On Sunday afternoon, 5-time NBA Champion and 17-time All-Star Kobe Bryant, who broke into the NBA at the tender age of 18, announced that he will retire at the conclusion of this season! Kobe is an international icon known worldwide! He actually grew up in Italy, as his dad (Joe Bryant) played professionally overseas from 1984 to 1992! He will retire being the only player in NBA history to play 20 years for the same franchise, the LA Lakers, and third all-time in scoring!

Lithuania served Serbia a crushing defeat, 67-64, on Friday to advance to the EuroBasket (FIBA) Finals to take on Spain! Lithuania (and Spain) have automatically clinched a spot at the 2016 Olympic games in Rio (Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016) by advancing to the Finals! Serbia must now claw and nail through the Olympic qualifiers next July flirting with Greece, Italy, France, and the Czech Republic!

It was absolutely a tale of David & Goliath with Vinci at a 300-to-1 odds to win, and Serena perhaps get caught up in the hype and distractions (Drake kept leering in the crowd)! She seemed to be a bit over-animated on her winners and at points even serving up unusual facial expressions! The biggest story in Women’s Tennis and the US Open was building up to be Serena Williams going onto win the Calendar Slam (winning all four majors in the same calendar year), BUT in the semi-final today the story changed quickly! 43 ranked Roberta Vinci played her heart out, and ignored all the cheers and jeers from the crowd for the heavily favored Williams, and came back to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-4!!!