WHEN HE was small, his mother watched over him.She'd say, "Don't go out without your shoes on....""Put something on your head, it's cold outside....""Make sure to take your vitamins...."Anthony Thomas listened, because he was a good son and good sons always listen. But deep down, he believed, as all kids do, that he was indestructible.Funny. Now it's his coaches who want to believe it. And they watch him almost as closely as Mom.
TEMPE, ARIZ -- Hey, it's hot in the desert. Things melt. Like your defense. Your concentration. And, apparently, your calculator.How else do you explain coach Bobby Ross deciding Sunday to go for a two-point conversion late in the fourth quarter -- when logic said go for an extra point?What was he doing? I know about aggressiveness. But there is no way, when you are down 23-19 late in a game, that you don't go for an extra point, pull within three, and hope a field goal ties it and takes you to overtime.That's Beginners Coaching. Or Math 101.
Grant Hill must feel like the boy in the bubble. Every autumn, people come to peek at how he's progressing. Has he changed? Is he ready to wear the crown? Has he grown fangs? Adopted a scowl? Is this the year of Grant Hill, finally? Is this the year? Is this the year? . . .
Mitch Albom writes about running an orphanage in impoverished Port-au-Prince, Haiti, his kids, their hardships, laughs and challenges, and the life lessons he’s learned there every day.
