Iris
Feb 23, 2009, 02:59 PM
I saw this story on ABC News this morning and I wanted to share. It made me cry and served to remind just how empathetic and kind people can be.
Playing Fair with Fouls Sign of Respect in High School Basketball Game
by Tom Rademacher | The Grand Rapids Press
Sunday February 22, 2009, 7:00 AM
Our sometimes unraveling world could take a lesson from a high school basketball game played in Wisconsin earlier this month, a contest that wasn't marred by a fight or a protest, but visited by uncommon sportsmanship.
Hopefully, it's a story none of us will soon forget.
It's a story that pivots around how players from DeKalb, Ill., High School reacted to news that they had been awarded two free throws on account of a technical foul called on the opposing team.
Incredibly, the player for DeKalb walked somberly to the free throw line, and in essence refused to shoot the baskets. Darius McNeal, a 5-11 senior point guard, simply let the ball dribble both times across the end line.
Why? Because the technical had been ordered up against Johntell Franklin, a player for the opposing team from Milwaukee Madison High, who had not been initially listed on the starting roster.
Franklin, it turns out, was wrapped up that same game day watching his mother die.
Carlitha Franklin was only 39, but cervical cancer doesn't discriminate, and on the afternoon of Feb. 7, she would lose her five-year battle. Her son went to the hospital to be with her and tell his mom goodbye, and his coach never figured he'd show up later at the game against DeKalb.
He did, though, telling Coach Aaron Womack Jr., that, "I'm a competitor. I just can't sit there and watch." He added, "I knew my mom would have wanted me to play. She was always proud of me playing basketball."
Franklin's sudden appearance early in the second quarter stunned both coaches, including the opposing one, Dave Rohlman. News of Franklin's mother's death had already spread quickly through the gymnasium; virtually everyone in the stands was sadly aware of it. The 18-year-old senior from Madison somehow found the fortitude to show up for the game in progress.
Everyone agreed he should play, but the referees insisted that Franklin's team be charged with a technical because Franklin's name wasn't on that day's roster.
Rohlman -- the opposing coach -- wanted none of it. Just let the kid play without penalty, he told the officials in a civil, seven-minute debate. But rules are rules, and the technical was called.
That's when Rohlman had an epiphany. OK, we'll shoot the free throws. But there's no rule saying we have to make 'em.
He asked of his team, "Who wants to take these free throws?" McNeal's hand went up.
"You realize you're going to miss, right?"
McNeal nodded.
And then No. 11 went to the free throw line -- technicals are performed in solo fashion, with no other players from either team nearby -- and threw the shots a mere two or three feet.
"I did it for the guy who lost his mom," McNeal would say later. "It was the right thing to do."
It's probably the only time we'll ever read of a crowd rising to its feet to applaud a pair of wholesale misses.
Franklin's team won the tragedy-marred game. But the coach and kids from DeKalb also went home winners that evening. For what they did. For what they didn't do. And for what they taught a society too often consumed with being first, being best, winning at any cost.
It happened in Wisconsin. But it's a lesson for the whole world. And it had very little to do with sports. That's why I figured I'd put it here.
-- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.
Playing Fair with Fouls Sign of Respect in High School Basketball Game
by Tom Rademacher | The Grand Rapids Press
Sunday February 22, 2009, 7:00 AM
Our sometimes unraveling world could take a lesson from a high school basketball game played in Wisconsin earlier this month, a contest that wasn't marred by a fight or a protest, but visited by uncommon sportsmanship.
Hopefully, it's a story none of us will soon forget.
It's a story that pivots around how players from DeKalb, Ill., High School reacted to news that they had been awarded two free throws on account of a technical foul called on the opposing team.
Incredibly, the player for DeKalb walked somberly to the free throw line, and in essence refused to shoot the baskets. Darius McNeal, a 5-11 senior point guard, simply let the ball dribble both times across the end line.
Why? Because the technical had been ordered up against Johntell Franklin, a player for the opposing team from Milwaukee Madison High, who had not been initially listed on the starting roster.
Franklin, it turns out, was wrapped up that same game day watching his mother die.
Carlitha Franklin was only 39, but cervical cancer doesn't discriminate, and on the afternoon of Feb. 7, she would lose her five-year battle. Her son went to the hospital to be with her and tell his mom goodbye, and his coach never figured he'd show up later at the game against DeKalb.
He did, though, telling Coach Aaron Womack Jr., that, "I'm a competitor. I just can't sit there and watch." He added, "I knew my mom would have wanted me to play. She was always proud of me playing basketball."
Franklin's sudden appearance early in the second quarter stunned both coaches, including the opposing one, Dave Rohlman. News of Franklin's mother's death had already spread quickly through the gymnasium; virtually everyone in the stands was sadly aware of it. The 18-year-old senior from Madison somehow found the fortitude to show up for the game in progress.
Everyone agreed he should play, but the referees insisted that Franklin's team be charged with a technical because Franklin's name wasn't on that day's roster.
Rohlman -- the opposing coach -- wanted none of it. Just let the kid play without penalty, he told the officials in a civil, seven-minute debate. But rules are rules, and the technical was called.
That's when Rohlman had an epiphany. OK, we'll shoot the free throws. But there's no rule saying we have to make 'em.
He asked of his team, "Who wants to take these free throws?" McNeal's hand went up.
"You realize you're going to miss, right?"
McNeal nodded.
And then No. 11 went to the free throw line -- technicals are performed in solo fashion, with no other players from either team nearby -- and threw the shots a mere two or three feet.
"I did it for the guy who lost his mom," McNeal would say later. "It was the right thing to do."
It's probably the only time we'll ever read of a crowd rising to its feet to applaud a pair of wholesale misses.
Franklin's team won the tragedy-marred game. But the coach and kids from DeKalb also went home winners that evening. For what they did. For what they didn't do. And for what they taught a society too often consumed with being first, being best, winning at any cost.
It happened in Wisconsin. But it's a lesson for the whole world. And it had very little to do with sports. That's why I figured I'd put it here.
-- The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.