Congrats to King James!
It’s amazing that this record stood as long as it did. Kareem had maybe one 3-pointer in his whole career, almost all points were 2-pointers and free throws. Three-pointers became more commonplace in the 90s and just exploded in the last 15 years. And LeBron isn’t even close to retirement!
Manchester United and Roma are also supposedly interested.
My thoughts are the same as before: Everton better ask for as much as possible. 10-20% of that money is ours.
The PSV bid that was turned down on transfer deadline day was for £15m (close to €17m)
So they studied 31 field goal kickers, huh?
(It’s not often I make a sports-related joke, so forgive me if it’s not up to par.)
Fuck. The earlier report looks like it was false
This has been a really awful disaster hasn’t it? I wonder if the Turkish and Syrian government will see real repercussions from how they’re handling it… sadly, I don’t think the explosion in Lebanon a couple of years ago has resulted in real political change there, despite that disaster still having an impact on the people there…
Rebecca Solnit on FBOOK:
Kareem Abdul Jabbar is a beautiful and wise person. He describes one of the basic principles of unenvious non-competition, of generous living, that could apply to so much in life. “In the months leading up to LeBron breaking my record, so much was written about how I would feel on the day he sank that record-breaking shot that I had to laugh. I’d already written several times stating exactly how I felt so there really wasn’t much to speculate about. It’s as if I won a billion dollars in a lottery and 39 years later someone won two billion dollars. How would I feel? Grateful that I won and happy that the next person also won. His winning in no way affects my winning.” Can we call this a zen dunk?
This is what the world looks like when you think in terms of abundance rather than scarcity, when you can be happy for others’ gifts, successes, and joys. There are board games and card games and team games in which you having more is predicated on the other party having less, but in life someone else being beautiful or happy or loved, well – I wrote in A Field Guide to Getting Lost: “Or maybe there’s one thing to say, about the capitalism of the heart, the belief that the essences of life too can be seized and hoarded, that you can corner the market on confidence, stage a hostile takeover of happiness. It’s based on scarcity economics, the notion or perhaps the feeling that there’s not enough to go around, and the belief that these intangible phenomena exist in a fixed quantity to be scrambled for, rather than that you can only increase them by giving them away.” Records are tangible, of course, but being the greatest, the most–you don’t need to cling to that forever.
Oh yeah, and I met him at a book thing in 2016 and he was lovely in person too. I got to give him our brand new Nonstop Metropolis: A New York City Atlas, with its great maps of the Bronx, Harlem, and the basketball courts of Brooklyn among its offerings, thanks to the genius of co-editors Joshua Jelly-Schapiro and Garnette Cadogan, among others (our team included about 50 people).
His essay about generosity and records and values is at the link, and here’s a bit more of it: And, if someone had broken my record within ten years of me setting it, he would probably be right. I might have hobbled out of retirement just to add a few more points on my record.
But that ain’t me today. I’m 75. The only time I ever think of the record is when someone brings it up. I retired from the NBA 34 years ago. For the past 20 years, I’ve occupied myself with social activism, my writing career, and my family—especially my three grandchildren. If I had a choice of having my scoring record remain intact for another hundred years or spend one afternoon with my grandchildren, I’d be on the floor in seconds stacking Legos and eating Uncrustables.
I love that perspective. A particular take-away that IMO deserves discussion in this topic is how sports are collaboratively competitive. Without rules, there is no sport. Participants agree to the rules of a game by default prior to participating, whether it’s kindergarteners playing hopscotch or NBA basketball players earning millions of dollars per year. For me, the most annoying utterance of fans everywhere at every level is “let them play.”
What that really means is usually “do not apply the rules to the team I’m rooting for” or “I like to see violence so don’t wnforce rules meant to protect player safety.” As a fan and a participant, these phrases make me sick. As players, regardless of the intensity of competition, we put our wellbeing in the hands of each other and in the hands of the officials. When that trust is betrayed, that’s much much worse than losing. So many people forget that, to the detriment of sport.
It’s one of the reasons the CTE controversy in football is so imposrtant. There is no game that’s worth that kind of long term damage to player health. There is even more to it with CTE - there’s damage to society due to the violence caused by players and former players affected. Players are being betrayed by NFL officials (not just referees, but officials in the NFL organization itself). The writing is on the wall. The NFL and football in general, needs to fundamentally change the sport before change is forced upon them. Ultimately, the opportunity is there to make the game better for everyone, but that can’t be done by holding onto the status quo until changes are forced upon them.
I wonder if there’s damage to society caused by competitive sports in general, with one team trying to “beat” the other.
Oh for a time and place where people find entertainment, belonging, joy and love in helping each, and in working together for something more constructive than “beating” someone else.
As a participant, I get a lot of value out of competitive sports. A lot of that value is derived from the attitude that you go into it with. The “win at all cost” attitude is a losing formula. Playing a great game, regardless of outcome, is how to always win. And that’s where collaborative competition comes into it. Instead of looking at your opponent as someone to “defeat,” but rather as a collaborator in trying to create something beautiful and amazing; that’s how sports can benefit all players and all spectators.
The drive for self-improvement that comes from competitive sports is a side benefit. Speaking for myself, my drive to train and get better is much higher in competition than without. That’s certainly not universal, but it’s a very real drive for some people.
Waiting patiently for superb owls and a post on the puppy bowl… meanwhile… ATL has a contestant in this years puppy bowl! Go Bleu!!!
There’s a bit in that link that sets my teeth on edge, because I don’t think any of that needed to be said. Why would those personal aspects affect someone’s ability to care for a dog? It rubbed me wrong, even though I’m sure she didn’t mean it that way:
“It doesn’t matter who you are, you can have tattoos , you can have locs in your hair, gold teeth, you could not speak the King’s English, you can be a little bit ghetto… and I want to make it normal for people to just be their selves, to have the type of community assistance they need with no bias, nothing but love and 100% care,” said Gainor.
Yeah, me too… Still, it seems like a good organization doing good work.
CHIEEEEEEEFS!
Is a complete sentence.
No superb owls link yet?
This one’s pretty good:
I know, right?
We’ll have our own…
