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Clemente Almanza: Chet Holmgren said some of the kids from today’s camp were cracking jokes with him, calling him Abraham Lincoln and asking what happened to his eye: “I’ve learned to (enjoy the Abraham Lincoln jokes). There’s no avoiding it.”
"The ratings for the basketball are way down, as you know," Trump said. "I hear some others are way down, including baseball. We have stand up for our flag, stand up for our country. A lot of people agree with me. If I'm wrong, I'm going to lose an election. That's okay with me. I will always stand for our flag." Trump also addressed Black Lives Matter, comparing himself to former president Abraham Lincoln. "Black Lives Matter," he said. "Nobody has done better for our Black community than me. Nobody. With the possible exception of Abraham Lincoln; it's true. Criminal justice reform, opportunity zones, best employment numbers in history. Again, nobody has done for the black community – by far. I'll give the one exception: Abraham Lincoln."
Washington Wizards rookie Rui Hachimura was among the players on Friday that marched from Capital One Arena to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. to help raise awareness for police brutality and racism. Hachimura joined with Wizards teammates John Wall and Bradley Beal in the two-plus mile march to help spark social justice reform on Juneteenth, a holiday that celebrates the Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Abraham Lincoln to free enslaved people in Confederate states. In addition to the three Wizards players, members of the Washington Mystics, including Natasha Cloud, were also on hand.
Juneteenth celebrates the commemoration of the end of slavery in the United States dating back to June 19, 1865. On that day, Union soldiers arrived in Galveston, Texas, with news that the Civil War had ended and that the enslaved were now free, two years after President Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation ended slavery on Jan. 1, 1863.
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James didn't wait until the playoffs to crack a couple of spines in L.A. After Pelinka recommended "Leadership: In Turbulent Times," by Doris Kearns Goodwin, James turned the pages on the collection of stories from the presidencies of Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Lyndon B. Johnson, hoping to glean lessons from some of the great leaders of the past. This season he also has read "Havana Nocturne," T.J. English's nonfiction account of the mob's expansion to Cuba. "I watch mob movies; I'm [a] huge mob movie [person], either fiction or nonfiction," James said. "Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano. All those guys. It's just who I am. 'The Godfather' is one of my favorites."
Last night, the National Retail Federation held its third annual Gala in New York City. While the event's purpose is to recognized and honor individuals who are impacting the retail industry today, Kobe Bryant highlighted the event in a surprise appearance to present Nike CEO Mark Parker with The Visionary Award. Bryant, a long-time Nike signature athlete, talked about the Nike CEO's impact on him personally, calling Parker one of his muses and someone he could turn to all the time for advice. When Bryant was beginning to plan his post-retirement life, he said Parker gave him a 944-page book on own his muse, Abraham Lincoln.
"I would think that after all these years working at Nike, spending time with athletes, that he would know that the last thing an athlete wants to do is read a 944-page book in a 10-point font," said Bryant. "But when I read it, I immediately saw the connectivity between the sixteenth President’s and Mark’s leadership style. A quiet, empathetic leader who bands together people with different points of view to build a stronger team, because maybe, just maybe, an off the wall idea can change the game. You just need to be willing to listen. So for every Mark Parker in the world, there is an Abraham Lincoln. For every Kobe Bryant, there is a Mark Parker."
High-ranking Sixers officials are disappointed in Hinkie’s departure. They like his intellect, ideas and patience, but they also felt he needed help with basketball ops, especially in the relationship business. Opposing executives and agents had trouble reaching Hinkie, and the Sixers also wanted a more welcoming team culture. As recently as the All-Star break, Jerry Colangelo discussed some of this with Hinkie. With that 13-page letter referencing Atul Gawande, Warren Buffett, Abraham Lincoln, Elon Musk, Bill James and Jeff Bezos, among others, Hinkie probably knew then that this day was coming soon.
Axelrod stuffs his hands in the pockets of his blazer and walks the short block back to the Institute of Politics. Inside, the floors are covered in the salt stains of a hundred student boots. The institute, which hosts an impressive slate of speakers from both parties, including, in April, Mitt Romney, is something of an ad hoc museum, filled with Axelrod’s collection of American political artifacts. In the front hall is a glass-encased ballot box from the Florida 2000 presidential election. There’s also a napkin signed by JFK, a letter from the newly elected Abraham Lincoln to the Chicago mayor’s son, and a signed poster of Michael Jordan. “When the president turned 50, I wanted to get him something special … so I sent it to Jordan to have him sign it for me.” In black Sharpie, Jordan scrawled, “To Barrack: you still owe me dinner. Wishing you well, Michael Jordan.” “I gave it to the president, and he said, ‘I can’t put this up, he misspelled my name!’ So I said, ‘Fine, I’ll take it.’ ” His own office is a special exhibit dedicated to his time in politics — a program from a State of the Union speech, a ticket to the Nobel Prize ceremony, an invite to Obama’s swearing-in as senator, with the words HERE BECAUSE OF YOU! written in the president’s script.
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Before Wednesday's game, Lillard expounded on his issues with statues and monument. "I've always been scared of historic stuff like that. If I see statues of Jesus, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr. — all that stuff kind of gives me a funny feeling," Lillard said.
He has trouble pinpointing the exact time he fretted seeing statues and monuments but said the uneasy feeling was palpable during a visit to a wax museum two summers ago before his senior season at Weber State. "The last room was Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, George Washington, Abraham Lincoln — all these big-time historic people, and it looked just like them. Same size," he said. "They had music playing in the room to set the mood, and it just threw me off." "Ever since then, I'm done. Even at Lake Oswego (near Portland), I drive past the cemetery, and there's a statue of Jesus with his hands up. That even scared me. I don't mess with statues no more. "It's the idea that they're from so far back, and so big in our history. Just to see something that looks so close to them, it's weird. It freaks me out."
We felt this way while we were cruising the George Washington Parkway on our way to a day camp in Rockville. We felt this way when we stopped in Georgetown. And at the Monument. And, later, the Barry Farms courts and a social services office in Southeast DC. We feel free, here in Abe Lincoln’s marble shadow, because Delonte West is finally free. “A lot of people don’t know this, but all of last year I was on house arrest,” West says from the driver’s side passenger seat as we pull away from the National Mall and watch the city fade in the rearview. “When I wasn’t in the arena, I had an ankle bracelet monitor on. And right after the game, they’d put it right back on and I’d have to go straight back home.”
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