Seconds

Of the many things the amazing doc Last Dance may accomplish, perhaps giving Craig Ehlo a bit of redemption is one of them. For 30+ years Ehlo has been a punchline, the ultimate poster victim. But thanks to the doc, we now see that he hit a helluva layup with two second left to go up by one. He lead the Cavs in scoring, with 24 points. But nobody remembers any of that at all, certainly not me. In those 2 seconds ehlo went from hero to worse than zero.

A close comparison could be the Laettner shot - Sean Woods hit a running one-hander to go up by one with 2.1 seconds left. At that moment, anyone watching would assume Woods would go on to become Kentucky legend, lionized more and more in mythology with each passing generations. But 2 seconds later, he was gone. Nobody remembers him.

But Ehlo's case is even worse, since he was the one (perfectly, one might say) guarding Jordan, to be posterized forever. What a difference 2 seconds can make. As I wrote 12 years ago:

Watching all-time classic sports highlights, truly great moments of surprise and miracle, is a tremendous thing to behold. I've come to love watching not only the moment itself, but the seconds just beforehand. On film you can see the athlete standing there, nonplussed, his name so far not a household name. Even if he's a great player already he may not have had a single, defining moment that will be replayed on televisions until the end of time. I love these moments; in particular the truly desperate ones. While in hindsight we see the player as a hero who simply would not give up etc etc, you know that as the play begins he has no more of an idea that his own life is about to change as you may your own. Doug Flutie's a great example. Here's a play that will be replayed as long as there are humans on Earth; it certainly won him the Heisman. Yet most people forget that earlier in that very game, he had become the first qb to ever go over 10,000 career passing yards. He had already accomplished so much, but as he walks up to the line it is the play to come that will forever define him as a football player - hell, prolly as a person. I love watching the replay and the second before the snap, wondering what's it like, to have your life changed so suddenly? When you watch the highlights, I think you tend to think the athlete knew exactly what was going to happen; of COURSE he does, you've watched it 1000 times!! Of course he knows what's about to happen, he's seen it too!! But he doesn't; up through the actual moment, he himself has no idea what is about to happen. Those plain, normal seconds leading up to immortality are fascinating to me.

For some reason, these examples jump out at me.

- Doug Flutie
- Ralph Branca/Bobby Thompson
- Bobby Plump
- Carlton Fisk
- Christian Laettner

Yes, there's many more.