Last weekend at the Rego Park tournament I got the chance to talk to one time division 1 scoring leader Charles Jones. CJ was:

CJ was the man at LIU during that time and the whole time he was doing his thing the Game Over Logo was on his back.  When C Jones started to praise the teachings of Ray Haskins it reminded me of when legendary Coach Ray Haskins gave a small  minority company named Game Over a chance to be a part of the big time.  When blessed with a great opportunity in his life, Coach Haskins still thought of the struggle of others.  Fighting for our place in this harsh jungle called the Apparel industry, where the sharks make Jaws look like Nemo.

I'll never forget how nervous I was heading into the Coach's office that day.  Game Over had never done an order like this before so I had to sound like I knew what I was doing.  Little did I know this man had already made up his mind he was going to give me a shot.

Coach Haskins did what he could do to give us our first big break, he ordered and PAID for an entire set of uniforms for the LIU Blackbirds.  The order included warm-ups, bags, home and away uniforms and tee shirts.  I don't know how we did it but we got the order done.  Night after night my partner, friends and family watched, both on local and national TV as CJ and Coach Ray shocked the basketball world.  Imagine, little LIU was on it's way to the NCAA tournament.  I capitalized the word paid  in this story for a reason.  Coach Haskins took a lot of heat for going with this little unknown company, while the bigger companies where offering to give LIU their uniforms (No Charge).  Coach Haskins chose this  time to demonstrate what he stood for then and always . . . everyone needs a break.

Rumor has it that Coach Haskins lost his job in part due to his actions.  I've heard all kinds of lies about this situation.  Well ten years later here is the truth: Ray Haskins somehow knew how tough this business was going to be for us and decided to give us a break . . . that's it, sorry,  no car chases, no secret meetings, no suitcase full of money.  To all you crabs that couldn't  see the bigger picture, stay in your buckets and tug at each other, because people like Coach Haskins are on a level your claws can't reach.  Game Over