SCORES ANALYSIS COMMENTARY THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019B7
0 NMore than 3.7 million people follow
the Patriots’ Antonio Brown on Insta-
gram, and a fair chunk of them do,
presumably, not just because he is
one of the best receivers playing the
country’s most popular sport.
Brown, 31, is now ensnared in a
maelstrom, with the attention that he
draws as an athlete spotlighting a fed-
eral lawsuit that accuses him of sexu-al assault and rape, while also bring-
ing more scrutiny to the N.F.L.’s han-
dling of reports of violence against
women.
A woman who had worked as
Brown’s trainer is the plaintiff in the
lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday.
The woman, a former gymnast
named Britney Taylor who met
Brown about 10 years ago when they
were students at Central Michigan,
described three assaults in the court
filing, two in June 2017 and another in
May 2018.
Profane messages from Brown to
Taylor are presented as evidence inthe lawsuit, which also says that
when Taylor returned to Brown’s
home in South Florida to retrieve
some personal effects on the day after
she claims he raped her, she wanted
to discuss what had happened and
Brown replied that she “made me feel
like a real rapist.”
Brown has denied the accusations
in a statement from his lawyer, and on
Wednesday his agent, Drew Rosen-
haus, said in an interview with
ESPN: “I’m advising him to let the
truth come out. I’m advising him to
concentrate on football. I’m advisingRECEIVING ATTENTION
Rape Lawsuit Puts Harsh Spotlight
On Brown, Patriots and the N.F.L.
By BEN SHPIGELContinued on Page B8‘FIGHT FOR
WHAT YOU
KNOW IS
RIGHT.’
ANTONIO BROWN
on Instagram before
suit was filedGREG M. COOPER/USA TODAY
SPORTS, VIA REUTERSThe Arizona Diamondbacks were not
exactly crestfallen on Tuesday when
the out-of-town scoreboard atop Citi
Field showed the Los Angeles Dodgers
with an early lead in Baltimore. The
Dodgers needed one vic-
tory to clinch the National
League West over the
second-place Diamond-
backs, and it came easily.
“They can clinch, what-
ever, they deserve it, they
won the division,” said Arizona’s closer,
Archie Bradley. “But we’re focused on
what we’re doing here.”
The Diamondbacks’ focus is on the
second wild card, a race they joined in
earnest recently after a long flirtation
with .500. More broadly, though, the
Diamondbacks are trying to stockpile
enough talent to someday unseat the
Dodgers, who have taken the last seven
N.L. West crowns with piles of cash,
waves of prospects and seemingly
endless roster depth.In December the Diamondbacks
traded their cornerstone first baseman,
Paul Goldschmidt, to St. Louis for three
players and a draft pick. In July they
traded their best pitcher, Zack Greinke,
to Houston, for four players. They have
also lost starter Patrick Corbin and
outfielders J.D. Martinez and A.J. Pol-
lock to free agency since winning a
wild-card berth in 2017.
It seems like a classic roster tear-
down, but the team is showing other-
wise. The Diamondbacks stayed within
two games of .500 — above or below —
every day from June 18 through Aug.- They broke through with 11 wins in
12 games through Saturday and stood
at 75-70 — two and a half games behind
the Chicago Cubs for a playoff spot —
after Tuesday’s 3-2 loss to the Mets.
The schedule could help the Dia-
mondbacks, who will play 12 of their
final 15 games at home after Thursday’s
series finale at Citi Field. All but three
Eduardo Escobar has been a central figure in Arizona’s run into contention.
KATHY WILLENS/ASSOCIATED PRESSHard-Charging D’backs Turn
Teardown Into Quick Rebuild
TYLER
KEPNER
ON
BASEBALLContinued on Page B9DONGGUAN, China — When
it comes to basketball’s World
Cup, this is how it works back
home for American players:
Only in defeat are you remem-
bered.
In a tournament of such mod-
est standing in our
hoops culture,
compared to the
Olympics, typically
only by losing does
the United States
men’s national
basketball team command the
attention of the mainstream
sports public.
The 12 players who agreed to
represent the United States at
the 2019 FIBA World Cup knew
the deal, deep down, when they
signed up to join a roster that
had been shunned by some 40
top pros — including all the
biggest American stars. Yet
those volunteers discovered the
true depths of their no-win situa-
tion on Wednesday night, whenthe United States was outclassed
early and late in an 89-79 quar-
terfinal loss to France at the
Dongguan Basketball Center.
Had they managed to hold
their 7-point lead over France in
the fourth quarter and find a way
through the next two rounds
against Argentina and the Spain/
Australia winner, this group
likely would have been celebrat-
ed — and then quickly forgotten
when more established players
returned to the program next
summer for the 2020 Olympics in
Tokyo.
Instead? Rather than fly
overnight to Beijing for Friday’s
semifinals as planned, U.S.A.
Basketball’s entire humbled
traveling party was forced to
return to its hotel in Dongguan to
rest up and brace for Thursday’s
night’s game against Serbia in
the fifth-place bracket — as well
as the unkind commentary that
is sure to come after Rudy Gob-
ert and the French guards, Evan
Fournier and Nando De Colo,
halted the Americans’ 58-game
winning streak in tournament
play.
“It’s all sort of sinking in right
now,” the Nets’ Joe Harris said.
“They outplayed us from the
get-go, really. We were reacting
the whole night.Evan Fournier helped lead
France over the United States
in the FIBA World Cup.
KIM KYUNG-HOON/REUTERSIn Defeat,
U.S. Team
Becomes
Memorable
End of a Golden Era
U.S.A. Basketball had not lost in
tournament play since 2006.YEAR W-L TOURNAMENT RESULT2017 5-0 FIBA Gold
AmeriCup medal2016 8-0 Olympics Gold
(Rio de Janeiro) medal2014 9-0 FIBA Gold
World Cup medal2012 9-0 Olympics Gold
(London) medal2010 9-0 FIBA Gold
World Cup Medal2008 9-0 Olympics Gold
(Beijing) medal2007 10-0 FIBA Gold
AmeriCup medalSource: U.S.A. BasketballContinued on Page B9MARC
STEIN
ON PRO
BASKETBALL