My earliest childhood memories involve a basketball in some way. Whether it was trying to reach the basket from the foul line well before I should’ve been able to, or being strapped into a stroller on the sidelines at my brother’s games...it has always been front and center in my life. It didn’t take much at all for me to learn to love the game. I didn’t have pushy parents who threw me into it, I never thought I had to do it for any particular reason. I picked up the ball, I made that choice, the only choice that has ever felt that natural to me, until now.
Basketball turned into an everyday thing for me before most kids could read a chapter book. My growth spurts arrived earlier than most so I had the luxury of being able to shoot far before others my age, a luxury I will forever...
Sport
Today, Tom Brady gave up on his trial and will take no further legal action towards the DeflateGate case. He will serve a four-game suspension. I can take four games with Jimmy Garropolo starting, but there's something that enrages me about this. America has a system in terms of trials. Inncocent until proven guilty. Was Brady proven guilty? NO! What evidence was there? A smashed phone? I would mash my phone if I was this stressed? I would. Brady is worth 120 million dollars and could buy iPhones for all the fans crowding Gillette Stadium.
The cost of a 6S is pocket change to him. Deflated balls? That's the reason the case was started. But here's the thing. Why Tom Brady? It could have been anyone on either team's active 53 man roster or even the coaching staff in Foxboro that night. It...
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This is an open letter from an emotional Thunder fan. I do not usually do this but I feel like I have so many feelings and need to get them out somehow; so this is me processing. As a kid I grew up loving sports but never really got into the NBA. During playoff runs I would watch the Pistons but, I was always more of a college guy. I grew up loving Michigan State and watched every basketball game. Early on in the 2006-2007 year Michigan State played Texas and as I was watching the game I fell in love with Kevin Durant. I loved the way he played, obviously, and the way he carried himself on the court as well. I began to follow his career, and he quickly became my favorite player to watch.
He was drafted in 2007 by the Seattle Supersonics and I fell in love. Sure they weren’t great...
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Dear FA
Last night the nation witnessed what can be achieved when a nation unites behind its team and a team unites for its nation. The suggestion this morning that the entire England squad should be forced to pull the open top bus carrying the glorious Welsh team through the streets of the principality on their return home is the minimum humiliation we could expect from such a lacklustre and hopeless showing at another major football tournament. But instead Hodgson, his backroom team (what on earth did they spend their time doing?) and the "players" (if we can call them that in anything other than a broadly descriptive sense) pocket their wages and slide off to tan their sorry arses on the beaches of the world before returning to pre-season training when everything will probably be...
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Dear Sports Fans Community:
E-sports seem to have a negative connotation with it. As someone who has been playing Super Smash Bros. Melee competitively since high school, I learned what it takes to compete in high level e-sports. I realized that e-sports should be considered a legitimate sport, because of the many similarities between it and other sports. However misconceptions and stereotypes hold it back.
Merriam Webster’s definition of a sport is “a contest or game in which people do certain physical activities according to a specific set of rules and compete against each other.” So the only thing in the definition that doesn’t seem to be compatible with e-sports is “physical activities”. In an article by Eric Johnson, a producer at Recode Radio, he talks about how e-sports...
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Dear Louis Van Gaal
I hate to admit that deep down inside I knew it was going to happen, especially since we finished outside the top four. And very honestly, if somebody would have asked me before the season started even I would have said if we are not playing the Champions League next season due to one reason or the other, we should get a new manager. People may call me a hypocrite, but I don’t think it was the right time to let go of you. I was shattered the day it ended goalless vs Eindhoven at home but then I hoped we would beat Wolfsburg and get to the next stage. The day came, we lost, and what was the reason? Our best player of the season till then, Mike Smalling seemed in shambles throughout the game. I remember you had to give debut to Varela in that all important game away...
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Dear dad/coach,
I want to say thank you. as vague as that seems, let me explain. Thank you for bringing me into this world, and seeing the greatness in me from that very first moment. Thank you for buying me my first pair of Jordan's, my first basketball, and teaching me my first lessons about hard work, dedication, and commitment. Thank you for teaching me the game of basketball; how to shoot, dribble, and the spin move (which as my favorite. And most importantly, thank you for not being upset when I decided my heart wasn’t in it. I wanted to try something else, and you fully supported me.
I definitely have to thank you for getting me through high school. For telling me my freshmen year, when I decided to start playing volleyball, that my clock was already ticking. Time was of the...
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This is an open letter to my child’s school athletic coach. A coach can have such an impact on a child whether it is a small child or one who is in High School. The impact can be positive and/or negative. I will speak about the experience my child has had. My daughter first tried out for the sport she would come to love in sixth grade. Her sport is/was Cheerleading. She did not make it her sixth grade year, but tried out again in seventh grade and made the squad. She was so very happy. She would stay on this squad till the end of her freshman year in High School. She had made many good memories over those years. Her coaches during that time period were straight forward. Here are the rules, you break them and there will be consequences. As it should be, this teaches children...
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I was 8 years old. I remember walking into the front door of the enormous building like it was yesterday. The building that I had no idea would change my life forever. As soon as those front doors swung open, I could smell the damp dirt of the indoor ball field. On each of my sides were my parents, encouraging me to keep walking. In front of me was another set of doors and as I peered through the small window I saw the tall chain linked fence glowing under the dim lights. I heard the muffled voices and the sound of leather gloves coming from the other side of the doors. I was so nervous, I was shaking in my worn out pink cleats that had seen many rec league games. But this was different, this was my first travel softball team.
When I walked in the door to the field, I felt...
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To the athlete out for injury,
It is the worst feeling watching your teammates brave the competition with you sitting on the sidelines. With you having to watch them be in the position that all you can think about is you being in their steps. You see them strap up, put on their jerseys on and go out for warm ups. While you stand in the background watching them, seeing them become more of a team without you. Seeing them becoming better. You can't help but feeling like you are falling behind. That you could be doing more than just being supportive. That each of them that are on the court are getting ahead of you, because you are not getting that experience. You are not practicing. You are not having the same amount of time to get better. You have all the feelings and the drive of wanting...
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