Dec. 1 – Dec. 14, 2024
Welcome to issue four hundred and fifty-four of the Sports Doing Good newsletter. This week’s 10 stories include:

1. Jalen Suggs, Wendell Carter Jr.’s special friendship sets tone for Orlando Magic (The Athletic)
2. Grammys CEO Guided by Lessons Learned in College Hoops (Sportico)
3. How One Company is Helping Turn NIL Wealth Into Generational Wealth (SI)
4. Inside Lonzo Ball’s unprecedented 1,000-day return to the NBA (ESPN)
5. He Fell into Addiction as a Teen, and Then Found a Novel Way to Helps Thousands of Other People Recover (People)
6. How Climate Change Is Affecting Professional Sports Worldwide (Earth.org)
7. Street cricket fundraiser aims to raise $1m for cancer research (Canadian Immigrant)
8. Your Year in Cheer: Personalizing Sports Like Spotify Wrapped (Katherine Rowe)
9. As “Sportfashion” Keeps Growing, “My Cause, My Cleats” Provides A Massive Canvas Again… (Joe Favorito)
10. How Germany preserves its proud football heritage – even when clubs move stadiums (New York Times)


10+
Refugee Olympic Team to compete at the Youth Olympic Games Dakar 2026 (IOC)
https://olympics.com/ioc/news/refugee-olympic-team-to-compete-at-the-youth-olympic-games-dakar-2026
NFL, Prime Video & Smithsonian To Help Kids Access Books (Beyond Sport)
https://beyondsport.org/2024/12/06/nfl-prime-video-smithsonian-help-kids-access-books/
Meet the Olympism365 Innovation Hub Enterprise & Grassroots Recipients! (Beyond Sport)
https://beyondsport.org/2024/12/06/meet-the-olympism365-innovation-hub-enterprise-grassroots-recipients/
Taleek Norman: Creating Lasting Impact Through National Service (Up2Us Sports)
https://www.up2us.org/blog/2024/11/7/taleek-norman-creating-lasting-impact-through-national-service
Strengthening sport for development and peace in the Middle East and North Africa (Sport and Dev)
https://www.sportanddev.org/latest/news/strengthening-sport-development-and-peace-middle-east-and-north-africa


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!

Beat Ronaldo, Win $1,000,000 (MrBeast)
https://youtu.be/0BjlBnfHcHM?si=ABY1N2uapNa3svUm
BBC Storywork’s GAME ON: Featuring Hoops+Health presented by Sun Life (BBC)
https://youtu.be/1cDfA5hSmcA?si=RPbWBknA-7jcbu4R
Jeremy Bloom – Former NFL & Olympic Athlete (Navigating Sports Business)
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/107-jeremy-bloom-former-nfl-olympic-athlete/id1544529117?i=1000679197194
Fixing Youth Sports: Tom Farrey on Accessibility, Participation, and Real Solutions (Youth, Inc.)
https://youtu.be/LAC80z_s9TI?si=wAFjVvgp5e94LWEn
Sporticast 403: Female Athletes With Earnings Ready to Spike (Sportico)
https://www.sportico.com/podcasts/sporticast/2024/highest-paid-female-athletes-coco-caitlin-clark-sporticast-sports-podcast-1234819141/
The Athletes Code | POWERADE | Alex Morgan, Tatjana Smith, Linda Motlhalo, Douglas Matera & More (Powerade)
https://youtu.be/JEd5-VX2IA0?si=RTB_KTcMGP6TEblS


Introduction
I think there is an understandable feeling amongst the general public that pro athletes, especially those making a lot of money, don’t necessarily love the sport they play anymore. As they say, “work is work,” and work can be a drain on the mental and physical well-being of anyone, pro athlete or otherwise, when you do it every day for a long time.

That being said, I disagree when people criticize athletes for “only caring about money,” ignoring the reality that this person has spent thousands of hours becoming a member of an elite group that can make money playing a sport. And when that ability to excel at that high level is lost due to injury, I imagine it can be humbling and create a sense of loss of identity for that athlete.

NBA player Lonzo Ball of the Chicago Bulls is one of those elite athletes who gets paid a lot of money to play a sport. He is also a young adult suffering from an injury that was confounding him and his doctors. A projected one month away recovering from his knee injury turned into an almost three-year odyssey. After a while it was no longer about just playing basketball at the NBA level, “he just wanted to be able to walk his dog and play with his daughter.”

Well, Ball is back, and is thrilled to be playing again, bringing a smile to not just his face but countless others. Please take a moment to read, “Inside Lonzo Ball’s unprecedented 1,000-day return to the NBA,” from ESPN.

Please continue to send along your stories. You are both our audience and the best source of stories. Our Twitter handle is @sportsdoinggood, and you can find us at www.facebook.com/sportsdoinggood and on Instagram.

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.

Jalen Suggs, Wendell Carter Jr.’s special friendship sets tone for Orlando Magic (The Athletic)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5941499/2024/11/26/jalen-suggs-wendell-carter-jr-magic-friendship/

Grammys CEO Guided by Lessons Learned in College Hoops (Sportico)
https://www.sportico.com/leagues/college-sports/2024/grammys-ceo-lessons-learned-college-hoops-arizona-1234818128/

How One Company is Helping Turn NIL Wealth Into Generational Wealth (SI)
https://www.si.com/fannation/name-image-likeness/nil-news/how-one-company-is-helping-turn-nil-wealth-into-generational-wealth

Inside Lonzo Ball’s unprecedented 1,000-day return to the NBA (ESPN)
https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/42762320/inside-lonzo-ball-unprecedented-1000-day-return-nba

He Fell into Addiction as a Teen, and Then Found a Novel Way to Helps Thousands of Other People Recover (People)
https://people.com/former-addict-scott-strode-advocates-a-different-way-of-staying-sober-8731201

How Climate Change Is Affecting Professional Sports Worldwide (Earth.org)
https://earth.org/how-climate-change-is-affecting-professional-sports-worldwide/

Street cricket fundraiser aims to raise $1m for cancer research (Canadian Immigrant)
https://canadianimmigrant.ca/news/street-cricket-fundraiser-aims-to-raise-1m-for-cancer-research

Your Year in Cheer: Personalizing Sports Like Spotify Wrapped (Katherine Rowe)
https://katherinerowe.substack.com/p/wrapped-in-the-game-what-sports-can

As “Sportfashion” Keeps Growing, “My Cause, My Cleats” Provides A Massive Canvas Again… (Joe Favorito)
https://joefavorito.com/2024/12/07/assportfashion-keeps-growing-my-cause-my-cleats-provides-a-massive-canvas-again/

How Germany preserves its proud football heritage – even when clubs move stadiums (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5885265/2024/12/04/how-germany-preserves-its-proud-football-heritage-even-when-clubs-move-stadiums/


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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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sab@sportsdoinggood.com
516-287-7141
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