Salam alaykum! Due to unforeseen circumstances, this week’s Friday Fill-in had to be pushed until Saturday. We’re so sorry for the delay. If you have a story or athlete you’d like to pitch for the Friday Fill-in, email us at TheAthleticUmmah@gmail.com.
The Headlines
LeBron James breaks another Kareem Abdul-Jabbar record: Despite losing by the biggest margin in his NBA career, LeBron James had something to smile about on Monday against the Philadelphia 76ers when he passed legendary Muslim basketball player Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for most minutes played in NBA history. James broke the record, which includes regular season and play-off games, when he crossed the 66,289-minute during Monday’s regular season game. Despite losing his second record to James this calendar year, Abdul-Jabbar still holds the record for most career regular-season minutes played with 57,446.
Hany Mukhtar named to MLS Best XI: For the third year in a row, German attacking midfielder Hany Mukhtar has been named to the MLS Best XI for the season. Mukhtar, who plays for Nashville SC, scored 17 goals in 43 games this season, including a 5th-best 15 league goals in the regular season. On top of that, he became the sixth player in league history to record at least 10 goals and 10 assists in three different seasons in their MLS career.
Sin bins coming to soccer?: The International Football Association Board (IFAB) has approved a trial of sin bins to curb player behaviour, bolster respect for referees and potentially serve as a middle-ground between yellow and red cards. Sin bins were introduced to the grassroots game in England for the 2019-20 season and allowed referees to show a yellow card to a player and force them to sit out for 10 minutes. The IFAB has not set a timeline to test the rule, but according to The Athletic, MLS could be the first professional league to try the new rule out.
What You Might’ve Missed
If you’re a sports fan who grew up in North America, you’ve probably read a lot of Sports Illustrated, as I did.
Sports Illustrated was *the* print source for North American sports in the 2000s and 2010s. Although they didn’t often cover the sports I wanted to read about (football and ice hockey), their unparalleled in-depth sports coverage, unique insight into athletes’ lives and gorgeous photo spreads of mesmerizing dunks and homerun celebrations captivated my imagination and helped me pass the time in many doctors’ offices.
For the better part of 60 years, Sports Illustrated couldn’t be matched by any other sports media, not print, not radio and not even TV — which makes their downfall and the recent allegations about publishing AI-generated content so disheartening.
Earlier this week, technology website Futurism published a detailed article accusing Sports Illustrated of publishing AI-written articles. The report claimed some pieces on the website were generated by artificial intelligence and published under fake author names.
In one example, Futurism points to the author biography at Sports Illustrated of a Drew Ortiz. The bio suggests Drew Ortiz is a regular human, yet Ortiz doesn’t have a social media presence, has no publishing history, and his profile picture is available for sale on a website that sells AI-generated headshots.
Maggie Harrison, who wrote the Futurism article, points out that Ortiz and other AI authors’ writing “sounds like it was written by an alien.” In one example, Ortiz warns that volleyball “can be a little tricky to get into, especially without an actual ball to practice with.”
According to Futurism, all AI-generated authors disappeared from Sports Illustrated without explanation or answers after they reached out with questions to the magazine’s publisher, The Arena Group.
But following the publishing of Futurism’s article, a spokesperson for The Arena Group denied the allegations and claimed the articles were commercial content sourced from third-party advertising company AdVon Commerce.
Nevertheless, the Sports Illustrated Union said staff were “horrified” by the allegations and demanded “basic journalistic standards.”
“If true, these practices violate everything we believe in about journalism. We deplore being associated with something so disrespectful to our readers,” they said in part in a statement on X, formerly Twitter.
“We demand answers and transparency from Arena Group management about what exactly has been published under the SI Name.”
As someone who works in the professional journalism industry, I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and connecting with people — real people — who’ve worked very hard to produce excellent sports content for Sports Illustrated. I can’t imagine the anger and pain they must be feeling due to these allegations.
These excellent writers deserve so much more than to be caught up in this shameful AI episode that, if true, has destroyed one of the greatest outlets sports journalism has ever had. The entire team here at The Athletic Ummah is sending duas and support their way.
Muslim Athlete of the Week
Teams in the 2023-24 UEFA Champions League wrapped up their fifth round of matches this week, and we football fans were spoiled with some of the most exciting matches this season’s competition had to offer.
It was goals galore in this week’s UCL matches — from Inter Milan coming back from 3-0 down away to draw SL Benfica 3-3, to Real Madrid and Napoli trading blows and great goals in a 4-2 victory for the Spanish side, to Arsenal scoring 5 goals in a single half en route to a 6-0 win over Lens.
But one of the best individual performances was seen on Wednesday, when Moroccan international Hakim Ziyech and Galatasaray welcomed Manchester United to Istanbul, Turkey.
In a performance that earned him UEFA’s Player of the Match award, Ziyech bagged two goals — both from free kicks — and an assist to help the Turkish club come from 3-1 down to draw Manchester United in a crucial Group A match.
In the 29th minute, Ziyech struck a sweet free kick goal that curved around United’s four-man wall and bounced past the right side of goalkeeper André Onana. The goal, which was Ziyech’s first UCL goal since Nov. 2021, cut Manchester United’s lead down to 2-1.
Just over 30 game-time minutes later, with United now up 3-1, Ziyech gave the visitors some déjà vu when he again scored from a free kick position. This time, his free kick was taken from further out and from a tighter angle, but it startled Onana enough that the United goalkeeper parried the shot into his own goal. It marked the first time Ziyech had ever scored a brace in the UCL.
Finally, in the 71st minute, Ziyech assisted Muhammed Kerem Aktürkoğlu’s stadium-shaking equalizing goal. His silky pass was the perfect height and weight for Aktürkoğlu to control and score in two touches, and it wrapped up an incredible evening for the 30-year-old Moroccan.
Thanks to Ziyech’s performance, Galatasaray would get a point in a match they desperately needed to perform in. Now, Galatasaray sits in joint-2nd place in Group A, level on points with FC Copenhagen, who they play on Dec. 12 in a potential winner-takes-all match for the group’s final round of 16 qualifying spot.
Following the match, Ziyech told Dutch news outlet Voetbal that his loan spell with Galatasaray has helped him enjoy football again.
“I have found my happiness again. Here I feel that I am thriving again,” the winger said.
For his match-saving performance against one of the competition’s most iconic clubs, Hakim Ziyech is our Muslim Athlete of the Week.
Who’s That Athlete?
“Who’s That Athlete?” was our weekly quiz, where we gave you three hints about a Muslim athlete and you had to guess who that athlete was.
Last week’s answer was boxing legend and activist Muhammad Ali.
Unfortunately, due to a lack of engagement, we have decided to stop pushing the “Who’s The Athlete?” quiz. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.
Headline image credit: Khaled Desoukia/AFP