The Derby, Dravecky and friendly advice for NBA GMs

Been a while since we’ve done a series of totally unrelated things in this little space. But that’s what we’ve got today.

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I paid scant attention to the Kentucky Derby – and judging by the buzz in my little circle of the world it was the same for a lot of people – but I have to tell you this:

It may be retroactive expertise but anyone who knows me knows that I would have most certainly picked a horse called I’ll Have Another.

But speaking of the Derby, we’ve done those lists and chatted about sports events that have lost their allure with the general population and I’m thinking we can pretty much put The Most Exciting Two Minutes In Sport right near the top of list.

Time was when groups of people would sit around some house or some saloon on Derby Day and run some small pool, everyone picks a horse, you cheer for it, mock the headwear of the other owners and goofy-looking people in the stands and generally have a good time on the first Saturday in May.

Every paper in the city would send someone to cover it, we’d get three or four days of solid reporting and good stories in the days leading up to it.

Now? Now it’s basically an afterthought.

Could have something to do with the lingering distaste for watching horses having to be put down on the track (was 2008, a filly, as I recall), the fracturing of the sports entertainment market (you could have watched basketball, baseball or hockey when the Derby was being run) or just a basic ennui with the sport across North America but there is no question it’s not nearly the event it used to be.

Now, the sport may get a one-week boost if I’ll Have Another wins the Preakness and is running for a Triple Crowd at the Belmont but, even then, it won’t capture nearly the attention it at one time did.

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Okay, it’s Boys Week around Casa Doug (Super Wife’s off dealing with some real-life issues) and that means a few things, doesn’t it?

Like:

Toilet seats up.

Ice cream eaten right out of the carton.

Vegetables treated as if they contain bubonic plague.

What else have you got for us?

Thanks.

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Not sure if I’ve mentioned Chris McCosky in a very long time; he was an old friend who used to cover the Pistons, a great guy with whom I shared more than a few laughs and decompression nights after games.

He’s off covering the pucks or football or something right now, I know he misses the NBA and I know we miss having him around.

But I kind of got back in touch with him, in a very odd way, when I was forwarded this piece he wrote in the wake of Junior Seau’s suicide last week.

Please read it, please make sure anyone you know who should read it, reads it as well. It’s one of the more important columns you’ll ever read.

Thanks.

And thanks, Chris.

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I saw written somewhere, or heard spoken somewhere, that Philadelphia 76ers centre Spencer Hawes, an unrestricted free agent this coming summer, is “making himself a lot of money” by his performance so far in the post-season.

Now, I presume every GM in the NBA reads this so, as a public service to them and the fans of their teams, I offer four words of warning:

Jerome. Moiso. Trevor Ariza.

You’re welcome.

Yes, Hawes has had a couple of good games against an injury-ravaged Chicago Bulls team. He’s hit some shots and made some plays and generally performed well.

But so, too, did Moiso and Ariza in recent post-seasons and they became the flavours of the month. They got good deals and lots of hype and the last time I looked, one of ‘em was living the Life of Riley spending the money he got and the other had morphed into a run-of-the-mill NBAer.

GMs, some of them at least, can be a tad reactionary when it comes to watching the playoffs, they see guys do something out of the ordinary and become enamoured of them. Agents fuel the fire with highlight videos and stories of how their guy rose to the occasion when it mattered most.

Don’t, GMs! Don’t be fooled! Don’t buy into it!

You’ll thank me at luxury tax-salary cap time.

Honest.

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Oh yeah, Super Son is one special kid.

While a zillion of you have been lining up and fighting crowds to watch The Avengers at the local cinema, Super Son and I were checking out The Three Stooges, at his insistence, gleefully agreed to by me.

Yeah, that kid’s got a future, I say.

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Yes, that was one gruesome injury Baron Davis suffered when he dislocated his kneecap out of nowhere in the Knicks-Heat game on Sunday and as we watched it far too many times, there was an uneasy feeling in the pit of our stomachs.

It was ugly.

And, of course, those of us of a Certain Vintage flashed back to Joe Theisman breaking his leg on that Monday night game so many years ago, an injury that ranks right up there with the worst we’ve seen.

But, to me, it’s second, maybe third in a tie with Davis; the worst was San Francisco’s Dave Dravecky breaking his arm simply throwing a pitch against the Expos one night.

I’m not going to find out if youtube even has it, it was so ugly; suffice it to say those are the three that few of us will ever forget.

It’s kind of funny, isn’t it? We relish in the brilliant exploits of the athletes we watch and want them to push themselves to the limits of human endurance in pursuit of greatness. We marvel at their ability to do things we couldn’t possibly do and then recoil when the inevitable gruesome accident pops up.

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You know me and the pucks, right? Expertise out the ying-yang.

Well, I wonder if any L.A. Kings fans, way back around the trade deadline, were thinking “we should be sellers, not buyers; let’s blow this thing up and see where the summer takes us” and I wonder if any were thinking “sure it’s a longshot but let’s make a run at the playoffs, play for this season and see what happens.”

And I wonder who, in the end, was right, seeing how the Kings just apparently knocked off the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in the first two rounds of the playoffs and have given their fans some joy and unexpected excitement.

I know, they won’t get a high draft pick, though.

Different sport, yes; same theory, yes,

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Comments

[Mike kovacs]

You don't have to even pretend to make the bed!

[Tim H.]

Hey Doug:
"it’s Boys Week around Casa Doug"

How about drinking milk out of the carton?

Blogger's note: Might be a milk- and vegetable-free few days

[Tim H.]

Hey Doug:

Thanks for the link to McCosky's article. Certainly a must-read for everyone.

[Mike D.]

Dishes can accumulate in the sink until the earlier of (a) you run out of something, or (b) the day before your wife returns. Thunderous belches can be properly celebrated with high-fives or fist bumps instead of "Excuse me" and/or "Sorry, dear."

[john g]

What about Garbo's ankle?

[David in Oakville]

Dishes, what dishes? Paper towels go in the green bin when you are done with them assuming you even need them if you are eating over top of the sink.

No vegetables? Not even sauteed mushrooms and onions with the steak, carrots & celery with the wings, and I like lettuce and tomato on my burger with relish (full of vegetables).

I hear bacon was given an honorary doctorate by Vegetable U so eat up and if you wrap those babies around asparagus you are getting a double helping.

GO DOUG AND SUPER SON!

[john]

Hey Doug, The playoff theory is a nice theory but I'm not sure you can compare the two sports.

An eight seed beating a one seed has only happened four times in NBA history and oddly enough two of those were in strike shortened years. In the NHL it has happened 11 times since 1994.

[LeeZ]

A corollary of belching, and I'm surprised I even need to tell you this, Doug, is scratching yourself in inappropriate places. Also, used underwear MUST be strewn about artfully, turning a mossy green colour in no time at all! Also, Superson should dress for the day and then ask you: Dad, do I look fat in this? and then both of you can collapse in fits of laughter. I mean, come on, Doug, this stuff is Male 101!

[joeu]

Thanks for the link to Mr McCosky's article. Writing something that personal takes guts.

[rv]

Doug, another bad break was Shawn Livingston.

[Anonymous]

Your friend Chris McCosky's article accurately describes depression. It's real and on a bad day it can be truly horrible. It's chemical, so you can't just overcome it with willpower and it doesn't matter whether you're rich or poor, whether you have a great job or a great family (in fact, thinking that you should be happier tends to make things worse). Even without suicide it can damage families: my worst depression memory wasn't any of the days I felt like lying down on the GO tracks instead of getting on the train home, it was the day something trivial became the tipping point and I burst into uncontrollable tears and fell on my knees in front of my son, pleading with him to help me. He was four. I hope he doesn't remember it.

The right medication can make a huge difference but getting it right is complicated and time-intensive, so a lot of family doctors don't like to take responsibility for treating it and it's hard to get a referral to a psychiatrist because there aren't enough of them. I've been lucky enough to connect with an outstanding professional and she's made a huge difference over the last few years, but unfortunately I think I'm the exception. Our health care system needs work on this front.

Even when you've got it more or less under control, it's not easy to talk about. You have to be careful who you tell: when people hear anything about mental illness they can jump quickly to the conclusion that you're some sort of weak-willed, self-pitying yuppie or that at any moment you might turn psychotic, like Heath Ledger playing the Joker, or start taking your clothes off in a deposition like the guy in "Michael Clayton". If you think I'm exaggerating, ask yourself honestly whether you would let your child sleep over at a friend's house knowing one parent had a condition called "chronic major depressive disorder." Once you've told someone, there's a pretty good chance they'll never look at you the same way again. So you keep it to yourself, you get pretty good at faking being OK if you possibly can. You chuckle along with everyone else at the off-the-cuff jokes about "happy pills" and someone being "off his meds" if he's behaving unusually, and you wonder whether anyone around you has guessed and if so, what they think. You can feel alone in a group of friends but actually being alone, just you and no good answer to the repeated question "Why keep going like this?", can be even worse. I totally understand how Wade Belak could have seemed fine at dinner with friends then gone home and taken his own life.

I differ with Chris McCosky on one key point: for me, the right professional and the right prescription worked. Most days I feel pretty good. But I agree completely with his recommendation to reach out for help, because I couldn't do it alone either. Unfortunately I don't think Canada has a national suicide prevention hotline, but if you Google "suicide" and the name of your city you can find help quickly.

To the Irregulars reading this who are on the other side of the mental health fence: don't judge. Do some research. Try to understand. Support efforts for improvement in our health system. You might be able to help someone who really needs it.

[LeeZ]

@Anonymous: Wow. Thank you SO much for your post. Well said, sir or madam.

[sam]

I remember the Dravecky injury vividly. Seeing him collapse off the mound like he'd been shot. I believe it was his second or third start after returning from surgery to remove a cancerous growth in the muscle of his pitching arm.
There have been some gruesome sports injuries over the years...Clint Malarchuk, being one that really sticks in my mind....

[Tim H.]

@Anonymous: I agree completely with LeeZ. Hearing about depression from a professional writer was one thing, but your post really hit home. I am glad things are a little better for you. I hope you know that have opened the eyes of a great many people. Thank you.

[Lyndon]

Whenever I'm at home overnight without supervision for any length of time I devote one night to eating more fried chicken than one man should be allowed.

Regarding bad deals based on playoff performances, I submit to you one Hedo Turkeyglue. He played well in that run to the finals, including at least one game winner, and that probably had a lot to do with the deal Bryan gave him. To be fair, everyone was high on Hedo at that moment.

[Lorie]

@Anonymous: Thank you. We've discussed and shared and learned so many things here on Doug's blog. But your words, combined with Chris McCoskey's, may be the most important.

[james]

Anonymous' extraordinary post ends: "To the Irregulars reading this who are on the other side of the mental health fence: don't judge. Do some research. Try to understand. Support efforts for improvement in our health system. You might be able to help someone who really needs it."
Thank you sir or madam for a courageous and articulate reality check. My own sense is that we would be amazed how many Canadian families are touched by mental illness, so many in fact that talking about it should be normalized and not something you have to be careful about. I agree strongly that this is a major gap in our health care system, a situation not helped by the checkerboard nature of different provincial systems. People I know with these issues tend to move around a lot and coordination between different jurisdictions is poor. It is a situation that cries out for federal government leadership.
Far too often, the default entry into receiving help is through the police (and in my experience many police officers are highly skilled and humane in dealing with these issues), and far too often "criminal" behaviour is the effect, not the cause. There are no easy answers here, but open communication is a good place to start.
Thanks to our blogger who rarely lets us get away without thinking. I recommend that super son and super blogger get gussied up in their most formal duds and go to a high-class restaurant for gourmet fare.

[Paul B]

Super Barbeque, all week long, all meals!

[D-Mac Ottawa]

This blog never ceases to amaze. It's been said before, I'll say it again, it's a national treasure – it's a safe haven for many and sundry, and a fascinating repository of the best, and sometimes worst, in us all, day in and day out, these past few years. Thank you, Doug, for making this forum happen. Thank you, @Anonymous. And thank you, fellow Regulars and Irregulars alike. Cheers.
P.S. Doug and Super Son, paper plates and plastic utensils do have their place in this world, occasionally. So do obscene amounts of ice cream. And The Three Stooges. Live it up, guys.

[J]

@Anonymous:

Agreed. Well said.

[Mike D.]

@Paul B: and spray-on whipped cream should be the garnish of choice for anything that isn't meat.

[doug]

in dealing with a brother that has fought mental health issues his whole adult life, and then working in the field...I have found mental health to be the most misunderstood issue facing the public and in turn we allow politicians to deprive mental health victims many services they need, they give us community based programs that for the most part don't work.. but the governments use them to justify far more expensive mental health beds and hospitals programs being cut..in turn our prisons, homeless shelters, streets are the dumping ground for these people, a true travesty and why I left the field as to see it happen was despicable. it's no different then telling a emergency patient with a broken wrist, having a stroke etc. to hit the bricks and supply no services...in this day and age of taxpayers not wanting to spend "their" tax dollars on anything, mental health has regressed, ..that is the real tragedy here......well the wife is away, this is what you, you do one major job on the "to-do" list be it paint a room or whatever with your son, as it will be a good bonding moment as well as earn you brownie points for a long time to come, and with the impending golf season that can only be a good thing....cheers..

[Steph]

Anonymous, Thanks for the tremendous message. It's one we need to hear to understand, not that I ever could. After loosing two close friends, I still don't see the despair both he and she lived with.
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I have a lot to learn, but your post helps illuminate why personal feelings / deamons are so deeply hidden.

[Aditya]

Doug, i dont think Spencer Hawes is as bad as you suggested (like Ariza etc..) I think hes a pretty good Center....

@ Anonymous: Thanks.....that was just great to read.... thank you.... i don't say 'thank you' enough....so thankyou once again