Tyson connected, Etienne collected, Tonya lost as expected.
Unless I blinked when one of Tonya Harding’s hillbilly
bodyguards whacked Don King in the knees with a lead pipe,
Saturday’s boxing extravaganza was pretty much your standard
fare.
After all, it’s hard to get excited about an acknowledged
cannibal and a former topless figure skater engaged in hand-to-hand
combat when I’ve just watched two gripping hours of UCLA
basketball mere hours earlier.
Sarcasm? Maybe, but consider this:
What was more jaw-dropping? Tyson’s devastating 49-second
TKO of Etienne, a guy whose last name sounds like a new French
bottled spring water, or Ray Young sliding over to point guard and
playing like, well, the All-American candidate that five years ago
we all thought he would be?
Since taking over the point guard position for an injured Cedric
Bozeman on Thursday night against Cal, Young has flourished as
UCLA’s floor general.
A fifth-year senior who had not played point guard since high
school, Young scored what was then a career-high 18 points and
dished out four assists against the Bears. He then bested that with
22 points against Stanford, knocking down all five of his
three-point attempts.
Not too shabby for a guy who told the L.A. Times,
“I’m still a shooting guard and always will be”
after the Bruins’ victory over Cal.
Maybe Young should reconsider. His career as a shooting guard
has been a lot like the Tyson fight: months of buildup, but very
little substance whatsoever.
A consensus prep All-American coming out high school, the
6-foot, 4-inch Young exudes athleticism, but his development has
been excruciatingly slow since he arrived in Westwood in 1998.
There have been flashes of superstardom in his error-prone,
inconsistent play, but his poor judgment on the court has impeded
his improvement.
Error-prone, erratic and a poor decision-maker. Throw in selfish
and volatile and you might as well have Tyson himself running the
offense.
But with the position switch, the entire tone of Young’s
game has changed since he apparently has discovered that he has
four teammates on the court with him at all times. Prior to the
games against the Bay Area schools, he had 16 assists in Pac-10
play.
Now he has 25.
It seems inexplicable that moving Young to point guard might be
effective, but then again, everything about this UCLA season has
defied explanation. Before Thursday night, Young’s lone
memorable play of the year occurred when he stampeded a referee
during a double-digit loss to Arizona State, losing the ball out of
bounds in the process.
While I suppose that is better than any of the memorable Harding
moments (take your pick between the Kerrigan incident, the hubcap
fiasco, or celebrity boxing), it’s not exactly the sort of
thing you want to characterize your career.
We can all agree that Young doesn’t exactly have the
natural instincts of a Baron Davis or Earl Watson, but recently he
has brought other qualities to the team.
Since taking over for Bozeman, Young has given the Bruins the
leadership and defensive presence that the squad has been searching
for all season.
More importantly he has given fans another reason to watch the
Bruins.
Just like Tyson, you never know what could happen when Young is
in the spotlight.
Eisenberg is still waiting for
“Tonya Harding v. John Hoffart:
The Great White Hype” on Pay
Per View. E-mail him at
jeisenberg@media.ucla.edu.