With so much attention on the bad these days, let’s take a few minutes to talk about some of the fun and sweet things that have happened in the world of sports this week.

What a week. As Whitney stated in this week’s Buzz Bulletin, there were three retirement announcements made this week, all before Wednesday. Nikki Bella, Connor McGreggor, and of course, Rob Gronkowski.

 

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It all started at 20 years old on stage at the NFL draft when my dream came true, and now here I am about to turn 30 in a few months with a decision I feel is the biggest of my life so far. I will be retiring from the game of football today. I am so grateful for the opportunity that Mr. Kraft and Coach Belichick gave to me when drafting my silliness in 2010. My life experiences over the last 9 years have been amazing both on and off the field. The people I have meet, the relationships I have built, the championships I have been apart of, I just want to thank the whole New England Patriots organization for every opportunity I have been giving and learning the great values of life that I can apply to mine. Thank you to all of Pats Nation around the world for the incredible support since I have been apart of this 1st class organization. Thank you for everyone accepting who I am and the dedication I have put into my work to be the best player I could be. But now its time to move forward and move forward with a big smile knowing that the New England Patriots Organization, Pats Nation, and all my fans will be truly a big part of my heart for rest of my life. It was truly an incredible honor to play for such a great established organization and able to come in to continue and contribute to keep building success. To all my current and past teammates, thank you for making each team every year special to be apart of. I will truly miss you guys. Cheers to all who have been part of this journey, cheers to the past for the incredible memories, and a HUGE cheers to the uncertain of whats next.

A post shared by Rob Gronkowski (@gronk) on Mar 24, 2019 at 2:53pm PDT

While rumors of Gronk retiring have been swirling since…well…last season…Rob Gronkowski’s announcement came as a surprise too many and almost immediately after that post was published, support and praise started pouring in for Gronk. Twitter was covered in tweets from fans all over the country thanking Gronk for nine great seasons, declaring him the TE GOAT, and more. As a Pat’s fan, I was really hoping that he’d play one more season. Just one. I think all of Pats Nation was hoping for one more season. But deep down, I think we all knew that wasn’t going to happen. That didn’t make the announcement any less painful, though.

Oh, and by the way, I share the sentiment noted by many on twitter this week —if I’m this upset by Gronk’s retirement, how am I going to handle Brady’s?

Tom wrote a great piece on Gronk shortly after the announcement that you should definitely read if you haven’t already.

New England is certainly going to miss Gronk. I mean, there are other amazing tight ends in the league today and many more will come in the future, but there will never, ever be another tight end just as entertaining off of the field as he is on. Case in point (and there are many more where this came from):

In other news

Giannis Antetokounmpo is simply the best.

He’s pretty good on the court, too 😉. Although, he’s been dealing with an ankle injury the last few days. This is making the Bucks a little nervous, I would say given that the playoffs are quickly approaching. They’ll be playing it safe with him over the next week.

 

I know this is old news by now, but for those who may have missed it, for the first time since 2005, we will not be seeing LeBron James in this year’s playoffs. A 13 year streak has officially come to an end. I can imagine for LeBron that this is a hard pill to swallow. Although—and the reason that I really wanted to mention here so late after this was truly news—I have to say, King James handled it well:

At least he did in public. I mean, I’m pretty sure that if I just ended a 13 year streak of something as important as the playoffs, I might have kept my cool in public, but once alone…well…

via GIPHY

All joking aside, it’s nice to see that King James can still be mature about the reality of it all.