ball and ran track.My confession here is that my son ended up

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Kareem Abdul-Jabbar didnt mention either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton by name, but the presidential election was on his mind when he came to Harvard on Saturday to talk to the players on the?Crimson?basketball team.Nor did the Basketball Hall of Famer need to cite Colin Kaepernick by name when he said current sports stars were getting their baptism in social movements.Im glad to see that the younger athletes are concerned and saying something about it. Thats how we solve things, Abdul-Jabbar told reporters before meeting with the players.The Founding Fathers gave us a great method. But it requires us to listen and to inform others of our ideas in a polite and understanding way. They have a ways to go.Wearing a Harvard cap and sweatshirt, Abdul-Jabbar ducked his head to get through the door of the conference room overlooking the schools 113-year-old football stadium. Soon he would be joined by the players, all of them born long after he scored the last of his NBA-record 38,387 points.Settling into a chair in front of a fireplace with his latest book on the table in front of him, Abdul-Jabbar said he felt compelled to speak out about a political climate with an emphasis on anger and division.Theres a certain feeling of alarm among segments of our population because the skin color of the country has gotten a little bit darker over the past 20 or 30 years. And that has caused alarm for some people, he said. People of color are patriotic Americans in the same way that white people are.Abdul-Jabbar said it will be difficult to make progress on the countrys issues when the two sides arent listening to each other.A battle like this is not being waged with facts. That bothers me, he said. We should be able to agree on what the facts are.A student at UCLA in the late 1960s, Abdul-Jabbar lived through the Civil Rights movement and said he tried to follow the example set by Muhammad Ali, who was stripped of his title for refusing induction into the Vietnam War. Abdul-Jabbar refused to play on the 1968 Olympic basketball team, saying the country didnt represent him.Kaepernick made similar comments when he refused to stand for the national anthem before NFL games, a protest that renewed the debate on race.Its not easy, trying to motivate people, especially on something as politically volatile as these issues are. People being shot in the street, its a very emotional and a very intense subject, Abdul-Jabbar said. Im sure hes finding that out. But the fact that hes persisting with it, Ive got to give him credit for it.Abdul-Jabbar also answered questions about his latest book, Writings on the Wall: Searching for a New Equality Beyond Black and White, a series of political essays from the perspective of an athlete, African-American and Muslim. He spoke about the current NBA, which has moved away from centers who played the position like he did in favor of 3-point-shooting big men.The 3-point shot isnt the answer to everything, he said. Everybody thought that small ball was going to dominate. You saw what happened to?Golden State?when they lost Andrew Bogut: They couldnt compete. So big guys still have a prominence in the game and a place in the game that has not been totally eliminated.Abdul-Jabbar said he never regretted finishing college, nor was he tempted by a reported $1 million offer to join the Harlem Globetrotters. He encouraged college athletes -- not just at Harvard but even at more traditional basketball powers -- to spend more time in school so they could learn the game.The longer that they stay here, the better that they will play, he said. If they stay in college for four years, thats the best way to achieve all that they want to achieve as basketball players. To try to jump to the NBA is not the way to go.It wasnt Abdul-Jabbars first trip to the Ivy League school on the Charles River. In 1972, already an NBA champion, he attended Harvard summer school to learn Arabic so he could learn more about his Muslim faith.It was a tough semester for me, but I learned it, he said, reporting that he got an A.With former Celtics Satch Sanders and M.L. Carr sitting in the back of the room, Abdul-Jabbar said the highlight of his career was beating the Celtics in Boston in the 1985 NBA Finals. At the time, the Lakers had never beaten the Celtics for the championship.Asked where he would rank his performance in the movie Airplane! among his accomplishments, Abdul-Jabbars competitive spirit emerged.Airplane! has done better than any movie that Shaquille [ONeal] has made, he said. Ill leave it at that. Ivan Rodriguez Jersey . But the quarterback hopes to stay involved in football after officially calling it quits Tuesday. "Id love to look at those opportunities as they arise," Pierce said in an interview from his Winnipeg eatery. Joey Gallo Jersey . The International Olympic Committee released the official list of bid cities on Friday after the deadline for applications had passed. The candidates -- all previously announced in their own countries -- are: Almaty, Kazakhstan; Beijing; Krakow, Poland; Lviv, Ukraine; Oslo, Norway; and Stockholm. http://www.cheaptexasrangersjerseys.com/?tag=cheap-martin-perez-jersey . A big centre with all the tools to be an elite player, Johansen paced the Blue Jackets with a standout game Saturday night. He had a goal and two assists for a career-high three points as Columbus beat the New York Islanders 5-2 to snap a five-game losing streak. Russell Wilson Jersey . - Chris Tierney snapped a tie with a power-play goal late in the third period as the London Knights rallied from a 3-0 deficit to beat the Erie Otters 5-3 in Ontario Hockey League action on Wednesday. Robinson Chirinos Jersey . Pirlo limped out of Sundays 1-0 win over Udinese after just 13 minutes. Juventus says Pirlo underwent tests on Monday which revealed he has "a second-degree lesion to the collateral medial ligament in his right knee. So many of us have done the Saturday relay race: karate to soccer game to basketball practice. From softball to swim team. Baseball practice to a hockey tournament.When my kids were young, the world of sports and activities was their oyster. They played multiple sports, tried on things to see what fit while we drove from one side of town to the other, coordinating calendars, resolving scheduling conflicts and keeping all the local drive-thru fast-food joints in business with to-and-fro dining in the mini-van.A few seasons of soccer, overlapping with the start of CYO basketball, which overlapped with the start of Little League season. Mix in the odd volleyball camp, rec department tennis class and some middle school track and youve got a drawer full of old team pictures, a lot of participation trophies and a whole lot of days on the snack schedule.Then maybe that club coach asked for a larger commitment, or the select team came calling. Maybe the schedule just wasnt working anymore and it was too tough to squeeze in multiple practices and games each week around homework and band or group projects.As many kids got closer to high school, they begin to narrow the field of their sports participation, some by choice and the natural culling process. Others because someone else thinks its best.They begin to specialize. And certainly, there are things to gain from the focus on one sport -- a true offseason, better opportunities against higher levels of competition, perhaps even a shot at being a collegiate athlete. But kids lose by specializing, as well, because there are some very good reasons to stay a multi-sport athlete.1. Fewer overuse injuries. Growing bodies can become overstressed by repetition and that stress can lead to injuries. A lack of rest and recovery time in year-round sports exacerbates the problem. There are plenty of examples of serious, grown-up sports injuries happening to kids at younger and younger ages, from Tommy John surgery for 12-year-olds to high school girls with multiple ACL injuries before they graduate. Studies show that playing multiple sports leads to better muscle, motor and skill development. It promotes general athleticism, balance, speed and agility.2. Less opportunity for emotional burn-out. Kids who spend so much time focusing on one sport -- and whose families are similarly solely focused -- risk tiring of the sport all together. Specializing raises expectations, the costs for parents for travel and club teams and the pressure on young athletes. Having a variety of experiences keeps things interesting, the monotony of a single sport goes away, and so does that pressure.3. Exposure to different kids. Soccer friends will be different from swimming friends, who will be different from the kids in your Tai-Kwon-Do class. Exposing kids to different sports allows them to share teammate experiences and make memories with a diverse group of peers.dddddddddddd. It helps them expand their social circle and their opportunities for interaction.4. Exposure to different roles. Being a bench player on the basketball team is a different experience than being a starting pitcher on the baseball team. Its an opportunity to broaden their experiences, socially and developmentally. Its an opportunity to become a better competitor and all-around athlete, the kind that coaches value because they are flexible, multi-dimensional, exposed to many situations and coachable.5. Not putting all your eggs in one basket. Playing only one sport limits your options. An injury, a bad experience with a coach or a reduced role on a more competitive team can bring an abrupt end to an athletic career. Such a small number of high school athletes move on to play a sport in college; even fewer earn an athletic scholarship. If the goal is to play as long as possible, perhaps it makes the most sense to play as many sports as possible? Just ask Derek Jeter, who played basketball in high school, or Elena Delle Donne, who played volleyball at Delaware before returning to the basketball team on the way to the WNBA, or Robert Griffin III, who played baseball and ran track.My confession here is that my son ended up being a single-sport athlete by the time he got to high school. Baseball was his passion, and the other sports fell off the schedule and the radar. The skateboard that used to be his constant companion in middle school started to gather dust in the garage, and the old basketballs and soccer cleats got donated to charity. He is now a college baseball player, competing at a Division III school.And while focusing on one sport may have played a role in getting him there, I cant imagine, in retrospect, that it was the only path. Ive heard him say that he wished that boys volleyball season wasnt the same as baseball, because he would have played. Ive heard him boast that the 3-point stroke he had on the middle school basketball team magically returned while playing pick-up basketball with some of his buddies. One of his high school friends was the football teams starting quarterback and hes?playing club hockey in college now and loving every minute of it.You just never know how things are going to turn out.I retired the mini-van a few years ago, traded it in for a new car and watched with misty eyes as it was driven off into the depths of the used-car lot. But not before I cleared out some old soccer cones and a least one ball bouncing around in the way back.The old days of the Saturday relay are long gone. I didnt realize at the time how good those days were. They were fun. And isnt that the whole point? ' ' '