Felipe Lopez / ESPN 30 for 30

[Moose]

[quote="Storm Tracker" post=347564][quote="Beast of the East" post=347454][quote="MainMan" post=347344]What I really enjoyed about the documentary is how Felipe, Zendon, Tariq and Ty turned out so well.

Our program has been in turmoil since Lou left. Think about it: Tyrone Grant played for 3 coaches in 4 years: Mahoney, Fran, Jarvis.

But despite the craziness, those dudes turned out to be really solid citizens.[/quote]

I don't know the other two, but keep in touch with Zendon. HE's a good guy trying to carve out a career coaching now in the NBA G league. I wouldn't mind SJU finding a place for him here - we have a lot of solid guys who have played bball here, and we really have to do a better job of honoring our tradition. Our athletic department guys are really working hard at that.[/quote]

Was Zendon on staff a few years ago? Maybe as dobo at one point?[/quote]

Just volunteer assistant

 

[firestorm]

[quote="Beast of the East" post=346307][quote="jerseyshorejohnny" post=346267]Was honored to have attended tonight's premier at the NYAC

The film was fantastic !

Don't miss it when it airs on ESPN on Tuesday night, April 30, at 9pm[/quote]

Like JSJ, felt really privileged to be at the ESPN screening last night.

I hate the characterization of Felipe as a bust. I mean really detest it.

The first half of the movie covered his youth in the DR, and coming to the US at 14 not speaking a word of English. His family had to leave him behind 3 years earlier when he and another young sibling were denied visas. It followed his incredible domination of HS basketball, to being handed the impossible status of being the Dominican Jordan - which he was in HS.

It chronicled his struggle to meet that expectation in college, and his life in the NBA and beyond.

Zendon was there, and his presence really immeasurably added to the night. In the Q&A that followed the movie, Felipe broke down when he asked if he could make some acknowledgements for two people who could not be present - HS Coach Lou DeMello, who had apparently lost a close family member (his wife?), and to Zendon Hamilton's mom who had passed who Felipe acknowledged as his second Mom.

Through no fault of his own, Felipe turned out not to be Jordan, but a very fine college basketball player, good enough to become a first round pic and spend 5 years in the NBA, a career cut short by injury. To call him a bust is an insult, and just about any of us who ever picked up a basketball ran into the limits of our ability, whether not making a CYO or AAU team, to getting cut from a HS squad, or riding the bench in any form of organized sport. Felipe just had the misfortune of not meeting the lofty expectation set for him in front of millions of college sports fans. Totally unfair.

For SJU fans, as among a handful of guys who played in the NBA, he should be celebrated, and his stroy accentuates that for me.

As others have noted here, it was a very special night.

I'm not sure this is a feel good story, except to say Felipe is a great underutilized asset to the St. John's community. He is a guy who could have been a lottery pick after his freshman year at SJU, but stuck around because a degree was important to his family.

His story is an immigrant's story, a story that for an alumni base largely composed of first and second generation American born students, for many being the first in their family to graduate college, that resonates.[/quote]

Happy to report this finally made it north of the border today. Really a terrific story about the immigrant experience and family. Was very proud when Felipe became a member of the St. John's family; even more proud today.