LIGHTNING’S STANLEY CUP WIN CELEBRATED WITH TAMPA BOAT PARADE:
The Tampa Bay Lightning’s second straight Stanley Cup championship was celebrated with a boat parade in Tampa Monday (July 12th) on the Hillsborough River. Thousands of fans turned out as players and coaches were carried on boats, and later a rally was held after the parade in a downtown park in rainy weather. The Stanley Cup suffered some damage in all the celebrating, and with the bowl getting dented, and it will have to be sent for repairs before the team gets it back.
USA BASKETBALL LOSES TO AUSTRALIA, SECOND PRE-OLYMPICS LOSS:
The U.S. men’s basketball team lost to Australia 91-83 last night (July 12th) in the second loss for the three-time defending Olympic gold medalists before the Tokyo Olympics.
So far, the U.S. has played two of five planned exhibitions leading up to the Olympics later this month and have lost both, defeated by Nigeria in the first game Saturday. Damian Lillard led with 22 points for the U.S. team, which is being coached by Gregg Popovich, Kevin Durant scored 17 and Bradley Beal had 12 points.
JOHNSON TO MISS BRITISH OPEN AFTER TESTING POSITIVE FOR CORONAVIRUS:
U.S. golfer Zach Johnson will miss the British Open this weekend after testing positive for the coronavirus. The withdrawal ends a streak of playing in 69 consecutive majors, since 2004, for Johnson, who won the British Open in 2015. He is the latest of a number of players who’ve withdrawn, some of them also for coronavirus-related reasons. The British Open is returning after not being played last year due to the pandemic.