Former Gonzaga star Adam Morrison seen at NCAA title game and Twitter goes wild with jokes
Adam Morrison was back in the NCAA Tournament on Monday and he’s still getting roasted.
The former Gonzaga star was in attendance to watch his former school fall to North Carolina in the NCAA title game.
Morrison is best remembered for breaking down into tears on the court after losing to UCLA in the Sweet 16 in 2006.
But now he may have finally shaken that image off with a new one.
Morrison was decked in a red sleeveless shirt with his hair pulled back in a “manbun” and appeared to have spent a little too much time in the Arizona sun.
Of course the moment the camera showed him Twitter exploded with all sorts of jokes and memes.
Here’s some of the best we found.
John Stockton, Adam Morrison, 60 ex-Bulldogs on hand to support Gonzaga
GLENDALE, Ariz. — John Stockton, Adam Morrison and Ronny Turiaf were among about 60 former Gonzaga basketball players here Monday night to watch the Bulldogs play North Carolina in the NCAA championship game, said Dan Dickau, another former Gonzaga star who relayed to USA TODAY Sports One Shining Moment material.
At the end of Gonzaga's film session Friday night — the night before the Gonzaga beat South Carolina in the semifinals — the former Gonzaga players walked into the room single file, according to Dickau.
“It was pretty cool because the current team, they stood up and we’re giving us former Zags a standing ovation,’’ said Dickau, who played point guard at Gonzaga from 2000 to 2002. “Some of us walked out of there saying, ‘Why the heck are they giving us a standing ovation? We should be the ones giving them the standing ovation.’
“They’re the ones who finally broke through that proverbial ceiling and got to the Final Four, which is what everybody’s dream and goal and hopes have been for this program.’’
Dickau said most of the former Gonzaga players would be sitting in the same section at University of Phoenix Stadium and there is a sense of pride.
“We feel like we were the foundation that laid a lot of bricks to get it here,’’ he said. “Many of the teams before this year’s team, we felt like they had chances in their own way. But we weren’t able to get it done, so we’re real excited to see where Gonzaga is tonight and really happy for these kids.’’
NCAA Championship 2017: Adam Morrison's attitude is exactly why you should be rooting for Gonzaga
If you weren't already an Adam Morrison fan, you're about to become one.
Morrison -- the former Gonzaga University basketball star and, in 2012, almost a Portland Trail Blazers player -- has penned a funny, sweet essay on The Players' Tribune. You probably remember Morrison as the exuberant, 'stache-wearing 2006 NCAA scoring champion who never quite made it in the NBA. But he's much more than that, he points out. That is, he's a Zags fan.
When he was 10 years old, Morrison was a ball boy for the team that's playing for the NCAA title tonight. His favorite Zags player was John Rillie.
John Who? Here's Morrison:
He's an assistant at Boise State now, but back then he was the greatest basketball player I'd ever seen in person. I'll never forget walking into the gym and watching him warm up by shooting from all over the floor -- and I really mean the entire floor. John would be casually sinking half-court shots like they were nothing, the same way Steph Curry does today. It blew my mind. It was the first time I got to see firsthand how much work you need to put in to be that good. Watching him, I would daydream about how one day, if I was lucky, maybe I could wear that Gonzaga uniform and play in the Kennel. That was the fantasy.
The fantasy, of course, became reality.
Gonzaga was college basketball's Cinderella team when Morrison was leading the Bulldogs in the early 2000s. This year, they're one of the favorites, and Morrison takes pride in playing a role in that progression. For most of its history, the little private school in Spokane hasn't had the fancy facilities, the name recognition, or, frankly, the top-recruited players that the UNCs and Dukes of the college-basketball world have. Instead, writes Morrison, they have long had something else, thanks to coach Mark Few and his predecessors: "this ethic ingrained in the DNA of the program that was all about teamwork and self-improvement."
Morrison's playing days are behind him -- "a lot of people call me a bust," the former third pick in the NBA Draft admits. Now, at 32, he's an ordinary Joe Sports Fan in Spokane. And it sounds like that's the way he likes it. He writes:
I was watching the [the Bulldogs' Elite Eight] game in my living room with my three kids. My girls are eight and five, while my little boy is 7 months old. It was pretty rowdy, as you might imagine. They're all huge Gonzaga fans, even if the youngest one doesn't realize it yet. We had a blast. When we started to pull away the girls and I began chanting.
Go Gonzaga! G-O-N-Z-A-G-A!
Go Gonzaga! G-O-N-Z-A-G-A!
The former Gonzaga star was in attendance to watch his former school fall to North Carolina in the NCAA title game.
Morrison is best remembered for breaking down into tears on the court after losing to UCLA in the Sweet 16 in 2006.
But now he may have finally shaken that image off with a new one.
Morrison was decked in a red sleeveless shirt with his hair pulled back in a “manbun” and appeared to have spent a little too much time in the Arizona sun.
Of course the moment the camera showed him Twitter exploded with all sorts of jokes and memes.
Here’s some of the best we found.
 |
| Adam Morrison watches Gonzaga at the NCAA championship game. |
John Stockton, Adam Morrison, 60 ex-Bulldogs on hand to support Gonzaga
GLENDALE, Ariz. — John Stockton, Adam Morrison and Ronny Turiaf were among about 60 former Gonzaga basketball players here Monday night to watch the Bulldogs play North Carolina in the NCAA championship game, said Dan Dickau, another former Gonzaga star who relayed to USA TODAY Sports One Shining Moment material.
At the end of Gonzaga's film session Friday night — the night before the Gonzaga beat South Carolina in the semifinals — the former Gonzaga players walked into the room single file, according to Dickau.
“It was pretty cool because the current team, they stood up and we’re giving us former Zags a standing ovation,’’ said Dickau, who played point guard at Gonzaga from 2000 to 2002. “Some of us walked out of there saying, ‘Why the heck are they giving us a standing ovation? We should be the ones giving them the standing ovation.’
“They’re the ones who finally broke through that proverbial ceiling and got to the Final Four, which is what everybody’s dream and goal and hopes have been for this program.’’
Dickau said most of the former Gonzaga players would be sitting in the same section at University of Phoenix Stadium and there is a sense of pride.
“We feel like we were the foundation that laid a lot of bricks to get it here,’’ he said. “Many of the teams before this year’s team, we felt like they had chances in their own way. But we weren’t able to get it done, so we’re real excited to see where Gonzaga is tonight and really happy for these kids.’’
NCAA Championship 2017: Adam Morrison's attitude is exactly why you should be rooting for Gonzaga
If you weren't already an Adam Morrison fan, you're about to become one.
Morrison -- the former Gonzaga University basketball star and, in 2012, almost a Portland Trail Blazers player -- has penned a funny, sweet essay on The Players' Tribune. You probably remember Morrison as the exuberant, 'stache-wearing 2006 NCAA scoring champion who never quite made it in the NBA. But he's much more than that, he points out. That is, he's a Zags fan.
When he was 10 years old, Morrison was a ball boy for the team that's playing for the NCAA title tonight. His favorite Zags player was John Rillie.
John Who? Here's Morrison:
He's an assistant at Boise State now, but back then he was the greatest basketball player I'd ever seen in person. I'll never forget walking into the gym and watching him warm up by shooting from all over the floor -- and I really mean the entire floor. John would be casually sinking half-court shots like they were nothing, the same way Steph Curry does today. It blew my mind. It was the first time I got to see firsthand how much work you need to put in to be that good. Watching him, I would daydream about how one day, if I was lucky, maybe I could wear that Gonzaga uniform and play in the Kennel. That was the fantasy.
The fantasy, of course, became reality.
Gonzaga was college basketball's Cinderella team when Morrison was leading the Bulldogs in the early 2000s. This year, they're one of the favorites, and Morrison takes pride in playing a role in that progression. For most of its history, the little private school in Spokane hasn't had the fancy facilities, the name recognition, or, frankly, the top-recruited players that the UNCs and Dukes of the college-basketball world have. Instead, writes Morrison, they have long had something else, thanks to coach Mark Few and his predecessors: "this ethic ingrained in the DNA of the program that was all about teamwork and self-improvement."
Morrison's playing days are behind him -- "a lot of people call me a bust," the former third pick in the NBA Draft admits. Now, at 32, he's an ordinary Joe Sports Fan in Spokane. And it sounds like that's the way he likes it. He writes:
I was watching the [the Bulldogs' Elite Eight] game in my living room with my three kids. My girls are eight and five, while my little boy is 7 months old. It was pretty rowdy, as you might imagine. They're all huge Gonzaga fans, even if the youngest one doesn't realize it yet. We had a blast. When we started to pull away the girls and I began chanting.
Go Gonzaga! G-O-N-Z-A-G-A!
Go Gonzaga! G-O-N-Z-A-G-A!
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