o add an outside shot to his game, noted one difference between making one near the top of the key and scoring under the basket. It was nice to not have

Words are no more permanent than clouds, forever appearing and disappearing, changing their shape and their meaning. Donald Payne Jersey Retro . Luxury was once the same thing as lechery but the two words have long since parted company. In sport, the term professional was once an insult, now its a compliment. Its a word that reflects changing times.To be a professional athlete was until 1984 to be barred from the Olympic Games. Rugby union didnt accept professional players until 1995. But these days just about every athlete in the world would be happy to be described as a good pro. Its amateur thats now an insult. It now means slipshod, with low standards and expectations.The ancient and negative use of the world professional was largely an English thing to begin with. So inevitably its about social class. Or to be more accurate, its about social differences heavily disguised as moral differences. If you accepted money for playing sport, you were considered less of a person than one who played for free. In other words, the upper-middle classes - who could afford to play sport without reward - were by definition more moral than the working classes, who would lose money by missing a shift.But cricket, though always acutely aware of social class, has always been able to include people of different social strata in the same team, and to pay some but not others. Thats because the game itself is modelled on the class system: hard-working bowlers delivering the ball to privileged batsmen, who get the benefit of any doubt.Cricketers were all in it together, except not quite. Professionals changed in different changing rooms, travelled separately to away games, and frequently stepped onto the ground through different gates. Until 1962 this social chasm was celebrated by the annual Gentlemen v Players match.It should be noted here that the notion of amateurism - of not being a professional - was set about with hypocrisy. Players with gentlemanly backgrounds were frequently paid for playing, but were called club secretary. Sometimes they accepted a sinecure from some local firm. WG Grace, who posed as the quintessential amateur, was a full-time phoney, accepting considerable amounts of money for playing while pretending that he did nothing of the kind.But increasingly professionalism was seen as a good thing - commitment, hard work and responsibility, as opposed to languid condescension. This reflected the social changes of the 1960s. In many sports, the term professional was used, at first a little defiantly and then in a more straightforward fashion, to cover all sorts of worthy qualities.The word has come to imply a set of rather humdrum virtues, the minimum standards for playing top-level sport - proper preparation before seasons and matches, the ability to execute skill sets and to stick to prearranged plans. Its a term never used for performances of inspiration and flamboyance and style.A team is chasing a lowish total in a 50-over match. The players dont try and blast the lot in 20 overs. They work the bowling, collect the singles and win without risk in 45 overs - a thoroughly professional performance. Or a team without stars stifles a better team with tight, accurate bowling, crash-hot fielding and esprit de corps. That too is a professional performance. So to be professional is a compliment, but not an overwhelming one. This has spread to the off-field part of a cricketers life. To put a homophobic insult on your Twitter account is deemed unprofessional. Its professional to arrive on time, to wear the right clothes on match day, to give an interview in which you avoid questions with perfect politeness, to manage public appearances without using words that offend people, to avoid public drunkenness and early-morning spats outside nightclubs.A failure to do so is unprofessional not because its immoral but because it affects your earning power - and that can affect the earning power of your agent and your team-mates. Thus the England team that urinated on the pitch at The Oval after their Ashes win in 2013 was considered unprofessional. It was wrong because it made a newspaper story, not because it was in itself a bad thing. They should have known better. They should have known what newspapers are like. They should have been more professional.Once, to be professional was to be a second-class person. A professional couldnt play for certain clubs in certain sports. In other sports, professionals were banned outright. If you accepted payment for writing a book about rugby you couldnt play rugby again because you were forever tainted.Now rugby players boast about their professional standards. The same thing is true in many other sports, including cricket. Hes a good player, we say: very dedicated, very committed, very focused - very professional. A first-class type, in fact - well, first-class of the second class, anyway. Thats your pro. Matt Szymanski Jersey Retro . "Thank you for the warm welcome," Beckham said on an 80-degree February morning. In this case, it was soccer weather. The sport moved a step closer to returning to South Florida on Wednesday, when Beckham confirmed he has exercised his option to purchase a Major League Soccer expansion franchise in Miami. Jordan Franks Jersey Retro . But by the time the game started, the Toronto Raptors forward felt even worse. And, for three quarters, it showed as Gay shot a woeful three-for-13 from the field. https://www.cheapjerseyslines.com/nyle-m...e-jersey-retro/ . Brazilian national coach Luiz Felipe Scolari has confirmed that the veteran goalkeeper is set to join Toronto on loan, saying it will help him be ready for the World Cup. MADISON, Wis. -- Wisconsin coach Greg Gard said it was a simple formula against Green Bay on Wednesday night.When the Badgers were dribbling east-west and not sharing the ball, things bogged down. When they moved the ball, cut and screened for each other, things clicked.Shaking off some early sluggishness, Wisconsin beat Green Bay 73-59 as Nigel Hayes scored 24 points.The Wisconsin offense was at its best when the Badgers (10-2) were sharing the ball, and they had 18 assists on 27 field goals.Youre a lot harder to guard when the ball moves like that, Gard said.While Hayes offensive output wasnt much of a surprise, Zak Showalters was. The senior guard is averaging less than 7 points a game and came in shooting less than 29 percent from behind the 3-point line.But he connected on a career-high four 3-pointers as he scored 16 points, while Ethan Happ added 14 points and 10 rebounds.Showalter credited Happ for some of his success, saying the Phoenix (4-6) were doubling down on him in the post. Happ made them pay with six assists.Its just good to see the ball go through, and it really felt good tonight, he said.Green Bay coach Linc Darner said Showalters shooting wrecked his game plan, which included sagging off Showalter when he was on the perimeter.It was almost like he knew we werent going to come out and guard him and he caught them in rhythm, Darner said.Kerem Kanter led Green Bay with 18 points.BIG PICTUREGreen Bay: The Phoenix are 1-22 vs. Wisconsin and 0-19 in Madison. Their only win in the series was in 2009. Green Bay was competitive at times Wednesday night, but couldnt sustain it.Wisconsin: The Badgers did exactly what they were expected to playing at home against an in-state rival it has regularly handled with ease. They now get a break to take care of finals before one last tune up ahead of Big Ten play starting Dec. 27.KEY RUNSThe Badggers were a little lethargic to start and trailed Green Bay 12-11 almost 9 minutes into the game. Curtis DeLoatch Jersey Retro. . But they reeled off a 20-4 run that included a nearly 5-minute scoreless drought for the Phoenix. Green Bay cut the lead to seven early in the second half. But Wisconsin responded with a 25-8 run that blew the game open.ONE YEAR ON THE JOBWednesdays game was an anniversary of sorts for Gard. Then-coach Bo Ryan abruptly resigned almost a year ago after a win over Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, and Gard was immediately installed at the interim coach. His first game at the helm was one week later, an 84-79 win over Green Bay. Gard joked the only thing thats changed since then is his hairline. The basketball and the relations with the players remains the same, and its strong, he said.HAPP CONNECTSAt 6-foot-10, Happ knows his game is largely in the post, and he hasnt even attempted a 3-pointer in his two seasons. But the crowd erupted when he pulled up just inside the top of the key and drained one. Happ, who has been working to add an outside shot to his game, noted one difference between making one near the top of the key and scoring under the basket. It was nice to not have to run the length of the floor for once to get back on defense, he said.HAYES CROSSES 1,500Hayes became the ninth player in Wisconsin to score 1,500 points and has 1,510 for his career. According to Wisconsin, hes the only active player in the country with 1,500 career points, 600 rebounds and 200 assists.UP NEXTGreen Bay: The Phoenix return home Saturday for the first time in three weeks to host Belmont.Wisconsin: The Badgers host Florida A&M on Dec. 23.---More AP college basketball: www.collegebasketball.ap.org and https://twitter.com/AP-Top25. ' ' '