issue 30// vol 47

Professional athletes |
-@.

and their pets

» Dogs, cats, and what?

Mo Hussain
Sports Reporter

 

n the competitive world of sports, it can

be difficult for some to see an athlete's
softer side. However, something that
might manage to crack through that thick
emotional wall is pets. Some may also
find it very interesting to see what the
most popular pets are among top athletes.
Here are three animals some athletes have
picked up:

Three storylines to keep in mind

DOGS

The overwhelming majority of top athletes
across most major sports in the world

have dogs. Tiger Woods got his three dogs
named Yogi, Bugs, and Taz. Cristiano
Ronaldo has got his selfies with his dog
“Marosca.” Charlotte Hornets star Gordon
Hayward takes his German Sheperd “Siber”
on hikes. Olympic gold-winning skier
Lindsey Vonn is also a dog lover as she’s
dedicated an entire Instagram account to
her dog “Lucy Vonn” whom she'd rescued.
The list can go on and on, but for the

sake of fans of other animals, the dog
appreciation must stop here.

CATS

Although those a part of the cat community
may be disappointed with the quantity of
athletes that have cats, cat lovers should
instead look at the situation as “quality
over quantity.’ Washington Wizards center
Robin Lopez has a dog, but he also has a cat
that he calls “Prince Edward Zephyr.” Lopez
and the royal cat posed for an awesome
picture back in 2015 where he urged people
to follow his cat’s Instagram page, “or else
he will send stormtroopers to your home.”

for this year's NBA playoffs

>» What are your NBA predictions?

Mo Hussain
Sports Reporter

 

he road to the NBA finals kicks off

now, and there are plenty of storylines
to keep up with. Whether it’s new teams
rising to the top, older players playing like
their younger selves, ora potential shift
in who’s most powerful in the league, this
year’s playoffs are sure to be interesting.
Here are three storylines to keep in mind:

Can the Lakers repeat?

The Lakers will have to go through a heck
of a lot if they want to become back-to-
back champions year. Recent injuries to
star players LeBron

James and

  
 
  

Anthony Davis
essentially
caused the team
to drop all the way
to seventh in the
western conference.
Although both players
are now fully healthy,
this ultimately puts
the team in the recently
introduced “play-in”
tournament. This is where
teams seeded 7 to 10 will
battle in a mini tournament to
determine who gets the final two
western conference playoff spots.
The Lakers will have to beat
the league’s leading scorer
Steph Curry and the Golden
State Warriors in order
to secure a playoff
spot. If they get
through them,
the team would
then have quite
a tough first
round battle
against NBA
MVP candidate
Chris Paul and
the Phoenix Suns.
It will be interesting

   
   
 
 
 

to see if the Lakers
can persevere
through some tough
early matchups
and go on to win the
championship.

Is this the Nets’ year?
The Brooklyn Nets have
a lot of pressure to win a
championship this year.
In addition to having Kevin
Durant and Kyrie Irving, the
team cashed in many of its
future assets for former NBA MVP
James Harden in early January. The
team also picked up six-time all-star
Blake Griffin to boost its frontcourt.
The team is currently the second seed
in the east and will face the winner of
the Washington Wizards and Boston
Celtics play-in matchup.

Can Utah be a threat in the
postseason?

No one could’ve predicted that
the Utah Jazz would’ve finished
this year as the team with the best
regular season record. Star player
Donovan Mitchell has averaged a
career-high in points this season,
while Rudy Gobert has been a defensive
anchor. The big question for this team is

sports // no. 9

 

CAMELS

Who says athletes can only have cats

and dogs? In 20, Carmelo Anthony was
one of the top basketball players in the
world. In that year he also happened to
announce that he'd picked up a camel

in a now deleted post on a social media
platform called “WeHow.” Melo captioned
the post “Everybody got dogs and cats as
pets, I got a camel!” Who's to say the camel
didn't play a big role in Melo’s success? The
world is yet to know whether Carmelo has
kept the camel a decade later, but that is
definitely one of the more interesting pets a
professional athlete has owned.

can they keep up this momentum into the
playoffs? Utah has been eliminated in the
first round of the playoffs for two straight
years heading into this season. This
includes losing a tight seven game series to
the Denver Nuggets last season. If the team
can keep their regular season momentum
up for the playoffs, they could be a big
problem for the rest of the league—but
they still have a lot to prove.

As for who will win this year’s NBA
championship is still to be determined.
However, it will be interesting to see if we'll
see anything out of the ordinary this year.

 
  
 
  

Illustrations by Janis McMath