Tyler Hansbrough

I was 'Obama-wins' happy on Thursday night when Tyler Hansbrough broke Phil Ford's scoring record at Carolina. As it happened, I was in the car so had XM on and got to listen to Woody Durham call the record-setting basket.  

But there were two reasons I was so happy.

One, Hansbrough is Hansbrough. I'm not skilled enough to add anything to his resume, but he really is not only the epitome of Carolina basketball, but of sport itself.  Sport is still important for a number of reasons - fun, exercise, competition - but to me the essence of the endeavor is selflessly giving everything you've got for a greater (team) goal, and of course stepping up. Is there an athlete ANYWHERE who more honestly pays homage to that ethic? When you watch Hansbrough play you are watching pure, honest effort, the essence of what sport should be about.

The Carolina part is there to make that glow even shinier.   His effort is for a greater team and institutional goal - Carolina basketball.  And Hansbrough has a lot of Dean in him - a hyper-competitive yet humble athlete.

Two, it was a brief but great celebration of Carolina basketball complete with Phil Ford on the floor.  For all the Tar Heel heroes - Jordan, Worthy, May, Noel, Hansbrough, Cunningham, McAdoo, Scott, Rosenbluth, Jamison - and despite being number two on the scoring list, Phil Ford will simply always be the greatest Tar Heel of all time. He never won a national championship (but made the 1977 Final Four) and washed out in the pros (after being named rookie of the year) due to drugs (thanks again hippies!) and alcohol (which also cost him the Carolina job; Dean had groomed him to be his or Guthridge's eventual successor) Phil Ford still reigns.  Perhaps those setbacks make him that much more heroic in a Faulkneresque way.

Kudos to Tyler Hansbrough.  Anyone who plays that way and outscores a Who's Who of college basketball cements their place near the top of the list of all-time greatest Tar Heels, the ultimate list in college basketball. Roy Williams spoke for millions when he said there will be no one sadder in college basketball when Hansbrough leaves Chapel Hill than ol' Roy - and the legion of Tar Heel fans across the universe.  

[Note to self: next time you type 'has a lot of Dean in him' you should end the entry right then and there.]