Recently, I was watching the Best Damn Top 50 Spectacular Plays and it got me obsessed with Top Ten lists. Naturally, I had to watch Who’s Number 1? and The Sports List afterwards, and yell at Summer Sanders when I disagreed. Now I’m hooked and I have been trying to think of unique top ten lists. With this list of the best sports casting calls of all time, I feel I’ve accomplished that (even if I could only think of eight worthy of the list).
Michael Ray Richardson was kicked out of the NBA for violating the substance abuse policy. He was a great player who had a great number of demons. A life dominated by addiction is always a tragedy but at some point everyone must face the consequences of their actions. Michael Ray Richardson did face those consequences. He lost a life that many can only dream of. Now he is back on the radar; this time, as shocking as it seems, as a coach. Not surprisingly, he’s in trouble again. Reading the headlines it would appear that he went John Rocker, tossing out a gay slur and providing some anti-Semitic commentary. In today’s world you don’t get away with saying things like that. Despite our pride in free speech there is nothing free about the speech of hate. Formal punishment of speech, even if it is hate, always rubs me the wrong way but I understand why leagues are so strict and sensitive on the topic. They are protecting a product that they are trying to make as inclusive as possible. I’m fine with a suspension for uttering a gay slur at a heckler. That kind of thing is unacceptable and should be addressed accordingly.
You know you love ’em. Somewhere deep inside yourself, in places you don’t like to talk about, there grows a strong and profound love of Duke basketball. I know, I know. There was a time when I too shared this shameful secret. I joined the groans that came with every Blue Devil win, year after year. I feigned disgust every time I saw Christian Laettner drop in that famous fade away. I cursed Coach K and made wild accusations of referee tampering and tournament committee bias with the rest of the Duke haters. Then, on one fine March evening, I realized that I liked the Dukies because of the way they focus on team basketball, the way they hustle on defense, and the way they always, always, ALWAYS win. It was that day that I stood up and embraced my inner Blue Devil, that little voice inside my head telling me what I already knew—I am a Duke fan.
When Greg Marshall walked out of the College of Charleston yesterday, he was the head coach of a Cougars team in disarray. On his way to start packing, he was the head coach of the Winthrop Eagles again. What happened on the road trip home is cause for speculation. Coach Marshall said that after talking to his wife, a Charleston native, Rock Hill was home to him. After what was said to be a one-hour phone conversation yesterday with C of C officials, Marshall was re-introduced as Winthrop’s head basketball coach.