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Emmanuel Mudiay Skips SMU For $1.2 Million With Chinese Pro Basketball Team

McDonald’s All-American Game
Emmanuel Mudiay will reportedly earn $1.2 million to play with a Chinese basketball team.

Five stories that have North Texas talking: A Prime Prep basketball player goes pro – in China; Dallas Cowboys great Robert Newhouse has died; Plano has a water holiday; and more:

Emmanuel Mudiay, the Prime Prep Academy student who recently decided he wouldn’t attend SMU, is instead going to play professional basketball – in China. He has “reached an agreement in principle” with the Guangdong Southern Tigers of the China Basketball Association, CBSSports.com reports. It’s a one-year deal, but he’ll reportedly earn $1.2 million. Mudiay had said he would play professionally to ease his mother’s financial concerns. But CBS Sports reports it might be more complicated: “Multiple sources told CBSSports.com that Mudiay's actual motivation for bypassing a year in the AAC is rooted in the fact that he was facing eligibility concerns -- both amatuerism concerns and eligibility concerns -- and that the odds of the 6-foot-5 guard ever being cleared for freshman eligibility were slim, at best, mostly because he spent two years at Prime Prep Academy, which a source told CBSSports.com has never actually had a class accepted by the NCAA for the purposes of initial eligibilty.”

  • Former Dallas Cowboys fullback Robert Newhouse has died. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports Newhouse “will be remembered most for throwing a touchdown pass to Golden Richards while running to his left in Super Bowl XII on one of Tom Landry’s famous trick plays.” He had a stroke in 2010 and had spent the past year at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, hoping for a heart transplant. “His final days were a stark contrast to how he lived and how he played football during a 12-year career with the Cowboys that included three Super Bowl appearances and a Super Bowl title in 1977,” the Star-Telegram reported. “… He had two nicknames during his career with the Cowboys, ‘House’ and ‘human bowling ball’ for his low-running style through defenses with [his] powerful thighs.”

  • Remember the house that was falling off a cliff over Lake Whitney earlier this summer? The house was intentionally set on fire so that the structure wouldn’t injure anyone below. The plan was to blow up the cliff, which is falling apart. But WFAA-TV reports that the plan is on hold. The homeowner told WFAA that it would cost $150,000, and the liability is too great. The county judge says that talks about what to do about the cliff have “slowed, but not stalled,” the stations reports. Water near the cliff has been roped off to protect folks. Relive the June fire that attracted national headlines.

  • Plano had a “water holiday” Tuesday and let residents set off their sprinklers. It was a way to thank residents for conserving water – but also to “move ‘stale’ water through pipes and water towers in order to maintain water quality in Plano,” The Dallas Morning News reports. The city used to pump up to 100 million gallons of water a day – now it’s down to 36 million or so. If the water sits around in the city system on hot days, the water ends up boiling and makes the water turn stale, which can lead to “taste problems,” The News reports. Nearby, in Murphy, residents will get a “bonus watering day,” the newspaper reported.

  • Learn about art therapy at a lecture tonight at the Crow Collection of Asian Art. Rachel Nash, a licensed professional counselor and art therapist, says she’s both an artist and a therapist. She’ll “explain how the various components of the art process serve a therapeutic function by discussing the deep connection between art and physical/ mental well-being.” The lecture starts at 7 p.m. The cost is $10. Learn more here.
Eric Aasen is KERA’s managing editor. He helps lead the station's news department, including radio and digital reporters, producers and newscasters. He also oversees keranews.org, the station’s news website, and manages the station's digital news projects. He reports and writes stories for the website and contributes pieces to KERA radio. He's discussed breaking news live on various public radio programs, including The Takeaway, Here & Now and Texas Standard, as well as radio and TV programs in New Zealand and the United Kingdom.