Ukraine’s “Hoosiers” Moment at Hand?

Putin, Zelenksyy & Trump would be wise to be inspired by Gene Hackman’s once disgraced Coach Norm Dale in “Hoosiers,” who at the pivotal moment in the championship game finds the humility to listen to sage advice. I know the feeling.

Chicago’s own controversial columnist & comeback kid, Bob Greene, recently wrote a timely piece on the subject titled, “The Night I Left Gene Hackman Alone.” Greene recounts a happenstance encounter at a restaurant with the iconic (but now deceased) actor but had the common sense to not invade his rare shot at privacy. The columnist goes on to explain the many ways in which Hackman’s portrayal of a beleaguered coach in the movie overcame being at war with the world as well as himself. But, I submit the one scene Greene forgot to mention & the one that I will take to my own grave, is the “last shot” taken by Coach Dale’s also oft-misunderstood star player. Remember how Dale told the boys to run a favorite play of his & have so-and-so take the last shot, but they balked. And, instead of telling the boys to get with the program, HE got with THEIRS & let the star take the last shot who said, “I can do it.” The rest was movie lore.

As it happens, the same situation played out in my own life. When coaching B-ball after a mediocre career as a high school player, I helped take a .500 team of inexperienced & comparably small high schoolers from Chicago’s South Side to the Word of Life’s International Basketball Tourney Championship in Upstate New York. In that week-long tourney we were 22-1, the only game lost in overtime to a far bigger team. Fast forward to the championship game. We are losing by 10 points the entire game, nothing was working. I finally stopped insisting on holding back our famous press defense at the suggestion of my assistant coach & turned my small but fast men loose. The 10-point deficit melted in the last 5 minutes. And, when we had the ball with 10 seconds left & the score tied, my star player said "I can do it." He had also asked to take the last shot rather than run the play I had laid out. I had the sense to say "Ok." The rest was history.

Davd Soul