By Patrick Hayes

Like the rest of the Flint area (and the Olympics-watching country), I’m excited to watch Flint boxer Claressa Shields start out on her quest for a gold medal at 10:45 a.m. today. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a basketball connection to work that into a blog post … until I stumbled across Flint basketball great Mateen Cleaves talking about Shields in the NBC 25 video above. That’s all the connection I need.

So if you’re around a computer, watch and cheer on Shields at this link or follow the Flint Journal’s coverage of her debut here.