Chopra says: "If you’re really spiritual, then you should be totally independent of the good and the bad opinions of the world…you should have faith in yourself."
posted from Bloggeroid
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Chopra says:
Chopra says: "If you’re really spiritual, then you should be totally independent of the good and the bad opinions of the world…you should have faith in yourself."
Monday, December 22, 2014
Dividend Achievers Series: Aaron's
Dividend Achievers Series: Aaron's
Dec. 23, 2014 1:05 AM ET | by Sure Dividend | about: aan | includes: big, mfrm, rcii
Summary
Aaron's is one of the few stocks that tends to rise in recessions.
The company is betting big on virtual leasing.
Will Aaron's be able to last through the headwinds affecting the leasing industry?
Aaron's (NYSE:AAN) is a consumer goods and electronics sale and lease company. Aaron's is the largest consumer goods and electronic leasing company in the US with a market cap of $2 billion; slightly larger than rival Rent-A-Center (RCII), which has a market cap of $1.8 billion. Aaron's is undergoing a transition with the recent acquisition of online consumer products leaser Progressive Financial.
Aaron's has not reduced its dividend payments since 1994. The company currently has a dividend yield of just 0.3%. Aaron's is a Dividend Achiever, as it has increased its dividend payments for 10 or more consecutive years. While Aaron's is a Dividend Achiever, its negligible yield makes it an unsuitable candidate for investors seeking current income.
Business Overview
Aaron's operates in 3 segments: Sales & Lease Ownership, Home Smart, and Progressive. A revenue breakdown for the company's most recent quarter by segment is shown below to illustrate the relative importance of each segment to Aaron's:
Sales & Lease Ownership: 71% of revenue
Home Smart: 2% of revenue
Progressive: 27% of revenue
The Sales & Lease segment is Aaron's largest by far. The segment contains both the company's store operated and franchised Aaron's stores. In total, the company owns or franchises 2,017 Aaron's stores. The stores generate revenue by selling or leasing (with monthly terms) consumer home goods and electronics.
The Home Smart segment was responsible for just 2% of Aaron's revenue in the third quarter of 2014. The segment consists of 82 company operated stores and 2 franchised locations. The segment differs from the Sales & Lease segment in that it focuses on weekly leases as opposed to monthly leases.
The Progressive segment generated 27% of sales for Aaron's in its most recent quarter. The segment consists of the recently acquired Progressive Financial company operations. The Progressive segment partners with existing retailers to provide financing for consumer goods purchases.
Competitive Advantage & Growth Prospects
Aaron's is really two businesses: a consumer household and electronics goods leasing company with about 2,100 locations, and an online financing company that partners with other retailers to offer leasing arrangements for consumer goods.
The company's brick and mortar locations are struggling. The company faces fierce competition from competitors including Rent-A-Center, which owns about 3,000 stores (nearly 50% more than Aaron's). The company saw comparable store sales decline 2.5% in its most recent quarter for company owned stores. For comparison, Rent-A-Center saw comparable store sales in the US decline 3.5% in its most recent quarter.
The consumer goods leasing business is experiencing headwinds as the US economy continues to strengthen. As the economy improves, consumers tend to have more cash and credit, with less need to rent their furniture and consumer electronics. Positive macroeconomic news for the US is negative news for Aaron's.
On the plus side, the company tends to do well during recessions, as consumers often find themselves in the position to lease their furniture and consumer electronics or do without. Aaron's saw its EPS rise nearly 50% from 2007 to 2010, during the Great Recession. Not only did the company's operations grow during the Great Recession, but Aaron's stock price rose as well. The image below shows Aaron's performance from the beginning of 2008 to the end of 2009 versus the S&P 500.
(click to enlarge)
Source: Google Finance
Aaron's Progressive Financial acquisition has positioned it well for future growth. Progressive Financial is experiencing rapid growth despite headwinds to the overall leasing industry. The Progressive segment currently partners with well-known retailers including: Mattress Firm (NASDAQ:MFRM), Art Van Furniture, Big Lots (NYSE:BIG), and Sleepy's. The company's management believes the potential market size for virtual leasing is approximately $24 billion, as the image below shows.
Source: Aaron's Investor Relations
Progressive Financial has significantly more partner locations than its smaller peers in the virtual lending category. The company currently partners with about 15,000 locations. Its nearest competitor, Why Not Lease It, partners with about 5,700 locations. Aaron's management expects blistering revenue growth of over 40% for its Progressive segment next year as it partners with new locations.
Aaron's acquisition of Progressive Financial will drive growth going forward. If traditional leasing sales are flat, the company will still see double-digit revenue growth from its Progressive segment alone. Aaron's carries about $560 million in debt and is expecting about $250 million in EBITDA for its full fiscal year 2014 for a debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.24. The company's relatively conservative financing gives its progressive segment further strength and lending experience.
Valuation
The Progressive division is growing rapidly, but had a pre-tax profit margin of less than 1% for the third quarter of 2014. For the Progressive divisions growth to be valuable, it needs to demonstrate an ability to add substantially to the bottom line. The virtual leasing industry has low barriers to entry (as does the leasing industry in general), and is very competitive as a result. It will be difficult for Progressive to expand margins in this competitive environment.
Aaron's has a forward P/E ratio of just 14, making it a solid value for long-term investors. The company does have significant growth prospects ahead. The leasing industry is currently experiencing a downturn do to the improving economy. As a result, Aaron's stock is up just 6.3% this year, while the market is up 15% over the same time period.
Final Thoughts
Aaron's has an extremely low dividend yield. The company is experiencing rapid growth in its Progressive division, but this has yet to translate into profits. The company is also currently experiencing negative comparable store sales do to weakness in the leasing industry. On the plus side, Aaron's stock appears cheap at this time which could attract value investors.
Aaron's does not qualify for investment using The 8 Rules of Dividend Investing because it does not have a long enough dividend history. Nevertheless, the company makes an interesting choice for investors looking to hedge against recessions. Aaron's stock and underlying business has historically done well during recessions as leasing becomes more popular when the economy is in decline. The stock appears cheap at this time as well; investors could see gains from valuation multiple expansion.
Disclosure: The author has no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. The author wrote this article themselves, and it expresses their own opinions. The author is not receiving compensation for it. The author has no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
More on AAN:
Aaron's, Inc: Rent-To-Own Leader May Be Underestimating Bad Debt Expense
AAN • Yesterday, 12:30 PM • Celan Bryant
Aaron's: Opportunity To Dominate Both Traditional And Virtual Rent-To-Own Markets
AAN • Sun, Dec. 14, 1:38 PM • Mark Lin
Aaron's Vs. Rent-A-Center: Whom To Own In Rent-To-Own
AAN • Mon, Dec. 8, 4:47 AM • Michael Boyd
More AAN »
Dec. 23, 2014 1:05 AM ET | by Sure Dividend | about: aan | includes: big, mfrm, rcii
Summary
Aaron's is one of the few stocks that tends to rise in recessions.
The company is betting big on virtual leasing.
Will Aaron's be able to last through the headwinds affecting the leasing industry?
Aaron's (NYSE:AAN) is a consumer goods and electronics sale and lease company. Aaron's is the largest consumer goods and electronic leasing company in the US with a market cap of $2 billion; slightly larger than rival Rent-A-Center (RCII), which has a market cap of $1.8 billion. Aaron's is undergoing a transition with the recent acquisition of online consumer products leaser Progressive Financial.
Aaron's has not reduced its dividend payments since 1994. The company currently has a dividend yield of just 0.3%. Aaron's is a Dividend Achiever, as it has increased its dividend payments for 10 or more consecutive years. While Aaron's is a Dividend Achiever, its negligible yield makes it an unsuitable candidate for investors seeking current income.
Business Overview
Aaron's operates in 3 segments: Sales & Lease Ownership, Home Smart, and Progressive. A revenue breakdown for the company's most recent quarter by segment is shown below to illustrate the relative importance of each segment to Aaron's:
Sales & Lease Ownership: 71% of revenue
Home Smart: 2% of revenue
Progressive: 27% of revenue
The Sales & Lease segment is Aaron's largest by far. The segment contains both the company's store operated and franchised Aaron's stores. In total, the company owns or franchises 2,017 Aaron's stores. The stores generate revenue by selling or leasing (with monthly terms) consumer home goods and electronics.
The Home Smart segment was responsible for just 2% of Aaron's revenue in the third quarter of 2014. The segment consists of 82 company operated stores and 2 franchised locations. The segment differs from the Sales & Lease segment in that it focuses on weekly leases as opposed to monthly leases.
The Progressive segment generated 27% of sales for Aaron's in its most recent quarter. The segment consists of the recently acquired Progressive Financial company operations. The Progressive segment partners with existing retailers to provide financing for consumer goods purchases.
Competitive Advantage & Growth Prospects
Aaron's is really two businesses: a consumer household and electronics goods leasing company with about 2,100 locations, and an online financing company that partners with other retailers to offer leasing arrangements for consumer goods.
The company's brick and mortar locations are struggling. The company faces fierce competition from competitors including Rent-A-Center, which owns about 3,000 stores (nearly 50% more than Aaron's). The company saw comparable store sales decline 2.5% in its most recent quarter for company owned stores. For comparison, Rent-A-Center saw comparable store sales in the US decline 3.5% in its most recent quarter.
The consumer goods leasing business is experiencing headwinds as the US economy continues to strengthen. As the economy improves, consumers tend to have more cash and credit, with less need to rent their furniture and consumer electronics. Positive macroeconomic news for the US is negative news for Aaron's.
On the plus side, the company tends to do well during recessions, as consumers often find themselves in the position to lease their furniture and consumer electronics or do without. Aaron's saw its EPS rise nearly 50% from 2007 to 2010, during the Great Recession. Not only did the company's operations grow during the Great Recession, but Aaron's stock price rose as well. The image below shows Aaron's performance from the beginning of 2008 to the end of 2009 versus the S&P 500.
(click to enlarge)
Source: Google Finance
Aaron's Progressive Financial acquisition has positioned it well for future growth. Progressive Financial is experiencing rapid growth despite headwinds to the overall leasing industry. The Progressive segment currently partners with well-known retailers including: Mattress Firm (NASDAQ:MFRM), Art Van Furniture, Big Lots (NYSE:BIG), and Sleepy's. The company's management believes the potential market size for virtual leasing is approximately $24 billion, as the image below shows.
Source: Aaron's Investor Relations
Progressive Financial has significantly more partner locations than its smaller peers in the virtual lending category. The company currently partners with about 15,000 locations. Its nearest competitor, Why Not Lease It, partners with about 5,700 locations. Aaron's management expects blistering revenue growth of over 40% for its Progressive segment next year as it partners with new locations.
Aaron's acquisition of Progressive Financial will drive growth going forward. If traditional leasing sales are flat, the company will still see double-digit revenue growth from its Progressive segment alone. Aaron's carries about $560 million in debt and is expecting about $250 million in EBITDA for its full fiscal year 2014 for a debt to EBITDA ratio of 2.24. The company's relatively conservative financing gives its progressive segment further strength and lending experience.
Valuation
The Progressive division is growing rapidly, but had a pre-tax profit margin of less than 1% for the third quarter of 2014. For the Progressive divisions growth to be valuable, it needs to demonstrate an ability to add substantially to the bottom line. The virtual leasing industry has low barriers to entry (as does the leasing industry in general), and is very competitive as a result. It will be difficult for Progressive to expand margins in this competitive environment.
Aaron's has a forward P/E ratio of just 14, making it a solid value for long-term investors. The company does have significant growth prospects ahead. The leasing industry is currently experiencing a downturn do to the improving economy. As a result, Aaron's stock is up just 6.3% this year, while the market is up 15% over the same time period.
Final Thoughts
Aaron's has an extremely low dividend yield. The company is experiencing rapid growth in its Progressive division, but this has yet to translate into profits. The company is also currently experiencing negative comparable store sales do to weakness in the leasing industry. On the plus side, Aaron's stock appears cheap at this time which could attract value investors.
Aaron's does not qualify for investment using The 8 Rules of Dividend Investing because it does not have a long enough dividend history. Nevertheless, the company makes an interesting choice for investors looking to hedge against recessions. Aaron's stock and underlying business has historically done well during recessions as leasing becomes more popular when the economy is in decline. The stock appears cheap at this time as well; investors could see gains from valuation multiple expansion.
Disclosure: The author has no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours. The author wrote this article themselves, and it expresses their own opinions. The author is not receiving compensation for it. The author has no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.
More on AAN:
Aaron's, Inc: Rent-To-Own Leader May Be Underestimating Bad Debt Expense
AAN • Yesterday, 12:30 PM • Celan Bryant
Aaron's: Opportunity To Dominate Both Traditional And Virtual Rent-To-Own Markets
AAN • Sun, Dec. 14, 1:38 PM • Mark Lin
Aaron's Vs. Rent-A-Center: Whom To Own In Rent-To-Own
AAN • Mon, Dec. 8, 4:47 AM • Michael Boyd
More AAN »
posted from Bloggeroid
Let life unfold
Tuesday, December 23, 2014
Let life unfold
You put a great deal of energy and effort into moving your life in a particular direction. Show your confidence in all you’ve done, and in all you continue to do, by allowing life in this moment to unfold as it will.
Let go of your attachment to a specific result and let the good work you’ve done come to fruition. Though the results may not be exactly as you imagined them, they will surely bring the richness and fulfillment you seek.
You’ve done much to get yourself to this day. Now, accept the unique flavor of the day as it arrives in each moment.
There is much more you can do, with many new opportunities and possibilities coming your way. Accept this day, this moment, this time for all it is, and know that you can move positively forward from it.
Peacefully and thankfully let life unfold. As you do, continue to enthusiastically give your best to each moment.
This is your time to live, and to enjoy the positive difference your life makes. Let life unfold as it will, and delight in the new richness it continues to bring.
— Ralph Marston
Productive momentum
Other messages with similar topics:
Everything you have
Sweet success
The power of challenge
Read more at http://greatday.com/motivate/141223.html#QjwDgTjWR7VXKWrH.99
Let life unfold
You put a great deal of energy and effort into moving your life in a particular direction. Show your confidence in all you’ve done, and in all you continue to do, by allowing life in this moment to unfold as it will.
Let go of your attachment to a specific result and let the good work you’ve done come to fruition. Though the results may not be exactly as you imagined them, they will surely bring the richness and fulfillment you seek.
You’ve done much to get yourself to this day. Now, accept the unique flavor of the day as it arrives in each moment.
There is much more you can do, with many new opportunities and possibilities coming your way. Accept this day, this moment, this time for all it is, and know that you can move positively forward from it.
Peacefully and thankfully let life unfold. As you do, continue to enthusiastically give your best to each moment.
This is your time to live, and to enjoy the positive difference your life makes. Let life unfold as it will, and delight in the new richness it continues to bring.
— Ralph Marston
Productive momentum
Other messages with similar topics:
Everything you have
Sweet success
The power of challenge
Read more at http://greatday.com/motivate/141223.html#QjwDgTjWR7VXKWrH.99
posted from Bloggeroid
Monday, December 8, 2014
A LEARNED MAN'S MOMENT OF ZEN. OHmmmm
A LEARNED MAN once went to a ZEN Master to inquire about this stuff, this priceless, yet sought after intangible thing, this so called ZEN he hears of. As the ZEN Master talked, the LEARNED MAN would listen intently but frequently interrupt with remarks like, "Oh yes, we have that too," and so forth. Finally the the ZEN Master stopped taking and began to serve tea to LEARNED MAN; however, he kept on pouring and the tea cup overflowed. "ENOUGH! NO more can go into the cup!" the Learned Man interrupted.
"Indeed, I see, " answered the Zen Master. " IF you do not first empty your cup HOW can you taste my cup of tea?"
Sunday, December 7, 2014
These plays are being tracked under the username BMDEQUISPORTInv at PickMonitor
My Tracked Plays Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [154] Cincinnati Bengals -3 -105 vs Pittsburgh Steelers Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 Pittsburgh Steelers OVER 47.5 -110 vs Cincinnati Bengals Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 [152] Miami Dolphins -3 -110 vs Baltimore Ravens Risk 5.00 to win 6.90 [156] Cleveland Browns +138 vs Indianapolis Colts Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 [156] Cleveland Browns +3 -110 vs Indianapolis Colts Risk 5.70 to win 5.00 [157] Houston Texans -6.5 -114 vs Jacksonville Jaguars Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [161] Carolina Panthers +8 -105 vs New Orleans Saints Risk 5.10 to win 5.00 [163] Tampa Bay Buccaneers +10 -102 vs Detroit Lions Risk 5.00 to win 6.50 [160] Tennessee Titans +130 vs New York Giants Risk 5.75 to win 5.00 [165] St. Louis Rams -2.5 -115 vs Washington Redskins Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [167] New York Jets +3.5 -105 vs Minnesota Vikings Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 [152] Miami Dolphins -2 (1st Half) -110 vs Baltimore Ravens Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 [154] Cincinnati Bengals -2 (1st Half) -110 vs Pittsburgh Steelers Risk 5.00 to win 6.00 [156] Cleveland Browns (1st Half) +120 vs Indianapolis Colts Risk 6.25 to win 5.00 [159] New York Giants (1st Half) -125 vs Tennessee Titans Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [162] New Orleans Saints -6.5 (1st Half) -105 vs Carolina Panthers Risk 7.50 to win 5.00 [164] Detroit Lions -5 (1st Half) -150 vs Tampa Bay Buccaneers Risk 6.50 to win 5.00 [165] St. Louis Rams (1st Half) -130 vs Washington Redskins Risk 6.00 to win 5.00 [167] New York Jets +3 (1st Half) -120 vs Minnesota Vikings Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [801] Washington Wizards -3.5 -105 vs Boston Celtics Risk 5.35 to win 5.00 [827] East Carolina +23 -107 vs North Carolina Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [803] Denver Nuggets +5.5 -105 vs Atlanta Hawks Risk 5.45 to win 5.00 [169] Buffalo Bills +10 -109 vs Denver Broncos Risk 2.00 to win 8.00 [169] Buffalo Bills +400 vs Denver Broncos Risk 5.75 to win 5.00 [172] Arizona Cardinals +3 -115 vs Kansas City Chiefs Risk 5.00 to win 6.75 [172] Arizona Cardinals +135 vs Kansas City Chiefs Risk 5.75 to win 5.00 [170] Denver Broncos -6.5 (1st Half) -115 vs Buffalo Bills Risk 5.00 to win 5.75 [172] Arizona Cardinals (1st Half) +115 vs Kansas City Chiefs Risk 5.35 to win 5.00 [174] Oakland Raiders +8 -107 vs San Francisco 49ers Risk 5.00 to win 5.15 [176] Philadelphia Eagles +103 vs Seattle Seahawks Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 [174] Oakland Raiders +5.5 (1st Half) -110 vs San Francisco 49ers Risk 5.00 to win 6.00 [4] Carolina Hurricanes +120 vs Detroit Red Wings Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [805] Oklahoma City Thunder -9.5 -105 vs Detroit Pistons Risk 5.35 to win 5.00 [807] Miami Heat +8 -107 vs Memphis Grizzlies Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [811] Portland Trail Blazers -6 -105 vs New York Knicks Risk 5.35 to win 5.00 [810] Dallas Mavericks -9 -107 vs Milwaukee Bucks Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 Portland Trail Blazers OVER 195 -105 vs New York Knicks Risk 12.50 to win 5.00 [811] Portland Trail Blazers -250 vs New York Knicks Risk 5.00 to win 5.25 [177] New England Patriots -3.5 +105 vs San Diego Chargers Risk 5.00 to win 5.25 [180] Green Bay Packers -13 +105 vs Atlanta Falcons Risk 5.40 to win 5.00 New England Patriots OVER 52 -108 vs San Diego Chargers Risk 5.00 to win 7.00 [178] San Diego Chargers (1st Half) +140 vs New England Patriots Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 New England Patriots UNDER 26.5 (1st Half) -105 vs San Diego Chargers Risk 5.00 to win 5.25 San Jose Sharks OVER 5.5 +105 vs Edmonton Oilers Risk 5.15 to win 5.00 [813] New Orleans Pelicans -2.5 -103 vs Los Angeles Lakers Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 New Orleans Pelicans UNDER 209.5 -105 vs Los Angeles Lakers Risk 6.75 to win 5.00 [813] New Orleans Pelicans -135 vs Los Angeles Lakers Risk 5.05 to win 5.00 [2] Southampton (ENG-P) PK -101 vs Manchester Utd (ENG-P) Risk 2.73 to win 5.00 [2] Southampton (ENG-P) +183 vs Manchester Utd (ENG-P) Risk 2.04 to win 5.00 DRAW +245 - Manchester Utd (ENG-P) vs Southampton (ENG-P) Risk 5.00 to win 5.50 [180] Green Bay Packers -14 +110 vs Atlanta Falcons Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 Atlanta Falcons OVER 28 (1st Half) -110 vs Green Bay Packers Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 [179] Atlanta Falcons +7.5 (1st Half) -110 vs Green Bay Packers These plays are being tracked under the username BMDEQUISPORTInv at PickMonitor
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
The Rise of the Young Social Entrepreneur
The Rise of the Young Social Entrepreneur
NOVEMBER 19, 2014
This story originally appeared on CNBC
Entrepreneurship is about solving a problem, not starting a company. While this isn't a new idea, today's young entrepreneurs have the advantage of the Internet, which has collapsed time and distance barriers. This means problems solved locally can have immediate impacts globally—and that's good for both people and business. A new generation of entrepreneurs is creating a new generation of technologies that are, quite literally, changing the world overnight.
Six years ago I founded the Kairos Society, an organization to help young entrepreneurs from around the world start high-impact, high-growth companies. I've been incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to bring together young people from more than 55 countries—and have been humbled by the results. Kairos has helped launch more than 150 companies tackling global challenges in health care, education, clean tech, cybersecurity and more. This experience has given me a perspective on the advantages that entrepreneurs under age 25 enjoy—and consider how my generation can pave the way for the next generation of innovators.
Today's young entrepreneur has the advantage of lower costs of entry. Just a generation ago, starting a business meant brick-and-mortar expenses. Today it requires a data plan and a smartphone. A generation ago, getting an advanced degree meant years away from the workforce. Today it means logging into an online classroom after work.
These lower costs of entry mean top talent is emerging from broader and more diverse backgrounds than ever before. It also means young people have the freedom to pursue entrepreneurial ideas rather than signing up for 30 years at the same, safe company their parents worked for.
A great example of this is the Mexico-based Solben, founded by Daniel Gomez in 2009 while studying chemical engineering at the University Technologico de Monterrey. He was frustrated by the conventional wisdom that suggested Mexico's reliance on distributed power made adopting alternative energy more difficult. So Gomez developed a new, scalable biodiesel company—and today more than 80 percent of biodiesel production in Mexico uses his technology.
Young entrepreneurs today are also "non-experts"—a unique advantage in a wired world. Access to 24/7 global information, global networks and global resources means experience is more important than seasoned business acumen.
As a result, this generation of entrepreneurs sees and solves problems through a fundamentally different lens. One of my favorite examples of this is Vital Vio, a company founded by biomedical engineer Colleen Costell after her grandmother fell sick while in the hospital—the one place Colleen's family thought she'd recover. What, Colleen wondered, could help hospitals quickly and efficiently kill germs and improve patient safety? The answer was, in a word, lights. Colleen's team developed overhead LED lights that safely kill microorganisms—meaning hospitals can be cleaner simply by leaving the lights on. This simple, revolutionary idea is being applied in laboratories, hospitals, restaurants and other facilities across the world.
Young entrepreneurs today are also unburdened by artificial timelines. Watching the enormous success of companies like Facebook and Google—started by founders who were barely out of college—has dramatically altered the under-25's sense of when it's "right" or "appropriate" to pursue a good idea.
One of my favorite examples of this is Immudicon. Its founder, Riley Ennis, was a sophomore in high school when he started working in biotech. Today his company is developing a new cancer vaccine technology that teaches immune cells how to recognize and remove tumor cells. It is partnering with Georgetown Lombardi Cancer Center and others on research. Who knows how many people suffering from cancer will benefit from this innovation? And who knows how many people would have become more ill, or even died, had Riley waited until he was done with college, or grad school or spent years in the workforce before pursuing his goal?
I'm not suggesting that young entrepreneurs have nothing to learn. Quite the contrary. One of our greatest advantages is access to an unparalleled number of smart and experienced mentors. Thanks to the Internet, we don't have to worry about finding people near our homes or in our age group to team up with. We have access to a wealth of advice, support and potential partners right at our fingertips.
I've benefited from all these advantages since founding Humin with four Kairos Society members two years ago. We didn't set out to build a company. We saw a problem and created a solution. The result is an application that dramatically rethinks the contacts on smartphones.
Relationships are at the core of the human experience, and that's why we rely so heavily on contact lists. Yet they haven't changed much over the years. Let's be honest—that unwieldy alphabetical list on your phone doesn't reflect how you built your relationships. Humin remembers how you know someone—for example, where you met—and lets you search for them accordingly.
By solving one small problem, we hope to open the door to better communication and connection between people. And that just might change the world
Betfair Betting.Betfair - Betting Tips and OddsSports betting Menu Sports > Football Home › Football › Premier League › Premier League Betting: Four key tactical battles this weekend Premier League Betting: Four key tactical battles this weekend Jedinak: Crucial to Palace's chances of success against Liverpool Jedinak: Crucial to Palace's chances of success against Liverpool Join today "This transition to direct football is indicative of an increasing unease and lack of confidence in United's play, as they look to throw the ball to their wingers as quickly as possible." In a brand new column here on Betting.Betfair, Alex Keble assesses four tactical battles from the weekend's fixtures and picks out some best bets based on his conclusions, including a juicy 15/2 shout... Man Utd long ball v Arsenal slick passing Saturday, 17:30 Live on Sky Sports 1 Can Man Utd cope with Arsenal's pressing game? Louis van Gaal's self-assurance has begun to waver since becoming Man Utd manager; his latest attempt at striking the right balance - a 4-5-1 utilised in the last three games - is his third formation in just 20 matches. So far, it shows little sign of being more cohesive than their previous 3-5-2 or 4-4-2 models. Most strikingly, the change in formation has turned United into a long ball team. Averaging 73 long passes per game, they are amongst the most direct teams in the division. This strategy is magnified when playing away from home against top teams; needless to say, Arsenal can expect to see a lot of long passes hurled into the final third. The vast majority of these have come from their centre-backs, all of whom have averaged 5+ per game. Against Chelsea, Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo amassed 31 long passes between them, and in their away fixture against Man City (a similar threat to the one Arsenal will pose this weekend), David De Gea made 33 long passes, and Wayne Rooney made 11. This transition to direct football is indicative of an increasing unease and lack of confidence in United's play, as they look to throw the ball to their wingers as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for Arsenal, United's long balls are quite effective. Nobody in the league has played more accurate long balls (40.5 per game), and with Radamel Falcao - a significant aerial threat - returning from injury this weekend, Van Gaal will expect his team to score. Arsenal will need to press high up the pitch to nullify this threat. Arsene Wenger's men can be confident that if they can close down quickly (with a league best 18.6 interceptions per game, this is something they are very good at), they will leave Man Utd looking very flat indeed. While the visitors have enough attacking talent to get on the scoresheet, expect the Gunners to emerge victorious. Recommended Bet Back Arsenal to win with both teams to score at 14/5. Error prone Gael Clichy v Swansea's wingers Saturday, 15:00 Can Swansea expose Man City's ultra-attacking full-backs? Buoyed by their dramatic late victory over Arsenal at the Liberty Stadium, Garry Monk's high-flying Swansea will be confident of a positive result against Man City this weekend - and with good reason. City's free-roaming, attacking full-backs have left them vulnerable on the counter-attack all season. Of the champions' last six Premier League goals conceded, five have come on the counter-attack. Even more worryingly, all five have come down their left-hand side, and all five can be traced back to defensive errors by Gael Clichy: twice he has been caught out of position, twice he was beaten on the dribble, and once he was beaten in the air. In the majority of matches, City's dominance of possession (60.3% average) allows their full-backs to sit high up the pitch, but increasingly teams are becoming aware of the defensive vulnerability this creates. With Wayne Routledge returning from injury this week, and with Jefferson Montero in fantastic form (2.6 dribbles per game, top ten in the division), the visitors have a great chance of pulling off a shock win. Recommended Bet Back Swansea to win at 15/2 West Ham's attacking trio v weakened Everton midfield Saturday, 15:00 Without Barry's commanding presence, can the Toffees stop Downing and co? Seeing Gareth Barry stretchered off against Sunderland must have made Roberto Martinez wince: averaging 71 passes per game at an 89% completion rate, his control over the midfield has been an integral part of the Everton manager's short passing philosophy. Only Yaya Toure and Cesc Fabregas have had more time on the ball this season. And Barry's absence could not have come at a worse time. On Saturday, Everton will have to face an attacking trio - in Sakho, Downing, and Valencia - oozing with confidence. Since Everton possess a handful of technically-gifted, creative players of their own, this game could well be decided by the performances in defensive midfield. Stewart Downing's burgeoning creativity will not surprise Middlesbrough or Aston Villa fans, who both saw him revel in the number 10 role. From this position, Downing is able to find pockets of space to run directly at the opposition, ghosting into wide positions; his cross rate of 2.8 per game is the highest in the league, playing for a team who top the table for crosses into the box (26 per game). Barry's and James McCarthy's control and work rate in the heart of midfield provides the basis for Everton's defence against the likes of Downing, but without Barry alongside him, McCarthy will struggle to restrain West Ham's talented forwards and the Hammers should have enough in the locker to score and grab at least a point. Recommended Bet Back Draw and Both Teams to Score at 10/3 Mile Jedinak v Raheem Sterling Sunday, 13:30 Live on Sky Sports 1 Can Crystal Palace's captain quash Liverpool's most potent attacking threat? Despite the tireless work rate of Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson (whose passing remains - at 61.8 and 55 per game respectively - as assured as it was last season), Liverpool's new look front line is not moving with the speed or cohesion needed to unlock Premier League defences. Last season, Luis Suarez averaged 38.3 passes per game, with 2.7 key passes. In comparison, Mario Balotelli has averaged 18.7 passes per game, and 0.8 key passes. Carrying the burden of this creative void, Raheem Sterling - averaging 2.7 dribbles per game, and drawing 2.6 fouls per game - is currently the only threat Crystal Palace need to nullify. Unfortunately for Liverpool, Palace may have just the man to stop him. Captain Mile Jedinak, averaging 4.6 tackles per game (the second highest in division) and 3.8 interceptions per game (also second highest), will return from suspension on Sunday with the hope of being able to drown out Sterling's influence. If Jedinak man marks the England man, Brendan Rodgers may find this to be yet another frustrating afternoon and Palace could easily nick a valuable point. Recommended Bet Back the draw at 27/10 Please note, all quoted prices are from Betfair's Sportsbook so no commission is applied. All statistics taken from WhoScored.com Alex Keble Published: 19 November 2014 Premier League 0 Comments Twitter RSS feed As featured on NewsNow: Sport news Sport News 24/7 How to win... 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Premier League Betting:
Four key tactical battles this weekend Premier League Betting: Four key tactical battles this weekend
Jedinak: Crucial to Palace's chances of success against Liverpool Join today "This transition to direct football is indicative of an increasing unease and lack of confidence in United's play, as they look to throw the ball to their wingers as quickly as possible." In a brand new column here on Betting.Betfair, Alex Keble assesses four tactical battles from the weekend's fixtures and picks out some best bets based on his conclusions, including a juicy 15/2 shout... Man Utd long ball v Arsenal slick passing Saturday, 17:30 Live on Sky Sports 1 Can Man Utd cope with Arsenal's pressing game? Louis van Gaal's self-assurance has begun to waver since becoming Man Utd manager; his latest attempt at striking the right balance - a 4-5-1 utilised in the last three games - is his third formation in just 20 matches. So far, it shows little sign of being more cohesive than their previous 3-5-2 or 4-4-2 models. Most strikingly, the change in formation has turned United into a long ball team. Averaging 73 long passes per game, they are amongst the most direct teams in the division. This strategy is magnified when playing away from home against top teams; needless to say, Arsenal can expect to see a lot of long passes hurled into the final third. The vast majority of these have come from their centre-backs, all of whom have averaged 5+ per game. Against Chelsea, Chris Smalling and Marcos Rojo amassed 31 long passes between them, and in their away fixture against Man City (a similar threat to the one Arsenal will pose this weekend), David De Gea made 33 long passes, and Wayne Rooney made 11. This transition to direct football is indicative of an increasing unease and lack of confidence in United's play, as they look to throw the ball to their wingers as quickly as possible. Unfortunately for Arsenal, United's long balls are quite effective. Nobody in the league has played more accurate long balls (40.5 per game), and with Radamel Falcao - a significant aerial threat - returning from injury this weekend, Van Gaal will expect his team to score. Arsenal will need to press high up the pitch to nullify this threat. Arsene Wenger's men can be confident that if they can close down quickly (with a league best 18.6 interceptions per game, this is something they are very good at), they will leave Man Utd looking very flat indeed. While the visitors have enough attacking talent to get on the scoresheet, expect the Gunners to emerge victorious. Recommended Bet Back Arsenal to win with both teams to score at 14/5. Error prone
Gael Clichy v Swansea's wingers Saturday, 15:00 Can Swansea expose Man City's ultra-attacking full-backs? Buoyed by their dramatic late victory over Arsenal at the Liberty Stadium, Garry Monk's high-flying Swansea will be confident of a positive result against Man City this weekend - and with good reason. City's free-roaming, attacking full-backs have left them vulnerable on the counter-attack all season. Of the champions' last six Premier League goals conceded, five have come on the counter-attack. Even more worryingly, all five have come down their left-hand side, and all five can be traced back to defensive errors by Gael Clichy: twice he has been caught out of position, twice he was beaten on the dribble, and once he was beaten in the air. In the majority of matches, City's dominance of possession (60.3% average) allows their full-backs to sit high up the pitch, but increasingly teams are becoming aware of the defensive vulnerability this creates. With Wayne Routledge returning from injury this week, and with Jefferson Montero in fantastic form (2.6 dribbles per game, top ten in the division), the visitors have a great chance of pulling off a shock win. Recommended Bet Back Swansea to win at 15/2
West Ham's attacking trio v weakened Everton midfield Saturday, 15:00 Without Barry's commanding presence, can the Toffees stop Downing and co? Seeing Gareth Barry stretchered off against Sunderland must have made Roberto Martinez wince: averaging 71 passes per game at an 89% completion rate, his control over the midfield has been an integral part of the Everton manager's short passing philosophy. Only Yaya Toure and Cesc Fabregas have had more time on the ball this season. And Barry's absence could not have come at a worse time. On Saturday, Everton will have to face an attacking trio - in Sakho, Downing, and Valencia - oozing with confidence. Since Everton possess a handful of technically-gifted, creative players of their own, this game could well be decided by the performances in defensive midfield. Stewart Downing's burgeoning creativity will not surprise Middlesbrough or Aston Villa fans, who both saw him revel in the number 10 role. From this position, Downing is able to find pockets of space to run directly at the opposition, ghosting into wide positions; his cross rate of 2.8 per game is the highest in the league, playing for a team who top the table for crosses into the box (26 per game). Barry's and James McCarthy's control and work rate in the heart of midfield provides the basis for Everton's defence against the likes of Downing, but without Barry alongside him, McCarthy will struggle to restrain West Ham's talented forwards and the Hammers should have enough in the locker to score and grab at least a point. Recommended Bet Back Draw and Both Teams to Score at 10/3
Mile Jedinak v Raheem Sterling Sunday, 13:30 Live on Sky Sports 1 Can Crystal Palace's captain quash Liverpool's most potent attacking threat? Despite the tireless work rate of Steven Gerrard and Jordan Henderson (whose passing remains - at 61.8 and 55 per game respectively - as assured as it was last season), Liverpool's new look front line is not moving with the speed or cohesion needed to unlock Premier League defences. Last season, Luis Suarez averaged 38.3 passes per game, with 2.7 key passes. In comparison, Mario Balotelli has averaged 18.7 passes per game, and 0.8 key passes. Carrying the burden of this creative void, Raheem Sterling - averaging 2.7 dribbles per game, and drawing 2.6 fouls per game - is currently the only threat Crystal Palace need to nullify. Unfortunately for Liverpool, Palace may have just the man to stop him. Captain Mile Jedinak, averaging 4.6 tackles per game (the second highest in division) and 3.8 interceptions per game (also second highest), will return from suspension on Sunday with the hope of being able to drown out Sterling's influence. If Jedinak man marks the England man, Brendan Rodgers may find this to be yet another frustrating afternoon and Palace could easily nick a valuable point. Recommended Bet Back the draw at 27/10
*Please note, all quoted prices are from Betfair's Sportsbook so no commission is applied.
*All statistics taken from WhoScored.com
*Alex Keble Published: 19 November and
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Breeders' Cup Handle Totaled $159.1 Million
Breeders' Cup Handle Totaled $159.1 Million | BloodHorse.com (via http://ble.ac/teamstream-) http://teamstre.am/1sW7P4G
Churchill Downs announces 2015 Kentucky Derby Future Wager dates (
Churchill Downs announces 2015 Kentucky Derby Future Wager dates (via http://ble.ac/teamstream-) http://teamstre.am/1xJY9Au
Saturday, November 8, 2014
BMDEQUISPORTInv at PickMonitor My Tracked Plays These plays are being tracked under the username BMDEQUISPORTInv at PickMonitor
BMDEQUISPORTInv at PickMonitor My Tracked Plays
My Tracked Plays
Risk 1.00 to win 8.96 [54] Crystal Palace (ENG-P) +896 vs Manchester Utd (ENG-P)
Risk 5.90 to win 5.00 [54] Crystal Palace (ENG-P) +1.5 -118 vs Manchester Utd (ENG-P)
Risk 1.00 to win 4.63 DRAW +463 - Crystal Palace (ENG-P) vs Manchester Utd (ENG-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 7.70 [58] Burnley (ENG-P) +154 vs Hull City (ENG-P)
Risk 6.95 to win 5.00 [61] West Ham (ENG-P) -0.5 -139 vs Aston Villa (ENG-P)
Risk 6.65 to win 5.00 [64] Southampton (ENG-P) -1 -133 vs Leicester (ENG-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 5.45 [955] Fulham (ENG-Cham) +109 vs Huddersfield (ENG-Cham)
Risk 5.00 to win 12.45 [957] Blackburn Rovers (ENG-Cham) +249 vs Brighton (ENG-Cham)
Risk 5.00 to win 9.70 [960] Cardiff (ENG-Cham) +194 vs Birmingham (ENG-Cham)
Risk 3.00 to win 7.23 DRAW +241 - Cardiff (ENG-Cham) vs Birmingham (ENG-Cham)
Risk 6.45 to win 5.00 [982] Reading (ENG-Cham) -0.5 -129 vs Charlton (ENG-Cham)
Risk 6.05 to win 5.00 Charlton (ENG-Cham) OVER 2.5 -121 vs Reading (ENG-Cham)
Risk 2.00 to win 5.08 DRAW +254 - Blackburn Rovers (ENG-Cham) vs Brighton (ENG-Cham)
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 Blackburn Rovers (ENG-Cham) OVER 2.5 -105 vs Brighton (ENG-Cham)
Risk 5.00 to win 6.30 Leicester (ENG-P) OVER 3 +126 vs Southampton (ENG-P)
Risk 10.75 to win 5.00 [64] Southampton (ENG-P) -215 vs Leicester (ENG-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 5.85 [201] Barcelona (ESP-P) -2 +117 vs Almeria (ESP-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 5.45 [1151] Valladolid (ESP-2) +109 vs Mirandes (ESP-2)
Risk 5.00 to win 7.60 [351] Bordeaux (FRA-1) +152 vs Lens (FRA-1)
Risk 7.20 to win 5.00 Bordeaux (FRA-1) OVER 2 -144 vs Lens (FRA-1)
Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 [117] Penn State -6.5 -110 vs Indiana
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [119] Georgia -10 -105 vs Kentucky
Risk 5.00 to win 5.15 [124] Minnesota U -1 +103 vs Iowa
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [164] Oklahoma -6 -105 vs Baylor
Risk 16.50 to win 5.00 [126] Gregorz Proksa -330 vs Maciej Sulecki
Risk 5.80 to win 5.00 Manchester City (ENG-P) OVER 3 -116 vs QPR (ENG-P)
Risk 6.45 to win 5.00 [66] Manchester City (ENG-P) -1 -129 vs QPR (ENG-P)
Risk 9.00 to win 4.48 [66] Manchester City (ENG-P) -201 vs QPR (ENG-P)
Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 [128] NC State +3.5 -110 vs Georgia Tech
Risk 5.40 to win 5.00 [133] Duke -4 -108 vs Syracuse
Risk 8.65 to win 5.00 [133] Duke -173 vs Syracuse
Risk 6.00 to win 5.00 [532] Dayton -6 -120 vs Drake
Risk 5.00 to win 5.85 [355] Toulouse (FRA-1) -1 +117 vs Metz (FRA-1)
Risk 5.00 to win 11.80 [357] Nice (FRA-1) +236 vs Evian TG (FRA-1)
Risk 5.00 to win 5.00 [360] Montpellier (FRA-1) PK +100 vs Bastia (FRA-1)
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [52] Florida Panthers -105 vs Calgary Flames
Risk 3.00 to win 8.10 [51] CGY/FLA goes to overtime +270 vs CGY/FLA no overtime
Risk 5.00 to win 5.90 [126] Northwestern +118 vs Michigan
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 West Virginia UNDER 52.5 -105 vs Texas
Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 [151] West Virginia -3 -110 vs Texas
Risk 5.20 to win 5.00 [157] Connecticut -5 -104 vs Army
Risk 5.05 to win 5.00 [159] Texas A&M +23.5 -101 vs Auburn
Risk 6.60 to win 5.00 [192] Arizona State -132 vs Notre Dame
Risk 5.20 to win 5.00 [701] Portland Trailblazers +4 -104 vs Los Angeles Clippers
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 Portland Trailblazers OVER 205 -105 vs Los Angeles Clippers
Risk 5.00 to win 7.75 [701] Portland Trailblazers +155 vs Los Angeles Clippers
Risk 3.00 to win 5.10 [101] Artur Szpilka +170 vs Tomasz Adamek
Risk 6.00 to win 5.00 [201] Robert Stieglitz -120 vs Felix Sturm
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [165] Virginia +20 -105 vs Florida State
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [153] UCLA -6.5 -105 vs Washington U
Risk 5.35 to win 5.00 [703] Washington Wizards -3.5 -107 vs Indiana Pacers
Risk 5.55 to win 5.00 [58] Montreal Canadiens -111 vs Minnesota Wild
Risk 5.75 to win 5.00 Minnesota Wild OVER 5 -115 vs Montreal Canadiens
Risk 5.00 to win 13.00 [58] Montreal Canadiens -1.5 +260 vs Minnesota Wild
Risk 5.00 to win 6.50 [61] Colorado Avalanche +130 vs Philadelphia Flyers
Risk 7.40 to win 5.00 Winnipeg Jets OVER 5 -148 vs Ottawa Senators
Risk 5.00 to win 6.00 [59] Winnipeg Jets +120 vs Ottawa Senators
Risk 5.00 to win 9.00 [63] Tampa Bay Lightning -1.5 +180 vs Columbus Blue Jackets
Risk 8.20 to win 5.00 [63] Tampa Bay Lightning -164 vs Columbus Blue Jackets
Risk 5.60 to win 5.00 Tampa Bay Lightning UNDER 5.5 -112 vs Columbus Blue Jackets
Risk 5.75 to win 5.00 [137] Louisville -3 -115 vs Boston College
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [135] Florida -13.5 -105 vs Vanderbilt
Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 [196] TCU -6.5 -110 vs Kansas State
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [706] Atlanta Hawks -6.5 -105 vs New York Knicks
Risk 5.35 to win 5.00 Alabama OVER 45.5 -107 vs LSU
Risk 5.00 to win 5.00 [162] LSU +6.5 +100 vs Alabama
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [187] Ohio State +4 -105 vs Michigan State
Risk 5.00 to win 8.15 [187] Ohio State +163 vs Michigan State
Risk 5.15 to win 5.00 [189] UL Lafayette -17 -103 vs New Mexico State
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 Golden State Warriors OVER 204 -105 vs Houston Rockets
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [711] Golden State Warriors +1 -105 vs Houston Rockets
Risk 5.00 to win 9.50 [68] St. Louis Blues -1.5 +190 vs Nashville Predators
Risk 7.75 to win 5.00 [68] St. Louis Blues -155 vs Nashville Predators
Risk 5.15 to win 5.00 [70] Dallas Stars -103 vs San Jose Sharks
Risk 5.00 to win 13.50 [70] Dallas Stars -1.5 +270 vs San Jose Sharks
Risk 5.10 to win 5.00 San Jose Sharks OVER 5.5 -102 vs Dallas Stars
Risk 6.25 to win 5.00 [71] New York Islanders -125 vs Arizona Coyotes
Risk 5.00 to win 12.00 [71] New York Islanders -1.5 +240 vs Arizona Coyotes
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [714] Milwaukee Bucks +5.5 -105 vs Memphis Grizzlies
Risk 5.45 to win 5.00 [715] New Orleans Pelicans +7 -109 vs San Antonio Spurs
Risk 5.00 to win 12.00 [715] New Orleans Pelicans +240 vs San Antonio Spurs
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 New Orleans Pelicans UNDER 194 -105 vs San Antonio Spurs
Risk 6.25 to win 5.00 [74] Los Angeles Kings -125 vs Vancouver Canucks
Risk 5.75 to win 5.00 Vancouver Canucks UNDER 5 -115 vs Los Angeles Kings
Risk 7.00 to win 5.00 Sadam Ali UNDER 8.5 -140 vs Luis Carlos Abregu
Risk 15.00 to win 5.00 [852] Luis Carlos Abregu -300 vs Sadam Ali
Risk 5.00 to win 10.50 [601] Bernard Hopkins +210 vs Sergey Kovalev
Risk 6.50 to win 5.00 Bernard Hopkins OVER 9.5 -130 vs Sergey Kovalev
Risk 6.45 to win 5.00 [502] Lyon (FRA-1) -1 -129 vs Guingamp (FRA-1)
Risk 5.10 to win 5.00 Stoke (ENG-P) OVER 2.5 -102 vs Tottenham (ENG-P)
Risk 7.25 to win 5.00 [102] Tottenham (ENG-P) -0.5 -145 vs Stoke (ENG-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 5.25 [104] Everton (ENG-P) -0.5 +105 vs Sunderland (ENG-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 6.40 [108] West Bromwich (ENG-P) +128 vs Newcastle (ENG-P)
Risk 5.85 to win 5.00 Newcastle (ENG-P) UNDER 2.5 -117 vs West Bromwich (ENG-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 13.40 [111] Swansea (ENG-P) +268 vs Arsenal (ENG-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 6.10 [504] Lille (FRA-1) +122 vs Reims (FRA-1)
Risk 5.00 to win 6.85 [508] St. Etienne (FRA-1) +137 vs Monaco (FRA-1)
Risk 2.00 to win 16.00 [701] Chris Algieri +800 vs Manny Pacquiao
Risk 3.00 to win 18.00 [601] Chris Algieri +600 vs Manny Pacquiao
Risk 7.00 to win 5.00 [126] Nathan Cleverly -140 vs Tony Bellew
These plays are being tracked under the username BMDEQUISPORTInv at PickMonitor
My Tracked Plays
Risk 1.00 to win 8.96 [54] Crystal Palace (ENG-P) +896 vs Manchester Utd (ENG-P)
Risk 5.90 to win 5.00 [54] Crystal Palace (ENG-P) +1.5 -118 vs Manchester Utd (ENG-P)
Risk 1.00 to win 4.63 DRAW +463 - Crystal Palace (ENG-P) vs Manchester Utd (ENG-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 7.70 [58] Burnley (ENG-P) +154 vs Hull City (ENG-P)
Risk 6.95 to win 5.00 [61] West Ham (ENG-P) -0.5 -139 vs Aston Villa (ENG-P)
Risk 6.65 to win 5.00 [64] Southampton (ENG-P) -1 -133 vs Leicester (ENG-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 5.45 [955] Fulham (ENG-Cham) +109 vs Huddersfield (ENG-Cham)
Risk 5.00 to win 12.45 [957] Blackburn Rovers (ENG-Cham) +249 vs Brighton (ENG-Cham)
Risk 5.00 to win 9.70 [960] Cardiff (ENG-Cham) +194 vs Birmingham (ENG-Cham)
Risk 3.00 to win 7.23 DRAW +241 - Cardiff (ENG-Cham) vs Birmingham (ENG-Cham)
Risk 6.45 to win 5.00 [982] Reading (ENG-Cham) -0.5 -129 vs Charlton (ENG-Cham)
Risk 6.05 to win 5.00 Charlton (ENG-Cham) OVER 2.5 -121 vs Reading (ENG-Cham)
Risk 2.00 to win 5.08 DRAW +254 - Blackburn Rovers (ENG-Cham) vs Brighton (ENG-Cham)
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 Blackburn Rovers (ENG-Cham) OVER 2.5 -105 vs Brighton (ENG-Cham)
Risk 5.00 to win 6.30 Leicester (ENG-P) OVER 3 +126 vs Southampton (ENG-P)
Risk 10.75 to win 5.00 [64] Southampton (ENG-P) -215 vs Leicester (ENG-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 5.85 [201] Barcelona (ESP-P) -2 +117 vs Almeria (ESP-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 5.45 [1151] Valladolid (ESP-2) +109 vs Mirandes (ESP-2)
Risk 5.00 to win 7.60 [351] Bordeaux (FRA-1) +152 vs Lens (FRA-1)
Risk 7.20 to win 5.00 Bordeaux (FRA-1) OVER 2 -144 vs Lens (FRA-1)
Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 [117] Penn State -6.5 -110 vs Indiana
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [119] Georgia -10 -105 vs Kentucky
Risk 5.00 to win 5.15 [124] Minnesota U -1 +103 vs Iowa
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [164] Oklahoma -6 -105 vs Baylor
Risk 16.50 to win 5.00 [126] Gregorz Proksa -330 vs Maciej Sulecki
Risk 5.80 to win 5.00 Manchester City (ENG-P) OVER 3 -116 vs QPR (ENG-P)
Risk 6.45 to win 5.00 [66] Manchester City (ENG-P) -1 -129 vs QPR (ENG-P)
Risk 9.00 to win 4.48 [66] Manchester City (ENG-P) -201 vs QPR (ENG-P)
Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 [128] NC State +3.5 -110 vs Georgia Tech
Risk 5.40 to win 5.00 [133] Duke -4 -108 vs Syracuse
Risk 8.65 to win 5.00 [133] Duke -173 vs Syracuse
Risk 6.00 to win 5.00 [532] Dayton -6 -120 vs Drake
Risk 5.00 to win 5.85 [355] Toulouse (FRA-1) -1 +117 vs Metz (FRA-1)
Risk 5.00 to win 11.80 [357] Nice (FRA-1) +236 vs Evian TG (FRA-1)
Risk 5.00 to win 5.00 [360] Montpellier (FRA-1) PK +100 vs Bastia (FRA-1)
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [52] Florida Panthers -105 vs Calgary Flames
Risk 3.00 to win 8.10 [51] CGY/FLA goes to overtime +270 vs CGY/FLA no overtime
Risk 5.00 to win 5.90 [126] Northwestern +118 vs Michigan
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 West Virginia UNDER 52.5 -105 vs Texas
Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 [151] West Virginia -3 -110 vs Texas
Risk 5.20 to win 5.00 [157] Connecticut -5 -104 vs Army
Risk 5.05 to win 5.00 [159] Texas A&M +23.5 -101 vs Auburn
Risk 6.60 to win 5.00 [192] Arizona State -132 vs Notre Dame
Risk 5.20 to win 5.00 [701] Portland Trailblazers +4 -104 vs Los Angeles Clippers
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 Portland Trailblazers OVER 205 -105 vs Los Angeles Clippers
Risk 5.00 to win 7.75 [701] Portland Trailblazers +155 vs Los Angeles Clippers
Risk 3.00 to win 5.10 [101] Artur Szpilka +170 vs Tomasz Adamek
Risk 6.00 to win 5.00 [201] Robert Stieglitz -120 vs Felix Sturm
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [165] Virginia +20 -105 vs Florida State
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [153] UCLA -6.5 -105 vs Washington U
Risk 5.35 to win 5.00 [703] Washington Wizards -3.5 -107 vs Indiana Pacers
Risk 5.55 to win 5.00 [58] Montreal Canadiens -111 vs Minnesota Wild
Risk 5.75 to win 5.00 Minnesota Wild OVER 5 -115 vs Montreal Canadiens
Risk 5.00 to win 13.00 [58] Montreal Canadiens -1.5 +260 vs Minnesota Wild
Risk 5.00 to win 6.50 [61] Colorado Avalanche +130 vs Philadelphia Flyers
Risk 7.40 to win 5.00 Winnipeg Jets OVER 5 -148 vs Ottawa Senators
Risk 5.00 to win 6.00 [59] Winnipeg Jets +120 vs Ottawa Senators
Risk 5.00 to win 9.00 [63] Tampa Bay Lightning -1.5 +180 vs Columbus Blue Jackets
Risk 8.20 to win 5.00 [63] Tampa Bay Lightning -164 vs Columbus Blue Jackets
Risk 5.60 to win 5.00 Tampa Bay Lightning UNDER 5.5 -112 vs Columbus Blue Jackets
Risk 5.75 to win 5.00 [137] Louisville -3 -115 vs Boston College
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [135] Florida -13.5 -105 vs Vanderbilt
Risk 5.50 to win 5.00 [196] TCU -6.5 -110 vs Kansas State
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [706] Atlanta Hawks -6.5 -105 vs New York Knicks
Risk 5.35 to win 5.00 Alabama OVER 45.5 -107 vs LSU
Risk 5.00 to win 5.00 [162] LSU +6.5 +100 vs Alabama
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [187] Ohio State +4 -105 vs Michigan State
Risk 5.00 to win 8.15 [187] Ohio State +163 vs Michigan State
Risk 5.15 to win 5.00 [189] UL Lafayette -17 -103 vs New Mexico State
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 Golden State Warriors OVER 204 -105 vs Houston Rockets
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [711] Golden State Warriors +1 -105 vs Houston Rockets
Risk 5.00 to win 9.50 [68] St. Louis Blues -1.5 +190 vs Nashville Predators
Risk 7.75 to win 5.00 [68] St. Louis Blues -155 vs Nashville Predators
Risk 5.15 to win 5.00 [70] Dallas Stars -103 vs San Jose Sharks
Risk 5.00 to win 13.50 [70] Dallas Stars -1.5 +270 vs San Jose Sharks
Risk 5.10 to win 5.00 San Jose Sharks OVER 5.5 -102 vs Dallas Stars
Risk 6.25 to win 5.00 [71] New York Islanders -125 vs Arizona Coyotes
Risk 5.00 to win 12.00 [71] New York Islanders -1.5 +240 vs Arizona Coyotes
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 [714] Milwaukee Bucks +5.5 -105 vs Memphis Grizzlies
Risk 5.45 to win 5.00 [715] New Orleans Pelicans +7 -109 vs San Antonio Spurs
Risk 5.00 to win 12.00 [715] New Orleans Pelicans +240 vs San Antonio Spurs
Risk 5.25 to win 5.00 New Orleans Pelicans UNDER 194 -105 vs San Antonio Spurs
Risk 6.25 to win 5.00 [74] Los Angeles Kings -125 vs Vancouver Canucks
Risk 5.75 to win 5.00 Vancouver Canucks UNDER 5 -115 vs Los Angeles Kings
Risk 7.00 to win 5.00 Sadam Ali UNDER 8.5 -140 vs Luis Carlos Abregu
Risk 15.00 to win 5.00 [852] Luis Carlos Abregu -300 vs Sadam Ali
Risk 5.00 to win 10.50 [601] Bernard Hopkins +210 vs Sergey Kovalev
Risk 6.50 to win 5.00 Bernard Hopkins OVER 9.5 -130 vs Sergey Kovalev
Risk 6.45 to win 5.00 [502] Lyon (FRA-1) -1 -129 vs Guingamp (FRA-1)
Risk 5.10 to win 5.00 Stoke (ENG-P) OVER 2.5 -102 vs Tottenham (ENG-P)
Risk 7.25 to win 5.00 [102] Tottenham (ENG-P) -0.5 -145 vs Stoke (ENG-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 5.25 [104] Everton (ENG-P) -0.5 +105 vs Sunderland (ENG-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 6.40 [108] West Bromwich (ENG-P) +128 vs Newcastle (ENG-P)
Risk 5.85 to win 5.00 Newcastle (ENG-P) UNDER 2.5 -117 vs West Bromwich (ENG-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 13.40 [111] Swansea (ENG-P) +268 vs Arsenal (ENG-P)
Risk 5.00 to win 6.10 [504] Lille (FRA-1) +122 vs Reims (FRA-1)
Risk 5.00 to win 6.85 [508] St. Etienne (FRA-1) +137 vs Monaco (FRA-1)
Risk 2.00 to win 16.00 [701] Chris Algieri +800 vs Manny Pacquiao
Risk 3.00 to win 18.00 [601] Chris Algieri +600 vs Manny Pacquiao
Risk 7.00 to win 5.00 [126] Nathan Cleverly -140 vs Tony Bellew
These plays are being tracked under the username BMDEQUISPORTInv at PickMonitor
posted from Bloggeroid
Friday, November 7, 2014
Wednesday, October 29, 2014
@thenyra RACE 1 PICK 5
Race 1 aqueduct
Pick5 pictured below two same tickets except single 6 in race 5 on one the other 2-4-6.
Tuesday, October 28, 2014
The Can-Do Kid: Becky Hammon's Incredible Journey from Rapid City to the NBA
[imaqage_0]
The Can-Do Kid: Becky Hammon's Incredible Journey from Rapid City to the NBA
Bleacher Report
Howard
Beck
Oct 27, 2014
166
Comments
RAPID CITY, S.D. — The nurse shark is a generally docile creature, spanning up to nine feet and 300 pounds and armed with a vise-like jaw lined with thousands of serrated teeth. Left alone, it is harmless to humans.
But Becky Hammon wanted a closer look.
So as she snorkeled near the family boat in the Florida Keys on a spring day in 2012, Hammon shouted a request to her father: Throw the chum this way.
With chunks of fish parts and blood soon bobbing around her, Hammon got the close encounter she wanted, and then some. A five-foot nurse shark surged toward her, and then again, turned away only when Hammon poked it on the nose with her spear gun.
"With food in the water," Hammon explains, "their personalities are being changed and altered. They're in hunting mode."
"So," Hammon says, "I got out."
But she got her fish story first.
There is very little in this world, on land or water, that intimidates the 37-year-old Hammon, a self-described "adrenaline junkie." She has been chased by a barracuda and frolicked with manatees. She has hunted wild game. She plans to skydive some day—not because she's fearless, but because, "I'm one of those people...I have to do it to beat my fear."
It takes a thrill-seeking soul to swim with sharks. And it takes a certain audacity to shatter a barrier, even the ones you never planned to shatter.
Becky Hammon will make history this week, as the first woman to open the NBA season as a full-time assistant coach, as a member of the San Antonio Spurs staff. To other women in the sport, she is an inspiration. To young girls, a role model. To some fans, a curiosity. To historians, a footnote.
All Hammon wanted to do was to teach the game she's loved since she was a toddler, bouncing a Spalding around her parents' home in Rapid City, South Dakota. Her first coaching opportunity could have come in the WNBA, where Hammon ranked among the top 15 players in league history. It could have come in the NCAA ranks or overseas, where Hammon spent much of her professional career.
But Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, a man with five championship rings and an impeccable record as a coaching mentor, simply called first. Hammon accepted the job this summer.
In Hammon, Popovich saw a fellow gym rat and an ideal pupil—passionate for the game, studious, intellectually curious and hard-working. Her profile matched those of every Popovich disciple of the last 20 years, a group that includes four current NBA head coaches: Philadelphia's Brett Brown, Atlanta's Mike Budenholzer, New Orleans' Monty Williams and Orlando's Jacque Vaughn.
The only differences between those coaches and Hammon are an extra X chromosome and a ponytail.
Born To Coach
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"When you've been around it, you know who can coach and who can't coach," Popovich said. "Becky is one of those people. She's a Steve Kerr. She's a Doc Rivers. She's those kind of people. They have a feel for the game that they want to continue to participate in."
Popovich and Hammon had bonded on a transatlantic flight back from the London Olympics in 2012 and developed a formal mentor-pupil relationship last season, when Hammon served as a coaching intern while recovering from knee surgery. Her coaching instincts came through in staff meetings and film sessions.
By the time Hammon announced her retirement from the WNBA, the transition from San Antonio Stars guard to San Antonio Spurs assistant coach seemed natural to anyone within the franchise's walls.
Popovich, the ultimate no-nonsense coach, did not set out to make a statement, only to bolster his staff.
"Honestly, I didn't realize it was gonna be this big of a deal," he said. "People kind of went crazy, like we've saved the world from fascism or something," he added, chuckling. "It was much more important to reward her—for who she is, what she's done and what I believe she can do, than worry about the reaction of people."
In so many ways, Hammon's transition to coaching is a natural progression. She played the game at an elite level. At every stage, she was lauded for her leadership and her acumen. As an All-Star point guard, Hammon had an innate feel for the game, for the angles and timing and nuances that lesser players could not see.
Those who know Hammon best say she is just as suited for the role of pioneer, even if she never set out to be one. Indeed, so much in her biography pointed in this direction, save for one detail: No one ever picked Becky Hammon first in anything.
Small Town Roots
Photo by Kristina Barker
Bev and Marty Hammon, Becky's parents, in front of their Rapid City home.
Rapid City is the second-largest city in South Dakota, with a population of about 70,000, although it feels much smaller. Its historic downtown spans just 10 blocks and is dwarfed by the eastern slope of the Black Hills mountain range. Badlands National Park lies to the east, Mt. Rushmore to the south.
It's the kind of place where everyone seems to know each other, or at least knows your uncle, your sister or the guy who fixed your transmission last week.
Given its size and remote location, Rapid City has produced a striking number of professional athletes: Adam Vinatieri, Mark Ellis, Eric Piatkowski and Hammon, who graduated from Stevens High School in 1995 as the all-time leader in scoring, assists and steals.
The Hammon homestead sits on 3.5 acres in the Black Hills National Forest, 12 miles southwest of downtown. Their property borders the U.S. Forest Service property, which became a playground for Becky and her two older siblings, Matt and Gina.
It's not unusual to see deer wandering through the property and, occasionally, a mountain lion.
Growing up, the Hammons spent their leisure time fishing, hunting, riding three-wheelers in the woods and wakeboarding on Lake Angostura.
They also played a lot of basketball, on a broad, concrete slab in front of the house. The rim was mounted on the overhang of a wooden deck above. Long rebounds and loose balls would skip down a long hill into the woods. So it was best not to miss often.
"I didn't have any neighbors," Becky Hammon said. "And if you missed, the ball went and rolled for 30 yards."
Marty Hammon, Becky's father, who has coached basketball for three decades, likes to joke that she "came out of the womb loving basketball." It is only a slight exaggeration.
Becky Hammon had a basketball in her hands by the time she was a toddler. She learned to dribble around the time she began to walk. By age five, she was dribbling with both hands.
"I have pictures of myself, like two and three years old, and I had a basketball, full size," Becky Hammon said. "I never remember a time in my life where I didn't have a basketball. That's the honest-to-God truth."
A Basketball Prodigy
Photo by Kristina Barker
The problem with growing up as a basketball-loving girl in Rapid City is that, really, there just weren't that many other basketball-loving girls in Rapid City. If Hammon was going to play with any regularity, she would have to play with the boys. This proved to be a good thing.
Marty Hammon has two clear passions: basketball and his family. It is easy to see the intersection of the two, particularly in Becky and her older brother Matt, who both inherited their father's hoop addiction.
Marty was a regular in the local recreation leagues, and the Hammon kids were always in tow. At halftime, two-year-old Becky and four-year-old Matt would charge onto the court and hurl shots at the rim.
That the rim was 10 feet high, and Becky was maybe 3 feet tall, did not deter her. As she grew, and the rim inched slightly closer, her fixation only got stronger.
Ron Riherd was a regular in the city league games, a friend of Marty's and, as it happens, the girls' coach at Stevens High School. He got his first look at his future star point guard during one of those city-league games.
While the men played, little Becky—then in second or third grade—was off to the side, shooting finger-roll layups over the pull-up bars.
Riherd smiled.
"She was committed to being better, from that age on," he said. "She could handle the ball. She would shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot."
Becky's entry into competitive basketball came in a coed YMCA league at around age eight. The teams were populated almost entirely by boys. But Becky's skills were so beyond her peers' that her parents moved her up two age groups. League officials bristled. Then they saw her play.
"When I was better than all the boys, even a grade, two grades ahead of me, they were like, 'Oh yeah, she can stay,'" Becky said. "'She can even bring up the ball.'"
By fifth grade, she was seeking out pickup games and finding only boys on the court. She simply shrugged and joined the fray.
"I was like, 'This is fun, and I like doing it and I didn't really care,'" she said, pausing, then chuckling. "Probably similar now."
A Ball-Handling Wizard
From the time she became a high school star, and all through her years at Colorado State and in the WNBA, Becky Hammon has been known for her mastery with the ball—not only her deft passing but her dazzling, how-did-she-do-that scoop shots and impossible spins off the backboard.
No one taught Becky Hammon this ball wizardry. This was creativity born of necessity.
As a kid, Becky Hammon was not just the only girl on the court but the shortest player in the game. The only way to get a shot up was to duck under and around taller defenders, then fling the ball through whatever gap she could find.
"A couple of pump fakes and throw it with some twist on the board," Marty Hammon said. "That just comes from playing with boys. We always had to find a way of getting that shot off. Where for anybody else that was crap, for her, that was necessary. That was part of her game."
Eventually, Becky's main competition became her brother Matt and his friends, playing two-on-two games on the cement slab outside the house or three-on-three games at a local playground. She was, of course, much smaller than all of them. But the boys offered no leniency, no clear paths to the basket and no easy shots.
Photo by Kristina Barker
Bev Hammon
"I mean, it was intense," her mother, Bev Hammon, said. "They did not want her scoring."
There was never much doubt about Becky's competitive instincts. Those, too, seemed to be part of the family DNA. The Hammons competed at everything—board games, word games, bow-and-arrow shooting, soccer matches in the basement. When there wasn't an actual game to play, they made one up: Who can eat all his or her vegetables first?
"Our family never loses very well," Matt said. "Everything was a contest."
On colder days, the Hammons played indoors on a Nerf hoop mounted on a door. Dad played on his knees.
Becky was in grade school, about 10 years old, when she rose up one day and dunked over half-sized Marty.
"Dad, Dad, when do you think I'll be able to stuff on a big hoop?"
"Beck, you're never going to be able. You've got to learn to play on the ground."
"Really, Dad, you don't think I'm ever going to be able to dunk?"
"No, Beck, you're never going to be able to dunk."
For the longest time, Bev Hammon wondered if her youngest daughter would ever reach 5'0".
"She was little for a long time," she said.
At Home in Woods or Water
Photo by Kristina Barker
Replace the basketball with a 7-by-57 rifle or a shotgun, and the appraisals remain the same. Becky Hammon is, according to her brother Matt, “a natural shooter,” whether firing at clay pigeons, sharp-tailed grouse or pheasant.
Becky received her first shotgun at 14, as a gift from her grandfather. She shot her first deer maybe a year later. It was also the last.
“She felt guilty,” Matt said. “Here’s this beautiful deer laying there. 'And I shot it.' She actually had some tears.”
Becky still shoots pheasant and other small birds. She still joins the family on their big-game hunts, but this is one area where she prefers to play spectator.
The ocean is another matter. When the Hammons take their annual vacation in the Florida Keys, Becky is the one in the water, scanning for nurse sharks, bull sharks and lemon sharks. An avid fisherman, she wants to land a hammerhead some day. And she wants to get in a shark cage and hang out with the great whites.
“Becky loves those big sharks,” her father said. “And they’re never big enough for her.”
Photo by Kristina Barker
A Basketball Revelation
When did Becky Hammon realize she was special? That her basketball instincts were just a little more finely honed than everyone else's? That the game simply meant more to her than other girls and boys?
It wasn't during those tagalong trips to Dad's city-league games, and it wasn't even when she started outplaying the boys. No, the realization came early in high school, when she started attending basketball camps.
An average day at camp might run from 9 in morning to 10 at night, by which time the rest of the girls "would be so sick and tired of basketball," Hammon said. "And I'd go right back to the gym."
"So I knew I was wired a little bit differently then," she said. "So I was constantly learning, because I was constantly putting myself in situations where I could learn."
It was no different at home. When it snowed, Becky and Matt simply shoveled off the cement slab. When the days grew shorter in the winter, they flipped on the outdoor floodlights and kept the games going, sometimes until 11 p.m.
When your home is on the edge of a national park, there are no neighbors to disturb with your late-night dribbling.
Friends will tell you that Becky Hammon was an ace softball player and volleyballer, but basketball was always primary.
"I didn't need anybody else," she said. "I had a ball, and I had my hoop, and I didn't have to have somebody to go play catch with or throw me pitches. I grew up in the woods, I didn't have neighbors. So it was a sport that you could get really good at by yourself."
When there was no one to play against, Becky practiced her jump shot and her twisting layups for hours at a time. Occasionally, the sound of the ball hitting the concrete stopped and was replaced by the sound of a basketball striking the side of the house. Becky was practicing passes off the wall.
"She was," her father said, "a basketball nerd."
A Fit for the Spurs
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Gregg Popovich has employed a dozen assistant coaches in his two decades with the Spurs. Their personalities and backgrounds varied. But in each of them, Popovich saw certain essential traits—first and foremost, he says, "a natural proclivity to coach."
"When you've been around it, you know who can coach and who can't coach," Popovich said.
Popovich wants assistants with a strong work ethic, "a desire to get better, a desire to grow." He wants people "who have gotten over themselves"—meaning, they understand it's about the team, not the individual.
But he also wants them to speak up.
Contrary to his gruff public persona and his Air Force Academy credentials, Popovich is not an autocrat on the bench. He seeks out coaches with strong ideas and strong voices, who will challenge him and keep the creative sparks flying, whether in the video room or in a fourth-quarter timeout.
"She jumped right in," assistant coach Ime Udoka said of Hammon.
Other traits Popovich looks for in a prospective coach: "Are they comfortable in their own skin? Can they admit fault? Can they admit a mistake? Can they communicate? All those things you think about before you hire somebody, because the worst thing is a coach that can't admit that he or she was wrong, and it's their way or the highway. Or can't participate or give the players ownership in what's going on on the court. That's not going to work in the NBA. It's got to be a participatory sort of thing."
There is one other requirement, and it is the only one that Popovich calls mandatory.
"Sense of humor," he said. "No sense of humor, no job."
To make it as a Spurs coach, you have to be able to take some ribbing—and to dish it out.
"For lack of a better word, they are all ball-busters, for sure," Hammon says, smiling. "They love to have a good time. They love to work. But I think in the midst of working, you can't get too crazy serious. So they crack on each other, and they crack on me, which makes me feel right at home."
Early in training camp, Hammon and another staffer were trading barbs about their favorite NFL teams, the Denver Broncos (Hammon's team) and the Dallas Cowboys (the staffer's).
"Oh, you like the Cowgirls?" Hammon shot back.
"That's her, right there," assistant coach Ime Udoka said, chuckling. "I'm like, 'Isn't that [sexist]?' She says, 'I can say it.' Guys will joke, and she gives it right back."
And whenever possible, Hammon likes to buck the Spurs' black-white-silver color scheme and dress a bit more colorfully, which also draws a bit of ribbing around the gym.
On this particular day, the team is off, and Hammon is in teal sweatpants and teal shoes with pink swooshes.
"Today, I'm straying and wore my own funky stuff," she said.
A Star in High School
Photo by Kristina Barker
Becky Hammon's trophy case in the Stevens High gym.
There was little doubt, by the time Becky Hammon reached high school, that she was destined for great things. She seized the starting point guard job as a sophomore, and by the time she graduated in 1995, she owned every significant record in the Stevens High record books. The only missing piece was a state championship.
Despite her superior skills, Hammon never looked to dominate the game or the ball.
"She was such an unselfish player, almost to a fault," said Amber Zimiga Hammon, a teammate in high school who is now married to Becky's brother Matt. "If you were open, you were going to get the ball. At some point it was like, she needed to shoot more. We would get down. And then she'd take over."
On the long rides to tournaments, Hammon kept her team entertained with mix tapes, featuring heavy doses of Boyz II Men and New Kids on the Block. In the parking lot, she led them in impromptu dance-offs. At home, she entertained friends with her karaoke renditions of Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer” and New Kids on the Block’s “Hangin’ Tough.”
“Any time she had a chance to get people dancing or singing, she would,” Amber Hammon said. “Good singer, good dancer.”
Hammon’s high school career ended in the state semifinals, where she scored 29 of her team’s 34 points (or 36, depending on who's telling the story). With seconds left to play, and Stevens leading by a point, Hammon was fouled and sent to the line for a one-and-one. Riherd wanted to call a timeout, to let his players know they still had two fouls to give.
"No," said Hammon, a 90 percent foul shooter, "I want to shoot the free throws."
Hammon missed the first attempt, and the opposing team took the rebound, raced up court and scored on an awkward shot at the buzzer.
"I know to this day, she thinks she lost the game," Riherd said, "but guess what? We'd have never been in that situation if she hadn't scored all those points."
Overlooked as a College Recruit
Photo by Kristina Barker
Ron Riherd in the Stevens High gym.
Riherd, who began coaching high school girls in 1975, called Hammon, "by far the best player I've ever coached." Yet because of Rapid City's relatively remote location, few college scouts and coaches saw her play. The major Division I programs never came calling.
Those who did scout Hammon generally came away with the same impression: too short, too slow. She topped out at 5'6".
Kari Gallegos-Doering, then an assistant coach at Colorado State, saw something else. She first noticed Hammon at a spring showcase of high school all-stars. Scouts had come to see more highly rated guards, but Gallegos-Doering noticed how Hammon kept finding teammates in just the right spots, that no one could take the ball from her, and—despite her lack of speed—no defender could keep her in front of her.
"Becky had mojo," Gallegos-Doering said. "She's just got this something special that you don't see [often]. You just don't see a little white guard play like this."
(This would become a theme in Hammon’s pro career. Her New York Liberty teammates would later dub her “White Chocolate.”)
The next time Gallegos-Doering saw Hammon, at a national basketball camp, she was among 24 high school prospects playing pickup games.
"She made them look silly," Gallegos-Doering said. "She just could do things and go around people and make passes. I remember a player running down the floor shaking her head. She had just been duped. That was Becky."
That duped girl turned out to be Dominique Canty, who came out of Chicago as a Street and Smith All-American and earned a scholarship at Alabama.
"Here's a nobody making these players look bad," Gallegos-Doering said. "Everybody's sitting in that gym, and saw her do what she did and they missed on her...because of her color, because of her size, because yeah, she comes from South Dakota and she's not a big name, not from a big AAU team. They missed on her."
Hammon put Colorado State on the college basketball map, leading the team to a 33-3 record in 1998-99 and a trip to the Sweet 16. She finished her career as the school's all-time leader in scoring, assists and three-pointers, and she surpassed Keith Van Horn as the leading scorer, male or female, in Western Athletic Conference history.
And still, she was regarded as too short, too slow. No WNBA team drafted Hammon in 1999. She was signed by the New York Liberty as training camp fodder. And despite becoming a three-time All-Star in New York, the team traded her to San Antonio in 2007.
Instant NBA Credibility
There's an expression common on blacktops across the country: Game recognizes game. Translated: Great players respect other great players. On the court, talent is the coin of the realm.
Hammon walked onto the Spurs' practice court with instant credibility, as one of the greatest players in WNBA history, with the stats and accolades to match: seven All-Star appearances, seventh all-time in scoring, fourth all-time in assists, second all-time in three-pointers.
She dominated the intangibles, too. In annual surveys of WNBA general managers, Hammon was always among the leaders in categories like best leader and best basketball IQ, as well as "making teammates better," "hungriest to win a championship" and "taking the shot with the game on the line."
Anyone who's ever watched Hammon play appreciates her poise, her court vision and her commanding presence. And NBA players watch more WNBA games than the average male fan. LeBron James and Kobe Bryant are among Hammon's most ardent fans.
After 16 years in the pros, first with the New York Liberty, then the San Antonio Stars, Hammon's bona fides are well established.
"She impressed me," Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said. "Because of her size. She wasn't the fastest. You could tell she could find a way to become important. Even if she wasn't shooting great one day, but she was smart, one step ahead. The type of player that usually becomes coaches."
In fact, if playing the game means anything, Hammon is more qualified than most of her male peers. NBA benches are filled with career assistants who never played in the NBA and many who played sparingly, as role guys.
Among the NBA's 30 head coaches, 16 never played in the league—a group that includes Popovich, as well as the coach he faced in the Finals last June, Miami's Erik Spoelstra.
"It's a little tougher for us to earn that credibility," Popovich said of the non-players. "I think the people who have played and have had success deserve to have that immediate, almost conditional credibility. And it's theirs to either squander or let it grow."
Hired for Basketball Reasons
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By every measure—experience, diligence, demeanor—Hammon seems perfectly suited for this moment, this role, this challenge. And if there were an ideal place for it to happen, it's San Antonio.
There is no more stable or respected franchise than the Spurs, no coach with more gravitas than Popovich and no roster more capable of embracing the moment than this one. The Spurs are a mature, veteran group, with strong leaders in Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Ginobili. There isn't a knucklehead in the bunch.
Parker was already firmly in Hammon's corner. The two San Antonio point guards became friends over the last several years. There seems to be little concern that Hammon can thrive in a male-dominated work place.
"Not concerned at all," Ginobili said. "I really can't tell about other places in the league. But in here, no."
This is a franchise that covets diversity, whose roster reads like a United Nations subcommittee, with players from Australia, Italy, France, Argentina, Brazil, Canada and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Popovich's staff now includes the Italian-born Ettore Messina, an international coaching legend who is making his own NBA debut.
If anyone was going to hire the first female coach, it was going to be Popovich, perhaps the most progressive-minded soul in the coaching ranks. And if anyone could make this historic move and declare, with absolute sincerity, that history was the last thing on his mind, it is Popovich.
Fans viewed the Hammon hiring as either groundbreaking or a gimmick. To Popovich, it was just about adding another smart coach.
"We thought about it, and we didn't care," Popovich said of the response. "I'm not going to do something that's going to hurt my franchise just to have a gimmick. I think that we've built up enough credibility with the way we do things that people would understand that this was for real and that she had gravitas."
Her Olympic Snub
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Becky Hammon leads the Russian team onto the floor at the 2008 Olympics.
Growing up in the 1980s and early '90s, Becky Hammon idolized Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan and dreamed of playing in the NBA. Until around age 10, when her father bluntly advised her, “No matter how good you become and no matter how hard you work at it, you’ll never play in the NBA.”
The WNBA did not yet exist. So young Becky set her sights on the Olympics, dreaming of a day on the medal stand, “The Star Spangled Banner” playing. That dream was dashed by more powerful forces.
In 2007, Becky Hammon was a certified WNBA star, with a killer jumper, superior court vision and the respect of the entire league. She finished second in the MVP voting that season to Lauren Jackson of the Seattle Storm.
Jackson is Australian. You could make the case that Hammon, then, was America's best female basketball player at the time.
Yet for reasons that were never fully explained, the U.S. women's national team declined to include Hammon among the 23 players invited to try out for the 2008 Olympic team.
Friends and family suspected favoritism—that the national coaches selected guards from their own teams, leaving Hammon out in the cold.
"They never answered a phone call from her agents, or anything," Bev Hammon said. "She was devastated."
"She...was...devastated."
Shut out by her own country, Hammon accepted an invitation to play for the Russian team, a natural move since she was already playing in the Russian league, for CSKA Moscow, during the WNBA offseason.
Jessica Hill/Associated Press
Anne Donovan
The backlash was swift and fierce, with the harshest words coming from Anne Donovan, the American team's head coach.
"If you play in this country and you grow up in the heartland, and you put on a Russian uniform, you are not a patriotic person," Donovan said in 2008.
Donovan would later back away from that statement and also disputed reports that she and her staff shut out Hammon during the selection process.
The words stung Hammon but not as deeply as the initial snub. Joining the Russian team meant keeping her Olympic dreams alive. Hammon shot poorly in a semifinal loss to the U.S., but she led Russia to a bronze medal, scoring 22 points in a victory over China. After all of the controversy and the resentment, it was one of her proudest moments.
On a side table in the Hammon living room rest two mementos: a candle holder bearing the 2008 Beijing Games insignia and a music box designed in the shape of an onion-domed Russian cathedral.
"It turned into such a great thing," her father said. "She said, 'I wouldn't a change a thing now.'"
In nearly two decades of competitive basketball in the public spotlight, this chapter is the only hint of controversy associated with Becky Hammon.
Just one clarification, this one from Mom: "She's very patriotic."
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Becky Hammon poses with the bronze medal earned with her Russian teammates.
An NBA Pioneer
Societal barriers are rarely broken by a single event, a single impact, a single person. It takes repeated blows, stretched across decades, before the cracks give way and the walls collapse.
There have been other women and other firsts. And the impacts are not always enduring.
In 1990, Bernadette Mattox became the first female assistant in a Division I men's program, on Rick Pitino's Kentucky staff. Just two other women have done so since then.
In 1997, the NBA hired its first two female referees, Dee Kantner and Violet Palmer. Kantner was fired in 2002, and the NBA is just now introducing another female official, Lauren Holtkamp, who was recently promoted from the D-League. Palmer is starting her 18th season.
In 2002, Lisa Boyer served as a part-time, volunteer assistant on John Lucas' staff with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In 2009, Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman was hired to coach the Texas Legends in the D-League, making her the first woman to lead a men's professional team.
Now comes Hammon, with a full-time gig, a two-year contract and the support of the NBA's most revered coach. Every landmark matters. This one feels weightier.
Twitter lit up the day Hammon was hired, with everyone from Billie Jean King to Hope Solo to Chelsea Clinton to Nancy Pelosi and the White House offering praise and congratulations.
Actress Elizabeth Banks gave Hammon a shout-out on Twitter and again in a YouTube video titled, "Should Girls Play Basketball?"
"That's right, she's going to be coaching dudes," Banks says in the clip, "because she's that badass. Way to go, Becky. Way to follow your dreams."
Lieberman—whose trail blazing began in 1980, when she played on the Lakers' summer-league team and later in the United States Basketball League—reached out to Hammon personally.
"She has broken a tremendous barrier," Lieberman said, "and I don't think it should be lost."
Asked if she offered any advice or cautionary tales, Lieberman said, "I have no horror stories; I only have gratitude."
Noah Graham/Getty Images
Violet Palmer and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich
Palmer also said her gender has not been an issue with players or coaches, although there have been at least two instances when team broadcasters have made sexist remarks about her on air.
"At this point, it's not about gender," Palmer said. "They [coaches and players] more so respect the work."
Referring to Hammon, Palmer said, "I don't think it's going to be difficult, in the sense that she's a woman coming into a male-dominated sport to coach. Her reputation, her work ethic and her ability to do the job I think will speak for itself, period."
A generation of young women are poised to follow in Hammon’s footsteps.
Natalie Nakase, a video coordinator for the Los Angeles Clippers, helped coach their summer league. Jenny Boucek, a coach with the WNBA's Seattle Storm, was a guest at the Dallas Mavericks' training camp this month.
Before too long, there could be three or four women on NBA benches.
Thirty-four years after rushing the gender barricades, Lieberman finds herself still trying to break though and looking to Hammon as her spirit guide.
"I'm happy to be a trail blazer,” Lieberman said. “But I'm ready to get an opportunity to coach in the NBA. Instead of people thanking me, I need to thank Becky."
How She Got Here
At a glance, the journey looks so logical and linear. Young girl discovers the sport she loves, devotes her life to the game and rises steadily through the ranks. High school starter. All-State selection. College star. Scoring champion. Olympic medalist. Professional. All-Star. Coaching prospect.
The outline is deceptive, omitting all of the painful details—the scouts who told Becky Hammon she was too short and too slow, the college coaches who ignored her, the WNBA executives who declined to draft her, the Olympic coaches who snubbed her.
Validation only came to Hammon when she demanded it. She has spent more time ramming into locked doors than walking through open passages, arriving at this moment after a thousand unforeseeable and sometimes-fortuitous twists.
Had she never joined the Russian Olympic team, Hammon would have never been on that transatlantic flight next to Popovich in 2012, discussing basketball philosophy. Had she never torn her ACL, she might never have spent a season as an unpaid intern with the Spurs' staff. Had the Liberty never traded her to San Antonio, she might never have connected with the Spurs, period.
In so many ways, Becky Hammon is the perfect individual at the perfect time to make history. In so many ways, she is the unlikeliest candidate.
On the day Popovich called with the job offer, Hammon could hardly contain her emotions.
"She actually had tears in her eyes," Bev Hammon said. "She says, 'Mom, they picked me. Nobody has ever picked me. They picked me.'"
Howard Beck covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @HowardBeck.
The Can-Do Kid: Becky Hammon's Incredible Journey from Rapid City to the NBA
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Oct 27, 2014
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RAPID CITY, S.D. — The nurse shark is a generally docile creature, spanning up to nine feet and 300 pounds and armed with a vise-like jaw lined with thousands of serrated teeth. Left alone, it is harmless to humans.
But Becky Hammon wanted a closer look.
So as she snorkeled near the family boat in the Florida Keys on a spring day in 2012, Hammon shouted a request to her father: Throw the chum this way.
With chunks of fish parts and blood soon bobbing around her, Hammon got the close encounter she wanted, and then some. A five-foot nurse shark surged toward her, and then again, turned away only when Hammon poked it on the nose with her spear gun.
"With food in the water," Hammon explains, "their personalities are being changed and altered. They're in hunting mode."
"So," Hammon says, "I got out."
But she got her fish story first.
There is very little in this world, on land or water, that intimidates the 37-year-old Hammon, a self-described "adrenaline junkie." She has been chased by a barracuda and frolicked with manatees. She has hunted wild game. She plans to skydive some day—not because she's fearless, but because, "I'm one of those people...I have to do it to beat my fear."
It takes a thrill-seeking soul to swim with sharks. And it takes a certain audacity to shatter a barrier, even the ones you never planned to shatter.
Becky Hammon will make history this week, as the first woman to open the NBA season as a full-time assistant coach, as a member of the San Antonio Spurs staff. To other women in the sport, she is an inspiration. To young girls, a role model. To some fans, a curiosity. To historians, a footnote.
All Hammon wanted to do was to teach the game she's loved since she was a toddler, bouncing a Spalding around her parents' home in Rapid City, South Dakota. Her first coaching opportunity could have come in the WNBA, where Hammon ranked among the top 15 players in league history. It could have come in the NCAA ranks or overseas, where Hammon spent much of her professional career.
But Spurs coach Gregg Popovich, a man with five championship rings and an impeccable record as a coaching mentor, simply called first. Hammon accepted the job this summer.
In Hammon, Popovich saw a fellow gym rat and an ideal pupil—passionate for the game, studious, intellectually curious and hard-working. Her profile matched those of every Popovich disciple of the last 20 years, a group that includes four current NBA head coaches: Philadelphia's Brett Brown, Atlanta's Mike Budenholzer, New Orleans' Monty Williams and Orlando's Jacque Vaughn.
The only differences between those coaches and Hammon are an extra X chromosome and a ponytail.
Born To Coach
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"When you've been around it, you know who can coach and who can't coach," Popovich said. "Becky is one of those people. She's a Steve Kerr. She's a Doc Rivers. She's those kind of people. They have a feel for the game that they want to continue to participate in."
Popovich and Hammon had bonded on a transatlantic flight back from the London Olympics in 2012 and developed a formal mentor-pupil relationship last season, when Hammon served as a coaching intern while recovering from knee surgery. Her coaching instincts came through in staff meetings and film sessions.
By the time Hammon announced her retirement from the WNBA, the transition from San Antonio Stars guard to San Antonio Spurs assistant coach seemed natural to anyone within the franchise's walls.
Popovich, the ultimate no-nonsense coach, did not set out to make a statement, only to bolster his staff.
"Honestly, I didn't realize it was gonna be this big of a deal," he said. "People kind of went crazy, like we've saved the world from fascism or something," he added, chuckling. "It was much more important to reward her—for who she is, what she's done and what I believe she can do, than worry about the reaction of people."
In so many ways, Hammon's transition to coaching is a natural progression. She played the game at an elite level. At every stage, she was lauded for her leadership and her acumen. As an All-Star point guard, Hammon had an innate feel for the game, for the angles and timing and nuances that lesser players could not see.
Those who know Hammon best say she is just as suited for the role of pioneer, even if she never set out to be one. Indeed, so much in her biography pointed in this direction, save for one detail: No one ever picked Becky Hammon first in anything.
Small Town Roots
Photo by Kristina Barker
Bev and Marty Hammon, Becky's parents, in front of their Rapid City home.
Rapid City is the second-largest city in South Dakota, with a population of about 70,000, although it feels much smaller. Its historic downtown spans just 10 blocks and is dwarfed by the eastern slope of the Black Hills mountain range. Badlands National Park lies to the east, Mt. Rushmore to the south.
It's the kind of place where everyone seems to know each other, or at least knows your uncle, your sister or the guy who fixed your transmission last week.
Given its size and remote location, Rapid City has produced a striking number of professional athletes: Adam Vinatieri, Mark Ellis, Eric Piatkowski and Hammon, who graduated from Stevens High School in 1995 as the all-time leader in scoring, assists and steals.
The Hammon homestead sits on 3.5 acres in the Black Hills National Forest, 12 miles southwest of downtown. Their property borders the U.S. Forest Service property, which became a playground for Becky and her two older siblings, Matt and Gina.
It's not unusual to see deer wandering through the property and, occasionally, a mountain lion.
Growing up, the Hammons spent their leisure time fishing, hunting, riding three-wheelers in the woods and wakeboarding on Lake Angostura.
They also played a lot of basketball, on a broad, concrete slab in front of the house. The rim was mounted on the overhang of a wooden deck above. Long rebounds and loose balls would skip down a long hill into the woods. So it was best not to miss often.
"I didn't have any neighbors," Becky Hammon said. "And if you missed, the ball went and rolled for 30 yards."
Marty Hammon, Becky's father, who has coached basketball for three decades, likes to joke that she "came out of the womb loving basketball." It is only a slight exaggeration.
Becky Hammon had a basketball in her hands by the time she was a toddler. She learned to dribble around the time she began to walk. By age five, she was dribbling with both hands.
"I have pictures of myself, like two and three years old, and I had a basketball, full size," Becky Hammon said. "I never remember a time in my life where I didn't have a basketball. That's the honest-to-God truth."
A Basketball Prodigy
Photo by Kristina Barker
The problem with growing up as a basketball-loving girl in Rapid City is that, really, there just weren't that many other basketball-loving girls in Rapid City. If Hammon was going to play with any regularity, she would have to play with the boys. This proved to be a good thing.
Marty Hammon has two clear passions: basketball and his family. It is easy to see the intersection of the two, particularly in Becky and her older brother Matt, who both inherited their father's hoop addiction.
Marty was a regular in the local recreation leagues, and the Hammon kids were always in tow. At halftime, two-year-old Becky and four-year-old Matt would charge onto the court and hurl shots at the rim.
That the rim was 10 feet high, and Becky was maybe 3 feet tall, did not deter her. As she grew, and the rim inched slightly closer, her fixation only got stronger.
Ron Riherd was a regular in the city league games, a friend of Marty's and, as it happens, the girls' coach at Stevens High School. He got his first look at his future star point guard during one of those city-league games.
While the men played, little Becky—then in second or third grade—was off to the side, shooting finger-roll layups over the pull-up bars.
Riherd smiled.
"She was committed to being better, from that age on," he said. "She could handle the ball. She would shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot."
Becky's entry into competitive basketball came in a coed YMCA league at around age eight. The teams were populated almost entirely by boys. But Becky's skills were so beyond her peers' that her parents moved her up two age groups. League officials bristled. Then they saw her play.
"When I was better than all the boys, even a grade, two grades ahead of me, they were like, 'Oh yeah, she can stay,'" Becky said. "'She can even bring up the ball.'"
By fifth grade, she was seeking out pickup games and finding only boys on the court. She simply shrugged and joined the fray.
"I was like, 'This is fun, and I like doing it and I didn't really care,'" she said, pausing, then chuckling. "Probably similar now."
A Ball-Handling Wizard
From the time she became a high school star, and all through her years at Colorado State and in the WNBA, Becky Hammon has been known for her mastery with the ball—not only her deft passing but her dazzling, how-did-she-do-that scoop shots and impossible spins off the backboard.
No one taught Becky Hammon this ball wizardry. This was creativity born of necessity.
As a kid, Becky Hammon was not just the only girl on the court but the shortest player in the game. The only way to get a shot up was to duck under and around taller defenders, then fling the ball through whatever gap she could find.
"A couple of pump fakes and throw it with some twist on the board," Marty Hammon said. "That just comes from playing with boys. We always had to find a way of getting that shot off. Where for anybody else that was crap, for her, that was necessary. That was part of her game."
Eventually, Becky's main competition became her brother Matt and his friends, playing two-on-two games on the cement slab outside the house or three-on-three games at a local playground. She was, of course, much smaller than all of them. But the boys offered no leniency, no clear paths to the basket and no easy shots.
Photo by Kristina Barker
Bev Hammon
"I mean, it was intense," her mother, Bev Hammon, said. "They did not want her scoring."
There was never much doubt about Becky's competitive instincts. Those, too, seemed to be part of the family DNA. The Hammons competed at everything—board games, word games, bow-and-arrow shooting, soccer matches in the basement. When there wasn't an actual game to play, they made one up: Who can eat all his or her vegetables first?
"Our family never loses very well," Matt said. "Everything was a contest."
On colder days, the Hammons played indoors on a Nerf hoop mounted on a door. Dad played on his knees.
Becky was in grade school, about 10 years old, when she rose up one day and dunked over half-sized Marty.
"Dad, Dad, when do you think I'll be able to stuff on a big hoop?"
"Beck, you're never going to be able. You've got to learn to play on the ground."
"Really, Dad, you don't think I'm ever going to be able to dunk?"
"No, Beck, you're never going to be able to dunk."
For the longest time, Bev Hammon wondered if her youngest daughter would ever reach 5'0".
"She was little for a long time," she said.
At Home in Woods or Water
Photo by Kristina Barker
Replace the basketball with a 7-by-57 rifle or a shotgun, and the appraisals remain the same. Becky Hammon is, according to her brother Matt, “a natural shooter,” whether firing at clay pigeons, sharp-tailed grouse or pheasant.
Becky received her first shotgun at 14, as a gift from her grandfather. She shot her first deer maybe a year later. It was also the last.
“She felt guilty,” Matt said. “Here’s this beautiful deer laying there. 'And I shot it.' She actually had some tears.”
Becky still shoots pheasant and other small birds. She still joins the family on their big-game hunts, but this is one area where she prefers to play spectator.
The ocean is another matter. When the Hammons take their annual vacation in the Florida Keys, Becky is the one in the water, scanning for nurse sharks, bull sharks and lemon sharks. An avid fisherman, she wants to land a hammerhead some day. And she wants to get in a shark cage and hang out with the great whites.
“Becky loves those big sharks,” her father said. “And they’re never big enough for her.”
Photo by Kristina Barker
A Basketball Revelation
When did Becky Hammon realize she was special? That her basketball instincts were just a little more finely honed than everyone else's? That the game simply meant more to her than other girls and boys?
It wasn't during those tagalong trips to Dad's city-league games, and it wasn't even when she started outplaying the boys. No, the realization came early in high school, when she started attending basketball camps.
An average day at camp might run from 9 in morning to 10 at night, by which time the rest of the girls "would be so sick and tired of basketball," Hammon said. "And I'd go right back to the gym."
"So I knew I was wired a little bit differently then," she said. "So I was constantly learning, because I was constantly putting myself in situations where I could learn."
It was no different at home. When it snowed, Becky and Matt simply shoveled off the cement slab. When the days grew shorter in the winter, they flipped on the outdoor floodlights and kept the games going, sometimes until 11 p.m.
When your home is on the edge of a national park, there are no neighbors to disturb with your late-night dribbling.
Friends will tell you that Becky Hammon was an ace softball player and volleyballer, but basketball was always primary.
"I didn't need anybody else," she said. "I had a ball, and I had my hoop, and I didn't have to have somebody to go play catch with or throw me pitches. I grew up in the woods, I didn't have neighbors. So it was a sport that you could get really good at by yourself."
When there was no one to play against, Becky practiced her jump shot and her twisting layups for hours at a time. Occasionally, the sound of the ball hitting the concrete stopped and was replaced by the sound of a basketball striking the side of the house. Becky was practicing passes off the wall.
"She was," her father said, "a basketball nerd."
A Fit for the Spurs
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Gregg Popovich has employed a dozen assistant coaches in his two decades with the Spurs. Their personalities and backgrounds varied. But in each of them, Popovich saw certain essential traits—first and foremost, he says, "a natural proclivity to coach."
"When you've been around it, you know who can coach and who can't coach," Popovich said.
Popovich wants assistants with a strong work ethic, "a desire to get better, a desire to grow." He wants people "who have gotten over themselves"—meaning, they understand it's about the team, not the individual.
But he also wants them to speak up.
Contrary to his gruff public persona and his Air Force Academy credentials, Popovich is not an autocrat on the bench. He seeks out coaches with strong ideas and strong voices, who will challenge him and keep the creative sparks flying, whether in the video room or in a fourth-quarter timeout.
"She jumped right in," assistant coach Ime Udoka said of Hammon.
Other traits Popovich looks for in a prospective coach: "Are they comfortable in their own skin? Can they admit fault? Can they admit a mistake? Can they communicate? All those things you think about before you hire somebody, because the worst thing is a coach that can't admit that he or she was wrong, and it's their way or the highway. Or can't participate or give the players ownership in what's going on on the court. That's not going to work in the NBA. It's got to be a participatory sort of thing."
There is one other requirement, and it is the only one that Popovich calls mandatory.
"Sense of humor," he said. "No sense of humor, no job."
To make it as a Spurs coach, you have to be able to take some ribbing—and to dish it out.
"For lack of a better word, they are all ball-busters, for sure," Hammon says, smiling. "They love to have a good time. They love to work. But I think in the midst of working, you can't get too crazy serious. So they crack on each other, and they crack on me, which makes me feel right at home."
Early in training camp, Hammon and another staffer were trading barbs about their favorite NFL teams, the Denver Broncos (Hammon's team) and the Dallas Cowboys (the staffer's).
"Oh, you like the Cowgirls?" Hammon shot back.
"That's her, right there," assistant coach Ime Udoka said, chuckling. "I'm like, 'Isn't that [sexist]?' She says, 'I can say it.' Guys will joke, and she gives it right back."
And whenever possible, Hammon likes to buck the Spurs' black-white-silver color scheme and dress a bit more colorfully, which also draws a bit of ribbing around the gym.
On this particular day, the team is off, and Hammon is in teal sweatpants and teal shoes with pink swooshes.
"Today, I'm straying and wore my own funky stuff," she said.
A Star in High School
Photo by Kristina Barker
Becky Hammon's trophy case in the Stevens High gym.
There was little doubt, by the time Becky Hammon reached high school, that she was destined for great things. She seized the starting point guard job as a sophomore, and by the time she graduated in 1995, she owned every significant record in the Stevens High record books. The only missing piece was a state championship.
Despite her superior skills, Hammon never looked to dominate the game or the ball.
"She was such an unselfish player, almost to a fault," said Amber Zimiga Hammon, a teammate in high school who is now married to Becky's brother Matt. "If you were open, you were going to get the ball. At some point it was like, she needed to shoot more. We would get down. And then she'd take over."
On the long rides to tournaments, Hammon kept her team entertained with mix tapes, featuring heavy doses of Boyz II Men and New Kids on the Block. In the parking lot, she led them in impromptu dance-offs. At home, she entertained friends with her karaoke renditions of Tina Turner’s “Private Dancer” and New Kids on the Block’s “Hangin’ Tough.”
“Any time she had a chance to get people dancing or singing, she would,” Amber Hammon said. “Good singer, good dancer.”
Hammon’s high school career ended in the state semifinals, where she scored 29 of her team’s 34 points (or 36, depending on who's telling the story). With seconds left to play, and Stevens leading by a point, Hammon was fouled and sent to the line for a one-and-one. Riherd wanted to call a timeout, to let his players know they still had two fouls to give.
"No," said Hammon, a 90 percent foul shooter, "I want to shoot the free throws."
Hammon missed the first attempt, and the opposing team took the rebound, raced up court and scored on an awkward shot at the buzzer.
"I know to this day, she thinks she lost the game," Riherd said, "but guess what? We'd have never been in that situation if she hadn't scored all those points."
Overlooked as a College Recruit
Photo by Kristina Barker
Ron Riherd in the Stevens High gym.
Riherd, who began coaching high school girls in 1975, called Hammon, "by far the best player I've ever coached." Yet because of Rapid City's relatively remote location, few college scouts and coaches saw her play. The major Division I programs never came calling.
Those who did scout Hammon generally came away with the same impression: too short, too slow. She topped out at 5'6".
Kari Gallegos-Doering, then an assistant coach at Colorado State, saw something else. She first noticed Hammon at a spring showcase of high school all-stars. Scouts had come to see more highly rated guards, but Gallegos-Doering noticed how Hammon kept finding teammates in just the right spots, that no one could take the ball from her, and—despite her lack of speed—no defender could keep her in front of her.
"Becky had mojo," Gallegos-Doering said. "She's just got this something special that you don't see [often]. You just don't see a little white guard play like this."
(This would become a theme in Hammon’s pro career. Her New York Liberty teammates would later dub her “White Chocolate.”)
The next time Gallegos-Doering saw Hammon, at a national basketball camp, she was among 24 high school prospects playing pickup games.
"She made them look silly," Gallegos-Doering said. "She just could do things and go around people and make passes. I remember a player running down the floor shaking her head. She had just been duped. That was Becky."
That duped girl turned out to be Dominique Canty, who came out of Chicago as a Street and Smith All-American and earned a scholarship at Alabama.
"Here's a nobody making these players look bad," Gallegos-Doering said. "Everybody's sitting in that gym, and saw her do what she did and they missed on her...because of her color, because of her size, because yeah, she comes from South Dakota and she's not a big name, not from a big AAU team. They missed on her."
Hammon put Colorado State on the college basketball map, leading the team to a 33-3 record in 1998-99 and a trip to the Sweet 16. She finished her career as the school's all-time leader in scoring, assists and three-pointers, and she surpassed Keith Van Horn as the leading scorer, male or female, in Western Athletic Conference history.
And still, she was regarded as too short, too slow. No WNBA team drafted Hammon in 1999. She was signed by the New York Liberty as training camp fodder. And despite becoming a three-time All-Star in New York, the team traded her to San Antonio in 2007.
Instant NBA Credibility
There's an expression common on blacktops across the country: Game recognizes game. Translated: Great players respect other great players. On the court, talent is the coin of the realm.
Hammon walked onto the Spurs' practice court with instant credibility, as one of the greatest players in WNBA history, with the stats and accolades to match: seven All-Star appearances, seventh all-time in scoring, fourth all-time in assists, second all-time in three-pointers.
She dominated the intangibles, too. In annual surveys of WNBA general managers, Hammon was always among the leaders in categories like best leader and best basketball IQ, as well as "making teammates better," "hungriest to win a championship" and "taking the shot with the game on the line."
Anyone who's ever watched Hammon play appreciates her poise, her court vision and her commanding presence. And NBA players watch more WNBA games than the average male fan. LeBron James and Kobe Bryant are among Hammon's most ardent fans.
After 16 years in the pros, first with the New York Liberty, then the San Antonio Stars, Hammon's bona fides are well established.
"She impressed me," Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said. "Because of her size. She wasn't the fastest. You could tell she could find a way to become important. Even if she wasn't shooting great one day, but she was smart, one step ahead. The type of player that usually becomes coaches."
In fact, if playing the game means anything, Hammon is more qualified than most of her male peers. NBA benches are filled with career assistants who never played in the NBA and many who played sparingly, as role guys.
Among the NBA's 30 head coaches, 16 never played in the league—a group that includes Popovich, as well as the coach he faced in the Finals last June, Miami's Erik Spoelstra.
"It's a little tougher for us to earn that credibility," Popovich said of the non-players. "I think the people who have played and have had success deserve to have that immediate, almost conditional credibility. And it's theirs to either squander or let it grow."
Hired for Basketball Reasons
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By every measure—experience, diligence, demeanor—Hammon seems perfectly suited for this moment, this role, this challenge. And if there were an ideal place for it to happen, it's San Antonio.
There is no more stable or respected franchise than the Spurs, no coach with more gravitas than Popovich and no roster more capable of embracing the moment than this one. The Spurs are a mature, veteran group, with strong leaders in Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Ginobili. There isn't a knucklehead in the bunch.
Parker was already firmly in Hammon's corner. The two San Antonio point guards became friends over the last several years. There seems to be little concern that Hammon can thrive in a male-dominated work place.
"Not concerned at all," Ginobili said. "I really can't tell about other places in the league. But in here, no."
This is a franchise that covets diversity, whose roster reads like a United Nations subcommittee, with players from Australia, Italy, France, Argentina, Brazil, Canada and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Popovich's staff now includes the Italian-born Ettore Messina, an international coaching legend who is making his own NBA debut.
If anyone was going to hire the first female coach, it was going to be Popovich, perhaps the most progressive-minded soul in the coaching ranks. And if anyone could make this historic move and declare, with absolute sincerity, that history was the last thing on his mind, it is Popovich.
Fans viewed the Hammon hiring as either groundbreaking or a gimmick. To Popovich, it was just about adding another smart coach.
"We thought about it, and we didn't care," Popovich said of the response. "I'm not going to do something that's going to hurt my franchise just to have a gimmick. I think that we've built up enough credibility with the way we do things that people would understand that this was for real and that she had gravitas."
Her Olympic Snub
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Becky Hammon leads the Russian team onto the floor at the 2008 Olympics.
Growing up in the 1980s and early '90s, Becky Hammon idolized Magic Johnson and Michael Jordan and dreamed of playing in the NBA. Until around age 10, when her father bluntly advised her, “No matter how good you become and no matter how hard you work at it, you’ll never play in the NBA.”
The WNBA did not yet exist. So young Becky set her sights on the Olympics, dreaming of a day on the medal stand, “The Star Spangled Banner” playing. That dream was dashed by more powerful forces.
In 2007, Becky Hammon was a certified WNBA star, with a killer jumper, superior court vision and the respect of the entire league. She finished second in the MVP voting that season to Lauren Jackson of the Seattle Storm.
Jackson is Australian. You could make the case that Hammon, then, was America's best female basketball player at the time.
Yet for reasons that were never fully explained, the U.S. women's national team declined to include Hammon among the 23 players invited to try out for the 2008 Olympic team.
Friends and family suspected favoritism—that the national coaches selected guards from their own teams, leaving Hammon out in the cold.
"They never answered a phone call from her agents, or anything," Bev Hammon said. "She was devastated."
"She...was...devastated."
Shut out by her own country, Hammon accepted an invitation to play for the Russian team, a natural move since she was already playing in the Russian league, for CSKA Moscow, during the WNBA offseason.
Jessica Hill/Associated Press
Anne Donovan
The backlash was swift and fierce, with the harshest words coming from Anne Donovan, the American team's head coach.
"If you play in this country and you grow up in the heartland, and you put on a Russian uniform, you are not a patriotic person," Donovan said in 2008.
Donovan would later back away from that statement and also disputed reports that she and her staff shut out Hammon during the selection process.
The words stung Hammon but not as deeply as the initial snub. Joining the Russian team meant keeping her Olympic dreams alive. Hammon shot poorly in a semifinal loss to the U.S., but she led Russia to a bronze medal, scoring 22 points in a victory over China. After all of the controversy and the resentment, it was one of her proudest moments.
On a side table in the Hammon living room rest two mementos: a candle holder bearing the 2008 Beijing Games insignia and a music box designed in the shape of an onion-domed Russian cathedral.
"It turned into such a great thing," her father said. "She said, 'I wouldn't a change a thing now.'"
In nearly two decades of competitive basketball in the public spotlight, this chapter is the only hint of controversy associated with Becky Hammon.
Just one clarification, this one from Mom: "She's very patriotic."
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Becky Hammon poses with the bronze medal earned with her Russian teammates.
An NBA Pioneer
Societal barriers are rarely broken by a single event, a single impact, a single person. It takes repeated blows, stretched across decades, before the cracks give way and the walls collapse.
There have been other women and other firsts. And the impacts are not always enduring.
In 1990, Bernadette Mattox became the first female assistant in a Division I men's program, on Rick Pitino's Kentucky staff. Just two other women have done so since then.
In 1997, the NBA hired its first two female referees, Dee Kantner and Violet Palmer. Kantner was fired in 2002, and the NBA is just now introducing another female official, Lauren Holtkamp, who was recently promoted from the D-League. Palmer is starting her 18th season.
In 2002, Lisa Boyer served as a part-time, volunteer assistant on John Lucas' staff with the Cleveland Cavaliers.
In 2009, Hall of Famer Nancy Lieberman was hired to coach the Texas Legends in the D-League, making her the first woman to lead a men's professional team.
Now comes Hammon, with a full-time gig, a two-year contract and the support of the NBA's most revered coach. Every landmark matters. This one feels weightier.
Twitter lit up the day Hammon was hired, with everyone from Billie Jean King to Hope Solo to Chelsea Clinton to Nancy Pelosi and the White House offering praise and congratulations.
Actress Elizabeth Banks gave Hammon a shout-out on Twitter and again in a YouTube video titled, "Should Girls Play Basketball?"
"That's right, she's going to be coaching dudes," Banks says in the clip, "because she's that badass. Way to go, Becky. Way to follow your dreams."
Lieberman—whose trail blazing began in 1980, when she played on the Lakers' summer-league team and later in the United States Basketball League—reached out to Hammon personally.
"She has broken a tremendous barrier," Lieberman said, "and I don't think it should be lost."
Asked if she offered any advice or cautionary tales, Lieberman said, "I have no horror stories; I only have gratitude."
Noah Graham/Getty Images
Violet Palmer and Spurs coach Gregg Popovich
Palmer also said her gender has not been an issue with players or coaches, although there have been at least two instances when team broadcasters have made sexist remarks about her on air.
"At this point, it's not about gender," Palmer said. "They [coaches and players] more so respect the work."
Referring to Hammon, Palmer said, "I don't think it's going to be difficult, in the sense that she's a woman coming into a male-dominated sport to coach. Her reputation, her work ethic and her ability to do the job I think will speak for itself, period."
A generation of young women are poised to follow in Hammon’s footsteps.
Natalie Nakase, a video coordinator for the Los Angeles Clippers, helped coach their summer league. Jenny Boucek, a coach with the WNBA's Seattle Storm, was a guest at the Dallas Mavericks' training camp this month.
Before too long, there could be three or four women on NBA benches.
Thirty-four years after rushing the gender barricades, Lieberman finds herself still trying to break though and looking to Hammon as her spirit guide.
"I'm happy to be a trail blazer,” Lieberman said. “But I'm ready to get an opportunity to coach in the NBA. Instead of people thanking me, I need to thank Becky."
How She Got Here
At a glance, the journey looks so logical and linear. Young girl discovers the sport she loves, devotes her life to the game and rises steadily through the ranks. High school starter. All-State selection. College star. Scoring champion. Olympic medalist. Professional. All-Star. Coaching prospect.
The outline is deceptive, omitting all of the painful details—the scouts who told Becky Hammon she was too short and too slow, the college coaches who ignored her, the WNBA executives who declined to draft her, the Olympic coaches who snubbed her.
Validation only came to Hammon when she demanded it. She has spent more time ramming into locked doors than walking through open passages, arriving at this moment after a thousand unforeseeable and sometimes-fortuitous twists.
Had she never joined the Russian Olympic team, Hammon would have never been on that transatlantic flight next to Popovich in 2012, discussing basketball philosophy. Had she never torn her ACL, she might never have spent a season as an unpaid intern with the Spurs' staff. Had the Liberty never traded her to San Antonio, she might never have connected with the Spurs, period.
In so many ways, Becky Hammon is the perfect individual at the perfect time to make history. In so many ways, she is the unlikeliest candidate.
On the day Popovich called with the job offer, Hammon could hardly contain her emotions.
"She actually had tears in her eyes," Bev Hammon said. "She says, 'Mom, they picked me. Nobody has ever picked me. They picked me.'"
Howard Beck covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @HowardBeck.
posted from Bloggeroid
Lady and The Track » Halloween Happenings at Breeders’ Cup 2014; Fashion & Events Lady and The Track » / by Lizzy Park /
Halloween Happenings at Breeders’ Cup 2014; Fashion & Events Lady and The Track »
/ by Lizzy Park / 14 hours ago
Halloween Happenings at Breeders’ Cup 2014: The Breeders’ Cup is one of the biggest events in all of horse racing stateside. The 2014 Breeders’ Cup World Championships spans two days from Friday October 31st to Saturday November 1st. Of course the racing will be the main event but that does not mean that Santa Anita Park does not have plenty of other things to offer. There are a few events that span both days, but since Friday is Halloween Santa Anita Park will help you celebrate in style! Day 1 of the Breeders’ Cup World Championship begins on Halloween. Try incorporating Halloween fashion into your flawless race day look with a fancy black fascinator. Photo: Breeders’ Cup Photo © Santa Anita Park will be hosting A Halloween Happening on Friday, October 31, 2014. It will be held Infield at 285 W. Huntington Drive, Arcadia, CA on the park grounds. It will take place from 12:00 PM-5:00 PM. This is for elementary school age kids and their families. Just come to the Infield Entrance, Gate 6, on Colorado Place. The event is free for children under 14 and it is only $5 per adult. Residents of the city of Arcadia get free admission with a valid ID. Attendees will get to trick or treat with local businesses. There will also be a petting zoo, along with carnival rides, pumpkin painting, pony rides, music and themed performances, photo booths, a dunk tank, and bounce houses. Attendees are also encouraged to wear costumes and can enter for a chance to win Breeders’ Cup Best Dressed. Try a fit & flare dress with fun skeleton print that is race day appropriate and cute for Halloween. An intense black lace dress would be the perfect piece to pair with a Halloween inspired fascinator supplied by Fashion at the Races for Friday’s Breeders’ Cup races. Halloween Happening at Santa Anita Park is open to the public and it will be a great way to enjoy the Breeders’ Cup Championship but not have to miss out on any Halloween fun! For additional information on Infield activities at Breeders’ Cup visit BreedersCup.com. Breeders’ Cup Day 1 Fashion Picks: Related 2014 Breeders’ Cup News: A Beginner’s Guide to Breeders’ Cup Ten Close Calls in Breeders’ Cup History A look back at Goldikova Top Ten Breeders’ Cup Races Everyone Should See Top Five Breeders’ Cup Horses for Beginners Top Ten Major Upsets in Breeders’ Cup History Breeders’ Cup Contenders: Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies: Danette Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf: Isabella Sings Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Carpe Diem Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Angela Renee Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Mr. Z Breeders’ Cup Classic Cigar Street Breeders’ Cup Mile Seek Again Breeders’ Cup Turf Hardest Core Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Lawn Ranger Breeders’ Cup 2014 Bobby’s Kitten Breeders’ Cup Travel/Fashion Tips: Where to Stay Top Two Breeders’ Cup fashion Trends Christine A. Moore; A Must for Breeders’ Cup Top 5 Cheap Eats near Santa Anita Top 5 Things To Do at Santa Anita Park Take a Celebrity Selfie at Breeders’ Cup Halloween Happenings at Breeders’ Cup The post Halloween Happenings at Breeders’ Cup 2014; Fashion & Events appeared first on Lady and The Track. Google+ Visit website
Monday, October 27, 2014
The Works: Extra! Breeders' Cup Edition (Saturday):
The Works: Extra! Breeders' Cup Edition (Saturday): http://youtu.be/H-SYvY9Jhm0 
The Fear of Fear. I’m not sure when Americans got scared...
I’m not sure when Americans got scared. Maybe the indigenous tribes of the plains spent evenings huddled in their teepees telling stories of twisted night creatures, maybe the nomads who trekked across that bridge from Russia to Alaska were running away from something. Whatever the case, by the time the white people showed up from across the sea and started putting women on trial for witchcraft and convincing themselves the natives were conspiring with Satan, fear was firmly established as the ruler of the continent and it hasn’t left since. The national anthem, like most of what you learn in elementary school, is mostly lies—forget the brave and the free, we’re the land of the terrorized, the home of the perpetually panicked.
That’s a sweeping, simplistic generalization, but it’s hard to find another explanation for what New Jersey and New York governors Chris Christie and Andrew Cuomo did over the weekend in response to New York City’s first Ebola case. First they announced that health-care workers returning from the West African countries affected by the deadly disease would be placed in quarantine for 21 days, a policy they implemented apparently without consulting the White House. The first person to be affected by this was nurse Kaci Hickox, who was detained on Friday after landing in New Jersey and described her confusing, bizarre experience dealing with the authorities in an account for the Dallas Morning News:
I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa. I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear and, most frightening, quarantine.
[…]
I sat alone in the isolation tent and thought of many colleagues who will return home to America and face the same ordeal. Will they be made to feel like criminals and prisoners?
By Sunday night, after suffering slings and arrows of deserved criticism, Cuomo and Christie were backtracking as only experienced politicians can. The New York governor said that medical workers like Hickox would be allowed to quarantine themselves in their homes and would be compensated by the government for any income they lost as a result of three weeks of house arrest, while also praising people who volunteered to help the sick and needy in West Africa for their “valor” and “compassion.”
Ebola isn’t contagious unless the sufferer is exhibiting symptoms; there have only been four cases of the disease on US soil. (A five-year-old boy whose family just returned from Guinea is now being tested in New York.) Mandatory quarantines aren’t backed up by science, the head of the Washington, DC, Department of Health told the Washington Post. President Obama has also urged people to stop panicking and pressured states to stop implementing forced quarantines, but that hasn’t stopped Connecticut, Illinois, and Florida from following New York and New Jersey’s lead on isolating medical workers, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff are recommending a quarantine of all troops who return from affected West African countries. No Pentagon personnel are going to be treating anyone with Ebola, and medical experts aren’t endorsing that policy, but those kinds of details don’t matter—fear is in charge now, and fear gets what it wants.
If Ebola didn’t exist, of course, Americans would find something else to churn them into a panic. That’s not a charitable view, but what else can you conclude about a country where there’s a perpetual ammo shortage fueled by rumors the government is buying bullets en masse? Where politicians routinely drum up fear about fundamentalists half a world away as if they were about to conquer Europe? Where the government has instituted invasive and annoying airport security measures just to reassure skittish travelers? Where that same government routinely gathers up as much information as it possibly can about everyone and won’t reveal what or why it’s doing that unless details about its intelligence gathering are leaked to the press? Where people are avoiding getting their kids vaccinated because they don't trust science? Where not too long ago protesters around the country demonstrated against the mere existence of mosques?
Some fear is reasonable, of course, even healthy. If you share a bowling alley with someone who has Ebola, for instance, you might be excused for feeling a little skeeved, however irrational that is. At various times and places throughout history, it was completely understandable to feel like your existence was hanging on by a not particularly robust thread—think of people in African nations beset by random violence and civil wars, or bygone Polynesian chiefdoms where death was only a club-wielding raiding party away, or plague-era European towns where they wheeled corpses down the feces- and rat-strewn streets. But the West in general and America in particular are almost comically safe. The US is separated from its enemies by oceans and has the firepower to blow away any foe that could conceivably threaten it. Crime rates have been falling for a generation, there’s no imminent threat of revolution or coup, and you can count on mail to be delivered and stores to be stocked with a bounty of food and products unparalleled in human history.
There are things to worry about—climate change, say, or the continued widening of the wealth gap turning some neighborhoods permanently into slums—and we do worry about them, but we also worry about scenarios straight out of speculative fiction. A recent survey found that significant proportions of Americans were concerned about not just the rising oceans but economic collapse, mass civil unrest, a deadly epidemic, another world war, the planet running out of oil, even the biblical apocalypse. Basically, mention a potential crisis, no matter how remote, and Americans will titter in fear.
In most cases, worrying over something that is not likely to happen and that you can’t control anyway is merely counterproductive and a waste of time, but occasionally fear can lead to disasters. On a macro level, there was the invasion of Iraq, a war based on misplaced fears of Saddam Hussein’s terrible weapons; on a micro level you have Rwanda elementary school kids being kept out of class and Senegalese middle schoolers reportedly being beaten and called “Ebola.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s line about the only thing we have to fear being fear itself can sound like a platitude meant to soothe a jumpy stock market or a Zen-ish koan, depending on your mood. Or you can just take it as the truth—fear makes us do stupid things, and sometimes the authorities, acting on fear, spread yet more fear among the public and create a perpetual cycle of rage and panic.
This phenomenon isn’t new, nor is it particularly particular to America. But it’s hard not to get frustrated at the way politicians nurture fear by calling for draconian travel bans from West Africa, or the way cable news caters to the fearful with scary-looking poll questions. Our leaders and media institutions—the people who are supposed to be grown ups, in other words—are too often eager to indulge terror, to tell people that they should be afraid, that the basest parts of their animal brains surging with flight-or-fight neurotransmitters have the right idea.
There’s no policy prescription for making people less afraid, no War on Scardey Cats the government could realistically pursue. Short of putting a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy–esque “Don’t Panic” on every book cover and making it mandatory for newscasts to show calming images of people going about their business and basically being OK there’s not much to be done about our predilection toward fear. The only thing we can do is to make concerted efforts to individually and collectively calm the fuck down. No terror-fueled tweets about breaking news stories that only serve to spread misinformation. No demands for elected officials to “do something” about every microcrisis that crops up. We should be aware of our tendency to conjure up witches, evil plots, and superpowered terrorists, and squash these things when they appear in our minds.
We should know to be skeptical of headlines about “panics” and “epidemics,” and not be so easily manipulated into imagining worst-case scenarios. We should remind ourselves that the people who spread fear are either stupid, or they have some ulterior motive for doing so—and it’s them, not their bogeymen, that we should be worried about.
Follow Harry Cheadle on Twitter.
A depiction of a draft riot in New York City during the Civil War.
Image via Wikimedia Commons
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