Chasing Perfect by Bob Hurley

Author:Bob Hurley [Hurley, Bob]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-98688-7
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2013-03-19T04:00:00+00:00

6.

A Dark, Dark Night

EVERY SEASON IS A JOURNEY. EVERY JOURNEY IS A LIFETIME.

—Mike Krzyzewski

NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE HEART OF A CHAMPION.

—Rudy Tomjanovich

Life never goes the way you think.

Doesn’t even come close.

As a kid, I thought I’d play in the NBA. Never occurred to me I wouldn’t even make it off the freshman team at St. Peter’s College, but that’s just what happened. Never thought my sons would go on to play big-time college ball, for two of the top coaches in the country—Bobby for Mike Krzyzewski at Duke and Danny for P. J. Carlesimo at Seton Hall—or that they’d face each other in the Sweet Sixteen round of the NCAA tournament, but that’s just what happened. Never once imagined I’d have an opportunity to coach at a school like St. Anthony, or to grow its basketball program into one of the best in the country, but that’s just what happened too.

And Chris and I certainly never thought that for every happiness and success we enjoyed as a family there might be a real heartbreak waiting just around the corner—but of course, there’s no avoiding heartbreak. We lost our parents eventually. We lost our son Sean. And one night in December 1993, we nearly lost Bobby.

I’ll share this last story here, because it has to do with the “undefeated” theme that runs through this book, and because it’s an important marker in our family and in the St. Anthony community. It’s with us always. And it’s emblematic. Like the seven perfect teams profiled in these pages, Bobby had to have an iron will and a bottomless supply of grit and perseverance to fight his way back after a terrible car accident that almost cost him … everything.

First, a little setup. After a great career at St. Anthony, Bobby kept it going at Duke, where he ended up winning back-to-back NCAA titles. Set all kinds of school records, conference records, NCAA records. I couldn’t have been prouder of him, as his former coach, or more excited for him, as his father. It felt like everything was going his way. After his senior season, the Sacramento Kings selected Bobby in the first round of the NBA draft and signed him to a big contract. My brother Brian went out to California to help Bobby transition from the life of a student-athlete on the East Coast to the life of a professional athlete on the West Coast. Bobby was smart enough to see that my brother would help him to keep his focus, or maybe he just liked having his Uncle Brian around; either way, it worked out.

The transition into the Kings’ lineup was a little less smooth. The Sacramento coach, Garry St. Jean, had a set rotation he used to deploy, with two different units. Typically, it meant Bobby would play either the first and third quarters of the game or the second and fourth quarters. Spud Webb was the other point guard on the team, and he usually played the other quarters. As

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