Falcons QB MATT RYAN last night made an appearance on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," where he said it has "been difficult" living in Atlanta and seeing "everything going on in our city and in our state." Ryan said, "Your heart goes out to their families and their loved ones because it’s just deaths that shouldn't have happened.” Ryan: “That’s been part of me wanting to speak out and help out in ways that I can. I don't have these other ties to my professional life right now. We have this time. We have this opportunity to be able to put our energy and our effort into that, and I think it's an important thing to be able to do that right now because we need to make a change" (“The Daily Show,” Comedy Central, 6/17).
NAMES: The Rockefeller Foundation made NBA Commissioner ADAM SILVER a new member of its BOT (Rockefeller Foundation)....Cubs President of Baseball Operations THEO EPSTEIN will "conduct his 20th annual Hot Stove Cool Music charity concert in virtual form for the first time." The concert, featuring COMMON, JAMES TAYLOR, SUSAN TEDESCHI and DEREK TRUCKS, will be "shown on YouTube" at 7:00pm CT on June 25. The event will "raise funds for youths and families from Chicago and Boston communities" (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 6/18)....Trail Blazers G CJ MCCOLLUM will "serve free food to black Portlanders this Saturday." McCollum is teaming up with Trap Kitchen PDX, a Northeast Portland barbecue and soul food cart with roots in L.A. (Portland OREGONIAN, 6/18)....CBS' DOTTIE PEPPER last night was the keynote speaker for the Third Annual Albany Times Union High School Sports Awards (Albany TIMES UNION, 6/18).
