The Doug Overton Story
"Doug Overton? Who the hell is Doug Overton?"
Those were the words coming out of my 13 year old mouth ages ago at the George Mason University basketball camp.
My dad signed me up for the GMU camp and I looked forward to attending. I was especially excited after reading the brochure and seeing "Special Guest Speaker: NBA Professional Player TBD" This camp was going to be awesome! I was going to get to meet an NBA player!
Just to keep you excited about camp, they scheduled the guest speaker for Thursday, which for some overweight kids meant they would actually have to participate in some drills before having TBD sign their camp shirts.
All the kids tried to figure out who the NBA star would be, and the counselors were no help saying things like "I don't even know" or "It could be Chris Weber or Juwan Howard" Stupid counselors getting our hopes up.
Finally the day came and Paul Westphal was ready to announce the special guest. "The following guest is a great NBA player for the Washington Bullets...he did blah blah blah at LaSalle University...blah blah blah"
"LaSalle???? NOOOOOO He said Michigan right?????"
"Campers, let me introduce Doug Overton!"
As Westphal said these words the whole camp went silent. That's where "Who the hell is Doug Overton" was heard by hundreds of devastated young NBA hopefuls. A few kids actually knew who Overton was and seemed to be quite happy.
"Well, he is in the NBA, so that is pretty cool," I thought to myself. So I gave the guy a chance. And thats when Doug Overton ruined my life.
He comes on to the court and begins screaming. He yells at campers who are talking and tells everyone that basketball is not fun. It is hard work. It is not a laughing matter, and you must be serious at all times. He has volunteers do some drills and he screams at them because they havent' mastered it on their first try. He was not friendly at all and scared the kids the way a yelling principal at school scares kids.
After Overton's 20 minute lecture, all of which I forgot (unlike Dave Hopla's), he straight walked out of the building. He said "thanks" and made a be-line for the door. (if you think of Dane Cook here, you will be destroyed) No autographs, no handshakes, not even a glance. My dream to meet an NBA player (well my dream to brag to my friends that I met an NBA player) was gone, and I have nothing to show for it but this story.
Screw you Doug Overton...
1 comment:
Who are you, you are very ungrateful. I am from Philadelphia where Doug is from and he always came back to the hood and held his camp every year with no funding and only community help. He provided a great experience for us as young kids, and showed us how to never forget the hood. He is a prime example of hard work and what it takes to be a professional athlete. everybody doesn't make it the easy way and everybody isn't a big name. Without small named athletes the big named ones wouldn't be considered big. You need to check yourself dude.
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