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Sunday, June 21, 2009

Ramble On...Covert Story...CNN/SI Style


Great item from this week's CNN/SI Column and Ian Thomsen, reporter/writer/columnist extraordinaire. Ian is one of the very best and prides his work on that of Leigh Monvtille

He missed working the NBA Finals for the first time in nine years while rehabbing upward of four hours daily to recover from a leg injury. He is expected to be back on the court for training camp next season, but in the meantime Delaney has been busy in other venues. His autiobiography, Covert: My Years Infiltrating the Mob, has been re-released in paperback, and the film rights have been optioned by a production company in Los Angeles. Ron Shelton (responsible for Bull Durham, White Men Can't Jump and Tin Cup) is writing the script and will direct the film.
In addition, Delaney is working with the Wounded Warrior Project in helping veterans returning from the Middle East to deal with post-traumatic stress. Delaney knows something about this: Having spent three years infiltrating the mob as an undercover New Jersey state trooper, he learned to overcome stress while launching his current career as a referee.
"The body does not know the theater,'' Delaney said. "It just knows the stress, whether you're doing undercover work as I was, or you're a soldier in Iraq, or you're a police officer who witnessed a horrible crime, or you're the victims of a horrible crime."
"I explain it as being like an earthquake. The earthquake is the main event, but it's the tremors and aftershocks that go on for days, weeks, months later -- they pose as much danger as the main event.''
Delaney was scheduled to share his story Friday at a Basketball Hall of Fame event attended by troopers from at least five Northeastern states.
"I went to basketball to get me through the feelings I was having,'' he said. "I tell people to find your passion, find something that gives you inner peace.''
That he finds inner peace from refereeing -- from being booed and second-guessed -- is yet another of the mysteries of life.
 

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