\n Source: David J. Phillip<\/p>\n
1.\u00a0\u201cWhat would you have done to see this happen? Chicago Cubs, World Series champions. Would you have sold your house? Taken a pay cut? Would you have sworn off chocolate or beer, red meat or golf? Would you endure a summer full of winter? Would you have traded a few Bulls\u2019 championships or erased the memories of the Blackhawks\u2019 Stanley Cups?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cJulianna Zobrist handed over her baby. She did not plan to do it. But plans changed throughout Game 7 of this World Series one of the most memorable games in the sport\u2019s history.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n A lot has been written about the Chicago Cubs\u2018 historic World Series win but this piece by Michael Rosenberg for Sports Illustrated was particularly enjoyable.<\/p>\n 2. \u201cNow, after last Sunday, we can lay claim to something else. As much as the likes of Griffin, Kelly and Brennan have done for the place in terms of geography, putting it on the GAA map, they and a bunch of team-mates, neighbours and friends have now written it into history. Ballyea is not just our home but the home of the 2016 Clare senior hurling county champions.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Kieran Shannon explains what winning a county title means to the town of Ballyea in the Irish Examiner.<\/p>\n 3. \u201cHow do I sum up nearly two decades in the NBA? What do you really need to know? What\u2019s truly important? You\u2019ll get to play against your heroes: Michael Jordan and Clyde Drexler.<\/em><\/p>\n You\u2019ll play alongside Hall of Famers: Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade.\u00a0Sometimes you\u2019ll be afraid.\u00a0Sometimes you\u2019ll think you\u2019re out of your league.\u00a0But you\u2019ll keep showing up every day, putting in the work.<\/em><\/p>\n You\u2019ll put up more than 26,000 shots in your career. Almost six out of 10 won\u2019t even go in. I told you this game was a sonofabitch.\u00a0Don\u2019t worry, though. A successful man is built of 1,000 failures. Or in your case, 14,000 misses.\u00a0You\u2019ll win a championship in Boston.\u00a0You\u2019ll win another in Miami.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Shooting guard Ray Allen announced his retirement from basketball this week at the age of 41. And his \u2018letter\u2019 to his 13-year-old self for the Players Tribune is quite a read.<\/p>\n 4. \u201cIn many ways, football has become the Weimar Republic of commemorations. Acts of public solidarity can have huge power, but the currency has been debased. Stadiums have become like wheelbarrows stuffed not with worthless cash, but with increasingly worthless displays. Fans are often unsure what they are applauding.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In an interesting piece for The Times, Matthew Syed argues that football is remembering so many causes that the gestures have lost all meaning.<\/p>\n \n Get closer to the stories that matter with exclusive analysis, insight and debate in The42 Membership.\n <\/p>\n Become a Member<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n 5.\u00a0\u201c\u2018You know that crisp sound where you\u2019re watching an Olympic diver hit the water, where it\u2019s like a blade slicing through the water? Well, you have that smooth, clean sound, and at the same time it\u2019s like someone has a sawed-off shotgun \u2014 pow! It\u2019s amazing.\u2019<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI nod again, wondering whether he has the best insights into football I\u2019ve heard, or just the best weed I\u2019ve smoked. \u2018Do you see things out there that, like, you can\u2019t explain? Things that, like, defy gravity?\u2019\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Retired lineman Eugene Monroe uses cannabis as he claims it helps him to deal with his addiction to American football, he tells Tom Junod of\u00a0ESPN The Magazine.<\/p>\n \n Eugene Monroe.\n<\/p>\n 6. \u201cI had no support from anybody in football, and in fact a few people made it worse. Suddenly I became the non-gay, gay spokesman in the sport. In some ways, it would have been easier if I had been gay. I could have just stood up and said: \u2018Yes I am, what\u2019s your problem?\u2019 Instead there was a weird situation of denying it, but at the same time saying there would be nothing wrong if I was.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Former Chelsea and England defender Graeme Le Saux wrote an excellent column in the Guardian on the treatment of gay footballers and why it\u2019s important to drive homophobia out of the game.<\/p>\n 7. \u201cThere was a dirty river at the end of the field and it was absolutely disgusting-looking \u2014 as well as very cold. So, Allen pulls us over and goes \u2018if you\u2019re going to swim it, swim it\u2019 \u2014 as if to say, \u2018if you\u2019re going to win it, win it; if you\u2019re going to do it, do it\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cThen, he just strips off, jumps in and swims it, gets out on the other side in his soaking boxers and then runs about 200 metres in the Baltic cold.\u00a0I didn\u2019t know at the time that he was a bit of a lunatic anyway \u2013 he\u2019s known as \u2018Mad Dog\u2019 for a reason \u2013 but it did take the focus off losing.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n In his column for the Sunday Independent, former Ireland footballer Stephen Hunt explains the depths some managers will go to in the hope their team will snap out of a losing streak.<\/p>\n The42 is on Snapchat! Tap the button below on your phone to add!<\/p>\n
DIFFERENTLY<\/p>\n