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.
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Good heads up. And hear hear on the media being tabloidal infotainment.-
I was so inspired by that story I made a point to share it with a friend who is considering joining the Navy. I then went on to ESPNs website and sent the article to Outside The Lines. Maybe one day these big media companies will take the time and report on someone as amazing as Tim James.
Once again great job bring that to us.
It's All About The U!
I'd meant to read this the other day when you posted it. Forgot. Remembered. Afterward, I went back to whatever message board I was one, rifled through FSU's depth chart....
All of it mattered a whole lot less. Now that I have a daughter, the magnitude of his sacrifice is more personal. But I didn't leave anything like the NBA. Whole 'nother perspective. Really, a story that probably doesn't do the man justice. We're proud to have a James.
This is an awesome article that represents the great University of Miami and the even greater country in which it resides- the USA. SEMPER FI. Go Canes!
I did happen to hear a small 15-30 second staory on this from the local station of ESPN radio. This is yet another great, positive story of a Cane or former Cane making a difference in the world. Unfortunately pretty much most of all news is pretty much garbage. Just watch your local news (which I pretty much refuse to do anymore) and you'll see that almost all of the stories are negative in nature: arson, robbery, murder, tragedy, etc. I refuse to support this.
Back to James, what a great story. I hope that ESPN eventually does a story on him like they did on Tillman again and again. We all need to continue to pray for all of our soldiers fighting all over the world, and hopefully they'll have a safe and quick return unharmed. Once again, Chris, bravo for posting stories like this, letting us know there are plenty of these out there.
-Columbus Cane