Latest news with #Mobley
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Student-led Peace Summit confronts gun violence in Pittsburgh-area schools
Inside the school halls, students are facing more than just academics. Social pressures, physical fights and the emotional weight of life outside the classroom are daily realities, and for many, gun violence hits especially close to home. That's why high school students from across Allegheny County gathered for the first-ever regional Peace Summit, a student-led initiative aimed at addressing the trauma and violence affecting their lives. 'Every single one of you just told me the common denominator that brings us all together is pain,' one speaker told the crowd. In a packed gymnasium, the stories were deeply personal. 'My brother was shot in 2016,' said Deahmi Mobley, who's a junior at Perry High School. Students from Clairton City, Woodland Hills, Pittsburgh Public Schools and others stood together in solidarity, sharing lived experiences and discussing solutions. 'It's scary,' said Troy Akins, a senior at Woodland Hills High School. 'You never know when someone might get shot, when some incident may happen where someone risks their life. There could be a call one day where your friend was shot, your mom was shot.' The summit brought together student leaders, peace groups, and educators to find common ground and collaborate on how to build safer school environments. 'There's a lot of gun violence going on with young teenagers,' Mobley said. 'It comes from teenagers from neighborhood to neighborhood.' Mobley said witnessing violence in his own school hallways pushed him to join Perry's peace group, which eventually brought him to the summit. There, he connected with students from across the region to share ideas and strategies. 'We talked about different ways to bring students into the building without them feeling like it isn't safe,' he said. Kemi Makinde, a senior at University Prep, emphasized the shared experiences among students, even if their individual circumstances differ. 'We might not all be going through the same things, but we all have been in the same things,' Makinde said. 'You might be sitting next to someone who has been through something similar.' The daylong summit featured group discussions, performances, and sports activities, all designed to open dialogue and foster healing. 'Later, we'll be adults and grow up in age,' Akins said. 'So, I think we start now and grow a foundation that will grow as we get older and older. It will be a tradition of stopping gun violence and building peace in our communities.' As the event wrapped up, students were tasked with taking the lessons and plans back to their schools to implement change during the next academic year. 'Maybe now when you are out, there's a conflict maybe you are that person that says wait didn't we meet at that event, maybe they will think twice before they engage,' said Dr. Tamara Allen-Thomas, who's the Clairton City superintendent. Download the FREE WPXI News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Channel 11 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch WPXI NOW
Miami Herald
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Miami Herald
Cavs' Evan Mobley leads NBA All-Defensive team
Cleveland Cavaliers forward-center Evan Mobley, the 2024-25 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, headlined the league's All-Defensive First Team, announced Thursday. He is joined by Atlanta Hawks guard Dyson Daniels, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Luguentz Dort, Golden State Warriors forward-center Draymond Green and guard-forward Amen Thompson of the Houston Rockets. This was the second first-team selection for Mobley, the fifth for Green, and the first for Daniels, Dort and Thompson. Green also has been named to the second team four times. This season's All-Defensive Second Team is made up of Portland Trail Blazers forward Toumani Camara, Minnesota Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, Memphis Grizzlies forward-center Jaren Jackson Jr., Thunder guard-forward Jalen Williams and Los Angeles Clippers center Ivica Zubac. This is the eighth All-Defensive Team selection for Gobert and the third for Jackson, with the other three making their first appearance on the list. Mobley was the leading vote-getter, being named to the first team on 99 of 100 ballots. Field Level Media 2023 - All Rights Reserved
Indianapolis Star
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Indianapolis Star
'That's why we brought him here.' Pascal Siakam goes off for 39 points in Pacers' Game 2 win
INDIANAPOLIS -- Before anyone else on the Pacers scored a single point, Pascal Siakam had already given the Knicks a survey course on all the different ways he could burn them. In the Pacers' first seven possessions, Siakam scored 11 points on 5-of-6 shooting. The three-time All-Star forward twice scored on his signature silky turnaround fadeaway jumper. He twice scored in transition at the rim — once scooping up a loose ball and covering 75 feet from the opposite foul line to the rim in four dribbles for a layup through contact and once by running the floor and catching a no-look pass from All-NBA point guard Tyrese Haliburton for a wide-open dunk when the Knicks got scrambled trying to mark up shooters. Then Siakam hit a top-of-the-key catch-and-shoot 3 off a ghost screen that served as a reminder the 31-year-old is in the midst of the best 3-point shooting season of his career. In just 4:36 of game action, Siakam scored at all three levels. He got buckets in isolation, in transition and off of movement and showed how he can be a weapon with and without the ball in his hands. He made clear in that stretch recovery for the Knicks after their Game 1 collapse would be hard to come by, and that was just the beginning of arguably the most productive playoff performance of his Siakam's career which already includes the 2019 NBA title with the Toronto Raptors. Siakam scored a career-playoff high 39 points on a bloodlessly efficient 15-of-23 shooting, leading the Pacers to a 114-109 win in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals at Madison Square Garden that puts them in total command of the series and just two wins away from their second NBA Finals in franchise history and first since 2000. Teams that take a 2-0 lead are 76-6 in conference finals history and teams that take a 2-0 lead on the road are 17-0 in the round. "Special game," Pacers coach Rick Carlisle said when asked about Siakam. "In the first half, he was the guy that got us going and got us through some difficult stretches. I thought he really picked his spots to be aggressive. He ran great. He did everything. He attacked the rim. He was great mid-range and the 3-point shot was there." It hasn't been easy for Siakam to produce a performance like that in these playoffs because the Pacers have faced opponents who have been devoted to keep it from happening and who just happened to have some of the best defenders in the NBA playing the power forward position. He lined up primarily against Milwaukee's Giannis Antetokounmpo in the first round, Cleveland's Evan Mobley in the Eastern Conference semifinals and now New York's OG Anunoby — the former Indiana University star and Siakam's former teammate with the Raptors — in the conference finals. The three of them have been named to a combined eight NBA All-Defensive teams. Antetokounmpo and Mobley have each been Defensive Player of the Year with Mobley earning those honors this season. Since it's the Pacers' guiding philosophy to not be overly concerned with who scores and to move the ball until it finds the open man and the best possible shot at the point of least resistance, Siakam has been relatively quiet by his standards almost as a matter of policy. Instead of asking him to run into walls to see if he can knock them over, the Pacers have been looking to others for points and not forcing him the ball when he's not been in advantageous spots. Through the first 11 games of the playoffs, he was still more than solid, averaging 18.6 points per game on 53.5% shooting, including 41.7% from 3-point range going into Friday night's game, but that was down from 21.6 points per game in last year's playoffs and from his team-leading 20.2 per game in the regular season. Prior to Friday night, he hadn't scored more than 21 points in a game since he had 28 in the Pacers' Game 3 loss to the Bucks in the first round. But the Pacers did see a chance to create more opportunities for Siakam if they were a little more intentional about doing so. As good of a defender as the 6-7, 232-pound Anunoby is, the 6-8, 245-pound Siakam has more of a size advantage in that matchup than he did against Antetokounmpo and Mobley, who are both listed at 6-11. Plus, Siakam knows how he can attack Anunoby, so the Pacers made a point to let him. "We've gotta make his life a little easier," forward Aaron Nesmith said. "I thought tonight we made a point of making his life a little easier. ... Just spacing the floor, moving, not staying stagnant when he gets the ball. I can't give away everything, but he's a special player. He makes good plays, so we tried to make his life easier." Siakam could sense there were more opportunities there, but he still didn't try to do too much to force action on his own or to try to take over the game in some overt sense. But he kept on finding his moments to attack mismatches in isolation, to hit open 3s and to score in the open floor. Siakam made 3-of-5 3-pointers and all three were clean with two of them coming when the defense collapsed on a dribble drive and left him wide open. He had five layups or dunks that came because he was running hard either with or without the ball in transition. He's a strong believer in the Pacers' egalitarian approach to offense and he wasn't looking to break up the flow of that to create his own offense, even on a night when he was clearly sizzling. "Whenever I was out there, I just took it," Siakam said. "I think what makes us special as a team is that we have different weapons. We're not consumed with who's gonna do what. We just go into the game and however the game presents itself, that's how we go and take it and do it that way. It doesn't matter who scores. For me, I just try to play my game. Shout out to my teammates, just finding me and make sure that I stayed aggressive the whole game." But as humble and devoted to the team concept as he is, Siakam made some plays that only he could make that were the reason the Pacers targeted him in January 2024 when they decided to go get an All-Star caliber player to pair with Haliburton and gave up three first-round draft picks along with guard Bruce Brown and forward Jordan Nwora so they could make a push to win now rather than waiting. He made elite moves out of post-ups for layups and more turnaround jumpers and he used every bit of his 7-3 wingspan to grab a pass Haliburton threw behind him in the second quarter, controlling it over the head of Knicks guard Miles McBride and then driving past him for a layup that cut a three-point Knicks lead to one when New York could have expanded it to five. All game long, Siakam's buckets either created momentum for the Pacers or stopped it for the Knicks, and his last field goal of the game put the Pacers up 110-100 with 2:45 to go. The Knicks had one more comeback in them after that and went on a 9-0 run, but they never got to 110 points. The Madison Square Garden crowd was desperate for an opportunity to turn the series around after the heartbreak in Game 1, and Siakam made sure it never could. "That's why we brought him here," Haliburton said. "That's what he's here to do. He can get a bucket in so many different ways. He started the game hot. We just kept feeding him. I thought he did a great job of making big shot after big shot after big shot, killing momentum. When you're in an environment like this, the crowd is getting into it. A lot of those shots can be back-breakers at times. I thought he just kept making big play after big play." Even though that was why the Pacers got Siakam, it speaks to his maturity he didn't demand this kind of night for himself as the Pacers head toward history. He waited until the opportunity was there, but then turned it into one of the most impressive individual performances of these playoffs. "He's a veteran who's been in these situations multiple times," Carlisle said. "He understands the importance of patience and being disciplined and understanding the NBA playoffs are a process. You have to keep working the process whatever your process is within the team. He never forces it, but whenever we get in a bind late clock, he can get a shot up on the rim and a lot of time it goes in. He's been great. He's been great all year."
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Cleveland Cavaliers' Evan Mobley wins 2024-25 NBA Defensive Player of the Year
The Cavaliers have been advocating for it for several weeks, and it has now come to fruition: Evan Mobley has been named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year. Mobley was one of three finalists, along with Draymond Green of the Golden State Warriors and Dyson Daniels of the Atlanta Hawks. Advertisement Mobley, in his fourth NBA season, averaged 1.6 blocks and 0.9 steals. The Cavs often pointed to his defensive value in ways the box scores wouldn't reflect, though, stating how often teams don't even try to challenge the 6-foot, 11-inch forward in the paint. "I think when people are scared to go against you, that gives you a lot of credit," said Cavs center Jarrett Allen, referencing how teams won't often challenge Mobley if they have any other choice. "It doesn't show up in the stats, but people are literally driving to the rim and turning around because they see Evan." Mobley is the first player in franchise history to win Defensive Player of the Year, and at 23 years and 299 days old at the end of the regular season, he's the fifth youngest to win the award in league history. Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley challenges a shot by Chicago Bulls forward Julian Phillips (15) on April 8, 2025, in Cleveland, Ohio. Donovan Mitchell makes case for Evan Mobley as NBA Defensive Player of the Year After the Cavs' Game 2 over the Miami Heat, All-Star guard Donovan Mitchell again advocated on behalf of Mobley to be named the NBA's top defensive player. Advertisement "He's done it all year in many different fashions. He's done it on guards, bigs, wings. He's our anchor down there, him and [Jarrett Allen]," Mitchell said. "And for him to be as young as he is, to understand angles, understand different things, help side being in different places, that's a talent in itself. I don't know what the numbers are. I really could care less because y'all saw when he didn't play this year, we lost games. So it's like you look at his impact to our group, and I've been telling y'all all year this is the worst he's going to be. "And if the worst is All-NBA and Defensive Player of the Year, we got something special, you know what I'm saying? This will be his first award. Next year, and first of many in my opinion, him and Victor [Wembanyama] will be battling it out for years. But, yeah, this is who he is." This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Evan Mobley wins NBA Defensive Player of the year for Cleveland Cavs
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
'Another surreal moment': Evan Mobley, Cavs celebrate win for Defensive Player of the Year
MIAMI — Evan Mobley, Cavaliers coach Kenny Atkinson, Donovan Mitchell, a few other teammates and some team personnel all crowded into a room in Miami a few minutes before the announcement. There wasn't much time to settle in, but it was enough. There won't be too much time to celebrate, either, as the Cavaliers are preparing for Game 3 Saturday, April 26, against the Miami Heat. The Cavs opened up a 2-0 series lead in Cleveland. Advertisement But Mobley and the Cavs were given the moment for which they had been waiting, and all gathered in a large room in Miami where they watched the announcement he had been named the NBA's Defensive Player of the Year. "It was great, we got in like two minutes, three minutes before the announcement went straight to the room and it was just like another surreal moment in my career," Mobley said. "Just hearing my name called like that, knowing I won the award finally and just my teammates being there with me, it felt great." In doing so, Mobley became the first player to win the award in franchise history and the fifth youngest in NBA history. Adidas, in celebration of Mobley's win, "blocked" all of the other 29 teams on social media. Miami Heat guard Tyler Herro (14) passes around Cleveland Cavaliers forward Evan Mobley during Game 2 of a first-round NBA playoff series April 23, 2025, in Cleveland, Ohio. Evan Mobley wins NBA DPOY before Cavs-Heat Game 3 Mobley doesn't often raise his voice on his own behalf. Teammates have had to basically drag him along and beg him to "talk his talk" during awards season. But, quietly, this is one accolade he had pinned as a major goal on the career checklist. Advertisement "It's like a dream come true," Mobley said. "I mean, you dream of this your whole life. At first it's just a dream to get to the NBA, and then it's a dream of playing real minutes in the NBA. Then it's a dream — just keep stacking on top of each other." In his fourth NBA season, Mobley's progression into what the Cavaliers knew was possible was a major factor in Cleveland securing the No. 1 seed in the East. It's also the end result of some building blocks Mobley put into place over the summer to get to this point — and some league recognition. It helped Mobley evolve from, perhaps, a road block in the paint to more of a brick wall. "This year I got a trainer and we worked hard to build mass, build strength, and I feel like that really helped me throughout the season," Mobley said. "Now I'm feeling great for the postseason, just gotta keep that up until the end." Advertisement Now it's back to business. "Next is a championship, actually," Mobley said when asked what was next for him. "That's the main focus right now. Back in playoff mode. Back trying to get another win tomorrow and continue this playoff run." This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: NBA awards: Cavs forward Evan Mobley wins Defensive Player of the Year
