In the empty years, when Doug Collins was out of coaching, All-Star weekend was when he and his daughter, Kelly, would share some quality time. Of course, because they both love basketball, this still meant going to the game. But they sat together in the stands. They laughed and pointed out special plays. And when the game ended, they went not to the tunnel, but to the parking lot.
In the end, you could no more stop them than you could stop the moon. They rose to the occasion, they rose to the challenge, and finally -- when the last seconds ticked away and Chris Osgood threw his hands into the air and leaped into a hug from Larry Murphy as a lonesome octopus came flying onto the ice -- finally, they raised the roof. They were back to the big stage, the Stanley Cup finals, and they burst through the curtain with a certain swagger, as if they knew it would happen, as if they've been here before.
MIAMI-- "When he arrived here, we're all like, 'We traded for him? He's going to be our quarterback?' " -- Jamal Anderson, Falcons running backFootball will forgive you many things. Fragility is not one of them.You can have a big mouth. You can oversleep. You can have a police record. But if you break too easily, they start looking elsewhere.
TAMPA, FLA. -- From one side came defensive lineman Chidi Ahanotu, breathing fire. From the other side came defensive end Warren Sapp, ready to chew someone's arm off. There was no escape. No hole to dive into. It was like being trampled by buffalo, and all Gus Frerotte could do on this final fourth down was try to wrangle his hand free and whisk the ball away, like a man heaving the treasure as he goes off the cliff.Incomplete pass. The Tampa crowd roared.And that was the end of our kidding ourselves around here.
INDIANAPOLIS -- It wasn't the way he chewed gum as he jogged out of the tunnel, nor the ease with which he carried the ball in his first lay-up drill, one-handed, effortless, as if putting a glass on a shelf. No. What convinced you the guy was back for real were those familiar beads of sweat glistening on his smoothly shaved head, exerting himself again, in basketball, after nearly two years away. His number was already retired and a statue erected in his honor. Now he stripped off his warm-ups to the familiar red-and-black uniform. The crowd exploded.
ATLANTA -- The barbell sat there like a mountain. "Go ahead," it seemed to say, "move me."Out came the last lifter. He already had won the gold medal; this was for history. The weight stood at 518 pounds. If he hoisted it to his shoulders, then pushed it over his head, he would better the world record by more than 16 pounds.In the audience, his fans waved the flag of Greece.In the hallway, the silver medalist, from Kazakhstan, watched with intense interest.In the waiting room, the bronze medalist, from Ukraine, bit his lip and stared at the TV screen.
When he was a kid, he was only trying to reach the couch. His older brother blocked the way, grinning and cooing, "Come on, try it. Come on." And so young Charles Woodson, with a balled-up sock under his arm, dove into every invisible air tunnel, hoping for a clear chute to the promised land of bouncy cushions."I'm gonna score on you!" he'd yell."No, you're not!" his brother would answer.
It was every suspense film you ever watched, every thriller you ever read, every nervous waiting room you ever sat in all rolled into one nail-biting, double-overtime evening at Joe Louis Arena, 19,000 exhausted fans, tapping their chests at every break to make sure the old ticker was still working.And finally, a few minutes before midnight, the doctor emerged, smiling with the good news:It's a goal!
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.
