Kritik und Lob » planned.After the story was not published -- T

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Trail Blazers forward Meyers Leonard has found himself after the hardest year of his life.It started at the beginning of last season, when Leonard gambled by turning down Portlands $40 million contract extension offer. Then he dislocated his shoulder twice, finally succumbing to surgery and watching as his team went to the playoffs.Now, he views the adversity as a victory of sorts -- because it brought him to the place hes at today.I believe that everything happens for a reason, he said. And Im flat-out excited for what the future holds.Portlands 7-footer is poised to return from the shoulder injury that finally caught up with him last season. His rehab is ahead of schedule and hes been practicing with the team during training camp. Theres no timetable yet for his return to games.The Blazers, who defeated the Utah Jazz 98-89 on Monday night in the preseason opener, are looking to build off of last seasons success when they surpassed expectations by going 44-38 with a second-round playoff appearance.Leonard, who turned down that initial extension offer last October, embarked on last season hopeful that hed make a statement in his fourth NBA season. He had already turned heads with his 3-point shooting ability, a rarity for a big man.He would go on to play in 61 games, including 10 starts, with a career-high 8.4 points and 5.1 rebounds a game. He also had 86 3-pointers.But he dislocated his shoulder in November during a game against the San Antonio Spurs and missed seven games. He dislocated it again during a practice in March and about a week later it was determined hed need surgery for a torn labrum.Leonard knew all along something was wrong and it just added to his anxiety. For the first time in his life he feared failure, he said.It was the hardest year of life. Not even close. I lied to my entire family the whole year. I told them I was OK. I wasnt. I come from nothing and I turned down $40 million, he said.His outlook started to shift this summer after he signed a four-year, $41 million deal with the Blazers.Leonard said he keeps two journals each day, one to record all that he is thankful for, and another to keep him focused on his life goals. He said his faith has also grown.Hes not self-conscious about revealing his foibles or the transformation.I think a lot of times listening to other players speak, listening to myself speak in the past, it feels like a lot of times its scripted answers, kind of giving you guys what you want to hear. Certainly, sometimes thats just the way it is, he told reporters when training camp opened. But I like to be a little more open, be honest, with things. Thats just the way I am, I guess.Leonard has already been at work this summer on his game. Hes looking to do different things in the post this season and be more of a threat outside of spacing the floor. Hes good with whatever role falls his way, too.My goals and my thoughts going into this season is to do to whatever I can to help the team, he said. Im in a really good place in my life right now, on and off the court. Im very confident, my mind is clear. Im excited for this year. Air Max 97 Sale Cheap . Pence singled in the winning run with no outs in the ninth inning to give the Giants a 7-6 victory over the San Diego Padres on Sunday. Cheap Air Max 97 Sale .J. -- Pitcher Carl Pavano is retiring after 14 major league seasons. http://www.cheapnikeairmax97.com/ . Miller finished in two minutes, 6.09 seconds, one day before the first medal race on the Alpine schedule. The 36-year-old American also turned in the top time in Thursdays opening training session. Air Max 97 Cheap Online . After dropping their final six games of December, the Wild opened the new calendar year with four consecutive wins. Following a loss to Colorado on Saturday, Minnesota rebounded the following night to blank Nashville 4-0, but then had the tables turned on them Tuesday. Air Max 97 China Wholesale . Luis Suarezs double powered Liverpool to a 4-0 victory over Fulham, and Southampton easily overcame Hull 4-1 to continue the south coast clubs impressive start to the season. Liverpool and Southampton sent Chelsea down to fourth place as the west London club was held to 2-2 at home. LOS ANGELES -- Howard Bingham, longtime personal photographer, confidant and perhaps the closest friend of boxing great Muhammad Ali, has died at age 77.Harlan Werner, Binghams agent and longtime friend, told The Associated Press the photographer died Thursday.No cause of death was given, but another friend, sportswriter Mohammed Mubarak, said Bingham had been in failing health in recent months after undergoing two surgeries.During a friendship that spanned more than half a century, Bingham took literally hundreds of thousands of photos of Ali that ranged from the three-time world heavyweight champions many ring triumphs to quiet day-to-day moments with his family.He captured the young, handsome champion preparing for his first heavyweight championship fight against Sonny Liston in 1964 and, years later, the aging Ali, hands shaking from Parkinsons disease, preparing to light the flame opening the 1996 Olympic Games.He photographed Ali greeting everyone from former President Bill Clinton to South African President Nelson Mandela to black Muslim leader Malcolm X. And he was there with his camera when throngs of awe-struck fans surrounded the champ on the street.Although known largely as Alis photographer, Bingham also had a distinguished career as a freelancer.He photographed the 1967 race riots in Detroit and was at Chicagos Democratic National Convention in 1968 when violence exploded between protesters and police.In the 1960s he developed enough trust with the fledgling Black Panther Party that its members gave him free reign to photograph them -- and their weapons stash -- for a feature Life magazine had planned.After the story was not published -- They got scared, he later told the Los Angeles Times -- he included the photos in his 2009 book, Howard L. Binghams Black Panthers 1968.He was one of the greatest storytellers of our time, said Werner.ddddddddddddYou look at the history in his photos. And the photos themselves, theyre just amazing.The public has never seen some of the best of Ali, Werner added, because the unfailingly modest Bingham never wanted people to think he was cashing in on their friendship. But he did publish a book including some of them in the acclaimed 1993 photo memoir, Muhammad Ali: A Thirty-Year Journey.Bingham started off his career in 1962 as a fledgling photographer for the small African-American Los Angeles Sentinel newspaper, and was assigned to cover a fight by an up-and-coming young boxer then known as Cassius Clay.He would tell Ali years later he had no idea who he had been sent to photograph, but when he saw him and his brother wandering around downtown after the fight he offered to show them around. Later, he invited them to his mothers house for dinner.It was the beginning of a friendship that would endure until Alis death in June.The eldest of seven siblings, Bingham was born in Mississippi on May 29, 1939, and moved to Los Angeles as a child.He eventually enrolled in Compton Community College, where he failed a photography class. He blamed it on spending too much time having fun and not enough studying.But he applied to be a photographer at the Sentinel a few years later and, after repeated inquiries, he was finally hired.I went off on jobs, came back with underexposed film, blurred film, no film -- and I always had an excuse for what went wrong, he told the Times.Eventually he learned enough about photography on the job to land the Ali assignment.Bingham is survived by his wife, Carolyn, and son, Dustin. Another son, Damon, preceded him in death. ' ' '