BENNETT'S MINUTES: Kobe Bryant film gets to heart of what’s great about basketball

Monday, March 5, 2018

It’s March, time for buzzer beaters and bubble busters. For some dreams to come true, and for others to be crushed. Jim McKay used to call it the “thrill of victory, and the agony of defeat” on the opening sequence for ABC’s Wide World of Sports.

For the underclassmen at any level, there is always next year.

I feel badly every year for the seniors, though, who must come to the undesired realization that the time has come to start a new chapter.

In college basketball, some of them will move on to play professionally. But not many. For high school players, maybe an average of one player per team will get to lace up their shoes collegiately.

I can only assume how hard the college players we all see on television have worked to get where they are, but for high school players it’s a lot different. Those of us well-connected to the Putnam County basketball scene know all the names, faces and background stories of those players.

Watching Greencastle’s Colin York and Jack Hutcheson walk off the court for the last time on Saturday night was tough to see. You could see the anguish in their reddened faces. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to also be at South Putnam last weekend to see South Putnam’s Wes Lesko and North Putnam’s Elliot Gross, Treyton Smith and Caleb Duncan conclude their careers.

Cloverdale’s Jalen Moore and Nick Winders are still alive, but they have a maximum of four games left over the next three weekends as long as they keep winning. Their careers are also at the sunset stage.

York and Moore will play college basketball somewhere next year. For the others, it’s likely the end.

Having interviewed most of these young men over the past couple of years, watched them in practice as often as possible and also seeing them play in a few dozen games, there’s no questioning the passion and dedication these young men have for the game. And no explanation necessary for their sadness when it’s over.

These thoughts ran through my mind on Sunday as I learned that former NBA star Kobe Bryant was winning an Academy Award for his short film entitled “Dear Basketball,” based on a poem he had written. I knew he had planned to go into some form of writing after his retirement last year, but had neither read the poem nor seen the video.

Without spoiling the content, it’s basically a letter from Bryant to the game of basketball discussing their relationship and thanking it for everything it had done for him. The video is a little over five minutes long, narrated by Bryant while an amazing display of animation provides a compelling visual aide.

The poem was written two years ago during Bryant’s last season, during which his skills had begun to erode due to Father Time and he had already announced that campaign would be his last.

I wasn’t what you would call a huge fan of his on the court, but he was a great player and it was always fun to watch him play at the high level he did when winning five NBA Championships.

He and I do share some mutual friends, as the world again proves to be much smaller than it appears.

While Phil Jackson was the head coach for all of the Laker titles they shared together, Bryant has credited assistant coach Frank Hamblen for being one of his biggest inspirations.

Hamblen was a Terre Haute Garfield graduate from the early 1960s who played collegiately at Syracuse, and hooked up with Jackson for seven of his 11 championships in Chicago and Los Angeles.

Hamblen passed away in September. I attended his funeral service in Terre Haute, having become friends with him and his family through coaching two of his nephews. His sister, Susan Mardis, spoke eloquently at the service and frequently brought up Bryant’s name from their many interactions.

Bryant attended a service for Hamblen held in California, and from his closeness to the Mardis family it wouldn’t have been shocking if he had shown up in Indiana. He wasn’t able to attend, but passed along a message on Twitter (complete with modern shortcuts): “Thank u Coach Frank for your deep understanding of the game, your patience & for challenging me to defend @ the highest level. I will miss u.”

If you haven’t seen the film yet, you should. Anyone reading this on a mobile device or computer can tap or click on https://www.go90.com/videos/261MflWkD3N. If not, just Google the title.

Basketball is a great game, the best one in my eyes. Each player has to be skilled in every phase of the game, and there is no resting after every play. The lag time between being on offense and defense is measured in fractions of seconds, not minutes and you cannot hide a weak defender in a place where he cannot be exposed.

Size is helpful, but not mandatory. (I still prefer speed any day.) Inferior teams can beat superior teams by utilizing more different kinds of strategies than in any other sport.

I know I’ll be thinking about this poem frequently over the next month or so, when I see guys with towels wrapped around their faces to hide the tears or lying on the court face down in disbelief.

None of those players should have anything to feel badly about, though.

They are all better for having played this great game.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: