Never Had A Chance!

I wish there was a simple way to describe my obsession and utter passion for sports and competition.  In creating this sports blog I wanted to open up with the perfect article that would explain the depth of this obsession. The traditional sports fan directs their obsession with a particular team or teams. I wasn’t fortunate enough to grow up in a sports obsessed town like Chicago, New York, or Philadelphia.  I grew up in Atlanta and passion is not something you would use to describe your typical Atlanta sports fan.  That being said I developed an affinity for competition and learned to love the big moments in sports and the players who constantly rose to the occasion of being great.  What made some players rise to the occasion of the big moment while others wilted under the pressure?  These moments and these moments alone is why I have never been truly devoted to one particular team (always root for Atlanta sports) but to the players who:

#1 plays the game the right way.

#2 Deliver in the clutch.

#3 Devoted to winning during competition and in everyday life.

The first moment….I remember it so clear……..November 23, 1984.  I remember things all the way down to the small exact details.  We were visiting family in Memphis for thanksgiving, there was snow on the ground and we were watching the game at my Aunt’s apartment on the 2^nd floor.  I was just barely 7 years old and was sitting down to watch a college football game with my dad. If you captured it in art work I guess it was a modern day Norman Rockwell ish type setting where a father and his son prepare to enjoy a great American tradition. All that was missing was a Ice cold Coca Cola and apple pie.  My first sports memory just happened to be one of the greatest games of all time! The setting was Miami, Florida. The stadium was the historic Orange Bowl, the Boston College Eagles vs. the Miami Hurricanes.  My dad was pulling for Boston College and if you knew anything about my old man it was the perfect match a team that played hard, conservative, clean cut, precise, without flash and bravado, they just got the job done.  BC was ranked #10 and was led by a under sized QB named Doug Flutie who played much bigger than his size.  On the other hand I was pulling for the Miami Hurricanes ranked #12, brash, and in your face, perceivably the exact opposite of what BC represented.  Not really old enough to know what was going on I can only explain it today as just liking their swagger and confidence.  It ends up being ironic because I always enjoy a championship swagger but as an actual participant in athletics my style was more like the BC Eagles.

In sports there always has to be an underlying story.  Whether it be David vs. Goliath or white hat vs. black hat like in this case the Catholic kids from Boston vs. urban youth from south Florida roles must be assigned.  I have to assume if you are reading this article you are a sports fan and know how this tale ends.  Flutie throws a 63 yard hail mary as time expires against a 30mph wind to win the game.  Not knowing back in 1984 what the implications would be bowl games, championships, pro contracts…..the only thing I knew is that I was hooked! When was the next game? For a young 7 year old that was the most exciting thing I had ever seen, the damage was done….I couldn’t turn back!

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Mid Major?

INDIANAPOLIS — The hottest commodity in coaching looks like he’s 17 years old but coaches like Adolph Rupp. The ascension of Brad Stevens from boy wonder to ass kicker didn’t begin this year. It’s been a long tale in the making. Here’s a story that exemplifies his studliness.

Two years ago, Stevens’ Butler team was shooting poorly in the first half against Ohio State. At halftime, Stevens gathered his team close and, in an effort to get them to relax, pulled one of the great coaching stunts you’ll ever hear.

He began talking about the law of averages and how those averages always balance out. Then Stevens took a trash can that was in the locker room and put it within easy striking distance of his players who were huddled around him. Each of the players was instructed to ball up a piece of paper and shoot it into the can.

They did. The shots rolled in easily. See, he was telling them, you can do this.

Butler’s shooting improved in the second half and the Bulldogs lost by just three points to an Ohio State team that had won 11 in row.

A turning point in the Butler story? Not really. A window into Stevens’ great potential? Definitely.

Prodigy is the word that’s used the most to describe Stevens, just 33, and it’s not an overstatement. Down went Boeheim. Down went Izzo, and all the while Stevens looks like Shia LaBeouf, the boy hero from the Transformer movies.

“They write books,” said Stevens when asked about the great coaches he has beaten, “and I get to read ‘em.”

Stevens is so young looking, a security guard recently mistook him for a player. He was asked by a reporter if he has ever been carded. “I don’t have time to go anyplace that cards you,” he joked.

The success has arrived and now comes the really difficult part for Stevens, no matter what happens in the title game Monday against Duke. Once you build a palace on the lake, do you stay, or do you leave for bigger palaces and bigger lakes?

Because the wad of cash is coming. Someone is going to offer Stevens a Brinks truck and the key to a city to lure him away. Millions and millions will assuredly soon be dangled.

The future looks bright, but this is where Stevens must also be smart and extremely careful. The trail of coaches who’ve departed small successful programs for larger ones only to disappear in the coaching Bermuda Triangle is long.

Now Stevens will likely get an offer that could drastically increase his sub-$400,000 salary, which is good money to normal folks but a pittance in big-time coaching.

Going elsewhere also typically leads to better facilities, and the fact Butler doesn’t have one dedicated to basketball, like many top programs, is something that slightly irks him.

Brad Stevens’ intensity has translated into success for Butler this season. (Getty Images)

“We don’t have an athletic dorm,” he said. “There’s a freshman dorm, a sophomore dorm, an all-female dorm, junior apartments, and seniors can live off campus. And then from a practice facility standpoint, we’ve done some nice minor tweaks to our auxiliary gym that is in the inside of Hinkle, but there is no real practice facility. We practice on the floor at Hinkle Fieldhouse 99.9 percent of the time.”

Yet there’s a risk in reaching for bigger money and better surroundings. Go for the cash, and Stevens could end up being fired three years later at a coaching outpost that doesn’t have as good a chance to win as Butler. Stay and he could possibly make Butler into a great power.

There’s no reason Butler can’t be a top 10 program every year. No reason at all now.

It’s also one thing to recruit at Butler where expectations are low but another to recruit at a Pac-10 or Big East school.

Be smart, Brad. Be smart.

Stevens seems to understand this. At least, for now he does.

“I understand why people build practice facilities,” Stevens said. “I understand why you want to try to be able to compete with who you’re recruiting against. What Butler is, Butler is a great school. We’re in a great city. We have a niche from the standpoint of basketball with a good tradition of basketball and a fieldhouse that really embraces the history of the game. So we’re very unique. I think being unique is a good thing, too. I think Butler, certainly you always want to improve the facilities you have. We need to do that. There’s no question about that.

“But we also need to remember who we are. I think that’s why we’re here, because we’ve got unselfish guys. They have a great passion for history, tradition, team, things like that. So we’ve been able to recruit to that. We’ve been fortunate to get a couple of guys that could probably play anywhere in the country. Obviously that helps you out in a lot of ways.”

Stevens isn’t your typical young coach. There’s not a lot of stupid there. Or regrets.

But if he leaves this newly constructed basketball paradise, there might be both.

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This Week In Sports

This week in sports was packed full of great story lines and drama that could fill an entire month.  I have to start with opening day in baseball.  I haven’t been a real baseball fan since I was 12 years old but for some reason every year I get excited for opening day.  I watch baseball for a month and then pick it back up in September with the exception of every Red Sox vs. Yankees games.  I’m afraid this year may be a little different.  For years I have heard the fuss about fantasy baseball and this year I decided to see what the fuss was all about. HUGE MISTAKE! I am ultra competitive so competitive that I won’t let my 5 year old beat me in our daily race from the kitchen to the bedroom. LOL, I know I know it’s a sickness I’m dealing with day by day.  Even crazier than that she recently started cheating by taking a head start, she now gets a few wins in every week.  She has mastered the technique of blocking the steps so I can’t pass her on the way up.  The best part of the story is the warm fuzzy pride I felt when she cheated to win.  Somebody later helped me realize that it was wrong and I was turning her into me. LOL!  Whatever!  We did an auto draft so you get who you get.  Well as fate would have it I have the worst team imaginable (not really) but my roster is filled with guys who come out the gates slow lead by Mark Teixeira and Michael Young.  My team is batting under .200 and Carlos Zambrano’s opening day in the ATL killed my ERA and WHIP.  Bottom line is that one week into fantasy baseball I am consumed and there may be no turning back; I watched every game that has come on TV and am constantly tracking the ticker.  It’s got a hold of me and I think I need counseling!

Monday’s college basketball championship was an instant classic.  It matched a traditional powerhouse in Duke vs. Butler a mid major scrappy group a guys who played some of the best defense I had seen all year.  The most compelling story in sports is David vs. Goliath, often times we are left unsatisfied because rarely does David step up to the challenge.  On several occasions Duke started to pull ahead and the sentiment by many was that Duke was just too much for the smaller Butler squad but every single time this group of scrappy and talented ball players fought back to keep the game close.  Eventually Butler would lose by missing a half court heave at the buzzer but would win everyone’s respect for showing up in the big game.

The week concluded with a memorable Masters.  There story lines were endless.  Tiger Wood’s return to competition, turning back the clock of Couples and Watson, Lee Westwood’s attempt to breakthrough with a major, or Mickelson’s incredible eagle, eagle, par on Saturday’s back 9.  The story had a feel good ending with Phil Mickelson (The people’s champ) winning an emotional 3^rd green jacket.  The early week was dominated by talk of Tiger and the scandal.  When it was all said and done the Anti-Tiger won.  Mickelson took time off the tour last year to support his wife and mothers battle with breast cancer.  The weekend ended the only way it could have with the focus not on scandal and infidelity but with Mickelson the sentimental favorite winning his 3^rd masters.  Mickelson clearly stands out as the golfer the people should be looking up too.

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The Greatest Words In Sports “GAME 7″

First let me preface this article with this statement, “I am neither a Lakers nor a Celtics fan……at all!”  You can search forever and won’t find many sports fans more passionate or generally more interested in competition of any kind.  In case you are not aware the greatest words in sports have been uttered all day, “Game 7”.  For most tonight’s Game 7 will determine the NBA champion and a few months from now most won’t speak much about it or recall the key moments in the game.  But for the true sports enthusiasts Game 7 is where legends are made.  In case you didn’t know it’s the difference between getting your jersey retired and having a statue out front of the arena.  The true excitement behind game 7’s isn’t the actual game it’s how great players react to the moment.  The average response is to play tight, even a little scared but legends of the game embrace the moment and never fail to rise to the occasion.  Even as a young man I would occasionally wonder what made these players zero in on that moment while others crumbled under the pressure.  Be sure to pay attention tonight watch who gets caught in the headlights and who rises to the occasion.  In all honesty there are only two players in the game tonight who can truly play these roles, obviously Kobe and I say Paul Pierce. Hear me out first; I know dude is a cry baby and a drama queen.  I will never forget an elimination game he played 7 or 8 years ago before the game they interviewed Pierce, who said he would die before he let the Celtics lose, then proceeded to go out and torch AI and Philly for 48 points and at that moment I respected his game.  If the Celtics have any chance for victory tonight Pierce has to carry them, can he deliver in the clutch? I don’t know? But a big game and a victory tonight puts him on another level and in a different conversation!  I’m going to leave you with the same thing I told my buddy Mike as we walked into Yankee Stadium 2003 for game 7 of the ALCS, Pedro vs. The Rocket!  “I really don’t care who wins I just want to see a classic!”  That night we saw (in my opinion) the greatest Game 7 of all time it ended with Aaron Boone hitting a walk off home run in the 11^th inning and Boston fans walked out of Yankee Stadium shocked and sick to their stomach……oh so close.  For some reason I feel those same Boston fans will be reliving that moment tonight!  Enjoy the game!  If you are a sports enthusiast and have anything to say join the fan page so we can hear what you have to say!

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