Detroit Free Press

RED WINGS FANS HAVE GOOD REASON TO WORRY

RED WINGS FANS HAVE GOOD REASON TO WORRY

The Red Wings fan bites his fingernails. The Red Wings fan taps his feet. The Red Wings fan approaches a stranger in a Tampa Bay Lightning cap."How scared should we be?" he says."Well, if you're asking me," the Tampa Bay fan says, leaning back on his rocking chair, sliding a weed between his teeth, "pretty darn scared."
READY TO REPEATMSU KNOCKS DOWN TEMPLE, GIMMICKS, THEORIES

READY TO REPEATMSU KNOCKS DOWN TEMPLE, GIMMICKS, THEORIES

ATLANTA -- With less than a minute left, the ball came off the rim and Andre Hutson rose to it like, well, like a Spartan. His big hands clamped, his elbows swung, and he owned that ball, he owned it, never mind that three Temple players tried to get it away from him, three men in black shirts, pulling, swiping, tugging, it was his, the ball was green, the score was green, the day was green, and the lights to the Final Four were turning green, too.
DON’T LOOK NOW, IT’S O.J. ALL OVER AGAIN

DON’T LOOK NOW, IT’S O.J. ALL OVER AGAIN

Afew weeks ago, I wrote a column extolling the virtue of newspapers. I left out the most important thing.With a newspaper, you can skip over the stories you don't want to know about.No such luck in television, where you watch the news as it's presented, in order of importance -- determined by what will get the greatest ratings.Which brings us to the frenzy over Robert Blake and his murdered wife.Let me sum up the case:Robert Blake's wife was murdered.
HE DIDN’T FALL, SO NOW HE’S A HERO

HE DIDN’T FALL, SO NOW HE’S A HERO

"I may not have been the fastest skater out there, but I'm the Olympic champion. So I'm stoked!"-- Steven Bradbury, Australian short-track speedskaterSALT LAKE CITY -- It is not for me, as a man who can barely stay upright in dress shoes, to advise Olympic speedskaters about their tactics.But I'll do it anyway. For when it comes to winning a gold medal, there are many approaches, but one of them should not be this:Go as slowly as you can and wait for everyone else to fall down.
CURIOUS CARLISLE IS RIGHT FOR PISTONS

CURIOUS CARLISLE IS RIGHT FOR PISTONS

Understand something about Joe Dumars. He loves to ask questions. He loves to learn. That is the reason he was able to go from a sneaker-wearing player to president of the Pistons in a few short years. He asks. He learns. And he admires learning in others.
HYPE MACHINE CAN MAKE AND BREAK ATHLETE

HYPE MACHINE CAN MAKE AND BREAK ATHLETE

SYDNEY, Australia -- Once upon an Olympics, you came to the party broke and anonymous. You arrived as an amateur, without fanfare, a small suitcase in hand, a flag on your lapel.You gave the best performance your body could deliver, you burst across a tape, touched the wall in a swimming pool, netted a winning shot -- and suddenly, you were an Olympic champion. Your world was never the same.
BACK IN THE GAME

BACK IN THE GAME

What is a chair? What is its intent? To provide rest after a hard day? To give order to the dinner table? To pull up in front of the TV set? All of the above? Yet a chair is never more than an in-between stop. In time you rise and get on with your life.Unless it is a wheelchair.Unless you cannot rise.Unless, your life, like Mo Gerhardt's, is shadowed by a congenital disease like Duchenne's muscular dystrophy, an often fatal affliction that robs you of the protein you need to build muscle. In cases like his, a chair looms the way the horizon looms for a setting sun.

Mitch Albom writes about running an orphanage in impoverished Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his kids, their hardships, laughs and challenges, and the life lessons he’s learned there every day.

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