Memorial Day / Don Pellum / Unnecessary Drama
Hear it here!
Somebody asked me about Memorial Day memories and since I never really followed the Indianapolis 500, I was at a loss. Then it hit me.
In fact, it was a major moment as it turned out, and it taught me something that has stuck with me.
They called it the Memorial Day Massacre. Rightfully named. It was game 1 of the 1985 NBA Finals, on a Sunday, between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Boston Celtics, fierce rivals for the league championship in that decade. It was a familiar matchup dating back to the 50’s in the fight for the NBA title.
Now they were at it again, with yours truly at the CBS mike with Tommy Heinsohn. The Celtics had beaten the Lakers a year earlier and were attempting to win back-to-back championships for the first time since the 1969 campaign, also at the expense of the Lakers.
But on that Memorial Day, a Sunday afternoon, the game was no contest. The Celtics blasted the West Coasters out of Boston Garden, trouncing Pat Riley’s crew by 34 points. The rivalry that decade was always billed as a Larry Bird-Magic Johnson showdown, but there were other greats on both teams who had their names in lights.
How about Kareem Abdul-Jabbar? The formidable big man struggled in the opener, scoring only 12 points and grabbing only 3 rebounds. Can you imagine the great one with only 3 off the boards? Hard to believe.
Naturally, the media predicted a Celtics domination in the series after that first game, but Kareem himself, warned of a different scenario in game 2 which was to be played the upcoming Thursday. That meant three days’ rest. To cut to the chase, the Lakers won the second game in Boston by seven, crushed the Celtics by 25 in L.A. game 3, and eventually beat the Celtics in six games, capturing the crown in Boston Garden, making it the first time the Celtics lost a deciding Finals battle at home, with the Lakers, of all teams, doing the damage. Who would have forecast that kind of a result after the opening contest? But it clearly indicated to me that a blowout is just one game, and often the winners have difficulty getting revved up after an easy win, and the losers dig down deep a little extra to avoid another embarrassment.
You never know who you will meet on a vacation cruise, and I’m not talking about celebrities. While sailing the Indian Ocean with Jamie recently, I ran into a man who spent 30 years as an assistant football coach. He was never out front and never received any kind of publicity. But I learned about the mental approach of a long-time, successful coach. His name is Don Pellum, and he spent most of his career as the linebackers coach for the University of Oregon. He was not the head man. Not the spokesman for the program. Not the CEO running the team and making the crucial decisions. He handled those who played one position and did it in remarkable fashion. We never delve into assistant coaches, but they are the ones who get their room ready to play each week. For decades, the PAC-12 was dominated by Southern Cal, sometimes USC, sometimes Stanford. Oregon was in the northwest, often an afterthought in that great conference out west. But as college football followers know, the Oregon Ducks (who now play out of the Big Ten), became a national power. Don Pellum was instrumental in that rise. Not only on the coaching end but in recruiting as well. Getting the best players was something that USC, UCLA, and the other perennial leaders in that conference excelled as a matter of course. But Pellum and others who would seek out the good prospects used a different approach. Knowing they might not get the finest position players, they went after the better athletes regardless of their position.
Then they would find a spot in the lineup for them. If a high school linebacker who was an outstanding athlete but too small to play that position, Oregon would bring them in and find a spot. Soon the results would show. And in their recruiting at a school, they would wear suits and ties to practice while other recruiters would wear jackets and sweaters with their logo on display. The prospects would wonder where those men dressed in suits were from. They were from Oregon and they were noticed. And respected. Pellum would make sure his group would be the first to take the practice field each day and the last to leave. He would urge them to sit in the first rows at class, not in the middle or in the back. It was the little things. His group acted like they were first, and they played that way.
Assistant coaches do the heavy lifting in sports. Most of the time they go unnoticed by outsiders. But inside they are the real keys to a school’s success. Like Don Pellum was at Oregon. Now a perennial football powerhouse themselves.
Finally, one of the more laughable stories emerged when the Giants 2nd year quarterback Jaxson Dart came under criticism on social media by linebacker Abdul Carter, the Giants first round pick in 2025. It was all about Dart introducing the President of the United States at a rally in New York. Carter did not agree with Dart’s role but later revealed that he talked with the QB and that all was well between the two.
But the media blew it up like it was the kind of drama inside the Giants locker room that might derail their goal to become relevant again in the NFL, especially under their new head coach John Harbaugh. If those in the media who played up the story knew better, they would realize that regardless of political view or any differing stance, players who work together almost every day of the week from mid-summer through the grueling football schedule rolling into five months, are together in their mission of attempting to improve and become a winning team that will challenge for the playoffs and hopefully someday win a Super Bowl. Is Carter not going to play hard because Jaxson Dart is on the team? Are they not going to communicate in the day-to-day preparation for those goals? But that’s what far too many in today’s media are about. Looking to create controversy and inner drama that is simply not there just to sensationalize a story. By now readers and listeners should be aware of this tiresome practice and not give it the time of day.
The Massacre
With Don Pellum on the cruise
Pellum the Coach
Jaxson Dart introducing
