Just wanted to give a big thanks to Trinity for the best hitting session I’ve had all winter. I haven’t moved that well pain-free since I had rolled my ankle skating at Fatt Matt’s. Good luck with Match Day and I hope you have a good time during your travels.
This entry is the closest thing to a Live Journal post at sukimon, so enjoy it while you can.
Like the Eminem song, “if you had one shot, one opportunity, one moment, would you capture it or just slip it away?” 17-year-old high school senior Jason McElwain had one such opportunity and siezed the moment for all it’s worth.
Fuck Rudy, “J-Mac†just 1-Up’d the feel-good story department. Imagine: you’re the team manager for your high school basketball team for all four years. Last game of regular season. With four minutes left and your team up by double-digits, the coach calls for you to go into the game. What do you do? McElwain took the rock and went boku wild: six 3-point shots, 20 points total.
Think about that: his total high school playing career, 4 minutes. And it’s not a minute at the end of one game and another minute at the end of another: one chance to play. Oh yeah, and he’s autistic.
His stats are Reggie Miller-esque. If you’re still player-hatin’, watch the clip and judge for youself (click on the “Related Video†window). NOTE: I apologize for the clip’s sappy, near NBC-level melodramics, but the segment is short and the actual game footage is And1-worthy material.
(If you prefer to download the movie to your desktop, click here and use a media player that can play flv files, like FLV Player)
Adrian Wojnarowski was right-on in his article on Lindsey Davenport, arguably one of the most underrated tennis champions in women’s tennis. Wojnarowski makes the case that Davenport is great not just for her numerous achievements –4 Grand Slams, Olympic gold medal, world’s #1 in singles and doubles, etc.– but for her relatively balanced upbringing and down-to-Earth, almost zen-like approach to the sport. To quote:
"When people are young, they say, ‘They’re going to be great,’ Davenport once said. "No one ever said anything about me. I was never a prodigy. I was never going to be any good. … No one ever said when I was growing up I was ever going to be any good or get to a Grand Slam final. I wasn’t expected to do anything. I’m not the most unbelievable athlete.
"I’m not anything."
In particular, I was amused by the not-so-hidden dig at one particular tennis coach (*coughbollettieri*):
The Davenports never wanted their daughter raised by some whack-job tennis coach far from home. They instilled the values of confidence and belief in her, not leaving it to some raving lunatic with sun-dried skin and an oversized racket. And it shows.
As a sidenote, I saw Davenport play last summer in New Haven, Conn. Four things:
