by Mitch Albom | Mar 17, 2001 | Detroit Free Press
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — The uniforms will not do it. No one is impressed. The Michigan State Spartans may be defending national champions, but no opponent is going to fall over at the sight of them.
The names will not do it. No one is impressed. Never mind that Charlie Bell, Andre Hutson and Jason Richardson were part of a title run last year. No opponent will quake in its boots, swallow air, go all goose-bumpy when they take the floor.
by Mitch Albom | Mar 16, 2001 | Detroit Free Press
He still wears a Spartan on his chest, but it is not the Spartan it used to be. The truth is, as he looks around his apartment in Greece, and the concrete buildings that crowd his street, and the small shops serving feta cheese and baklava, and the cars parked hither...
by Mitch Albom | Mar 15, 2001 | Detroit Free Press
They called it “getting the wood.” It was a paddle or a stick several inches thick, and the coach gave it to you smack across the butt, sometimes alone in his office, sometimes in front of the whole team. The number of whacks depended on what you did, and how badly you did it.
Joel (Tony) Blankenship got the wood in his day. He attended Detroit’s Murray-Wright High School in the late ’80s. He took his whacks, like most of his teammates. It never bothered him or scarred him emotionally. Parents didn’t complain.
by Mitch Albom | Mar 15, 2001 | Detroit Free Press
They called it “getting the wood.” It was a paddle or a stick several inches thick, and the coach gave it to you smack across the butt, sometimes alone in his office, sometimes in front of the whole team. The number of whacks depended on what you did, and...
by Mitch Albom | Mar 13, 2001 | Detroit Free Press
Not about race. Not about color. Not about image. Not about style. Brian Ellerbe is about to be fired as Michigan’s basketball coach for two reasons and two reasons only. Wins and losses. The lack of the former and the preponderance of the latter.
Never mind what some people are saying, that four years is not enough of a chance, that he is being unfairly judged, that because he is black, that the administration did not hand him the same things to work with as his predecessors.
by Mitch Albom | Mar 11, 2001 | Detroit Free Press
Take a kid. A skinny, mixed-up kid. A kid who feels picked on, persecuted, bullied — a kid who vows revenge.
Now add a gun. A gun kept in his house, by his father, in a glass case. One morning, when whatever crazy, unloved portion of that kid’s brain fires the wrong synapse, he takes that gun to school and opens fire, killing two classmates.
Now take that same kid. But subtract the gun. He gets up that same morning and something snaps. But there is no firearm at hand. What does he do? Maybe he takes a knife? Or a brick? Or a can of spray paint?
by Mitch Albom | Mar 4, 2001 | Detroit Free Press
The Japanese apologized to me once. Not the whole country. But one man, on behalf of the whole country.This was a few years ago, at the Winter Olympics in Nagano. I was due to catch an early bus, a 4 a.m. departure, for the long ride back to Tokyo. I arrived at the...
by Mitch Albom | Feb 25, 2001 | Detroit Free Press
Sometimes in fairy tales, when the wicked witch wants to be really wicked, she makes her victim huge, monstrously big, banging into everything.Could such dark forces be at work on everyone’s favorite mini-wizard, Harry Potter?We already know that Potter, the boy...
by Mitch Albom | Feb 23, 2001 | Detroit Free Press
Ask the average American sports fan, “Who’s contending for the NBA scoring title?” he’ll probably say, “Kobe, Iverson and that guard from Detroit.”
Welcome to Jerry Stackhouse’s world, where the sign could read, “Be careful what you wish for.” Nearly every NBA player dreams of being “The Man.” Some even ruin careers over it.
Jerry Stackhouse actually got it. Grant Hill went away. No big names were signed. And Stackhouse became The Man on the Pistons the way Eminem became The Man for musical controversy, the way Dr. Phil became The Man for relationship rescues.
by Mitch Albom | Feb 22, 2001 | Detroit Free Press
This is a story about taking pride in your work, whether it’s saving children or cleaning toilets — or, in Willie Davis’ case, both.
Willie Davis is a janitor. Oh, you can call him a custodian, or a caretaker, or a sanitation engineer. You can call him the King of England if you want, he still takes a broom every day and cleans the dirtiest corners of Arthur Smith Junior High School in Alexandria, La.
And when he’s done sweeping, he mops. And he waxes the floors. He does the windows. He mows the lawn. He plucks the weeds. When he has to, he cleans the toilets.
