2C
SPORTS/tESe $Mt
Thursday, January 29, 2004
Davis savors home season with Panthers
Continued from page 1C
top backs in the league.
Media-shy and leery of
accepting the star role, being
home this season is one of
the few topics Davis truly
opens up about.
“Being able to go home
some nights and sleep in my
own bed, seeing my kids, my
mother, seeing my grand
mother before she died, that
was important to me,” he
said. “A lot of guys don’t get
the opportunity and I am
blessed to have that opportu
nity. I am also blessed to see
my family during a season
that has been so rewarding.
“I am having fun and they
are having fun.”
But the season has been as
frustrating as it has been
rewarding. A lingering ankle
sprain sent him to the side
lines for 2 1/2-games this
year. A bruised forearm
knocked him out of another
game.
The biggest setback came
in the divisional playoffs
against St. Louis, when
Davis pulled his left quadri
ceps on a 64-yard run in the
second quarter. He left the
game and watched as
DeShavm Foster, his under
study, helped the Panthers
earn the double overtime vic
tory.
It made the week before
the NFC championship
game one of the most agoniz
ing seven days of Davis’ life.
He couldn’t practice most of
the week and his playing
status wasn’t going to be
decided until right before
kickoff.
Desperate to be part of the
game, Davis said there was
no way he wasn’t facing
Philadelphia. But it was a
coaching decision, not his,
and he had to convince the
Panthers he could play.
“I did everything 1 could
possibly do to get myself well
enough to play that game,”
he said. “When I was run
ning for the coaches, I was
kind of worried. But I did a
pretty good job and proved to
them that I could run and
fill-in in the game. My wife
even told me last week
before the game that I looked
kind of worried.”
With a two weeks off before
the Super Bowl, Davis is tak
ing the time to heal. He did
n’t practice at aU this week
and won’t hit the field until
Carolina’s first practice in
Houston on Monday.
But the signs of fiustration
and worry that he couldn’t
mask a week ago are gone.
Davis is positive he’ll be
ready to face the Patriots.
“I feel great, I feel a lot bet
ter than I did last week,” he
said.
Will he be 100 percent by
gametime? For once, the
stone-faced Davis showed
real emotion.
“No doubt,” he snapped. “No
doubt!”
Poole dropped out to be with family
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Continued from page 1C
especially because I was
fh>in Georgia,” Poole said.
“Carolina was only a skip,
jump and a hop away. It was
a 35-minute flight for me, so
I could go home at any time.
My days in Carolina were
great.”
They didn’t last long. The
Panthers traded him to
Indianapolis in July 1998 for
a second-round draft pick.
He played three seasons
with the Colts, losing his job
at the end of 2000.
Indianapolis released him
after the season to create
salary cap room - he was due
a $2 million bonus and a $2.5
million salary if he stayed for
one more year.
“It’s a business and you
have to roll with the pxmch-
es,” he said. “You go and do
whatever you have to do to
survive.”
Denver offered him a
chance to continue his career
at a vastly reduced rate - a
$477,000 base salary. He
accepted, only to face one of
his most difficult decisions a
few months later.
His wife, Jennifer, had
their second child, and he
was needed at home. He
realized he couldn’t play
football with a divided heart,
and decided to sit out one
season - a risky career move.
A move that could have
meant he’d never play again.
“That thought never
crossed my mind,” he said.
“Because I have my priori
ties set in life, I think Ill
always have a chance.”
Denver gave him a second
chance, but he started only
four games in 2002. Finally,
New England gave him a
chance to come full circle.
Poole started all 16 games
for the Patriots, one of only
four defensive players to
stay in the lineup all season.
His first interception came
off Collins, his first-round
draft mate in Carolina, and
he finished tied for the team
lead with six overall.
He recovered a fumble in
the AFC championship victo
ry over Indianapolis, when
the Patriots held Peyton
Manning to his lowest pass
er rating of the season.
“Tyrone is an awesome
player,” quarterb^ack Tom
Brady said. “ He has been
playing at a Pro Bowl level
this year. There is a lot of
depth to this team. I don’t
think that we have any bones
about going out and finding
guys that can help us win.”
Poole is most pleased that
he has helped a team reach
the Super Bowl while staying
true to his priorities, even
when they turned him into a
one-year dropout.
“It’s always good to have
the opportunity to show peo
ple that you don’t have to do
certain things to be success
ful,” Poole said. “A lot of peo
ple have a different definition
of success. Tb actually get to
this game means success in
the NFL.”
Anger is an inspiration to wideout
Continued from page 1C
There are a lot of hard-luck
stories on the Panthers ros
ter. But there’s not one
Panther, besides Smith, who
would get this line of ques
tioning from the media:
“How did you avoid getting
involved in that criminal life,
considering where you’re
from?”
Uh... (laughter)... ifs hard.
You either fall into it, or you
don’t.
“Did sports help you stay
out of gangs?”
Uh ... sometimes.
“Did it actually keep you
out of them?”
Sometimes. •
Were you involved in
them?
Sometimes.
“Can you talk about that?”
No.
And so Smith is angry.
Heck, his senior year of high
school, his house was robbed
- by his neighbors.
“I don’t want to put my
kids in that situation,”
Smith said. “I don’t want
them to go through it, and I
refuse to go through it
(again) myself. FU do what
ever it takes on the football
field - or after I’m done with
football - to not put my fami
ly in that situation.”
We aU have our motiva
tions in Ufe. For some of us,
it’s to prove people wrong.
For ethers, it’s to out-succeed
a sibling.
Smith will be angry and
scared by kickoff Sunday
night.
And that’s a good thing for
Carohna Panthers fans.
E-mail C. Jemal Horton at see-
jemalwrite@aol.com.
NOTICE OF A CITIZENS INFORMATIONAL WORKSHOP
FOR PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS TO NC 24-27
(ALBEMARLE ROAD) FROM PIERSON DRIVE
TO REDDMAN ROAD
WBS No. 34959.1.1 U-3603 Mecklenburg County
The North Carolina Department of Transportation
(NCDOT) will hold the above Citizens’ Informational
Workshop on Tuesday, February 10, 2004 between the
hours of 4p.m. and 7p.m. in the Large Conference Room of
the Metrolina Regional Transportation Management
Center, 2327 Tipton Drive, Charlotte.
The purpose of this workshop is for NCDOT represen
tatives to provide information, answer questions, and
accept written comments regarding this project. NCDOT
proposes improvements to NC 24-27 (Albemarle Road).
The project consists of constructing one additional travel
lane in the eastbound direction of NC 24-27 (Albemarle
Road) from Pierson Drive to Reddman Road.
Anyone desiring additional information may contact
Bethany Hunt, 1548 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC
27699-1548, or by phone at 919-733-7844 ext. 229, fax at
919-733-9794, or E-mail at bchunt(5)dot.state.nc.us
NCDOT will provide auxiliary aids and services for dis
abled persons who wish to participate in this workshop, to
comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act. To,
request special assistance, please contact Ms. Hunt as early
as possible so that arrangements can be made.
Winning wasn’t enough for Nets
Continued from page 1C
of the NBA long.
He thought of himself as a players’ coach,
and maybe he was a little too much of that.
He took heat for the Nets’ meltdown in the
fourth quarter of Game 6 in San Antonio in
last year’s finals, when he left Kerry Kittles
and Richard Jefferson on the bench too long-
in the Spurs’ 19-point run.
Scott said his mistake came earlier in the
game when he should have realized that
Lucious Harris’ slump wasn’t going to end
and he should have pulled him.
Wirming helps cover up mistakes and dif
ferences in philosophies and personalities.
Losing exposes them. Those differences, par
ticularly about how to run the offense and
defense, became magnified amid this season’s
lazy start. Something had to give.
Scott said one thing, his players heard
another. Kidd popped off in the locker room a
month ago in Memphis after a 110-63 humil
iation, challenging his coach, his teammates
and himself, and everyone came away with a
different thought about what went on rather
loudly behind the closed doors.
Kidd and Scott got along well enough away
from the court, dining and playing golf
together at times. But tempers can run high
when losses pile up. In Memphis, Kidd and
Kenyon Martin vented their frustration at
Scott in a way that marked the beginning of
the end for him.
“There’s such a pressure to win,” Nets pres
ident Rod Thom said after aimoundng Scott’s
firing. “Messages aren’t received the same
way from year to year, from coaches to play
ers. There are changes in personnel. There’s a
tremendous lot at stake in today’s world. Last
year there were, like, 11 coaching changes.
Maybe there’s not as much patience today as
there was 10 years ago.”
As a franchise, the Nets are in transition,
unsure whether they’re bound for Brooklyn
under new ownership, or stuck in New Jersey
in a place that feels like purgatory.
As a team, they are on the edge of turmoil.
Thom rejects the term “disarray,” insisting,
“We don’t have any internal problems on our
team.”
Thom is quick to point out the Nets still
lead the Atlantic Division, two games ahead
of Boston. As astute a basketball man as
there is in the game, Thom doesn’t want to
brag too much about that.
The di-vision is the weakest in the league,
and a 22-20 record is nothing to get heady
about. Thom’s thoughts are on the playoffs,
where stronger teams like Indiana and
Detroit could emsh the Nets.
Still, first-place coaches usually aren’t fired
in midseason. It takes a special sort of break
down for that to happen. In the Nets’ case it
was a collapse in effort by the whole team, a
loss of confidence in Scott, and the carping by
Kidd that undercut the coach.
Thom knew after last Friday’s 85-64 drab-
bing in Miami, the Nets’ fifth straight loss,
that he had to make a move. They shot 29
percent, including Kidd’s 4-for-19, and played
-with pathetic indifference.
“The Miami game was the nadir, so to
speak, for us,” Thom said. “So for the last two,
three days I was just contemplating if maybe
a different voice, a little different approach,
might not help this particular group.”
That new voice -will sound famihar to the
Nets. It will come from Lawrence Frank, who
moves over a seat from his spot as assistant
coach. Thom, speaking of Frank’s “work
ethic,” compared him with Jeff Van Gimdy,
another former no-name assistant who found
success at the hebn of the New York Knicks
and is now -with the Houston Itockets.
Frank, as least, has the advantage that he’s
the guy Kidd wanted running the team.
Thom gave the star what he wanted. It’s not
the first time that’s happened in the NBA and
it surely won’t be the last.
Steve Wilstein is a national sports columnist for
The Associated Press. Write to him at
swilslein(at}ap.org
Your source for local sports
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