Starting Five
He wouldn’t back down
1. He Wouldn’t Back Down
Even the losers get lucky sometimes. Tom Petty was nominated for a Grammy for Best Rock Album last night, but did not win. However, because the song that he co-wrote with ELO’s Jeff Lynne (who performed a couple of ELO classics) sounds so much like Sam Smith’s “Stay With Me,” and because Petty’s peeps reached out to Smith’s peeps about it, he and Lynne will be getting 12.5% of the residuals of the tune in perpetuity.
It’s good to be king.
Smith won four Grammys — Best New Artist, Record of the Year, Song of the Year (I’m here for you, Bastille) and Best Pop Vocal Album. That was last night. Today he’ll be answering questions for his Chicago Bulls mailbag.
2. Wanna Get Away For Awhile?
Oops
The Dutch soccer team is actually named the Go Ahead Eagles, but in a match versus vaunted Ajax Amsterdam yesterday, they fell behind in a most ignominious way. Goalkeeper Mickey van der Hart, attempting to clear a kick, simply whiffed. The ball went past him into the goal, Ajax won 2-1, and all of us relived, for a scary moment, playing kickball in second grade.
3. Translaughter?*
Wreck on the Highway
On Saturday in Malibu on the Pacific Coast Highway, Bruce Jenner was involved in a fatal car crash that may have legal implications for him. On a tricky stretch of road –the PCH has no median up here, which I’ve always found odd– a white Lexus in front of the 1976 Olympic decathlon gold medalist stopped abruptly. Jenner, driving a Cadillac SUV and towing a trailer that had an ATV, was unable to stop before slamming into the back of the Lexus, which was driven across the center line and into the oncoming path of–because this is Malibu — a HumVee.
The Lexus driver was dead at the scene.
Jenner passed a field sobriety test and obviously had no intent to cause the accident. And that’s all it was, really. But I couldn’t pass up the headline. Sorry.
*Hey, that’s not funny.
4. He’s Not Here (Anymore)
Smith telling Ford to slow it down. Dean Smith IS Tobacco Road. No more influential coach in ACC history.
The legendary Dean Smith, he of the 879 career victories and two national championships, passes at the age of 83. I never met him, but as a young and avid hoops player growing up in the 1970s (by far my favorite sport), in the age before the shot clock had arrived in college basketball, watching Smith’s Tar Heel teams run the four corners offense was required viewing.
As glad as I am that basketball now has a shot clock (and here’s hoping the NIT’s 30-second shot clock experiment next month is adopted by all of college hoops and soon), North Carolina’s four corner’s keep away game was a work of art. No one, for my money, ran it better than Phil Ford.
Smith did as much as most any coach to integrate college hoops and, as has been repeated often, remains the only man who could hold Michael Jordan below 20 points per game. A legend, even if the Dean Dome lacks the charm and intimacy of Carmichael Arena.
MJ called Smith the most influential man in his life after his own father.
Hopefully, we can get UNC alums Tim Crothers or Jeff Bradley (both mid-Eighties, both gifted former colleagues of mine at SI) to pen a remembrance later this week.
5. Saul in a Day’s Work
Your defense courtesy of Jimmy McGill. The best $700 the state will ever spend on you.
The much-ballyhooed premiere of Better Call Saul aired on AMC last night, though, where I find myself currently, it did not air until 11 p.m. Did you have the same sitch? Anyway, let’s see if this reminds you of anything: Our hero lives in Albuquerque, drives a beater, has chronic cash-flow problems, is associated with a low-end retail biz, has a relative who may be in position to assist him, decides to recruit a juvenile delinquent (or two) to help him in an illegal money-making scheme, and then winds up in trouble with a gun-wielding Hispanic.
Yeah, that doesn’t sound familiar to me, either.
Still, the critics are agog. I didn’t hate it. I just didn’t think, as pilots go, it was any Wonder Years. Or even Breaking Bad. The second episode airs tonight on AMC, at 10 p.m. (or 11; I’m not sure).
Remote Patrol
No. 1 South Carolina at No. 2 Connecticut
ESPN2 8 p.m.
The Huskies do battle with a top-ranked SEC East juggernaut, but it ain’t the Lady Vols. Welcome Dawn Staley and her undefeated Game Hens (22-0) to Gampel Pavilion in bucolic and frozen Storrs, where the No. 2 Huskies (22-1) hold court. I don’t know what the Huskies’ record at Gampel under Geno Aureimma is, but his teams lose there about once every four years or so. Breanna Stewart is not as good as, but is the best all-around player I’ve seen since Diana Taurasi. Still, she has recently felt Geno’s wrath, being benched for the final 35 minutes of an 80-34 win against Memphis. “This isn’t a subliminal message I’m sending,” Geno said. “This is very flat-out.”
Never change, sir.
Very sad to hear/read about Coach Smith yesterday but actually not as awful as reading the article in SI last year about his last few years with dementia. I had heard something 6-7 years ago that he was dealing with “health issues” but had not known the specifics until that article.
As I’ve mentioned before, I grew up an ACC basketball fan & thus watched Dean Smith in action many, many times on TV & 5 times in person when I attended UM (undergrad & grad). During those years, there were two things that stood out – his sometimes atrocious choices in sports coats & the dreaded FOUR CORNERS! God, I HATED it! As bad as it looked on TV, it was WORSE in person (you are right about Phil Ford – he was the virtuoso & yes, I saw it LIVE in person). After Len Bias died & MD forced Lefty out, I was furious & transferred my viewership & fandom to 2 other ACC schools – UNC & Duke. That is when I became a true admirer of both Coach K & Coach Smith.
If you watched ACC basketball on TV during the 70s & 80s (thank -you, Jefferson Pilot!), you already knew about Smith’s breaking of the color line on the team AND in the town. During the last 12 years of his career is when I learned how he continued to be a mentoring presence in ALL his former players’ lives & that impressed me as much as his antidiscrimination efforts. As for his actual coaching, I was in awe that he did not swear at his players & rarely raised his voice (quite the anomaly in that profession & in that era). And most especially, that no matter how far down his team with less than 30 seconds to play, his team could still WIN the game! Over & over & over, you’d see this. When he was a rival, it drove me batty. When I was a rooting fan, I was convinced “we’d” win if the players just did what he said. Down 10, with 10 seconds to go? NO problem!
When Coach Smith retired in 97, I was shocked & teary. During the next 6 months or so, various tribute magazines & books were printed & I bought several (faves were SI’s commemorative issue & a hardback book titled ‘The Dean List’). In this era of ‘One & Done’, it would be almost impossible for college coaches to develop the strong & enduring relationships with their (male) players as Dean Smith did & while not a tragedy, I think this harms college basketball itself & most especially, the young men who “shoot” thru the current system.
Anyhoo, one final Dean Smith memory – he had a habit of ALWAYS talking up the other team before a game. His boys could be ranked #1 (for weeks, even be undefeated) & they were about to play Little Sisters of the Poor & when you’d hear his pregame talk with the media, you’d think the opponent was the Dream Team. Made me laugh every time. 🙂
Translaughter. Very nice. One of the passengers was nearly decathletated.