Rebounding from a Torn Achilles Made Breanna Stewart Even Stronger

 

The WNBA season gets underway on Friday. Which means that so, too, does Breanna Stewart’s quest to be the best women’s basketball player of all time.

Stewart’s recent success — she won Finals MVP as her Seattle Storm won the 2020 WNBA championship — obscures the fact that her career very nearly came to an end just two years ago.

Over at The Ringer, Mirin Fader describes the torn achilles that left Stewart wondering if she’d ever play basketball again. It’s a rare look at how devastating a career-threatening injury can be: not just physically, but emotionally. “I’m like, how am I supposed to go and try and win another WNBA title? Go and try and get buckets on people?” she told Fader.

Her road back, of course, culminated in that 2020 Finals MVP. But the journey there was harrowing. From not being able to bathe herself for three months to a breakdown during rehab, Fader chronicles the drive and the persistence that define Breanna Stewart. She also gives us a sense of the more mature, more well-rounded Stewart that came out the other side.

“Yeah, I’m a great basketball player and this and that and the other,” she told Fader. “But all of the things I’ve been through, people are going through. Realizing they can be OK from the trauma they’ve experienced—I want to make that the real message.”The WNBA season gets underway on Friday. Which means that so, too, does Breanna Stewart’s quest to be the best women’s basketball player of all time.

Stewart’s recent success — she won Finals MVP as her Seattle Storm won the 2020 WNBA championship — obscures the fact that her career very nearly came to an end just two years ago.

Over at The Ringer, Mirin Fader describes the torn achilles that left Stewart wondering if she’d ever play basketball again. It’s a rare look at how devastating a career-threatening injury can be: not just physically, but emotionally. “I’m like, how am I supposed to go and try and win another WNBA title? Go and try and get buckets on people?” she told Fader.

Her road back, of course, culminated in that 2020 Finals MVP. But the journey there was harrowing. From not being able to bathe herself for three months to a breakdown during rehab, Fader chronicles the drive and the persistence that define Breanna Stewart. She also gives us a sense of the more mature, more well-rounded Stewart that came out the other side.

“Yeah, I’m a great basketball player and this and that and the other,” she told Fader. “But all of the things I’ve been through, people are going through. Realizing they can be OK from the trauma they’ve experienced—I want to make that the real message.”

Under Pressure: Man Loses his Job, Turns Side Hustle into Success Story

 

Brandon Horne was among the many people who lost their jobs last March. He was a research coordinator at a local hospital, but was let go when the pandemic hit.

Horne bounced back fairly quickly. He was hired as an insurance salesman, but quickly decided that the job wasn’t for him. So he went out and scored a job as a marketing director at a different insurance firm, only to see that firm bought out and his job disappear.

“I was thinking how I was going to feed my son, because I had one son at that time, and I instantly just went to thinking how I was going to provide,” he told the Winston-Salem Chronicle. “I knew pressure washing season was about to crank up, so I was thinking, ‘You know what, let’s just do this 100%.’”

“This” was Brandon’s Pressure Washing Services, a small business he owned that had always been more of a side hustle. But with his fiancee’s blessing and the help of a new business coach — not to mention Brandon’s undivided focus — he was able to turn Brandon’s Pressure Washing Services into a fully-fledged business.

His success is largely self-made, and it would be easy for Brandon to be selfish with what he has. But all he’s done is give back: by helping employ young men in his community, and by offering guidance to young entrepreneurs. He says of betting on yourself: “It can be a scary thing sometimes, but just pray on it and if your motives are right and your heart is right, it will work out for you.

10-Year-Old Chess Champ Continues Making Moves

 

Being a 10-year-old chess champ is impressive. And it might bring to mind words like “prodigy,” or “innate talent.” But phrases like that diminish what Tani Adewumi had to overcome to get here.

Tani and his family are refugees. In 2017, his parents made the decision to flee their native Nigeria and seek asylum in the United States. They were living in a homeless shelter in Manhattan when Tani first learned to play chess.

His school had a part-time chess teacher, and Tani took to the game quickly. He discovered that the school had a chess club, and he was excited about the prospect of playing more. There was one problem: living in a shelter, his family couldn’t afford the fees that were necessary to join the club. Tani’s mom sent an email to the school that explained the family’s situation, and in a triumph of common sense the school agreed to waive the fees and let Tani join the chess club.

 

 

It’s tempting to say something like “And the rest is history,” but more accurately: the rest is a story of determination and focus. His school’s chess teacher, Shawn Martinez — the one who introduced the game to Tani — told Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times, “He is so driven. He does 10 times more chess puzzles than the average kid. He just wants to be better.”

And that drive extends beyond the chess club at school. When Tani was 8, his mom would drive him to Harlem every Saturday for a free three-hour practice session. And his dad would give up his laptop in the evenings so that Tani could practice online.

The hours and hours of practice paid off. A little over a year after first learning the game, Tani went to the New State chess championship and came out on top of his age bracket. And a couple of weeks ago, Tani won another championship in Fairfield, Connecticut; a tournament that raised his chess rating to that of a Chess National Master. A reminder: Tani is 10-years-old.

It’s a feel-good story for a lot of reasons. But what’s especially impressive is Tani’s focus. He told the New York Times that he wants to be the youngest Grandmaster (the youngest currently is American Samuel Sevian, who earned the title at 13). And while lots of kids want to be the next home run king, or the next G.O.A.T. of their favourite sport, Tani sounds like he could be the real deal; not because of what he’s accomplished, but because of how hard he’s worked to get here.

Taylor Swift on How to Navigate Negativity

Even if you’re not one of Taylor Swift’s legion of devoted fans, her acceptance speech at Tuesday’s 2021 BRIT Awards is worth a listen.

Swift was given the Global Icon award, an honour that celebrates artists who have made a worldwide impact — not just through their music, but also through their advocacy. (To give you an idea of the elite company she joins, past honourees include Elton John and David Bowie.)

She took the first half of her speech to thank the people she’d worked with over the past year, and to thank her UK fans for their support. But it’s at the 2:36 mark that things get real, after Swift thanks her friends and family.

“If there’s one thing that I’ve learned, it’s that you have to look around you everyday, and take note of the people who have always believed in you,” she says, advising that you never take those people for granted.

She goes on to address the newer artists in the room, as well as anyone listening who has a goal or a dream that they’re working towards. “There is no career path that comes free of negativity. If you’re being met with resistance, that probably means that you’re doing something new. If you’re experiencing turbulence or pressure, that probably means you’re rising.”