OP_071918

opprairie.com sports
the orland park prairie | July 19, 2018 | 47
fastbreak
THURSDAY MORNING QUARTERBACK
Some of this basketball cesspool needs cleaning
1st and 3
THREE PLAYERS FROM
ORLAND PARK WITH
NHL CONNECTIONS
WHO ARE A PART OF
THE NEW CHICAGO PRO
HOCKEY LEAGUE, WHICH
OPENED PLAY ON JULY
11
1. Connor Carrick
The older brother of
two up-and-coming
siblings, Connor
played in 167 NHL
games for Washington
and Toronto.
2. T.J. Tynan
The former Notre
Dame standout
played in three NHL
games in 2016-17.
He stayed close to
home and was with
the Chicago Wolves
in the AHL last
season.
3. Alex Broadhurst
He picked up his
first two NHL games
in 2017-18 with
Columbus.
Jeff Vorva
j.vorva@22ndcm.com
There was a time when
former Tinley Park
resident Larry Butler
was considered by some as
the bad guy in high school
travel, or grassroots, basketball.
In the late 1990s and early
2000s, his Illinois Warriors,
which held some practices in
Tinley Park and Orland Park
over the years, was one of
the best teams in the country,
but he was criticized in some
circles of being a “street
agent” who had too much
power over grade school and
high school kids. His team’s
Nike affiliation and his deep
relationships with some
high-level NCAA Division
I coaches caused critics to
claim he never had children’s
best interests at heart.
Butler doesn’t have the
juice he used to have, but he
still has some influence and
runs an Illinois Spot-Lite
scouting service. And the
guy who people used to look
at as Public Enemy No. 1 in
travel was appalled at what
happened at a July 7 game in
Georgia, when members of
the Chicago-based R.A.W.
Athletics pummeled officials
toward the end of the
contest.
“This morning, we see
streaming all over social media
some local rag-tag popup
club team is involved in a
skirmish with a game official
while out of town,” Butler
tweeted on July 8.
He followed it up with
“Shame on them. Chicago
gets enough negative publicity
without some miscellaneous
group of teens with
aspirations of being hoopers
giving the city a sore eye
with that kinda behavior.”
Say what you want about
Butler back in the day, but
I don’t remember his teams
ever doing anything like this.
The coach of R.A.W.,
Howard Martin, claims the
refs started it, but many on
social media complained
what a dirty team R.A.W. is.
It doesn’t matter who started
it; it became a national embarrassment
for grassroots
basketball, which is a segment
of sports whose pool is
full of cess.
I have a few stories about
the lousy side of travel and
grassroots basketball. But
the most violent incident that
happened in a gym I was in
was when a sophomore player
from St. Louis jumped
into the stands like he was
Superman and punched an
opposing player’s mother in
the jaw. The player was arrested.
The mother returned
that night for a game, and
In 2014, Louisville Magic travel coach Ellis Myles ran onto a court to pull his player off the
court and was given a technical foul. He later berated officials and poured a sports drink
all over the court in protest. JEFF VORVA/22ND CENTURY MEDIA
one look at her and you
knew she wasn’t going to be
eating solid food for months.
The funniest show of
coaching immaturity I saw
came in Milwaukee in 2014,
when Louisville Magic
coach Ellis Myles (a former
player for the University
of Louisville) ran onto the
court to pull his player off
the court. Well, in just about
every level of basketball,
that is not allowed. He was
whistled for a technical foul
for it during a crucial point
toward the end of the game.
He went ballistic.
After his team lost, tournament
officials tried to whisk
him off the court so the
next game could start. After
some more yelling, this dude
poured a red sports drink
all over the court to prove
a point. To this day, I don’t
know what that point was.
Some of the kids on
the 17-U roster of R.A.W.
(which stands for Real
Athletes Work) are from
Homewood-Flossmoor,
Solorio, Dunbar, Leo and
Morgan Park. They were
losing late in a game to
the Houston Raptors, and
witnesses said the Chicago
players were beating up on
one official while he was
lying on the ground. Another
ref got involved in the fracas.
There is some video showing
the ugliness from afar, and
that looked pretty bad.
While I would love to
blame controversial NBA
father and Big Baller Brand
coach LaVar Ball for causing
this, I won’t. But his tirade
against a female referee in
2017 went viral and set a
lousy example for players in
regard to respect for referees.
But he and his players were
allowed back in the tournament
for more games. That’s
the biggest problem. They
should have been thrown out.
The various grassroots
organizations have to come
down hard on those responsible
for this nonsense.
Even those coaches who
pull their teams off the court
long before the game is
over because they are mad
about something should be
suspended or banned.
After watching countless
travel games over the years,
I can say that it’s rare to see
stuff like this happen, but
when it does happen it can’t
be ignored. Maybe if there
is a gold coin to be found
in this sewer of a story, it’s
that this incident will involve
punishment and may deter
further garbage like this from
happening.
Maybe.
LISTEN UP
“Being a Hawks fan, it’s been really cool to
meet all of the guys.”
Colin Lewis — A Sandburg multi-sport Special Olympian
who has met Blackhawks players and coaches through his
athletic endeavors
What 2 Watch
Baseball, 4 p.m. Wednesday, July 25
• The Bridge Teen Center offers a look at what it’s like
to be a pro baseball player as a member of the Windy
City Thunderbolts will speak to seventh through 12th
graders.
INDEX
44 - Athlete of the Week
42 - Sandburg girls basketball
Compiled by Sports Editor Jeff Vorva,
J.VORVA@22NDCM.com