Published: March 27, 2007 10:38 pm            

VALVANO: Same rules, same game except off the court

It is the late 1960’s and the college coach gets a call from his brother, who is a high school coach. The call concerns a player the high school coach has seen and thinks might make a good college player.

The college coach asks the kid’s name. He is told, “Julius Erving.” The college coach says, “Erving? What is he a Jewish kid?” Told the player is an African-American, the college coach tells his brother he has never heard of the kid who, of course, is destined, just three years down the road, to become a basketball legend, a future Hall of Famer, as the great “Dr. J.”

It is 1979 and that same college coach has just interviewed for a very prestigious college basketball coaching job.

The interview is just between the coach and the university’s athletic director.

This is an important job. The school had won a national championship just five years prior.

Now the interview was winding down. The athletic director shook hands with the coach and they said goodbye, before the coach flew back to his hometown.

The following day the athletic director called and congratulated the coach. He was being offered the job. The coach was excited and pleased, but surprised it happened so fast.

He asked for a day to talk it over with his wife.

The athletic director expressed some surprise, and said that was fine, but in two days the school was having a press conference to announce their new coach. It was either going to be this coach or another guy, but they weren’t going to wait.

Still no mention of salary.

The coach took the job that next day, only to find that the head coach at North Carolina State was to make the princely sum of $40,000, less than he was already making coaching at a tiny Catholic school in New York, Iona College.

I know those stories to be fact since, as you might have guessed, they both concerned my brothers — my oldest brother Nick, the high school coach, and Jim, the college coach.

I couldn’t help but think back to those two incidents, when I read two stories from the past week.

One concerned Tubby Smith, who announced his agent had negotiated a deal with the University of Minnesota over a six-week span, without his even knowing it was going on.

This five-year deal, worth an estimated $9 million, found the agent negotiating for a month and a half, then telling his client about it on a Wednesday, two days before the announcement.

Agents, millions of dollars and a six-week negotiating window — as opposed to two days, no agent, and $40,000. The song says, “What a difference a day makes.” But in hoops, it makes millions of differences over 25 years, apparently.

The other recent news story concerns O.J. Mayo, a talented player who committed to USC for next season.

An article in USA Today explained how Mayo wound up deciding on Southern Cal in this manner.

A “representative” of his contacted the USC coach, Tim Floyd, and asked if he would like to have the best high school player in the nation.

Was coach Floyd familiar with the name O.J. Mayo?

Of course, he was. Every coach knew just about every player of significant skill, and Mayo was one of the best. Well, O.J. decided he wanted to play in “the L.A. Market” and so he was coming to USC.

Coach Floyd as you might guess said something like “that’s great, let me call him to talk to him.”

No, sorry. O.J. doesn’t give out his cell number.

He’ll call you, says the agent.

In about two hours, Mayo does call and announces to Floyd he is planning to attend USC. Again, Coach Floyd is pleased but suggests Mayo come to see the school first.

Mayo says he doesn’t need to. He has already decided he wants to come.

Floyd says he really thinks he should visit and suggests he call back to set up a visit time. Mayo again says he can’t have the phone number, but is sure he is coming.

Then Mayo asks how many more scholarships does USC have?

Told “three” he says, “Well, don’t worry about those — I will finish those up and bring some other guys with him. A short time later, he faxes his formal letter of intent to the school, still never having visited.”

Finally, a visit is set up, and when he arrives on campus, he is not alone. He has brought along a TV crew.

Press conferences, “representatives,” TV crews, private cell phone numbers, high schoolers choosing a college based on “marketing opportunities,” and then telling the coach who else will be attending — a far cry from one of the game’s greats playing as an unknown on Long Island some 40 years earlier.

I hesitate to bring these stories up because if you remember that column I wrote some two months ago celebrating all that is good about turning 50, I must now confess one downside.

Whenever you see something that is different and you think worse, you risk sounding, well, old.

So I weigh up very hard if I am falling into that here, and I don’t think I am.

I mean, I love new, I embrace new, I am the guy who paid $700 for a Commodore 64 when it came out because I had to have it. It’s the same deal today.

“New” is often “improved” and I am happy to celebrate that.

But these stories, coupled with my many laments in this space about youth sports wackiness in this country, makes me worry that each year “the game” gets pushed a little further down, put a little more on the backburner and the money.

I write this from New York City where I will broadcast the NIT Final Four from Madison Square Garden, before heading to Atlanta to cover the NCAA Final Four.

All six of these games should be outstanding — fine teams, wonderful players, terrific coaches.

I hope the games are electrifying, because if they are, they confirm what I have believed all my life. The beauty of the sport transcends all the junk that comes with it.

We have endured gambling, drugs, scandals, steroids, absurd dollars, hangers on, con men, media cynicism and much more yet when “the game” takes center stage, it makes the magic reappear.

It is why this week is like winning a game show for someone like me, to be able to be courtside for all these games. And until that is no longer the case, I will know all the changes I outlined above still can’t get to the essence of the game itself, which is the only thing that endures really, and is the only thing that ultimately counts.

Enjoy the games.

Bob Valvano lives in Sellersburg and can be reached via e-mail at bobvshow@yahoo.com. He is a former college basketball coach and current radio show host on ESPN Radio.

        

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