Best active basketball streaks
When I do go to Israel — and I do plan to go — it will be to see not only Israel but also the West Bank and Gaza so I can see how the Palestinians, who have called this land home for thousands of years, live their lives.
“One of my heroes has always been Muhummad Ali. I know that Ali always stood strongly with the Palestinian people, visiting refugee camps, going to rallies, and always willing to be a ‘ voice for the voiceless’. I want to be a ‘ voice for the voiceless’, and I cannot do that by going on this kind of trip to Israel.
“I know that this will anger some people and inspire others. But please know that I did this not for you, but to be in accord with my own values and my own conscience. Like 1968 Olympian John Carlos always says, ‘ There is no partial commitment to justice. You are either in or you’re out’. Well, I’m in.” Baseball season is officially approaching so, to celebrate, let’s relive the best moment of last season — and my favourite sporting moment of 2016.
Rajai Davis will certainly have a spring in his step when he joins the Oakland Athletics for spring training. Not merely because of his new contract and new team but because of the memory of what happened the last time he was on a baseball field.
Sure, losing game seven of the World Series, as Davis did with the Cleveland Indians, can’t have been all that fun.
But the outfielder must be one player who can’t help but smile when he casts his mind back to that October night, given he hit what appeared then as one of the most pivotal home runs in baseball history.
The Indians were trailing 6- 4 with a man on second in the bottom of the eighth inning. The Chicago Cubs were four outs away from winning their first championship in 108 years and they had Aroldis Chapman — the hardestthrowing closer in baseball — on the mound.
Enter Davis, a light- hitting journeyman with 55 home runs in 11 years. The 36- year- old, who said he had been preparing 16 years for that moment, shared his recollections last week with CBS Sports.
Before the at- bat: “This is what I was thinking the entire game: I'm supposed to do something great. Before we even started the series, I was talking to a buddy and he was telling me, ‘ Rajai, you're going to have a big series’. He planted a seed in me that started me believing. I believe it, I believe it, but I'm like, when is this going to come? When is this time?
The pitch: “Everything slows down, and I swing, and, POP! I'm like, ‘ Woh, I like the sound of that’. Because in my thoughts, that's the sound I want to hear. ‘ Pop’. Every time I swing. ‘ Pop’. That's the sound that rings through my head.
The moment: “When I saw the trajectory, ‘ Did this just happen? Did it? Please! Get out! Get out! Get out! Get out!’ That's what you say under your breath. And once it goes out of the stadium, I'm like, ‘ Oh. My. Lord. What just happened?’”
What then happened was the Cubs shook off the game- tying blow and rallied to win the World Series in extra innings. But that diminishes little from Davis getting the opportunity to live out every budding baseball player’s childhood dream. There’s nothing quite like a streak in sports and, unlike the idiot- on- thefield variety, there are currently three worthy of celebration throughout the world of basketball. But who’s streak is best? The San Antonio Spurs in the NBA, the Perth Wildcats in the Australian NBL or the University of Connecticut women’s team in the NCAA? We break it down in reverse order. When you think of consistency in American sport, you think about the San Antonio Spurs. In a country where parity is king and various regulations usually ensure neither the highs nor the lows last too long, the Spurs have bucked the trend to remain constantly in contention. Not coincidentally, their streak began in Tim Duncan’s rookie season in 1997- 98. And, the year after one of basketball’s best retired, the Spurs this week clinched their 20th straight year with more wins than losses, setting a new record. Perth came pretty damn close to having their streak snapped this year. Needing to win their final game last Sunday to avoid missing the playoffs for the first time since 1986, Melbourne guard Casper Ware’s last- gasp three- pointer would have levelled the scores but was barely off the mark. That miss saw the Cats reach the post- season for the 31st year in a row ( and end the Breakers’ hopes) to extend an incredible streak unmatched by any professional team in Australian sport.
With respect to the Spurs and the Wildcats, both those sides did lose the odd game in their impressive efforts. Not the University of Connecticut, though, who this week became the first programme at any level of collegiate basketball in the United States to win 100 games in a row. The victory came 820 days after their previous defeat — being beaten by Stanford in overtime — and that 2014 loss snapped what had been a 47- game winning run. The undisputed queens of the streak.