Antetokounmpo, Greece head to Olympics. Brazil, Spain, Puerto Rico join them in Paris Games field

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Antetokounmpo, Greece head to Olympics. Brazil, Spain, Puerto Rico join them in Paris Games field

2024-07-08 09:31 Last Updated At：09:40

Giannis Antetokounmpo is now an Olympian.

Antetokounmpo is heading to the Olympics for the first time, after he scored 23 points and Greece held off Croatia 80-69 on Sunday in one of the four men's basketball qualifying tournament finals being held to determine the final spots in the 12-team field for the Paris Games.

“The best athletes in the world compete in the Olympic Games," Antetokounmpo said. "We have nothing to lose. ... I really believe we have an incredible team and we can accomplish something special.”

Georgios Papagiannis scored 19 points for Greece, which got 14 from Nick Calathes and earned an Olympic berth for the first time since 2008.

“It's very nice to qualify because that's the first step,” Papagiannis said. “At the Olympics, we're looking to do something really good there.”

Ivica Zubac had 19 points and 13 rebounds for Croatia, which got 15 points apiece from Mateo Dreznjak and Mario Hezonja and 14 from Dario Saric.

Greece will be placed in Group A for the Paris Games, with its opening-stage games against Australia, Canada and Spain — which also qualified on Sunday by beating the Bahamas.

Already having qualified for the Paris field: the four-time defending gold medalist U.S., France, Germany, Japan, Serbia, South Sudan, Canada and Australia. France qualified as the host nation; the other seven teams on that list qualified based on their finishes at the World Cup last summer.

And on Sunday, Brazil, Greece, Spain and Puerto Rico grabbed the last spots after prevailing in winner-take-all qualifiers that started last week.

For the first time since 2004, Puerto Rico is headed to the Olympics.

At San Juan, the hosts got 23 points from Jose Alvarado, 18 points from Tremont Waters and topped Lithuania 79-68 to claim the 12th and final spot in the field for the Paris Games.

“Obviously, this game was very important for us and the island,” Alvarado said. “But we knew it was more than just basketball. We knew how great we had to be to represent this island and the love they gave us was amazing. We just wanted to do as best we can for them.”

Puerto Rico will be slotted into group play in France with Serbia, South Sudan and the U.S. The Americans and Puerto Rico also played in 2004 Olympics, with Puerto Rico winning 92-73.

Rokas Jokubaitis scored 16 points and Domantas Sabonis scored 10 for Lithuania.

“We had to come together to make history,” Puerto Rico coach Nelson Colon said.

Rudy Fernandez is going to the Olympics for the sixth time, a first for any men’s basketball player. And Spain had to dig deep to get him there.

Spain earned its seventh consecutive Olympic berth after holding off the Bahamas 86-78 at Valencia, Spain.

Lorenzo Brown had 18 points for Spain, which got 14 from Willy Hernangomez, 12 from Santiago Aldama and 10 from Usman Garuba.

Buddy Hield led the Bahamas with 19 points. Deandre Ayton scored 17, Eric Gordon had 15 and Valdez Edgecombe Jr. finished with 12.

Like Greece, Spain is in Group A for the opening stage of games in Paris alongside Australia and Canada.

At Riga, Latvia, Brazil used a 19-0 run over the final 3:21 of the first quarter to set the tone in what became a surprisingly easy 94-69 victory over Latvia.

Bruno Caboclo led Brazil with 21 points and Leo Meindl added 20. Caboclo made a 65-foot 3-pointer to end the first quarter — one in which Brazil was 8 for 8 from beyond the arc to take a 34-11 lead and stun the home crowd.

“My dad was a basketball player and his dream was to play in the Olympic Games,” Meindl said. “I’m making this for me, for him and for my family. I’m feeling on the clouds.”

Rihards Lomazs scored 15 for Latvia, which got 14 points apiece from Rolands Smits and Arturs Zagars.

“It just seemed like it was going their way from the first quarter,” Zagars said.

Brazil will be placed in Group B for the Olympics, with games against France (July 27), Germany (July 30) and Japan (Aug. 2) in the opening stage.

AP Summer Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games

Trump returns to site of Pennsylvania assassination attempt for a major swing-state rally

2024-10-06 06:49 Last Updated At：06:50

BUTLER, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump returned on Saturday to the Pennsylvania fairgrounds where he was nearly assassinated in July, holding a sprawling rally with thousands of supporters in a critical swing state Trump hopes to return to his column in November's election.

The former president and Republican nominee picked up where he left off back in July when a gunman tried to assassinate him and struck his ear. As he had suggested he would for weeks beforehand, he began his speech with, “As I was saying,” and gestured toward an immigration chart that he was looking at when the gunfire began.

The Trump campaign worked to maximize the event’s headline-grabbing potential with just 30 days to go in his race against his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. Musician Lee Greenwood appeared on stage and serenaded him with “God Bless the USA,” frequently played at his rallies, and billionaire Elon Musk was expected to speak later Saturday.

Trump needs to drive up voter turnout in conservative strongholds like Butler County, an overwhelmingly white, rural-suburban community, if he wants to win Pennsylvania in November. Harris, too, has targeted her campaign efforts at Pennsylvania, rallying there repeatedly as part of her aggressive outreach in critical swing states.

Early in his speech, Trump asked for a moment of silence to honor firefighter Corey Comperatore, who died as he shielded family members from gunfire. Opera singer Christopher Macchio sang “Ave Maria” after a bell rung at the same time that gunfire began on July 13.

Standing behind protective glass that now encases the stage at his outdoor rallies, Trump called the would-be assassin “a vicious monster” and said he did not succeed “by the hand of providence and the grace of God.”

“We fought together. We have endured together. We have pushed onward together," he said. "And right here in Pennsylvania, we have bled together. We’ve bled.”

Before Trump's appearance, his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, got on stage at the Butler Farm Show grounds to speak before the former president and reflected on the events that day while severely criticizing Democrats for calling Trump “a threat to democracy,” saying that kind of language is “inflammatory."

"You heard the shots. You saw the blood. We all feared the worst. But you knew everything would be OK when President Trump raised his fist high in the air and shouted, ‘Fight, fight!’" said Vance, who was chosen as his vice presidential nominee less than two days later. “Now I believe it as sure as I’m standing here today that what happened was a true miracle.”

Musk, who has pushed into conservative politics, met with Trump and Vance backstage, donning a black “Make America Great Again” hat. A billboard on the way into the rally said, “IN MUSK WE TRUST,” and showed his photo.

A massive crowd stood shoulder to shoulder from the stage to the press stand several hundred yards away at the event billed as a "tribute to the American spirit.” Area hotels, motels and inns were said to be full and some rallygoers arrived Friday.

Crowds were lined up as the sun rose Saturday. There was a very visible heightened security presence, with armed law enforcers in camouflage uniforms on roofs.

Much of the crowd waited several hours for Trump. About half an hour into his speech, Trump paused his speech for more than five minutes after an attendee had a medical issue and needed a medic.

Trump used the event to remember Comperatore, a volunteer firefighter struck and killed at the July 13 rally, and to recognize the two other rallygoers injured, David Dutch and James Copenhaver. They and Trump were struck when 20-year-old shooter Thomas Matthew Crooks of Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, opened fire from an unsecured rooftop nearby before he was fatally shot by sharpshooters.

The building from which Crooks fired was completely obscured by tractor-trailers, a large grassy perimeter and a fence. Most bleachers were now at the sides, rather than behind Trump.

How Crooks managed to outmaneuver law enforcement that day and scramble on top of a building within easy shooting distance of the ex-president is among many questions that remain unanswered about the worst Secret Service security failure in decades. Another is his motive.

Butler County District Attorney Rich Goldinger told WPXI-TV this week that “everyone is doubling down on their efforts to make sure this is done safely and correctly.”

Mike Slupe, the county sheriff, told the station he estimates the Secret Service, was deploying ”quadruple the assets” it did in July. The agency has undergone a painful reckoning over its handling of two attempts on Trump’s life.

Butler County, on the western edge of a coveted presidential swing state, is a Trump stronghold. He won the county with about 66% of the vote in both 2016 and 2020. About 57% of the county’s 139,000 registered voters are Republicans, compared with about 29% who are Democrats and 14% something else.

Chris Harpster, 30, of Tyrone, Pennsylvania, was accompanied by his girlfriend on Saturday as he returned to the scene. Of July 13, he said, “I was afraid” — as were his parents, watching at home, who texted him immediately after the shots rang out.

Heightened security measures were making him feel better now, as well as the presence of his girlfriend, a first-time rallygoer. Harpster said he will be a third-time Trump voter in November, based on the Republican nominee’s stances on immigration, guns, abortion and energy. Harpster said he hopes Pennsylvania will go Republican, particularly out of concern over gas and oil industry jobs.

Other townspeople were divided over the value of Trump's return. Heidi Priest, a Butler resident who started a Facebook group supporting Harris, said Trump's last visit fanned political tensions in the city.

“Whenever you see people supporting him and getting excited about him being here, it scares the people who don’t want to see him reelected,” she said.

Terri Palmquist came from Bakersfield, California, and said her 18-year-old daughter tried to dissuade her. “I just figure we need to not let fear control us. That’s what the other side wants is fear. If fear controls us, we lose,” she said.

She said she was not worried about her own safety.

“Honesty, I believe God’s got Trump, for some reason. I do. So we’re rooting for him.”

Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.