Larry “Gator” Rivers, who helped integrate high school basketball in Georgia before playing for the Harlem Globetrotters and becoming a county commissioner in his native Savannah, has died.

DETROIT – The basketball world is in mourning after former University of Detroit Mercy basketball coach Smokey Gaines lost his battle with cancer. Gaines joined Vitale’s staff as an assistant and when Vitale went to the Pistons, Smokey became the University of Detroit’s first Black head coach. He also get the team to the NCAA tournament and, two years later, Gaines left to become the head coach at San Diego State University. Gaines had a long career in basketball, but he never forgot where he came from and always stayed close to the Detroit Mercy Titans program. Smokey Gaines smoked the nets and opened doors for others.

During that same newscast, WBRC News Director Shannon Isbell offered an on-air apology to Pearce. Pearce, 24, hands the tangerine back to Ferguson before someone behind the camera once again throws the fruit back at Pearce. He notified the team about the incident, and he says it reached out to the Birmingham news station back in February. Foxs reaction was to have me call them to receive an apology from the news director, and not from the actual anchors who threw the fruit, Pearce said. An on-air segment promoting a Globetrotters event with Mr. Pearce in January was intended to be lighthearted," she said.