Terrell Owens should have had a better excuse for blowing off his induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.

You know Youth Le'Veon Bell Jersey , like maybe he was going bowling.

That, at least, might have been understood in the tiny universe of T.O., the one the former wide receiver lives in and no one else seems to penetrate. Owens was so into bowling after his football career was over that he tried to go pro, only to be undone by slippery lane conditions.

Owens was a lot more successful in football, where his numbers were so good he arguably – and Owens argues this most – should have been inducted in Canton in his first year of eligibility. It wasn’t until his third year that Owens was voted in, part of a class that includes, among others, Jerry Kramer, Ray Lewis and fellow wide receiver Randy Moss.

They’ll all be there, slipping on the gold jackets for the first time that signify they’re the best of the best.

Owens probably will get his in the mail.

That’s entirely on T.O., and it’s not entirely surprising. His great numbers always came with great problems, and he’s never been one to forget a slight, perceived or otherwise.

That’s why he’s still engaged in a mostly one-way feud with Donovan McNabb, 13 years after the Philadelphia Eagles lost the 2005 Super Bowl to New England and Owens famously said he ”wasn’t the guy who got tired” in the game.

It’s also why he’s spending the day he should be getting his gold jacket at a ceremony of his own at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he went to college.

Hard to say exactly, but it seems T.O. is not happy with the way the media covered him over his 15-year career. He believes he got a bad rap as a bad teammate, and didn’t get the credit for the things he did on the field for his teams.

And he’s really not happy with being skipped over two years before finally being voted into the hall.

Just T.O. being T.O. Authentic Shaquem Griffin Jersey , a familiar scene to anyone who followed his career. Now Owens can claim a first that may hold a long time – the only living player of the 318 elected to the Hall of Fame who refused to attend his own induction.

”It wasn’t like he had to wait that long,” said Paul Domowitch of the Philadelphia Daily News, who championed Owens cause to his 47 fellow Hall of Fame voters. ”A lot of people have waited a lot longer than three years.”

Owens may not be there to get his jacket, but he’ll still be a Hall of Famer. There will be a T.O. bust, and provisions have been made to send him a jacket.

But he won’t be inducted individually like the others in his class in what should be one of the greatest moments of his life.

His call, yes. But if Owens is trying to make a point, it’s likely to get lost in the fuss being made over those actually in Canton for their inductions.

Then again, this is a player who held a bizarre press conference while working out in his driveway after being suspended for arguing with Eagles coach Andy Reid prior to the 2005 season. Shirtless and doing sit-ups, Owens mostly answered ”no comment” before exasperated writers asked him if he was trying to set a record for offering no comment.

”No comment,” he said.

Wide receivers tend to be a strange breed, even if Owens took it to a new level. Moss, after all, once famously walked off the field with 2 seconds left in a game and his Minnesota Vikings lined up for an onside kick attempt.

Moss will be in Canton on Saturday for his induction, and maybe Owens didn’t want to share the stage with him. Unlike Owens, Moss got in in his first year of eligibility.

A look at the numbers makes the case for Owens, who had a great career playing in San Francisco, Philadelphia, Dallas Cam Fowler Jersey , Buffalo and Cincinnati. Moss is second only to Jerry Rice in receiving yards, and third in touchdown catches behind Rice and Moss. He was a six-time Pro Bowl pick, and his touchdown celebrations live on in NFL lore.

Yes, he once questioned the sexuality of one of his quarterbacks. Yes, he threw quarterbacks and coaches under the bus whenever it suited his fancy.

But he deserves to be in Canton. He should be in Canton.

”I don’t understand what he’s trying to accomplish here, but he’s a tough guy to understand,” Domowitch said. I think he’s going to regret it later on because a lot of the Hall of Famers are going to hold it against him. Part of the joy of being one of those guys is not just getting inducted but all the things you go to together in the future. When the other Hall of Famers get together, he won’t really be welcomed.”

No he won’t, though to Owens it doesn’t seem to matter.

It’s just T.O. being T.O.

—

Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg(at)ap.org or The Golden State Warriors somehow withstood LeBron James‘ latest brilliance on the NBA Finals stage.

A costly blunder by J.R. Smith and a disputed foul call involving James himself sure helped.

Stephen Curry scored 29 points and the Warriors capitalized on Smith’s mistake that sent the game into overtime, overcoming a 51-point performance by James to beat Cleveland 124-114 in Game 1 on Thursday night.

The game nearly over, James jawed with both Curry and Klay Thompson, then Tristan Thompson and Draymond Green tangled moments later and made contact. After replay review, Tristan Thompson received a Flagrant 2 foul and ejection with 2.6 seconds left.

James was in utter disbelief as regulation ended stunningly: George Hill made the first of two free throws with 4.7 seconds left after being fouled by Klay Thompson, but when Smith secured the rebound of the second, he dribbled back toward halfcourt instead of shooting, apparently thinking the Cavs had a lead.

”He thought it was over. He thought we were up one,” coach Tyronn Lue said.

Yet Smith insisted he knew the score. Green figured Smith was simply looking for James, saying Youth Rick Leonard Jersey , ”I would have looked for LeBron, too.”

”I just thought we were going to call a timeout. Because I got the rebound, I’m pretty sure I couldn’t shoot it over KD,” Smith said of Kevin Durant. ”If I thought we were ahead, I would have just held on to the ball so they could foul me. Clearly that wasn’t the case.”

Instead, OT.

And why not? Both these teams were pushed to their limits in seven-game conference finals they each had to win on the road.

”I can’t talk about a situation that way because I do some dumb stuff on the court,” Durant said of how the fourth quarter finished. ”I don’t know what was going through J.R.’s head. He made a great rebound and gave them an opportunity to win the basketball game.”

Game 2 is Sunday night back at Oracle Arena, where the Warriors have won 18 of their last 19 postseason games. In 2015, when the Golden State beat the Cavs to capture the franchise’s first title in 40 years, the first two games of the series went to OT – Golden State winning the opener and Cleveland Game 2.

James shot 19 for 32 to go with eight assists and eight rebounds in the opener of his eighth straight NBA Finals and ninth overall, as well as Cavs-Warriors Take IV. James notched his eighth 40-point game during this playoff run to tie Hall of Famer Jerry West’s feat in 1965 for most in a single postseason.

”We’ve got to move on,” James said. ”This game is over and done with. We had opportunities.”

James drove past Curry for a three-point play with 50 seconds remaining in the fourth. But James was given a foul following a review with 36.4 seconds left and Durant converted a pair of free throws to tie it at 104.

The call had initially been a charge on 2017 finals MVP Durant and James protested the change – while KD said afterward he thought it was the right decision because ”I knew he was late on the drive and I knew I had my man beat and he came over a little late.”

James called it a ”huge play” and said ”I knew I was outside the charge line.”

”I read that play as well as I’ve read any play in my career, maybe in my life,” James said.

Rules allow officials to go to replay in the final 2 minutes of regulation or in overtime to determine if a defender attempting to draw a charge was in the restricted area. When doing so, they can view if the defender was in a legal guarding position. They decided James wasn’t and changed their original call.

Lue was disgusted to lose this way, saying of the overturned call: ”It’s never been done, ever in the history of the game. And then tonight in the finals on the biggest stage, when our team played well Authentic Avonte Maddox Jersey , played our (butt) off, man, it ain’t right.”

Lue added that the way James played, ”to come up robbed, it’s just not right.”

Durant struggled to find his stroke but wound up with 26 points on 8-for-22 shooting and nine rebounds.

Golden State got a serious scare when Thompson went down after Smith slid hard into the Splash Brother’s left leg at the 6:17 mark of the first quarter. Thompson lay grimacing in pain then went to the locker room with what was called a bruised left leg that needed re-taping. He returned for the start of the second quarter to huge roars from the yellow-clad sellout crowd and scored 24 points. He and Curry each connected on five 3s.

Curry drained one of those way-out-there 3-pointers that have been hard to come by this postseason to beat the halftime buzzer and Golden State shot 13 for 36 from deep.

Kevin Love returned from a concussion to provide a big boost for Cleveland with 21 points and 13 rebounds.

The Warriors missed the defensive presence of 2015 NBA Finals MVP Andre Iguodala, who was out for a fifth straight postseason game dealing with a bone bruise in his left knee. He is scheduled to be re-evaluated ahead of Game 2.

Everybody expects another wild one with so much talent on both sides.

”It was a crazy game,” Curry said. ”… The finals, man, anything is liable to happen.”

TIP-INS

Cavaliers: James has 109 career 30-point games in the playoffs, tying Michael Jordan for most ever. … Cleveland held a 19-4 advantage on the offensive glass, getting seven offensive rebounds in the first half to the Warriors’ none. … James’ first quarter: 4 for 4 with a 3-pointer, 12 points, three assists, a steal an Authentic Kansas City Chiefs Jerseys