RIP Pete Newell

Many of you may know who Pete Newell.  He was a great teacher of the game of basketball.  Sadly Mr. Newell passed away Monday.  I wanted to honor his memory by sharing a childhood memory of my own involving Pete.  I encourage anyone else to share their memories as well.

Many of you may be aware that Pete ran a basketball camp in Portland every year back in the 90's.  The camp was always well run and had a wide range of ages and skill levels participating.  I went to the basketball camp when I was nine years old and had never played basketball with a men's regulation sized ball.  At the time I didn't have the strength to make a shot on a 10 foot hoop with the large ball.  I had massive range, pretty impressive I know.  But the coaches at the camp always kept me involved in games and taught me some fundamentals, which was the staple of Pete's camp.

Halfway through the camp I was scoreless and as a result of my lack of scoring the coaches, led by Pete, offered to buy my entire team ice cream if I ever scored in an actual game.  An amazing offer for a bunch of nine and ten year olds.  I still remember vividly scoring a basket, my only two points of the camp, on a fast break and the whole team giddy with excitement.  That afternoon Pete and company took the team out and got us all ice cream, which will be a memory that I cherish forever for the big heart that Pete showed me.