We Totally Missed This

With all the crap that goes with the holidays, and the time off, it's not surprising that we'd miss a story or a thousand. So the other day when we got an email from James asking us why we hadn't covered the Awvee Storey story, we were a bit confused.

What Awvee Storey story? Well, we went to high school with him at Proviso West, he was a great basketball player, but never really blossomed into anything more than that. Sure, he got some chances in the NBA based on his talent alone, but nothing much came of it.

We're supposed to write something on that? Why? Who the hell cares?

We also remember talking to our friend Marcus over the weekend about Martynas Andriuskevicius. He's on the Bulls roster and playing in the NBDL. Marcus told us he'd gotten into a fight and cracked his skull. He's done for the year, if not forever.

So we looked it up and, what do you know, we found the Storey:

Martynas Andriuskevicius, whom the Bulls recently assigned to the National Basketball Development League's Dakota Wizards, is lucky to be alive today after being punched by Awvee Storey, a Proviso West product and Wizards teammate.

The altercation took place during practice Thursday. The 7-2, 240-pound Andriuskevicius, 20, spent Thursday night in intensive care in Bismarck, N.D.

''He has a skull fracture, severe concussion and a two-centimeter hematoma on the left side of his brain,'' Andriuskevicius' agent Herb Rudoy said. ''They've been monitoring him because they're concerned about seizures.

''From what I'm told, when he got hit unexpectedly, he went out cold instantly and fell right back on his head.''

The 6-6, 225-pound Storey has been suspended indefinitely while the NBA and NBDL investigate.

Damn.

We were never friends with Awvee, though we did light him up for 12 points once in a pick up game after school, and had a few classes together. During those classes we'd often remind him of how he couldn't handle our sweet low post moves. (Of which we have none.)

To say that this story suprised us is an understatement. He was a very nice guy, and we don't ever remember seeing him get angry at anyone for anything. We're relieved we didn't score more against him now. It could have been us!