by Mitch Albom | May 14, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
A dream is a wish your heart makes. That’s how the old Disney song goes. So let’s take the high road and say the dream of coaching an NBA team was just too strong a wish for John Beilein’s heart to turn down. Better to think that. Better to think Beilein, at age 66,...
by Mitch Albom | Apr 29, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Comment
ZIMBABWE — I was in a hotel room here, minutes away from one of the seven natural wonders of the world, when I got the phone call that Judge Damon Keith had died. Only hours earlier, I had stood in the glorious spray of Victoria Falls, the largest waterfall on the...
by Mitch Albom | Apr 21, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
Admit it. You were smiling. Steve Yzerman was back. Storm clouds parted. Rainbows appeared. The Stanley Cup posters in your basement were vibrating. Somewhere, the band who did “Hey, Hey, Hockeytown!” was tuning up. Steve Yzerman will run the Detroit Red Wings. It’s...
by Mitch Albom | Apr 14, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Comment
God is tied. A recent survey showed there are now as many Americans who claim “no religion” — 23 percent — as there are who identify as Catholic or evangelical, the two largest affiliations. This trend has been rising steadily, reportedly growing nearly 270 percent in...
by Mitch Albom | Apr 8, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
They came for a trophy. They went home with a story. It’s a good story, sure, with choked-back tears and credit-where-credit-is-due hosannas. But a story is words and a trophy is solid. And at some point, the Spartans’ Tom Izzo needs to again lift something solid over...
by Mitch Albom | Apr 5, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
Twenty eight years ago, Tom Izzo hung up the phone, sat down, and cried. He had just been informed that a high school star named Chris Webber, whom he had been recruiting for years, had chosen archrival Michigan instead. Izzo wasn’t even the head coach at Michigan...
by Mitch Albom | Mar 31, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Comment
Not long ago, we were talking about living to 120. Remember? Science and medicine were advancing so rapidly, we figured to double the life expectancy of our grandparents. What would we do with all those extra years? Apparently, we can stop worrying about that. At...
by Mitch Albom | Mar 24, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Comment
This is a story about the streets of Detroit, and their empty, abandoned, overgrown lots, and by this point you’re thinking crime, violence, heartbreak. And I’m thinking … honey. It’s the first week of spring, so why not, instead of the same old negative talk, focus...
by Mitch Albom | Mar 18, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Comment
There’s a famous scene in “Casablanca” where the corrupt police chief played by Claude Rains shuts down Humphrey Bogart’s casino. “I’m shocked — shocked — to find that gambling is going on in here!” Rains deadpans. A croupier then hands him a wad of cash. “Your...
by Mitch Albom | Mar 12, 2019 | Detroit Free Press, Sports
Send in the beans. Start changing your accent. It’s Faaahd Field. It’s the Blue and Silvah. The Detroit Lions hit free agency Monday like a battering ram hits a piñata, and what fell loose were many intriguing pieces, most of them with one phrase in common: “Former...