Sad Goodbyes

My condolences to Larry Hughes and his family. Larry Hughes' younger brother died last week due to heart failure. He was 20 years old.

I remember watching a very moving profile of Larry and his brother about 10 years ago. His brother had just had a heart transplant, so Larry decided to go to school locally, improving St. Louis' fortunes greatly. he could have went to any top program in the country. After a successful first season, Larry entered the NBA to help pay for his brother's medical expenses. As time passed, it seemed like Larry's brother would live a normal life. Sadly, the Hughes' brotherly bond was broken last week.
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In other (less) sad news, Doug Flutie retired today. I actually keep a newspaper cut-out of Doug Flutie in my jacket pocket as a source of inspiration. I've got the box of Flutie Flakes on my dresser. My brother's AIM sceenname is a tribute to Flutie. We even named a fish after him.

Flutie was always considered too short by the so-called NFL experts. When Flutie was finally given a second chance by the Buffalo Bills, he flourished. Unfortunately, the Bills didn't have enough faith in Flutie and the fortunes of the franchise have floundered ever since they parted ways. Flutie will always be remembered for his hail mary pass for Boston College to beat Miami and go to the Fiesta Bowl. Doug Flutie will always be one of my favorite players of all time. Thanks for the memories Flutie.
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The Cleveland-Detroit playoff series is unrelated to the previous two stories, but Detroit could have done better at the end of Game 4. Lebron James made 1 of 2 free throws with just over one second left, increasing the Cavs lead to 2. Detroit did not have a timeout. They in bounded the ball to Chauncey Billups, who tripped, and the ball ended in the Cavs' hands. Detroit lost.

Detroit should have called timeout. That would have been a technical foul. The Cavs would have gotten one free throw attempt. If they made that attempt (Lebron struggled from the line tonight), Detroit would be down 3, but be able to advance the ball to the 28-foot line and Flip Saunders would of had time to call a play. This would have given Detroit a solid chance to send the game into overtime.