Knicks legend Bernard King takes a shot at some Q&A with Post columnist Steve Serby.

Q: What do you think of Knicks versus Celtics?

A: It’s going to be a great matchup, the regular season doesn’t matter at all, and I think we’re ideally positioned to potentially, even though we don’t have much rest coming out of a tough series against Detroit, I think it’s going to be a tough matchup for Boston, and I think that we will have an opportunity to win in Boston.

Q: How do the Knicks beat the Celtics?

A: Pressure all passes that are going to be made. If you pressure all passes at the entry point, that is going to be very difficult to find an offensive player when he comes off of a screen, make sure you pick up [Jayson] Tatum early on so he doesn’t pull up in transition and hit the 3-point shot. We have to rebound well, and we have to get back on defense. And more contribution from the bench as well. [Miles] McBride is going to have to be consistent, we’re going to need [Cameron] Payne to be consistent.

Q: So you believe the Knicks can win this series?

A: You always believe you’re going to win, you never doubt that. And so yes, I do believe the Knicks can win this series. … I’m not looking past the Celtics, I’m not saying the Knicks are going to win the championship, what I’m saying is they’re well positioned to win this series.

The Knicks are a great team. They came in third in the standings. I just think that the matchups are very suitable for the Knicks to win this series. You have to make sure you control Derrick White. If you control him, then you control [Jaylen] Brown and Tatum to a large extent.

Q: Jalen Brunson is your favorite Knick?

A: I had an opportunity to meet several of the Knicks early this year at a charity event. I said to him: “One of the beauties of your game beyond your basketball IQ, I love how you have mastered the art of scoring. To do that, you have to understand defense, and you understand it very well.” I felt that I arrived at a point in my career where I mastered the art of scoring, I was 27 at the time. Brunson is 28. What he’s doing is truly phenomenal at the position of having to run the team and also making sure everyone’s involved in the offense, and still be there at the end to take the shots that matter, and make them. And he feels no pressure whatsoever. That last play for example …

Q: His three to eliminate the Pistons.

A: I’m going to break that play down for a moment. He gets the ball at half-court, and [Mikal] Bridges comes up guarded by Cade [Cunningham] to look like he’s going to set a screen, and because he fades, Cade can’t double-team Brunson because that’s going to leave Bridges open for a 3-point shot. So now Brunson is going one-on-one, and the defender [Ausar Thompson] is leaning to his left, and Brunson puts his right arm out and he drives left. So the defender’s off-balance, he already has the lead position on the drive. It’s one of the greatest moves I’ve ever seen in basketball. When he makes that drive and Thompson does not have positioning on his feet properly so he doesn’t have the spacing to slide properly, so when Brunson makes that drive and Thompson tries to catch up, check out what he did — he patted the ball between his legs with his left hand, took it with his right hand, and Thompson is still sliding left! He created separation of five feet, it was amazing … pull up for the jumper with his strong hand, his left hand, and shoots the ball, and it’s too late for Thompson to recover.

That is one of the greatest moves I’ve ever seen in basketball.

Q: Is Brunson on a Hall of Fame trajectory?

A: I’m not one to project what happens six, seven years from now. All I know is that he has decided that he’s going to be a great player. And when you make that decision, that means that you’re making all the sacrifices in the offseason necessary to take your skill sets to your game to another level. I see no reason why he will not continue to build and sustain this for the remainder of his career … he grew up around the game with his dad [assistant coach Rick] … he’s great for the city, he’s great for this organization, he’s great for young kids that watch the game.

Q: To be as clutch as he is and as you were, what is required of that moment?

A: I’ll take you back to the fifth game in Detroit (first round of the 1984 playoffs) for example. No air conditioning in the building, I’m playing with two dislocated fingers, I’m playing with the flu. I did not attend shootaround. I entered the team bus, I said, “I’m sick, I’m sorry, but I have the flu,” and [assistant coach] Rick Pitino had the flu as well. I went back upstairs to my room. But I’m not going to let the team down, I know I’m going to play that night, no matter what it takes, I can’t let my team down.

Follow The Post’s coverage of the Knicks in the 2025 NBA Playoffs

Sports+ subscribers: Sign up for Inside the Knicks to get daily newsletter coverage and join Expert Take for insider texts about the series.

However in that huddle, with the game on the line, [Coach] Hubie [Brown] is executing a play — for Billy Cartwright. And I’m sitting there, and I’m averaging 42 points a game. I have never in my lifetime questioned a coach on any level. But I’m sorry, when the season’s on the line, and the game’s on the line, I want the ball. Period. And I yelled out: “Hubie. Do I have the right to take the ball myself?” And he finally looked up and he said, “Yeah.” What I’m telling him when I asked him that question is “I’m breaking your play.” So the ball’s not going to go to Billy Cartwright. It’s going to me. Earl Cureton is defending me, in the heat of that moment, he says, “Come on and bring it.” (laugh).

So the point I’m making is when you have someone that has the willingness to accept the challenge of providing for the team and scoring a basket when needed, when the game is on the line, when the season is on the line, you got a special player in Brunson. He’s willing to accept the pressure. And there’s no pressure. You don’t feel pressure in that moment when you take on that challenge.

Q: You spoke with KAT (Karl-Anthony Towns) too at that charity event?

A: He loves playing in New York. I said to him, “I knew that you would come here and do very well, because this stage means a lot to you.” Obviously we know he’s the best-shooting big man in basketball today in terms of 3-point shooting. With his skill sets and his passing ability as a big man, it’s amazing. So he has an all-around game, he can put the ball on the floor, he can post, he hits the 3-point shot, he can hit the jump shot, he rebounds and he can defend.

Q: What do you like about OG Anunoby?

A: He’s tough. He’s a great defender. He comes to play every single night. He plays to win. And he doesn’t mind taking on whether it’s a frontcourt player or it’s a guard, he can guard all over the entire floor, any player. He can deliver points for you as well. OG’s going to be extremely important in this series matching up against the frontline of the Boston Celtics.

Q: What do you like about Josh Hart?

A: Oh the toughness. To think that Hart is only what, 6-[foot]-4, 6-5? He can get double digits in rebounds, it’s amazing, he’ll go in there against anyone. His tenacity, his toughness is what I really enjoy about his game, and he meshes very well obviously with Brunson, and he’s very effective in doing that.

Q: Mikal Bridges?

A: Mikal Bridges is a player that’s a great, great jump shooter. And I think that he alleviates a lot of the pressure off of KAT down low when KAT decides to post because that extends the defense out to the 3-point line where Bridges is very effective in shooting from. And he’s also capable of putting the ball on the floor and getting to the basket, and we’re going to certainly need him during the series.

Q: How important will Mitchell Robinson be?

A: It’s very important in terms of this series that the frontline keeps themself out of foul trouble. But Mitchell Robinson, with his shot-blocking capability and his rebounding ability, is going to be very crucial in this series when you have a [Kristaps] Porzingis and you have a frontline that the Celtics have.

Boston has been out for a considerable amount of time. So yes, they’re rested, but when you’re rested, you become rusty. And so I don’t look for their shots to fall early on, and I think that’s an opportunity for us to really pounce on them in the first quarter.

Q: Tom Thibodeau?

A: He’s from the Hubie Brown school. What I mean by that, that’s greatness. You’re looking at greatness as a coach. He’s going to always ensure that his team is well prepared, and they’re going to execute the system, the game plan well. You have to be able to make adjustments that game so that you don’t lose that game. He’s capable of doing that as a coach.

Q: How hostile will the TD Garden be Monday night?

A: The Celtics don’t like the Knicks (laugh). It’s going to be very hostile — you just have to hope they don’t turn the heat up (laugh). I remember during the [1984] series we came in, it was April, and the heat was on in our locker room. Come on now! I know it’s not the old Boston Garden, but I’m just having fun with that comment I just made. They’re going to emotionally support the team as much as possible to get them to a different level, and that’s what fans can do for a ballclub, take them to a different level.

Q: In 1984, what was the rivalry with the Celtics like?

A: It was always a significant rivalry that existed between the Knicks and Celtics. Everyone hated the Celtics (laugh), we didn’t like the Celtics as young players, and it wasn’t a hate toward the city or a hate toward the organization, it was the competitive fire that each team had against one another. We always wanted to beat the Celtics and we never would allow them to beat us in our house.

Q: Game 6 of that Eastern Conference semifinals at the Garden.

A: I remember at the start of the series Cedric Maxwell walked up to the jump-ball circle when we all lined up and shook hands, and he stood in front of my face and he said to me, “Why is it that you look like that?” (laugh) I had my game face on. And I ignored him, and I didn’t say a word. And I think that set the tone with him of what I was all about and how I was going to play throughout that series.

Boston is hoping to close us out in Game 6, and it was very important that we got off to a very good start, and so I came out shooting jump shots to ensure that I can open up the lane and open up the baseline for my other part of my game … we came out very aggressively defensively … we established [Bill] Cartwright in the low post, on the low block, and Rory Sparrow was defending very well in the backcourt … and really the fans helped to carry us to that Game 6 victory.

Q: They were chanting “MVP, MVP, MVP” for you.

A: I won’t forget that (laugh). I think I went out and got 44 in that game. We were never intimidated by the Celtics. We felt that we were on equal footing, regardless of the Hall of Famers they had on that team. We knew that we were on par with them in terms of matchups. Billy Cartwright was a great center, he matched up well with [Robert Parish], Truck Robinson matched up well with Kevin McHale, and so we never felt we were at a disadvantage at any position against that roster.

Q: Didn’t Cornbread (Maxwell) say something about you before the series began after you had averaged 42.6 ppg against the Pistons?

A: Coming out of the Detroit series, every city I’ve ever gone to with the Knicks, I always pick up the local paper, so that I get a feel of the city and culturally what’s happening in that particular city. I picked up the newspaper and on the back page — “The B” — and they spelled it out (laugh) — “The B is not going to score 40 on us.” Hmmm. Quite interesting (laugh). I’m not impacted by that sort of thing. I’m just going to go out and play each minute the same until the horn blows at the end of the game. And nothing is going to change my demeanor, nothing is going to change my approach.

Q: How much trash did [Larry] Bird talk during that series?

A: I’m going to say it very succinctly — you can’t talk trash if 40’s being scored on your head (laugh). Bird and I played against one another for 10 years. We played at the highest level. And I always heard he talked trash, but I never heard him talk some trash, he never spoke trash to me ever. Not once.

Q: Cornbread and McHale were on you mostly that series.

A: I had to guard Bird. Don’t ask me why he didn’t guard me. And when you have to play against Bird, who I’ve always said publicly was my toughest player that I’ve ever had to face defending, because he’s 6-10, he can pass over the top of me, I’m 6-7, he can put the ball on the floor, he’s a great rebounder, a great scorer. … During that series, I was at a point in my career where I had mastered the art of scoring. So you were not going to stop me at that point in my career.

Q: Not even with those dislocated middle fingers with a splint on each hand?

A: I was never at 100 percent, but emotionally, and mentally, I took myself to a different place to deal with the pain factor that I felt each and every game and every play.

Q: How painful was losing Game 7 at Boston Garden?

A: It’s something I’ll never forget for the rest of my life. Bird outplayed me, it’s very simple, that game.

Q: If you could build the perfect basketball player, what one thing would you take from Bernard King?

A: Tenacity. Because if you have a significant and genuine love for the game, then you’re going to work as hard as possible to develop your skill sets at whatever level you’re playing at, whether it’s in youth basketball, in high school or in college or the pros. And that tenacity could take you to different levels of the game. And so if you have that habit formed, you can develop yourself into a tremendous player.

Q: You had a killer instinct. Is that something you’re born with?

A: Nooo, you’re not born with that. That’s something that you develop. It’s a drive, it’s an inner fire that you have inside yourself that you develop because you love something so very much that you want to be very good at it, and you’ll do whatever it takes to ensure that you become highly skilled and spend the necessary time and sacrifice whatever you have to sacrifice to make yourself into the player that you want to be.

Q: Why do the Knicks have such a hold on New York City?

A: It’s a basketball town. You have the Giants, you have the Jets, you have the Yankees, you have the Mets, but New York has always been a basketball town. And when the Knicks do well, New York loves to celebrate that. Historically speaking, it takes everyone back to the time when the Knicks won the championship with Walt Frazier, Earl Monroe, Willis Reed, [Bill] Bradley, [Dave] DeBusschere and those great teams. It’s a reminder and a reflection of that.

Q: May 8, 1970 (the Willis Game against the Lakers), where were you?

A: In 1970 I was 14 years old (laugh). I was in the ninth grade at the time.

Q: The game was blacked out in New York.

A: It was something that we talked about in the playgrounds. It was something that all of us kids, we emulated the players on the Knicks. So someone would be Walt Frazier or Earl Monroe or Dave DeBusschere, which was my favorite player growing up.

Q: Why was DeBusschere your favorite?

A: I was noted for scoring in my later years in high school, in college, obviously in the pros, but rebounding was my love, I averaged 28 rebounds a game in high school (laugh). I just loved being under the basket, boxing out, grabbing rebounds as Dave DeBusschere did.

Q: What message would you have for Knicks fans?

A: We are New York Knicks Strong.

Q: Can you elaborate on that?

A: That means that we are going to come out and play and represent ourselves as a team, represent ourselves as an organization, represent our fan base, represent the city of New York City. We are New York Knicks Strong, and we are going to play that way. And we’ll demonstrate that on Monday.

New area should help advance sports teams

Alec Munro, Fort Lewis College assistant athletic director-sports performance/wellness, shows Alex Tenorio, an FLC softball player, how to log into a tablet that will track her workout on Wednesday at the new FLC CommonSpirit Sports Performance Center. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

What was once an eyesore is now the shining star on the hill at Fort Lewis College.

For decades, the Skyhawks’ weight room was way behind its peers and rivals, with local high schools having better spaces and equipment. Coaches steered recruits away from the weight room and some teams couldn’t work out together with the lack of space.

Now, thanks to years of planning by FLC and support from the Durango community, the Skyhawks have flown to the top of Division II and the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference with the opening of the $6 million CommonSpirit Sports Performance Center.

The space, across from Whalen Gymnasium, is 10,000 square feet and has 24 weight racks, six treadmills, three rowing machines, three bikes, two stair steppers, 10 weight machines, a 250-square-foot fuel station and a turf area.

KB Broadus, a Fort Lewis College football player, works on his speed mechanics on Wednesday at the new FLC CommonSpirit Sports Performance Center on campus. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

“We evaluated the landscape in DII with our project team, and this facility sets us apart,” FLC Director of Athletics Travis Whipple said. “It will continue to take us to the top while we recruit and retain high-caliber student-athletes who are focused on their performance in the classroom, community and competition. The facility, combined with our best-in-class support services, will continue to enhance the student-athlete experience for years to come.”

Alec Munro, FLC assistant athletic director-sports performance/wellness, has felt the transformation in about every way. He now has a beautiful office inside the sports performance center with a glass wall overlooking the weight room. This allows him to keep an eye on his student-athletes while scheduling workouts and creating workout plans in his office.

The planning and talk about the sports performance center goes back about five years, Munro said, well before his arrival in November 2021. The ball really got rolling about 2½ years ago when CommonSpirit put forth a generous donation. Alpine Bank and several other local businesses followed with funding.

Then the design phase happened for about a year or a year and a half, Munro said. His ideas, alongside Mercy Sports Medicine, FLC athletic trainers, the construction crew, architects and Whipple brought the vision to life.

Senior women’s lacrosse player Diamond Velasco said Munro did a good job keeping the student-athletes informed of the progress on the sports performance center with reminders and videos. She and her teammates would try to take a peek at the progress of the center.

Velasco and Munro said some student-athletes got to test the equipment and use the space a few weeks before the grand opening on April 11. She and her lacrosse teammates felt some FOMO – fear of missing out – when they saw other athletes posting videos of themselves using the new facility while the women’s lacrosse team was on the road.

“For the upperclassmen, it feels like a dream come true,” Munro said. “They’ve been waiting for it, they’ve been told ever since they were recruited that we were looking into getting something like this performance center and they always had it in the back of their minds that it was coming. … What the student athletes are finding is now that we have a space like this, it’s more than just equipment, it’s more than just a place to do your squats and bench; it’s a place to feel comfortable … with the resources they need to have a solid performance career in their sport, so it’s been really cool.”

Diamond Velasco, a Fort Lewis College lacrosse player, works out on Wednesday at the new FLC CommonSpirit Sports Performance Center on campus. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

The sports performance center can be divided into four sections. A few smaller teams can work out in each section or a bigger team, like football, can have the entire team in the sports performance center.

Student-athletes won’t have to run across the room during a workout session; instead, they can do most of their workouts at their section.

Munro and the rest of the FLC athletic staff knew cardio equipment would be essential to the space. With winter weather in Durango for six months out of the year, athletes need a space to do speed, change of direction and agility workouts. That’s where the turf area comes in. Munro said training with sprinting and speed workouts year-round is essential to preventing injuries.

For cardio, the stair steppers, treadmills and rowers are essential for when the weather is bad.

Alec Munro, Fort Lewis College assistant athletic director-sports performance/wellness, places a sensor on a weight lifting bar that can track the athlete’s lifting performance at the new FLC CommonSpirit Sports Performance Center on campus. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

Munro thinks some of the technological advancements at the new sports center are unheard-of at the Division II level. The student-athletes and teams use an app called TeamBuildr, which is a program-design software where all student-athletes get a profile, get individualized programs and can track their progress throughout their career.

“That allows them to pull up their name and see exactly what they need to do in here, but also go home for winter break or summer break and still get those workouts and be able to have full access to them,” Munro said. “Or if an injured individual can’t do something, there’s a little button that says opt out and then they can opt out of that exercise and they can put in the notes what they did instead. They can also message me on that app so that they have full access to get a hold of me if they have any questions.”

Munro and the athletic training staff at FLC can also post educational content on TeamBuildr.

FLC will also use Output Sports’ devices that track an athlete’s velocity on any movement. It can be put on a barbell and an athlete can do a squat. The device will then show how fast they moved in that squat.

The new Fort Lewis College CommonSpirit Sports Performance Center recently opened on campus for student-athletes. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

“It’s an assessment tool that we’re going to use very heavily with our athletic trainers,” Munro said. “We will pick the three most common injury areas for that sport. We’ll do an assessment to track maybe their mobility or their stability or their balance, because you can put it on your wrist and it’ll show an exact angle of measurement in an external rotation. … We’re going to do this with all freshmen as they come in. We have those numbers so if they get injured, now we can retest and we can make sure we get them back to where they need to be before we put them back on the court, the field or the track.”

The new area has energized the current student-athletes. During finals week, the NCAA mandates that schools can’t do structured workout sessions with their student-athletes. A weight room can be opened for optional workouts.

Each workout station in the new Fort Lewis College CommonSpirit Sports Performance Center has a tablet that can track each athlete as they work out. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

In the past, at this time of year, the old weight room would get five to 10 visitors a day for optional workouts. This week, Munro said 75 to 100 student-athletes have been showing up for optional workouts per day. Munro thought those kids were gone by now, but the sports performance center has opened his eyes.

One of the biggest reasons the student-athletes are excited for the sports performance center is because of how poor the old weight room was.

At 2,000 square feet, it was five times smaller than the sports performance center. There were half racks from the 1980s that were starting to fall apart. There was no cardio equipment, no turf and only one set of dumbbells for every number.

The new Fort Lewis College CommonSpirit Sports Performance Center recently opened on campus for student-athletes. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

Teams could barely fit into the old space and some had to split up. Therefore, the time student-athletes could use the old weight room became limited because so many sessions had to be scheduled since the space was so small.

There was also no fueling area. Munro would haul around what he called a “fuel wagon” with a few snacks. Now, with a dedicated fuel station, athletes can get fruits, protein sources and bars. Also, because of the partnership with Coca-Cola Durango, the fuel station has things like Core Power Protein Shakes, Powerade and Body Armor.

Velasco said student-athletes didn’t want to go into the old space because the hours were so limited and it was very dirty because of how many people were using the small space. She said student-athletes now feel intrinsically motivated to go into the sports performance center.

FLC football head coach Johnny Cox said the old weight room was what he used when he starred for the Skyhawks’ football team in the 1990s.

The new sports performance center allows Cox to continue the upward trajectory of the program. When he became the head coach, the program had only about 60 kids; now that number is close to 120. FLC football has signed one of its biggest recruiting classes in years. The sports performance center is a big part of that.

KB Broadus, a Fort Lewis College football player, works out on Wednesday at the new FLC CommonSpirit Sports Performance Center on campus. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

In the past, Cox would rarely show recruits the old weight room and if he did, it would be the last thing, almost to try to make it an afterthought. Now it’s the first thing he shows recruits. Munro said he tries to meet with most of the recruits and their eyes have widened and they’re amazed by the sports performance center.

“Once I saw it, I thought, ‘This is top-notch; this is unbelievable,’” Cox said. “All the little details. … Then, once they got the demonstration and I saw how many more movements can be trained, we’re going to have a better football team. You’re going to train a better athlete, because you can isolate it and strengthen it in all different ways.”

Jacob Ramos, a Fort Lewis College soccer player, works out on Wednesday at the new FLC CommonSpirit Sports Performance Center on campus. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

FLC has all the tools for a student-athlete to be great. Whipple said it’s a one-stop shop for athletes and it helps the athletic department and college with its focus on its mission of graduating champions while serving the campus community. Also, starting in the fall, members of the Student Life Center will use the facility.

“We’ve built the staff and now we have the facility,” Munro said. “I’m a firm believer that this is one of the best Division II sports performance centers in the nation now. I have no problem saying that.”

bkelly@durangoherald.com

Alex Tenorio, a Fort Lewis College softball player, changes what her next workout will be on a tablet that will track her performance on Wednesday at the new FLC CommonSpirit Sports Performance Center on campus. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

The new Fort Lewis College CommonSpirit Sports Performance Center recently opened on campus for student-athletes. (Jerry McBride/Durango Herald)

Copy article link

While the Nevada men’s basketball team playing in the proposed Grand Sierra Resort Arena has drawn most of the headlines over the last 19 months, the facility also could be home to a minor-league hockey team.

While no team is in place for the arena if built, all of the in-depth analysis of the project presented by Hunden Partners, a third party hired by the city of Reno to analyze the redevelopment, have included a minor-league hockey tenant.

Of the Hunden Partners’ estimated 95 events held in the arena each year, 39 are projected to be minor-league hockey games. And given the thin margin of financial wiggle room the developers have said the project has, landing a minor-league hockey team and drawing fans to those games will be key to the project’s success if it is approved Wednesday when the Reno Redevelopment Agency Board meets to vote on whether to offer tax-increment financing to the GSR.

Reno last had a minor-league hockey team in 1998, which was the final year of a short-lived three-season run by the Reno Renegade/Rage. That team, a member of the West Coast Hockey League, played in the Reno-Sparks Convention Center from 1995-98. Reno hasn’t had a fully pro minor-league hockey team since then, although Northern Nevada has seen a recent renaissance in the sport as the Reno Ice Raiders, a semi-pro team, has played in the Reno Ice facility since 2021 with the ECHL’s Tahoe Knight Monsters debuting in Stateline last fall.

While minor-league teams have come and gone in Northern Nevada over the years, including the Renegades/Rage; Reno Bighorns basketball team; and Reno 1868 FC soccer team, the GSR developers believe minor-league hockey would be a success in Reno.

“No. 1 for hockey, I think Reno Ice has done a great job of expanding the local fan base for hockey and getting enough families and the youth sports segment interested in hockey,” said Andrew Diss, the senior vice president and chief strategy officer of Meruelo Gaming who has helped oversee the project. “We have seen them drive that demand, and we think it can be very successful. We see the job that the Aces have done with minor-league ball, and we think that hockey can be successful.”

The Triple-A baseball Reno Aces are the longest standing minor-league team in Northern Nevada, calling the region home since relocating from Tucson in 2009. In its three most recently completed seasons, the Aces have averaged 4,801 (in 2022), 5,040 (in 2023) and 4,769 (in 2024) fans per home game in the 9,013-capacity Greater Nevada Field. That’s roughly 54 percent capacity.

The Knight Monsters, the ECHL team in Stateline, have averaged 3,427 fans per home game in their debut season while playing in the 4,200-seat Tahoe Blue Events Center. That’s an average percent capacity of 81.6. Hunden Partners projects minor-league hockey games to draw an average attendance of 4,449 fans per home game in the 10,000-plus-seat GSR Arena.

While hurdles in getting a minor-league team to Reno exist, one thing helping the projection is the fact GSR owner Alex Meruelo owns the Tucson Roadrunners, an AHL team. Phase one of the GSR project also includes a community ice rink that would double as a practice facility for a minor-league team.

“We are working on bringing a team,” Diss said. “There’s no announcement yet. I feel pretty confident within two years when the facility opens (in 2027) that we will be at that point where we’re announcing a new team.”

The Hunden Partners presentation also projects five major concerts and seven minor concerts per year as part of those 95 annual events. One of the GSR’s big pitches is the arena would change the caliber of acts who would stop in Reno. Currently, the top draws from a venue standpoint include the Reno Events Center (7,000 capacity), outdoor Nugget Event Center (8,500 capacity) and GSR’s Grand Theatre (2,900 capacity).

“We think that number is conservative,” Diss said of the projected five major concerts and seven minor concerts. “We are shooting for much higher numbers because Reno is a pass-through market for the big shows that are driving along Interstate 80 from Sacramento going out to Salt Lake City or vice versa. And we wanna put Reno on the map as one of those stops for those big shows that are currently bypassing us and going straight to Golden One (in Sacramento). And with this facility, we have the ability to do that. It’s about that market that we are serving not only for the locals but for the Northern California drive-in market. We want to give them a reason to come over here and see that big show that they have been wanting to see.”

Ben Garbacz/Daily Mining Gazette
KBIC Natural Resources Department Wildlife Biologist Blake Chosa teaches children how to use turkey box calls at the Youth Turkey Activity Friday. The event was aimed at educating children on turkey hunting and to inspire them to become hunters themselves.

L’ANSE — On Friday workers members of the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) Natural Resources Department taught tribal and non-tribal children the basics of turkey hunting. The Youth Turkey Activity event was sponsored by the Great Lakes Indians Fish and Wildlife Commission.

The activity took place at the KBIC Teaching Facility in L’Anse and highlighted facts about turkeys, reviewed tribal and state turkey hunting regulations, demonstrated a turkey hunting setup with a decoy and blind, showed how to use a turkey box call and how to process a turkeys. KBIC Natural Resources Department Wildlife Biologist Blake Chosa said the event was important to attract youth to hunting.

“We think it’s important for our youth in our community to keep and maintain the subsistence of living practices of our ancestors,” Chosa said. “We need more youth in the woods. It’s a dying tradition.”

Chosa said children and teenagers who become interested in hunting in families not familiar with the practice can hopefully inspire them to take up the activity. He also said the act of hunting is needed to keep the turkey population healthy and prevent it from expanding too much and increasing the chances of the population developing things such as diseases.

“So it’s a win for both our youth and for the environment,” Chosa said.

The event began with the children learning basic turkey facts — the differences between toms, jakes and hens (mature males, young males and females), what different types of sounds made by turkeys communicate to each another, what time of year mating season occurs and when egg laying happens. KBIC Natural Resources Department Outreach Coordinator Austin Ayers explained to the children how turkeys are important to Anishinaabe culture.

“With the turkeys, there’s a lesson about how they choose their beauty and how they dance and how they treat their mates in a show of ‘look at my brilliance’ to be able to attract their mates,” Ayers said. “And so it was a lesson for the Anishinaabe to practice their beauty and the way that they approach someone so that they know they’re serious about becoming partners.”

After the lessons, the children went out to a tree line to learn how to camouflage themselves for turkeys and how to set up a decoy. When they returned, they all were given turkey box calls where they could practice two different types of call. Chosa said the active nature of turkey hunting makes it more interesting to potential young hunters.

“It’s a very interactive type of hunting. So giving them (children) a call and teaching them how to call is something they can do when they’re out in the woods, because it’s a lot more interactive. Traditional deer hunting in the U.P. is just sitting on a bait pile and being quiet. For turkey hunting you’re going around the woods and you’re making making noise,” Chosa explained.

Afterwards, Chosa brought a turkey he shot the day before and taught the children how to remove breast meat from the turkey. The breast was cut up and sent home with the children, along with Chosa’s recommendation on how to cook it.

“Make turkey strips, just like chicken strips, cut length diagonally lengthwise the breast meat, tenderize it a little bit, soak it in milk for about an hour or two, and then just make a batter of any kind, dry flour type of thing, and then just deep fry it or pan fry it,” he said.

This is the second year of the event and Chosa is hoping to see this become an annual activity. He said it was encouraging to see the number of children attend go up compared to last year. Until next year, the children in attendance will have new knowledge of turkey hunting, and they have turkey calls given to them at the event to keep their interest alive.

The chocolate brand introduces limited-edition basketball themed packaging while inspiring families and kids to celebrate their love of the game with a chance to win exciting prizes

PARSIPPANY, N.J., May 5, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — This summer while school’s out, Kinder Chocolate®, a brand that celebrates simply wonderful moments for kids and families,  is reimagining the game of basketball with its new campaign Pass The Fun, featuring nine-time NBA All-Star and parent, Paul George. The campaign aims to bring families together to experience basketball the way it was meant to be played – full of fun and excitement.

As the most popular team sport in the U.S., basketball is played by more than 28 million children ages 6 and up. The Pass The Fun campaign seeks to inspire love for the game, noting that a majority of kids drop out of youth sports because of pressure and burnout. To bring the campaign to life, Kinder Chocolate is partnering with NBA All-Star Paul George, naming him the Commissioner of Fun. Together, Kinder Chocolate and George asked parents and kids to dream up ways to reimagine the sport by creating a one-of-a-kind basketball game filled with fun-first rules – designed by kids, for kids — to inspire families to get out and Pass The Fun.

“At Kinder Chocolate, we believe in the beauty of simple, wonderful moments—whether it’s playing a game with loved ones or enjoying our milk chocolate bar with a creamy milky filling,” said Catherine Bertrac, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Ferrero Mainstream Chocolate. “With Pass The Fun launching just as school lets out for summer, we hope to inspire kids and families to embrace basketball in its most fun form.”

To bring these rules to life, Kinder Chocolate hosted a special basketball game at the West Side YMCA in New York City, where George acted as referee using the imaginative, fun-focused rules created by kids featuring children from the YMCA’s youth basketball program. The game rewarded players with Kinder Chocolate for every three-point shot made, had inflatable seats instead of traditional benches, and featured a pop-up defender as an obstacle on the court. Putting a twist on traditional rules of the game, fouled players were able to choose between a free throw or a layup, and George even tapped his biggest fan, his daughter Olivia, to contribute her own rule: every player must touch the ball before taking a shot, promoting teamwork on the court.

“Basketball has given me so much, but at its core, it’s always been about having fun,” said Paul George. “As a dad, I see firsthand how important it is for kids to have the freedom to play, explore, and fall in love with the game in their own way – just like I did playing as a kid with friends and family. That’s why I’m excited to partner with Kinder Chocolate to inspire families to create simply wonderful moments of enjoyment and connection through basketball.”

Starting May 5, Kinder Chocolate is releasing limited-edition Pass The Fun single and share size packs at grocery and convenience stores nationwide. Each special pack will include a Pass The Fun basketball trivia card, with eight different options to discover. The packaging celebrates simply wonderful moments of play, reinforcing Kinder Chocolate’s commitment to bringing families together through basketball.

Fans can also enter the Pass The Fun Sweepstakes for a chance to win a virtual meet-and-greet with Paul George or instantly win prizes, including signed jerseys, custom basketballs, water bottles, mini hoops, drawstring bags, and custom headbands. To enter, visit https://KinderPassTheFun.com.

Kinder Chocolate is available in single and share packs, and minis, which can be found at retail, drug, convenience, and grocery stores nationwide.

About Kinder Chocolate
Michele Ferrero developed Kinder Chocolate, which has become a top-selling KINDER™ product. At the heart of Kinder Chocolate is the commitment to sparking, sharing and celebrating simply wonderful moments of togetherness between parents and kids. It is a delicious, sharable treat that proves less truly is more – with just a perfect milk chocolate coating and a creamy milky filling. It comes in small, individually wrapped bars, making it kid-friendly and perfect for families. Every bite is crafted to spark wonder and be Simply Wonderful, helping parents create quality moments of enjoyment and connection with their children.

About Ferrero 
Ferrero began its journey in the small town of Alba in Piedmont, Italy, in 1946. Today, it is one of the world’s largest sweet-packaged food companies, with over 35 iconic brands sold in more than 170 countries. The Ferrero Group brings joy to people around the world with much-loved treats and snacks including Nutella®, Kinder®, Tic Tac®, and Ferrero Rocher®. More than 38,000 employees are passionate about helping people celebrate life’s special moments. The Ferrero Group’s family culture, now in its third generation, is based on dedication to quality and excellence, heritage and a commitment to the planet and communities in which we operate. 

Ferrero entered the North American market in 1969 and has grown to more than 5,400 employees in 15 plants and warehouses, and eight offices in North America across the United States, Canada and the Caribbean. It has expanded its presence and portfolio with the addition of iconic brands such as Butterfinger®, CRUNCH®, Keebler®, Famous Amos®, Mother’s Cookies®, and other distinctive cookie and chocolate brands. Follow @FerreroNACorp on Twitter and Instagram. www.ferreronorthamerica.com.

Media Contact:
Keely Bennett Morgan
[email protected]

SOURCE Ferrero North America