On Aldridge’s retirement, the Trail Blazers’ lot in life, Tinkle’s contract, OSU women’s hoops, Transfer portal, Duck and Beaver baseball and other things on my mind …
Some (relatively) quick hitters about subjects on my mind in the sporting world …
• Item: LaMarcus Aldridge retires after 15 NBA seasons after experiencing a heart irregularity.
• Comment: Aldridge had played five games with Brooklyn after a buyout by San Antonio and signing as a free agent with the Nets. He had played well, starting and scoring 22 points in 23 minutes in a blowout win over New Orleans.
But after experiencing an irregular heartbeat during the Nets’ game against the Lakers last Saturday and some complications the following day, Aldridge chose to call it a career.
Rueck: ‘We’re confident, we’re gritty. That’s what it takes this time of year’
Patience, a poet once wrote, “is a companion of wisdom.”
I’ve grown to appreciate Scott Rueck’s wisdom since our paths first crossed more than a decade ago.
It has taken me until this year to understand his patience.
In late January, the Oregon State women’s basketball team was 3-5 and had lost more games to COVID-19 than it had played. Having lost three top players from the previous season to graduation (Mikayla Pivec), transfer (Destiny Slocum) and injury (Kennedy Brown) and dealing with an almost entirely new lineup, it would have been easy for a coach to write this off as a building year and starting thinking about next season.
Talking Beaver women’s hoops, Along with a little golf, with Coach Scott Rueck …
I’ve known Scott Rueck since shortly after he took over the Oregon State women’s basketball helm in 2010 and have admired the program he has built from the rubble he inherited from his predecessor, LaVonda Wagner.