[Vision2020] What Money can't Buy (Rick Reilly)

[Tom Hansen]

>From the "Life of Reilly" column (by Rick Reilly) in today's (March 9, 2007)
Sports Illustrated -

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What Money Can't Buy
By Rick Reilly

The Texas Titans' sixth-grade basketball team is on its way to a tournament,
so the kids do what they usually do.  They board Kenny Troutt's chartered
737 (except for the times when they rent the Dallas Mavericks' jet or the
San Antonio Spurs').  There's a flight attendant on board, video games and
Haagen-Dazs bars. They're going from Dallas all the way to Houston.  It will
take about 50 minutes.

The D.C. Assault sixth-grade basketball team is on its way to a tournament,
so the players do what they usually do.  They pile into assistant coach Ed
Powell's 2000 Suburban.  Coach Donald Campbell and another parent will also
take their cars.  They're going from Washington, D.C., all the way to
Columbia, S.C.  It will take about eight hours.

On board the private jet is the man who ponies up for everything, the
59-year-old trout, whose son is on the team.  Troutt is the founder of Excel
Communications and, according to Forbes, is worth $1.1 billion.  On a lot of
the plane trips there'll also be at least one parent of each player, plus
the three full-time salaried coaches and the team's general manager.  This
is nothing.  For a tournament in Washington, D.C.,last year, the Titans
traveling party numbered 95.  Nobody but Troutt spent a dime.

Crammed into Powell's SUV are just the players.  Hopefully, none of them
will get carsick and throw up like on the trip to Florida last year.
Powell's still trying to get the smell out.  "A lot of these kids are from
the inner city," he says.  "They'd never traveled that far in a car before."

When the Titans arrive in Houston, a luxury bus is waiting for them on the
tarmac.  They head straight to one of the better hotels in town.  Usually
it's a Hyatt or an Omni.  No hassles at the registration desk - their keys
are waiting on a table.  It's all been handled by the Titans' advance man.

The Assault players feel lucky if they get to stay in a Holiday Inn Express.
One time they checked into a bargain motel, where the clerk handed them
their towels through a slot in the protective glass.  The rooms were cold
and damp and dirty.  The boys refused to get under the covers.  They slept
on top of the bedspreads or on the floor.

The Titans meet for dinner in a banquet room set up by the hotel.  The food
has been selected by the team's trainer-nutritionist.

The Assault usually gets KFC, but occasionally splurges for Chick-fil-A.
The coaches pay for the food, the gas and some of the hotel rooms.  Powell's
a social worker, but he makes for than some of the parents, who sometimes
can't afford the $25-a-player tournament fee.  Then Powell pays that, too.

The Titans will play about 90 games this year and practice twice a week.
They hire private coaches to teach shooting, defense and rebounding.  Soon,
they'll start practicing at the high-school-sized gym Troutt is adding to
his 13,000 square-foot mansion in Dallas.

The Assault tries to practice twice a week, too, but it's not easy to get
court time.  The team practices at a rec center unless the high school kids
refuse to get off the court.

The Titans go to great places.  Last year they went to Las Vegas for a
tournament and stayed at Caesars Palace.  Troutt gave each family cash for a
nice meal and a Vegas show.  A lot of them saw Celine Dion.  This summer the
team is planning to play in Germany and Lithuania, and each player can bring
a parent.

The Assault goes as far as the parents can drive.  They flew one time to a
tournament in Oregon.  For nearly every kid on the team, it was the first
time on a plane.

A lot of rival coaches and parents would like to dismember the Titans.  They
think trout is spoiling this team as well as the fourth-grade Titans (He has
a son on that team too).  They think 10 is too young to be living like an
NBA star.  They say trout unfairly attracts some of the most talented kids
in Dallas with his money.  But even rivals say that at least Troutt isn't
trying to make money off his players' backs - the scourge of AAU ball - and
his players are humble and well-behaved.  "I'm not spoiling these kids,"
says Troutt, who co-owns 2003 Kentucky Derby winner Funny Cide.  "Any kid
that's willing to practice six hours a week and travel three weekends out of
four is working hard for what he gets."  To which his critics say, "Sounds
brutal.  Where do we sign up?"

Powell isn't complaining.  His kids are disciplined and well-coached.
"Sure, we wish we had some of those things they have, but we believe that if
you're not handed things, then you're hungrier and you play a little harder.
When you're sharing a car for five or six hours, when you're sleeping in the
same bed as your teammate, he's not your teammate any longer.  He's your
brother."

The Titans played the Assault four times last year.  The Assault won all
four.

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Seeya round town, Moscow.

Tom Hansen
Moscow, Idaho

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Work like you don't need the money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like nobody's watching.

- Author Unknown
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