Gophers’ drought without NBA first-round pick stretches two decades

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The Gophers men’s basketball program’s drought without a first-round NBA draft pick has reached 20 years.

Minnesota freshman guard Cam Christie’s name was not called during the opening 30 picks of the NBA draft Wednesday in New York City.

Kris Humphries in 2004 remains the last Gophers’ first-round pick. The Hopkins native was picked 14th overall by the Utah Jazz to start his 13-year NBA career.

Christie will now be a candidate to be picked in the second round, which begins at 3 p.m. Thursday.

Christie, of Arlington Heights, Ill., was an all-Big Ten freshman team honoree last season after putting up 11.3 points and 39 percent 3-point shooting across 33 games.

Christie’s older brother, Max, was selected by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 35th pick in 2022.

The Gophers haven’t had any NBA draft picks since Daniel Oturu of St. Paul was picked by the Timberwolves with the 33rd selection in the 2020 draft.

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Timberwolves move up to No. 8, draft Kentucky guard Rob Dillingham

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The Timberwolves made a major splash on draft night on Wednesday, moving up to the No. 8 spot to select Kentucky freshman guard Rob Dillingham, a source confirmed to the Pioneer Press.

Minnesota made the deal with the Spurs, and all it cost Minnesota was an unprotected 2031 first-round pick and a pick swap in 2030. Perhaps those picks will prove fruitful for San Antonio, but it’s rare for the No. 8 overall pick — even in a “weak” draft — to be dealt for a pick seven years down the road.

The Wolves even held onto their other first-round selection — No. 27 overall — in Tuesday’s draft.

And for Minnesota — who’s about to be shackled by second-apron restrictions from a salary cap blown by — this was a chance to make some form of a big move. That 2031 first-round pick only became available to trade on Wednesday, and basketball boss Tim Connelly held onto it for all of a few hours.

Minnesota now has no first-round picks in odd years until 2033. It cannot trade its 2032 first-round pick as a result of the deal, but that was going to be true regardless because of the apron rules.

So this was the time to take a swing, and Minnesota took it by grabbing Dillingham.

The 19-year-old was a scoring phenom off the bench for the Wildcats last season. The Southeastern Conference’s Sixth Man of the Year averaged 15.2 points in just 23 minutes per game. He shot 44 percent from deep and has the ability to get to the rim at will with lightning quickness.

In the short term, Dillingham could potentially be the off-the-bench scoring burst that both Connelly and coach Chris Finch crave off the bench, but a role they hadn’t been able to fill in recent years. Jaylen Nowell was tried in that spot, but it didn’t work out.

Last year, the second-unit did seem to lack a bit of scoring punch. And, in general, Minnesota lacked perimeter playmakers outside of Anthony Edwards and Mike Conley.

Dillingham can fill both of those voids.

Now the question remains as to whether Finch will trust him with minutes on a championship contender this next season. Minnesota is on the cusp of winning a title. Will Dillingham — who at 164 pounds was easily the slightest player in this class — be able to make the transition to defend and decision-make at the highest level to help the Wolves right away?

That remains to be seen. But even if he isn’t a playoff player a year from now, Minnesota had a major question surrounding its point guard of the future in the years to come after Conley’s playing days are over, with very few ways to that void in the future.

Dillingham could potentially grow into that role, and will have the opportunity to learn from Conley in the coming years before that transition would need to take place. And, at the core of the move, if Dillingham hits in the way Minnesota likely hopes he will, he can be a high-level impact player in the NBA.

For a team that’s strapped of pathways to roster improvement for years to come after the Rudy Gobert trade, opportunities to acquire such talents need to be seized. And Connelly and Co. have proven they won’t shy away from opportunity when it knocks on the door.

Appellate court reinstates lawsuit against Lakeville school district over Black Lives Matter posters

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A federal appeals panel on Wednesday reversed a lower court’s dismissal of a case against Lakeville Area Schools over the display of Black Lives Matter posters on its campuses.

The lawsuit was filed two years ago by a group of local taxpayers, parents and students who alleged their First Amendment rights were violated when the school district allowed posters featuring the slogan to be placed in classrooms, while refusing to permit the display of posters that read “All Lives Matter” or “Blue Lives Matter.”

In dismissing the suit last summer, U.S. District Judge Jerry Blackwell ruled that because district officials oversaw the design of the posters, they constituted government speech and were therefore not subject to challenges under the First Amendment.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed, writing that because the decision to display the posters was left up to individual teachers, they could not be considered government speech.

“Government speech requires that a government shape and control the expression,” the three-judge panel wrote in Wednesday’s ruling.

In allowing teachers to decide whether to hang the posters in their classrooms, the district “created a limited public forum, thereby opening school walls to the discussion of similar topics,” they added.

The appellate panel sent the case back to the U.S. District Court in Minnesota for further proceedings.

The Upper Midwest Law Center, a conservative nonprofit law firm that represents the plaintiffs in the case, praised the appellate court’s decision in a news release.

“This is a huge victory for free speech and a serious blow to government efforts to pass off private activist speech as its own,” UMLC senior counsel James Dickey said in the news release. “The government cannot put its thumb on the scale in favor of Black Lives Matter activists against all other speech on issues of race in America. If Minnesota’s school districts are going to open up their hallways and classrooms to private speech, they must do so without discrimination, or not do it.”

Lakeville Area Schools officials and their attorneys did not return messages seeking comment.

Also in Wednesday’s decision, the appellate court upheld Blackwell’s ruling that plaintiffs in the case must be identified by their legal names, rather than by pseudonyms.

Several of the suit’s plaintiffs signed onto the case without naming themselves, arguing that they feared “reprisal from political activists” as a result of their participation.

The appeals panel agreed with Blackwell that “a general reference to cancel culture alone is insufficient to establish a compelling fear of retaliation.”

Dickey said it is unclear whether those plaintiffs will continue to participate in the suit.

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Doing ‘the right thing’ spares man prison in slaying of good Samaritan outside Fridley grocery store

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Blanyon Toe Davies did the right thing for the mother of Devon Michael Adams, prosecutors say.

Earlier this month, a jury found Davies’ co-defendant, Johnson Kenny Sirleaf, guilty of first-degree murder for fatally shooting Adams outside a Cub Foods store in Fridley just over a year ago. Sirleaf, 34, of Plymouth, was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

Prosecutors say Sirleaf shot Adams, 27, of Hugo, after he saw Sirleaf assaulting his girlfriend in the parking lot and intervened. They had never met before the fatal encounter.

Johnson Kenny Sirleaf, left, and Blanyon Toe Davies (Courtesy of the Anoka County sheriff’s office)

A week after the shooting, the Anoka County Attorney’s Office charged Sirleaf with second-degree murder. Davies, who picked up Sirleaf after the shooting, was charged with felony aiding an offender. He entered a straight guilty plea to the charge in September.

At Davies’ sentencing hearing Wednesday, prosecutor Amy Reed-Hall said Sirleaf’s conviction would not have happened had it not been for Davies. He came forward and told law enforcement and prosecutors that he saw everything, even directing them to the murder weapon, which he had given to Sirleaf a few weeks before the killing.

He then gave his eyewitness testimony in Sirleaf’s grand jury indictment and during his murder trial.

“Mr. Davies testified with no promises from us,” Reed-Hall said. “And he came in and he said in his direct (testimony) that it was the right thing to do for Devon’s mom.”

She told Judge Dyanna Street that Davies has had no violations since he’s been on conditional release awaiting sentencing, and that prosecution is recommending a downward departure to probation.

Street agreed, staying a 23-month prison sentence in favor of five years of probation.

“What you did took so much courage, and you did it for all the right reasons,” Street said of his cooperation with the state. “It was honorable, and I want to thank you for that.”

Shooter drove to nearby apartment

Adams was shot in the chest in the store’s parking lot at Interstate 694 and University Avenue shortly after 11 a.m. March 9, 2023.

Surveillance video showed a burgundy 2013 Buick Encore SUV drive straight to the store’s parking lot and pull in front of Adams’ truck, preventing it from leaving.

A witness reported hearing arguing and a “pop,” then seeing a man fall to the ground and an SUV fleeing the area. The witness said there was one person in the SUV.

Devon Michael Adams (Courtesy of GoFundMe)

Law enforcement canvassed the area and located the SUV at an apartment building parking lot in the 6000 block of Main Street, just north of the Cub Foods. Video surveillance showed the SUV leaving the shooting and heading straight to the apartment parking lot.

Video surveillance from the apartment building showed the SUV pull into the lot a few minutes after the shooting. After about 20 minutes, Davies pulled up in his white Ford F‐250 and picked up the SUV driver, who was later identified as Sirleaf.

Cellphone records show Davies and Sirleaf had been in contact right before and after the shooting. Sirleaf’s phone records put him at the shooting, the charges said.

Detectives also learned that Sirleaf had been staying in a room at the Extended Stay that was rented by Davies.

‘I am so grateful’

Adams’ mother, Kim Adams, told the court Wednesday that her son was her best friend and confidant.

“Losing a child from murder changes your perspective of the world and mankind, ” she said.

Her son was on the autism spectrum, she said, and “immediately reacted when he witnessed someone in danger. When I was told what he did, it didn’t surprise me at all. I said, ‘Of course he did.’ ”

She said she hopes that Davies “creates a new chapter.”

Davies, 30, of Brooklyn Park, told the court, while fighting back tears, that he “never would have imagined” that Sirleaf would use his gun to kill anyone.

“Everybody suffered for no reason,” he said. “There was no reason for this, and I couldn’t let (Devon’s mother) suffer.”

Davies said he was working as a music producer and that he saw talent in Sirleaf.

“But he’s a coward,” he said. “All that tough stuff is an act. It’s just an act.”

After Davies left the courtroom with his attorney, he walked over to Adams’ mother — and they hugged.

“Thank you,” she told him. “I am so grateful. You are a brave person.”

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