Flacusian
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With the passing of Pearl last month there was a flood of coverage in the media which served to remind those of us who were lucky enough to have seen him play of how great he was while it told a fairy tale like story and painted the picture of a legend to young fans who weren't fortunate enough to have seen him play. Over the past month I've thought a lot about Pearl as we await word on who the next group of recruits might be that will represent Syracuse. I started to thing about and remember so many memories that I have that are largely attributable to the fact that Dwayne Pearl Washington played for Syracuse. We older fans are very blessed to have seen the spectacle which was "The Pearl" while younger fans will likely never be afforded the opportunity to see another player have such a profound impact on the program, and in a larger sense, the sport itself as Dwayne Pearl Washington did.
Many of the articles written about shortly after his death note the fact that Pearl by most accounts was not extraordinary in the physical sense of a player. He was only 6' 2" and he was round shouldered and almost looked a little pudgy and overweight. He had the appearance of being, well I guess you could call it "bottom heavy" if you wanted to be nice and he didn't overpower anyone with his quickness or jumping ability. A casual basketball observer would likely say that Pearl looked rather pedestrian in terms of athletic appearance. But for those of us who saw him play the only thing that was "pedestrian" were the players who were caught standing still or falling down when Pearl made them look like bystanders as he crossed them over and weaved his way to the basket in a manner that looked like "full body slight of hand".
Perhaps it was his low center of gravity coupled with a handle that has been described as "a ball on a string" or a yo-yo that enabled him to negotiate a twisting, bobbing, ducking and weaving trajectory through defenses that seemed to defy physics. You see Pearl differed from others who would dribble into traffic in that when he did so he would momentarily disappear and then suddenly reappear on the other side, unscathed and ready to finish in a manner that few if any can duplicate.
As the news spread that Pearl had left us the respectful tributes were heard and seen all over the media and without exception all that knew him and were touched by him related how he was unique in so many ways. Surprisingly, his impact on the sport was huge in spite of the fact that we are talking about a player who only played in the NBA for several seasons. But Pearl wasn't about the NBA. Pearl was about the playgrounds of New York City and Boys and Girls High School and later Syracuse University, the Dome and the Big East. Each place in which Pearl demonstrated his gift for the game he left it inexorably changed. Pearl changed things. He is widely recognized as the player who perfected if not invented the crossover move. Some of the best to have played the game on any level often attribute their crossover move as being indebted to the Pearl. The Syracuse Basketball program underwent a transformation from a regional power to a National Power as a result of the impact of Pearl Washington having selected Syracuse as the school he would display his wares. It was the Pearl that sparked interest that exploded the size of the crowds from filling Manley Field House to filling the Carrier Dome with 30,000 cheering fans wearing Orange. And it was the Pearl who filled the bill as Syracuse's in resident basketball superhero as the attention he drew helped the Big East's ascendancy to the top as the best basketball conference ever.
To be sure, Pearls passing as such a young age is both tragic and heartbreaking on many levels. For many he is the ultimate icon in Syracuse College Basketball and his passing also serves as definitive reminder of what once was and will never be again. Along with the blessings and abilities that Pearl had he was also lucky to have been the right person, in the right place, at the right time. It seems that those ingredients are often prerequisite in the making of a legend. The Pearl was the perfect fit for Syracuse and the Big East and for the career of a young coach named Jim Boeheim. ESPN was young, college basketball had never been the recipient of a cohesive comprehensive national coverage. Younger fans I'm sure would find it impossible to comprehend what it was like back when Pearl first suited up in Orange. The internet was only a far fetched idea at the time and unlike today if you wanted to find out information about your favorite team you weren't able to click on virtually dozens of College Basketball and Sports websites and do a search for your favorite team. We old farts would anxiously wait the annual issue of Street and Smiths publication which, if you were lucky would have a feature on your favorite team and a pre season profile. I would pour over that thing again and again reading the same article just to feel some connection to the team. As far was watching them play on TV... OMG... good luck. If you were not in the immediate Syracuse TV market you might be lucky to catch a Saturday or Sunday afternoon CBS game which featured Syracuse. If you were able to watch 3 or 4 games during the regular season you would consider yourself lucky. And VCR's were just making their way on to the scene.
But that was all about to change. And so was Syracuse Basketball, The Big East, and the level of excitement during those halcyon days of the Big East and the epic rivalries which emerged was truly something to behold. For a period of about a dozen years I, with a half dozen friends or so, would make the annual trek down to the Garden for the Big East Tournament and man... that was the place to be. I remember coming up the steps from Penn Station and seeing the marquee with the big letters, " Today, Big East Tournament". The first time I walked into the Garden... which is anything by square, it gave me goosebumps over my entire body. For me and my friends it had become the greatest show in all of sport. Most all the teams had their standout players but back when Pearl was breaking ankles none of them was capable of generating the electricity in a building the way that Pearl did.
The rest was about to become history. Pearl was there when Michael Brown punched Andre Hawkins, his incredible performance in the semi against Georgetown. It goes on and on. We were lucky enough to have Pearl be the face of the Orangemen for 3 years. It was different back then. Nobody had the term " One and done" in their vocabulary. But after Pearl left, college basketball was already changing. The success of ESPN and the manner in which college players became household names focused attention on the players and it wasn't long before the college careers of the better players became shorter and shorter. That very success and the explosion of media coverage coupled with the infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars from that coverage began to tear apart at the fabric of the game that made it so magical in the first place. The Big East was expanding so fast it was hard to keep track of who was in the Conference from year to year. And like many things that are too good to be true... it wasn't long before the Conference was something almost totally unrecognizable from the days of Pearl Washington. Ultimately... the Big East was torn apart by big time money, greed and a college basketball landscape that left programs jockeying for position in new super conferences and irony of it all was that College Football that precipitated the necessity to do so. The corrupting influence was so pervasive that storied rivalries which had decades of tradition were deemed less important than the need for playing the conference realignment game.
It must have been sad for players like Pearl witness the unraveling of the remarkable thing that they had been so instrumental in creating. For me, the passing of the most legendary player in my College Basketball Pantheon also marks the final closing chapter of the era in which he played and the acknowledgement that the special era when College Basketball was the most exciting sport to watch and one in which you had teams with kids you would develop a connection with over the course of their college career is over. The sport has changed so much that it seems impossible that we would ever again be able to see the emergence of a player like Pearl. Even had the game not changed it would have been highly unlikely at best.
Pearl may be gone and with him what once was the special nature of college basketball but as long as I live I will have the memories of having watched the most remarkable player in so many ways to have played in my lifetime and I owe that to Pearl Washington. Thank you Pearl.
Many of the articles written about shortly after his death note the fact that Pearl by most accounts was not extraordinary in the physical sense of a player. He was only 6' 2" and he was round shouldered and almost looked a little pudgy and overweight. He had the appearance of being, well I guess you could call it "bottom heavy" if you wanted to be nice and he didn't overpower anyone with his quickness or jumping ability. A casual basketball observer would likely say that Pearl looked rather pedestrian in terms of athletic appearance. But for those of us who saw him play the only thing that was "pedestrian" were the players who were caught standing still or falling down when Pearl made them look like bystanders as he crossed them over and weaved his way to the basket in a manner that looked like "full body slight of hand".
Perhaps it was his low center of gravity coupled with a handle that has been described as "a ball on a string" or a yo-yo that enabled him to negotiate a twisting, bobbing, ducking and weaving trajectory through defenses that seemed to defy physics. You see Pearl differed from others who would dribble into traffic in that when he did so he would momentarily disappear and then suddenly reappear on the other side, unscathed and ready to finish in a manner that few if any can duplicate.
As the news spread that Pearl had left us the respectful tributes were heard and seen all over the media and without exception all that knew him and were touched by him related how he was unique in so many ways. Surprisingly, his impact on the sport was huge in spite of the fact that we are talking about a player who only played in the NBA for several seasons. But Pearl wasn't about the NBA. Pearl was about the playgrounds of New York City and Boys and Girls High School and later Syracuse University, the Dome and the Big East. Each place in which Pearl demonstrated his gift for the game he left it inexorably changed. Pearl changed things. He is widely recognized as the player who perfected if not invented the crossover move. Some of the best to have played the game on any level often attribute their crossover move as being indebted to the Pearl. The Syracuse Basketball program underwent a transformation from a regional power to a National Power as a result of the impact of Pearl Washington having selected Syracuse as the school he would display his wares. It was the Pearl that sparked interest that exploded the size of the crowds from filling Manley Field House to filling the Carrier Dome with 30,000 cheering fans wearing Orange. And it was the Pearl who filled the bill as Syracuse's in resident basketball superhero as the attention he drew helped the Big East's ascendancy to the top as the best basketball conference ever.
To be sure, Pearls passing as such a young age is both tragic and heartbreaking on many levels. For many he is the ultimate icon in Syracuse College Basketball and his passing also serves as definitive reminder of what once was and will never be again. Along with the blessings and abilities that Pearl had he was also lucky to have been the right person, in the right place, at the right time. It seems that those ingredients are often prerequisite in the making of a legend. The Pearl was the perfect fit for Syracuse and the Big East and for the career of a young coach named Jim Boeheim. ESPN was young, college basketball had never been the recipient of a cohesive comprehensive national coverage. Younger fans I'm sure would find it impossible to comprehend what it was like back when Pearl first suited up in Orange. The internet was only a far fetched idea at the time and unlike today if you wanted to find out information about your favorite team you weren't able to click on virtually dozens of College Basketball and Sports websites and do a search for your favorite team. We old farts would anxiously wait the annual issue of Street and Smiths publication which, if you were lucky would have a feature on your favorite team and a pre season profile. I would pour over that thing again and again reading the same article just to feel some connection to the team. As far was watching them play on TV... OMG... good luck. If you were not in the immediate Syracuse TV market you might be lucky to catch a Saturday or Sunday afternoon CBS game which featured Syracuse. If you were able to watch 3 or 4 games during the regular season you would consider yourself lucky. And VCR's were just making their way on to the scene.
But that was all about to change. And so was Syracuse Basketball, The Big East, and the level of excitement during those halcyon days of the Big East and the epic rivalries which emerged was truly something to behold. For a period of about a dozen years I, with a half dozen friends or so, would make the annual trek down to the Garden for the Big East Tournament and man... that was the place to be. I remember coming up the steps from Penn Station and seeing the marquee with the big letters, " Today, Big East Tournament". The first time I walked into the Garden... which is anything by square, it gave me goosebumps over my entire body. For me and my friends it had become the greatest show in all of sport. Most all the teams had their standout players but back when Pearl was breaking ankles none of them was capable of generating the electricity in a building the way that Pearl did.
The rest was about to become history. Pearl was there when Michael Brown punched Andre Hawkins, his incredible performance in the semi against Georgetown. It goes on and on. We were lucky enough to have Pearl be the face of the Orangemen for 3 years. It was different back then. Nobody had the term " One and done" in their vocabulary. But after Pearl left, college basketball was already changing. The success of ESPN and the manner in which college players became household names focused attention on the players and it wasn't long before the college careers of the better players became shorter and shorter. That very success and the explosion of media coverage coupled with the infusion of hundreds of millions of dollars from that coverage began to tear apart at the fabric of the game that made it so magical in the first place. The Big East was expanding so fast it was hard to keep track of who was in the Conference from year to year. And like many things that are too good to be true... it wasn't long before the Conference was something almost totally unrecognizable from the days of Pearl Washington. Ultimately... the Big East was torn apart by big time money, greed and a college basketball landscape that left programs jockeying for position in new super conferences and irony of it all was that College Football that precipitated the necessity to do so. The corrupting influence was so pervasive that storied rivalries which had decades of tradition were deemed less important than the need for playing the conference realignment game.
It must have been sad for players like Pearl witness the unraveling of the remarkable thing that they had been so instrumental in creating. For me, the passing of the most legendary player in my College Basketball Pantheon also marks the final closing chapter of the era in which he played and the acknowledgement that the special era when College Basketball was the most exciting sport to watch and one in which you had teams with kids you would develop a connection with over the course of their college career is over. The sport has changed so much that it seems impossible that we would ever again be able to see the emergence of a player like Pearl. Even had the game not changed it would have been highly unlikely at best.
Pearl may be gone and with him what once was the special nature of college basketball but as long as I live I will have the memories of having watched the most remarkable player in so many ways to have played in my lifetime and I owe that to Pearl Washington. Thank you Pearl.
