Sports Poets Society

From SPORTS ILLUSTRATED MARCH 29, 2010 For more than five decades, FRANK DEFORD was the peerless bard of sports journalism. In 2010 he turned his gaze upon himself—a self-examination worth revisiting as we remember SI’s greatest storyteller by FRANK DEFORD, JUNE 5, 2017 / SPORTS ILLUSTRATED THERE ARE MANY ROLES a man plays in life. Son, Husband, Father, Breadwinner. If he is successful: Star, Boss, Grand Old Man. But nothing, I believe, is quite so thrilling as getting to be The Kid. That is, you, as a novice, are accepted by your elders into their privileged company. You are not quite their peer. You are on trial, tolerated more than embraced, but at least you are allowed to step into the penumbra of the inner circle, to sniff the aroma of wisdom and humor and institutional savoir faire that belongs to those old hands. It’s a heady sensation. It was at Sports Illustrated that I was, for the one time in my life, The Kid. I had come to the magazine fresh out of Pri...

No straight-outta-high-school player in NBA history had as seamless a transition to the pros as LEBRON JAMES. And he did it all in front of his hometown fans.By the time LeBron James made by Russ Bengtson, Slam #209, July 2017  By the time LeBron James made his home debut with the Cleveland Cavaliers on November 5, 2003, it had already been something of a rough start for the Chosen One and his squad. Yes, James had scored 25 points — adding 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 4 steals — in his NBA debut versus the Kings. But the Cavaliers lost that game by 14, the next by 9, and the one after that by 19 , putting them in an 0-3 hole before even playing in front of their hometown fans. LeBron’s first NBA game at Gund Arena loomed large. He was awful. The Cavs dropped to 0-4 as James posted just 7 points (on 3-11 shooting), getting to the line only once in 41 minutes and missing both of his three-point attempts. He did add 9 assists and 11 boards but was outplayed by fel...

https://cyclist.com.au/travel/col-dizoard-france-high-point/ At 2,361m, the Izoard is one of the highest cols at the Tour de France and has been the scene of many epic rides in the past. Cyclist tackles a true classic. It is early summer in the French Alps but somewhere along the road from the fortified mountain town of Briançon to the upper flanks of the 2,361m Col d’Izoard we seem to have cycled through a wormhole and ended up at Christmas. Snow-dusted ridges surround us like walls of a winter castle, and in the open bowl beneath them are pine forests, slabs of snow, and a cosy chalet with a sloping roof. Looking down on this solitary mountain refuge – built by Napoleon III in 1858 and miniaturised by its epic surroundings – gives the impression we are cycling inside an enormous snow globe. All it needs is a divine hand to shake us around, and the snow will rise up from the curved slopes of the Izoard into the glass sphere of blue sky above, and sprinkle down in flakes al...

Four years ago KEVIN DURANT said he was through being second. Then last summer a timely text encouraged him to head west, where a Finals MVP performance finally asserted his supremacy and gave the Warriors the rubber match in their title trilogy with the Cavs BY LEE JENKINS, Sports Illustrated , June 19, 2017  About 30 minutes after Game 7 of the 2016 Finals, Warriors forward Draymond Green sat at his locker in full uniform, fiddling with his phone. All around him, teammates hastily showered and dressed, rushing from Oracle Arena and the champagne fumes that polluted the air. But Green was in no hurry to leave. He replayed in his mind the climactic moments of a weeklong collapse against Cleveland: the chase-down block by LeBron James on Andre Iguodala, the clanked threepointer by Steph Curry over Kevin Love, the mysterious cold front that froze Golden State’s usually reliable flamethrowers. How, Green wondered, can I make sure this never happens again? He could sta...

https://www.amazon.it/Luka-Modri-x107-Football-Portraits-ebook/dp/B01B1NLAHG Christian Giordano Luka Modrić: io non ho più paura kindle - amazon.it - 2.45 euro È forse, e forse anche senza forse, il miglior centrocampista puro al mondo, se non anche il più incisivo nello sviluppo del gioco. Al Real Madrid ha appena vinto, da protagonista, la terza Champions in quattro anni e per la prima volta la Liga, è il leader della nazionale croata eppure in patria la sua popolarità è ai minimi storici.  Nel giugno 2017 per i media locali Luca Modrić è il «secondo croato più detestato dai suoi connazionali», e l’origine di tanto astio risale alla nuova deposizione con cui ha ritrattato quella originaria su uno dei maggiori casi di corruzione del paese.  Zdravko Mamić, 58enne ex presidente della Dinamo Zagabria, è sotto processo per, tra gli altri capi d’imputazione, bancarotta fraudolenta e frode fiscale. Mamić è anche accusato di essersi appropriato di una parte della...