Felipe Lopez / ESPN 30 for 30

Really looking forward to watching this tonight. I was on a flight with Felipe when he was in high school and I had just graduated college. It seems like yesterday. Remember telling him he should go to St. John’s. I think that would be considered an NCAA violation today. Maybe LJ should have a talk with Felipe.
 
I have a question for you longtime St. John's fans...

I'm not too familiar with St.John's history. ESPNU is running a marathon right now on St.John's basketball games for the Felipe Lopez 30/30 tonight. I caught part of one of these games during my lunch break and seen the Lopez/Artest team playing with Fran Fraschilla coaching. Looks like Fraschilla was doing well and had some highly rated recruits, why did he only last 2 years here?
 
[quote="Andrew" post=347006]Really looking forward to watching this tonight. I was on a flight with Felipe when he was in high school and I had just graduated college. It seems like yesterday. Remember telling him he should go to St. John’s. I think that would be considered an NCAA violation today. Maybe LJ should have a talk with Felipe.[/quote]

I believe someone mentioned here that Felipe originally helped recruit LJ to St John's. Or at least met with him.
 
[quote="Making Plays" post=347012]I have a question for you longtime St. John's fans...

I'm not too familiar with St.John's history. ESPNU is running a marathon right now on St.John's basketball games for the Felipe Lopez 30/30 tonight. I caught part of one of these games during my lunch break and seen the Lopez/Artest team playing with Fran Fraschilla coaching. Looks like Fraschilla was doing well and had some highly rated recruits, why did he only last 2 years here?[/quote]

Im sure someone can expand more on this. But essentially he started acting like a lunatic which culminated with him dropping his pants at practice to prove a point.
 
[quote="Making Plays" post=347012]I have a question for you longtime St. John's fans...

I'm not too familiar with St.John's history. ESPNU is running a marathon right now on St.John's basketball games for the Felipe Lopez 30/30 tonight. I caught part of one of these games during my lunch break and seen the Lopez/Artest team playing with Fran Fraschilla coaching. Looks like Fraschilla was doing well and had some highly rated recruits, why did he only last 2 years here?[/quote]

There's room for debate, but essentially Fran's over-sized ego got the best of him.
He thought he was too big for St. John's and began butting heads with his AD and others.
He also treated some of his players and assistant coaches rather lousy, allegedly dropped his pants in practice to show them he had balls and they didn't.
He was fired, quickly got a new job at New Mexico, flamed out after three seasons there and never coached again.
He still enjoys taking digs at the program.
Meanwhile, the team he recruited went onto the Elite 8 the next year and won the Big East Championship the following year.
 
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[quote="MainMan" post=347019][quote="Making Plays" post=347012]I have a question for you longtime St. John's fans...

I'm not too familiar with St.John's history. ESPNU is running a marathon right now on St.John's basketball games for the Felipe Lopez 30/30 tonight. I caught part of one of these games during my lunch break and seen the Lopez/Artest team playing with Fran Fraschilla coaching. Looks like Fraschilla was doing well and had some highly rated recruits, why did he only last 2 years here?[/quote]

There's room for debate, but essentially Fran's over-sized ego got the best of him.
He thought he was too big for St. John's and began butting heads with his AD and others.
He also treated some of his players and assistant coaches rather lousy, allegedly dropped his pants in practice to show them he had balls and they didn't.
He was fired, quickly got a new job at New Mexico, flamed out after three seasons there and never coached again.
He still enjoys taking digs at the program.[/quote]

Well said MainMan. Yup. Fran was out of control and this being NYC, it got around fast that he ridiculed and berated his players in practice.
Too bad, he is a talented x&o coach and a great recruiter.
 
Someone mentioned on Twitter that Felipe should of never gone to College. That he would of been a superstar right of high school. Any thoughts on that for some of the people who saw him play alot
 
[quote="Redman#13" post=347025]Someone mentioned on Twitter that Felipe should of never gone to College. That he would of been a superstar right of high school. Any thoughts on that for some of the people who saw him play alot[/quote]

I don't think a 19-tear-old Felipe would have done better in the NBA than a 23-year-old Felipe.
And it wasn't even even a thought in 1994.
No guard had ever been drafted straight out of high school at that point.
A year after Felipe's senior year at Rice, Kevin Garnett became the first high schooler drafted in 20 years.
 
[quote="Redman#13" post=347025]Someone mentioned on Twitter that Felipe should of never gone to College. That he would of been a superstar right of high school. Any thoughts on that for some of the people who saw him play alot[/quote]

Discussed in documentary
 
[quote="Ilzion" post=342881]Felipe was a basketball bust![/quote]

Hardly. First Round NBA Draft pick.
Finished his SJU career as the programs 3rd leading scorer and all-time 3 point FGs made.
All that without the benefit of a point guard. Imagine if he suited up with Jackson or Cain or Barkley or Cook instead of Maurice Brown/Tarik Turner/Colin Charles.
 
Man, this documentary is terrific. What a good kid Lopez was. Could have gone to the NBA out of high school and chose us. I remember that last game against Detroit with Felipe crying on the floor.

Do you think Shamorie or anybody on the team this year cared about the game half as much as Felipe?
 
[quote="espken" post=347048][quote="Ilzion" post=342881]Felipe was a basketball bust![/quote]

Hardly. First Round NBA Draft pick.
Finished his SJU career as the programs 3rd leading scorer and all-time 3 point FGs made.
All that without the benefit of a point guard. Imagine if he suited up with Jackson or Cain or Barkley or Cook instead of Maurice Brown/Tarik Turner/Colin Charles.[/quote]

Watching 30 for 30 ESPN documentary on Felipe.
Such a great Domimican/American story.
Great, strong, ‘together’, honest family.
Felipe wanted to go straight to the NBA but it was a family decision. To paraphrase his mom” Felipe was skinny. “Those lions in the NBA would’ve eaten my baby alive!”
For once, St. John’s go lucky: the family loved New York, SJU was NY, Felipe chose the Redmen!
Luvved it when Felipe’s on the dais, crunches down and springs up with the Injun head band on, with 1 feather!
The guy struggled through 2 tough years, but worked like a Olympian on his outside shot that last college summer and had a great senior year.
That Detroit game was a tough one to revisit!
Arrggh! (Sorry Bama! Lol.)
Here’s to Felipe and the good things he’s done for his family, fellow Dominicans, himself, and both of his countries.
Let’s go Redmen!

PS Damn, just got misty when the Spurs picked him @ # 24...to be traded minutes later to Vancouver!
Lol.
It’s still the NBA Felipe!
Lol.
 
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There is a book on DiMaggio called "A Hero's life". It chronicled the impact not only on baseball but for all Italian Americans,because Joe became a source of pride, respect, and joy for a then marginalized and maligned group.

Felipe did that to an extent for Dominicans as a high schooler. What an incredible burden on a teenager. An impossible burden to fulfill. To watch Alex Rodriguez expand on his entire family rooting for Felipe tells you all you need to know.

This underscores the need for a true SJU Hall of Fame museum on campus. Felipe deserves prominent space in one because his is a st. John's story, a new York story, and an American story.
 
[quote="espken" post=347048][quote="Ilzion" post=342881]Felipe was a basketball bust![/quote]

Hardly. First Round NBA Draft pick.
Finished his SJU career as the programs 3rd leading scorer and all-time 3 point FGs made.
All that without the benefit of a point guard. Imagine if he suited up with Jackson or Cain or Barkley or Cook instead of Maurice Brown/Tarik Turner/Colin Charles.[/quote]

Had slight flaws in his game that prevented him from being “Jordan” but as you say hardly a bust. Number 1 picks are not busts. And to top it off, proved to be a better person than basketball player. We should all be “busts” like that, world would be a much better place.
 
That was an outstanding documentary. So much more to the individual than the 40 minutes we see and scrutinize on the court.

Such fond memories of those years even if not success in wins. I'm glad I got a chance to know him during that time and made watching this that much more special.

Hope he continues to do great things and we can all learn from him. Almost feel guilty of not doing enough to give back more.

God Bless # 13
 
Watched...great insight as a younger guy (now 30 so not sure how long I can use that word lol) who was under 10 at the time and didn't really pay attention yet. It made me proud...it also made me sad. Sad to see that such a pure human like Felipe just never got it together and then got hurt badly. Nice appearances by Lou, Fraschilla, Mahoney, Mullin, etc. It makes me sad also to think that I missed the absolute peak of my favorite team. I was watching ESPNU since they had the marathon of our games with Felipe before the documentary and saw one year we were ranked 9th in the nation playing a ranked Miami team on ESPN. This is what I could only dream about these days with the state of the program.

Deep down I wonder if I will ever see this program become a real factor in my lifetime. The best I've witnessed is 2011 with Lavin's team getting all those top 5 wins but nothing in the tourney. At this point I'd take a Sweet 16 appearance and landing 1 McDonald's AA before I die. Hoping MA can build a respectable consistent winner who can get some wild success every so often.
 
[quote="RedStormNC" post=347073]That was an outstanding documentary. So much more to the individual than the 40 minutes we see and scrutinize on the court.

Such fond memories of those years even if not success in wins. I'm glad I got a chance to know him during that time and made watching this that much more special.

Hope he continues to do great things and we can all learn from him. Almost feel guilty of not doing enough to give back more.

God Bless # 13[/quote]

The documentary's ending with Tariq Turner, Ty Grant, Fraschilla, A-Rod, Vaccaro, Quick, Chris Mullin recount the emigration history of their families to this county...opened up the eye duct vents.
My wife asked me, "what's wong?"
Lol.
 
What an amazing, supportive and cohesive family he came from. Enjoyed the documentary very much.
 
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