Who's your favorite athlete? (for real, not sexually)

[samhexum]

HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE ANTETOKOUNMPO?

 

EM-VEE-PEA

 

[+ sync]

You know I had to have a look.

 

Novak Djokovic

Andre Iguodala - always - class swagger and damn he’s HOT! ?

[samhexum]

Mike Trout. Regarded by many as the best player in baseball.

 

~Boomer~

 

The Los Angeles Angels honored their late teammate, Tyler Skaggs, in the best way possible Friday night. They all wore his No. 45 jersey onto the field, played a video montage on the giant video board, brought his mother out to the pitcher's mound, then put together one of the most impressive and inspired performances of the 2019 season.

 

Two pitchers, Taylor Cole and Felix Pena, teamed up to no-hit the Seattle Mariners in a 13-0 victory at Angel Stadium in the Angels' first home game since Skaggs died in his hotel room in Texas on July 1. Cole worked two perfect innings to open the game, and Pena dominated through the final seven, allowing just one fifth-inning walk.

 

They each pitched with the comfort of a massive lead, the product of a seven-run first inning that saw Mike Trout drive in four runs by himself -- two on a home run, then two on a double.

 

After Seattle's Mallex Smith grounded out to second base to end it, the Angels took off their jerseys with Skaggs' name and number on the back and arrayed them on the pitcher's mound.

 

When players returned from the All-Star break on Friday, they saw the shrine that was built by fans in front of the main gate of Angel Stadium now filled with caps and candles and hand-written letters. They saw images of Skaggs everywhere, including on the center-field wall.

 

They saw his locker preserved in its usual spot. They saw his No. 45 painted behind the pitcher's mound. And they found their own No. 45 jersey hanging in their own locker.

 

Trout ultimately reached base five times and drove in six runs. He is batting .407 with seven home runs and 16 RBIs in the seven games he has played since the death of one of his closest friends.

In that time, Angels general manager Billy Eppler has seen Trout emerge as a leader.

"His shoulders are broad because he carries around a lot," Eppler said prior to the game. "This kid -- or this young man -- has just continued to be there for everybody."

 

Before the game, Debbie Skaggs was noticeably anxious as she boarded the elevator that would take her to the field for the heart-wrenching ceremony to honor her son. She was to deliver the ceremonial first pitch to Andrew Heaney, her son's best friend on the team.

 

"I hope I make him proud," Debbie, a longtime high school softball coach who in many ways inspired Tyler's love of baseball, said from the suite level of Angel Stadium.

 

She threw a perfect strike, without hesitation, then took four steps to the edge of the mound, brought her hands together and looked up to the heavens.

 

Minutes later, she watched as Skaggs' teammates honored him in the best way possible.

[samhexum]

The story behind Giannis Antetokounmpo’s first Nike signature sneaker

After sharing a pair of shoes with his brother as a kid, the NBA MVP now has his own — the Nike Zoom Freak 1

 

https://theundefeated.com/features/the-story-behind-giannis-antetokounmpos-first-nike-signature-sneaker/

 

 

Interesting bulge on the guy to Giannis' right...

 

 

[+ WilliamM]

Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson who played for St Louis for his entire career. He was not quite unbelievable, but close in World Series games in 1964, 1967 and 1968. He was names NL most valuable player in '68.

[Ajac]

OK time to bring out the Geezer card. Ron Cey, Steve Garvey, Manny Motta The guys back in the day that actually seemed to play for the love of the game. Before the multimillion dollar contracts. Yes I know that is more than one.

[samhexum]

Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Gibson who played for St Louis for his entire career.

 

Uhh... when you posted this, did you know...?

 

Hall of Fame right-hander Bob Gibson, who won the Cy Young and National League MVP awards in 1968, sent a letter to living Hall of Famers informing them he is battling pancreatic cancer.

 

Gibson, widely considered one of the greatest pitchers of all time, was diagnosed with cancer several weeks ago, his longtime agent, Dick Zitzmann, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

 

Zitzmann told the newspaper that he has spoken to Gibson and that chemotherapy is expected to begin Monday in Omaha, Nebraska, the pitcher's hometown. Gibson, who turns 84 in November, has been hospitalized in Omaha for the past two weeks.

 

"We all know what a competitor he is," Zitzmann told the Post-Dispatch.

 

Gibson went 22-9 and led the majors in ERA (1.12), shutouts (13) and strikeouts (268) in 1968 for the St. Louis Cardinals. The year before, he went the distance in three games, all wins, and St. Louis beat the Boston Red Sox in seven games in an epic World Series.

 

In 1969, Major League Baseball lowered the pitcher's mound from 15 inches to 10 inches in hopes of boosting offense. Gibson remained dominant, winning 20 games for the fourth time and completing 28 games in 35 starts.

 

Gibson, who spent his entire career with the Cardinals, won 251 games over 17 seasons. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1981.

 

The Cardinals offered their well wishes Saturday night, tweeting: "Get well soon, Bob. All of Cardinal Nation is behind you!"

[samhexum]

AWFUL loss for the Yanks last night in the Bronx, which was witnessed by four VERY tall brothers, one of whom took pics with many of the players, picked up a baseball for the first time in his life, then took a few swings in the indoor batting cage…

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0xTlDCv_lo

 

The Yanks have the tallest team in baseball history, including 6’7 CC Sabathia…

 

P.S. Giannis has 2 years left on his contract, but will be eligible to sign an extension (the largest allowable deal in NBA history – 5yr / $239.5 million) starting 7/20/20, and if he doesn’t, they’ll have to trade him rather than lose him for nothing when his contract runs out in 2021.

 

Giannis idolized older brother Thanasis growing up. (“I didn’t choose basketball– Thanasis chose basketball.” Giannis wanted to play soccer, as their dad had.) The Bucks just signed Thanasis to a 2 yr / $3 million deal to return from Greece, where he wasn’t even good enough to start for the team he was playing for. He previously played 2 seasons in the NBA developmental league, & played a total of 6 minutes for the Knicks. He is NOT an NBA-quality player. It’s nice to have a brother who’s a generational talent.

 

P.P.S. If Giannis signs the extension, between his NBA and shoe & other endorsement deals, the man who is embarrassed by his toes that are curled because he always had to wear borrowed sneakers as a child, and sometimes went 2 days without eating, will have made half a billion dollars before his 30th birthday. As he tweeted after he first tasted a smoothie as a rookie, God Bless America!

 

P.P.P.S. Milwaukee is now the city of brotherly love. Besides the Antetokounbros (as the Antetokounmpo brothers call themselves), the Bucks signed goofy 7’1 comic-book loving Robin ‘Sideshow Bob’ Lopez to back up his goofy comic-book loving identical twin Brook. Last season, the San Antonio arena had an occasional bat problem. Brook said he might let the bat bite him, because if a bat bites you, there’s a 25% chance you develop superpowers.

 

5 years ago when Brook played for Brooklyn (just a coincidence, but kinda cool) and Robin played for the Knicks I posted an article at Atkol about how they couldn’t live together because their pussies (Poupon & Prince Edward Zephyr) didn’t get along. I don’t know if they are still alive.

 

 

[samhexum]

A star is built: Giannis is the best basketball player alive

 

Antetokounmpo hasn't been shy in his pursuit of greatness. In fact, during Milwaukee's Nov. 18 win at Chicago, with Jordan's No. 23 and Scottie Pippen's 33 dangling from the rafters of the United Center, he told ESPN: "I definitely want to be one of the best players to ever play.

 

At age 25, Antetokounmpo is entering his prime and seemingly in the running to win a second straight MVP award. Milwaukee GM Jon Horst is keeping that in mind while studying Jordan's career. Jordan didn't win his first title until age 28, during the 1990-91 campaign.

Antetokounmpo wasn't even born until Dec. 6, 1994.

 

"You look at championship teams, and they have an average age of like close to 30, and then they have an average age of like 26, 27, 28 when they get to a conference finals," Horst said. "You have guys like Michael Jordan, who I don't think actually ended up getting to the NBA Finals until he was [28] years old. So I think for our guys, for our organization and for fans in general just to watch kind of the evolution of a championship organization -- not just a single championship year or a team that had a great run, but a team that figures out how to become great and then sustains it over a long period of time and does some really special things. I think it's really an interesting story for people to watch."

 

The Bucks currently hold an NBA-best 53-12 record. Through 65 games of Jordan's 1997-98 championship team, the Bulls were 48-17.

 

The Bucks have won a league-high 36 games by double figures and 19 games by at least 20. Despite playing only 65 games, that's already more games than the Bulls won by double figures (34) or 20-plus points (10).

[+ purplekow]

Pete Alonso of the NY Mets. He has a good head on his shoulders and his has a great set of shoulders. Power hitter, Rookie of the Year and a leader on the team, Won a million dollars during the All Star Game Home Run Derby and gave the money to charity. His salary for the year is 525,000. I am sure he has endorsements and big money will be forthcoming but still, at 25, an amazingly generous act.

[+ purplekow]

Pete Alonso of the NY Mets. He has a good head on his shoulders and his has a great set of shoulders. Power hitter, Rookie of the Year and a leader on the team, Won a million dollars during the All Star Game Home Run Derby and gave the money to charity. His salary for the year is 525,000. I am sure he has endorsements and big money will be forthcoming but still, at 25, an amazingly generous act.

[+ azdr0710]

Pete Alonso of the NY Mets. He has a good head on his shoulders and his has a great set of shoulders. Power hitter, Rookie of the Year and a leader on the team, Won a million dollars during the All Star Game Home Run Derby and gave the money to charity. His salary for the year is 525,000. I am sure he has endorsements and big money will be forthcoming but still, at 25, an amazingly generous act.

 

 

[+ azdr0710]

Pete Alonso of the NY Mets. He has a good head on his shoulders and his has a great set of shoulders. Power hitter, Rookie of the Year and a leader on the team, Won a million dollars during the All Star Game Home Run Derby and gave the money to charity. His salary for the year is 525,000. I am sure he has endorsements and big money will be forthcoming but still, at 25, an amazingly generous act.

 

 

[samhexum]

Pete Alonso of the NY Mets.

 

Don't forget his 9/11 themed cleats:

 

Many of the Mets were seen taking the field on Wednesday night against the D-backs wearing custom cleats that honored those who lost their lives on September 11th, 2001, including the first responders.

 

All of this was orchestrated by the Mets' rookie, who came up with the idea for the team to honor 9/11 victims on the tragedy's 18th anniversary. Though he initially wanted to create custom hats, he pivoted to cleats to avoid what he called "red tape" from Major League Baseball.

 

https://www.sny.tv/mets/news/see-it-pete-alonso-orders-mets-custom-cleats-honoring-911-victims/310677192

 

[samhexum]

Pete Alonso of the NY Mets.

 

Don't forget his 9/11 themed cleats:

 

Many of the Mets were seen taking the field on Wednesday night against the D-backs wearing custom cleats that honored those who lost their lives on September 11th, 2001, including the first responders.

 

All of this was orchestrated by the Mets' rookie, who came up with the idea for the team to honor 9/11 victims on the tragedy's 18th anniversary. Though he initially wanted to create custom hats, he pivoted to cleats to avoid what he called "red tape" from Major League Baseball.

 

https://www.sny.tv/mets/news/see-it-pete-alonso-orders-mets-custom-cleats-honoring-911-victims/310677192

 

[samhexum]

 

Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee Bucks reach five-year, $228M supermax extension

 

Back-to-back NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo has committed to the Milwaukee Bucks long-term.

 

Antetokounmpo agreed to sign a five-year, $228 million supermax extension with the Bucks on Tuesday, he announced on Twitter, with the terms being confirmed by agent Alex Saratsis to ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski. The deal includes an opt out after the fourth year.

 

"This is my home, this is my city," Antetokounmpo posted on Twitter. "I'm blessed to be able to be a part of the Milwaukee Bucks for the next 5 years. Let's make these years count. The show goes on, let's get it."

 

Had he passed on the offer, he would have been an unrestricted free agent next summer and the biggest name to hit the market since Kevin Durant in 2016.

 

Antetokounmpo is coming off a career year where he became just the third player in league history to win MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season, joining Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon. He also averaged career-highs in points (29.5) and rebounds (13.6) to go with 5.6 assists per game and a 31.9 player efficiency rating -- the highest in a season in NBA history, per ESPN Stats & Information data.

 

Milwaukee has finished the regular season with the best record in the league each of the past two years, but failed to reach the NBA Finals either time. In 2019, the Bucks took a 2-0 lead over the Toronto Raptors in the conference finals before losing in six games. This past season, Milwaukee didn't get that far, falling to the Miami Heat in five games during the semifinals in the Orlando bubble.

 

For all their regular-season success, the Bucks have reached the conference finals just once in Antetokounmpo's seven-year tenure and haven't reached the NBA Finals since 1974 with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who ultimately asked to be traded from Milwaukee after his sixth season as a three-time league MVP.

 

"I think [Antetokounmpo] should look into his own heart and make a decision based on what's important to him and his professional life," Abdul-Jabbar, who led the Bucks to their lone title in 1971, said to ESPN during a October 2019 trip to Milwaukee.

 

Antetokounmpo was a relative unknown when the Bucks made him the No. 15 overall pick in the 2013 NBA draft. Born in Greece to Nigerian parents, Antetokounmpo was playing in Greece's second division before joining Milwaukee. He averaged just 6.8 points per game as a rookie, starting 23 games, but by his third year, his scoring average was up to 16.9 and he earned Most Improved Player honors. The next year, he made the first of his four All-Star appearances.

 

Milwaukee reached the playoffs three times in Antetokounmpo's first five seasons with the team, but was eliminated in the first round each time. In 2018-19, Antetokounmpo ascended to the league's MVP, becoming the first Bucks player since Abdul-Jabbar to win the award, while leading the team to its first playoff series win since 2001.

 

Antetokounmpo has improved his scoring average every season he's been in the league, reaching 29.5 last season, when he became the first player since Wilt Chamberlain to average at least 29.0 points, 13.0 rebounds and 5.0 assists over the course of a season. However, his focus has remained that elusive championship.

 

"It's simple. You've got to be better than what you were last year. If you did not win the whole thing, you've got to get better," Antetokounmpo said during his September virtual news conference after accepting his MVP trophy. "If you win the whole thing, you've got to get better and do it again."

 

With teams around the NBA clearing cap space with the hope of pursuing Antetokounmpo next summer, Milwaukee entered a critical offseason hoping to convince its best player since Abdul-Jabbar to stay by putting together a solid supporting cast.

 

"This is our Super Bowl," Bucks general manager Jon Horst said Nov. 16. "We work at this every single day of every year to have great processes and great decision-making filters and we got through them and there's confidence in that."

 

Before the start of free agency, the Bucks agreed to a trade bringing in former All-Star Jrue Holiday as part of a four-team deal. A reported trade that would have brought Bogdan Bogdanovic to Milwaukee as part of a sign-and-trade deal fell apart before it could be completed, and the Bucks pivoted to bolstering their bench, adding D.J. Augustin, Bryn Forbes and Torrey Craig while re-signing guard Pat Connaughton.

 

The Bucks also added rookie Jordan Nwora with the No. 45 pick in the draft. Antetokounmpo and All-Star guard Khris Middleton both reached out to the former Louisville forward on draft night with an introductory text message, he said, welcoming him to the team and telling him that the "goal is a championship here."

 

Antetokounmpo, who turns 26 on Dec. 6, joined Abdul-Jabbar and LeBron James this season as the only players to win multiple NBA MVP awards by age 25. He's repeatedly expressed interest in staying in Milwaukee under the right circumstances.

 

"I've been encouraged my whole career in Milwaukee," Antetokounmpo said after winning his second MVP. "I know that we've gotten better each year and I know that Milwaukee has great people that view every year the same I do every year, which is to play well, improve and win it all."

 

[samhexum]

With a 35 point performance on 16-of-16 shooting, Giannis Antetokounmpo has won the NBA All-Star Game MVP. He achieved that stat line in just over 19 minutes played.

 

Included in that stat line were three 3-pointers.

 

At 26 years old, he has now achieved:

 

5x All-Star

4x All-NBA

3x All-Defense

2x MVP

1x DPOY

1x All-Star MVP

 

He also joined some quite exclusive company:

 

Giannis Antetokounmpo of the @Bucks joins Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in NBA history to go 16-for-16 or better from the field in any game (regular season, postseason or All-Star). Wilt accomplished the feat twice in the regular season in 1966-67 (18-for-18 & 16-for-16).

Edited March 8, 2021 by samhexum

[+ WilliamM]

? Woods

[samhexum]

With a 35 point performance on 16-of-16 shooting, Giannis Antetokounmpo has won the NBA All-Star Game MVP. He achieved that stat line in just over 19 minutes played. Included in that stat line were three 3-pointers. Giannis joins Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in NBA history to go 16-for-16 or better from the field in any game (regular season, postseason or All-Star). Wilt accomplished the feat twice in the regular season in 1966-67 (18-for-18 & 16-for-16).

 

 

Giannis Antetokounmpo scored 47 points Friday, making all 18 of his shots inside the 3-point arc, tying Chamberlain for the most 2-point field goals made without a miss, according to ESPN's Stats and Information.

 

The Bucks dominated in the paint all night, and no one more so than the two-time MVP. Antetokounmpo outscored the Trail Blazers 47-46 from two-point range and the free-throw line, the first player ever to accomplish that feat.

[Becket]

M. Ali. The GOAT

[+ MysticMenace]

I would say...the following:

• Michael Phelps
  
• Simone Biles
  
• Nathan Chen
  
• Mikaela Shiffrin
  

[+ MysticMenace]

On 5/2/2021 at 7:58 PM, JoeMendoza said:

I would say...the following:

 

• Michael Phelps
• Simone Biles
• Nathan Chen
• Mikaela Shiffrin

 

Speaking of Simone Biles, her yurchenko double pike vault this weekend was amazing!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NESV8eu6k18

[Jakeenct]

http://t2.gstatic.com/licensed-image?q=tbn:ANd9GcTr2CB1t1b3jfcSxFB1Ptsln71UtCLpF1a6amREhVz7j6x6dCMhuL-SU99WSahS

[Jakeenct]

1200 × 667

 

Edited May 25, 2021 by Jakeenct

[samhexum]

On 11/7/2017 at 11:14 AM, LaffingBear said:

Also like Brandon Crawford, who seems to have his head on straight. From pictures of him as a child attending SF Giants games, to seeing him run around on the field chasing his toddler daughter while other players were in clubhouse spraying champagne, and his off season baseball camp for local youth.

Yankee fans have become very fond of his brother-in-law, Gerrit  'don't call me Natalie' Cole.