Naomi Osaka Suffers Upset at US Open, Says She Will Take Another Timeout

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Naomi Osaka lost to Canada’s Leylah Annie Fernandez in Friday’s third round of the US Open tennis tournament. Born to an Ecuadorian father and a Filipino Canadian mother, the 18-year-old ranked 66 in the world of tennis currently trains in Florida.

At her new conference on Friday, Naomi Osaka apologized for her “childlike behavior” on the court, which included throwing her racket. She then said she would be taking another break from tennis.

“Normally, I feel like I like challenges. But recently I feel very anxious when things don’t go my way, and I feel like you can feel that. I’m not really sure why it happens the way it happens now,” said Osaka, who earlier this year acknowledged she has battled depression since she won the US Open in 2018, beating Serena Williams. It was Serena who lost her composure in that match over disagreements with the referee.

Responding in English to a question posed in Japanese, Osaka continued to explain her troubled state of mind.: “I feel like for me recently, like, when I win I don’t feel happy. I feel more like a relief. And then when I lose, I feel very sad. I don’t think that’s normal. I didn’t really want to cry, but basically I feel like ...” She teared up but insisted on continuing.

“Basically I feel like I’m kind of at this point where I’m trying to figure out what I want to do, and I honestly don’t know when I’m going to play my next tennis match,” she said, again tearing up. “Sorry. OK, yeah. I think I’m going to take a break from playing for a while.”

In the words of Matthew Futterman writing for The New York Times:

“Careers cut short because of broken minds rather than aging bodies haunt tennis like ghosts.”

Tennis is a lonely sport — not a team sport — with only one winner.

Naomi Osaka’s year has been filled with complexity. It began in the world of COVID — few sympathies there — but it built on Osaka’s Black activism after the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota. After the shooting of Jacob Blake, Naomi single-handedly brought tennis world to a standstill announcing she would not play her semifinal match in the Western & Southern Open as scheduled.

The last six months have been very challenging for Osaka.

Refusing to participate in post-match news conferences at the French Open, Osaka faced an ugly confrontation with the tournament organizers. She withdrew after the first round and became more open about her mental health challenges.

In Japan, where Osaka has become a symbol of a “new, multiracial vision of a traditionally homogeneous society”, she became the face of the games, accepting the honor of lighting the Olympic cauldron. It was her first competition since the French Open, and Naomi lost in the third round.

In August Naomi Osaka announced that she would donate her prize money from the Western & Southern Open to Haiti earthquake relief efforts. Again, Osaka struggled and was upset in the third round.

Daria Abramowicz, a sports psychologist interviewed in the Times piece, who has spent about two years on the pro tour with another player , has concluded: “that players can survive careers — inevitably filled with losses and disappointment — only by working every day to build self-worth and self-confidence that is not measured by wins and rankings points but rather relationships. Only then can they find a way to enjoy the process, as enervating as it might be.

“You need to maintain the core values, because without that there is nothing,” Abramowicz said. “There is just burned ground.”

An Injured Simone Biles Pulls Out of Team USA at Tokyo Olympics

Doug Mills/The New York Times

USA Gymnastics team powerhouse Simone Biles has pulled out of the team competition at the Tokyo Olympics. Biles bailed out of her Yurchenko vault with 2 1/2 twists, downsizing the difficulty to 1 1/2 twists and then stumbling out of the landing Tuesday evening.

Biles left the competition floor with a team trainer, while coach Cecile Landi, gathered the team. Biles returned to the floor, rejoining her teammates, hugging them before watching them perform their routines from the sideline.

Team USA will compete for their their consecutive Olympics gold medal without Biles. Follow all the Olympic competition from the New York Times.

The Enduring Popularity of Air Jordans and 'His Airness'

By Anne Enke, Anne of Carversville

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Air Jordan Is Nowhere Near Its Last Dance

NBA star MIchael Jordan has made over $1.3 billion from Nike, an estimated sum Forbes magazine calls "the biggest endorsement bargain in sports".

As the richest athlete endorsement deal ever, the Chicago Bulls superstar NFL player Michael Jordan did as much for Nike, as the Nike Swoosh did for him. Note the the Swoosh disappeared in the second year of the shoe, prompting Air Jordans and Jordan Brand to thereafter draw "inspiration from jets and sports cars, jazz and even wildlife," writes the Chicago Tribune, who offers one of many histories of Air Jordans on the Internet.

The History of Flying Men

Icarus: Perhaps you’ve heard about Icarus. In Greek mythology, Icarus attempted to escape from Crete flying with wings made of feathers and wax. His father Daedalus warned Icarus first of complacency and then of hubris and lack of awareness.

Literally, Icarus was to fly in the middle of the sky. Too close to the water, the wax would harden and clog his wings. If Icarus flew to high and close to the sun, the wax in his wings would melt, After takeoff, Icarus did indeed fly high into the sky.

Unable to resist the hubris of defying gravity and flying on a divine trajectory, Icarus lost his wing power as the sun melted the wax in his wings. He fell into the sea and died.

Read more about how Michael Jordan became America’s heroic Superman

Ka-Ching

After agreeing to a deal that sent heart palpitations through the bodies of high-level Nike executives, Michael Jordan, the Brooklyn boy who grew up in Wilmington, North Carolina, walked away with a five-year deal at an annual base pay of $500,000.

Sounds good, right? It was triple any other NBA sneaker deal in 1984. To sweeten the deal, Jordan also got his own shoe line: Air Jordan was born.

“Nike’s expectation when we signed the deal was, at the end of year four, they hoped to sell $3 million worth of Air Jordans,” says Falk. “In year one, we sold $126 million.”

Probably The Biggest, Baddest Licensing Deal in History

Bauhaus-Inspired Nike Air Max 270 Sneakers Inspired Toilet Paper Magazine Posters AOC Fashion July, 2019

Unlike blogs, websites, video-makers and more people, who just copy the work of others, Nike is seeking creatives with an Apple-mentality, involved in the relentless pursuit of perfection. Without being paid a dime — or with only the original creative spark being paid — communication players built-out the story around the new Air Max lifestyle sneaker.

Knowing from Fast Company that the posters honored the Bauhaus, AOC (as always) went intellectual. We don’t assume that especially younger readers necessarily know or care about the Bauhaus. How can we use the campaign to teach them?

The Bauhaus was founded by Weimar-based architect Walter Gropius, who combined both arts and crafts and the fine arts worlds in a democratic, populist intellectualism. The Art Story describes the Bauhaus movement in terms that resonate today:

The origins of the Bauhaus lie in the late 19th century, in anxieties about the soullessness of modern manufacturing, and fears about art's loss of social relevance. The Bauhaus aimed to reunite fine art and functional design, creating practical objects with the soul of artworks.

Performance Basketball Shoes Are in Downward Spiral Since 2015, but Retro Is Rising

AOC didn’t know that the performance basketball shoe market peaked in 2015 and has experienced double-digit declines since then, according to NPD.

Read all the details of Air Jordans’ staggering financial performance in Nike’s fiscal 2021 revenues and profits. Also, we share eye-opening details about the decline of basketball performance shoes and the rise of retro.

The World of Air Jordan Drops

Air Jordan drops are huge events in the sneaker world. Countless communities have grown up around the world of sneakerheads. Social psychologists write about them. There are calendars online with all the drop dates organized with images. Determined fans look for ways to get a pair of targeted Air Jordans months before the releases.

Back in 2018, Nike brand president Trevor Edwards stated, “We want to keep Jordan icons coveted and special, which is why we are proactively managing the exclusivity of specific iconic styles.” This means that these shoes will continue to be hard to get your hands on, making them unique to say the least.

The more AOC digs and explores the Air Jordan brand DNA — including this incredible new place for Air Jordans in the world of activist fundraising — call us speechless.

Image by Mike Von, Downtown Los Angeles, CA via Unsplash

Air Jordan: A Brand People Believe In

Studying the Nike press release on fiscal 2021 sales, Air Jordan has been very much with us in America’s darkest hour in decades. In all honesty, I don’t have an emotional relationship with Nike. But I’ve definitely developed an attachment to Air Jordan and Jordan Brand, especially when we get to the section on values and activism.

Covid Sent a Gut Punch to the Air Jordan Community

Who did ordinary people turn to for comfort and a sense of hope and security — but also a shot in the arm to keep us running in COVID-world 2020? ‘His Airness’ Michael Jordan — that’s who.

There is no debate around this issue. The Nike fiscal report on sales and profitability tells us all we need to know about how “we the people” felt about Air Jordan and Jordan Brand in 2020. Businesses were reeling, and in saunters Air Jordan to take a Wall Street bow.

I daresay, Jordan Brand’s influence was even more critical to our bleeding hearts, because Michael Jordan got seriously in the game on the topic of racial justice post George Floyd’s May 2020 murder in Minnesota. That’s the focus of AOC’s future post on values and activism in Air Jordan and Jordan Brand.

Why Am I doing This Giant Freebie for Nike and Air Jordan?

Read our in-depth series on Air Jordan to find out.

Our kids need Air Jordan as an example of American grit and determination to overcome not only COVID, but the drive to end American democracy and the disenfranchisement of million of voters of color.

Each of us is obligated to use our best skills to stop this march of Trumpism in America, and I EXPECT Nike to be in this game of American politics that has become a scary blood-sport.

I can’t think of a better tactical move to make this minute for Anne of Carversville, than to start bird-dogging Nike and Air Jordan. Regular readers expect us to bird-dog brands on sustainability.

Now we will be tracking brands taking a stand for “we the people politics” in America and worldwide.

Fasten your seat belts, because AOC intends to fly high in this new endeavor. We won’t fly into the sun — Icarus, we are not. But we will fly in the face of business. In the words of the great Muhammad Ali, we will “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee.”

How Successful Is Michael Jordan? He's the GOAT!

16 years after playing his last professional basketball game, Michael Jordan out-earns every current NBA player in the sneaker income category. Earning $130 million from his Nike deal, Jordan made four times the No. 2 ranked LeBron James, who made $32 million in 2019.

AOC shares the summer 2021 research rankings on Michael Jordan tying Muhummad Ali as the greatest athlete ever in history.

We want to “Be Like Mike”

Note the music in the Gatorade commercial. It transcends America. Heck I expect Nelson Mandela to enter stage left any second. The commercial is deeply Black in its powerhouse influence on global culture and yet it transcends race.

That was Nelson Mandela’s approach, too — pure ubuntu. Mandela found that the power of Ubuntu, the inner core of every person's humanity, could move mountains.

Our young people don’t really know and understand the power of Nelson Mandela’s message. But they DO want to be like Mike. So do I. So should you. ~ Anne

Naomi Osaka Covers Vogue Japan August 2021, Saying She Will Play in Olympics

Naomi Osaka Covers Vogue Japan August 2021, Saying She Will Play in Olympics

Tennis star Naomi Osaka covers the August 2021 issue of Vogue Japan, and Naomi did appear on social media to share her cover shot and a preview of the fashion editorial.

"Hi guys. Popping out to post this @voguejapan cover, hope you’re all doing well and staying safe," she wrote.

Patti Wilson styles the shoot with Osaka wearing a Louis Vuitton bralette paired with orange pants on the cover. Vuitton is well represented in the fashion pages, with Naomi being an official ambassador for the luxury brand. Nike also gets good exposure. Zoey Grossman [IG] is behind the lens, as Naomi promises that she will play in the Tokyo Olympics starting July 24, but not on the US team. Naomi will play for Japan.