Toronto Raptors vs Cleveland Cavaliers - Game 1 - Full Highlights | May 17, 2016 | 2016 NBA Playoffs
USA TODAY Sports" Jeff Zillgitt breaks down how the Cleveland Cavaliers defeated the Toronto Raptors in Game 2 of the Eastern Conference Finals.
Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) reacts beside Toronto Raptors forward Terrence Ross (31) in the second quarter of Game 2.(Photo: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports)
CLEVELANDIn theory, the conferencefinals should be more difficult than the conference semifinals, and thesemisshould be more difficult than the first round.
That theory is being tested perhaps refuted in the Eastern Conference finals between the Toronto Raptors and Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Cavaliers eliminated theDetroit Pistons in four games, winning each game by an average of 8.5 points. They swept the Atlanta Hawks in the conference semifinals, the average margin of victory at 12.5 points.
And now in the conference finals, against the Raptors, who finished second in the East with a franchise-record 56 victories, Cleveland has won the first two games by an average of 25 points.
Cleveland took a 2-0 series lead with a 108-89 victory over the Raptors on Thursday, following up Tuesdays 115-84 victory.
The Cavs will never admit this, but the next round has been easier than the prior round. They have won 10 straight playoff games, and if they win Game 3 Saturday in Toronto (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN), they will tie the 1989 Los Angeles Lakers and the 2001 Lakers for best start to the playoffs in NBA history.
Where is the challenge? And is this road through the East to the NBA Finals adequate preparation for what the Cavs will get in the Finals? Either Golden State or Oklahoma City will have fought through much tougher scenarios to get there.
The answer to the second question will play out, starting June 2 when the Finals begin. Maybe the Cavs are playing the kind of basketball that will be successful regardless of opponent.
The answer to the first question is more complex. Yes, the Cavs had to prepare for Detroit, Atlanta and Toronto, and they had to execute.
But the challenge also comes from within the Cavs locker room. Pointing out mistakes on video and correcting them. Working on specific plays for specific situations. Conditioning bodies so they have fresh legs after an eight-day layoff. Eating the right foods. Drinking enough fluids.
How do we prepare and be better the following game, LeBron James said after his 23-point, 11-assists, 11-rebound performance in Game 2, his 15thcareer playoff triple-double. Weve taken one step at a time. Weve havent overlooked any steps along this process thus far, and thats part of the reason were in this position today.
Weve enjoyed the process to this point, and we got to it, weve tried to take care of business. Then, once its over, we want to learn from that instance and move on and see how we can get better the next time.
Tyronn Lue and his coaching staff havent stopped scheming or dreaming. There are a lot of nights we dont get a lot of rest, a lot of sleep, Lue said. Youre dreaming of ATOs (after-timeout plays) and plays you can run and things that can happen, so a lot of sleepless nights, but the way things are going right now, its worth it.
While the Cavs havent had adversity in the postseason and James guaranteed they would at some point they had adversity during the season. In January, they fired Coach David Blatt who was 30-11 and who took the Cavs to the Finals in his first season as an NBA coach a year ago. Kyrie Irving missed a stretch of the season recovering from the knee injury he sustained in last seasons Finals.
Even late in the season an odd loss to the Brooklyn Nets and indifferent loss to the Miami Heat it wasnt clear if the Cavs, including the Big 3 of James, Irving and Love, would or could figure it out.
They have played individually and great collectively.
We do a great job of having each other"s backs, and it just makes our job a lot easier out there, Irving said. We know what to expect. But this is high-intensity basketball that we"ve all been waiting for, and to all be healthy at the same time and doing whatever it takes to win.
This is what we want to be part of, and we"ve been waiting for. We missed out on our chance last year, we"re relishing the moment and we just want to continue that going forward.
Perhaps, figuring all that out has been Clevelands biggest challenge. Figuring that out has allowed the Cavs to power through the East.
Tom Hiddleston"s celebrity impressions - The Graham Norton Show: Episode 2 - BBC One
Tom Hiddleston is now asked everywhere he goes if he is going to be the next James Bond
For the past three months, everywhere Tom Hiddleston has gone, hes been asked the same question: are you going to be the next James Bond? Thus far, hes been able to bat the issue aside with his trademark self-deprecating charm, saying simply: I dont know because nobodys talked to me about it. The position isnt vacant as far as I am aware.
Hes maintained all along that the only thing hes in the running for is a brisk jog around Londons Regents Park, which he does regularly, incognito in a blue baseball cap and earphones.
But a story that emerged yesterday changed everything. Daniel Craig has reportedly told MGM studio bosses he is done playing Bond, according to Hollywood insiders. Hes apparently even turned down a 68 million, two-movie offer to reprise the role which has already earned him 38 million since taking over from Pierce Brosnan in 2005.
Craig had sparked resignation rumours earlier this year when he said hed rather slash his wrists than play Bond again, adding: I have a life to get on with. Hiddleston, with his chiselled good looks, slightly ruthless demeanour and most importantly ability to wear a sharp suit under stress, was immediately in contention, ahead of names including Damian Lewis and Idris Elba.
Last week, he was reportedly spotted deep in conversation with Skyfall and Spectre director Sam Mendes and Bond co-producer Barbara Broccoli. This was followed by a flurry of bets being placed on him being the next 007, with bookmakers Coral eventually suspending betting.
Whatever the truth of the matter is, the whole issue has been an embarrassment to the actor. When he flew into Los Angeles last month for the U.S. premiere of BBC spy thriller The Night Manager, he complained that James Bond was the only thing he was being asked about.
Its a weird thing to have to deal with, he tells me when we meet for tea in Beverly Hills. Im having unreal conversations with people about this because I dont know where the rumours have sprung from.
Its difficult, because everyone has very strong opinions about Bond, and who should play him. My name is just an idea in peoples minds, yet its becoming overwhelming. I have no power to stop it, but I wish I could convince everyone that the whole thing is news to me.
Looking laid-back in a dark blue open-necked polo shirt over casual blue jeans, there is something ineffably Thirties about Tom Hiddleston.
Its partly the crisply waving light brown hair swept back from the clean-cut features, and the steady deep-set eyes; partly the impeccable manners and low-key, modest charm.
Meeting him in person is like having polite chit-chat with an amiable relative of Lord Peter Wimsey Dorothy L. Sayers fictional Edwardian dilettante turned detective rather than with a thoroughly modern 35-year-old who has fuelled fantasies for red-blooded women everywhere.
Thats especially since the steamy scene in the The Night Manager, where he and co-star Elizabeth Debicki made passionate love up against a wall, which must rank as one of TVs sexiest moments.
They looked like they were playing it for real so were they? He dodges the question with a laugh. Do you always ask people about how they make love? OK. Listen, the scene was an initiation of intimacy, and that is how Susanne Bier, the director, wanted it played.
It was interesting working with her. Shes Danish, and the difference between her and an English director is that shes incredibly direct about what she wants.
Hiddleston"s name was on the tip of everyone"s tongue after he proved his secret agent credentials with his role in The Night Manager (pictured), and steamy scenes with his top off lit up social media
She would say, routinely, I think we should go again its not sexy enough. And an English director would probably say the same thing, but they would preface it with lots of lovely adjectives Lovely, love what youre doing, fantastic. Now, maybe next time . . . and sort of coax you into it. But if Susanne didnt believe it, she just told you flat out, I dont believe it. Which I actually found quite refreshing.
Hiddlestons rise to prominence began with Shakespeare on the London stage. I was in a production of Othello and Ken Branagh, being the Shakespearean he is, came to see it.
He said hed like to work with me, so we did a radio play, and then a Chekhov play in the West End, and then he cast me to play his number two in the TV series Wallander. When I first came to Los Angeles, I was auditioning for everything, big movies, small movies, superhero movies.
Ken cast me as Loki in Thor. Bizarrely enough, Joss Whedon, who had also seen that Othello production, had loved it so much that he wrote me a very good part for Loki in The Avengers.
The s*x scene in The Night Manager, withactress Elizabeth Debicki, helped viewers see a new side to the actor
Then I got a letter from Woody Allen saying, Were making Midnight In Paris in the summer Id love you to play F. Scott Fitzgerald. To which the answer was a very quick, Yes! And then Steven Spielberg cast me in War Horse. So it was a very strange time when all these incredible moments of good fortune were happening. But it all started with Shakespeare, because I couldnt even get arrested before then.
The son of a chemist father and former stage manager mother, he cant remember a time when he was not acting in some way.
I spent my childhood running around my parents living room pretending to be Harrison Ford on a horse, wearing a hat, with the Indiana Jones theme tune playing in the background.
In the summer, my sisters, cousins and I used to write plays and perform them for our parents this is the days before Xbox and PlayStation, when kids were still kids.
When I was a teenager I loved watching Alan Rickman as Hans Gruber in Die Hard or Jack Nicholson as The Joker in Batman. Then as I got older, I discovered theatre, and thats when I started acting seriously.
It helped that what he modestly describes as his school just outside London better known as Eton College had a particularly strong drama department which spawned Eddie Redmayne, Damian Lewis and Dominic West among others. Wed get the train into London and wed go to the theatre, and thats where I was bitten by the bug.
Tom doesnt say whether other students on the trip included his schoolmates Redmayne or Prince William, because that would be name-dropping.
But when I mention them to him, his face lights up. I think Prince William is rather busy these days and has more important things to do than hang out with me! he says. But I see him sometimes at film premieres, which is nice.
There is something particular about the friendships you make at boarding school, because you are away from home at a very early age, so the bonds you form there are strong. The friends I made at school are some of the closest I have, and when I see them we just pick up where we left off the last time.
Eddie and I are very good friends still. Weve actually been fellow actors for 20 years now. There was a production of E.M. Forsters A Passage To India at school. I had a small part in the chorus and he had one of the leading roles he gallantly refrains from mentioning that the role in question was of the female lead, Adela Quested and one of my jobs was to play the right leg of an elephant he was riding on, which I still remind him of!
THE FIVE STEPS IN THE MAKING OF THE NEW JAMES BOND
The Eton factor: Bond creator Ian Fleming and Tom Hiddleston both went to Eton, as did 007 himself before being expelled for an incident with a maid. Tom looked sharp from an early age as a House Captain.
The Licence to Kill Tom first showed his hand-to-hand combat skills on stage in the Shakespeare plays Othello (left) and Coriolanus, before perfecting his action-man status as Loki in the Thor films.
The brooding looks: Mentor Sir Kenneth Branagh spotted Toms ability to light up the screen even when he wasnt talking when he cast him as his brooding side-kick Detective Magnus Martinson in nordic thriller Wallander.
The hunky body: Any fears Tom didnt have the body to play 007 were put to rest when he went for a dip in The Night Manager and was just as hunky as Daniel Craig in Casino Royale.
The ladykiller: In black tie or white, he looks to the manner born, as he proved at this years Baftas and New Yorks Met Ball, where he swept Taylor Swift on to the dance floor.
He has admitted that, when he announced his decision to become an actor, his father, a self-made man and the no-nonsense son of a Glasgow shipyard worker, was less than delighted.
He was genuinely worried that I would be bored and unfulfilled, he says. Acting was completely different from anything he knew. He didnt see it as a real job, but as something wafty and insubstantial.
The impasse was resolved when his father watched The Gathering Storm, a 2002 Second World War TV movie in which Tom played Randolph Churchill, son of the wartime Prime Minister.
It was a very rousing piece that showed Winston Churchill in all his complication and charisma. My dad called me in tears afterwards and said he was proud of me.
He admits that he was initially unsure himself whether acting was the right choice.
The odds of being a successful actor are quite small, so I suppose it did take . . . he stops and looks bashful, but cant see a different way of finishing the sentence, well, maybe a sort of courage and conviction for me to do it.
These days, he can pick and choose from the many roles he is offered, whether on TV, the big screen or in the theatre. In his two most recent movies hes played the American country music legend Hank Williams in the biopic I Saw The Light, and the emotionless neurologist Dr Robert Laing in High Rise, both of which garnered enthusiastic reviews.
Im glad all of this happened to me at the age of 30, rather than when I was ten years younger, he says. There can be a moment in an actors life where you become more well-known, and initially that takes a bit of getting used to.
If given the role, he would have a lot to live up to after Daniel Craig re-invented Bond"s body. But Craig has reportedly told studio bosses he is now "done" with the role
Ive been reassured by being surrounded by familiarity. I come from a very good family, and Im very close with both of my sisters and with my parents.
His elder sister Sarah is a journalist, younger sister Emma an actress, and both have helped him learn some valuable life lessons along the way. My mother and sisters are all strong and independent thinkers and have all taught me a lot.
What have I learnt? Oh, gosh . . . Well, first of all, I learnt always to compliment them on their haircut!
Its difficult to unpick what theyve taught me because its so much part of who I am. But I did notice when I was about 16 that my friends who had grown up exclusively around men just didnt understand women.
So is there a special lady in his life? He has been rumoured to be involved at different times with actresses Susannah Fielding, Kat Dennings, Jessica Chastain and, most recently, with his I Saw The Light co-star Elizabeth Olsen.
But he has steadfastly refused to make a public comment on any love interest although, he adds, polite to the last, I understand the curiosity. I hope that when theres really something to write about, Ill be able to talk.
And do his happily married contemporaries Eddie Redmayne and Benedict Cumberbatch, in particular with impeccable family-man credentials make him feel he should settle down, too?
Yes, Im going to rush out and find the nearest woman and put a ring on her! he jokes. Look, I think its great for both of those two, theyre both good friends of mine and Im so happy for them.
But its not something thats come into my life yet. Im not closed to it by any means in fact, Im definitely open to the possibility. But you know what they say: you cant go out and look for it, you just have to wait for it to come to you.
By the time Imamu Khari was 8 years old, he had read "The Autobiography of Malcolm X." By age 10, he had watched Spike Lee"s cinematic adaptation, "Malcolm X," starring Denzel Washington.
Learning about the slain activist"s teachings was a critical part of Khari"s childhood, especially because Khari"s dad served as part of Malcolm X"s security unit while Malcolm was still a member of the Nation of Islam. Of all the black leaders Khari studied, Malcolm was always the one he admired most.
That"s why on Thursday, on what would have been Malcolm"s 91st birthday, 34-year-old Khari, along with dozens of other supporters, boarded a bus from the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building in Harlem to the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, to pay their respects.
Several hundreds of people gathered at Malcolm"s resting place to witness a ceremony organized by the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) since 1965. Originally designed by Malcolm"s sister, Ella Collins, the pilgrimage is now facilitated by the Sons of Africa and managed by Malcolm"s nephew, Rodnell Collins, along with Willie Stark and James Small, a former professor at the City University of New York.
"Malcolm demonstrated that he will either be free or he will accept death," Small, vice president and executive director of the OAAU, told NBCBLK. "And if every black man were to take that attitude, freedom would come tomorrow, for all of us."
RELATED: Are African-Americans Locked Out? State of Black America Report
As part of the ritual, one Pan-African flag in red, black and green, is placed over Malcolm"s grave site, and another is draped over a chair with a framed photograph of Malcolm, also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz. Additionally, there is a stool covered in white fabric to honor Betty Shabazz, Malcolm"s wife.
Professor James Small speaks at the annual ceremony honoring slain activist Malcolm X on what would be his 91st birthday. Sylvia Cunningham
Men in Sudanese-style white robes and turbans march and form a square around the grave, making way for Imam Al-Hajj Talib "Abdur-Rashid from the Mosque of Islamic Brotherhood in Harlem, New York, to deliver his prayer and reflections.
"Evolution is revolution slowed down, and revolution is evolution speeded up. So El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz set an evolutionary example for and a revolutionary example for us, blazing a path and following those who preceded him," Imam Talib said.
"It"s important to me to pay homage to our shining prince."
Imam Talib said he has noticed that the number of children present at the ceremony has increased drastically over the years and offered advice to the young people in attendance.
"Don"t ever let anybody tell you that you don"t have power," Imam Talib said. "Don"t ever let anybody tell you that you don"t have the seed of greatness within you."
RELATED: Boston Archaeologists Begin Digging Into Malcolm X"s Past
Armed with a bag full of notebooks and pages of essays and spoken word poetry, Khari came prepared to get people in the right spirit as the bus headed north to the cemetery Thursday morning.
"See, I"m trying to get us reparations at the very least," Khari recited to passengers on the bus. "Instead, they lock me in a cage like a scary beast."
About three years ago, Khari said he had a spiritual awakening when he noticed there were a lot of similarities between the world he was living in and the world he had read about in the 1960s. That"s when he began to write.
"I came to this realization about where we came from, where we are now and how much further we have to go," Khari said.
Many people embarking on the pilgrimage were first timers, including Sheba X, a New Yorker. Although she was just a baby when she met Malcolm, her parents learned from him and passed on his teachings.
"It"s difficult to say in one word what he has done," Sheba said.
Malcolm gave African-American people hope, she said, even when they felt disenfranchised and oppressed.
Imam Al-Hajj Talib "Abdur-Rashid delivers a prayer and reflections to several hundreds of people who came to Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York, to honor Malcolm X on his birthday. Sylvia Cunningham
"He gave us not only pride but a sense of self worth through the knowledge that he passed on," Sheba said.
Although she doesn"t think there"s been much progress in the United States in terms of legal, economic or education systems, she believes Malcolm X changed the consciousness of African people.
Sheba said Malcolm was "uncompromising in terms of his convictions," which is why she knew she needed to make the trip to Hartsdale to honor him on his birthday.
"It"s important to me to pay homage to our shining prince," Sheba said.
Samuel L Jackson and Tom Hiddleston Lose it Over Their Fan Art - The Graham Norton Show Everyone remain calm. We didnt think it was possible, but they may have just foundthe hottest James Bond yet Tom Hiddleston. Its not official, but fans are already losing their minds over the possibility. Check outthe epic reactions!
Daniel Craig, 48, is officially done playing James Bond. Fans were sad about that forall of one minute, before freaking out overthe possibility of Tom Hiddleston, 35, taking overthe role. Of course, he would make an amazing James Bond, but are the rumorstrue?
Daniel has reportedly turned down offers to reprise his role as James Bond intwo more films, which means the spot may now be open for someone else to take. And itdidnt take long for fans to start throwing around Toms name on Twitter, and from the looks of the responses, the studiosshould definitely give him some serious consideration.
Why shouldnt they!? He would be the perfect fit. Hes already insanely attractive, something numerous fans have mentioned, but hes also got that quiet mystery going for him as well. Like, you could imagine him sitting politely at a dinner table, but then dodging bullets without getting his suit dirty if the occasion called for it. It really doesnt get better than that, but not allfans totally agree.
Actually, many people are still rooting for Idris Elba, 43, to get the coveted role. We cant say we would be mad about that! Everyone has a different vision for what and who James Bond should be, so making everyone happy wont be possible. Fans seem to be divided every which way, but the ones who want Tom are very, very devoted.
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Everyone seems to have an opinion, although nothing has been confirmed on either Tom or Daniels side, so everyone needs to put down the pitchforks and calm down. There is still time to choose the next Bond, but whoever it is, its going to be absolutely legendary.
Do you want to see Tom play James Bond, HollywoodLifers? Are you sad to see Daniel go? Tell us below!
Jalen Ramsey || "Nation"s Best Player" || FSU Highlights
Long before he joined the Jaguars and promised to make an instant impact, Jalen Ramsey did the same upon arriving at Florida State before the 2013 season.
He said, Coach, Im going to start from Day One, Seminoles coach Jimbo Fisher said. I said, If youre the best player, you will [start], but realize Deion [Sanders] took four games to start. Jalen said, I dont care.
Ramsey started at cornerback as a freshman before moving to free safety on a Florida State defense that led the nation in fewest points allowed (12.1 per game) and won the national championship.
Twenty-eight years after Sanders was drafted fifth overall by Atlanta, Ramsey, who moved back to cornerback in 2014-15, went No. 5 to the Jaguars.
Fisher (in place of defensive backs coach Charles Kelly) spoke with the Times-Union about Ramsey.
Question: Ramsey was a true freshman playing free safety on a defense laden with future NFL players (Telvin Smith, Lamarcus Joyner, Timmy Jernigan, Terrence Brooks, Ronald Darby and Christian Jones) that eventually won the national title. Was the moment ever too big for him in 2013?
Answer: No, it really wasnt. Theres a difference between arrogance and confidence. He carried himself with a lot of confidence and he believed in his ability. The thing I thought always separated him was his ability to mentally compartmentalize everything that was happening and then learn from it and process it during the game. He did that from the get-go.
The Jaguars coaches have raved about Ramseys football smarts. How rare was that aspect of his game when he arrived at Florida State?
Instincts are something you naturally have. He has the football instincts/IQ, but he also has pure intelligence. Darby was banged up early [in 2013] and that was one of the reasons Jalen got to start at corner, but he would have been on the field somehow anyway. We put him at corner, he starts there and then he moves positions..
After playing free safety as a freshman, what was the reasoning behind moving Ramsey to covering the slot receiver in 2014?
We felt we could use his versatility more [inside]. Sometimes, tall guys [Ramsey is 6-foot-1] have a tough time there, but he had the quickness and agility to cover the little guys. And he was very physical at the point of attack on run plays because he was playing like an outside linebacker and teams liked to run at him. The other thing he was a very dynamic blitzer.
Playing in that new role, did Ramsey pick things up quicker than you and the coaches thought he would?
Yes, he did. But everything hes ever done, hes [adjusted quickly]. He will embarrass guys in practice if theyre not ready.
Ramsey said he got his practice habits from current Jaguars linebacker Telvin Smith. Sound right?
Theres no doubt. The way that 2013 team practiced with Telvin, Lamarcus and that whole group of guys on defense and then there was Jameis [Winston], Rashad [Greene], Devonta [Freeman] and [Kelvin] Benjamin on offense practice was crazy.
Ramsey was on the move again as a junior, playing outside corner. Is that his ideal home in the NFL?
It starts there because if you have a true cornerback with his size who can match up against big receivers, thats a huge advantage. Most big guys dont have his strength or agility. And then if you want to match him up in nickel, he can play the little guy. His ability to play corner at this size makes him special.
Wednesday: UCLA linebackers coach Scott White on second-round pick Myles Jack.
Freddie Roach "Golovkin is still best pound for pound; I think Canelo is ready for Golovkin"
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ERISLANDY LARA is eager for a rematch with Canelo Alvarez and even more keen to face middleweight menace Gennady Golovkin.
First, he must successfully defend his WBA super-welterweight title in a rematch with Vanes Martirosyan in Las Vegas on Saturday night [May 21].
The Cuban slickster was edged out by Canelo in 2014 and has struggled to nail down fights with other marquee names, but hopes things will change after Saturday.
After I win Saturday, I would love to fight GGG or Canelo, but I would prefer GGG. Its not frustrating that Im not fighting the biggest names all the time. Im a headliner, he said.
I dont feel any pressure. Im just going to do my job and just keep winning. As long as I keep winning, everything will take care of itself.
Lara and Martirosyan fought to a technical draw in 2012, and Vanes has been calling for a return ever since.
Lara has beaten the likes of Alfredo Angulo and Austin Trout in the meantime, and expects to turn back Martirosyans challenge with relative ease.
Im not surprised that Im fighting Vanes again. Its my job to fight whoever they put in front of me, he said.
I felt that I was a better fighter than him the first time and Im a little better in almost every area since. One of the most important things is my way of training and my way of getting prepared. I feel that I am much more mature.
I like being back in Las Vegas again. Im definitely prepared to do what I do and thats win.
Man beats up daughter"s cheating boyfriend/ Twitter Shows Malcolm X LOVE!
Thursday, May 19, this year would"ve been the 95th birthday of Yuri Kochiyama, a prominent Japanese-American activist who passed away at 93 two years ago. Google is marking the occasion with one of its trademark doodles.
Some of Kochiyama"s work was deeply, clearly admirable. As an associate of Malcolm X, she was an important nonblack ally to the more militant end of the civil rights movement. She endured forced internment during World War II, and was an outspoken advocate for reparations to internees, which would eventually be passed in 1988. She was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War and advocate for inmates she viewed as political prisoners.
But other commitments of hers were more ambiguous. She was an outspoken admirer of Mao Zedong even after the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. She praised Malcolm X for his "admiration for Mao and Ho Chi Minh," and worked closely with the Revolutionary Action Movement, an "urban guerrilla warfare" organization based on "a synthesis of the thought of Malcolm X, Marx and Lenin, and Mao Zedong." The activist Robert Williams gifted her with a copy of the Little Red Book, and she later thanked him for "the gift of Mao"s philosophy."
Yuri Kochiyama was a supporter of the terrorist group Shining Path Cris Bouronicle/AFP/Getty Images Graffiti in Lima, Peru, calls for the freeing of Shining Path leader Abimael Guzmn.
Two positions of Kochiyama"s stand out as particularly alarming. First, she was an enthusiastic supporter of the Peruvian terrorist group Shining Path, a Maoist organization that has conducted a brutal insurgency killing tens of thousands of people since 1980. Peru"s Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that Shining Path personally killed or disappeared at least 30,000.
"Its tactics include the burning of ballot boxes and the public "executions" of moderate local leaders and others, including nuns and priests, who are seen as rivals for the allegiance of the poor," according to a 1992 New York Times report. "In wildly exaggerated demonstrations of Maoist precepts, children have been killed for political "crimes." Amnesty International says the guerrillas routinely torture, mutilate and murder captives."
"We reject and condemn human rights because they are reactionary, counter-revolutionary, bourgeois rights," founder Abimael Guzmn declared in one document. "Rather than concentrate its attacks on the armed forces or police, Shining Path has predominantly singled out civilians," Human Rights Watch noted in 1997. "The Shining Path has pragmatically avoided taking captives unless it intends to execute them Shining Path has been reported to torture captured civilians before executing them." Shining Path also used rape as a weapon of war.
This did not appear to bother Kochiyama, who joined a delegation to Peru organized by the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party, which defends the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. She read, in her words, "the kind of reading materials that I could become "educated" on the real situation in Peru; not the slanted reports of corporate America. The more I read, the more I came to completely support the revolution in Peru." In other words, she read, and believed, Maoist propaganda denying Shining Path"s war crimes.
After her return from Peru, she declared, "What has been taking place in both Peru and the US is a serious campaign to discredit Guzmn and the Shining Path movement, tainting them as terrorists, undermining their struggle with lies, isolating them, and intimidating anyone who might support them."
Yuri Kochiyama declared Osama bin Laden "one of the people that I admire" Getty Images Osama bin Laden, on a horse.
Kochiyama was a thorough-going opponent of what she viewed as American imperialism, and like some radical anti-imperialists this occasionally led her to admiring truly loathsome figures, because she thought they were effective at combating American empire. Abimael Guzmn was one. Osama bin Laden was another.
In a 2003 interview for the Objector: A Magazine of Conscience and Resistance, Kochiyama explained:
Im glad that you are curious why I consider Osama bin Laden as one of the people that I admire. To me, he is in the category of Malcolm X, Che Guevara, Patrice Lumumba, Fidel Castro, all leaders that I admire. They had much in common. Besides being strong leaders who brought consciousness to their people, they all had severe dislike for the US government and those who held power in the US.
bin Laden may have come from a very wealthy family, but by the time he was twenty, he came to loathe the eliteness and class conduct of his family
You asked, "Should freedom fighters support him?" Freedom fighters all over the world, and not just in the Muslim world, dont just support him; they revere him; they join him in battle.
You stated that some freedom fighters responded that bin Ladens agenda is more reactionary and does not speak to the needs of the masses of people who exist under US dominance. bin Laden has been primarily fighting US dominance even when he received money from the US when he was fighting in Afghanistan. He was fighting for Islam and all people who believe in Islam, against westerners, especially the US--even when he was fighting against the Russians.
To be clear, this is Kochiyama defending bin Laden who, besides being a mass murderer, was a vicious misogynist and hardly the brave anti-imperial class traitor Kochiyama fancies him as against other leftists who correctly noted that you can oppose American imperialism without allying or supporting violent jihadism.
Kochiyama"s praise for Che Guevara and Fidel Castro is also controversial, and,I think wrong, but is at least somewhat common on the left. Sympathy for Shining Path and bin Laden, by contrast, is not a common left position basically anywhere.
