The Best...Around

Mark sent me a text last week about a kid he played pickup hoops with getting an invite to the Sixers' summer league squad, which led me to ask him about the best player he ever competed against. His answer, which I'll let him provide in the comments, is a far, far bigger star and better athlete than anyone I've ever battled.

The exchange got me to thinking about really excellent athletes I'd played with and against, and from there, wondering how we might answer the question about top performers in other fields. All of which brings me to this new recurring bit: Who's Your Best?

We'll start with athletics for me, and the list is fairly brief and unspectacular, though it does include an Olympian. In chronological order, then:

When I was in 8th grade, I was a backup winger on the Fred Lynn (not that Fred Lynn) Middle School varsity soccer team. The starter at my position became a four-year starter in high school and broke the state record for career goals before going on to William & Mary and doing the same things - started all four years, broke the school record for goals scored. Rebecca Wakefield was a badass.

As a senior in high school I played #3 singles on the tennis team. I got bumped up to #2 for a match against our arch-rival and got my ass absolutely kicked by a kid who went on to play for Seton Hall. In an amazing coincidence, I ended up working with him a few years after grad school, and went down to his club to hit with him, where he beat me 6-0, 6-0 - and it wasn't even that close. The fact that he was a colossal dickhead was no salve.

During the 1996 Olympics, I stayed with our friend Jay Saunders at his folks' megaplex in Atlanta. Jay ran track and cross-country at W&M, and his friend and teammate Brian Hyde was a part of the U.S. Olympic team, running the 1500m. Brian stayed with Jay's parents before his qualifying heats because he didn't want the distraction of the Olympic Village. One day, I went out for a run with the two of them. I held my own for the first half-mile, because it was straight downhill. As soon as the terrain flattened, I was flattened. Those dudes were out of sight in 30 strides. Humbling.

A decade or so ago, my neighborhood friends and I had a regular Sunday morning pickup hoops run at the local rec. We were occasionally joined by a 6'6" guy who played at the Air Force Academy. Dude could shoot it from 30 feet without trying hard, and was strong as hell to boot. And a gigantic prick, just the worst kind of on-court bully. One of my favorite memories was pump-faking him and blowing by to hit a game-winning layup while he was absolutely lining me up to smack the ball into the next county. Suck it, dickface.

Meager, mine. Let's hear about yours in the comments. Or better yet, post it up for the betterment of the count. And if you don't have great sporting stories, how about the best musicians you've ever been on a bill with? Or the best sportswriters you've shared a press row with? Or the best drinkers you've ever bellied up to a bar alongside? You've got options, people.

One More Excellent Animal Trick

The ones of you that are connected to my wife on FB may have seen this already, but it is the best (and only, I think) dog trick video we have. It was late April and we were all getting punchy. Instead of doing school work, my oldest kid was teaching the dog to jump over him. He then decided to get the younger one involved and teach the dog to jump over both kids at once. They taught him the trick and we took a video of it. 

It ain't Evel Knievel going over fourteen Greyhound busses, but it ain't bad for two kids with limited attention spans and one dog with limited athletic ability (but a lot of heart). 

After we captured the mighty stunt, I wanted to enhance it. Unfortunately, I have less than zero skills with videos. But I did download iMovie and start fiddling around. The video below is the best I could do. Pardon the mess in the house, but it was April 2020 and we weren't hosting a lot.