If you've been watching the NBA finals (not a good series to see if you don't truly love basketball), you might've noticed these sappy halftime segments on the players and the rough situations they grew up in. It was one thing to see Ginobli and his family struggling in the streets of Argentina, now so famous in his own country that they have to hire bodyguards to prevent constant kidnapping. But tonight, they had a segment on Rip Hamilton and Coatesville.
Coatesville is, if you don't know, next to Lancaster on the train route to Philly. I spent half a summer working there. It's got some rough parts, but ........ it's not the bane of existence they made it out to be. Even better, they had Jamie Foxx narrate these things. "Coatesville is a humble town. Here, they respect Rip and his work ethic." I guess, even thoguh he's not the only person to ever come out of there. You wouldn't know that from watching this. They then had pseudo-interviews with old white guys who worked in the steel mill, which they kept showing over and over again. They were all really, really, really proud of him.
Anyway, it was funny to see them play up the town as a third-world wasteland. It's not NEARLY that bad. And a lot of towns in Pennsylvania, and other places, are reeling from the steel mill industry heading overseas. This isn't the worst. If they wanted a better local angle, they could've gone with Rasheed, who grew up in North Philly, which makes Coatesville look pretty damn nice. Maybe they're saving that for game 4. Sigh........
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