Unguarded

[SuperTurkey]

The ESPN 30 for 30 tonight was about Chris Herren and his long battle with addiction. It was very well done.

At one point towards the end, Chris in the present day (hopefully, sober for good) was giving a pep talk to current players at his former high school. By way of summarizing his basketball career, Chris said the following:


I played against Duke, I played in the Boston Garden, I played for the Boston Celtics.

Nice that Duke was the standout memory from his college career. For those who don't recall, this is a recap of the game (http://www.enquirer.com/bearcats/1998/11/112898duke.html). Chris led all scorers.

In the following game, we lost to Cincinatti and wouldn't lose again until (ugh) the National Championship game against UConn.

[Kimist]

From the cited article about Duke vs Fresno State:

"Bulldog coach Jerry Tarkanian said his players went to school against Duke, which scored 27 of its 36 baskets in the paint."

My, how times have changed.....

[J4Kop99]

Elton Brand with 21-21. An absolute horse.

[Channing]

it was an excellent piece, as most of the 30 for 30s have been. it was tragic to see how good Herren was as a dope fiend, and to wonder how good he could have been if he remained sober.

Its interesting to note that Herren was the best player on a very good FS team - which featured future NBA players Courtney Alexander and Melvyn Ely.

[juise]

Its interesting to note that Herren was the best player on a very good FS team - which featured future NBA players Courtney Alexander and Melvyn Ely.

There was an outstanding player (Dennis Nathan) at my high school who was a top 10 national talent, but had huge academic and personal issues. He was recruited by the national powers, but ended up at Fresno State after a few years of community college. He eventually left the program after allegations of being part of academic fraud (the team statistician was completing players' assignments) and after the school learned that he had a felony drug selling conviction in his past (which apparently that forgot to include in the background check... or Tark ignored).

So that Fresno program had its share of talent, but with seemingly with very little concern or support for the lives of the players outside basketball. (I'm sure that everyone is shocked by this.)

[CrazyNotCrazie]

I finally got around to watching this - the 30 for 30 series has been excellent. It was very dark, but extremely well done. I forgot what a talented player he was. I was frustrated throughout how his "friends" enabled his problems, and that his family did nothing to intervene. I feel awful for his older kids that they essentially didn't have a father for many years.