Interesting - Dick
Enberg has written a one-man play about his old friend Al McGuire.
McGuire had moments of pure genius, both in basketball and in dealing with the
public. We remember his strategy for Phil Ford and UNC - cut off the head
and the body dies. So UNC died.
Then retiring on the spot - all seashells and balloons, as he famously
put it - probably the most eloquent retirement (and by eloquent we mean the
sense of when, rather than the words) in college basketball.
In Cameron one year, he completely drove the crowd into hysterics by coming
out wearing a pith helmet and carrying a chair and a bullwhip. He had
someone - we're thinking maybe Enberg - carrying a bag of something - which he
tossed into the crowd between whips and chair parries. Totally brought the
house down.
Then another time, he went off on a tangent while broadcasting a game and
said he didn't like something - we can't remember what it was. But he said
it was like "selling short, it's un-American," and just cracked the
whole crew up.
The genius of McGuire was that you never knew what was coming next, and the
anticipation of waiting for whatever it was was priceless.
Here's hoping Enberg captured it.