[il-talk] FW: audible ball update

Sun Apr 1 23:27:19 UTC 2018

From: Anne W. Emerick [mailto:aemerick at ix.netcom.com] 
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2018 3:16 PM
To: Deborah Kent Stein <dkent5817 at att.net>
Subject: Re: audible ball update

Wow! and WOW!

I had no idea.

Keep updated on how he does in the big leagues!

From: Deborah Kent Stein 

Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2018 1:06 PM

To: jannamarystein at gmail.com 

Cc: 'Anne W. Emerick' 

Subject: FW: audible ball update

From: Michael Bullis [mailto:bullis.michael at gmail.com] 
Sent: Sunday, April 01, 2018 11:18 AM
To: mbullis at imagemd.org
Subject: audible ball update

For those of you who particularly find April 1st an important date, I offer this.

AP Wire Service

10:21 AM, April 1, 2018

Date-line Boston

Blind Hoop Shooter

When Mark Danford heard that Fred Newman had shot 20,371 free throws without a miss and that 88 in  a row blindfolded it sounded like a challenge.  Everyone in basketball knows the mystery of shooting free throws.  Really good college or nba players seldom shoot better than 75 percent while others, not necessarily good at dribbling or blocking, can shoot without missing over and over again, thousands in a row.

Advocates have been arguing for the past twenty years that the National Basketball Association should allow for a designated free throw shooter so people like Shaquille O’Neil wouldn’t regularly have to embarrass themselves.  The NBA has always refused, that is, until Mark Dunford came along.  You see, Mark is blind and he’s one of the world’s best free throw shooters, ranked 2nd in the world with 14,321 in a row.  But, because he’s blind and there isn’t yet an audible basketball that’s regulation weight and size, he can’t be on a team.  But, man, can he shoot.  

For years the NBA wouldn’t listen, so finally, Mark sued the NBA for violating the American’s with Disabilities Act.  Yes, that’s right.  He argued in federal court, in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court that the NBA had an obligation to provide him with the reasonable accommodation of being a designated free throw shooter.

In a nine to zero decision, the NBA lost, an tonight, after twenty two years of trying, on April 1st, 2018, Mark Dunford will play in his first NBA game between Boston and Milwaukee.  

Mark says, “Some people thought this was just a joke, but, tonight they’ll see the truth.  This date will always live in my memory and I’m so glad it’s an easy date to remember.  I can’t wait to shoot that first free throw.”

So, basketball fans, whether blind or sighted, take heart, you too might remember this date as well for its significance to free throw shooters and nonfree throw shooters alike.  

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