Thoughts on UNC and ADD

So it’s been a while since I posted anything of substance. I’ve been incredibly busy with work, and quite honestly, NCAA hoops sucked up every bit of spare time I had this winter. I know, it would have been nice to write something about that while it was still fresh in my mind, but seriously, ever since 4/9/09, I’ve been riding a huge wave of contentment with UNC winning it all. And so, I figure that’s as good a place to start as any.

I have to wonder whether sportswriters are being paid too much. Most of the time, I spend my lunch breaks at work skimming over the major sports web outlets; mostly ESPN, FOX Sports (still can’t figure out why FOX is in all caps…is it an acronym??) and Yahoo! Sports. In the week leading up to the Final Four, every single one of them featured a story on Tyler Hansbrough. Now, being a UNC fan, I have no problem with Tyler getting national attention. No, what I had a problem with was that each article/column focused on one of two distinct themes: either “Tyler Hansbrough Can Cement His Legacy with a National Championship (But That’s Not Why He Returned),” or “Why Does Everyone Hate Tyler Hansbrough?” And then, after the championship game, the same online sports outlets all wrote columns/articles with the theme, “Tyler Hansbrough Has Silenced His Critics.” I could look them all up and link to them here, but I don’t have the patience…I’m sure if you did a search for Tyler Hansbrough on any of these sites and dug back to the first and second weeks in April, you’d find the same thing. Look for Chad Forde on espn.com and Jeff Goodman on foxsports.com…you’ll find them.

Perhaps I wasn’t digging deep enough into the articles surrounding the Final Four. Perhaps my penchant for sports columny (Word says that’s not a word, but I’m gonna go with it anyway) over sports journalism got in the way here…I prefer reading columns over actual journalistic pieces because columnists seem unafraid to actually have a take on a situation, rather than just report the facts and circumstances around an event/player/game/coach/program/what have you. It just makes for more entertaining reading, in my view.

I’m sure if I did more comprehensive searches around the Final Four and read the pieces, I would find more columns with more takes on more subplots…the most intriguing to me was the possibility that UNC could potentially lose its entire starting five to the draft or graduation. And yes, there were a couple of pieces on that after the championship game, but I didn’t see any before. Nothing covering the possibility of this being a Last Dance of sorts…after all, four of this season’s starting five at least dipped their toes into the NBA Draft pool after last season prior to deciding to return.

Nothing covering the maturation of Wayne Ellington into an elite level shooting guard with serious potential to be a force in the NBA (just needs to develop that mid-range jumper and become more of a voracious defender).

Nothing about the maturation of Danny Green…sixth man of the year in 2008, who would not have been a starter at all this year had it not been for Marcus Ginyard’s freak injury that kept him out all season. Danny turned into a serious player this season—so much so that Clark Kellogg used a baking soda analogy to describe Green’s play (You know, because he’s so versatile. Maybe? Okay, that was a stretch even for Kellogg. I really wish they’d give the Final Four to Gus Johnson and Bill Raftery, but that’s another topic). This season, Green transformed from the best sixth man in the country (who would have been a starter for any other program in the country) into a legitimate playa; who, in my completely uninformed opinion, has the greatest NBA potential of anyone on this UNC squad…yes, moreso even than Ty Lawson. I mean, seriously. UNC’s band t-shirts this year featured a depiction of an anonymous UNC player throwing down a posterizing dunk on the back. For all two of you who read this regularly, you’ll recognize this image. It’s Danny Green making Greg Paulus (future QB for your Green Bay Packers!) look like a whiny little girl in the season closer in 2008 while Casper the Dorky Small Forward looks on…yes, yours truly featured this timeless image in this space many moons ago. As you can probably tell, I have a pretty serious mancrush on the guy.

Again, I have nothing against featuring Tyler Hansbrough. He’s been the face of Carolina Basketball ever since he got his face bloodied in the Duke game his sophomore year. The guy’s had one of the most successful college careers ever. And he managed to replace Phil Ford as the greatest four-year player in UNC history by winning a championship—something Big Phil didn’t do. And all the trained sportswriters out there could come up with was “This isn’t why he came back,” and “People hate him because he works hard,” and “He’s finally silenced all his critics.” Only CBS in their amazingly long Final Four special managed to tell us about a different subplot. They introduced us to his older brother Greg (college hoops freaks like myself already knew of his younger brother Ben, who redshirted this year after transferring from Mississippi State to Notre Dame), who had been diagnosed with a massive brain tumor in his childhood, which doctors said was inoperable…and of course, predictably (and most admirably), their father would not accept it and relentlessly tracked down surgeons who could do it. They profiled Greg, who many years after his surgery still has limited motor functions in his left arm and leg, and who comes across as one of the coolest guys in the world…one of those Profiles in Courage types of features that makes you blot your eyes after seeing it. The ‘Rita would call it a GSPN feature (you know, ESPN for Girls…GSPN), and yep, she got a lil misty on that one too (but much moreso after watching the profile of the two special needs kids who were managers of their high school hoops teams and got to play in their schools’ last games…and lit it up…all a la J-Mac. I digress).

Anyway, it was a great tribute to his older brother (Tyler wears number 50 as a tribute to Greg), and was really refreshing to see a new freaking take on a completely played out storyline. Again, I really like Tyler Hansbrough…the guy’s amazing, and I’ve been lucky to have watched him play for the past four years. But really? You would think that sports columnists being paid because they’re “experts” and have built reputations and have access that most of us regular sports fans can only dream of would be able to come up with more than three subplots. Hell, after thinking about it for five seconds, here’s the summary:
• Tyler wanted to win a title, but actually came back because he really just loved being in college.
• People hate Tyler because he’s not flashy or arrogant or particularly graceful. He just works his ass off. They hate him for the same reasons they hate Tim Tebow. He’s Rudy, but with talent.
• Yeah, yeah…critics silenced. Not much NBA potential.

See, I did in a handful of sentences what countless sportswriters around the country spent thousands of words on. Give me something more, or step aside and let someone with a fresh take step in. I’d give it a shot, but it turns out that I’m not that good a writer.

Finally, here are my thoughts on something I’ve noticed recently that really bothers me. In this 24 news and sports cycle environment in which we are all entrenched, we don’t seem to actually enjoy sports anymore. Here’s what I mean: less than 24 hours after the end of the 2009 NCAA Championship game (hell, it was probably less than 12 hours), I saw an article on espn.com by Andy Katz (one of my favorite “experts”…I’d even go so far as to call him a respectable analyst), in which he lists out the preliminary Top 25 for the 2009-2010 NCAA men’s season. Don’t believe me? See for yourself. Again…really?? One Shining Moment just finished, and we’re already looking toward next season? This is just the most recent example. I remember watching SportsCenter following the last two football games whose names rhyme with Shmooper Shmowl (I will not pay the NFL for the rights to use that copyrighted name), and both times…mind you, the game had JUST ENDED, the question was posed by the on-site anchor (Stu Scott, both times, I believe) to the on-site analysts (probably Jaworski or Emmitt Smiff), “Can they repeat?” I’ve been seeing mock drafts since before the end of the college football season (I hate the NFL Draft, by the way…but again, another topic). I’m seeing fantasy football primers on all the relevant sports sites now, when we haven’t even hit the draft yet. Kids are signing commitment letters to colleges (mostly for basketball) while they’re still in middle school. We (by we, I mean Bill Simmons) have been talking about the NBA free agent class of 2010 for the last two years already. Seeing a pattern yet?

It’s insane. I’m not sure why this bothers me so much, but it really does. One of the greatest things about sports, in my view, is the memories they can create. I remember exactly where I was for a great many sporting events, and who I was with, and what I was doing…all of that. Sitting on my living room floor when Dave Henderson smashed a homer off of Donnie Moore in game 5 of the 1986 ALCS. Working for my grandma at a bridge tournament when Magic hit the baby hook. At Big Wang’s in Hollywood for the Eagles-Pats Shmooper Shmowl. At a fraternity chapter meeting when Kentucky won it all in Tubby Smith’s first season in 1998. On my couch in NoHo when Big Shot Bob hit that shot over Chris Webber in the 2002 Western Conference Finals. At a Hollywood industry type party when Luis Gonzalez smacked in the winning run of the 2001 World Series to beat the Yankees (after the media had dubbed Jeter “Mr. November”). At Dublin’s on Sunset when the Angels won it all in 2002. At my apartment in Bethesda with Dave, Dom and Ward when Mario Chalmers hit that unreal 3 with 2.1 to go to send the 2008 NCAA Championship Game into overtime. At Brian’s place with the ‘Rita and a handful of friends last Monday when UNC made it five. I could go on and on…and that’s the point. I could run into a fellow traveler at a sporting event or sports bar in the future and regale him/her with my tales of where I was when X happened, and I’d happily listen to his/hers. I know the first thing I thought of after the issue was no longer in doubt with the Heels’ victory last week (about ten minutes into the game) was not, “Wow, who’s gonna win it next year?” I was too busy savoring the moment, taking it all in, trying to remember every detail of that night so that I could possibly relay it to someone else some other time…you know, like the dead silence in the stadium after about the 8 minute mark of the first half (yeah, the game wasn’t terribly exciting, I’ll admit); the songs we played on Guitar Hero before the game started; the sweet, sweet taste of Natty Boh that evening; the intricacies of the Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels match from Wrestlemania 25 we watched at halftime. All that stuff.

I don’t want to think about next season yet, and what upsets me is that the news outlets rush all too quickly to the next story, the next headline, the next fluff piece. And rest assured, August is coming quickly, and before long, you’ll be seeing pieces like “Tim Tebow’s Decision to Return Not Based On Winning Another Championship/Heisman,” and “Why Does Everyone Hate Tim Tebow?” But that’s to be expected. I just hope this type of now, now, now, now, NOW journalism doesn’t completely brainwash this already-ADD trending generation into thinking that the past and the present don’t matter and that all there is is what’s to come; that now is something that’s already gone, and isn’t worth dwelling on. Sadly, the way sports journalism is heading, that looks to be the case.

And for those among you who might think that the past doesn’t matter, watch any MLB game today. If what has passed is irrelevant, then why is every single player, coach, manager and umpire wearing number 42 today? I love Jackie Day in MLB. It’s a great tribute to one of the most important events in modern American history (yes, it’s that big a deal). Although, I can’t imagine what kind of nightmares it creates for the 15 official scorers working today. At any rate, thanks Jackie. We, as sports fans, owe you more than you could possibly imagine.