APRIL 07, 2025
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Long time BLSays-ophiles know that my All Time All Time Favorite Movies are …
(1) Lonesome Dove (technically a made-for-tv movie but I count it) … “It’s been a helluva party, Woodrow.”
(1b) RoadHouse …. “I thought you’d be bigger.” “I get that a lot.”
I need to update that short list to include …
(1c) Tombstone …. “that’s the rumour…”
(2) Troy … with Brad Pitt as Achilles – “… HECTOR”
Last week’s passing of Val Kilmer reminded me how esteemed I hold Tombstone…. especially Val Kilmer’s incredible “Doc Holliday”.
Q: DoYaKnow the meaning of Doc’s classic line to Johnny Ringo – “I’m your huckleberry…” ?
A: In the Old West, the handles on coffins were called “huckles” so a pall bearer would be a “huckle-bearer” which easily morphs into “huckleberry”. “Doc” was telling Ringo that he – Doc – would be putting Ringo’s in his coffin i.e. killing him. Which he did a minute or so later.
You should be able to win a few bar bets with that info.
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NOTE: The following comments are not intended to be critical of YOU and your quite natural choices of emotional priorities. It is “Me” who is “odd man out” on this subject. I recognize and accept my inexorable fate as the minority opinion. I ask that you allow me my choice as I so magnanimously allow you yours.
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Return with me to the halcyon days of many many yesteryears … when basketball players wore “short shorts” and Chuck Taylor Converse All-Stars … and cheerleaders wore poodle shirts and looked like Annette Funicello and Gidget.
A pre-teen BobLee swore (with a somewhat limited profanity vocabulary) that Referee Lou Bello had CHEATED and cost my Kinston Red Devils a state championship to the Mount Airy Granite Bears in Enka NC.
Eight years later, sharing the backseat of a Ford Falcon with Lou Bello from Columbia SC to Chapel Hill, (its a long story) I reminded Lou of that game. Lou’s reply was “Yeah, I missed that foul on Kinston’s Pete Watkins with a minute to go … the only call I missed in 25 years of officiating…” He grinned. Over a half century later I still recall that seminal moment in my development as a sports fan.
Five years later, in a jam-packed gym in New Bern, I watched my Red Devils have our 46-0 win streak snapped by New Bern’s Bill Bunting making a “Christian Laettner buzzer beater” before there was a Christian Laettner. I didn’t cry but my profanity vocabulary added a few choice phrases that Friday night in New Bern. We went on to win back-to-back state titles and go 51-1 over two years. At every HS reunion since it’s “that New Bern loss” that gets discussed ad infinitum.
Four years at UNCCH in the early days of Dean Smith’s ascension to Sainthood, I witnessed a LOT of “thrills of victory and, a few but not many, agonies of defeat”. More of the former than the latter.
In March of 1982 alone in an apartment in Dallas – pre-Blondie days – I watched “Michael hit the jumper” that jump started The Legend Of Jumpman The GOAT. Had Freddie Brown fed Ewing rather than unexplainably throwing the ball to Worthy would we even remember Michael’s jumper?
At my office at the Fairmont Dallas the next morning, not ONE of my co-workers had watched the game or gave a rip who won. Another seminal moment in my evolution as a sportsfan.
Over the past half-century plus of watching probably 1,000s of sports events, I recall a few Magic Moments …. Mazeroski’s Walk-off HR in 1960 World Series vs NYY … David Freese’s equally dramatic walk-off in Game 6 of 2011 World Series vs Texas … Auburn’s Kick-6 win over Saban’s Crimson Tide in 2013 … “T.A. McLendon’s Knee” amid Kenan’s lofty pines in 2004 … Jack Nicklaus’ last green jacket at Augusta in 1986 … UNC’s Triple OT thrilla versus Wilt in 1957 … Ol’ Roy walking out to the court in the National Championship versus Illinois in 2005 and a nitwit fan admonishing him “Don’t let us down, Coach”.
BL, is there a point to all this “memory lane” rambling? A: Yes, I get paid by the word.
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Which brings us to Duke’s loss to Houston last Saturday.
Unlike 99.9% of you’ans I don’t HATE anything about “sports”. I don’t HATE coaches or players or commissioners or referees or rivals or even idiot fans who seem to HATE a lot about “sports”.
NOTE: I do HATE anything or anyone that directly or indirectly threatens my family or my grandchildrens’ future. Who wins or loses a sports event does not rise to that level of importance … to me.
Other than those long ago instances noted above, my emotional investment in Who wins and How is minimal to none. Watching / Following sports is a discretionary choice I make. I don’t watch nearly as much “sports” as I did even ten years ago. I won’t bother to watch tonight’s Houston v Florida game. I haven’t watched a college BB game NOT involving a local team in 4-5 years.
I only watch the local teams because I know its a “something” most all of you are invested in. Some of you quite heavily invested. My comments on those events might be of interest to you … or not.
Apparently I might be the only Not Duke alumni/fan who does Not HATE DUKE. “HATING Duke” is apparently “a thing”.
Two of my closest friends are Duke alumni with one being “a Blue Devil Legend” and quite involved in Duke Athletics. Neither one is Jewish … not from New Jersey … and don’t drive a BMW. There has never been an obnoxious word or testy moment between us EVER.
I can say the same about my many lifelong NC State friends … OK, “most” of my NC State friends. Same with my Deacon and ECU friends.
There IS an unwritten NCAA rule that a certain % of every fan base be flaming jackasses and Duke’s fan base likely meets their quota … but no more so than their neighboring institutions. Less on a per capita basis.
It probably helps in all the above cases that I am not – in any way, shape, form or fashion – the stereotypical “Carolina fan”. Never have been and well passed the point of ever becoming one. I share my friends negative opinions of the supposed “typical Carolina fan”.
A phrase I use frequently in my popular politically-oriented commentaries on Facebook is … Negative stereotypes develop for a reason.
It takes more than a few randomly aberrant individuals to broad brush “a whole buncha” members of whatever group that individual is a member of. Or at least it oughta.
I was “pulling for Duke” Saturday night. It was a very exciting game, especially the final minute or so. I’ve never met anyone currently involved with Duke Basketball. My opinions are based 100% on their public persona as seen on TV.
Jon Scheyer seems like a nice guy. Cooper Flagg sure seems like a fine young man with a bright future in Basketball.
Did Duke’s loss forever taint Jon Scheyer’s coaching career? ….. St Dean coached in FIVE Final Fours before winning his first of two in 1982.
Did Cooper Flagg missing the jumper in the final few seconds forever taint his basketball career?
Did he “choke” or simply miss a shot in a sport where a 50% field goal % is very good? Did two Cougars hanging off his arms affect his shot?
Did Ol’Roy’s failure to “put a man on” Villanova’s Kris Jenkins in the 2016 Finals forever taint Roy’s HoF career? Should it have?
Were the Basketball Gods guiding Laettner’s famous turn-around jumper versus Kentucky. Had Grant’s pass been errant or Laettner’s shot missed would he still be a Duke legend?
Was there divine intervention with Derek Whittenburg’s pass(?) to Lorenzo Charles in 1983. Had the pass been off a few inches Cinderella’s shoe would never have fit…. and V’s Legend would not have been as legendary.
Does Cooper Flagg’s miss make him the “Bill Buckner” of college basketball? Really?
The Duke-Hatin’ bar flies and board monkeys crawled out from under their rocks to ridicule and bash Scheyer and Flagg. Bar flies and board monkeys whose life accomplishments consist of ________ ???
The rare opportunity to even appear on The Big Stage is accorded to only a few. To be involved in a Big Moment on that Big Stage is even rarer. I suppose either Coach Scheyer or Cooper Flagg COULD be forever scarred by this experience. I hope not.
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The Masters is fast approaching. As always … I’ll be watching “the back nine on Sunday”.
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The Best Of BobLee is HERE
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