June 4 – June 17, 2023
Welcome to issue four hundred and sixteen of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. Nikola Jokic, an Elusive Superstar, Has a Hold on Denver (New York Times)
2. A Quest to Elevate Brown Athletes (Tufts.edu)
3. DAZN joins ‘unique’ media coalition for Berlin’s Special Olympics (SportBusiness)
4. Kevin Martinez, VP Corporate Citizenship, ESPN: The Changemaker Interview (Forbes)
5. Welcome to the softball dugout, where fun props and unbridled enthusiasm create college sports’ best party (ESPN)
6. Bills’ Damar Hamlin Launching Tour to Teach CPR Training, Give AEDs to Youth Programs (Bleacher Report)
7. You Love The Women’s College World Series. You Just Might Not Know It Yet (Front Office Sports)
8. Let The Senior Games Begin! (Sports History Weekly)
9. Why America Desperately Needed Ted Lasso (New York Times)
10. Six Degrees of Jeff Green (The Ringer)


10+
Never Walk Alone (by Fabinho) (The Players’ Tribune)
https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/fabinho-liverpool-premier-league
“Sports is a Precious Tool for Promoting Gender Equality on and off the Field of Play (Peace and Sport)
https://www.peace-sport.org/opinion/sport-offers-many-opportunities-to-tackle-the-most-pressing-social-problems/
ICSS committed to sustainable development, environmental protection via sport (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/icss-committed-sustainable-development-environmental-protection-sport
Kids can’t all be star athletes. Here’s how schools can welcome more students to play (NPR)
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/06/07/1180481518/kids-cant-all-be-star-athletes-heres-how-schools-can-welcome-more-students-to-pl
Sport Together Fund 24 Hour Challenge (Beyond Sport)
https://www.beyondsport.org/articles/sport-together-fund-24-hour-challenge/


We present again our “Featured Video” offering(s). With the explosion of video content out there highlighting the good in sport, we want to showcase such content for your enjoyment and learning. This will be an ongoing effort. And now we add podcasts!

“Game On: The Unstoppable Rise of Women’s Sport” [Official Trailer – Netflix]
https://youtu.be/F6KeKenJaMc
More than a basketball player | Day In The Life with Riyaan Jiwani (Brown Ballers)
https://youtu.be/76vaUgeGYz0
The Axe Files with David Axelrod (interview with Michael Wilbon) (CNN)
https://www.cnn.com/audio/podcasts/axe-files/episodes/776849b9-549e-439a-b3d0-b014001ac05f


Introduction
I want to start with an announcement in regard to our dear friend Eli Wolff, who passed away recently. A fund has been set up in his name and I hope that you can find a way to support this great cause and a great person who had a big impact on the world.
Eli A. Wolff Memorial Fund for Disability Justice in Sport
https://nasss.org/awards/eliwolff/

As some of you know, all the sports teams I follow on a regular basis do not win championships. One in 50 years, actually. That’s not good. But I haven’t given up and I occasionally try to find other sports teams whose stories are fun, interesting, and even inspirational. I latched onto the NBA’s Denver Nuggets this past year because my favorite player, fellow Georgetown Hoya Jeff Green is a member of the team. Amazingly, “the curse of Sab Singh” had no impact on the Nuggets and they won the NBA championship this month. (So, this is what winning feels like!)

This week I just happened to have two stories involving the Nuggets, one involving its best player, Nikola Jokic, and the aforementioned Jeff Green, who, while not a starter, put in some great minutes and was key to the team winning it all. Each story will move you and maybe even inspire you.

Winning takes different forms. So does being good at what you do and being happy with your life. YOUR life, not someone else’s. I loved that each story has that idea as one of its themes. Jokic is the “quiet superstar,” a player so good yet so unimpressed with himself. He comes across as a very funny guy who is just being his honest self. I am excited that he is but 28 years old, and that he will hopefully continue to be a legend on the court, and while he may not want to so much, a legend off of it as well.

The story of Jeff Green in some ways is frustrating, that is, a great player not getting a chance to exercise his full potential on a team for a number of years. Jeff has been on 12 teams in 16 years. Depending on how you look at it, you can say he has not done enough to warrant long- term deals but has been so good and so adaptable that multiple teams will always find a spot for him. And in the article, Jeff doesn’t bemoan his situation. He comes across not only as a great teammate, but a person who has learned what it means to be of value to others and find satisfaction in that.

So, congratulations go out to all the players, coaches and executives with the Nuggets. Thanks for giving me multiple things to be happy about.

If you think others would like to receive the newsletter, please feel free to forward it on or have them contact us directly at sab@sportsdoinggood.com. (If you do not want to receive the newsletter anymore you can use the Unsubscribe button at the end of the email).

So, enjoy. And have a good week.

Nikola Jokic, an Elusive Superstar, Has a Hold on Denver (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/03/sports/basketball/nikola-jokic-denver-nuggets-nba-finals.html

A Quest to Elevate Brown Athletes (Tufts.edu)
https://now.tufts.edu/2023/05/16/quest-elevate-brown-athletes

DAZN joins ‘unique’ media coalition for Berlin’s Special Olympics (SportBusiness)
https://www.sportbusiness.com/news/dazn-joins-unique-media-coalition-for-berlins-special-olympics/

Kevin Martinez, VP Corporate Citizenship, ESPN: The Changemaker Interview (Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhessekiel/2023/03/28/kevin-martinez-vp-corporate-citizenship-espn-the-changemaker-interview/?sh=7c580cd41cc1

Welcome to the softball dugout, where fun props and unbridled enthusiasm create college sports’ best party (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/college-sports/story/_/id/37784332/wcws-college-softball-traditions-superstitions-dugout-chants

Bills’ Damar Hamlin Launching Tour to Teach CPR Training, Give AEDs to Youth Programs (Bleacher Report)
https://bleacherreport.com/articles/10078062-bills-damar-hamlin-launching-tour-to-teach-cpr-training-give-aeds-to-youth-programs

You Love The Women’s College World Series. You Just Might Not Know It Yet (Front Office Sports)
https://frontofficesports.com/you-love-the-womens-college-world-series-you-just-might-not-know-it-yet/

Let The Senior Games Begin! (Sports History Weekly)
http://www.sportshistoryweekly.com/stories/national-senior-games-olympics-older-adults-sports,1151

Why America Desperately Needed Ted Lasso (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/05/opinion/american-polarization-ted-lasso.html

Six Degrees of Jeff Green (The Ringer)
https://www.theringer.com/nba/2023/6/6/23750401/six-degrees-of-jeff-green-denver-nuggets-2023-nba-finals


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Our goal is to have Sports Doing Good be a portal housing original content and excerpts from and links to the increasing number of articles, websites, video, and other media that showcase the good in sports and society. We aim to celebrate those concepts, activities, events, and individuals by highlighting them for a wider audience. Much of the news today, whether sports- related or not, is incredibly negative and increasingly polarizing, biased, and quite annoying. We are trying to refocus some of the discussion on the good, with a focus on sports.

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Contact Information
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Sarbjit “Sab” Singh
sab@sportsdoinggood.com
516-287-7141
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