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"Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy." - Yeats

I'm not sure how well HH will hold up as a pro.

Also, I'm not sure how sustainable her individual energy burn is. It works when you're 21. I'm not sure if you can sustain that at even 25 or 26. But lots of basketball players have had to learn that lesson, and they have.

one of the Collins brothers from Stanford was out while still in the NBA. I don't remember if it's the same one who recently died from glioblastoma.

I don't know if you know the backstory on Lawrence v. Texas (the case that ruled sodomy laws unconstitutional as I'm sure you know).

The cops broke up a rowdy party and figured they had to arrest someone so they picked two guys who were in their underwear and charged them with sodomy.

The arrest got filed and a clerk (gay as it turned out) had to look up the statute because he had never seen an arrest under it before, and it turned out to be sodomy.

He alerted LAMBDA (and/or the ACLU). The two guys had planned on defending on the ground that they didn't know each other let alone ever had sex.

But they got convinced to make it a test case and, as you know, won.

Later, one of them died a pauper and the city cremated him and notified his family. After a year, nobody had claimed his ashes and they were thrown in a dumpster.

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"It's our blood and bones and these whistles and phones against Miller's and Noem's dirty lies."

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He came out while he was playing DL and retired a few years back.

After he came out, Michael Sams I think, was despondent and I’ll never forget him being interviewed at or saying he was going to have dinner at Applebee’s. Because, you know, that’s where you go when your whole life is unraveling.

who got drafted in the 7th round (Samble?) is the only one I can remember in the NFL and I'm not sure he ever got a regular season snap.

There have been a couple of who have come out later. There are some like Kordell Stewart who seem to be likely candidates.

Early on when I was dean at CU Law, I got to know a slightly older (30 maybe) law student who was formerly married to a man, but is gay. She wanted to start a law school chapter of the gay-straight alliance and I said "sure" and caught some heat because we had a conservative bishop.

Anyway, if you ever want to meet someone who has an interesting take on men, lesbians who were in a opposite-sex marriage top the list.

I remember he saying to me, do people think we don't have gay students? Jesus, we have girls sports! And in the Jesuit community, well, you can't even talk about that!

But it's still taboo in men's sports.

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"It's our blood and bones and these whistles and phones against Miller's and Noem's dirty lies."

I mean, come on

If you replaced Hidalgo with Miles on last year's ND team, I doubt they make it as far in the tourney. Miles needs talent around her. Probably why she'll be a better pro.

Hannah can put a team on her back in a way that Olivia probably couldn't.

I prefer my PGs to play like Miles. But it sure is fun to watch Hannah cook.

but i've always liked Miles better. As many have said, I don't begrudge her leaving. It would be very hard to share the court with Hidalgo. Hidalgo puts up crazy numbers and crazy effort, but her value is more in her usage rate. Even Hidalgo's excellence on defense lies more in hunting for her own steals than playing within a system. Miles looks amazing making everyone else look amazing.

I'll always prefer a Tim Duncan Spurs to, say, Luka Doncic Mavs. Yeah with a great individual talent you can even win a title, but basketball is a team game. I'm sure there are advanced stats that could shed light on a lot of these points, but to some degree it's aesthetic. Hidalgo is a great talent, but I would be surprised if she has the WNBA success of Jackie Young. She could do it, but I think she'd have to train her temperament quite a bit.

I frequently use strong language to make a point.

Hope everything is ok. Enjoy the evening.

One just retired, but came out while he was playing rugby in Ireland before going to Chicago and trying to make it on the US team. I was worried when the European league expanded to include South Africa and would be flying/doing rehab in Qatar.

The other identifies as bisexual, and currently plays rugby professionally in Japan.

Most other names you will find are in individual Olympic sports.

It is somewhat hilarious how closeted men’s team sports still are in this day and age. How many out male pro athletes are there? I think it’s zero.

But I think there is some logic there even if it defies mores and conventional wisdom.

I don't say it to be sexist but to me it is akin to dating an employee at work, even if more commonplace. In fact, the initial draft of Paige Bueckers was awkward for Azzi Fudd. Seems like it's working OK but they wanted to keep it private and separate, which is an impossibility that ultimately affects their other teammates.

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Inter team relationships have been and always will be a part of women's sports. To call it "the dumbest fucking thing you could do" is short sighted, crude and shows a lack of understanding to the modern day dynamics of women's athletics.

hornet's nest of complications IMO. Even when the two parties are getting along great, what happens if one of them isn't with a coach or teammate(s)? It creates a ton of potential exposure for collateral emotional damage that can fracture a locker room.

Westbeld was not healthy and game ready when she came back. Giving her 20 minutes a game blew a hole in the rotation and the team suffered because of it.

As for dating your own teammate, quite possibly the dumbest fucking thing you can do in a team sport that relies on chemistry and group dynamics.

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For me, it will always be Jewell Loyd and next is a very distant second place.

At least with Olivia, it was always a possibility that Hannah was going to put a wrench into the situation. Both were point guards first even if they had different skill sets and strengths. I think many of us were surprised when she pulled the trigger and did come back after her injury season.

Jewell on the other hand? She basically admitted she misled Muffet about her intentions. That reverberated through the program because it not only impacted the quality of the following year's team but disrupted recruiting too. And then tried to backdoor justify her abrupt and unexpected departure by citing her learning disability, which came off as a little disingenuous.

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"F--- everyone who isn't us."
#Team128

terms of demanding the ball and setting up in the driving lanes that had previously been wide open for the two elite guards.

But something led to whatever happened between Miles and Hildalgo that culminated (publicly, at least) in their shouting match at that WNBA game in Purcell.

once she returned in Jan/Feb (?) that season. Numerous games in which she was playing 20+ minutes and contributing nothing, not anything more than a board or two. Which was absolute death on the team at that point, bc the roster was stacked with players who were capable of doing a lot more with those minutes. And maybe her relationship with Miles played into what appeared to be favoritism -- I'm not going to point fingers without knowing -- but it ultimately falls on Ivey as HC to construct the lineup and make substitutions.

Miles' wild success is a surprise to me as well. I never thought she was a good enough perimeter shooter to have this much of an impact in the pros. She's currently at 37% from 3, which is about 4% higher than her college average, but not exactly sharpshooter level. What's funny is that her best performance from beyond the arc came in the star-crossed season when she and HH played together and she wasn't constantly on-ball. Shot over 40% from 3 that year.

Not sure if you're being serious. I actually think it makes it even more clear if it wasn't already.

It seems like Olivia was always a little hesitant to go back with Hidalgo after she sat out the 2023-24 season. A lot of fans wondered whether she was going to come back because it appeared she was healthy by the time the post season came around.

Then when she did, and maybe hindsight is 20/20, but clearly there was an alpha situation. To me, it's amazing that they coexisted as long as they did. Niele backed Hannah and Olivia took the bag. Not sure another season with both of them on the same team was ever going to be possible.

She's impressive, but I can't help rooting against her. At least a little. Her departure was poorly done, especially poisoning the well with other players.

And my hypothesis about last season is that Westbeld's return pretty violently disrupted the on court and off court chemistry. Pretty sure her return ended our run of total dominance--Hannah and Miles were absolutely killing it together when it was basically just them. And not only was she another established scorer to "feed" (which is often enough), she was dating one of our two stars. I'm not saying Westbeld caused the problems as much as I think her return did something very bad to the chemistry between Hannah and Miles. It's a circumstantial case, but I think it's a decent one.

I thought she was a good player, but she’s dominant - she’s gonna get MVP votes and be the unanimous ROY. She made Azzi Fudd look like they did not belong in the same league at all.

It’s actually making me confused about how it didn’t work with her and Hidalgo.