Remember back in the day when sports journalism wasn’t tabloid trash? When you actually heart compelling stories instead of pointless gossip?
While ESPN hunkers down and dedicated another segment to Brett Favre’s ribs or Terrell Owens’ big mouth, real stories exist and go unreported. Here’s hoping someone with a clue catches wind of this Tim James story and puts it under a microscope. It’d be perfect for Bryant Gumbel’s Real Sports or Bob Ley on Outside The Lines.
At 31 years old the former Miami Hurricane and Miami Heat first round draft pick has spent the last year serving his country in the Army. James made $2.5M in his NBA career and made money overseas playing professionally in Japan, Turkey and Israel.
The soft spoken James quietly enlisted, wanting to protect his country and start a new chapter to his life. Wanting to be ‘one of the guys’ he barely shared his past with his fellow soldiers.
“I wanted this experience to be raw,” said James. “Start a new life. I wanted to understand new minds and new ways of thinking. I’ve been in basketball since I was eight. I didn’t want to have a basketball conversation every day.”
I could go on, but in this case I employ you to read Dan LeBatard’s piece in Saturday’s Miami Herald. A rather incredible story about a professional athlete leaving the comforts of home (and professional sports) to fight for his beliefs. Not since the late Pat Tillman have we seen something of this nature – and thankfully in James’ case he’s not in harms way as Tillman was.
Check it out and for those media folk choosing to talk Favre over James, get your priorities straight. There’s a hell of a story going on here, if anyone cares to notice.