Good morning D-League.
Overnight fall arrived. 49 degrees right now — long sleeve weather for the first time since May.
A quick Ali story: Several years back we wanted to do an article on family caregiving - the challenges many face. I was good friends with Jon Saraceno who some of you may recall was a long-time boxing commentator on ESPN and writer for USA Today. He had good relations with the Ali family and when I asked wife Lonnie and Muhammad to be the center of the story —through Jon — they agreed.
I had an African-American female colleague whose husband was battling cancer and when she heard we were doing the story she was excited: “Ali has been my husbands greatest hero all his life and it’ll inspire him just reading about this,” she says.
So I asked Jon if he had any chance to see if Ali would scrawl an autograph for the guy.
A while later I get a package. Inside is our magazine autographed by Ali to the sick man. But there is also a sealed envelope to him.
When I gave it to woman she started crying. She said when she gave it to her husband he wept tears of joy —first true happiness he’d experienced since the cancer diagnosis.
The woman told me inside the envelope was a long letter dictated by Ali to her husband through his wife Lonnie, all about what he’d learned about facing adversity and the importance of courage and not quitting.
Thats who Ali was after the sum of his life experiences.
Overnight fall arrived. 49 degrees right now — long sleeve weather for the first time since May.
A quick Ali story: Several years back we wanted to do an article on family caregiving - the challenges many face. I was good friends with Jon Saraceno who some of you may recall was a long-time boxing commentator on ESPN and writer for USA Today. He had good relations with the Ali family and when I asked wife Lonnie and Muhammad to be the center of the story —through Jon — they agreed.
I had an African-American female colleague whose husband was battling cancer and when she heard we were doing the story she was excited: “Ali has been my husbands greatest hero all his life and it’ll inspire him just reading about this,” she says.
So I asked Jon if he had any chance to see if Ali would scrawl an autograph for the guy.
A while later I get a package. Inside is our magazine autographed by Ali to the sick man. But there is also a sealed envelope to him.
When I gave it to woman she started crying. She said when she gave it to her husband he wept tears of joy —first true happiness he’d experienced since the cancer diagnosis.
The woman told me inside the envelope was a long letter dictated by Ali to her husband through his wife Lonnie, all about what he’d learned about facing adversity and the importance of courage and not quitting.
Thats who Ali was after the sum of his life experiences.
