For Cleveland Indians' reliever Danny Graves, Major League Baseball's only Vietnamese-born player, the contrast between a field with four bases and a field strewn with land mines couldn't be greater. The son of an American serviceman and Vietnamese woman, he was raised in Florida with little knowledge of the country his family fled in 1974. Graves, who made his major league debut in 1996, has always been curious about his past, and prodded his mother, Thao, to reveal details for many years. Recently, she agreed to return to the country they left over three decades ago. Graves and his mother traveled to Vietnam with a delegation from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which, with significant support from Major League Baseball, sought to introduce baseball to the country. For parent and child, it was a process of self-discovery, as they visited the apartment building the family lived in before the fall of Saigon and reunited with relatives they had not seen in 31 years. Danny was given the chance to share his life with the children of Vietnam, and in return, they helped him understand his heritage. Bryant Gumbel chronicles this inspiring journey.
Covering 31 consecutive NCAA basketball championships, national TV commentator Billy Packer has brought a sense of continuity to a tournament built on uncertainty. Despite this three-decade streak, Packer is despised by many who watch March Madness each year on CBS. His no-nonsense approach has earned him a reputation for being sharply critical and unapologetic. Whether demystifying a Cinderella story or criticizing a legendary coach, Packer has no qualms about telling it like it is, making him the guy people love to hate. In this Real Sports/Sports Illustrated collaboration, correspondent Frank Deford joins the former Wake Forest University hoops star to reflect on his extraordinary TV run and revisit a few incidents sparked by Packer's uncompromising approach.
As if full-court pressure, towering centers and pesky defenders weren't enough, imagine playing basketball without the ability to hear. Gallaudet University's Division III basketball team deals with that extra challenge every day. Founded in the late 1800s, Gallaudet is the world's only liberal arts college for the deaf and hearing-impaired. Yet the school's athletes are less concerned with the disadvantages of being deaf than with the strength of their schedule or an opponent's three-point percentage. Competing in the Capital Atlantic Conference, the Bisons have tallied a winning record, and this year's team is not the first to experience success. With a few Division I caliber players, it will won't be the last, either. Real Sports correspondent James Brown sits down with the squad; interviews include Gallaudet head coach and alumnus Jimmy Destefano; Bison players Robert Haney and Luther Weedon; and Weedon's mom, the team's number-one supporter.
For those interested in learning more about the Gallaudet Men's basketball team please visit the University's web site.
While many professional athletes experience a paradise called retirement, Manute Bol represents a seven-foot, seven-inch exception to the rule. The former NBA big man and the league's first foreign-born player has yet to sip a mai tai or play a round of golf. Instead, Bol's life after basketball has involved an arduous immigration from war-torn Sudan, several stops on the reality TV circuit, and a life-threatening car accident. Not yet broken, the Dinkan tribesman continues to soldier on in hopes of raising money to alleviate the plight of his native people. Currently living in Connecticut, Bol donates whatever money he can earn to the Ring True Foundation, whether that fundraising entails strapping on a pair of ice skates for the Central Hockey League or boxing a 300-pound former football player. Real Sports correspondent Frank Deford rejoins Bol to update the show's original profile of this selfless man.
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