Month: July 2014

Automobile Roulette with P.J. Hairston

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Charlotte Hornet rookie wing P.J. Hairston is a Tar Heel. I’m a Tar Heel. As such, calling him out for his recent stupidity isn’t exactly fun for me. But, he sure has made it easy.

Since he was drafted in late June, the 24th overall pick has been quite busy doing everything he can to remain in the news for all the wrong reasons. First, there was a fist fight during a pick-up basketball game at a YMCA in Durham. PJ was charged with a couple of misdemeanors for punching a high school student. Next, word got out that Hairston’s agent is not certified and has essentially been running an illegal sports representation company. But the most recent event takes the cake – the “car swap.”

As described by Rick Bonnell of the Charlotte Observer:

Charlotte Hornets rookie P.J. Hairston said he met Cleveland Browns wide receiver Josh Gordon at a Chapel Hill grocery store, which eventually led to Gordon driving Hairston’s Cadillac when he was arrested on a DWI charge in Raleigh.

According to Hairston, he switched cars with Gordon sometime Friday night, taking Gordon’s Mercedes. Gordon was arrested early Saturday morning.

“Me and Josh Gordon met at the Fresh Market in Chapel Hill,” Hairston said Thursday after a Hornets summer-league practice. “I walked there, I was trying to take care of my body, trying to get fruit, and happened to run into him in there. I am a football fan so I knew who he was. Right away, we started talking about football, basketball and we walked outside. He saw my car and asked me ‘What are you doing?’ He asked if I minded if we switched cars and we exchanged numbers and he was going to drive my car that night and bring it back to me.

“I said OK, and we switched cars. The rest of that is history.”

 

Umm…. what? So let’s get this straight. Hairston walks out of his hotel and into the Fresh Market where he happens upon the 2013 NFL league leader in receiving yards. They strike up a conversation, fill a cornucopia with fruit to take care of their bodies, walk outside and make a flash decision to trade cars that have a combined value of roughly $150,000.

Is this a thing? I hesitate to trade sunglasses with a close friend for a few hours while hanging out at the pool. They traded CARS? What could possibly go wrong? I’ll tell you. Gordon decided to fill his body with booze and joyride around in the car that wasn’t his, only to get caught, arrested for DWI, and bailed out by none other than Hayden “Fats” Thomas, the very man at the center of Hairston’s exit from UNC. I know this is old news, but you just can’t make up this kind of ridiculousness.

Well, maybe he can.

PJ Hairston

 

What is it about this guy, cars, and trouble. Late night checkpoints in Durham and multiple speeding tickets weren’t enough. He had to resort to shady dealings in grocery store parking lots. Somebody buy him a bike, a skateboard, a razor scooter…anything to keep him from pulling the trigger one too many times in his favorite game of automobile roulette.

How do you think the morning after went? I imagine P.J. wandering outside of his hotel still reeling from his Friday night fruit binge, kiwi and peach residue smeared across his shirt, thinking to himself…

Unfortunately, this wasn’t a dream. If unconventional swaps are such a hobby of P.J.’s, maybe he and I can talk about a trade of – oh I don’t know – Talent? Athleticism? Potential? If I throw in a few strawberries, we just might strike a deal. Because come on, we all know this is all about fruit.

I know Michael Jordan was bound to give his troubled rookie a break or two since he’s from UNC, but I wonder what’s going through His Airness’ head these days. He should be devising a plan to keep P.J. as far away from the Triangle as possible, because there is nothing left for him there except the opportunity to regress into his old habits and bump into his old dangerous friends.

Of course, MJ could always hire Wayne Knight to trail Hairston and track his every move, stealing a script from his own experience in the ’96 classic, Space Jam.

But, seriously, the guy needs some kind of leash.

I know I’m being hard on the kid, but nobody could argue that it isn’t well deserved. I do believe he’s going to pull himself together and have a productive career. In his defense, the Hornets are currently about halfway through their summer league schedule in Las Vegas, and so far no news has meant good news on the P.J. Hairston wire. If he can make it through a portion of his summer in Sin City unscathed, I think the Hornets brass can breath a collective sigh of relief and take it as a small win in this entertainingly troubling saga for the young sharp-shooter.

All that being said, after the recent signing of Lane Stephenson, P.J. is no longer the most volatile man on the roster.

Maybe these two can switch cars for the weekend as a way of breaking the ice. All joking aside, the fruit basket is in the trunk.

The Halfway Point of a Farewell Tour

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It’s been roughly two and a half months since my first post. That procrastination quip was serious.

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Jordan Brand/Nike recently released the below ad to coincide with Derek Jeter’s final All-Star game at Target Field in Minneapolis on Tuesday night. He will start at shortstop.

The one minute and forty second clip features a plethora of athletes (from members of the “core four” to MJ himself) and notable New Yorkers (Spike Lee, Rudy Guliani) tipping their caps to Jeter in a sign of respect for a career that’s certainly been all anybody could have imagined for the skinny kid from Kalamazoo.

I’ll admit watching it gave me chills. Call me sentimental. But to trace Jeter’s career is to trace my development as a sports fan. I was 8 years old when he won his first ring in 1996. I watched as he dominated baseball over the next 15+ years, returning the Yankees to the “Iron Throne” of the baseball world, while displaying the class and dignity that has become almost as synonymous with his name as his on-field accomplishments.

The theme of Nike’s new ad doesn’t center on Jeter’s stats or his championship count. It’s about the unparalleled respect that the collective sports world holds for one of the few gentlemen left in today’s celebrity-infused pool of superstar athletes. So how did he do it? How did Number 2 build himself into a man that has Red Sox fans tipping their caps to him with looks mixed with uneasy envy and covert admiration? It started with his parents.

As outlined in his auto-biography “The Life You Imagine”, Jeter’s upbringing was structured and goal-oriented.

Each year the future Yankee Captain would sign a contract drafted by his parents that outlined expectations for his personal conduct. The topics ranged from grades, to alcohol use, to curfews. Now, a young person typically either rebels against or accepts and embraces such a thing. Jeter did the latter. He was a man on a mission – carving a path toward a life, a career, and ultimately a legacy that he imagined from a young age and made into a reality by putting into practice the values and work ethic instilled in him by his mother and father.

You know the story. Over the years as he racked up rings and all-star game appearances, and hit and hit after hit, Jeter navigated the New York professional sports landscape like nobody ever has. He never appeared on the cover of the NY Post for any reason that wasn’t strictly baseball related. (Unlike a certain former-friend of his.)

He always said the right things at the right times. He was Mr. Clutch on the field and Mr. Business off of it. Kids wanted to be like him and, more importantly, their parents wanted that too. With a seemingly effortless stride he walked-the-walk of a NY superstar like an impossible hybrid of Mickey Mantle and John Paul II (minus the celibacy). He was perfect.

Throughout this his final season, the accolades for Mr. November will be endless. But I think Nike’s ad does an excellent job of encompassing the sentiment that will forever permeate the American sports consciousness when the name Derek Jeter is discussed – RESPECT. It’s not easy to earn others respect. But the Captain has the Triple Crown. Respect for what he accomplished. Respect for how he went about accomplishing it. And maybe most of all, respect for a man who set an example how to be both an athlete and a citizen. A champion and a role model.