The Moore American

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Buddy Hield played in 632 regular-season games and established himself as one of the top 3-point shooters in the NBA before he finally played a postseason game. He can thank the Philadelphia 76ers for ending his dubious distinction of most NBA games without a playoff appearance by an active player. If he wants to get there again, he's going to have to try again in California — alongside Stephen Curry, no less.

Independence Day — the 4th of July — is about far more than picnics, parades and fireworks. It is about our liberty. The Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4, 1776, was an act of revolution. The colonies were at war for eight long years, fighting for freedom from British tyranny. Declaring independence was bold and courageous and could have ended in the destruction of the colonies and the deaths of the founding fathers.

Irrigation issues have created a slight tweak to the 49th annual Westwood Invitational, but even still, the golf tournament that has become a staple of Fourth of July weekend in Norman will continue on. The tournament begins on Friday at Westwood Golf Course and continues through Sunday. Head golf professional Rick Parish estimates that the course will host 90-100 golfers for the three-day, 54-hole event. It’s a smaller field than normal. The past few years that number has been closer to 160.

Monday marked the end of an era in Oklahoma sports. At 12:01 a.m. Monday, July 1, 2024, the Oklahoma Sooners officially left the Big 12 Conference for the Southeastern Conference, putting OU and Oklahoma State in separate leagues for the first time in decades. That means no more Bedlam, at least on the football field, for the foreseeable future, and that’s a shame. The OU-OSU rivalry was lopsided, to be sure, with the Sooners winning 82 times, to only 21 for the Cowboys, with seven ties.

Perhaps it’s just me. I mean, it could be me. It’s probably me. Nonetheless, excuse me if I can’t embrace all of Monday’s hoopla surrounding Oklahoma’s long-awaited official joining of the Southeastern Conference. Because so much of it reads condescending. So much of it reads like Sooner fans should be so excited to finally sit at the cool kids’ table.

Former Oklahoma wrestler and longtime head coach Stan Abel died on Friday at the age of 87, the university announced on Sunday. An Oklahoma City native, Abel was a three-time All-American and two-time national champion for the Sooners in 1959 and 1960. He spent 20 years as the Sooners’ head coach from 1973-93, winning the program’s last team national title in 1974. Abel is the winningest coach in program history with 279 dual wins during his tenure and a .690 winning percentage.

The last time former Oklahoma golfer Max McGreevy won on the Korn Ferry Tour, it came after an agonizing wait for the final group to finish. On Sunday, McGreevy managed to win his second KFT title, but this time he went out and got it, and now he’s heading back to the PGA Tour. “I feel like I see it all the time on TV. I see (former roommate) Scottie (Scheffler) do it every week;, these guys actually have putts to win,” McGreevy said in an interview after the win.

Oklahoma had three years from the time it was announced that it would be leaving the Big 12 for the Southeastern Conference. In that time, plenty of preparations needed to be made. Oklahoma President Joe Harroz Jr. and athletic director Joe Castiglione spoke at length about many of those changes during a press conference with SEC commissioner Greg Sankey on Monday. For the football program, which was the driving force behind the move, one of the changes that needed to be made was pretty clear.

When ESPN’s Dari Nowkhah learned the rumors that Oklahoma and Texas were moving from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference, he reached out to SEC commissioner Greg Sankey to know if it was true. “I was like, ‘Tell me this is real,” he said. The marriage between the Sooners and the SEC was perfect in his mind, but it was even more special for personal reasons. Nowkhah, a Tulsa native, graduated from OU in 1998 with a degree in broadcast journalism.

Manhattan prosecutors said Tuesday they would not oppose Donald Trump’s request to delay the sentencing in his hush money trial as he seeks to have the conviction overturned following a Supreme Court ruling that granted broad immunity protections to presidents. In a letter filed with the New York court, prosecutors with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office said they would be open to a delay of at least two weeks in the July 11 sentencing in order to file a response to Trump’s motions.