While in California this morning, President Barack Obama played a game of basketball this morning with members of his staff and some A-Listers including George Clooney and Tobey Maguire, according to the White House press pool. President Obama spent the night in Beverly Hills after the star studded fundraiser Mr. Clooney hosted for him last night. Read More
Real estate developer Bruce Ratner, one of the co-owners of the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets, appeared with Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz at a press conference today to announce a plan to fill 2,000 jobs at the team’s future Kings County home, the Barclays Center. The Politicker took the opportunity to ask Mr. Ratner why he chose to stick with the same name the team had during its years in New Jersey and Long Island rather than coming up with a Brooklyn-specific moniker. We also asked Mr. Markowitz, Brooklyn’s most visible booster, whether he was disappointed the team wasn’t getting a new name in honor of the borough. Mr. Markowitz literally leapt behind the podium before Mr. Ratner had a chance to answer.
“I’ll answer the first part, as long as the first part of the name is Brooklyn the rest of it …” Mr. Markowitz said giving a dismissive gesture with his hand. Read More
Lorenzo Fertitta, chairman and CEO of the billion dollar Ultimate Fighting Championship league issued a statement today praising the State Senate for including a provision authorizing the New York State Athletic Commission to allow mixed martial arts matches in New York. MMA is currently illegal in just two states; New York and Connecticut.
“We are very appreciative of the leadership shown by Senator Skelos and the members of the Senate, who have twice overwhelmingly approved legislation on a bi-partisan basis to bring the UFC and MMA to New York,” Mr. Fertitta said. “It is our hope – and the hope of MMA fans across New York – that the Assembly will also vote to include this legislation in the final budget that is approved by the Legislature, and Governor Cuomo will sign it into law.” Read More
Embattled Comptroller and likely 2013 mayoral candidate John Liu started off his State of the City address today with a “shout out” to pioneering Chinese-American New York Knicks phenom Jeremy Lin.
“I’d like to give a shout out to someone who is not here in body, but he’s on everybody’s minds, a guy who’s been carrying the Knicks for the last couple of weeks; Jeremy Lin,” Mr. Liu said to a huge round of applause. “A Harvard graduate, he’s on the cover of Sports Illustrated and the guy gets great headlines in the New York Post. I’ve got to get some tips from him.” Read More
With their overtime win over the San Francisco 49ers last night, the New York Giants put themselves in the Super Bowl and became the talk of the town. Local politicians were no exception. Their responses to the game included cheers, bewilderment and hatred for our Super Bowl opponents, the New England Patriots. Read More
During his press conference on the taxi bill yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg talked sports and trotted out an old nugget about attending camp with the daughter of Braves pitching great Warren Spahn. But there’s only one problem–the late Mr. Spahn never had a daughter. Read More
Mayor Bloomberg has a sports-filled weekend planned. He’s going to watch the Giants go up against Jets and the Knicks playing his hometown Boston Celtics. However, the mayor refrained from publicly picking favorites during a press conference celebrating the new taxi bill today. Read More
