By anyone's standards, Tom Chambers has by now been around. It may seem like only yesterday that he was playing basketball at the University of Utah, but it's been nine years since he turned professional. Almost a decade. And as any other power forward in the NBA will tell you, he hasn't gone away.
Today he will make his third appearance in an All-Star Game in the past four years. He has become a regular. There's Magic and there's Michael and there's Akeem and then there's him.And he still has a hard time believing it.
"Guys from Ogden, Utah, don't go on and play in the NBA," says Chambers. "They don't win MVP in the All-Star Game. They don't play in the All-Star Game."
He doesn't say this to slight his home town, which is still his home town. On his salary he could afford to live virtually anywhere. He and his family choose to live in Ogden. In Phoenix, he is just passing through.
He says it because even now, even after he's proven his worth enough times to never be confused as a fluke, he appreciates the odds.
"I never dreamed about doing this when I was growing up," he says. "I've never been the kind of guy who thinks about doing the impossible."
With Chambers, basketball has always been a journey, never a destination. His secret has been he's never stood still.
It is a fact he did not make the Weber High School varsity when he was a sophomore. It is also a fact that day to stay in the hunt for a medal on Saturday. "She was mentally within herself this week," Sherard said.
Cook had been hoping the home crowd would do for her what it did for gymnast Missy Marlowe in the '88 Olympic Trials. Marlowe had the best meet of her career then, so it wasn't quite the same, said Sherard. But, said Cook, the crowd of 5,262 "was great. It helped me out a lot."
"Being at home did help her relax," said Sherard, noting the long wait after warmups for Cook, who skated second-to-last, just before champion Jill Trenary.
"That's the hardest part for me," said Cook about the waiting.
"She deserves this," said Sherard, who has coached Cook since Holly started taking lessons at age 4 1/2. Sherard said Cook's a hard-working, trouble-free student and it's good to see the good ones do well.
Cook opened Saturday with her big double axel and handled her triple toe/double toe combination, but she fell on her triple salchow. Later, she touched a hand to the ice on a triple toe, so it wasn't her cleanest competition.
She preferred her performance last year that took fourth nationally at Baltimore - the routine she still dreams about - but then, again, being out there on the award stand at home was a good feeling, too. "I'm still standing out there. I will never forget it," Cook said.