Thank you very much. I'd like to start out by thanking Isaiah for coming up here and present me this evening. Don't know everything about each other, all the time we've had some tough battles,
but one thing I know for sure that he showed up many times in my life and made major impact for me, and a lot of its behind the scenes, and thank you, I appreciate it.
I'd like to congratulate the class of 2009. You guys represent the best that sports has to offer, extreme competitiveness, intelligent, very courageous.
You made competing fun and you made sports fun to watch. So, thank you. So what am I doing here?
I'm a small kid from Spokane, Washington, that was mooching Nilla Wafers from my neighbors that are here today, waddling around in big shorts, and now I'm being inducted into the Hall of Fame in short shorts.
I do know that I played 30 years competitively. Three at St. Aloysius, four at Gonzaga Prep, four at Gonzaga University, and all those years not once, never, was I the best player on my team.
I had a shot at it one year because two of our best players got hurt, season ending injuries. One of those is here today. I wasn't even the best player in my own house.
My brother Steve boasts a record of about 1000-1 in bloody driveway battles. Yet out there, there's a large group of people that traveled over 1000 miles, some from Hawaii, some from Alaska, just to support me.
You almost start laughing there because I think they actually came to see Michael. You know he makes one big shot and everyone thinks he's kinda cool, I don't get it.
Out here in the crowd are lifetime family friends who never missed the call to raise money for trips or for uniforms. Then they'd support the family by going down to my dad's tavern, Jack and Dan's, and expertly critiquing our performance game in and game out.
