Sport
-Thoughts by Mike Moffett
BOOKS, WOMEN’S BASKETBALL, AND MEN COACHING GIRLS
Let’s get the shameless
self-promotion out of the way first.
Did I mention I
wrote a book?
Alert Weirs
Times readers may recall that I recently co-authored “FAHIM SPEAKS: A Warrior-Actor’s
Odyssey from Afghanistan to Hollywood and Back.” Brendan Smith wrote a wonderful Weirs
Times story about the project last year.
(So what does
that have to do with a sports column?
Please keep reading.)
A couple weeks
ago I got a call from a friend in southern California, who explained that she
knew a radio personality at KTLK-AM Talk Radio in Los Angeles who’d had a
cancellation for her show, leaving an opening in the second hour. Was I
interested in calling in to the show to talk about the book?
“Of course!”
But it meant
calling L.A. at 1:30 p.m. EDT on a Wednesday, when I’m in the middle of a three
hour “Sports and Society” class. I’d
have to bow out.
“My class meets
at that time. Sorry. Maybe if it was about sports I could have taken a bit of
class time. Too bad.”
Then I was told
that the host, Teal Marchande, had a daughter
who played basketball for Cal-Berkeley, which was headed for the NCAA Women’s
Final Four in New Orleans.
“OK.” I replied. “If there’s a
sports component I can try to call during class, if we can make it interactive
with my students.”
So I explained to my students
that we were going to be on a major L.A. talk radio station, and that the
scheduled quiz would be delayed a bit.
While we waited for our assigned call time, Jessica--an NHTI Lynx women’s
college basketball standout--got her computer out and looked up Teal’s
daughter’s information.
“Talia Caldwell is 6-foot-3,”
said Jess. “She has over 1000 career rebounds and shoots 62 percent from the
floor. And her father, Ravin Caldwell, was a linebacker with the NFL's
Washington Redskins from 1987 to 1992, winning Super Bowl rings in 1987 and
1991.”
Sports component? I THINK!
When we finally went live I
explained I was sitting in the middle of class with my cell phone on speaker,
and we first wanted to know how it felt to be the mom of a hoopster bound for
the FINAL FOUR! Teal seemed delighted by the question and spoke at length of
her excitement and anticipation. As the
parent of a couple of daughters who enjoyed some sports successes, I could
relate. I thought of Concord’s Dave and Paula Bonnor, whose daughter Becky
enjoyed some high level women’s basketball success at Stanford University
(Cal’s big rival) over ten years ago. Becky’s brother Luke played big-time
basketball at West Virginia and UMass. And older brother Matt is still making
his parents proud, playing for the San Antonio Spurs and almost winning the NBA
three-point shooting contest during All-Star weekend.
Teal and I did eventually talk
about the “FAHIM SPEAKS” book and
movie projects, of course, but we came back to sports.
“I’m in a room filled with
Celtic fans who want to know what’s wrong with the Lakers,” I explained. Teal laughed and put in a plug for the
Clippers before her producer and engineer weighed in on the Lakers.
“Horrible coach.”
I thanked Teal for the air
time, and explained that the pending quiz could be delayed, but not avoided,
and our class went back to business.
But we now had a personal
interest in the women’s Final Four. I went to ESPN the next Sunday and saw the
Louisville Cardinals overcome a big Cal lead to knock off the Bears and advance
to the Finals against UConn, where the Huskies easily triumphed. I loved watching Cal coach Lindsay Gottlieb,
and noted that she was once a basketball assistant at the University of New
Hampshire, under Sue Johnson. Small
world!
I was disappointed that
Gottlieb didn’t get a chance to face UConn and its coaching legend Luigi "Geno" Auriemma. In our “Sports and Society” class, we sometimes discuss
the concerns of folks who feel that women should be coached by women, folks who
especially chafe at Auriemma’s success, and who look for a great female hope to
put him in his place. Maybe Lindsay will someday get the chance that she just
missed out on in 2013. But that’s a
different story for another day.
Go Bears!
Bear Fact …
Cal-Berkeley and Stanford played one of the
first-ever women's college basketball games in 1896. Stanford won, 2-1. Men
were excluded, as women guarded the gymnasium windows and doors to keep out
curious male students.
And …
Did I mention that I wrote a book?
Lindsay ...
