(Sorry I couldn't find the "Return of the mack" thread. If somebody knows where it's at, you can repost this there.) ANYWAY: Recall how the OSHAA backed down on the jersey thing and said he had to sit out two games? And then said that, since he'd already sat out one, he only owed one more? Well, SVSM decided to have him sit out the last game of the season, against Toledo Scott. UNFORTUNATELY, that game was cancelled last weekend due to a snowstorm and Scott chose not to reschedule. So it looked like Bron Bron was going to have to sit out their first round playoff game. Well guess what? This morning it was announced that OHSAA has agreed to let SVSM schedule ANOTHER GAME, with Akron Firestone, (current record: 9 - 10) to be played tomorrow, so that LeBron can sit it out and thus be eligible for the playoffs. And then everybody wants to act SHOCKED when the kid thinks rules are a joke.
i have to agree, this is a joke. rescheduling a game with a poor team that didn't even make the playoffs just so they could get a game in so lebron could sit it out? what would make this all great, if in the game on tuesday their players got worn out and in their first round playoff game the next day they were upset...i know it won't happen but it would be justice. why couldn't lebron just sit out the first round playoff game on wednesday night? i mean this is the first round of the high school playoff's and they are not facing a world beater or anything...
Wouldn't you do the same if you were St. V/St. M? They had a sold out game in which Jame's jersey was to be retired and it would have kept it from missing a playoff game. Add to that, in Ohio, you are allowed a certain amout of games a year. This cancellation gives them another slot to fill. My question is if you were that school, why wouldn't you get another game in there? It would be stupid not to.
Remember when you were a kid at recess and you'd invent new games to play in the schoolyard. Seemed like a great idea - till you started playing and you and your friends had no idea what the agreed rules were gonna be. So you pretty much made them up as you went - bickering when you made up a rule and punishment after the "foul" occurred. This is kinda what the season of the mack has reminded of. They're just coming up with stuff on the fly. "Do over" anyone?
This is a very good point. It's just amazing how shoddy of a job the OHSAA is doing on this. How is it humanly possible that they never imagined that a kid could come into this type of situation? I mean, sure, Ohio's not exaclty the hottest spot for basketball in high school, but it certainly is known for producing some unbelievable high school football players over the years. Did it never occut to them that a few would turn out like this? James is obviously a spoiled brat and it's completely understandable why everyone wants to see him go down. But the OHSAA's ineptitude has allowed this all to go on due to their complete lack of forsight. It's their circus, James is just stealing the spotlight in the center ring and there's nothing they can do about it.
The OHSAA dropped the ball on this one, but I don't blame SVSM. LeBron is just one player in this program. There are teammates, coaches, managers, an AD, and administrators who are never going to get this good a chance at a championship ring. Some coaches, principals and assistant principals go an entire career and never realize that moment. LeBron will graduate and move on, but a championship is forever.
This is not directly about LeBron - but he has certainly put the topic of hyping young hoopsters into the spotlight. Good article in today's Washington Post http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A55515-2003Feb23.html
This just in: FLASH....FLASH....FLASH....FLASH In a stunning result from Northeast Ohio, the LeBron Jamesless StV team managed to hold off the mighty Akron Firestone squad, who lost to SVSM in a heartbreaker last night 90 - 40. Over 6,000 paying customers came to watch Lebron sit in the stands as his teammates gamely crushed the fukking life out of Firestone who did, reportedly, manage to find their bus afterwards. Somehow managing to overcome the absence of their star against this perennial powerhouse, StV can now safely take on Wooster on Wednesdau without worrying about pesky rules and such. Firestone meanwhile, finishes their year at 9 - 11, and goes into regional action tomorrow riding the crest of a FIFTY FREAKING POINT LOSS, but having had the biggest box office payday of the decade. After the game, Coach Joyce thanked Firestone coach Jerry Laria for his ``willingness to play us in such short notice.'' The game was put together after St. V-M's original game Sunday against Toledo Scott was canceled due to inclement weather in Toledo. The game was in doubt for much of the first half, as StV eked out at 31 - 3 run to take a meager 48-16 halftime lead. After the game, Lebron and of course his mom, stood at halfcourt as the solemn ceremony to retire LBJ's number was followed by the solemn ceremony retiring the last shred of OHSAA Commissioner Claire Muscaro's human dignity. Not a wet eye in the house.
I don't know about 2000-2001(fidlerre says finalists in 2001-2002), but surely there's some kids on the team now who weren't part of the title team. Nothing's guaranteed just the same. My HS alma mater was ranked #1 in Alabama (football) all year in '85, had beaten Moeller of Cincinnati on the road and rose to a #2 USA Today ranking only to lose in the semis.
Then they may have to learn to live without a state championship, like 99.9% of athletes do. All the poor babies will be left with is the memory of having played games all over the US including California, playing on ESPN, having everybody from Shaquille to Kobi attend their games and playing in front of crowds as big as 15,000 people. Boy, they sure will have been cheated.
OHSAA droped the ball? LeBron is just one player? LeBron is the gravy train and all aboard! You want him on that court! You need him on that court! All these people you mentioned above are just along for the ride and it is about time for them to get off at the last stop...Loserville. Population growing by the minute.
Yes, they did. I'm surprised this point is even being questioned. Actually, I know what your sentence implies- that SVSM shouldn't have even tried that option. Hey- it's the state athletic association's job to close that loophole, and they did not. Yes, he is. It just seems otherwise when SVSM plays. No doubt, they're just another team without him. Yeah, they're along for the ride. I suspect they'll win. If they don't, they don't. It's not my school. But in this age of Jumbotrons at affluent public high schools (Brookwood in North metro Atlanta), coaches being fired for not winning enough state titles (Valdosta), students being given athletic scholarships to attend private schools while their non-athletic but smarter siblings do not, I tire of the talk of what high school athletics should be. I'm at the point of accepting it as it is... (I'm also a product of the South, where the unspoken mission of private schools is a lot more morally repugnant than, say, loading a damn basketball team. If this was the GetaroundBrown Christian Academy in Railroad Switch, Louisiana, est. 1954, I'd be hoping they lost) ...so I hope LeBling gets another ring. And I hope he lasts long enough in the NBA to pay for that Hummer.
Hall of Fame LeBron to the basketball hall of fame. http://espn.go.com/nba/news/2003/0318/1525548.html