and Alex Hales’s tame shot off Andre Russell, which found the short fine-leg fielder.

At eight for two, England needed its leader to prosper. With Root being fluent, as evident from fours through covers and past mid-on, Morgan had to bide his time.

Morgan struck a lofted four off left-arm spinner Sulieman Benn but his tentative approach against Badree proved fatal. Gayle caught at first slip and England slumped to 23 for three in 4.4 overs.

If the world was crumbling around him, Root did not reflect any angst.

He rocked back or pressed forward to punch or drive and along with Buttler, strung a 61-run fourth-wicket partnership off 40 deliveries.

Just as Root batted without fuss, Buttler bruised Benn with three massive sixes.

The rest of the England line-up, did not inspire similar confidence and credit is also due to the fielding skills of Sammy’s men as diving catches perhaps meant that Morgan and company suffered a poor appetite at the interval.

It was an agony that continued well into the night.

Time after Injury Was Toughest, Irritating: Shami

Indian fast bowler Mohammad Shami,himself, revealed the torture he suffered due to the injury and said that he was completely in bed for the first two months of his injury.

This knee injury ruled him out of cricket for nearly nine months following India’s exit in the semi-finals of the World Cup.

Shami said after a good come back in team India squad for the upcoming Australian tour of Indian team, “The doctor had told me not to get out of bed for two months. It was the most difficult phase for me. I was not allowed to keep my feet on the ground. I was only allowed to get up from my bed and go to the bathroom.

“And the second thing is I couldn’t play. When I left the crutches and met the team before the tour of Bangladesh, I felt like I was alive again. I had not seen the dining room even for those two months.

I started feeling good again when I started light running and my cricket. I felt like I was back to my world. It is very difficult to be mentally strong during this period,” he said.

Having recovered from his injury, Shami played for Bengal in a few domestic matches, claiming three wickets in the two Vijay Hazare Trophy one-day matches.

He also got back his rhythm in Mushtaq Ali Trophy T-20 matches, claiming five wickets in two games.

“It was very important for me to get back my rhythm and get some matches under my belt. I wanted to start from where I had left before my injury. I was feeling comfortable as I was able to bowl with the same pace and hit the same line and length,” he said.

MS Dhoni also welcomed come back of fast bowler Mohammad Shami after his knee injury, but said that we have to keep a close look at the burden faced by him.

“Shami has been a very good bowler for us, especially if you see the period before he got injured. He has been equally effective for us with the new ball, in the middle overs and in the death. He has been very consistent in his performance.”

He has worked really hard during his rehab. It will be interesting to see how he shapes up. I will try to manage him well because the World Cup is just round the corner,” Dhoni said on Tuesday in Mumbai.

Shami elaborated his feelings about his life after injury, “Injuries are very irritating for me and any other cricketer. It’s very difficult to mentally come out of an injury. I just hope it never happens to me again in my life.”

Despite playing through pain due to a knee injury, the Bengal medium-pacer emerged India’s best bowler in the tournament, claiming 17 wickets in seven matches.

Following the a long spell on the sidelines, the 25-year-old pacer is back in the Indian squad for the forthcoming One-Day International and T-20 series in Australia, and will be hoping to repeat his performances Down Under. 

But once again Shami is out of the Indian team due to injury at Australian tour and will not be able to play in the upcoming ODI series. Bhuvaneshwar Kumar will replace him as fas bowler in Indian squad.

Dhoni's Team India heads to Australia with one eye on World T20

For an International One Day Series of five matches and a T-20 series of three matches, Team India departure to Australia on Tuesday. Team India will play a one day series and a T-20 series at this Australian Tour.

Before departure, MS Dhoni attended a press conference. Looking dapper in black blazer,Mahendra Singh Dhoni strutted around the precincts of a suburban hotel in the city on Tuesday evening, greeting friends and well-wishers from the cricket fraternity with such alacrity it was clear he hadn't met most of them in a very long time.

MS Dhoni attending a press conference before departure.

Indian captain MS Dhoni praised a lot about the bowling strategies of dangerous spinner Ravichandran Ashwin and said, “Ashwin is a very different type of bowler. 

Whenever he bowls, he does with a lot of caution and thought process about his bowling is continuous in his mind. He is very positive at the field while bowling. I always told him to just focus on his bowling, not on anything else.

Ashwin is a very sensible player. He got few downs in his performance and he was criticized also for experimenting a lot of things, but I am happy that he has got a great comeback.

“He has played a very valuable and important role I Indian bowling squad for a long time. I always has a full confidence over him. I am much dependent upon him. I have used him at all the moments whether it is the start of the game or last 10 overs of the match. Whenever fast bowlers are not doing well, Ashwin make it easy task for the team”, he added.

Ashwin ended his year with the title of the top test match bowler in International Cricket calendar 2015 and became the first bowler to achieve this title for the first time. In 2015, he played 9 test matches and got 62 wickets, in which he got seven times five wickets or more than that in test cricket. The best performance for him in last year was taking 7 wickets for 66 runs.

Dhoni is heading Down Under with a clear motive. The idea is to get his bowling unit together and assess who will be ripe for the picking when the time comes to dominate at home. "We always knew that we would be playing three T20s there. Conditions will be different when we play the World T20 at home but it's good to have this opportunity (in Australia).

"We have ample opportunity to try different players in different slots and try different bowling combinations. We will be in a better position by the start of the World T20 regarding what our playing XI should look like and what will be the best strategy," Dhoni said on the eve of the team's departure.

Dhoni also praised all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja and young spin bowler Axer Patel for having a great performance in domestic cricket.

Dhoni said that there will be a tough competition for a place of spinner between Jadeja, Ashwin and Patel outside India.

“Ashwin is our best spinner and it’s good to have Jadeja back in the team. Two spin all-rounder will fight for one place in the squad”, he added.

He also welcomed come back of fast bowler Mohammad Shami after his knee injury, but said that we have to keep a close look at the burden faced by him.

“Shami has been a very good bowler for us, especially if you see the period before he got injured. He has been equally effective for us with the new ball, in the middle overs and in the death. He has been very consistent in his performance.”

He has worked really hard during his rehab. It will be interesting to see how he shapes up. I will try to manage him well because the World Cup is just round the corner,” Dhoni said on Tuesday in Mumbai.

For the Australian Tour, few new faces has been included in the team named as Manish Pandey, Rishi Dhawan Gurkreet Singh Man and Barindar Sharan. These players have got place in One day squad, while in T-20 squad, Hardik Pandya has got entry for the first time.

One Day International Captain of Indian cricket team MS Dhoni said that he will think about his retirement at the “right time”.

When asked about his retirement plan from limited over game, he did not give a clear answer of this question, but about his life after his retirement from the test cricket, he said “Now I don’t play test cricket, but with the help of this break I get few more time to prepare myself for one day cricket. I always believe in present. I have no answer about my future. This Australian Tour is the most important thing for me. I have not any thought for myself after the World Cup to be held in March April in India.

Great VVS Laxman stated about MS Dhoni, "I definitely see Dhoni playing till 2019 World Cup as he is super-fit," said Laxman, before proceeding to elaborate on his point.

"The reason is that I have never seen him miss a match due to an injury. May be, he has had those odd finger injuries here and there," continued Laxman, adding, "I have no doubt he will be available till 2019 World Cup.

"I am happy that he has played seven matches in Vijay Hazare Trophy as he must have needed some preparation under his belt."

Dhoni last played a One-dayer against South Africa on Oct 25 last year, after which the next two months saw him participate in a domestic tournament - other than the IPL - for the first time in eight years and enjoy a rare break from the frenzied international cricket circuit.

Australia defeated West Indies and won the series by 2-0

Australia defeated West Indies in second test by 177 runs and won the series by 2-0. Australia won the first test in Hobart by inning and 212 runs. West Indies got out at 282 runs in second inning of the second test at Tuesday.

Celebration after series win.

Before this, Australia declared his second inning at 179 runs after loss of three wicket and took a lead of 459 runs. More concerning, West Indies bowlers could take only six wickets in the match and allowed Smith’s men to pile on 551 runs in the first innings.

West Indies scored 146 runs for loss of four wickets up to tea session. For the sixth wicket, Captain Jason Holder and former captain Dinesh Ram din had a partnership of 100 runs, , but all-rounder Mitchell Marsh broke the partnership with some fiery pace bowling and took 4-61 to complete the triumph.

Due to sudden fall of last 4 wickets, West Indies lost the match before 1.3 overs of the game.  West Indies batsmen battled hard in sublime conditions but were bowled out for 282 in the penultimate over of the day.

Even though Darren Bravo and opener Rajendra Chandrika batted doggedly after lunch, there was no stopping the Australian pacers as Peter Sidle, Mitch Marsh and James Pattinson got into the act.

Holder scored 68 runs in 86 balls and Ram din scored 59 runs in 90 balls, which is the best score in last two years for him. Spinner Leon was declared as the Man of the Match who took 7 wickets. All-rounder Michel Marsh took four wickets for 61 runs in second inning.

Bravo (21 off 61) batted stoically for over 22 overs before falling victim to a peach by Sidle – caught behind by Peter Neville.

Carlos, who scored 59 runs in first inning, got out at the delivery of Leon. Marsh send Captain Holder back to pavilion who was caught out at mid-off by Hazelwood.

Hazelwood had Darren Bravo caught behind for 12 on the first ball of the last over before lunch, but a TV replay showed the bowler had over-stepped his crease.

After dismissing Roach, pace man James Pattinson ran in from long leg to complete a fine catch after Jerome Taylor slogged Marsh high into the sky, and the Australians celebrated finishing their work a day early.

The no-ball was the third to deny Australia wickets in the match, with James Pattinson reprieving fellow pace man Carlos Brathwaite twice on day three, allowing the Barbadian to score 59 on debut.

Smith scored 70 runs and became the highest scorer of the year in test cricket. He has scored 1474 runs in this year with an average of 73.70. England’s batsmen Joe Rout is at second position who scored 1372 runs this year.

Having beaten New Zealand 2-0 at the start of the home summer, Australia captain Steve Smith celebrated his second series win in charge following the retirement of Michael Clarke.

“We probably let ourselves down a little bit, obviously with the no-balls,” he told reporters after winning the game.

“I don’t think we dropped our level, it was a tough wicket to take wickets on. You really had to grind it out and work extremely hard,” he further added.

“We got the job done.”

West Indies captain Jason Holder, who top-scored for his side with a defiant 68, said the loss “hurt” but he was comforted by his team’s improvement from Hobart, where they were thrashed by an innings and 212 runs and roundly condemned for a perceived lack of effort.

“We probably showed a lot more belief when we went into bat,” Holder told reporters after losing the match.

“Obviously our bowlers still need to be a lot more disciplined,” he further added.

Real Madrid Out Of the Kings Cup

Game Disciplinary committee of Spain has taken a very strict action against Real Madrid team for allowing to play Denis Cheryshev in a game and hence Real Madrid team is now out of the Kings Cup Tournament to be played.

Denis Cheryshev is facing a ban of one match and was supposed to not play the match played in the beginning of this month. But Real Madrid selected Denis in the team squad in the beginning of this month and allowed him to play the match and Denis also scored a very first goal in the match, which was won by Real Madrid by 3-1.

Disciplinary committee of Spain rejected the appeal of Real and finally took a decision to throw out the Real Madrid of the Kings Cup. Apart from this decision, Disciplinary committee of Spain also ordered club to submit a fine of six thousand Euro due to above offence.

On the other hand, Argentina star striker Lionel Messi, who play for the best football club of Spain, took part in the practice session for the club after getting his recovery from his injury. Barcelona has to play his next match against Real Betis at Wednesday.

According to the news agency AFE, Messy did not participate in the practice session of the club at Sunday. He has been awarded this year by the award of best football player of the world. In order to participate in the award function, Messy was in Dubai at Sunday.

Messy will play his 500th match against Bettis. Barcelona is at the top position of the league with 35 numbers, while Atletico Madrid is at second position of the league. Real Madrid has got the third position in the group.

Manchester United coach refused to resign

English Premier Club Manchester United coach Louis van Gaal stated on Tuesday that he is not going to resign from his present post of club in spite of the fact that the team under his guidance is unable to get a single match winner knock from the last eight matches played by Manchester United.

Manchester United coach Louis van Gaal

In a match of United Premier League, which was played between Manchester united and Chelsea, none of the team could score a single goal due to which match got drawn and once again Manchester united could not get their first win in the last eight matches played by them.

With this draw match, Manchester United is at the sixth position of the United Premier League. Before this, Louis van’s team was unable to qualify for pre quarter final of the European Champions League.

On behalf of coach of Manchester United, news channel BBC wrote “When players are performing such under huge pressure, it is not possible to even think about resignation from the coach post of Manchester United.

The last few days has been proved to be very tough for the Netherland’s star Louis van. Due to the various predictions about his position in his team for the past few days in media, he left a press conference in between the discussion and did not answered the questions asked by reporters.

His team got an unexpected loss against stoke city by 2-0, after which various questions and predictions about position of Louis van in Manchester United team came forward in media.

Now, it will be very interesting to see whether how much time he takes to have a positive improvement in the performance level of the players of his team because his team could not get evan a single match win in the last eight matches played. 

Louis Van will be searching for a come back win for his team with the help of which he can get a solid answer for all the questions and prediction about his ability to guide his team in the past few days of his career.