Very Random...

I didn't really have enough material for a full post on either of the random incidents from this week, so this will probably be a really strange post.

Let me start with tonight's NHL All-Star Game. Hopefully everyone saw it? I wouldn't have seen it - or known it was on for that matter - except, I happen to be in Lansing MI, I had to go out to get food and Versus was on in the bar/restaurant. I look up at the screen and the game is getting ready to go into overtime. Okay, you say?

THE SCORE WAS TIED AT 11! FREAKING 11!

That is one goal every 2 minutes and 43 seconds. I understand that all-star games in professional sports do not generally replicate play during a regular season, but it should at least resemble the game in concept. 22 goals in 60 minutes? Really?

Oh, and to top it off, the game went a full overtime with no scoring and ended in a shootout. I simply don't have words to describe where the NHL is right now. Let's just all hope that the economic crisis swallows the Bettman abortion and I don't have to write about this anymore.

The other incident happened on Monday in Washington DC at a pre-inaugural party hosted by Stevie Wonder. LaRue Martin was holding court throughout the night and was clearly one of the most popular people in the room. Most of this is because he is 6'11" tall and is pretty good looking for a man in his late 50's.

Who is LaRue Martin? Glad you asked. Here are the first three sentences of his Wikipedia entry...

LaRue Martin (born March 30, 1950 in Chicago, Illinois) is a retired American professional basketball player. Martin was taken first overall by the National Basketball Association's (NBA) Portland Trail Blazers in 1972, drafted ahead of future Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo. Martin has been cited as the worst first overall draft pick in NBA history.

How's that for infamy! Oh, he was also drafted ahead of Julius Erving.

How big a bust was LaRue? He only played 4 seasons in the NBA, never averaging more than 7.0 points per game. In fact his best year came during a season when Bill Walton got hurt and he was pressed into service. He never averaged more than 17 minutes a game during his career. Period! Everyone talks about the other centers of Portland lore...Sam Bowie, Bill Walton, and now Greg Oden. But seriously, just go look at his numbers. THEY ARE ATROCIOUS!

I enjoyed this random encounter more than I can express. I didn't even know who he was until a family friend who also happens to be the mother of a current NBA player asked him who he was. And THAT was funny since the question was meant to be a joke!

It doesn't matter how often you encounter them. Professional athletes and former athletes never fail to entertain. They always believe that they are the most important person in the room. Even if someone like Stevie Wonder is also in the room.

Just ask Roger Clemons how it went when he testified in front of Congress. Or Michael Vick. Or Rae Carruth. Or Mike Tyson.

LaRue Martin isn't going to jail, nor did he do anything wrong. He just couldn't play basketball very well and...well, that's really it. At least I wrote about him.

Talent Wasted

A couple of small news items caught my eye over the last two days. One was funny, both were sad, and two things came immediately to mind. First, I am old. Really old. I am having to come to grips with that. Two, how did such immense talent get essentially wasted in the bodies of Derrick Coleman and Chris Webber? After all, both were heavily recruited prep stars in the Detroit area, both were #1 overall picks in their respective drafts, and both could be considered incredible disappointments.



The funny story can be found here. That's right, Derrick Coleman became the first Pro athlete to succumb to an injury during the television show Pros vs. Joes. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

I was a sophomore at Syracuse when DC arrived on campus with as much fanfare as any recruit that we had seen in recent memory. At 6'10", he could do it all! Absolutely one of Syracuse's most important recruits. From there, his career could be described as questionable. And I am not sure if that is a compliment or an insult. He simply didn't care. Ever! Just sleptwalked for seasons at time. Despite it all, DC lead Syracuse to the NCAA Championship game as a freshman, was NBA Rookie of the Year 1991, an All-Star in 1994, and averaged a double-double 5 times during his 15 year career. Despite all of that, he was considered one the the biggest busts in NBA history. Just a shame.


Chris Webber was a different sort of sad. It was noted yesterday that C-Webb retired after a 15 year NBA career that included the 1994 NBA Rookie of the Year award and 5 All-Star appearances. He had a respectable career, but certainly not on par with the hype and expectation of the 1991 High School Player of the Year and the leader of the most highly publicized recruiting class of all time, The Fab Five.

When Chris Webber arrived at the University of Michigan, he entered with a group of freshmen (Jalen Rose, Juwan Howard, Jimmy King and Ray Jackson) that was at the forefront of a cultural revolution in the sport. Fashion, trash talking, bravado, and arrogance would evolve into something that most purists thought barely resembled basketball. Forget the showtime Lakers or the 1990/1991 UNLV Rebels, the Michigan Wolverines' Fab Five were the next coming!

Forget the fact that they went to back to back NCAA national championship games as freshmen and sophomores, just look at the difference in the shorts players are wearing pre-1991 and what the Michigan players (specifically Jalen Rose, #5) were wearing as freshmen. Evolution from short shorts to what we see today is directly attributable to the Fab Five and their adoration of Michael Jordan.

It's a shame that both pro careers ended with so little appreciation given the promise of both throughout their high school and college careers. It just makes me sad.

Oh, and read the book Fab Five by Mitch Album. It is phenomenal.