Lauren Hill story

As most probably saw yesterday, Division III college basketball player Lauren Hill played in the first game of the season and scored four points yesterday. She has inoperable brain cancer, and will probably die by the end of the year:

http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/24780248/video-cancer-stricken-lauren-hill-makes-first-basket-of-the-ncaa-season

I'm in the vast minority on this, but I'm more than slightly queasy about the whole spectacle. I can't even totally put my finger on it - I suppose terminal cancer-as-hot-sports-programming feels really maudlin and even macabre. There were 10,000 people at the game. It feels almost dystopian.

Again, I'm in the vast minority, and I'll get slammed here, pretty viciously, for not loving every second of it. I'm just really curious whether anyone else felt similarly. Maybe not.

Maybe I also think that the whole diseased-person-plays-in-a-basketball game - and scores! - story is a little played out by now. I would have liked it better had she done this quietly, in the course of a regular game in front of a few dozen friends and family. Of course, that's just sports fan fiction, which I rail against when other people write it. (Alex Gordon, cough, cough.)

My late brother-in-law once told us that if having cancer wasn't hard enough, there was pressure to be an "inspiration" while fighting it. Maybe I feel this contributes to that.

Good for her, though.

 

Rumor has it about 328 high school kids with Down Syndrome will score touchdowns this season. All of them will be on Facebook. All will be precious.

 

I don't have a problem with that. Flash back 30 years and a kid with Down syndrome wouldn't even be in the same school with the other kids. My impression is that kids seem far more capable of understanding and empathizing with people with disabilities these days BECAUSE they've been part of the same community from an early age. All those touchdowns symbolize that progress for me.

 

If only she had sought your counsel, Dick.

 

What's funny is that when I wrote this sentence, I had a particular poster in mind.

He did not disappoint.

 

I can't work up any cynicism about a 19-year old who has been given a death sentence.

 

Wide gulf between not loving every second of it and being a contrarian dick regarding a young woman who is going to die soon.

Of course, now she doesn't have to worry about bullshit social obligations like attending birthdays, weddings, etc. and having to listen to her friends talk about food. The kind of stuff that makes your life so difficult and annoying.

 

I don't think this makes her an inspiration. She did it for herself, and people - including the NCAA - helped.
I think this is a little different than the kids scoring TDs stuff.
This wasn't inspirational, not on her part anyway. It was chance for her to do something she supposed to do had she been healthy.
The inspirational stuff ... that came from Xavier and its staff who donated their time to hold the game at their place and man the site.

The D-III school that she played for typically averages a 100 fans at their games. They had 10,000 and had to move the game.


I get it ... I'm a jaded SOB who could care less about Sick Johnny getting wheeling through the D-Line to score a TD. I think that's played out.

 

This feel good story proves that the NCAA is not some monolithic structure and does have a heart.

I do have a complaint with the article that Dick posted. It does not see to mention who
Mount St Joseph played in the game. whoever they were are terrible defenders. How do you let someone go in for an uncontested layup in first few seconds of a game?

 

Go fuck yourself.

 

If I were the parents of #61 who got clipped by # 57 I would not have been too
happy if my son had torn his ACL on the play. That's the possible downside
of some of these staged events. Their are some uncontrollable variables that could
rear their ugly head and then the ambulance chasers get involved.

 

You started this thread to get a reaction because getting people to respond to you is more precious to your well-being than your mandatory treadmill hour. Attention whores can't avoid the occasional negative attention. If you can't stand the heat ...