Mikayla Blakes timed her jump right, grabbed the rebound off the front of the rim and threw the ball into the goal with 0.8 seconds left. Moments later, she celebrated Vanderbilt's first win over rival Tennessee since 2019.

Then something funny happened.

“After the handshake I thought, 'Who is that bald guy on the court?' I swear I’ve seen this reaction before,” she said of a passionate Vanderbilt fan storming the court. “I asked myself, 'Who is that? I know him.'

“Then I got closer and thought, ‘Wow. My father just made it to court. Where did he come from?'”

Monroe Blakes, a former player and Division II Hall of Fame member at St. Michael's College in Vermont, is typically reserved by nature. The Blakes are a humble family, and the idea of ​​her father flying past security and storming into court makes Mikayla laugh. But Monroe couldn't resist Sunday when his daughter, the Commodores' freshman phenom, scored the game-winning goal in the biggest moment of her college career.

Just as he couldn't contain his emotions on Saturday when Mikayla's older brother, Stanford guard Jaylen Blakes, drove the length of the court at the Dean E. Smith Center and knocked down a game-winning step-back jumper from the left wing against North Carolina with a lead of 0.9 seconds.

Two children, two buzzers in two days, an excited father who was able to see them both in person.

“The word I keep using is 'amazing.' Blessed.' And I’m unsure that does it justice,” Monroe Blakes said. “I started playing basketball when I was 13, so I've been playing it for over 40 years. …But the two of them took me to new heights and new memories that I had never experienced in my 40 years.

“What is the probability that brother and sister would do (that) in a row?”

The face of a proud father

Mikayla Blakes and her brother Jaylen Blakes each scored game-winning shots inside 24 hours.#AnchorDown https://t.co/jJZZnnXulp pic.twitter.com/mCSB9OxHe1

—Vanderbilt WBB (@VandyWBB) January 19, 2025

MIKAYLA BLAKES PUT BACK DORES AT ONE#AnchorDown pic.twitter.com/uCXnEgAiXw

—Vanderbilt WBB (@VandyWBB) January 19, 2025

Jaylen, who spent three years at Duke before transferring to Stanford for his final season of eligibility as a graduate transfer, was no stranger to playing within the Dean Dome. He went 2-1 with Duke in three games in Chapel Hill and dreamed of getting his own moment at one in all the game's most famous venues.

The night before Stanford took the court, Jaylen spent a while desirous about former Blue Devils guard Austin Rivers, whose legendary game-winning shot against UNC in 2012 still lives on in Duke lore. He also remembered Wendell Moore's game-winning putback on the Smith Center in 2020 that gave Duke the time beyond regulation victory over the Tar Heels.

“I just dreamed about it,” Jaylen said. “And being able to be in that moment was special.”

With Stanford trailing 71-70 with seven seconds left, Jaylen hit the ball under the Cardinal's basket. He got the ball right back and stormed down the left sideline.

“With Seth Trimble I had a excellent defender at my side. So I assumed, 'Okay, he's going to chop me off,'” Jaylen said. “And as soon as he cut me off, I felt his momentum fading, so I decided to step back and take the shot.

“It was incredible. It was an incredible moment. When you take that shot, it's one thing that it's not just you taking that shot. It’s everyone who has supported you along the way.”

From the stands, Monroe felt like he was watching the play unfold in slow motion. It took him a second to realize what he had just seen.

“The ball went in. It went in,” he recalled. “That’s the game winner.”

In Nashville, Mikayla had just finished practice and was watching the game on her phone before heading to Memorial Gymnasium later that afternoon to watch Vanderbilt's men's team play Tennessee. She missed the real-time recording because her stream kept freezing. But when a flood of text messages and phone calls came in, she assumed Stanford had won and rushed to the locker room to get better service and rewind the feed.

“I saw him hit the shot and I was just overjoyed,” said Mikayla, a former five-star recruit who leads all freshmen nationally with 20.2 points per game. “I started FaceTiming my dad and then started calling my brother because he had already made it to the locker room at that point. So I just called my brother’s phone and texted him, just so excited.”

The next day, Monroe flew to Nashville, where his wife Nikkia joined him for Mikayla's game. The Blakes, who live in New Jersey, agreed that at the very least one in all them would do every part they might to attend every one in all their children's games – no small feat considering Jaylen and Mikayla play on different sides of the country.

When Vanderbilt lost a 10-point lead within the fourth quarter and it became clear the sport was coming all the way down to the wire, one in all the Blakes' friends said the quiet part out loud.

“It was funny, someone who was with us said to us, 'What if Mikayla hits the game-winner?'” Monroe said. “I say, 'No, I don't think it can happen again. This can't happen.'”

Jaylen, back on campus in California, watched all the game within the Stanford training room while receiving treatment. He also doubted that his family might be so lucky in a single weekend.

“I thought, 'It can't be possible for both of us to win in two days in a row.' And it came down to the last piece,” he said. “I saw the missed layup and he or she made it and when I spotted she made it, I ran across the training room screaming, 'Oh my God, oh my God.' It was special.”

Shortly after Monroe stormed the court to have fun, Jaylen asked his parents via FaceTime to affix within the fun. Mikayla later learned from her mother that the moment brought tears to her father's eyes. When Mikayla returned to the locker room, she had six missed calls from Jaylen.

“I took the seventh call,” she said.

“I’m just lucky to have her as my sister,” Jaylen added. “Happy to be her big brother.”

This week, Monroe finally responded to the 100 or so text messages he received as he continues to experience the culmination of perhaps the most effective moment of his life, as Mikayla joked.

Of all of the moments of relaxing within the garden for his children or helping Nikkia break them apart when the singles matches got too competitive, this was a moment the Blake family will always remember.

“One of the things I love about my kids is that they are very competitive,” Monroe said. “They compete with each other but love each other, so it makes each and every one of them better. It was just an amazing dynamic – this love and support for each other.

“They talk all the time, they give each other tips. She called him after the game when he hit his winning goal and he called her and that's why I'm so proud. They just put in a lot of work and I’m just happy for them at this moment.”

Set expectations

Wants and desires

From 225 people received the Nobel Prize in Physicsonly five were women. This is a really small number and definitely lower than 50% – the proportion of girls within the human population.

Despite several studies uncover the barriers for ladies in science and the numerous efforts To increase its representation, physics continues to be a male-dominated field. Only one in five physicists is female, a number that has not modified since 2010.

Three of the five Nobel Prizes in Physics awarded to women were awarded within the last decade. As a physicistIt is beyond exciting to see three women joining the ranks of Nobel Prize winners in physics in only a couple of years.

Nobel Prize-winning work

The three female physicists to receive the Nobel Prize within the twenty first century are Donna Strickland, who won in 2018, Andrea Ghez, who won in 2020, and Anne L'Huillier, who won in 2023. All three made necessary contributions to science.

Stricklanda physicist from the University of Waterloo, won the prize For her work on lasers, she implemented a way called Chirp pulse amplification.

Ghezan astrophysicist from UCLA, received the Nobel Prize for her work Observing stars, especially those near the middle of the Milky Way.

L'Huillier, a physicist from Lund University, received the Nobel Prize in 2023also for his or her work with lasers.

What similarities are there of their lives?

Being a minority in a research area isn’t easy. To stick around long enough to have storied careers, because the three winners have, is a significant achievement. Since the award ceremony, the three winners have spoken in various interviews about their research trips and offered advice to the following generation of physicists. I noticed a couple of common threads.

A profession in science is a protracted journey. All three women emphasize the timeframe required from the primary steps of their research to recognition by the Nobel Committee. L'Huillier refers to this as a protracted journey.

Although winning a Nobel Prize comes with some glamor and celebrity, this profession will not be the correct one should you are on the lookout for a fast reward. It now takes average time 28 years between publishing a discovery and receiving a Nobel Prize in Physics.

You can't predict which fundamental scientific topic will result in a Nobel Prize – nor which one will ultimately have any impact. The neatest thing a physicist can do early of their profession is to explore different topics, try latest things, embrace discomfort, and find something they're keen about.

All three women speak about how often they got into trouble. Before she got the chirped-pulse amplification method working, Strickland had begun to wonder whether she would ever get a doctorate after experiencing so many dead ends. When Ghez first proposed the project that may result in her acclaimed work, she was rejected.

All three thought of quitting in some unspecified time in the future. So don't be discouraged should you get rejected or others say you may't do it.

“Carry on,” says L'Huillier. “You have to be persistent.”

Ghez recommends viewing experiments that don't work not as failures, but as opportunities.

Films and tv shows portray the scientist as a social outsider, a person who works alone within the laboratory. But that's not how it really works. All of those women work in teams.

“Science is a team sport. You need to know what you don’t know and seek help for what’s missing.” says Strickland.

The seek for help often results in collaborations with other research groups. As Ghez puts it“Science is a very social enterprise.”

And above all, the three medalists cited luck as an important prerequisite for achievement. The world is filled with equally committed and equally smart physicists who don't win the Nobel Prize.

Topics specifically for ladies

Strickland, Ghez and L'Huillier are sometimes asked about their experiences as women in science and their views on diversity and equity in physics. They all emphasize the importance of diversity.

The three award winners recognized how necessary female role models were of their lives. To imagine that a profession as a physicist is even possible You must see individuals who appear like you on the sector.

They also mention the importance of a support network, especially for ladies. When you're feeling discouraged, it might probably be helpful to have a gaggle of individuals you trust and cheering you on.

The three women also speak about theirs Experience with balancing work and personal life. It's not at all times easy.

After a postdoctoral fellowship, Strickland left the standard academic path to change into a technician so she may very well be near her husband and lift a family. L'Huillier quit her job and moved from France to Sweden, where she was unemployed for some time. Ghez waited years to have children. There is not any consistent trajectory. But taking a break from research can provide you with latest perspective and inspiration for next steps.

They also speak about how diversity enriches research itself. So a team open to different perspectives is more creative. It's also more fun to work in.

These women noted that the culture for ladies in science has improved over the course of their careers, and so they are optimistic concerning the future. If you calculate the share of Nobel Prizes in Physics awarded to women within the last decade alone, about one in ten Nobel Prize winners were women. To me, this implies that things could actually be recuperating.

And possibly The Nobel Committee is looking into itno less than partially, possible gender inequalities of their processes. For example, the dearth of nominations from women And the influence that stereotypes have could play a task of their evaluations. So I await this yr’s announcement with great anticipation.

The Olympic Games are an event that may drive interest and recognition, not only for a selected sport or individual athlete, but additionally for a variety of collectibles. The global nature of the Olympic Games, the best way they convey fans of various sports together and attract casual and even non-sports fans – that's something that may drive demand.

Take basketball, for instance: The men’s gold medal game between the USA and France had a median of 19.5 million viewers within the USA alone, while the last NBA Finals average 11.3 million viewers. The women's gold medal match led to a draw 7.8 million viewers within the US (at 9:30 a.m. ET) and last 12 months’s WNBA finals Average 728,000While this sudden influx of latest attention can create a brief and immediate surge in interest that fades just as quickly, in some cases it might even be the inspiration for longer-term growth. It might be an introduction that creates recent fans and collectors.

With this in mind, let’s look back on the 2024 Olympic Games using eBay’s insights:

Athletes (and rappers) who saw a surge in collector interest

The most searched basketball players of the US team throughout the Olympic Games on eBay were LeBron James, Anthony Edwards And Stephanie Curry. James and Curry's spots there will not be surprising given their status as legends of the sport and their performances in big moments for Team USA, but that Edwards is being looked for at this level inside a marketplace (and not only on a more general interest platform like Google) is notable.

On the day Team USA defeated Serbia within the semifinals, Edwards' ungraded 202o Panini Prizm silver card (a preferred parallel in the preferred NBA set, which has a rather more favorable supply/demand balance than its loads of Prizm Base Rookie Card) has returned to the worth level it reached in the beginning of the NBA Western Conference Finals in May (around $320), when he was probably the greatest players of the postseason as much as that time. That's up from the sub-$200 level it dropped to in late June/early July. Edwards didn't have a standout performance within the Olympic tournament semifinals or finals, so there was one other drop, but the cardboard continues to be higher than the lows it hit after his NBA playoff exit. He'll must take one other step forward this season, nevertheless, and perform higher in key moments to proceed to drive collector interest in him.

For the ladies, probably the most searched US team players on eBay were: Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, Diana TaurasiAnd Kelsey Plum. Taurasi didn’t take part in the gold medal game and averaged just 1 point per game within the tournament, but won her sixth gold medal – a brand new record for the game. Noticeably absent from this group is Aja Wilsonwho was named the tournament MVP and can also be the clear favorite to win a 3rd WNBA MVP trophy this season. There have all the time been players whose accomplishments far exceeded collector interest, but here it looks like a generational talent/all-time star is seriously undervalued.

However, the Olympic Games gave a lift to the world of ladies's sports collecting. Katie Ledecky Sales increased throughout the Olympics, reaching a brand new high of $4,037 for his or her 2024 Topps Chrome Ledecky Legacy signed Superfraktor (a novel parallel, see picture below). Two Simone Biles tickets sold for greater than $2,000 each. Most impressive, nevertheless, was that two superfractors, an autograph And a patchfrom the 2024 Topps Chrome Olympic Set by Ilona Maherstar of the bronze-winning U.S. rugby team sold for $1,743 and $1,500 respectively – not removed from sales for Biles, a more established star in a sport that’s more popular within the United States.

Judging the long-term value of Olympic athletes in sports that don't annually generate mainstream interest within the U.S. is all the time tricky. Ledecky and Biles could do well, as the previous has probably the most Olympic gold medals amongst female athletes (nine) and the latter isn't far behind (seven), and each have a bigger cultural presence. Their legacies are assured. But unless rugby experiences a dramatic surge in popularity, it seems difficult for Maher to have the identical endurance. (However, monetary value is commonly not the first concern for collectors — especially in the event that they never intend to sell a selected item — and it's often impossible to attend for more buyer-friendly terms when unique items change into available.)

The US women’s soccer team won gold thanks partially to the trio of Sophia Smith, Trinity Rodman And Mallory Swanson (or “Triple Espresso”, as they called themselves), all of whom scored important goals and all of whom saw major eBay search spikes when they did so. Searches for Swanson increased 580 percent on eBay (compared to the previous week) after she scored the gold medal-winning goal against Brazil. Cards from the 2024 Topps Chrome Olympic set that Autographs from Smith and Swanson (pictured below) have attracted particular interest, with peak selling prices of $628 and $700 on August 18, per week after the tournament ended.

Among the finalists in men's tennis were some non-US athletes who also had large search spikes. After he won the gold medal, searches for Novak Djokovic rose by 450 percent in comparison with the previous week and searches for silver medalists Carlos Alcaraz rose 80 percent. These are two of the biggest names in an already popular sport, so the fact that Olympic success could drive a rise in market searches is evidence that the event is attracting a new, wider audience. With the US Open now underway and a newly released Topps Chrome Tennis is established, it is possible to maintain part of this interest.

The Olympics can also blur the already sometimes blurred lines between sports and non-sports collectibles. Snoop Dogg's personalized Olympic pins went viral, leading eBay users worldwide to search for “Snoop Dogg Pin,” nearly 140 times per hour on July 30 and 31. And with the 2028 Olympics going down in his hometown of Los Angeles, this will likely not be the last we hear of Snoop Dogg’s Olympic pins.

— ITF (@ITFTennis) July 29, 2024

Industry views

The athlete

The interest within the Snoop pin and Olympic pins generally is indicative of the range of collectibles which have gained popularity lately.

“Trading cards are obviously a huge part of it, but the interesting thing is that new categories emerge and sometimes these things disappear and sometimes they stick around,” eBay Vice President and General Manager of Global Collectibles Adam Ireland said last month throughout the National Sports Collectors Convention. He cited sealed vintage electronics and Type 1 Photographs as examples.

“Someone once told me that it's kind of like that 25-year window where you start to get nostalgic, and that's the point where people now have the money and they spend it on things that remind them of those happy childhood days,” he added, saying that they see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Merchandise is doing well because it now suits the time slot of older generations, while the franchise's recent movies and shows also attract a younger audience.

Trading card games that may appeal to that nostalgic appeal are also attracting a whole lot of interest. Ireland says he’s “super optimistic” about them. “Obviously (Disney) Lorcana has provided that area one other big boost, but Pokémon continues to be going strong, among the recent Magic: The Gathering releases have been really, really successful. … (Lorcana) and Disney collectible pinsa number of historical artifacts, toys, vinyl – there are only so many categories (within the collectibles space), but you discover that sports as a single subject takes up the most important portion.”

“King of Collectibles: The Goldin Touch,” the Netflix series about Goldin Auctions, which was recently acquired by eBay, is meant to assist increase interest in collectibles, in response to Ireland.

“Collecting is easy to think of as a niche area, but they've reached number four on the Netflix charts and that's going to bring more and more people into the hobby,” he said. “It's amazing how many people I've talked to and they've said, 'Oh, my wife saw the show and now she understands why I'm passionate about this stuff.' And from that perspective, I think it's just going to open up and democratize the whole thing.”