ATLANTA (AP) — T.I. added a new line to his expanding resume — broadcaster.

The Grammy Award-winning rapper and reality television joined the Atlanta Hawks’ broadcast team Friday night for the first half of their 95-89 loss to the NBA champion Miami Heat.

“This was a phenomenal opportunity,” said T.I., proud that the Hawks built a 46-42 lead during his time on air for SportsSouth. “I really enjoyed myself. I look forward to the next time and doing an entire game.”

After several bouts with the law, including a stint in federal prison on weapons charges, the Atlanta native has become active in the community and frequently attends Hawks’ games. He sat at courtside between play-by-play man Bob Rathbun and analyst Duane Ferrell.

“They did all the heavy lifting,” said the rapper, who was wearing several gold chains and an old-school Hawks cap. “I just chimed in here and there. I have a close relationship, both personally and professionally, with a lot of the guys out there.”

Asked if he had any desire to buy a piece of the Hawks, following the path set by hip-hop star and Brooklyn Nets part-owner Jay-Z, T.I. just smiled.

“I would love to be a part of the organization in whatever way possible if I can make a significant contribution,” said the entertainer, whose actual name is Clifford Harris. “But there’s no pressure. Baby steps.”

T.I. gave a hint of new album, “Trouble Man,” which is scheduled for release on Dec. 18. It includes collaborations with Andre 3000, Cee Lo Green and Pink.

“I’m extremely proud of it,” he said. “I put a lot of work and energy into it. I think it will be the classic album the fans have been wanting me to make. … I wanted to mix it up. I wanted to raise the bar on what’s considered stellar material.”

He also stars with his wife in “T.I. and Tiny: The Family Hustle,” a reality show on VH1. Camera crews from the show trailed him around Philips Arena.

T.I. is hopeful about the Hawks, who overhauled their roster during under offseason in hopes of breaking a history of postseason failures.

“This is a new team, a young team,” he said. “They have a lot of heart, a lot of desire, a lot of talent that can take them deep in the playoffs.”

As for his own athletic prowess, T.I. was frank about his abilities.

There was none of the boastfulness one might hear on his songs.

“I have no organized sports background,” he said. “I’ve done a lot of watching. I’m a professional spectator. I can observe like no one’s business.”

Follow Paul Newberry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/pnewberry1963

Copyright © 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Head Coach Nick Saban
Opening Statement:
“We are very excited to have the opportunity to try to get this team ready to perform as well as they possibly can, and hopefully reach their full potential. I know it is an exciting time for you as well. I think you kind of have to keep perspective on what’s going to make that happen. Our team is only going to do as well as the players can learn to develop an ability to execute on a consistent basis. This is especially challenging for young players who really want to do well and have high expectations coming in. Some of those expectations have been created by external factors. That also creates a risk aversive, an ‘I don’t want to mess up attitude.’ It makes it more difficult for them to be free and go compete and play hard and make mistakes and learn from those mistakes because they just don’t want to mess up. You go back to the old Nike commercial that says ‘Just Do It.’ In some cases, that’s what we are trying to get our players to do. Playing fast, playing hard and being aggressive; that kind of mental energy is really important to being a good player. When you get risk aversive and you don’t want to make mistakes, it actually can hinder your ability to learn and grow and perform like we would like you to. I think leadership is also really important to helping all the players on our team develop in terms of the support that they get. It really takes a passion, a commitment and a buy in on everybody’s part to get there. You’ve heard me talk about how everybody must buy in to the same values and principles and the standard that you have to do it. I think the standard is really critical. Sometimes leadership has to affect players so that we get more and more players to that standard. A good analogy is, do you want to be a thermometer which goes up and down with the circumstances around it, or do you want to be a thermostat that creates the same temperature all the time with consistency that you can count on, depend on, trust and believe in. That’s what we are trying to gain. Everybody is individually responsible for that. The coaches are responsible to try to get the individuals to be able to be responsible to that. We are working on trying to develop that consistency. Our focus right now is developing a synergy on our team. The goal of our team is to be relentless competitors. To be a team that nobody really wants to play by the effort, the toughness and the ability to be relentless and sustain for 60 minutes in a game. We need to play every play in a game like it has a life of its own. That’s what we have to condition and work to get our players to buy in, believe in and have passion for. That’s what our focus is right now and that’s what we are trying to do in camp.”

For me, two things stand out.
1. Set your own expectations and become the type of person that can accomplish them.
2. To be a successful leader, a consistently high standard of excellence must be reached and maintained.

Thanks, Nick. A great way to start the season.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher has told his players they can’t use their Twitter accounts for the rest of the year.

Two seniors, quarterback EJ Manuel and defensive end Brandon Jenkins, told the Tallahassee Democrat that some players weren’t happy with the decision, but understood Fisher’s reasoning.

I’m here to offer another opinion.

I understand EXACTLY where Coach Fisher is coming from.
But what does this say about his players, leadership, and building a personal brand?
Question 1: If the FSU players can’t be trusted with Twitter, what does this say about their other disciplines?
Question 2: Why is it that the head coach has to levy the discipline in this area? Where are the captains in this process?
Question 3: Has it been explained to the coaches and the players the value of Twitter, the pros and cons?

I don’t know the answers, but I wish that Coach Fisher would allow me the opportunity to come to Tallahassee and address the players and coaches.
To be sure, Twitter can be very dangerous. We’ve already this week seen an Olympic athlete banned from her team and the games by tweeting an inappropriate joke.
Here’s the key that I feel is not being expressed to the players about social media: it is not about you. You are a part of a team, in this case one that represents FSU. You will be held to a higher standard. But more than that, what you are doing with every tweet is YOU ARE TELLING THE WORLD WHAT YOUR BRAND IS IN THE MARKETPLACE.
The players need to understand that. If they behave poorly, it will be reflected in the marketplace. Want to play in the NFL? Want to coach some day? Future employers, dear students, are checking your Twitter, your Facebook for clues as to who you are and what you are all about.
It seems to me, in today’s job market, the fewer negatives you create for yourself the better. Of course, if you are a nasty, mean-spirited person that enjoys creating useless controversy and condones criminal behavior, have at it.
But it is your brand that you are building up or tearing down.
Let the players trying tweeting with this in mind. Maybe that will become a key part of their college education.

Bob

May 31, 2012
PAUL NEWBERRY| Twyman’s life worth remembering
BY PAUL NEWBERRY
Associated Press

One of the greats is gone. And, no, we’re not referring to anything Hall of Famer Jack Twyman did on a basketball court.

Tyyman ignored the ugly racial times that were the 1950s and ’60s to dole out perhaps the greatest assist in NBA history.

He stood up when many wouldn’t, becoming the legal guardian and the best of friends to St. Francis University graduate Maurice Stokes when his stricken teammate needed him most.

It’s a life everyone should know about.

It’s a story worth telling again and again.

“Maybe this is a little learning opportunity for everyone who plays professional sports,” said John Doleva, president and CEO of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. “Jack didn’t look for accolades. It was just the right thing to do. That’s what made him a very, very special man.”

Twyman, who died Wednesday night at age 78 from an aggressive form of blood cancer, was a largely forgotten relic from that quaint era before professional hoops became a truly national sport.

Never mind he was a six-time All-Star, who along with Wilt Chamberlain became the first player to average more than 30 points in an NBA season.

None of those glitzy numbers were more important than the lasting bond he carved out with Stokes, who passed away more than four decades ago but remained a part of Twyman until his last breath.

The NBA could do its part to keep their legacy alive by establishing the Twyman-Stokes award, honoring the best teammate in the league.

The recipient wouldn’t have to go as far as Twyman did

– stepping in as Stokes’ legal guardian after he was stricken with a debilitating brain injury and essentially watching over him for the last 12 years of his life – but that would be the template. Someone who fit the description on and off the court, who would be willing to put aside his own wants and needs if something so tragic happened to another in the same uniform.

“I knew the story,” Boston Celtics coach Doc Rivers said Thursday during a break in the Eastern Conference final, “but, honestly, I don’t know it as well as I probably should.”

Well, here’s a refresher.

Stokes was one of the NBA’s budding starts in the ‘50s, a power forward who could do a bit of everything. Rebound. Shoot. Dribble. Block shots. Run the court. In a documentary that aired on NBA TV, legendary Celtics coach Red Auerbach remembered Stokes as “Magic without flair.”

Stokes scored 32 points in his first NBA game for the Rochester Royals. He went on to average 16.8 points, 16.3 rebounds and 4.9 assists in his rookie season, earning the first of three straight trips to the All-Star game.

“Probably next to Michael Jordan, he was the greatest ballplayer to hit the NBA,” Ed Kalafat, who played during that era, said in the same documentary. “This guy, for as big as he was, he could do everything Michael could.”

Twyman, who was 11 months younger than Stokes, entered the league with Rochester during the same 1955-56 season and had the look of a budding star, though he wasn’t as dominant as his teammate. The Royals moved to Cincinnati in 1957 and made the playoffs for the first time in three seasons, with Stokes ranking third in the league in both rebounds and assists.

But Stokes – and Twyman

– would be forever changed by what happened in the last game of the regular season at Minneapolis.

Stokes fell over the back of another player and slammed his head on the court. He was knocked cold but, in the crude medical treatment of the times, some smelling salts brought him back to consciousness and he finished the game. He also played in the opening playoff game, a loss at Detroit. On the flight back to Cincinnati, Stokes suddenly became ill.

“He sweated profusely,” Twyman would remember years later. “It was if someone grabbed him by the head and dunked him in a swimming pool.”

An ambulance was waiting when the plane landed, and Stokes was rushed to a nearby hospital. But nothing could be done. He fell into a coma and was totally paralyzed when he came out of it. He was suffering from post-traumatic encephalopathy, which ravaged the part of his brain that controlled motor skills. He would never walk again, much less play basketball.

That’s where Twyman stepped in.

He was one of the few Royals who lived in Cincinnati during the offseason. His teammate was confined to a hospital bed – scared, all alone, with bills to pay and no way to do it.

“How would you like to be one of the premier athletes in the world on a Saturday?” Twyman once said. “Then, on Sunday, you go into a coma and wake up, totally paralyzed, except for the use of (your) eyes and brain. I mean, can you imagine anything worse?”

Twyman took over as Stokes’ legal guardian, organized what became an annual exhibition game to raise money, and made sure his buddy was cared for the rest of his all-too-short life.

That Twyman was white and Stokes was black made no difference – even during an era when race relations had become the nation’s defining struggle.

“To do what he did in the late’50s when, frankly, racial relationships were what they were, it wasn’t a normal thing to do – a white man to basically adopt and become the legal guardian for Maurice,” said Doleva, who oversees the hall where both men are rightfully enshrined. “It’s an extraordinary story, but it speaks to his heart. Jack left his heart on the basketball court every time he played, but he had a much bigger heart when it came to his teammates.”

Physically, Stokes never came close to being the man he once was. Mentally, he was stronger than ever – never feeling sorry for himself, never griping “Why me?” His heart finally gave out in 1970. He was just 36, having never realized anything close to his potential as a player but having lived a full life as a man.

Later, when explaining why he did what he did, Twyman said simply, “That’s what friends are for.” Besides, he always felt he and his family got far more out of his relationship with Stokes than they ever gave back.

“He taught us a lot. We learned a lot from him,” Twyman said in the documentary. “We’re honored to have had the opportunity to be associated with him.”

Right back at you, Jack Twyman.

The human race was honored to have been associated with you.