🏟️ Sports And Religion: NBA Finals Prayers, Pope Rally At Ballpark, NFL Coach’s Faith 🔌
Weekend Plug-in 🔌
Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” meets readers at the intersection of faith and news. Click to join nearly 10,000 subscribers who get this column delivered straight to their inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr.
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Thunder are still praying.
Presumably, so are the Indiana Pacers.
Back home in Indianapolis on Thursday night, the Pacers rolled past the Thunder 108-91 in Game 6 of the NBA Finals.
The emphatic win evened the best-of-seven series at three games apiece and set up a decisive Game 7 here in Oklahoma City on Sunday night.
Two weeks ago, I felt confident my hometown team — the heavily favored Thunder — would open the finals with a big win. So for my recent column on OKC’s pregame invocations, I came up with a clever lede:
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Indiana Pacers didn’t have a prayer in Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night.
The Oklahoma City Thunder did.
Quite literally.
The only problem: Tyrese Haliburton and the Pacers pulled off a last-second comeback that night, beating the Thunder 111-110 and forcing me to tweak my originally planned intro.
This is what we actually published:
OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Thunder didn’t have a prayer in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
Except that they did — the final score notwithstanding.
Oklahoma City tips off each game with an invocation led by a pastor, rabbi or other religious leader. The Thunder are the only one of the NBA’s 30 franchises with a pregame prayer.
My adult children — all Thunder fanatics — jokingly blamed me for the loss. After all, I took a win for granted and even dared to put it in writing.
My bad!
But if Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams & Co. can prevail this weekend, all is forgiven, right?
Thunder up, my friends.
Speaking of which, Hurts Donut Co., a popular pastry maker here in Oklahoma City, had a hilarious Facebook post this week.
“It’s hard to describe for anyone that doesn’t live in Oklahoma how sleepy we are,” the post said. “Between thunder storms, tornadoes and Thunder playoff games, we haven’t slept in two months.”
Hahahaha. The struggle is real. But OKC could soon be the home of the NBA champions, so we can deal with it (as long as we get one more win).
However, did you see the part about lack of sleep? My brain is a bit mushy, so I won’t attempt to say anything real insightful this week.
It’s a nice time, though, to update another recent column.
Three weeks ago, I wrote about Texas Rangers slugger Jake Burger — who started his career with the Chicago White Sox — finding inspiration in a White Sox fan and fellow Midwesterner: Pope Leo XIV.
This past weekend, while the Rangers were sweeping the White Sox in Texas, a big crowd filled the Chicago team’s South Side ballpark to celebrate the new pope.
The Washington Post’s Michelle Boorstein and Kim Bellware report:
CHICAGO — Thousands of Chicagoans — mostly Catholics — filled the seats of the White Sox’s stadium Saturday for a reverential three-hour tribute to Pope Leo, including a video message from the new pope calling on people to pay attention to longings for a “true meaning” and to find it in God, service and community.
Priests, bishops and nuns lined the emerald infield of the stadium as Leo’s message, his first address to an U.S. audience, played on large-scale screens in the outfield.
The historic election of the first American pope — especially a hometown boy — to some was badly needed cheer and joy at a time when, they said, global turmoil fills the news.
The headline atop the coverage by New York Times religion writer Ruth Graham: “Big Cheers for No. 14, Pope Leo, at the Ballpark.”
See additional coverage by Holly Meyer for The Associated Press, Rebecca Johnson for the Chicago Tribune, Rachel Berkebile for Religion News Service, Tom Polansek and Joshua McElwee for Reuters and Heidi Schlumph for U.S. Catholic.
So far, I’ve mentioned basketball and baseball.
I don’t want to leave out football.
I flew to Houston to hear DeMeco Ryans preach and interview him about his faith.
Ryans, head coach of the NFL’s Texans, is a devoted Christian. He told me God guides him and uses him “for the good of his kingdom.”
Christianity Today’s Daniel Silliman joked recently that I seem on the verge of turning Plug-in into a sports column.
Not quite! But I sure do enjoy writing about the interaction of faith and athletics.
Next week, though, I’ll do my best to tackle a subject that does not require a ball.
Inside The Godbeat
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the 2015 massacre at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.
Christianity Today’s Haleluya Hadero interviews Chris Singleton, who was 18 when nine Black church members — including his mother — were gunned down. A decade later, Singleton is “still preaching unity and love.”
Ten years after the mass shooting, faith leaders lament that the country hasn’t changed, according to The Associated Press’ Jeffrey Collins.
Meanwhile, Religion News Service’s Adelle M. Banks writes about how an outsider — journalist Kevin Sack — captured Mother Emanuel’s legacy.
Of course, former religion writer Jennifer Berry Hawes is the author of an amazing book about the massacre, “Grace Will Lead Us Home.”
The Final Plug
Think you can handle one more sports reference?
Twenty years ago, I left The Associated Press to join The Christian Chronicle. In reflecting on my two decades with the Chronicle, I recalled that my first story for the newspaper profiled the late Byron Nelson, a golf legend known as much for his gentlemanly conduct as his 52 PGA Tour victories.
Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.
Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 18 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.