Latest news with #redemption
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
"Damn, David Robinson got that monkey off his back" - Mitch Richmond thought he would never get a chance to redeem himself after the 1988 Olympics loss
"Damn, David Robinson got that monkey off his back" - Mitch Richmond thought he would never get a chance to redeem himself after the 1988 Olympics loss originally appeared on Basketball Network. Hall of Famer Mitch Richmond was one of the members of the last all-amateur U.S. men's basketball team to compete in the summer Olympic Games in 1988. That team failed to win the gold medal in Seoul and settled for the bronze. Although he won NBA Rookie of the Year honors the following year, Richmond carried the stigma of that defeat as he began his NBA career with the Golden State Warriors. As the years went by, Mitch began to think he'd never get a shot at redemption, especially with NBA stars dominating the national team and making a second opportunity feel out of reach. But in an unexpected twist of fate, Richmond got the call to play for the 1996 version of the Dream Team in the Atlanta Olympics and won the gold medal. Looking back, he talked about how sweet that route to redemption was. "It was a monkey off my back," said Richmond. "Cuz I never thought I'd have an opportunity to get back to the Olympics. So I watched David Robinson, who was on that team with me in '88, get a gold medal. He was on the '92 team, the Dream Team. And I'm like, 'Damn, David Robinson got that monkey off his back.' Man, he got the gold medal. So I never thought I'd have an opportunity." It was almost impossible to get a second crack David Robinson was arguably the best player on Richmond's 1988 Olympic team. And after winning Rookie of the Year honors for the San Antonio Spurs in 1990, The Admiral quickly became one of the top centers in the NBA and earned one of the 12 coveted spots on the original Dream Team, which demolished the opposition in Barcelona and brought back the gold to U.S. soil. While Richmond blossomed into a six-time NBA All-Star after he was traded to the Sacramento Kings in 1991, he did not gain enough superstar status to make the 1992 Dream Team. And with plenty of young talent entering the league every year, it was almost impossible to get a second crack at playing for the U.S. team. Yet, somehow, it happened for Mitch. "I think I was the last selection in '96 and had an opportunity to win the gold," added Richmond. "We had Charles Barkley, Pippen, Gary Payton, Stockton, Grant Hill, Penny Hardaway, Olajuwon, Karl Malone, and Reggie Miller." Jordan lobbied for Richmond's inclusion in the 1996 Dream Team While Richmond had a case to make the team as he was an All-Star and All-NBA second team member in 1995, his Olympic runback got a huge boost when the GOAT, Michael Jordan himself, lobbied for his inclusion on the team. USA Basketball was courting Jordan to return in 1996 along with Pippen, Karl Malone, John Stockton, and Robinson. But instead of saying yes, Mike made a pitch for Mitch. "You know, I would pick Mitch Richmond for that extra spot on the Olympic team," said MJ. "Give him a chance to redeem himself after '88. I love Mitch like a brother. He deserves an opportunity to get a gold…I may be biased a little bit." On April 12, 1996, USA Basketball awarded the final two spots on the 1996 U.S. Team to Barkley and Richmond. Mitch went on to average 9.6 points per game in the tournament and ranked second behind Reggie Miller on the team in 3-pointers made. They walloped Serbia and Montenegro 95-69 in the gold medal game, and the monkey that grew to become a gorilla as time passed was finally off Mitch's story was originally reported by Basketball Network on Jul 23, 2025, where it first appeared.
Daily Mail
8 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Peacemaker: Trailer, certificate and where to watch
John Cena plays the DC antihero in need of redemption in James Gunn's spin-off series from The Suicide Squad 2022
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
'Amazing Race Canada' Season 11 elimination: Romance and redemption fall short for Brendan McDougall, Sam May
The Amazing Race Canada got particularly interesting for fans in Season 11 when it was announced that two racers would be returning as a team. Brendan McDougall from Season 8 of the show, and Sam May from Season 10, returned for their redemption round, after they started dating following Sam's appearance on the show. But unfortunately, the Amazing Race Canada couple couldn't find the sparks in the race, being eliminated in Episode 2 as they left Alberta and travelled to Golden, British Columbia. The racers had to search a forest filled with Smurf mushroom houses to find Papa Smurf, and once they had that clue, they had to choose dog sledding or building their own snowshoes as their next challenge. For Brendan and Sam, choosing the snowshoe route for the Detour challenge proved to cost them some time. "We've accepted it now, but it's salt in the wound because throughout the whole race Sam and I were racing really well, we were always kind of middle at least or in the front of the pack," Brendan told Yahoo Canada. "Our directions were always on point. I felt like I was confident after the first leg, the way we interacted and the way we got from point A to point B, even in the second leg until that the Smurf thing. Kind of bad luck. ... Then [we] made one wrong decision." "I will not be snowshoeing anytime soon," Sam added. A big question for Brendan and Sam is whether coming back to show was advantage, or a disadvantage, in their second round of the race. Brendan originally competed with his brother, while Sam raced with her dad last season. "It played with you and played against you," Brendan said. "It played with you in the fact that we already knew ... the process of the race. How to get from point A to point B fast. Where you put your clues, how you get your directions." "Obviously every race, every season, is different, and the challenges are going to be different. So it's not like we had [the benefit of] knowing that," Sam added, saying that while Brendan throught the snowshoe challenge, for example, would be similar to the bike challenge he had in Season 8, that wasn't the case. How 'Amazing Race Canada' romance started But gameplay aside, Amazing Race Canada fans will likely be sad to see this race love story leaving the show. Recalling how they first started dating, Brendan slid into Sam's DMs, but they had gone on one date previously. "We had met previously, ... before Sam was on the race, up in Muskoka. We met at Clear Lake brewery on Oktoberfest like three years before. And we went on a date," Brendan revealed. "We stayed in touch through our friends. ... Then she was on the race with her dad and that kind of gave us something that we could connect on." "And honestly, we met up and we just hit it off so well," Sam added. "We're so different, but we're also so similar. And I think just Brendan's energy and who he is as a person really attracted me to him." Brendan McDougall and Sam May ready to get back to the race — if asked In terms of prepping for Amazing Race Canada this time around, running training was critical for the couple, and ensuring that they packed light was another important element of their prep. "My dad and I thought we'd never see food again, so we packed every single thing in our backpack, and I think that was about eight pounds of protein bars and Snickers and Coca-Colas," Sam said. "This time around, I packed extremely light. What a difference maker that is." So would Brendan and Sam try to run the race a third time, their second time together? They're ready for the call. "To have the experience, to travel around Canada, see beautiful places that you never even know about or think about, ... and the opportunity to win $250,000, sign me up," Sam said. "I'll take that."
Khaleej Times
2 days ago
- Sport
- Khaleej Times
No Claret Jug, but redemption for McIlroy at Portrush
It was not quite the glorious homecoming Rory McIlroy had dared to dream of on his return to Royal Portrush but it felt like redemption for Northern Ireland's favourite sporting son after the heartbreak of six years ago. Five-times major champion McIlroy produced a few magical moments over four days for the thousands who descended on the Antrim coast hoping to roar him to British Open glory. In the end the Northern Irishman fell short, however, finishing tied seventh, seven strokes behind a supreme champion in Scottie Scheffler. After the gloom of missing the cut in 2019 when the Open returned to the land of his birth for the first time since 1951, though, it felt like a celebration for the 36-year-old who arrived at the course wearing his Masters green jacket. "I tried as best as I could to keep my emotions in check, especially walking up the last there and that reception," said McIlroy, who briefly threatened to make a charge on Sunday before a double-bogey on the 10th ended his hopes. "It's been an awesome week," he said. "I've gotten everything I wanted out of this week apart from a Claret Jug, and that's because one person was just a little bit better than the rest of us." McIlroy remains the world number two and is hungry for more majors after completing his career Grand Slam by winning this year's Masters to end an 11-year major drought. It will be a few years before golf's oldest major returns to Royal Portrush, though, where McIlroy shot a course record 61 as a teenager. "I feel so thankful and just so lucky that I get to do this, I get to do this in front of this crowd," he said. "Hopefully, I'll have one or two Opens left here, if the RA decide to keep coming back, probably one while I'm still competitive and another one while I'm more gray than I already am. "I think Portrush has quickly turned into one of the best two or three venues that The Open goes to," McIlroy added. "Talk to every player this week, they won't say one bad thing about the golf course." McIlroy, firing again after a post-Augusta slump, concedes that world number one Scheffler has moved to a different level. "He is the bar that we're all trying to get to," he said. "In a historical context, you could argue that there's only maybe two or three players in the history of the game that have been on a run like the one that Scottie's been on here for the last 24 to 36 months. Incredibly impressive." McIlroy said he would scale back slightly after the Open to focus on this year's Ryder Cup in New York. "I don't want to play too much leading up to that because I want to be fresh." he said. "I'll reflect on what's been already a good year and start to get myself ready for that run-up."
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Sport
- Irish Times
Tipperary's cannonball run delivers greatest all prizes
Long after the crowd had left Croke Park a dozen or more Tipperary players sat in clusters on the pitch, basking in the brilliance of the day. Lying among the golden streamers, one of the players moved his arms and legs in the shape of a star jump, as if he were at the beach with his buddies, giddy and sun-kissed. Like Alice, they had passed through the looking glass to a place nobody had imagined. Explanations trailed miles behind the bewildering events that shaped the outcome. Trailing by six points at the break, Tipperary consumed Cork like a pill in the second half, reducing the most prolific team in the championship to a pair of scores that only had each other for company. For their part, Tipp scored 3-14, essentially without reply. For a group of players and management who had suffered humiliations in last year's Munster championship and desertion by thousands of their supporters, this shot at redemption had no status outside their wildest dreams. In the end, they won the All-Ireland by winning six championship matches in a row, eliminating last year's champions, the Leinster champions and the League and Munster champions in a cannonball run. READ MORE Tipperary's John McGrath adds another three points via a goal. Photograph: Inpho Other All-Ireland finals over the years had jackknifed, one way or another, but this game has no context beyond itself. Limerick were on the end of an 11-point swing in the closing minutes of the 1994 All-Ireland final against Offaly; Cork led by eight points with 13 minutes left in the 1972 final and ended up losing to Kilkenny by seven. But there is a difference between a collapse and a meltdown, and this was something else again. It was like that Ernest Hemingway line from The Sun Also Rises. 'How did you go bankrupt?' Bill asked. 'Two ways,' Mike replied. 'Gradually and then suddenly.' Cork missed a chance to go seven points up immediately after half-time, and by the time they scored their first point of the second half, 11 minutes later, their half-time lead had been wiped out and replaced by a menacing two-point deficit. The momentum of the game had shifted perceptibly, and then violently. Tipp's scores came in storms, lightning first, then thunder. In the long history of Cork and Tipperary, so many things have happened that something was bound to happen twice. In the closing minutes of the 1984 Munster final, when Tipp were cradling a four-point lead, John Sheedy stopped a ball that was going over the bar and deflected it into Seanie O'Leary's path for a goal that turned the game on its head. Here, it happened in reverse. Patrick Collins got his hurley to a shot that was flying low over the crossbar, but it trampolined off his hurley like a tennis ball and into the path of John McGrath, the greatest poacher in the modern game. His cold finish gave Tipp the lead for the first time in the 45th minute and for the next 20 minutes, McGrath tormented Cork. For Tipp's second goal, McGrath caught a ball sharply by his hip, like a cricketer at silly mid-off, and tempted Eoin Downey to bring him down. The young Cork full back had already been booked, and for the second time in this year's championship, Cork were reduced to 14 men. Cork's Eoin Downey tackles John McGrath of Tipperary. Photograph: Inpho Dublin and Tipp had pulled off monumental victories with a man down in recent weeks, but that was a statistical aberration that has no future as a trend. Darragh McCarthy dispatched the penalty with fierce authority. In a staggering performance he scored 14 times from 15 shots, missing nothing from dead balls and hitting four points from play. His rookie season had been hit by earthquakes from the first minute sending off in Páirc Úi Chaoimh in May to the double yellow card in the semi-final; somehow, he kept his balance. The coup de grace, though, was left to McGrath. With 10 minutes left, he got his stick to a long ball and deflected it to the net. Collins in the Cork goal should have attacked the dropping ball ferociously with his hurley, but like so much else in the second half, Cork were made to look indecisive and lost in a fog. Tipperary dictated the tactical shape of the match, and that has been a recurring pattern in Cork's All-Ireland defeats, stretching back to the 2006 final when Kilkenny crowded their defensive half. In 2013, 2021, last year and this year, Cork's opponents brought something to the final that forced Cork to react. Tipperary manager Liam Cahill gambled when he deployed a seventh defender. Photograph: Inpho Liam Cahill's gambit was to play a seventh defender. For a few years in the middle of the last decade, when sweepers were in vogue, the self-fulfilling prophecy of the furious sceptics was that no team could score enough to win an All-Ireland with seven defenders. Tipp took that chance. In his time as Waterford manager, Cahill had tried a sweeper against Limerick in an All-Ireland semi-final, and it failed against a team that was better in every way. In his press conference afterwards, Cahill said they knew they might have to abandon it 15 minutes into the second half if Cork had built on their half-time lead. But by then, they had Cork on the run. The lemons had lined up on the slot machine. Tipp intended to congest Cork's running lanes and keep the ball out of Brian Hayes' hands, and by those cuts, Cork bled out. Noel McGrath, one of the greatest Tipperary forwards of all time, came on with 10 minutes left and scored the final point. About an hour-and-a-half after the final whistle, he returned to the pitch with his young son, who was no taller than the hurley he was swinging. Just the two of them, nobody else. If we never see McGrath in Croke Park again, he has been an ornament to the game. For his career, this exclamation point was glorious.
