Bill Simmons Does it Again
July 25, 2003 · Filed Under Sports
Bill Simmons goes through the mailbag
Simmons has to be one of the best sports writers in the country. He cracked me up for about 5 minutes, and then made me want to cry.
As I was reading toward the end of his article, one of the most beautiful songs popped up in my MP3 mix. With Sway by Bic Runga playing through my headphones I began to read Simmons’ commemoration of the death of Celtics star Reggie Lewis. Even as Simmons referenced Lewis’ torching of Craig Ehlo and the Cleveland Cavaliers in 1992, I couldn’t stop my heart from sinking.
What a great writer.
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I remember when Reggie went down the first time. I was 14. It was the summer before I started high school, and I remember watching that playoff game against Charlotte. He was trailing the play, and it finished without him in the shot. When the action shifted the other way, you just saw him in a pile on the court. Somehow, you could tell something serious was wrong.
It’s tough to explain how much Reggie’s death took over Massachusetts. No one talked about anything else on sportscasts for a month. A lot of days, it led the news. Years later, when we’d hear that he was on coke or the doctors missed an easy diagnosis, that sometimes led the news. Years later.
In ‘93, we weren’t very far removed from the Celtics teams of the 80s that won titles and took names. Larry hadn’t been retired for a whole year yet, but Reggie was already the guy who was going to lead the Celtics into a new era of prosperity. That’s why it hit so hard, I think. Besides him being a great guy.
I still think the Celtics’ ten years of futility had a lot less to do with Pitino and ML Carr fucking up things than it did with Reggie Lewis dying and everyone feeling like the Celtics had died with him.
Every kid who’s gone to a public junior high or high school in Massachusetts in the last ten years has met Reggie’s mom, who has started speaking at schools to kids so they know about the dangers of drugs, the value of regular medial checkups, the importance of responsibility and community involvement and the general importance of being a good person.
From a strictly selfish point of view, there’s a very reasonable possibility that Reggie could still be playing, and could have been a part of the 2001-2002 Celtics who went to the Conference Finals. He’d only be 38 now. The thought of that makes me sad. Reggie would have enjoyed that. I would have enjoyed seeing it.
Remember Len Bias, too. He came out of Maryland the same year I graduated college. If things had been different, the Celtics might have had a few years with Bird and Bias, and then Bias and Lewis. Maybe a lot of years. It’s all just too bad.
Simmons’ Bias piece is linked below.
Bill Simmons puts what I feel about Boston into words. When I read the article about the Redsox/A’s series, that was exactly how I felt. All the other articles I have read I could relate to. The article about Bill moving to California and missing all the memories in Boston was so good. I had goosebumps while reading it. I wish I could watch just one of the Sox/Yankees game with him.