CFL boss’s role was stuff of dreams
Orridge rubbed shoulders with Jordan, Barkley and company at 1992 Games
His basketball career never got very far off the ground, but Jeffrey Orridge was still involved in a historic basketball moment. When the time came, he got the most important coach in his life one of the best seats in the house for it.
“My mother . . . was a huge basketball fan, she actually taught me to play basketball,” the CFL commissioner said in his downtown office this week. “I actually played varsity basketball (at Amherst College in Massachusetts). That’s how good of a teacher she was.”
So when Orridge was the assistant executive director and general counsel for USA Basketball in 1992, he made sure his mom, Jacynth, was in Portland, Ore., to see the Dream Team play in the Olympic qualifying tournament.
“These were her heroes as well. She was sitting courtside at those games and I remember Karl Malone walked over and gave her a kiss and gave her his wristband during the course of the game,” Orridge said. “Magic Johnson was always warm and friendly in greeting her. That was the thrill for me, that I could help to provide that experience for my mother.”
Orridge played a key part in the legal agreement between the NBA and USA Basketball that allowed the Dream Team to be formed. He saw every game the team played, while juggling the numerous overlapping contractual agreements that the NBA players brought into an already heavily sponsored event.
With another incarnation of a powerhouse American men’s basketball team set to tip off Saturday against China at the Rio Olympics, Orridge always thinks back to the three years he spent with USA Basketball and the role he played with the organization that helped globalize and change basketball forever.
Here are a few of his favourite memories.
Autograph-seeking opponents
“I think it was the Lithuanian basketball team, but I remember during warm-ups, the opposing team walked over to half court to get the autographs of the American players before the game.
“(They did it) because they were iconic, they were heroes. These guys that were on the opposing teams, they were at the top of their game, they were rock stars in their own country. But the level of respect and deference and heroism was pretty incredible. That to me was one of the most amazing things that I’d ever seen.”
Jordan tees off
“There was one occasion where I think the game was in the late afternoon or evening but he’d played 18 holes in the hot sun prior to the game and he just came out unfazed, no dropoff in terms of intensity or energy. That was amazing because he was out in the hot sun all day and his level of performance never faltered.”
When brands collide
“Reebok had become the official supplier of the (awards ceremony jackets), and each individual athlete had their own individual shoe deals. It was complicated because they had pre-existing contracts and pre-existing agreements and we had to work through that.”
Jordan and Charles Barkley, both Nike endorsers, ended up wearing an American flag over their jackets on the podium, covering the Reebok logo.
Round mound of rebound
Charles Barkley was heavily criticized after elbowing an Angolan player in their first game
The incident “was not received well. By either the player for Angola or anybody who witnessed it. Charles played with a level of intensity and passion that was undeniable.” But there were two sides to Barkley. “Charles asked me to walk with him for protection (Orridge laughs), on Las Ramblas. That was a great experience because Charles was the type of person that without the lights or camera or media, he’d go into the streets at night to hand out money to the homeless and women with small children that were impoverished in the streets. That to me, showed the kind of character that Charles had. I have an infinite amount of respect for Charles Barkley and the generosity that he demonstrated, not for publicity but for himself.”