April 7, 2009
a little english off the backboard
4/7/09
Timelapse: Franklin Street after the victory from The Daily Tar Heel on Vimeo.
I've treaded the ground so many times about why I think basketball is actually important for my greater life - in terms of metaphor, religion, poetry, inspiration and brotherhood - that I fear wearing a path in the carpet. I always feel a responsibility to readers who don't understand why it means so much for five guys to put a ball through an iron hoop, or are turned off by the wahoo-redneck-tribalism that usually accompanies the undying love of a sports team. Hell, I look at Alabama tailgaters, or rabid Broncos fans, or any team from Florida and feel the same way.
So I won't trot out my usual effusive sophistry - I'll let my brother Sean do it! He wrote this email last night, and I hope he doesn't mind if I reprint it here:
***
I said, after the LSU game, that we proved we had what it takes, but...
WHAT?
Is there any comparison? The way this team played was so utterly
inspiring. This is a life-lesson team, this is a series of games that
you can *learn* some shit from. I remember when I first became a heels
fan (way after you guys did, I'm sure, and I have no defense for that
except to say, I wasted my late teens learning how to be an artist,
and only got on board once Ian wouldn't let me go to college anywhere
else...) we would watch games, and I remember the satisfaction of
knowing we were doing it "right".
Whoever we were playing, we would win, because we were doing it right.
They'd go on a run, and Ian would say, "everyone goes on a run, don't
worry about it, Dean knows what he's doing..." And sure, some asshole
would go nuts and drop 40 on us because he was exorcising demons, and
it was almost as if Dean was saying "we might lose this game, but this
kid's gonna walk away feeling better about his life. That's part of
the game, we're not gonna double him five feet from the three point
line - We're gonna play the right way. Period."
When you're a Carolina fan, you have automatic reactions to stuff. Ty
jacks up a three early in the shot clock, half way through the second
half, and we're up by 20. Everyone in the room said, "We didn't need
that." The scrub runs the whole floor and tries to score in the final
seconds instead of passing up to a Senior, and that's one of the
things we remember. Because we're playing right, in the moments when
we're not playing right, we notice.
The way this team finished, you wonder how we lost a game all year.
But maybe that's the lesson. We don't need to win every game, in life.
This was just amazing, amazing, amazing. Every team, we just got the
car to the best speed we could, and then we started working on our
mileage. Never cruise, never take your eye off the road, but don't
feel like you have to gun it every time some jerk in a pimp-mobile
comes by. How many dunks did we have last night? One? I only remember
Wayne on a break away, other than that, we were like a kettle drum
that didn't need a tuning key.
I wish I had enjoyed it even more, this season. I wish I had watched
knowing this was one of the best teams we'd ever have. 101-14 over
three years? Is that right? The best stretch in the history of
Carolina.
This team won, not in the way that sports teams normally win, but in
the way that science moves forward, one low-drama discovery at a time.
It almost made sense that Ginyard was wearing a tie, it was as if the
playing of the game was as important as the mind-set. Every game in
the tournament felt like surgery, and when the last game came around,
we were so good at it that a life-threatening procedure felt workaday.
I'm elated. I'm sated. This was just wonderful.
***
Vince, Julius, Makhtar and Antawn at the game - oh for chrissake, forgive Makhtar already, that shit is AWESOME
"Ty jacks up a three early in the shot clock, half way through the second half, and we're up by 20. Everyone in the room said, "We didn't need that." The scrub runs the whole floor and tries to score in the final seconds instead of passing up to a Senior, and that's one of the things we remember."
Absolutely! To Ty: "Oh, come on. Run the clock down." To the scrub: "Get the ball to Copeland! He's ahead on the break!"
I'm not forgiving Makhtar just yet, but that helps. :) The reactions of the other three are the best.
Love Sean's take. I am just so happy for this team.
We were shouting for pass to Copeland, too. But, when I watched the game again at breakfast the next day, it looked like it might of been a tougher pass to make for a Campbell vs. even Drew. Maybe he was scared he'd turn it over, but dude...at least make the layup. I would have loved a Copeland jam as an exclamation point. However, if I had my one minute in that game, I might have taken 6 shots to get in the box score.
What was one of my favorite plays was Bobby's layup and his father's excitement when the camera showed his family after it. I could only imagine the joy watching my kid score in a national championship game, especially given Bobby's road. Once again, watching it the next morning, I saw Danny also on the break, and he started to slow up and put his arm out as if to hold back Wayne. Danny mouthed something like "yeah Bobby" or "go Bobby." I wish the NCAA would have not been so lame by denying him an extra year.
As for Makhtar, I've almost moved on from when he and McGinnis once tried to start a fight with me in the parking lot of Bub's. Or...maybe it was the other way around. No matter, the sign and photo are too cool.
For the posters and lurkers who were there with me in Bub's and on Franklin Street this weekend, thanks for a fantastic time.
Bobby's fast break, Scruggs, was my favorite play, too. I was first looking to a pass to Danny for a NASTY dunk. And then my friends and I started laughing because you know Bobby was thinking, "I'll be damned if I'm not going to show up in this box score. Believe that!"
Outstanding!
The best part is that the combined net worth of that foursome is tens of millions of dollars, Maybe even a hundred.
The sign is written on a piece of cardboard ripped from a box. Just like a 10-year old kid would do.
GFWD - I was at Bub's!!
Kate, where were you stationed SPECIFICALLY, each day? I was the second person there on Saturday and third on Monday. I have several group shots and you may be in them. I was wearing a Danny Green jersey on Monday. What do you look like?
What am I missing? Is my memory too short? Why do we need to forgive Makhtar? That is one of the greatest pictures I have ever seen.
Emma,
Makhtar has a bit of a checkered past. The most infamous incident involving him was his claim that a player from Utah directed a racial epithet at him after they beat us in the NCAA tournament. The player flatly denied the claim and later Makhtar retracted his claim. There were plenty of other issues with him as well, starting when he played at Michigan and following him through his career in Chapel Hill and his mercifully short NBA career. I seem to remember something about him suing an airline over them giving him dry ice for his back and it burning him and preventing him from making a living, that is, from playing in the NBA. I'm with Michael Hooker who used the word disgraceful to describe the Utah incident, but I'd go a bit further and just use the word to describe Makhtar's behavior as a whole while he was around Chapel Hill.
It's a funny sign. I just wish it would have been someone else holding it up -- Makhtar doesn't deserve the press.
Also, Hacktar also kinda cost us the 98 championship when we clearly had the best team in the land. He's the only person on my list of "Tar Heels I'd like to disown" ahead of Joe Forte. Still, the sign does work for him; it's almost funnier that he's the one hoisting it.
Also, anybody else spot Terrence Newby in the background? Don't know what he's doing now, but we were both class of 2000, and that guy pulled more tail than anyone else on the squad.
Don't ask me to explain it, but it's the Scout's Honour truth.
GFWD, when you got there on Saturday, did you notice a booth across from the bar with a bunch of barstools stacked on top of it and a Corona cooler? There was a sign mentioning the table/stools were 'reserved'. That's where the group I was with was sitting.
(If you didn't notice that... imagine you're standing at the bar, facing away from it. The pool tables are to your right; over your left shoulder, the bar wraps around and goes towards the door... the TV/seating area directly across from you is where we were.)
Sorry, those are both probably terrible explanations.
If I'm in any of your photos, I should be easy to spot - I had a Carolina blue feather boa on both nights! :)
Ian - in all of the jubilation of this championship, something sparked in the back of my mind that I had predicted this somewhere.
At the risk of throwing my shoulder out to pat myself on the back, take a look at your blog post in July 2005 about crazy predictions:
http://www.xtcian.com/arch/002238.php
My comment is about the 4th or 5th one down.
I am now taking emails for stock tips. :)
Nice one, Andy! Is your psychic muse giving you anything re Lawson et al?
And Ian, I'm glad all of your predictions then are wrong so far (except #1, depending on how pop culture history treats Heath Ledger).
http://sethcurrysavesduke.blogspot.com/2009/04/heartfelt-tribute-to-psycho-t.html
Crazy good article...written by a dookie, no less!