I was a clueless white kid at the time — now I’m a slightly less clueless white adult.

Ali confused the life out of me at the time . Why did he change his name to “some weird Muslim thing”? Why did he go to jail? What was his beef with white America?

Now I know the answers to all these questions. “I ain’t got no quarrel with them Viet Cong” was incomprehensible to me in the 60s, and completely obvious to me today.

I only disagree with one thing you wrote:

Eventually, Ali’s star faded from grace.

This is not true. Eventually, age and sickness took Ali, as it takes us all, but his star never fell. He was “The Greatest” all the way to the end, and beyond.