NBA CHAMPION CROWNED, AGAIN

Becoming an NBA champion is a lifelong goal for every basketball player in the world.

The best want to play the best, beat the best, to tell themselves they’re good enough.

It’s that along with contracts and money and fame.

All of that goes along the wayside when you stop playing in ninth grade like me, or in high school.

Do I blame the coaches that I didn’t become a star, a substitute, or even a benchwarmer?

Noooooo, but . . .

At a difficult time I had to evaluate my sports future, as in did I want to play anything and keep losing the way we did?

I surveyed the coaching work in high school and discovered a program that led the way with a widely recognized coach sending guys to big tournaments and then college.

He had guys who made the teams that went to Junior World Championships, national championships, state champs, and district champs.

One high school all-star team went to Junior Nationals and won the team title.

Looking back, I’m amazed at the amount of talent packed into the basement of an old gym that’s since been torn down.

 

The Funny Thing About Sports

When we’re young we think things will always be the way they’ve always been.

In my case the Boston Celtics would always win, the UCLA Bruins would always win.

Those two programs ran the Sixties in the pros and college.

They were teams with direction, with purpose, and had the same coaches year after year with new stars rising to the occasion.

I remember when John Havlicek was a Sixth Man, replaced by Don Nelson when he became a starter.

I remember when Lew Alcindor was the latest superstar in college.

How would young Lew have done against the latest lanky all-everything in Wemby?

What I can tell for certain is how good it feels holding that trophy. It means more to those on the winning team, but I felt something.

I’ve Held Trophies Before

Trophies are an icon of achievement.

The team gets the trophy, the players get rings.

I like the hockey tradition of letting players take the Stanley Cup home with them.

Click on the header picture to see the Stanley Cup in Portland.

Guys get all wound up about trophies. They hear about them all their lives and miss them when they get close.

I heard about a trophy that I wanted.

The top coach in high school was the wrestling coach.

He was also the coach of the junior national greco-roman wrestling team.

With that in mind I set my sights.

 

PS:

With the proper teacher and a willing student, good things can happen.

 

PSS:

When you get some results, share them with the people who helped.

What we learned from last night’s NBA Championship final is you don’t have to be seven foot four inches to win it all.