Basketball – Regular Guy

Book Review: The Boys Are Back

brian — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 14:30:21 +0000

Growing up a sports-obsessed teen in the early 1980s, I have distinct memories of the Dunbar basketball team. I never saw them play in person, but I read dozens of stories about them (Baltimore had three daily papers back then, and I read each sports section cover to cover) and watched them on the news.

I knew about how the Poets could get the city’s best players to transfer in because of the schools dental studies program. I knew how Reggie Lewis had to swallow pride and be the sixth man. I knew how people had to see Muggsy Bogues in action to believe him.

That’s why I snapped up The Boys of Dunbar: A Story of Love, Hope, and Basketball by Alejandro Danois recently. The book takes readers through Dunbar’s 1981-82 season, the one that introduced them to basketball fans across the country. They had already cemented their iconic status in Baltimore with their battles with Calvert Hall (my high school’s rival, so I always took Dunbar’s side) before this season, but Bob Wade’s team hit the road to make even more people realize how good East Baltimore could play.

I sailed through the book. They have really engaging anecdotes from the key figures on the team, spelling out the challenges the players faced both off the court and as part of a super team coached by a disciplinarian like Wade. While the story is essentially an uplifting one, punches are not pulled as the players – now all successful adults – cop to the teenage hijinks that took place during the season.

I really enjoyed reading some of the inside baseball that I did not know. For instance, I had no idea that Lewis – who died in 1993 from a congenital heart problem that he likely knew about, but hid from people – transferred to Dunbar for the ’81-82 season after he was cut as a sophomore from the team at Patterson High School. Imagine a player confident enough to say, “I didn’t make that team so I am going to the best team in the city to show them!”

Bogues also dealt with issues from his previous school. An administrative error kept him from enrolling at Dunbar in 1980, leaving him at Southern High School with a lot of anger. His arrival at Dunbar the next year filled the gap Wade thinks kept the team from upsetting Calvert Hall the previous year. The book does a great job showing the family issues Bogues had to deal with and how the used the way people reacted to his 5-foot-3 frame as fuel to become a game changer.

We also learn about personal issues David Wingate carried on his shoulders during the season and how players from competing recreation centers around the city came together to prove that Dunbar could rise to the top.

If I have any quibble, it comes with the parts where Danois writes about the Dunbar-Calvert Hall rivalry. First off, he refers to them as Calvert on more than one occasion. That never happens. They are Calvert Hall. Calvert is a high school in southern Maryland. Secondly, while he gets the part about Calvert Hall ducking Dunbar correct, he doesn’t delve into the back story as to why that mattered in Baltimore.

Public school sports are run in Maryland are run by a state-affiliated agency – the Maryland Public Secondary Schools Athletic Association (MPSSAA). This is the group that runs state championship events.

However, up until 1994, Baltimore City schools did not belong to the MPSSAA. They were part of the Maryland Scholastic Association, a sports organization comprised of city schools and area Catholic and private schools. I grew up watching (and later competing in) MSA sports where kids from the city brushed shoulders with kids living in mansions. It was a pretty unique arrangement that provided an awesome experience.

The only exception was basketball. Back in the 1970s, the Catholic schools pulled out of the MSA basketball competition because of some controversial games, including one involving Dunbar and Mt. St. Joe (where all my brothers attended school). The Catholic League formed in 1972, taking away regular-season basketball matchups between schools like Dunbar and Calvert Hall.

So the way Calvert Hall coach Mark Amatucci ducked Dunbar had even more meaning when the people in Baltimore knew that those two schools had the chance to compete alongside each other in many other sports. This wasn’t just about a good Catholic school ducking a good public school. This was about the Catholic schools not wanting to play the city schools in basketball at all.

I think adding in that flavor and maybe exposing the rift between the (mostly black) city schools and (mostly white, except for some athletes) Catholic schools would have helped explain why not getting a chance to play Calvert Hall rankled the Dunbar folks so much. Otherwise, this is a great look at a pretty special time in Baltimore sports history.

Book Review: Man in the Middle

brian — Sat, 20 Aug 2011 13:37:23 +0000

My sister-in-law lent me this at the beach because I had mentioned the fascinating story of John Amaechi previously. He does have a pretty unique background – a British basketball player who played at Penn State, not known for its hoops prowress, and put together a solid NBA career after bouncing around European leagues.

Oh, and he’s the first former NBA player to come out of the closet.

The book, which I read in record time because it maintains the simplicity of all sports memoirs, taught me a lot about John Amaechi, but the most important thing I learned is the thing which made the book a chore to finish.

He finds himself way more fascinating than anyone reading his story does. I know he’s smart and talented and managed to fool so many people during his NBA career, but he continually reminds us how he’s above his fellow competitors because of his uniqueness.

This has nothing to do with his sexuality. In fact, those are the most engaging and funny parts of the book. He does a great job talking about the ease and difficulty of being a closeted gay man in the NBA. You have to laugh when he discusses the primping and fashion concern of his teammates and thinks “And I’m the gay one?” I also loved how he used his Britishness to fend off questioning from people who had an inkling about his secret.

It’s his disdain for his profession and its relative lack of importance in his overall life that made me roll my eyes. I’m not so naive to think that there aren’t guys who simply play pro sports because that’s what they do best and making money is way more important than winning and losing. I just don’t need John Amaechi reminding me over and over again how he’s above the people who live and die by the final score, especially his coaches.

In the end, I’, glad I read the book because it stripped off some of the veneer f a guy who did something courageous. He’s still pretty fascinating, but just as flawed as the people he criticizes. He just doesn’t realize how.

Getting Old Stinks

brian — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:55:14 +0000

I had a decision to make, a decision which would have wide-ranging implications.

For a number of reasons, I had committed to paying close attention to the NBA Finals. I have slowly drifted toward pro hoops over the past few years. The quality of play combined with some really dramatic storylines in the playoffs had me hooked.

I made it through Game One with no problem. Well, that’s not completely true. The game didn’t start until 9 p.m. and went right down to the wire so I didn’t get to bed until around midnight. I generally get up for work sometime between 5 and 6 a.m.

Did I mention I had a couple of beers while watching that game?

They played the next game two nights later. I had managed to get decent sleep the night between games, but didn’t quite feel completely back to normal.

When the game tipped off, I gave in to my baser instincts. This was a Thursday night. I convinced myself I could stay up late, fight my way through work on Friday, and then catch up on my sleep over the weekend. They didn’t play another game until Sunday. I could pull this off.

I kept telling myself all of this bunk knowing full well I would regret the decision for several days. I would possibly give up staying up late on Friday and Saturday night for this basketball game. I didn’t know if it made sense.

Then I saw my window. Dwayne Wade hit a big shot and celebrated. The Miami Heat had gone up by 15 with seven minutes (in basketball time) left. I could sneak in a good 30-60 minutes sleep more than I had expected if I gave up on the game now.

But this was the NBA Finals. Weird stuff happens all the time. But this lead seemed almost insurmountable so I gave up and went to bed early. Of course, you know what happened even if you don’t care about basketball and didn’t follow the finals.

Dallas came back and scored a miraculous win. I woke up fairly refreshed on Friday, but beaten down by that decision when I saw all my friends talking about it online.

I hate getting old.

One of my superpowers has always been the ability to trade sleep for fun. If I knew I had some time coming up where I could catch a nap or take advantage of a weekend morning, I had no problem staying up late multiple nights with work looming.

Lately, I have found this harder and harder, especially if I want to have a drink or two while watching whatever game has my attention. I can usually pull it off one night a week, but if I want to stay up two nights, I pretty much need to schedule a day off or something to make sure I can function properly.

The timing really stinks because, as my daughter gets older, I actually have time to pay attention to more things, but my body won’t cooperate as much as I would like.

Did I mention that I hate getting old?

It Was Madness

brian — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 20:39:39 +0000

I took off last Thursday and Friday to watch the first two days of March Madness along with the NCAA wrestling tournament. That’s why blogging has been light. Oh, and because I’m a master procrastinator. A few tidbits from my long weekend:

The coffee maker broke. More on this in next week’s column. Short version – I wimped out on buying a Keurig or similar machine
Thanks to play rehearsals both nights during the week, I did not drink during the day. I know some of you are quite shocked at that.
I actually did OK in my brackets. I’m still in the hunt to win at least one. We’ll see how that goes this weekend.
The way they scheduled the games on Sunday absolutely sucked. Most of them were in the evening. I had to return to work and needed to go to bed at a decent hour one night during the weekend.
I finally figured out how to use the “Favorite Channel” on my remote because there was no way I was remembering what numbers I needed to press for TruTV and the HD feeds for TBS, TNT and CBS.
Abstaining from meat on a Friday during Lent is a lot harder when you’re home alone watching sports. Thankfully, pretzels and peanuts do a pretty good job at satisfying chicken wing cravings.
Between all the games, I also managed to finish Season 1 of Party Down on Netflix and win the PGA Championship in Tiger Woods on the Wii.
My wife did not leave me. That’s the best achievement of all, I think.

Pacing Myself

brian — Mon, 03 Jan 2011 14:29:41 +0000

When I found out last year that I had to travel to Indianapolis for business for a few days, I immediately began to make plans. I knew some sporting event had to fit into my schedule over the four days in November for my trip.

The Colts were out of town, but that didn’t matter much because I had to leave on a Sunday anyway. Indy doesn’t have a minor-league hockey team. They do have a junior-level team, but their rink was not downtown near my hotel (I wouldn’t have a car) so I didn’t even check to see if they played when I was in town.

My first choice of diversion was the Butler men’s basketball team. I really wanted to see a game in Hinkle Coliseum, where they filmed final game of “Hoosiers” The Bulldogs’ run to the NCAA final last season also made them appealing, but their one home game during my stay did not fit into my schedule.

That left the Indiana Pacers. I didn’t see them as a fall back. I just wondered if I could manage to find a ticket in the price range I wanted without having to sit in the nose bleeds. Luckily, the Pacers played twice during my visit, giving me a really good chance of seeing a game.

As it worked out, I ended up going to both. I’m not the biggest NBA fan, but found the first experience pretty exciting. Of course, it helped that I scored a ticket in the club level for $30 (my maximum) and spent the entire game watching from the restaurant in that level. They had a row of seats which looked out onto the court above one baseline. I had a fantastic view of Blake Griffin since the Clippers were in town.

The restaurant had a really good buffet (for another $30) and a much better beer selection than you would find in the seats. I never considered going to my section because of the great view and atmosphere in the restaurant.

Two nights later, I scored a $20 seat in the middle level, actually in the section below where I ate and watched the previous game. The Orlando Magic put up a much better fight than the Clippers did, but I still bailed early to go enjoy some other parts of Indianapolis.

I know the NBA has lots of problems, but I can see why it still resonates with many people. I have slowly come to re-discover the league thanks to Bill Simmons’ ESPN podcasts, and these games made me realize how fun the league can be.

A New Kind of March Madness

brian — Thu, 01 Apr 2010 19:39:01 +0000

I think everyone who went to college had a rich buddy who never listened to anyone. He had enough money to make his mistakes negligible. Wreck a car? Dad will get him a new one. Trash his apartment during a party? Ask Mom for money for something else and use it to re-furnish. No decision required much thought because the funds kept coming in.

Right now, the NCAA is that arrogant rich guy not thinking of what might happen next week. If you haven’t heard, the college sports mafia will probably expand the men’s basketball tournament to 96 teams next year. You think picking the first round in your bracket was hard with 64 teams, just wait.

I use the rich kid analysis with this is because they don’t have this idea on the table because of some hue and cry for more games or some mandate from the fans. The NCAA can opt out of its TV contract with CBS after this year’s tournament, and they think that adding more teams will get them more money from whoever televises the 2011 tournament. Since they signed an 11-year, $6 billion (yeah, billion) deal the last time around, you can see why they need to scheme to make every penny they can. Poor guys must be starving.

The whole idea stinks. No one wants this except the people running the NCAA, who want to squeeze more money out of a bidding war between CBS and ESPN?ABC, and the coaches and presidents at Division I schools who will have an easier chance to brag that their team made the tournament.

I appreciate that the money from events like this one plays a critical role in funding so many other NCAA activities. So many athletes in so-called minor sports get a chance to chase their dreams because of the success of March Madness. But don’t make the tournament a joke just to squeeze a few extra pennies from the networks.

If you need money, perhaps there’s a chance to establish a post-season tournament in a sport which could bring in enough revenue to convince officials that the 65-team basketball tournament does not need to change. If I could only think of a wildly popular sport with huge fan and television interest that does not have a tournament even though pretty much everyone who watches it wants the NCAA to add an official championship.

I’m drawing a blank. Anyone have any ideas?

A New Holiday

brian — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 12:58:49 +0000

We have a crisis on our hands in America, people. We need to rise up together and make things right.
Everywhere I look, I see people arguing about all sorts of things. No one can agree on health care or national defense or how to deal with our economic problems. Everyone thinks they have the solution, but they don’t want to even think about listening to someone else’s ideas.

Far too often, we turn a blind eye to the many things that can unite us instead of tear us apart. One of those opportunities is staring us right in the face.

The NCAA Basketball Tournament starts on Thursday.

Our government gives us so many opportunities to honor our past. We get off for Independence Day and Memorial Day and Labor Day.

I don’t think we need to stop celebrating those days, but I wish we could find a way to focus on the future. Like giving everyone off on the first two afternoons of the big tournament.

Face it, we are getting bombarded by stories about how much businesses will lose in productivity on the two weekdays when games take place during work hours. With all the games available online, many fans have had a harder time staying focused on work.

So let’s give the people what they want and just shut everything down at noon on Thursday. We can all get back together on Friday morning, but when the first game tips off, we need to pat each other on the back and head to the nearest television to do our civic duty.

Some people might say that this flies in the face of the work ethic which built America. But what about the ease of distraction which sustains America? Sure, our fathers and grandfathers worked hard. We’re better known for debating Kate Gosselin’s hair instead of the dirt under our fingernails.

Other people might say that our precarious economic position makes it impossible to stop working for something as trivial as a basketball tournament. I say we need to use one situation to better the other.

Let’s have one massive bracket pool with some of the proceeds going to improving our economic condition. Lots of people need work, so let’s hire them to run this big pool.

Using gambling to bolster the economy will certainly offend the sensibilities of some, but this can be a one-shot deal. Three weeks of filling out brackets, circling winners and crossing out losers. That’s the most patriotic solution to our problems I can think of.

Just think, instead of arguing over health care legislation, we will debate whether Gonzaga deserved such a good seed after choking in their conference championship. The battles over the wisdom of stimulus funding will be replaced by in-depth discussion of the RPI formula used by the seeding committee. The mid-term elections will disappear from our minds as we evaluate what bubble teams lost out.

With so much division in our land, we need something to really bring us together. March Madness can do that. Plus, we all get to share how much we hate Duke. That’s got to do something for our national morale.

Greatest Sports Day of the Year

brian — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 12:41:49 +0000

Today is an embarrassment of riches for sports fans. It really is such a wonderful day to be alive.

Of course, March Madness starts today. I am in four pools this year. I picked my teams kind of randomly so it’s not like I need one or two things to happen in order to come out on top. I just hope to be competitive this year and maybe pull out some winnings in the end.

I hardly watch college hoops anymore, mainly because of the undisciplined play I see whenever I turn on a game. I’ll catch bits and pieces here, but the poor attempts to run and gun frustrate me all too often and I lose interest. That all changes today when the first game tips off.

But the glory of today’s sports does not begin and end with the “Road to the Final Four.” About half an hour before the first game tips off, the NCAA Wrestling Championships will begin in St. Louis.

This won’t have the national interest of March madness, but I personally find it just as interesting. I have attended two full NCAA tournaments and the twists and turns over those three days can consume me. Will Gregor Gillespie recover from a horrible showing in the EWL finals? Will Troy Nickerson redeem himself from injury or Paul Donoahoe recover from shame at 125? Can anyone go three periods with Brent Metcalf? I will pore over these brackets just as much as the ones that can make me money.

And if all that isn’t enough, Major League Soccer starts its season tonight as the new team in Seattle kicks off against the New York Red Bulls. With kickoff around 9:30 or so, that gives time to catch The Office and go downstairs to flip between that game and the late hoops games.

What a country.

The Real March Madness

brian — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:41:14 +0000

This week, people across the country will fill out brackets, maybe throw $5 or $10 into the hat and watch the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament with great interest. Office workers who have little to talk about at other times will commiserate over why someone was seeded 12th and the difficulty at paying attention to their work on Thursday and Friday this week.

Every year, experts talk about how this week drains productivity from offices across the country because March Madness occupies the attention of so many people. I can’t imagine what will happen next year when people will have one more reason to get distracted.

Sometime soon, Delaware Gov. Jack Markell will likely unveil his plans for sports betting in the First State. An obscure law allows the state (along with Montana and Oregon) to join Nevada in offering bets on sports. Markell’s plans may allow people to place bets in sports bars along with the existing racinos across the state.

This is one of those times when I am proud to be an American. In fact, I want to reserve a seat at a bar in Delaware for this time next year.

Sure, the plan calls for all bets to be parlay bets, which means you have to bet on multiple games and win all of them in order to cash out. That could make other events a little less fun since the odds are worse, but parlays are perfect for March Madness, when the first two days of the tournament each feature 16 games. Can you imagine the betting possibilities?

I just hope I can survive this year with nothing but a few brackets to follow.

Now This is Some Bull

brian — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 19:03:49 +0000

My daughter told me something last night that i simply could not believe. Daylight Savings Time starts on Sunday. Yep. The new law from last year or whenever pushed the date to the second Sunday in march. I hadn’t realized that was the date and totally didn’t notice that the second Sunday was so early.

I’m not one of those people who totally hates Daylight Savings Time, but this is ridiculously early. There is no way we should be springing forward on March 8, especially when you consider that the NCAA Basketball Tournament does not start until March 12.

That’s right – Daylight Savings Time precedes March Madness. That’s some bull right there. I think President Obama needs to stop this trend now.