Valentine’s Day is the time of year to stop and appreciate the relationships that you value in life. Not just boyfriends or girlfriends, but also mothers, fathers, brothers — and perhaps most importantly — grandmothers. In the world of sports, Valentine’s Day is a time to appreciate the sports relationships in life that are just meant to be. However, some sports couples just don’t make it, so let’s reexamine some of the sports break-ups that are truly regrettable.
Rich Rodriguez and West Virginia. Breakup Date: Dec. 17, 2007
In his famous ballad “Country Roads,” famous folk-musician John Denver describes West Virginia as “almost heaven.” If this is really the case, Rich Rodriguez — the Mountaineers’ former football head man — really has made a big mistake. Rodriguez dumped his alma mater and employer of the past seven years for possible glory and tradition at football-crazy Michigan. The intensity of his home state’s negative reaction to his departure may have surprised Rodriguez, but this has been one ugly divorce.
Rodriguez doesn’t feel responsible for the $4 million buyout clause in his West Virginia contract, citing some vague deceptions by the Mountaineer athletic department, and Morgantown police have begun investigating possible death threats made against the former coach’s family. Rodriguez may never be a popular face in Denver’s “country home,” and it’s a shame that this favorite son didn’t think a dynasty in his home state was worth sticking around for.
Josh McRoberts and College. Breakup Date: March 22, 2007
Talk about picking the wrong time to go. After Duke’s disappointing loss to VCU in last year’s NCAA Tournament, McRoberts declared for the draft, and at the time, most people projected he would go in the mid- to late-first round of the draft.
The former top recruit in his high-school class had an impressive freshman season at Duke, and some suggested he made a mistake in sticking around another year. Well, they might have been right because after his lackluster sophomore season, McRoberts failed to excite any NBA teams.
His mid-second-round selection, 37th overall, by the Portland Trail Blazers at least offered him the chance to get playing time early and prove the doubters wrong, right? Actually, McRoberts followed up a disappointing summer league (just 21 points in five games on 35 percent shooting) with an unlucky training camp where he missed serious time with an ankle injury.
McRoberts then made little out of his chance to impress on the D-league stage, scoring just eight points a game and largely coming off the bench, and since returning to the Blazers he has played just 15 total minutes. The fact of the matter is that the Blazers’ youth movement is rolling, and McRoberts is not a part of it.
Meanwhile, his former team is a one-loss juggernaut that would highly value his rebounding and passing skills. Sometimes it pays to stick around.
The NBA All-Star Game and Las Vegas. Breakup Date: May 22, 2007
So this was a relationship with an expiration date, sounds like a great romantic comedy. With 362 arrests, four shootings and a city-wide manhunt, the 2007 Las Vegas All-Star Game wasn’t the safest in NBA history, but it allowed the nation’s largest city without a professional sports team to host an important sporting event. The glitz and glamour surrounding each and every one of the weekend’s events brought some much needed life and energy back into an event that was getting less competitive every year. Suddenly it didn’t matter that the game looked like a really bad And 1 mix tape.
Arguments against an NBA franchise existing in Sin City, mostly betting, don’t present a problem on All-Star weekend because anybody that would bet on a game where the most exciting dunk is far more coveted than a ‘W’ deserves to lose money. Plus, if somebody fixed the All-Star game, would we really even notice?
While the event will be in New Orleans this year, next year’s game moves out to super-boring Phoenix, where natives already get to watch arguably the most entertaining team in the league night in and night out. I personally will miss this match made in heaven, and I hope Vegas and the League patch things up by 2010, mostly so that I can go.
So take this Valentine’s Day to appreciate the sports relationships that matter in your own life. Be it Pat Ewing Jr. and his customary super-deep three per game or Roger Clemens and Rusty Hardin, his cantankerous counsel. Speaking of counsel, I’ll take my own about grandmother's. Happy Valentine’s Day, Honey.
Jamie Leader is a junior in the College. He can be reached at leader@thehoya.com. Follow the Leader appears every other Friday in Hoya Sports.