OFF THE WALL
Vermont, Albany coaches make dream come true MSG connection
We just couldn’t let this stuff go …
In February 2015, during his senior year at Columbus (Indiana) North High, basketball star Josh
Speidel suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident that left him in a coma for a month. Vermont honored its commitment to Speidel, and though he could no longer play, he became an inspiration for the Catamounts during the most successful four-year run in program history.
“I know everyone says I’ve inspired the guys this season, but to be honest, they’ve inspired me tremendously,” Speidel (pictured), who had to relearn to walk and talk after the accident, said in March 2017 as his teammates prepared for Vermont’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2012. “... My goal is definitely to one day put on the green and gold and go out there and play.”
On Tuesday night, before a standing-room-only crowd at Vermont’s perfectly charming Patrick Gym, Speidel finally realized that goal, writes Scott Allen of The Washington Post. The 6-foot-7 forward started and made his first career appearance on senior night. Thanks to an agreement between Vermont coach John Becker and Albany coach Will Brown, Speidel scored the Catamounts’ first basket on a layup.
At Speidel’s request, every one of his teammates on the floor touched the ball before his best friend, guard Everett Duncan, delivered the bounce pass that preceded his special moment.
“I don’t think I’ve ever been that nervous for a layup,” Speidel told the Burlington Free Press. “I was thinking about it, it’s nice to have that nervousness, I haven’t been nervous for a game in five years. I’ve supported the team and been nervous for the team, just not to that sense tonight.”
The crowd erupted after Speidel’s shot and officials stopped the game momentarily. Speidel exchanged a hug with Duncan and received congratulations from Albany’s players. Brown shared a few words with Speidel as he made his way to the Vermont bench, where Becker embraced him before he checked out of the game.
“This was a dream of mine,”
Duncan told the Free Press of Speidel’s accomplishment. “That was easily the happiest moment of my college career.”
Trivia question
Yankees pitchers Mike and Fritz Peterson made history on this date in 1973 with an unusual announcement. What was it?
Spike Lee bailed on his New York Knicks’ courtside seat for the rest of the season. Maybe he can commiserate with former Knicks enforcer Charles Oakley, anywhere but inside Madison Square Garden.
Lee had enough of being held by security in a dispute over his proper entrance to a Knicks game when he invoked the name of executive chairman James Dolan’s No. 1 nemesis and fellow Garden agitator.
“You want to arrest me like Charles Oakley?” Lee shouted at security Monday night.
The wild scene at MSG was enough to trigger Oakley, who had his spat in 2017 when he was arrested after an altercation with security officials. Watching Lee, the Oscar-winning writer-director, go through another dust-up had Oakley feeling as if he was in some sort of sequel to He Got (Kicked Out of the) Game.
“It’s got to be stopped in some kind of way,” Oakley told The Associated Press in a phone interview Tuesday night. “The NBA has got to take a look at this. You can’t keep closing your eyes to this . ... They got a new president and all everyone is talking about what happened between Spike Lee and the Garden.”
That’s never OK
Tottenham midfielder Eric Dier climbed into the stands to confront a fan in a physical altercation following the team’s FA Cup loss to Norwich on Wednesday.
Footage posted on social media showed Dier going up into a section of home supporters, climbing over several rows of seats and confronting a fan, before being escorted away by stewards. Tottenham manager Jose
Mourinho said the supporter had apparently insulted Dier’s brother following the penalty shootout loss, but added that the England international was wrong to seek out the confrontation.
Trivia answer
The Yankees pitchers announced that they had swapped wives, children and dogs. Actually, it was the husbands who swapped lives.