[SLAM Online] Charlie Ward & Bobby Sura :: Company Flo

Slam Article on Ward and Sura

didn't see it posted so I figured I put it up here, lock it if I'm wrong...


Charlie Ward & Bobby Sura :: Company Flo





The following sounds absurd, and even typing it feels like a betrayal of the SLAM ethos. But it’s true: Charlie Ward was one of the coolest college ballplayers ever. Was it those fly burgundy, gold and white unis the Florida State Seminoles rocked? The laissez-faire attitude of coach Pat Kennedy? The high-top fade? Or the lightheartedness C-Dub showed on the court, perhaps because hoops seemed like a hobby compared to being a Heisman-winning QB for one of the most intense football factories in America?


All of those may have been factors, but it says here that Charlie got his flavor from his teammates, who included former Miami schoolboy legend Doug Edwards up front and, in the very same backcourt, Sam Cassell and Bob Sura. Imagine running the point while you were flanked by such an athletic and entertaining set of scoring guards? You’d be dope, too.

We bring this up in the wake of the most random press conference in an NBA summer filled with them. In case you missed it, on August 9, the Houston Rockets announced the signings of both Ward and Sura to free-agent deals, meaning all these years of dour facial expressions (Ward) and injuries (Sura) might be swept aside by the joyous Seminole reunion. Asked at the press conference what he’d bring to the team, Ward said, “Well, I’m going to give the ball to Bobby,” to which the formerly freaky flyer from Wilkes-Barre, PA, responded, “That’s what you used to do at Florida State.” Indeed, Ward (still the school’s all-time steals leader) made life easy for Sura from ’92-94 (Bobby finished as FSU’s all-time leading scorer in ’95), while former JuCo star Cassell joined them for the ’92 and ’93 seasons.


Those years were a golden era for FSU hoops—the ’Noles reached the Sweet 16 in ’92 and the Elite 8 the following year. Paradoxically calling the duo “young men who have been in the League quite a while,” Rockets GM Carroll Dawson added that he feels “they’re going to help us get where we want to go.”

Can Ward and Sura (now 33 and 31, respectively, and with at least a little help from Tracy and Yao) approximate anything close to their decade-old level of success and entertainment value, especially under the iron rule of Ward’s homeboy Jeff Van Gundy? That’s hard to say, but we’ve got a suggestion for Dawson that might help—sign Sam Cassell!

—BEN OSBORNE

 

no I didn't type it......I bought the new SLAM with Shaq on the cover last week. That was the first thing I read (Ward and Sura). Went to http://www.slamonline.com today and saw they had the article online so I copied and pasted it

did I know follow the correct procedure?? Just want to make sure I'm posting right.