Unguarded

It's February.
Which means only one thing.
It's basketball season in the Fort.
Not only is our college team kicking butt in their season with some truly out standing play (hello not to brag but we are currently on a 23-home game winning streak---nbd), but we are heading into the boys' basketball season for Tank and his pals.
So the practices start, and the sound of sneakers squeaking on the hardwoods, the "pah" of a nothing-but-net basket, the resounding thud of a ruddy pebbled ball being propelled against the floorboards.
It is a sport that is in my blood. While never playing in high school save for a few seasons of church league (I scored a career-high 9 points in one game), I grew up in a family where it was the sport to play. My father broke Jerry West's nose (yes THE Jerry West, the one whose silhouette is used on the NBA logo) in a college basketball game and my brother played against a few of the Fab 4 (remember them? Not the Beatles---the U of Michigan freshmen back in the day. He didn't play against them in college but in an AAU tournament in high school).

So last night we were anxious to watch the video recommended to us, The Pistol: The Birth of a Legend. It was filmed in 1991 and tells the story of Pistol Pete Maravich, who is one of the most famous basketball players in the history of the sport. He was well-known for his ball-handling skills and for his insane scoring records. I can legally say 'insane' because one must recall that the majority of those points were scored prior to the introduction of the 3-point line. Sadly, Maravich died at the insane age of only 40, due to a previously undiagnosed congenital heart defect. He had no left coronary artery. Read that again, his entire career as an elite athlete was empowered by one massively engorged right coronary artery.

Talk about having a lot of heart.

The movie, made in 1991, is dying to be remade and updated. It did not attract the attention of Tank, and truthfully, I fell asleep a few times during the film. But it piqued interest in watching more basketball-themed movies. So yes, we looked for the best basketball movie EVER made, that's right, Hoosiers

This is the film that turned my faint praise for Gene Hackman into a somewhat creepy obsession. Before watching the film I was always a little interested in the man but something about watching him kiss Barbara Hershey in the middle of that Indiana cornfield.... I mean come on. 

 It's really one of the hottest moments in American film history ;).  

And when I learned of him visiting our small town along the Front Range... But no, I never met him and probably never will, and will forever only have Home Depot commercials to assuage the faint essence of a schoolgirl crush I have on the man.

Anyway...
The film captures the true essence of basketball as a sport. You see the wild abandon of the rosy-cheeked fans , the caravans of school buses as entire communities leave their barns to watch their home team Hickory go to the state Championships. Which of course came from a rag-tag team of young boys and one mad-skilled player, Jimmy Chitwood, who were all under the guidance of their beleaguered Coach Norman Dale (Hackman).

You can almost smell the scent of oak and sweat and heavy woolen coats sodden with frosty evening walks to the overheated and loud basketball gym. It is a fantastic film and one of the most uplifting sports films ever made. 

But alas and alack, Hoosiers is not available on Netflix.

 And I was too lazy to haul off to Blockbuster (yes it still exists) to dig up a copy for rental.( I think I have found an idea for Beloved's Valentine's Day gift!) So I sat on my couch in my basement and lazily flipped through the 'Sports Documentaries' available on the Netflix. 

Hoop Dreams. 

Yep. That one is good. But I've seen it too many times.
I debated trying to find the Reggie Miller vs NY Knick goodie "Winning Time"... because listening to Reggie Miller complain about getting schooled on the court by his older sister Cheryl Miller?... I mean, come on. That will never get old ;)

but then was caught by the title "Unguarded":  The Chris Herren Story. 

I'd never heard of Herren, and there is a reason why. Drafted deep into the NBA draft by the Nuggets, during the Dan Issel era, Herren played for 'our team' far before I paid any attention to the Denver Nuggets. During his tenure I was too busy taking care of babies and had no energy to commit allegiance to another sport. Because hey, Elway was QBing our beloved Broncos at that time. And the estrogen in me allows for only sport each season. And no, tennis will never be it. ;)

Chris Herren was a wunderkind, playing in a small Masssachusetts town outside of Boston. He had the weight of the community on his shoulders, as basketball was a huge attraction for a lumbering mill town a la Hickory. He was a golden boy and everyone expected him to go far. 

But like some high school students, the party atmosphere and the freedom alloted to him-a local hero, a local star athlete-, came back to haunt him. He began using alcohol and pot, and by the time he was given a scholarship to play in California State University, Fresno, he had started experimenting in cocaine and Oxycontin, given to him after a broken wrist injury.

(I was given Oxycontin post-natal by my retired Navy ob/gyn. He should have retired at that point. Oxycontin is a gorgeous fabulous exquisite drug. It is, basically, of the Devil and I will not allow it in my home as a result. But again, I digress).
Herren struggled with a burgeoning drug addiction, and the film details him spiraling out of control and into a place of complete surrender to heroin and opiates. He tells of meeting his dealer kitted out in his Celtics uniform prior to a game, standing on a corner outside of the stadium in full uniform. He talks of going to see his newborn son at the hospital and his wife telling him he was not welcome there. He talks of being tempted of joining the two homeless men who find him unconscious behind a 7-11 and never returning home.

 It is a powerful moving story that every single boy or girl who is interested in playing professional sports needs to watch. He lives the example of having no compass, no moral fiber except that which you are told you have, then finding the hope that gave him the integrity to overcome this disease. Not that he was a monster, he was never arrested for abusing his wife or children, he never 'stole' or 'broke the law' per se, but he talks about stealing food from his children. He admits to  having the lights turned off because of his drug use. The 'pride' that comes from being able to find heroin in 11 different countries,( of which he played in during his ABA career). I could only imagine that if his need for heroin caused him to look for the drug in Turkey, it must have been a pretty intense jonesing.  

In the end, the most powerful message of his story is the one of his relationship with his oldest son. His son values beyond measure the gold coin that his father gets every year from AA. The film follows Chris as he receives his third gold coin from his third year of sobriety and the ceremony involved in overcoming such an incredibly difficult and challenging addiction. He hugs his sponsor, and then goes home to his family. His son is sitting in the living room and Chris comes in and humbly shows him the coin. His son's face lights up (I think he is 11 or 12) and he starts to tear up and shyly hugs his father. The pride he obviously feels for his father is so powerful. If you do not eke out a tear at this point you have no soul. 

 It is the best reward any professional athlete can ever been given: the pride of ownership. Not by a team or a franchise. But the pride of ownership from a son towards his father.

What a powerful lesson for us all to learn.

If you get the chance to watch Unguarded, it is worth it. If you are a fan of basketball or just a fan of stories of men who overcome some of the greatest obstacles a man can ever face: Fame, Success and Money, 'Unguarded' is a great film about what winning really feels like. Chris Herren now speaks at high schools and colleges about his experiences playing professional basketball and his drug addiction. 

Here is a link to an article about the film: http://espn.go.com/espn/espnfilms/story/_/id/6961212/unguarded