It’s Madness, Baby!
It’s that time of year again… March Madness, The Big Dance! This year, we haven’t spent as much time watching games as we normally do in preperation for filling out brackets for the tournament, but we have watched a fair number of Florida and Gonzaga games. Florida, you may understand, but Gonzaga because of Adam Morrison. While it turns out that Adam is a bit of a Ya-hoo (i.e. he and I would agree on very few things), he is a type 1 diabetic. It’s been nice to turn on a Gonzaga game and point him out (which is easy to do) and tell Grayson that that guy has diabetes too. And yes, there are millions of people with diabetes but type 1 is only 5 to 10 percent of that. What Adam is able to do despite diabetes is inspiring and amazing. He and J.J. Redick are the two top contenders for player of the year and Adam is certain to go in the first round of the NBA draft. What he’s done is testamony to what careful control, passion for the game, and improved treatments have created for type 1 patients — hope.
As near as I can tell (although I could be wrong), there have been only been four professional baseball players (possibly five) that have played with type 1 diabetes. Only 2 of them had type 1 before they entered professional baseball (Jason Johnson and David Pember) and only type 1 diabetic as been a position player (Ron Santo — who discovered he had type 1 just after signing a contract to play). But NBA Basketball? Now we have a type 1 diabetic poised to be a first-round draft pick for the NBA. This is a really big deal! This is an accomplishment not only for Adam Morrison (because just being the top scorer in NCAA is a huge accomplishment anyway) but for type 1 diabetes. Sure, it’s horribly hard to control (just ask any type 1 diabetic or parent of one), but the tools are getting better and the future is brighter.
Technorati Tags: diabetes, basketball, Adam Morrison
March 20th, 2006 at 4:58 am
Adam’s control must be helped by all the exercise. It would be intriguing to know how much he monitors himself during the game.
March 20th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
I love this article. I’m a huge Adam Morrison fan. I had someone tell me that I shouldn’t be a fan just because he has D. But, I told him that I know what he deals with on a day to day basis and to be able to play at the level that he plays is just awesome and he deserves my respect for that. Plus, he’s an awesome basketball player too.
I’m a Duke fan, but Gonzaga is now my #2 team. My son has D, and likes to watch Morrison play.
Brandon, I read an article yesterday that says Morrison sometimes has to take injections during games and sometimes he doesn’t. He wears a pump when he’s not on the court.
I just hope that Morrison uses his status to create awareness about Type I diabetes.