This article is from the source 'washpo' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/colleges/great-story-buddy-oklahomas-hield-is-a-one-of-a-kind-yarn/2016/03/29/7a875aa0-f5ee-11e5-9804-537defcc3cf6_story.html
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Great story, Buddy: Oklahoma’s Hield is a one-of-a-kind yarn | Great story, Buddy: Oklahoma’s Hield is a one-of-a-kind yarn |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| The other day Buddy Hield was talking with trademark rapid effusiveness about his childhood in Freeport, Bahamas, and how he would “make” basketball courts in people’s yards. He’d find crates for baskets, which became “stressful, because I used up so many crates.” The courts would break down, and adults would “get tired of me making noise in the yard, and I’d go to a different yard, and I tell you, it’s stressful, man.” | |
| He continued, because Buddy tells stories that continue, mercifully. Even his grandmother ultimately demurred, which was interesting because she could not particularly, you know, hear. | He continued, because Buddy tells stories that continue, mercifully. Even his grandmother ultimately demurred, which was interesting because she could not particularly, you know, hear. |
| “Even my grandmother, my grandmother was like, she was deaf and she couldn’t hear but she’d keep on saying, ‘Why are you making noise in front of my house?’ | “Even my grandmother, my grandmother was like, she was deaf and she couldn’t hear but she’d keep on saying, ‘Why are you making noise in front of my house?’ |
| “I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ ” | “I was like, ‘Are you serious?’ ” |
| A small audience laughed, and that just about concluded a 20-minute media session that left anyone who stayed around for the whole thing in some state of heightened consciousness. That’s because Buddy Hield is really, really something. | A small audience laughed, and that just about concluded a 20-minute media session that left anyone who stayed around for the whole thing in some state of heightened consciousness. That’s because Buddy Hield is really, really something. |
| He’s something to watch, as were his 37 effervescent points for Oklahoma on Saturday against Oregon in the West Region final in Anaheim, Calif. He’s something to hear, because when you’re listening to Buddy, it’s really hard to stop listening to Buddy, even if you previously planned to stop listening to Buddy and go listen to someone else. And the Sooners’ Final Four-bound, national-player-of-the-year favorite is something to behold: a 6-foot-4 bale of verve containing so much life that heavy opposites start to commingle. | |
| [Virginia’s Brogdon is named AP all-American] | |
| He is, for one rare thing, a happy perfectionist. He can be frivolous enough to say his favorite shot of a 37-point game was the one after which he saw Kobe Bryant saluting him from the second row, yet Type-A enough to examine the box score from the same game for what jumps out at him and cite his own “six turnovers.” He can make statements about childhood such as, “I was a park legend,” pull them off charmingly and still earn the frequent compliment, “great teammate.” He can brand himself “scared of failure” — no question, there — yet still note that he enjoyed it when a crowd mockingly taunted him for a late-game airball. | He is, for one rare thing, a happy perfectionist. He can be frivolous enough to say his favorite shot of a 37-point game was the one after which he saw Kobe Bryant saluting him from the second row, yet Type-A enough to examine the box score from the same game for what jumps out at him and cite his own “six turnovers.” He can make statements about childhood such as, “I was a park legend,” pull them off charmingly and still earn the frequent compliment, “great teammate.” He can brand himself “scared of failure” — no question, there — yet still note that he enjoyed it when a crowd mockingly taunted him for a late-game airball. |
| “He’s a happy soul,” teammate C.J. Cole said. | “He’s a happy soul,” teammate C.J. Cole said. |
| “I haven’t seen a day when Buddy comes in not smiling,” teammate Rashard Odomes said. | “I haven’t seen a day when Buddy comes in not smiling,” teammate Rashard Odomes said. |
| “Goofy, funny, passionate, detailed,” teammate Jamuni McNeace said of Buddy. | “Goofy, funny, passionate, detailed,” teammate Jamuni McNeace said of Buddy. |
| It’s clear that people love Buddy, and Buddy loves people. He employs the word “loving,” in that he intends to continue “just being loving to them,” meaning the people in the Oklahoma program, “because they’ve always been loving to me.” When he tells you about rooming with fellow guard Isaiah Cousins, he’s liable to tell you not just that they room together, or that they’re “brothers,” but the charming little detail that they go to the grocery for one another. | It’s clear that people love Buddy, and Buddy loves people. He employs the word “loving,” in that he intends to continue “just being loving to them,” meaning the people in the Oklahoma program, “because they’ve always been loving to me.” When he tells you about rooming with fellow guard Isaiah Cousins, he’s liable to tell you not just that they room together, or that they’re “brothers,” but the charming little detail that they go to the grocery for one another. |
| He has brought the reggae. | He has brought the reggae. |
| “Everybody loves the reggae,” he said. “It’s cool. You know, every time I come there, they’re like, ‘Turn this mess off.’ They always say that. But now, when I’m playing it all the time, they’re like, ‘Oh, what’s that one song?’ | “Everybody loves the reggae,” he said. “It’s cool. You know, every time I come there, they’re like, ‘Turn this mess off.’ They always say that. But now, when I’m playing it all the time, they’re like, ‘Oh, what’s that one song?’ |
| “Ryan [Spangler] was asking about the song he likes. Isaiah loves it. You know, Christian [James], he looks up to me, so everything I listen to, he’s gonna listen to.” (More laughing here.) “Rashard’s listening. The whole team’s, like, involved with it. I’m just happy I was able to set a trend there. | “Ryan [Spangler] was asking about the song he likes. Isaiah loves it. You know, Christian [James], he looks up to me, so everything I listen to, he’s gonna listen to.” (More laughing here.) “Rashard’s listening. The whole team’s, like, involved with it. I’m just happy I was able to set a trend there. |
| [Fancy Stats: What a Syracuse upset over UNC would look like] | |
| “The music is like, life-lesson stories. It’s like, they’re rapping, but you can relate it to life, struggles to life on a daily basis. You listen to it, you understand how they talk, and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s real. That’s what happens! It makes you, it inspires you, and when you rap it, it makes a lot of sense, so that’s the way it is in the reggae . . . just analyzing the struggles that go on every day.” | “The music is like, life-lesson stories. It’s like, they’re rapping, but you can relate it to life, struggles to life on a daily basis. You listen to it, you understand how they talk, and you’re like, ‘Oh, that’s real. That’s what happens! It makes you, it inspires you, and when you rap it, it makes a lot of sense, so that’s the way it is in the reggae . . . just analyzing the struggles that go on every day.” |
| Somehow, an outsize amount of joy and an outsized amount of toil all dwell within Buddy. His compelling three-point shooting is precisely the kind of exhilarating beauty that stems only from unforgiving work. It’s easy to envision an adolescent version of Buddy, always desperate to play, helping gather about 10 or 15 guys as they did, going to the park with the “pine-cone trees in the background,” as he put it, playing until sundown at least. | |
| In his presence, you might start to think his story arc trumps all the others for this coming weekend in Houston: He has gone from the pine-cone trees to the Final Four. He has smartly, cautiously studied every scintilla of the NBA decision last offseason, before remaining at Oklahoma and daydreaming. Said Oregon Coach Dana Altman: “The way he plays the game with a smile on his face and the energy, if a college basketball fan can’t get excited about that, what can you get excited about? He loves the game. He loves his teammates. He loves his coach.” | |
| He’s contagious. | He’s contagious. |
| “If you go in the parks and everything, my neighborhood, I don’t think guys play in the parks anymore,” Hield said. “They go to the gyms now. Because the park was back in the day” — note: Buddy is still 22 — “but now, you don’t have guys who really love going to the park anymore . . . | “If you go in the parks and everything, my neighborhood, I don’t think guys play in the parks anymore,” Hield said. “They go to the gyms now. Because the park was back in the day” — note: Buddy is still 22 — “but now, you don’t have guys who really love going to the park anymore . . . |
| “But a lot of guys are playing ball now and they hear my story and they feel like, ‘If Buddy can do it, I can make it out, too.’ . . . So everybody back home is really taping this and watching and learning from this experience so hopefully our next young Buddy can be in the same position as me.” | “But a lot of guys are playing ball now and they hear my story and they feel like, ‘If Buddy can do it, I can make it out, too.’ . . . So everybody back home is really taping this and watching and learning from this experience so hopefully our next young Buddy can be in the same position as me.” |
| “I’ve only seen Buddy happy,” McNeace said. | “I’ve only seen Buddy happy,” McNeace said. |
| “A leader, and a great teammate,” Odomes said. | “A leader, and a great teammate,” Odomes said. |
| “He’s the first one, whenever we have something in the morning,” Cole said, “he’s the first one in there singing a song.” | “He’s the first one, whenever we have something in the morning,” Cole said, “he’s the first one in there singing a song.” |