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Friday, July 6, 2007
Sports climate alters in flash
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Let’s see, where were we? Has it been that long? The Braves were on a winning streak, a change of face from a year ago. The Hawks had just drafted Al Horford and Acie Law. Don’t laugh, they could become household names, like Raid and Crisco in no time. The tragedy of Chris Benoit, the “Canadian Crippler” — now there’s a loving tribute for his headstone — was just beginning to sink in. Mike Hargrove was still managing the Seattle Mariners — there’s one for the mystery book. The Buick Open was playing on with Tiger in absentia, except for his commercials. Know something? If he ever gives up golf, the guy has an acting career out there. Another thing — there is so much speculation about how fatherhood may affect his game, what about the LPGA mamas who are actually on the production line?
And on and on it went, while I lolled away on an island in the tropics. (Well, St. Simons is the next best thing, except for the taxes.) Mainly, my time was absorbed in a study of the invasion of the American sports scene. Just check the American League All-Star team: The two Rodriguezes, Ortiz, Polanco, Jeter, Guerrero, Ordonez and Suzuki. Only Derek Jeter home-grown. Alex Rodriguez was born here, but of Dominican Republic parents, and in that World Classic thing, he played for his parental country.
Now, we move to golf, gifted to us by Scottish shepherds, but now slipping out of our grip. An Argentine is our U.S. Men’s champion, Angel Cabrera — and have you noticed the outbreak of Cabreras in our many games? It was almost ordained that one of the army of Korean girls would win the Women’s championship, a Kim, a Park or a Pak. No Swede this year, for Annika Sorenstam’s game is in recovery. With all those Kims in there, how could it not be? On some days there’ll be the names of around 20 Kims in the daily scores of the LPGA. Only seven made the cut at Pine Needles. The highest finisher was Mi Hyun Kim, who tied at eighth. Then there were the Parks, the Paks, the Songs, the Ahns, the Yang and the Kang and a Choi, no kin, probably, to K.J., who won the Nicklaus tournament at Muirfield. The Koreans’ Kim and Choi are to them as our Smith and Jones. They’re rolling them out of their finishing school in South Korea like cars off the production line in Detroit.
We’re closing in on the hallowed FedExCup cut line, and Woods is in the lead, but which Cup? NASCAR or PGA? The Tour is sparing nothing to keep its Cup out front, noisily promoting its standings over earnings. Maybe I missed something along the line, but what happens to the players who get cut in the four tournaments leading up to the Tour Championship, which amounts to a 30-man playoff?
These days haven’t been wasted. I’ve given heavy study to things I like and don’t like about golf as televised. When I check the leaderboard and find a cast of LaBelle, Barlow, Goggin, Lickliter, Na and Wi, I turn on. When I see the camera line up on Jim Furyk, I know I have time to head to the water closet while he goes through his setup the usual three times. And the caddie who squats behind his player lining up a putt, which he usually misses. And one more, while I’m on this kick: For God’s sake, why does a full-grown pro no more than two feet from the hole have to mark his ball?
Going into the home stretch, with AT&T now ponying up for Tiger’s Washington tournament, that makes three. Pebble Beach is one of the classics, and it’s not going anywhere. Would you conclude that the so-called Classic at Sugarloaf might be getting a bit nervous?
Permalink | Comments (6) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher, Hawks / NBA
Ex-Dogs basketball star shows sports’ good side
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
The feds digging in a star quarterback’s backyard. A wrestler strangling his wife and son before committing suicide. No end to the scandals involving performance-enhancing drugs. All of those mug shots, ranging from the likes of “Pacman” Jones to Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss to a slew of Georgia Bulldogs.
We interrupt the epidemic of bad stuff in sports to bring you the good stuff of Shandon Anderson.
For starters, after leaving Georgia with his considerable basketball talent for the NBA without a degree, Anderson returned this spring to Athens to get one.
It took a while.
Like 11 years.
“I dropped a freshman English course my first quarter there [in 1992], and I never went back,” said Anderson, 33, sighing with the memory. “I didn’t want to go into class with a bunch of 17-year-olds and 18-year-olds when I was a junior and senior, so I tried to make it up with correspondence courses. You keep saying to yourself, ‘I’ll get it done. I’ll get that one class,’ but you never do. Finally, I did get it done, and that’s because it was something I had to do for the sake of the kids.”
There is Anderson’s 10-year-old daughter, Kori, for instance. She is as impressionable as the youngsters that Anderson encounters through his four-year-old foundation. It is based in his native Atlanta, and it helps underprivileged youth improve their educational and social skills through mentors. “How are you going to tell a kid to do something if you’re not doing it yourself?” said Anderson, sounding like the anti-Charles Barkley, which means Anderson knows he is a role model.
With apologies to Barkley and others who don’t get it, we’re all role models, whether we like it or not, and we’re either positive ones or negative ones. Pro athletes just have more opportunities to become powerful ones through their high visibility. That’s why Anderson is flirting with little or no visibility as a player. After 10 seasons in the NBA that included a championship with the Miami Heat during his last season in
2005-06, Anderson’s pro career is more in the past than the present or the future, courtesy of a wrist injury.
No problem, though. Anderson has lots to do with the opening of his salon and spa in Atlantic Station. “It’s going to be nice, vibrant and upbeat,” he said, describing his new business and himself. “The theme of the place will center around these three islands — Bora Bora, Sri Lanka and Bali — where you can drop in to get away from the hustle and bustle of life.”
Entrepreneurship is wonderful, and Anderson added, “There are a few more things I want to venture into.” It’s just that his deepest passion involves his foundation that was inspired in 2003 when he visited Crim High School, his alma mater. He discovered more than a few clueless youngsters wandering the halls and classrooms. “It’s a shame, because of who the school is named for,” said Anderson, referring to Alonzo A. Crim, the first African-American superintendent of Atlanta public schools. “So we began programs such as Femininity 101, where we would bring in a bunch of the girls to teach them how to do their hair and proper grooming and things of that nature.”
The foundation has evolved so much that it just held a banquet to give scholarships to 20 needy student-athletes graduating from local high schools. “It was unbelievable, man,” said Anderson, with emotion, especially after he mentioned that, because both of his parents are deceased, he has leaned on Jacquelyn Mack, his former teacher at Crim who also is his godmother.
Which brings us back to Anderson’s college diploma.
Or is that Mack’s diploma?
“You want to satisfy the people around you, so that diploma definitely is not going to come my way,” said Anderson, laughing, adding that the diploma is hanging in Mack’s Decatur home. “For my godmother to see me finally accomplish that goal, I think it really means a lot to her.”
To her and to everybody else tired of seeing the police blotter in the middle of the sports section.
Permalink | Comments (9) | Categories: Terence Moore, UGA / SEC
