The March Madness tribute to the hoopster who played in mystery

The March Madness tribute to the hoopster who played in mystery:

March Madness serving adult men who wasted huge amounts of precious time carping about the performance of top athletes and coaches. But playing, not watching, is the essence of sport.
Hey, we can pause for a moment in our apprehensions March Madness bracket (up to you, President Obama!) To honor my friend Jerry, streaky outside shooter whose career ended recently with knee replacement surgery at the age of 62?
Jerry did not play for Duke or Syracuse. He never competed for NCAA Division] 1 basketball tournament, won a title or that I know. He did not do anything more impressive. Was able to continue to play forward, and extensively, a full 45 years after getting cut from his team in high school. Now this fact, you deserve to stand!

To understand this concept requires re-routing some to the concept of sport in America.

First, a snapshot of the game Jerry. He was a decent set of skills for a shooting guard. Unfortunately for him, was widespread, and endured a full 6 feet 3in. , A height that may not highlight the ability to compete in tournaments, but on the collective level stadium creates intense peer pressure to the convergence in the vicinity of the ring and not stray too much.

But Jerry likes to stray.

I am happier than ever saw him on the court was when he found himself with his colleagues who were tall or taller. Then, like a cross dresser wearing a sudden release of the skirt in the year, and his true identity as a perimeter-hugging three-point artist been freed.

My very harsh? If so, I do not apologize. Because any assessment amounts to a declaration that the Games illogical played any bets at all are every bit as worthy of such clashes JumboTron ESPN manual throughout the land.

This may not be suitable for all kinds of goods from the time the major disadvantages of sports business, but I want to mention one: adult men who have wasted huge amounts of precious time carping about the performance of top athletes and trainers. They will do themselves and their families and their communities and their nation more good through the application of that excitement for something useful.

Does not really matter if some new staff, the phenomenon of ignoring the man open or if coach John Calipari should keep his mouth shut? Sports lovers are the most helpless consumer group in America and do not have to be Sigmund Freud to see all the screaming on what it is: sublimation, transport, avoidance. The fact that the sports business and industry, which unfortunately includes the NCAA], and appeals so effectively to the mental disorders of the male and thanks to the savvy, but not to cheer about.

There is a boom subculture devoted to mocking the tendency of men (yes, mostly men of the type of drinking beer) to stumble in the coulda-been as a competitor in the type of memory. But even this memory, so easily mocked, are usually rooted in the games and to some extent "matter", where victory was being observed somewhere outside the minds of the players.

Unfortunately, Jerry has a professional such as these fires can not verify the glory. All those games, and certainly in the thousands, and all that goes with skill and workshops outside shots ... Well, you just take our word that the wonderful things that took place in those clubs, the YMCA moldy. You certainly will not find evidence of ESPN Classic.

I digress. In fact, I do not. Because they are interrelated sure, and joy undeclared pick-up soccer players, aging, etc., and the juggernaut hyperbolic sports television with lust greed to serve the expanding population of the couch - spectators potatoes.

As a small protest - against oblivion - I think in the retirement ceremony for Jerry. Of course, there will be a numbered jersey to hang from the rafters, the rafters are not sacred because it is hanged, not press clippings to read aloud or to watch the video. There is a new generation of players to pickup and cunning ways Twitter and YouTube may eventually reverse this deficit, but, so far, and men like Jerry Lee and most of the players I have known will vanish without a trace.

That's cool. We can take it. Because in our hearts and we know the truth, courage: there on the courts and the courts, and an unknown and unannounced, and left behind some of the very best parts of ourselves.

We call it March Madness time. Playing, not watching, is the essence of sport. Forget the last four. What about the applause for Jerry?

Bob Katz is a writer and author of the novel ", and the third Long", which will be published later this spring.