or women, with a league-wide LGBTQ Pride initiative, which began in

Once or twice in a lifetime, a batsman will play an innings of such thoughtless brilliance that hes at a loss to know where its come from. Each innings in this category takes some of its shape from the batsmans personality. Mike Atherton, for example, played an innings of cussed charm against South Africa at the Wanderers in late 1995. His 185 not out was long, stubborn and heroically restrained. No one else could have played in quite the same way.A little less than a year before that, up the road at Centurion, Dave Callaghan played another type of memorable innings - the quick blaze, the shooting star - all the more remarkable for being so quickly and absolutely forgotten. South Africa were in the midst of a prolonged quadrangular series against Pakistan, New Zealand and Sri Lanka that lasted from early December 1994 until the middle of January 1995. Against the run of things, Callaghan was pushed into service at the top of the order.Hansie [Cronje] came to me after the Saturday game [against Pakistan at the Wanderers] in which Gary [Kirsten] and Andrew [Hudson] had opened and sort of raised the possibility that I might play the next day, remembers Callaghan. Gary had been struggling slightly and they were looking for a proper batsman to give the innings some impetus up front. Bob [Woolmer] and Hansie were always thinking about things, always experimenting, there was very much that kind of attitude around the side at the time, and I was keen.I was usually a pretty sound sleeper but I dont think I slept as soundly that Saturday night as I usually did.New Zealands last game had been against Sri Lanka in Bloemfontein a couple of days previously. Sanath Jayasuriya had opened for Sri Lanka and carved the New Zealand bowlers to all corners of the largest ground in South Africa, scoring 140 in 143 balls with nine fours and six sixes. Richard de Groen had figures of 10-0-75-0. Callaghan remembers that the South African management took note of the innings but doesnt give the idea that it made too much of an impression. He was aware, however, that the New Zealand attack - de Groen, Simon Doull, Chris Pringle and Chris Harris - was ill suited to the harder Highveld wickets. We got there on the Sunday and the track was just like glass, Callaghan says. Those Kiwi attacks needed a bit of give in the wicket. They liked it when perhaps it wasnt coming onto the bat as the batsmen would like, and Centurion wasnt really like that - it was just perfect for batting.Callaghan was part of a talented group of South African allrounders - Brian McMillan, Hansie Cronje, Richard Snell, Eric Simons, Steven Jack and Mike Rindel - but if you were neither Cronje nor McMillan, there was precious little job security for you and your allrounder kind. Callaghan would bounce up and down the batting order and boomerang in and out of the side. It was both the best and the worst of times, so he knew when Cronje opted to bat first that it was time to take advantage.That said, he wasnt greedy. He never set his sights above getting fifty, and when Hudson, his opening partner, went early, a half-century looked an awfully long way off.Andrew cut it down Mark Priests throat off Doull at third man early on and I played exactly the same shot to get off the mark a little later. I got away with a one-bounce four but ten metres either way and I might have followed Andrew to the pavilion. I just had an inkling that it was going to be my day.Callaghan and Cronje, the next man in, put on 149 for the second wicket. They knew each other well, and Callaghan was buoyed by the fact that his captain clearly had faith in him.The previous season, I think it was, Id played for Rochdale in the Central Lancashire League, says Callaghan. Hansie had played as Nordens overseas pro and the two clubs were virtually neighbours. We trained together and although I was slightly older, we became mates. Towards the end of the season wed train together in preparation for our return to South Africa, running sprints and shuttles and even doing some 400m laps.As the innings unfolded, Callaghan stepped into a sacred realm. Everything he tried came off. He was driving well and hitting it crisply through square on the off side - his bread-and-butter shot. Hed always liked batting at Centurion because it provides value for shots, and he became aware that there was no need to hit the ball too hard, as opposed to simply stroke it into the gaps he seemed to find everywhere he looked.Sensing a growing imperiousness, Doull tried to bounce him as he came on for his second spell. It didnt work. As a small man, Callaghan was always a good puller and cutter and the strategy ended as quickly as it had begun.We watched Doull, obviously, but the guy we were aware of was Pringle, Callagahan says. His second spell was impressive: he was one of the first cricketers to bowl slower balls and slower bouncers. If youd talked to us about slower-ball bouncers in those days, we would have thought you had rocks in the head. With the total on 159, Cronje (68) holed out to Bryan Young in the deep off the offspinner Shane Thomson, bringing Daryll Cullinan to the wicket.I remember us coming down for a mid-pitch chat between overs and him saying: Look, you can get a hundred here, Callaghan says. I looked at him before it sunk in and then I thought to myself, Yes, hes right, isnt he. I can get a hundred too.With the seed planted, Callaghan snuck up on a century. He had been in this position of total command a couple of times before. He remembers once hitting a Clive Rice beamer over the Firestone Pavilion at St Georges Park for six. Now, again, he found that everything he touched came off. If fine leg and third man were brought up, Callaghan would find a way to ease the ball past them; if they were placed on the boundary, he somehow managed to find the ropes. Eventually, three figures hove into view. Callaghan brought up his century with a lap off Mark Priest down to fine leg for two. Hansie was one of the first guys to get up and start clapping in the dressing room. He was so pleased for me. He was supportive throughout.There was no standing back after Callaghan had hauled himself onto the summit of a hundred. Several mortar-like lobs sailed over the long-on boundary off Doull. Callaghan destroyed the left-arm seamer, Murphy Sua, and milked Thomson through midwicket.Those were still the days when fans could flood over the boundary, and a whole wave of them came onto the square to congratulate me on reaching my 150, says Callaghan. One guy came on with a two-litre bottle of Coke and I remember being so thirsty that I just grabbed it out of his hand. The problem was that I think there was more brandy in that bottle than Coke. Sometimes I pull out the video and my son and I watch it and I tell him that was the day when I celebrated my 150 with a brandy.Thanks, in part, to their victory over New Zealand in that match, South Africa marched into the final of the Mandela Trophy. Callaghan opened in the first final with Kirsten, falling to Aaqib Javed for 4. Two days later at the Wanderers, Cronje and Woolmer were rearranging things yet again - Callaghan losing his position as opener to another of his allrounder ilk, Rindel. The left-hander, known as Guava for his habit of going pink in the sun, eased to a maiden ODI hundred and was involved in an opening stand of 190 with Kirsten (87). Callaghan was back in the familiar middle-order netherworld, scoring 7 not out.Chasing 267, Pakistan could only muster 109, with Fanie de Villiers and Allan Donald sharing six wickets between them. It was a comprehensive victory against a gun Pakistan side, South Africas embarrassment of allrounder riches meaning that Callaghans crisp, brandy-slugging brilliance was quickly overshadowed by other things. He played his last ODI six years later, never scoring a fifty, let alone a hundred, his 169 not out so oddly miraculous that it must feel like an innings in a dream.07:25:30 GMT, August 22, 2016: The summary for the article originally identified Callaghan as a wicketkeeper-batsman Dell Curry Jersey . Cuban testified Thursday that he was upset when the companys CEO told him news that would reduce the value of his shares, for which hed paid $7.5 million. But he said he did nothing improper when he sold those shares over the next two days. Bismack Biyombo Hornets Jersey . -- On the field, it was business as usual for Jameis Winston and No. https://www.hornetslockerroom.com/Terry-Rozier-City-Edition-Jersey/ . 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The NBA announced Thursday evening that the league has opted to move the NBA All-Star Game from Charlotte, North Carolina, in response to ongoing criticism of North Carolinas HB2, a controversial law that most notably requires that people use bathrooms in publicly funded spaces that reflect the gender associated with the biological sex on their birth certificates.The decision has been lauded by LGBTQ advocates as a progressive step by the NBA, especially when organizations such as the NFL and NCAA each had similar opportunities to send messages through moving events, but opted not to.The NBA has exercised strong leadership when it comes to their values of diversity and inclusion, particularly for LGBTQ people, said Shane Windmeyer, executive director of Charlotte based LGBTQ advocacy organization Campus Pride, in a phone interview. The NBA gave fair warning that if North Carolina did not repeal the law, they would not bring their business. They gave them time to do it, and the responsibility really lies at the feet of the legislature.HB2 has come under fire specifically due to its aggressive stance towards discriminating toward transgender individuals, something that North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory still refutes.The sports and entertainment elite, Attorney General Roy Cooper and the liberal media have for months misrepresented our laws and maligned the people of North Carolina simply because most people believe boys and girls should be able to use school bathrooms, locker rooms and showers without the opposite sex present, McCrory said in a statement.However, his statement demonstrates his lack of fundamental understanding about trans people. The continuing attacks on transgender identity, particularly trans women, are rooted in an irrational fear that men will dress as women to gain access to female spaces in the name of transgender inclusion. Not only is there no documented case of that happening anywhere in the country, but his misunderstanding of transgender identity opens up all gender non-conforming people to discrimination. The NBAs announcement is a direct condemnation of the climate created by this law, and a tacit tip of the cap to the transgender community -- something not unnoticed by trans athletes.A lot of organizations say that they value diversity and inclusion, but the NBA has taken a very impactful stance, Chris Mosier, transgender athlete and executive director of GO! Athletes, said via text message. Other organizations should consider following in the NBAs footsteps to protect their athletes and fans. Most notably, I think the NCAA should take a hard look at the future of championship games and events held in the state.Where the NBA decides to put the 2017 All-Star Game, however, is just as important as the decision to remove it from North Carolina. The requirement for being relatively LGBTQ friendly is messy and clearly hasnt been a historical consideration. The NBA has established a far from simple precedent: what is the threshold for discrimination that bars a city from hosting the All-Star Game?Since 2003, the NBA All-Star Game has been held in nine states and one Canadian province. Eight of these states -- Georgia (2003), Colorado (2005), Texas (2006, 2010, 2013), Nevada (2007), Louisianaa (2008, 2014), Arizona (2009), Florida (2012) and New York (2015) -- did not have statewide protections on the basis of gender identity and expression.dddddddddddd And of the cities that played host, only Los Angeles, Denver and New Orleans had local protections for trans people.As the news of this impending announcement from the NBA has been brewing, reports from ESPN and The Vertical indicate that New Orleans is a frontrunner to receive the game. While North Carolina is certainly unfriendly, Louisiana is not exactly a beacon of LGBTQ equality.Even though anti-sodomy laws -- which criminalized sexual activity between same-sex partners -- were declared unconstitutional in 2003 by the Supreme Court ruling in Lawrence v. Texas, Louisiana not only continues to have the statute on the books, but voted overwhelmingly in favor of keeping it there in 2014. Although New Orleans has an LGBTQ anti-discrimination ordinance, Louisiana lacks protections for LGBTQ individuals through statewide legislation. Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards enacted LGBTQ anti-discrimination protections through executive order in April, but those only apply to state contractors.Chicago and New York/Brooklyn have also been named as possibilities, and both Illinois and New York have anti-discrimination statutes that are inclusive of transgender people.The NBA reserves the right to change its mind, and the particular case of the anti-trans aggression within HB2 seemed to be the breaking point of the league. Even with this grandiose move, relocating the All-Star Game still rings a bit hollow when considering the fact that the NBA could do more.Another option for the NBA is to recognize that North Carolina needs help, Windmeyer said. If anything, the NBA could think about how could we help North Carolina get the education and visibility through organizations like Campus Pride and other local and statewide organizations that are living and breathing here?Giving credit where credit is due, the NBA and WNBA are the only two professional leagues to march in a Pride parade as they did in New York in June. The NBA also sold T-shirts for LGBTQ Pride Month, with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN). The WNBA is the only professional sports league, men or women, with a league-wide LGBTQ Pride initiative, which began in 2014.More, however, still needs to be done. The NBA could require LGBTQ education for all of its coaches, clear down to its youth leagues. The league could also encourage stadiums to include gender-inclusive restrooms with arena renovations. Additionally, the league could enact a transgender inclusive policy for its youth leagues, and push for legislation within states that could make passing these discriminatory provisions more difficult.Moving the All-Star Game is a great step, and hopefully its a sign of things to come from the league. They should be applauded for taking a stand, but frankly it was politically expedient for them to do so. When the league moves beyond the symbolism and into the realm of actionable change, that will be a day to truly celebrate. ' ' '