Tracking Morrison
For the past couple years, Adam Morrison has been burned into Spokane’s consciousness.
His long hair flapping as he attacked the basket. That feeble excuse for a mustache. His arms pumping up and down like wings, imploring the McCarthey Athletic Center crowd to get even louder.
It seemed like Spokane hungered for all things Morrison.
Has that changed now that he’s left Gonzaga University – I can’t write “graduated from” because he left GU after his junior year and, unless he worked a lot harder than his peers, he’s probably still working on that prestigious degree – and joined the NBA’s Charlotte Bobcats?
We don’t think so.
“There is just so much interest in Gonzaga basketball and it crosses all lines,” sports editor Joe Palmquist says. “Young people, little old ladies, hardcore basketball fans and people who otherwise don’t understand sports or care about sports, have passion for the GU basketball team.
“Now we have another homegrown Gonzaga player and the passion is just amped up. We thought readers needed a place to go to find all the news on Morrison.”
So each day besides mining the Internet for news about the Cougars, Vandals, Eagles, Huskies, Chiefs and, yes, the Zags, I’m running down mentions of Adam Morrison.
From 2,000 miles away.
And what I’m finding is not surprising – except that he’s wearing No. 35, as five-year veteran Gerald Wallace already had Morrison’s No. 3.
Charlotte isn’t in love with him yet – the Bobcats have two homegrown players, Sean May and Raymond Felton, who bleed Carolina blue, just like most of the Charlotte fans – but the interest is growing.
Or will when the Carolina Panthers’ season is over. And if the Hurricanes don’t win the Stanley Cup again. And if Duke and UNC aren’t ranked.
Actually, right now it’s only football that matters. The stories about the Bobcats are few and far between. And it may not change.
According to Wilmington Star sports editor Neil Amato, in last Friday’s edition, “The team hasn’t won and hasn’t swayed a region that seems hooked on all things Panthers. This despite a new arena downtown, several notable players and an ownership team that kicks the (former owner George) Shinns out of the former group.”
Still, much of what’s been written about the Bobcats has been about Morrison.
The Charlotte – and surrounding areas – media is interested in him. His hair. His mustache. His defense.
The last came up Monday in the Charlotte Observer, the only local paper that really covers the Bobcats (Wilmington is 180 miles down the road). The Bobcats’ beat writer, Rick Bonnell, gave his impressions of Morrison’s performance in the teams’ preseason-ending intrasquad scrimmage.
“Right now rookie Adam Morrison is just what you’d anticipate from afar – a fine shooter who struggles constantly at the defensive end,” Bonnell wrote. “Considering all the difficulty he had chasing (6-foot-6 Bobcats guard Matt) Carroll on Sunday night, I’m not sure how he’s supposed to stay close to a Jason Richardson or Tracy McGrady.”
Amato wrote a feature about Morrison that ran last Sunday, and it caught his essence pretty well.
This is how he ended it: “What he’ll do on the NBA level remains to be seen, but Morrison became the nation’s top college player just three seasons after he was offered a scholarship by one college.
“Talk to him, and his facial expression is unchanged; he gives away little. But the gaze does give this away: Morrison is intensely focused on the game he loves most.”
And we are focused on Morrison. Click on the SportsLink (spokesmanreview.com/blogs/ sportslink) column for more.