As Barack Obama stumbled through his Oath of Office and then proceeded to knock the ball out of the park with his inaugural address, my thoughts wandered to an interview the night before on TNT’s NBA Overtime. Caron Butler and John Thompson were asked by Thompson’s 10-year-old granddaughter, “When you were my age, what did you think you could become?”

 Thompson explained he thought he would end up working in a factory, because there was only room for a few non-whites in professional sports.  Butler answered that he believed he could become a professional athlete, but nothing beyond.  With Obama soaring to new heights, Butler now thinks that kids all over the country believe they can accomplish anything.  Obama is the image of opportunity to the upcoming generation.

When I was young, I wanted to become a professional athlete, and there were a few athletes who made me believe I could soar to those heights.

It wasn’t Michael Jordan with his magical flight and in-air ingenuity that caused me to believe I could soar, because no matter how many times I practiced my flight toward the basket with tongue protruding, deep in my mind I knew I could never actually be like Mike.

It wasn’t Barry Sanders either, with his silky smooth moves that left even the best defenders starring in his highlight reels. After every Sunday game where Barry took center stage, I would be outside in the front yard practicing my best Sanders’ spin-and-shuffle around trees, bushes and the family pets; but I knew I would never be like Barry.

For me, those guys were inspiring, but they didn’t give me the confidence that I could be the next great professional athlete, because they had that special gift that few are given.  However, there were three professional athletes that made me believe.  Believe that if they could do it, then just maybe this short, slow, pudgy kid from Detroit could also.

The first was a rag-tag kid from Boston, who was as underappreciated as he was undersized.  Watching the BC/Miami game in 1984, I noticed that Doug Flutie wasn’t the tallest, most athletic or the fastest player on the field, but he was the most prepared and the one with the biggest heart.  Many believed the fame of Flutie would end with the Hail Mary, but Flutie kept proving people wrong.  When watching Flutie, I believed anyone could become a professional football player as long as they had drive and wouldn’t stop for anything.

The second was the 5’6″ Spud Webb, who would have never needed an NBA salary if he had a quarter for every time someone told him he was too short to play basketball.  Not only did Webb play in the NBA, but also participated in a slam-dunk contest … and won!  The throngs of people watching Jordan-be-Jordan knew they could never emulate him, but the same people watching Webb believed if he could, they could.

The final athlete was a pitcher named Jim Abbott, who was born without a right hand. I imagine the amount of naysayers he encountered in T-ball, Little League, high school, college, and in the big leagues was just unbearable.  On September 4, 1993, Abbott silenced everyone who said he couldn’t when he threw a no-hitter against the Cleveland Indians in Yankee Stadium.  It makes me wonder how many left the hallowed ballpark with a new sense of what is possible.

As humans we have a built-in limiter saying, “You can’t!”  But every once in awhile there comes along someone who causes people to question that limiter, and strive to achieve the great that lies within.  For me it was athletes like Flutie, Webb, and Abbott. Today, it seems to be President Obama.  No matter who the messenger is, the message remains constant: “Yes, you can!”  

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J.David has never won an award for his writing, but he is a former collegiate athlete for a small college where everyone makes the team.  Currently, he is a grad student at the University of Southern California studying the archaic form called, Print Journalism.  J.David points to a hot dog at old Tiger Stadium as the birth of his love for baseball, and his walk-off homer against the Astros as his shinning moment as a little leaguer. 

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