Michael Dyer In His Year Out of Football
Posted: May 17, 2013 Filed under: College Football, High School Football, Razorback football, SEC | Tags: Arkansas Baptist College, Fitz Hill, Michael Dyer, walk on Leave a comment »For many Arkansas football fans, Michael Dyer is one of the most polarizing sports figures around. As a senior at Little Rock Christian High School, he was the top ranked running back in the nation. Dyer, of course, chose Auburn and it didn’t appear as if the Razorbacks finished a close second.
For a while, it appeared as if Dyer had made the correct decision. Two straight 1,000 yard seasons and a BCS National Championship Game MVP award will make it seem that way. But things weren’t going nearly as smoothly off the field. Dyer was smoking synthetic marijuana, and apparently running with the wrong crowd. The wheels started coming off in spring 2011 when his gun was used during an armed robbery, the vehicle started smoking in winter 2012 after he was indefinitely suspended from Auburn and then released from his scholarship and the whole thing went up in flames last summer when he was released from Arkansas State after more bad news involving marijuana and a gun.
Given these events, it’s little wonder Dyer has lately stayed out of the public eye.
Since fall 2012, he’s attended Arkansas Baptist College, the oldest historically black college west of the Mississippi River, and is on track to earn his associate’s degree this summer in general studies, college president Fitz Hill told me.
Dyer has only given two interviews with mainstream media this year. In one this spring, with THV’s Mark Edwards, he says he would like an opportunity to walk on at the University of Arkansas. “I was asked to sit out [of football for] a year,” Dyer said on the broadcast. “I was asked to do a lot of changing and maturing to become a better person and a better football player. I spent this whole year doing exactly what I was asked to so that I could reach some of the goals that I knew later that I wanted to do.”
Perhaps Dyer ends up at a major college football program next season, looking to swing for the fences instead of suffering a third strike. Maybe he finds no major college is willing to take the risk. Either way, that college’s decision doesn’t ultimately matter nearly as much as whether Dyer has truly sought to become a better person this past year or not.
We talk about Dyer because of what he has done on the football field, in front of a thousand cameras and million eyes. But it’s the small decisions he’s made over the last year, the temptations he’s said “yes” or “no” when hardly anybody was around, that will more determine whether he thrives as a person or not.
Society may see Dyer’s “success” as football-based, but I hope Dyer has matured enough to know that the sport is of greatest benefit to him as a tool. If he is better now, if he has truly come around like he says he has, he will also be mature enough to be able to let go off football one day (possibly soon) and find success in whatever field he turns his mind to.
Because, as polarizing as Dyer has been for many football fans in this state who don’t know him, there are still a lot of people who do love him.
If you want proof, look at these pictures below. These pictures were taken last fall at a youth crime prevention program called the OK Program. Dyer was invited to share his story – the good, the bad and the ugly – with the teenagers who made up the audience.
He did, and he did a great job of it:
These kids aren’t praying for Dyer because he ran for three touchdowns for their favorite football team. They probably wouldn’t care which college program he played for. All they know is that he was once so high, and in some ways has come so low. But with their prayers he can be lifted again.
And, if his words hit their hearts right, so can they.
If Dyer wants to succeed in life – on the field and off, he would do well to nourish his roots and remember to seek strength from those who choose to love him despite the helmet he wears.
A family comes in all forms.
How the Memphis Grizzlies Have Recently Owned the Miami Heat
Posted: May 14, 2013 Filed under: Pro basketball | Tags: Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, NBA Finals Leave a comment »This season’s Memphis squad has achieved plenty of franchise firsts – first to win 50 games, first to place three players on the all-defensive team and first to make a Sports Illustrated cover.
With one more win against Oklahoma City, the franchise also plays in the NBA’s Western Conference Finals for the first time.
Either possible opponent there – whether somewhat decrepit San Antonio or callow Golden State – looks very beatable. Which means it isn’t totally presumptuous for Memphis fans to fantasize about the Grizzlies’ first berth in the NBA Finals.
Its opponent there will likely be the juggernaut Miami Heat. These Heat, of course, use the all-around genius and physicality of LeBron James along with dead-eye three-point shooting to snap into most of their foes like they were mere Slim Jims.
The Grizzlies are anything but slim.
Indeed, you probably already know this Memphis team presents the most daunting obstacle to a Miami two-peat. The Griz are strongest – in the middle and on the boards – where Miami is weakest. And they play a grind-it-out style the Heat abhor.
Are there numbers to support this premise?
Hell yeah, there are.
The Grizzlies have played the Heat three times in the last two regular seasons. Memphis won two of the three contests. But in all three games Memphis gave Miami severe problems on offense and defense, in multiple areas.
Here’s a season-by-season breakdown:
2011-12
2012-13
Granted, the team personnel in each of these games was slightly different. There was a Rudy Gay still playing for Memphis here, a Dwayne Wade recovering from injury there.
But these graphs still give you a big picture idea of how Memphis could easily
add another furrow or 40 to LeBron’s brow. In an increasingly data-driven industry like the NBA, the numbers speak for themselves.
Ranking SEC Athletic Programs By Revenue, Expenses & (Gasp!) Subsidies
Posted: May 8, 2013 Filed under: College basketball (non Hogs), College Football, Razorback basketball, Razorback football, SEC | Tags: expense, SEC athletic revenue, subsidies Leave a comment »Lots of goodies in USA Today’s recently released study of athletic revenue among all D1 sports programs. I thought it good to narrow the lens onto the SEC programs and see where Arkansas ranks among its conference brethren* in terms of pure, hard cash. So I wrote this piece for Sporting Life Arkansas looking at how well each school has performed in terms of total revenue and in football performance since 1992, when Arkansas joined the SEC.
Turns out, Arkansas is pretty middling in all the rankings, including win percentage (8th highest among the 14 current SEC members).
It stands out in one category, though: the degree to which it’s self sufficient. That is, how much money its athletic program nets when subsidies - money transferred from other parts of the university, student fees or state funds – aren’t considered.
In this category (labeled “Difference” below) Arkansas ranks #2 for the 2011-12 year, only behind Texas A&M.
Category: 2012 Generated Revenue
What is Means: All the money the athletic program brings in, minus the amount given to the program in the form of
subsidies.
| Alabama |
$119,438,745 |
| Florida |
$116,415,649 |
| LSU |
$114,787,786 |
| Texas A&M |
$114,502,222 |
| Tennessee |
$101,884,286 |
| Auburn |
$101,734,643 |
| Arkansas |
$97,808,302 |
| Georgia |
$88,426,801 |
| Kentucky |
$87,546,280 |
| South Carolina |
$85,270,084 |
| Mississippi State |
$65,828,880 |
| Mississippi |
$49,692,777 |
| Missouri |
$48,783,721 |
Category: 2012 Total Expenses
What is means: Everything it takes to keep all sports within an athletic program running, from the salaries of swimming coaches to the Wendy’s receipts on those football recruiting trips through Houston.
| Alabama |
$108,204,867 |
| Florida |
$105,102,198 |
| LSU |
$101,989,116 |
| Tennessee |
$101,292,015 |
| Auburn |
$96,315,831 |
| Georgia |
$88,923,561 |
| South Carolina |
$84,963,037 |
| Kentucky |
$84,929,819 |
| Arkansas |
$82,470,473 |
| Texas A&M |
$81,792,118 |
| Mississippi State |
$67,926,160 |
| Missouri |
$66,980,889 |
| Mississippi |
$51,708,064 |
Category: 2012 Difference
What it means: The difference between a program’s generated revenue and total expenses. This is a strong signal of whether a program is self-sufficient or not. Put another way, in the chart below, Ayn Rand would be proud of those programs in the black and would frown on those in the red.
| Texas A&M | $32,710,104 |
| Arkansas | $15,337,829 |
| LSU | $12,798,670 |
| Florida | $11,313,451 |
| Alabama | $11,233,878 |
| Auburn | $5,418,812 |
| Kentucky | $2,616,461 |
| Tennessee | $592,271 |
| South Carolina | 307,047 |
| Georgia | ($496,760) |
| Mississippi | ($2,015,287) |
| Mississippi State | ($2,097,280) |
| Missouri | ($18,197,168) |
Best Out-of-Staters to Play For an Arkansas Baseball Team
Posted: May 6, 2013 Filed under: Baseball | Tags: Jim Bunning, Ray Lankford, Tris Speaker 4 Comments »Arkansas has been home to quite a few all-world caliber baseball players who swoop into the state for a year or two before jumping off to far bigger stages – and achievements – in the major leagues.
Without a doubt, Mike Trout is the poster boy for this kind of star in the 21st century. Big boy starred with the Arkansas Travelers in 2011 before breaking out as an All-Star rookie outfielder with the Los Angeles Angels last season.
A hundred years before Trout, the 5’7″, 150-pound pitcher Dickey Kerr was tearing it up in Paragould in the ol’ Northeast Arkansas League. His ascent into major league stardom wasn’t as fast as Trout’s, but at one point in the 1919 World Series Kerr was the most celebrated athlete in the United States. His unstained hands during the biggest scandal in baseball history would make him an even more revered figure.
Who, though, were the best non-Arkies* to play with an Arkansas team besides Kerr and Trout?
After conferring with sportswriters Jim Harris and Jeff Reed, as well as the Arkansas Baseball Encyclopedia‘s Caleb Hardwick, here are some top candidates, in no particular order:
*Although Bill Dickey was born in Louisiana, I consider him an Arkie.
1. Ferguson Jenkins – pitcher
Played in Arkansas 1963, 64, 65 before heading to Philadelphia, Chicago, Texas and Boston. A three-time All-Star and the 1971 Cy Young Award winner. In 1991, Jenkins became the first Canadian to be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum.
2. Ray Lankford – centerfielder
Played in Arkansas in 1989 before heading to St. Louis for a 14-year career with the Cardinals. A one-time All-Star, Lankford posted five seasons of 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases with the Cardinals (1992, 1995-1998) - the only player in franchise history to accomplish the feat more than once, according to Wikipedia.
3. Richie Allen – third baseman
Played in Arkansas in 1963 before absolutely blowing the ceiling off what rookies were thought to be able to accomplish in Philadelphia. Led the league in runs (125), triples (13), extra base hits (80) and total bases (352); he finished in the top five in batting average (.318), slugging average (.557), hits (201), and doubles (38), says Wikipedia. A seven-time All-Star, winner of the 1972 AL MVP.
4. Tris Speaker
Played in Arkansas in 1908 a year after making his major league debut for the Red Sox.
“Compiled a career batting average of .345 (sixth all-time), and still holds the record of 792 career doubles. Defensively, his career records for assists, double plays, and unassisted double plays by an outfielder still stand,” says Wikipedia. Was a three-time World Series champion with Boston (as a player) and Cleveland (as a manager).
Another “Joe Johnson Is Very Big In China: A Love Story” Epilogue
Posted: May 2, 2013 Filed under: Pro basketball, Razorback basketball | Tags: Joe Johnson, Yonsan Johnson, Yonsan Uranus Leave a comment »Over the last three years, I’ve had the pleasure of communicating with China’s No. 1 Joe Johnson fan, Yonsan Johnson. We’ve long discussed how his life and his Joe Johnson Fan Club would make a good subject for an article. Today, that story published here.
Below are some of his most recent e-mails to me. In them, you’ll see despair over the fact that Joe hasn’t replied to Tweets in a couple of years, but later you’ll also see hope – hope that Joe will help lift the Nets past the Bulls in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
Tonight is Game 6. Brooklyn’s in Chicago, down 3-2. If Joe finally turns it on and helps the Nets topple the Bulls, expect the Chinese Joe Johnson Fan Club’s numbers to swell.
Feb 11
Hi, Evin.
how u doing?
I’m now at home with my family for the Chinese new year.
today i am writing to you just wanna talk about my recent feeling about “be a fan of Joe Johnson”.
how time flies, since that gift(Great progress on it) sent to Johnson… lost, dissappointment…
on may 18th, 2011… I found his twitter, gave him some tweets… he replyed…
after that, I would like to tweet to him… supports, greetings, just liked a friend… an ordinary friend…
I showed him the video mix links as well…
I aslo sent him some tweets on SPRING FESTIVAL’S EVE and today…. but, he never gave me the reply…
I don’t know what I was doing wrong, or why he ignored me…
at least… how can you treat your fans like that?
everytime I told myself:”Just do your best, he will know that one day…”
but… everytime you got dissappointment… even… the despair…
I’m now thinking about to give up… maybe… I’ve been doing the useless things…
OK, I can’t say to much now, it is to late…
Evin…
If one day you got the chance to meet Joe Johnson, please tell him…
he used to have a big supporter in China… really loyalty supporter…
What Are The Worst Boasts In Sports History?
Posted: April 29, 2013 Filed under: Baseball, Uncategorized | Tags: "Mission Accomplished" speech, Billie Jean King, Bobby Riggs, George W. Bush, Iraq speech, Jeff Loria Leave a comment »Ten years ago, on May 1st, President George W. Bush stood on board of the USS Abraham Lincoln 30 miles off the coast of San Diego and declared “major combat operations in Iraq have ended” and that “in the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.” It was a bold, impressive claim, given the war had officially begun only 43 days before. But, at the time, G.W. seemed like a pretty impressive man. Before the speech, he’d reportedly become the first sitting president to make an arrested landing on an aircraft carrier.
Bush’s Top Gun moment turned out to be astoundingly premature, of course. U.S. combat involvement in Iraq went on, and on; thousands more Americans died there. The speech, meanwhile, quickly became a cornerstone moment of the Bush era. Images from its broadcast – the nearby “Mission Accomplished” sign, Bush’s olive flight jacket and the ejection harness between his legs – in time accrued a farcical touch and made Bush’s words seem boastful.
For sure, we’ve seen some pretty outlandish claims and bad and/or off-base boasts made by influential sports figures.
Mostly, they’re predictions gone awry. And, mostly, they’re pretty laughable in hindsight. Which is the great thing separating sports and entertainment from more serious aspects of society.
Here are some of the worst sports boasts of all time:
Michael Cage, Scottie Pippen, Joe Johnson … Fat Lever? Top 8 NBA “Arkansans” In Statistical Categories
Posted: April 24, 2013 Filed under: Arkansas high school basketball, College basketball (non Hogs), Pro basketball, Razorback basketball | Tags: Joe Johnson, Scottie Pippen 4 Comments »Ever wondered how NBA Arkansans stack up against each other in terms of career statistics? Wonder no more: below is the first and only comprehensive list including both native Arkansans and non-natives who played college ball in Arkansas.
You’ll notice Scottie Pippen is the only player in each Top 8 list, followed by Alvin Robertson – who ranks in all categories except rebounds and blocks per game.
For fun, I’ve boldfaced the non-natives who played college ball in Arkansas. They are all Razorbacks.
STEALS
This, by far, is the category in which NBA Arkansans excel the most. Three of the top 12 ball thieves in NBA history rep Arkansas by birthplace (Lever), college (Robertson) or both (Pippen).
|
Total |
Per Game |
||
|
Scottie Pippen |
2307 |
Alvin Robertson |
2.71 |
|
Alvin Robertson |
2112 |
Fat Lever |
2.2 |
|
Fat Lever |
1666 |
Scottie Pippen |
2.0 |
|
Derek Fisher |
1282 |
Michael Conley, Jr. |
1.6 |
|
Darrell Walker |
1090 |
Darrell Walker |
1.51 |
|
Michael Cage |
1050 |
Derek Fisher |
1.50 |
|
Sidney Moncrief |
924 |
Ronnie Brewer |
1.29 |
|
Joe Johnson |
850 |
Sidney Moncrief |
1.2 |
POINTS
|
Total |
Per Game |
||
|
Scottie Pippen |
18,940 |
Joe Barry Carroll |
17.7 |
|
Joe Johnson |
15,850 |
Joe Johnson |
17.6 |
|
Joe Barry Carroll |
12,455 |
Archie Clark |
16.3 |
|
Sidney Moncrief |
11,931 |
Scottie Pippen |
16.1 |
|
Archie Clark |
11819 |
Sidney Moncrief |
15.6 |
|
Alvin Robertson |
10,882 |
Alvin Robertson |
14.0 |
|
Caldwell Jones*** |
10,241 |
Fat Lever |
13.9 |
REBOUNDS
|
Total |
Per Game |
||
|
Caldwell Jones*** |
10,685 |
Caldwell Jones |
8.2 |
|
Michael Cage |
8,646 |
Nathaniel Clifton |
8.2 |
|
Scottie Pippen |
7,494 |
Wil Jones |
7.7 |
|
Wil Jones*** |
5,560 |
Joe Barry Carroll |
7.7 |
|
Joe Barry Carroll |
5404 |
Michael Cage |
7.6 |
|
Fat Lever |
4523 |
Bryant Reeves |
6.9 |
|
Nathaniel Clifton |
4469 |
Jim Barnes |
6.5 |
|
Alvin Robertson |
4,066 |
Scottie Pippen |
6.4 |
N.B. Oliver Miller averaged 5.9 rebounds and Alvin Robertson averaged 5.2 in his NBA career.
*** The Jones brothers’ stats include their seasons in the American Basketball Association, which merged with the NBA in 1976. I list the total of the NBA and ABA statistics.
ASSISTS
|
Total |
Per Game |
||
|
Scottie Pippen |
6,135 |
Fat Lever |
6.2 |
|
Fat Lever |
4,523 |
Mike Conley , Jr. |
5.5 |
|
Joe Johnson |
3,933 |
Scottie Pippen |
5.2 |
|
Alvin Robertson |
3929 |
Alvin Robertson |
5.0 |
|
Derek Fisher |
3,640 |
Archie Clark |
4.8 |
|
Archie Clark |
3498 |
Darrell Walker |
4.6 |
|
Darrell Walker |
3,276 |
Joe Johnson |
4.4 |
|
Sidney Moncrief |
2793 |
Sidney Moncrief |
3.6 |
NBA Arkansans In The 2013 Playoffs
Posted: April 22, 2013 Filed under: Arkansas high school basketball, Razorback basketball, Pro basketball, College basketball (non Hogs) | Tags: Derek Fisher, Joe Johnson, Patrick Beverley, Ronnie Brewer Leave a comment »This isn’t the best of times for NBA Arkansans.
The playoffs began this weekend with defending champion Miami Heat as the most overwhelming favorite to win it all since the early 2000s Lakers. Back then, Arkansans played pivotal roles on a few title contenders. Little Rock native Derek Fisher, of course, manned the point for Los Angeles, which had to push through powerful Portland teams featuring Scottie Pippen.
A few years later, Corliss Williamson aided the Detroit Pistons’ push to a championship and an injury to Little Rock native Joe Johnson might have been the biggest reason Steve Nash’s run-and-gun Phoenix Suns never made the NBA Finals.
Eight years later, Johnson again finds himself in a supporting role. This time, though, instead of sprinting beside Nash and Amare Stoudemire, he’s jogging with Deron Williams and Brook Lopez on the No. 4 seed Brooklyn Nets. These days, production from Johnson, age 31, is trending downward. This season Johnson averaged 16.3 points on 42.3% shooting – the lowest averages since his second season.
The biggest reason for the drop has been nagging injuries – plantar fasciitis and a quad contusion – since February. Johnson, a six-time All-Star, needs a big playoff series against the No. 5 seed Bulls to give the Nets’ legitimate hope of dethroning Miami. If he’s looking for inspiration, he need look no farther than a series preview which ran in the Chicago Sun-Times.
In it is a position-by-position matchup analysis that pits Johnson, a six-time All-Star who has plenty big-time playoff experience, with Jimmy Butler, a 23-year-old who had played four playoff minutes in his career. The advantage went to Chicago.
By far, the most Arky-fied matchup is in the West, where Junction City native James Anderson and former Razorback Patrick Beverley helped Houston finish the season strong to lock up the eighth seed. Beverley, though, projects to play a much larger role than Anderson against No. 1 Oklahoma City. The 6-1 guard with a 6-7 wingspan joined Houston in January and has proven to be every bit the disruptive defender in the NBA that he was at Arkansas and in Europe. Beverley’s defense of Russell Westbrook is critical to Houston’s upset bid. [The task won’t be easy]
It should be no surprise to Hog fans that P-Bev is the NBA’s second best guard in offensive rebounding rate. In 2007-08, he was Arkansas’ shortest starter yet led the team with 6.6 rebounds a game.
Guards Derek Fisher and Ronnie Brewer are Oklahoma City substitutes. Fisher keeps ticking at age 38 but as his overall numbers continue to dwindle year-by-year it’s apparent he won’t be able to postpone his career’s end much longer. Still, it should not be taken for granted that dude is still playing point guard in the NBA at 38. That in itself is amazing, 33.3% FG shooting be damned.
Brewer, a former Razorback All-American, is a conundrum. He looked like a long-term NBA starter early in his career for the Jazz but in the last three years has bounced between four other teams. These playoffs could determine whether future teams are willing to invest millions more dollars into the 6-7 28-year-old or not.
Brewer’s long-term pro future hinges on his ability to improve his shooting, which has nosedived in the last two seasons. But, realistically, the Thunder don’t need Brewer to shoot even once to prove valuable in these playoffs. His true calling will likely come in a potential Finals rematch with Miami, when he would be summoned from the depths for the most grave task of climbing Mt. Defense. At the summit, above him, will glow LeBron James. Nothing short of a full-fledged living sacrifice will be expected.
“Human pinata” is not the sort of future Hog fans envisioned for Brewer when his career seemed so promising in Utah. Still, there’s no shame in being an NBA Arkansan who is expected to do not-so-big things in the playoffs. Everybody, it appears, is in the same boat.
But just because these guys don’t project to take center court on a national level, they still grab the spotlight right on this blog.
If Fisher wins a sixth NBA title, he joins Pippen as the NBA Arkansan with the most rings. Where does Fisher rank, though, in other statistical categories?
Stay tuned for Part 2 for a breakdown of the Top 5 NBA Arkansans in each statistical category.
This piece is slated to publish in SYNC magazine.
Arkansas Is Home to Two National Champion Trees
Posted: April 18, 2013 Filed under: Alternative sports, Sports Sears | Tags: AETN, Ashley County, Champion Trees, Mark Wilcken Leave a comment »It hasn’t been a good last couple weeks in the world of Arkansas sports. The Hogs baseball team lost two of three against LSU, then badly stubbed its toe on Nebraska. Broadcasting legend and UA alum Pat Summerall died. And Hunter Mickelson added to the seemingly never-ending instability of the basketball team when he announced he will transfer.
Everybody knows Arkansas didn’t qualify for the NCAA Tournament, but – to make matters worse – it turns out that the “Natural State” didn’t even make it into “Big Tree Madness.” The state, well known for its trees, didn’t qualify as one of the 16 contestants in an annual national tournament pitting the biggest trees of each state against each other in a Facebook fan vote-based contest.
Making matters worst, Missouri won it all.
Arkansans should taken some solace, though, in the fact that their state is home to two national “champion trees” as determined by a register kept by American Forests, the self-declared oldest national nonprofit conservation organization in the country. Arkansas has two species representatives which are bigger (in terms of width, height and trunk circumference) than any other state’s:
1. Common PERSIMMON, measured by Lynn Warren in Yell County. Ninety-four feet high!
2. Shortleaf PINE, measured by Don Bragg in Ashley County. This 136-footer is located three miles south of Hamburg, the birthplace of Hall of Fame basketball player Scottie Pippen. Two other NBA players – Jeremy Evans and Myron Jackson – also hail from Ashley County, which seems to do “tall” pretty well.
So there you have ‘em, Arkansas. The trees that make ya proud on a national scale (even if you do want to consider that more than 780 such national champions exist and there are nearly 50 different kinds of registered Pine trees).
For more information, keep an eye out for AETN’s upcoming documentary on the largest trees of each type within Arkansas itself. Mark Wilcken is producing the film.
Top 10 Most Inspiring Stories Left in the Wake of Kobe Bryant’s Facebook Rant
Posted: April 16, 2013 Filed under: Pro basketball | Tags: Facebook, injury, Kobe Bryant Leave a comment »It’s one of the most emotionally charged Facebook posts ever written by a superstar athlete.
At 3:30 a.m on Saturday, just hours after crumpling to the floor with a torn left Achilles’ tendon in a win against Golden State, Kobe Bryant expressed a bewildering range of emotions – confidence, doubt, rage, resolve – while coming to grips with the repercussions of a season-ending injury at age 34. “Why the hell did this happen ?!?,” he wrote. “Makes no damn sense. Now I’m supposed to come back from this and be the same player Or better at 35?!? How in the world am I supposed to do that??”
Later in the post, Bryant decides he won’t get too down on himself because “there are far greater issues/challenges in the world than a torn Achilles.” Indeed, the five-time world champion doesn’t have to look far to see them. In the 71, 738 comments left in response to his post is an amazing array of inspirational stories left by people who have wrestled with issues far more grave than Bryant’s.
It’s clear Kobe Bryant’s renowned work ethic has been a great inspiration to his fans over the years. It’s also clear that those same fans could inspire Bryant more than he ever thought possible. If he takes time to read their stories.
Here are the top 10 most inspirational stories left on his Facebook page:
10. Jenni Norris Glasco: My 14 year old cousin broke her neck, shattered it cheer leading. The drs told her parents the best they can hope for is for her to breathe on her own and would be paralyzed from the chin down… Yesterday 22days after crushing her spinal cord and losing 99percent of the nerve function, she walked…20 steps. Like I said nothing is impossible!
9. Kat Corey kobe my husband is a devoted Laker fan and knows how u feel. He became a quadraplegic at the age of 51 when a crane operator at his work dropped a 750 lb air conditioner on his head.doctors said he would never walk again and or have very minimal use of his hands if he got anything back at all.He has your mentality he didnt listen to them he rehabed for 2 years and kept pushing everg day
and today he walks drives and try’s to do everything he can.
nothing is impossible when you believe in yourself, and you do.
8. Greg Mahosky Kobe, I am a 56 year old professional tennis instructor. I had a full tear of my my achilles tendon 2 years ago and was back on court playing full out in 3 months. I was teaching out of a wheel chair three days after surgery because I had to pay my bills as I don’t have a contract worth millions of dollars. Two months ago I was diagnosed with Chordoma Cancer and had to move from Toledo to Boston for six weeks of treatment, now I have two weeks for surgery and two more weeks of radiation treatment again to save my life. I was really rooting for you and the Lakers to make the playoffs and you did a hell of a job getting them there. But don’t complain about your bad break. There are people that look up to you that are much worse off. Count your blessing along with your championship rings. I would love to be where you are, care to trade places??
7. Lisa Rossi Oh what a humble man. You have a right to be angry!!!!! Life sometimes sucks!!!!!! Unfortuntatly we have no control!!!!!Life sucks!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I lost my 27 year old son to cancer in 2011- yes that’s different, but not really…
6. Micki Castillo I feel your pain!! I’m 36 and had a stroke a week ago. Im in rehab now learning how to walk again and use my left hand. It’s very hard but I just take one day at a time. The only reason I’ve made it this far is because of my friends and families thoughts and prayers!!! Oh and lots of hard work in therapy!!! Just hang in there and I will prAy for you!!!! Good luck with everything you will have to go thru!!
5. Jonathon Ulmem: me and my wife where in a house fire in which she sustained 5 metal plates and 30 screws in her leg and ankle and for months she was determined to somewhat walk again so she could walk and hold our sons…… she did it 6 months later….she may never walk for more than 30 feet at a time but those 30 feet to her feel like 30 miles….its all in the inner strength of someone the will power the courage and kobe you both have it….we will see you on the court next year.
4. Aaron Horsley If this is the real Kobe and if you happen to read this . I am 22 now when I was 17 I was a motocross racer but on 10/10/07 I was hit then drug 200 yards under a truck then ran over literally snapping my spine in half leaving me paralyzed from my chest down . Unless there is some miraculous treatment that comes in the future I will spend the rest of my life in a wheel chair. Don’t give up you have made it to your dream don’t just let it go like its dust in the wind. Show the world you are who they said you were . I will pray for you . If you don’t believe what I said about my accident google my name .
3. Pete Huttlinger So Kobe, you’re 35 years old. When I was 49 years old I was a very good guitarist with a thriving career. I had a stroke on November 3rd, 2010. It was a major stroke. I was completely paralyzed on the right side of my body and I was unable to speak. They did surgery on me and I was on the road to recovery. I could not play the way I used to play but a friend said that maybe I would come back as a better player with a different perspective. Then 6 months later I suffered from End Stage Heart Failure. I was dying. After nearly 5 months in the hospital (without playing my guitar at all) I emerged with a heart pump installed. I had gotten down to 110 pounds. I had to relearn how to walk, eat, use a pen – I couldn’t play a lick on the guitar. Fast forward a little bit – I walked a half marathon in Nashville where I live a year to the day from when I was life-flighted out to Houston, TX. Fast forward a little more – I’m back! I’m playing better in many ways than I ever did before and not so much in other ways. But I have an appreciation for life that I’ve never had before. (And I was always appreciative of my life!). You Can get through this. If I did it, you can too.
2. Brian Bair Kobe. I am a 40 year old diver that has destroyed my left leg five times. The last two where falls that snapped an ankle and a knee cap in half and the last snapped my femur right above my four time broken knee. And both in the last four years. I am coming back slow nut still coming back. I can’t give up. It’s what I do it’s what I know it’s what I love. My head gets me there while my knee catches up. So hang in there and do what you do, know and love no matter what. Cuz that rocking chair will kill you faster than anything. Hang in there Mamba. You have been all I got since Big Game James.
1. T-1000 Hey Kobe I am a robotic assassin from the future with a mimetic poly-alloy that allows my body to copy various
shapes and other people. I’ve had a really tough time trying to hunt down this kid named John Connor who’s the future savior of mankind, but you won’t catch me giving up. A few minutes ago, while zeroing in on John’s mother like a rabid vulture, I crashed a liquid nitrogen truck into a steel mill! That stuff leaked out of the truck and really froze me up and then things got even worse when a T-800 blasted me with its big-a** gun and shattered me into millions of pieces.
#MeltyOut














