Stories tagged with: basketball

• FIRST-PERSON: Why we mourn celebrities we've never met

  by Jared C. Wellman, posted Monday, January 27, 2020 (3 years ago)

  

  Pastor and author Jared Wellman examines, "How can I be so despondent over a person I've never met? And why is anyone ever upset over the unexpected passing of a celebrity they don't personally know?" Read More

• SBC Digest: Greenway addresses Baptists in Texas; Spurgeon College's first-ever basketball game

  by By SBC Seminaries Staff, posted Thursday, October 31, 2019 (3 years ago)

  

  SWBTS photo

  Adam W. Greenway addresses Baptists in Texas; Spurgeon College holds its first-ever basketball game

  Greenway calls for cooperation at SBTC meeting

  By Alex Sibley

  ODESSA, Texas (BP) -- "If there was ever a time where we must come together for the sake of reaching Texas and America and the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it is now," said Adam W. Greenway, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, during his sermon address at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention in Odessa, Texas. Read More

• Cavaliers coach leans on biblical principles

  by Aaron Earls, posted Friday, March 16, 2018 (5 years ago)

  

  Photo by Matt Riley/UVA Athletics

  CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (BP) -- The Virginia Cavaliers began the regular season unheralded and unranked. They ended it as the No. 1 team in the country and a favorite going into this year's NCAA men's basketball tournament -- with many giving credit to their faith-fueled coach.

  Tony Bennett has been around basketball for much of his life, due in part to his father and retired coach Dick Bennett.

  But a love of basketball is not all the elder Bennett passed down. Tony Bennett watched his father develop a way to coach basketball that honored Christ. And he has built the Virginia program around the biblical principles of "humility, passion, unity, servanthood and thankfulness" -- what he calls the "Five Pillars." Read More

• NCAA scandal spurs warnings against sports idolatry

  by David Roach, posted Friday, September 29, 2017 (5 years ago)

  

  Image: iStock/license purchase required.

  PLANO, Texas (BP) -- Amid news of an NCAA basketball scandal involving alleged illegal payments to recruits, two Southern Baptist-linked high schools known for producing elite players have underscored the need for a God-focused perspective in athletics.

  "We've got a couple of young men that are being actively recruited" by college basketball programs, said David Conrady, boys basketball coach at Prestonwood Christian Academy, a ministry of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas. "I expressed to them [that] it all starts with your foundation of what you believe in. Read More

• 'Raise Your Game' camp reaches youth for Christ

  by Tim Ellsworth, posted Monday, August 07, 2017 (6 years ago)

  

  TRACY, Calif. (BP) -- Lucy Hamilton and her son Purcell entered John C. Kimball High School looking for the photographer who was taking senior pictures.

  They walked through the wrong door and into the gym, where a basketball camp organized by Kevin James, pastor of New Creation Bible Fellowship in Tracy, Calif., was taking place. Purcell wanted to stick around and participate. Read More

• Severe injuries teach what's 'really important'

  by Redunda Noble, posted Monday, July 25, 2016 (7 years ago)

  

  Photo submitted

  MEMPHIS, Tenn. (BP) -- Watching Laura Spradlin drain 3-pointers and block shots, it's hard believe a car crash nearly took her life.

  "I love that basketball is a game for tall people," said Spradlin, who has played since she was 5. At almost 6-foot-2, not being able to play basketball was torture. "I couldn't run for months because of my injuries," she said.

  "But I knew I needed to try my hardest because I really wanted to play again." Read More

• Pat Summitt, NCAA's winningest coach, dies

  by Daniel Woodman, posted Tuesday, June 28, 2016 (7 years ago)

  

  Photo by Craig Bisacre, courtesy of Tennessee Athletics

  KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (BP) -- Pat Summitt, the winningest coach in NCAA basketball history who professed her faith in Christ four years ago through baptism, died today (June 28) at age 64 after a five-year battle with Alzheimer's disease.

  Summitt, coach of the University of Tennessee women's basketball team from 1974-2012, was a member of Faith Promise Church, a Southern Baptist congregation in Knoxville, Tenn. Her pastor, Chris Stephens, told Knoxville's NewsTalk 98.7 June 27 she would "probably pass into heaven in the next few days."

  Stephens led listeners in prayer during a five-minute interview, praying, "I knew her as one of Your followers. She brought so many people to church, and there was such a side of Pat that so many did not get to see and know, but I did." Read More

• SPORTS: Lebron James' theology

  by David Gray, posted Tuesday, June 21, 2016 (7 years ago)

  Reflecting on Lebron James' comments about "the man above" setting him on "the hardest road" to the NBA championship, northeast Ohio pastor David Gray suggests that Christians in today's cultural milieu take note of James' sense of mission: "It is time to stop complaining about the situation in which we find ourselves in the world and to pursue our calling." Read More

• Basketball gives entrée to inner-city's young men

  by Sharon Mager/BaptistLIFE, posted Tuesday, July 28, 2015 (8 years ago)

  

  Photo by Sharon Mager

  BALTIMORE (BP) -- Curiosity was mounting on a sweltering late afternoon at the basketball courts at Gilmore Homes in Baltimore's Sandtown neighborhood. As young men played hoops, a tall African American man strolled onto the scene along with members from several Baltimore-area churches.

  The young men didn't know the visitor was Ray Sydnor. A former Philadelphia Eagles player, Sydnor's status went unrecognized -- but the crowd took note of the free food and cold drinks that soon arrived. Read More

• March Madness wagers, critics say, not harmless

  by David Roach, posted Friday, March 20, 2015 (8 years ago)

  

  "NASHVILLE (BP) -- Putting $10 in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament office pool may seem harmless, but some contend it violates federal and state laws as well as biblical principles.

  "Christians would be wise to refrain from gambling on the NCAA Tournament," said Barrett Duke, vice president for public policy and research at Southern Baptists' Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. "That is the best way to make sure they are not violating their responsibilities before God and their fellow man. They should share their convictions with others and encourage them to refrain as well." Read More