Personally, I relate certain sports and big games with different themes like entrance music you would find at a bigtime boxing bout or UFC fight. So I decided to compile a list of what I think to be the top 10 list of all-time. Without further adue lets get to the list.
Growing up as a kid my favorite program on TV was SportsCenter. They had thee Dream Team of sports anchors. TV legends such as Keith Oberman, Dan Patrick, Kenny Mayne, Trey Wingo, Scott Van Pelt, and the list goes on. These men knew their sports, stats, birthdays and probably favorite colors of certain players. To me as an 11 year old boy, tuning in every morning to see if “Big Mac” Mark McGuire or ‘Slammin’ Sammy Sosa had gone deep the previous night. Most mornings I was going to watch SportsCenter at least once if not twice. However, there was one man that could keep me on that couch all morning long. Far past that 2nd dose of SportsCenter and that mans name was Stuart Scott. Personally my favorite line he would throw out there from time to time in rain delays during baseball season was “incase of a flood, use 3rd base as a safety flotation device” It seemed as if every new episode the man was on, he was creating new lingo and quotes, such as “holla at a playa when you see him in the street!” “Call him butter cause he’s on a roll” “as cool as the other side of the pillow” and the infamous “booo-yah”
Stuart Scott came to ESPN in 1993 when they launched ESPN2. Once he transitioned into a SportsCenter anchor on the original network he was teamed up with Rich Eisen. A team that would go on to push SportsCenters A-Team and highest paid anchors Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann. In the ratings and fan popularity.
Most people have noticed Scott now has a glass eye. He was injured in 2002 at the New York Jets minicamp when he was hit in the face by a football. What most people did not know however was, since 2007, Stuart Scott has been fighting for his life. Scott found himself in the ER having an emergency appendectomy, on November 26, 2007. During that surgery the doctors found that his cancer was malignant (which means it was currently spreading at the time or capable of spreading) Scott returned to on air broadcasting one month later. ESPN President George Bodenheimer said “Stuart is approaching this fight with the same passion and energy we see on air” in 2011 Scott informed the media that his cancer had returned however, by early 2012 the disease had been treated effectively and he
entered remission. Finally out of the woods and starting to feel better again he was informed that his cancer had returned in January 2013. He tried for an experimental treatment but was denied twice. However, the third time would prove to be a charm as he was accepted. A clinical trial is extremely scary, it’s not proven and you are for lack of a better term a ginny pig.
Last night Stuart Scott was awarded the Jimmy V Award on the ESPYS. After a short video and one of the most inspirational speeches I’ve ever had the pleasure of listening to, Scott exited the stage to a Standing Ovation, most of whom in the crowd were professional athletes that he has had the pleasure of covering through out his career. Having beat cancer twice myself I couldn’t be more proud of Stuart Scott, from his one liners, to his in depth coverage of sports as a whole, and most importantly as a Man and a fighter. Someone who has too much going for him in his life than to roll over in bed and allow everyone to feel bad for him. Stuart Scott truly is one of the few men in this world I admire.
God Bless you Stuart Scott, Never Quit and always “stay as cool as the other side of the pillow” 7 years strong, and only getting stronger.
In honor of the start of planet Earth’s largest sporting event, viewed all around the globe by those with access to some form of media, this belated version of Throwback Thursday to the last World Cup. However, instead of discussing what transpired on the pitch in South Africa in 2010, this post is dedicated to those in the stands. More specifically, their instrument of death, which tormented the African country and viewers worldwide for a solid month straight. I’m talking of course about the one, and thankfully only, vuvuzela.
It’s always around this time during the playoffs that I start to ask myself questions like, is this our year? Can we really pull it off with this team? How well do we match up with these guys in a seven game series? Of course I’m talking about the Boston Celtics, my home town team, and I make a point of it to say we because I believe I my viewing has been instrumental in every playoff win.
Of course this year my beloved green and white are sitting at home with Danny Ainge menacingly looking over the roster as he awaits the summer. 25-57 will not get you into the playoffs, but it could land you a franchise player in the draft (Jabari Parker, Jabari Parker, Jabari Park…). Anyways, while Ainge and I smoke a few Cubans in homage to Red, while watching Brooklyn squander away Pierce and KG’s last shot at a title, let’s set off this edition of Throwback Thursday with a look back at our most recent taste of Celtic glory; the 2008 championship.
In honor of the social media trend known as “Throwback Thursdays”, we here at Undrafted would like to start our own version of fad, taking trips down memory lane each Thursday to remember iconic moments in sports history. I could think of no better athlete to kick of our version of this day of nostalgia than the recently retired NBA shooting guard Allen Iverson. The timing for this couldn’t come at a better time as Iverson himself will be featured in a documentary of the same name in the famed Tribeca Film Festival this Sunday.
UNDRAFTED 