Play On!
CLEVELAND – Alive.
That’s all that matters, right? Breathing hard. Showing scars. But alive. Alive as in this choking playoff series, which is tied at 3-3. Alive as in the basketball itself, which, in the final two minutes of Friday night’s gut-wrenching game, was fought for and fought for by a group of guys who simply were not ready to go home for the summer.
Rasheed Wallace misses a shot? Ben Wallace soars to keep it alive.
Rasheed misses another shot? Tayshaun Prince soars to keep it alive.
MAKING A LIST AND CHECKING IT TWICE
Last night I was a Piston. I might have been Chauncey or maybe Rip. I could have been Ben. I don’t think I was Rasheed, because I would have remembered saying something. Maybe I was Tayshaun.Anyhow, last night, as I was a Piston, just before I went to bed, I put...
Panic Time!
Antonio McDyess just sat there. The court was empty. He just sat there. A few fans yelled encouragement. Someone said, “It’ll be all right.” But he just sat there, hands over his head, staring into the abyss. The arena emptied. What was he thinking? What was everyone around here thinking?
It was a game they don’t lose, right? But they lost it. It was turnovers they don’t make, but they made them. It was the situation they never dreamed they’d be in, but they are in it.
HARRINGTON’S PARTING SHOTS
Last of two partsIn Part I of Joey Harrington’s Exit Interview, he spoke about his naïveté in arriving in Detroit, his biggest disappointments and his relationships with his coaches, particularly Steve Mariucci, whom he chided for letting the team be...
WHEN MYSPACE CAN TURN TO DANGER ZONE
It wasn’t so long ago that a teenage girl who wished she were prettier would parade in front of a mirror in her older sister’s clothes. And in time, she’d be called downstairs for supper.
It wasn’t so long ago that a teenage boy, wishing he were tougher, would do push-ups on his bedroom floor or mimic a movie poster on his wall. And in time, he’d be called downstairs for supper.
You’ll notice a similarity in those fantasies: They began and ended inside the teenager’s imagination.
Those days are gone.
Joey Has His Say
FIRST OF TWO PARTS
On Friday, Joey Harrington woke up a Detroit Lion and went to bed a Miami Dolphin. After four tumultuous years, his first NFL home was behind him.
Now we were on the phone. It was late. Harrington was in Idaho for his brother Michael’s graduation. The reality of the trade, which he had wanted and waited for, was finally sinking in.
Have A Little Faith – Chapter Two
With news stories – as with life – there is the news and then there’s the story.
A year ago, I wrote a column about a series of e-mails from a couple in Grand Rapids. Their names are Brian and Kathy. I described them as “beautiful people, energetic and upbeat.” They still are.
Their e-mails were about their newborn daughter, Faith, who’d suffered a stroke in the womb – something I didn’t know was possible. Each new update was heartbreaking. She was such an angel. Yet her wings were so clipped. Her face was so small. Yet her head needed surgery.
AND ON THE SEVENTH DAY NO MORE REST
As I was saying 17 years ago Welcome to another Free Press Sunday sports section. Sorry for the interruption. Back in 1989 everything was going fine, and then came the first week of December and poof – we were gone. No more Free Press sports section on Sundays....
SOMETHING HAS TO CHANGE’
Steve Yzerman did not announce his plans during Thursday’s clean-out-the-lockers session at Joe Louis Arena. No surprise. It’s not his style to make the season’s final gathering all about him.But it happened anyhow. The moment he stepped into the...Stay Connected
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