Portside

What a difference a day makes! Chicago and Wisconsin voters turn the tables

Jacob Blake’s shooting was the last straw for many athletes. Yesterday professional basketball teams threw their weight behind the movement for Black lives starting with the Milwaukee Bucks. Declining to show up for their game-they launched a strike

When Toni Smith-Thompson turned away from the flag in 2003, the act was widely derided – a far cry from how similar gestures by NBA and WNBA players are received today.

Professional athletes have provided a flicker of hope during these agonizing days by speaking out against police violence. "Shut up and play" clearly doesn't fly when black bodies are falling at the hands of those whose job is to serve and protect. Now, after the filmed deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, athletes' statements - which have the potential to reach an audience far beyond the normal political blather - are starting up yet again.

Well before Title IX was taken seriously, well before there were record ratings for women's sports on TV, before there was the dominance of the U.S. Olympic women's basketball team or the sold-out crowds at the NCAA Women's Final Four, there was Pat Summitt. She turned a women's sports team into a national brand in the 1980s and 1990s. And she did it not by playing by the old, demure, ladylike rules of women's sports, but by crashing the boys' sports party.