I just finished watching a great documentary on HBO about the UNLV Running Rebels basketball program, and to say it didn’t bring back fond memories of my youth would be an understatement. Not only was that one of my favorite basketball teams of all time but it was one of the teams that shaped my view of basketball and life really.
Growing up in basketball country, Indiana, as many writers have said before me, we’re pretty much born with a basketball in our crib. As soon as you can dribble about four times in a row without picking the ball up you can join a league. We don’t play basketball, we think it. This is how I grew up.
I remember around the age of 7 or 8 thinking that the game that I saw on TV wasn’t the game I was experiencing. I was being taught how to throw a two hand chest pass, while seeing people on TV getting dunked on.
I believe it was the year of 1987, my parents had just enclosed the porch in our back yard and my Dad would take what had to be an 8 inch television out there and watch sporting events, mostly basketball. It was on the porch where I first experienced magic…. Magic Johnson that is. The famous hook shot, and a few days later the Lakers winning the championship. I remember asking my Dad “who is that?” He turned to me and said “Magic Johnson son.” For some reason I knew I liked that guy, and it wasn’t because of the hook shot, the flashy passes or cool looking uniforms he and his teammates wore, it was because he looked like me. I’ll write another blog later about my love for the Lakers, lol.
Growing up in Indiana you were bombarded with images in those days of Larry Bird, Steve Alford, and at the time local media darling Damon Bailey. They represented Indiana basketball at its finest, and what every coach wanted us to play like. For some strange reason I didn’t relate to it. They didn’t fly in the air like Jordan, throw no look passes like Magic nor did play the game like my friends and I played in our parents drive way. I don’t want to say I began to dislike the game of basketball, but my coaches back then did not like my interpretation of the game, which took away from the joy of playing it.
My grade school and junior high had different leagues that represented the different levels of experience. The “A” team was designated for the kids who knew the game, the “B” team was for kids who could play but hadn’t quite figured it out yet and the “C” team was for kids who just wanted to put on a uniform. I was always on the “B” team. Their reasoning, was because “he plays out of control”. Now the irony of that story is that out of everyone who I went to school with during that time never made their high school team, where I on the other hand, played at one of the most prestigious basketball programs in the country, but I shall digress.
In 1990 I discovered ESPN and began to watch a lot of basketball. I was never a Big Ten fan. Teams like Indiana University, Ohio St, and Purdue played boring basketball. To me at that age it looked like a bunch of robots moving extremely slow on the court. I remember experiencing something different one night while watching ESPN. like the saying goes “what is seen, can’t be unseen” and what I saw was exciting. I saw a team that ran! A team that dunked! A team that dunked on people! They played with passion! They yelled when they blocked a shot! Their jerseys were un-tucked! Some of the players wore high top fades, while others rocked a low fade with parts in it. Hell, they even wore Nike Air Flights, at the time my favorite shoe (and not those boring Adidas that IU wore). But most importantly I experienced a college team that looked like me! Not only did they look like me, they played like me and my friends as well as. Our heros, who we tried to be like in our driveways were this team the UNLV Running Rebels.
I’ll never forget that team, Greg Anthony, Anderson Hunt, Stacey Augmon, Larry Johnson, George Ackles with Jerry Tarkanian aka “Tark the Shark” as the coach. This team was magical! I didn’t know what I was watching, but I sure as hell knew it was way more exciting that what was being forced upon me living in Big Ten country. I did everything I could to get a glimpse of that team. I would try to stay up and watch their games late at night. I’d check out every Sport Illustrated from the library, cut out their articles and hang them on my wall. I even began to buy the USA Today because our local paper would only provide a box score. Larry Johnson was my favorite player on that team, but I tried to be most like Stacey Augmon, since he was tall and lanky like myself. Though I did steal the pause at the top of my free throw motion from LJ (side note I stole Michael Jordan’s free throw preparation, spin, three dribbles, spin, shoot). Before any of my friends begin to talk trash, (even though I wasn’t a good shooter in the game, I was always decent at the line, I’d say around 75%), so take that! Lol.
To say that UNLV team had an influence on how I viewed basketball would be an understatement. I now had a group of players to watch and want to be like. They were all around the same age as my older cousins, so that’s how I looked at them.
I do remember the media not liking them so much. I remember all those people back home who liked Bird, Alford and Bailey and me not liking them as well. I remember a lot of IU fans saying they were ruining the game. Bobby Knight fans were saying that Tark was coaching a team full of thugs and criminals. I remember thinking “well I don’t really care for Bird, Alford and Bailey, I love how UNLV plays and these guys look like my older cousins and their friends, not criminals, so I don’t know what you all are talking about, I’m following this team”.
As we know that team went down in history as one of the greatest college basketball teams ever. Three of those thugs, oops I mean starters from that team went on to have long successful pro careers. Stacey Augmon is now an assistant coach in the N.B.A. and Greg Antony is now an analyst for college basketball on C.B.S. (side note Greg Anthony thug’d it up real hard while at UNLV, starting his own T shirt business while being the president of the young Republicans on campus, ahhh if only we all could be thugs).
Thinking back, I do appreciate how I was raised and taught the game of basketball, matter of fact that is what stands out now about my game today. A nice crisp bounce back, a hard “V” cut, a solid pick on the wing. I also appreciate what Bob Knight brought to the game as well and ended up liking the guy the older I became (I could have played for him, no intimidating here Coach). I would just mix in the flash, the excitement, the heart and soul I picked up by watching the Rebels.
What I really learned from watching the Rebels was pride on the basketball court. That it was ok to be myself, love myself and love my game. Basketball is an emotional sport, which means you express yourself emotionally. I wasn’t taught that back at home, that’s something the Rebels taught me!
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