The "Year Two Jump"- Patience Is Required
Everyone is in a rush to call "bust"; there is no tougher jump than to the big leagues.
I should probably write a story like this every single summer, but I see it has been since about 2018 that I last made time to review this important discussion.
We have four teams in this glorious sports city, and almost every one has a fanbase obsessed with what’s next.
Cooper Flagg is taking us on this journey of hope presently, but you know that at training camp in Oxnard, the Tyler Booker, Donovan Ezeiruaku, Shavon Revel, and Jaydon Blue watches will be on. I look forward to every time Jack Leiter takes the hill for the Rangers (Wednesday in Minnesota is next), and goodness, what do we have in Lian Bichsel on that Stars blue line? (He sure looks like a keeper to me.)
Nothing in this sports world we live in is as intoxicating as chasing the future of our teams and our happiness.
Think about the last few years giving us Tyler Smith, Thomas Harley, Dereck Lively, and Wyatt Langford. Where would those teams be without those young men, who are now all on the verge of massive contracts—and rightfully so. Micah Parsons is going to be first, and he is still pretty young, and Wyatt Johnston got his a few months back. Before that, CeeDee Lamb was paid all the money, as those DFW sports babies aren’t babies anymore.
But this story isn’t about the ones like Parsons, Johnston, and Lamb who arrive and are instantly “built different” in our sports. Rather, the refresher today is about those who take a while to figure things out.
Allow me to show you a list of ten names to see what you think about them: