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The sad news arrived over the weekend in a series of booms. First, the thunderclap news that Miami Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez and two others had died in a boating accident in the early hours of Sunday morning in Miami Beach. Then the follow-up word that rumbled in slowly at first, in the wait for confirmation, that golf legend Arnold Palmer had died that afternoon in a Pittsburgh hospital.Their careers were very different, but there is a place where they cross. And its at the intersection of what could have been and what came true.Fernandez was only 24, and he had a baby girl on the way with his girlfriend. Anytime anyone dies that young, what we mourn along with their death are the infinite possibilities that are lost.What might Fernandez have become? How great would he have been? How long before all the glowing prophecies about him came true? And how remarkable would that have been, given the backstory of Fernandez trying four times before successfully escaping Cuba for the United States?Teammates said he would light up the Marlins clubhouse -- not just radar guns -- every day he walked into the stadium. Opponents said the same.When you watch kids playing Little League ... thats the joy that Jose played with -- and the passion he felt about playing, Marlins manager Don Mattingly said.There are no what ifs in Palmers case. The sports world was changed and lifted up for the better because of his presence. The same can be said of the other legends who died earlier this year: the incomparable Muhammad Ali, hockey great Gordie Howe, iconic womens basketball coach Pat Summitt, basketball Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond and tennis bard Bud Collins, to name a few.There was something about all of them that just had a way of crawling into your mind and heart and then not letting go. Sometimes its the way greats have had to invent themselves that separates them. That was certainly true of Palmer and Ali and Summitt, albeit for vastly different reasons. All of them were originals. Alis outspokenness on matters of race and war was the precursor for the sort of protests and expressions of social consciousness sweeping sports today. Summitt was a pioneer who fought sexism and won. Like the others, Thurmond and Howe epitomized excellence over time, another requisite for the sort of all-timer status that Palmer earned and Fernandez might have achieved.There is an eloquence in all of their examples, and quite often it had to do with things as fundamental as the power of belief and the refusal to bow to convention. As Ali once put it, Impossible is just a word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world theyve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. Its an opinion. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary.Impossible is nothing.Whereas the charisma of Palmers great rival, Jack Nicklaus, emanated largely from his magnificent game and vise-grip concentration -- he had that forbidding game face that seemed like it could make the flags atop the flagsticks go still -- Palmers appeal was his lopsided smile, his swashbuckling grip-it-and-rip-it style and his quirky homemade swing, which you will never find in any instructional book. He liked to chat up galleries and would beam openly at good shots, as if every tournament had just turned into the time of his life.Palmer turned 87 just 16 days before he died Sunday afternoon from heart complications, and Nicklaus said he sounded great when he called him on his birthday. Along with South Africas Gary Player, the other member of the Big Three, they were rivals throughout their careers and friends to the end.In a statement, Nicklaus said he was shocked Palmer is gone, adding, We just lost one of the incredible people in the game of golf and in all of sports. Arnold transcended the game of golf. He was more than a golfer or even great golfer. He was an icon. He was a legend. Arnold was someone who was a pioneer in his sport. He took the game from one level to a higher level, virtually by himself.He was also a man who never forgot where he came from despite picking up the nickname The King and millions of followers known as Arnies Army.Palmer wasnt one of golfs trust-fund babies, born into privilege. His father, Deacon, was a greenskeeper before rising to club pro at their little Latrobe Country Club, which sat about 45 miles east of Pittsburgh. And Arnie -- who grew up around the course, and grew strong from manual labor of helping his dad at work -- never left the area completely, even after he became a pro sensation and the first marketing powerhouse the sports world had ever seen. After turning pro in 1954 (seven years before Nicklaus), he won 62 PGA Tour titles and seven majors, including Masters crowns in 1958, 60, 62 and 64, in a career that spanned five decades.PGA Tour commissioner Tim Finchem captured it perfectly in a statement Sunday, saying, It is not an exaggeration to say there would be no modern-day PGA Tour without Arnold Palmer. There would be no PGA Tour Champions [Senior Tour] without Arnold Palmer. There would be no Golf Channel without Arnold Palmer. ... The fact that his popularity never waned more than a quarter-century after his last competitive victory speaks volumes ...Fernandezs career lasted only three seasons, and two of them were troubled by injuries. But, much like Palmer, who won his first title within his first year on tour, Fernandez was an electric talent. He was a two-time All-Star and won rookie of the year honors with the Marlins in 2013.Off the field, his status as a Cuban refugee who didnt succeed in fleeing for America until his fourth attempt, and only after hed already been imprisoned once before he finally did escape at age 15, resonated deeply in Miami. Even people who didnt care much about baseball knew about him, or the story of how he leaped into the water on one of those failed attempts to save someone who had fallen out of the boat.I dove to help a person not thinking who that person was. Imagine when I realized it was my own mother [Maritza], Fernandez later told the Miami Herald. If that does not leave a mark on you for the rest of your life, I dont know what will.The mark it all left on him was gratitude. A perspective about whats important in life. An irrepressible sense of joy. Even Lorenzo Veloz, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman who had to deliver details about Fernandezs death, said this was personal because, [Fernandez] was a pillar to our community. He was involved in everything that he could be to give back.I had the experience of talking to him several times -- down-to-earth, great person -- Im sorry, Im getting goosebumps right now, Veloz added. Its really hitting home and its horrible.Among the many other heartbreaks that trail Fernandezs death is the last time he pitched on Thursday, as he and his girlfriend had just found out that their coming baby was a girl. He posted a photo on Instagram saying, Im excited where this journey is going to take us. #familyfirst. Then he pitched the Marlins to a victory that he later told teammates was the best game he had ever thrown in his life. Which is saying something.The magnanimity of his personality transcended culture, religion and race -- I mean, it just did, said Marlins president David Samson, one of the many team members who could barely stammer their way through Sundays news conference to honor Fernandez because they were so visibly shaken. His story is representative of a story of hope, and of love and of faith, and no one will ever let that story die.In their grief, the Marlins canceled Sundays game against the Atlanta Braves. No one had the heart to play.Everyone will swing back to work Monday in golf and in baseball. But back to normal? No. No way.Custom Denis Potvin Jersey . -- Stanford squashed Oregons national championship hopes again, schooling the Ducks in power football. Custom Islanders Jerseys . Belfort (24-10) needed just 77 seconds to down Henderson in the headlining bout of Saturdays "UFC Fight Night: Belfort vs. Henderson" event at Goiania Arena in Goiania, Brazil. The fight served as a rematch of the pairs 2006 meeting, which Henderson won by decision. http://www.customislandersjersey.com/custom-denis-potvin-jersey-large-78i.html . -- Golden State Warriors coach Mark Jackson asked his players a simple question during Fridays morning shootaround: How many of them had ever been on a team 14 games over . Custom Denis Potvin Jersey . The winner Saturday will remain in the elite 10-team field next year. "We talked about wanting to be disciplined and stick with our game plan and good things will come," Draisaitl said, who had two goals for the victors. Cheap Islanders Jerseys . Now, correct me if Im wrong but I saw one official distinctly pointing at the net indicating a good goal but after an inconclusive review they overturned the goal. Shouldnt the ruling on the ice (good goal) stand after an inconclusive review? Why was this overturned? James Veaudry Pembroke, ON -- Hey Kerry, Youll get a lot of these, but why was the Montreal goal against Nashville Saturday night overturned? Eller puts the puck on net and the on ice ruling from the ref behind the net is a Montreal goal.This is an online exclusive story from ESPN The Magazines Body Issue 2016. Subscribe today!?And for more from the 2016 Body Issue, check out espn.com/bodyissue,?and pick up a copy on newsstands starting July 8.Allysa Seely, the 2015 paratriathlete world champion, will be heading to Rio for the 2016 Paralympics in September. She sat down with Body Issue reporter Morty Ain to discuss her training, her love/hate relationship with her prosthetics and the many, many lessons shes learned along the way. Heres Allysa, in her own words:People of all different abilities can compete at the highest level of sport. You dont need to have two legs or two arms. I want to help promote that.I think theres still a big stigma around disability, especially disabled sports. A lot of times people confuse the Paralympics with the Special Olympics. You just dont sign up to go to the Paralympics. You have to qualify just like Olympians do, and it takes years of training and hard work to get to that level. I still think theres some education that needs to be done around it. Eight out of 10 times, people not involved in sports will make that mistake. The Special Olympics is a great organization, but its a participatory organization for individuals with developmental disabilities.I train seven days a week. I train two to three times a day and lift in the gym three times a week. I swim almost every day and then bike and run four to five days a week. Im training 15 to 35 hours a week. Its definitely a full-time job, because I dont want to be outworked.As a society, I think we still view individuals with different abilities as being incapable. When people think of somebody in a wheelchair or somebody with a prosthetic they think of somebody who cant take care of themselves. We still see the disability before we see the individual.People come up to me and say the craziest things. I had somebody come up and tell me that, if I had found God, he would not have maimed you. Another time -- and this one still makes me laugh -- I was at the gas station and this lady behind me scoffed to her teenage children, See, thats what happens when you eat crap and dont take care of yourself. I was kind of stunned. I turned around and she goes, Diabetes, huh? Um, actually not. Shes trying to lecture her kids, who are a little bit overweight, to apparently get them to have healthier eating habits. I was just like, You realize your kids can only eat what you feed them, right? Lets get that straight. And second of all, just dont assume because I have one leg that I dont take care of myself and eat crap all the time.Obviously, there are some great little kids who come up to me too. I had one the other day while I was running, and he just had the biggest eyes ever and he was like, You are so fast! I want to be fast like you one day! A lot of the times the kids get it; were still working on the adults.ON PROVING EVERYONE WRONG I was diagnosed [in 2010] with what is called Chiari II malformation, basilar invagination and Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Basically, the Chiari malformation means my brain is herniated into my spinal column, so a significant amount of my cerebellum and brain stem is outside of my skull and inside my spinal column. The basilar invagination means the part that is from my skull to my spine is bent at a weird angle; it has like a kink in it. And Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a connective tissue disorder. And then the complications from those three diagnoses and the surgeries Ive had led to complications that eventually led to the amputation of my left leg below my knee.I would like to say I was a fairly accomplished athlete before this all started. My personal record for 5K, which Im very proud of, is 17:21. Then I started triathlon and was a nationally ranked athlete in age-group nationals. It kind of sounds cheesy, but when I first heard my diagnosis, I just wanted to get back to sports. It took over a year to get a correct diagnosis and to get on the path to treatment and surgery. I wasnt able to run anymore, I wasnt able to go out with friends. So when I finally got a diagnosis, I was relieved, but then my next thought was, OK, great, what do I need to do to get back to triathlon?I was told I would be lucky if I walked unaided again. I was in the hospital and I was telling everybody that I had collegiate nationals in April -- this was in August -- and they were like, Whoa, youve got to walk first. There was a significant amount of pushback and hesitation from my doctors, nurses and physical therapists. I would have to say I dont think anyone was on board. I remember the nurses and physical therapists were betting that if I ever walked again, they would do a triathlon. So I just set out to prove them wrong.The word that I remember most prominently was realistic. I think they thought they were trying to help me move on and accept what life was going to be like. I think it made sense to them at the time.It definitely was a struggle. It was terrifying. I had gone through a year and a half of my life where I was seeing one doctor after another, being in and out of hospitals. I knew my body was rebelling and not able to do anything that I wanted it to.dddddddddddd I was exhausted all the time. I was so relieved when I finally got a diagnosis and an option for treatment. But in rehab, I remember the feeling of nobody believing in me, and nobody standing there and saying, All right, were going to get there! There were times I just wanted to break down and cry, but I didnt want to do it in front of them because I felt like I couldnt show any weakness, I couldnt show them that there was even a doubt in my mind that I wasnt going to be able to do this.I had surgery in the beginning of August in 2010, and I competed in a triathlon in collegiate nationals in April of 2011. So just about eight months. By no means was it the fastest race in my life, but to this day crossing that finish line was probably one of the most rewarding experiences. I can still remember how it felt to accomplish something that nobody thought I could.ONE FOOT IN FRONT OF THE OTHER When your brain is affected, a lot of your body is affected too. There are a significant number of complications that have come with my condition. Obviously, the leg is the most difficult, but I have impairment in almost all of the muscles in my body. I lack something called proprioception -- thats where your brain is able to tell where your body is in space. So when youre walking without looking down, you know your left foot is in front or your right foot is in front. I dont have that in my legs at all. When Im walking, and especially when Im racing, youll see me look down quite frequently to make sure that I know where my legs are. On the bike when Im making turns, I have to look down to make sure that I know which foot is up so that I dont hit my pedal on the ground.My condition has also led to epilepsy. Theres a lot of autonomic nervous system issues, given that the part of my brain that is damaged controls all of my autonomic functions, so your blood pressure, your heart rate, your digestive system, your sweating ... I have a lot of issues with that kind of stuff as well.The biggest challenge is the unpredictable nature of a neurological condition. For a lot of people, all they see is my amputation; they dont see the challenges in and out of every day. Last year alone, I was in the hospital for over a month throughout the year. Sometimes I have great days, and other days my body just doesnt want to cooperate. On a physical level thats obviously hard -- losing training time, losing fitness and all of that. But its almost more difficult mentally: This is what your competitors are doing, and youre stuck here and your brain isnt working. Every morning, I dont know what Im going to get when I wake up, but I just have to figure out a way around it.MAKING ADJUSTMENTS, FINDING STRENGTH I have to laugh whenever someone says athletes with prosthetics have an unfair advantage. Initially when I started racing, people would be like, Great for you! But as soon as I started to get faster and I started to win races, peoples perspective on it changed. All of a sudden it went from Youre doing so great! to This is not fair. That gives you an unfair advantage. I have to say that while the prosthetic lets me do what I want to do, its not the same as a foot. And it probably will never act 100 percent as a foot. All the research agrees that prosthetics are great, but they dont offer what an anatomically correct foot can to an athlete.Any time the prosthetic doesnt fit it can be painful. Being an athlete, your body changes frequently -- you go up in weight, you go down in weight, you add muscle, you lose muscle, all depending on your training phases. The fit is very, very specific, so at dinner, eating a little too much salt can cause my limb to swell, and the next morning I cant get my leg on. Over time, as Ive gotten more fit, my leg has gotten smaller, and we had to make new prosthetic legs. Its something you have to get used to, it changes. Obviously, at a race you want to be able to trust in it 100 percent, you want to know how its going to react and respond, so when you have to change some of them it can become a little shaky. But at the same time prosthetics have come so far. I tell little kids who have never seen a prosthetic that I can do everything that I could do before, so thats something that Im really grateful for.Back when I was in that awkward adolescent phase, my list of what I would have changed about my body was a lot longer than what it is now. After all of the struggles I had been through, I realized how precious my body really was. I realized my body was doing things a lot of people didnt think were possible. It was coming through for me when nobody else was, and I think thats really when I learned to appreciate it and appreciate all the quirks and flaws. I think it took awhile to realize how everything I went through gave me strength. For a long time it felt like it really tore me down, but then when I got on the other side of the tunnel I have been able to draw on those experiences. ' ' '