Well, Reilly made out the check this week when Jimmer started a pre-season game for the Sacramento Kings.  Quoting from Reilly, “In the check’s memo line, I wrote: Crow.”

Reilly had quite a few complimentary things to say about Jimmer.

I said he wouldn’t be able to get off his shot off in the NBA. So far, in two preseason games, he’s averaged 16.5 points. He’s been pyrotechnic from the wider NBA 3-point arc (67 percent). His handle is tighter than a coffee pot’s. His rebounding and defense still have more holes than a Danielle Steele novel, but, all in all, he’s been jaw-droppingly good.

But here’s the best part:

And now it looks like he has a chance to become the Tim Tebow of the NBA.

Tim Tebow plays for the team I hate the most in the NFL: the Denver Broncos.  Yet I like Tim Tebow.  I can’t not root for the guy, even if I hate his team.  For a guy everybody said would be a bust in the NFL, and thought the Broncos were crazy to take him in the first round, Tebow has reeled off 6 consecutive wins in the closing minutes of games–all in miraculous fashion.   (Thankfully, my Patriots didn’t let Tim do any magic last week.)

Tebow expresses his religion more than anybody in recent memory.  (He’s a Southern Baptist.  Perhaps Reggie White came close.)  To top it off, Saturday Night Live did a funny bit on Tebow (and called Tom Brady “God’s nephew”.)  It’s good in it’s own right, but there was a very funny reference at the tail end of the skit, so watch it all the way to the end.

What’s your take on Jimmer or Tebow?

I was also saddened to learn that Margo Dydek suffered a heart attack on Thursday at age 37.  There aren’t many women I look up to, but at 7 foot 2 inches, Margo is definitely one of them!  I was a freelance sports writer, and covered the Utah Starzz back in the 1990′s when Margo played for the team.  Margo was a very nice, shy person to talk to.  She was born in Poland, and most recently coached in Australia.  Apparently she is in a medically induced coma in a Brisbane hospital.  I’m afraid of how things will turn out for her, and pray for a speedy recovery.

On a brighter note, I worked on the tv crew for the National Championships in Rugby on Saturday.  If you don’t want a spoiler, stop reading now.ESPN broadcast the National Championship game between BYU and Cal on ESPN, and is re-broadcasting the game on ESPNU on Sunday morning at 8 AM (I believe that is Mountain Time), so you’re welcome to watch it.  It is kind of a cross between football, basketball, and soccer, and there are some quite interesting strategies and rules that seem very foreign to football.

Before the college game started, the high school national championship was played between Highland High School and a team from Alpine, Utah called United Rugby.  Highland Rugby was featured in the film Forever Strong, and it’s a great movie.  Larry Gelwix is the coach, and the movie is based on a bunch of composite stories that Larry is familiar with over his 36 year coaching career.  I highly recommend the movie.

The game was a rematch of last year’s game in which United Rugby beat Highland.  This time, Highland won the rematch, and Larry took home his 20th national championship.  He also announced on ESPNU that he was retiring, and was glad to win his final match.  I watched the first half of the game, and was glad one of the guys on the tv crew knew the rules and strategy.  It’s the first rugby game I have ever watched, so I thought I would share a few rules.

In football, each side plays with 11 men.  In rugby, there are 15 and they play without pads or helmets.  The ball is shaped like an oversize football.  The oddest thing occurred at the very beginning of the game.  United kicked off to Highland in a manner quite similar to a football game.  The Highland player caught the ball, ran a few feet, and then kicked it back the other way!  I was quite shocked.  Field position is very important, so when you’re deep in your own territory, it is common to get the ball upfield to prevent the other team from getting a field position advantage.

A “touchdown” is worth 5 points and is called a “try.”  The score doesn’t count until the scoring team places the ball on the ground in the end zone.  After the score, they get to kick the ball through the uprights in a manner similar to football, but the “extra point” is worth 2 points.  When a team scores a “try”,  the location of the ball in the end zone is very important.  The ball is brought back approximately 30 feet, and the “extra point” is attempted.  There can be some really tough angles, so if it is a tough angle, the “extra point” is no guarantee.

If there is a penalty, a team may choose to kick off a tee (like a field goal) for 3 points.  Like football, it is hard to see the penalties.  There are infractions and penalties, but I can’t remember the difference.  Some penalties result in a scrum, which is kind of like a “jump ball” in basketball.  About 7-8 guys line up against each other, a team-mate rolls the ball in, and each team tries to kick it backwards to a team-mate.  Unlike football, forward passes are illegal.  The ball can be lateralled back to another team mate.  You can advance the ball forward by running.  If a guy is tackled, he sets the ball on the ground.  A teammate picks up the ball, starts running (like a quarterback sneak) or laterals the ball to someone else.  Play continues until the ball is dropped forward, or other penalty.  Fumbles are frequent.   Rugby is a much more fluid game like basketball–there are no huddles slowing the game down.  After a tackle, a team can start playing quickly, or take a little time to set up a play.

In football, you have 4 downs to make 10 yards, but there are no such limits in rugby.  You can be tackled a bunch of times for a gain or loss and it doesn’t matter.  If a lateralled ball is dropped forward, that is called a “knock”.  Play stops and I think a scrum is called.  If your team has the ball deep in your own territory, you generally want to kick the ball down field to get better field position.  Balls that go out of bounds have a throw-in like soccer.  On throw-ins, it is common for 2 players to lift a teammate in the air to receive the ball.

In high school, there are two 35-minute halves.  The clock counts up (instead of down) and never stops even for injuries.  When it reaches 35, the referee can add a few minutes, similar to “stoppage time” in soccer.  In college, the halves are 40 minutes.  I really enjoyed the game, and it was fun to learn.

BYU vs Cal Rugby

The college game was another rematch.  Cal and BYU have met in the finals for 6 consecutive years, with BYU’s only win coming in 2009.  BYU was undefeated at 15-0 going into the match, while Cal was 28-0.  BYU beat Arkansas State last week to reach the finals, while Cal beat Utah.  (I’m sure there are plenty of Highland and United Rugby players on both BYU and Utah’s roster.)  Cal had won 21 national championships going into the match.

BYU dominated the first 20 minutes or so of the game, but couldn’t score.  Cal scored first, jumping to a 10 point lead before BYU finally got on the board, cutting it to 10-7.  Cal scored on a penalty kick going into halftime, making the score 13-7.

Following a short 10-minute halftime, Cal scored a “field goal” (they call it something else) and a try to make it 21-7.  BYU responded with a try and 2 point conversion to cut it to 21-14, but could not score again in the final 10 minutes.  It was a real fun game to watch.  I was glad to learn many rules and strategy from a guy on the tv crew.  If you have a chance to go to a rugby game, I highly recommend it!

After that disclosure, let me just say that while I’m not a fan of BYU, I would have loved to have Jimmer Fredette on my team. I like Jimmer.  He’s fun to watch.  He’s the leading scorer in the NCAA this year, and I do believe he is the best player in the nation.  He’ll probably get drafted in the NBA, but I think he will be a role player.  In the interest of full disclosure, I have generally been pessimistic of most players out of the state of Utah.  I didn’t think Utah’s Keith Van Horn or BYU’s Shawn Bradley would do very well (especially considering they were both the #2 pick).  Yet even though both players were considered a bust, I think both had better NBA careers than Jimmer will have.  I thought Utah’s Andre Miller would do well–a consistent NBA starter.  I expected Utah’s Michael Doleac to be a good role player–and he has been.  His career lasted longer than I thought.  I predicted BYU’s Michael Smith would be a bust, and he was.  Despite being a 1st round pick, he was out of the league in 3 years.

The best players out of Utah were Danny Vranes and Tom Chambers (of Seattle Supersonics).  BYU’s best player is by far Danny Ainge.  Many people have compared Jimmer to Danny.  To me there is no comparison–Danny was way better.  Rick Reilly of ESPN created a firestorm at BYU for his article Jimmer Grows Dimmer.  Perhaps Reilly was a little harsh about Jimmer’s bad game against Florida, but I have to agree with Reilly on almost all counts.  Jimmer doesn’t play defense.  While he has NBA range, he is a ball hog.

I was at my in-laws house on Sunday, and they were complaining that Reilly was ripping the LDS church.  WHAT????  I pulled up the article, and said, “where is Reilly ripping the church?”  My brother-in-law didn’t know exactly–he had heard it from others.  While I was reading Reilly’s first article to them, I discovered Reilly wrote a 2nd article based on all the hate mail he had received from BYU fans.  See Rick Reilly’s mailbag:  Jimmer fans react.  The funniest thing Reilly said was

The best hate mail in America comes from BYU fans. Even when they’re spitting 20-penny nails, they’re still incurably nice. Alabama fans will write hoping you die a slow, painful death, staked to an anthill while your mom watches, but the worst a BYU fan will say to you is that you’re not going to heaven.

Truly great article!  I thought Reilly was right on the money.  Not everyone agrees with Reilly.  Former ESPN talent Dan Patrick called out Reilly and ESPN’s Colin Cowherd for their remarks about Jimmer.  Check out this video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwbXDh8v1sg

So what to you think?  Will Jimmer be a force in the NBA?  Will Utah fire Coach K within 3 years (like they have their last 2 coaches)?  Was Reilly too harsh on the LDS church?

Erik admitted to using all sorts of drugs since the age of 11.  He is currently in drug rehab in the Boston area, and Danny has opened his home.  While it is sad that Erik has screwed up his life so bad, I am impressed that Danny has taken Erik into his home and assisted with his rehab.  I don’t think I would be so open with a relative with such a serious problem.  I’m greatly impressed with Danny’s service to Erik.

Wooden led UCLA to 7 straight National Championships, an 88 game winning streak, 38 straight NCAA tournament wins, and 10 NCAA championships in 12 years, before retiring in 1975.  He was known as the Wizard of Westwood (a nickname he didn’t like.)  Here are some excerpts from from that piece.  (I’m not sure everyone that was interviewed, so if you know, please tell me and I’ll update the post.)

Dick Enberg,  “John Wooden is about as perfect a sports personality as anyone I’ve met in my 40 years of broadcasting.  The man was a sports Abraham Lincoln.  He was a Winston Churchill.  He was a scholar.  He was a teacher, plus he was a good person.”

Walt Hazzard? “Wooden’s style was laid back, it was honest, it was direct.”

Jamal Wilkes, “He can say so much with so few words.  For instance, he used to say this: ‘Be quick, but don’t hurry.’”

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, “It’s about what is correct, not who is correct.”

Wilkes, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail.”

Unknown, “Do not mistake activity for achievement.”

Bill Walton, “Happiness begins when selfishness ends.”

Unknown, “He might have been more like a Methodist minister than a basketball coach.”

….

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, “It was not necessarily wins and losses, but how he affected young men’s lives.”

Frank Deford, “Mr Wooden had this triangle, this pyramid of all the qualities: character, fortitude, honesty, truth, and if you lived up to the pyramid, then you won games.”

Unknown, “Winning and losing was not talked about during the year.  There may be a halftime speech that revolved around the vocabulary word, enthusiasm, or industriousness.    He would attack the situation by the pyramid’s success.”

Bill Walton, “All the human’s values, all the personal characteristics that he preached to us that we would need in our life to eventually be successful, that’s what the pyramid is all about.”

Dick Enberg, “John Wooden is a very religious man.  In some ways, he treated the game religiously.  It wasn’t just winning, you wanted to win the right way.  You want your players to look the right way.  You wanted them to behave the right way.

Unknown, “I think he’s going to be remembered as the curator of the traditional values, the man who took all those one-room school house values out of Indiana, took them to a place, UCLA, this campus that was in ferment in the 60’s  and somehow not just safeguarded them through that time, but was able to win championships.”

I heard John Wooden speak to in around 1990.  He was an amazing personality, and will be missed.  He really was a wonderful Christian man.  Don’t miss the video on Wooden’s love letters on the same page.  His wife died 24 years ago on March 21, and he wrote a letter to hear on the 21st of every month after her death.

It’s always refreshing to me when I discover similar attitudes in other religions.  This article on MSNBC:  Does God care who wins the Super Bowl? even references the Holy War…  Here are some quotes from the article I found particularly interesting.

Does God care that Kurt Warner, the quarterback of the Arizona Cardinals, is more likely to be spotted carrying his bible than his playbook? Does God care that Ben Roethlisberger, Warner’s counterpart in Super Bowl XLIII this Sunday, used to adorn his armbands with the letters “PFJ”, an acronym for “Playing For Jesus” ….?

Last month, Oklahoma quarterback Sam Bradford became only the second sophomore to win the Heisman Trophy. Less than 10 seconds after taking the podium, Bradford, speaking before a national television audience, declared, “First, I need to thank God. He’s given me so many blessings. … Without him I’d be nowhere. We’d all be nowhere.”

What if a player thanked another deity?

what if some Cardinal or Steeler were to be named Most Valuable Player come Sunday and lead off his interview in front of the entire world, by saying, “I’d just like to thank L. Ron Hubbard and the church of Scientology?” Or, “I’d just like to express gratitude to my dark lord Beelzebub?”

Would such a sentiment be blasphemous? To whom? To proponents of Christianity, perhaps, but certainly not to proponents of the First Amendment.

Before Jesus there was the Old Testament, and before sport there was war. Did not the Israelite youth David slay the Philistine giant Goliath invoking God’s name?

Was David sport’s first trash-talker? It ain’t braggin’ if you can back it up.

This Sunday, hundreds of millions of people worldwide will tune in, with great interest and fervor, to watch a game with an outcome that has no direct bearing on their lives (unless they took Arizona plus the points). People will hug, they will cry, they will cheer, they will wreak unconscionable havoc on automobiles, based solely on the outcome of this game.

And religion is the opiate of the masses? Or is sport the new religion?

Two seasons ago, Brigham Young trailed archrival Utah — in a game denizens refer to as the “Holy War” — by a score of 10-9 with just over a minute remaining. At stake was the Mountain West Conference title. Facing fourth-and-18, Cougars quarterback Max Hall connected with wideout Austin Collie for a 49-yard completion.

BYU won 17-10, and afterward, Collie, a devout Mormon, told a radio reporter, “When you’re doing what’s right on and off the field, I think the Lord steps in and plays a part. Magic happens.”

Collie was widely excoriated in print for his comment, but did not back down. “I believe the Lord has truly blessed me,” Collie said. “It’s the reason why I’m playing football, and if you don’t believe that, the next time you receive an award, then don’t say you want to thank God first for your success. That is the same exact thing. For people to make an issue out of saying that the Lord helps me out is ludicrous.”

This past season Collie led the nation in receiving yards per game.

There’s a common thread that links Warner and Roethlisberger and Bradford and McCoy and Tebow and even Collie. Besides their football success, that is. All of them play glamour positions, playing relatively non-violent roles in a highly violent game.

What if Pittsburgh Steelers safety Ryan Clark, who laid out Baltimore Ravens running back Willis McGahee with a vicious fourth quarter hit in the AFC Championship Game, had pointed heavenward after delivering that blow? McGahee lay motionless on the field, but then again, Clark had caused a Super Bowl-clinching fumble.

If Clark had publicly thanked God for that moment, would that have been in any poorer taste than McCoy pointing skyward after tossing a touchdown pass?

I really think God has more important things to worry about than the winner of a football game.  Comments?