RANDY JOHN ROWE remembers the tension of that big basketball game.
“We’re gonna kick ass,” he told himself.
It was 1987 and Randy was playing for the New York Rockers against the Los Angeles Breakers.
East certainly would best the West in this championship game.
Not this time – the Breakers won, and Randy sniffed the acrid odor of defeat.
That loss, crushing as it was, wasn’t as bad as what society deals out to people who don’t quite fit in to neat categories.
Oh sure, Randy was the tallest guy on that team, playing the center.
But there’s a little catch to our tale.
“Yes, I was the tallest guy on the team. But I am four feet, four inches tall,” Randy was saying.
Randy was playing in a special small people’s league.
You might call someone like Randy a dwarf or a midget.
But they call themselves small people.
And that is good enough for me.
As his beloved Knicks battle for a chance to re-take the world championship for the first time since 1973, Randy remembers how nervous he was playing that big game against the Los Angeles Breakers.
“Scary. Playing basketball, it is just the same no matter how tall you are,” he said.
Knowing Randy, it brings us to a new question: Where is it written that if you are not 6-foot-9, you can’t play basketball?
Why don’t we have a pro league for people who aren’t giants?
Which of course brings us to a new “ism” to beware of.
We know there is sexism, racism, imperialism, communism and age-ism.
But what about “heightism”?
Basically, sports of all kinds today are only for the big.
“Except one sport,” says Randy, who is a beauty consultant. “Boxing. Boxing has weight classes. Why can’t we have size classes for basketball, football, any kind of ball?
“Nobody took any notice of the American women who played soccer … not until they won the whole nine yards.
“What about basketball for people under five feet? They probably won’t take any notice of us until we win a world match.”
No, I am not talking about making a spectacle of the wee folk.
I am saying, “Hey, what about it?”
Sports are sports. It isn’t a case of who can bring home the biggest bear. Size doesn’t always matter.
“Look, I am not sensitive about my size. I have heard guys laugh when I go out with a tall girl. I have been short for a pretty long time,” Randy was saying.
“But I really believe that sport should not be dominated by physical giants. Not that I won’t strangle myself if the Knicks don’t win everything.
“It is just that sport was made for all of us – girls, boys, short, tall, fat, skinny. When we played basketball, we didn’t ask the basket to be lowered.
“All we asked for was to play the game.”