FADEM: Unselfish leaders

I don’t watch very many regular season NBA games from start to finish ‘-‘- I don’t have that much time. However, on Monday night, I made an exception because of one matchup ‘-‘- Kobe Bryant vs. LeBron James.

In the first minute of the game, Kobe dislocated his finger. I thought this would dramatically alter the results of the game, but it didn’t. Kobe had the team’s trainer pop his finger back into place, and he was on his way, finishing up with 20 points, 12 assists and the most important stat of them all: a 17-point victory.

After the game, Kobe described the injury as the most pain he’s ever had to play with, and he said even if surgery is recommended, he’s going to continue to play, no matter how painful. This is a man playing with a torn ligament in his pinky finger, in addition to the new dislocation. He’s sacrificing his own comfort for the sake of the game and his team.

I think, ‘Where at BU can one find players like this? Where can I find absolute unselfishness for the good of the team?’

I actually didn’t have to look far at all. Had you walked into Case Gymnasium Monday, you would’ve seen one of these unselfish athletes, as John Holland played all 60 minutes of the longest game in BU men’s basketball history ‘- four tense overtimes.

Considering how hard John plays in games and how much he throws his body around, I can only imagine what injuries he quietly deals with. I’m guessing with the amount of ice he uses on his body daily, you could construct at least five ice luges for any of your favorite of BU’s fraternities.

However, that’s not the player I think of putting on Kobe-esque performances ‘-‘- Corey Lowe is.

First off, Corey is playing with bruised ribs, which cause some sort of pain any and every time he moves ‘-‘- or breathes, for that matter. So going out there on the court, getting bumped, pushed and jabbed in the ribs the entire game, and breathing even harder than usual must be extremely uncomfortable and unsettling. The thing is, you would never know that Corey is probably in extreme pain while on the court. His face never shows it.

On top of this, Corey’s had to adopt a new role. Usually, you’d see Tyler Morris handling BU’s point guard obligations, but after Morris’ season-ending ACL tear, Corey has had to run the point. Instead of finding shots and looks while getting open away from the ball, Lowe has to bring up the rock, run the offense and then score his fair share of points. Thus far, somehow, Corey hasn’t flinched at his injury or his new role ‘-‘- he’s dishing off more assists and scoring just as much.

How does he continue to do this?

At the end of the second overtime, Corey fell to the ground on the defensive end and lay there in obvious pain.

I could tell right away that he wasn’t going to miss a second of action. Corey let the trainer come over, rub the back of his neck for a little, whisper sweet nothings in his ear, then he was good to go. He played 56 minutes and scored a game-high 33 points. Remember: he did this with bruised ribs and God knows what else ailing him.

A similar case was seen Saturday night at Agganis Arena. I showed up for the game against Boston College knowing Chris Higgins was concussed and Matt Gilroy had dislocated his shoulder during the Merrimack game. Obviously, when I heard that neither of them would be in the lineup, I gave up and said, ‘great, BC is gonna win.’

What a fool I was. How would Matt Gilroy let a dislocated shoulder prevent him from playing? He wouldn’t, because he has the same killer instinct that Kobe and Corey have. Even after having his shoulder popped out the night before, Matt played and scored on a wrist shot I couldn’t have made, even with two healthy shoulders.

Then there’s Shaun Taylor, on the men’s soccer team, who is in a category all of his own. Jon Jonsson told me that for most of the season, Shaun was playing with just two of his limbs, as an injured hand and an injured foot hampered him. Despite this, Shaun still led the team in goals. The word ‘manbeast’ comes to mind when best trying to describe Mr. Taylor.

As students, as fans, as spectators, we’re lucky we get to watch these standout athletes. Their hearts sometimes seem to override their skills, and their instinct to win fascinates me. I have little doubt that these athletes will play every game they can, regardless of how much pain they may be in, because they’re too good not to. Because of this, they’re some of my favorite athletes at Boston University.