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A17
Friday 28 december 2018

The half-

dozen times

sports made KING

you smile

in 2018
Sports contributed plenty JAMES

By JIM LITKE
AP Sports Writer

of the same old agita this
year — bad bets, empty
boasts, taunts, tiffs and
scuffles, plus the occasion-
al riot — but its fair share of
wry smiles, too.
There were courageous
losers, random acts of kind-
ness and a handful of wins
handled with such grace it
made you want to get up
and dance.
Whoever called March
mad never dreamed a
98-year-old nun would
steal the show at the Final
Four. In Mississippi, a home-
coming queen swapped
her tiara for a helmet and
wound up kicking the
game-winner for her high
school team. In Akron,
Ohio, LeBron James went
back to the future and
unveiled a state-of-the-
art school for at-risk kids,
promising the kind of sup-
port he yearned for in the
same town as a youngster
himself.
And as feel-good mo-
ments go, this might have
been the most hopeful
development of all: teddy-
bear throwing became “a
thing,” stretching from the
west side of Canada to the
heart of Europe.
Here are six of the most
heartwarming moments of
2018: LeBron Is AP Male Athlete of
LOYOLA’S NOT-SECRET-
FOR-LONG SECRET WEAP- the Year for 3rd Time
ON
Never mind that Sister Jean
Delores Schmidt arrived at Los Angeles Lakers forward LeBron James (23) drives
the Final Four a few months between Golden State Warriors’ Kevon Looney (5) and
shy of 99. Or that her last Andre Iguodala during the first half of an NBA basketball
minute of playing time —
for her girls’ high school game Tuesday, Dec. 25, 2018, in Oakland, Calif.
team — was chalked up in Associated Press
the late 1930s. Page 18

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