Cahlan Sharp

"I came back to change that." A student reporter who is graduating in May told Gerry McNamara he never saw Syracuse play an NCAA tournament game. His response is exactly what Cuse fans want to hear 🍊🔥

It’s obvious in retrospect, but wasn’t intuitively clear earlier in life: your primary life partnership is somewhere between medicine and poison. Kate is medicine. Her mind tickles me, touch soothes, and essence animates. No life decision more important than who you journey with

I had 3 first round exits in my career in the NCAA Tournament and all 3 of them combined cost less than half of this year’s operating budget.

BYU paid $7 million to AJ Dybantsa. He led the nation in scoring. Cool. They finished 10th in the Big 12 and were a 6-seed in the NCAA Tournament after losing a key guard to injury. They lost to an 11-seed Texas team that finished 10th in the SEC. Is that NIL $ well spent?

19 years ago, a high school basketball coach put his team manager into a game for the final four minutes. The kid had never played a single minute of competitive basketball in his life. He scored 20 points. Jason McElwain was diagnosed with severe autism at age two. He didn’t speak until he was five. He couldn’t chew solid food until he was six. He wore a nappy for most of his early childhood. As a baby, he was rigid, wouldn’t make eye contact, and hid in corners away from other children. He tried out for his school basketball team every year and got cut every time. Too small. Too slight. Barely 5’6 and about 54 kilograms. But he loved the game so much that his mum called the school and asked if there was any way he could be involved. The coach created a team manager role for him. For three years, McElwain showed up to every practice and every game. He wore a shirt and tie on match days. He ran drills, handed out water, kept stats, and cheered every basket like he’d scored it himself. On 15 February 2006, the last home game of his final school year, the coach let him suit up in a proper jersey and sit on the bench. With four minutes left and a comfortable lead, the coach sent him in. His first shot missed. His second missed. Then something shifted. He hit a three-pointer. Then another. Then another. His teammates stopped shooting entirely and just kept passing him the ball. He hit six three-pointers and a two-pointer. 20 points in four minutes. The highest scorer in the game. When the final buzzer went, the entire crowd rushed the court and lifted him onto their shoulders. His mum tapped the coach on the shoulder, in tears. “This is the nicest gift you could have ever given my son.” McElwain won the ESPY Award for Best Moment in Sports that year, beating out some of the biggest names in professional sport. He’s 36 now. He works at a local supermarket, coaches basketball, has run 17 marathons including five Boston Marathons, and travels the country speaking about never giving up. When asked about that night, his coach still gets emotional. “For him to come in and seize the moment like he did was certainly more than I ever expected. I was an emotional wreck.”

The 2000s laptop that didn't need a single dongle.