Golden State Warriors center Erick Dampier, a former Mississippi State star, made headlines in the Bay Area when he blasted his coach after a loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday. The Sphinx-like Dampier made news as much for making a quoteworthy statement as for what he said. And the ex-Bulldog said plenty: Dampier criticized coach Eric Musselman’s defensive strategy against Minnesota star Kevin Garnett (who scored 37 points), complained about frequently being benched during fourth quarters of games and ridiculed Musselman by referring to him as “Musselhead.” Now if Dampier would just play like the All-Star so many predicted he would be coming out of college, people might pay more attention to what he says.
Mississippi native Donna Ladd and partner Todd Stauffer founded the Jackson Free Press in 2002 in the capital city. The heavily awarded local newspaper did many investigations heralded across the state and nation and served as a paper of record due to its diversity, inclusion, in-depth reporting and deep connection to readers and dedication to narrative change in and about Mississippi. In 2022, the nonprofit Mississippi Free Press, founded by Ladd and JFP Associate Publisher Kimberly Griffin in 2020, purchased the journalism assets and archives of the Jackson Free Press. A Google grant through AAN Publishers enabled Newspack's integration of the JFP archives into the Mississippi Free Press website to become part of a more searchable archive of recent Mississippi history and essential journalism.
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