"BIG TEN" Apache Sports (Photo Gallery)!!

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Permalink Reply by Phoebe Macon on April 13, 2010 at 4:40am

(From the 1975 Yearbook)

(From the 1973 Yearbook)

Permalink Reply by Phoebe Macon on June 4, 2010 at 9:25pm

Legendary John Wooden Dead at 99

Swing open the door to John Wooden’s tiny two-bedroom condominium, and the first thing that stands out is that there’s hardly any room to walk amid the clutter.

Piles of items awaiting autographs occupy the living room table. Stacks of poetry anthologies, baseball books and Abraham Lincoln biographies litter the shelves. And enshrouding every inch of wall space are dozens of photos, some of Wooden’s late wife Nell and his extended family and others of the legendary basketball teams he coached.

As his colorful condo suggests, college basketball’s most iconic coach lived a remarkably full life, from his all-American playing days at Purdue, to his success on the bench at UCLA, to his 53-year marriage to his high school sweetheart. He died at UCLA Medical Center on Friday four months shy of his 100th birthday, leaving behind an unparalleled legacy highlighted by a record-setting 88-game win streak, four undefeated seasons and 10 national titles from 1964 to 1975.

Even after abruptly retiring following his last championship, Wooden remained relevant as an author and motivational speaker, mentor to younger coaches. Only after his failing health confined him to a wheelchair the past couple years did he finally stop attending games at Pauley Pavilion in his customary seat two rows behind the UCLA bench.

Wooden was hospitalized several times the past few years, suffering a broken left wrist and collarbone in a fall at his home in March 2008 and then overcoming a month-long bout of pneumonia nearly a year later. He remained as sharp and perceptive as ever during most of those medical woes, but former UCLA star Marques Johnson said Wooden’s condition deteriorated the past few weeks.

“From a selfish standpoint, you’d love to see him live as long as possible, hit 100 at least,” Johnson said. “But after spending a couple hours with him two weeks ago and seeing how he was struggling, reclined in his easy chair and nodding in and out, I felt it would be selfish on our part to want him to stay around just to hit that milestone. He was never about numbers, in life or in basketball. It was always about the quality of effort.”

That Wooden maintained those wholesome values throughout his life is a testament to his small-town upbringing.

Wooden was born Oct. 14, 1910, in Hall, Ind., the second-eldest son of a hard-working farming couple. Soft-spoken Joshua Wooden taught his four sons the value of hard work, having them assist tending crops and livestock and then reading them poetry and scriptures every night by coal lamp.

When John Wooden finished eighth grade, his father gave him a card with a seven-point creed on it that included such tenets as “Be True to yourself” and “Make each day your masterpiece.” Wooden later used those philosophies in coaching and kept a copy of the card in his pocket the rest of his life.

It’s ironic that Wooden forged a career for himself in basketball because baseball was actually always his favorite sport. The Indiana native split much of his free time between a baseball diamond amid the cornfields and a hoop nailed to the hayloft, wisely choosing to pursue basketball when he blossomed into a three-time all-state selection at Martinsville High School.

After leading Purdue to a national title and becoming the first college player ever to be named a three-time all-American in 1932, Wooden married longtime girlfriend Nell and began his professional life as a high school coach and English teacher. He amassed a 218-42 record at Central High in South Bend before breaking into the college ranks as coach at Indiana State in 1946.

Two successful seasons at Indiana State caught the eye of more prominent programs, but Wooden and his wife desired to stay in the Midwest. His intention was to accept the coaching job at the University of Minnesota in 1948, but when a snowstorm prevented Minnesota’s athletic director from getting to the phone to offer him the position by a stipulated deadline, Wooden snapped up UCLA’s offer instead.

“If fate had not intervened, I would never have gone to UCLA,” Wooden once said.

Despite a handful of league championships during Wooden’s first 13 years in Westwood, his UCLA teams received more publicity for their unusual up-tempo style of play than for their modest success. Bill Russell’s San Francisco teams and Pete Newell’s Cal teams dominated 1950s basketball on the West Coast, relegating the Bruins to second-tier status in the region.

The pendulum swung in UCLA’s favor in the early 1960s when Wooden landed talented recruits Walt Hazzard, Gail Goodrich and Keith Erickson and introduced the full-court zone press that later became one of his trademarks. The Bruins didn’t start a single player taller than 6-foot-5 in 1963-64, but they outran all their opponents, rolling to a 30-0 season and Wooden’s first national title.

The next 11 years brought more championships, more elite recruits and more attention for Wooden, but former players insist his meticulous approach and homespun charm never wavered. He still taught his players how to wear their socks and tie their shoelaces to avoid blisters. He still kept notes detailing every minute of practice. He still forbade players from dunking or showing off on the court. And he still ran workouts that were more physically demanding for his team than most games.

“That was one of the secrets to our success,” said Greg Lee, a three-year starter during the Bruins’ 88-game win streak. “For a little more than a decade, we had the best basketball players, the hardest practices and a phenomenal coach, and we were tough to beat.”

The abrupt end of Wooden’s coaching career came as a surprise to all but his closest confidants. As exuberant UCLA players piled into the locker room at San Diego Sports Arena after a thrilling overtime victory over Louisville at the 1975 Final Four, Wooden gathered the team together and informed them the national title game would be his finale. It was initially silent in the locker room after Wooden’s announcement, but starting point guard Andre McCarter challenged his teammates to make certain their coach went out on top two nights later against Kentucky. Heavy underdogs against a formidable Wildcats team that featured significantly more size and depth than UCLA, the inspired Bruins took McCarter’s words to heart, eking out a 92-85 victory despite only playing six players.

“It was almost beyond a Hollywood moment,” said McCarter, who had 14 assists in the national title game. “To win the game and send coach out a winner, it felt like Muhammad Ali after he won the championship. We just shut people up.”

Wooden’s devout faith, attention to detail and aversion to drinking or swearing are well-chronicled, but one reason for his success that often gets overshadowed by his clean-cut image was his ability to relate to players of all backgrounds. Johnson said he viewed Wooden as an “otherworldly, godlike figure” when he signed with UCLA in 1973, but the Los Angeles native’s perception changed when he realized he could relate to his coach’s sense of humor.

Johnson was at the pool hall one day during his sophomore year when Wooden spotted him, walked through the door in his usual blue sweater and gray slacks and proceeded to take the pool cue from his star player’s hands. Wooden then proceeded to run off eight balls in a row before exiting the room without a word, leaving Johnson in slack-jawed disbelief.

Years later, Johnson got another taste of his former coach’s wry sense of humor while reliving the 1975 title game while on a flight home from an award show in New York. Johnson told Wooden he didn’t believe he played 28 minutes in that game, so Wooden responded, “Well, the way you were playing, you weren’t the only one who didn’t realize you were on the court for 28 minutes.”

“He was just real good with those quips,” Johnson chuckled. “It made him human. It put him down on our level as players. To me that was a big thing. It felt like almost a badge of honor when he would cut on you like that.”

None of the eight UCLA coaches who have followed in Wooden’s footsteps have approached his level of sustained success, but shades of his influence and philosophies are nonetheless visible in many of them.

Ben Howland grew up in Santa Barbara watching UCLA basketball in the 1960s, refers to himself as the caretaker of Wooden’s program and shares the former coach’s religious conviction and relentless minute-to-minute preparation. Steve Lavin still calls Wooden a mentor and often jokes that he consumed the ex-coach’s favorite breakfast more often after coming to UCLA in hopes that it would make him more Wooden-like in all facets of life.

Brad Holland shares Lavin’s and Howland’s reverence for Wooden, but the former University of San Diego coach got to know him earlier in life.

The last player Wooden ever recruited to Westwood, Holland recalls feeling “awed and intimidated” when the legendary UCLA coach showed up at his home to offer him a scholarship during his senior year. Holland never played for Wooden because of his sudden retirement that year, but the two stayed in touch, often sharing breakfast at one of Wooden’s favorite spots near his Encino home.

“Every time I ever had the opportunity to talk to coach or hear him speak, I always felt like I went away a better person,” Holland said. “I always felt inspired. You felt good about yourself and about the world. You felt like you could sort of do anything after you spent time with him. He was that inspirational.”

Wooden is survived by his son James Hugh Wooden, daughter Nancy Anne Muehlhausen, seven grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren. Also in mourning today are numerous former UCLA players who considered him family.

From Bill Walton, to Swen Nater, to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, many ex-Bruins regularly kept in touch with Wooden throughout the final years of his life, reliving old memories over the phone or over a cup of coffee and a plate of bacon and eggs. They’re saddened at the thought of losing him yet uplifted by the notion that he didn’t fear death and often expressed hope it would reunite him with his late wife Nell, who died of cancer on March 21, 1985.

Health permitting, Wooden has paid homage to Nell on the 21st of every month, visiting her grave and then writing a love letter to her, placing it in an envelope and adding it to a stack of similar letters on the pillow where she once slept. Everything in Wooden’s condo – the photos on the wall, the pillows on the bed and even some of the clutter in the living room – is exactly how Nell left it a quarter-century ago.

“This is a tough time for everybody who loves Coach Wooden, but I’ve come to terms with the fact that for him, in his spiritual belief, death means he’s reunited with his beloved Nell,” Johnson said. “I’m sure he’d take a considerable amount of solace in that.”

Permalink Reply by Phoebe Macon on June 9, 2010 at 2:55am

L.A. Lakers Regains Advantage In NBA Finals
BOSTON (AP)—Derek Fisher(notes) rallied his teammates with a motivational speech on the bench during the break before the fourth quarter.

Then he went out and showed them how it’s done.

“Derek, he’s our vocal leader. He’s the guy that pulls everybody together and is always giving positive reinforcement,” Lakers guard Kobe Bryant(notes) said after Fisher made five baskets in the final period to lead Los Angeles to a 91-84 victory Tuesday night over the Boston Celtics and a 2-1 lead in the NBA finals.

“That’s what he does. That’s what he’s been doing extremely well. He has a knack for saying the right thing at the right time.”

Bryant scored 29 points and Fisher had 16, including 11 in the fourth quarter after Boston cut a 17-point first-half lead to one point.

Game 4 is Thursday night in Boston, and a Lakers victory would put them within one win of avenging the loss to their longtime rivals in the 2008 finals — not to mention the eight other times the Celtics have won an NBA title at the Lakers’ expense.

“Our thoughts are really just still on how disappointed we are, or were, losing that second game on our home court. I think that had more of our attention and focus than what happened in ’08,” Fisher said. “We didn’t doubt our ability to win here. … We understand when you want to be the best, you have to win wherever, whenever.”

Bryant had 25 points after three quarters, but he did not score for the first 10 minutes of the fourth. That’s when Fisher took over, hitting four out of five Lakers baskets to help them reclaim the home-court advantage they lost when the Celtics won Game 2 in L.A.

“Derek Fisher was the difference in the game,” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “He’s just a gutty, gritty player and he gutted the game out for them. I thought Kobe was struggling a little bit, and Fisher—he basically took the game over. … I don’t know what he had in the fourth quarter … but most of them were down the stretch.”

Pau Gasol(notes) and Andrew Bynum(notes) had 10 rebounds apiece for Los Angeles.

Kevin Garnett(notes), who had just six points in Boston’s victory Sunday, had 25 in Game 3. But Allen, who had 32 points in Game 2, missed all 13 field goal attempts—one shy of the NBA finals futility record—many of them while Fisher was guarding him.

“It’s a hell of a swing, I’ll tell you that,” Rivers said. “It’s basketball. That’s why you can’t worry about it. He’ll be back in the gym tomorrow and getting ready for the next game. … It happens to the best of us.”

The Celtics had high hopes after splitting the opening two games in Los Angeles, but the “Beat L.A.!” chants at the TD Garden couldn’t help them overcome poor shooting.

And it couldn’t stop Fisher.

Fisher, 34, came into the league with Bryant in 1996 and has a history of clutch shots, from the heave with 0.4 seconds left to beat San Antonio in the 2004 playoffs to the late jumpers in a series-swinging victory over Orlando in Game 4 of last year’s finals. The Lakers went on to beat the Magic in five games, earning their 15th NBA title—second only to Boston’s 17.

“I think as you grow in this game and you put in the work that’s required to still be around 14 years later, you start to recognize that being in this moment, on this stage, it’s not a given. It’s not something that happens every season,” Fisher said. “Five or 10 years from now, when I’m long gone, I would have hated to feel like I didn’t just do everything I could have to help my team. Things have worked out well, and we have two more wins to get to really put a nice cap on it.”

The Lakers opened a 37-20 first-half lead, but Boston cut the deficit to four late in the third quarter and then made it 68-67 early in the fourth on consecutive drives by Glen “Big Baby” Davis and Rajon Rondo(notes). With a chance to take the lead, Allen was called for an offensive foul away from the ball.

Fisher then scored four of the Lakers’ next five baskets to give them a five-point lead with about 4 1/2 minutes left. He scored another with 49 seconds left before being flattened by Davis, among others, and adding the free throw to make it a three-possession game.

“He saw the opening and went and made a very bold play. … It was imperative that it goes in for us to win,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “When he’s got an opportunity to hit a key shot, it seems like he’s always there and ready.”

Allen missed all eight 3-pointers, all five 2-pointers and got to the line just twice. He was spared of matching the worst shooting performance in NBA finals history when Garnett was called for an offensive foul away from the ball in the final minute while Allen clanged another shot off the rim.

“We obviously didn’t expect him to go 0 for 13, but it’s a tough gig for him to run around offensively the way he has to and then have to guard Kobe on the other end,” Fisher said. “I mean, that takes anybody’s legs out. It takes my legs out chasing him. So there are going to be nights maybe when his legs aren’t there because he’s having to work so hard on both ends, but we won’t see 0 for 13 on Thursday night, that’s for sure.”

NOTES: Boston missed half of its 12 free throws in the first half and was 2 for 12 from 3-point range at the break. … Baltimore’s Chick Reiser missed all 14 shots in a 1948 finals game against Philadelphia, and Dennis Johnson was 0 for 14 for Seattle against Washington in 1978. … Rondo, who had a triple-double in Game 3, finished with 11 points, eight assists and three rebounds.

Permalink Reply by Antwon Lee on June 9, 2010 at 3:03am

Boston Celtics you all are going down, believe that!

Permalink Reply by Phoebe Macon on June 16, 2010 at 12:45am

I'm so glad that my Son "TIVO....ed" the Laker Game for me because I worked late yesterday. The Laker Game was awesome. They came out and played to WIN. They should have been doing that every game. But... Everybody was hustling down the Court yesterday like their lives depended on it. That's the way we like it. Keep it up LAKERS!! (Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol, Shannon Brown, Jordan Farmar, Ron Artest, Derek Fisher, Lamar Odom, and Andrew Bynum) did their thing last night and took the ball to the hoop. WAY TO GO LAKERS!! GREAT GAME......NOW DO IT AGAIN THURSDAY NIGHT AND THE "CHAMPIONSHIP" WIN WILL BE OURS!!

Permalink Reply by Phoebe Macon on June 16, 2010 at 3:41am

Lakers Win Game #6 in NBA Finals!!

LOS ANGELES -- Kobe Bryant scored 26 points, Pau Gasol added 17 points and 13 rebounds, and the Los Angeles Lakers emphatically extended the NBA finals to a decisive seventh game with a 89-67 victory over the Boston Celtics in Game 6 on Tuesday night.


Kobe Bryant scored 15 points as the Los Angeles Lakers, trying to save their season, opened a 51-31 lead over the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night at halftime of Game 6 of the NBA finals.

Trying to force the first Game 7 in the finals in five years, the Lakers led by as much as 22 in a dominant performance over the first 24 minutes after dropping the last two games to fall into a 3-2 deficit.

Ron Artest, who has struggled offensively, added 10 points, while the Lakers' reserves played a key role in a huge second-quarter spurt.

Ray Allen scored 13 points for the Celtics, making his first 3-pointer since hitting an NBA finals-record eight in Game 2. But backcourt mate Rajon Rondo had only two points on 1-of-8 shooting.

The Celtics lost center Kendrick Perkins to a right knee injury and had plenty of other problems, shooting poorly and getting crushed on the backboards after moving themselves to the brink of an 18th title.

It would take a huge comeback for it to come Tuesday.

Game 7 would be Thursday, and would be the first winner-take-all game in the NBA finals since San Antonio beat Detroit in 2005.

The Lakers shot 60 percent in the first quarter and moved the ball much better than they did in Boston, when too often their only offense was Bryant.

Boston had a two-point lead after Allen finally connected from behind the arc again, but the Lakers answered with a 16-4 run to make it 26-16 on Artest's 3-pointer with 2:57 remaining in the first quarter.

The Celtics lost Perkins during the run when he went down after grabbing an offensive rebound and getting fouled by Andrew Bynum. Perkins went to the floor and eventually was helped by two teammates to the back, where the team said he would get X-rays.

It was 28-18 after one quarter, and the Lakers quickly blew it open even while Bryant was getting some rest. A 10-2 surge increased the lead to 17. After Paul Pierce's basket, Sasha Vujacic made a 3-pointer. Jordan Farmar threw down a powerful dunk on the fast break to extend it to 45-25 midway through the period.

It peaked at 22 on Bryant's jumper, and the Lakers brought a 51-31 advantage to the break even after making only one basket in the final 3 1/2 minutes.

Los Angeles outrebounded Boston 30-13.


(Copyright ©2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Permalink Reply by Phoebe Macon on June 17, 2010 at 10:43pm

Lakers Edge Celtics in Game 7, To Win The 16th Title!!

LOS ANGELES (AP)—The Los Angeles Lakers have won their 16th NBA championship, dramatically rallying from a fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Boston Celtics 83-79 Thursday night in Game 7 of the NBA finals.

Kobe Bryant(notes) scored 23 points despite 6-of-24 shooting while winning his fifth title with the Lakers, who repeated as NBA champions for the first time since winning three straight from 2000-02.

Ron Artest(notes) added 20 points for the Lakers, who shot terribly while trailing for most of the first 3 1/2 quarters. Yet they reclaimed the lead midway through the fourth quarter and hung on with big shots from Pau Gasol(notes) and Artest.

With their fifth title in 11 seasons, the Lakers moved one championship behind Boston’s 17 banners for the overall NBA lead.

Series at a Glance vs.
Lakers win series 4-3

Game 1: at LAL
BOS 89, LAL 102 - Final

Recap | Box Score

Game 2: at LAL
BOS 103, LAL 94 - Final

Recap | Box Score

Game 3: at BOS
LAL 91, BOS 84 - Final

Recap | Box Score

Game 4: at BOS
LAL 89, BOS 96 - Final

Recap | Box Score

Game 5: at BOS
LAL 86, BOS 92 - Final

Recap | Box Score

Game 6: at LAL
BOS 67, LAL 89 - Final

Recap | Box Score

Game 7: at LAL
BOS 79, LAL 83 - Final

Recap | Box Score

Series Breakdown

Permalink Reply by Phoebe Macon on August 28, 2010 at 2:54am

Pro Bowler, Troubled Dad Andre Rison Becomes Football Coach

Just over a year ago, Andre Rison, the former Falcons Pro Bowl wide receiver, was bizarrely anointing himself the greatest receiver of all-time. Now, he's trying to prove he can be a great leader of young men.

The veteran of six NFL teams during a turbulent 11-year career, Rison is back as the head football coach at his high school alma mater, Flint (Mich.) Northwestern, where he's emphasizing better grades and attendance over winning games, according to an interview he gave the Flint Journal.

"It's not just about football," Rison said. "It's about getting in the mindset of education comes first. Football, we'll deal with the X's and O's. But we've been working on character building, being on time and doing well in school more so than the X's and O's right now."

Those sound like the right things for a role model to say. The question is whether Rison can actually be a role model for high school athletes, starting with his team's season opener tonight. The onetime Michigan State star has been beset by near constant delinquency over child support payments in Atlanta (not to mention at least one prior count of public drunkenness within the past two years). SportsbyBrooks dug up a February report, also from the Flint Journal, that detailed the full extent of Rison's child support issues. The numbers aren't pretty:

• In 2004, Rison spent a month in a Georgia jail after failing to pay $107,000 in back child support.

• In 2007, Rison declared bankruptcy, which led to defaulting on more child support payments

• As of Feb. 2010, Rison still owed $30,000 to the mother of two of his children.

It took the lawyer representing the woman owed that back child support to say his client had no intentions of suing Rison to get that $30,000 outstanding balance for the former receiver to be cleared to coach at Flint.

[Video: The worst high school football play of all-time]

It seems a bit ironic that a man who couldn't serve as a suitable father for his own children is now deemed the right man to be a father figure for a whole team of impressionable teenagers. That's particulalry poignant in Flint, one of the nation's most depressed cities. If any athletes need truly uplifting leaders in their lives, it's kids in Flint.

Regardless of his past, Rison is the man charged with leading Flint Northwestern forward, starting with tonight's game against Beecher High School, which provides a fascinating mirror image for Rison: Beecher's coach is Courtney Hawkins, a former NFL and Michigan State wide receiver himself.

Permalink Reply by Phoebe Macon on December 2, 2010 at 8:26pm

Michael Jordan's New Home Built in Jack Nicklaus's Development

This is the first look at Michael Jordan's swank digs in Jack Nicklaus' new "Bear's Club" development in Jupiter, Fla.

Analysis by Cary Lichtenstein of PGA National Real Estate indicates that Jordan paid $4.8 million for the land and $7.8 to build the mansion, and will likely have a total commitment of $20 million in the property when all is said and done. And while Woods' property comprises three lots with both ocean and Intracoastal Waterway access, Jordan's has neither, which could compromise its resale value. (See if you can bargain him down!)

The Jordan estate has 11 bedrooms, a two-story guard house and an athletic "wing" with a basketball court (of course). You'll note that the property isn't far from the golf course, but we're betting Jordan won't have to sneak onto the course at twilight to get in a few holes.

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Tiger Woods Newly Built $50 Million Bachelor Pad

Permalink Reply by Phoebe Macon on December 3, 2010 at 3:13pm

School Coach Uses iPhone App To Help Save His Collapsed Team Player

La Verne Lutheran (Calif.) School basketball star Xavier Jones has two men to thank for still being alive: His coach and Steve Jobs.

According to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune and the Los Angeles Times, an iPhone -- a creation of Jobs' Apple Corporation -- helped teach La Verne basketball coach Eric Cooper how to perform CPR when he downloaded a life saving app called "Phone Aid" one night last week.

The very next day, Cooper had to put the skill to the test when Jones collapsed during a team practice. Cooper was able to keep his star pupil alive until paramedics arrived, at which point Jones had begun breathing again.

"When it happened, that was too much of a coincidence for me," Cooper told the Tribune.

It may have seemed like a huge coincidence, but given the holiday season, Cooper's timely intervention seemed almost a guided act of faith. Jones, who was set to play basketball at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point next year, has since been diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart wall that previously killed Loyola Marymount basketball player Hank Gathers during the 1990 college basketball season.

"I'm just thankful and happy to be here," Jones told the Los Angeles Times. "Things could have been a lot worse.

"I'm just happy to be alive."

While Jones hasn't decided on his next course of action -- one group of doctors has already recommended Jones have a defibrillating device implanted that would re-start his heart if it stopped again -- he and his parents said they were sure he would find a way to success.

More importantly, they were just thankful that his coach was able to think so quickly on his feet, and that he had such a timely interest in boning up on his lifesaving skills.

"I can't thank him enough for being there for my son," Xavier Jones' mother, Linda Jones, told the Los Angeles Times.

Permalink Reply by Phoebe Macon on December 4, 2010 at 12:52am

Despite Success On The Field, Michael Vick Still Faces Massive Debt

Michael Vick paid his debt to society. Now he's trying to pay back his massive debt to creditors.

Despite earning $4.1 million since signing with the Philadelphia Eagles, Vick lives on a shoestring budget set for him by a court-appointed trustee. Most of his salary goes toward paying back creditors Vick owed before entering federal prison. Those creditors, which include banks, former business colleagues and former endorsement partners, were protected because of Vick's 2008 filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

A 112-page, court-approved document serves as Vick's "reorganization plan." It was uncovered by ESPN legal analyst Lester Munson.

Among the facts Munson discovered in the plan:

• Two-thirds of every dollar Vick earns goes to creditors and taxes.

• The rest of the money is strictly controlled. Think of it as an allowance.

• Vick can spend $4,250 per month on rent and utilities and $472 per month on a car. His mother, who was on Vick's payroll during his headier, pre-prison days, can receive $2,500 per month.

• Other obligations Vick owes include mortgages, child support, fees for his agent (who gets $800,000 through 2015) and for his tax lawyers (who will eventually receive a total of $2.6 million). The allowance does allow for Vick to pay $1,355 per month for private school for the two children he has with his fiancee, Kijafa Frink. (Munson calls it a "rare bit of extravagance.")

• His creditors stand to receive $12 million through 2015, provided Vick continues to receive a multi-million dollar salary.

Munson also writes that before Vick filed for bankruptcy, he frantically gave away $5 million to family and friends so that creditors couldn't get to it. The court-appointed trustee is trying to recover that money, which was given to Vick's friends, family and the mothers of Vick's children. This is being done via a lawsuit, meaning that the man in charge of Michael Vick's money is also suing Michael Vick's family. (Though Munson says a judge will likely rule in the trustee's favor, recovering the money will be a much more difficult matter.)

There have been countless reports about Vick's financial woes since he first got into legal trouble for running an illegal dogfighting ring, but Munson's story is the clearest picture yet of what Vick still has to go through. To watch a broadcast of Vick's games and hear announcers rave about his recovery, you'd think everything was behind him. This document says otherwise.

The more money Vick makes, the more money goes to creditors. A salary under $2.5 million would force Vick to pay 25 percent. That percentage jumps to 40 if Vick signs a deal worth $10 million or more per season.

This path to financial redemption follows the same road that led to Vick's personal reclamation. In both, he made stupid mistakes and then compounded them by being dishonest once authorities found out. After serving his time, though, he's dedicated himself to making up for his past misdeeds. It's not heroic, per se, but it's admirable. He could have run away like he does so often on the field. Instead, he appears to be trying to make it right.

It's ironic. Vick's success on the football field is what caused him to get in trouble in the first place. That same success is now helping him get out of it.

Permalink Reply by Phoebe Macon on December 8, 2010 at 2:01am

A Great Gift: Paralyzed Athlete Given Handicap House Just In Time For The Holidays

(Written By Cameron Smith)

It's the season for giving, when heartwarming stories of personal and community sacrifice get the most attention. Yet one of those stories, focusing on a high school star who truly needs the help, has been more than a year in the making.


In early October 2009, 14-year-old Jared Williams was injured in a freak accident where another player's helmet hit him in the neck as he went in for a tackle. The Pinkston (Texas) High football player went down and had to be stretchered off the field, discovering only hours later that the accident had left him largely paralyzed.



The year since has been a long and arduous one for the teenager, who now gets around in a motorized wheelchair and is cared for by his mother, Arienna Williams. It's a difficult task, with the single parent trying to care for her son and provide funds to keep them housed and fed.


Yet that just got a bit easier, just in time for the holidays, with the gift of a new house for the Williamses, with the new dwelling built to be as handicap accessible as possible, unlike their current home.


According to the Dallas Morning News, fundraising for the new home began shortly after Williams was paralyzed last year, when Pinkston High and Dallas ISD started a fundraising campaign called Project 24, named for Williams' number. The campaign was so successful that, with the help of a few private donations, it raised enough money to pay for the Williams' entire new home.


Now the pair is waiting on the final touches to be completed, including a beautification project to help plant different shrubs and flowers around the property, with all landscaping support provided by Dallas ISD athletes.


It's a touching effort from a badly taxed public school system and any number of others who stepped forward when they didn't have to, to help a student who badly needed it. Williams isn't forgetting his own good fortune, either.


When a fellow Dallas-area athlete Diondre Preston, a quarterback for Molina (Texas) High, was paralyzed earlier this season, Williams and his mother were two of the first visitors to the player's hospital room the next morning.